Spotlight and Giveaway: As a Bride in the Wilderness by E J Ashmore

About the Book

Book: AS A BRIDE IN THE WILDERNESS

Author: EJ Ashmore

Genre: Biblical Fiction, young adult

Release Date: January 10, 2026

Eliza is sure happiness has arrived. She and her family, never to be separated again, join the rest of her people on the road to a land filled with milk and honey. A land to call home. Even better, Seti, the love of her life, has joined her people, pledged allegiance to her God, and vowed to marry her.

But life isn’t that simple. Not only are her plans disrupted by a detour into the great unknown, but she has suffered a severe concussion, thanks to Seti. Her people and her family, though loveable, prove to be a squabbling mess, and Seti, can’t stay out of trouble. Freedom is not so easy. Who is she really, and how does a free woman act?

Seti, an Egyptian, once had everything, or so he thought. He willingly gave it all up for Eliza and her God. Now reduced to an outcast sleeping outside his best friend’s tent, he has no money and no way to prove himself acceptable to Eliza’s family or her people. For the first time ever, he is filled with insecurity and fear. Fear of losing Eliza to his foolishness, but most of all, fear of disappointing the God who saved him. Yet, his every decision leads to disaster.

 

Click here to get your copy!

 

About the Author

EJ Ashmore is a wife, mother, and nurse, with a passion for young believers who are searching for answers about God. Whether it be what God wants, who He is, or why He does some of the things He does, she seeks to use ordinary, relatable characters to illustrate God’s unwavering faithfulness and devotion even to those who feel unworthy or invisible.

 

 

 

 

More from EJ

Why I wrote this:

This all began when my teenage son couldn’t grasp why God would harden Pharaoh’s heart and then punish him for it. But then I read Joel Richardson’s Sinai to Zion, and how  God’s love story for His people (Israelite or Gentile/Christian) is framed after ancient Jewish wedding customs and how God designed marriage to mirror His desired relationship with His people.

But I also wanted to reach young girls who felt as I did as a teenager: ugly, unworthy, a constant failure, insecure, and constantly bullied. God seemed to hear everybody else but me. But God’s love story is for the individual as much as for a nation. He pursues, He gets the girl, He proves His worthiness again and again, and He builds her up as His beautiful bride who He will have an intimate relationship with.

Add in the depravity of humanity who barely know their God, stuck in a desert with nothing to do and have no idea how to act not only as free people but as people of God, yet God chooses them and loves them and wants to live in their midst.

I deeply desire for my reader to come away from this pondering how God pursued and pursues them in their own lives, and have a deeper relationship with God and a better understanding of the why God does what He does.

Blog Stops

Books Less Travelled, September 15

Simple Harvest Reads, September 16 (Author Interview)

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, September 17

Artistic Nobody, September 18 (Author Interview)

Texas Book-aholic, September 19

Guild Master, September 20 (Author Interview)

The Bookish Pilgrim, September 20

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, September 21

Fiction Book Lover, September 22 (Author Interview)

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, September 23

The Bookish Ledger, September 24 (Author Interview)

Blossoms and Blessings, September 25 (Author Interview)

Stories By Gina, September 26 (Author Interview)

Mary Hake, September 26

Lily’s Corner, September 27

Books, Books, & More Books, September 28 (Author Interview)

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, EJ is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon Gift Card and a paperback copy of the book!!

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

https://gleam.io/cQ41F/as-a-bride-in-the-wilderness-celebration-tour-giveaway

Spotlight and Giveaway: Secrets of the Desert Rose by Marilyn Turk

About the Book

Book: Secrets of the Desert Rose

Author: Marilyn Turk

Genre: Dual Timeline

Release Date: February 24, 2026

Three Women. Two generations. Their friendship survived the war. Their secret survived even longer.

