I’m excited to announce a collection of Christmas novellas coming to a Kindle near you! LORD willing, coming in November, it will only be available for a short time! If you want to add it to your Goodreads profile, here is the link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48056260-a-very-bookish-christmas
The collection includes four novellas by four authors:
Each story is loosely based on a classic story, with a main character who loves that same story. My story is, obviously, Gingerbread Treasures.
“It all started five years ago with the gingerbread men…”
Oliver Breckenridge is fascinated by the email he receives from the niece of an old friend. Emily Willis, whose father disappeared six years prior, writes that four gingerbread men, annually delivered at Christmastime, have disappeared from her house–along with her dog. Intrigued by the curious case, Oliver flies across the pond to the States to investigate.
A last minute arrangement allows him to stay with young Alex Lewis, who also acts as his chauffeur and assistant as Oliver begins his enquiries. While meeting Emily in person increases his resolve to solve the case, it isn’t long before his interest in the mystery suddenly plummets. An unreliable colleague from his past is entangled with the case, casting doubt over the tale of the missing gingerbread men and the treasure they supposedly lead to.
At Alex’s pleading, he agrees to stay to help locate Emily’s missing dog, but the further they delve into the search, the more they are drawn back to the gingerbread men and their treasure.
This Christmas mystery was inspired by the Sherlock Holmes case, The Sign of the Four.
I’m so excited about this project! Watch out for A Very Bookish Christmas in November! It’s going to be so much fun!
Months after her husband, Sean, is killed by a hit-and-run driver,
physicist Georgie Brennan discovers he lied to her about where he had
been going that day. A cryptic notebook, a missing computer, and strange
noises under her house soon have her questioning everything she thought
she knew.
With her job hanging by a thread, her son struggling to cope with his
father’s death, and her four-star general father up for confirmation as
the next Secretary of Defense, Georgie quickly finds herself tangled in
a political intrigue that has no clear agenda and dozens of likely
villains. Only one thing is clear: someone wants her dead too.
The more she digs for the truth, the fewer people she can trust.
Not her friends.
Not her parents.
Maybe not even herself.
Spotlight
Due to a mistake, I have not got to read this book yet. But I want to. A lot. It’s on my list to read soon! Hopefully, I can get a review up, once I read the book!
Siri Mitchell is the author of 14 novels. She has also written 2 novels under the pseudonym of Iris Anthony. She graduated from the University of Washington with a business degree and has worked in various levels of government. As a military spouse, she lived all over the world, including Paris and Tokyo. Siri is a big fan of the semi-colon but thinks the Oxford comma is irritatingly redundant. Visit her online at sirimitchell.com; Facebook: SiriMitchell; Twitter: @SiriMitchell.
Hamish DeLuca and Regina “Reggie” Van Buren have a new case—and this one brings the war in Europe dangerously close to home.
Determined to make a life for herself, Regina “Reggie” Van Buren bid
goodbye to fine china and the man her parents expected her to marry and
escaped to Boston. What she never expected to discover was that an
unknown talent for sleuthing would develop into a business partnership
with the handsome, yet shy, Hamish DeLuca.
Their latest case arrives when Errol Parker, the leading base stealer
in the Boston farm leagues, hires Hamish and Reggie to investigate what
the Boston police shove off as a series of harmless pranks. Errol
believes these are hate crimes linked to the outbreak of war in Europe,
and he’s afraid for his life. Hamish and Reggie quickly find themselves
in the midst of an escalating series of crimes that seem to link Boston
to Hamish’s hometown of Toronto.
When an act of violence hits too close to home, Hamish is driven to a decision that may sever him from Reggie forever . . . even more than her engagement to wealthy architect Vaughan Vanderlaan.
My Review
Murder in the City of Liberty fulfilled my hopes of a good mystery. The twists and turns kept my attention, and while I did solve it before the protagonists, I didn’t get bored or tired of the story.
I enjoyed the main characters, especially Hamish, but I found a few of the relationship bits annoying. Particularly, the love triangle. But I never care for those; they annoy me. I may also state here that I did not read Book I of this series, but the book did well as a standalone. I do think a few things with Hamish and his cousin would have been fleshed out, as well as Regina and Vaughan, if I had, but I never really felt at a loss. The author added just enough backstory to make things clear without overdoing it or making the story boring.
The author did an impressive job at writing a character with a tendency toward anxiety and panic attacks, while not portraying them as merely weak. Hamish is a likable character, very good at reading others, capable of doing his job, and he struggles through his physical difficulties bravely.
My biggest disappointment with this book is that I went into it expecting a Christian book. The publisher is a Christian one and when I picked up the book, I had the impression that the book would be Christian as well. I read the entire mystery waiting for the Christianity to appear in an obvious fashion, but it never did. There were subtle hints – Hamish goes to the North Church when he is upset and there is a reference to his father speaking a sentence about God – but nothing obvious enough to be clear. Now, Nate, Hamish and Regina’s best friend, has a strong and obvious Jewish faith. We see that played out without being overdone, but it is very clear what he believes. Anything Christian, however, I found too subtle to really know anything certain about it.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the book. A lot. I’ll probably even read the first one. The lack of obvious faith or any reference to Christ disappointed me the most out of anything. I can hope that, perhaps, in future books of this series that element will be fleshed out and become stronger. I don’t know. We’ll have to see.
Overall, I would recommend this book, but wouldn’t promote it as a Christian one, but a well-written, clean mystery.
Giveaway
To celebrate her tour, Rachel is giving away a grand prize of both book in the series!!
Rachel McMillan is a keen history enthusiast and a lifelong bibliophile. When not writing or reading, she can most often be found drinking tea and watching British miniseries. Rachel lives in bustling Toronto, where she works in educational publishing and pursues her passion for art, literature, music, and theater.
Alone without friends or family to comfort her after the death of her
mother, Willow Finley’s idyllic life is over—and just beginning.
The Finley women’s lives, while rich and full, aren’t easy. Rejecting electricity and many other modern conveniences, they live purposefully and intentionally–alone and isolated from the world around them.
When Willow Finley awakes on a hot summer morning, she is unprepared for the grief that awaits her. Jerked from a life of isolation with her mother, Willow learns what alone really means when she finds her mother dead.
From the moment Willow arrives in the police station with her startling announcement, Chad Tesdall fights the friendship he knows he can’t avoid.
The Past Forward series opens with Willow’s life-changing discovery and gently guides the reader through aspects of her life–the past weaving through the present and into the future. Experience her first morning in church, her first movie, and the culture shock of her first trips to the city. A birthday party and a street faire add welcome diversion from butchering, canning, and the beating of area rugs. Disaster strikes. Will she choose to continue her simple life, or will an offer in the city change it all? Find out in this first volume.
My Review
Past Forward begins rather startling. When Willow Finlay walks into the police station, you don’t really expect her reason for being there. Not exactly. The story continues on with rapt attention from there.
This is another book that I have read more then once. Actually, I’ve read every volume. I first read it years ago and parts of it are ingrained into me, like any other good book.
I like Willow. She’s different, but that’s one of the things that keeps you wanting to find out what she’s going to do next. There are times that I find the reactions of the people around her to be a bit tiresome, but not enough to make me want to put the book down.
Chad, I quite liked, though there are a few times I want to shake him. But, since I want to do the same to Willow at times, I suppose that’s not much of a complaint. I do like his character development a good deal – though I shall never reconcile my mental picture of him to the buzz cut that he apparently has.
Overall, I found the first volume of Past Forward well written, filled with interesting characters, and worth a reread. You will likely find your interest peaked to move onto Volume 2. I would recommend this book.
Giveaway
To celebrate her tour, Chautona is giving
away a grand prize that includes a complete paperback set of Past
Forward & a custom Past Forward Lavender Lemonade candle!!
Chautona Havig lives in an oxymoron, escapes into imaginary worlds that look startlingly similar to ours and writes the stories that emerge. An irrepressible optimist, Chautona sees everything through a kaleidoscope of It’s a Wonderful Life sprinkled with fairy tales. Find her on the web and say howdy—if you can remember how to spell her name.
“Another
one?” said Nigel. “Boche learned nothing from the last one?”
“Not
them.” Ayres shook his head soberly. “It’s a counter attack. Tomorrow morning,
first light. It’s us over the top.”
Nigel
Hopkins finds himself in the trenches of World War I under the command of
teenage atheist 2/Lt C.S. Lewis. Nigel and his war dog must learn the source of
true courage while facing a desperate enemy in No Man’s Land in the final
offensive of the war.
Meanwhile,
underage WAAC Elsie Fleming, working at the field hospital in Étaples, will
have her idealism about war challenged by the brutal realities she sees in the
broken men who return from the Front—and the many who never return.
My Review
I went into reading War in the Wasteland with very little knowledge of WWI. Not the battlefront. I had studied how the people at home coped, at least, in the United States, but I hadn’t really read much about the actual war.
War in the Wasteland kept close to Nigel as he shipped out, joined his platoon on the Front, landed in the hospital, fought battles, got to know his comrades, faced the harrows of killing the enemy… I could almost feel the mud and filth, hear the guns and explosions, see the destruction of land and the death of men. I know that my imagination still falls far short of the reality, but I left the book with a far deeper perspective and appreciation for what so many soldiers fighting in the Great War went through. Just how much those left at home lost.
I really also enjoyed Nigel, the young eighteen-year-old, shipped out to war so soon after his birthday. Courageous, yet very human, seeing the war through his eyes, listening to the debates of his senior officers, and taking care of his loyal terrier.
Reading about an atheist C.S. Lewis, I found to be fascinating. In many ways, Mr. Bond kept the “voice” that I have come to recognize from reading works by C.S. Lewis intact, though his verbalized opinions were certainly not those I tend to associate with him. Knowing that the author well-researched the man, before attempting to write him into a historical fiction novel, it is truly amazing to think of the change the LORD wrought in C.S. Lewis’ life and thoughts. I knew much of this before, but seeing it in dialogue form proved to be fascinating and memorable.
I can honestly say that I never figured out for certain if a few characters were fictional or truly from history. I would have loved a complete list of historical characters, such as Mr. Bond included in the back of Duncan’s War. I can’t say that the lack affected my enjoyment of the story, but it would have satisfied my historical curiosity.
I would
certainly recommend this book.
About the Author Douglas Bond, father of six, is the author of a number of successful books. He directs the Oxford Creative Writing Master Class, speaks at conferences, and leads historical tours. Visit his website at: www.bondbooks.net
