Pump Up Your Book Presents The Banana Bunch Book Virtual Book Publicity Tour

Pump Up Your Book is pleased to bring you Dawn Carroll’s The Banana Bunch Book book blitz August 4 – August 29!

Title: The Banana Bunch
Author: Dawn Carroll
Publisher: Amolibros
Pages: 120
Genre: Children’s Book
Format: Ebook/Paperback
Purchase at AMAZON
The monkeys have a human friend called Sheila.
Sheila is in hospital – and she hates the hospital food.
The monkeys decide that something simply has to be done…
When their first attempt at delivering bananas to Sheila is thwarted the monkeys decide to form The Banana Bunch, a secret society dedicated to the delivery of delicious, health-giving bananas to Sheila and all the other unwell people at the hospital. Banana delivery proves, however, a little trickier than they had expected…

Dawn Carroll was born in London, to a family who loved to read – and who also moved house with great regularity. One of the first tasks on arrival at each new home would be to find the nearest lending library, with the result that Dawn grew up with a great love of books. Encouraged by family and teachers, Dawn also started to write short stories.
In adulthood, Dawn’s busy life as a hospital doctor left little time for leisure writing. Indeed, The Banana Bunch stories would probably never have been written had Dawn not, one fateful day, discovered that falling from even a very small tightrope can have devastating consequences… but that’s another story!
Unable to return to her chosen profession, things seemed very black for a while. And then The Banana Bunch monkeys bounced into Dawn’s world….
Since then the monkeys (and Dawn) have been having a great time – telling the stories of their adventures in print and online, and also travelling far and wide to source new story ideas and to meet new friends.

Find out more about Dawn and the Banana Bunch at www.thebananabunchbook.com

Shattered Secrets (Cold Creek, #1) by Karen Harper

Every town has its secrets…

Returning to Cold Creek, Ohio, is an act of courage for Tess Lockwood. Abducted and held captive as a young girl, she is unable to remember anything about the crime that destroyed her childhood and tore her family apart. Now a grown woman with a bright future, she is certain she has put the past behind her. But when she inherits the family home, Tess must confront the demons that still haunt her and the town of Cold Creek.

Gabe McCord has always blamed himself for what happened to Tess. He had been a teenager when she was snatched from the group of children he was responsible for watching. Now Gabe has taken on the role of sheriff and hopes to shed new light on the cold case, especially given his growing feelings for Tess.

Tess isn't ready to recall what happened to her, and she has no intention of digging up any details that might remind her of the truth. But when another child in the town goes missing, she's certain it's related to her return to Cold Creek. Together,Tess and Gabe will have to work to unlock their painful memories in order to save another child and heal their damaged souls, for good…


About The Author 

A New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Karen Harper is a former college English instructor (The Ohio State University) and high school literature and writing teacher. A lifelong Ohioan, Karen and her husband Don divide their time between the midwest and the southeast, both locations she has used in her books. Besides her American settings, Karen loves the British Isles, where her Scottish and English roots run deep, and where she has set many of her historical Tudor-era mysteries and her historical novels about real and dynamic British women. Karen's books have been published in many foreign languages and she won the Mary Higgins Clark Award for 2005. Karen has given numerous talks to readers and writers across the county.

http://www.KarenHarperAuthor.com/index.html

 

Amazon  

 

My Review:

Shattered Secrets is the first book in this trilogy, and if the others are like the first, you won’t be able to put it down. What a heart racing read, and stomach in your throat, you never know what is around the next bend.
The book begins with Teresa, now Tess returning to her old home, the town where she had been kidnapped as a little girl. She needs to sell the home now that her mother has passed and left it to her. What she is afraid of is reliving the hidden or suppressed memories.
Tess is now back in town and reunited with the young man, now sheriff who was watching a bunch of children on that fateful day. Gabe has had a hard time forgiving himself, and was glad that Teresa came home.
As we travel this quaint Ohio town of Cold Creek, we meet a number of questionable people. While we are there we learn that two more little girls have gone missing, and then a third is taken. Who is stealing little ones? Each person we meet is suspect, and just as you begin to believe this is the one, another one comes along, that triggers another memory in Tess.
I really didn’t see it coming as to whom the demented person was, a really big surprise that blew my mind. A sick individual that seems to have everyone fooled, including me. Don’t miss this thriller that will keep you on your toes, it is excellent!!

I receive this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Harlequin MIRA, and was not required to give a positive review. 
 

Pump Up Your Book Presents Waiting for Heaven Book Blast – Win $25 Amazon Gift Card

 

Pump Up Your Book is pleased to bring you Heather Gillis’ Waiting for Heaven Book Blast August 1- 29!