Monique and Audrey, one French and one British, grow up in French Algiers on the coast of the sparkling Mediterranean Sea. Best friends, they keep each other’s secrets into adulthood when World War II changes their world and Algiers sides with the Hitler-based Vichy government. Audrey joins Charles DeGaulle’s resistance army, the French Foreign Legion, while Monique stays to work in the underground resistance aiding the Allied invasion of North Africa.

In present day, American born great-granddaughter Nicole, a graduate student in archaeology, goes to North Africa for an internship. The now centenarian Monique (Mimi), debilitated by a stroke, urges her to find the Desert Rose. Nicole finds different types of desert roses, but none are the right one until she stumbles onto information that hints the desert rose might not be a flower after all. While Sami, her instructor in Algiers, helps her find the desert rose, he also has to protect her from people who want the heirloom ring Nicole wears which has its own secret.

Will Nicole find the secret before it’s too late?

 

Click here to get your copy!

 

About the Author

Award-winning author Marilyn Turk has written over twenty historical and contemporary novels and novellas laced with suspense and romance. She especially likes writing World War II era books, and loves to discover information not widely known for her stories. In addition to fiction, Marilyn is also an annual contributor to Guideposts’ Walking in Grace and other Guideposts anthologies.

Marilyn enjoys helping other writers and founded the Blue Lake Christian Writers Conference. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Faith, Hope and Love Christian Writers, AWSA, Word Weavers International and the United States Lighthouse Society.

Marilyn’s most recent books have been Secrets of the Desert Rose, The Escape Game set in World War II, and a novella, The Gilding of Minnie Tucker, set in The Gilded Age..

She and her husband Chuck have a blended family of four sons, one daughter and four grandsons whom they enjoy spending time with.  Marilyn and Chuck are lighthouse enthusiasts and have visited over 100 lighthouses in the United States and other countries. They also served as volunteer lighthouse caretakers at Little River Light off the coast of Maine. As a result of her interest in lighthouses, Marilyn wrote Lighthouse Devotions, 52 Inspiring Lighthouse Stories.

More from Marilyn

Why did I write Secrets of the Desert Rose by Marilyn Turk

Because I enjoy reading novels set during World War II, I also enjoy writing them. Most of the novels I’ve read are set in Europe – England, France, and surrounding countries. But we know the war impacted the whole world, so I look for stories set in places we don’t know much about.

Why did I set this book in North Africa? My sister-in-law’s mother was French and was born and lived in Algiers until sometime during World War II. Unfortunately, I waited too long to ask her about it, even though she lived to the age of 94. However, she left journals which gave insight into her life in Algiers and opened my eyes to what happened there before and during World War II. Monique is modeled on her stories.

While researching Algiers though, I came across another woman who was British and also played a role in North Africa during the war. Her name was Susan Travers, and her autobiography provided more interesting information. Although the two real women may have never met, her life was the basis for Audrey’s character.

I always find historical surprises when I research a novel and discovering the story of Cleopatra Selene was fascinating to me, so I had to include her in the book as well. And since there was so much secrecy involved in the true stories, I thought my characters needed secrets of their own, and my present-day character, Nicole, would have to discover them.

Blog Stops

Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, September 11

Sylvan Musings, September 12

Simple Harvest Reads, September 13 (Author Interview)

Texas Book-aholic, September 14

Artistic Nobody, September 15 (Author Interview)

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, September 16

Guild Master, September 17 (Author Interview)

Mary Hake, September 17

For Him and My Family, September 18

Fiction Book Lover, September 19 (Author Interview)

Life on Chickadee Lane, September 20

The Bookish Ledger, September 21 (Author Interview)

Connie’s History Classroom, September 21

Paula’s Pad of Inspiration, September 22

A Modern Day Fairy Tale, September 23 (Author Interview)

Lily’s Corner, September 24

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Marilyn is giving away the grand prize of a $15 Amazon Gift Card and an eBook copy of the book!!

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

https://gleam.io/nuBqc/secrets-of-the-desert-rose-celebration-tour-giveaway

Book Tour: Miya's Mooncakes by Crystal Z. Lee

 

Book Details:

Book Title:  Miya's Mooncakes by Crystal Z. Lee

Category: Children's Fiction (Ages 3-7),  40 pages

Genre: Children's Picture Book

Publisher: Balestier Press

​Publication Date: June, 2026.

