Monday, August 18, 2025

The Marriage Masquerade

A disgraced captain and a runaway heiress—hiding from the past and bound by fate—will their marriage masquerade lead to true love?

Noah Kennebrae, disgraced ship captain, has escaped to a remote lighthouse to avoid his grandfather’s schemes and the ghosts that haunt him. Taking a job under an assumed name, he’s determined to start over—until he meets Annie Fairfax. The feisty housekeeper’s warmth and spirit captivate him, and he falls for her despite his best efforts. But he’s keeping secrets that could destroy her trust…and his chance at redemption.

Desperate to escape the calculating grasp of her father, Anastasia “Annie” Michaels flees home to become the unlikely housekeeper on an isolated island. Working incognito at the lighthouse, she finds solace in her newfound independence and unexpected friendship with Nick. However, as their relationship deepens, Annie’s fear of abandonment resurfaces when she learns the truth Nick has been hiding.

Caught in a marriage masquerade of their own making, Noah and Annie must navigate secrets, lies, and painful pasts in hopes of a future together.

My thoughts: I am enjoying this series about the Kennabrae family! Noah and Annie are both running, one from his past mistakes and the other from an unwanted marriage. Both of them are at the lighthouse and meet under false pretenses. I enjoyed getting to know them as they struggled to move forward amongst the secrets they each carry.

I really enjoyed the characters! They are both well written and I could relate somewhat to their journey to the truth. I have enjoyed the author's Regency stories, but these Western/American ones have been every bit as delightful!

I received this book from Celebrate Lit. This is my honest review.

Click here to get your copy! This post contains affiliate links.

About the Author

More from Erica

I love a hidden identity story! And in the case of The Marriage Masquerade, both the hero AND the heroine are hiding their true identities.

The Marriage Masquerade features Noah, who is running from the guilt of a mistake he feels he made that lost both a Great Lakes ship and several lives. Anastasia Michaels is running away from an arranged marriage.

They both flee to a remote lighthouse on the North Shore of Lake Superior, he as an assistant lighthouse keeper and she as a housekeeper and cook.

The lighthouse in The Marriage Masquerade is based directly upon the Split Rock Lighthouse, one of my favorite places to visit along the North Shore. Situated on a cliff high above the lake, Split Rock is one of the most photographed lighthouses in the world.

When I first visited this exquisite place, I fell in love. And when I fall in love with an historical site, I need to know as much of the history of the place as I can. Several of the incidents that occur at the fictional lighthouse in the story come directly from the history of Split Rock.

Filtering liquid mercury, polishing the Fresnel lens, hiding dishes in the oven when the inspector comes, and other happenings in The Marriage Masquerade actually happened in the real lives of the lightkeepers at Split Rock.

Noah and Anastasia’s story is a forced proximity romance, with a dash of hidden identity, redemption, and learning to stand on your own two feet. I hope you’ll enjoy their journey from fearful, guilt-ridden characters to healed through love, confident, and ready to embark on a lifelong journey together.

If you would like to learn more about Split Rock and see glorious photos of this picturesque site, check out: https://www.mnhs.org/splitrock

Blog Stops

Pens Pages & Pulses, August 12

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, August 12

She Lives To Read, August 13

Fiction Book Lover, August 13 (Guest Review from Marilyn)

Devoted Steps, August 14

Melissa’s Bookshelf, August 14

Life on Chickadee Lane, August 15

Texas Book-aholic, August 15

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, August 16

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, August 17

Devoted To Hope, August 17

For Him and My Family, August 18

Simple Harvest Reads, August 18 (Guest Review from Mindy)

Books You Can Feel Good About, August 19

Inklingsandnotions, August 19

Locks, Hooks and Books, August 20

Inkwell Inspirations, August 20

Artistic Nobody, August 21 (Guest Review from Donna Cline)

Blossoms and Blessings, August 21

Little Homeschool on the prairie, August 22

Vicky Sluiter, August 22

An Author’s Take, August 23

Books Less Travelled, August 23

Holly’s Book Corner, August 24

Pause for Tales, August 24

Jeanette’s Thoughts , August 25

Jodie Wolfe, August 25

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Erica is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/00adcf54276

Wednesday, August 6, 2025

Girl Lost

A LOST BABY
Luna Rosati found acceptance and comfort with her childhood foster family, but when she became pregnant at sixteen, she gave the baby up for adoption and left without a word. Now a CIA counterintelligence officer, Luna wants to reconcile her fractured sense of self by finding the only blood family she has--the teenage daughter she's never met. As Luna closes in on learning the girl's identity with the help of her mentor, Stryker, she prepares to meet him in her old neighborhood--the last place she wants to be. Then Stryker is captured.   

AN INESCAPABLE PAST
Special Agent Corbin King changed his last name to escape the shadow of his convicted father serving a life sentence. When he runs into Luna, the object of his failed teenage romance, the two must put their pasts aside and work together to expose a secret that someone's willing to kill for.

A DEADLY THREAT
But when they encounter a kidnapping, missing bodies, and murder, the secrets Corbin and Luna are keeping from one another are only the beginning of the threat they face with more than their own lives at stake.

My thoughts:I enjoyed this mystery that started off at a fast pace and didn’t slow down until the final page. I loved that there is so much going on, with a missing girl, a kidnapped mentor, and a mystery surrounding what happened to the baby born to teenage Luna. I love the way King took kids from difficult situations and used their angst to point them towards a better way. I look forward to reading the next book in this series!

I received this book from Just read. This is my honest review.

Monday, August 4, 2025

The Bartered Bride

A rebellious suffragette and a steadfast sailor—tied by duty, divided by secrets, and tempted by a love that changes everything.

A born sailor, Jonathan Kennebrae thrives in his role running his grandfather’s shipping enterprise. That is until his grandfather delivers a crippling ultimatum—Jonathan will marry Melissa Brooke or lose his inheritance and everything he’s worked for. Though Jonathan finds himself drawn to Melissa, he can’t help feeling his intended may not be who she appears to be.

Melissa Brooke is tired of being voiceless. She’s been the perfect daughter all her life, doing what she’s told for the good of the family. Except she has a secret. Melissa lives a double life, teaching literacy to struggling immigrant women and fighting for the suffragette movement. If she goes through with the wedding, she’ll be forced to abandon her life’s work. Yet refusing the union could cost her any chance at an inheritance to fund her cause. To make matters worse, she can’t deny the tender feelings blooming between her and her fiancé.

My thoughts: I have enjoyed many of Erica Vetsch's other books, and was thrilled to read this story by her! I loved getting to know both Jonathan and Melissa, as they work out how to make things work out so they can continue to do what they love. I really enjoyed that they are both strong characters with a passion for what they do, even (ion the case of Melissa) if it is unconventional. I love how they learn to speak for themselves and find that sometimes life has a way of surprising us. This is a wonderful book to pick up and enjoy!
I received this book from Celebrate Lit. This is my honest review.

Click here to get your copy! This post contains affiliate links.

About the Author

Best-selling, award-winning author of The Debutante’s Code, first in the Thorndike & Swann Regency Mystery Series, Erica Vetsch loves Jesus, history, romance, and sports. When she’s not writing fiction, she’s planning her next trip to a history museum. You can connect with her at her website where you can learn about her books and sign up for her newsletter, and you can find her online where she spends way too much time!

More from Erica

Do you ever wish you could turn back time? That’s what I recently got to do, as I read through my very first published novel, The Bartered Bride, that is now being re-released by Wild Heart Books.

What a blast from the past. I was amazed at all the feelings that rushed back in as I revisited Duluth, MN in the last century. Melissa and Jonathan hadn’t changed a bit in sixteen years.

The story idea first came to me as I sat in church awaiting the start of the service. There I was, a not-yet-published-author, minding my own business when the plot sort of burst into my head. An arranged marriage set in Duluth, and using the “Gales of November” and the wreck of the Mataafa…

I jotted down a few notes, because face it, the best idea for a novel could pop into my head, and if I don’t write down the gist, I will forget it in two minutes.

I wrote The Bartered Bride in about six weeks, and I sent it through my critique group of the time. Then my agent submitted it to the publisher in the spring of 2008.

And we waited.

And waited.

