Friday, November 9, 2018

The Light Before Day by Suzanne Woods Fisher (Nantucket Legacy 3)

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About the Book

Book: The Light Before Day
Author: Suzanne Woods Fisher
Genre: Historical Fiction
Release Date: October 2, 2018
The Light Before Day-Book Cover“Henry, this . . . fortune, this sudden wealth . . . I fear it will change our lives. And I don’t want my life to change.”
After three years on a whaling voyage, Henry Macy returns to Nantucket to news that his grandmother has passed, bequeathing her vast fortune to him and his sister, Hitty. And it was truly vast. But Lillian Coffin was no fool. The inheritance comes with a steep cost, including when each should marry and whom—a Quaker in good standing, of course. But if they relinquish the inheritance, it all goes to Tristram Macy, their father’s thieving business partner.
As Hitty and Henry seek a way to satisfy the will’s conditions, they’ll be faced with obstacles on every side—and it may be that Lillian Coffin will have the last word after all.

Get your copy HERE!
 My Review:
With bated breath, I've looked forward to reading this next book in this series. I can't recommend this series enough. It's relevant and timely messages minister to my spirit while filling my mind with yet another engaging and memorable story. Henry and Hitty have some amazing stuff to cope with. The terms of Grandmother Lillian's will simply have to be read. Special features of this book include more than one point of view, two timelines, faith, suspense, fear, hope, rules, grace, and some deep introspection into what "treasure" really is. 

 5+ Stars

About the Author

suzanne woods fisherSuzanne Woods Fisher is an award-winning, bestselling author of more than two dozen novels, including Phoebe’s Light and Minding the Light, as well as the Amish Beginnings, The Bishop’s Family, and The Inn at Eagle Hill series. She has also written several nonfiction books about the Amish, including Amish Peace and The Heart of the Amish. Fisher lives in California. Learn more at www.suzannewoodsfisher.com and follow her on Twitter @suzannewfisher and Facebook @SuzanneWoodsFisherAuthor.

Guest Post from Suzanne

The Mortgage Button
In each story of the ‘Nantucket Legacy’ series, there’s a reference to a mortgage button in the newel post of a stairway. Phoebe Starbuck, the main character in Phoebe’s Light, made a point to notice it in the captain’s house on Orange Street, the famous residences of sea captains. In Minding the Light, Daphne Coffin touched the mortgage button on the newel post of her horrible mother’s grand house each and every morning. Hitty and Henry Macy were well aware of the absence of their childhood home’s mortgage button—and all that its absence symbolized—in The Light Before Day.
Mortgage buttons meant something to each of those characters. It made a statement to anyone who walked into a house.
Have you ever seen a mortgage button? It’s a very Nantucket-y tradition. In fact, some say the mortgage button originated on Nantucket Island, thirty miles out to sea.
Supposedly, when a house’s mortgage was fully paid and there were no liens against the property, the homeowner drilled a hole in the newel post of the main staircase, rolled up the mortgage document, put it inside, and capped the hole with a decorative plug of scrimshaw.
Scrimshaw is a term for an American folk art developed during the 18th and 19th centuries. Whaling in New England was an industry that lifted Nantucket Island to become the world’s wealthiest port. After a whale’s oil was rendered, the ship’s captain would give his crew the sperm whale’s teeth or bones to carve during long tedious hours at sea. Whaling had its exciting moments, but they were far and few between. As a pastime, sailors carved all kinds of useful gifts to bring home to their loved ones: needles, combs, games, clothespins, busks…and mortgage buttons.
But let’s jump back to the mortgage button. Some legends say that the actual mortgage papers were ceremoniously burned and the ashes stashed inside the drilled hole before sealed with the button. However, as appealing a thought as that might be, it is most likely a myth. There’s never been any evidence of ashes or even hidden mortgages found in salvaged newel posts. Still, mortgage buttons are common among Nantucket homes, and the tradition has spread to other parts of the country. In southern states, for example, they’re called brag buttons. Whether myth or truth, today it’s more a matter of a charming nostalgic custom than a nod to your healthy (or…not so healthy) net worth.

Blog Stops

The Avid Reader, November 4
Texas Book-aholic, November 5
Godly Book Reviews, November 5
Among the Reads, November 8
Blogging With Carol, November 9
Mary Hake, November 10
Carpe Diem, November 11
Simple Harvest Reads, November 12
Janices book reviews, November 13
Captive Dreams, November 14
Bigreadersite, November 14
By The Book, November 15
Pause for Tales, November 16
Book by Book, November 16
Have A Wonderful Day, November 17
Bibliophile Reviews, November 17

Giveaway

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To celebrate her tour, Suzanne is giving away a grand prize of a $50 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/d773/the-light-before-day-celebration-tour-giveaway

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Sunday, November 4, 2018

An hour Unspent Rossana M. White (Shadows over England - Book 3)

