The Mail Order Bride's Secret ~ Lone Star Book Blog Tours Notable Quotable & Giveaway!

THE MAIL ORDER

BRIDE'S SECRET

Outlaw's Mail Order Bride,

Book Three

by

LINDA BRODAY

Genre: Historical Western Romance
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication Date: January 28, 2020

Number of Pages: 352 pages

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When the West was wild and man's law favored the few, these extraordinary women could be found...in the heart of an outlaw.

When three young children show up on outlaw Tait Trinity's doorstep, he knows he can't help them―a wanted man has no business raising kids. And yet he can't bring himself to turn them away. At a loss, he sends for the mail order bride he'd been writing to, hoping the demure dressmaker will be the answer to his prayers.

Melanie Dunbar is nothing like the bride Tait was expecting. She's rough and tumble...and hiding an ulterior motive. Dangerous men have taken her sister hostage, and if Melanie wants to see her alive, she'll have to betray her new husband. There's only one problem―the more time she spends with Tait, the more she comes to care for him. Yet as the noose begins to tighten, Melanie will have to make a terrible choice: save her sister...or the man she loves.

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│iBooks │ Amazon │ Indiebound│ 
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PRAISE FOR THE MAIL ORDER BRIDE'S SECRET:

“This is another page-turning period romance from Broday.” Publisher’s Weekly

“Broday does a fabulous job of telling a story filled with humor, angst and some candid truths just so we don’t romanticize this period in our history.” Fresh Fiction

“This book was absolutely mesmerizing with nonstop action, full of laughter, tears and just a downright good Old fashioned Wild West story as only Linda Broday can do.” Glenda (Goodreads reviewer)

I'm a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over twenty historical western romance novels and short stories. I reside in the Texas Panhandle on land the American Indian and Comancheros once roamed, and at times if the breeze is just right, I can hear their voices whispering in the wind. Texas’ rich history is one reason I set all my stories here where cowboys are still caretakers of the land. I’m inspired every day by their immense dedication and love for the wide-open spaces.

When I’m not writing, I collect old coins and I’ve also been accused (quite unfairly I might add) of making a nuisance of myself at museums, libraries, and historical places. I’m also a movie buff and love sitting in a dark theater, watching the magic unfold on the screen. As long as I’m confessing…chocolate is my best friend. It just soothes my soul.

║ WEBSITE  ║  FACEBOOK  ║  PINTEREST

TWITTER  ║   GOODREADS  ║   LINKEDIN  ║   BOOKBUB

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Three Winners

1st: $25 Amazon Gift Card; 2nd: Autographed Set of All 3 Books in the Series; 3rd: Autographed Copy of The Mail Order Bride’s Secret.

January 28-February 7, 2020

(US Addresses Only)

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VISIT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR:

1/28/20	Notable Quotable	All the Ups and Downs
1/28/20	BONUS Post	Hall Ways Blog
1/29/20	Excerpt	That's What She's Reading
1/30/20	Review	Carpe Diem Chronicles
1/31/20	Review	Chapter Break Book Blog
2/1/20	Character Interview	It's Not All Gravy
2/2/20	Top Ten List	StoreyBook Reviews
2/3/20	Review	Books and Broomsticks
2/4/20	Series Spotlight	Jennifer Silverwood
2/5/20	Review	Missus Gonzo
2/6/20	Review	Reading by Moonlight

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Road to Hope ~ Lone Star Book Blog Tours Author Video & Giveaway!

ROAD TO HOPE

How One Woman Went from Doubting Her Path to Embracing Her Inner Journey

by

Dena Jansen

Genre: Memoir / Inspirational / Christian Life
Publication Date: November 15, 2019

Number of Pages: 240 pages

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Have you ever felt stuck? If so, you are not alone. As a 36-year-old wife, mother, and corporate executive, Dena Jansen’s life looked successful by society’s standards. But she found herself at an intersection—stranded at a real-life crossroads in her life.

Over a matter of years, darkness and doubt slowly crept in, leaving her unsure and unsettled in her life, marriage, and career. And after stalling out multiple times and nearly wrecking everything, she finally grabbed hold of a life-saving truth:

She had a choice to make. She could stay stuck, or she could try and find new roads that would lead to the peace and joy she was looking for.

With a glimmer of hope, Dena embraced the gifts of curiosity and grace and began a journey of self-discovery. And she chose to believe in a new truth:

She was meant for more and could no longer settle.