Tour dates: Sep 8 to Sep 28

Content Rating: G

Book Description:

It's almost time for Miya's favorite holiday, the Mid-Autumn Festival. She loves all the holiday traditions: moon gazing, lighting lanterns, and best of all, baking and eating mooncakes! Miya notices that many in her town seem to have lost the holiday spirit lately, including those in her school and in her family. Miya has an idea to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in a more meaningful manner this year. It will involve some extra special mooncakes and the entire neighborhood. Can Miya pull it off in time for the festival?

​This is a story of ingenuity, empathy, creating new traditions while honoring old ones. It's also an ode to neighbors, immigrants, and all those that make up a community!

BUY THE BOOK:

AMAZON ~ B&N ~ BAM

add the goodreads

Meet the Author:

Crystal Z. Lee is a writer who divides her time between the U.S. and Asia. She is an avid traveler. Her favorite travel memories include island hopping in Italy, hiking the Ever White Mountain near the border of North Korea, sipping afternoon tea in Portuguese palaces and Irish castles, admiring Peranakan tiles in Singapore, sailing in the Aegean Sea, trekking on a biblical archaeological expedition in Türkiye, voyaging to UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and making mooncakes and pineapple cakes in Taiwan. Her stories are often inspired by her journeys. Besides children's books, Crystal's other published works consist of poetry and a novel. She is also the author of Pei's Pineapple Cakes, Mei's Mermaid Mission, Kai the Dancing Butterfly, A Unicorn Named Rin, and Love and Other Moods.

​connect with the author: website ~  instagram ~ goodreads

Author Interview:

-Tell us about the journey the protagonist Miya takes in Miya’s Mooncakes.

It’s almost time for Miya’s favorite holiday, the Mid-Autumn Festival. Miya notices that many in her town seem to have lost the holiday spirit after an incident. Inspired by a Mid-Autumn Festival legend, Miya comes up with a plan to make the holiday more meaningful this year. Throughout this journey, not only does Miya grow in empathy, so do many in her community!

-What sort of lessons or values can the story in Miya’s Mooncakes impart?

This is a story of empathy, kindness and courage. It’s also an ode to neighbors, immigrants, and all those that make up a community. At a time when it seems like the world is becoming more and more divisive, I hope we can help our children realize that we’re all more alike than not. I wrote this story to spark a discussion surrounding these topics. 

-Miya’s Mooncakes is a story about the Mid-Autumn Festival. Were you inspired by your own family traditions of celebrating this holiday when writing this book?

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a big holiday in our household. Growing up in Taiwan, I have fond memories of learning the holiday legends, making lanterns at school, tasting and exchanging mooncakes with relatives and friends. It’s a huge celebration among the Chinese diaspora. 

-The book cover of Miya’s Mooncakes is a detailed and exquisite work of art. Tell us about it.

The cover of this book is meant to resemble a mooncake box. The illustrator, Allie Su, really brought this concept to life. Oftentimes the mooncakes box packaging is valued just as much as the actual mooncake itself. 

-What are you interested in writing about in the future? 

One of my favorite genres to read and write in are short stories collections. I hope someday to write one myself!

-Your first book was published six years ago. How did you first get into writing? 

My previous career was in public relations where I had to write many press releases and corporate materials. It was during this time I yearned for a creative outlet so I would write fiction on the side. Later, I took writing and publishing courses at Stanford University and attended literary events whenever I could. Nowadays I’m perpetually working on some type of manuscript.

-What are some of your writing habits that help you produce good work?

For me personally, reading and writing is a muscle I have to exercise daily. I think the act of writing also requires a degree of hope and faith. There are some days I can feel discouraged if I don't like what I’ve written or if a story just isn’t working out. But it’s important to stay positive, pray and get right back up. I always think of a poor draft as a potential gem waiting to be polished. 

