Coming in 2011 from Bethany House ~ Suspense & Speculative Fiction

I read and enjoy all genres, though you would be pushing me with Sci-Fi, but my first reading love is suspense. Bethany releases them sparingly but their writers are top-notch!

I'm really looking forward to all these books and the covers are excellent, especially Robin's and Mark's. And Shawn's is fairly easy on the eyes, too ;-)

Your thoughts?

Vigilante by Robin Parrish

Nolan Gray is an elite soldier, skilled in all forms of combat. After years fighting on foreign battlefields, witnessing unspeakable evils and atrocities firsthand, a world-weary Nolan returns home to find it just as corrupt as the war zones. Everywhere he looks, there's pain and cruelty. Society is being destroyed by wicked men who don't care who they make suffer or destroy.

Nolan decides to do what no one else can, what no one has ever attempted. He will defend the helpless. He will tear down the wicked. He will wage a one-man war on the heart of man, and he won't stop until the world is the way it should be.

The wicked have had their day. Morality's time has come. In a culture starving for a hero, can one extraordinary man make things right?

July 2011

Veiled Rose by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

Rose Red trusts no one with her secret. She hides in the mountains, her face completely veiled, shunning the company of all save her old father and her nanny goat. Her life is bleak and lonely.

Until she meets a young man with a secret royal heritage. Lionheart seeks to bring Rose Red to his palace to watch out for her. When the Dragon King arrives, claiming Rose Red as his own, she chooses to flee to the royal palace while Lionheart is exiled on a quest to find a way to defeat the monster.

Infuriated by Rose Red's rebellion, the Dragon King imprisons the royal family, wooing her into this thrall while pulling the household into a dangerous twilight world. Rose Red must be willing to sacrifice everything she loves most and Lionheart must return in time to free his kingdom. Their choices will affect not only the course of their own lives but also the fate of nations.

July 2011

Pattern of Wounds by J Mark Bertrand

For Detective Roland March, his latest case has become personal. March doesn't know the young female who was stabbed to death, but he thinks he recognizes the crime scene. Nearly ten years ago, March gained national fame as the subject of a true-crime book. But now this crime scene bears eerie similarities to that one. And whispers begin to emerge that March may have put the wrong man behind bars.

Worse, Houston may now have a serial killer on the loose. As more cases emerge that seem connected, and threats against March and those closest to him build, he must solve the case--rescuing not only the city but his own reputation as a homicide cop.

July 2011

Lion of Babylon by Davis Bunn

Marc Royce works for the State Department on special assignments, most of them rather routine, until two CIA operatives go missing in Iraq--kidnapped by Taliban forces bent on generating chaos in the region. Two others also drop out of sight--a high-placed Iraqi civilian and an American woman providing humanitarian aid. Are the disappearances linked? Rumors circulate in a whirl of misinformation.

Marc must unravel the truth in a covert operation requiring utmost secrecy--from both the Americans and the insurgents. But even more secret than the undercover operation is the underground dialogue taking place between sworn enemies. Will the ultimate Reconciler between ancient enemies, current foes, and fanatical religious factions be heard?

July 2011

Falls Like Lightning by Shawn Grady

When hotshot smoke jumper Silas Kent gets his own fire crew, he thinks he's achieved what he's always wanted. But a lightning-sparked fire in the Desolation Wilderness of the Sierra Nevadas has his team in a plane before they can even train together.

Pilot Elle Westmore has been called up to drop the crew into the heart of the forest infernos. A single mother of a mysteriously ill six-year-old, she can't imagine her life getting any more complicated.

It doesn't take long for things to go very wrong, very quickly. A suspicious engine explosion forces Elle to make an emergency landing. Silas is able to parachute to safety but soon discovers his crew can't be trusted. They're hiding something, and now Silas is on a race to save himself and Elle from the flames--and from a more dangerous threat: his own team.

