Mailbox Monday
Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia of A girl and her books and is now hosted on its own blog.
Sunday: LABYRINTH by Jon Land Personal/Amazon Free
Sunday: THE WAGES OF SIN by Nancy Allen Personal/Amazon 99¢
Saturday: THE GIFT by Louise Jensen Personal/Amazon 99¢
The Battle for Christmas by Jeremy Hinshaw
After training and practicing for the auditions, Andy’s friends excelled. Andy, however, failed miserably. When the positions were posted, his worst fears came true – he was the only angel not given a job for the birth of Lord Jesus.
Would Andy be the only angel not to have an assignment for this climactic event?
How did Heaven defend Bethlehem from the onslaught of Lucifer and his horde of demons?
Praise for the Book
This was a great book to bring alive the story of Jesus birth, especially for those who have heard it many times before. Although fiction, it challenges us to remember that we are not doing this on our own. There is a whole army of angels at our disposal.
Thank you Jeremy for captivating my thoughts and painting such a glorious picture, not often considered when thinking of that blessed day. From the very beginning as you described the landscapes I was hooked. The details breaking out the characters and each one’s place in the story are masterfully woven. The story is packed with enough intrigue, adventure, and truth to be enticing to readers of all ages, and especially the youth of today. Compared to other books I have read on the subject, this one takes the cake with its creative story-line that is jam packed with adventure, humor, and close-calls. I recommend this book to anyone that is a fan of adventure. A fresh take on the matter that is certain to wow its readers. Especially those interested in a view behind the veil that we all know exists!
I loved The Battle for Christmas. Not only is it a book I’ll read again, but it’s also a book I can’t wait to share with my children and nieces and nephews. In The Battle for Christmas we get a great fantasy paired with reminders of our hope and our faith. Plus, what an adventure! I really liked Andy. He’s the type of character young readers will want to emulate, and one we’ll want our children to emulate. I think his gift is one we all struggle with and one of the most important.
Excerpt
“Who’s Andy?” one of the little ones asked.
“This is outrageous! I’m going to tell you the story of the birth of Lord
Jesus …” The nursery erupted with groans again. “But …” Stephen raised
his hands to quiet them. “I’m going to tell you about Andy the Angel and
how Lord Jesus’s birth really happened.”
David floated back to the ground and looked at Stephen with distrust.
The small angels murmured and mumbled questions.
“Whaddya mean, ‘How it really happened?’” one small angel asked.
“It’s written in the Bible, and we all have heard it, read it, and recited it
countless times—and who is Andy?”
“Yes, yes. You’ve read it in the Bible.” Stephen raised his hands again
to quiet the dissention. “And what the Bible says is true, but it’s written
for men and how they saw the events of that day. It’s not the only account
of that blessed day.
“You see, many of us in Heaven worked tirelessly behind the scenes
to make it happen. There were some moments when we weren’t sure if
we were going to be able to pull it off. We fought off demons, helped
humankind bring about fulfillment of Scripture, and did many other
things to make sure Lord Jesus’s birthday was going to happen.
“Of course, if you don’t want to know how it happened here in
Heaven, or what happened to Andy, that’s fine …”
Author Jeremy Hinshaw
Jeremy Hinshaw grew up in central Indiana. He graduated from Olivet Nazarene University, and now resides in Muncie, Indiana.
Blast Giveaway
$50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash
Ends 1/3/17
Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.
A CHRISTMAS WISH by Steven Manchester
Published by Fiction Studio Books, LLC
Publication Date: June 1, 2015
ASIN: B00Y7KNEXE
Pages: 91
Review Copy From: The Story Plant
Edition: Kindle
My Rating: 5
Synopsis: (via GR)
In this heartwarming holiday story, Steven Manchester, author of the #1 Kindle bestseller TWELVE MONTHS, takes us into the world of three of his characters from his novel GOODNIGHT, BRIAN (January 2013). Steph is on a search for truth in her heart as she faces the prospect of real love for the first time. Brian is out to enjoy his favorite season in a way that doctors never thought he could. And at the center of it all is their grandmother, affectionately known as Mama, a woman of remarkable commitment and charity who knows something very important about making Christmas wishes come true.
This brief, beautiful tale captures the promise of the holidays and the longing we all have for the magic of the season.
My Thoughts and Opinion:
Wanting to read a couple of Christmas stories this week, who better to read than one of my favorite authors, Steven Manchester. This is the Prequel to GOOD NIGHT, BRIAN, which I read in 2013.
