Fiction

Until Then by Krista Noorman

Book Review Graphic

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

Until Then by Krista Noorman this is the second book in the series, and I did enjoy the book. I did read the first book as well so if you want to check out that review you can click here to see it. Like I said, I enjoyed this book but if I had to pick between the two I would pick Goodbye, Magnolia because I felt like I connect better with those characters than I did with Michelle in this book. Even with that being said I did enjoy this book, and I still love the authors writing. I love this author writing, and I hope that she will come out with other books in this series because I can’t wait to read other books by her.

Until Then by Krista Noorman

About The Book

Growing up with a distant mother and absentee father, Michelle’s childhood has been far from idyllic. Her only attention comes from her partying friends and the guys who are more than happy to give her the affection she longs for. But when one party goes wrong, Michelle’s family hatches a plan to get her out of Chicago and away from her so-called friends.

College plans are low on Michelle’s priority list, especially with no money to pay for it, until her grandparents offer to foot the bill for her entire tuition. There’s just one catch. Michelle must choose between three schools – all hours away from Chicago and all Christian colleges.

Michelle’s reluctant choice leads her to an unfamiliar place, where she’s faced with new relationships and unexpected decisions that could change her life and her heart forever.

PG-13 for sensuality

Krista Noorman

About The Author

Krista Noorman is the author of the young adult novel, The Truth About Drew , and theCornerstone contemporary Christian romance series. Most of her life has been spent scribbling away in journals, while documenting her every day life, but it wasn’t until she took part in National Novel Writing Month that she found her true calling and turned her pen to fiction.

Krista studied music education at Cornerstone University. After college, she turned to her love of photography and spent nearly a decade running her own wedding photography business. She is constantly inspired by books and movies, enjoys beautiful instagram feeds, and loves a great cup of coffee. Krista makes her home in a small town in western Michigan with her husband and their two children. She writes about life, family, faith and whatever else comes to mind at bykrista.com .

Buy A Copy

Add-On Goodreads

Enter To Win

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Margaret Margaret

A Chilling Absence by Shelly Maynard

Book Review Graphic

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from Promotional Book Tours in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

A Chilling Absence by Shelly Maynard was a book that I didn’t want to put down once I started reading it.  I love when books are like that because it makes it so much easier for me to read and finish.  I can’t even imagine how hard things had to be from Lily.  I mean who do accept that you missed 11 years of your life.  I can’t even imagine waking up and finding out that you miss that many years.  I also love books that have strong female characters as the main character because it shows girls that you can do anything you put your mind too.  If you love mystery books like I do then I know you will love this book.  It is also really well written and I can’t wait to check out more books by this author in the future.

A Chilling Absence by Shelly Maynard

 

About The Book

Lily Grimes had it all. She was head cheerleader, the girlfriend of the All-American High School Quarterback, had been accepted to a prestige college near her hometown and the best family and friends a young woman could ask for. Just before Christmas 2004, Dr. Jethro “Jet” Manning, the doctor-in-training for the quaint little town, nearly runs over Lily, who is found unresponsive and icy cold in the middle of a backroad.

Fast forward to 2015 – Lily Grimes finally wakes up and has to face the reality of being in a coma for the past 11 years. Her life has changed but just as she feels like she is getting into the groove of things, Lily discovers secrets have been kept, lies have been told and everyone whom she considered a ‘friend,’ may not be out for her best interest.
Lily feels like something is missing – a piece of herself. Is it simply because she was in a coma for so long or is there a piece missing? As she sets out on a mission to find the answer, Lily discovers that she’s being stalked, and someone is trying to kill her.

Who can she trust and will she ever find the secret to those eleven missing years?

