Lone Star Blog Tour: BLIND TRUST by Natalie Walters ***REVIEW & GIVEAWAY***

 

BLIND TRUST

The SNAP Agency Trilogy, Book 3

by

Natalie Walters

Christian Fiction / Suspense

Publisher: Revell

Date of Publication: April 11, 2023

Number of Pages: 320 pages 

Scroll down for Giveaway!

Lyla Fox knows she has a reputation at the SNAP Agency for impulsivity, but when she receives a threatening letter from a man she helped put in prison, she can't stop herself from going all in to find out why he's coming after her. Unfortunately, she's going to need the help of the one person who questions her reckless choices more than anyone else. 

Explosives and weapons specialist Nicolás Garcia agrees to help Lyla in order to keep her safe, but her recklessness continues to be a major concern, especially when her investigation into a conspiracy puts a target on her back. Dealing with bombs is dangerous. Working with Lyla is proving to be just as treacherous -- to both the mission and his heart.

Natalie Walters closes out her SNAP Agency series with a bang with this nail - biting story of a deadly        government conspiracy, an unlikely couple, and an ending that will leave you breathless.

Click to Purchase!

Amazon │ Baker Book House │  Christianbooks.com │

│ Barnes & Noble  │ & nbsp;Other Revell Affiliates │

Blind Trust by Natalie Walters is the 3rd book in her SNAP Agency series and it does not disappoint!  In this last installment, we follow agents Lyla Fox and Nicolas Garcia's suspense-filled love story through danger and dark secrets. Lyla and Nicolas have worked together at the SNAP agency for years, but Lyla has a tendency to make impulsive decisions that seem to keep putting her in harms way.  After an incident involving a crooked doctor that nearly got her shot, Nicolas doesn't trust himself to work with Lyla at the agency anymore. His feelings for her are starting to become a liability in regards to his decision making and believes time away would be best for both of them. But, ghosts from Lyla's past are determined to comeback and haunt her in more ways than one.  This causes Lyla to have a target on her back and she'll need Nicolas now more than ever. 

I love romantic suspense thrillers just like Blind Trust! I knew from the first chapter that this book was going to be hard to put down! From start to finish, Blind Trust will keep you wondering what will happen next!  I really enjoyed the slow-burn romance between Lyla and Nicolas.  It was very realistic and kept you rooting for them throughout the story. It never felt forced and you could see their relationship develop and grow from co-workers/friends, to something much more.  Walters also does a great job with the different POVs in this book. You get to see Lyla and Nicolas's internal conflicts and feelings, but you also get to see what's going on with other side characters that are pivotal to the overall plot of the story.  It really helped in getting a better picture of what was happening, rather than the story being told only through Lyla and Nicolas' eyes. Characters from the previous two books also come out and are there to help. Blind Trust is a Christian romantic suspence novel, and there are themes of trusting in God to get you through the difficult times in life, love, and work. 

Overall, I really loved reading Blind Trust.  One of the aspects I loved most is that you never really could predict what would happen next.  You don't have to read the first two books before this one; however, you will see characters from the previous books in this story. So if you want to know thier stories first, I recommend starting with book one. I just love Walters writing style, it's so easy to get absorbed in the pages of her stories. Blind Trust was a definite page-turner and I can't wait to read the next Natalie Walters series!  

5 Stars!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Natalie Walter s is the author of Lights Out and Fatal Code, as well as the Harbored Secrets series. A military wife, she currently resides in Texas with her soldier husband and is the proud mom of three. S he loves traveling, spending time with her family, and connecting with readers on social media. Photo credit Emilie Hendryx Haney.

◆ WEBSITE ◆ INSTAGRAM ◆ FACEBOOK ◆

◆ TWITTER ◆ PINTEREST ◆ G OODREADS ◆

◆ BOOKBUB ◆

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

GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!

ONE WINNER:

All 3 books in the SNAP Agency series

(Lights Out, Fatal Code, Blind Trust)

+$25 Bookshop.org gift card.

