Reader’s Choice Giveaway – Autumn 2024 Edition – Goal Review

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Another Best Reads Blog tradition is quarterly reading goal reviews. I’ll share my progress (or not!) here just for some fun, book nerdy stats and, if you’re so inclined you can share a goal or two in the comments. But no pressure – a goal can be as simple as ‘read a book.’

So, to enter this giveaway, just share anything goal related in the comments. Then, in the same comment, list a book that will help you reach your goal. So it looks like this:

“I want to catch up on some suspense series. Night Prey by Susan Sleeman.”

NOTE: BOOKS MUST BE CHRISTIAN FICTION

You can enter up to three times in three separate comments — and you can use the same goal or a different one each time, but a different title for each entry.

Books can be published any time up through to December 2024. Currently published books will be ordered this coming week for winners, otherwise it will be an IOU for a title releasing later in October, November or December 2024.

See? Easy Peasy. But if you’re still not clear, don’t be shy about asking questions.

Now, here are some of my reading goal highlights — just have three more months to work on them! Ack!

Reader’s Choice Giveaway – Autumn 2024 Edition – Christian Fiction

Just in case you need some additional inspiration, I’ve compiled a list of new releases that caught my eye and haven’t been mentioned yet this week. At least, I don’t think they have but if I have some duplicates, my apologies.

OCTOBER:

Historical

  • The Innkeeper’s Christmas by Kristie Seif
  • A Christmas at Hotel del Coronado by Kathleen Denly
  • The Bookbinder’s Daughter by Lynn Dean
  • Brave by Mesu Andrews
  • A Noble Gift by Elizabeth Fryer
  • A Brilliant Alliance by Laura Beers
  • Secrets of a Duke by Martha Keyes

Contemporary

  • Maid at Christmas by Bell Renshaw
  • The Lost Daughter’s Irishman by Carolyn Miller
  • Running into Forever by Jennifer Rodewald
  • Marrying the Billboard Cowboy by Tara Grace Ericson
  • A Weary World Rejoices: Mosaic Christmas Anthology

Mystery/Suspense

  • Zeke (Oath of Honor; 7) by Laura Scott
  • Perilous Healing by Jessica Ashley

NOVEMBER

Historical

  • Investigation of a Journalist by Danielle Grandinetti (also mystery)
  • A Path to Healing by Lisa M. James
  • A Season for the Heart by J.M. Hochstetler (also Amish)
  • Above All Dreams by Naomi Rawlings

Contemporary

  • Caring for the Cowboy’s Baby by Hannah Jo Abbot
  • Matchmaking the Cowboy by Emily Conrad
  • Sugarplum Dreams by Jessie Gussman
  • An Amish Thanksgiving by Beth Wiseman

Mystery/Suspense

  • Mint Flavored Trouble by Tyora Moody (cozy mystery)
  • Fear No Evil by Lisa Phillips
  • Surge: a Breed Apart by Ronie Kendig
  • Investigation of a Journalist by Danielle Grandinetti (also historical)
  • Flynn by Laura Scott
  • Shadow of Fear by Susan Sleeman
  • Knight Brew by Heather Day Gilbert (cozy mystery)
  • The Gory of Light by Hannah Hood Lucero

DECEMBER

Historical

  • Let Nothing You Dismay by Jennifer Q. Hunt
  • The Last Fashion House in Paris by Renee Ryan

Contemporary

  • A Marriage Pact for the Cowboy by Valerie Comer
  • The Run Option by Anna Conwell
  • His Ninth Promise by Liz Isaacson
  • Flirting with Alaska by Belle Calhoun

Mystery/Suspense

  • Corralling the Cowboy by Elle E. Kay

Reader’s Choice Giveaway – Autumn 2024 Edition – Mystery/Suspense Fiction

Reader’s Choice Giveaway – Autumn 2024 Edition – Contemporary Fiction

Reader’s Choice Giveaway – Autumn 2024 Edition – Historical Fiction

September New Releases Giveaway

HELLO SEPTEMBER!

It’s a Best Reads blog tradition! Celebrating the month’s new releases the first week of each month.