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About the Book

An Hour UnspentOnce London’s top thief, Barclay Pearce has turned his back on his life of crime and now uses his skills for a nation at war. But not until he rescues a clockmaker’s daughter from a mugging does he begin to wonder what his future might hold.
Evelina Manning has constantly fought for independence but she certainly never meant for it to inspire her fiancé to end the engagement and enlist in the army. When the intriguing man who saved her returns to the Manning residence to study clockwork repair with her father, she can’t help being interested. But she soon learns that nothing with Barclay Pearce is as simple as it seems.
As 1915 England plunges ever deeper into war, the work of an ingenious clockmaker may give England an unbeatable military edge—and Germany realizes it as well. Evelina’s father soon finds his whole family in danger—and it may just take a reformed thief to steal the time they need to escape it.

Click here to purchase your copy!
 My Review:
This is one of the best series! An Hour Unspent was riveting. I have loved learning about the orphan train and connecting with the characters in this book and in the series. Barkley is fantastic and this book wraps up things up beautifully. My only sadness is that it's over! I enjoyed the details, the story, all the research, faith and hope in desperate times, romance, and realism. I can't think of anything lacking, except that I need more. 

 5 stars

About the Author
Roseanna 2018Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award nominated author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary. You can learn more about her and her stories at www.RoseannaMWhite.com.

Guest Post from Roseanna

Last year, as I finished up the writing of An Hour Unspent, my great-grandmother passed away at the age of 103. As I sat at her funeral service and listened to the heartfelt memorial raised up to her by her kids and grandkids, I realized anew that this woman had been a matriarch in the truest sense of the word. She’d taught my family for generations how to love the Lord and each other, how to serve the Lord and each other, and how to trust the Lord and each other. Grandma Seward was, in so many ways, the one who instilled in me my idea of what family really is.
That idea—that it’s those knit together by love more than blood, and that faith is the strongest foundation—is what I built my unusual family of thieves upon in the Shadows Over England series. And strange as it is to liken my twenty-something reformed-thief hero to my 103-year-old-grandmother, Barclay Pearce is very much to his family what Maxine Seward was to mine.
The founder. The caregiver. The leader.
I knew as I began the series that I would write about Barclay in book three, and as I got to know him better throughout the series, I grew so excited to share his story! This is a man who led his family first into and then out of a life a crime, always for the right reasons—so he could provide for the children under his care. All he ever wanted to do was give them what he himself had lost. To show them love. To prove to them that they were worth any sacrifice.
It was truly a blessing for me to get to write the story in which Barclay found someone to come alongside him, to appreciate and learn to understand him. To finally share what started him down this path. I loved the idea that only a reformed thief could steal the time another family needed to overcome their own trials.
There are many historical items in the book that were such fun to explore—watchmaking of the era, the suffrage movement in England, technological advancements of the war—but at the heart, this isn’t a story about any of those.
It’s a story about how far people should go for love. I hope you enjoy Barclay’s story as much as I did!

Blog Stops

The Avid Reader, October 30
The Power of Words, October 30
Back Porch Reads, October 30
Kat’s Corner Books, October 30
Faithfully Bookish, October 31
Genesis 5020, October 31
Fiction Aficionado, November 1
Among the Reads, November 1
The Lit Addict, November 1
Just the Write Escape, November 1
Multifarious, November 2
Godly Book Reviews, November 2
Madeline Clark, November 2
Christian Bookaholic, November 3
Bookworm Mama, November 3
Bigreadersite, November 3
Blogging With Carol , November 4
D’S QUILTS & BOOKS, November 4
Life with the Tribe, November 4
The Becca Files, November 4
Kathleen Denly, November 5
Cordially Barbara, November 5
Simple Harvest Reads, November 5 (Guest Post from Mindy Houng)
All-of-a-kind Mom, November 6
Faery Tales Are Real, November 6
Carpe Diem, November 6
Margaret Kazmierczak, November 7
Blossoms and Blessings , November 7
Maureen’s Musings , November 8
Book by Book, November 8
Just Commonly, November 8
cherylbbookblog, November 9
Have A Wonderful Day , November 9
With a Joyful Noise, November 9
KarenSueHadley , November 10
Tell Tale Book Reviews, November 10
Baker kella, November 10
Bibliophile Reviews, November 10
Inklings and Notions , November 11
Two Points of Interest, November 11
Henry Happens, November 12
Texas Book-aholic, November 12

Giveaway

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To celebrate her tour, Roseanna is giving away a grand prize of a signed book, a London mug, and a 48-pack Twinings tea sampler!!
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/d570/an-hour-unspent-celebration-tour-giveaway

