Sunday, December 5, 2021

Fantasy and Sci-Fi for Christmas and Giveaway: Sandra Fernandez Rhoads

On tour with Prism Book Tours

Realms of Light

(The Colliding Line, #1)

By Sandra Fernandez Rhoads

Young Adult Urban Fantasy

Hardcover, Paperback & ebook, 320 Pages

April 13, 2021 by Enclave Escape

From the Ashes, Spring Will Rise

On the run from the brutal Sage and his army of Legions and Cormorants, seventeen-year-old Cera Marlowe knows the only place strong enough to protect her is the Alliance Council Estate.

Cera’s introduction to the Estate is far from welcoming. As a Blight, her dueling powers of light and darkness make her a half-breed threat to the Alliance’s sacred powers. Cera’s ability to decipher hidden messages in classical artwork buys her shelter temporarily, but the clock is ticking as she’s faced with a daunting choice that could cost her everything.

(Affiliate link included.)

Excerpt

Chapter One - Uriel’s Sunbeam

I bounce my foot as Devon drives us deeper into the forest at a crawling pace. Maddox sits beside me, tapping a restless beat on his knee as the rumbling engine fills the growing silence. Autumn leaves blanket our path, and the bleak horizon blocks out the rising sun, but I know it’s there, hiding behind the clouds, waiting to break through.

“Is the wound bothering you?” Harper flattens the edge of the bandage wrapped around my burnt calf. “The serum will probably wear off soon.”

“It’s fine, really.” I’m far from fine. But it’s not the wound that troubles me. With every passing minute, I get closer to the Alliance Council Estate—the one place Mom has spent the last ten years keeping me safe from. And I’m terrified.

“Keep watch for any creatures. We’re not in the clear yet.” Devon’s weary eyes meet mine in the rearview mirror.

I’ve been watching and listening for hours, sandwiched in the back, caught next to Harper, who keeps shooting Maddox a side-eyed stare, making him shift uncomfortably. Every now and then he glances at me, tightening his lips, holding back words his eyes are fighting to say. But words can’t erase the awkwardness between us.

I look out the window. No violent wind signals beastly Cormorants overhead, and no misted Legions creep along the prickly underbrush, tracking our path. “We’ve set good distance. Nothing’s in sight.”

Other Books in the Series

(Linked to an Amazon affiliate link.)

About the Author

Sandra Fernandez Rhoads is the young adult fantasy author of the Colliding Line Series: MORTAL SIGHT and REALMS OF LIGHT. She was born in Queens, New York to Cuban-Colombian parents, but grew up in Texas with a love for classical art and literature, specifically Renaissance artists and Late Romantic poets. She attended the University of Texas at Austin and earned a degree in English, and then went on to earn an MA in her “seventeenth century crush,” John Milton. Sandra’s past experience also includes a background in acting, directing, as well as script writing for stage and short film. She has a deep love for the artist community and the arts, and enjoys venturing out and trying new art forms. Currently, she is learning to play the cello she’s named Lysander, and one day hopes to play the theme to Jurassic Park.

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Tour Schedule
(Posts go live on the day they're scheduled.)

November 28th: Launch

November 29th: Elayne Audrey Becker - Forestborn

November 30th: Michelle Diener - The Turncoat King

December 1st: Jes Drew - Agents Adam and Eve

December 2nd: Sharon Hinck - Windward Shore

December 3rd: Kara Linaburg - The Broken Prince

December 4th: Cathy McCrumb - Recorder

December 5th: Sandra Fernandez Rhoads - Realms of Light

December 6th: Chawna Schroeder - The Vault Between Spaces

December 7th: Melissa Wright - Beneath Stone and Sacrifice

December 8th: Kristen Young - Elite

December 9th: Grand Finale

Tour Giveaway

One winner will receive a $50 (USD) Amazon eGift Card

Open internationally
Ends December 13, 2021

ENTER HERE

Blog Tour and Giveaway: Revived Hope by Kathleen J Robison

About the Book

Book: Revived Hope

Author: Kathleen J. Robison

Genre: Christian Romantic Suspense

Release date: October 19, 2021

How many near misses does it take not to be a coincidence anymore?

Melanie Thompson has spent her entire adult life trying to overcome the mistakes of her youth. Just as everything is looking up, it all begins to unravel as one problem after another piles on top of each other, each with one goal in mind. Get her out of the way.

