Without Warning by Lynette Eason

This was a wonderful second book in the Elite Guardians series. Kate Singleton and Daniel Matthews are wonderful characters and work well together. They both learn many things from each other. Bad things keep happening to Daniel and soon he thinks that it may affect his niece. This is when he and his niece hire the Elite Guardians. There are many twists and turns and it keeps you on your toes. I received a copy of this book from Revell for a fair and honest opinion.
Taut Writing and Breakneck Pacing That Will Keep Readers Up All Night Katie Singleton, a partner with the Elite Guardians Protection Agency, stumbles upon her next assignment quite by accident. Spotting blue lights at a familiar restaurant, she stops to investigate, only to discover that owner Daniel Matthews has become the target of someone who will go to any lengths to put him out of business. Daniel might be concerned, but he’s not convinced that a bodyguard–and a female one at that–is necessary. A new attack and his niece’s urgings are enough to make him reconsider. He and Katie must figure out who’s behind the intimidation and threats–before a would-be killer strikes again. Witty dialogue and a simmering attraction will have readers flying through this tension-laced thriller. Eason exercises complete control of her readers’ emotions as they race through the pages to discover the truth.

A Stroke of Luck by Audra North

This was an enjoyable romance. I enjoy reading stories set around or in Ireland. Brid Gallagher and Gavin are great together. How can Brid leave Gavin and go to marry her fiancé. I received an ebook copy from the author for a fair and honest opinion.

Sarah’s Orphans by Vannetta Chapman

I could not put this book down. It has been one of my favorite books this year. Make sure to have Kleenex handy because you will need them. This makes you laugh, cry and really think. This was one of the first books in the Amish genre where it talks about having bad parents and fostering children that are not Amish. I hope there are more books in this series because it is one of my favorite series by Vannetta Chapman. I received this book from the author for a fair and honest opinion.These orphans may be on their own…but God hasn’t abandoned them. Sarah Yoder belongs to a Plain community in Oklahoma, but her days are far from simple. Her father suffers from bipolar disorder–until a tragic accident ends his life and the abuse he inflicted. Instead of stepping up to provide a better future, Sarah’s mother packs her bags and leaves her six children behind. Alone with her younger siblings, Sarah is exhausted but finally at peace. Then she nearly runs over a small Hispanic boy with her buggy…and somehow finds herself sheltering two more orphans. Paul Byler moved to Cody’s Creek to help his brother in a time of need. But now that Joseph has recovered from his heart attack, Paul’s ready for a quiet place of his own. The only problem? His new property lands him next door to the orphaned Yoder family–and a calling from God he can’t seem to ignore. A story of extraordinary grace and love in the face of desperate need, Sarah’s Orphans is the third standalone novel in the Plain and Simple Miracles collection by Vannetta Chapman.
Vannetta Chapman writes inspirational fiction full of grace, including romantic suspense and Amish romance novels. Chapman was a teacher for 15 years and currently writes full-time. She lives in the Texas Hill Country with her husband, pets, and a herd of deer. http://www.VannettaChapman.com

Blueberry Cupcake Mystery by Naomi Miller with a giveaway

I loved this short mystery. Katie is such a fun young girl. She finds the bakery that she works at has been broken into and she and her friend get the owner and then the police. Later Katie thinks she solves the theft but wants to do good from it. This is a sweet story. I received an ebook copy from Celebratelit for a fair and honest opinion.