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Saturday, November 3, 2018

Sword in the Stars by Wayne Thomas Baston

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About the Book

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Book Title: Sword in the Stars
Author: Wayne Thomas Batson
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Release date: August 16 ,2017
The difference in their uncanny eyes could not be easily discerned. In the rays of the setting sun, both Aravel’s and Morlan’s eyes appeared gold. In the pale moonlight…yellow. Seemingly the same. Such inscrutable likeness is the way of things with identical twins. But all who knew the two brothers well noted unmistakable differences, peculiarities more experienced than seen. Those who stood before King Aravel’s gaze felt the glad firelight of a cozy inn. But those who fell under Morlan’s stare felt the gleam of winter moonlight on the cold, white stone monuments in a boneyard. FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE DOOR WITHIN TRILOGY comes an epic tale of two powerful kings whose rivalry threatens to tear the world of Myriad apart. Into this chaos of treachery and war, strides ex-assassin Alastair Coldhollow whose quest for redemption leads him to the one foe he cannot defeat with a thrust of his sword. Everything may hinge on an age-old prophecy, but after thousands of years, will the Sword appear in the Stars at last? With the aid of Abbagael Rivynfleur, a not-so-naive girl from the forest villages, Alastair will tread forgotten roads, face legendary creatures, and meet mysterious new races of people, all in an effort to find Myriad’s Halfainin. So begins the sweeping seven-volume Myridian Constellation. Read on to discover what happens when the Sword is in the Stars, and the moon is blood red…

Click here to purchase your copy!

 My Review:
This is my first book by this author. Frankly, I'm hooked! This reads like an epic and I can't wait to read more. I lost track of time. I even burned part of a meal because I just didn't want this to end. Good vs Evil isn't sugar-coated. Instead, it's shown and I so appreciate that! It makes it a fantastic read! 

 I loved the many, many POV's. I can't seem to have too many characters when I read or watch TV. From the First One, who represents God, onward this book captivated me. It made me laugh, and it made me close to tears as well. 

 5 Huge Stars! 

About the Author

Wayne Thomas BatsonWayne Thomas Batson is the Bestselling author of seventeen adventure novels including the fan favorite: Door Within Trilogy, the pirate trilogy: The Isle Chronicles, the 7-book fantasy epic: Myridian Constellation, and a supernatural thriller series for adults: GHOST: The John Spector Missions. Batson credits God for every concept, story, word, and phrase (“Except the mistakes,” Batson says. “Those are all me.”) Happily married for 25 years, Batson and his wife have four adult children and make their home in Carroll County, Maryland.
A middle school Reading and English teacher for 27 years, Batson loves to challenge—and be challenged by—his students. So, when he began writing stories to supplement the school district’s curriculum, it was his students who taught their teacher a lesson. Batson’s students were so taken by one of the stories that, over a thirteen-year span, they pushed him to make it into a full-length novel. That story became The Door Within. Since then, Batson’s students continue to be his frontline editors. Says Batson, “Two things you can count on from middle school students: Intelligence and Honesty. Kids are so much more perceptive than a lot of us ‘Big Folk’ give them credit for. And when something’s not right in the story, they’ll tell you about in very clear terms.” With over half a million books in print, Batson believes his books appeal to so many kids and adults because, at a deep level, we all long to do something that matters, and we all dream of another world.

Guest Post from Wayne

Wayne Thomas Batson here. If you’re wondering why I always use my middle name, no, it’s not because I want to sound all stodgy or literary. Thomas is my father’s name. I’ve always wanted to honor him by using the name in my author name, esp. now because he passed away in 2015. If you’ve been reading my books for a while, you probably think The Door Within is my first book. Technically, however, it is not. The concept for Sword in the Stars actually popped into my head before The Door Within. The book actually appeared in two parts: Alastair’s story and Ariana’s story (from Errant King). At first I just didn’t realize they were both in the same HUGE story. In the meantime, Thomas Nelson/Harper Collins published The Door Within Trilogy, and I kept getting contracts, keeping me from Sword in the Stars until 2012. But God was pretty insistent about the story because I kept getting flooded with ideas for what will eventually become the 7-Book Myridian Constellation series. Seriously, you should see the looks I get at church when I sit down during worship to scrawl story ideas on the back of a church bulletin!

Blog Stops

The Lit Addict, October 27
Bibliophile Reviews, October 28
Book by Book, October 29
Aryn the Libraryan, October 30
A Reader’s Brain, October 31
Ashley’s Bookshelf, November 1
Multifarious, November 2
Blogging With Carol, November 3
Bigreadersite, November 3
Inklings and Notions , November 4
Artistic Nobody, November 5
Texas Book-aholic, November 6
Carpe Diem, November 9

Giveaway

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To celebrate his tour, Wayne is giving away a grand prize of The Official Bat Book Box O’ Mystery (including some one of a kind, early handwritten drafts of my published books)!!
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/d4ec/sword-in-the-stars-celebration-tour-giveaway


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