Synapse | Book Review + Guest Post

ABOUT THE BOOK

Thirty years in the future, when AI is so advanced that humans live side by side with cognizant robots called Artificials, Kestrel Hathaway must come to terms not just with what machines know, but what they believe. Is hope real for them, or merely an illusion?

Soon after experiencing a personal tragedy, Kestrel witnesses a terrorist attack and is drawn into a world of conspiracies and lies that she and Jordan, her Artificial, have to untangle. With a second, more brutal attack looming on the horizon, their best chance of stopping it is teaming up with federal counterterrorism agent Nick Vernon.

But the clock is ticking—and all the while, Jordan is asking questions that Artificials were never meant to ask.

Deftly weaving suspense and intrigue into a rich, resonant tale that explores faith and what it really means to be human, Steven James offers us a glimpse into the future and into our own hearts.

Synapse is an unforgettable, gripping story of dreams shattered, truth revealed, and hope reborn.

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Release Date: October 8, 2019

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Christian Book

As the Light Fades | Book Review + Giveaway

ABOUT THE BOOK

Sometimes we’re placed in the strangest of circumstances for the most important reasons.

After her carefully constructed life crumbles, Liz Carlisle finds herself back on Nantucket, picking up the pieces. With the family estate under renovations, the solitude she craves seems out of reach.

Matthew Stone intends to steer clear of his new tenant. She’s carrying a load of baggage, but as long as she pays the rent, he’ll let her be. He’s got enough to deal with caring for his wayward niece, Mia.

Liz doesn’t have time for teenagers and her track record with men is abysmal, but an unlikely friendship forms between the three.

When her former boyfriend is charged with assault, Liz is called to testify against him. But he knows the darkest secrets of her life—secrets she’d hoped to keep buried forever, and he’s ready to reveal them. Telling the truth is the right thing to do, but it may cost her everything she’s worked so hard for, and all she’s come to love.

Release Date: September 10, 2019

Goodreads | Amazon | Excerpt

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #70

Hosted weekly by The Book Date.

Happy Monday!

What a week (or more accurately, weekend). Some family came to visit, and my brother and I ran our first (and probably last, ha) marathon. Very hard, but very good, and an experience I will not soon forget.

Heartstone | First Line Friday + The Friday 56

The Friday 56 is hosted weekly by Freda's Voice.
First Line Friday is hosted weekly by Hoarding Books.

Happy Friday!

This fantastical retelling of Pride and Prejudice is among the books I hope to read this weekend, and I'm excited.

Serving Up Love | Waiting on Wednesday

Hosted weekly by Breaking the Spine 

to spotlight eagerly-anticipated upcoming releases.

(Similarly, Can't-Wait Wednesday is hosted by Wishful Endings.)

Happy Wednesday!

I love novella collections, and this historical one looks like a delight!

One Final Breath | Book Review

ABOUT THE BOOK

When investigator Gabriel Chavez had his cover blown by an aggressive reporter, the silver lining was being able to rejoin the dive team. The downside? Dive team captain Anissa Bell--a woman who both fascinates and frustrates him.

Anissa grew up as a missionary kid on the Micronesian island of Yap and always planned to return after college. But she remained stateside, determined to solve the case that haunts her--the murder of her best friend and the disappearance of a three-year-old child.

When Anissa's fractured past collides with Gabe's investigation into the tragic shooting death of a teenage boy in Lake Porter, they'll have to put their complicated history with each other aside in order to uncover the identity of a killer. What they'll discover is that revenge has no statute of limitations.

Award-winning author Lynn H. Blackburn closes out her nail-biting Dive Team Investigations series with a story that will have you wondering how long you can hold your breath.

Publisher: Revell

Release Date: September 3, 2019

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Christian Book

OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES

Beneath the Surface

In Too Deep

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #69

Hosted weekly by The Book Date.

Happy Monday!

It's been a quiet week with some good reading.

Wyatt | Book Review + Giveaway

ABOUT THE BOOK

He’s lost her twice… He’s not going to lose her again… 

NHL Hockey Goalie Wyatt Marshall has everything–fame, money and a thriving career. But he’s hiding the two things that matter most…a career-ending injury, and his broken heart. He’s been in love with Coco Stanley since she walked into his life at age fourteen, a foster child for the Marshall family. She stole his heart years later, when, after a secret tryst, she returned to her home country of Russia. But she won’t let him back into her life—and he can’t figure out why. 

She’s harboring a secret that could cost lives… 

Coco Stanley is tired of living her life undercover. Or at least, with an assumed name, always pretending to be someone she’s not. And that’s not the only secret she’s harboring. If Wyatt discovers the real reason she left him, it might just destroy him. She’s resigned herself to loving him from afar… 

But when he discovers she’s in danger… 

Wyatt is horrified when he learns Coco has been shot and left in Russia, her fate unknown. There is nothing—nothing—that will stop him from finding her. So what if he’s not one of his super-heroic brothers, not a Ranger, not a SEAL…Wyatt is a hockey goalie, a special kind of crazy brave. Except, is he brave enough to face the secret Coco is keeping, or will it destroy everything he’s hoped for? 

What will it cost them to save her? 

What Wyatt and Coco don’t know is that revenge is stalking her and bringing her home just might cost them their long-awaited happy ending. 

Continue the breath-taking Montana Marshall series!

Publisher: SDG Publishing

Release Date: October 15, 2019

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OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES

Knox

Tate

Ford

Ruby Jane

A Promise to Break | Book Review, Guest Post + Giveaway

ABOUT THE BOOK

Sibyl Trimble, the daughter of a wealthy banking family during the Great Depression in Shawnee, Oklahoma, promises her father to be part of a political movement to change the world. By 1932, the timing to fulfill that promise seems right. Her life consists of fashionable clothes, cruising in a Model T, and dancing every weekend at the local speakeasy.

Fremont Pope is a handsome, blue-eyed, down-on-his-luck hobo, and Sibyl’s life turns upside down when she meets him. Her love for him and his Christian family opens her eyes to a different way of life than she has ever known.

Based on a true story, this historical novel follows Sibyl through some difficult choices. She must dig deep within herself to find strength to face her father and determine which, if any, of her past beliefs can be salvaged. What is more important, love or duty?

Publisher: Memory House Publishing LLC

Release Date: July 11, 2016

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES

A Promise Child

Stitches in Time | Book Review, Guest Post + Giveaway

ABOUT THE BOOK

Detachment had worked well as a life strategy for horse trainer Sam Schrock. Until he met Mollie Graber . . .

New to Stoney Ridge, schoolteacher Mollie has come to town for a fresh start. Aware of how fleeting and fragile life is, she wants to live it boldly and bravely. When Luke Schrock, new to his role as deacon, asks the church to take in foster girls from a group home, she’s the first to raise her hand. The power of love, she believes, can pick up the dropped stitches in a child’s heart and knit them back together.

Mollie envisions sleepovers and pillow fights. What the 11-year-old twins bring to her home is anything but. Visits from the sheriff at midnight. Phone calls from the school truancy officer. And then the most humiliating moment of all: the girls accuse Mollie of drug addiction.

There’s only one thing that breaks through the girls’ hard shell—an interest in horses. Reluctantly and skeptically, Sam Schrock gets drawn into Mollie’s chaotic life. What he didn’t expect was for love to knit together the dropped stitches in his own heart . . . just in time.

Suzanne Woods Fisher invites you back to the little Amish church of Stoney Ridge for a touching story of the power of love.

Publisher: Revell

Release Date: October 1, 2019

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Christian Book

OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES

Mending Fences

Two Steps Forward