-At what age did you aspire to become an author?

I was around thirteen years old when I moved internationally and had to contend with a complete change in environment, school, friends, and everything I was familiar with. It was a volatile time for me and my escape was in books and libraries. I think that’s when I first became interested in writing and in literature.

-Out of all the characters in your children’s stories, including non-human ones, which is your favorite?

Miya’s Amah in Miya’s Mooncakes is a favorite because I wrote this character as a composite of my own grandmas and mom. I’m also fond of the pirate in Mei’s Mermaid Mission because he’s a teachable character. It’s my hope that children can learn that it’s okay to make mistakes, even if they are hurtful ones, as long as one can admit to it and be committed to change. 

-Many of your children’s books seem to be travel-themed. Why is that? 

Our planet is vast with so many wonderful, varied and creative cultures. I hope to raise global citizens and to teach my children empathy, respect and appreciation for all people.

Meet the Illustrator:

Allie Su grew up in Yunlin county, Taiwan. She often finds her illustration inspiration from the great outdoors. One of her favorite places to hike in Taiwan is Sun-Link-Sea Forest in Nantou. She adores Taiwanese cuisine and night market foods, such as stinky tofu, vegetarian noodles and taro pastries from Taichung. Allie also illustrated Mei's Mermaid Mission and Kai the Dancing Butterfly.

My Review:

I found that Crystal Z Lee's Miya's Mooncakes to be a fun filled book to read. Though it is marketed for the younger readers, I still greatly enjoyed following Miya as she prepares for the upcoming festivities of Mid Autumn Festival. She wants her family and friends to, also, be as excited as she is. It was sweet watching her determination to get all involved and how making mooncakes become special for her. I loved the lessons learned that all - young and old - can learn from. A wonderful little read.

Miya's Mooncakes is beautifully illustrated by the talented artist, Allie Su. Their pictures were so vibrant and colorful. I believe they were a perfect addition to the story and a great way for the youngest of readers to keep their attention on the pages being read to them. A beautiful way to read this book while seeing these illustrations.

I am going to give Miya's Mooncakes a very well deserved five plus stars. I highly recommend it for readers who are between the ages of five and eleven. I think it would make a great addition to public libraries, as well as, elementary school classroom shelves. I would love to see what other books Crystal Z. Lee has written prior, as well as, those that will be soon released.

I received soft cover copy of Crystal Z. Lee's Miya's Mooncakes from the publisher, but was not required to write a positive review. This review is one hundred percent my own honest opinion.

Book Tour and Review: Delaware Keepers / Life at the Edge of the Sea by Dave Tabler

 

Book Details:

Book Title:  Delaware Keepers / Life at the Edge of the Sea by Dave Tabler
Category: Adult Non-Fiction, 224 pages
Genre: History
Publisher: Dave Tabler
​Publication Date: June 1, 2026
Content Rating: G: no bad language, no sex scenes

Book Description:

Delaware Keepers is a bottom-up social history of the men and women who tended Delaware's lighthouses from the colonial beacon at Cape Henlopen in 1769 through the automation era of the 1940s. Its central argument is a deliberate inversion of a familiar image. The popular lighthouse keeper—the bearded hermit slowly losing his sanity in storm-battered isolation—is, in Tabler's words, "dead wrong." Drawing on newspaper archives, government and inspection records, and family papers, the book reconstructs keeping not as a story of madness and solitude but of community, family life, civic engagement, and quiet professionalism.

The book opens on its thesis in miniature: keeper George W. Duncan celebrating his 37th wedding anniversary at the Port Penn Range Light in 1907, surrounded by forty guests and a brass band—a federal employee at the center of community life rather than its lonely edge. Delaware's compact geography makes the case plausible: short coastline, numerous inland waterways, and stations often within walking distance of town, with even offshore posts like Fourteen Foot Bank deliberately crewed by three men to forestall the very isolation the myth romanticizes. Tabler doesn't flatten the picture, though—remote, icebound posts like Mahon's Light and Reedy Island could genuinely isolate, and the work carried real risk from storms, wrecks, and accidents.