Determined to make a better life for herself and her daughter, and with the help of her father, Melanie looks at alternative ways to make her dream of owning a storefront for her bridal business come true. Complications with her ex-husband, the new business, and a threatening landlord all conspire against her, and everything seems lost when tragedy strikes not once, but twice.

What will it take for Melanie to accept the alternate path the Lord has laid out for her?

Revived Hope, the prequel to the romantic suspense Bay Town Series, paves the path for Melanie and Lacey’s move from Orange County to the Mississippi Gulf Coast and a new life in Bay Town.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Kathleen J. Robison is an Okinawan-American. Born in Okinawa, raised in California, Florida, Mississippi, and Singapore. Her travels are the inspirational settings for her stories. She and her Pastor husband have eight adult children. Seven are married, blessing them with fourteen grandchildren and counting. The diversity of their 31 family members provide the inspiration for more lively characters than can be imagined. Her husband grew up in the streets of Los Angeles raised by a single working mom, and that life provides fodder for many of the conflicts of her characters.

Tackling difficult life’s trials with God’s strength are the central theme of Kathleen’s stories. She hopes to inspire her readers to trust God and with His strength, weather through and rise above trials and tragedies. If you like suspenseful stories with a thread of romance, you will enjoy Kathleen’s Bay Town Series

More from Kathleen

In Revived Hope, the prequel to Shattered Guilt, it’s one year earlier. Melanie Thompson races through life’s challenges while navigating the trials of being a single mother, a budding entrepreneur, and a woman of faith, all with threats of danger.

Our past doesn’t define us, as Melanie learns, but it definitely frames who we become. Thankfully, we have a gracious God who uses all of the good and the bad to bring us to a place of communion with Him…desiring His will for His glory. And ultimately, it’s always for our good.

I love my character Melanie, and I hope you will too. I’ve spent so many years getting to know her that it was fun writing this prequel. I enjoyed writing about her past and introducing you to her family in California before the move to charming fictional Bay Town in Shattered Guilt. When I wrote of Melanie’s relationship with her dad, I laughed, I cried, and I left my heart in the book…in a manner of speaking.

But Revived Hope is not all sweetness and heartache. Things get pretty testy when Melanie tackles villains head-on and sometimes all alone. Often the world encourages us to do it all, and Melanie tries. Although tragedy strikes too many times, the lessons she learns strengthen her faith and trust in the Almighty.

Lastly, Revived Hope teases with a hint of romance but sets the stage for Melanie’s love story in Shattered Guilt, Book 1, Bay Town Series. I’m excited for you to meet Melanie and her family as you root for her in all her harrowing escapades.

Blog Stops

Inklings and notions, November 30

Gina Holder, December 1 (Author Interview)

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, December 1

Texas Book-aholic, December 2

deb’s Book Review, December 3

For Him and My Family, December 4

lakesidelivingsite, December 4

Locks, Hooks and Books, December 5

Ashley’s Clean Book Reviews, December 6

Because I said so — and other adventures in Parenting, December 7

A Modern Day Fairy Tale, December 8

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, December 9

Wishful Endings, December 10 (Author Interview)

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, December 11

Musings of a Sassy Bookish Mama, December 12

Splashes of Joy, December 13 (Author Interview)

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Kathleen is giving away the grand prize package of a $25 Amazon gift card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/13cff/revived-hope-celebration-tour-giveaway

My Review

Revived Hope is part of Kathleen J Robison’s Bay Town series. I enjoyed reading Shattered Guilt that was, also, part of the series and was excited to read this one, as well. At about one hundred and twenty pages, it was a short but faith filled read. I really connected to Melanie right from the start and had to keep reading to see what was going to happen with her. I loved reading her story.

I am giving Revived Hope a very well deserved five plus stars. I highly recommend it for readers who enjoy reading quick and clean romantic suspense. I can not wait to read more from Kathleen J Robison’s Bay Town series in the future.

I received a digital copy of Revived Hope from the publisher, but was not required to write a positive review. This review is one hundred percent my own honest opinion.

Saturday, December 4, 2021

Fantasy and Sci-Fi for Christmas and Giveaway: Cathy McCrumb

On tour with Prism Book Tours

Recorder

(Children of the Consortium, #1)

By Cathy McCrumb

Science Fiction

Hardcover, Augiobook & ebook, 367 Pages

November 9, 2021 by Enclave Publishing

The Consortium is All. But Recorder Can No Longer Obey.

