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Thursday, August 22, 2019

trial by patience FB Banner

About the Book

Book: Trial by Patience
Author: Tabitha Bouldin
Genre: Contemporary Christian Romance
Release Date: August 12, 2019
trial by patience coverDanny Solomon operates Break Away Acres, an equine therapy center for abused kids and teens. As a former abuse victim, Danny knows how important it is to let these kids know that someone still cares. God has blessed Danny with a gift: the ability to see the past of anyone who meets his eye. The information he is given through this gift allows him to know how he might best help those around him.
Phoenix Nichols is Danny’s new trail guide. Her job is to help with the horses and keep an eye on the kids. With a past more painful than anything Danny has ever encountered, he finds himself unable to resist trying to help. When her past becomes her present, her trust in Danny is the only link she has to finding God…and peace.

Click here to grab your copy.

About the Author

Tabitha BouldinTabitha is a small-town girl with an oversized imagination. She grew up creating characters and enjoys giving them life through words and pages. Just one year shy of obtaining her Bachelor’s Degree in Creative Writing, she plans to make sure her characters stand the test of time. When not writing or reading, you’ll find her either homeschooling her two boys or outside digging a new flower bed for her roses.

More from Tabitha

Danny and Phoenix are the main characters in Trial by Patience, but Danny isn’t a new character. As part of The Trials series, Danny is introduced in book 1 as a scrappy six-year-old. Two years after I finished writing book 1, he’s twenty-eight. (Don’t you love how time can be manipulated in the literary world.) Fun fact: When I wrote book 1: Trial by Courage, I had no idea Danny would get his own book. God works in mysterious ways and His sense of humor astounds me. I had a million ideas and half-started manuscripts littered my desk but I had no idea what to focus on next. Within two weeks of Trial by Courage’s release, three people asked me when Danny’s story would be ready. The first time, I blinked slowly and shrugged (I wasn’t about to tell them I had no intention of writing about Danny). Second time, I laughed. Third time, I knew it was an honest question and I started writing. A year later, I typed THE END, had an author copy printed and handed it over to my sister for proofing. Little did I know I wasn’t anywhere near finished. Danny’s story would NOT leave me alone. I was constantly trying to reassure myself that it was done, just minor adjustments…boy was I wrong! Six months ago, I realized I needed to change the ending, which lead to a complete rewrite of the last half of the book and major changes in the beginning chapters. Talk about scary, and exciting, but mostly scary. I even made another copy of the original script in case I changed my mind about this new ending. I shouldn’t have worried. I’m in love with this new copy and every angsty minute that went into making Trial by Patience the book it is today.

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This book has been the hardest book I have ever read about abuse. The author does an excellent job of describing the horrible trauma Phoenix and Danny go through. Danny has been fighting his demons for years with flashbacks that cause nightmares. he may be an adult now but he still hasn't escaped the terror he faced many years ago. I loved how he started Break Away Acres. The focus of the place is for abused children and teens to come to the ranch to ride horses. While they are there, they are loved on and feel safe. Danny is a natural when it comes to reaching hurting kids. He knows first hand what it is like to be so scared that he wants to hide. 

Phoenix was my favorite character because I could relate to her on a personal level. She has a big chip on her shoulder and an attitude to match. Being hired at Break Away Acres is a means to find safety for her. Her experience with horses helps her get the job as trail boss. Taking a group of children on a trail ride is therapeutic and gives them a place to be a kid with no threat of harm. I loved the way Phoenix relates to the children. She finds herself able to reach a tough as nails young boy which I think surprised her.

The story centers around abuse and the affects it causes. Some may experience nightmares, flashbacks, fear, shame, and not able to trust. The author explores these in a way that not only is hard to read but lets readers know that there is help. Her ability to show how God is there to protect us is a big point in the story. Phoenix is in fear for her life and Danny has a hard time making her feel safe on the ranch. I had tears running down my cheeks as I read the book. I felt the fists as they punched innocent people and I felt anger when the abuser walked away without any remorse. Abusers will prey on the innocent or weak. They know just what to say to gain their victims trust, then pounce on them. 