We heard nothing for months. My agent sent word that the publisher was still considering it, and I was to be patient. It wasn’t a no, but it also wasn’t a resounding yes!

I had already started the sequel to The Bartered Bride, a story called Marriage Masquerade, so I finished that one, and then with summer upon me, I wrote a new story, Clara and the Cowboy, about an heiress to a ranch and one of the cowboys who rode for her father. Maybe the publisher would like that series better. I heard nothing all summer on either of the two series I had proposed and submitted.

Then in September of that year, I went to the American Christian Fiction Writers Conference. The conference was being held in Minnesota, just a hop up the road from where I live. I ferried agents and editors from the airport to the hotel, I met people, I sat in workshops, all the time wondering if I would ever be a published author. Would my writing ever be ‘good enough’? Was I wasting my time?

Imagine my surprise when the publisher to whom I had submitted The Bartered Bride took the stage at a general session and announced that they were offering a contract to me for that book! Not only that, but when I had an appointment with the editor later, she offered not only a three-book contract on the The North Star Brides, but an additional three-book contract for the Brides of Money Creek of which Clara and the Cowboy was book one!

I had sold six books! The rest of the conference, you could have bought me for a dollar.

Melissa and Jonathan will always have a special place in my heart. They were the couple that started it all. I’m so glad they are getting a new start, and hopefully they will touch readers’ hearts as much as they have mine.

Blog Stops

Life on Chickadee Lane, July 28

Melissa’s Bookshelf, July 28

Pens Pages & Pulses, July 29

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, July 29

lakesidelivingsite, July 30

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, July 30

Betti Mace, July 31

Fiction Book Lover, July 31 (Guest Review from Marilyn)

Texas Book-aholic, August 1

Devoted To Hope, August 1

Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions, August 2

Devoted Steps, August 2

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, August 3

Simple Harvest Reads, August 3 (Guest Review from Mindy)

Stories By Gina, August 4 (Author Interview)

Inklings and Notions, August 4

For HIm and My Family, August 5

Artistic Nobody, August 5 (Guest Review from Donna)

Abba’s Prayer Warrior Princess, August 6

Locks, Hooks and Books, August 6

Book Looks by Lisa, August 7

Holly’s Book Corner, August 7

Bizwings Book Blog, August 8

Vicky Sluiter, August 8

Blossoms and Blessings, August 9

Pause for Tales, August 9

Cover Lover Book Review, August 10

To Everything There Is A Season, August 10

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Erica is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/00adcf54260

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Waitin' on Paige

Tavo Morales has returned to Valiant, Texas, to stir the embers of a relationship with the woman he has never stopped loving, but hidden reefs from his past threaten to destroy his future.

Paige Muñoz wants her new event planning business to be a success and won’t let anything stand in her way. But the path she’s on to make her dreams come true proves dangerous.

Is the love Tavo and Paige once shared strong enough to survive his secrets and her stubbornness?

My thoughts: I jumped into this series with this book (which is the fourth one in the series), so I felt like I missed out a bit on the back story, especially since the book opens with the wedding of one of the previous characters. That said, I felt like this book could be read a stand alone, it just felt like I was dropped into the acquaintance of a group of friends.
Paige and Tavo story is one of ups and downs. I could especially relate to Paige as she tries to go out on her own and make things happen and then realize that she needs to go to God first before she runs ahead with her own ideas. The characters are relatable, with their secrets, struggles, and triumphs. I look forward to reading more by the author!

I received this book from Just Read. This is my honest review.

Purchase a copy here!

Thursday, June 26, 2025

Awakened

Where sea and land meet, two worlds clash in a fury of wind and waves.

Arden Bleu has always known that her stepsister, Jade, was destined for great things. In a world where beauty follows magic, she has no doubt that their upcoming Awakening Ceremony will reveal that gorgeous Jade is far more than a mere mortal. But when Jade is kidnapped by a mysterious sect of mer on the eve of the newly-returned king's ball, Arden will do anything to save her sister. Even face down the man she's always dreaded meeting because of the power he holds over her family, the man to whom her father swore loyalty long before she was born. The Sea King.

Seidon, the Sea King of Daryatla, has grown only more powerful as the centuries have gone by, but lifetime after lifetime has failed to give him what he most yearns for: a family. He knows that it will take a woman of extraordinary power to match him enough to create a child, and no such woman seems to exist...until he feels her magic calling to his one day in the water. And when Arden Bleu, daughter of his most trusted official, arrives to tell him about her missing stepsister, he knows this Jade, with a new magic so coveted that the mer would risk war with his kingdom to steal her away, may be the one he's waited centuries for. But how can he and the determined Arden ever hope to find one young woman trapped beneath the waves? Perhaps the Great Golden Sea Hawk who has guarded the sisters all their lives holds the key.

In a world on the brink of war between the mer and the land-dwellers, friendship, faith, and love demand the ultimate sacrifice as both kingdoms seek to unlock the prophesied magic waiting to spring forth: the magic of wind and sky. To the mer, it would mean the freedom to return to the land. To Seidon's court, it would mean safety from every storm. But how can any human hand wield the wind?

My thoughts: This was such a fun, unique story about a world where there is water magic and mermaids and mermen are slightly different than what we usually read about. I loved how different this story was from any other I have read! It's a delightful one told from the POV of Arden, Jade, and Seidon as they fit from different sides of the war. I loved Jade's heart for others, and how Arden had to learn to see herself apart from her relationship/friendship with her step sister. As I have come to expect with Roseanna White's stories, there was some wonderful discussions about God and morality, though with it being a fantasy story, it was different from her historical fiction. This is a wonderful book for YA and adults!

I received this book from the publisher. This is my honest review.

Purchase a copy here! This post contains affiliate links.

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Echoes of Darkness

Echos of Darkness JustRead Blog Tour

Welcome to the Blog Tour for Echoes of Darkness by Darlene L. Turner, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

About the Book

Title: Echoes of Darkness
Author: Darlene L. Turner
Publisher: Love Inspired Trade
Release Date: June 24, 2025
Genre: Christian Suspense/Romantic Thriller

A serial killer stalks a small town, and a police officer must face her family’s dark past to catch him.

The sleepy community of Kenorapeake Falls in northern Ontario seems like somewhere Constable Oaklynn Brock can finally outrun her violent past. That is, until she’s assigned to investigate a series of suspicious deaths. She can’t reveal that she knows how serial killers think because she grew up with one. Yet the eerie similarities between these murders and those committed by her father, known as the Suicide Slayer, hint at a copycat in their midst. But why here and why now?

Caleb Greene of the Canadian Watchers Squad, a special task force, has his own reasons to be wary of working alongside Oaklynn. But with rumors of a local cult known as the Light Paragons gaining power, the stakes are too high to refuse.

As they explore connections between the killings and cult, Oaklynn and Caleb are forced to confront old secrets…and a terrifying new threat. Someone is watching Oaklynn’s every move. They know exactly who she is and what she might be capable of. And soon her biggest fear isn’t just having her past exposed, but that a killer will turn whatever days she has left into a living nightmare…

My thoughts: This suspenseful story was hard to put down! I thought that the author did a fabulous job of writing an unforgettable mystery about a woman who has sought to distance herself from her horrific childhood of growing up with a father who was a serial killer. When a copycat strikes, things come to light that she would rather have left buried.

I love when a mystery keeps me guessing and reading late into the night, which is what this one did! I love how there were so many layers to the story, both with the mystery and the main characters being so unique. I look forward to reading more of Darlene L. Turner's stories!

I received this book from Just Read. This is my honest review.

Also Available

About the Author

Darlene L. Turner is a Publishers Weekly bestselling author known for her high-octane stories and riveting twists. Sparked by Nancy Drew, she’s turned her love of solving mysteries into her writing, believing readers will be captured by her plots, inspired by her strong characters, and moved by her inspirational message. Dubbed “the plaid queen” for her love of everything plaid, Darlene resides with her husband Jeff in Ontario, Canada. You can connect with Darlene at www.darlenelturner.com where there’s suspense beyond borders.

Tour Giveaway

(4) winners will each receive a $25 Amazon eGift Card!

Full tour schedule linked below. The giveaway begins at midnight June 23, 2025 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on June 30, 2025. Winners will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. Open internationally. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to JustRead Publicity Tours Giveaway Policies.

