Book

Sweet Sanctuary by Kim Vogel Sawyer

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Review

I really enjoyed everything about this book. I fell in love with the characters from the start. The author did a great job of making me feel like I was there with the characters and also did a great job of making me understand the way the characters were feeling. I can’t say that I loved the ending because I wish it would have been wrapped up but it left things hanging. I do see why it ended the way it did though.

About The Book

Lydia Eldredge longs to provide sanctuary for her young son, Nicky. But a constant threat comes from Nicky’s drug-addicted father, who wants the boy and seems willing to do whatever it takes to get him.

Dr. Micah Hatcher faithfully serves the immigrant population of Queens, New York. But under cover of darkness, he has a secret mission that challenges everything he thought he wanted out of life.

When Lydia and Micah’s paths cross, they are suddenly wrapped up in each other’s callings. Together, they seek a refuge of safety-for Nicky, for themselves, and for the needy people God puts into their lives. Amid turmoil and discord, can hope and love prevail?

About The Author

Kim Vogel Sawyer is the author of twenty-one novels, including several CBA and ECPA bestsellers. Her books have won the ACFW Book of the Year Award, the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, and the Inspirational Readers Choice Award. Kim is active in her church, where she leads women’s fellowship and participates in both voice and bell choirs. In her spare time, she enjoys drama, quilting, and calligraphy. Kim and her husband, Don, reside in central Kansas, and have three daughters and nine grandchildren.

Find out more about Kim at http://www.kimvogelsawyer.com/.
Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2013 Margaret Margaret

The Cuvier Widows Series by Sylvia McDaniel

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About The Books

Wronged (The Cuvier Widows #1)

Historical Romance Categories: Mystery/Thriller, Bigamy Publisher: Virtual Bookseller Release Date: December 30, 2012 Heat Level: Sensual Word Count: 100,000

Buy Links: Amazon | B&N | Smashwords

Marian Cuvier didn’t know how to react when she learned that the man she called husband and father to her children, Jean Cuvier, had been murdered. Yet, the biggest surprise was when the detective informed her that she’s not the only woman Jean married. There are three Cuvier Widows and one is suspected of murder.

When Marian learned of her husband’s death, humiliation, shock and anger were the only emotions she felt for Jean. For the last several years, their marriage has been in name only. Now she’s determined to safeguard her children’s future and save their only source of income, Cuvier Shipping. Jean’s handsome business partner, Louis Fournet thinks Marian’s should not be leading her husband’s business. The man has a way with women that Marian finds alluring and arouses feelings she’s never experienced.  Louis Fournet is a temptation she finds hard to resist.

Betrayed (The Cuvier Widows #2)

Historical Romance Categories: Bigamy Publisher: Virtual Bookseller Release Date: December 30, 2012 Heat Level: Sensual Word Count: 100,000

Buy Links: Amazon | B&N | Smashwords

Nicole Cuvier went to New Orleans to share the most wonderful news with her husband only to discover him in a hotel room murdered, with two other women claiming to be his wife. It seems there are three Cuvier Widows and one is suspected of murder.

For years, Nicole Cuvier had tried to erase the shame of her illegitimate birth and start the family she longed for with her husband, Jean. As the mistress of Rosewood, she owns one of the largest plantations on the River Road in Louisiana. Now, she’s pregnant, unmarried-a widow with a plantation dependent upon the sugar cane crop to survive. She needs a temporary husband. Handsome Maxim Viel, a drifter, comes to her rescue and marries her, but unbeknownst to Nicole, Maxim wants more than a temporary arrangement. He has the power to heal her shattered heart, but could his past be intertwined with Rosewood?

Beguiled (The Cuvier Widows #3)

Historical Romance Categories: Mystery/Thriller, Bigamy Publisher: Virtual Bookseller Release Date: December 30, 2012 Heat Level: Sensual Word Count: 100,000

Buy Links: Amazon | B&N | Smashwords

Jean Cuvier forced Layla’s father to sell his shipping company and marry his daughter, or so she believed. Until the morning the servants wake her with the news that Jean is dead and she quickly learns she’s not the only Mrs. Cuvier. Jean has three widows, but Layla is the only one accused of Jean’s murder.

The District Attorney has enough motive and evidence, to send Layla to the gallows. Forced to turn to the man she blames for the sale of her father’s shipping company, she must trust Drew Soulier, to save her life. Though Drew’s the best attorney in New Orleans, he doubts her innocence. As tensions mount, Drew and Layla face a passion they can’t deny. Can Drew save her from hanging?

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About The Author

Sylvia McDaniel and the love of her life, Don, live in Texas with son Shane, Putz the klutzy dachshund and Ashley our shy dachshund. During the day, she works for a small insurance agency, helping clients with their commercial insurance coverage.

The weekends are spent working out in the garden until the temperature climbs above ninety degrees. Recently, with the help of her husband, she learned to make homemade blueberry and blackberry jam. Cooking is not her favorite past-time and she prefers Don’s cooking any day of the week.

Currently, she’s written fourteen novels.  Her novel, A Hero’s Heart, was a 1996 Romance Writers of America Golden Heart finalist. Sylvia is President Elect of Dallas Area Romance Authors.

Connect with Sylvia McDaniel

Email | Website | Blog | Plotting Princess Blog | Facebook | Twitter

Excerpts Of Each Book

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Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2013 Margaret Margaret

Stress Test by Richard Mabry

Stress-Test

My Review

I read this book in less than a day. I love medical suspense books and this one kept me on the edge of my seat through out the whole thing. I was shocked at the ending because I really didn’t see it coming. I felt like I was with Matt throughout the whole book and I understood what he felt.  I can’t wait to check out other books by this author because he did such a great job of writing this one.  I loved the fact that he is a doctor writing about a doctor because he knows what he wrote about and it made it that much more believable.

About The Book

They may not have enough evidence to convict him, but they have enough to ruin his life.

Dr. Matt Newman thought he was leaving his life in private practice for a better one in academic medicine. But the kidnappers who attacked him as he left his last shift in the ER have no such plans-they just want him dead. Bound and in the trunk of his car, Matt’s only thought is escape. He does so, but at a price: a head injury that lands him in the ICU . . . where he awakens to discover he’s being charged with murder.

Sandra Murray is a fiery, redheaded lawyer who swore she was done with doctors. But when Matt calls, she knows she can’t walk away from defending someone who is truly innocent.

Matt’s career is going down the drain. His freedom and perhaps his life may be next. But with the police convinced he’s a murderer and the kidnappers still trying to finish what they started, finding the truth-and the faith to keep going-will be the toughest stress testMatt has ever endured.

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About The Author

A retired physician, Dr. Richard Mabry is the author of four critically acclaimed novels of medical suspense. His previous works have been finalists for the Carol Award and Romantic Times Reader’s Choice Award, and have won the Selah Award. He is a past Vice-President of American Christian Fiction Writers and a member of the International Thriller Writers. He and his wife live in North Texas.

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2013 Margaret Margaret

Pain and Gain by Marc Schiller

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My Review

From the moment I started this book I couldn’t stop reading it.  I personally have never heard of the movie or the tv show that was about this so when I had no idea what I was getting into when I started reading this book and lets just say I was shocked.  If this book had been fiction I would have stopped reading it because some parts of it are so far out there that is insane.  I am actually at a lose of words to describe this book.  I liked the book and the fact that it is a true story made me like it even more.  This is for sure a book for people who love to read true crime stories like I do.

About The Book

Memoir/True Crime  Date Published: 1/25/13

Pain and Gain – The Untold True Story’ is a gripping memoir that tells the true story behind the Paramount film Pain and Gain. Written by the real Sun Gym Gang victim, Marc Schiller, ‘Pain and Gain – The Untold True Story’ will take readers on an adrenaline rush with a shocking ending.

This is the untold true story of one citizen’s pointless torture and month-long captivity. The story, formerly mistold if not utterly overlooked, has been made into a feature film. Even as a dark comedy, there is little amusement to be found in human suffering. The sick and twisted minds of Mr. Schiller’s captors would be fodder for the Darwin Awards if the results were not so alarmingly inhumane. Physical, mental and emotional torture, as well as sensory deprivation and starvation, the prisoner of war like conditions differed only in the fact that Mr. Schiller was completely alone during his extended stay at the warehouse he refers to as Hotel Hell. An early victim of identity theft in the years following Hurricane Andrew in Miami, Mr. Schiller chronicles his story in tortuous detail. His humiliation, pain and suffering at the hands of these perverted social misfits is a shocking revelation.
What is it like to be imprisoned in near dungeon-like conditions? All this mayhem on American soil toward the end of the last millennium.
Greed, lust for power and the desire to inflict pain and misery were the apparent motivating forces behind this gruesome incident.

