Today, I have a newly released memoir to share in our book blitz spotlight! Check out Shattered Compass, learn about author Lenore Greiner, pick up your copy of the book & enter for a chance to win a prize in the book tour giveaway at the end of this post! 

A Memoir of Loss, Escape, and Renewal

Memoir

Date Published: June 11, 2025

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

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How does a young woman cope when she cannot speak the truth?

When nineteen-year-old Lenore experiences sexual assault while studying abroad in Italy, her entire world shifts. Survival becomes the focus of her daily life, physical illness grabs control of her body, and no one can free her from her pain. A ghost of herself, she takes the path of denial, believing it’s the only way to protect her loved ones and herself from her harsh reality.

On her journey toward peace, she assumes the expected roles of mother and wife, but a traumatic diagnosis puts her at a crossroads. She must start living the life she wants or roam her days as a victim in the chaos of fear. Lenore’s escape through travel allows her to reconcile the imprisonment she’s suffered over the years.

However, when another family tragedy strikes, Lenore understands she must finally come to terms with the silence she’s kept. But what if one incident that happened decades ago is too destructive, too deep to be excavated? Will she be able to find herself in the rubble? Or will she be lost forever?

About the Author

Award-winning travel writer Lenore Greiner grew up in Marin County where, at thirteen, she began her writing journey as a lifelong journal keeper.

At nineteen, her passion for adventure led her to Italy’s heart to study at the University for Foreigners in Perugia and immerse herself in the language and culture. There, the seeds of her memoir were sown.

Lenore has garnered eight prestigious Solas Awards for Best Travel Writing and was honored in Best American Travel Writing 2013, edited by Elizabeth Gilbert. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Fodor’s travel guides, and three volumes of Shaking the Tree, an annual anthology curated by the International Memoir Writers Association.     

A graduate of UC Davis, Lenore married her college sweetheart, and they now call Southern California home. They share two kids, two kayaks, and too many rambunctious grandkids.

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I love finding new memoirs to share! Learn about coming of age drama/memoir Luna Court and author Dandy Noel in book spotlight feature! 

Nonfiction/Memoir, Adventure, Coming of Age, Drama

Date Published: March 24, 2025

Publisher: MindStir Media

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"Life on the road was a dream. Destinations were shaping up to be cold, hard, complicated realities."

The call of the open road, the music that fuels them, and the night that changed everything... In the early 1990s, amidst the gritty allure of Southern California's burgeoning music scene, 18-year-old Denver finds herself at a crossroads. Her father has been missing for over a year, leaving behind a void that haunts her every moment. After high school graduation, Denver and her best friend hit the road for a transformative journey across the country.

About the Author

You might say Dandy’s lifelong pursuit of healing began in many places: with parents who both abandoned her in different ways; with the incredible cross-country road trip she embarked on as a teenager; or with a transcendent night in Washington D.C.

The truth is, healing is not about beginnings or about endings. It’s an invitation that beckons to every one of us.

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Books A Million

Today, I have a political thriller for your summer reading list! Learn about Wednesday, After from the Baker Mischief series and author Dr. Richard Sherry--and be sure to enter for a chance to win a prize in the book tour giveaway at the end of this post! 

Baker Mischief Book 4

Political Thriller

Date Published: 06-10-2025

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What would happen if a man of integrity, calm judgment, and firm conservative principles were elected our President? Would he do better than what we have? Or might he discover that behind America’s expressed principles something still lingers from the Fall? That behind our longing for justice, for community, for fairness, for freedom, for beauty, proportion, for the things that nurture all that is good, Something is still out there?

Let’s see.

About the Author

Dr. Richard Sherry is the author of the Baker Mischief series, including A Month of Sundays (2022) ; Mondays, Mondays (2023) ; and First Tuesday 2024. The political thriller series introduces retired political science professor Dr. Ed Baker, determined to open up American politics to daylight. He is almost always up against both the law and forces attempting to conceal their influence on American life. In A Month of Sundays, Baker uncovers who owns senators up for election in 2020 and releases their emails to the voters in their states. In Mondays, Mondays, he reveals a "voting bloc" in the Supreme Court and who is influencing them. In First Tuesday, Baker and his former students look at the influential forces behind the 2024 presidential election, with surprising results.

Richard released a memoir in 2020, The Long Run: Meditations on Marriage, Dementia, Caregiving, and Loss (2020), about his first wife's illness and death.