Title:  Waiting for Heaven: Finding Beauty in the Pain and the Struggle
Author: Heather Gillis
Genre: Religion / Memoir / Spirituality
Publisher:  WestBow Press
Publication Date: March 20, 2014
ISBN:  978-1-4908-2786-5

Life can sometimes lead us to unexpected places, to only leave us broken, desperate, and hurting. Heather Gillis and her husband, Mac, waited in anticipation for the birth of their third child. Like many Christian couples, their dreams and expectations in marriage, parenthood, and daily life developed differently than they’d planned, and left them grieving a life that would never be. Their journey gives insight into a new normal and uncovers the stepping stones of the healing process. In their process, they re- discovered God’s abounding love through their experiences of joy, heartbreak, and purpose. Heather reaches out to parents around the globe to speak openly about being a wife, mother, friend, relative, or stranger during life-changing trials and devastating struggles. In God’s love, she has found beauty in the midst of pain and struggle, as well as peace in His presence on Earth while waiting for Heaven.

Book Excerpt: 
Life is not about how comfortable I can be; to expect life to be comfortable is unrealistic. I’m not exempt from the harshness or pain of this world. I have realized since Bowen’s passing that there are no guarantees in life; to think otherwise leads to disappointment. When I was pregnant, I assumed Bowen would be healthy. I assumed that when I left the house, I would return, unharmed. I assumed for some reason I would make it through life unscathed; I never thought I would be writing these words.
We can do all the right things in life, but that doesn’t guarantee us rewards or benefits in this life. We did not choose the path we are walking, but God willing, we will endure what comes our way and to where God wants us to go. We can have all the plans in the world but God is in the driver’s seat, and God knows what he is doing; we just have to trust him. Uncomfortable situations have taught me to trust in God, and I have learned more than I ever thought I would; and still am.

Purchase Book at:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Meet Heather Gillis. In her book, Waiting for Heaven, Heather recalls the story of her infant son, Bowen, and her family’s journey with polycystic kidney disease. Through Bowen’s short life and death, she and her husband, Mac, discovered the true meaning of God’s love and grace. By telling her poignant story in the book and speaking to groups, Heather hopes she can help others through the challenges of loss and devastation; giving hope that their can be joy and happiness again.
After Bowen’s death, Heather founded Bowen’s Hope, a ministry serving kidney disease kids and their families,
especially those getting dialysis treatments at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. She’s also involved with Camp Maska for dialysis patients in Arizona, and has raised over $50,000 for the PKD Foundation. In addition, Heather volunteers at the Ronald McDonald House, an organization serving meals and providing temporary housing to families with children in the hospital.
Heather works part time as a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist. She and Mac have two living children, Brooklyn and Blake. With a serving heart, Heather’s passions are her family and helping others.
Visit Heather online at www.bowenshope.com
Contact Heather at:
Website: www.bowenshope.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bowenshope.com   // www.facebook.com/heather.gillis.581
Twitter: www.twitter.com/heathergillis6

Pump Up Your Book and Author Heather Gillis are teaming up to give away a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

Terms & Conditions:

• By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
• One winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive the prize.
• This giveaway begins August 1 and ends on August 29, 2014.
• Winner will be contacted via email on September 1, 2014.
• Winner has 72 hours to reply.
• VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

Good luck everyone!

ENTER TO WIN!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Simple Crossroads: A Lancaster Crossroads Novella (Lancaster Crossroads, #0.5) by Rosalind Lauer

In an original eBook novella set in the Amish community of Lancaster County—sure to captivate readers of Cindy Woodsmall and Beverly Lewis—Rosalind Lauer explores the choices a heart makes for love.

Lizzy King has been blessed by nearly five years of marriage to her husband, Joe, but her heart is heavy. Grieving the child she carried only briefly, Lizzy is uncertain how to heal. In an Amish community where big families and laughing children are a way of life, she feels lost. Thank goodness for her friend Juanita, whose family owns the Puerto Rican restaurant next door to the King family’s cheese shop.

Nita understands the pressure and joys of a large family, and she, too, is at a crossroads. Nita’s strict parents intend for her to marry a man she doesn’t love—but her heart already belongs to another. Knowing the time has come to take a stand, Nita struggles to find the courage to fight for her future.

As two women help each other to find their way home to love, they discover that the heart is the brightest star—and its guiding light cannot be extinguished.

Includes an exclusive preview of the first novel in Rosalind Lauer’s upcoming Lancaster Crossroads series, A Simple Faith.

 

About The Author

Rosalind Lauer is the author of A Simple Winter, A Simple Spring, A Simple Autumn, A Simple Faith, A Simple Hope, and the novella A Simple Crossroads. She grew up in a large family in Maryland and began visiting Lancaster County’s Amish community as a child. Lauer attended Wagner College in New York City and worked as an editor for Simon & Schuster and Harlequin Books. She now lives with her family in Oregon, where she writes in the shade of some towering two-hundred-year-old Douglas fir trees.  

