This week, the


Christian Fiction Blog Alliance


is introducing


Dark In The City Of Light Bethany House (July 1, 2010)


by Paul Robertson



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Paul Robertson is a computer programming consultant, part-time high-school math and science teacher, and the author of The Heir. He is also a former Christian bookstore owner (for 15 years), who lives with his family in Blacksburg, Virginia.





ABOUT THE BOOK

What Evil Haunts the Shadows of 1870s Paris?


Baron Ferdinand Harsanyi — After his wife's mysterious death, this Austrian attaché holds control over mines whose coveted ore could turn the tide of war.

Therese Harsanyi — Swept up in new romance and the spectacle of Paris, the Baron's daughter is blind to the dangers stalking her family and the city she loves.

Rudolph Harsanyi — Unsure whom to trust, the Baron's son's grief over his mother's death twists into growing anger and a desire to break free.

As France and Prussia plunge toward war, one family is caught in a web of deceit, political intrigue, and murder that threatens to tear them apart.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Dark In The City Of Light, go HERE.

This week, the


Christian Fiction Blog Alliance


is introducing


Nightshade Barbour Books (July 1, 2010)by


Ronie Kendig



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Ronie has been married since 1990 to a man who can easily be defined in classic terms as a hero. She has four beautiful children. Her eldest daughter is 16 this year, her second daughter will be 13, and her twin boys are 10. After having four children, she finally finished her degree in December 2006. She now has a B.S. in Psychology through Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. Getting her degree is a huge triumph for both her and her family--they survived!!


This degree has also given her a fabulous perspective on her characters and how to not only make them deeper, stronger, but to make them realistic and know how they'll respond to each situation. Her debut novel, Dead Reckoning released March 2010 from Abingdon Press. And her Discarded Heroes series begins in July from Barbour with the first book entitled Nightshade.


ABOUT THE BOOK

After a tour of duty in a war-torn country, embattled former Navy SEAL Max Jacobs finds himself discarded and alienated from those he loves as he

struggles with war-related PTSD. His wife, Sydney, files a restraining order against him and a petition for divorce. Max is devastated.

Then a mysterious a man appears. He says he's organizing a group that recycles veterans like Max. It's a deep-six group known as Nightshade. With
the chance to find purpose in life once again, Max is unable to resist the call of duty and signs on.

The team handles everything with precision and lethal skill...until they're called upon to rescue a missionary family from a rebel-infested jungle and
avoid a reporter hunting their identities.

Will Max yield his anger and pride to a force greater than him...love?

If you would like to read the first chapter of Nightshade, go HERE.

Watch the trailer:

Heartless by Anne Elizabeth Stengl

"Timeless fantasy that will keep you spellbound."  That is the slogan for the Tales of Goldstone Wood series by Ann Elizabeth Stengl.  Did the first book in the series, Heartless, deliver the timeless fantasy?  Was I spellbound? Yes.  And Yes!

This book was a breath of fresh air.  It was a breath of chokey fire breathing dragon air.

You see, there was this princess whose name was Una, and her brother Felix, who lived once upon a time in a land far away.  One day a strange spectacle comes to the kingdom and things change around the old castle...  This coinsides with Princess Una coming of age and suitors of different sorts arrive to vie for the heart of the Princess.

I loved the story which kept me wondering what was going to happen next, as the characters continually  went their own way.  It's a wonder that the author herself could keep track of this wayward and delightfully unpredictable cast.

Surprises galore await you as this unique tale unfolds.  There is allegory with twists and turns, drama, mystery, and humor.  All ages can enjoy this wonderful book.
My very own Princess Elsa gives it five Golden Crowns. (The highest you can get in her Land of Make Believe).

This week, the




Christian Fiction Blog Alliance




is introducing




Heartless Bethany House (July 1, 2010)




by




Anne Elisabeth Stengl


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Anne Elisabeth Stengl makes her home in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she enjoys her profession as an art teacher, giving private lessons from her personal studio, and teaching group classes at the Apex Learning Center. She studied illustration at Grace College and English literature at Campbell University. Heartless is her debut novel.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Princess Una of Parumvir has come of age and will soon be married. She dreams of a handsome and charming prince, but when the first suitor arrives, she finds him stodgy and boring. Prince Aethelbald from the mysterious land of Farthestshore has traveled far to prove his love--and also to bring hushed warnings of danger. A dragon is rumored to be approaching Parumvir.


Una, smitten instead with a more dashing prince, refuses Aethelbald's offer--and ignores his warnings. Soon the Dragon King himself is in Parumvir, and Una, in giving her heart away unwisely, finds herself in grave danger.  When Una makes the wrong choice, catastrophe ensues for the princess and her family, and love, courage, and trust are needed when darkness engulfs the kingdom.

Only those courageous enough to risk everything have a hope of fighting off this advancing evil.

There are some delightful things and scenes: the Twelve-Year Market that appears in its own good time and sells fairy goods; a clever blind cat who is invariably underfoot and has, of course, a secret!

If you would like to read the first chapter of Heartless, go HERE.