Mr. Manchester, in 91 pages, warms the reader’s heart with the wise wisdom of MaMa, Angela DiMartino, the Italian matriarch. Mama is sensing that something is bothering her granddaughter during this holiday season. And with her infinite experience, knowledge and unconditional love teaches Stephanie the greatest gift of all.
Steve Manchester delivers another emotional read that will leave the reader thankful for Mama and her insight. I felt like I was going home, to have the chance, to see my own grandmother again.
Beautifully written!
THE THURSDAY NIGHT CLUB by Steven Manchester
Published by Fiction Studio Books
Publication Date: June 1, 2015
ASIN: B00Y7KNNJY
Pages: 144
Review Copy From: The Story Plant
Edition: Kindle
My Rating: 5
Synopsis: (via GR)
Five college friends, three men and two women, have been getting together every Thursday night to share humble meals and an abundance of laughter. But when tragedy takes one of them, leaving the others to question the fairness of life, the Thursday Night Club decides to embark on a contest in the memory of the generous spirit of their fallen brother. The objective of the contest is simple: whoever performs the kindest deed by Christmas night wins the pot – four quarters. And there are only two conditions: the benevolent deed must be anonymous, and it cannot cost a single penny to pull off.
As the four friends undertake the contest, the healing begins and they become inspired beyond their expectations. There might be a winner in this competition, but it is very clear there will be no losers.
A story of Christmas spirit that will strike a chord in your heart any time of year, The Thursday Night Club will make you look at the holiday season in new ways.
My Thoughts and Opinion:
Five friends, in their senior year in college, meet every Thursday night, sitting on Izzy and Ava’s porch playing cards, talking, teasing each other and making 25¢ bets. Then a fatal accident changes them forever. Jesse was always doing good deeds but never spoke of them. So to honor their friend, they make another 25¢ bet. By Christmas, each of the remaining four needs to complete the kindest deed in Jesse’s memory.
A touching story of friendship, love and the realization that altruistic acts will affect them as much, or more than the people they help.
Heartwarming! A lesson for us all. Steve Manchester is the master at writing about emotions and feelings!
I highly recommend this novella, not only at Christmas but year round!.
This blog was founded on the premise to write honest reviews, to the best of my ability, no matter who from, where from and/or how the book was obtained, and will continue to do so, even if it is through PICT or PBP.
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me, in exchange for my honest review.
No items that I receive are ever sold…they are kept by me, or given to family and/or friends.
I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. I am an IndieBound affiliate. I am providing link(s) solely for visitors that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.
After all the hustle and bustle of the holidays, and the bitter cold and snow, what better activity to do than a Read-A-Thon. Since I haven’t participated in quite awhile due to my LOA, I thought this would be fun. And maybe, just maybe, I will make a small dent in my 2017 Challenges! Care to join me?
The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 2nd and runs through Sunday, January 8th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 18 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team
Instructions:
1. Post on your site, Twitter, Google+, Goodreads, YouTube, Instagram or Facebook account and declare your intentions to join us. It’s EASY. We ask you share info to help spread the word. Please link back to us so others can find us here.
2. Add the direct link to your sign up post to the linky in this post. You have until Tuesday, January 3rd at 11:59pm CST to sign up. (If the linky is closed, you’re too late.)
3. On January 2nd, READ!
I will be keeping track of my progress on my Current Challenge page HERE.
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Mailbox Monday
Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia of A girl and her books and is now hosted on its own blog.
Sunday: BROTHERLY LOVE by Jason Blacker from Author
Tuesday: FRACTURED EDENby Steven Gossington from Author
Tuesday: THE SUNSET CONSPIRACY by Steve Hadden from Author
Tuesday: THE FIXER: THE NAKED MAN by Jill Rosenblatt from Author/PICT
Tuesday: THE FIXER: THE KILLING KIND by Jill Rosenblatt from Author/PICT
Tuesday: THE WORLD BENEATH by Rebecca Cantrell from Author
Tuesday: A WINTER DISCOVERY by Lou Aronica from The Story Plant
Tuesday: A CHRISTMAS WISH by Steven Manchester from The Story Plant
Tuesday: THE THURSDAY NIGHT CLUB by Steven Manchester from The Story Plant
Thursday: GONE by Stacy Claflin Persional/Amazon Free
Friday: LOW CARB RECIPES by Jamie Watson Personal/Amazon Free
Saturday: BODY AND BONE by JS Hawker Personal/Amazon $0.99
The Visitor’s Book
by Sophie Hannah
on Tour November 1 – December 17, 2016
A collection of spine-tingling ghost stories from one of today’s most acclaimed suspense novelists. In this small but perfectly formed collection of supernatural short stories, bestselling author, Sophie Hannah, takes the comforting scenes of everyday life and imbues them with a frisson of fear. Why is a young woman so unnerved by the presence of a visitors book in her boyfriend’s inner-city home? And whose spidery handwriting is it that fills the pages? Who is the strangely courteous boy still lingering at a child’s tenth birthday party when all the parents have gathered their children and left? And why does the presence of a perfectly ordinary woman in a post office queue leave another customer pallid and quaking with fear?
Book Details:
Genre: Short Stories, Thriller
Published by: Witness Impulse
Publication Date: November 1st 2016
Number of Pages: 120
ISBN: 0062562126 (ISBN13: 9780062562128)
Purchase Links: Amazon 🔗 Barnes & Noble 🔗 Goodreads 🔗
Learn More:
Sophie Hannah is the New York Times-bestselling author of numerous psychological thrillers, which have been published in 27 countries and adapted for television, as well as The Monogram Murders, the first Hercule Poirot novel authorized by the estate of Agatha Christie.
INTERVIEW
Writing and Reading:
Do you draw from personal experiences and/or current events?
I do draw from real life, all the time — especially personal experiences. These two short story collections contain my experiences of betrayal, obsession, annoyance at the parents of my children’s friends, the horror of hosting a birthday party for an 8-year-old… Writing is a form of therapy for me. It’s how I deal with difficult things from real life!
Do you start with the conclusion and plot in reverse or start from the beginning and see where the story line brings you?
It’s one or the other. Either I think of an intriguing starting point that will hook the reader, and then work out where it will lead, or I come up with a surprising, hopefully unguessable solution, and then I work forwards or backwards.
Are any of your characters based on you or people that you know?
Lots! But as someone once said about someone else (I can’t remember who!) ‘If he didn’t want to end up in a book, he should have behaved better.’ No one ever recognises themselves anyway – we always imagine we’re wonderful and not particularly grotty, so when we read a grotty character, we don’t see ourselves, and think they’re nothing like us!
Your routine when writing? Any idiosyncrasies?
I plan a lot and obsessively. I write in the afternoon — because I’m too tired in the morning — and late at night. Often I finish a book at Lucy Cavendish College in Cambridge, where I’m a Fellow Commoner. There’s a lovely room there with an ace garden. It’s peaceful, and unlike my home there is no dog with a ball to distract me!
Tell us why we should read this book.
Because it contains all the weird dysfunctionality of real life – a lot of fiction tries to improve and tidy up real people and make them more lovely and normal. These stories don’t do that.
Who are some of your favorite authors?
Agatha Christie, Tana French, Ruth Rendell, Iris Murdoch and Edna St Vincent Millay.
What are you reading now?
I’m reading a new British crime novel called The Taken by Alice Clark-Platts. So far, it’s very interesting. The leader of a church, who is said to have been able to perform miracles, has been murdered… and the detective investigating the crime senses that his wife and daughter aren’t exactly distraught to be rid of him.
Are you working on your next novel? Can you tell us a little about it?
I’m working on a standalone thriller set in Arizona, provisionally titled Did You See Melody? It will be published in Summer 2017. Here’s the blurb:
She’s the most famous murder victim in America. What if she isn’t dead?
Pushed to breaking point, Cara Burrows flees her home, husband and children. Fifteen hours later, she’s checking into a five star spa resort in the foothills of Camelback Mountain, Arizona. All she wants is space to think, far away from everyone and everything she knows. Instead, she gets a shock in the middle of the night after being given the key card for a room that’s already occupied – apparently by a father and daughter…
Philadelphia’s most famous murder victim, Melody Chapa, has been dead seven years. Her parents, Naldo and Annette Chapa, are serving ‘natural life’ sentences for killing their seven-year-old daughter, after a successful campaign by former-prosecutor Bonnie Juno whose TV show ‘Justice With Bonnie’ brought to light crucial facts missed by detectives. But if Melody’s dead – as the evidence suggests she is – then how can a guest at a spa resort in Arizona have seen her?
Putting Annette and Naldo Chapa behind bars is the greatest achievement of Bonnie Juno’s life. When she learns what’s happening in Arizona, she laughs it off…until she discovers that the sightings of Melody are starting to stack up. At first it was just one uncertain English woman who walked into the wrong room in the middle of the night, easily dismissed as exhausted and not thinking straight after her long journey – but it turns out that Cara Burrows is not the only guest at the resort claiming to have seen Melody.
