5 Things Author Kathy Rouser is Thankful For

Hey readers! Today I am sharing with you another great guest post on thankfulness - this time, Kathleen Rouser, author of historical romance novel Secrets and Wishes(as well as Rumors and Promises). Be sure to check out this new release on Amazon, and read 5 Things Kathleen Rouser is Thankful For below!

1) Salvation through Jesus Christ alone. Once I understood that it was his sinless

life and death that took away all of my sins my life has been changed forever!

2) God's love and patience with me. Sometimes I marvel at how many times the 

Lord has to teach me a lesson over and over again. Yet, I know He is faithful and

loves me despite my human failings.

3) My husband, Jack. We have been through so much together through nearly

36 years! I am so grateful for a husband who loves God and does His best to

follow Him each day. Not only that, he is a loving and faithful husband, supportive

and a wonderful provider.

4) My children. My favorite "job" was bringing up my three sons and I miss those

days. I'm glad I've gotten a chance to be a mom. 

5) For Community Bible Study. It's given me a chance to study God's word in-depth

and given me a chance for fellowship with wiser women than I am!

There are so many more things I could say I'm thankful for; this is just the tip of

the iceberg.  

Buy on Amazon

About Secrets and Wishes:

Stone Creek, Michigan - April, 1901: Maggie Galloway and Thomas Harper clash after their sons collide in a fistfight. Both widowed, they're each doing their best as a parent to their children. Outgoing Maggie has dreams for a home of her own and a business to provide for her son as she searches for God's path for her life as a widow. Reserved Thomas struggles to establish his new pharmacy and take care of his four rambunctious children, while wondering how a loving God could take his beloved wife. 

When Thomas becomes deathly ill, Maggie is recruited to nurse him back to health. Taking the children in hand, as well, is more than she bargained for, but she is drawn to help the grieving family. Both nurse and patient find themselves drawn to each other but promptly deny their feelings. 

A baking contest sponsored by the Silver Leaf Flour Company brings former beau, Giles Prescott, back into Maggie's life. When Giles offers Maggie a position at their test kitchen in Chicago, he hints that, along with assuring her a good job, it will allow them to possibly rekindle their relationship. 

But then a charlatan comes to town, and tragedy soon follows. Maggie and Thomas discover the miracle potions he hawks aren't so harmless when an epidemic hits Stone Creek. Thomas and Maggie realize they must work together to save lives. 

Maggie finds herself caught up in battles within and without the battle to help the townsfolk in the midst of illness and chicanery, and the battle to know which man Thomas or Giles deserves to win her heart. 

A Shield in the Shadows by L.A. Racines Review

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all have enjoyed the Thankful posts this week, and thank you for being so kind about my brief hiatus that school and my grandmother's passing brought upon the blog here. Today is my review stop on L.A. Racines A Shield in the Shadows Blog Tour! Read on to learn more about the book and follow along for more fun stops with guest posts, interviews, reviews, excerpts, and more! This was a really interesting read for me, a bit outside what I usually pick up but I'm truly glad I did. Thanks to my sister for pointing me in this book's direction!

 

Buy on Amazon US Buy on Amazon UK

In 405 AD, a raid from a band of marauding Huns destroys a Christian village in the heart of barbarian Germania. Among those forced to flee are the pastor and his strong-willed, sixteen-year-old daughter Theona.

They lead a tiny group of survivors on a quest to find a new, safer place to settle, and ultimately join a massive invasion into the Roman Empire assembling on the banks of the Danube River.

The invasion is led by Gothic king Radagaisus, described by ancient writers as “a worshipper of demons”. His drive to conquer the tempting lands across the river is fueled by his anger at Rome for abandoning the old pagan gods and adopting Christianity as the new state religion. What will he do when he finds that among the thousands of people joining the invasion, he is harboring Christians? And what will Theona do when she quickly draws the interest of Radagaisus’s impetuous son, Roderic?

