Monthly Archives: June 2011

PUYB Blog Tour & Review: Ladies And Gentlemen…..The Redeemers by Michael Scott Miller

About the Book:
Ladies and Gentlemen…The Redeemers tells the story of Bert Ingram, once a successful rep in the music industry, who has lost his way. Desperate for redemption, the perpetual dreamer decides to put together a band, recruiting musicians who have only one thing in common: the need to overcome a significant obstacle in their lives. The volatile mix of the musicians’ personalities and backgrounds threatens to derail the band at every opportunity, but in time, the Redeemers begin to realize they have more to gain from one another than they ever could have imagined.

About the Author:
Michael Scott Miller works with numbers by day in the business world and with words by night. He began writing shortly after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and has had his work published in the Welcomat (now Philadelphia Weekly) and wrote music reviews for the Wharton Journal while his wife was getting her degree there.

Miller’s debut novel, Ladies and Gentlemen…The Redeemers, has been downloaded more than ten thousand times and has received tremendously positive reader feedback, earning 4-star to 5-star ratings at Amazon, barnesandnoble.com, Smashwords, and Kobo. The complete set of reader reviews and comments can be accessed at http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/40309/ .

Miller grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey and now lives in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania with his wife and three children.

You can visit Michael Scott Miller’s website at www.ladiesandgentlementheredeemers.com or connect with him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MichaelScMiller or Facebook atwww.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1206880325.

My Review:
Michael Scott Miller has hit it out of the ball park with this fictional novel. Miller is a new to me author, and frankly, I nearly talked myself out of reviewing this. But, I gave him a chance as I do all authors. I am super stoked that I didn’t turn this one down! The writing is phenomenal, the characters are interestingly different, and the plot line will have your mind gears a turnin.

Bert Ingram is a man who had it all……and lost it. Not wanting to stay lost, he decides to start over with his life and he does that by starting a band. But not just your ordinary band. He wants to help others like him. Others who have lost things in life, who need a new start. So, with the belief that you can accomplish your dreams, no matter what, Bert and this mixed up band set out to redeem themselves, turn their lives around and become friends.

This is a really great book. Miller’s debut novel is by far a four star worthy book, and one whose message of redemption and perseverance is loud and strong through out the pages. I highly recommend you read this endearing, fun book this summer. You’ll be a fan of Miller in no time! I can’t wait for another book by this fantastic new author!

You can purchase your copy here.

Visit the other stops on the tour:

Monday, June 6
Book spotlighted at As the Pages Turn
Tuesday, June 7
Guest blogging at Acting Balanced
Wednesday, June 8
Book reviewed at Acting Balanced
Thursday, June 9
Friday, June 10
Book reviewed at Mad Moose Mama
Monday, June 13
Interviewed at Literarily Speaking
Tuesday, June 14
Guest blogging at Literal Exposure
Wednesday, June 15
Interviewed at Blogcritics
Thursday, June 16
Book reviewed at April’s Lifestyle Show
Friday, June 17
Book reviewed at Reading Frenzy
Book spotlighted at Donna’s Blog Home
Monday, June 20
Guest blogging at Teresa’s Reading Corner
Interviewed at Pump Up Your Book
Tuesday, June 21
Guest blogging at The Book Bin
Wednesday, June 22
Guest blogging at The Book Faery Reviews
Thursday, June 23
Friday, June 24
Interviewed at The Writer’s Life
Monday, June 27
Interviewed at Beyond the Books
Tuesday, June 28
Book reviewed at Life in Review
Wednesday, June 29
Book reviewed at Book Reviews by Molly
Thursday, June 30
Book reviewed at Just Another Book Addict
Book reviewed at The Book Faery Reviews

*This book was provided for review by PumpUpYourBook*

CFBA Blog Tour&Preview: Bridge To A Distant Star by Carolyn Williford

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Bridge to a Distant Star
David C. Cook; New edition (June 1, 2011)
by
Carolyn Williford

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Carolyn Williford has authored seven books, including Jordan’s Bend, Devotions for Families That Can’t Sit Still, and Faith Tango, as well as numerous articles. She and her husband, Craig, live in Deerfield, Illinois, where he serves as president of Trinity International University. They have two children and four grandchildren.

ABOUT THE BOOK

It All Comes Tumbling Down

As a storm rages in the night, unwary drivers venture onto Tampa Bay’s most renowned bridge. No one sees the danger ahead. No one notices the jagged gap hidden by the darkness and rain. Yet when the bridge collapses vehicles careen into the churning waters of the bay below.

In that one catastrophic moment, three powerful stories converge: a family ravaged by their child’s heartbreaking news, a marriage threatened by its own facade, and a college student burdened by self doubt. As each story unfolds, the characters move steadily closer to that fateful moment on the bridge. And while each character searches for grace, the storms in their lives loom as large as the storm that awaits them above the bay.

When these characters intersect in Carolyn Williford’s gripping and moving volume of three novellas, they also collide with the transforming truth of Christ: Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Bridge to a Distant Star, go HERE

Glass Roads Blog Tour&Review: Forever After ( A Hanover Falls Novel, #2) by Deborah Raney

About the Book:
Jenna Morgan mourned the loss of her husband, Zach, in the fire that destroyed the Hanover Falls homeless shelter and claimed the lives of three other firefighters. A year later, her ability to keep up the charade of prosperity she and Zach lived is at an end. Even with financial help from Zach’s parents, she can’t make the mortgage and credit card payments. But Jenna Morgan refuses to go back to the trailer home life from which she escaped. She’s come so far. She just can’t go back to that.

Lucas Vermontez has endured physical therapy for a year, but the legs crushed while he fought the homeless shelter fire are nowhere near 100% yet. Will his dream of returning to the fire station ever become reality? And can he conquer these feelings he has for his best buddy’s widow?

About the Author:
Deborah Raney is the award-winning author of several novels, including A Nest of Sparrows and the RITA award winning Beneath a Southern Sky and its sequel, After the Rains. Deborah’s first novel,

A Vow to Cherish, was the inspiration for World Wide Pictures’ highly acclaimed film of the same title, which in December 2004 aired on prime time network TV for the second time.

Deb’s novella, Playing by Heart, was a National Readers Choice Award winner and a 2004 Christy Award finalist. Her most recent novel for Howard/Simon & Schuster, Yesterday’s Embers, appeared on the ECPA Christian fiction bestseller list.

Deb has also written nonfiction books and articles and often speaks at women’s retreats and writers’ conferences around the country. She and her husband, illustrator/ author Ken Raney, have four children and make their home in Kansas.

My Review:
Awesome! Deborah Raney is a fantastic author and one of my favorites. I read her first Hanover Falls novel, Almost Forever, last year and fell in love with her work. I was so excited for the chance to read the second Hanover Falls novel, Forever After, which picks up exactly where book 1 left off. Once again, Raney has created life-like characters that grip your heart, and a real-to-life plot line that pulls you into the middle of the story like you are a part of it.

Jenna Morgan lost her husband, Zack, in the terrible homeless shelter fire. But, she harbors secrets from that time, as well as her past. She’s sure she’s going to carry them to the grave. But, then she runs into Zack’s best friend, Lucas Vermontez, a crippled survivor of that awful day. He sparks something inside her she didn’t know existed. Can she trust him with her secrets….and her heart? Or, will she cling to the life of wealth and luxury she’s known for the last 12 years as Zachary Morgan’s wife?

Lucas Vermontez lost his father AND his best friend that day. But, God saw fit to allow him to survive. And, because of that, he’s allowed to continue on in his pining for his best friend’s wife, Jenna. Can he simply be the best friend she needs, or will God (along with some help from a dog named Sparky!)see fit to allow him to be the man she needs him to be?

These two characters were vibrant and full of amazing qualities. My heart went out to Jenna as she struggled to come to terms with what God wanted in her life and with finding out what SHE alone needed to do in her life, and who she needed to become. Living a life of luxury to please her in-laws and her husband (though she didn’t really love him…..) had to be hard. When her financial situation became dire and she was forced to move in with her in-laws, she wasn’t expecting them to make her give up her best friend.  And, Lucas….bless his heart. He was a handsome firefighter, and really struggled with his injuries, but he really relied on God to pull him through even his darkest of hours. That really gripped my heart the most. He persevered and pushed himself, all the while showing Jenna that the most important thing in life is to fully seek out Him and have a full blown faith in Him.