Because I recently discovered that a book’s success or failure is often determined by first month sales! (Though I bet preorders play into that as well.) Publishing houses look at those stats to determine whether they’ll add on to a series or accept the author’s next manuscript! All that literary goodness hanging in the balance but for a month’s worth of sales! (This was a cozy mystery author, but I imagine all traditional publishers use the same ‘system’.) So, I thought I should do my wee little bit to promote Christian Fiction.

By hosting a special “Hello — insert month” giveaway. It’s easy to play along. You just have to choose ONE of the September 2024 new releases on your TBR wishlist (must be Christian Fiction) and mention the title in a comment below (or email me at kavluvstoread AT yahoo DOT ca.) If your name is drawn, that September release is the book you will win and we’re one book count closer to keeping our fave authors in business.

2024 Carol Award Finalists – Young Adult + Giveaway

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First off — what exactly are the Carol Awards?

They are awards given out by American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) in recognition of outstanding Christian fiction in the previous calendar year. So these 2024 finalists are books published in 2023. You might have read them already, you might not. I’ll include links to books I’ve read and reviewed.

Carol Award Winners will be announced on September 7 2024 at the ACFW Gala in New Orleans, Louisiana (wouldn’t you love to be there?!)

How does this giveaway work?

You select which of the Carol Award finalists 2024 —Young Adult Category you would like to receive. Mention the title in your comment (or an email if you’re entering that way) and if you win, that’s the book that will be sent to you. Easy Peasy. 

Young Adult Finalists

Sky of Seven Colors by Rachelle Nelson – Enclave Publishing – Editor: Lisa Laube – ebook giveaway – In a strange part of the forest, the divide between worlds grows thin.

After the accident, Meg would do anything to wake her best friend from his deadly coma. At least, that’s what she whispered into the woodland shadows. She never imagined her wish would trap her in a gray other-earth, void of any color.

Meg’s vibrant humanity is a priceless artifact in the gray kingdom, coveted by the royal court. All she wants to do is find a way back home. Until she discovers the other-earth contains healing powers that can save her friend. But only if Meg becomes what the gray people need—a human bride for Kalmus, the powerful king of the capital city.

With her heart torn between earths, Meg’s choices may cost more than she knows.

The Mermaid’s Tale by L. E. Richmond – Enclave Publishing – Editor: Lisa Laube – ebook giveaway – A tail could tell a tale. Locklyn Adair has never fit in. The legs she inherited as a result of her great-great-grandmother’s curse make it impossible for her to belong under the sea. When her niece is also born without a tail, Locklyn is determined to save her from similar rejection by sending her to the only place in the Undersea Realm where legs are acceptable—the Lost Island of Atlantis.

Darin Aalto would do anything to protect his family, even spearheading an impossible quest to find treasure that has been lost for over a hundred years. But when his best friend, Locklyn, joins his crew, his ability to keep her safe—and his shot at winning her heart—comes perilously close to being swept away.

A family curse, lost treasure, unrequited love, and a race against time intertwine as Locklyn and Darin seek to save their family, their kingdom, and eventually the entire Undersea Realm without losing each other.

Dancing in the Silence by Linda Sammaritan – Winged Publications – Editor: Kathryn Eckert – Winner’s Choice of paperback or ebook – How can an Air Force kid survive junior high when her dad’s at war, her little sister is deaf, and friends have abandoned her?

It’s 1967 and Debbie Hansen hates her life. She has to leave all of her New York friends, move to California’s Mojave Desert, then back to New York, all because her dad will be sent to Vietnam for a year. And three out of five pilots never come home. Debbie could be fatherless before she starts high school.

Her only comfort? She’d have her old friends to lean on if the worst happened. Wrong. When Debbie returns to her hometown, she finds the group moved on without her. She tries to reconnect, but their message is clear—NOT interested.

Living under the shadows of war, Debbie and her brothers mask their fears by acting out in anger toward each other until a final showdown erupts into near tragedy. Meanwhile, Mom forbids Debbie to teach Krista sign language. “Experts” say deaf children need to speak. Debbie defies them.

Krista is the only one who’s happy. She blossoms in her world without sound. Before Dad returns, if he returns, Debbie needs to choose—she can keep struggling to earn a place with the “in crowd,” or she can learn to dance with her sister in the silence.

