Lone Star Book Blog Tour: BREAKFAST AT THE HONEY CREEK CAFE by Jodi Thomas ***AUTHOR INTERVIEW & GIVEAWAY***

BREAKFAST AT THE HONEY CREEK CAFÉ

A Honey Creek Novel

by

Jodi Thomas

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Zebra Publication 
Date: May 26, 2020
Number of Pages: 336 pages

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From Jodi Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of Mornings on Main and Indigo Lake, comes this heartwarming new novel set in Honey Creek, Texas—a small town where family bonds and legends run deep, and friendship and love are always close at hand . . .

Piper Jane Mackenzie, mayor of Honey Creek, won’t let a major scandal rip her quirky hometown apart or jeopardize her dream of one day running for higher office. So she’s willing to welcome undercover detective Colby McBride, hired to help solve the mystery behind her wannabe fiancé’s disappearance. Colby’s cover? That he is an old boyfriend now begging Piper for a second chance—always when there are plenty of townsfolk around to witness his shenanigans. Piper hardly knows whether to laugh or cry, especially when she finds herself drawn to the handsome rascal. He's not the only newcomer she has to deal with. There’s a new interim preacher in town, Sam Cassidy. Drifting from one assignment to another since his one love died, Sam isn’t sure he’s the right fit for Honey Creek. But as Piper knows, this is a place chock-full of surprises. And if she can keep her town—and her heart—from going completely off the rails, there may be a sweet, unexpected future in store . . .

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Quick Q&A with Jodi Thomas

  

Name one rule you live by.

Be kinder than you have to be.

Name two things you wish you could do over. 

I wish I could go back and tell myself to live deeper, love harder, and fight longer for what you think is right.

I wish I had asked my grandmother to tell her family stories one more time. At twelve, I wasn’t listening close enough.

Name three things you do as a writer that normal people don’t do.

I talk to myself and, now and then, I get in an argument.

I don’t need a TV. I’m pretty much my own entertainment center.

When people bug me, I usually kill them in a book.

  

Name four places you’d like to go.

Cruise the Danube

Walk by Buckingham Palace at midnight

See the shop windows of New York City at Christmas

Walk on a glacier

  

Name five things you love to do.

I love to talk to people when we really talk.

I love walking on cloudy days.

I love cooking supper with my grandkids.

I love listening to music and, I have to say, “I’m a little bit country.” I started my day all last week dancing to Roy Orbison’s “Only the Lonely.” Music keeps me company when no one is around.

I love to take long drives and daydream.

Name one crazy thing you do while we’re all staying home. 

I like to take two naps then stay up all night binging on one show, like Victoria and Call the Midwife. I swear, after watching ten in a row all night, I think I could deliver a baby and still have time to run off with Prince Albert.

What’s a question you’d like to ask your readers?

What’s your crazy thing to do?

With millions of books in print, Jodi Thomas is both a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over fifty novels and countless short story collections. Her stories travel through the past and present days of Texas and draw readers from around the world.

In July 2006, Jodi was the eleventh writer to be inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. With five RITAs to her credit, along with National Readers’ Choice Awards and Booksellers’ Best Awards, Thomas has proven her skill as a master storyteller.

Thomas was honored in 2002 as a Distinguished Alumni by Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas and served sixteen years as the Writer in Residence at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas.

When not working on a novel, or inspiring students to pursue writing careers, Thomas enjoys traveling with her family, renovating an historic home, and “checking up” on two grown sons and four grandchildren.

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ONE WINNER: One signed copy of Breakfast at the Honey Creek Café

MAY 12-21, 2020

(US ONLY)

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VISIT THE LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE TOUR PAGE FOR DIRECT LINKS TO THE OTHER GREAT BLOG STOPS ON THIS TOUR, UPDATED DAILY, OR VISIT NOW:

5/12/20	Notable Quotable	Texas Book Lover
5/12/20	BONUS Post	Hall Ways Blog
5/13/20	Review	Carpe Diem Chronicles
5/14/20	Guest Post	All the Ups and Downs
5/15/20	Review	Momma on the Rocks
5/16/20	Author Interview	Story Schmoozing Book Reviews
5/17/20	Scrapbook Page	That's What She's Reading
5/18/20	Review	Jennifer Silverwood
5/19/20	Guest Post	Chapter Break Book Blog
5/20/20	Review	Reading by Moonlight
5/21/20	Review	StoreyBook Reviews

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Lone Star Book Blog Tour: THANK YOU, GARDEN By Liz Garton ***BOOK BLITZ & GIVEAWAY***

THANK YOU, GARDEN

By LIZ GARTON SCANLON

Illustrated by Simone Shin

Children's Picture Book / Poetry / Environment / Ages 3-7
Publisher: Beach Lane Books / Simon & Schuster

Date of Publication: March 3, 2020

Number of Pages: 32

A community garden unites neighbors in this celebration of all the things that grow there, from flowers and fruits, to friendships!  This ode to working together for a better world will have young readers wanting to plant gardens of their own!

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Liz Garton Scanlon is the author of many beloved books for kids, including the brand new Thank You, Garden, as well as the Caldecott Honor book All the World and others, including several co-authored with her pal Audrey Vernick. Scanlon also wrote the middle grade novel The Great Good Summer and is published in numerous poetry anthologies. She serves on the faculty of the Vermont Faculty of Fine Arts and is a frequent and popular presenter at conferences and festivals. Find more about her life and work at www.LizGartonScanlon.com

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Follow illustrator Simone Shin on Instagram!