Richard is a retired college professor and administrator. He resides in Minnesota and winters in Arizona with his wife Marjorie Mathison Hance, author of the North lakes Murder Mystery Series.

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This morning, I have a historical fiction novel in our book blitz spotlight! Learn about Native American fiction novel Army Apache Scout from The Apache Kid Chronicles - Volume 1 and author W. Michael Farmer! 

ARMY APACHE SCOUT (The Apache Kid Chronicles-Volume 1)

Fiction / Indigenous / Historical Fiction / Native American

Date Published: 06-03-2015

Publisher: Hat Creek

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From Army Scout to Outlaw, from Hero to Legend.

He survived the embers of the fires and murders at the Camp Grant Massacre of the Apache. Young Has-kay-bay-nay-ntayl ("brave and tall and will come to a mysterious end"), a child known by many names but later feared and revered as the Apache Kid-grows up in two cultures where survival means choosing between loyalty and betrayal, his people and their overseers. Trained by the legendary Al Sieber and other former military officers, the Kid makes a meteoric rise to prominence as a First Sergeant of scouts, a warrior whose skill and leadership helps win the U.S. Army's fight against renegades and maintain peace between Apache bands at San Carlos Reservation.

But neither war nor peace are ever simple. When forced to make an impossible choice between his own People or the Army, he chooses his People. His choice leads the Army to imprison him at Alcatraz. Released early by the Army, Arizona Territory tries to imprison him again but he, with seven other Apache on the way to Yuma Penitentiary, escape and become the object of the greatest manhunt in Arizona history. The only one to survive the manhunt, Kid becomes both a ghost and a legend, the most feared border outlaw for the next ten years before vanishing into Mexico.

Seen through Kid's eyes, The Apache Kid: Army Apache Scout brings to life the thrilling and tragic journey of Apache Kid as a young man and the best of the Army's Apache scouts.

About the Author

W. MICHAEL FARMER blends over fifteen years of research into 19th-century Apache history and Southwest living to create richly authentic stories. A retired PhD physicist, his scientific work included laser-based measurements of atmospheric aerosols, and he authored a two-volume reference on atmospheric effects.

His fiction and essays have earned numerous honors, including three Will Rogers Gold and six Silver Medallions, multiple New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards, and a Spur Finalist Award. His novels include The Life and Times of Yellow Boy, Legends of the Desert, and the award-winning Geronimo duology. His latest novels include Trini! Come! and the Chato Duology, featuring Desperate Warrior and Proud Outcast.

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Today, we're stepping into a world where secrets are as abundant as the petals in a meadow and where the past echoes through the present. We're excited to shine today's spotlight on Whispers Where the Wildflowers Bloom by the talented Jhani Mills! Learn about the book and author--and add the book to your reading list or buy today! 

Women's Fiction

Date Published: March 15, 2025

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She was never meant to bloom-but she did.

Amelia Harper was born into a world of privilege, but behind closed doors, her life was anything but charmed. Shaped by a childhood of deep scars and silent battles, Amelia spends years forging her own path, determined to build a future that doesn’t belong to her pain. As she rises from the shadows to become a successful business owner, an unexpected love with Ethan offers her a chance to heal, not by forgetting the past, but by blooming beyond it.

Whispers Where The Wildflowers Bloom is a raw, moving journey through survival, self-discovery, and the enduring strength it takes to reclaim your life. In a world where hope can seem impossible, Amelia reminds us that beauty still grows — even in the most barren of places.

About the Author

Jhani Mills writes emotionally charged stories where resilience, betrayal, love, and survival collide with lyrical force. She is the two-time award-winning author of Astral Seeds: Eclipse of the Celestial War, the first installment of her epic Astral Seeds trilogy. Her body of work also includes Whispers Where The Wildflowers Bloom and the explosive The Devil in Fine Print, the beginning of a bold new series blending conspiracies, science, and survival against impossible odds.

Known for crafting unforgettable characters and worlds where hope is a rebel force, Jhani’s stories are a testament to the beauty that blooms from broken ground. When she's not writing, she can be found chasing sunsets, savoring strong coffee, and believing fiercely that some of the most beautiful things in life bloom from broken ground and the quietest revolutions often leave the deepest scars — and the brightest legacies.