​Across sixteen chapters organized into five chronological parts, the narrative traces keeping as it emerged as an occupation, matured into a respected federal career, and then vanished under automation:

               Founding the Lights (1769–1850s) — colonial origins, John and Elizabeth Dickerson at the first Cape Henlopen beacon, and Abraham Hargis writing desperate letters to Thomas Jefferson about inadequate pay.

                Forging a Network (1850s–1880s) — the lights through the Civil War and the professionalization of keeping into a genuine career.

                The Golden Age of Keeping (1880s–1940s) — the profession at its height, its costs, and its public visibility.

                The End of an Era (1940s–1970s) — automation and the disappearance of the resident keeper.

                Preserving the Legacy (1970s–present) — how families and communities carry the memory forward.

The human thread runs throughout: Hannah Hill dragging a boat across broken ice to fetch a doctor for her ailing husband; Irvin and Janie Lynch raising eight children at Mahon's Light; the Spencer children at Liston Range, for whom a station with no plumbing or central heat was simply home. The closing chapters turn to memory itself—how granddaughter Penny Czerwinski turns Dorothy Lynch Morris's recollections into classroom presentations (complete with Toby, the coal-chute-riding pig), and how preservation has shifted from maintaining structures to transmitting living culture.

Beyond maritime history, the book frames larger questions: how skilled occupations earn legitimacy and respect, what happens to experienced workers when technology renders them "unnecessary," how communities lose institutional memory when federal employees vanish from daily life, and why we mythologize obsolete professions while forgetting the people who actually performed them. It positions itself not as a technical catalog of lighthouses—those exist—but as a recovery of the keepers as real, embedded, civic human beings.

Buy the Book:
Amazon ~ Audible ~ B&N  
Broadway Books ~ BAM
add to goodreads

Meet the Author:

Ten year old Dave Tabler decided he was going to read the 'R' volume from the family's World Book Encyclopedia set over summer vacation. He never made it from beginning to end. He did, however, become interested in Norman Rockwell, rare-earth elements, and Run for the Roses.

Tabler's father encouraged him to try his hand at taking pictures with the family camera. With visions of Rockwell dancing in his head, Tabler press-ganged his younger brother into wearing a straw hat and sitting next to a stream barefoot with a homemade fishing pole in his hand. The resulting image was terrible.

Dave Tabler went on to earn degrees in art history and photojournalism despite being told he needed a 'Plan B.'

Fresh out of college, Tabler contributed the photography for "The Illustrated History of American Civil War Relics," which taught him how to work with museum curators, collectors, and white cotton gloves. He met a man in the Shenandoah Valley who played the musical saw, a Knoxville fellow who specialized in collecting barbed wire, and Tom Dickey, brother of the man who wrote 'Deliverance.'

In 2006 Tabler circled back to these earlier encounters with Appalachian culture as an idea for a blog. AppalachianHistory.net today reaches 375,000 readers a year.

Dave Tabler moved to Delaware in 2010 and became smitten with its rich past. He no longer copies Norman Rockwell, but his experience working with curators and collectors came in handy when he got the urge to photograph a love letter to Delaware's early heritage.

It turned out to be the start of something. Tabler has since written Delaware Before the Railroads, Delaware from Railways to Freeways, Delaware from Freeways to E-Ways, Delaware at Christmas, Delaware Behaving Badly, and Delaware Keepers.

connect with the author: website ~ X ~ facebook ~ pinterest ~ instagram ~ goodreads

My Review: 

I have loved the series of books about the history of Delaware by Dave Tabler. I was honored to have the chance to listen to his newest release, Delaware Keepers: Life at the Edge of the Sea. I believe this may be my favorite I have read of his to date. It was interesting to learn about the past lighthouses, starting from the middle of the eighteenth century, all the way to the mid twentieth century. I loved hearing about the different men and women who took care of these lighthouses for nearly two hundred years. 

