Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Chaos In The Blink of an Eye by Patrick Higgins

Yikes.  Quite interesting.  It had me turning one page to another in rapid speed.  You know something is going to happen....but what?  When?

Each character has a story to tell.  Who will survive?  Who will disappear?

I have somewhat of an idea what's happening but of course, it leaves you guessing.  Interesting that Mr. Higgins uses the buildup of his story with the annual Michigan and Ohio Game.  There is a lot of hero worshipping of sports figures.  My husband and I stopped watching football due to all the shenanigans.

I received this free to review.

About the Book
chaos
Book Title:Chaos: In the Blink of an Eye
Author:Patrick Higgins
Genre:Christian Mystery/Suspense
Release date: September, 2015
It was the weekend before Thanksgiving. More than 100,000 fans were jammed inside Michigan Stadium, on their feet, to witness a heated football rivalry that had spanned more than 100 years. As the football was kicked into the snow-filled sky, they were about to get the shock of their lives, as long-foretold Bible prophecy came to pass before their very eyes, causing many to vanish into thin air without a trace.
But what they soon realized was that it reached far beyond Michigan Stadium. Chaos of unimaginable proportions ensued worldwide. Shock, fear and panic filled each heart and mind. It was just the beginning of things to come, as life as humanity had known it was forever changed in the blink of an eye…

Click here to purchase your copy.

About the Author

Patrick higginsPatrick Higgins is the author of The Pelican TreesCoffee In Manila, the award-winning The Unannounced Christmas Visitor, and the award-winning prophetic end-times series, Chaos In The Blink Of An Eye. While the stories he writes all have different themes and take place in different settings, the one thread that links them all together is his heart for Jesus and his yearning for the lost.
With that in mind, it is his wish that the message his stories convey will greatly impact each reader, by challenging you not only to contemplate life on this side of the grave, but on the other side as well. After all, each of us will spend eternity at one of two places, based solely upon a single decision which must be made this side of the grave. That decision will be made crystal clear to each reader of his books.
Higgins is currently writing many other books, both fiction and non-fiction, including a sequel to Coffee In Manila, which will shine a bright, sobering light on the diabolical human trafficking industry.

Guest Post from Patrick Harris

What started the Chaos in the Blink of an Eye series for me stems from my deep love of sports, which, I admit has diminished considerably over the years. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy watching and attending sporting events whenever I have the time. But these days I view them from an entirely different perspective than when I wore a younger man’s face and displayed a weaker man’s faith in God.
This slow but gradual shrinking away started soon after the Lord impressed upon my heart that the fastest growing religion in America, and the world for that matter, wasn’t Christianity or Islam, but “sports”. Every day of the week—including Sundays—millions of fans fill stadiums and arenas (or shall I say cathedrals?) worldwide to worship their heroes.
Whatever the sport, fans show up in droves to cheer on mere mortals as if they were gods. When their teams win life is good. When they lose life is miserable.
As a once-guilty participant for many years, I should know.
The passion most fans have for their favorite players and sports teams is the same passion they should have in pursuing the One who saw their unformed bodies from the foundations of the world, the very One who knit them together inside their mothers’ wombs.
Tragically, this is not the case. Hence, the reason for the CHAOS series. The sporting event chosen for this story was the famed Michigan-Ohio State college football rivalry.
Prior to writing the prequel, I traveled to Ann Arbor, Michigan to attend the game. I admit I was just as caught up in the mass hysteria as everyone else. It was impossible not to be swept up into the vortex that had completely engulfed the vibrant college town.
The energy was quite palpable. So much so that I had to remind myself more than once that I was there to research and observe everything connected to the game, then put it all into words for my readers. The sporting event itself was secondary.
Though the prequel initially centers on the football game, in no way is this a sports series. This will become quite clear to you when Bible prophecy comes to pass inside Michigan Stadium, and many vanish into thin air, leaving everyone still inside the stadium utterly panic-stricken.
It was just the beginning of things to come, as life as humanity had known it was forever changed in the blink of an eye…
Enjoy reading…

Blog Stops

Carpe Diem, August 9
Reading is my Super Power, August 9 (Interview)
Multifarious, August 10
Henry Happens, August 10
amandainpa, August 11
Mary Hake, August 12
Cherylbbookblog, August 17
Bigreadersite, August 17
margaret kazmierczak, August 20 (Interview)
Texas Book-aholic, August 21
Godly Book Reviews, August 22

Giveaway

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To celebrate his tour, Patrick is giving away a grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card!!

