Bat Crazy by Carole Brown ends 9/7

Please welcome Carole Brown to my blog this week. She's generously offered to give away a copy of her new release Bat Crazy, winners choice of paperback or ebook! Be sure to leave your email and don't forget to let me know if you are a follower of my blog for an extra entry.


Relationships

Ever known a relationship that’s grown bad? Of course, we have! In this world with all the rush and stress, many have known or experienced a relationship gone wrong.

That’s what I like to touch on in a minor way in my Denton and Alex Davies mystery series. All couples have problems (unless they’re angels disguised as humans! Lol), and I like to show Denton and Alex, who have problems, but work hard to stay together. Are they perfect? No.

Denton is grouchy and set in his ways, overly protective and jealous of his wife and sometimes forgetful to bring his wife into the loop as far as solving mysteries go.

Alex is far too trusting and borders on being a daredevil. She also spends way too much money on shoes and cares a little too much about “the right image.”

In Bat Crazy, I showed two secondary relationships. One was a blossoming romance from characters where one is protecting the other and thus hinders the investigation. In the second relationship, each individual was bent on their own way and were very unwilling to compromise. And both had different endings.

I hope in this series that readers can get a hint of real romance and a bit of encouragement in their own lives. 

Bat Crazy

Monster Bats with red eyes that attack humans?

Denton doesn’t think so and Alex hopes not, but who are they to quibble with the local gossip?

Transmission problems and a blown tire land Denton and Alex Davies right in the middle of a dilapidated, unfriendly town that’s welcoming no strangers, least of all nosy ones with a bent toward solving mysteries.

But with support from the town detective--an admirer of the Davies--and their own tenacious personalities, Denton and Alex aren’t easily scared off. Not when warnings in the form of painted bats show up on the porch of their rented cabin, not when the mayor threatens to run them out of town and not even when Denton finds the bones . . .

An ancient story, a bit of a map, a lost jewel and even a bat clan serve to provide the Davies and their sidekick, Taffy, the dog, their hardest case so far.

Available on Amazon and other online stores:

http://www.amazon.com/Carole-Brown/e/B00EZV4RFY/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1427898838&sr=8-1

More about Carole:

Besides being a member and active participant of many writing groups, Carole Brown enjoys mentoring beginning writers. She loves to weave suspense and tough topics into her books, along with a touch of romance and whimsy, and is always on the lookout for outstanding titles and catchy ideas. She and her husband reside in SE Ohio but have ministered and counseled nationally and internationally. Together, they enjoy their grandsons, traveling, gardening, good food, the simple life, and did she mention their grandsons?

Connect with her here:

Personal blog: http://sunnebnkwrtr.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CaroleBrown.author

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/browncarole212

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/sunnywrtr/boards/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5237997-carole-brown

I also am part of several other blogs:

Stitches in Time:  http://stitchesthrutime.blogspot.com/

Barn Door Book Loft: http://www.barndoorbookloft.net/

The Reliable Cowboy by Susan Page Davis ends August 31 #bookgiveaway

Welcome Susan! Its great to have you back on my blog. Looking forward to a fun week. 

Susan is giving away a copy of her new release The Reliable Cowboy. Be sure to read on down to find out how to enter.

Ever get nervous when someone you love is late? When they’re in a situation that could be potentially dangerous? I fret every time one of my kids is flying—even more so than when I’m in the air myself. Recently my daughter flew home from Europe via Iceland. That put me on edge. No one in the family had flown that route before, and she had only a small window at the airport in Reykjavik to change planes. She couldn’t use her phone there. What if she got stuck in Iceland? That’s the situation the heroine of my new book The Reliable Cowboy is in, only

it’s 1877 and there’s no airport. (My daughter made her plane and arrived safely, by the way).

Isabella Johnston’s husband was a fisherman in Maine, and he was lost at sea. Now she’s traveled thousands of miles to Wyoming Territory as a mail-order bride. She has promised to marry Edwin Gray, a cowboy on a nearby ranch. Every time they set up a date, she gets nervous if he’s five minutes late. She had thought that, this far from the sea, she was done with that kind of worry. Now she’s not so sure.
The wedding day arrives, and Edwin is nowhere in sight. Has he got cold feet, or is something drastically wrong? Isabella gallops to the ranch to find out, because deep in her heart, she knows Edwin isn’t the type of man to leave a woman at the altar.
 
Susan is giving away two copies of the e-book. To enter the drawing, leave a comment and your contact information below. How do you react when someone you love is late for an important event? 

The Reliable Cowboy is now available as an e-book: http://is.gd/6H9wBZ

About Susan Page Davis:
Susan Page Davis is the author of more than sixty published novels. A Maine native, she now lives in Kentucky. She’s a two-time winner of the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award, and also a winner of the Carol Award and the Will Rogers Medallion, and a finalist in the WILLA Awards and the More Than Magic Contest. Visit her website at: www.susanpagedavis.com

Nettie's Love by Patricia PacJac Carroll ends August 24th #bookgiveaway

Please welcome Patricia Carroll to my blog this week. Patricia is giving away a copy of her book, Nettie's Love so be sure to read on down to find out how to enter.

Hi, Patricia PacJac Carroll here. My new release is Nettie’s Love. A mail order bride story set in Bluebonnet, Texas. It is Book 1 of my new series—Mail Order Brides of Misfit Ranch ~ Bluebonnet, Texas.
~~~
Nettie felt as cold as the ground her father was being laid to rest in. Alone. Always

alone. Now, as the spinster sister, she was to live out her life helping her three brothers and their wives. The farm was gone. Sold by her brothers. She had nothing but the ad for a mail order bride.
Sheriff Reed Andrews stared at the paper the judge handed him. Seems the town wanted him to retire. Too old to chase outlaws they'd said. The hollow feeling in his heart told him what he already knew. He needed a wife to share the nights, to wake and see the Texas sun in the mornings, and to love. But could he convince a woman to come to Bluebonnet Texas and marry him?
A sweet Christian romance set in 1867 Texas.
~~~ 

Answer Patricia's question below to be entered to win an ebook of Nettie's Love. Don't forget to leave your email address and if you follow my blog or sign up to follow it let me know for a second entry. 
 
Would you travel across the country to marry a man you didn’t even know? Now, before you answer, remember that in the 1800s, in many states, women couldn’t own property. They had very limited choices in jobs and rights. So picture yourself desperate. Unmarried. Little or no money. Now, say you read an ad in the paper from a rancher in Texas looking for a woman to marry. Would you go?
I believe those women had to be brave and courageous to strike out into an unknown future.

 

Patricia PacJac Carroll~ I am a writer, Christian first, and blessed beyond my imagination. I live in the Dallas-Ft Worth area of Texas with my wonderful treasure of a husband, my spoiled dog, Jacs, and my awesome son, Josh. Did I say I was blessed? The PacJac is from my initials and my husbands. I wouldn't be able to write if it weren't for him. I love adventure and the open road. The stories of the western era have always been a favorite of mine. I enjoy writing, and my goal is to write stories readers will enjoy.

Hope you are enjoying the series ~ Mail Order Brides of Hickory Stick. I have a new series this year set in Texas - Mail Order Brides of Misfit Ranch Bluebonnet, Texas

Sign up for my Newsletter~PacJac News, and receive notice when new books are available: http://eepurl.com/bpPmbP

My blog http://patriciapacjaccarroll.blogspot.com/
Also on FB http://www.facebook.com/PatriciaPacJacCarrollAuthor
Twitter https://twitter.com/@PacJac

The Annex Mail-Order Brides Series by Elaine Manders ends August 17 #bookgiveaway

 Please welcome Elaine Manders to my blog. Read on down to find out how to be entered to win ALL THREE ebooks of Elaine's series, Annex Mail-Order Brides.

A Woman’s Place in History

Thank you for this opportunity to share a subject near to my heart, improving the status of women in the world. Oh, I know opportunities have never been greater in the Western world, but that hasn’t always been the case, and as with the advancement of all oppressed people, there were trail-blazers.