Delaware Keepers: Life at the Edge of the Sea is narrated by Bob Darling. It was a pleasure hearing his voice and listening to his version of this book. I thought his performance was entertaining and a great addition to it.

Delaware Keepers: Life at the Edge of the Sea will be getting a very well deserved five plus stars from me. I highly recommend it for all readers who love to read non fiction that is rich in history, particularly United States of America, as well as, the state of Delaware. I believe it would make a wonderful gift for any history buff of any age. I hope there will be more books like this one from Dave Tabler in the future.

I received an audio copy of Dave Tabler's Delaware Keepers: Life at the Edge of the Sea from the publisher, but was not required to write a positive review. This review is one hundred percent my own honest opinion.

Book Tour: Return to Yesterday's Tomorrow by Bryan Prosek

 

Book Details:

​Book Title:  Return to Yesterday's Tomorrow by Bryan Prosek

Category:  Adult Fiction (18+),  357 pages

Genre: techno thriller/science fiction

Publisher: Bryan Prosek

Release date:  January 2025

Content Rating: PG-13: My book contains no f-words or religious profanities, but it does contain crude terms such as "*sshole", "sh*t". There are no sex scenes, explicit or non-explicit, but there is violence with some bloody descriptions.

Book Description:

In present day Pittsburgh, a new technology enables a person to alter (redo) a life-changing event in the person’s past, but sometimes with unintended collateral effects. Redoing an event for one person can have dire consequences on another unsuspecting individual. Tripp Hayes wakes up one day to find his wife and daughters have vanished and his past has been erased.

​Plagued by painful memories that aren’t his, Trip begins to follow the scattered pieces of a life only he remembers, trying to find out what happened to his family, who did this, and why? He soon learns that the corruption and deceit go much further than he could have imagined, and, more importantly, he is running out of time. With the odds stacked against him, with nowhere to turn, can Tripp solve the puzzle and get his family back before the clock hits zero?  

BUY THE BOOK:

Amazon ~ Audible

Bookshop.org ~ BookBub

​add to goodreads

Meet the Author:

Bryan resides in Columbus, Ohio where he is a practicing business attorney with the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson PLLC. He enjoys board games and outdoor activities- hiking, biking, and camping.

His first three novels, The Brighter the Stars and The Darker the Skies of his Earth United trilogy, and A Measure of Serenity, have been published by CamCat Publishing. His fourth novel, Return to Yesterday’s Tomorrow, is available on Amazon.

In addition to practicing law and writing, Bryan is actively involved in the fight against human trafficking. He assists several nonprofit organizations that combat human trafficking at various levels both within the United States and around the world. 

Connect with the Author: website ~ newsletter ~ X ~ facebook ~ instagram ~ tiktok ~ bookbub ~ goodreads

My Review: 

I have had the pleasure of reading several books by author, Bryan Prosek. I was honored to have the chance to read his newest release, Return to Yesterday’s Tomorrow. I was not disappointed. I highly enjoyed reading this book and it is now my new favorite by this author. It was full of adventure, action, danger, and suspense. I loved travelling to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and getting to know the main character, Tripp. I was captivated by the drama he as thrown into. I thought it was a great tale to dive into. 

I was entertained by listening to the audio version of Return to Yesterday’s Tomorrow.  The performance of the narrator, Al Pagano, was a superb. It was fun hearing this story come to life. I enjoyed it, thought it was a perfect addition to this book, and I did not want to hit that pause button often.

I am going to give Return to Yesterday’s Tomorrow a very well deserved five plus stars. I believe fans of science fiction and fantasy, as well as, thrillers, will no doubt not want to miss out on reading this one. I would love to read more from the talented, Bryan Prosek, in the future to see what kind of journey his imagination will take their readers to next. 

I received an audio version of Bryan Prosek's Return to Yesterday’s Tomorrow from the publisher, but was not required to write a positive review. This review is one hundred percent my own honest opinion.