July 2011

The Hidden Flame by Davis Bunn & Janette Oke ~ Tracy's Take

Publisher's Synopsis

In first-century Judea, the followers of the Way have burgeoned into a vibrant, growing community that cannot be ignored.

Jerusalem is in turmoil as its religious leaders on one side and their Roman rulers on the other, conspire to stamp out the fledgling church. And Abigail, who thought she had finally found home and safety, is caught between the opposing forces.

Two suitors desire the lovely Abigail's hand in marriage. Ezra, a successful Hebrew merchant and widower with important connections among the Sanhedrin, is looking for a mother for his children. The Roman soldier Linux is fascinated by her winsome charm and possibly could offer the sanctuary, maybe even the love, for which she yearns. But her heart has been captured by neither of these. Will her faith and courage survive a heartbreak beyond comprehension as the followers face a gathering storm of persecution they never could have foreseen? A glimmer of hope beck ons Abigail forward…

What I thought:

Davis Bunn and Janette Oke continue their successful writing partnership with their 'Acts of Faith' series. 'The Hidden Flame' brings the second instalment of Abigail's story with the masterful poignant story-telling for which these two writers are so well known.

'The Hidden Flame' brings to life the stories, from Acts, of the early church, after the believers received the Holy Spirit. 'The Hidden Flame' illuminates the depth of faith of believers who seek to follow the lessons of The One in whom they place their faith. Abigail is a woman of outer beauty and yet it is her deep faith and determination to trust completely and serve God that brings out an inner beauty of greater value. Her story is one of great blessing, deep fear and profound loss, yet she continues to trust in God for His direction in her life. Indeed it is her faith that comforts her in her time of greatest need. Her journey is an inspiration to those who desire to see what faith in action looks like.

'The Hidden Flame' brings out the contrast between the focus of the early church and the things modern churches focus on. The church in Acts was concerned with sharing the gospel with their fellow countrymen. They valued solid teaching and much of their time was spent caring for the practical needs of fellow believers. I found this return to the purpose of the gospel refreshing, as I compared what I read to the mega churches of today, that seem to be focused on the appearance of success and glamorous programs that entertain the senses but could be perceived to have little depth.

One of the things I love about Biblical fiction is the opportunity to experience life through the eyes of the characters and delve deeper into stories that are so familiar. Davis Bunn and Janette Oke inspired me to dig into the book of Acts and to be reminded of the smaller details that I am inclined to otherwise overlook.

With thanks to Bethany House for Tracy's review copy

Guest reviewer: My friend Tracy from Beyond My Picket Fence

Relz Reviewz Extras

Visit the websites of Davis and Janette

Buy the book at Amazon or Koorong

Full Circle by Davis Bunn

Sometimes to find what matters, you have to back up and start again.

He’s a hotshot financial analyst who has lost it all. She’s a brokenhearted world traveler forced to come home and beg for money. His job hangs by a thread. Her dreams of making a difference in Africa are circling the drain.

It’s a spectacularly bad time for romance, even on the charming stone streets of an English university town. But sparks fly--and danger threatens--when these two wounded souls must work together to solve a mystery and right a wrong.

To find what they need, they may need to relearn everything they thought they knew about love.

My take:~

Full Circle is a slow paced, rather melancholy tale of two damaged souls struggling to move beyond the pain of their past. Character driven, Davis Bunn devotes significant time to developing Adam and Kayla's back stories and the emotional turmoil that shapes their attitudes and actions. The plot is intriguing rather than suspenseful but I remained invested in the outcome due to Davis' skill with the written word, the magnificent backdrop of Oxford and the political maneuverings of rival companies.

Relz Reviewz Extras

Reviews of My Soul To Keep and All Through the Night

Interview with Davis

Visit Davis' website

Buy Davis' books at Amazon or Koorong

All Through the Night by Davis Bunn

The last place thirty one year old, former Special Ops soldier, Wayne Grusza expected to find a home was in the Hattie Blount Retirement Community, but given his past sleeping locations it was a step up. And his sister asked.

