"The Beloved Christmas Quilt"
by Wanda E. Brunstetter, Jean Brunstetter, and Richelle Brunstetter

"Jesus Loves You"
by Christine Topjian

"The Oregon Pursuit"
​by Jenna Brandt

King James Bible
Know the Word Study Bible

The KJV Know the Word Study Bible offers three easy ways to begin studying Scripture and helps individuals transition from being a casual reader of the Bible to becoming a regular student of the Bible. You can choose to study the Bible book-by-book, verse-by-verse, or topic-by-topic; each path offers powerful insights that will help you develop a daily routine of Bible study. The book-by-book series of notes leads you through the main points of each book of the Bible. The verse-by-verse notes help you to dig deeper into God’s Word. The topic-by-topic articles, which cover 21 theological topics, guide you through a series of insightful notes and give you a thorough biblical understanding of each topic. With the beautiful and timeless text of the KJV translation, the KJV Know the Word Study Bible offers you choices of how to study Scripture and grow in your relationship with Christ.
Features Include:

• King James Version Bible text
• Three easy approaches to study the Bible: 1. Book by Book; 2. Verse by Verse; 3. Topic by Topic
• Insightful introductions for each book of Scripture
• Words of Jesus in red
• Beautiful two-color interior page design
• Comprehensive list of theological notes
• Concordance
• Full-color maps
• 8-point type size

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I love reading my Bible!!!! I have never had a Study Bible before, so I would just do my own Bible Studies. This Study Bible has many helpful insights and suggestions about how to study your Bible. At the beginning of each Book, there is a summary of the Book and suggestions on how to study that particular Book. Also throughout each Book, there are different helpful insights and notes to help you understand what you are reading. I also love the Concordance at the end of the Bible. It has a lot of words with many different verses listed as to where to find that word. Sometimes there are only a couple of words for each letter in a Bible Concordance, but this one has a tone of words which is really helpful. There are also a few maps at the very back of the Bible which is very helpful if you are wanting to kind of visualize where things in the Bible actual took place. Overall this Study Bible is super helpful, and I would definitely recommend it to everyone.

I received a complementary copy of this Study Bible from Litfuse Publishers in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Click here to purchase your own copy.

"Colors of Christmas" 
​by Olivia Newport

Christmas in Blue
Angela just wants Christmas to be over. Instead, she finds herself in charge of the town’s celebration, and everything goes from bad to worse. Can she rescue Christmas for the town—and herself?

Christmas in Gold
When eighty-year-old Astrid moves into an assisted living community and meets a young woman on the brink of despair, she resolves to stir up Christmas hope one more time.
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Two completely different novellas that celebrate the hope of Christmas.  The first  called Christmas in Gold takes place in an assisted living facility, where Astrid finds herself after she has fallen and injured her ankle.  Her children decide she is no longer able to stay by herself and have packed her up bag and baggage, and she is supposed to learn to adjust.  To make things harder it is only 10 days until Christmas.  But Astrid has had many opportunities to learn about adjusting, having grown up in wartime Germany.  She knows all about having neighbors disappear for no reason and even her own father was gone for a long time.  She tries to become adjusted to her new surroundings and becomes interested in why her physical therapist carries a gym bag with her all the time that contains a baseball bat.  She begins sharing her childhood with Carly and Carly learns about faith.  And always when moving something dear always becomes misplaced and this is no exception.  Three gold glass ornaments, all Astrid has left from her childhood are missing.  They had survived the burning of their home and the journey from Germany to America only tobe lost when Astrid was forced to move out of her home.  Will she ever find them?  Will Carly be able to quit running from the guy stalking her and her four year old son?  Will this be a Merry Christmas?

The second story is called Christmas in Blue.  A story about a music teacher named Angela who can't wait for Christmas to be over.  She is mourning the death of her best friend, who had helped her through one of the most difficult times in her life, the death of her young husband, who was killed by a drunk driver.  Now many years later she has no one to help her through the death of her friend Carole.  Carole who always made Christmas come to Spruce Valley,  Carole who loved Christmas.  Angela has inherited Carole's dog named Blitzen and the planning of the town's Christmas celebration, a job she definitely did not want.  It seems as if everyone in town knew about this before Angela, and when she was told she only had 8 days in which to plan. Everything seems to fall apart.  The decorations, which were stored in the church basement, were destroyed by a water pipe leak.  The axle broke on the sleigh, the thousand candles needed for the Christmas Eve service were accidentally placed on a radiator and became a blob of wax.  The lights also were determined to be useless.  The list could go on and on. What was Angela to do now?  Read this delightful story of how Angela brings her resources together and saves Christmas for the town of Spruce Valley, and discovers to enjoy Christmas.

Both stories were very enjoyable.  Even though Christmas is a time of hope,  all things do not go right at Christmas.  But these stories teach us that Christmas is a time of hope and love, because of Whose birthday we are celebrating.  I would appreciated the use of the King James Scripture when the Bible was quoted and because of this I couldn't give this book 5 stars, but only 4. 

I received a complementary copy of this book from Celebrate Lit in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
​Olivia Newport’s novels twist through time to find where faith and passions meet. Her husband and twentysomething children provide welcome distraction from the people stomping through her head on their way into her books. She chases joy in stunning Colorado at the foot of the Rockies, where daylilies grow as tall as she is.

GUEST POST FROM OLIVIA NEWPORT

GIVEAWAY

Bringing Maggie Home"
by Kim Vogel Sawyer

Click here to purchase your copy.

"A Semi-Sweet Summer"
​by Jan Elder

GIVEAWAY

"Walk It Out"
​by Tricia Goyer

Women often pack their lives with family, friends, and faithful service, yet still end up feeling empty and unfulfilled. In Walk It Out, Tricia Goyer demonstrates to women that walking out the mandates of Scripture allows God to spark passion and mission within them.
 
Whether believers realize it or not, God intended for them to do what the Bible says: adopt the orphan, take the gospel into all the world, and care for the needy. These are mandates that point believers down the path of true living and eternal life.
 
Sometimes those steps are easy, but many times they require a move outside of what feels safe or secure. When women stop focusing on their own dreams and purposes, and instead focus on God’s dreams and purposes, everything changes.
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Walk It Out is an autobiographical book of Tricia Goyer's challenge to seek God's will for her life.  She  shares with us how everything changed  when she began focusing on God's will for her life and gave up her own dreams and goals.  God has a will for each of our lives, if we would only yield to it.  We are to take the gospel into all the world, and care for the orphans and the needy.  

This book tells of Tricia's own turning point in her life, when she gave up her own dreams and pursued God's.  She is very pointed and candid when she tells of all the mistakes she has made in her life and how she had to accept God's forgiveness before she could begin to be used by Him.  

To live a Christian life we must read our guidebook and that is the Bible, but we must not only read it we must follow it and do what it says as well.  

I appreciated how transparent Ms Goyer was in relating her past.  God forgives and can use anyone who asked forgiveness and is willing to be used by Him.  I do wish she would have used the King James Bible as her scripture reference and because of this I only gave it 3 stars.

I received a complementary copy of this book from the author in exchange for honest review. All opinions are my own.

I am very honored to be included in this unique Scavenger Hunt. What makes this Scavenger Hunt unique, you may ask. Well each member of the hunt was asked to read and review a different book by the author. I was privileged to read Manuscript for Murder. So please take the time to check out each stop in the Scavenger Hunt, as each person is reviewing a different book.

"Manuscript for Murder"
by Chautona Havig

Alexa Hartfield. Author, local celebrity, fashion connoisseur. She chose Fairbury for its close proximity to Rockland, its small-town atmosphere, and its low crime rate.
Then someone made her life a literary cliché. A mysterious accident with a light bulb sparked an interesting idea for her latest novel—and for Fairbury’s new serial killer. The first replication infuriated her. The second left an even worse taste in her mouth. The third blasted more than her self-confidence, and the fourth beat her down so far that she’s considering giving up writing completely.
Who is killing Fairbury’s citizens, and furthermore, why and how are they using her novels to do it?
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The summary of this book really intrigued, so I could not wait to read it. I was not disappointed! The book is cleverly written and has a unique twist to it. The fact the main character is an author and that her plots are coming true before they are even published is pure genius. While I did figure out who the culprit was about half way through the book, the many red herrings that the author throws at us had me second guessing myself a couple of times. With quirky and lovable characters this book is a definite must read, and I cannot wait to read the other books in this intriguing series. While the original series was written several years, the author has a Christmas "Noelle" coming out on October 15. So that is something to definitely keep an out for. If you are looking for a mystery with a different spin to it, then I would definitely recommend this book.

I received a complimentary e-book copy of this book from Celebrate Lit in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

About the Author
​Author of the Amazon bestselling Aggie and Past Forward Series, Chautona Havig lives and writes in California’s Mojave Desert. With dozens of books to her name, Chautona spends most of her time writing, but when she takes the rare break, she can be found reading, sewing, paper crafting, or sleeping and dreaming of finishing the dozens of books swirling in her overly-active imagination at any given moment.

BLOG POST FROM THE AUTHOR
​I could see her as plainly as if she sat before me. She looked like a thirty or forty-something rendition of “Miss King” of Pride and Prejudice (1995 A&E version) fame. The girl Lydia calls a “nasty little freckled thing.” I always thought her rather pretty. Add a decade or two, and she’d be the very picture of my Millicent Hartfield.
Millicent would live in a cottage at the end of a cul-de-sac. Great sycamore trees would line the streets and shade the front and back of her home. She’d be hopelessly old-fashioned, always wearing Regency gowns and bowing to modern conveniences only when the alternative proved uncomfortable. So, electricity at night—yes. Candlelight when not reading or writing… double yes! Indoor plumbing? A must. Curling irons? Not so much. A car for out of town trips, but not for daily living.
And a fountain pen instead of quill and ink. She has much writing to do.
I think, and it’s only a vague recollection, I had her as a Regency mystery writer. In fact, I actually think she originally wrote Austen as a detective before that thing was “done.”
Sigh.
Millicent refused to exist. I tried. Truly, I did. But there she was, wearing a 1940’s WAC uniform! And then she put on Margaret Hale’s dress from North & South! What’s up with the jeans and newsboy cap.
And she refused to answer to Millicent.
I changed her name to Annette. And it worked. But out of the blue, young neighbor children called her “Miss Lexie.” Ahem. I tried to correct them, but Alexa, as she insisted on being called, told me to leave them alone.
I deleted Annette and typed in Alexa. She glared at me. No, really. She did. I could see her burning eyes through my laptop screen. I put it back. A self-satisfied smile appeared as if she said, “Now do something with that.”
She’s rather… demanding that way.
I wanted her to stumble over a body. She refused. “Too cliché,” she insisted.
I tried for having one fall through her roof. She threatened to sue me.
Then her idea formed. Someone taking her horror manuscript and playing them out in her town. I mocked her. “You call tripping over bodies a cliché? The copycat murders have been done.”
She eyed me with that look of hers—the one that says, “Oh, yeah? And you can’t do something with it to make it different? You know I’ll be affronted at the idea. Use that.”
Who was I to argue?
I needed means, motive, opportunity. I needed red herrings. Want to know the truth?
 Didn’t have any of it. I just started writing. I got to the end of the story and then I knew who did it. Why. And how. I had to go put all that back in. It took a rewrite like none I’ve ever done.
But as I added that motive, those reasons that the killer did what he did, I had to explore Alexa’s reasons for doing what she does. Why does she write about gruesome murders and horrible people? How does that fit the idea of thinking on “whatever is true, lovely, pure, and of good report?”
Well, there’s more to the Bible than that scripture. As Alexa puts it,
 
“I write about justice. Others write about [mercy,] redemption or love, but the human heart was designed to crave all four. Because in all four, we see a bigger picture of God. I write the one best suited for me. I could do it in other ways, of course, but my talent lies here.”
 
And she perfectly explained why I sometimes write about the uglier sides of life. I don’t do it to glorify those things but to show a broader picture of what Jesus does for us. The Jesus who showed mercy and gentleness to the woman at the well is the same Jesus who drove out the money changers in the temple and crushed the head of Satan. I write different types of books to show that. And sometimes, those books include murder—like Manuscript for Murder.
And yes, I did get a perverse pleasure out of making Alexa a cliché after all the torment she put me through. Okay, so she was right. I admit it. But I don’t have to like it. I still miss Millicent. Poor soul.
On October 15, 2017 a Christmas “Noella” will release in the Mystery of Christmas 2 Novella Collection!  Silenced Knight features Alexa, her Aunt Faye, Joe, and the gang. It takes place about six or seven years after this book and five years after the end of the series.  I really enjoyed exploring Alexa working with Joe on a case—despite his unhelpfulness.

GIVEAWAY
To celebrate the Scavenger Hunt tour the author is giving away a grand prize of all 14 books featured in this tour. Click here to enter.

Click here to purchase your copy.

"Deadly Proof"
​by Rachel Dylan

Q & A with Rachel Dylan

1. The Atlanta Justice series is centered around strong, female lawyers who take on high-stakes cases. What made you want to write their stories?I’d have to say it’s personal! Having been an attorney for eleven years now, I love being able to pour parts of myself into the books. My everyday life as a lawyer isn’t that exciting and is definitely not as dangerous! But I’m able to draw on what I’ve lived through to bring life and authenticity to these characters.​

2. What type of research did you do for Deadly Proof?One of the great things about writing books related to my career is that I know lawyers who practice all different types of law. Deadly Proof focuses on Kate Sullivan, who is a plaintiff’s attorney taking on a big pharmaceutical company. I don’t do this specific type of plaintiff’s work, but I know lawyers who do, and I was able to talk with them. Also, I was able to relate to my characters on the defense side because I’ve done that work for years. It was really fun to write the perspectives of characters on both sides of the case.

3. Is there a reason you chose Atlanta for this series?Yes! I’m from Georgia and lived in Atlanta, practicing law at a large law firm, for eight years. I wanted to pick a setting I was intimately familiar with to give readers an authentic Atlanta experience—sweet tea and all.

4. Where do you think Kate’s passion for her work comes from?Kate truly believes that her life’s work is to help those who have been wronged. I believe a lot of her passion stems from her strong faith that has developed over the years. She’s not a lawyer to make big bucks but to change people’s lives for the better.

5. What is the next book in the Atlanta Justice series about?Book two is about Kate’s friend Sophie Dawson, who we meet in Deadly Proof. Sophie is an Atlanta prosecutor. This story is exciting because it involves a completely different type of legal case than Deadly Proof. But I promise things get just as dangerous!