Connecting Reviewers with Authors
Seasons by Rebecca Forster
Elizabeth MacMillan’s husband needed space, and now he’s gone for good leaving her with their ten-year-old son and no idea how they will survive. Max Marino’s life has been empty for years, and then he meets Elizabeth. The attraction is instantaneous and passionate, but Max has a dark secret that will shake Elizabeth’s faith in second chances. Only time will tell if their love can weather the storm ahead, or be destroyed before the seasons change.
Mayhem 337: Memoir of a Combat Advisor in Afghanistan by Chad Rickard
In 2008, Senior U.S. Army Infantry Sergeant Chad Rickard embedded within the Afghan Army as a Combat Advisor. During a yearlong deployment, he slugged it out with Haqqani Taliban on Afghanistan’s eastern border, along Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier. Follow Rickard as he engages in mountain warfare against numerically superior enemy forces. See urban combat through the eyes of a Soldier that was there. Follow along as his team directs airstrikes and artillery fire. From hostage situations, to IEDs, and air assaults, this memoir leaves nothing to the imagination. Don’t miss this award-winning book and author.
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Henry Wondered by Hazel Pacheco
Somewhere in the bosque, in the open spaces near the Rio Grande, lives a covey of quail . . . In this episode, Henry wonders about many things. In particular, how to impress his first crush! When a handsome roo enters the picture, all seems doomed. Will Federico, a stranger and self-proclaimed talented flamingo dancer, foil Henry’s plan to impress Gloria? Follow Henry as he discovers the wonder of serendipity.
Beautifully illustrated, Henry Wondered presents a delightful, humorous tale that celebrates thoughtfulness and delivers a subtle faith inspired message that encourages overcoming pride and jealousy.
When Push Comes to Shoot by Rena Koontz
Emma Hunter’s tyrannical brother deserved to die, even if the manner of his murder was horror-movie gruesome. As a police lieutenant, she’s duty-bound to provide whatever assistance she can in hunting down her brother’s killer, but she doesn’t mourn his loss. Business acquaintances, former friends, and even his relatives agree the world is better off without the despicable bully.
With no clues and too many suspects, it looks like the murderer might be home free — until tenacious Detective Jared Jones’ suspicions turn to Emma’s sweet sister-in-law. Emma knows for a fact that her brother’s mentally and emotionally abused wife is innocent, but conflicting loyalties prevent her from speaking up and turning the investigation in the right direction. What’s best for her brother’s widow could cost Emma everything she values — her career, her reputation, even her freedom.
Deadly Trail by Marilyn Meredith
The peace of the town of Bear Creek in the Southern Sierra is disrupted by the unusual death of the owner of the local inn. Though resident Deputy Tempe Crabtree’s job is not to investigate a murder case, she feels compelled to get involved when her friend Nick Two John is arrested. She realizes there are several people who wanted the victim dead, including his wife. As she continues to discover clues she puts her job, her wedding planning, and herself in danger.
That’s How It Was: Operation Finders Keepers by Hazel Pacheco
That’s How It Was: Operation Finders Keepers comes under “interesting children’s fiction” category. This is a unique children’s book because it is primarily done in letter format. Set in the late 1960s, the letters are to Randy Ray’s future family. His ten-year-old self shares his perspective on people, animals, and faith as he contemplates whimsical and not-so-whimsical career choices. Who would have guessed that a class assignment would lead to captured moments in time waiting to be discovered by his daughters thirty-seven years later! His letters allow his daughters, Sarah and Melissa, to get to know the boy who became their father, and understand the essence of what it means to grow up country.
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A Span of Moments by Robert Beech
A profound story of coming home to an old Florida island and struggling to save its way of life and native beauty: Midsummer 1994,a disillusioned Jake Crawford quits a prominent scientific career and retreats to the island home of his youth, longing for its old Florida way of life. Within hours of his arrival, he becomes entangled in a deadly series of events involving a billionaire real estate developer and a reclusive bridgetender with a long-hidden past. Jake’s struggle to navigate those events will determine whether Marcosta Island preserves its culture and native beauty or succumbs to the same overpopulation and environmental harm that has befallen the rest of southwest Florida.
Wheels of Injustice by Susan Louise Gabriel
It began with one woman’s fight to save her child and ended in a national movement—
Six weeks into a blissful honeymoon, life turns into a nightmare when Susan’s 9-year-old daughter is taken away and her husband is falsely accused of child sexual abuse.
A simple misunderstanding is reshaped by the powerful, out-of-control child protection machine of the 1980s into something sinister, and Susan is dragged under its churning wheels. She is given the choice to cooperate in prosecuting her innocent husband or lose her daughter.
It’s the decade of unfounded abuse accusations, hysterical claims of orgies at daycare centers, families controlled by courts, and a child protection system that has become the very thing it was created to eradicate.
No one wants to hear the facts.
No one wants to know the truth.
When the couple doesn’t cave to the pressure, Susan loses custody of her daughter, and her husband is charged with a felony that carries a 16-year prison sentence.
Wheels of Injustice is a curtains-pulled-back, true account of the child protection system of the ’80s and its victims, who risked everything to expose its egregiously unjust acts and reform it.
“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
This memoir is a tribute to God’s faithfulness and a message of hope and inspiration to others who struggle to overcome adversity, fight injustice, or turn an upended life the right way around again.
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Hostile Witness by Rebecca Forster
A prominent judge is dead. Hannah Sheraton, a troubled sixteen year-old-girl, is accused. When the legal community turns its back, and the judiciary decides to make an example of her and try her as an adult, only Josie Bates will defend her. Flawed and brilliant, Josie is committed to saving the girl, but the deeper she digs the more she realizes that politics and family history are a combustible and dangerous combination. When the truth is uncovered, it will either save Hannah or destroy them both.
50 States by Richard R. Becker
An Idaho farmer who aches for absolution after a tragedy is given one more chance at redemption. Two runaways cross paths in a Tennessee bus station with only one ticket between them. A family sees looters racing toward their home as they escape an Oregon wildfire. A young couple takes a reckless turn off a state highway in Utah and find themselves in a nightmarish government biohazard area.
These and 46 more shorts make up an anthology that will surprise readers with each new thought-provoking story as they skip effortlessly across different genres, moods, and states of mind. Together, they provide a character-driven sampling of the American experience over the last 60 years — the kind and the cruel, the heroic and criminal — in unpredictable and exciting ways.
50 States is a debut collection of short stories that captures the human condition and reveals how perception shapes destiny. The book spans several literary genres with each short story set in a different state across America. It is soon to be released as an audiobook, narrated by a 5-time Emmy winner.
