Friday, July 26, 2024

Stitched on My Heart: Delphina's Story - A Companion Christmas Novella

 


I felt at home with these characters right away.  You have to love them, feel like you want to reach out to them. Wonderful family and ranch, strong Christian values. Lovely story that develops between Delphina and Moses, their belonging to the family. A feel-good read for sure.

I received this book free from the author and publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

#StitchedOnMyHeart #HeidiGrayMcGill #HeidiGrayMcGillBooksLLC #BooksYouCanFeelGoodAbout

My reviews

Monday, July 22, 2024

Trail of Promises by Susan F. Craft

 

1753 along the Great Wagon Road that ran from Philadelphia, PA to Georgia. A broken wheel delays Tessa and the wagon following them while the rest of the wagon train moves on. From there great tragedy and trials as they continue on unfold in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Their recovery and perseverance as they travel on, situations and people they encounter are skillfully brought to life and greatly enrich the story. Hard to put down, great read every minute of the way.

I received this book free from the author, publisher and CelebrateLit book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

#TrailOfPromises #SusanFCraft #BooksYouCanFeelGoodAbout #CelebrateLit #ChristianHistoricalFiction #WildHeartBooks


About the Book

Book: Trail of Promises

Author: Susan F. Craft

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release date: June 25, 2024

A marriage of convenience will protect her reputation on the long trail ahead, but he’s barely more than a stranger…

Tessa Harris is a woman without options. When she’s stranded nearly two hundred miles from her destination, her only companions are a former British Cavalry officer and his two young brothers. Society dictates they cannot travel without a chaperone, but can she trust this handsome stranger to protect her if they choose to marry? And if so, should she show her feelings or guard her heart? She’s learned the hard way how painful it is to love a man who doesn’t reciprocate.

Stephen Griffith has enough responsibility caring for his young brothers, and now he shoulders the massive responsibility of keeping his new wife safe as they cross the wilderness toward a new life. And though he tries to keep her at arm’s length, reminding himself their marriage may only be a temporary arrangement, he cannot seem to shake the feelings growing for her.

When they fall into the hands of outlaws, Tessa and Stephen must overcome their hardest obstacle yet. Only God can bring them safely to the end of the trail where enduring love awaits. 

Click here to get your copy! 

About the Author

Susan F. Craft retired after a 45-year career in writing, editing, and communicating in business settings.

She authored the historical romantic suspense trilogy Women of the American Revolution—The Chamomile, Laurel, and Cassia. The Chamomile and Cassia received national Illumination Silver Awards. The Chamomile was named by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance as an Okra Pick and was nominated for a Christy Award.

She collaborated with the International Long Riders’ Guild Academic Foundation to compile An Equestrian Writer’s Guide (www.lrgaf.org), including almost everything you’d ever want to know about horses.

An admitted history nerd, she enjoys painting, singing, listening to music, and sitting on her porch watching geese eat her daylilies. She most recently took up the ukulele.

More from Susan

Tessa Harris and her father, Thomas, are portrait artists, limners, who travel from town to town seeking commissions.

Limners were among the first to record glimpses of life in colonial America. By the early 1700s, wealthy colonists hired limners to paint portraits of their families. These limners, mostly self-taught, generally unknown by name, turned out naive portraits in the Elizabethan style, the Dutch baroque style, or the English baroque court style, depending upon the European background of both artist and patron.

Rather than a true portrait, the paintings were most often idealistic and did not give a true representation of the personality of the sitter and were often two dimensional. Artists focused on the material wealth of the subject, giving much attention to their clothing and accessories. Some artists painted only the faces of their subjects, explaining that they need not bother with tedious sittings and that they would paint the bodies and clothing later. They would show their subjects English and French prints from which to choose whatever costumes and backgrounds they preferred.

Like most artisans of their time who found it difficult to support themselves with paintings only, limners also worked in pewter, silver, glass, or textiles or took jobs doing ornamental paintings of clocks, furniture, signs, and carriages. Many painted miniatures—tiny watercolor portraits—on pieces of ivory, often oval-shaped and commonly worn as jewelry. Limners also painted on paper and canvas and earned, on average, $15 per portrait.

Limners Samuel McIntire and Duncan Phyfe became celebrated painters of furniture. Famous colonial portrait artists included Joseph Blackburn, Peter Pelham, John Smibert, John Singleton Copley, John Trumbull and Charles Wilson Peale. An American artist, Benjamin West, became painter to the king and president of the Royal Academy in London. American artists flocked to his studio to learn under his tutelage, including Gilbert Stuart, who painted a famous portrait of George Washington.

In 1754 in British colonial New York, an artist took out the following ad in the Gazette and the Weekly Post: Lawrence Kilburn, Limner, just arrived from London with Capt. Miller, hereby acquaints all Gentlemen and Ladies inclined to favour him in having their pictures drawn, that he don’t doubt of pleasing them in taking a true Likeness, and finishing the Drapery in a proper Manner, as also in the Choice of Attitudes, suitable to each Person’s Age and Sex, and giving agreeable Satisfaction, as he has heretofore done to Gentlemen and Ladies in London. He may at present be apply’d to at his Lodgings, at Mr. Bogart’s near the New Printing-Office in Beaver-Street.

I pray that my Great Wagon Road series honors the Lord and the gifts He has given me and that you will love my characters as much as I do. Soli Deo Gloria.

Blog Stops

Giveaway



To celebrate her tour, Susan is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/2ca3e/trail-of-promises-celebration-tour-giveaway 





My reviews



Wednesday, July 17, 2024

A Love Discovered (The Heart of Cheyenne Book #1)

 

A young couple, friends, come together over tragedy and loss. They marry out of convenience and move to wild Cheyenne to make a new life for themselves. A great deal awaits them there, with struggle and pain as well as great friendship and opportunity. Bittersweet. 

I received this book free from the author, publisher and NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

#ALoveDiscovered #NetGalley #TraciePeterson #BethanyHousePublishers #BooksYouCanFeelGoodAbout


My reviews

Sunday, July 7, 2024

A Conflicted Betrothal by Denise Weimer (Scouts of the Georgia Frontier Book 4)

 


Absolutely wonderful characters that tie you in pieces all the way through. This takes place in the earliest time of our country's patriotism, with conflict and in-depth reasoning against the loyalist stance. Tense build up right to the very end. Parlor intrigue and the history behind the Stamp Act riots in Georgia make it quite interesting. The lessons of being true to oneself and one’s own convictions, and determining the point at which it is not only appropriate but imperative that we speak out are carried throughout. You have to love them, even the nasty twin sister.

I received this book free from the author, publisher and CelebrateLit book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

#AConflictedBetrothal #DeniseWeimer #BooksYouCanFeelGoodAbout #CelebrateLit #ChristianHistoricalFiction #WildHeartBooks


About the Book

Book: A Conflicted Betrothal

Author: Denise Weimer

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release date: June 11, 2024

A King’s Ranger, a secret patriot, and a love that calls everything into question.

As a King’s Ranger on Georgia’s frontier, Ansel Anderson loves his independent life. But he’s also a second son, which means he’ll need the favor of someone influential to secure a land grant to settle his future. What better way to win support than by marrying the daughter of a member of the Governor’s Council? Yet Ansel’s straightforward plan is complicated by Miss Scott’s aloofness and his own growing sympathy for the passionate cause of the Liberty Boys.

As drawn to the enigmatic Ansel Anderson as Temperance Scott might be, he’d be more of a match for her feisty twin sister—who is all too happy to oblige. Not only would timid, nearsighted Temperance make a poor wife for a man trained for life on the frontier, but anyone she allows close to her must share her secret patriot ideals.

When Savannah erupts into riots and intrigue following the passage of the Stamp Act, Ansel is tasked with identifying a spy passing sensitive information to the Liberty Boys and the author of anonymous letters threatening those loyal to the governor. And as suspicions focus on the Scott family, which is he prepared to sacrifice—love or loyalty?

 

Click here to get your copy!

 

About the Author

North Georgia native Denise Weimer has authored over a dozen traditionally published novels and a number of novellas—historical and contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and time slip. As a freelance editor and Acquisitions & Editorial Liaison for Wild Heart Books, she’s helped other authors reach their publishing dreams. A mother of two daughters, Denise always pauses for coffee, chocolate, and old houses.

 

 

 

More from Denise

The American Revolution That Almost Happened a Decade Earlier:

The Setting for A Conflicted Betrothal

Savannah, Georgia, 1765. Sedition, secret letters, spies, and Sons of Liberty. An absolutely irresistible combination for an author of historical romance! All this intrigue centered around the passage and implementation of the Stamp Act.

The crowning grievance after a series of increasingly repressive acts levying taxes for Britain, the act required an imprint on official papers or a small blue paper affixed with tin foil to a document, including bills, calendars, warrants, deeds, court documents, commercial papers, degrees, newspapers, pamphlets, ads, almanacs, indentures, appointments, and even cards and dice. Anyone breaking the Stamp Act would be tried in admiralty court in Novia Scotia. Colonists objected to not having a local trial by their peers and because English parliament, not the local upper and lower colonial houses, set the tax.

Savannah seethed with discontent while awaiting the appointment of a stamp master and the arrival of the stamps.

Then a sensational article in the Georgia Gazette revealed that four local citizens had received letters signed by “the Townsman” accusing them of being the stamp master or having stamped papers in their possession. The men were instructed to publicly advertise their innocence or risk grievous results.

When protest and riots speared by the fledgling Liberty Boys repeatedly erupted, the governor called out his Royal Rangers to quell the potential rebellion. But the rangers and the militia were riddled with secret patriots, many of whom were the sons of prominent loyalists. Imagine being in the position where you are sworn to serve and protect—only, you suspect you may be on the wrong side.

That’s what happens to my hero in A Conflicted Betrothal. Georgia Royal Ranger Ansel Anderson is summoned from his frontier post to provide intelligence to his father’s friend, a loyalist judge. To obtain the land grant he needs, he’s also to court the man’s daughter, an ardent patriot. Patience Scott has no intention of letting herself fall for a sworn King’s Man…until anonymous letters threatening those loyal to the governor corner her into agreeing to a betrothal. But will their attraction to each other survive their conflicting loyalties?

Blog Stops

Giveaway


To celebrate her tour, Denise is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/2c80b/a-conflicted-betrothal-celebration-tour-giveaway


My reviews

Wednesday, July 3, 2024

The Gentleman Thief by Camille Elliot

 

Smoothly written mystery with deep plots within and wonderful 3d characters. Excellent prequel to a great series. Go along for the ride and thoroughly enjoy it!

I received this book free from the author. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

#TheGentlemanThief #CamilleElliott #CamyTang #BooksYouCanFeelGoodAbout

My Reviews

A Choice Considered by Tracie Peterson

 

The tiny ember that had always burned for his dream seemed to flame up momentarily.

An enjoyable story set in early Cheyenne. Melody and her father traveled along as the new railroad was laid and are staying in town after her father was injured. They got to know and become close to friends who live there. Charlie came into town to manage his father's bank and finds more than he expected. Melody and Charlie always followed where their fathers led, are now considering other ideas. Beautiful story of loving families, changes in their lives, and difficulties to face. 

I received this book free from the authors, publisher and NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

#AChoiceConsidered #NetGalley #TraciePeterson #BethanyHousePublishers #BooksYouCanFeelGoodAbout

My reviews

Tuesday, July 2, 2024

Weaving Roots promo

 

Don't miss this new release! Weaving Roots by Heather Wood will warm your heart so be sure to check it out!
Click here for more information: https://tinyurl.com/u53nw76