A Plain Wish by Cyndi Lord

Just before her sixteenth birthday, Kristi’s world implodes when her parents who are divorced, remarry others whom she cannot tolerate. Life for her will never be the same, and her only hope of escape is to leave both homes where she no longer feels included. Her Amish pen-pal, Betty, sends a letter and Kristi decides to run away from her father’s house in Batesville, Indiana. On her journey to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, she overcomes many challenges. What will happen when she arrives in a community where no cars, electricity, or worldly clothes are allowed? From a background with no religious instruction, will she fit in where God and separated living dominate the Amish? Will her plain wish for a new family become a reality?

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Cyndi has a second in the series too.

Kristi Becker ran away from Batesville, Indiana after her parents divorced. Once she made it to her Amish friend, Betty Miller’s house in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, she learned about family life grounded in God. She thought her grandmother lived somewhere in Lancaster, and her fondest hope to find her and regain the love she remembered neared. When she learned her grandmother had moved to Clarksville, Texas, Kristi decided to drive across the country with her friend, Betty, and friend’s brother, Jacob. While they journey in A Plain Adventure, they encounter fears, trials, challenges, and something else happens. Is Jacob, the Amish young man, falling in love with the Englischer, rebellious, Kristi? In Texas, conflicts begin in ways Kristi never anticipated. In the end, love prevails, but what will the future bring?

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*****

These are nice, kid friendly, fun reads.

Four Days to Fusion by Lira Brannon

To save her friends she will have to burn.

In a small town in the middle of the U.S., the only thing Seren wants to do is fit in.  This proves difficult when everything about her is different and people call her freak behind her back. Things change suddenly when she gives a boy her necklace, the one her parents told her never to take off. Next thing she knows she’s running for her life with a smart-mouth water globule with two personalities, putting out hot flashes that burn her clothes off, and dealing with two boys she will have to choose between.

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*****

A really nice young adult sci-fi. Lots of action and twists. If you like sci-fi, you'll love this.

I Just Came Here to Dance by Susan Mary Malone

Paula Anne Fairbanks understands all about the unexamined life. And she likes hers that way—until her world gets ripped smooth apart.

Running from reality, Paula falls under the mythological yarns being spun on Diana Maclean's porch. Surely Paula's own choices aren't to blame for the summer of insanity she spends under the spells of Diana...who is, after all, known as the White Witch of Sociable, Texas.

I JUST CAME HERE TO DANCE, a modern allegory, waltzes atop the line between the creative and the crazy, the sacred and the maligned. Through myths it weaves together the multi-layers of personal Self with that of the collective whole. And finally, Paula Anne and the townsfolk learn the simplest of truths: that the fire's ashes produce wisdom and courage, just as the stories say.

*****

I'm not a big "women's fiction" fan but I loved this one.

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And, if you are ever in need of an editor, Susan is the one you want. Seriously, she is amazing. You can check her editorial services out here.

Secrets of the Dead by Caleb Pirtle !!!

Ambrose Lincoln is one of the government's prized operatives, a trained assassin, a man whose past is continually erased by mind control treatments. He is dispatched to Baden-Baden after the Night of Broken Glass to find rolls of film that will tell the truth and uncover the lies. The photographs will reveal to the world the sadistic threat that exists for everyone if Hitler's mad march isn't stopped. Lincoln’s mission is to uncover the deadly secrets that his own government doesn't want him to find, secrets that can change history.

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      It was the race for the Atomic bomb. America was at war a long way from home. Hitler’s war machine was storming across Europe. Russia feared the German threat and secretly wanted to become a world power, more feared than it already was. All three nations knew that whoever split the atom and developed the Atomic Bomb first would rule the world.

      A stealth espionage operation within the U. S. Government dispatched their man with no memory to Los Alamos where physicists, chemists, and scholars were frantically trying to build the bomb. Ambrose Lincoln was himself a human experiment, a man whose mind had been erased by electronic shock treatments because the rogue political operation believed he could be more effective if he wasn’t shackled by fears and memories of the past. It would be his duty to uncover and silence those spies who were trying to steal America’s most vital secrets and selling them to Russia and Germany.

      If he fails the United States might well lose the war, and Lincoln finds himself embedded in a conspiracy of lies where nothing is as it seems to be.

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American operative Ambrose Lincoln has no idea where he is or has been or where he's going. He believes he has been to the night side of dark, a place of the first death, from which no one can return. So why does he find himself on the bomb-ruined landscape of Poland, or has he been exiled to the second death? Lincoln only realizes, if the man in the shadows has not lied to him, he must find an ancient religious painting that has been missing for centuries. The German Gestapo will pay a fortune to buy it, or take a man's life to get it. The painting, if legend holds true, is the German hierarchy's final and only chance to escape the onslaught of the war that is crumbling around their feet.

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*****

I LOVE reading Caleb's writing.  I once heard him call himself a "used word salesman" but I call him a wordsmith.  He has learned his craft and wields words the way a master swordsman wields a sword. Even if you don't like this "time in history"  I urge you to give these a read. I think you'll love them.

More Than A Witness by Jack Moseley

The apparent homosexual murder of a fellow Army recruit inexorably leads Alex Massey into a maze of seemingly unrelated violence, corruption and intrigue—in, out, and back in uniform.

To survive, the young police reporter/mobilized weekend warrior must discover himself and be MORE THAN A WITNESS; he becomes a participant in the events that shape his life and provide him an expose that shakes the highest levels of the Pentagon. An unlikely, unsavory and absolutely fascinating cast of characters cross Alex’s path on his way to a life and death climax in an isolated area of a resurrected military post.

*****

This is a real gritty one. I did like it though. Just be warned, it is not g-rated.

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How to Eat Like a Dragon - M. Lopez & L. Simmons

This really cool cookbook will become a kid favorite. Not only is it full of healthy recipes, it has nutrition tips and pointers on taking care of bearded dragons.I'm not one who eats a lot of veggies, but for those of you who do, or who would like to get the kiddos to eat them, this might be a great book to have.  It's available as ebook or hardcover.

Get your copy here.

Here's a pix of the Viking Opera Duckies with Chef Zutoo at the Lousiana Book Festival last Oct.

Dragons of Jade by Jean Lauzier

There’s no such thing as dragons.

Of that, Jade Delaney was sure.  She may not have known who she was or where she came from, but at least she had a plan for her future.

All that changes when a dragon summons her back to the world from which she came. There, she learns dragons are real, the truth of her birth, and just why she was abandoned as a toddler.

Now she must discover and stop whoever is killing the dragons, while avoiding the man who is hunting her.

*****

Okay, so this is my book. But since this is my blog, it seems fitting to put it here.  At least once in a while.  It is a stand alone, however, I am working on a sequel. It's going to be really good.

Get your copy here or if you'd like a signed copy, let me know and we'll work out details.