Phoenix has experienced physical and emotional abuse all her life. She has never felt loved or wanted. Fear is a funny thing. It can cause you to run or find freedom. It is hard to trust anyone and I understood her feeling of claustrophobia. She didn't like someone behind her and her eyes darted from side to side all the time. That is not living, but being trapped. There are two very important things I took away from this story. The first one is to surrender to God and allow Him to take your pain away. Find peace and safety in His presence. The other thing is as long as you allow the abuser to continue they have power over you. Danny and Phoenix both with find themselves facing their past in different ways.  The ending is action packed and brings forgiveness to someone who many would feel didn't deserve forgiveness. We must forgive as many times as it takes. God wants to set us free and live without fear or regret. 

Even though the book was hard for me to read, I am thankful that the author was willing to expose what abuse does and lead readers to answers to heal. It was important for these two characters to share their story with children, because they understood exactly what they have experienced. Hope is there waiting for us. We all need to be more compassionate and help others who feel useless, abused. unloved and hopeless. My hope is that this book will help others who have felt powerless for too long. 

I received a digital copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.

Blog Stops

Texas Book-aholic, August 22
mpbooks, August 25
Godly Book Reviews, August 28
Remembrancy, August 29
janicesbookreviews, September 1
A Reader’s Brain, September 2
Inklings and notions, September 3
Emily Yager, September 4

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Tabitha is giving away the grand prize of an eBook copy of her book and $25 Amazon gift card!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.
Posted by at 6 comments:

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

The Awakening of Miss Adelaide FB banner About the Book

Book: The Awakening of Miss Adelaide
Author: Linda Brooks Davis
Genre: Historical 
Release Date: July, 2019
The Awakening of Miss AdelaideOrphaned as an infant, Oklahoma heiress Adelaide Fitzgerald has enjoyed every advantage. She possesses a unique gift for music and has excelled on the opera stage in Italy. As a philanthropist, she’s adored from America to Europe.
But Miss Adelaide is about to awaken in a 1918 nightmare. The Great War—and the Great Influenza—knock, and Adelaide finds her uninvited guests more than unwelcome. They threaten her life and alter her identity and purpose.
Snatched from a quiet life in an Italian villa, Miss Adelaide is thrust into conflicts others have created. What battle scars will she sustain? And where will love lead her?
In The Awakening of Miss Adelaide, war and peace, laughter and heartache, love and loss come together to ignite a fresh fire that reveals one woman’s hidden needs and potentials. 
What will gaining a fresh understanding of herself require of the Angel of the Opera?


About the Author

Linda Brooks DavisLinda Brooks Davis was born and reared, educated, and married in Texas. Her children and six grandchildren were born in Texas. She devoted the bulk of her 40 years as a special educator in Texas schools. But her mother and grandmother hailed from Oklahoma, the setting for Linda’s 2015 debut novel, The Calling of Ella McFarland, which won the 2014 Jerry Jenkins Operation First Novel Award and the 2016 American Christian Fiction Writers Carol Award. Linda continues to write from her home in San Antonio, Texas. She and her beloved husband Al worship and minister at Oak Hills Church. Linda enjoys chatting with readers through her website www.lindabrooksdavis.com.






