Book Review: Tiaras & Teacups by Melissa McClone

Series: Berry Lake Cupcake Posse #2

Publisher: Cardinal Press, LLC

Release Date: April 22, 2021

Genre: Friendship Fiction

Sometimes the sweetest beginnings come from bitter endings…

Juliet Monroe’s comfortable world has been turned upside down. She’s struggling to leave her trophy wife identity behind and make ends meet as an event planner. When her handsome new neighbor needs to throw the perfect birthday party for his niece, Juliet offers her services. If she pulls this off, maybe she can get her life back on track. But to do so, she’ll need the help of the Cupcake Posse. Too bad her friends are grappling with problems of their own:

Missy’s recovering from injuries; Nell’s trying to thwart her mother’s matchmaking efforts; Selena’s trying to make things happen for her friends and herself; and Bria’s facing obstacles she never anticipated trying to save her late aunt’s bakery.

Join the Cupcake Posse as they work together to navigate the difficulties of life, loss, and love. They continue to rely on each other, never losing sight of the importance of friendship and family, but will that be enough to save the Berry Lake Cupcake Shop?

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Book Review: Choose Me by Leah Busboom

Series: Conner Brothers: Book 9

Publisher: LBRB Consulting, LLC

Release Date: May 16, 2021

Genre: Clean Romance

Luci wants to break out of her comfort zone. Austin wants to forget his string of ex-girlfriends.

Luci’s always been the one who fades into the background. The serious student, the shy software developer who never rocks the boat, the non-athlete who prefers a good book to a hike up a mountain. But that’s all going to change! She’s resolved to break out of her dull life with a little adventure—by learning to ski and scaling a rock-climbing wall.

To Luci’s utter mortification, the hunky Austin keeps turning up at all these activities—as the ski instructor and as the rock-climbing teacher. Despite her lack of athletic prowess and the fact that they initially get off on the wrong foot, Luci and Austin are attracted to each other. Maybe a fling with the cute guy is just what she needs to find the thrill of adventure?

Austin has had his share of girlfriends and was even engaged not too long ago. Playing the field was great, until it wasn’t. He’s tired of these flighty relationships that only lead to heartbreak. Has he been dating the wrong kind of woman?

After Austin meets Luci and gets to know her, he’s convinced that she could be the one. But can he convince her that he’s the one? Especially when Luci’s meddlesome mom tries to match Luci with someone who she feels is more suitable.

Can Austin win Luci’s heart, and will she choose him?

Book 9 in the Connor Brothers series of small-town, clean, and wholesome contemporary romances. It’s a blend of humor and romance, with a swoony leading man who tries everything to win the fair Luci’s hand. Fans of Hallmark movies, Regency romance, and romantic comedies will love this delightful, touching ninth book in the series. This novel may be read as a stand-alone.

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Book Review: The Last Tiara by M.J. Rose

Publisher: Blue Box Press

Release Date: February 2, 2021

Genre: Historical Fiction

Sophia Moon had always been reticent about her life in Russia and when she dies, suspiciously, on a wintry New York evening, Isobelle despairs that her mother’s secrets have died with her. But while renovating the apartment they shared, Isobelle discovers something among her mother’s effects—a stunning silver tiara, stripped of its jewels.

Isobelle’s research into the tiara’s provenance draws her closer to her mother’s past—including the story of what became of her father back in Russia, a man she has never known. The facts elude her until she meets a young jeweler, who wants to help her but is conflicted by his loyalty to the Midas Society, a covert international organization whose mission is to return lost and stolen antiques, jewels, and artwork to their original owners.

Told in alternating points of view, the stories of the two young women unfurl as each struggles to find their way during two separate wars. In 1915, young Sofiya Petrovitch, favorite of the royal household and best friend of Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, tends to wounded soldiers in a makeshift hospital within the grounds of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg and finds the love of her life. In 1948 New York, Isobelle Moon works to break through the rampant sexism of the age as one of very few women working in a male-dominated profession and discovers far more about love and family than she ever hoped for.

In M.J. Rose’s deftly constructed narrative, the secrets of Sofiya’s early life are revealed incrementally, even as Isobelle herself works to solve the mystery of the historic Romanov tiara (which is based on an actual Romanov artifact that is, to this day, still missing)—and how it is that her mother came to possess it. The two strands play off each other in finely-tuned counterpoint, building to a series of surprising and deeply satisfying revelations.

