Saturday, July 30, 2016

Books for the Beach (Or the Porch, or the Pool)



Summer's halfway over, but there's still time to get in a few great reads. Whether your days are lazy and hazy or frantic and full, you'll  appreciate winding down to escape into a good book--and we've got one to fit your every reading mood, from sweet and romantic to mysterious or downright suspenseful. 

Don't leave for the beach (or the porch, or the pool--your vacation retreat, wherever it is!) without some good reads at the ready. 

                                                 

We proudly recommend the following.


Why? Because they're ours--they come right from our hearts--the authors who write the posts for this blog each day.

Click on the Book Covers to Get Your Copy!



The Charleston earthquake has left destruction like nothing Doctor Andrew Warwick has ever seen. On a desperate mission to find the lady who owns his heart, he frantically searches through the rubble, where he finds her injured and lifeless. After she regains consciousness, the doctor’s hopes are quickly dashed as he realizes she doesn’t remember him. Things only get worse when he discovers she believes she’s still engaged to the abusive scoundrel, Lloyd Pratt. Now Drew is on a race with the wedding clock to either help her remember or win her heart again before she marries the wrong man.

Waking in a makeshift hospital, Olivia Macqueen finds herself recovering from a head injury. With amnesia stealing a year of her memories, she has trouble discerning between lies and truth. When her memories start returning in bits and pieces, she must keep up the charade of amnesia until she can find out the truth behind the embezzlement of her family’s business while evading the danger lurking around her.



New from Vickie McDonough!
Dusty Starr is unstoppable in the rodeo arena, but when it comes to love? He was bucked off long ago. Now he has a second chance at love, but will he have what it takes to win? 





In 1942, Lexie Smithfield becomes heir to her family's vacation home on Jekyll Island, and a mysterious telegram beckons her return. Ten years before, tragedies convinced her mother the island was cursed, and the home in the exclusive Millionaire's Club was abandoned.  Russell Thompson knows what really happened, but swore never to tell. Will Lexie discover the real danger before it's too late? 


DAWN OF LIBERTY

Three riveting short stories follow Samuel Adams as he struggles through the events surrounding the Declaration of Independence and evokes the Dawn of Liberty.

Liberty comes with a price. Can a fledgling nation bear the cost?
British forces advance upon a struggling colonial army. The time of decision has come. Declare independence, or give up the fight. The weight of a nation rests on Samuel Adams' shoulders as he joins the delegates of the Second Continental Congress. Can he raise the cause of Liberty above the fear of the King's wrath in the hearts of his countrymen?




Seattle debutante Sofi Andersson will do everything in her power to protect her sister who is suffering from shock over their father's death. Charles, the family busy-body, threatens to lock Trina in a sanatorium--a whitewashed term for an insane asylum--so Sofi will rescue her little sister, even if it means running away to the Cascade Mountains with only the new gardener Neil Macpherson to protect them. But in a cabin high in the Cascades, Sofi begins to recognize that the handsome immigrant from Ireland harbors secrets of his own. Can she trust this man whose gentle manner brings such peace to her traumatized sister and such tumult to her own emotions? And can Neil, the gardener, continue to hide from Sofi that he is really Dr. Neil Galloway, a man wanted for murder by the British police? Only an act of faith and love will bridge the distance that separates lies from truth and safety.



New from Anne Greene!
A kidnapping. A ticking clock. Three hot PI’s. A Black Widow kills again. Will Holly’s first case end in disaster? Will the two men in Holly’s life give her too much heat?

Motivated by the murky circumstances surrounding her father’s reputation-ruining murder, Holly vows to clear his muddied name, prove herself as a PI, and redeem Garden Investigation’s integrity and dwindling list of clients. Then her best friend, Matt, is kidnapped…and everything changes.


http://www.amazon.com/Messenger-Moonlight-Stephanie-Grace-Whitson/dp/1455529087/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462230994&sr=8-1&keywords=Messenger+by+Moonlight

Orphaned Annie Paxton and her brothers have lost the only home they've ever known and are determined to make a better future in St. Joseph, Missouri. Annie dreams of a pretty house with window boxes, having friends, and attending church every week. But then her brothers land jobs as Pony Express riders, and Annie puts her dreams on hold to work as a cook at Clearwater Ranch on the Pony Express route.  Annie struggles to adapt to her new job, and the gruff station owner doesn't seem inclined to make her life any easier. A friendship has just begun to blossom and builds between them when Annie attracts the attention of a refined, dashing lieutenant from nearby Fort Kearney. Annie must learn how to trust her instincts and follow her heart--even if she's conflicted about which way it's leading her.



From heart-pounding battles on the high seas to the rigors of Valley Forge and the Shawnee’s savagely fought wars, Valley of the Shadow continues the thrilling saga of America’s founding.





New from Susan Page Davis! 1918, Rural Maine. Judith Chadbourne gave up her teaching job after her mother’s death to help her father with her five siblings. But when her brother Joel is drafted, the household chores and farm work may overwhelm her. Their neighbor, Ben Thayer, seems rich and mysterious, but his heart aches from his own loss. Judith accidentally breaks the antique ornament her mother loved. The splintering star echoes her family’s shattering. Joel falls ill at the army camp, and Ben’s concern may bring the beginnings of trust. Can love take Judith beyond the frozen Maine winter?