More from Linda

Awakening Miss Adelaide begins with my mother’s cedar chest, which bore an unwritten warning: Hands off! Priceless treasures resided in its depths. My parents’ wedding suits. An old tattered quilt. Mother’s felt hat with a jaunty feather at the rolled-up grim. Bible notes. A stained tablecloth. Equally stained ladies’ handkerchiefs. And old, crocheted, scorched pot holders.
My paternal great-grandmother wrote letters and created intricate, painstaking handwork while she was committed to an asylum in Terrell, Texas. They represent the dearest items in the cedar chest.
Incalculable are the times over the years when a family member would comment Great-granny didn’t appear insane at all. I often wondered how it was she resided at a state mental hospital from 1900 until her death in 1948. How could an insane person write coherent letters and create such handwork?
Mystery shrouds those answers as surely as Great-grandmother herself.
Family legend developed around her. Stories varied from “She wasn’t crazy. Her husband wanted to get rid of her” to “She was an Indian who chose the name McFarland to avoid White bias against the indigenous people.” The truth hides somewhere amid the deadfall of her tragic life.
Sometimes research for a novel can feel like digging up bones. In a way, it is.
One such “bone” I got my teeth around and refused to let go was an article in a 1913 edition of Fort Worth Star-Telegram. It described a murder committed in the lobby of the Metropolitan Hotel. This violent act occurred in connection with an adulterous affair.
Consequently, heightened emotions, lowered common sense, and the control males exerted over females resulted in one man’s murder and the murderer’s acquittal. The “offending” woman’s husband dragged her home kicking and screaming and committed her to a mental asylum for “emotional insanity.”
I wondered if the “offending” man had been treated in like manner. Hardly.
How could I NOT include this morass in a novel?
Someone ought to write a book about that was often said around our family reunions. My interest in doing just that developed little by little over the years. The Women of Rock Creek series deals with some of the ways in which women were denied equal rights when they were denied the vote. Such realities presented an ideal platform for illustrating some women’s plight in the hands of unscrupulous men–inequality in education, the courtroom, and even in mental health care.
With an abundance of love and respect for my great-grandmother; her daughter, my grandmother; and her grandson, my father, I offer this imaginary story. It contrasts two different women: one with a voice heard around the world and the other with no voice at all.
I offer The Awakening of Miss Adelaide to the Lord to do with it as He sees fit. May this story inspired by the agony experienced by my great-grandmother serve to lighten someone else’s load.



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One of the best things this author does is write a story that not only has historic details, but allows readers to experience first hand important happenings that defined our country. I loved Adelaide instantly. She is a caring person and has been gifted with a voice like a angel. Adelaide has become well known and it seems her dreams are coming true. I don't know how a person is able to sing opera but it fascinates me . While Adelaide is in Italy a terrible break out of influenza takes many lives. 

I found it interesting that the place Adelaide was staying became a kind of hospital for wounded soldiers and a breeding ground for influenza. I don't want to overlook the breath taking scenes the author provides about Italy. I have always dreamed of going to Italy someday and I felt like I was there while reading the story.

Something happens to Adelaide that will change her direction in life. I felt her desperation as she called out to God asking why He gave her a gift and then took it away. We all have been told that there is a reason for everything. If you are like me, you don't always understand what God's plan is and it can be frustrating at times. Finding herself back in the states will have a profound affect on her. 

The best part of the story for me was talking about the Women's Suffrage. Oh how I would like to have participated in that movement. There was much going on with women during this time period. What a horrible treatment some women faced by being sent off to asylums for unjustified reasons. It is hard to think about the danger women faced just to be equal to men. We are fortunate today to have the right to vote, to drive a vehicle and work in places that only men were allowed to work. 

The author delivers a powerful story of equality, listening to God and a romance that had almost been forgotten. Will Adelaide follow Gods direction?  Can she find happiness and peace? It is a great look at a time where war was going on, sickness was abound and a movement for women to take their place as an equal in a world that was in turmoil.  The mystery in the story is well worth reading as Adelaide finds herself working in a place where mistreatment goes on. I admired her strength in finding answers for someone special. Can she rescue someone before it is to late? This is one book you must read and enjoy the writing of an author gifted in historical facts that come to life.

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.

Blog Stops

Bettimace, August 10
Godly Book Reviews, August 10
Connect in Fiction, August 11
Mary Hake, August 11
Genesis 5020, August 12
Bigreadersite , August 15
Blessed & Bookish, August 16
Emily Yager, August 16
CarpeDiem, August 17
Pause for Tales, August 20
Texas Book-aholic, August 21
janicesbookreviews, August 22
A Reader’s Brain, August 22
Simple Harvest Reads, August 23 (Spotlight)

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Linda is giving away the grand prize of an eBook copy of her book and a $50 Amazon gift card!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

Posted by at 4 comments:

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Warriors with Holy Hands FB Banner