Enter Giveaway

Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!

Sunday, June 8, 2025

Warsafe

Play. Win. Survive.

There’s one building on her island that Halley has never visited: the Mercenary House. Perched atop a mountain, surrounded by unnaturally evergreen foliage, the House is rumored to be a breeding ground for criminals. Mercenaries are liars, cheats, spies . . . and maybe, depending on who you ask, killers.

At the Warsafe headquarters in Seattle, Roscoe is beta testing the company’s new video game. It’s her job to track down glitches—but something is different about this one. Lurking behind the lines of malfunctioning code is a secret that threatens to drag her deeper into the game, forcing her to put her life on the line if she ever wants to come home.

Worlds collide as Roscoe teams up with Halley to uncover the island’s secret and expose Warsafe’s designs. But some mysteries are better left unsolved. As traitor after so-called traitor is revealed to be on their side, they begin to wonder: Could Warsafe’s mission be critical enough to justify its cruelty?

My thoughts: I should start this review off with saying that I am not one to play a lot of video games, so there was a bit of a learning curb with some of the lingo in this book. Even though I wasn't the targeted group for a story like this, I found that I enjoyed the story and trying to get to the bottom of what was really going on with the two settings- Halley's unusual island and Roscoe's futuristic world. This is a wonderful story of friendship and courage in the face of adversity. I wish there had been a little more to the ending, with the resolution, but I still thought that the story was well written and interesting. I look forward to reading more books by the author!
I received this book from Celebrate Lit. This is my honest review.

Click here to get your copy! This post contains affiliate links.

About the Author

Lauren Smyth is an economics and journalism student at Hillsdale College. Since signing her first publishing contract at age 13, she has written three young adult action/adventure novels, coded two story-based video games, and started a blog enjoyed by readers and writers around the world. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her flying right seat in a Piper PA-30 aircraft, recording episodes of her Grammar Minute writing podcast, or heading upriver on her paddleboard.

More from Lauren

The Mercenary House, where much of Warsafe takes place, quite literally appeared to me in a dream.

By age 12, I’d already watched way too many action-adventure movies. (Did anyone else grow up on Tom Clancy—The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games?) Most nights, I was hyped on fictional adrenaline, and I was able to lucid dream. So I got to star in highly imaginative and unrealistic versions of my favorite spy stories when I fell asleep.

That night, I found myself trapped in the basement of an eight-story house. Guards patrolled the rooms outside, and somehow I knew I had to sneak past them to reach the top floor. I also knew I was dreaming and in no real danger, which made me brave. So I crawled through air ducts, hid in shadowy corners, and darted behind turned backs. And I escaped.

The dream was so logical compared to others I’d had that it stuck in my mind. Why was I trying to get to the roof? Why did I agree to play this “game?” What was the secret behind that dilapidated, shadowy building where I’d been imprisoned?

A few years later, I started coding video games. My first full-length game featured more than 100,000 lines of code and is probably part of the reason why I’m so near-sighted. I loved the results, but not the process. More than coding, I realized I loved storytelling—weaving together sentences and images and movements that became a world on the reader’s screen.

I hadn’t forgotten my dream, but I didn’t have the Python know-how to turn it into a game. And I’d gotten sick of naming variables. (Somewhere in the source code for that first game, there’s an if-then statement oh-so-creatively named “againagainagainagainagainagainagain.” See also the classic: “help.”) What if, instead of crawling back to my code editing software, I wrote a book?

And what if that book wasn’t just about a fictional video game, but was also an exploration of morality, economics, and politics in a parallel world?

I believe that good books don’t answer questions; they make you ask new ones. They draw you into a situation you’ve never experienced and force you to take sides, rooting for or against characters, judging or supporting their choices. If you could stop a catastrophe by sacrificing a few people, would you do it? If you were offered control over someone’s life, would you take it?

That’s the central dilemma of Warsafe. What you choose, who you agree with is up to you. Like a real video game, Warsafe lets you confront the same choices as the characters and work your way out of the puzzle—if you can do it without compromising your morality.

Remember Warsafe’s motto: Safety requires the many to sacrifice the one.

Disagree?

Enter the Warsafe universe and prove it.