The Christmas Duet Blog Tour {+ review of "O Come All Ye Faithful"!}

Hello, lovely friends!  Today I have a very exciting post because it's time to think about CHRISTMAS!!!!

Who's already ready for Christmas because I am! 

Rebekah Morris and Faith Blum have teamed up for a fun Christmas Duet Blog Tour! Why Christmas Duet? Because both books have titles that have to do with a Christmas song! Be sure to check out all of the blog posts as well as the giveaway.

 

And today, in the spirit of Christmas, I have a review for you!

O Come, All Ye Faithful: and other short stories

 

Author: Faith Blum

Genre: Short story anthology

Content: None

 

Synopsis:

O Come All Ye Faithful

Edwin wanted to be home, but instead he crouched in a trench. The English on one side of No Man’s Land and Germans on the other. What a way to spend Christmas. Could anything make it better?

Peace on Earth

Emmie and Elana are estranged sisters, torn apart by an old boyfriend five years earlier. Will they survive a night in the same hotel room after a blizzard forces them together or will peace on earth go out the window?

Silent Night

Christmas decorating had never gone this wrong. Jenna had just started when a crazy, gun-waving woman, walks right in the front door and ties her up in her own Christmas lights. Will Jenna even see her family this Christmas? 

The Gift Goes On

Four friends and a year to reflect on. The year had been good for Carlotta, but Priscilla, Remus, and Newton all had at least one trial through the year. A mysterious giver the previous year had helped them all out, though. What would this year’s gifts bring?

O Christmas Tree

Gareth loves Christmas. But more than that, he loves Christmas tree hunting. As the family prepares for their annual trip, Gareth can barely contain his excitement. But what are all the spray bottles for?

 

Purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JR7FSDT

What I Thought:

I'm going to break these into separate mini-reviews because each story was separate. :D

 

O Come All Ye Faithful:  This is one of my favorite historical events and I loved Faith's take on it!  This was super short, but packed with heart and the joy of Christmas.  Silent Night forever gives me chills, and this story is part of why.

Peace on Earth:  Y'all know my love of fictional siblings, and sibling reconnection stories?  That is my JAM.  I kind of read this and pictured it as a Hallmark movie?  I feel like Hallmark could take this story and extend it and it would fit in perfectly with their catalog.  The faith content was also fantastic.

Silent Night:  This was definitely my least favorite story in this collection.  It just felt weird and disjointed and left me really confused.  I would not make the same choices Jenna makes, we'll leave it at that.

The Gift Goes On:  Pure candy cane sweetness, I loved it.  It's a simple story, one of four friends reminiscing, but had so much heart.  And the ending left me really happy.

O Christmas Tree:  This felt so nostalgic.  Sort of like "The Pine Tree Parable", which we read every Christmas when I was a kid.  Having never experienced the whole "go out on a snowy afternoon and pick out your perfect tree to put in your house" thing, it's always really sweet for me to read a story like this.

 

Overall Rating: 4 Christmas cookies out of 5

 

About the Author:

Faith Blum is a small-town Wisconsin girl. She’s lived in, or outside of, small towns her whole life. The thought of living in a city with more than 60,000 people in it scares her, especially after some interesting adventures driving through big cities like Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota.

Faith currently resides in the middle of the state of Wisconsin with her husband and their cat, Smokey. She is blessed to be able to have writing as her full-time career with household work and cooking to do on the side. She loves to paint walls as long as she doesn’t have to do hallways or ceilings.

When not writing, you can find her cooking food from scratch due to food allergies (fun), doing dishes (meh), knitting, crocheting, sewing, reading, or spending time with her husband (yay!). She is also a Community Assistant for the Young Writers Workshop and loves her work there. She loves to hear from her readers, so feel free to contact her on her website.

Be sure to also check out Rebekah's book, "His Law is Love", which you can see here on Goodreads and here on Amazon!

 

Oh and also guess what, just like Rebekah and Faith teamed up for this tour, they have also teamed up on the giveaway!

 

Grand Prize: Paperback of each (US only)

1st Prize: eBook of each (International and US)

2nd Prize: eBook of choice (International and US)

Enter here: https://kingsumo.com/g/ocz29j/the-christmas-duet-giveaway

Huge thank you to Faith and Rebekah for letting me participate in your blog tour!  If y'all are in the mood for a Christmas-y short story collection, I definitely recommend this one!