About the Book

Book: Warriors with Holy Hands
Author: Peter Toeg
Genre: Christian Suspense
Release Date: February 3, 2017
Warriors with Holy Hands CoverWarriors With Holy Hands  is the story of a young woman who finds herself lost in time and whose life over a period of three years is spiraling downward. Ruth Falk is stricken with an inexplicable illness and then orphaned. With only a distant relative in her life now, Ruth faces a life of debilitating pain and infirmity. She determines to look to the past for answers she believes her bloodline may reveal.
Searching through diaries and records, Ruth discovers blood relatives and others who lived far away over the course of a century.  We follow their lives across three generations culminating in the revelation of indisputable connections that are created—words and actions with lasting results.
Ruth learns that a curse spoken by one ancestor may have had a devastating domino effect, one whose beginning also engaged her prayer-warrior grandmother in a pitched spiritual battle to break. A challenged believer herself, Ruth grows in the faith of her predecessors who faced ominous situations.
The rich symbolism of Judaism provides a backdrop for the saga with traditions and meaning sprinkled throughout the story.
When she faces increasing paralysis, Ruth and a birth friend in the faith journey to the Southern Highlands of Tennessee where it all began. Here in the span of seven days—over ten months—all that has unraveled in recent years comes together. Life as she knows it will never be the same.
God reveals himself to Ruth and others in remarkable ways along a tortuous path that comes full circle.
Warriors is a mystery that is finally, stunningly, revealed as serendipitous fruit from the branches of a family tree. It is a story of encouragement and life that empowers those who seek God and believe.


About the Author

Peter ToegPeter Toeg was a technical writer for over twenty years and a trained journalist who taught communication and media writing for fifteen years at a small Midwestern university. A believer for thirty years, he has roots that extend both to Iraq and Judaism, two themes in Warriors.
He writes full-time now: mostly memoir and short stories with several published. Writing is his avocation.

More from Peter



I’ve always been fascinated with connections, whether family or circumstances. As a memoirist, I have been granted a wonderful perspective on my life filled with connections. Warriors With Holy Hands is a family saga in that vein. Exploring our roots and bloodline. In Warriors, a young woman receives a wonderful gift from the grandmother she never knew and learns the power of prayer.
Ruth Falk, the main character faces two problems: an illness that is robbing her of her mobility and, as an orphan, little knowledge of her past. She wonders whether the two are connected: her background and her illness. So begins her amazing search. In her debilitating condition, time is not on her side.
As often happens in a family, we discover more than we expect. I did forty years after being orphaned myself. I learned that my father rescued his own sister and mother, spiriting them to safety with him when he emigrated from a hostile land to the United States. The grand deception was revealed in documents I’d tucked away. I’d never been told the story.
Ruth Falk also crosses paths with a man on a spiritual journey and another mysterious soldier-warrior, who is mentally gifted—and also her rescuer.
Spanning one hundred years and populated by a dozen remarkable people and a few miscreants, Warriors With Holy Hands is a mystery and adventure with wonders and rich spiritual truths. And maybe a miracle or two. It was quite a trip for me in the writing as I trust it will be for my readers.
Peter Toeg

Excerpt from Warriors:

