Release Day Spotlight: FALLEN by Rochelle Karina

Fallen 

by 
Rochelle Karina

ISBN-10: 1629292672
ISBN-13: 978-1629292670
ASIN:  B00YGD2QR2

Genre: Romantic Thriller

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She gave up everything to find herself, and gained even more.

Serena McClure walks away from a controlling husband and into the unknown. 

With nothing more than a good job and her will to get out, she faces obstacles and challenges.   It is a journey of trust and growth as she learns to lean on her friends, and comes to understand her own strength. And a journey of love and lust, unlocking Serena's long-dormant desires and unleashing her passionate nature. She must let go of her past and embrace love.

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“I’m not going to lie, Serena. I want you, but I’m willing to wait. I won’t say that I won’t sometimes test the waters, but I won’t go deeper or faster than you’re willing.” 

He took her face in both hands and kissed her again; a gentle, lingering kiss that took her breath away, then turned and walked to his own door.

--from Fallen, by Rochelle Karina

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About the Author

Blog 

Rochelle Karina is a freelance writer, professional blogger, and award-winning cook who refuses to admit to having over twenty years of freelance experience in the political, religious, nonprofit, and women’s studies arenas.

Her opinion and humor pieces have been published everywhere from local newspapers to internationally published magazines and a variety of Internet sites. She has an extensive theatrical background, including more than a few playwriting credits, mostly for nonprofit organizations and fund-raising events.

Originally from San Diego, Ms. Karina now makes her home in the cultural heart of Baltimore and is currently maintaining several blogs, and getting paid to do it.

She is the author of FALLEN (Eternal Press) and AFTER THE HARVEST (Damnation Books).

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And don't forget to check out my latest book, 

Deep Green, 

available in Print & e-Book 

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Book Spotlight: The First Blast of the Trumpet

The First Blast of the Trumpet 
(Book One of the Knox Trilogy)
Marie Macpherson

Knox Robinson Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-908483-21-8

ISBN: 978-1-908483-22-5

Genre: Historical Fiction

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Hailes Castle, Haddingtonshire, Scotland, 1511

Midnight on a doom-laden Hallowe’en and Elisabeth Hepburn, feisty daughter of the Earl of Bothwell, makes a wish to wed her lover but her uncle has other plans. To safeguard Hepburn family interests, she is to become a nun and succeed her aunt as Prioress of the wealthy St. Mary’s Abbey. Plunged into the political maelstrom and religious turmoil of the early Scottish Reformation however, her life in the nunnery is hardly one of quiet contemplation.

Strong-willed and independent, Elisabeth clashes with those who question her unorthodox regime at St. Mary’s, including the notorious Cardinal Beaton, but her greatest struggle is against her stubborn godson, John Knox. Witnessing his rejection of the Roman Catholic Church she despairs that the sins of her past may have contributed to his present disenchantment. Will confessing her dark secrets steer Knox from the pernicious pull of Protestantism or drive him further down the fateful path that may lead to burning at the stake?

As he purges himself from the ‘puddle of papistry’ Knox finds his voice, denouncing everything he once held dear, but will that include his godmother, Prioress Elisabeth?

In a daring attempt to shed light on a when of unanswered questions about the iconoclastic Reformer’s early, undocumented life, this novel throws up some startling claims and controversial conjectures.

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"There’s no rhyme nor reason to it. Your destiny is already laid doon." 

--from The First Blast of the Trumpet

About the Author

Blog | YouTube | Goodreads | Know Robinson Publishing

Marie Macpherson was born in Musselburgh, six miles from the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. After gaining an Honours Degree in Russian and English, she spent a year in Moscow and Leningrad to research her PhD thesis on the work of the 19th century Russian writer, Lermontov, said to be descended from the Scottish poet and seer, Thomas the Rhymer.

The rich history of East Lothian - especially the Reformation period - provides the inspiration for her first fictional work, based on the early life of the Scottish reformer, John Knox.

Prizes and awards include the Martha Hamilton Prize for Creative Writing from Edinburgh University and 'Writer of the Year 2011' title awarded by Tyne & Esk Writers. She is a member of the Historical Writers' Association and the Historical Novel Society.

Her debut novel, The First Blast of the Trumpet, is a fictional account of the early, undocumented life of John Knox and speculates about his relationship with Elisabeth Hepburn, Prioress of St. Mary’s Abbey, Haddington, and Sir David Lindsay of the Mount and Garleton, poet and playwright. She is currently working on the second book of the trilogy, The Second Blast of the Trumpet.

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And don't forget to check out my latest book, 

Deep Green, 

available in Print & e-Book 

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Review: The One I Was, by Eliza Graham

Title: The One I Was

Author: Eliza Graham

Publisher: Moreton Street Books

ISBN-10: 1910229016

ISBN-13: 978-1910229019

Genre: Literary Fiction / Historical Fiction

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The past will always find you out... 

Rosamond Hunter has spent her adult life running away from the past, filled with guilt about her involuntary role in the death of her mother. Rosamond is a nurse, a kind of midwife for those leaving rather than entering life. Her work brings her back to Fairfleet, the country house at which her mother died so long ago, to nurse the dying Benny Gault, a former Kindertransport refugee from Nazi Germany. Rosamond soon discovers that Benny is hiding a secret about his last days in Germany he badly needs to confess, a secret that somehow connects with Rosamond's own family history. Just as the two begin to unthread the ties binding them together, a figure from the past returns to Fairfleet to menace the pair. 

The One I Was is a beautifully-crafted piece of literary fiction that kept me turning the pages long into the night. It is a story of secrets and the release that comes from sharing them. 