Thursday, August 9, 2018

The Banished Lands- Book 1

Fantasy.  Adventure.  A tale of Durian and friends seeking for answers.  Can they discover the truth?


One line struck me - Durian had "a longing to live his life to the full and find his true purpose- to do heroic deeds and make his life matter."   I often questioned my life while I was employed as a juvenile probation officer. Did I make a difference?  Did it matter?  Did I help anyone?

Well written book that was intense and thought provoking.  

I received this free from Celebrate Lit to review.


About the Book

The Banished Land
Book Title:The Banished Lands, book one in The Banished Lands Series
Author:Benjamin Mester
Genre: Fantasy
Release date: May, 2015

A kingdom in danger. A prophecy that will change everything. But will they understand it in time? The old world is gone, and barely even histories remain. But something from that time is returning. The closing lines of a farewell poem, written centuries ago by the last great king of the age to his slain wife, might be more than just a poem:
The world and all its light shall fade,
I’ll stay with her beneath the shade
And wait until the world’s remade…

Join us in this epic fantasy adventure as three friends plunge into the great mystery of their age, twelve centuries in the making. A mysterious fog blankets the forest just outside the sleepy town of Suriya. A dark plot unfolds as Durian and his friends discover ties between a strange wanderer and the warlike barbarian kingdom far to the north. Are the mysterious things happening in the forest a prelude to invasion? What happens next will propel Durian and his curious friends into the middle of the oldest riddle in the history of their kingdom, a dozen centuries old.

Click here to purchase your copy!

About the Author

Ben MesterBenjamin Mester is a novelist and poet. He fell in love with the written word and beauty of language at a young age, marvelling at the way a story can transport a person, enveloping their whole mind and heart as they dive into new places and grand adventures. A lover of nature, Mester has spent the whole of his adult life immersed in the study of poetry, often wandering the woodlands of northern Minnesota or the beaches of California.
If asked about his writing, he would say his overarching goal is to inspire people to live with greater passion, often quoting one of his favorite Proverbs, 14:8: The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways.How often do we stop to give thought to our ways, asking ourselves why we live the way we do? What does it mean to live to the full? How can I love more deeply? Mester hopes his writing will build a longing in his readers, that his stories inspire them to want more for their lives than the mediocrity of good enough we so often settle for.

Guest Post from Ben

I’ve always loved that enthralling feeling of adventure and mystery that comes when you dive into a brand new world. My greatest motivation for The Banished Lands was to create a world of rich lore and history, but not overburden the reader with backstory. In The Banished Lands series, we enter a fractured world with a forgotten history. But hints of it remain through a set of poems that speak of the old world and cryptic events which brought an end to that age.

I love the idea of characters living normal, mundane lives, suddenly thrust into an ancient struggle they didn’t even know was raging. I love the fantasy genre because it isn’t ashamed of the classic archetypes – the epic struggle of good and evil, heroics, and everything that often gets the label cliché. Using these archetypes in ways that haven’t been done before was my real motivation for writing The Banished Lands series. The way this series combines poetry, lore and mystery is something unique in the fantasy genre.

When writing this first book, I often sat back and wondered to myself, What would it be like to live in a world with a shrouded past? We often take modern life for granted – the whole wealth of human knowledge at our fingertips. But what would it be like to live in a world where the only history was cryptic poetry telling of a time when the world was a wildly different place? And what if, somehow, those ancient poems that no one really understands seem to be the only thing that really explains the dark things creeping forward from the fringes of the world? Welcome to The Banished Lands!

Blog Stops

Mary Hake, August 4
A Rup Life, August 6
Carpe Diem, August 11
Multifarious, August 14
Bigreadersite, August 14
The Mimosa Blossom, August 15

Giveaway

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To celebrate his tour, Benjamin is giving away a grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries! Click the link below to enter. https://promosimple.com/ps/d1c7/the-banished-lands-celebration-tour-giveaway

A Promise Forged

Baseball.  The All-American game.  I love baseball and was excited to read this from a collection written by Cara C. Putman.  It made me think of the movie A League of Their Own.  But this was sweeter.