In Road to Hope, Dena invites you to join her as she wanders the roads she traveled and take anything you need from her story to help you in yours. She shares how she grew from a woman who doubted her path to one who is confident and ready for the next adventure. And she wants you to experience a similar shift. And more than that, she believes you can.

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Dena Jansen, Founder and Voice of Dena Speaks, launched her new business surrounded by family, friends and colleagues. See what the night was all about...

HALL WAYS REVIEW: Audio Book Mini-Review. Author Dena Jansen narrated her memoir and that was an excellent choice and was professionally performed. Hearing Dena's words, in Dena's own voice and with her emphasis on words and her feelings behind them to the book to the next level.  Dena has a startling level of self-awareness and her analytical brain allows her to attack her problems and the solutions with precision.

I love that Dena's trajectory isn’t a solid slope up. It’s up/down, two steps forward, sometimes ten steps back. And I love that she acknowledges that like all of us, even when we feel on fire, it doesn’t take much for a set-back. Confidence is easily capsized and the fire doused.

“God, help me figure out what self-love is all about … but more importantly, God, please just help me find a place to take a nap. Thanks God. Amen.”

One thing that caught my attention was how she carved out significant quiet time and self-care time. Full-time job, marriage, school-aged kids? How in the world she finds time for herself and her morning ritual and reading all the self-help books and spending time journaling in self-reflection, I truly don't understand. When I was in that stage in life, it was a good day if I got a shower. 

I hope to write a full review at some point, but suffice it to say I recommend the book particularly for those who are in a place in life where they feel stuck and for those in auto-pilot mode, who one day realize they don’t know who they are or how you they got where they are. I am impressed and amazed that Dena's only in her 30s and figured it out so early.

Thank you to Lone Star Book Blog Tours and the author for providing me an audio code in exchange for my honest opinion -- the only kind I give.

Dena Jansen’s calling to lift others up is profoundly personal. She understands the fears and doubts that hold people back because she has them too. Her own path to fulfillment is a real-life journey that’s still very much in progress. As a CPA and retired partner from Austin-based CPA firm Maxwell Locke & Ritter, she launched Dena Speaks to inspire potential seeking individuals and businesses. Dena shares life and love with her husband, JP, and their two children, Trace, and Elizabeth in Buda, Texas. She loves romantic comedy movies, listening to podcasts, and spending time with her family and friends.

║ Website ║ Instagram║ Goodreads║ 

LinkedIn ║ Facebook ║ Twitter 

║ Amazon Author Page ║ 

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GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!

ONE WINNER: Signed copy + $10 Starbucks Gift Card + Dena Speaks swag

TWO WINNERS: Signed paperback OR audio code + $10 Starbucks Gift Card

JANUARY 21-31, 2020

(U.S. Only)

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VISIT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR:

1/21/20	Author Video	Books and Broomsticks
1/21/20	BONUS Post	Hall Ways Blog
1/22/20	Author Interview	All the Ups and Downs
1/23/20	Review	Book Fidelity
1/24/20	Playlist	Story Schmoozing Book Reviews
1/25/20	Review	Jennifer Silverwood
1/26/20	Scrapbook Page	Chapter Break Book Blog
1/27/20	Review	Librariel Book Adventures
1/28/20	Excerpt	StoreyBook Reviews
1/29/20	Review	Tangled in Text
1/30/20	Review	Missus Gonzo

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All In ~ Lone Star Book Blog Tours Review & Giveaway!

ALL IN

by

L.K. Simonds

Genre: Gritty Realistic / Christian Fiction
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
Date of Publication: August 27, 2019

Number of Pages: 282

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A woman’s empty pursuit of happiness leads to a crisis before finding redemption in the Lord in this challenging and gritty Christian novel.

Twenty-nine-year-old novelist and blackjack dealer Cami Taylor seems to have it all—but just underneath her confident exterior and newfound celebrity is a young woman in trouble. Cami’s boyfriend, Joel, wants to get married, buy a house on Long Island, and raise a family—a life that’s a million miles from Cami’s idea of happiness. Her therapist suggests compromise and trust, but Cami would rather bolt like a deer.

Breaking things off with Joel, Cami launches herself on a new quest for happiness. But her pursuit of pleasure only takes her further from herself—and toward a harrowing new reality unlike anything she’s faced before. What follows for Cami is a fight to the death that can only be waged with God’s love.

