Tea & Primroses by Tess Thompson

Book Review Graphic

Tea & Primroses by Tess Thompson was a fun book to read. I didn’t read book on in this series but I do want to go back and read it now that I have finished this book. At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this book but after I read a few pages I was hooked and didn’t want to stop reading it until I finished the book. I loved the characters. I also love how the author tells the story and I can’t wait to read more books in this series.

Tea  Primroses

About The Book

Nothing is as it seemed in calm, quaint Legley Bay.

Famous novelist Constance Mansfield lived a seemingly straightforward – if private – and somewhat predictable life. Friends, beloved daughter Sutton, a beautiful home, and all the success an author could wish for. A perfect life….but was it?

When a hit and run accident suddenly takes her mother’s life, Sutton finds hidden secrets with her heartbreak. Emotional walls she assumed Constance had built to protect her privacy may have been to protect something – or someone – else entirely. Family and friends return home for support, including her own lost-love, Declan. He’s the first thing she craves to help her cope with her loss and the questions she’s left with, but he’s also the last person she wants to see. Will he be able to put down roots at last?

Can the loss of true love be the making of a life, or is it destined to be the undoing of everything? When money, power and love combine across time, anything is possible.

Tess Thompson

About The Author

Tess Thompson is a novelist and playwright. She has a BFA in Drama from the University of Southern California.

After some success as a playwright she decided to write a novel, a dream she’d held since childhood. She began working on her first novel, Riversong while her second daughter was eight months old, writing during naptimes and weekends. She considers it a small miracle and the good-nature of her second child (read: a good napper) that it was ever finished. Riversong was released in April 2011 by Booktrope, a Seattle publisher and subsequently became a #1 Nook book and Kindle best seller. Learn more about Booktrope at www.booktrope.com

Like her main character in Riversong, Tess is from a small town in Southern Oregon. She currently lives in Snoqualmie, Washington with her two small daughters where she is inspired daily by the view of the Cascade Mountains from her home office window.

She was an active member of the theatre community in Seattle as an actor and director during the late nineties. In 2000 she wrote her first full-length play, My Lady’s Hand which subsequently won the 2001 first place prize for new work at the Burien Theatre.

A voracious reader, Tess’s favorite thing to do is to curl up on a rainy afternoon and read a novel. She also enjoys movies, theatre, wine and food. She is fed emotionally by her friends and family and cherishes relationships above all else.

Tess will be releasing her second novel, Caramel and Magnolias, in February 2013. She is busy working a historical fiction set in 1930’s Alabama that is based on a short story of her great-great grandmother’s.

Buy A Copy!

Amazon

Be My Friend On Goodreads!

FTC3

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

Critical Condition Kindle HDX Giveaway from Richard Mabry!

Richard Mabry‘s latest medical suspense, Critical Condition, is receiving high praise. USA TODAY says, “Mabry combines his medical expertise with a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat.”


Richard is celebrating the release with a Kindle HDX giveaway!

criticalcondition-400-click

One grand prize winner will receive:

  • A Kindle Fire HDX
  • Critical Condition by Richard Mabry

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on May 11th. Winner will be announced May 13th on Richard’s blog.


Don’t miss a moment of the fun; enter today and be sure to stop by Richard’s blog on May 13th to see if you won.

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

Touched With Fire by Chris Datta

TWF GiveawayWelcome to the REVIEW EVENT for Chris Datta’s Historical Fiction Novel Touched with Fire! We have a great giveaway at the bottom of the post and hope you enjoy hearing about this fabulous book. But first, the details:

Tight3DduckyEllen Craft is property

In this case, of her half-sister Debra, to whom she was given as a wedding gift. The illegitimate daughter of a Georgia plantation owner and a house slave, she learned to hate her own image, which so closely resembled that of her “father:” the same wiry build, the same blue eyes, and the same pale—indeed, lily-white—skin.

Ellen lives a solitary life until she falls, unexpectedly, in love with a dark-skinned slave named William Craft, and together they devise a plan to run North. Ellie will pose as a gentleman planter bound for Philadelphia accompanied by his “boy” Will. They make it as far as Baltimore when Will is turned back, and Ellie has no choice but continue. With no way of knowing if he is dead or alive, she resolves to make a second journey—South again. And so Elijah Craft enlists with the 125th Ohio Volunteers of the Union Army: she will literally fight her way back to her husband.

Eli/Ellie’s journey is the story of an extraordinary individual and an abiding love, but also of the corrosive effects of slavery, and of a nation at a watershed moment.

Author: Christopher Datta

Genre: Historical/Women’s/African American Fiction

Kindle - Nook - Smashwords - PAPERBACK

Review:

From the minute I started this book right up until the end of the book. I haven’t read a book like this before in the aspect that it is from the slaves point of view and it was an amazing change in perspective for me. I also can’t wait to check out more books by him. I loved how Ellen was white but because of her mother she was treated as a slave. The one part this sticks out to me was when there was a woman visiting from the north and she didn’t understand why Ellen was treated as she was even though she was white. For me that sticks out because it breaks my heart to know what other people will do to people because of their skin color. Anyway this is a great historical fiction part and I would recommend it to anyone.

FTC:I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review Event Schedule:

Date Blog
21-Apr My Devotional Thoughts
21-Apr Deal Sharing Aunt
22-Apr Jelly Side Up - Promo Only
22-Apr Our Wolves Den
23-Apr rubina ramesh
23-Apr The Mama Games
24-Apr My Writer’s Cramp
24-Apr The World As I See It
25-Apr I am indeed
25-Apr Rachel Delane
26-Apr Rick And Eileen Bremner
26-Apr Author Interrupted
27-Apr Anna Tan
27-Apr Pete Waugh
28-Apr Alexa B
28-Apr Michelle Willms

About the Author:

Born inChris1 Washington, DC Chris Datta, Foreign Service officer, has been on numerous battlefields for his job and country. He has seen mass graves, brought war criminals to justice and in this new chapter, Datta brings readers a stunning historical account of the American Civil War with Touched with Fire. His attention to detail is superb, and his experiences abroad have given him ample stories to tell for years to come.

His action packed life has taken him across the world from the United States to Liberia and Southern Sudan. Not only serving in active war zones but often battling tropical diseases, Datta has nurtured his fascination with civil conflict by diving into the history books and historical records of America’s past. His research is meticulous, and his attention to detail creates vivid pictures of the past.

Follow Chris on his website for updates about new releases and upcoming events: http://touchedwithfire.org

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

A Sensible Arrangement by Tracie Peterson

Tracie Peterson A Sensible Arrangement
A Sensible Arrangement by Tracie Peterson was a fun book. I started this book and didn’t want to put it down until I got about halfway through the book. I am not sure why but I struggled to finish this book and I think it was because the middle of the book got kind of slow and I always felt like I was waiting for something to happen and nothing really did happen. I did like this book though and I love Tracie Peterson’s books so I can’t wait to read more of her books.

A Sensible Arrangement

About The Book

A Lone Star Brides book.
Marty Dandridge Olson is ready to leave behind the pain of the past.
Answering an advertisement for a “Lone Star bride,” she leaves her Texas ranch and heads to Denver to marry a man she doesn’t know.
Jake Wythe is the man waiting for her.
Burned by love, he marries now simply to satisfy the board of Morgan Bank, which believes a man of his standing in society should be wed. Together Jake and Marty agree they are done with romance and love and will make this nothing more than a marriage of convenience.
When missing money and a collapsing economy threaten his job, Jake’s yearning to return to ranching grows ever stronger, much to Marty’s dismay. But a fondness has grown between them, as well, further complicating matters.
What will happen when their relationship shifts in unexpected ways . . . and dreams and secrets collide?

Tracie Peterson

About The Author

Tracie Peterson is the award-winning author of over eighty novels, both historical and contemporary. Her avid research resonates in her stories, as seen in her bestselling Heirs of Montana, and Alaskan Quest series. Tracie and her family make their home in Montana.
Learn more about Tracie at: www.traciepeterson.com

Buy Your Copy Here!

Find More Reviews & Informations Here!

FTC3

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

Maybelle In Stitches by Joyce Magnin

Quilts of Love Joyce Magnin Maybelle in Stitches
Maybelle In Stitches by Joyce Magnin was a great book to read. I loved this book from the first page right up until the end. I love all books that take place during WWII and this one didn’t let me down. I can’t even pick a part as my favorite because I loved everything about this book. There are parts where I literally laughed out loud and other times when I wanted to cry because I felt so bad for the characters. I do wish that there were going to be more books with these characters because I would love to know what happens with Doris & Roger but the way it was left I can make up that in my head.

Maybelle in Stitches

About The Book

Maybelle Kazinzki can’t sew. She was after all, the only girl in the seventh grade Home Economics class to sew the zipper in the neck hole of the A-Line dress they were supposed to make. But when she finds an unfinished quilt in the attic of her mother’s house she gets the crazy idea to finish it—somehow, come heck or high water. She thinks it will help fill the lonely nights while her husband, Holden, is serving overseas during World War II.

Her recently departed mother’s quilt is made from scraps of material Maybelle traces back to her mother’s childhood, her grandmother’s childhood and her own childhood. She tries to add one of Holden’s stripes to it but the sewing is not going well and neither is her life. After receiving some harsh news, Maybelle’s faith falters and she puts the quilt away and stops trusting God. But God is faithful—no matter what. And it’ll take a group of neighborhood women armed with quilting needles to help Maybelle believe that.

Learn more about this book and the series at the Quilts of Love website.

Joyce Magnin

About The Author

Joyce Magnin is the author of the Bright’s Pond novels, including the award-winning The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow. A member of the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Fellowship, Joyce is a frequent workshop leader and the organizer of the StoryCrafters fiction group. She lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Learn more about Joyce at: http://joycemagnin.blogspot.com

Quilts Of Love

About Quilts Of Love

Quilts tell stories of love and loss, hope and faith, tradition and new beginnings. TheQuilts of Love series focuses on the women who quilted all of these things into their family histories. A new book releases each month and features contemporary and historical romances as well as women’s fiction and the occasional light mystery. You will be drawn into the endearing characters of this series and be touched by their stories.

Buy Your Copy Here!

Find More Reviews & Information Here!

FTC3

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

The Queen’s Handmaid by Tracy L. Higley

The Queen's Handmaid
 

The Queen’s Handmaid by Tracy L. Higley was a great read. This type of book usually isn’t my type of book and from the moment I started this book I didn’t want to put it down. I loved everything about this book and I couldn’t wait to finish the book because I had to know what happened but when I was done with the book I was heart broken because I want to know what happens with the characters next.

The Queen's Handmaid

About The Book

From the servant halls of Cleopatra’s Egyptian palace to the courts of Herod the Great, Lydia will serve two queens to see prophecy fulfilled.

Alexandria, Egypt 39 BC

Orphaned at birth, Lydia was raised as a servant in Cleopatra’s palace, working hard to please while keeping everyone at arm’s length. She’s been rejected and left with a broken heart too many times in her short life.

But then her dying mentor entrusts her with secret writings of the prophet Daniel and charges her to deliver this vital information to those watching for the promised King of Israel. Lydia must leave the nearest thing she’s had to a family and flee to Jerusalem. Once in the Holy City, she attaches herself to the newly appointed king, Herod the Great, as handmaid to Queen Mariamme.

Trapped among the scheming women of Herod’s political family—his sister, his wife, and their mothers—and forced to serve in the palace to protect her treasure, Lydia must deliver the scrolls before dark forces warring against the truth destroy all hope of the coming Messiah.

Tracy L. Higley

About The Author

Tracy L. Higley started her first novel at age eight and has been hooked on writing ever since. She has authored many novels, includingGarden of Madness and So Shines the Night. Tracy is currently pursuing a graduate degree in Ancient History and has traveled through Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Italy, researching her novels and falling into adventures.
See Tracy’s travel journals and more at: tracyhigley.com

Buy Your Copy Here!

Find More Reviews Here!

FTC3

 

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

Dancing With Fireflies by Denise Hunter

Dancing with Fireflies denise hunter

Dancing With Fireflies by Denise Hunter was an amazing book. This book was hard for me to get into but I am glad that I stuck it out because after few chapters I didn’t want to put it down. Through the whole book I felt bad for Jade but I did figure out early on what was going to happen and for the first time in a long time I was okay with that. I am glad that book ended how it did and that things work out just how I thought they should.

Dancing with Fireflies

About The Book

A Chapel Springs Romance

Jade returns home to Chapel Springs after years of protecting her fragile heart. Then along comes Daniel, making her long to dance again.
Creative and complicated, Jade McKinley felt like a weed in a rose garden growing up in Chapel Springs. When she left, she thought she’d never look back. But now, pregnant, alone, and broke, she has no other choice but to return.

The mayor of Chapel Springs, Daniel Dawson, has been an honorary member of the McKinley family for years. While his own home life was almost non-existent, Daniel fit right into the boisterous McKinley family. He’s loved Jade for years, but she always saw him as a big brother. Now that she’s back, his feelings are stronger than ever.

As Jade attempts to settle in, nothing feels right. God seems far away, she’s hiding secrets from her family, and she’s strangely attracted to the man who’s always called her “squirt.” Finding her way home may prove more difficult than she imagined.

Denise Hunter

About The Author

Denise Hunter is an internationally published best-selling author. Her books have won The Holt Medallion Award, The Reader’s Choice Award, The Foreword Book of the Year Award, and was a RITA finalist. In 1996, inspired by the death of her grandfather, Denise began her first book, writing while her children napped. Two years later it was published, and she’s been writing ever since. Her husband says he inspires all of her romantic stories, but Denise insists a good imagination helps, too. When Denise isn’t writing, she’s busy raising three heroes-in-the-making with her husband.

Learn more about Denise at: http://www.denisehunterbooks.com

Buy Your Copy Here!

Find More Reviews & Information Here!

FTC3

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

The Devil Walks In Mattingly by Billy Coffey

The Devil Walks in Mattingly Billy Coffey
The Devil Walks In Mattingly by Billy Coffey was different from anything I have read before. I have to be honest with everyone this was one of the hardest books for me to get through. I found at times I got confused about who was talking and I would also get bogged down in all the details that the author used. I wanted to like this book because the premise of the story was something that I know I would like but it just wasn’t a book for me.

The Devil Walks In Mattingly

About The Book

For the three people tortured by their secret complicity in a young man’s untimely death, redemption is what they most long for . . . and the last thing they expect to receive.
It has been twenty years since Philip McBride’s body was found along the riverbank in the dark woods known as Happy Hollow. His death was ruled a suicide. But three people have carried the truth ever since—Philip didn’t kill himself that day. He was murdered.
Each of the three have wilted in the shadow of their sins. Jake Barnett is Mattingly’s sheriff, where he spends his days polishing the fragile shell of the man he pretends to be. His wife, Kate, has convinced herself the good she does for the poor will someday wash the blood from her hands. And high in the mountains, Taylor Hathcock lives in seclusion and fear, fueled by madness and hatred.
Yet what cannot be laid to rest is bound to rise again. Philip McBride has haunted Jake’s dreams for weeks, warning that he is coming back for them all. When Taylor finds mysterious footprints leading from the Hollow, he believes his redemption has come. His actions will plunge the quiet town of Mattingly into darkness. These three will be drawn together for a final confrontation between life and death . . . Between truth and lies.

Billy Coffey

About The Author

Billy Coffey’s critically-acclaimed books combine rural Southern charm with a vision far beyond the ordinary. He is a regular contributor to several publications, where he writes about faith and life. Billy lives with his wife and two children in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.
Learn more about Billy at: http://billycoffey.com

Buy Your Copy Here!

Find More Reviews Here!

FTC3

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

It Had To Be You by Susan May Warren

Susan May Warren It Had To Be You
It Had To Be You by Susan May Warren was an amazing book. I read this book in a few days and after I got a chapter into the book I didn’t want to put it down. I love the authors writing and her characters. In this book you follow along with Eden as she tries to keep her brother Owen out of trouble all while not living her own life. I loved everything about the book and I was sad when it was over because even though it was a long book I was sad to see the end come. I loved the ending for the most part but I hated to see the story end. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series so that I can check in with these characters again.

It Had to be You

About The Book

A Christensen Family Novel.