Recorder has no family, no friends, and no name. Donated to the Consortium before birth, her sole purpose is to maintain and verify the records. A neural implant and drone ensure compliance, punishing for displays of bias.

Suddenly cut off from controlling technology, Recorder tastes what it means to be human. But if the Consortium discovers her feelings, everyone she knows will be in danger.

With no name, no resources, and only an infinitesimal possibility of escape, Recorder's time is running out.

Praise for the Book

"McCrumb achieves a fascinating coming-of-age story in a convincing far-future technical milieu containing credible characters with consistent and powerful motivations. Readers looking for hard science fiction with heart should snap this up." - Publishers Weekly

(Affiliate link included.)

Excerpt

The moon’s moon gleamed clear and bright, and I stood transfixed by the canopy of stars, their faint colors shining against the velvet vastness of space. Ceres hovered above the horizon, a pale, blue speck, while Thalassa’s lights flashed overhead, only a few degrees below the orange point of New Triton. My drone’s tendril gently twined about my shoulders, and my implant magnified the deep sounds of space. The stars’ dissonance rumbled underneath the team’s voices and my own pounding heart. I smiled at the beauty of it—

Jagged pain shattered the stillness.

I staggered slightly, and for half of a second, anger splintered through me. The blame, however, was mine. I had allowed the sky to distract me from my task. Turning away from the heavens, I dimmed the invisible light and muted sounds inaudible to human ears. My drone hovered at my side, a delicate tendril still wound about me.

After triggering a calming release of neurotransmitters, I checked my connection to the six additional drones. All functioned properly, and their perspectives created a kaleidoscope of light and shadow in my internal feed. Satisfaction with the successful check almost erased the mortification of the reprimand.

Almost.

I clenched gloved hands and crossed to the metal access point. Sand and rock crunched under my boots when I passed Timmons, whose shadow reached across Pallas’s red-orange crust toward the dimness beyond our lights. My drone released me when I stopped three meters from the heavy, sealed hatch.

About the Author

Cathy graduated from Biola University with a degree in English Literature and a love for stories. She and her husband, whom she met while writing letters to soldiers, have five children and currently live within the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. While writing is one of her favorite things to do, she also enjoys reading, long hikes and long naps, gluten-free brownies and raspberries, and crocheting while watching science fiction movies with friends and family. Most of her imaginary friends are nice people.

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Instagram

Tour Schedule
(Posts go live on the day they're scheduled.)

November 28th: Launch

November 29th: Elayne Audrey Becker - Forestborn

November 30th: Michelle Diener - The Turncoat King

December 1st: Jes Drew - Agents Adam and Eve

December 2nd: Sharon Hinck - Windward Shore

December 3rd: Kara Linaburg - The Broken Prince

December 4th: Cathy McCrumb - Recorder

December 5th: Sandra Fernandez Rhoads - Realms of Light

December 6th: Chawna Schroeder - The Vault Between Spaces

December 7th: Melissa Wright - Beneath Stone and Sacrifice

December 8th: Kristen Young - Elite

December 9th: Grand Finale

Tour Giveaway

One winner will receive a $50 (USD) Amazon eGift Card

Open internationally
Ends December 13, 2021

ENTER HERE

Blog Tour and Giveaway: The Fowl Twins: Get What They Deserve by Eoin Colfer

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the THE FOWL TWINS: GET WHAT THEY DESERVE by Eoin Colfer Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

About The Book:

Title: THE FOWL TWINS: GET WHAT THEY DESERVE (The Fowl Twins #3)

Author: Eoin Colfer

Pub. Date: November 23, 2021

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook, Audiobook

Pages: 320

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD, Bookshop.org

Irish Twins Myles and Beckett, Artemis Fowl's younger brothers, return in their third and most bizarre adventure yet.

For almost two years, Lord Teddy Bleedham-Drye, the Duke of Scilly, has been plotting revenge against the Fowl Twins, who humiliated him in Book One. Teddy plans to give them exactly what they deserve: permanent death.

He threatens Myles with his weaponized jet and Beckett and Specialist Lazuli succeed in disarming the aircraft and causing an accident that kills the duke. But does it really?

Ghosts, clones, and fairy magic come to play in this ultimate and ridiculous showdown between the twins and their worst enemy.

Review:

*Like its bestselling progenitors, a nonstop spinoff afroth with high-tech, spectacular magic, and silly business.--Kirkus (starred review)

Grab the first two books in the series now!