Rosamond is a "midwife for the dying" and has had the terrible events of a winter at Fairfleet estate weighing on her heart for many years. Benny Gault is her dying patient, who came to England from Germany as a child to escape the Nazis, and built a beautiful life in his new home. But the secrets he has been harboring (from his childhood in Germany, as well as some ethical dilemmas in his teenage years at Fairfleet) haunt him. 

Rosamond's past has prevented her from making lasting connections or moving forward in her life. Benny's secrets are the last thing tying him to the world of the living and keeping him from moving on to the next life.

The characters are appealing, and some give us a glimpse into a part of history we don't hear much about. For example, female pilots transporting war planes, or Kindertransport which removed Jewish children from Nazi Germany before the war and saved them from what was coming. As Harriet (a pilot, the owner of the Fairfleet estate, and Rosamond's grandmother) tells Benny when he has recently moved there, "The world depends on some of us refusing to be the same as everyone else."

Adding to the sympathetic characters, page-turning secrets, and bits of little-known history is a gorgeous style of writing that is sparse and intentional. Graham seems to choose every word carefully so she can say in a short sentence what it might take others a paragraph to say. One perfect example is her description of the estate in the fall. One author might go on and on about the light and air and shadows and warmth, but Graham says, "October lit Fairfleet's grounds with a honey tint." And with that, the reader can build the image.

I recommend this book for anyone who appreciates literary fiction or historical fiction. This book is a keeper!

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Don't forget to check out my latest book, 

Deep Green, 

available in Print & e-Book

AMAZON 

Eternal Press* 

*25% off with the promo code 20EPdb14

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Book Quote of the Day

"None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or cammanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone." 
              ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Don't forget to check out my latest novel 

Deep Green!

Eternal Press* 

*25% off with the promo code 20EPdb14

Quote of the Day

"Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens." 
                     --Carl Jung

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And don't forget to check out my latest novel 

Deep Green!

Eternal Press* 

*25% off with the promo code 20EPdb14

Book Quote of the Day

“What are we but our thoughts and loves?” 

                      –St. Augustine

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Please check out my latest Young Adult adventure/romance, Deep Green!

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Book Quote of the Day

“God warns us not to love any earthly thing above Himself, and yet he sets in a mother’s heart such a fierce passion for her babes that I do not comprehend how He can test us so.”


--Geraldine Brooks, Year of Wonders 
(One of the best books I've read in the last 10 years)

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And don't forget to check out my latest Young Adult adventure/romance, Deep Green, available in Print & e-Book:

AMAZON 

Barnes & Noble 

Eternal Press*

*get 25% off with the promo code 20EPdb14

Book Quote of the Day

"Keep good company, read good books, love good things and cultivate soul and body as faithfully as you can."

-- Louisa May Alcott, Rose In Bloom

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And don't forget to check out my latest Young Adult adventure/romance, Deep Green, available in Print & e-Book: 

• AMAZON or Barnes & Noble or
• directly through my publisher Eternal Press and get 25% off with the promo code 20EPdb14 !

Book Quote of the Day

“I have always lived violently, drunk hugely, eaten too much or not at all, slept around the clock or missed two nights of sleeping, worked too hard and too long in glory, or slobbed for a time in utter laziness. I've lifted, pulled, chopped, climbed, made love with joy and taken my hangovers as a consequence, not as a punishment.”

― John Steinbeck, Travels With Charley: In Search of America

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And don't forget to check out my latest Young Adult adventure/romance, Deep Green, available in Print & e-Book from AMAZON or Barnes & Noble or buy the e-book directly through my publisher Eternal Press and get 25% off with the promo code 20EPdb14 !

Book Quote of the Day

"Why didn't I run?"

--Leah, in Deep Green

Find the book here

Book Quote of the Day

Find the book here

Book Quote of the Day

"Not one for a fight, I preferred to spend my time at higher pursuits; reading, journaling, drawing, music. Not bickering with people who can’t prove their point with solid reasoning." 

—Leah in Deep Green, by Trisha Haddad

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Book Quote of the Day

"Solitude is different from loneliness, and doesn’t have to be a lonely kind of thing."

--Mister Rogers (my hero)

Book Quote of the Day

“I’ve never been lonely. I’ve felt suicidal. I’ve been depressed. I’ve felt awful, awful beyond all, but I never felt that one other person could enter that room and cure what was bothering me…In other words, loneliness is something I’ve never been bothered with because I’ve always had this terrible itch for solitude.”

— Charles Bukowski

Book Quote of the Day

What is worth fighting for?

Find Deep Green here

Book Quote of the Day

“Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it’s not because they enjoy solitude. It’s because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them.”

— Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper

Book Quote of the Day

"We’re not made for fluorescent lights, cubicles, classrooms, saying please and thank you. We’re made wild. The world tames us. It just feels good to be a little wild now and then." 

—Deep Green, by Trisha Haddad 

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Book Quote of the Day

“Strange how one person can saturate a room with vitality, with excitement. Then there are others, and this dame was one of them, who can drain off energy and joy, can suck pleasure dry and get no sustenance from it. Such people spread a grayness in the air about them.”

— ― John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Bookish Quote of the Day

"I tended to fall in love with characters in books. Most guys I went to school with were far too interested in sports or video games. How could they hold a candle to Mister Darcy’s intensity, Tom Joad’s ethics, Martin Eden’s passion, Caleb Trask’s struggle for goodness, or Edmond Dantes’ cunning intellect?”

--Leah in Deep Green

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What book characters have you fallen in love with?