Back On Murder by J. Mark Bertrand

If you are looking for a hard-boiled, old- school, film noir, Humphrey Bogart style, yet refreshingly contemporary detective novel- and who isn't?- then put Back on Murder on your must read list.
The wheels turn, the plot thickens, one can imagine the creative thought being captured by the author.  I could almost hear the sound of typewriter keys pounding furiously against  sheets of clean, white paper until they are ripped from the roller, set down on the vintage wooden desk, where coffee will inevitably splash onto its pristine state. But never mind, the work has been captured perfectly. And the reader breathes a sigh of relief. Roland March is Back on Murder and there will be more to come.

Read on for more details about this fabulous Detective Thriller. I promise, you will also want to wax lyrical. Don't read the first chapter if you are not planning on buying this one. Consider yourself warned.

This week, the








Christian Fiction Blog Alliance








is introducing








Back On Murder Bethany House (July 1, 2010)








by J. Mark Betrand



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

J. Mark Bertrand has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Houston. After one hurricane too many, he left Houston and relocated with his wife Laurie to the plains of South Dakota.

Mark has been arrested for a crime he didn't commit, was the foreman of a hung jury in Houston, and after relocating served on the jury that acquitted Vinnie Jones of assault. In 1972, he won an honorable mention in a child modeling contest, but pursued writing instead. Besides his personal website, visit his Crime Genre website at http://www.crimegenre.com/.

The next book in this series, Pattern Of Wounds will come out in the summer of 2011.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Det. Roland March is a homicide cop on his way out.

A missing girl. A corrupt investigation. They thought they could get away with it, but they forgot one thing:

Roland March is BACK ON MURDER...

Houston homicide detective Roland March was once one of the best. Now he's disillusioned, cynical, and on his way out. His superiors farm him out on a variety of punishment details.  But when he's the only one at a crime scene to find evidence of a missing female victim, he's given one last chance to prove himself. Before he can crack the case, he's transferred to a new one that has grabbed the spotlight--the disappearance of a famous Houston evangelist's teen daughter.
 All he has to do? Find the missing teenage daughter of a Houston evangelist that every cop in town is already looking for. But March has an inside track, a multiple murder nobody else thinks is connected. With the help of a youth pastor with a guilty conscience who navigates the world of church and faith, March is determined to find the missing girls while proving he's still one of Houston's best detectives.

Battling a new partner, an old nemesis, and the demons of his past, getting to the truth could cost March everything. Even his life.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Back On Murder, go HERE.

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Tomorrow We Die Bethany House (July 1, 2010)
by Shawn Grady


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Shawn Grady signed with Bethany House Publishers in 2008. He was named “Most Promising New Writer” at the 39th Annual Mount Hermon Writers Conference. He is the author of the novels Through the Fire & Tomorrow We Die.

Shawn has served for over a decade as a firefighter and paramedic in northern Nevada. From fire engines and ambulances to tillered ladder trucks and helicopters, Shawn’s work environment has always been dynamic. The line of duty has carried him to a variety of locale, from high-rise fires in the city to the burning heavy timber of the eastern Sierras.

Shawn attended Point Loma Nazarene University as a Theology undergrad before shifting direction to acquire an Associate of Science degree in Fire Science Technology as well as Paramedic licensure through Truckee Meadows Community College.

Shawn currently lives in Reno, Nevada, just outside of Lake Tahoe. He enjoys spending time in the outdoors with his wife, three children and yellow Labrador.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Chase the Angel of Death and You Might Catch Him
Jonathan Trestle is a paramedic who's spent the week a few steps behind the angel of death. When he responds to a call about a man sprawled on a downtown sidewalk, Trestle isn't about to lose another victim. CPR revives the man long enough for him to hand Trestle a crumpled piece of paper and say, "Give this to Martin," before being taken to the hospital.

The note is a series of dashes and haphazard scribbles. Trestle tries to follow up with the patient later, but at the ICU he learns the man awoke, pulled out his IVs, and vanished, leaving only a single key behind. With the simple decision to honor a dying man's last wish, Jonathan tracks the key to a nearby motel where he finds the man again--this time not just dead but murdered. Unwilling to just let it drop, Jonathan is plunged into a mystery that soon threatens not only his dreams for the future but maybe even his life. He must race for the truth before the Angel of Death comes calling for him.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Tomorrow We Die, go to HERE.

My Comments:

Shawn Grady was named the "Most Promising New Writer" at the 2008 Mount Hermon Writers Conference and I can understand why. He tells a good story with likable characters. Unfortunately, the plot wasn't as compelling as I wanted it to be. I liked "Tomorrow We Die", but I didn't love it. I felt that the main character, John Trestle was a really good protagonist, but the mystery lacked focus. At first I thought it was an "angel of death" story in a literal sense and was kind of disappointed when he, the angel, didn't show up in the flesh (so to speak). It had a little bit of everything, a lot of EMT technichal stuff which was interesting, but didn't seem tightly connected to the story line and I found myself questioning its relevance to the whole story.