(US only; ends midnight, CDT, 5/5/23)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

CLICK TO VISIT THE LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE TOUR PAGE

FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH POST ON THIS TOUR, UPDATED DAILY, 

Giveaway ends midnight, CDT, 5/5/23

04/25/23 Chapter Break Book Blog - Character Spotlights

04/25/23 Hall Ways Blog- BONUS Promo

04/26/23 Book Fidelity- Excerpt

04/26/23 LSBBT Blog- BONUS Promo

04/27/23 StoreyBook Reviews -Review

04/28/23 Forgotten Winds -Author Interview

04/29/23 The Book's Delight - Review

04/30/23 Shelf Life Blog - Author Video

05/01/23 Stories Under Starlight-Review

05/02/23 All the Ups and Downs Playlist

05/03/23 Boys' Mom Reads -Review

05/04/23 The Clueless Gent -Review

blog tour services provided by

Lone Star Blog Tour: SO SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS by Diana Gachman ***GIVEAWAY***

 

“SO SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS”

by

Dina Gachman

Grief & Bereavement / Love & Loss / Parenting & Relationships

Publisher: Union Square & Co.

Page Count: 240 pages

Publication Date: April 11, 2023

***Scroll Down for the Giveaway***

A heartfelt exploration about what it means to process grief, by a bestselling author and journalist whose experience with two devastating losses inspired her to bring comfort and understanding to others.

Since losing her mother to cancer in 2018 and her sister to alcoholism less than three years later, author and journalist Dina Gachman has dedicated herself to understanding what it means to grieve, healing after loss, and the ways we stay connected to those we miss. Through a mix of personal storytelling, reporting, and insight from experts and even moments of humor, Gachman gives readers a fresh take on grief and bereavement—whether the loss is a family member, beloved pet, or a romantic relationship. No one wants to join the grief club, since membership comes with zero perks, but So Sorry for Your Loss will make that initiation just a little less painful.

In the spirit of Elizabeth Kubler Ross books like On Grief and Grieving, or C.S. Lewis’s A Grief Observed, So Sorry for Your Loss is the perfect gift for someone who is grieving. With her blend of personal experiences, expert advice, and just a little bit of humor, Gachman has provided a compassionate and compelling resource for anyone looking for grief books.

PRAISE FOR SO SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS:

Gachman perceptively puts words to the uncomfortable realities of loss…and deconstructs its social myths, helping readers feel less alone. Those facing loss will find solace here.” —Publishers Weekly

“So Sorry for Your Loss is a monument to the work of remembering and a testament to the immutable love of family and the grief that forever changes us.” —Lauren Hough, New York Times bestselling author of Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing

“So Sorry for Your Loss is a meditation on loss that reminds us how to go on living.” —Deirdre Fagan, author of Find a Place for Me and The Grief Eaters

CLICK TO PURCHASE ON:

Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Bookshop

Dina Gachman is a Pulitzer Center Grantee and a frequent contributor to the New York Times, Vox, Texas Monthly, and more. She’s a New York Times bestselling ghostwriter and the author of Brokenomics: 50 Ways to Live the Dream on a Dime. She lives near Austin, Texas, with her husband and son. Photo credit Jessica Comiskey.

Website ◆ Instagram 

Twitter ◆ Goodreads

GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!

Three winners each receive a signed copy of

So Sorry for Your Loss

(US only; ends midnight, CST, 5/12/23)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

CLICK TO VISIT

THE LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE TOUR PAGE

FOR PARTICIPATING BLOGS, ADDED AS THEY POP UP.

blog services provided by

Lonestar Lit Blog Tour: THE GOLD ROSE by Jodi Lea Stewart ***Excerpt & Giveaway***

 

THE GOLD ROSE

by

Jodi Lea Stewart

Historical Fiction / WWII / Action & Drama / International Mystery

Publisher: Progressive Rising Phoenix Press

Date of Publication: February 21, 2023

Number of Pages: 372 pages 

***Scroll down for Giveaway!***

Since the early 1940s, THE GOLD ROSE, a secret rescue agency with Asian origins, has used unique systems to ferret out and save victims in every corner of the world. Charlotte Hunt-Basse has faced dangerous and often deadly challenges in her decade as an agent with the agency, not the least of which was the past rescues of two of her assignments, Pinkie and Babe.

Two-year-old Pinkie is discovered abandoned on a dirt road during a violent storm. She is whisked off to Mexico by oil heir Clint Sutton and his girlfriend, Angelina, as they attempt to escape the lies of Clint's father's second wife. Three years later, Pinkie is stolen away to Argentina by an aging Romani. Pinkie suffers from the malice of her captor but wins the fatherly love of a Buenos Aires circus owner and his fiance. Shortly after landing in the crosshairs of THE GOLD ROSE, Pinkie's life takes two more shocking twists. When the agency locates Pinkie again, Agent Charlotte must throw all caution to the wind to rescue her.

