Comfort Songs ~ Lone Star Book Blog Tours Review & Giveaway!

COMFORT SONGS

a companion novel to Comfort Plans

by

KIMBERLY FISH

Genre: Contemporary Romance / Women's Fiction

Publisher: Fish Tales, LLC 

Date of Publication: September 19, 2019

Number of Pages: 348

Scroll down for giveaway!

Award-winning author of Comfort Plans, Kimberly Fish, delivers a novel about family, forgiveness, and the seeds of second chances.

Eight years ago, Autumn Joy Worthington, still reeling from the bitter divorce of her Grammy-Award-winning parents, endured the betrayal of a man who’d promised her a wedding. Running from pain seemed the logical response. Reinventing herself in Comfort, Texas, as a lavender grower, she creates a wildly successful gardening haven that draws in tourists and establishes an identity far removed from her parents’ fame. Her mother’s retirement from stardom inspires AJ to offer her refuge and nurse the dream that they could move past old hurts and the tarnish of the music industry … to find friendship. A grandmother in the early stages of dementia and the return of AJ’s father complicate the recovery, but nothing sets the fragile reality spinning like the arrival of Nashville music executive, Luke English. 

As Alzheimer’s slowly knocks away the filters of their family, AJ comes to appreciate the true meanings of love and forgiveness -- and that the power of redemption can generate from the most unlikely sources. When AJ uncovers the grit to make hard choices, she also discovers that the flowers that bloom the brightest can have the most tangled roots.

CLICK TO PURCHASE

✪✪✪✪✪

HALL WAYS REVIEW: In Comfort Songs, author Kimberly Fish has done everything right. Rich descriptions put readers in the middle of the Texas Hill Country where we can see and feel and smell the goodness of the great outdoors, where nature has its own way of giving hope and healing. Detailed and robust characterization makes the people alarmingly realistic. Multi-tiered, meticulously written, and intricately woven plot lines transport readers into other places, other times where life may seem simpler -- but it is life: complicated and complex as ever. 

“She was sure it would take a man with burglar skills

to unlock the rooms in her soul.” 

Fish establishes her characters’ personalities quickly through their words, actions, and thoughts. It’s almost like watching a stage play unfold as we meet main character AJ and the people in her world. Once the core cast is introduced, readers get pulled into each person’s story and backstory. The events from the past clearly shaped the characters into who we meet in Comfort Songs, and the result is readers enjoy fully fleshed-out, fully flawed, and fully familiar people who anyone can relate to. 

“More and more, a vacant stare replaced the usual spark and vinegar.” 

There are multiple family dynamics at play in Comfort Songs, and again, every reader will connect with someone or something within the book’s pages. For me, one of those connections is in watching dementia take hold of Inez, AJ’s grandmother. Fish handled this beautifully – and accurately – and it reminded me of my own experience watching my mother become someone else as her dementia consumed her and finally killed her. Is it painful to read the scenes? Of course. But it’s also cathartic in a way because it reminds me that we all share the human experience. And that’s the crux of Comfort Songs; we are in this life together with family, friends, partners, and purpose to keep us marching along. 

Kimberly Fish’s storytelling and writing make me want to visit Comfort, Texas, and breathe in the beauty of the Texas Hill Country and its people. It’s that common thread that runs through both books (and a novella), but the books stand alone. I happily ventured to Comfort a time before, via Comfort Plans, and I eagerly await the next two Comfort installments, which the author assures us are coming. I highly recommend y’all take a trip to Comfort, too. 

Thank you to the author and Lone Star Book Blog Tours for providing me a GORGEOUS print copy (that COVER!!!) and reading escape in exchange for my honest opinion – the only kind I give.

Kimberly Fish is a professional writer with almost thirty years of media experience. She's been telling stories far longer. She published her first novel, a WWII historical fiction novel, because of a true story in her adopted hometown that was too good to ignore.  She quickly followed that success with a sequel. Since then, she's continued writing fiction and added a contemporary second-chance romance series set in Comfort, Texas, to her list of fun, fast-paced novels. Kimberly lives with her family in East Texas.

WEBSITE   INSTAGRAM  FACEBOOK  
YOUTUBE   PINTEREST   TWITTER   
GOODREADS   AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE   

-------------------------------------

GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!

SIGNED COPY OF COMFORT SONGS
+  HUMMINGBIRD FARMS HAND CREAM & HAND SOAP

OCTOBER 22-NOVEMBER 1, 2019

(U.S. Only)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

VISIT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR:

10/22/19	Review	Momma on the Rocks
10/22/19	BONUS Promo	All the Ups and Downs
10/23/19	Review	Reading by Moonlight
10/23/19	Review	KayBee's Book Shelf
10/24/19	Review	Sybrina's Book Blog
	BONUS Post	Sybrina's Publishing
10/25/19	Review	Sydney Young, Stories
10/25/19	Review	Bibliotica
10/26/19	Review	That's What She's Reading
10/27/19	Review	Book Fidelity
10/28/19	Review	The Book Review
10/28/19	Review	Missus Gonzo
10/29/19	Review	Forgotten Winds
10/30/19	Review	The Clueless Gent
10/30/19	Review	StoreyBook Reviews
10/31/19	Review	Hall Ways Blog
10/31/19	Review	Carpe Diem Chronicles

   blog tour services provided by

  

RELATED:

Click for Hall Ways Review

Tarnished Brass ~ Lone Star Book Blog Tours Review & Giveaway!

TARNISHED BRASS

by

MAX L. KNIGHT

  Genre: Historical Fiction / Novella / War 

Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.

Date of Publication: September 20, 2019

Number of Pages: 114

Scroll down for the giveaway!

The war in El Salvador as seen through the eyes of a U.S. Army officer, a guerrilla leader, and a refugee turned gang member

Patrick Michael Moynihan finds himself returning to the small Central American country where, as a young impressionistic junior officer, he was thrust into the middle of a brutal civil war.

Miguel Alejandro Xenias, once a member of the ruling elite in El Salvador, recalls his change of heart, advancement within the guerrilla movement, and his new-found hope for the country now that the FMLN is in power.

Antonio Cruz, seeking a new life in America, finds only a different kind of hatred and conflict, joins the street gang MS-13, and returns home bringing with him a new kind of warfare.

These perspectives spotlight an ongoing struggle in El Salvador that continues to impact the immigration crisis on our southern border and the spread of gang violence throughout the United States.

More than just a history of the war in El Salvador, a conflict that ended almost thirty years ago, Tarnished Brass gives voice to those who fought and those who only wanted to escape the violence.

CLICK TO PURCHASE:

Amazon ● Barnes& Noble

GooglePlay  ●  Apple iTunes

IndieBound

✪✪✪✪

HALL WAYS REVIEW: Tarnished Brass is a novella that comes in at around a hundred pages of story, but author Max L. Knight fits in an incredible amount of information. The book not only informs readers about events of the past, it also reminds readers of the far-reaching effects of war, even decades later, even across oceans.

While I was happily navigating high school and college through the eighties, like most kids in that stage of life, I was oblivious to what was happening in El Salvador (and most of the world outside my bubble). I lived a safe and privileged life while El Salvador lost the decade as a war-torn country plagued by fighting factions – one of them aided by funding, training, and weapons courtesy of the United States.

The archbishop urgently petitioned those in power to alter course.

“In the name of God and this suffering population, whose cries reach to the heavens more tumultuous each day…cease the repression.”

His words were met by a sniper’s bullet to the heart.

Many of the chapters in Tarnished Brass are filled primarily with historical information that gives readers facts about the political and military climate and the war’s ever-worsening impact on the Salvadorans. The only pause in El Salvador’s war was when an earthquake interrupted it and displaced hundreds of thousands of people who were already suffering. Knight does a good job of keeping the plight of the poor as a constant thread running through all the chapters. The poor never win in war -- or in times of peace. The strength of the book is in Knight’s world-building: the poverty, the destruction, the darkness of El Salvador.

Tarnished Brass is well-written and cleanly edited, and its contents are engaging. The structure of the book is unique, vacillating between storytelling and fact-telling. There are chapters that give readers insight into the lives of the three main characters, but none of the characters are ever fully fleshed-out or given much depth. (The exception was a chapter dedicated to the psychological profile of a side-character, Diana, which was profoundly sad and fascinating.) There are other chapters in which the purpose is solely to inform, and only a few sentences, either at the beginning or the end, tie in one of the story’s characters to the scene. The story of Tarnished Brass is the war; the characters within are somewhat peripheral but do serve to soften the edges of what could easily convert to a nonfiction piece.

I was most appreciative that the author not only included a glossary of military terminology, but he tells readers first thing that it’s at the back of the book. (I never think to look first.) While it is most helpful for those of us not in-the-know, the book is still full of military acronyms and jargon that are defined once and used often – and I found myself flipping back to figure out what was what and who was who.  Those who are students of history and politics and military ops won’t have any issues and will probably enjoy that the book has a more factual, less fictional slant.

As a more informed, but still ridiculously under-informed adult, reading Tarnished Brass helped me tie current headlines to the past. It was particularly interesting to learn the origins of MS-13, the now international criminal gang that started as a group to protect Salvadoran immigrants in Los Angeles. Following character Antonio’s grim but realistic story was eye-opening and the most powerful of the stories in Tarnished Brass. It was in Antonio’s story that I saw glimpses of Knight’s storytelling and characterization prowess that he showed in Palo Duro.

Tarnished Brass educates readers of not only an important piece of world history, but also the impact of the United States’s foreign policy, then and now. Intelligently written, Tarnished Brass is a quick way to get informed while also fulfilling a reader’s need to escape into fiction.

Thank you to the author and Lone Star Book Blog Tours for providing me a paperback copy in exchange for my honest opinion – the only kind I give.  

Max Knight was born in Panama and grew up in the Canal Zone and in San Antonio, Texas. He graduated from Texas A&M University in 1973 with a bachelor’s degree in English. A Distinguished Military Graduate, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army and served twenty-four years in the Air Defense Artillery retiring with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

In addition to assignments within his basic branch, Max also specialized as a Foreign Area Officer in both the European Theatre of Operations (Germany and Greece) and within USSOUTHCOM (Panama, Honduras, and El Salvador). He received the Defense Superior Service Medal for his service in El Salvador during that country’s civil war. Max earned his master’s degree in government from Campbell University, and retired from the Army in 1997.

Upon retirement Max was hired by RCI Technologies in San Antonio and became its Director of Internal Operations. He also was the first volunteer docent at the Alamo working within its Education Department. However, following the tragic events of 9/11, he became an Independent Contractor and spent the next ten years as a Counterintelligence Specialist in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Central America before cancer forced him to quit.

Max has since published a memoir, Silver Taps, and a novel of westward expansion, Palo Duro. He resides in San Antonio with his wife, Janet “Gray.” They have three surviving children; Lisa, Brian, and Sean, and three grandchildren; Tony, Nicholas, and Cecilia Marie.

║ Blog ║ Twitter ║ LinkedIn ║ Goodreads║

║ Amazon Author Page ║ Pinterest ║ Facebook║

-------------------------------------

GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!

One Winner: Signed copy of Tarnished Brass + $25 Amazon Gift Card
OCTOBER 29-NOVEMBER 8, 2019

(U.S. Only)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

VISIT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR:

10/29/19	Promo	All the Ups and Downs
10/29/19	Excerpt	Chapter Break Book Blog
10/30/19	Author Interview	That's What She's Reading
10/30/19	Review	Hall Ways Blog
10/31/19	Scrapbook page	Missus Gonzo
10/31/19	Review	Librariel Book Adventures
11/1/19	Playlist	The Clueless Gent
11/1/19	Review	Forgotten Winds
11/2/19	Review	StoreyBook Reviews
11/2/19	Review	Reading by Moonlight

   blog tour services provided by

  

The Art of Taking it Easy ~ Book Blog Tour Excerpt & Giveaway!

THE ART OF TAKING IT EASY

by Dr. Brian King 

Genre:  Adult Non-Fiction (18+)

Categories:  Literary / Self-Help / Humor

Publisher:  Apollo Publishers

Release date:  October 2019 

Content Rating: PG-13+

BOOK DESCRIPTION: Psychologist and Comedian King explores the science behind stress in this witty, informed guide. 

The author uses a bevy of running jokes and punch lines to enliven technical explanations for how and why people experience stress. His metaphors of coming across a bear in the wild as well as being stuck in traffic are also used to great effect to explain a variety of stress responses, such as perceiving a threat and feelings of powerlessness. 

Reframing thoughts plays a large role in King's advice: stress is simply a reaction to a perception of threat being able to consciously redirect choices made by other areas of the brain is the key to living a less stressful existence. He also provides breathing exercises, plants for painting physical health, and useful advice for setting attainable goals. King's enjoyable guide to living with less will be of help to any anxious reader.

BUY THE BOOK ON AMAZON

=  =  =  =  =  =

EXCERPT

=  =  =  =  =  =

What Happens To Our Bodies During Stress

from The Art of Taking It Easy: How To Cope With Bears,

Traffic, And The Rest Of Life’s Stressors 

by Dr. Brian King

Most people are familiar with the standard “Fight or Flight” dichotomy, and really that is probably all we need to understand, but I like to throw in “Freeze” because it is a common behavioral reaction. Think about how many times you may have been so overwhelmed with stress that you became incredibly inactive. Maybe you were sitting at your desk at work, handed an incredibly daunting task with an unrealistic deadline, and instead of diving right in and tackling that bad boy (fight), or asking your boss for an extensions or help (flight), you just sat there unable to do anything (freeze). I’ve been there. Remember the job that made my eye twitch? 

It is easy to understand freezing in the bear attack scenario. A lot of people will freeze up when overcome with fear. Even the Black Panther froze (and his sister made fun of him for it) despite the fact that he has superpowers and advanced technology! Marvel movies aside, my favorite “freeze” story took place during my time in graduate school. 

I had a friend who was given a car by her family. The problem was, it had a standard transmission and she didn’t know how to drive a stick. What a great gift! “Here: it’s a car that you can’t drive!” Being one of her few friends that knew how to drive one, I offered to teach her. We started off in the parking lot, I explained how the clutch pedal worked, when to press it down and how to shift gears. Then she practiced a bit. Of course there were some initial stalls, but after a few minutes she got the hang of it and was shifting all the way up to third. I asked if she was ready to hit the streets and she said yes. We left campus, drove a few blocks and everything seemed fine. We caught a red light, and she slowed down to a stop without incident. She was a little stressed, elevated heart rate and all, but not out of control. 

We were at a four-way intersection, the first car in our lane at the light. As soon as the light turned green, she went to press the gas pedal but did something wrong and the car stalled. Now, in traffic we have cars coming at us from the opposite direction and cars coming up from behind and she freezes. In this context freezing meant letting go of the steering wheel, lifting her feet off the pedals and COVERING HER EYES! She yelled “I can’t take this” and threw her arm across her face. 

Suddenly, I became stressed. My fight response kicked in and I grabbed the wheel from the passenger’s seat, stretched my leg over the center console to work the pedals and steered us out of traffic. Nobody was hurt and after we calmed down, we had a good laugh about the whole thing. You know, where we could have been seriously injured. 

I didn’t realize it until much later that her reaction, which I had a hard time understanding at the time, was a common reaction to stress. Remember I discussed how the brain picks actions based on whichever one has the most potential value given our previous experiences. I believe that if neither option looks appealing, the brain will choose to freeze or do nothing. Like with the bear attack, successfully fighting off or running from a bear are extremely unlikely outcomes for most people. In the absence of a good option, many people choose to freeze. Similarly, at that moment sitting in the car in the middle of the intersection, my friend was faced with a choice to make. In a car, both fight and flight require driving skills, and to a brain that lacks confidence in its ability to drive neither option will likely hold much value... so she froze.

=  =  =  =  =  =

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: DR.BRIAN KING trained as a neuroscientist and psychologist and for the past decade has traveled the world as a comedian and public speaker. By day he conducts seminars, attended by thousands of people each year around the US and internationally, on positive psychology, the health benefits of humor, and stress management. By night he practices what he teaches in comedy clubs, and is the founder and producer of the highly reviewed Wharf Room comedy show in San Francisco. 
Dr. Brian holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas, a master’s degree from the University of New Orleans, and a PhD in neuroscience from Bowling Green State University. Hailing from New York and living in dozens of cities throughout the US as the child of a military family, today spends his life on the road with his partner, Sarah, and their young daughter. 

Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram