Be sure to enter both giveaways!!
About the Book
Book: A Dream of Family
Author: Jill Weatherholt
Genre: Inspirational Romance
Release date: June 29, 2021
To give a little girl a home…
she must take a
chance on forgiveness.
From the minute Molly Morgan saw sad-eyed little Grace, she longed to give her a happy home. But Molly’s struggling bookstore is endangering her adoption chances. Outgoing entrepreneur Derek McKinney has a puppy Grace adores—and a plan to save Molly’s business. But can he and Molly put their troubled past behind them in time to make a family for a lifetime?
Marilyn’s thoughts:
I was drawn to read this book from the blurb as Molly wanted
to adopt a child. Plus, I’m drawn to tales with foster children and twins. Jill
Weatherholt created another heartwarming and touching story with Molly’s strong
determination and tenacity and Derek’s personality and business success. When
sweet little Grace is introduced in the story my heart melted and broke for
this child who had experienced so much in her young life. Molly and Derek had a
past but with faith nothing is impossible to overcome.
I appreciate how the author brought in the strong community
connections in Whispering Slopes to see success for Molly’s bookstore and
Derek’s coffee shop along with some great business tips from Derek’s
perspective for struggling businesses and new ones. The gently woven message of
faith, trust and God’s grace and mercy isn’t preachy but an added plus to see
prayers answered in unbelievable ways. The beautiful ending brought tears to my
eyes and reaffirmed life’s difficulties can be turned into miracles with faith
in God. Weatherholt is becoming a
favorite author with her Love Inspired stories.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Celebrate
Lit and the author without any obligation to write a positive review. I have
expressed my own thoughts.
Click here to get your copy!
About the Author
By day, Jill Weatherholt works for the City of Charlotte. At night, and on the weekend, she writes contemporary stories about love, faith and forgiveness for Harlequin Love Inspired.
Raised in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., she now resides in Charlotte, North Carolina, but her heart belongs to Virginia.
She holds a degree in Psychology from George Mason University and Paralegal Studies Certification from Duke University.
She shares her life with her real-life hero and number one supporter. Their relationship grew on the golf course, and now they have one in their backyard.
Jill believes in enjoying every moment of this journey because God has everything under control.
More from Jill
Working in a library or a bookstore has always been a dream job of mine. As book bloggers and readers, you may have had that same dream.
Sadly, I’ve never made that dream come true. So instead, I created a fictitious character, Molly Morgan. In A Dream of Family, Molly Morgan owns and operates a bookstore, so by writing her story, I was able to somewhat fulfill my dream of working in a job where I’m surrounded by books all day.
As a child growing up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., I loved the bookmobile. Twice a month a small library on wheels rolled into the neighborhood and parked in front of our house. There was nothing better than to feel the wallop of arctic air the moment I climbed aboard. It was the perfect escape from the hot and sticky summer months. Like a time machine, the endless rows of books transported me to distant places. It was there I was introduced to The Box Car Children and Nancy Drew Mysteries. One stamp of black ink,and it was mine to devour for two weeks.
I haven’t seen a bookmobile since my childhood, but they still exist today. Thankfully, libraries and bookstores are still in our communities, offering wonderful programs to inspire young readers. But as I watch public libraries reduce their hours and bookstores close their doors, I’m grateful to have grown up in a time where bookmobiles traveled the streets of my neighborhood. Those days, my biggest decision during summer vacation was what book to take to the pool.
Blessings,
Jill Weatherholt
Blog Stops
Pause for Tales, July 27
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, July 27
Texas Book-aholic, July 28
She Lives To Read, July 29
Lighthouse Academy Blog, July 29 (Guest Review from Marilyn Ridgway)
Inklings and notions, July 30
Mary Hake, July 30
For Him and My Family, July 31
My Reading Journeys, July 31
deb’s Book Review, August 1
Britt Reads Fiction, August 1
Older & Smarter?, August 2
Locks, Hooks and Books, August 3
Writing from the Heart Land, August 3
Ashley’s Clean Book Reviews, August 4
Batya’s Bits, August 4
Because I said so — and other adventures in Parenting, August 5
Remembrancy, August 5
A Modern Day Fairy Tale, August 6
Musings of a Sassy Bookish Mama, August 7
Labor Not in Vain, August 7
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, August 8
Kayem Reads, August 8
Happily Managing a Household of Boys, August 9
Vicky Sluiter, August 9
Giveaway
To celebrate her tour, Jill 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/11034/a-dream-of-family-celebration-tour-giveaway
About the Book
Book: Song of Grace
Author: The Mosaic Collection
Genre: Christian Contemporary
Release date: July 7, 2021
How amazing is grace? Eight short stories trace the path of grace through the lines of a well-known hymn that was birthed in tragedy.