2024 Carol Award Finalists – Speculative + Giveaway

Photo by Rahul Pandit on Pexels.com

First off — what exactly are the Carol Awards?

They are awards given out by American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) in recognition of outstanding Christian fiction in the previous calendar year. So these 2024 finalists are books published in 2023. You might have read them already, you might not. I’ll include links to books I’ve read and reviewed.

Carol Award Winners will be announced on September 7 2024 at the ACFW Gala in New Orleans, Louisiana (wouldn’t you love to be there?!)

How does this giveaway work?

You select which of the Carol Award finalists 2024 —Speculative Category you would like to receive. Mention the title in your comment (or an email if you’re entering that way) and if you win, that’s the book that will be sent to you. Easy Peasy. 

Speculative Finalists

Of Sea and Smoke by Gillian Bronte Adams –– Enclave — Editor: Lisa Laube — ebook giveaway

He rides a seablood, a steed of salt and spray, born to challenge the tides.

Six years ago, the wrong brother survived, and nothing will ever convince Rafi Tetrani otherwise. But he is done running from his past, and from the truth. As civil war threatens Ceridwen’s tenuous rule in Soldonia, Rafi vows to fight the usurper sitting on the imperial throne of Nadaar, even if it means shouldering his brother’s responsibilities as the empire’s lost heir.

The stolen shipload of magical warhorses offers just the edge he needs. But the steeds have been demanded in ransom by the emperor’s ruthless assassin, and if Rafi hopes to raise a band of riders, he must first outwit his brother’s murderer.

Yet when his best efforts end in disaster, and an audacious raid sparks an empire-wide manhunt, even forging an unexpected alliance might not be enough to help Rafi turn the tides, let alone outrace the wave of destruction intent on sweeping them all away.

Seas boil and jungles burn in this tempestuous second installment of The Fireborn Epic as the outcast queen, captive missionary, and royal rebel strive to unearth the mysterious power that hungers for their world.

Execution Island (Book Three in Jurassic Judgment) by Janice Boekhoff — Indie — Editor: Linda Yezak — ebook giveaway

Stalking dinosaurs. Dangerous convicts. A kidnapping.

No matter where she turns, death waits in her jungle prison …

Trapped on a dinosaur-infested island, Oakley Laveau is haunted by the she was created to kill. But after her latest assassination puts her brother at risk, she vows to end the body count. So when the kidnapper offers to trade her brother for two people she is protecting, she hatches a plan to outwit him without bloodshed.

After the exchange goes wrong, she reluctantly teams up with her vengeful sister, a woman whose deadly genetic ability equals her own. Unless they learn to become allies, Oakley stands to lose everyone she loves. Hunted by deadly predators, pursued by the FBI, and partnered with an assassin who wants her dead, she may be forced to use her enhanced genetics to eliminate her enemies.

She has the power to kill anyone. But can she find the strength to save everyone?

Execution Island is the tense final book in the Jurassic Judgment science fiction series.

The Wayward by Tabitha Caplinger — Blue Ink Press — Editors: Christa Dolan and Liz Sheth — ebook giveaway

Wilder James has spent her entire life in Beartooth, secluded from the Necanians and their domed cities where most of humanity resides. Content to keep her distance within the confines of her rustic community, she desires nothing more than to live out her years with her husband, Declan, in their simple mountain home. 
 
But when an unexpected tragedy rips apart her dreams, and intruders pull her from the safety of her camp and into a dark reality, she discovers the shocking truth. The Necanians are not bringers of peace. They’re harbingers of death. 
 
Now Wilder must decide if she will protect only herself and her people, or risk everything to try to free all of humanity. She is armed with the one thing her people have always had – faith. Will it be enough?

August New Releases Giveaway

Photo by Jess Bailey Designs on Pexels.com

It’s a Best Reads blog tradition! Celebrating the month’s new releases the first week of each month.

