Bird’s Eye View by Jan Capps

February 11, 2024 / drbethnolan / 1 Comment

Jan Capps, the author of Bird’s Eye View, reached out to me earlier in the winter so offer her memoir which tells of her year living and working at a medical clinic, with her ten-year-old daughter, in Guatemala.

This was such an interesting story that I will admit I read it in pretty much one sitting (it’s 388 pages but who’s counting).

Here’s the scoop:

When Jan Moves to Guatemala with her young daughter to run a medical clinic on the heels of her divorce, she knows the experience will be difficult and life-changing. But she doesn’t anticipate all the ways she will change.

To make sense of her professional, personal, and parenting turmoil in a country with plenty of its own turmoil, Jan finds herself adopting a Maya worldview that weaves together concepts of duality (there can be no light without dark, no joy without pain), harmony with nature, and the importance of connecting to the past to understand one’s present self.

Awash with elements of Maya mythology, history, and culture and innumerable revelations of the compassion, intelligence, and resilience of the Guatemalan people, Bird’s-Eye View is a coming-of-middle-age story that shows how viewing life through the prism of a different set of myths can help an individual understand the familiar tales they have unwittingly followed.

About the Author

Jan Capps has been a public health advocate for immigrants, farmworkers, domestic violence victims, and people of color in the US, Guatemala, and Mexico for over thirty years, focusing on building local capacity and health equity. During her two stints living in Guatemala, she organized and trained community health workers and midwives, managed a medical clinic, and studied the Maya Tz’utujil language. She has presented, trained, and written for national audiences. Her greatest joy and most humbling experiences have been being a mother and watching her glorious daughter grow and launch into the world. Jan splits her time between Seattle, Washington, and North Carolina.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read your book, Ms. Capps!

Harper-Collins Blog Tour for The Uncharted Flight of Olivia West by Sara Ackerman

February 10, 2024 / drbethnolan / Leave a comment

I’m so happy today to be part of the tour for this wonderful new historical fiction novel about a plucky female aviator.

Here’s the scoop:

THE UNCHARTED FLIGHT OF OLIVIA WEST

Author: Sara Ackerman

ISBN: 9780778369516
Publication date: February 6, 2024
Publisher: MIRA

Book Summary:

1927. Olivia ‘Livy’ Jones is a young and determined pilot with a love of adventure. She’s been bit by the flying bug and yearns to cross oceans and see the world, pioneering the way for other women pilots. When she learns of the Dole Air Race–organized immediately after Charles Lindbergh’s famous flight–a race to be the first to make the 2,400 mile Pacific crossing from the West coast to Hawaii, with a huge grand prize of $25,000–she sets her sights on qualifying. But it soon becomes clear that only men will make the cut. In a last ditch effort to take part, Livy manages to be picked as a navigator for one of the pilots, before setting out on a harrowing journey that will change her life forever.

1987. Nothing is going right for Emma Summers. When she learns that she has inherited a piece of land from a great uncle, she hopes it might hold something valuable, but instead she finds nothing but an old barn full of junk, including a small plane is in disrepair, with faded paint and a broken propeller. Then she discovers her great uncle’s journal. He was a pilot in the Dole Air Race, but in the journal, he reveals that he fell ill over the Pacific, and that it was his navigator who piloted his plane. As she uncovers Livy’s story, Emma finds new purpose, restoring the old plane and fighting to secure Livy’s place in the aviation hall of fame.

Author Bio:

Sara Ackerman is a USA TODAY bestselling author who writes books about love and life, and all of their messy and beautiful imperfections. She believes that the light is just as important as the dark, and that the world is in need of uplifting stories. Born and raised in Hawaii, she studied journalism and later earned graduate degrees in psychology and Chinese medicine. She blames Hawaii for her addiction to writing, and sees no end to its untapped stories. Find out more about Sara and her books at http://www.ackermanbooks.com and follow her on Instagram @saraackermanbooks and on FB @ackermanbooks.