 

~ Abby

Emmeline by Sarah Holman {book review}

Guys, I have something really cool to tell you about.  And I have a review for you.  So it's a pretty exciting day here at NDWD (yes, that is how I abbreviate my own blog because I'm special xD)

I'm going to get to my review of Emmeline in a minute but first I want to tell you about Stellae Books, the fantastic website I'm working with for this post!

So you've probably heard of Netgalley, right?  Where reviewers can request ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) of upcoming or new releases to review them?  Well, Stellae works in much the same way, but the best part is that they specialize in indie-published books!  Which is super cool! 

So I signed up to be a reviewer (and I highly recommend you do the same!) and the first book I picked out was one that I had been looking forward to reading!


Emmeline


Author: Sarah Holman
Genre: Historical Fiction
Content: None
Main Character: Emmeline Wellington

Synopsis:
What if Jane Austen’s Emma lived in America in the year 1930?
The talk of stock market crashes and depression isn’t going to keep Emmeline Wellington down. Born to wealth and privilege, Emmeline wants nothing more than to help her new friend, Catarina, find a husband. Emmeline sets her sights on one of the town’s most eligible bachelors, but nothing seems to go right. Even her friend and neighbor Fredrick Knight seems to question her at every turn.
Will she help Catarina find the man of her dreams? Why is her father acting so strangely? Will the downturn affect her life, despite her best efforts?

What I Thought:

Emma is one of my favorite Jane Austen stories.  Granted, I've only really experienced two of them, Emma and P&P... and I still haven't read the book... but still!  I really enjoy the misadventures of Emma Woodhouse, or in this case, Emmeline Wellington.  The romance between her and Knightley is definitely one of my favorites.  Friends-to-lovers is my favorite trope, and this is the classic example of that.  So as far as the plot was concerned, I already knew what was coming, but that didn't stop me from loving every second of it.  Well, you know, almost every second.
The characters were wonderful as well.  Emmeline was the perfect mix of naïve and witty, where you got the feeling she knew exactly what she was doing but not what it would cost.  Frederick was perfectly swoon-worthy, and even before the romance came in, their friendship was amazing.  Catarina was adorable and I loved the twist of making her German, it was a great way to use the historical setting.  And every supporting character was so interesting and individual, it was perfect.
The setting was great as well.  I'm a history nut and that's what made me really want to read this book.  Stories retold in different time periods are so cool to me, and I love how the author used the setting to affect the plot points that we already knew and loved.
And then obviously, I loved the ending.  It was sooo perfect.


Favorite Quote: "Hearts are harder to mend than shattered glass."

Overall Rating: 4.5 new hats out of 5

HUGE shout-out to Stellae Books (seriously, go check them out if you read indie books!) for sending me a copy of this book for review!  I loved it!

~ Abby

The Great Indie Black Friday Sale - Dozens of Books Under $1!

Yes, I know, technically it's Saturday but hey!  There's a fantastic sale going on on a BUNCH of indie books! 

Not only is this a great sale (I've already picked up several new reads I'm excited about), but some of the books on sale are some of my favorite books!  And because there are over 100 titles to choose from, I thought I'd make it easier for you by recommending 7 that I've really loved! And the best part, you can get all of these books for under $8!  WHAT!

Where can you get all these books, you ask?  Well, just click this little link right here and you can see all the books that are on the sale!  It's pretty exciting.

1. Bound ~ Victoria Lynn


I read this story in about three hours... I should know better than to start books at midnight, but you know, here we are.  It's a beautiful book about foster care, the bonds children form, and the faithfulness of God.


2. Andora's Folly ~ Abigayle Claire


Fairytale retellings, anyone?  Or I guess myth retellings... idk, either way, I loved this novella.  It's got cute romance, great friendships, sassy goats, what's not to love? 
(You can read my full review right here!)

3. The Reluctant Godfather ~ Allison Tebo


This is another fairytale retelling, which, as I said in my Goodreads review, is perfect for fans of "fairytales, clean retellings, or simply a fan of sass, reluctant love, or cake. Because there is so much cake."

4. Dare ~ Tricia Mingerink

I just read this book and I'm currently in my binge of the rest of the series and whew.  It's awesome.  If you haven't picked them up yet, you totally should, and now is the perfect time to do so, because you can get the whole series for under 7 bucks!  That's four books PLUS a pre-order of book 5! It's awesome!
(My review for this will be coming in a couple of weeks)

5. Kiera ~ Angela R. Watts


You want a marriage of convenience plot?  You want pro-life messages?  You want adorable-ness with underlying intensity?  This book is perfect for you!  Ahhh I loved this one so much.
(My full review is here!)

6. Disowned ~ Sarah Addison-Fox


This series is one of my favorites, and the first book is currently on this fantastic sale!  If you want romances with tragic backstories and height differences, this one is fantastic.
(My full review is here!)

7. At Her Fingertips / Beyond Her Calling ~ Kellyn Roth
 

I was trying to pick just one of these to mention but I just can't.  I love them both too much.  They're just so *clenches fist* pure. 
(My review of AHF is here and my review of BHC is here!)

And there you go! 

me, sniffing my Kindle to try and emulate that new-book smell:

(it doesn't work quite the same but it's still pretty satisfying)
(there are paperbacks on sale too if you actually do want that new-book smell!)

ALSO ALSO ALSO THERE'S A GIVEAWAY!!!
There are TWO winners and the first will win 20 PAPERBACKS WHAAAT (second place wins 20 E-BOOKS WHICH IS ALSO AMAZING)

(let's pretend those are bags of books instead of bags of tacos)
Click this link right here to enter into the fun!

I hope you'll go pick up ALL the books!  Happy late Thanksgiving, and happy early Christmas!

~ Abby

A Royal Masquerade {blog tour + book spotlight!}

*turns on giant spotlight* *aims it at this book*

Oh wait, is this too literal?  Oh well.

Look at those geese.  They are on a mission.  Where to?  I don't know.  But they've got good reason to go there, that's for sure.

Anyway, today is a very exciting day because Allison Tebo has released a new book!!



Who else is HYPED?

Look at this cover, is it not gorgeous?

About the Book:
Burndee can barely tolerate the mischievous Prince Colin, but the two of them are invariably thrown together in a way that keeps them at one another’s throats.
While attending a noblewoman’s wedding, Burndee and Colin’s feud comes to a climax when Burndee loses his temper and does the unthinkable.
Can the two of them work together long enough to unsnarl the mysterious goings on around them?

I can't wait to see what shenanigans these two get up too!  I got to read the first book in this series and loved it so much, and I can't wait to see Allison's take on the Goose Girl (a fantastic fairytale)!

About the Author:
Allison Tebo is a Christian author in her mid-twenties. A sales associate for a major transportation company, she writes books in her spare time. A graduate of London Art College, Allison also pursues children’s illustration and cartooning. When she is not creating art with words or paint, she enjoys narration, singing, quilting, and, naturally, baking. Allison blogs at www.allisonswell.com about the love of Christ, the joys of living, occasionally, all about the wonder of gifs.

Connect with Allison!  Her website ~ Facebook ~ Goodreads ~ Twitter

You can snag a copy of A Royal Masquerade on Amazon here and add it to your Goodreads shelf here!

There's also a GIVEAWAY that you can enter by clicking on this picture!  Is that little glass goose not the cutest?

Aaand I think that's all I have to share with you!  Be sure to hop on over to Allison's blog to see all the other awesome blog tour stops!  The post before me was by Gracelyn Buckner (she's awesome!!) and the post after me is by Serethiel (also an awesome person!!!) and it'll go up tomorrow!

~ Abby

"Seek" Cover Reveal!

Today is the dayyyy!

Angela R. Watts has released the cover to her newest novel Seek, which you can add to your Goodreads shelf right here!

Are

you

ready

to

see

it?

It's

pretty

cool!

Here

it

is!



Isn't it so cool?



If you're wondering what the book's about, I've gotcha covered!

Angel Cutler’s routine life is overturned when local ganglord Viktor Marino tries to kidnap her. When she finds out her adopted sister is back in town and working with Viktor, Angel has to run with the protection of two total strangers. Can Angel’s faith in God protect her family when she can’t?
Elijah Davis has seen Viktor bleed once, and to protect his family, he’ll make it happen again. But who is the One Eli can turn to when he realizes he can’t protect his loved ones alone?
Hiding from gangsters and gunfire, the trio struggle to seek God above all else and trust that His plan is greater than their own. Or Viktor Marino’s.  

Seek will release in December 2018!

About the Author:
Angela R. Watts is a Christian who writes fiction to glorify the King. She’s a homeschooled highschooler who lives with her family at Step By Step Sanctuary, Tennessee. She’s been writing stories since she was little but also enjoys chores, painting, and watching sunsets.

Contact Angela:

Blog | The Peculiar Messenger 

Website | Reveries Co. 

Facebook | AngelaRWattsauthor

Twitter | PeculiarAngela

Instagram | angiewatts

 Congratulations on the cover, Angela!!!  I'm so excited to read this story!


~ Abby

Goodbye, October {a look back}

Oh wow look at this, Abby's writing a wrap-up.

SO. October is over.



Does anyone else feel like 2018 just started and it's already almost over?



Anyway...

Today we're looking back at October, which, to be honest, was a great month for me. 

What Happened:
~ We competed in another feis and it went really well!
~ My little sister turned 18 and I feel old.
~ We had like... three days of BEAUTIFUL WEATHER.  I wore a long-sleeved shirt!  With leggings!  What!!
~ We (my sister and I) started babysitting!  There's a lady who teaches pilates for parents at our dance studio so we watch her son and some other kids while that's going on and it's been really fun! When they're not screaming.  Yeah.
~ Uhhh… I don't know what else to tell you?  OH we put up our Christmas tree last weekend.  I know.  We're weird.


What I Read:

I read 8 books in October!!!  And they were all so good!!!

You can click right here to go to my Goodreads shelf, if you want a closer look at any of them.

(also, in a few weeks I'll have full reviews up for them on Goodreads but I'm way behind right now so I'm basically in a constant state of

with my Goodreads "rtc" shelf, lol)

~ The Summer We Got Saved ~
Wow.  I still don't know how to process this book and it's been a month.  It was extremely powerful, a story of family, determination, and hope in a time of such terrible prejudice.  It was one of those books that almost hurt to read but was so worth it.  It deeply affected me.  {I still haven't given this a rating, and I don't know if I will, tbh... it doesn't feel rate-able.}

~ Hangman's Curse ~
This was a re-read for me, but it was so worth it!  It only took me six hours to read, which is pretty great for me.  It was just as good as I remembered.  But I can't recommend the movie.  ALSO the cover GLOWS IN THE DARK!!! Which I didn't know until I turned the lights out one night to go to bed and was like "what is glowing" and it was the HARDCOVER OF THIS BOOK. WHAT.  {4 stars}

~ The Red Pyramid ~
Another re-read, and I loved it.  Ahh this series is so good.  Carter and Sadie are my kids, I've adopted them, it's done.  {5 stars}

~ A Certain Sort of Madness ~
AHHH THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING.  Seriously I found so many new faves this month!  This was one of them!  It was excellent, and my Goodreads review is pretty long, lol.  {5 stars}

~ The Storm Runner ~
This. book. was so funny.  Like, I laughed out loud so many times.  Zane is a good pure boy whom I love with all of my heart, Brooks is such a sassy queen, I learned so much about Mayan mythology and I just... I loved it a lot and I cannot wait for book 2.  Also the audiobook is fantastic, highly recommend! {5 stars}

~ Beyond Her Calling ~
THE CUTEST FLUFFIEST BOOK EVER. I LOVED IT SO MUCH.  {5 stars}

~ My Plain Jane ~
I loved this so much.  It was fun, it was funny, it had the perfect amount of spook and mystery, and tbh I liked it more than the first one.  So.  There's that.  But yeah, again, I loved all of the characters so much, and I loved seeing Jane Eyre turned on its head like this.  It was really great.  {5 stars}

~ The Screaming Staircase ~
Okay.  I finished this last night and was up 'til like... three in the morning because I needed to know what happened.  AH it was so good!  Lucy and Lockwood and George were such fascinating characters and I'm totally going to read the rest of the books because I loved it SO much.  {5 stars}

So, as you can see, I had a great reading month and I'm really happy about it. 




What I Listened To:

This was an eclectic month of music for me.  Basically if something randomly popped into my head, I put it on this playlist, lol! 


What I Posted:
I promise, guys, I'm going to try to get better about posting.  It's been hard.  But I have a few blog tours coming up so those, at least, are guaranteed :D  (not like that isn't all I've been posting lately hehehehe)
But this month I posted two book reviews/blog tours, for:
A Certain Sort of Madness
Beyond Her Calling

And that's about all from me!  Look, I did a wrap-up!  Who's proud?  I'm proud.



((I said this line to myself ironically last night and it seemed appropriate lolol))

~ Abby

Beyond Her Calling {blog tour + book review}

Hello, my lovely friends!

Today is officially my day to post for the Beyond Her Calling blog tour!!

Let's just walk through how this went down, shall we? (to aid me, various Psych gifs)

Me, hearing that Kellyn was writing another book in this series:


Me, hearing that it was about Ivy's love story:


Me, hearing that it's set in SCOTLAND:


Me, hoping Kellyn will accept me as part of her blog tour team:


Me, upon seeing the ARC show up in my email inbox:


Me, finishing the book and having all the feels:


Me at Kellyn, after reading it's adorable wonderful-ness:


Okay now on to the actual review...

Beyond Her Calling

(this cover, though?  *all the heart eyes*)
Author: Kellyn Roth
Genre: Historical romance
Content: None
Main Characters: Ivy Knight, George (Jordy) MacAllen, and Violet Angel

Synopsis:
At twenty, Ivy Knight feels as if she hasn’t accomplished anything of worth. Her life stretches on before her, empty and pointless. Though her faith in God and her mental abilities have been strengthened, she still doubts herself. Does God have a purpose for a socially awkward, often confused and frightened young woman?
Jordy McAllen has just returned to Scotland after his education in London. Though he has accomplished a lot for a farm lad such as himself, he fears that what everyone has always said about him may be true: he won’t really make a good doctor. Determined to prove himself, Jordy snatches up the opportunity to become the doctor in the village of Keefmore near his parents’ farm.
Helping Jordy with his work at Keefmore seems like the perfect opportunity for Ivy. Still, she doubts herself. Is there a purpose to Ivy’s life?

What I Thought:
My first reaction after finishing the last chapter:

Me, a few moments later, while my family looks on judgementally:

I'M SO HAPPY.
(also, sorry if this gets a bit discombobulated, I wrote it last night)
Kellyn's books get better and better, oh my word!  I believe my words when I finished it (last night) were, "OH MY GOSH.  OHHHHH MY GOSH.  FRIENDS-TO-LOVERS IS MY FAVORITE. TROPE. EVER." because my heart was just bursting with happiness and I couldn't contain it.  Now, I love Alice and her husband (whose name I will not spoil because you should also read At Her Fingertips) with all of my heart, don't get me wrong.  But Ivy and Jordy? might take the top spot? and I'm not completely sure how I feel about it but I refer you to the aforementioned bursting with happiness. 
As I've already screamed, friends-to-lovers continues to solidify itself as my favorite romance trope.  Because I love friendship-centered plots ALREADY but add ROMANCE and I am SOLD.  And I just can't handle it, these two are so Pure and Good and Soft and I love them so much.  If someone who's read it could message me on Goodreads or Instagram so we can scream about the ending that'd be great 'cause I can't really do it here because SPOILERS.

*takes a deep breath* Okay, Abby, can we get out some sort of semblance of a put-together review as if we're a proper reviewer?

This series is quickly rising the ranks of my favorites list.  Just... the progression of the characters - the way our girls have grown up is so perfect.
I loved Ivy as a lead, I still (somehow) haven't read Ivy Introspective (I gotta get on that, I know), so I wasn't sure how I would feel about her.  I liked her from Alice's books, but I didn't really know her.  Through this book, I got to know her heart, and I liked what I saw a lot.  I related to her so much more than I related to Alice. 
(Also, I find it kind of funny that Ivy and Jordy's personalities are almost swapped from Alice and her husband's.  Like, Alice is the outgoing, sassy one and her husband is the sweet and loving, and Jordy's the sassy one and Ivy the sweet.  Idk, I thought it was cool.)
I loved all of the side characters too - Violet and Jordy's family and Ena, they were all so great and so rich and so real.  I felt like I could go to Keefmore and be completely at home and happy.  It gave me Mitford vibes... but Scottish.  Yeah.
I adored Alice's letters because they felt so her.  And also had me laughing out loud.  (Seriously, I snickered my way through this book and I loved every second of it) 

So all in all, I found this to be a wonderful story about growing up, trusting God, and waiting to find your calling.  It was beautiful.

Favorite Quote:

 I relate to this quote so hard, I can't even tell you.

Overall Rating: 5 beautiful sonatas out of 5

About the Author:


Kellyn Roth lives on an Eastern Oregon ranch with her parents, little brothers, border collies, cats, and a few dozen cows and chickens.  Always a lover of a good story, and especially of telling one, she's been writing since she was seven and published her first novel at fourteen.  Now a homeschool grad, she divides her time between penning her next Christian historical fiction novel, creating professionally silly articles for her blog, and her actual life.  Actual life plays second fiddle sometimes, though.

Connect with Kellyn: Her website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Goodreads ~ Google+ ~ Instagram ~ Pinterest ~ Youtube ~ Amazon ~ her personal blog ~ her review blog

There's also a very exciting giveaway going on (you could win a paperback copy of this beautiful book!!!) and you can check it out at this link right here!

A huge THANK YOU to Kellyn for letting me participate in this blog tour and read your wonderful story!  I can't wait to see what God has in store for you next ;)

And now, if you will all excuse me, I'm off to go read the last chapter again and squeal some more.


~ Abby