Shelly Maynard

About The Author

July 15, 1984. Shelly Oakley (now Maynard) was born and lived in tiny Ashmore, Illinois until 1998 when her parents relocated to Manchester, Tennessee. Starting a new high school and making new friends was hard enough but it was that point in her life where it came time to make life-changing decisions in regards to college, careers, etc. Shelly had spent so much time following in others’ footsteps that she never had a plan for her career. The only dream she’d ever had was to become an author, but that was laughed off by family and friends. By 2002, Shelly was in college and switched her major from nursing to teaching and finally business. One year in and she discovered that she was pregnant with her first son. He joined the world in 2004 and was followed by a brother in 2006. During the second pregnancy, Shelly fought demons of a bad marriage and started trying to rebuild her life. She met her (now) husband in the Fall of 2006, and they’ve been inseparable ever since. Her three guys are her entire heart, soul, mind and spirit! After searching for several years, Shelly decided that it was time to find a place to settle in her career. She started working for a local, family-owned steel fabrication company in 2014 and was surprised when she found more than a job – she gained an extended family and friends who provided a tremendous amount of support. Between the support of her husband, children, family, and friends, Shelly started writing again. In 2015, Shelly stumbled upon the opportunity to read Eternal Dawn by Kathi Haacke Morehead. The book reached down into her soul and opened her eyes to view the world as she never had before. The writing bug flourished, and Shelly knew it was time to pursue her dreams. Past demons haunted her, but she wanted to set an example for her children and follow her dream through to the end to prove that hard work, persistence, and dedication pays off! Living in Lynchburg, Tennessee, Shelly Maynard is your typical mom – she enjoys spending time with her family, friends and for nine of the twelve months per year, you’ll find her at a ball field watching her children. She enjoys front-porch-sitting’ with a glass of sweet tea and the occasional margarita. She loves her morning coffee, a good book and writing for her blog. It’s the simple, “little” things in life that make life grand!

Buy A Copy

Add-On Goodreads

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Margaret Margaret

It Takes One by Kate Kessler

Book Review Graphic

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

It Takes One by Kate Kessler was a book that sucked me in right from the start, but I am not sure why. I know part of it has to do with the fact that I am a huge fan of thriller type books, and this is one the best ones that I have read lately. I was a huge fan of Audrey right from the start of the book because she seemed like someone that I would get along with if she lived in the real world. This book kept me on the edge of my seat for most of the story, and once I started the book, it was one that I had to keep reading because I wanted to know happened and how it all worked out. I do have to say though that if you only read Christian fiction than this might not be the best fit for you. If you love thriller/suspense books like I do then, I know you will love this one as much as I did.

It Takes One by Kate Kessler

About The Book

They say there are no secrets in a small town…

Criminal psychologist Audrey Harte is returning home after seven years. She’ll have to face the whispers and the rumors that have haunted her family since she left. Because when Audrey was thirteen, she and her best friend Maggie killed Maggie’s abusive father.

Her first night back in town ends in a fight with a drunken Maggie, with her old crush Jake to witness it all. Audrey can’t believe it can get worse.

Then Maggie turns up dead.

Now, Audrey has to find out who the murderer is – before everyone decides that she is to blame. And before the murderer can set their sights on her.

It Takes One is the first in a brand new thriller series where a criminal psychologist uses her own dark past to help law enforcement catch dangerous killers.

Kate Kessler

About The Author

As a child Kate Kessler seemed to have a knack for finding trouble, and for it finding her. A former delinquent, Kate now prefers to write about trouble rather than cause it, and spends her day writing about why people do the things they do. She lives in New England with her husband. – See more at: http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kate-kessler/it-takes-one/9780316302500/#sthash.jzNzfNLA.dpuf

Buy A Copy

Add-On Goodreads

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Margaret Margaret

Kiss The Bride by Melissa McClone, Robin Lee Hatcher, & Kathryn Springer

Book Review Graphic

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from BookLook in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

Kiss The Bride by Melissa McClone, Robin Lee Hatcher, & Kathryn Springer were sweet stories. I am going to talk about each of the three stories in this book. I do want to say that I want to get all the other books in this series and read them. I have enjoyed reading Christian romance novels lately so I am sure that I will love the other books in this series as well. Let’s get on to my thoughts on the three stories in this book.

Picture Perfect by Melissa McClone

I reviewed this story a year ago so you can click here to check out my review of this story. If you don’t want to look at that post, I did enjoy this story, and I can’t wait to read other books by this author because I enjoy her writing.

I Hope You Dance by Robin Lee Hatcher

I am a huge fan of Robin’s books, so I was sure that I would enjoy this book, and I was right. It wasn’t my favorite in this book, but it was a super sweet story. I like the characters in this story, and I did find this book was relatable, and it seemed like the characters could be real people.

Love on A Deadline by Kathryn Springer

If I had to pick one story that I enjoyed the most out of this book, it would be this one. I felt like I was able to connect the most with Mac in this story. I also think that Ethan was my favorite character in all three stories. I have read other books by this author, and I have liked them as well. I loved this book because I felt like the premise of the story was the most believable and if you wanted only to read one of the stories in this book I would tell you to read this one.

Kiss The Bride by Melissa McClone, Robin Lee Hatcher, & Kathryn Springer

About The Book

Meet the people who make it all happen—the planners, the photographers, the musicians who have helped orchestrate the perfect day for countless couples—as they find their own happy endings in the second Year of Weddings novella collection.