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Reviewer Tour: Love Ordained by Tara Taffera

Welcome to the Reviewer Tour for Love Ordained by Tara Taffera hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: Love Ordained

Author: Tara Taffera
Release Date: February 14, 2021

Genre: Contemporary Christian Fiction

Where Great Loss Turns to Ordained Love

When Gina Andros loses her husband Alex and almost two-year old daughter Teresa in a car accident, her world falls apart. Her mother-in-law Helena, a woman she views as a second mother, blames her for the accident and cuts her out of her life. Doing so, she turns her family, including Gina's best friends, Anna and Christian, away from her. Gina falls deep into the pit of grief, but slowly the family starts to heal—due in part to a major event in her life. But not before Helena goes to great lengths to derail Gina’s recovery. Will Helena’s heart melt, bringing the family back together?

As the months go by, the possibility of new love arrives in Gina’s life, but is it the love God has planned for her? Will Gina realize the one she is meant to be with, and if she does, will he be ready to love her unconditionally?

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Book Review: The Charade by Judy Corry

Series: Eden Falls Academy: Book 1

Publisher: Cherry Blossom Romance

Release Date: May 17, 2021

Genre: Teen & YA Romantic Comedy

My math tutor has one rule: he doesn’t date the girls he tutors at our private school.

But a fake relationship that’s beneficial to us both? That’s a different story.

Our agreement helps Carter get revenge on his ex while it helps me hide the real reason why we’re spending so much time together. Win-win.

Plus, flirting with the hottest guy at school is kind of fun.

As long as the feelings stay as fake as the show we’re putting on, there shouldn’t be a problem. Right?

The Charade is a forbidden romance about the new girl and the guy who everyone sees as untouchable.

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Book Review: Dead Silence by Robin Caroll

Publisher: Shiloh Run Press

Release Date: June 1, 2020

Genre: Christian Suspense

Political games can be deadly…

Elise Carmichael is a court sign language interpreter who reads lips all the time. As a widow with a young son who is deaf, lip reading is simply second nature, until the day she reads the lips of someone on the phone discussing an attempt to be made on a senator’s life—a senator who just happens to be her mother-in-law. Before she can decide what she needs to do, she receives the information that her son is rushed to the ER and she must leave. Then she later sees the news report that her mother-in-law has been shot and killed. But when she comes forward, her life, as well as her son’s life, may now be in the crosshairs of the assassin.

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Book Review: All That We Carried by Erin Bartels

Publisher: Revell

Release Date: January 5, 2021

Genre: Women's Contemporary Fiction

Ten years ago, sisters Olivia and Melanie Greene were on a backcountry hiking trip when their parents were in a fatal car accident. Over the years, they grew apart, each coping with the loss in her own way. Olivia plunged herself into law school, work, and a materialist view of the world--what you see is what you get, and that's all you get. Melanie dropped out of college and developed an online life-coaching business around her cafeteria-style spirituality--a little of this, a little of that, whatever makes you happy.

Now, at Melanie's insistence (and against Olivia's better judgment), they are embarking on a hike in the Porcupine Mountains of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. In this remote wilderness they'll face their deepest fears, question their most dearly held beliefs, and begin to see that perhaps the best way to move forward is the one way they had never considered.

Michigan Notable Book Award winner Erin Bartels draws from personal experience hiking backcountry trails with her sister to bring you a story about the complexities of grief, faith, and sisterhood.

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Blog Tour: Aftermath by Terri Blackstock

Welcome to the Blog Tour for Aftermath by Terri Blackstock, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: Aftermath 
Author: Terri Blackstock
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Release Date: May 11, 2021
Genre: Christian Romantic Suspense/Thriller

This gripping new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Terri Blackstock will leave you on the edge of your seat. 

A devastating explosion. 

Three best friends are at the venue just to hear their favorite band . . . but only one of them makes it out alive. 

A trunk full of planted evidence. 

When police stop Dustin with a warrant to search his trunk, he knows it’s just a mistake. He’s former military and owns a security firm. But he’s horrified when they find explosives, and he can’t fathom how they got there. 

An attorney who will risk it all for a friend. 

Criminal attorney Jamie Powell was Dustin’s best friend growing up. They haven’t spoken since he left for basic training, but she’s the first one he thinks of when he’s arrested. Jamie knows she’s putting her career on the line by defending an accused terrorist, but she’d never abandon him. Someone is framing Dustin to take the fall for shocking acts of violence . . . but why?

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Book Review: The Blue Cloak by Shannon McNear

Publisher: Barbour Books

Release Date: March 1, 2020

Genre: Christian Historical Fiction

Fiction Based on Strange, But True, History
 
True, riveting stories of American criminal activity are explored through unique stories of historical romantic suspense. Collect them all and be inspired by the hope that always finds its way even in the darkest of times.
 
Based on real events beginning in 1797 — Rachel Taylor lives a rather mundane existence at the way station her family runs along the Wilderness Road in Tennessee. She attends her friend’s wedding only to watch it dissolve in horror as the groom, Wiley Harpe, and his cousin become murderers on the run, who drag their families along. Declaring a “war on all humanity,” the Harpes won’t be stopped, and Ben Langford is on their trail to see if his own cousin was one of their latest victims. How many will die before peace can return to the frontier?

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Book Review: Leading Things You Didn't Start by Tyler Reagin

Publisher: WaterBrook & Multnomah

Release Date: March 2, 2021

Genre: Christian Leadership

A high-impact leadership coach gives you the tools you need to maximize your influence in a new role, giving you the ability to meet any challenge and take your team, organization, church, or company to new heights.

“A practical path to maximizing your influence, navigating transitions, and producing positive results.”—Jon Gordon, 10x bestselling author of The Power of Positive Leadership

Sure, it’s inspirational when we hear stories about those who founded companies from their garages with one hundred dollars cash while in high school. But such success is super rare and not always how it plays out for great leaders.
 
The reality is that most leaders are responsible for corporations, teams, and products they didn’t launch from the ground up. Tyler Reagin saw the immense need to address this mission-critical but often overlooked aspect of leadership: healthy transition for leaders who inherit teams, places, or platforms others created.
 
His groundbreaking book Leading Things You Didn’t Start provides a faith-based four-step plan that answers practical questions such as:

• Do I really want to take over something loved by so many?
• Is there a secret sauce to doing what the leaders before me did?
• How do I get the current team on board with my leadership?
• How do I honor the past without being trapped by it?
• How do I steward the legacy of the leaders who started the movement?

Through the use of tried-and-true coaching principles and practical case studies with leaders like Buzz Williams, head coach at Texas A&M, and Cheryl Bachelder, former CEO of Popeyes, Reagin helps you maximize your newfound influx of influence and master the intentions of an inheriting leader.

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Book Review: Inspire Me by Leah Busboom

Series: Connor Brothers: Book 8

Publisher: LBRB Consulting, LLC

Release Date: March 11, 2021

Genre: Clean Inspirational Romance

He hasn’t written a word in over two years. She’s a well-respected literary agent he hires to repair his reputation. What could go wrong?

Ian Bradberry is a wildly successful author. His crime thriller series has sold millions, but he hasn’t been able to write the final book in the series. Rumors abound on social media that he’s dead, but he’s really hiding out in the small town of Connor’s Grove trying to get his life back together. He suffered a tragic loss that’s left him unable to write and unwilling to communicate with others. He’s Mr. Grumpy personified.

When Ian reaches out to literary agent Addison Steele to help repair his reputation and to represent him in his next book deal, they butt heads, and she isn’t sure that she wants to represent such a non-communicative grouch.

But their mutual attraction keeps pulling them together. Ian makes excuses to interact with Addie and she finds herself helping him with the remodel of a dilapidated farmhouse. Just when Addie and Ian are making strides to build a relationship together, Ian’s mysterious past threatens to break them apart.

Can Ian put his past behind him and find happiness with Addie?

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Book Review: Love, Lies and Lullabies by D.E. Malone

Series: Blueberry Point Romance: Book 3

Release Date: April 29, 2021

Genre: Clean Contemporary Romance

A class reunion. An unrequited love. And the small-town roots that never let go of the heart.

When big-city accountant Wynne Terry dreamed of her future, it looked like the one she’s living. Then an invitation to her high school reunion lands in her mailbox and curiosity beckons her to return for the first time in fifteen years. It has nothing to do with seeing her childhood best friend who unwittingly stole her heart. At least, that’s what Wynne tells herself.

Chase Ford’s regrets come back to haunt him when Wynne walks into his life again. Marrying the first girl who turned his head in high school was mistake number one. Turning his back on Wynne when she needed him most was another. If it’s forgiveness he’s looking for, Wynne may give it to him. But raising his daughter and keeping the ever-elusive Wynne from turning his loveless life upside down take precedence over pleasing his conscience.

When Wynne discovers there’s more to Chase’s story than she bargained for, she wonders if her heart can stand being broken again. But maybe a once-in-a-lifetime love is worth the risk.

Revisit the Blueberry Point series and find out why readers love these sweet, light-hearted romances.

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