Investigating the senior citizens' missing funds and retrieving those funds in a less than legal manner is the easy part for Wayne - facing his past sins and the trauma of two tours in Afghanistan, seemingly impossible.

Sought after by the beautiful yet aloof Tatyana Kuchik to investigate her wealthy employer's sudden claims of being visited by an angel, Wayne's talent and abilities will be stretched to their limit and his faith and fears confronted in ways he never expected.

Davis Bunn knows how to tell a story! Only he could combine some octogenarians, a guilt ridden soldier, a visiting angel and a kid from the streets into an intriguing and thought provoking tale of a man's chance at redemption. Davis' usual in depth characterisation marks each person especially retired cop Jerry, faithful Eilene and young Julio. A solid story with spiritual depth, All Through the Night is a satisfying read.

Relz Reviewz Extras

Reviewof My Soul to Keep

Interview with Davis

Buy Davis' books at Amazon or Koorong

Getting to know Davis Bunn

With more than six million books sold in fourteen different languages, Davis Bunn is an icon in the publishing world! It is a real pleasure to host Davis here and learn a little about his love of surfing, his home in England and the magic of smoothies!

Thanks Davis :)

If you could have chosen your own name, what would it be?

A while back I was asked to do a different kind of book for the largest mainstream publisher in the United Kingdom, Harper Collins. Because this was so totally new, they wanted me to do it under a pen name. Naming the baby became a full-time occupation. It was amazing to me, just how many people felt they had the right to re-name the author. When it came time for us to meet with the publishers, there were six of us in the room—the company vp, the head of sales, my editor, my wife, and myself. I had a list of the nine names I thought I could live with comfortably. They didn’t like any of them. Then out of the blue my wife suggested, “Why not Chase Dalton?” Everybody loved it. Except me. So I was left sitting there still working on my list, while the publishers took my wife and Chase Dalton out to lunch.

Did you have a special toy that went everywhere with you when you were young? Please describe.

When I was fourteen I started swimming for the city team. Our coach was the captain of the local university swim team. He was also a surfing fanatic. He promised that if any of us made the state finals, he would teach us how to surf. I was not a particularly good swimmer, but I was desperate to learn how to surf. I scraped into the finals by the skin of my teeth, and was rewarded with one amazing trip. We went down to a place called Emerald Isle, on the coast of North Carolina, and we spent the weekend in tents. In a storm. In March. I was loaned a wetsuit that could have held four of me. After I caught my first wave, I didn’t care. Not even when I turned blue and my teeth chattered for a month, I still didn’t care. I had never found anything in my life that was even half as amazing as surfing. When I got home, I spent basically every cent I had—twenty-eight dollars—and bought a used 9’6” Dewey Webber surfboard. I would have slept with the thing if I could have sneaked it up the stairs.

What's your favourite ice cream flavour?

I am not much on ice cream. But I loooooove smoothies. Especially here in England, where fresh fruits and veggies are not a way of life, like they are in the US. So I prowl the local produce shops and come up with whatever I can find that is fresh and, if possible, organic. I take my prizes home and mix them in the biggest bowl we own, then stuff the mix in baggies and freeze them. I don’t use sherbert or ice in my smoothies because the frozen fruit works even better. Right now is the height of summer, and English fruit is really superb. In today’s smoothie there is, let’s see: peaches, blackberries, blueberries, apples, and seedless red grapes. I usually add a half-teaspoon of superfood for protein and some pomegranate juice and a trace of water. Yum.

Baseball, basketball, gridiron or cricket? (I’m hoping your time in the UK has given you an appreciation of more than one bat and ball game – LOL!)

Our home in England is in a tiny village of nineteen houses. We are sort of in between the huge industrial city of Oxford (yes, it has a university, which is great, but it also has factories that produce about a quarter of all the cars and trucks built in England) and a very hilly country called the Cotswolds. The Cotswolds has a very ancient heritage as wool producers and merchants. The reason that Oxford, the oldest university in the world, is where it is, is because the Cotswolds merchants wanted to have a place to educate their children. This happened around the year 1100.