I love Sara Ackerman’s writing and this novel has my favorite plot sequencing of past/present timelines. Ms. Ackerman’s writing is always engaging and her characters well developed. I loved the character of Livy and I’m sure you will, too!

Thank you for my copy and for making me part of the tour!

Buy Links: Not affiliated with BBNB

Social Links:

Blog Tour for: Prospects of a Woman by Wendy Voorsanger

October 24, 2020October 23, 2020 / drbethnolan / Leave a comment

My friends at PR by the Book invited me to join in the blog tour for this new historical fiction novel: Prospects of a Woman by Wendy Voorsanger, and I couldn’t say no. This story takes place during the Gold Rush in California, and you all know I love a story with strong women, historical context, and that takes place in my home state! And somehow I had missed (until I started reading) that her best friend is Louisa May Alcott! The protagonist is from Concord (my favorite place nearby) and writes letters to my favorite author (LMA). This book was made for me!

Here’s the overview:

The story of one woman’s passionate quest to carve out a place for herself in the liberal and bewildering society that emerged during the California gold rush frenzy

Prospects of a Woman

By Wendy Voorsanger

Elisabeth Parker comes to California from Massachusetts in 1849 with her new husband, Nate, to reunite with her father, who’s struck gold on the American River. She soon realizes her husband is not the man she thought—and neither is her father, who abandons them shortly after they arrive. As Nate struggles with his sexuality, Elisabeth is forced to confront her preconceived notions of family, love, and opportunity.

She finds comfort in corresponding with her childhood friend back home, writer Louisa May Alcott, and spending time in the company of a mysterious Californio Don. Armed with Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self-Reliance, she sets out to determine her role in building the West, even as she comes to terms with the sacrifices she must make to achieve independence and happiness.

Prospects of a Woman is a fresh, authentic retelling of the West that explores women’s contributions in California and shatters the stereotypes of the typical hard-boiled novel of the West that has captured the American imagination for over a century.

About the Author:

Born and raised on the American River in Sacramento, Wendy Voorsanger has long held an intense interest in the historical women of California. She started her career in the Silicon Valley, writing about technology trends and innovations for newspapers, magazines, and Fortune 100 companies.

She currently manages SheIsCalifornia.net, a blog dedicated to chronicling the accomplishments of California women through history. Her debut historical novel, Prospects of a Woman will be published in October 2020 (She Writes Press); an excerpt entitled “Shifting in California” won 1st place in the California Writers Club short story contest and is published in the Fault Zone: Shift: An Anthology of Stories.

She earned a B.A. in Journalism from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is a member of the Castro Writers’ Cooperative, the Lit Camp Advisory Board, and the San Mateo Public Library Literary Society.

In addition to being an author, Wendy has worked as a lifeguard, ski instructor, and radio disc jockey. Wendy lives in Northern California with her husband and two sons.

I truly loved this book! I loved the history. I loved the intrepidness of the main character, Elisabeth. I loved how it tied Concord, MA in to the storyline with my beloved Alcotts. It was so well-written and truly interesting with all the information on women’s roles and women’s rights back when California was a new state.

Highly recommended and destined to be one of my favorite reads of the year!

Thank you so much for making me part of the tour!

Wedding at the Lakeside Resort by Susan Schild

June 24, 2020June 23, 2020 / drbethnolan / Leave a comment

I was lucky to be part of the early reading team for this title and I just loved it! I love this series and I relate so much to the main character, Jenny, who has found a new career and love post-40. In this installment, Jenny and Luke are planning their wedding but Luke is tied up with work, Jenny doesn’t really want to have a big shin-dig and has lots to do with running the resort, and who is mucking up the neighbor’s abandoned property? Jenny and Luke keep their spirits high while dealing with the intricacies of life, romance, work, and impending nuptials. And they have two lovable dogs and a miniature horse named Levi. Every time I read one of these books I just want to have a miniature horse – adorable!