These characters each desperately seek a variety of prizes: relationships, hope, fame and fortune, security, eternal youth. All of them struggle through trials and troubles to stumble upon the same amazing answer.
Marilyn’s thoughts:
Marilyn’s thoughts:
The Mosaic authors penned touching and wonderful stories in
Song of Grace based on the lines of the beautiful hymn Amazing Grace. Each
novella is written to let readers know that God’s Amazing Grace is for everyone
no matter their past, present or dreams they might have had when straying from
His grace. The authors contribution is built on another one of their stories or
even a start of a new series, but each story is a standalone tale. Readers will
find this collection uplifting and easy to read a tale at the end of a busy day
to remind you of God’s grace and love for all.
This book would make a nice gift for someone struggling or
needing to be reminded of God’s Amazing Grace for all.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Celebrate
Lit and the publisher without any obligation to write a positive review. I have
shared my own thoughts.
Click here to get your copy!
About the Authors
Johnnie Alexander
Johnnie Alexander creates characters you want to meet and imagines stories you won’t forget. Her award-winning debut novel, Where Treasure Hides (Tyndale), is a CBA bestseller. She writes contemporaries, historicals, and cozy mysteries, serves on the executive board of Serious Writer, Inc., co-hosts an online show called Writers Chat, and interviews inspirational authors for Novelists Unwind. She also teaches at writers conferences and for Serious Writer Academy. Johnnie lives in Oklahoma with Griff, her happy-go-lucky
collie, and Rugby, her raccoon-treeing papillon.
Eleanor Bertin
In a fit of optimism at age eleven, ELEANOR BERTIN began her first novel by numbering a stack of 100 pages. Two of them got filled with words. Lifelines, her first completed novel, was published in 2016, followed by Pall of Silence in 2017, a memoir about her late son Paul.
Eleanor grew up on a Manitoba farm, spent 20 years in cities and towns, and in the past 16 years has come full circle to embrace country life again. She lives with her husband and youngest son, Timothy, amidst the ongoing renovation of a century home in central Alberta where she reads, writes, sweeps up construction rubble and blogs about a sometimes elusive contentment at jewelofcontentment.wordpress.com.
Sara Davison
Sara Davison is the author of three romantic suspense series, The Seven Trilogy, The Night Guardians, and The Rose Tattoo Trilogy. She has been a finalist for ten national writing awards, including Best New Canadian Christian author, a Carol, a Selah, and two Daphne du Maurier Awards for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense. She is a Word and Cascade Award winner. She currently resides in Ontario, Canada with her husband Michael and their three children, all of whom she (literally) looks up to. Get to know Sara better at www.saradavison.org and @sarajdavison.
Deb Elkink lives in a cottage beside a babbling creek in rural Alberta, Canada, home base for exotic travels with her husband. She published her first bits of writing after graduating university, then married and spent twenty years as a homeschooling mom and ranch wife—rounding up cattle, earning her private pilot’s license, and cooking for huge branding crews. An MA in Theology led to publication of a literary study on
the fiction of G.K. Chesterton (Roots and Branches), prepared her as an academic editor, and jettisoned her into her long-held dream of writing literary fiction with a theological twist. Her publications so far include multiple short stories as well as two award-winning novels (The Third Grace and The Red Journal).
Chautona HavigAuthor of the bestselling Aggie and Past Forward series, Chautona Havig lives in an oxymoron, escapes into imaginary worlds that look startlingly similar to ours and writes the stories that emerge. An irrepressible optimist, Chautona sees everything through a kaleidoscope of It’s a Wonderful Life sprinkled with fairy tales. Find her at chautona.com and say howdy—if you can remember how to spell her name.
Angela D. Meyer
ANGELA D. MEYER writes fiction that showcases God’s ability to redeem and restore the brokenness in our lives. She is the author of This Side of Yesterday, The Jukebox Cafe (a part of Hope is Born: A Mosaic Christmas Anthology) and the Applewood Hill series. Angela is a member of American Christian Fiction Authors and has served on the leadership team of her local writers’ group, Wordsowers. Angela currently lives in NE with her husband. They have two children, both of whom they homeschooled and graduated. Lucy, a green eyed, orange tabby who loves popcorn rounds out their family. Angela enjoys sunrises and sunsets, the ocean when she gets a chance to visit, and hopes to ride in a hot air balloon someday.