Here is the giveaway link: https://promosimple.com/ps/a20c

About the Book
Blueberry Cupcake Mystery

Click to purchase

In the small town of Abbott Creek, mystery is as much a part of daily life as The Sweet Shop’s sugar cookies.
Katie Chupp spends her days at The Sweet Shop, taking care of customers and baking delicious treats . . . not exactly a profession where one expects to be thrown into the midst of mysteries and mayhem.
But when the bakery is broken into, someone has to find the thief . . . besides finding another place to do the baking and get the orders to the customers.
Is this a random theft, or is the thief trying to ruin the town’s Independence Day celebration?
About the Author
Naomi Miller mixes up a batch of intrigue, sprinkled with Amish, Mennonite, & English characters, adding a pinch of mystery – and a dash of romance!
Naomi’s day is spent focusing on her writing, editing, and blogging about her experiences with writing. When she’s not working diligently to finish the next book in her Sweet Shop Mystery series, Naomi tries to make time for attending workshops and writers conferences. One of her favorites is the four-day event that the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) organization holds annually.
Naomi also enjoys traveling with her family, singing inspirational/gospel music, taking a daily walk, and witnessing to others of the amazing grace of Jesus Christ.
Guest Post from Naomi Miller
Hello! I’m Naomi Miller — and I’m honored to be featured on Celebrate Lit!
I want to share with you how the title and cover for my debut book, Blueberry Cupcake Mystery, was chosen. This is a story I haven’t shared with anyone else — yet. The story behind the blueberry cupcake…
I was actually writing an Amish suspense novel last winter, when God placed it on my heart to write a shorter story — a cozy mystery, with no suspense, no danger, but plenty of faith, family, compassion and community.
While thinking of the best way to begin the story, my daughter made a batch of blueberry cupcakes, which happen to be one of my favorite treats. Of course, the idea to use a favorite treat was too good to resist. Then, during the early days of writing, I began experimenting with the idea of baking cupcakes — but adding blueberries before baking. Two favorite treats in one!
And there you have it . . . once we had a picture of a blueberry cupcake, the designer quickly sent back a cover I fell in love with (although there were a few more tweaks before the final cover was approved).
I actually began writing many years ago — 1990 to be exact. But I had just become a single mom and I didn’t have time to pursue it. I wrote notes, letters, articles, short stories, and I occasionally thought about a career as a novelist, but not once did I consider that dream to ever become a reality.
Several years ago, after my children were grown, my daughter challenged me to write a novel. I began a sweet, Amish fiction story about a young girl—but about halfway into the story, someone was almost murdered! Needless to say, I was surprised, but kept going. Once done, I went back to the beginning to do a major re-write on what was now an Amish suspense novel.
And that’s . . . the rest of the story.
I’m also excited to be doing two special giveaways — 1) a gift bag full of treats and 2) an advanced reader digital copy of Christmas Cookie Mystery (but you’ll have to wait for it)!
In the meantime, here’s the recipe for those delicious blueberry cupcakes
Blueberry Cupcakes
Ingredients

1 white or yellow cake mix

2 cups fresh blueberries

3 eggs

1/3 cup oil

1 1/3 cup water
Prepare cake mix according to the directions. Add blueberries and fold into batter. Bake following instructions on cake mix box.
Icing

1 cup confectioner’s sugar

2 tbsp. milk

additional milk as needed
Directions

Prepare icing, mixing small amounts of confectioner’s sugar with milk to desired consistency. Spread onto cooled cupcakes.
Blog Stops
August 23: A Baker’s Perspective
August 23: Chas Ray’s Book Nerd Corner
August 23: Blogging With Carol
August 24: cherylbbookblog
August 24: Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations
August 24: Running Through The Storms
August 25: A Greater Yes
August 25: A Holland Reads
August 25: Mary Hake
August 26: Gypsy Road
August 26: D’s Quilts & Books
August 26: Cassandra M’s Place
August 27: Bigreadersite
August 27: Bibliophile Reviews
August 27: Christian Bookaholic
August 28: Lighthouse Academy
August 28: Book Babble
August 29: Karilyn Putt
August 30: Karen’s Krayons
August 30: Daysong Reflections
August 31: Quiet Quilter
August 31: Blossoms and Blessings
September 1: Lights in a Dark World
September 1: Just Commonly
September 2: Singing Librarian Books
September 2: His Grace is Sufficient
September 3: Bukwurmzzz
September 4: Ashley’s Bookshelf
September 4: just the write escape
September 5: Reading Is My SuperPower
September 5: Book Bites, Bee Stings, & Butterfly Kisses
Giveaway
2d7c0326-0f19-40e0-8975-03929408eb2d
To celebrate her tour, Naomi is giving away a gift bag full of treats and an advanced copy of her new book Christmas Cookie Mystery! Click here to enter: https://promosimple.com/ps/a20c