Kate was sweet and spunky.  She just wanted to play baseball.  But she had no idea what was in store for her.  Jack was stuck reporting on a female baseball team in a small town.  He had no idea what Kat would mean to him.

God played a very important role in Kat's life.  She knew that he was looking out for her....guiding her in her steps on and off the field.  Jack lost his direction.  He needed God's grace to discover what was important.

I loved the story and the premise in which the story was based on.  Kat and Jack appeared to be an unlikely pair but God knew that they were a match made on the baseball diamond.

I received this free to review.

About the Book



Book Title: A Promise Forged
Author: Cara Putman
Genre: World War 2 Romance
Release date: Originally released in 2010, Re-released in 2017
A Promise ForgedKat transformed in front of him. Her chin came up, her fingers stopped twitching with the fabric of her gown, and a real sparkle bubbled in her eyes. It was like watching Snow White come to life when the prince kissed her.
A heartwarming WWII historical from award-winning author Cara Putman:
Kat Miller has dreamed of playing baseball her entire life. When she earns a spot on a team in the All-American Girls Professional Softball League, she finds that things aren’t as glamorous as she imagined. She struggles with long road trips, grueling practices, and older teammates who are jealous of her success. And to top it all off, an irritating reporter is constantly getting under Kat’s skin.
Events in Jack Raymond’s career have left him cynical and distanced from God. He never wanted to write at a small paper, and he certainly didn’t want to be assigned to something as inconsequential as a women’s softball team. Then Kat walks into his life. The fiery, young softball player somehow climbs the walls around his heart and makes him want to hope again.
When lies fly and the league appears to fail, will Kat and Jack’s new love survive?

Click here to purchase your copy!

About the Author

cara putmanSince the time she could read Nancy Drew, Cara has wanted to write mysteries. In 2005 she attended a book signing at her local Christian bookstore. The rest, as they say, was history. There she met a fellow Indiana writer Colleen Coble. With prompting from her husband, Cara shared her dream with Colleen. Since those infamous words, Cara’s been writing award-winning books. She is currently working on book 30 and 31.
Cara Putman is an active member of ACFW, and currently serves on its Executive Board. She has also been the Indiana ACFW chapter president and served as the Area Coordinator for Indiana.
Cara is also an attorney, lecturer at a Big Ten university, active in women’s ministry, and all around crazy woman. Crazy about God, her husband and her kids that is. She graduated with honors from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Go Huskers!) and George Mason Law School, and Krannert School of Management. You can learn more about Cara at www.caraputman.com<http://www.caraputman.com/>.

Guest Post from Cara

Each of my books starts with a hook that engages my interest, and then as I play with it, I think it will engage readers. A Promise Forged was no different. For this book I was writing a series of three World War II novels for Barbour. I already had two historical hooks that fascinated me: children evacuated from London to Ohio, a top secret project to break Engima in Dayton, but I needed one more. I knew the lead characters were going to be siblings, but I wasn’t sure what to do with the kid sister. Then I remembered the All-American Girls Professional Softball/Baseball League.
And I started thinking.
What would it have been like to desperately want a chance to play a sport you loved professionally?
And to be part of the nascent league when no one was sure whether it was a good or bad idea?
I decided that was the perfect place for Kat. She was the kid sister with fire and passion. She wanted a chance to prove herself, and this would be the perfect place. Then she needed a hero worthy of her. One who could go toe-to-toe with her and still see who she could be.
He came in the form of Jack, a cynical reporter who is disappointed to be assigned to cover girls’ baseball. But then he gets to know Kat and some of the others. And he sees something in her that she doesn’t see in herself. It’s the beginning of fireworks that he doesn’t think can go anywhere because she has to go home to her senior year of high school.
As I began researching the history of the league, I learned that the AAGPS/BL archives were kept at a small museum in South Bend, a couple hours from where I live. I spent a day there talking with the curator and exploring all the records. Because the league wasn’t expected to last there weren’t many records from the first year. That meant I had to guess about some things like schedules based on what happened in the years after.
A Promise Forged became a book I loved writing. Kat was feisty, Jack was cynical, and baseball provided a great setting. I can’t believe this football loving woman can admit that!

Blog Stops

Among the Reads, August 4
C Jane Read, August 5
Genesis 5020, August 6
Carpe Diem, August 7
Mary Hake, August 8
By The Book, August 9
Simple Harvest Reads, August 9 (Guest Post from Mindy Houng)
Lighthouse Academy, August 10
Remembrancy, August 10
100 Pages per Hour, August 11
Bigreadersite, August 11
Godly Book Reviews, August 12
Cafinated Reads, August 12
A Reader’s Brain, August 13
Book by Book, August 13
All-of-a-kind Mom, August 14
amandainpa, August 15
Pause for Tales, August 17

Giveaway

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To celebrate her tour, Cara is giving away a grand prize that includes the movie League of Their Own, a box of cracker jacks, M&Ms and a $20 Amazon gift card!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click below to enter. https://promosimple.com/ps/d2ac/a-promise-forged-celebration-tour-giveaway

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Running by Dave Milbrandt

Suspenseful.  Yes.  Enjoyable.  Yes.  Recommend it to others.  Yes.

Dave Milbrandt was a new author to me.  It seems that most of the books I read are by female authors.  It was refreshing to read a story about a man who made mistakes and learned from them.  Jim Mitchell landed up in a job he didn't plan for.  He wasn't going to step down without a fight.

This is book three so I think I need to read the first two books.  It would show Jim's growth from a reporter to the State Assembly.

I was cheering for Jim.  He wanted to do what was right not what was easy.  I would vote for him.  

I received this free to review.


About the Book

Running
Book Title:Running
Author:Dave Milbrandt
Genre:Christian Suspense
Release date: May 1, 2018
An assassin’s bullet sends Jim Mitchell running. When he’ll stop is anybody’s guess.
A tragedy propels Jim into a vacant state assembly seat. The new lawmaker and his wife have a baby on the way, but that doesn’t stop the people trying to keep him from a job he never wanted in the first place. Then Jim gets involved in a plan to thwart a major terror attack that could either make him a hero or get him killed.
Political intrigue and high drama accent this tale of what it costs to find one’s purpose, and what the rewards can be when you do.
Running is the third book in the Jim Mitchell series. Previous titles include Chasing Deception and Undue Pressure.

About the Author

Dave MilbrandtThe author of Chasing Deception and Undue Pressure, Dave Milbrandt fell in love with writing in junior high and has been a storyteller ever since. A former staff writer for a daily newspaper, the Southern California native spent five years in journalism and public relations before becoming a teacher. Having worked at several area colleges, Dave has taught high school English and Social Studies classes since 2005 and fills his evenings sharing a passion for politics with his community college students. Dave and his wife, Lynn, have been married since 1997.

Guest Post from Dave

In 1998, I feverishly pounded out the first draft of Chasing Deception (book one in the Jim Mitchell series) in five weeks. Full of ambition, but bereft of wisdom of how the publishing world works, I assumed my novel would be published in short order. Despite my overly abundant self-assurance, I had to wait until 2013 to get that story out. I was in a hurry, but God, as usual, had other plans.
Over the last 20 years, I have discovered the gift of patience and more about the craft of good writing than I ever could have expected during that summer half a lifetime ago. With Undue Pressure (2016) and Running (2018), I have completed the trilogy I never planned to write and hopefully given readers some characters that will stick with them after they reach the end of the story.

Blog Stops

Carpe Diem, July 28
At the Fence, August 1
Cathe Swanson, August 1
Multifarious, August 3
Mary Hake, August 3
Simple Harvest Reads, August 5 (Spotlight)
Artistic Nobody, August 8 (Spotlight)
Reading is my Super Power, August 9 (Interview)
Bigreadersite, August 10

Giveaway

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To celebrate his tour, Dave is giving away a grand prize that includes ebooks of all three books in the series!!
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/d33e/running-celebration-tour-giveaway

Weaver Street at War

The book is based during WW II in England.  I think of my mother while reading this as she was born in England and lived there during the wa...