Our nearest cities are Malmesbury, which was the capital of England under Alfred the Great in 800, and Cirencester, which was the capital of West England under the Romans about a hundred years after Christ.

There are two roadway systems in this area. The highways are old and narrow and extremely crowded. And then there are the country lanes. The country lanes are less than twelve feet wide and hold two-way traffic. To get an idea of what that means, most American highways have lanes that are about fourteen feet wide. And that is for traffic going in one direction. These lanes can be as narrow as eight feet, and the traffic moves in both directions. If you meet an oncoming car, you have to stop, reverse, find a spot to move over, and wait for the other car or truck or tractor to pass. But there basically isn’t much traffic on these lanes. I meet more tractors than cars, and more horses than both combined.

In America I surf, in England I bike. The biking here is just amazing. I did thirty miles the day before yesterday, never leaving these country lanes, and I met, oh, call it nine cars. In thirty miles.

My brother got me started. He is an ironman competitor and he had read about England country biking in some magazine. When we moved out here, he basically said, buy a bike or I will never leave you alone again ever. I bought the worst bike ever made, it cost me forty dollars, and I overpaid. When I got to biking five miles, I thought I had conquered Mount Everest. Four years later, and I have graduated to a carbon-fiber road bike. It is fingernail polish red. If Ferrari ever decided to build a race car powered by a gerbil on a wheel, it would look like this bike.

What’s in the Davis Bunn writing pipeline now? A sneak peek please.

Right now I am working on two projects. A while back I co-authored seven books with Janette Oke. Then she had to retire because of ill health. Fast forward six years, Janette is feeling a lot better, and we are working on a new story. It is a romance-mystery set in the forty days between the Crucifixion and the Pentecost. The story is entitled The Centurion’s Wife and is due for release next January.

The other is still in early stages, and until a book is structured, I don’t talk about it. All the energy is focused upon the page. More on that one later.

Relz Reviewz Extras

Review of My Soul to Keep

Visit Davis' website

Buy Davis' books at Amazon or Koorong

My Soul to Keep by Davis Bunn & Aussie Giveaway

Fame and fortune combined with a selfish and dissolute lifestyle ends in tragedy for the Oscar winning actor, Brent Stark, destroying his reputation and his career.

Transformed by God during his time in prison, Brent lives a modest and somewhat reclusive life.

Approached by entrepreneur, Bobby Dupree to join him in his God inspired venture into movie making, Brent is at a crossroads in his life. Acting and directing remain his passion but he knows where that passion has led him in the past so Brent puts out a fleece and awaits on God to do the impossible ~ convince the woman whose life he destroyed to work with him again.

Hollywood hopeful, Shari Khan, has a foothold in the studio of heavyweight Sam Menzes and she plans to ride all the way to the top by crushing Bobby Dupree's upstart movie and production company.

Davis Bunn provides an in depth insider's look in to the world of Hollywood ~ the glamour, wealth and beauty alongside the greed, power plays and self interest. At the heart of this story is the broken life of Brent Stark and his journey towards redemption. Superb characterisation marks this novel especially the vibrant Bobby Dupree and his dedication to God's vision for his money and time. While I found Brent's character the longest to warm to he is fascinating and his transformation inspiring. Drawing on the David and Goliath storyline, there is still plenty of tension as the Bobby fights for the survival of his movie and Shari plots to destroy it. There are deep truths to be discovered in this novel, none greater than the restoration of hope and love from the ashes of bitterness, the power of prayer and the joy of belonging to a community whose hope is in God. I found My Soul to Keep a compelling and thought provoking read.

As seen at TitleTrakk.com

Aussie Giveaway

Post a comment by midnight 4th July, 2008 and have an Aussie email address and you will be entered into the draw to win a copy of My Soul To Keep

Relz Reviewz Extras

Visit Davis' website

Buy My Soul to Keep at Amazon or Koorong