Babe, the child of Texas-based missionaries, is hidden by two Chinese families during the Japanese invasion and ensuing Communist takeover of China. She is forced by the second family to live incognito as a "boy" for several years to save her from soldiers invading China from the North. Martial arts are banned, but the grandfather of the family teaches Babe Yǒng Chūn in deepest secrecy. The civil war escalates, and Babe finds herself on a dangerous quest for survival as she journeys alone through enemy territory toward the faintest hope of rescue.

CLICK TO PURCHASE ON:

Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Author Website

Prologue from The Gold Rose

By Jodi Lea Stewart

Shadowy impressions are all I have of my two years of life before my new mama found me on a dirt road in Texas. Whisked away in a pickup truck bound for Mexico, I settled into my life only to be taken to Argentina by an aging Romni hoping to capitalize on my fair looks to feed her coffers. I was tossed about as flotsam in the sea before making it back to America. Let me ask… what is survival of every calamity worth when you are finally saved, but your savior turns out to be worse than all the others? All that I went through before I was ten years old was nothing compared to what came next. — Pinkie

Life was danger and death during the Japanese invasion and ensuing civil war in China. Though my parents left me when I was a young child to go into hiding in 1942, my nature compelled me to see everything through rose-colored glasses. Only after I witnessed firsthand the tragic consequences of hatred and power while hiding behind a píngfēng screen did my attitude change. The brutality of life pushed me into silence, and later, into seeking remedy from people weak in mind or character. The long hours of gut-wrenching, secret practice of the art of Yǒng Chūn became my life. Now… come and get me. I’ll be waiting. — Babe

I limped back to the street shaking with cold and anger. Thank God, and I truly mean that, I saw a blurry neon sign on a building not too far in the distance. If I hadn’t been so livid about what transpired in that alley, I might have worried about making my way down a dark snowy street in a deserted part of town. My exposed toes were deadly cold the whole time, but let me say, my soul was charged and ready for a fight. You just don’t cross me like that. Not anymore. — Charlotte

view on YouTube

Jodi Lea Stewart is a fiction author who centers her themes around the triumph of overcoming adversity through grit, humor, and hard-rock tenacity. Born in Texas and growing up in Arizona smelling cedar berries and cow pens on a large cattle ranch wedged between the Navajo Nation and the White Mountain Apache Tribe, most of her friends were Native American and Hispanic, with a few Anglos thrown in for good measure. On the ranch, she climbed petroglyph-etched boulders, sang to chickens, bounced two feet in the air in the backend of pickups wrestling through washed-out terracotta roads, and rode horseback on the winds of her imagination through the arroyos and mountains of the Arizona high country. Later, she left her studies at the University of Arizona in Tucson to move to San Francisco, where she learned about peace, love, and exactly what she didn’t want to do with her life. 

Moving back to her native Texas, Jodi graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Business Management, raised three+ children, worked as an electro-mechanical drafter, penned humor columns for a college periodical, wrote regional western articles, and served as managing editor of a Fortune 500 corporate newsletter. Her lifelong friendship with all shades of folks, cowpunchers, southern belles, intellectuals, and "outlaws" propels Jodi into writing comfortably about the Southwest, the South, and far beyond. She currently resides in Arizona with her husband, two wild and crazy Standard poodles, one rescue cat, her fun-loving ninety-plus-year-old mom, a never-be-still-four-year-old tornado, and numerous bossy houseplants.

◆ WEBSITE ◆ FACEBOOK ◆ TWITTER ◆

◆ YOUTUBE ◆ GOODREADS ◆ INSTAGRAM ◆

BLOG ◆ LINKEDIN ◆

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

GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!

ONE WINNER:

Signed copy of The Gold Rose plus a custom Gold Rose laptop carrying case

(US only; ends midnight, CDT, 4/21/23)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Lone Star Book Tour: SANDS OF TIME: APPOINTED TIME (BOOK 1) by C.J. Peterson ***REVIEW & GIVEAWAY***

SANDS OF TIME TRILOGY

by

C.J. PETERSON

Young Adult / Christian Fiction / Science Fiction

Publisher: Texas Sisters Press

****SCROLL DOWN FOR GIVEAWAY!****

    

In the game of chess, there are moves and countermoves. This sci-fi series follows a group of teens with abilities as they go through the U.S. to rescue their siblings. The challenger in this is their sadistic creator, Professor Noah Roth, who has the money and power to win at any cost. This series has been described as “Stranger Things (minus the Mind Flayer portion) meets X-Men.” Don’t miss a single installment of this explosive, action-packed series!

