Giveaway!!! Ukuleles Undercover by Cheryl Lynn Martin

Yes, Cheryl Martin's at it again!

Ukuleles Undercover!

Cheryl's teen aged private investigator, Leilani, gets crushes like I get chocolate cravings, and I thought I'd let you get to know her current heartthrob. Brandon...

So, Brandon, how did you end up involved with The Hawaiian Island Detective Club?

I met Leilani in math class and then discovered that she lived just down the street from me. Leilani got me involved in some mystery thing happening at the music school, but I totally do not like spying and investigating. I’m a surfer guy and I like cars, too, just like Sam. He’s a pretty cool guy. ‘Course Maile and Leilani think Sam’s belching is annoying, but I think it’s pretty cool and wish I had that skill.

So, if you don’t like mysteries, were you able to help Leilani, Maile, Sam and Kimo catch the culprit at all?

(Brandon groans) Yeah, I did volunteer to help Leilani a little, but never again! It ended in disaster.

Hmm . . . that’s not what I heard.

Well, I guess it’s how you look at it. Believe me—I won’t be doing any more snooping or going on any stake-outs again.

(Brandon sighs) ’Course it may not be so easy if I’m hanging out with Leilani. She’s way into this detective stuff.

Oh! So you and Leilani are hanging out, huh?

Uh . . . (Brandon’s face turns bright red) Sometimes we go surfing . . . and maybe get some shave-ice.

You’re new to the island, right?

Yup. Just moved here from Oregon. My mom got totally burned out on all the foul weather there. She wanted lots more sunshine.

I didn’t know they surfed in Oregon.

They do, but you have to wear a wetsuit most of the year. I have a bunch of friends in California so I visited them a lot to ride some great waves and work on my skills.

Thanks for visiting, Brandon, and I hope we’ll hear more from you—maybe even see you involved in another mystery!

Yeah, right! (Brandon waves me off, and I chuckle)

 Well, that's just a taste of the fun Cheryl has with her characters. If you have children or grandchildren in the middle-reader age group, by all means, get a copy of Ukuleles Undercover!

I'm all for giving away a copy because it's such an awesome read, I want to get it into more hands.

Just leave me an email addy in your comment that tells me why you'd like to win a copy.

 YOU WON'T BE SORRY!

Ukuleles Undercover rocks! Adults will love this series as well. I know I'm hooked.  

 The sounds of ukuleles at the local music school blend with warnings and Leilani can't resist gathering the Hawaiian Island Detective Club together in order to discover who the culprit is. One quirky character after another is suspicious. Leilani even considers her dreaded math teacher, Mr. Edwards, who she dislikes because of her mom's crush on him. Things are never what they seem as each character is convincingly guilty. Leilani does her best to keep her mind on the mystery all the while falling for the new guy in class. Another surfer. Grrrrr....she has such a soft spot for surfers. But in no time at all, she convinces Brandon to join the other "detectives" to find out who is behind the threats at the music school.

GIVEAWAY/ANOTHER BIKER BOOTS!

I just have to give away another copy of The Pastor's Wife Wears Biker Boots. 

An ebook copy!

So if you'd like an ebook copy, please leave a comment and your email addy!

The correct email addy! I won't hunt all over the net to find it!

I read pastor's wife--Karla Akins' book as her crit partner.

I reread it as her agent.

Now, it's my bathtub read 'til it's done.

What a wonderful book! I'm halfway through it again, and wow! What a terrific read.

Sooo...if you'd like a free ebook copy, please be sure

and tell me why you think you deserve it, and I'll pick one to go out this week.

You've got 'til early Friday to let me know; I have a new giveaway going up

for Cheryl Lynn Martin's middle-reader on Friday afternoon.

Blessings, my friends.

Keep watching. I plan to do some writing tips this fall that will help you navigate

the scary road of punctuation marks and editor pet peeves.

 

GIVEAWAY! THE PASTOR'S WIFE WEARS BIKER BOOTS! by Karla Akins

You want to be sure and have plenty of tissues, because if you aren’t laughing, you’ll be crying.

Karla Akins is a preacher’s wife and she knows from where she speaks.

With her own life challenges, she writes about a pastor’s wife named Kirstie who faces countless challenges of her own, and she finds herself a tad depressed. Her husband, being a husband, tells her he’ll pray about it.

While he’s praying, she’s headed to the bike shop to pick out a bubble gum pink motorcycle.

You heard right, a motorcycle. She longs to feel freedom blowing through her hair and she has loads of eccentric friends to ride with her.

What will the church folks think? What will her family think?

***

Kirstie loves roaring down a road less traveled by most women over forty, but she’s not just riding her bike for the fun of it. Kirstie has a ministry. However, certain church members have secrets to hide, and when God uses Kirstie’s ministry to fill the pews with leather-clad, tattooed bikers, those secrets could be exposed, and some will stop at nothing to hide the truth.

Kirstie and her motorcycle “gang”—two church matrons and a mouthy, gum-smacking non-church member—discover that road-toughened bikers are quite capable of ministering to others, and faith is fortified in the most unexpected ways.

The book includes a teen with autism. Akins has twin boys with autism. It also addresses the issues of Alzheimer’s.

When she wrote the book, she didn’t realize her mother-in-law would come down with Alzheimer’s. She now lives with their family. Karla realizes that in writing her book, God was preparing her for things to come.

“I think there are several things in the book that people will identify with. There’s a chapter devoted to the Patriot Guard and a fallen soldier returning home from Afghanistan. Struggling to raise kids in a modern world when temptation is everywhere is also addressed. And the pressures of pastoring a church. But the emotions and experiences are universal because they’re human,” she says.

There’s also an awesome mystery attached to the church history and those most adamant about controlling Kirstie are the ones with secrets to hide.

DON’T MISS THIS HILARIOUS NOVEL.

Leave a comment and your email addy (YOU MUST LEAVE THE ADDY, I WON’T GO HUNTING FOR IT) for a chance to win a copy of:

THE PASTOR’S WIFE WEARS BIKER BOOTS! By Karla Akins.

Giveaway Winners!

All right, step right up, here you go, we've got a winner! We've got five winner!
Juli won Rose Zediker's, Wedding on the Rocks!
Janet won Linda's The Substitute Bride
Linda Marie Finn won Karla's Biker Boots
Christina won Linda's two ebooks, Polar Bear Plunge and Miss Fishly
and...drum roll please.....
Bobbe won Davalynn's The Rancher's Second Chance
Way to go, ladies!

I see there was a lot of interest in Karla's The Pastor's Wife Wears Biker Boots.
Tune in later this week for an interview with Karla and another chance to win her book.

BTW JULI, YOU'VE GOT TIL 6 TONIGHT TO SEND ME YOUR EMAIL ADDY SO I CAN LET YOU KNOW, OTHERWISE IT GOES TO SOMEONE ELSE!

The Substitute Bride

.
You can purchase The Substitute Bride here.

Five Books! Four Authors! Giveaways--Yeah!

 

Golly Gee, but I love to give away books!

And I’ve got two ebooks and three print books just chomping at the proverbial bit to land in someone’s hands.

Let’s start with author, Rose Zediker.  Wedding on the Rocks. This is Rose’s fourth book for Heartsong, though she’s written many others.

When she traded small-town life for the bright lights of Chicago, Jennifer Edwards yearned to discover a world beyond Faith, South Dakota. So when her father's illness calls her home to run their cattle ranch, she tells herself it's temporary. Then why is she even thinkingabout a future with archaeology professor Brett Lange—the boy she left behind—whose life's work is digging up the past?

Rose captures the heart of romance in Wedding on the Rocks.

Next is Davalynn Spencer and her novel, The Rancher’s Second Chance. This is Davalynn’s first novel with Heartsong, but not her first rodeo, so to speak. She’s actually been a clown when she filled in for her husband who keeps the bull from the rider. Not many folks can say that!  

Laura Bell is home for good. Twelve years ago she left her home behind—but she could never forget the boy next door. Now, hurting from a broken engagement and fed up with city life, Laura returns to her family's ranch. But her homecoming is bittersweet. Twelve years apart has changed Eli Hawthorne. Yet the bond they once shared has only deepened with time.

If you like a country setting with a handsome cowboy, Davalynn’s your writer. She knows the genre because she lives it! Let’s all experience a handsome cowboy and plenty of conflict in The Rancher’s Second Chance. 

How about plenty of laughter? Yup, you got it. Karla Akins, The Pastor’s Wife Wears Biker Boots…from Harbourlight, an imprint from Pelican Book Group, and she knows what she’s talking about. Pastor’s wife Karla Akins tells a tale full of tears and laughter. And she understand what it is to be a pastor’s wife and need a bike to occasionally vroooom off into the sunset and calm the tension.

Pastor's wife, Kirstie Donovan, lives life in a fishbowl, so when she hops on the back of a bright pink motorcycle, tongues start to wag at the conservative, century-old First Independent Christian Community Church of Eels Falls. Kirstie loves roaring down a road less traveled by most women over forty, but she's not just riding her bike for the fun of it. Kirstie has a ministry. However, certain church members have secrets to hide, and when God uses Kirstie's ministry to fill the pews with leather-clad, tattooed bikers, those secrets could be exposed...and some will stop at nothing to hide the truth.

If you love to laugh, love a good mystery, and love a few tears sprinkled in like a straight-laced baptism, then Biker Boots is for you!

Finally, I love to give away books, too!!! So I’m giving away two copies of my own books. First: The Substitute Bride.

Rancher Jared Callahan eagerly awaited the arrival of his mail-order bride. But instead of the kindhearted woman who wrote about escaping her constrained city life, the beauty who arrived in his remote frontier town couldn't remember anything. Not him, not their long-distance courtship, not even her own name. What is he going to do with this petite spitfire? 

Find out how his bride discovers her true identity in The Substitute Bride!

Then, because I can’t give away enough to make me happy, I’m going to give away my two ebooks from White Rose Publishing:

Polar Bear Plunge and the sequel Miss Fishly. Both to the same person.

Polar Bear Plunge:

Brice Taylor might not be on Aleni Callan's Christmas list, but she finds him under her tree anyway.Nurse Aleni Callan's anger toward God is fueled when Brice Taylor enters her life. Not only does Brice have no regard for his own life—as evidenced by the concussion and hypothermia he suffers after participating in the Polar Bear Plunge—he escaped the war in Afghanistan and lived to tell his story in a bestselling book, while her precious husband was killed.

Miss Fishfly:

Searching for love everywhere but in the right places, Christie Hayes is confounded when chocolate brown eyes wink at her at her best friend's wedding. A narrow miss of the bedpan, and she discovers old Mr. Hartway's grandson, Colton Keller, and brown eyes are one in the same.

So if you’d like a chance to win one or more of the books listed here, please drop a note by this Sunday at noon about why you’d love to read one. Be sure and leave your email addy!

Blessings to you all!

AND IF YOU DON'T WIN KARLA'S BOOK HERE, SHOOT OVER TO HER SITE WHERE SHE'S GIVING AWAY ALL KINDS OF GOODIES IN HONOR OF HER BOOK LAUNCH:
http://www.karlaakins.com/contest.html