On the whole, it was an enjoyable book and I look forward to reading more by this author.

Nightmare by Robin Parrish

What's your "ghost story"? Does everybody have one? Has anything unexplainable ever happened to you? Something that makes you uncomfortable or squeamish? Robin Parrish's book "Nightmare" begins:"Doesn't matter who you are or what you believe. Everybody has a ghost story."

"Nightmare" reels you into a compelling tale of haunted places and troubled ghosts as it chronicles college student Maia Peters' relationship with heiress Jordin Cole and her obsession with the paranormal.

Robin Parrish alternates the present, where Maia is searching for Jordin, who is now missing, with the previous year's worth of "paranormal investigating" where she shows Jordin essentially how it's done. How you seek out and find the disembodied souls in order to prove that they exist. But Jordin has some other reasons for wanting to experience the other side.

You will travel to places such as The Waverly Hills Sanatorium, the St. Louis Cemetery, Alcatraz Island, and the U.S.S. North Carolina, some of the most haunted locations in the world, according to Mr. Parrish's sources. And you will experience history from a completely different and eery perspective.

Really cool book if you are okay with reading about ghosts and demon activity. Some don't want to go there and I get that. Just so you know...

Read on if you're dying to know more...

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
NightmareBethany House (July 1, 2010)
byRobin Parrish


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Robin Parrish is a journalist who's written about the intersection of faith and pop culture for more than a decade. Currently he serves as Senior Editor at XZOOSIA.com, a community portal that fuses social networking with magazine-style features about entertainment and culture.

He had two great ambitions in his life: to have a family, and to be a published novelist. In March of 2005, he proposed to his future wife the same week he signed his first book contract with Bethany House Publishers. They contracted him for the rights to The Dominion Trilogy: Relentless (2006), Fearless (2007), and Merciless (2008). His science fiction thriller, Offworld came out in 2009. This summer debuts Nightmare, and he's working on another for 2011. Robin and his wife and children live in North Carolina.



ABOUT THE BOOK:

The Nightmare is Coming...

Ghost Town is the hottest amusement park in the country, offering state-of-the-art chills and thrills involving the paranormal. The park's main ride is a haunted house that promises an encounter with a real ghost.
When Maia Peters visits during her senior year of college, she's not expecting to be impressed. Maia grew up as the only child of a pair of world-renowned "ghost hunters," so the paranormal is nothing new and to her most of the park is just Hollywood special effects. In fact, the ride feels pretty boring until the very end. There, a face appears from the mist. The face of Jordin Cole, a girl Maia knows who disappeared from campus a few months ago.
Convinced what she saw wasn't a hoax and desperate to find answers to Jordin's disappearance, Maia launches into a quest for answers. Joined by Jordin's boyfriend--a pastor's kid with very different ideas about paranormal and the spirit realm--Maia finds herself in a struggle against dangerous forces she never expected to confront on the edge of the spirit realm that try to keep the truth from emerging.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Nightmare, go HERE.

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Refuge on Crescent Hill

Kregel Publications (March 11, 2010)

by

Melanie Dobson





ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Melanie Dobson is the award-winning author of The Black Cloister; Love Finds You in Liberty, Indiana; and Together for Good.



Prior to launching Dobson Media Group in 1999, Melanie was the corporate publicity manager at Focus on the Family where she was responsible for the publicity of events, products, films, and TV specials. Melanie received her undergraduate degree in journalism from Liberty University and her master's degree in communication from Regent University. She has worked in the fields of publicity and journalism for fifteen years including two years as a publicist for The Family Channel.



Melanie and her husband, Jon, met in Colorado Springs in 1997 at Vanguard Church. Jon works in the field of computer animation. Since they've been married, the Dobsons have relocated numerous times including stints in Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Colorado, Berlin, and Southern California. These days they are enjoying their new home in the Pacific Northwest.



Jon and Melanie have adopted their two daughters —Karly (6) and Kinzel (5). When Melanie isn't writing or entertaining their girls, she enjoys exploring ghost towns and dusty back roads, traveling, hiking, line dancing, and reading inspirational fiction.







ABOUT THE BOOK

THE HOMECOMING WASN’T WHAT SHE EXPECTED…

Jobless, homeless, and broke, Camden Bristow decides to visit the grandmother she hasn’t seen in years. But when Camden arrives in Etherton, Ohio, she discovers that her grandmother has passed away, leaving her the 150-year-old mansion on Crescent Hill. The site of her happiest summers as a child, the run-down mansion is now her only refuge.



When Camden finds evidence that she may not be the mansion’s only occupant, memories of Grandma Rosalie’s bedtime stories about secret passageways and runaway slaves fuel her imagination. What really happened at Crescent Hill? Who can she turn to for answers in this town full of strangers? And what motivates the handsome local Alex Yates to offer his help? As she works to uncover the past and present mysteries harbored in her home, Camdem uncovers deep family secrets within the mansion’s walls that could change her life─and the entire town─forever.



If you would like to read the first chapter of Refuge on Crescent Hill, go HERE.