Beautiful historical romance novellas written just for you by some of today's best-selling and award-winning Christian authors! Sit back and relax while these four talented women whisk you back to simpler times in America's past... but with that simplicity came hard work and change, so curl up in your favorite spot and see what Mary, Ruthy, Pam and Cara have brought your way as you "Spring Into Love" with this new delightful Christian romance collection!



Meet 12 adventurous Victorian era women—a beekeeper who is afraid of bees, a music teacher whose dog has dug up a treasure, a baker who enters a faux courtship, and six more—along with the men they encounter while making summertime memories. Will these loves sown during summer be strengthened by faith and able to endure a lifetime?






New from Martha Lou Rogers! Summer Patterson, a photo-journalist for a popular magazine, is on a mission to capture the charm and nostalgia of the old Route 66 through the West Texas Panhandle in story and picture, but when her car breaks down in a "middle of nowhere" town, her mission takes a turn she never expected. Cody Harper is a retired rodeo champ filling in as a mechanic until he can get his own ranch. Repairing Summer's foreign car will take days, so he arranges for her to stay with his grandmother Ellis. Meeting the people of McLean, Texas and riding with Cody to discover the beauty of a part of Texas she'd never seen leads her in a direction she had no plans to take. She returns to her busy life in the city of Dallas, but her heart is back in West Texas where she lost it along Route 66.  Getting it back will be no easy task, especially if Cody has his way.




It's the spring of 1861 on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Amanda never thought she would marry because of a promise she made to her dying mother, but her attraction to Captain Kent Littlefield is undeniable.
When Texas secedes from the Union, her brother Daniel aligns with the Confederate States, while Kent remains with the Union troops.
Her heart is torn between the two men she is closest to and the two sides of the conflict. Amanda prays to God for direction and support, but hears only silence. Where is God in the atrocities of war―and whose side is He on?




Discover four heroines in historical Austin, TX, as they find love--Jane Austen style. Volume 1 includes:

If I Loved You Less by Gina Welborn, based on Emma
A prideful matchmaker examines her own heart when her protégé falls for the wrong suitor.

Refinements by Anita Mae Draper, based on Sense and Sensibility
A misguided academy graduate spends the summer falling in love . . . twice.

One Word from You by Susanne Dietze, based on Pride and Prejudice
A down-on-her-luck journalist finds the story of her dreams, but her prejudice may cost her true love . . . and her career.
Alarmingly Charming by Debra E. Marvin, based on Northanger Abbey
A timid gothic dime-novel enthusiast tries to solve the mystery of a haunted cemetery and, even more shocking, why two equally charming suitors compete for her attentions
.



New from Tamera Lynn Kraft!
After Vivian’s fiancé dies in the Great War, she thinks her life is over. But Henry, her fiancé’s best friend, comes to the rescue offering a marriage of convenience. He claims he promised his friend he would take care of her. She grows to love him, but she knows it will never work because he never shows any love for her.

Henry adores Vivian and has pledged to take care of her, but he won’t risk their friendship by letting her know. She’s still in love with the man who died in the Great War. He won’t risk heartache by revealing his true emotions.
 

amzn.to/1X112d6

In this action-packed sequel to PULSE, author L.R.Burkard takes readers on a heart-pounding journey into a landscape where teens shoulder rifles instead of school books, and where survival might mean becoming your own worst enemy.

Now that an EMP has sent the United States into a Dark Age, Andrea, Lexie and Sarah have more to worry about than the mere loss of technology. Threats of marauders and rumors of foreign soldiers mean no one can let down their guard. The appearance of FEMA camps might be reassuring--except military outfits seem determined to force people into them...With evil threatening on every side, can the U.S. recover before everyone--and everything--is destroyed?  



Do you make time for fun summer reading? Where's your favorite place to read--beach, bed, lazy chair? Leave a comment and let's compare notes!  

8 comments:

  1. Not many blogs can claim to have this many wonderful authors participating on it!

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  2. Not many blogs can claim to have this many wonderful authors participating on it!

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  3. What a great group of books! Thank you for sharing! I love to read in bed!

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  4. Thanks so much, Melody. We do have a great stable of writers! (And I'm honored to be one of them.) I also do most of my recreational reading in bed, by the way! Have a blessed end-of-summer with lots of great books. :)

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  5. Great choices! I have a few of them and will be putting the rest on my tbr list. I still need to get Resilience in paperback to go on my bookcase next to Pulse. Anxiously awaiting Book 3. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Thank you, ChappyDebbie! I wish I was a faster writer so you wouldn't have to wait. Actually, once I hunker down to the task, I can finish a book in three to four months. But I have to hunker down. (Aye, there's the rub!)

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  6. This blog is wonderful with so many authors contributing. I have read some of these amazing book and others are on my list to read.

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    1. Thank you, Marilyn! Hopefully you'll make some progress on that list this summer!

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