Book Review: Love, Lies & Mistletoe by D.E. Malone

Happy Release Day!!!

Series: Blueberry Point Romance: Book 2

Release Date: October 30, 2020

Genre: Clean Holiday Romance

One stolen kiss. A little Christmas magic. And the snowy inn where love stands a chance.

Interior designer Layla Dean can’t believe her good fortune at snagging the holiday decorating gig at Blueberry Point Lodge. And even though her fledgling business has a growing list of happy clients, her personal life isn’t filled with the same Christmas magic. She needs a man in her life like she does coal in her stocking. But tell that to Brant Johnsson.

Brant is known as the Twin Cities’ Master of Lights and Luminaria for good reason. His company oversees most of the downtown’s outdoor displays every season. But when a professional snag sends him reeling, he’s ready to quit the business. Until he runs into Layla again. Forgetting their awkward mistletoe kiss last year just isn’t possible, but she doesn’t share the pleasant memory. Now that they’re decking the halls together for the newly opened inn’s first Christmas, Brant hopes for a replay of their first encounter. And something more.

When a misdirected text message pairs them together for a fundraising event, Brant and Layla find they have more in common than just a flare for holiday decorating and one mistaken kiss. If Layla can overcome her sour first impression, Brant might get his very merry second chance.

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Book Review: Sprinkled with Sabotage by Allison Pearl

Happy Release Day!!!

Series: Love and Danger in St. Claire: Book 3

Publisher: Anaiah Press

Release Date: October 27, 2020

Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense

Lizzy Bennet loves life as a lawyer in the city. And not just because of the miles it puts between her and her ex. However, when she’s attacked on the street just hours after learning her identity was stolen, she tries to call home for help and ends up with the last person she expects: the very same high school boyfriend who broke her heart. He says he’s there to help, but she’s not so sure, and now, all the endless questions and regrets are clouding her judgment and preventing her from seeing the dangerous saboteur closing in.

Small-town auto mechanic, Koby Knightly, is looking forward to seeing a car show in the city. But when an unexpected call from his old girlfriend disconnects suddenly, he rushes to her aid. Throwing his plans out the window, Koby makes it his mission to protect her and discover the identity of the person trying to frame her. Will he also be able to figure out what went wrong between them back in high school or will a killer get to her first?

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Book Review: The Black Midnight by Kathleen Y'Barbo

Series: True Colors: Book 7

Publisher: Barbour Books

Release Date: August 1, 2020

Genre: True Crime Fiction

Three years before Jack the Ripper began his murderous spree on the streets of London, women were dying in their beds as The Midnight Assassin terrorized the citizens of Austin, Texas. Now, with suspicion falling on Her Majesty’s family and Scotland Yard at a loss as to who the Ripper might be, Queen Victoria summons her great-granddaughter, Alice Anne von Wettin, a former Pinkerton agent who worked the unsolved Austin case, and orders her to discreetly form a team to look into the London matter.

The prospect of a second chance to work with Annie just might entice Isaiah Joplin out of his comfortable life as an Austin lawyer. If his theories are right, they’ll find the The Midnight Assassin and, by default, the Ripper. If they’re wrong, he and Annie are in a bigger mess than the one the feisty female left behind when she departed Austin under cover of darkness three years ago.

Can the unlikely pair find the truth of who is behind the murders before they are drawn into the killer’s deadly game? From Texas to London, the story navigates the fine line between truth and fiction as Annie and Isaiah ultimately find the hunters have become the hunted. 

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Book Review: Home Sweet Holiday by Michele Paige Holmes

Series: Holiday Harbor: Book 2

Publisher: Mirror Press

Release Date: September 22, 2020

Genre: Clean Contemporary Romance

Welcome to the small town of Holiday, Alabama, population 765. In Holiday everyone knows their neighbors—and their business . . .

Nearly four years have passed since Anna Lawrence fled her hometown the same day her best friends broke her heart and she was left at the altar. She’s hardly looked back since, while forging a new and solitary life in Seattle. When duty calls her home, she reluctantly returns to take care of the family store while her parents are away.

Eli Steiner is visiting his late great-grandfather’s estate in Holiday, Alabama, for the first and last time—to see the place he’s inherited and meet the other benefactor of his great-grandfather’s will before turning everything over to her. When the woman he meets is both the same, and very different, from the one in his grandfather’s letters, Eli’s intrigue leads him to stay longer, to uncover the mystery of Anna Lawrence and possibly heal her heart.

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Book Review: Beautiful and Terrible Things by Christian M. M. Brady

Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press

Release Date: September 1, 2020

Genre: Grief and Personal Growth

Bible scholar Christian Brady, an expert on Old Testament lament, was as prepared as a person could be for the death of a child--which is to say, not nearly well enough. When his eight-year-old son died suddenly from a fast-moving blood infection, Brady heard the typical platitudes about accepting God's will and knew that quiet acceptance was not the only godly way to grieve.

With deep faith, knowledge of Scripture, and the wisdom that comes only from experience, Brady guides readers grieving losses and setbacks of all kinds in voicing their lament to God, reflecting on the nature of human existence, and persevering in hope. Brady finds that rather than an image of God managing every event and action in our lives, the biblical account describes the very real world in which we all live, a world full of hardship and calamity that often comes unbidden and unmerited. Yet, it also is a world into which God lovingly intrudes to bring comfort, peace, and grace.

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Book Review: A Heart of Gold by Stacy Henrie

Publisher: Mirror Press

Release Date: September 15, 2020

Genre: Inspirational Historical Romance

After months of silence from her father in the Klondike, Tava Rutherford finally receives word from him. Only the outdated letter reveals that her father is ill and may be dying. Desperate to discover his fate, Tava resolves to make the journey to the wilds of northwestern Canada. But Jess Lawmen, her ranch foreman and the man who broke her heart, insists she doesn't go alone. Jess intends to keep his promise to look out for her—even if that means traveling thousands of miles with Tava, the woman he claims to feel just friendship for but has never stopped loving.

With their own ragtag group of travelers in tow, Tava and Jess confront one challenge after another as they join the hundreds of stampeders scrambling to reach the goldfields. But as the two of them come face to face with their past hurts and mistakes in their race to reach Tava’s father, they will have to decide whether to cling to safety or risk their hearts for something even greater.

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Reviewer Tour: Simply West of Heaven by Monique Bucheger

Welcome to the Reviewer Tour for Simply West of Heaven by Monique Bucheger hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: Simply West of Heaven
Series: Ginnie West Adventures: Book 3
Author: Monique Bucheger
Publisher: True West Publishing
Release Date: January 1, 2013

Genre: Middle Grade Fiction

When her dad confiscates her deceased mom’s journals, 12-year-old Ginnie West counts on her BFF, Tillie, to help her get them back. But Tillie's not so sure the ghost of Ginnie's mom will make a good addition to their new family tree.

Then the girls' world gets flipped upside-down when a blast from the past shows up and makes Tillie go nutburgers. Life gets complicated when Ginnie is forced to choose between helping her best friend and getting the answers she’s always dreamed of.

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Reviewer Tour: Trouble Blows West by Monique Bucheger

Welcome to the Reviewer Tour for Trouble Blows West by Monique Bucheger hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: Trouble Blows West
Series: Ginnie West Adventures: Book 2
Author: Monique Bucheger
Publisher: True West Publishing
Release Date: September 1, 2020

Genre: Middle Grade Fiction

Ginnie doesn’t always think…

…sometime she just acts.

Was it a mistake to stand up to the bully?

Gennie and the bully, Pierce, get sent to the principal’s office. It doesn’t matter if he had threatened her twin brother, Toran, they both are suspended. Two days off school isn’t the scary part.

What will her dad say?

Things get taken up a notch, next. When the West twins and Chandler brothers execute a prank to get back at Pierce, it doesn’t turn out like they’d planned.

What Ginnie sees is terrifying.

Pierce is being beaten by his father.

Bullying is wrong, but now Ginnie has to come to grips with understanding what he might be going through.

How will she handle it?

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Reviewer Tour: The Secret Sisters Club by Monique Bucheger

Welcome to the Reviewer Tour for The Secret Sisters Club by Monique Bucheger hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: The Secret Sisters Club
Series: Ginnie West Adventures: Book 1
Author: Monique Bucheger
Publisher: True West Publishing
Release Date: March 18, 2012

Genre: Middle Grade Fiction

Twelve-year-old BFF’s Ginnie West and Tillie Taylor, want to be sisters.  Ginnie's widowed dad plus Tillie's divorced mom could equal a lifetime of round-the-clock girl talk and slumber parties.  Too bad Dad vowed to never marry again.  Ginnie and Tillie come up with the perfect scheme to change his mind: ‘Operation Secret Sisters’ (aka OSS). After all, if they can’t get Dad to move on, Tillie can’t move in.

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