Clean reading and heart-warming!

Thank you SO much for letting me in early on this one, Ms. Schild, and for my e-ARC! Happy Pub Day – June 25!

Harlequin Blog Tour for: More than Neighbors by Shannon Stacey

June 20, 2020June 20, 2020 / drbethnolan / Leave a comment

I’m happy to take part in the Harlequin tour of this fun summer read about a woman finding her new life after the death of her husband and her relationship with her neighbor.

If you like a little romance and a happy ending, along with some memorable and fun characters and pets, this would be a good choice for you! (note: this book does contain sexual content but it wasn’t graphic).

To be perfectly honest, I would not have chosen this book based on the cover. It reminds me of something I would have read in high school, but I did really like this story and the characters!

Thank you for my e-copy and for making me part of the tour!

Here’s the overview from Harlequin:

The only thing they have in common is a property line! Cam Maguire is in Blackberry Bay to unravel a family secret. Meredith Price has moved next door with her daughter. He’s unattached. She’s a widowed single mom. He’s owned by a cat. She’s definitely team canine. All these neighbors have in common is a property line. One they cross…over and over. And Cam thought he knew what he wanted—until his family’s secret changes
everything.

About Shannon Stacey: New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Shannon Stacey lives with her husband and two sons in New England, where her two favorite activities are writing stories of happily
ever after and off-roading with her friends and family. You can contact Shannon through her website ,www.shannonstacey.com, as well as sign up for her newsletter.

Purchase links provided by Harlequin: (not affiliated with BBNB)
 Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/More-than-Neighbors-Blackberry-Book-
ebook/dp/B08337V9GG/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=more+than+neighbors%2C+stacey&qid=1
587390776&s=books&sr=1-1
 B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/more-than-neighbors-shannon-
stacey/1135744197?ean=9781335894694
 Google:
https://books.google.ca/books/about/More_Than_Neighbors.html?id=7DQGzQEACAAJ&redir_esc=y
 IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781335894694
 Harlequin.com: https://www.harlequin.com/shop/books/9781488069901_more-than-
neighbors.html

Author social links:
 Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49875473-more-than-
neighbors?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=BPmoRsG1Za&rank=1

 Author website: https://shannonstacey.com/

 Twitter: https://twitter.com/shannonstacey

 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shannonstacey.authorpage

 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shannonstacey/

Summer at the Lakeside Resort by Susan Schild

July 10, 2019 / drbethnolan / Leave a comment

The very kind Susan Schild sent me an electronic copy of her latest Lakeside Resort novel in order for me to read and review. I just love this series! It centers on a 40-something-year-old woman (Jenny) who is making a fresh start by creating a resort with some property she has inherited. She lives in a trailer there and has two cute dogs and an adorable pet miniature horse. I totally want a mini horse since reading these books!

Here’s the overview:

Ready for more love and adventure after 40?

Forty-three year old Jenny Beckett has just renovated eight rustic guest cabins on beautiful Heron Lake, North Carolina. Brand new to the inn- keeping business, she is struggling to make The Lakeside Resort profitable. Wrangling guests like The Fighting Couple, persnickety attorneys, and the curvy gals from the Fabulous You Fitness Week keep her on her toes. Jenny’s business isn’t her only problem. Her mother and stepfather have just moved in for an extended stay. Startling developments with her possible fiancé, Luke, make Jenny question his commitment to her. An all-gal camping trip in her old Airstream lifts her spirits, but Jenny still has doubts about whether she and Luke can make their love work.

After all the heartache she’s had, can Jenny learn to trust love again and finally find her happily ever after?

This book is sometimes termed “romance” or “women’s fiction” or “clean reading” or even “Christian” – all I can tell you is that it’s a feel-good story that is very relatable if you, like me, found your love when you were older! Plus there’s that cute mini horse!! Lots of every day issues and challenges and an easy flow to the writing make it easy to read. And I always love a happy ending.

Thank you, Ms. Schild, for my copy!! I notice that that place that I no longer link to has kindle copies for only $4.99 right now!

And — You don’t have to read the first in the series to appreciate this one, but do yourself a favor and get it, too!

WILDWOOD by Elinor Florence

April 7, 2018 / drbethnolan / 1 Comment

I loved Elinor Florence’s Bird’s Eye View, so I was excited to see that she had a new book out: Wildwood. Wildwood tells the story of Molly Bannister, who leaves Arizona with her young daughter to go to northernmost Canada as she has inherited a farm from her great aunt. The conditions are: live on the farm for one year (no plumbing, no electricity) and then you can sell it. Molly needs money and the farm is prime land for oil fracking. She moves north (where it’s way colder than she’s ever experienced!) and slowly pioneers her way through the year, with four-year-old Bridget by her side. Finding her great aunt’s diary from her first year at Wildwood in the 20’s is an added bonus. Along the way, Molly begins to find that connecting with the land may be the best thing that has ever happened to her and her daughter.

I just loved this story – especially since I’m a big fan of a pioneer story and this one essentially had two in it: Molly’s and her great aunt’s. I loved how Molly was tough and self-sufficient, but also overwhelmed by the demands of living off the grid. Molly’s little girl, Bridget, is selective mute, something that is near and dear to me if you know me personally, and I loved the character of little Bridget. It was interesting to read about Canadian winter (I thought we had it bad in New England!) and the indigenous people of Canada as well.

Thank you so much for my review e-copy! I truly enjoyed it!!

Description

A single mother. An abandoned farmhouse. An epic battle with the northern wilderness.

Broke and desperate, Molly Bannister accepts the ironclad condition laid down in her great-aunt’s will: to receive her inheritance, Molly must spend one year in an abandoned, off-the-grid farmhouse in the remote backwoods of northern Alberta. If she does, she will be able to sell the farm and fund her four-year-old daughter’s badly needed medical treatment.

With grim determination, Molly teaches herself basic homesteading skills. But her greatest perils come from the brutal wilderness itself, from blizzards to grizzly bears. Will she and her child survive the savage winter? Will she outsmart the idealist young farmer who would thwart her plan to sell the farm? Not only their financial future, but their very lives are at stake. Only the journal written by Molly’s courageous great-aunt, the land’s original homesteader, inspires her to struggle on.

A Note From the Publisher

Elinor Florence is an author and journalist. Before publishing her bestselling novel, Bird’s Eye View, she edited several daily newspapers and wrote for many publications, including Reader’s Digest Canada. Elinor lives in Invermere, British Columbia.

WAIT FOR THE RAIN by Maria Murnane

September 16, 2017September 16, 2017 / drbethnolan / Leave a comment

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The very lovely Maria Murnane sent me an e-copy of her novel, WAIT FOR THE RAIN, along with her novel BRIDGES (reviewed here earlier). I chose to end my summer with it.

This is a realistic but feel-good story about a young woman getting herself back on her feet after going through a divorce:

From the author of the bestselling Waverly Bryson series.

Daphne White is staring down the barrel of forty—and is distraught at what she sees. Her ex-husband is getting remarried, her teenage daughter hardly needs her anymore, and the career she once dreamed about has somehow slipped from her grasp. She’s almost lost sight of the spirited and optimistic young woman she used to be.

As she heads off to a Caribbean island to mark the new decade with her best friends from college, Daphne’s in anything but the mood to celebrate. But when she meets Clay Hanson, a much younger man, she ignores her inner voice warning her that she’s too old for a fling. In fact, this tropical getaway might be the perfect opportunity to picture her future in a new sun-drenched light.

With the help of her friends, Daphne rediscovers her enthusiasm for life, as well as her love for herself—and realizes that her best years are still ahead.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I think just about anyone can find something in common with one of these characters, who are quite believable. I couldn’t help but root for Daphne, and believe me – I know what she was going through.

Easy to read with a realistic but fun plot and likable characters, both WAIT FOR THE RAIN and BRIDGES are winners for me.

Thank you, Maria, for sharing your novels with me!

THE PARIS SPY by Susan Elia MacNeal

August 25, 2017August 25, 2017 / drbethnolan / Leave a comment

Description

American-born spy and code-breaker extraordinaire Maggie Hope secretly navigates Nazi-occupied France to find two brave women during the darkest days of World War II in the latest novel in this New York Times bestselling series—“a treat for WWII buffs and mystery lovers alike.” (Booklist, on The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent)

Maggie Hope has come a long way since serving as a typist for Winston Churchill. Now she’s working undercover for the Special Operations Executive in the elegant but eerily silent city of Paris, where SS officers prowl the streets in their Mercedes and the Ritz is draped with swastika banners. Walking among the enemy is tense and terrifying, and even though she’s disguised in chic Chanel, Maggie can’t help longing for home.

But her missions come first. Maggie’s half sister, Elise, has disappeared after being saved from a concentration camp, and Maggie is desperate to find her—that is, if Elise even wants to be found. Equally urgent, Churchill is planning the Allied invasion of France, and SOE agent Erica Calvert has been captured, the whereabouts of her vital research regarding Normandy unknown. Maggie must risk her life to penetrate powerful circles and employ all her talents for deception and spycraft to root out a traitor, find her sister, and locate the reports crucial to planning D-Day in a deadly game of wits with the Nazi intelligence elite.

“You’ll be [Maggie Hope’s] loyal subject, ready to follow her wherever she goes.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

If you know me, you know I LOVE the Maggie Hope books! I always thought of them as cozy mysteries, but really that does not do them justice. I always learn something from reading them and they are serious, but not gory. They remind me of something I’d watch on PBS or the BBC — thoughtful and historically accurate, but entertaining. This latest is no exception. The war (WWII) is progressing, and Maggie is still hard at work for the Allies. Planning for the D-Day Invasion is the storyline behind this novel, and Maggie is trying to get top secret information through to those who need it. As always Susan Elia MacNeal has done her research and presents loads of historically accurate details to make her story come alive. I do love the strong character of Maggie, and I never get tired of reading these books!

Thank you for my review e-copy!

Lee Wolfe Blum’s BRAVE IS THE NEW BEAUTIFUL – A Litfuse Blog Tour

May 5, 2017May 3, 2017 / drbethnolan / Leave a comment

I’m happy today to take part in the Litfuse blog tour for BRAVE IS THE NEW BEAUTIFUL by Lee Wolfe Blum. I enjoyed this easy to read novel of inspirational stories about women facing hardship and challenges and coming out a changed person, with beauty truly coming from within. To be honest, I found some of the stories intense and almost disturbing in their harshness (but really, that’s life – not a bowl of cherries!). I had planned to share this novel with my young teen, but will wait a few years.

This was a good read and a strong reminder of how our culture can sometimes need to get its priorities straight.

Thank you for my review e-copy and for making me part of the tour!

Overview:

Our culture bombards women with “thinspiration” messages and pressure to “do it all” while wearing the mask of perfection.

Women are left feeling alone and overwhelmed. How can they stop comparing themselves to others? How can they live out who they really are?

Lee Wolfe Blum offers stories from everyday women who have answered these questions with their lives-and found true beauty in the process. In Brave Is the New Beautiful, Blum weaves reflections from her own journey with inspirational stories from everyday women who chose to take off their masks and live authentically. Through call-to-action questions and ideas, she encourages readers to be brave enough to be who they really are and the beloved that God knows they are.

Learn more and purchase a copy.

Lee Wolfe Blum is an energetic and passionate speaker who loves to help women find hope in healing from perfectionism and addictions. She works as a mental health practitioner in the field of Eating Disorders and Chemical Dependency. She lives in Minnesota with her husband and three boys.

Find out more about Lee Wolfe at leewolfeblum.com.