 

 

My Review:

 

We are crossing two cultures here, one Amish and one English from a strong ethnic Puerto Rican family. They both help at Market Place, Juanita, an Amish wife, and Nita, trying to please her parents.
When Juanita suffers a miscarriage it is Nita that helps her, thus a strong friendship is founded. While Juanita struggles with her loss, and coping with not having a baby, she confides more and more in Nita. When Nita needs someone to talk to Juanita is there for her.
You wonder how long these two women on different paths will be able to stay friends. When Nita’s parents find out her secret, will she be able to return to the Market, or will Juanita’s Amish roots bring her home and not at work any longer?
I enjoyed how this book worked out, not always like I thought it would. Loved the compassion and faith these people showed, don’t miss excellent book by a great storyteller Rosalind Lauer. Enjoy!

I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Ballantine Books, and was not required to give a positive review.

Pump Up Your Book Tours Presents The Big Disrupter Virtual Book Publicity Tour

Pump Up Your Book Tours is pleased to bring you Paul Markun‘s The Big Disrupter (Thriller) release day blitz July 1 and virtual book tour July 1 – September 30.

Title: The Big Disrupter

Author: Paul Markun

Publisher: Portfolio

Publication Date: June 13, 2014

Pages: 454

ISBN: 978-0-9914862-0-5

Genre: Thriller

Format: Paperback / PDF / eBook

An anonymous donor creates a prize for One Billion Dollars to inspire social entrepreneurs to promote world change. Lionel Lane, an idealistic entrepreneur, partners with his brilliant ex-girlfriend Maxine Gold to turn around his struggling San Francisco-based company Double Vision Beverages to compete for the Big Disrupter Award. With the help of a venture capitalist and an eccentric financier, Double Vision expands into energy drinks using the pure water from the mountains of Telluride, Colorado. Talented 21-year-old extreme skier, Reddi Christiansen, becomes the face of their quest for the youth market. One by one the leading competitors in the Big Disrupter fall victim to unexplained tragedies. The police are mystified. The prize for social good becomes a death trap, but too rich to resist. Desperate for protection, Lionel, Maxine and Reddi enlist a former Navy SEAL cyber guru. The faster they race towards the approaching award deadline, the more the escalating dangers threaten to spin them off a cliff.

Discuss this book in our PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads by clicking HERE

 

 

Paul Markun grew up an entrepreneur and dreamer, starting with his first paper route at age nine in the Canal Zone of Panama. Living in Telluride, Colorado, he started four companies with best friends before he was 24, including Fly By Night Builders, The Illusions Company, High Country Trekkers–you get the idea; great names, cool ideas, not much income. He moved to Silicon Valley, got more education and tech experience, and started SoftIRON Systems and Fullspeed Networks, and rode the wave of the late 1990s to success. He sold SoftIRON Systems to the Williams Company (WilTel), a Fortune 300 company. In 2001 his company Fullspeed was acquired by Callisma, which became Pac Bell and then AT&T. You know them, right? In the first decade of the 2000s, he joined fellow entrepreneurs to lead marketing for Netcordia, which later IPO’d as Infoblox (NYSE:BLOX). He also ran marketing for Sitecore, a web software company, growing it 10 X from an $8 million fledgling niche provider to an established global corporation. Paul continues to be involved with emerging companies to this day. Paul met his wife Rachel, an attorney, when he was 18 and she was even younger at the University of Chicago. Their fountains of inspiration are their two sons and a daughter. A passionate story teller, he turned his energies to writing about topics and characters close to his own heart. His first novel is The Big Disrupter.  
Connect with Paul Markun: Website:  http://www.paulmarkun.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paul.markun Facebook (Fan Page): https://www.facebook.com/thebigdisrupter Twitter: https://twitter.com/pmarkun Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8304205.Paul_Markun

In Perfect Time (Wings of the Nightingale #3) by Sarah Sundin

In Perfect Time | Wings of the Nightingale series
Bold, sophisticated, and flirtatious, Army Air Force flight nurse Lt. Kay Jobson collects hearts wherever she flies, leaving men pining in airfields all across Europe. So how can ruggedly handsome C-47 pilot Lt. Roger Cooper be all but immune to her considerable charms? In fact, he seems to do everything he can to avoid her.
Still, as they cross the skies between Italy and southern France, evacuating the wounded and delivering paratroopers and supplies, every beat of their hearts draws them closer to where they don’t want to go.
Can they confront the fears and misunderstandings in their pasts?
Learn more and purchase a copy at Sarah’s website.