Stolen by Alison Golden

I enjoyed this book. I don’t read too many based in Canada. I liked Diana and Peter although Peter needed to learn Diana could handle herself. I liked the intrigue in the story. It would be awful if a criminal could do what this one did. I received a copy of this book from the author for a fair and honest opinion.
When Vancouver’s elite convenes in the prestigious Four Seasons Hotel to celebrate and fund the new British Columbia Children’s Hospital, it is a night of free flowing champagne, high class regalia and more flash than a museum could house – until suddenly everyone realizes all their precious jewels and baubles are gone.
In the space of one moment the night turns from joy to confusion…. How did it happen? How were they all robbed, at once… without anyone seeing a thing?
Diana Hunter works for a news and crime magazine, yet her past experience and impressive, Sherlock Holmes-like skills mark her as an asset only the government could have trained.

Deadly Encounter by DiAnn Mills

Loved this new start to a series. Stacy and Alex worked so well together once they got over the initial reaction to each other. Stacey’s almost foster child Whit was so much fun. How can anyone treat children in that way? This story had many changes and each was better than the last. I look forward to book two in this series. I love reading about Veterinarians and Stacey was such a nice person.  I received this book from Tyndale for a fair and honest opinion.
 
Airport Ranger volunteer Stacy Broussard expected a peaceful Saturday morning ride around the perimeter of Houston’s airport. What she encounters instead is a brutal homicide and a baffling mystery. Next to the body is an injured dog, the dead man’s motorcycle, and a drone armed with a laser capable of taking down a 747.
Though FBI Special Agent Alex LeBlanc sees a clear-cut case of terrorism, his past has taught him to be suspicious of everyone, even witnesses. Even bleeding-heart veterinarians like Stacy. But when her gruesome discovery is only the first in a string of incidences that throw her life into a tailspin, Alex begins to wonder if Stacy was targeted. As a health emergency endangers Stacy’s community, and the task force pulls in leads from all directions, Alex and Stacy must work together to prevent another deadly encounter.

The Sixth Idea by P.J. Tracey

This was the first book I have read by this author but it won’t be the last. I loved this book in this series and even though it was the first one I read I was able to figure out most of the main characters fairly quickly. I loved this story. There were a lot of twists and turns and some secrets from the past. Kept me on the edge of my seat. I received a copy of the ebook from Firsttoread for a fair and honest opinion.

The Monkeewrench crew returns in a twisty, heart-stopping new thriller. The peaceful Christmas season in Minneapolis is shattered when two friends, Chuck Spencer and Wally Luntz, scheduled to meet in person for the first time, are murdered on the same night, two hours and several miles apart, dramatically concluding winter vacation for homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth. An hour north of Minneapolis, Lydia Ascher comes home to find two dead men in her basement. When Leo and Gino discover her connection to their current cases, they suspect that she is a target, too. The same day, an elderly, terminally ill man is kidnapped from his home, an Alzheimer s patient goes missing from his care facility, and a baffling link among all the crimes emerges. This series of inexplicable events sends the detectives sixty years into the past to search for answers and straight to Grace MacBride s Monkeewrench, a group of eccentric computer geniuses who devote their time and resources to helping the cops solve the unsolvable. What they find is an unimaginable horror a dormant Armageddon that might be activated at any moment unless Grace and her partners Annie, Roadrunner, and Harley Davidson, along with Leo and Gino, can find a way to stop it.”