I’ve been writing historical romance for over twenty years, but it wasn’t until recently that I realized I write about the exceptional women of history, those who step outside society’s norm in their relationships, in their goals, in their pursuit of love.

Have you ever wondered why women are so poorly represented in the great achievements in history? Some might say—and rightly so—there is no greater achievement than to bear and nurture a child. But what of those women who never marry? Or live beyond child-bearing years? Or feel God has another purpose for them?

Cultural norms surely have played a role in keeping a woman in her place. And still do. Property laws and lack of education are the greatest handicaps to women’s equality.

In the American Northeast during the late 19th century, culture was shifting. Nowhere was this more evident than in women’s changing role. The suffragist sought equality through the vote, but other minds knew equal education was the only way to truly elevate any suppressed people.

Then, as now, women didn’t want to give up love for an equal place in society.

Annex Mail-Order Brides, my debut novella series, follows three strong, capable women who go to the best college of the day for various reasons, but seek love through the mail. The characters are representative of every woman, from the one who wants nothing more than to be a wife and mother (Adela’s Prairie Suitor), to the one who wants to use her extraordinary talent to make a name for herself (Ramee’s Fugitive Cowboy), to the one who wants to build a business empire (Prudie’s Mountain Man).

Times were changing in the late 1800s. In 1879, women had the opportunity to attend Harvard College for the first time. The women students didn’t attend classes with the men, but were relegated to a separate building called the Annex.

In many areas of the world, women are still considered the property of men and have few rights in society. Education is still considered wasted on females. In western civilized countries, however, the opportunities have never been greater for women. In fact, American women earned 58 percent of the bachelor degrees and 60 percent of the master degrees in colleges last year. But some believe these new opportunities have exacted a price on the American family.

Do you think the role of women was better in the United States during the 1880s or today? Leave your comment for a chance to win all three of the Annex Mail-Order Brides novellas.


                                                         
Adela’s Prairie Suitor

In 1881, the women of the Harvard Annex must prove women are as smart as men, but after one season, Adela Mason knows she doesn’t fit in with elite society. All she really wants is a husband—even if she has to pick one through the mail. After corresponding with Byron Calhoun, a Kansas farmer, for several months, she’s convinced he’s the man God has chosen for her. She accepts his invitation to visit the farm so he can “court her properly,” but before she arrives at her destination, she learns Byron already has a fiancé. What else has he failed to tell her?

 






Ramee’s Fugitive Cowboy

Ramee Abbott gains acclaim as a dress designer and attracts the interest of a textile tycoon she foolishly agrees to marry. She doesn’t recognize her dilemma until he sells her designs as his own and gives her an ultimatum—marry him immediately and move to New York or face social ruin. Her only choice is to find another man to marry and quickly.

Although Josh Volker has recently turned his life around and become a Christian, a bad reputation hounds him. He hardly dares hope any decent woman will marry him, least of all one as well-to-do as Ramee. But will she stay when she learns the truth about his past?

Prudie’s Mountain Man

Harvard Annex graduate, Prudie Walsh, has lost her home and family merchandising business. She answers a mail-order bride ad for one reason—Erich Stafford’s dry-goods store.

Scarred by a cougar attack as a child, Erich has spent his entire adult life living as a hermit in the Wyoming mountains. After inheriting a dry-goods store in the nearby frontier town, he leaves his mountain cabin and eagerly awaits his mail-order bride, a woman who will be the perfect helpmate in his new business. He soon realizes the beautiful, ambitious Prudie carries scars of her own. It’ll take a lot of patience and faith to turn their business arrangement into a real marriage.



About Elaine Manders:

Elaine Manders writes historical romance to inspire and intrigue. She began her writing journey with feature articles for a Christian newspaper and turned to fiction in 1992. Her debut novella series, The Annex Mail-Order Brides, was published July 8, 2015, and serves as prequels to her long historical novel series, Under Cerulean Skies, scheduled for release in December. Her greatest joy is to create endearing characters and intriguing plots with humor and faith woven throughout, and her fondest hope is that these books will entertain the reader and bring glory to God. She lives in central Georgia with the love of her life, her husband, Robert.

Contacts
https://twitter.com/ehmanders
https://www.facebook.com/elaine.manders.35
website: elainemanders.com

NEW YA SUSPENSE, PULSE, RELEASES 8/3 PLUS GIVEAWAY ENDS 8/10

Please welcome Linore Burkard to my blog. Linore has an exciting new release out called Pulse. I read Pulse and loved it. A great gift for any teen or adult! It really makes a person think about the future. Read down to find out how to be entered.

Why I wrote PULSE.

PULSE is a new genre for me as a writer, but I felt compelled to write it even though it is light-years from my sweet historical romances, and even though my readers have come to expect a cozy book from me.

I don't want to disappoint anyone, mind you, but writing PULSE felt non-negotiable to me. I felt like God put it on my heart--so I did it.

Here's the thing: WHAT IF something like a catastrophic EMP really does happen? Just yesterday a news story proclaimed that if a severe solar flare occurred, earth would have about 12 hours to brace itself for the impact. And you can't get ready for something like that in 12 hours. Historically, there have been severe weather events from the sun that, if today's technology had existed then, would have been wiped out by it. (Or at least severely disrupted and damaged.) Solar flares do happen. They expect one to happen eventually--possibly quite soon. 

The idea that people aren't ready for such a thing--but COULD BE--just wouldn't leave my mind. So I wrote PULSE to show that the consequences of not using wisdom to steward your resources (by storing some of them) are really not something anyone would want to live through.  

(Smiles) Sometimes we want to bury our heads and think that this will never happen because it's just to scary to think about. But that's where story comes in. PULSE is about three teenage girls and their families and you get to know them and you get to care about them. It's fiction and it draws you in. It's not didactic, not a lesson--it's a story. It's one possible reality. My hope is that it will make people think, help them realize they are not helpless when it comes to preparedness. The Lord is certainly in control of everything, but he appoints us as stewards and expects us to use our brains to manage resources wisely. That includes storing food and water for emergencies or any difficult time. 

As I say in the Afterword of the book, even if you never experience a catastrophic disaster, food storage makes sense because things happen...jobs are lost...disabilities occur...having a couple weeks' worth of supplies for the family (or more) can make all the difference in the world. 

So here's what it's about: 

Three teenage girls and their families must survive when America's worst nightmare actually occurs: The failure of the electric grid due to an electromagnetic pulse.

Life is changed forever.  

Only one was ready.

Which one are you?

To those on the outside, Andrea Patterson has the American Dream house and family. But when the world stops and life changes forever,  the American Dream looks more like a nightmare;  one from which she and her family might not wake up alive. 

There's no power, no lights, no internet, no cell phones, and not even a stinking working car.   Who would ever have thought this could happen in the U.S.A?

Lexie  Martin's farm family has never been cool like Andrea's, but they've been prepping for a big event for years. For them, the world didn't stop; it just slowed down. Taking in their elderly neighbor makes life seem almost cosy. The only thing they didn't prepare for? A  paranoid bus driver who wants what they've got.

Sarah Weaver, friend of Andrea and Lexie, lives on the top floor of a ten-story apartment building.  When things went black, she thought it could be romantic, like living in the time of Jane Austen.

She was wrong.

Has the world collapsed forever?

Who will survive when technology fails?

Or maybe the right question is,

Who will get to eat?

****

Linore is giving away a copy of her e-book. Leave a comment to be entered. Let us know, what do you think about preppers?

Purchase link: http://amzn.to/1J7CybR
Also available in paperback.

More about Linore:

Linore R. Burkard has been blessed and afflicted by her imagination all her life.   At age nine, she attempted her first novel. It was a way to channel wishful imaginings and longings that real life didn't offer.

After college, marriage and children, L.R. again began writing novels. Her first published books were historical romance with Harvest House Publishers, and are available on Amazon and other online retailers.  PULSE is her first suspense novel.  A series is in the works.

Connect with Linore:

http://LRBurkard.com

http://www.LinoreBurkard.com