Eden Christiansen never imagined her role as her younger brother Owen’s cheerleader would keep her on the sidelines of her own life. Sure, it feels good to be needed, but looking after the reckless NHL rookie leaves little time for Eden to focus on her own career. She dreamed of making a name for herself as a reporter, but is stuck writing obits—and starting to fear she doesn’t have the chops to land a major story. If only someone would step up to mentor Owen . . . but she knows better than to expect help from team veteran and bad-boy enforcer Jace Jacobsen.
Jace has built his career on the infamous reputation of his aggressive behavior—on and off the ice. Now at a crossroads about his future in hockey, that reputation has him trapped. And the guilt-trip he’s getting from Eden Christiansen isn’t making things any easier. But when Owen’s carelessness leads to a career-threatening injury and Eden stumbles upon a story that could be her big break, she and Jace are thrown together . . . and begin to wonder if they belong on the same team after all.
Learn more and purchase a copy at Susan’s website.

SWarren-98

About The Author

Susan May Warren is the bestselling, RITA Award-winning author of more than forty novels whose compelling plots and unforgettable characters have won acclaim with readers and reviewers alike. She served with her husband and four children as a missionary in Russia for eight years before she and her family returned home to the States. She now writes full-time as her husband runs a lodge on Lake Superior in northern Minnesota, where many of her books are set. She and her family enjoy hiking, canoeing, and being involved in their local church. Several of her critically acclaimed novels have been ECPA and CBA bestsellers, were chosen as Top Picks by Romantic Times, and have won the RWA’s Inspirational Reader’s Choice contest and the American Christian Fiction Writers Book of the Year award. Five of her books have been Christy Award finalists. In addition to her writing, Susan loves to teach and speak at women’s events about God’s amazing grace in our lives. She also runs a writing community for authors. Visit MyBookTherapy.com to learn more.
Learn more about Susan at: http://www.susanmaywarren.com

Buy A Copy Here!

Find More Reviews Here!

FTC3

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

A Sky Without Stars by Linda S. Clare

Quilts of Love Linda S Clair A Sky Without Stars

A Sky Without Stars by Linda S. Clare was an interesting book to read. I love the Quilts of Love series of books and this one was no different. In this one you follow along with Frankie Chasing Bear as she struggles to make it in Arizona. There are parts of this book that I knew weren’t believable at all but over all it was a good book. The author did a great job of making the characters come to life in my eyes and help me understand some of the choices that they made.

A Sky without Stars

About The Book

In 1951, Frankie Chasing Bear is a Lakota caught between cultures. She wants to raise her son Harold to revere his Lakota heritage, but she knows he will need to become as a white man to succeed. After his father’s killed in a barroom brawl, Harold and Frankie move to Arizona, where she begins a Lakota Star pattern quilt for Harold with tribal wisdom sung, sewn and prayed into it.

She distrusts Christians, as her own parents were forced to convert at an Indian School, until she meets BIA agent Nick Vandergriff, a half-Lakota who’s also caught between cultures. Nick must convince Frankie that white men and Christians aren’t all bad as he tries to win her heart in order to put the stars back into her sky.

Learn more about this book and the series at the Quilts of Love website

Linda S. Clare

About The Author

Linda S. Clare is an award-winning coauthor of three books, including Lost Boys and the Moms Who Love Them(with Melody Carlson and Heather Kopp), Revealed: Spiritual Reality in a Makeover World, and Making Peace with a Dangerous God (with Kristen Johnson Ingram). She is also the author of The Fence My Father Built. She has taught college-level creative writing classes for seven years, and edits and mentors writers. She also is a frequent writing conference presenter and church retreat leader. She and her husband of thirty-one years have four grown children, including a set of twins. They live in Eugene, Oregon, with their five wayward cats: Oliver, Xena the Warrior Kitty, Paladine, Melchior, and Mamma Mia!

Learn more about Linda at: http://www.lindasclare.com

Quilts Of Love

About Quilts Of Love

Quilts tell stories of love and loss, hope and faith, tradition and new beginnings. TheQuilts of Love series focuses on the women who quilted all of these things into their family histories. A new book releases each month and features contemporary and historical romances as well as women’s fiction and the occasional light mystery. You will be drawn into the endearing characters of this series and be touched by their stories.

Buy Your Copy Here!

Find More Reviews Here!

FTC3

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret