Ben Bryant takes readers behind the scenes of the entertainment industry again

Any reader who has been doing much reading knows the experience of making a new friend through the words on a page. Sometimes factual, sometimes fictitious, these new friends creep into your mind and take up residence there. This pretty well describes the feeling I got when I read Ben Bryant’s first book, Three Stages. His chatty style felt like a conversation over dinner with an old friend. This actor-turned-moviemaker took readers along for a wild ride in the world of film and stage up to the 1960s.

His second volume, Circumstances Beyond My Control, brings them through the 70s and 80s as he grows in his behind the camera roles. While he celebrates the people and processes involved in producing entertainment in this second memoir, he isn’t afraid to tell the truth from his point of view. Although Bryant isn’t nasty, he is sometimes very frank and doesn’t hesitate to express his opinion, pro or con, of some of the big names in the industry.

You'll find the rest of the review here.

Brenda Novak's new Whiskey Creek romance plumbs emotional depths

In the small Gold Country town of Whiskey Creek, secrets hide in unlikely places and reveal themselves in the most inconvenient of times. Previous volumes in Brenda Novak’s Whiskey Creek series introduced readers to many of the characters and secrets. In “Come Home to Me,” she brings two more of the community’s denizens to the forefront.

Aaron Amos, one of the brothers in the often fractious Amos clan, considers leaving Whiskey Creek to open a branch of the family’s automotive repair business in another town in the region. He’s researching locations and ready to make the move.

Read the rest of the review here.

Janet Babin introduces the Senior Quilting Society, aka SQS Investigations

Picture your grandmother as a crimefighting super hero. Then picture her with her own team of fellow heroes. Now prepare to laugh yourself silly as Janet Babin brings this picture to life with six senior citizens working undercover as insurance investigators in “Shadows in the Night.”

Babin has created a group of readily identifiable women who don’t want to be stuck on a shelf. Narrator Jen worked as a legal secretary; her best friend Barbara knows all of Jen’s secrets, since they grew up together; Mattie retired as a gym teacher and uses a walker because of a bilateral knee replacement; Margie earned sharpshooter awards during her service as an Army sergeant; Cookie, an overweight retired computer analyst, handles the electronic side of their investigations. The sixth member of the team is Belle, a woman who looks a decade younger than her sixty years.

Read more of the review here.

Christian fiction goes out west with 'A Mighty Fortress' by Faith Blum

Author Faith Blum takes readers from southern Illinois to the wilds of Montana in her novel “A Mighty Fortress.” Her inspirational Western fiction sees farmers becoming ranchers and lost souls being found. Set in the late 1870s, the story describes the Western movement and its inherent dangers as seen through the eyes of Joshua and Ruth Brookings, the youngest siblings of a close knit Christian family.

As Joshua and Ruth travel west to their parents’ new ranch, they encounter stagecoach robbers and desperation as the driver is killed and they must flee for their lives on foot. As they fight to stay alive in unfamiliar country and to make their way to civilization, the reader is part of the journey. Pursued by the thief they outwitted, they need all of their faith and skills to get through the ordeal.

Read more of my review here.

Join Faith Blum on her virtual book tour here.

Bonnie Doran's 'Dark Biology' merges science fiction and faith with satisfying results

Meet Bonnie Doran, author of "Dark Biology."

 Bonnie's heart has always been in science fiction. Prior to her debut novel, Dark Biology, she published 67 devotionals. Dark Biology, is a faith-based science fiction thriller contracted with Harbourlight of Pelican Book Group. She is represented by Steve Hutson of WordWise Media. When not writing, she enjoys reading (mostly science fiction), cooking, Sudoku puzzles, and hanging out with other writers, sci-fi fans, and Mad Scientists. Bonnie has a reputation of telling groan-producing puns and volunteers at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. She has been married 29 years to an electrical engineer and Mad Scientist who owns a 2,300-pound electromagnet and plays with lasers for a living.

 You can check out my review of her novel here.

 

Faith, forgiveness form foundation of "For Love or Loyalty" by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

I received an invitation to preview Jennifer Hudson Taylor's upcoming book "For Love or Loyalty." A Christian romance set in1760, the story follows a young Scottish man seeking to redeem his mother and sister from indentured servitude. With limited funds, he cannot buy their freedom outright. His plan involves trading the daughter of their kidnapper for at least one of them.

Taylor's story overflows with adventure. Most of all, it teems with Christian values lived rather than preached.

You can read my full review here.

Drugs and Adventure Lead the Way in 'Gray Ghost' by C.L. Swinney

C.L. (Chris) Swinney, a real-deal narcotics investigator, takes readers deep into the worlds of fly fishing and the war between drug smugglers and law enforcement in his debut novel "Gray Ghost."

Miami narcotics detectives Dix and Petersen have headed to the Bahamas for a long-overdue vacation. They've planned a simple agenda: some sleeping, some fishing, some drinking, more fishing. What they stumble into turns into a major drug operation that involves friends of their resort hosts. Although out of their own jurisdiction, they quickly find a Miami connection that brings them ever deeper into the web of murder and lies surrounding the sunken speedboat Gray Ghost.

Read more about the adventure here.