P. J. Tracy is the pseudonym of the mother-daughter writing team of Patricia Lambrecht and Traci Lambrecht. They both live in Minnesota, outside Minneapolis.

Wedding Bell Blues by Ruth Moose

I really enjoyed this cozy mystery. This was my first book by Ruth Moose but it will not be my last. I wish I had read the book before this in the Dixie Dew mystery series but I did pretty good at figuring out most of the local characters. This had a lot of twists and turns. I really liked Beth McKenzie and Scott. I love the small town setting of Littleboro, N.C. I could not figure out who did what and I really like that. I received a copy of this book from Minotaur Books for a fair and honest opinion.
 
Beth McKenzie, owner of the Dixie Dew Bed and Breakfast, is enjoying an exciting affair with her new love, Scott. Meanwhile, the town of Littleboro, North Carolina is abuzz with gossip about Crazy Reba’s upcoming nuptials. Most brides go crazy at some point, but Littleboro’s resident homeless lady has had a head start: she’s beloved, indulged, and most of all, eccentric. But at almost 60 or thereabouts her marriage seems a little peculiar. Sure, she’s sporting a diamond big enough to choke a horse, but no one can tell if it’s real, or just a Cracker Jack prize she pilfered from a yard sale.Crazy Reba’s wedding plans go confirmedly awry when the bride-to-be is arrested for her fiance’s murder. Beth, determined to clear Reba’s name, gets in over her head when a lady wrestler who threatened to kill her books a room at the Dixie Dew, and Robert Redford, her neighbor’s white rabbit, disappears.Then Littleboro’s First Annual Green Bean Festival gets up and running, a famous food writer becomes deathly ill, and Beth must battle through madcap mayhem to apprehend the culprit and save the day.”Wedding Bell Blues “is Ruth Moose’s sequel to her winning debut, featuring her colorful array of characters and more laughs and hilarity.”

RUTH MOOSE is the 2013 winner of the Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Competition. She’s published three collections of short stories and six collections of poetry. She was on the Creative Writing faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for fifteen years and received the Chapman Award for teaching. She lives in Pittsboro, North Carolina.

Tackling the Fields by Janet W. Ferguson with a giveaway

This was a good romance. There was some good problems that both characters needed to work out before they could come to God and each other. I really enjoyed Cole, Audrey and Grant. This is book three in the Southern Hearts series. It is best to read them in order but not necessary. I received an ebook copy if this from Celebratelit for a fair and honest opinion.
 