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THREE WINNERS: Each winner gets an autographed/personalized copy of THANK YOU, GARDEN and ANOTHER WAY TO CLIMB A TREE 

MAY 14-21, 2020 (US ONLY)

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Lone Star Book Blog Tour: A FIRM PLACE TO STAND by Lori Altebaumer ***EXCERPT & GIVEAWAY***

A FIRM PLACE TO STAND

by

LORI ALTEBAUMER

Genre: Christian / Romantic Suspense
Independently published
Date of Publication: January 25, 2020

Number of Pages: 321

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She’s either being stalked or losing her mind. A job at a camp in the rustic and often rugged landscape of West Texas offers Maribel Montgomery a chance to escape both, especially if she makes sure no one knows she’s there. But when the body of a woman washes up in the river on her first morning, her hopes of a safe place to start over are swept away. The suspicion that she’s being watched follows her to her new home, and Maribel is forced to take a stand or keep running. Does she have the courage to face the danger stirring at the Pool of Siloam Camp? If she doesn’t, another girl might die. If she tries and fails, it could be her. Circumstances force her into the acquaintance of Conner Pierce—a man with secrets of his own. Can Maribel risk working with him in order to save the next victim and find a missing girl? Or is he the killer?

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A FIRM PLACE TO STAND

Excerpt, Part Two

(Click to read Chapter One, Part One on the 5/1/2020 stopwith Lone Star Book Blog Tours.)

CHAPTER ONE

The correct protocol for abandoning a flaming vehicle had never been considered. Uncertain, she watched as the last of her net worth nosedived toward negative oblivion.

The car meant more to her than an entry on her list of assets. The Falcon knew her comings and goings and didn't judge. It just waited in the parking lot for her to return—good days and bad days. Always there, always the same. Always keeping her secrets. Friends like that were hard to come by.

She didn't want to be here to watch it become another of her victims—or explode. She took a step back.

 Running her fingers through her wind-whipped hair, compliments of driving with the windows down, she lifted the tangled mane from her skin. The warm night air brushed against her neck, turning the damp skin into gooseflesh.

Maybe she did need to find a farmhouse with a phone. She couldn't spend the night out here alone—especially if she wasn't alone. 

She picked up her backpack and spun to meet the glow of headlights punching through the night a quarter mile up the road. Relief lasted no longer than the moment of surprise. If there had been anywhere to go, she would have stepped aside from the beam that grabbed for her. At five feet, three inches, Maribel’s best defense wasn’t intimidation, but showing fear wasn't going to be her ally either. She tucked a sweat dampened curl behind her ear, then crossed her arms, trying to recall why she hadn't bought a gun for protection when she first felt watched.

Oh yeah, fear she'd accidentally shoot someone who didn't need shooting—such as herself.

That she spent too much time scanning police reports for news stories and evenings alone binge-watching true crime shows until the wee hours of morning didn't help. It was the heroism and self-sacrifice, not the wickedness, that inspired her. But it proved to be an unhealthy habit currently feeding her sense of helplessness and paranoia.

The truck picked up speed, hurrying toward her flaming vehicle. Braking hard against asphalt still hot enough to cook Spam, it slid to a stop several yards away. The smell of rubber tires added another layer of acrid stench to the smoky air.

The headlights blurred Maribel's vision, but not enough to hide the bulk of a man who got out. He reached behind the seat of the extended cab truck and pulled out something she couldn't see. 

He would help her, right? Nothing to fear.

She drew her shoulders back, inching her spine up to its height of maximum menace.

Striding toward the flames, the man popped the pin on a fire extinguisher and sprayed the engine. He gave Maribel a quick glance but kept his attention on the area under the hood, then searched the grass for stray embers. Satisfied the fire was out, he shifted his full regard to her.

"You okay?" His sandpaper voice rasped across the night between them.

She swatted at a blood-sucking mosquito and nodded, unwilling to extend the scepter of friendship simply because he carried a fire extinguisher in his truck.

The world was a wicked place. However . . .

"I'm good. Thanks."

His untucked faded denim work shirt stretched tight over the expansion of a waist that wasn't as young as it used to be. Gray hair, silvery in the light, stuck out from beneath his straw cowboy hat. Mid to upper sixties she'd guess, although his deeply lined and tanned face made it hard to tell. Long hours of hard work in the bipolar Texas weather had that effect. But his right hip concerned her most, where the sharp angled bulge beneath his denim shirt divulged the holstered gun strapped to his side.

"You all alone?" His voice scratched the night again.

Maribel ran a dry tongue over drier lips and nodded.

  

A life-long Texan, Lori lives in a small community not far from the rugged West Texas landscape she loves to write about. The mother of now-grown twins, she has learned that the secret to survival is a well-developed sense of humor and an active prayer life. After years spent working in the insurance business, Lori now uses her time to educate, inspire, encourage, and entertain through the written word.

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THREE WINNERS  
1ST PRIZE: Signed Copy of A Firm Place to Stand
+ $25 Gift Card to the Texas Indie Bookstore of Choice

2ND PRIZE: Signed Copy of A Firm Place to Stand

3RD PRIZE: eBook of A Firm Place to Stand APRIL 30-MAY 10, 2020

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4/30/20	Notable Quotable	Texas Book Lover
4/30/20	BONUS post	Hall Ways Blog
5/1/20	Review	Librariel Book Adventures
5/1/20	Excerpt 1	Reading by Moonlight
5/2/20	Review	Chapter Break Book Blog
5/3/20	Excerpt 2	Story Schmoozing Book Reviews
5/4/20	Review	Nerd Narration
5/4/20	Review	Bibliotica
5/5/20	Top 5	Book Fidelity
5/5/20	Review	The Page Unbound
5/6/20	Review	That's What She's Reading
5/7/20	Playlist	All the Ups and Downs
5/7/20	Review	Forgotten Winds
5/8/20	Review	Tangled in Text
5/9/20	Review	StoreyBook Reviews
5/9/20	Review	Missus Gonzo

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