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AMAZON  ┃  BARNES AND NOBLE  ┃ KOBO

INDIEBOUND  ┃ GOOGLE PLAY

L.K. SIMONDS PRESENTS CAMI TAYLOR:

HALL WAYS REVIEW: It is a rare occasion when I know much about a book before I read it. With All In, I knew there was some controversy over the book being categorized as Christian fiction – gritty, realistic, Christian fiction. Who wouldn’t be interested in exploring that? With my interest piqued, I read the book description and just like the book’s title, I was all in.

“Manhattan lays out a daily smorgasbord of humanity. Old and young, rich and poor, bourgeois and Bolshevik…all together, they form a single living organism, a New York amoeba, shaping itself to the sidewalk container, shrinking from the overflowing wastebaskets and ubiquitous vendors.”

The strength of All In is in the vivid descriptions of people and places. Author L.K. Simonds writes with panache; her use of figurative language and carefully selected word choices (she bussed his cheek) ensnare and hold captive the reader. Truly, Simonds’s sentences are some of the most well-written I’ve read in some time. The writing is cerebral, and sentences are heavy with meaning, each giving readers more insight into main character Cami’s mind and heart. But much is also said between the lines, and while the story is a page-turner, there is much to be gained by mindful reading.

“Jackie wasn’t just a dealer. She was a gambler too. Always laying it all on the line, hoping for the big payoff.”

The cover image of All In, which also piqued my interest, is highly representative of Cami’s life, but it’s nuanced. Sure, there is an obvious connection: Cami took a job as a blackjack dealer in a casino in order to research and accurately write Jackie, the main character of her bestselling book. But it goes much deeper than that. In writing Jackie, Leona Camille Lingo becomes author Cami Taylor – who lives vicariously through her character, Jackie.  Sound complicated? It is. Gambling is an apt metaphor for Cami Taylor’s life.

Readers need to be aware that All In is not a book about a struggling Christian finding God: Cami is not a believer. She is self-aware, pragmatic even, about her lack of faith and self-destructive behavior and doesn’t worry about her soul. Does she sin? Well, yeah. She is human, and humans, whether they call themselves Christian or not, are sinners. Readers know Cami’s is a redemption story, and despite the divine intervention of having Kate dropped into Cami’s life, it takes the whole book to get there (seriously - to the final twenty pages). Truly, the book’s structure itself reflects the never-too-late religious narrative.

Regardless of one’s personal beliefs, I recommend readers be open-minded and remember that we all worship differently. Admittedly, the Pentecostal way in which Cami finally accepts Jesus Christ as her savior is outside my comfort zone. And while I believe in Jesus’ power to heal, I struggled to suspend my disbelief with how Cami’s conversion ultimately unfolded, and I think this could have been written a little differently to not alienate some readers.

For me, it took effort to step back here and not let the ending negate from the experience of reading the book.  But step-back I did, and I am left with a book that I would easily recommend to others who can be non-judgmental about belief systems other than their own. The writing is stunning, the story is enthralling, and All In is a powerful, realistic story that gloriously builds to one life-changing, lifesaving, defining moment.

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

L. K. Simonds is a Fort Worth local. She has worked as a waitress, KFC hostess, telephone marketer, assembly-line worker, nanny, hospital lab technician, and air traffic controller. She's an instrument-rated pilot and an alumna of Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas. All In is her first novel.

 ║ Website ║ Facebook ║ Twitter ║
║ Instagram ║ Goodreads ║
║ Amazon Author Page ║
║ BookBub ║






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ONE WINNER
Autographed, library-bound copy of All In
+ $50 Visa gift card

JANUARY 14-24, 2020

(US ONLY)

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VISIT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR:

1/14/20	Review	Hall Ways Blog
1/14/20	Review	Kelly Well Read
1/15/20	Review	That's What She's Reading
1/15/20	Review	Librariel Book Adventures
1/16/20	Review	Reading by Moonlight
1/17/20	Review	All the Ups and Downs
1/17/20	Review	Tangled in Text
1/18/20	Review	The Clueless Gent
1/19/20	Review	StoreyBook Reviews
1/20/20	Review	The Page Unbound
1/20/20	Review	Momma on the Rocks
1/21/20	Review	Sydney Young, Stories
1/22/20	Review	Rebecca R. Cahill, Author
1/23/20	Review	KayBee's Book Shelf
1/23/20	Review	Forgotten Winds

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