Feeling as if she has no choice, Bonnie heads for Arizona – but by the time she gets there, Cara Burrows has disappeared…
Fun questions:
Your novel will be a movie. Who would you cast?
Normal people from real life. The thing about famous actors that people have heard of is that everyone knows them already! I’d find new actors who had never been in anything before. And my dog, Brewster, would have to get a starring role!
Favorite leisure activity/hobby?
I love swimming, and walking my Welsh terrier, Brewster.
Favourite meal?
Assorted dim sum from any brilliant Chinese restaurant.
Catch Up with Sophie Hannah on her Website 🔗 & Twitter 🔗!
Tour Participants:
Enter for a chance to WIN!
This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours for Sophie Hannah and Witness Impulse. There will be 5 US winners of one (1) eBook copy of The Visitor’s Book by Sophie Hannah. The giveaway begins on November 1st and runs through January 2nd, 2017.
Get More Great Reads at Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours
The Fantastic Book of Everybody’s Secrets
by Sophie Hannah
on Tour November 1 – December 17, 2016
A collection of ingenious suspense stories from one of today’s most acclaimed novelists in the genre. Everybody has their secrets, and in Sophie Hannah’s fantastic stories the curtains positively twitch with them. Who, for instance, is the hooded figure hiding in the bushes outside a young man’s house? Why does the same stranger keep appearing in the background of a family’s holiday photographs? What makes a woman stand mesmerised by two children in a school playground, children she’s never met but whose names she knows well? And which secret results in a former literary festival director sorting soiled laundry in a shabby hotel? All will be revealed…but at a cost. As Sophie Hannah uncovers the dark obsessions and strange longings behind the most ordinary relationships, life will never seem quite the same again.
MY REVIEW
4 stars
This was a “new to me” author so I thought I would start off with this book. Glad I did because I now want to read more by Ms. Hannah.
THE FANTASTIC BOOK OF EVERYBODY’S SECRETS is a compilation of 10 short stories.
Did you ever wish you could read someone’s mind? To see what they are really thinking. This book does just that.
Like Friendly Amid The Haters, where a very passive agressive timid woman has murderous thoughts. Another was The Nursery Bear where a woman has conflicting thoughts about a neigbor and The Tub where the reader gets a look into their inner most thoughts.
Some of the stories left the reader wanting more, other stories having the reader wondering what exactly was going on.
A quick read, that is a bit eerie, and because of that, the pages kept turning.
Book Details:
Genre: Short Stories, Thriller
Published by: Witness Impulse
Publication Date: October 11th 2016
Number of Pages: 120
ISBN: 0062562096 (ISBN13: 9780062562098)
Purchase Links: Amazon 🔗 Barnes & Noble 🔗 Goodreads 🔗
Learn More:
Sophie Hannah is the New York Times-bestselling author of numerous psychological thrillers, which have been published in 27 countries and adapted for television, as well as The Monogram Murders, the first Hercule Poirot novel authorized by the estate of Agatha Christie.
Catch Up with Sophie Hannah on her Website 🔗, Twitter 🔗, or Facebook 🔗
Tour Participants:
Giveaway:
This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours for Sophie Hannah and Witness Impulse. There will be 5 US winners of one (1) eBook copy of The Fantastic Book of Everybody’s Secrets by Sophie Hannah. The giveaway begins on November 1st and runs through January 2nd, 2017.
Get More Great Reads at Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours
REVIEW DISCLAIMER
This blog was founded on the premise to write honest reviews, to the best of my ability, no matter who from, where from and/or how the book was obtained, and will continue to do so, even if it is through PICT or PBP.
DISCLAIMER
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me, in exchange for my honest review.
No items that I receive are ever sold…they are kept by me, or given to family and/or friends.
ADDENDUM
I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. I am an IndieBound affiliate. I am providing link(s) solely for visitors that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.
I am accepting books from authors, publishers and/or agents for my review and/or honest opinion. Please click on REVIEW POLICY (at top of blog) for complete listing. Mystery/suspense are favorite genre. I will also accept Print Children's books. Kindle, Nook, IPad accessible. I will not accept any monetary compensation for said opinion. Unique visitors: approx 1,000/week. Please email me regarding any requests and I will respond ASAP. Please see disclaimer of FTC guidelines located left sidebar of this blog.