Appointed Time (Sands of Time Trilogy, Book 1), 8/20/21, 268 pages.

Buy the Book:

Amazon  B&N  Walmart   iTunes   Kobo

Race Against Time (Sands of Time Trilogy, Book 2), 10/1/21, 248 pages.

Buy the Book:

Amazon  B&N   Walmart  iTunes  Kobo

Out of Time (Sands of Time Trilogy, Book 3), 1/25/22, 248 pages.

Buy the Book:

Amazon  B&N   Walmart   iTunes   Kobo

View on YouTube

Sands of Time: Appointed Time (Book 1)

Appointed Time by C.J. Peterson is a Christian YA themed story mainly about four gifted children. Two grew up with loving parents (Ben and Grace), and two grew up in a clinic and treated as lab experiments.  They each have special abilities and how they choose to wield those powers is greatly influenced by their upbringing.  Instead of growing up in a lab with Professor Roth, an unethical scientist trying to create powerful humans that he can control, Blake and Holly live in hiding with two nurses who stole them away to save their lives.  Sixteen years later, Professor Roth has finally found them and what happens next will change their lives forever. I don't want to give too much away because this is where the action really starts to take place.

The story is told in a third person perspective so you get to see the point of view of several different characters.  It’s clear that the first book is more of a set-up book for the next two.  There is a lot of character development and background of Holly and Blake throughout their childhood.  Peterson does a good job of showing the reader how these two children learn to harness and control their special abilities while living in hiding. It's not easy for them and it was interesting to see how the two children helped each other through the process. I also liked that the relationships between the characters were not predictable.  Even though Ben and Grace lived together while they raised Holly and Blake, they never developed a romantic relationship.  Instead, Grace develops a secret relationship with the town Sheriff early on in the story.

Most of the story is getting to know Holly and Blake as they grow up, learn to control their abilities, and how they eventually make some friends who attend the local church.  Later in the story, Peterson does a good job filling-in the reader about how Adam and Deanna were raised by using flashbacks at various stages of their youth while growing up in the compound with Professor Roth and other gifted children.  You get to understand the motivation and heartbreaking childhood of these two and how vastly different their upbringing was compared to Holly and Blake's.

Peterson’s book is not only telling the story of these gifted children, but of Jesus and Christianity in direct and indirect ways.  Christian stories and principles are sprinkled in the book through pastor sermons, or just through dialog of the characters when talking about life choices. I would have liked to know more about Professor Roth, as well as Ben and Grace's backgrounds. I'm also curious about what happened to Alex, as she was a potential love interest for Ben. I'm sure we'll see her in book two. There were definitely some plot twists that I didn't see coming! We learn later on in the story that Blake and Holly are more powerful than even they know and I'm looking forward to seeing their full potential. Overall, Appointed Time was a fun, action-packed read that kept my attention until the last page! I am looking forward to finding out what happens next in book two.

 

4 Stars!

C.J. Peterson is a ten-time award-winning, multi-genre published author since 2012. She is also a podcaster, blogger, and publisher who knows how to relate well to folks of all ages. C.J. and her husband currently run a hybrid publishing company, Texas Sisters Press, LLC, which CJ and her sisters founded in 2019.

She has authored multiple series including the Grace Restored Series, the Holy Flame Trilogy, the Divine Legacy Series, the Sands of Time Trilogy, the Adventures of Chief and Sarge, plus her recently released time travel book with a twist, Chain Reaction!

“While the stories are fiction, the journey is real.”

Connect with C.J.

Facebook   Instagram   LinkedIn   Twitter   Pinterest   TikTok

YouTube   Gab   Parler   Truth Social   Goodreads   Amazon Author Page

Texas Sisters Press Links

Facebook   Instagram   LinkedIn   Twitter   YouTube

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!

TWO WINNERS

receive the full eBook trilogy.

(US only; ends midnight, 2/17/23.)

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway