​These four writers have collaborated on a wonderful Christmas anthology and introduce us to Christmas in Jubilee:
Christmas in Jubilee--where life is a celebration!
The Best First Christmas by Melissa Klein
With a broken engagement and parents far away, Reverend Angie Duncan wants to skip all things red and green, Bethlehem and baby, merry and bright. Until...a man from the wrong side of Fancy Bluff Creek asks her to teach his nephew the true meaning of Christmas. Justin Brown and the boy could be her perfect holiday present.
Home For Christmas by Rachel W. Jones
New York newcomer Liz Marshall is torn about going home to houses aglow and a grand holiday table—but this Christmas won’t be the festive one she’s always known. And she can’t let her grieving mom down. After Mitchell Lang, her new boss, squelches her holiday plans, he transforms into her knight in jeans and a flannel shirt. Jubilee is the best place she could be on Christmas.
Christmas Present by Linda Joyce
Chelsea Cooper struggles to balance her pottery business with caring for her mother suffering from dementia. She doesn’t have time for parties, dates, and most of all falling in love—those are memories of holidays past. Celebrity chef Zachary Tanner is new in town and exploring his recently discovered roots. His interest in Chelsea isn’t whimsical, like some of his food. He’s determined to convince her that love is the best Christmas present.
A Farmhouse Noel by Leah Noel Sims
Tabby Larsen’s workload is longer than Santa’s “Nice” list. Devotion to her 200-year-old family farmhouse has driven her to the bottom of her bank account—and the end of her rope. She’s panicked about her family reuniting for the holidays…this could be the last one. Then her kooky neighbor—a perfect stranger—offers a helping hand. She finds a new beam of hope and maybe a lifetime of love with Kip Stewart.

​Multi-volume author, Sara Allen Stewart, introduces us to her beautiful and heart-touching story Letters to Santa:
Christmas is a time of happiness and celebrations for many people, but that's not the case for 9-year old Kendall Knight. After losing his father in a car accident, at the age of seven, and struggling to adapt to his mother's new boyfriend, he is left feeling hopeless and lost. Can his best friends, James, Carlos, and Logan, help him believe in the magic of Christmas again before it's too late? Or will it take a higher power?

​This story really surprised me! The writing provoked such a depth of emotion in me that the last several chapters were hard to read, because I had so many tears flowing from my eyes. I went through several tissues.
No spoilers from me. But I will say the writing is brilliant, Sara captured the essence of family dynamics from so many angles perfectly, positive and negative; as well as the different points of view, kids and adults. She avoided a lot of wordiness; the writing is succinct and to the point.
There is an amazing amount of dialogue and possibly, the dialogue may well have crowded out some scene setting, but I loved what there was, and action was just enough. Sara did a marvelous job of keeping the story paced and focused on the interactions. I think it would have been easy for her to add a lot more material to make a bigger book, I am grateful she resisted that potential urge. The length of this book is very satisfying.
Letters to Santa gets a score of 4.9 stars. I wish I could award 5 stars, but I found a handful of spelling errors. Those errors have been corrected, the author informs me, so your reading will be all the smoother.

This is Houdini. Sara was in a fire a few months ago and is still recovering. He is standing in for Sara photographically.

​You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Santa-Sara-Allen-Stewart-ebook
https://www.goodreads.com/letters-to-santa
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Letters-to-Santa-Sara-Allen-Stewart
You can follow Sara:
https://twitter.com/winterschild11
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14567305.Sara_Allen_Stewart
https://winterchild111dotcom.wordpress.com
​
Note: there is no sex described, some violence is described and intense emotional issues. This is not kid-lit.

Tags: family dynamics, relationships, widow, single parent, extended family, fiction, contemporary fiction
Copyright 2018 Mark Schultz 

​Multi-volume author, Mercedes Rochelle, introduces us to the first volume in her series about ancient English kings more than a millennia ago:
Harold Godwineson, the Last Anglo-Saxon King, owed everything to his father. Who was this Godwine, first Earl of Wessex and known as the Kingmaker? Was he an unscrupulous schemer, using King and Witan to gain power? Or was he the greatest of all Saxon Earls, protector of the English against the hated Normans? The answer depends on who you ask. He was befriended by the Danes, raised up by Canute the Great, given an Earldom and a wife from the highest Danish ranks. He sired nine children, among them four Earls, a Queen and a future King. Along with his power came a struggle to keep his enemies at bay, and Godwine's best efforts were brought down by the misdeeds of his eldest son Swegn. Although he became father-in-law to a reluctant Edward the Confessor, his fortunes dwindled as the Normans gained prominence at court. Driven into exile, Godwine regathered his forces and came back even stronger, only to discover that his second son Harold was destined to surpass him in renown and glory.

​A good portion of my ancestry is found in the United Kingdom. The Magna Carta came out of England. The history of England and the UK is pretty important to me as a citizen of the US of A. I approached this book with high hopes of a relevant and exciting story.
I am not in the least bit disappointed! The writing is quite good. Mercedes’ scene setting is wonderful, I felt like I was right beside Godwine all the way. There were so many pivotal events in his life as pictured in this exciting historical fiction. There is dialogue and action aplenty! The complex characters stayed quite true to their roots in so many of the instances. The court intrigues in and out of the castles, the battles on land and sea. The brutal warfare and strategizing all contributed so much to an exciting piece of literature.
Mercedes’ research complements her fiction so well. I have no doubt the moves by major characters are very accurate.
I give Godwine Kingmaker a score of 4.7 stars, it would have been higher except for the handful of spelling errors and missing words I found. 

​You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Godwine-Kingmaker-Great-Saxon-Earls-ebook
https://www.goodreads.com/book/-godwine-kingmaker
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/godwine-kingmaker-mercedes-rochelle
You can follow the author:
http://www.twitter.com/AuthorRochelle
http://www.mercedesrochelle.com
http://www.mercedesrochelle.net
http://www.historicalbritainblog.com
Tags: Medieval, European, historical, history, King, Queen, royalty
Copyright 2018 Mark Schultz

                        Journey through Childhood Trauma and Chronic Illness into Healing
 
Multi-volume author, Elizabeth M. Clamon introduces us to her latest book Beauty Rising from Brokenness:
    Even though we can’t choose the adversities that come against us, we can choose how we let them affect us. We choose to let them make us better or bitter. We can choose to heal, then use these adversities to teach us, help us grow, and use us them to help others. Elizabeth shares the story of her humble beginnings and the events in her early childhood that began her brokenness. How stress affects you, even pre-birth, and how she chose not to let the brokenness define her. The questions and frustration of not knowing who her father was. How she asked and was rejected time and time again until she finally could not live with the lies any longer. When she finally confronted her mother with her need for answers the reaction was something she could not have imagined. After several major life changes and a move across the country the brokenness begins to affect her physical health. She is forced back into a stressful living environment and finally has to face the abuse and trauma she has suffered. She makes the hardest decision she could have to make. Another major move and the inability to continue living a lie, she comes close to a nervous breakdown. She has thirty plus years of anger and rage spewing on everyone and everything in her path. She finally seeks help to work through the brokenness. Years of toxic stress having taken their toll on her physical health. She shares with you the specific path to natural healing she took to regain her health. She encourages you to choose and walk your own path to healing physically. Years of stress and trauma cause her to believe all sorts of lies about who she is and why she's here. She shares with you the path to mental healing and ways she replaced the lies she was told with the truth. You will be challenged to change your thoughts in order to change your life. Depression is almost a given when you're raised in a dysfunctional family. Getting control of your emotions is possibly one of the hardest parts of healing. She shares with you the range of emotions she felt and was acting upon. She shares her experience of being raised by narcissistic parents and the struggle to heal emotionally. Finally, she meets with family again and experiences the final blow she can take. As she begins to feel the depression and despair take over again, she makes a bold choice, one that will help her finally find freedom. Free of the brokenness and able to step into her purpose, she is surprised by how sweet freedom really is.

​This is a powerful story of one woman’s journey from a brokenness that began in the womb and culminates in a healing journey. Elizabeth deals with so many issues in her life and shares the struggle with us along the way.
First person point of view is an excellent method of sharing a story such as this. Elizabeth does a superb job of detailing so many of the obstacles she faced and the process she went through to overcome them. Her scene-setting is quite good, there is dialogue aplenty and action keeps the story moving along at a good pace.
While her struggles, in all areas of her life were manifold, she never gave up seeking relief and healing, even when going in the wrong direction.
I give Beauty Rising from Brokenness a score of 4.9 stars. 

​You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Beauty-Rising-Brokenness-Journey-Childhood-ebook
https://www.goodreads.com/-beauty-rising-from-brokenness
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beauty-Rising-Brokenness-Journey-Childhood-ebook
 
You can follow the author:
https://twitter.com/ClamonElizabeth
https://twitter.com/Clamonnatural
https://www.clamonnaturalhealth.com/
https://www.elizabethclamon.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-clamon
https://www.instagram.com/clamonnaturalhealth
https://facebook.com/abetterway2heal
https://facebook.com/ElizabethClamonspeaker
 
Tags: self-help, parenting, families, dysfunctional family, military wife, PTSD, relationships, spiritual life
 
Copyright 2018 Mark Schultz

​Multi-volume author, Trina Jordan, introduces us to her third book How to Live:
Regardless of your age, you will have a dark moment. That one dark moment will always want control. One way to live is to remain hopeful in your darkest hour. You will experience moments of wanting to give up. You must never give up on tomorrow. I know life is hard sometimes. Therefore, I hope you can find yourself in one of my characters who won their fight and found themselves, their dream job, a rewarding relationship, and a good family life.
Read my book, learn to take advantage of the peaceful moments in your 

Trina has written a good book it will help people avoid common pitfalls and build their self esteem​. It’s a little bit of a do-it-yourself guide for teens and adults. Trina presents a number of common scenarios that many people face at one time or another, she walks through the situations offering advice, encouragement and support. These helps are hard to come by sometimes.
Trina is full of optimism and has great concern for young people and especially girls and young women. Trina says over and over to stay hopeful, look to the future and work hard to make it better for yourself and the ones you love.
She has a lot to say about making wise choices also in all the important matters of life. Family, school, significant relationships, and the work place are all areas critical to a person’s success.
I am a grandfather of four girls and I will recommend they read this when they reach the appropriate age.
I give How to Live a score of 4.8, it’s well worth reading for all ages.

You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/How-Live-Hard-Never-Give-Up
https://www.goodreads.com/book/how-to-live
 
You can follow the author:
https://twitter.com/tjmb052010
https://www.amazon.com/trinamjordan
http://www.linkedin.com/in/trinajordan
​
Tags: self-help, self-esteem, hope, faith
Copyright 2018

You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/-one-dyke-cozy
https://www.goodreads.com/-one-dyke-cozy
 
You can follow Rhani D’Chae:
https://twitter.com/rhanidchae
http://www.rhanidchae.com/
https://rhanidchae.wordpress.com/
 
Tags: LGBT, contemporary romance
​

​Multi-volume author Father Harry introduces us to his memoir of working for peace in many areas of the world for almost 50 years:
A True Story of the Ongoing Struggle for Peace and Justice in Our Violent World 
• By Father Harry J. Bury, Ph.D., A Priest, Professor, Political Activist, Steward for Peace •
This is the story of one man’s unique journey around the world, in the name of human connection, peace, and active nonviolence. Father Harry J. Bury is a Catholic priest unlike any you have ever met. His travels through Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Costa Rica, Philippines, Africa, Palestine and Israel, span over 60 years. His life-long dedication: to interact lovingly with citizens of the world in pursuit of peace and nonviolence. 
His determination to help his fellow human beings put him in sometimes compromising and often dangerous situations with American law enforcement, foreign governments, and the church alike. He was:
•Kidnapped at gunpoint in Gaza, 
•Arrested at the Pentagon, 
•Chained to the gates of the American Embassy in Saigon, 
•Participated in the release of American POWs in Vietnam, 
•Served at the side of Mother Teresa in Calcutta,
•Arrested by Swiss Guards for saying Mass on the steps of the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome, and
•Awarded the Key to Ho Chi Minh City in gratitude for his efforts to end the war. 
About the Author:
Harry J. Bury, Ph.D. is an American Roman Catholic priest and Professor Emeritus of Organizational Behavior and Administration from Case Western Reserve University. He taught at Baldwin Wallace University from 1980–2010 and consulted in the U.S. and numerous other countries.

Father Harry is a fascinating person. His personal efforts to find nonviolent means to end wars are quite amazing. We get to walk right beside him as he recounts his efforts to bring peace to parts of the world that are torn apart by war. His story is interesting and his place in history is secure for a long time.
Since I have lived through the times of these historical events, I found his inside point of view quite thought-provoking. I may not agree with all of his politics, but I cannot fault his desire to serve God the best way he knows how. He tells his story from his point of view in the present tense, so his involvement in these historical events really comes alive.
I enjoyed reading this Maverick Priest and award 4.5 stars, the score would have been higher except for the handful of spelling errors I found. 

You can buy this book:
https://rdrpublishers.com/maverick-priest-a-story-of-life-on-the-edge
https://www.amazon.com/maverick-priest
https://www.goodreads.com/-maverick-priest
​
You can follow Father Harry:
http://www.harryjbury.com/HarryJBury/Welcome.html
 
Tags: religious memoir, historical memoir

​Debut author, River Wild, introduces us to his first novel, a sweet romance, The Artist’s Special Touch:
On the last day of school, young Jackson Henderson makes a discovery that will forever change his life. Hannah Davis is trying to start fresh in a new town after suffering a terrible loss. 
A chance meeting on a very special night brings these two together into a swirling romance that takes them both by storm. As their love grows, they make a promise to each other to always find a way to be together no matter what happens. 
When tragedy strikes, can they keep that promise?

​This contemporary romance really strikes a chord with me. I love the setting of Folly Island, South Carolina, on the coast near Charleston. It reminds me of some of the beaches in Oregon.
I so appreciated this tale of young love and transcendent love, they are two different things. There is a great deal I really enjoyed about this story, the pacing, dialogue, and action stand out and are well balanced. The writing appears simple, but is actually quite rich, and I found myself deeply involved in the story, over and over again. The settings were perfectly staged, the descriptions seemed quite alive in my mind. The heart-touching ending brought more than a couple of tears to my eyes.
I give this debut novel a score of 4.8 stars; the score would have been higher except for the handful of spelling and punctuation issues which have been corrected. So, your reading experience will be all the smoother.

This is a photograph of Folly Beach Pier. The author has chosen it to represent himself.
​
You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/-the-artists-special-touch
https://www.goodreads.com/-the-artists-special-touch
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Artists-Special-Touch-River-Wild-ebook
 
You can follow River Wild:
https://twitter.com/riverwildusa
https://riverwildusa.com
https://www.facebook.com/river.wild.1253
 
Tags: contemporary romance, paranormal romance

​Multi-volume author, Cal Samra, introduces us to his latest book about health and humor, In Pursuit of Health:
For the past 34 years, best-selling author Cal Samra, age 87, has been the editor of a national humor newsletter called The Joyful Noiseletter directed mainly to churches and health professionals. Health, physical fitness, and longevity have been the author’s longstanding interests during his years as an Associated Press and newspaper reporter, and as the lay executive director of the Huxley Institute for Biosocial Research, a medical research foundation. But he says he owes his health and longevity to the teachings of the many health pioneers, from long-ago centuries to the present, who are featured in this book.
For the book, this award-winning health and humor historian researched and treaded into the history and teachings of many health pioneers down through the centuries: religious figures of all faith traditions, medical doctors, nurses, health professionals, counselors, agnostic philosophers, bodybuilders, professional athletes, dietitians, and nutritionists, and rediscovered their admonitions on health and longevity which have long since been forgotten or ignored. Starting with the Hebrew prophet Daniel (circa 620 B.C.), he then proceeded down through the centuries to Jesus, the third-century Greek physicians, the Franciscans, John Wesley, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ellen White, Sojourner Truth, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, the Hindu Swami Vivekanada, Teddy Roosevelt, George Bernard Shaw, Catherine Doherty, Linus Pauling, Jack LaLanne, Dr. Donald L. Cooper, M.D., Dr. Rex Russell, M.D., Patch Adams, M.D., Dr. Mehmet Oz, M.D., Etta Dale Hornsteiner, professional athletes like Tom Brady, and Serena and Venus Williams, Bob Hope, and many others. All of them were extraordinary men and women from numerous faith and philosophical traditions. They were Jewish, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, Hindu, Buddhist, Moslem, and agnostic, African-Americans, Native Americans, and Mexican Americans. Many were immigrants or the children of immigrants.
Some were conservatives and some were liberals, but they all had a zest for life and a meeting of minds on living a healthy lifestyle. It is amazing how much they agreed upon. Many of these men and women regarded themselves, or were regarded, as health reformers. Their basic advice on living a healthy lifestyle was generally the same: eat fresh, natural, nutritional foods in moderation, exercise your body regularly, get sufficient sleep, keep your faith and your sense of humor, and strive to be a loving, caring, giving and forgiving person.
The focus of all these health reformers was living a healthy lifestyle. Many of these health pioneers were ignorant of the work and views of their predecessors, or chose to ignore them. It is altogether human to be reluctant to give credit to individuals outside one’s own faith or philosophical tradition. But ironically, some of the research of modern science is confirming the views of these prophetic health pioneers.
This book is the first book to attempt to trace the history of health pioneers, both religious and secular, down through the centuries, and to introduce them to readers. It is indexed and designed to be a resource book for medical doctors, nurses, chaplains, pastors, counselors, nutritionists, physical therapists, body-buildings, editors, comedians, clowns and anyone wishing to live a healthier and longer life.
Samra pleads with religious organizations to pay more attention to the pollution of our air, water, and food supply, which is eroding the health of people and congregations. “While you are teaching people how to get to Heaven, how about teaching them healthy lifestyles to survive on this earth?” he asks.
 Several of the cartoons from The Joyful Noiseletter have been reprinted in this book.

I love this book. I also love what Cal is trying to do. Help people live longer and fuller lives with the aid of humor and good nutrition. What I can’t figure out is this a serious book that is funny or is it a funny book that is serious? Someone help me, please!
Cal is 87, he is doing great! I am only 65, when I grow up I want to be like Cal. I have a good start, I love to laugh and like to read funny stuff, I also have been working on improving my diet for some time, and take lots of food supplements.
If you are concerned about having a happy and healthful life, you can’t go wrong by getting this book and reading it very thoughtfully.
I give this book 4.9 stars! The score would have been higher except for the small handful of spelling errors I found. ​

You can buy this book:
https://rdrpublishers.com/collections/health-and-fitness/products/in-pursuit-of-health-and-longevity-wellness-pioneers-through-the-centuries
https://www.amazon.com/Pursuit-Health-Longevity
https://www.goodreads.com/-in-pursuit-of-health-and-longevity

You can follow Cal:
http://www.joyfulnoiseletter.com