My Review:

The Fowl Twins Get What They Deserve is the third installment from The Fowl Twins series by Eoin Colfer. It is, also, the first book I have read by this author. I thought it was a pretty good read. It was fun to read with my ten year old son. The chapters are not very long and we spent every evening reading a couple of chapters just before bed. It was full of adventure, intrigue, and suspense. I thought it was a great way to spend some time with my son and reading a fun book.

I am giving The Fowl Twins Get What They Deserve four stars. I recommend it for readers who between the ages of ten and fourteen years old and enjoy reading magical, mystery and fantasy books. I would love to read the previous books from The Fowl Twins series in the near future.

I received a hard cover copy of The Fowl Twins Get What They Deserve from the publisher, but was not required to write a positive review. This review is one hundred percent.

About Eoin Colfer:

Eoin Colfer is the author of the New York Times best-selling Artemis Fowl series, which was adapted into a major motion picture from the Walt Disney Studios. He also wrote the critically acclaimed WARP trilogy, and many other titles for young readers and adults, including Iron Man: The Gauntlet, Airman, Half Moon Investigations, Eoin Colfer's Legend of . . . books, The Wish List, Benny and Omar; and Benny and Babe. In 2014, he was named Ireland's laureate for children's literature. He lives with his wife and two sons in Dublin, Ireland, where he is working on the next Fowl twins novel. To learn more, visit www.eoincolfer.com. He is also on Twitter and Instagram @EoinColfer.

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will win a finished copy of THE FOWL TWINS: GET WHAT THEY DESERVE, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

11/1/2021	What A Nerd Girl Says	Excerpt
11/2/2021	Lily Luchesi's Blog	Excerpt
11/3/2021	Kait Plus Books	Excerpt
11/4/2021	BookHounds YA	Excerpt
11/5/2021	YA Books Central	Excerpt
11/6/2021	GivernyReads	Review

Week Two:

11/7/2021	Rajiv's Reviews	Review
11/8/2021	coffeebooksandmascara	Review
11/9/2021	Books a Plenty Book Reviews	Review
11/10/2021	The Bookwyrm's Den	Review
11/11/2021	if the book will be too difficult	Review
11/12/2021	@jypsylynn	Review
11/13/2021	Locks, Hooks and Books	Review

Week Three:

11/14/2021	Zainey Laney	Review
11/15/2021	The Momma Spot	Review
11/16/2021	Books Are Magic Too	Review
11/17/2021	onemused	IG Post
11/18/2021	@eyerollingdemigod	Review
11/19/2021	laura's bookish corner	Review
11/20/2021	FyreKatz Blog	Review

Week Four:

11/21/2021	two points of interest	Review
11/22/2021	Popthebutterfly Reads	Review
11/23/2021	Two Chicks on Books	Excerpt
11/24/2021	Lexijava_Bookish	Review
11/25/2021	brittreadsalattebooks	Excerpt & IG Post
11/26/2021	Little Red Reads	Review
11/27/2021	@drewsim12	Review

Week Five:

11/28/2021	Lifestyle of Me	Review
11/29/2021	Rockstar Book Tours	Excerpt
11/30/2021	Nerdophiles	Review
12/1/2021	@pickagoodbook	Excerpt

Blog Tour and Giveaway: Lost in Darkness by Michelle Griep

About the Book

Book: Lost in Darkness

Author: Michelle Griep

Genre: FICTION/ Christian/Romance

Release date: November 1, 2021

England, 1815

Amelia Balfour has one dream. . .to tour Egypt as a travel writer. But when her wish is finally within reach, her father dies, and her malformed brother Colin depends upon her to arrange for a revolutionary surgery. Amelia returns home, hoping he’ll recover before the ship sails for Cairo.
Former Navy surgeon Graham Lambert is sick—of travelling, loneliness, and especially the injustice of the world. Leaving behind the military, he partners with a renowned surgeon, the man who promises new life to Amelia’s brother.
But just as the operation begins, Graham suspects the surgeon is a fraud. After a botched procedure, Colin goes mad and escapes, terrorizing their neighbor, author Mary Godwin—planting the seed for her greatest creation, Frankenstein.
Can Amelia and Graham stop Colin before he destroys everyone in his path and find the tender soul still trapped inside…or will they be too late?