Cole Sanders is a changed man. The university quarterback questions his direction in life after serving on a mission trip in Honduras. Things that used to fill Cole’s ego seem empty after witnessing the developing country’s extreme poverty and the death of a precious child. The one glimmer of hope through his confusion is the fresh perspective he now has about his tutor, Audrey. She possesses something beautiful inside and out—something that might help him become the person he wants to be.
University senior Audrey Vaughn tutored Cole Sanders for an entire year and never imagined the popular quarterback would see her as anything more than a friend. After partnering with him on the mission trip, they are drawn together. And he appears to have changed for the better. To let Cole into her life, Audrey will have to overcome not only her brother’s distrust, but also the paralyzing fear still lingering from a past she’s tried to leave behind.
Cole can’t walk away from Audrey now that they’re back in Oxford. He’ll have to figure out how to keep her giant of a brother, a lineman on his football team, from killing him when the coach has his back turned. But can Audrey trust her heart to a player so similar to the one who stole so much from her in the past?
About the Author
janetprofileJanet W. Ferguson grew up in Mississippi and received a degree in Banking and Finance from the University of Mississippi. She has served her church as a children’s minister and a youth volunteer. An avid reader, she worked as a librarian at a large public high school. Janet and her husband have two grown children, one really smart dog, and a few cats that allow them to share the space.
Guest Post from Janet Ferguson
Hi, I’m Janet W. Ferguson, and I’m so excited to be back again and meet more readers through Celebrate Lit!
This is a story I didn’t want to write, but felt called to tackle. The loss of the dream, the loss of innocence, and life’s other unfair struggles can challenge our faith—can make us captive to fear and disappointment.
In the South, we love football. In writing this book, I’m not trying to make a statement for or against the sport. My husband and son loved playing the game. After my son suffered a torn ACL, torn shoulder labrum, and four surgeries, he could no longer participate in the game he loved. He mourned the loss of the brotherhood of his team. I saw the popular pastime differently from his eyes. For young men, I believe it is a bond between friends for a common goal. Though the character in this book is totally fictional, I’m dedicating this book to my son, Luke.
The other sensitive topics in this story seemed particularly sad, but relevant in our society. Trust me, I didn’t prefer to research acquaintance/date rape or human trafficking, but both are going on all too often in communities both small and large. There are a number of organizations set up to help victims of these crimes if you feel a calling to help.
Someone reading this may have had something terrible that happened in their past or may know someone who has. God is able to set free the captives, set you free from the bonds that hold you. My prayer is that you find comfort in that truth.
Blog Stops
August 15: Quiet Quilter
August 16: A Baker’s Perspective
August 17: Blogging With Carol
August 18: The Power of Words (Spotlight)
August 19: inklings and notions
August 20: Christian Chick’s Thoughts
August 21: Karen’s Krayons
August 22: Bigreadersite
August 23: A Greater Yes
August 24: Chas Ray’s Book Nerd Corner
August 25: A Reader’s Brain
August 26: Mary Hake
August 27: His Grace is Sufficient
August 28: Cassandra M’s Place
August 29: Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations
Giveaway
Tackling the fields 2
To celebrate her tour, Janet is giving away a $75 Amazon gift card Click here to enter: https://promosimple.com/ps/a1c6

Twice Redeemed by Mimi Milan with giveaway

This is a well written western historical romance. I enjoyed Mercedes and John’s stories. I felt so sorry for all the women in the bordello since most of them were bought from their families. That is horrible. There were some twists and turns in this story. I look forward to the next book in the series. This was the second book in the series but I was able to understand all that was going on. I received this ebook from Celebratelit for a fair and honest opinion.
https://promosimple.com/ps/a16d

 About the Book
TwiceRedeemed_RGB

Click to purchase

Who will save her from herself?
After helping another girl escape, Mercedes Nobles suffers unspeakable abuse at Jericho. So when an American cowboy rides into town, she jumps at the opportunity to start a new life… even though she carries a secret that could destroy any chance of happiness for either of them.
John Durbin may have turned in his badge, but he still believes in living by a code of honor. That includes returning to a seedy Mexican saloon and rescuing a woman who helped his friends escape. However, the tables turn and he finds himself married in name only.
Struggling with cultural differences, they questions if their marriage will survive. Will John sacrifice his faith to make his new bride happy? How will Mercedes redeem herself when John learns of the secret she’s hiding?
About the Author
Profile PicMimi Milan spent two decades scribbling away in notebooks before realizing that her life’s calling was to write. So she returned from Mexico and attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, majoring in Creative Writing and minoring in Film. She currently resides in the suburbs of Charlotte, making time for God, family and imaginary friends.
 
Blog Stops
August 9: Blossoms and Blessings
August 10: D’S QUILTS & BOOKS
August 11: Books,Dreams,Life
August 12: History, Mystery & Faith
August 13: A Greater Yes
August 13: Black ‘n Gold Girl’s Book Spot
August 14: The Wits About
August 15: Daysong Reflections
August 16: Chas Ray’s Book Nerd Corner
August 17: Bibliophile Reviews
August 18: God is Love
August 19: A Baker’s Perspective
August 20: cherylbbookblog
August 21: Karen’s Krayons
August 22: Bigreadersite
August 22: Debbie Dusty Deliberations