I absolutely loved the messages that were woven into this beautifully tender story. A wonderful tribute to firefighters, this book pulls you in instantly and makes you smile, sometimes chuckle, and at others, may bring tears to your eyes. I highly recommend this book with the highest of 5 star praises (along with book 1-Almost Forever!), and two thumbs up. If you are like me, you will fall in love instantly with the work of Deborah Raney and her sweet characters, and her mixture of humor, sadness, suspense and love. I can’t wait for book 3, After All to release! It should make a wonderful addition ( and hopefully not a conclusion!) to this amazing series of heroes and their families!

Visit Deepershopping.com to purchase your copy of Forever After.

*This book was provided for review by the publisher and Glass Roads PR*

Book Review: The Ambition by Lee Strobel

About the Book:
A corrupt judge in a mob murder case. A disillusioned pastor, hungry for power. A cynical reporter, sniffing for a scandal. A gambling addict whose secret tape threatens the lives of everyone who hears it. New York Times bestselling author, Lee Strobel, weaves these edgy characters into an intricate thriller set in a gleaming, suburban megachurch, a big-city newspaper struggling for survival, and the shadowy corridors of political intrigue. The unexpected climax is as gripping as the contract killing that punctuates the opening scene.

About the Author:
Lee Strobel is an award-winning legal editor of The Chicago Tribune and a New York Times bestselling author. After years of nonfiction bestsellers, he is publishing his debut fiction novel, a legal thriller. Lee is a Yale Law School graduate, accomplished journalist, and world-renowned speaker.

My Review:
Absolutely different. Not in a bad way, mind you. Lee Strobel is an amazing author when he is writing his Case books. I love them. My dad has a whole collection of them, that I love to break into from time to time. They are stunning and amazing. But, when he writes fiction, well….let’s just say that while his writing is not terrible, it’s certainly not as good as I hoped it would be.

With that being said, The Ambition’s plot is awesome. The way the story line had to flow, with mobs, and megachurches, and politics. Very intriguing to see the way the characters were created for that plot. Each character was interesting and flowed well. I really was captured by the fast pace that this book entailed.

The thrills of the book were good, the action was heart pounding and the suspense was fascinating, but for a debut novel, it could use some tuning. Not anything overly bad, just a few minor tweaks here and there with some grammar and issues with wording. I do recommend this book to those of you who love thrillers and politics. The suspense, the intriguing, thought provoking happenings of mobs and megachurches will have you on the edge of your seat with this Lee Strobel novel. Four stars and I am looking forward to another book by this otherwise fantastic author, in hopes that it will be even better!

Visit Deepershopping.com to purchase your copy of The Ambition.

*This eBook was provided for review by Zondervan*

YP Publishing Blog Tour& Guest Post: Boost Your Revenues by Turning People Away’s Alison Silbert


As a child, I wrote lots of stories in school and did loads of journaling in my teen years. In 2004, I received certification in technical writing at George Brown College.
I started to write simple articles in the second year I was running my internet marketing business as a way to generate prospects’ interest, exposure and credibility. I found that I tremendously enjoyed writing as a way of expressing my unique abilities to teach others about online marketing and constructing websites, that I ended up continuing to write articles.
A colleague had suggested I put commonly asked questions into a book that I could hand out to prospective clients; it seemed like a good idea, so I went ahead and wrote the outline, then found a couple of potential book publishers (two of which showed interest in the outline). I completed the copy of the book, resubmitted the full manuscript to the same two publishers outlining the pre-qualifying process I had already completed, and we signed a deal.
Boost your Revenues by Turning People Away was born as a result of a desire to help a different demographic of people in the entrepreneurial world. Having run my online marketing business for six years before writing Boost your Revenues by Turning People Away, I had a sound foundational knowledge of the most common questions clients asked when starting to construct a website.
The book can help its readers: simplify the decision process of which mode to use to create a website, bypass the research stage of various companies, and write marketing copy that directs & convinces ideal clients to start the sales cycle from your website, and demystify the secrets behind SEO and website promotion, resulting in more ideal prospects seeing your website.
Alison Silbert is the author of Boost Your Revenues by Turning People Away. When not running her business Passionate Web Creations, she is a mentor, coach, and teacher, supporting individuals in living their dream of having a successful online business. For more details about the book, email us at info@idealvisitor.com; to order copies of the book go from Amazon.com, Barnes & Nobile and http://idealvisitor.com/idealsite/book-2/
If you would like to visit some of the other stops on this tour, please visit here.