Picture Perfect Love: A June Wedding Story by Melissa McClone

When image becomes everything, it’s up to love to refocus the heart.

Photographer Jenna Harrison wants every bride and groom to look picture perfect on their special day. But her own heart is still broken, the unworn wedding dress hanging in her closet a reminder that relationships aren’t always as perfect as they look through her camera lens.

Attorney Ashton Vance is the one that got away, but he wrongly blamed Jenna for ruining his political aspirations. Even if Jenna can forgive him, dare he hope for a second chance at her love?

I Hope You Dance: A July Wedding Story by Robin Lee Hatcher

Can two left feet lead to one perfect romance?

Grant Nichols is a genius in the kitchen and a klutz on the dance floor. But his friend’s wedding is shaping up to be a shindig the likes of which Kings Meadow has never seen—including dancing. Lots of dancing.

Former rodeo queen Skye Foster is offering dance lessons for the wedding party. Grant and Skye are no match on paper. But when they step onto the dance floor, they create a melody all their own.

Love on a Deadline: An August Wedding Story by Kathryn Springer

MacKenzie “Mac” Davis returns to her hometown of Red Leaf, Wisconsin, and takes a job at the weekly newspaper writing about social events.

When Hollis Channing, Mac’s high school nemesis, returns to Red Leaf to marry her celebrity fiancé, the editor asks Mac to cover all the festivities for the newspaper. The last thing Mac wants to do is reconnect with the person who made her life miserable when she was a teenager . . . unless it’s spending time with Ethan Channing, the bride’s older brother—and Mac’s first crush.

 

About The Author’s

Melissa McClone

Melissa McClone

I live in the Pacific Northwest with my husband, two daughters, son, dog and too many cats! I write “sweeter” contemporary romance novels for Harlequin and Tule Publishing.

Robin Lee Hatcher

Robin Lee Hatcher

Robin Lee Hatcher discovered her vocation as a novelist after many years of reading everything she could put her hands on, including the backs of cereal boxes and ketchup bottles. Recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from both American Christian Fiction Writers and Romance Writer of America and the winner of the Christy Award for Excellence in Christian Fiction, the RITA Award for Best Inspirational Romance, and numerous other awards and recognitions, Robin is the author of over 75 novels/novellas. Her books have been translated into Dutch, French, and Chinese (to name a few).

Robin enjoys being with her family, spending time in the beautiful Idaho outdoors, reading books that make her cry, and watching romantic movies. She and her husband make their home outside of Boise, sharing it with Poppet the high-maintenance Papillon and Pinky the feline terror. Join her on her Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/robinleehatcher) and/or Twitter and/or her website & blog.

Note from Robin: I schedule Goodreads giveaways every month. If you’re interested in my books, please “Follow” me so that you’ll be notified of my giveaways when they occur. Also, the list of my books includes those novels published in the general mass market in 1999 and prior. All of those books are out of print and no longer recommended.

Kathryn Springer

Kathryn Springer

Kathryn Springer, winner of the 2007 Write Touch Reader’s Award (long contemporary), grew up in a small town in northern Wisconsin, where her parents published a weekly newspaper. As a child, she spent many hours sitting at her mother’s typewriter, plunking out stories, and credits her parents for instilling in her a love of books – which eventually turned into a desire to tell stories of her own.

After a number of busy years, when she married her college sweetheart and became a stay-at-home mom, Kathryn rediscovered her love for writing. An unexpected snow day from school became the inspiration for a short story, which she submitted to Brio magazine. She went on to publish over a dozen more short stories for Brio, but it wasn’t until her youngest child started school that she decided to pursue her dream to write a novel. In August 2004, her Love Inspired® debut novel, Tested by Fire, was published.

Encouraging women in their faith journey is the reason Kathryn loves to write inspirational fiction. She hosts a women’s Bible study in her home and volunteers in a local MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) ministry. When she isn’t at the computer, you’ll find her curled up with a good book, spending time with family and friends or walking on the trails near her country home.

Buy A Copy

Add-On Goodreads

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Margaret Margaret

The Mask by Taylor Stevens

Book Review Graphic

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from Blogging For Books in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

The Mask by Taylor Stevens wasn’t the best book I have read lately. I struggled with getting into this book. I had a hard time when it came to finishing the book because right from the start of this book I just couldn’t seem to get interested in what was going on. This book is the typical book that I usually love but like I said I struggled with this book. I just couldn’t get into the story, and I wasn’t a fan of any of the characters in this book. I want to check out other books by this author because I want to know if it just was this book that I didn’t like or if it is the author that I didn’t like. If you like mystery books than I would say to check this out and see if it is something that you would like, but it just wasn’t the right fit for me.

The Mask by Taylor Stevens

About The Book

Vanessa Michael Munroe, chameleon and information hunter, has a reputation for getting things done: dangerous and not quite legal things that have taken her undercover into some of the world’s deadliest places. Still healing from a Somali hijacking gone wrong and a brutal attack that left her near death, Munroe joins her lover, Miles Bradford, in Japan where he’s working as a security consultant protecting high-value technology from industrial espionage. In the domesticity of their routine she finds long sought-after peace—until Bradford is arrested for murder, and the same interests who targeted him come after her, too.
Searching for answers and fighting to stay alive, Munroe will soon discover how far she’ll go to save Bradford from spending the next twenty years in locked-up isolation; how many laws she’ll break when the truth seems worse than his lies; and who to trust and who she must kill. Because she’s a strategist and hunter with a predator’s instincts, and the man she loves has just stabbed her in the back.

Taylor Stevens

About The Author

TAYLOR STEVENS is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Vanessa Michael Munroe series. Published in over twenty languages and optioned for film by James Cameron’s production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, the books are international boots-on-the-ground thrillers featuring a mercenary information hunter in a non-testosterone mix of Jason Bourne and Jack Reacher.

Stevens came to writing fiction late. Born into an apocalyptic cult, separated from her family at age twelve and denied an education beyond sixth grade, she lived on three continents and in a dozen countries before she turned fourteen. In place of schooling, the majority of her adolescence was spent begging on city streets at the behest of cult leaders, or as a worker bee child caring for the many younger commune children, washing laundry, and cooking meals for hundreds at a time. In her twenties, Stevens broke free in order to follow hope and a vague idea of what possibilities lay beyond.

In addition to writing novels, Stevens shares extensively about the mechanics of storytelling, writing, overcoming adversity, and the details of her journey into publishing at http://www.taylorstevensbooks.com/con… – she welcomes you to join her.

Buy A Copy

Add-On Goodreads

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Margaret Margaret

When Death Draws Near by Carrie Stuart Parks

Parks1

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from Litfuse in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

When Death Draws Near by Carrie Stuart Parks was a great book. This book is another thriller/suspense book, and I enjoyed reading it right from the start. There are two other books before this book, but you don’t need to read the other two to understand what is going on in this book. I know that I am going to go back and read the other two books because I enjoyed this author’s style of writing. I also really liked Gwen right from the start see seems like a spunky character, and I am always a sucker for those types of female characters. At times I did find this book predictable, but that is just because I have read so many of these kinds of books I can figure out what is going on pretty early in the book. Even with that being said I still enjoyed this book. It also doesn’t have any bad language or gross parts because it is written by a Christian author so you don’t have to worry about what you might read in this book. If you love Christian thrillers than I know, you will love this book as much as I did.

When Death Draws Near by Carrie Stuart Parks

About The Book

Gwen Marcey takes death in stride. Until she’s faced with her own mortality.

Forensic artist Gwen Marcey is between jobs when she accepts temporary work in Pikeville, Kentucky—a small town facing big-city crime. But before Gwen can finish her first drawing of the serial rapist who is on the loose, the latest witness vanishes. Just like all the others.

Gwen suspects a connection between the rapist and the “accidental” deaths that are happening around town, but the local sheriff has little interest in her theories. When her digitally-obsessed teenage daughter joins her, Gwen turns her attention to a second assignment: going undercover in a serpent-handling church. She could get a handsome reward for uncovering illegal activity—a reward she desperately needs, as it seems her breast cancer has returned. But snakes aren’t the only ones ready to kill. Can Gwen uncover the truth—and convince anyone to believe her—before she becomes a victim herself?

In a thrilling race against time, When Death Draws Near plunges us into cold-case murders, shady politics, and a den of venomous suspects.

Carrie Stuart Parks

About The Author

Carrie Stuart Parks is an award-winning fine artist and internationally known forensic artist. Along with her husband, Rick, she travels across the US and Canada teaching courses in forensic art to law enforcement as well as civilian participants. She has won numerous awards for career excellence. Carrie is a popular platform speaker, presenting a variety of topics from crime to creativity.

Animals have always been a large part of her life. Her parents, Ned and Evelyn Stuart, started Skeel Kennel Great Pyrenees in 1960. Carrie inherited the kennel and continues with her beloved dogs as both an AKC judge and former president of the Great Pyrenees Club of America. She lives on the same ranch she grew up on in Northern Idaho.

Buy A Copy

Add-On Goodreads

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Margaret Margaret