Because I recently discovered that a book’s success or failure is often determined by first month sales! (Though I bet preorders play into that as well.) Publishing houses look at those stats to determine whether they’ll add on to a series or accept the author’s next manuscript! All that literary goodness hanging in the balance but for a month’s worth of sales! (This was a cozy mystery author, but I imagine all traditional publishers use the same ‘system’.) So, I thought I should do my wee little bit to promote Christian Fiction.

By hosting a special “Hello — insert month” giveaway. It’s easy to play along. You just have to choose ONE of the August 2024 new releases on your TBR wishlist (must be Christian Fiction) and mention the title in a comment below (or email me at kavluvstoread AT yahoo DOT ca.) If your name is drawn, that August release is the book you will win and we’re one book count closer to keeping our fave authors in business.

July Love Inspired Suspense Giveaway

Since I’m finding it difficult to read the print in the Love Inspired lines and I don’t do well with ebooks either, I’m reduced to enjoying my LI and LIS books whenever they appear in audio editions. Unfortunately, that means the number of LI and LIS books I read has dwindled. 

I still want to support the authors though, so I have started a Love Inspired and Love Inspired Suspense monthly new releases giveaway. Separate days for each line. I’ll list all the books and synopsis in a post and you can choose which book you would like to win if your name is drawn.

FOR THIS GIVEAWAY: Choose ONE of the *July Love Inspired Suspense books listed below, add the title to a comment (or in an email – kavluvstoreadATyahooDOTca) and if your name is drawn, that’s the book you will win.

*Just to make things complicated, these books have August as their release month but they actually become available in stores and online on July 23 so I’m calling them July releases?!

July Love Inspired Suspense Releases

Showdown in the Rockies by Kathleen Tailer – A secret cartel operation in the wilderness…A perilous winter pursuit…When their helicopter is shot out of the sky after they discover a drug operation, Detective Flynn Denning—along with her nephew and her ex-boyfriend Derek King—is stranded in the unforgiving Colorado mountains. They’ll need to rely on Derek’s military skills to survive the treacherous conditions and the assailants on their trail. But with the cartel dead set on eliminating any witnesses to their operation, this mission might be their last…

Montana Abduction Rescue by Jodie Bailey – Kidnappers out for vengeance…can a K-9 team stop them? Following the death of a crime boss he put behind bars, Ian Carpenter leaves witness protection—and runs right into an ambush. To escape assailants bent on revenge, he turns to his former handler, US marshal Meadow Ames, and her K-9 partner. But the stakes grow higher when Ian’s cousin is abducted. With threats closing in, can they rescue a kidnapped teen…and stop the criminals for good?

Hunted by a Killer by Laurie Winter – Is she the pursuer or the pursued? When a body was found at the edge of the bayou, police detective Charlotte Reid knew the serial killer who murdered her sister was back. And if she didn’t stop him, he’d kill again. FBI special agent Austin Walsh insisted Charlotte couldn’t do it on her own. But then the murderer gave Charlotte a deadly challenge—catch him, or she’d be his next victim…

Guarding His Secret Son by Laura Scott – A baby is in danger…and protecting him may be deadly. After discovering that he has a son and that the baby’s mother was murdered, Chief Deputy Garrett Nichols takes infant Micah and midwife Liz Templeton on the run. He vows to protect them as they race to uncover why the baby is a target. But danger lurks around every corner and time is running out. Can they track down the truth…before the killer silences them forever?

Deadly Ranch Hideout by Jenna Night – Some secrets aren’t just forgotten…they’re lethal. To expose her imprisoned father’s mob associates, Monica Larson races to find the evidence he’s hidden—until a car accident leaves her without her memories. Now she must locate the information with the help of Officer Kris Volker. Determined to keep her safe from relentless attacks, Kris takes Monica to his family’s Montana ranch. But someone is dead set on keeping their secrets buried…and they won’t stop till Monica and Kris are six feet under.

Ambush in the Mountains by Mary Alford – Innocent lives at stake…Can a former soldier and canine save them? Helping a pregnant woman he comes across in a mountain storm puts Axel Sterling right into the path of ruthless human traffickers. Now it’s up to the ex-soldier and his dog to keep Summer and her unborn baby safe from the abductors she’s finally escaped. But between the icy wilderness and the armed gunmen following them at every turn, one wrong move could cost Axel and Summer their lives.