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Michelle Griep’s been writing since she first discovered blank wall space and Crayolas. She is the Christy Award-winning author of historical romances: A Tale of Two Hearts, The Captured Bride, The Innkeeper’s Daughter, 12 Days at Bleakly Manor, The Captive Heart, Brentwood’s Ward, A Heart Deceived, and Gallimore, but also leaped the historical fence into the realm of contemporary with the zany romantic mystery Out of the Frying Pan.

More from Michelle

Are You a Monster Too?

“Look at that! The fattest girl in the class is the first one to get in line for a cupcake.”

Those words, spoken to me in junior high by a clueless boy, are forever seared into my memory. Just because I wasn’t a willowy stick-figure who didn’t match up to magazine covers, I was singled out. Made to feel ashamed. Made to feel like a monster.

Have you ever felt that way?

Chances are you have. We are all poked and prodded at some point in our lives…which brings up a few questions. How do you deal with the sometimes ugly perceptions with which others view you? How do you stop trying to prove your worth to others, when in their eyes you are somehow worthless? Why does God allow such hurtful things to happen anyway?

These are the questions I attempt to tackle in my new release, Lost in Darkness. And surprisingly enough, those are the very same issues contemplated in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Now hold on. Don’t go rolling your eyeballs quite yet—which is the usual response whenever Frankenstein is mentioned.

Most people’s conception of this great piece of literature has been forever ruined by Hollywood’s green creature. You know the one, the giant with bolts sticking out of his neck and a stiff-legged walk. So not true. The essence of Shelley’s “horror” story is instead about a creature who struggles with heartfelt needs that can only be met by his creator. In this story, Shelley respectfully handles the subject of what we owe our creator and what our creator’s responsibility is toward us as the created…the very same questions we all struggle with.

As does Colin Balfour, a man with a heart of gold and a face that causes children to scream. In Lost in Darkness, he hopes to undergo a life-changing surgery that will end his self-imposed isolation. But what really happens is a life change for his sister Amelia and the surgeon who tries to prevent it all from happening. For indeed, even if there be monsters, there is none so fierce as that which resides in man’s own heart.

Blog Stops

Life of Literature, November 29

Genesis 5020, November 29

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, November 29

The Write Escape, November 30

Betti Mace, November 30

Texas Book-aholic, November 30

Remembrancy, December 1

Inklings and notions, December 1

Blossoms and Blessings, December 1

Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions, December 2

Daysong Reflections, December 2

For Him and My Family, December 2

Library Lady’s Kid Lit, December 3

Bigreadersite, December 3

Abba’s Prayer Warrior Princess, December 3

Locks, Hooks and Books, December 4

For the Love of Literature, December 4

SodbusterLiving, December 4

deb’s Book Review, December 5

Splashes of Joy, December 5

Back Porch Reads, December 5

Connie’s History Classroom, December 6

Simple Harvest Reads, December 6 (Guest Review from Mindy Houng)

Mypreciousbitsandmusings, December 6

A Modern Day Fairy Tale, December 7

Through the fire blogs, December 7

Where Faith and Books Meet, December 8

Ashley’s Clean Book Reviews, December 8

Pause for Tales, December 8

Musings of a Sassy Bookish Mama, December 9

Labor Not in Vain, December 9

To Everything There Is A Season, December 9

Tell Tale Book Reviews, December 10

Little Homeschool on the Prairie, December 10

The Meanderings of a Bookworm, December 10

Truth and Grace HomeschoolAcademy, December 11

Gina Holder, Author and Blogger, December 11 (Author Interview)

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, December 11

Rachael’s Inkwell, December 12

Blogging With Carol, December 12

Connect in Fiction, December 12

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Michelle is giving away the grand prize package of a $25 Amazon gift card and a copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/13cfd/lost-in-darkness-celebration-tour-giveaway

My Review

Lost in Darkness is my favorite that I have read by Michelle Griep to date. It includes a lot that I love to read in a book: history, romance, mystery, danger, suspense, and adventure. It was far from predictable and I could never tell what was going to happen in the next scenes. I loved the duo of Amelia and Graham with the perfect setting. I loved every single page of this book.

Lost in Darkness is getting a very well deserved five plus stars. I highly recommend it for readers who enjoy reading a clean historical mystery. As always, I look forward to more by Michelle Griep in the future. This one should not be missed and most definitely worth a read.

I received a copy of Lost in Darkness from the publisher, but was not required to write a positive review. This review is one hundred percent my own honest opinion.