Young Gallic aristocrat Marius Ausonius, unaware of the looming threat, joins the Roman Army to train as a tribune. Too soon after his training, he and his cohort are thrust into the eye of the storm when they must defend one of the key strongholds blocking Radagaisus and his hordes.

The lives of Marius and Theona become intertwined in incredible circumstances that will have far-reaching consequences for both of them and their people.

My Review:

I've always been a bit fascinated by this time period, and the Roman empire as a whole, so though I'm not usually one for historical fiction lately, this one really called to me. I get a strong sense of the work the author must have put into her research, and as someone who has freshly studied many of these topics myself during my senior year I have to say she really has a strong attention to detail. I was immediately caught up in the story and found myself entranced so much so that I was around a hundred pages in before I stopped to blink. 

The characters are all well fleshed out, something that I feel is often lacking in books set in the period that I've read, perhaps for fear of messing up details - not something Racines had to worry, as previously mentioned. 

I really enjoyed Theona's character, and her reactions with those arond her - Roderic included. If you're looking for a well written, entertaining historical romance  set during this time I strongly encourage you pick up this one. Five Stars! 

About L.A. Racines:

Cheryl(a.k.a. L.A. Racines) is a native of Quebec, Canada, and a graduate of Montreal’s McGill University with an Honour’s BA in Anthropology and Sociology. She worked as a teacher in rural Nigeria for two years during the Nigerian Civil War, and then worked for a number of NGOs and charities in Quebec and Ontario.  

Married to an Anglican clergyman, mother of two daughters and grandmother of four, Cheryl has, over the decades, written and published a number of freelance articles for various publications including Reader’s Digest (Canada), Decision Magazine, The Sower, Faith Today, Christian Week, and a variety of denominational and evangelical publications.   Cheryl loves research and studied broadly and deeply for eight years before beginning to write this novel. She has found great satisfaction in achieving a lifelong dream of writing a novel, and has been encouraged by the accolades she has received from readers from both Christian and non-Christian backgrounds. Her novel is published under the pen name L. A. Racines, which can be translated “Wings and Roots,” because Cheryl agrees with the old saying that “the greatest gifts we can give to our children are roots and wings.” She is a member of The Word Guild, an association of Canadian writers who are Christian, and very active in the Healing Rooms ministry in her home town of Uxbridge, Ontario.

What Author Lynn Cornell is Thankful For

Hey everyone, happy to be back here on the blog after my little hiatus. Today I have a guest post from author Lynn Cornell whose book The Color of Redemption is one you'll want to add to your TBR. This week is Thanksgiving, so he is going to be sharing with us a bit about what he is thankful for. After you read the post be sure to check out the book here. 

It’s always wonderful to express my gratitude to God for his many blessing he has bestowed on me. As I look back on my life, there are so many things to be thankful for:  

God has had mercy on me and watched over me my entire life. I don’t say that glibly. I wanted all the world had to offer. God protected me often from certain death that befalls so many black men. Most of the time, I wasn’t even aware of how he had snatched me from destruction.  

I’m thankful to God for bringing me to Christ, especially since I was in no way seeking him.  

I’m thankful for the gift of my first wife, which produced four healthy children. I'm thankful to God for opening doors that caused me not have been out of work for the last forty years.  

I’m thankful, that God saw me and my children through the painful home going of my first wife. She was a strength and witness of God’s love and grace through her suffering. Despite my immaturity that caused me not to be prepared for a tragedy of that nature, God supplied our financial needs as well as his grace that saw us through that horrible time.  

I'm thankful for God bringing my second wife, who accepted my four children, blending her child with our family. She actually prayed for a man with kids. I'm thankful how God considered every detail I would have never thought of. She entered our lives, hitting the ground running, bridging the gap left open by the death of my first wife. 

I’m thankful to God for bringing me through my own battle with cancer. I have so much to be thankful for.

*** 

Thank you again to Lynn for sharing your thoughts! Now readers, feel free to sound off in the comments and let me know what you're thankful for! I have quite a few things, but aside from the obvious family, friends, faith, and good health, I'm pretty darn thankful for good books!