About The Author

Sarah Sundin is the author of "With Every Letter" and the Wings of Glory series. In 2011, A "Memory Between Us" was a finalist in the Inspirational Reader’s Choice Awards, and Sarah received the Writer of the Year Award at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. A graduate of UC San Francisco School of Pharmacy, she works on call as a hospital pharmacist. During WWII, her grandfather served as a pharmacist’s mate (medic) in the Navy and her great-uncle flew with the US Eighth Air Force in England. Sarah lives in California with her husband and three children. Visit www.sarahsundin.com for more information.

My Review:

In Perfect Time is the third book in the Wings of the Nightingale Series, and I have enjoyed them all. The books are written in as if we are the eyes of three different women and seeing the same events, each one the same but not. Of course there are a lot of different things that happen, as we all have our own lives.
Oh how I loved this and all of the books, we relive WWII through the eyes of these people. We learn so many facts about the invasions, and what happened during this time, that we have either forgotten or didn’t know. These should be a must read for all Americans, the sacrifices made by these individuals that made our country free, if not for them we all might be speaking German?
This book deals with a couple that may never end up together; they have so many insecurities, each from their upbringing. Hard to believe how parents can treat one child so different that they threat their others, great examples here. One has accepted the Grace of God, and forgiveness, or has he. The other is struggling with God, and her upbringing, of being raised in hypocritical religious family.
The book wraps up everything, so sweetly, but always with a bid to drama, and uneasiness. I wish we could continue on in their lives, do they fulfill their dreams? Will these couples we have come to love, end up with the American dream? Or will they even make it out of this war alive? Come along and enjoy this wonderful historical read you won’t be disappointed.

I received this book through Litfuse Publicity Book Tours, and was not required to give a positive review.

The Healing Quilt (The Half-Stitched Amish Quilting Club, #3) by Wanda E. Brunstetter

Join retired Amish newlyweds Emma and Lamar Miller in Florida for the winter as they lead another quilting class with a new group of unlikely students: Jennifer, a pregnant new mom; Mike, a charter boat owner; Erika, a wheelchair bound teen; Kim, a waitress; Noreen, a newly-retired widow, and BJ, an artist facing illness. When old friends visit from Indiana, will romance also become a subject of class discussions?


About The Author 

Wanda Brunstetter is an award-winning romance novelist who has led millions of readers to lose their heart in the Amish life. She is the author of over 60 books with more than 7 million copies sold. Many of her books have landed on the top bestseller lists, including the New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly, CBA, ECPA, and CBD. Wanda is considered one of the founders of the Amish fiction genre, and her work has been covered by national publications, including Time Magazine and USA Today. Wanda’s books have been translated into four foreign languages.
Wanda’s fascination with the Amish culture developed when she met her husband, Richard, who grew up in a Mennonite church, and whose family has a Pennsylvania Dutch heritage. Meeting her new Mennonite sister-in-laws caused Wanda to yearn for the simpler life. In their travels, she and her husband have become close friends with many Amish people across America. Wanda’s desire to explore their culture increased when she discovered that her great-great grandparents were part of the Anabaptist faith.

Wanda and her husband Richard

All of Wanda’s novels are based on personal research intended to accurately portray the Amish way of life. Many of her books are well-read and trusted by the Amish, who credit her for giving readers a deeper understanding of the people and their customs. Wanda’s primary attraction to the Amish is their desire to live a devout Christian life that strives to honor God, work hard, and maintain close family ties. Whenever she visits her Amish friends, Wanda finds herself drawn to their peaceful lifestyle, sincerity, and close family ties, which is in stark contrast to the chaos and busyness that plagues so many modern “Englishers.” Time and time again, Wanda loses her heart in the Amish life, and she hopes her readers will, too.

 My Review:



 What a great read about how an Amish couple touches so many lives, and how the rebound of this love is passed on. Emma and Lamar have taught quilt classes before in their hometown of Shipshewana Indiana, and decide to do the same while in Pinecraft Florida.
You can see God’s hand in this idea, and don’t know if Emma and Lamar realized how much they were going to change a number of lives. Your heart will break for some of them, and rejoice for others. In the end, all of the class participates lives do change, not always how we are hoping, but in the way God planned.
We get to enjoy the beautiful setting of this book, through the eyes of each of the characters. Dangle your feet in surf, enjoy hunting for shark teeth, and just enjoy watching the surf. You never see how interconnected with others we are, and marvel how you are at the right place at the right time to do what God wants, in his perfect timing.
I would love to take a quilt class from this delightful couple, how fun it would be, and not only learn how to quilt, but enjoy the scrumptious treats that are offered. Also, loved the fact that we are updated on all at the end of the book, and can put some closure in their lives, and wish we could join with them more.

I received this book from the Publisher Barbour Publishing Inc., and was not required to give a positive review.