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Today, I have a dramatic women's fiction novel to share in our book review spotlight. If you enjoy a complex family drama, Higher Love should be on your summer reading list! Learn about Higher Love and author Joanne Kukanza Easley, read my thoughts on the book, and be sure to enter for a chance to win a prize in the book tour giveaway at the end of this post.

​Joanne Kukanza Easley, a retired registered nurse who worked in the cold, stark environment of operating rooms and the highly charged setting of psychiatric facilities, now resides in the Texas Hill Country. There, she crafts fiction centered on complex women of the twentieth century. Her debut novel, Sweet Jane, garnered multiple accolades, including the adult fiction prize at the Texas Author Project, and was a finalist for prestigious honors like the Sarton Award and the Eric Hoffer Award, among others. Her second book, Just One Look, was selected as a May 2022 Pulpwood Queen Book Club Pick. Her third novel, I’ll Be Seeing You, revisits characters from Sweet Jane. Her fourth novel, Higher Love, a continuation of her third, is slated for release in Spring 2025. Easley’s award-winning short stories and poetry have been featured in various anthologies.

connect with the author:  website ~ X ~ facebook ~ instagram ~ goodreads

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This morning, I have the first book in a fiction series to share! Learn about Dangerous Times and author William Kinsolving in this book blitz spotlight. 

Fiction

Date Published: May 1, 2025

Publisher: Manhattan Book Group

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This book's background is the prophetic but overlooked decade of American history, 1846 to 1856, from the Mexican War to the presidential election of James Buchanan. The decade was a foreshadowing of our national cataclysm. Underlying every social aspect was the nation's fatal flaw, slavery, that perverted the Constitution on which the Enlightenment ideals of a "United States" were based. And on every day, similarities to the distortions of the present decade are obvious.

I chose a Southern ethos, finding an unexpected woman to suffer and survive the decade; and three brothers, each of whom carves a unique path through it, one as a fugitive unjustly accused of murder and slave-stealing, one as an enigmatic operative across the jagged spectrum of antebellum party politics, and the eldest who inherits his family's storied tobacco plantation as its lands burn out.

The story is told chronologically, the fiction adhering to the history. Should a question arise as to which is which, any event of historical significance - no matter how bizarre or implausible -- did indeed happen.

The novel echoes ethnic truths as they were at the time. I write of intimacies as well as horrors found in historical records. Both public and private relations were often infused with their own destruction -- as were the expanding "United States" in that decade, and I fear in this one.

About the Author

After a questionable academic career at Stanford (I mean, how practical is a double major in Drama and Far Eastern Theology?), Kinsolving fled to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to play Richard II. He then attended The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art for polish. Returning to New York, he appeared as an actor under-, off- and on Broadway, as well as a saloon singer in foul Greenwich Village nightclubs. For creative diversion during these years, he acted and/or directed back in Oregon, at the Stratford (CT) Shakespeare Theater, Harvard, Dartmouth, Café La Mama, then went out and won the Best Actor of the Year award from the San Francisco Chronicle for performing at the Berkeley Rep.

Ineluctably transitioning to a second career, Kinsolving wrote a play with 84 speaking roles, was awarded a Ford Foundation Playwriting Grant, and had the play produced by the Stratford Ontario Shakespeare Festival. This led to the first of some 54 films on which he worked for every major studio (and several distinctly minor ones) in Los Angeles, London and Rome (ask him about Zeffirelli sometime) as screenwriter and script doctor. Suspecting that such a life was leading to the utter corruption of his soul (not to dare mention his body), he retreated to Carmel to write the first of five novels (a NY Times best-seller, a couple of Literary Guild Main Selections, he adds humbly, but only if asked).

While serving on the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of the Arts, he regressed happily to nightclub and fundraising performances, accompanied by the likes of Peter Duchin and Emmanuel Ax, singing at the Algonquin Hotel’s late lamented Oak Room and for one of the late Brooke Astor’s better birthday parties among many other less name-dropping venues.

Last year, he directed a musical for which he wrote the book and lyrics in the nave of San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral about Johann Sebastian Bach and his family. Bach provided all the music, and proved to be very easy to work with. THAT WEEK WITH THE BACHS had the best voices in the Bay Area, including the ineffable Frederica von Stade.

He began work on the historical novel DANGEROUS TIMES between the diversions above. He knew the history, but even so, was startled by how constant the similarities are in that destructive time to what’s going on in this one.

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