“Tell me why you’re here, Jacob,” I said through the chorus. We sat at angles to each other in wicker chairs, the vantage of direct face-to-face lost. A candle on a small table before us illuminated considerably more than our plastic glasses and now-soggy paper plates.
“Everybody has to be somewhere, sis.” A quick response.
I pressed. “What are you looking for here? I have reasons—that you’ve hammered me with. What about your family? Are you taking the genealogy route?”
Jacob finished his wine. A loud swallow. I caught him looking at his stump, the prosthetic he’d removed before we came out. He’d rarely been this quiet in my presence this long, the flight excepted. Then he placed the drained glass down, stood, and, with his hand, moved the table to his left, pulled his chair more directly opposing me, and sat down. Military posture, his arms on the chair arms. He looked kindly at me with wine-softened eyes.
“I’m here to help you, Ruthie.” He looked into the night and back at me. “I confess I do have some unfinished business. You’re smart enough to know that—and what it is.” A sad smile formed, genuine emotion breaking out.
I saw hurt in his eyes brewing deep down. “Your father. You have a bridge to cross.” I touched his hand with mine and withdrew it after a moment. “Over a river.”
Jacob looked away longer now, and then back, but he said nothing.
“I can carry you, Jacob,” I said confidently. “You’re not alone.”
Jacob looked at me, a little surprised and pleased at the same time, his eyes damp. “We are kin, are we not? Covenant. A covenant of three.”
I nodded, looked at his stump and then down at my legs. I lifted up my plastic glass and looked at Jacob through its prism with a squint.
“Your father’s spirit is not at the river, but God is… Look for Him and you’ll find your father.”
He nodded. “As much as we think what happens is about us, it’s not, is it?”
I shook my head.
I had momentarily seen Jacob’s face distorted through the glass by the candlelight. Now, the glass removed, his face was almost radiant. “It is said the mystic knows God by contact of spirit with spirit; cor ad cor loquitur. He has the immediate vision…he hears the still, small voice speaking clearly to him in the silence of his soul.”
“And what is the translation?” Jacob perked.
I felt at rest in the moment after a day on the road had awakened nerve pain in my limbs. Gone now. “It means ‘heart speaks to heart.’ Some Catholic theologian. Some say that the origins of the heart speaking are in music—a crystal voice, the sounds of the night, the call of a bird—rushing water.” I waved my hand in a sweeping motion at the darkness before us that was filled with sound.
Jacob nodded then returned to his usual playful self. “So, you’re going to carry me, eh kid?”
“We all need to be carried.” (p. 123)


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The story centers around a young woman named Ruth. She has a mysterious illness that baffles the VA hospital. After being injured in the field she  must suffers from a concussion. It is hard to explain her paralysis and other symptoms that are not related to a head injury. I could sense her need to find out what is going on with her. There is nothing worse than going to the doctor and they have no explanation as to why you are experiencing pains, eye problems, etc.

Ruth is determined that maybe her family history will help give clues to her illness. This is where I became very confused. I usually love time slip stories. They take us back in time as we learn details of a family and it ties in together . There were too many characters for me to be able to keep up with. I was lost at times and wanted to scream. Going back to more than one time period overwhelmed me.  There is definitely a big mystery surrounding Ruth's family and the more she dug, the more she found skeletons in the closet.

Thomas was a very big part of the story and I wanted someone to protect him. He was different from the other kids and was bullied constantly. At one point in the story boys trap him alone with his dog. The graphic nature of this scene made me angry and sad. I wish the author would have found another way to express the boys' anger toward Thomas without the violence they did on the dog. In that moment we see Thomas laying hands on his dog as if to heal him. I won't tell you what happened, but it began to open secrets long buried in the family. 

There was quite a bit of violence in the family during the early days which involved the KKK. I will never understand how a person can murder another human being because of their color. The author does bring to light the different eras and how trouble seemed to follow Ruth's ancestors. 

Ruth will not give up until she finds answers that are hidden in diaries that are part of her kin. Her continue deterioration was making it harder for her to track down relatives and get answers that she desperately need to get help from doctors. We travel to different eras where a puzzle piece starts to open the mystery that could save Ruth's life. It is filled with spiritual undertones that at times I wasn't sure of. I liked parts of the book, but most of it was just too confusing and seemed to take to long to fit the puzzle pieces together. 

I will say that I was intrigued by the genealogical aspect of the story. I have done extensive research on my family history and have many secrets that had been buried for years. I was shocked at how my parents were able to hold on to  the biggest secrets of their lives until they died. While my brother and I researched, we found a shocking discovery. Ruth will  have many details she will have to sort through as she searches for a cure for her illness. Will her ancestors hold the answer she needs?

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.

Betti Mace, August 10
CarpeDiem, August 12
Mary Hake, August 13
Artistic Nobody, August 13 (Spotlight)
Texas Book-aholic, August 18
janicesbookreviews, August 19
A Reader’s Brain, August 20

Giveaway

To celebrate his tour, Peter is Giving away a grand prize package of a $25 Amazon gift card!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.
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