Stacy Monson
Stacy Monson is the award-winning author of The Chain of Lakes series, including Shattered Image, Dance of Grace, and The Color of Truth, as well as Open Circle. Her stories reveal an extraordinary God at work in ordinary life. Residing in the Twin Cities, she is the wife of a newly-retired juggling, unicycling physical education teacher, a proud mom, and doting grandma.
Candace West
Candace West was born in the Mississippi delta but grew up in small-town Arkansas. She is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Monticello. Ever since the age of twelve, she dreamed of writing inspirational fiction. Over the years, she has published short stories as well as poems in various magazines. By weaving entertaining, page-turning stories, she hopes to share the Gospel and encourage her readers.
More from The Mosaic Authors
It’s Never Too Late for a Heart Transformation… and Great Books
He stood at the pulpit, chains hanging from his wrists, one fist raised to the heavens, a pottery jug in the other hand. With his teeth, he uncorked the jug (still don’t know how he did that) and took a swig of the “alcohol” within, allowing it to slosh over his mouth and onto the floor. Watching as he shouted his defiance to Almighty God, my thirteen-year-old self scooted back a little further in the pew, certain. Skit or no skit… Pastor Phillips was about to get struck by lightning.
In his characteristic style, he burst out laughing, wiped his brow, and stowed the jug under the pulpit. A grin plastered to his face, he wiped that brow again. “Almost felt the sizzle of lightning or something.”
See, I thought to myself. I’m not so crazy after all.
And from there, our beloved pastor went on to tell the story of John Newton’s conversion and how he eventually, after more years in the slave trade, renounced it for the vile nastiness that it is and worked to end it before he died. But one more beautiful thing came out of all of that ugliness—perhaps the most beloved hymn of all time. “Amazing Grace.”
The Mosaic Collection authors have joined for a summer anthology celebrating the joy and beauty found in God’s “Amazing Grace.” Each story in this collection was inspired by a stanza of that grand old hymn.
As one of the authors in the collection, I found myself humming and singing “my verse,” during the weeks before and during writing my offering. My verse is,
“When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.”
All four lines of my stanza play into my story, albeit some ambiguously. From that ten thousand (dollars, not years) to the (desert) sun, to praising God for His goodness all our days, Spines & Leaves tells the story of God changing the goals and desires of three individuals, just like He changed those of John Newton.
As for how Sara used the stanza in her story, Sara says, “My portion of the hymn is the final two lines of the first stanza: I once was lost, but now I’m found. Was blind but now I see. In my story, I’d Like to Thank the Academy, Lizzy Cross travels to the City of Angels to seek fame and fortune. When she gets lost in L.A. and meets a blind man playing ‘Amazing Grace’ on his guitar, she realizes the song could be about them. Or is it possible that the words mean something else entirely?”
Angela says, “My stanza speaks of the joy and peace we gain in heaven, although we have them in full measure in this life. Jillian’s Refuge is about a young woman discovering these amazing gifts as she journeys through grief and finds healing in an unexpected place.”
Deb says, “In my story, aging expat Dolores, retiring alone in colonial Mexico and agitated over losing her youth, meets up for an afternoon cultural tour with her visiting granddaughter and new baby. Their mother-child vitality forces Dolores to face the fear that drove her from her family and the grace that calls her back to Christian faith.”
Join Stacy Monson, Sara Davison, Deb Elkink, Eleanor Bertin, Johnnie Alexander, Angela Meyer, Candace West Posey, and Chautona Havig as they introduce you to characters and stories that will fill your hearts with God’s grace.
Blog Stops
Giveaway
To celebrate their tour, the Mosaic Collection Authors are giving away the grand prize package of a $50 Amazon gift card, a paperback copy of the book, and a $10 coupon to Mosaic’s brand new Etsy shop!!
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/11032/song-of-grace-celebration-tour-giveaway
Derrick Gray is a Christian Minister, business owner, filmmaker and author of The 10 Win Commandments. A Long Island native and purveyor of all things hip-hop, he knows God’s not through with him yet. Derrick lives in York, Pa with his wife and family.
Author Derrick Gray has written this debut masterwork that touches the soul with reliable guidance and masterful prose. The author guides us through worldly experiences as a quintessential mentor if life. Students, administrators, CEO's and ministry leaders will find his advice nothing less than masterful. This book profoundly dives into guidance that enables you to go through life at the level in which God intended. The execution of these words of wisdom lays out how victory is achievable for anyone.
It's all about self-appraisal, self-reflection, God's direction and personal growth. Everyone has a designed path and achievement is within anyone's grasp. All it takes is the correct compass, and no book maps it out better than Derrick Gray's 10 Win Commandments.