Truly a harrowing tale and one that you won’t soon forget.

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About The Author

Marc Schiller was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina immigrating to Brooklyn, NY with his parents when he was seven years old. An early entrepreneur, he started several small businesses by the age of nine. He attended high school in Brooklyn, participating in sports and was member of the school’s track team.

Marc received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a MBA from Benedictine University. Marc has had a long and diversified career both as a professional and entrepreneur. His professional career has spanned the U.S. as well as internationally. On an entrepreneurial level, Marc Schiller has launched several successful businesses including two accounting practices both in Miami and Houston, a delicatessen in Miami and an options and stock trading company.

Marc Schiller currently works as an accounting and tax resolution specialist for a national tax resolution company. He has two grown children: his son graduated from the University of Colorado-Boulder with a degree in economics and his daughter currently attends Loyola Marymount University in California.

‘Pain and Gain – The Untold True Story’ is Marc Schiller’s first literary publication.

Pain and Gain – The Book

Twitter  @painandgainbook

Buy The Book

 

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2013 Margaret Margaret

Hidden In The Heart by Catherine West

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My Review

I found that I got frustrated with Claire and how she acted.  I really enjoyed the authors writing but I really didn’t like Claire.  I can see why she acted as she did but I guess it just got tired of her and how she acted.  I found myself looking at her like she was a real person and so she got on my nerves.  Other than not really “liking” Claire I loved the other characters.  The author did a good job with this book so please don’t not read it because I personally didn’t like Claire because that is really one only negative thing I can say about the book.

About  The Book

Everything Claire wants seems to be beyond her reach…
After losing her mother to cancer and suffering a miscarriage soon after, Claire Ferguson numbs the pain with alcohol and pills, and wonders if her own life is worth living.
Adopted at birth, Claire is convinced she has some unknown genetic flaw that may have been the cause of her miscarriage. She must find a way to deal with the guilt she harbors. But exoneration will come with a price. With her marriage in trouble and her father refusing to answer any questions about her adoption, Claire begins the search for her birth mother. For the first time in her life, she really wants to know where she came from. But what if the woman who gave her life doesn’t want to be found?
Hidden in the Heart has been nominated for a 2013 Grace Award and is on the long list for an INSPY award.

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About The Author

Catherine West is an award-winning author who writes stories of hope and healing from her island home in Bermuda. Her first novel, “Yesterday’s Tomorrow”, released in 2011 and won the INSPY for Romance, a Silver Medal in the Reader’s Favorite Awards, and was a finalist in the Grace Awards. Catherine’s second novel, “Hidden in the Heart”, released in September 2012. When she’s not at the computer working on her next story, you can find her taking her Border Collie for long walks or tending to her roses and orchids. She and her husband have two college-aged children.
Learn more about Catherine by visiting her website: http://www.catherinejwest.com
Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2013 Margaret Margaret

Unrivaled by Siri Mitchell

Unrivaled

My Review

This was a “sweet” story. I really liked the 2 main characters and I found it funny at times of upset Lucy would get over things. I had to stop and remember the time frame for when this took place. The author did a great job at making me hungry through the whole book at want to eat candy. She also did a great job of making me feel like I was there with Lucy and going through what she went through. I liked Charlie from the start and at the end of the book I liked him even more.

About The Book

Lucy Kendall returns from a tour of the Continent, her luggage filled with the latest fashions and a mind fired by inspiration. After tasting Europe’s best confections, she’s sure she’ll come up with a recipe that will save her father’s struggling candy business and reverse their fortunes. But she soon discovers that their biggest competitor, the cheat who swindled her father out of his prize recipe, has now hired a promotions manager-a cocky, handsome out-of-towner who gets under Lucy’s skin.

Charlie Clarke’s new role at Standard Manufacturing is the chance of a lifetime. He can put some rough times behind him and reconnect with the father he’s never known. The one thing he never counted on, however, was tenacious Lucy Kendall. She’s making his work life miserable…and making herself impossible for him to forget.

About The Author

Siri Mitchell is the author of nearly a dozen novels, among them the critically acclaimed Christy Award finalists “Chateau of Echoes” and “The Cubicle Next Door”. A graduate of the University of Washington with a degree in business, she has worked in many different levels of government. As military spouse, she has lived in places as varied as Tokyo and Paris. Siri currently lives in the DC-metro area.

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2013 Margaret Margaret