introducing "accept this dandelion" by brooke williams

Today, I have the pleasure of introducing Brooke Williams' hilarious new novel, Accept This Dandelion. If you're a fan of The Bachelor, you'll love it! Then check back tomorrow for my review.

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Accept This Dandelion

By Brooke Williams

Release Date: February 4, 2015 from Prism Book Group

Genre: Romance/Comedy

ASIN: B00R54MUXY

Order digital and paperback copies HERE

Renee Lockhart has her eye on a lofty goal…to fill the open position of morning radio show host at the radio station where she works.  When her co-workers sign her up for a local TV version of “the Bachelor,” Renee goes along with it in order to raise her public profile.  Ben McConnell, the most eligible bachelor in town, insists that Renee be placed on the show, despite her bumbling audition.  Ben gets much more than he expected in Renee.  He gets a girl who doesn’t bow to his every whim…and a girl who opens his eyes to true, unexpected love. When nothing goes right on the local program called "Accept this Dandelion"...hilarity ensues. Imagine your worst possible dates happening...on TV!


Add “Accept this Dandelion” to your Goodreads list HERE


About the Author



Brooke Williams writes in a sleep-deprived state while her daughters nap. Her romantic comedy is best read in the same state. Brooke has twelve years of radio in her background, both behind the scenes and on the air. She was also a television traffic reporter for a short time despite the fact that she could care less about hair and make-up. Today, Brooke stays at home with her daughters and works as a freelance writer for a variety of companies. When she isn’t working for paying clients, she makes things up, which results in books like “Accept this Dandelion.”  Brooke is also the author of “Wrong Place, Right Time,” “Someone Always Loved You,” and “Beyond the Bars.” And she looks forward to the upcoming released of “Mamarazzi” and “Baby Sheep Gets a Haircut.” Brooke and her husband Sean have been married since 2002 and have two beautiful daughters, Kaelyn (5) and Sadie (nearly 2).

Connect with Brooke:
Facebook
Website
Blog

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Praise for Accept this Dandelion

"This book is adorable. I had to sneak away from my desk to read the rest of it once I started. It had my smiling and laughing the whole way through."
-Sarah, Advanced Reader Copy Review

What could possibly evolve from such a strange attraction? That's the meat of Accept this Dandelion, purportedly a romance, but in essence so much more. Acceptance is, indeed, at the heart of Accept this Dandelion: acceptance of self, others, and the paths life offers up, whether for good or bad.
-D. Donovan, eBook Reviewer, MBR

EXCERPT:

Renee leaned way over in her chair, throwing her arm up beside her for dramatic effect. She had the perfect line to close her short ad, but instead of delivering it, she flung one of the flickering candles to the floor with a loud crash.

“Fire!” she screamed as she realized the flame had not extinguished, but rather had transferred itself to the hem of her dress.

Before Renee could stop drop and roll, Ben leapt from his chair and threw himself across the small space separating them. The pressure of his body against her leg put out the fire instantly, but it also toppled her chair over, leaving them in a heap on the concrete.

Renee found herself on her side with Ben’s breath on her cheek. She slowly turned her head, though what she really wanted to do was push him away and run out of the studio as fast as possible.

“That was quite a commercial.” Ben didn’t make a move to rise. “Are you okay?”

Renee wasn’t sure how the dress looked, but there were no burning sensations on her leg. There was a twinge in the pit of her stomach. She nodded. “I’m okay.” She met his eyes and allowed herself a few beats to study him closely. He was handsome. And now, he was even a hero. Though he wouldn’t have had to save her from burning flames had she not set herself on fire.

Ben deftly got to his feet and pulled Renee from her chair as the producer rushed over and the camera operators stood by, panning down to capture Renee’s smoldering dress.

“Hey, Renee,” Ben whispered into her ear, “next time there’s fire between us, I’m not going to put it out.”

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"mindwar" by andrew klavan: guest post & giveaway

IS GOD ALLOWED IN STORIES?
by Andrew Klavan

Here’s something funny I’ve noticed. If you mention God in a story, or if you have a character who believes in God and prays to him, people notice it. Sometimes they accuse you of being “preachy,” or writing “propaganda.” There’s one reviewer (I won’t mention his name) who mentions my religion every time he reviews one of my books. It’s not that he’s unfair or unkind. Sometimes his reviews are good, sometimes they’re bad, but he always mentions that I’m a Christian. He never mentions that other writers aren’t Christians. Other writers are just writers. But my religion is always identified whenever he writes about me.

In England, a big bookstore chain said they would cut the orders of my Homelanders books if I wouldn’t edit mentions of God out of the story. When the lead character Charlie West talked about something he had read in the Bible, they wanted me to rewrite it to leave the Bible part out. When I refused, they actually did cut the orders of the books too!

So let’s think about that for just a minute. Most people here in America believe in God and, in fact, most Americans would identify themselves as Christian. Most people pray when they’re in trouble and a lot of us pray when we’re not in trouble too and a lot of us go to church and so on. So if I’m writing realistic American characters, the very high odds are that they’re going to believe in God and they’re probably going to be Christians. If they don’t pray, if they don’t believe, that would make them extraordinary. That would make them noticeable.

So shouldn’t reviewers point out when writers don’t include God in their stories? Shouldn’t the reviewers say, “In the latest book by this non-Christian writer, the hero never prays, even when he’s in trouble! That’s not very realistic, but still it was a good story...” They should, but weirdly, they never do.

Interestingly, MindWar is about a guy who’s so angry about the things that have happened in his life, he’s lost his faith in God and stopped praying.  But of course, that doesn’t take God out of the story, any more than it would in real life.

About the book (from Goodreads): Rick Dial has the potential to be a hero. He just doesn't know it yet.

Rick's high school football team couldn't be stopped when he was leading them as their quarterback. He was going to Syracuse on a scholarship. But then his dad abandoned them and a terrible accident left him crippled.

Certain his old life is completely lost, Rick spends months hiding away in his room playing video games. He achieves the highest scores on so many games that he's approached by a government agency who claims to be trying to thwart a cyber attack on America that would destroy the technological infrastructure of the entire country. The agents say that the quick-thinking of a quarterback coupled with Nick's gaming experience make him perfect for this assignment. The problem is that there are no extra lives and this isn't just a game . . . but Rick doesn't have many other options at the moment.

Entering "The Realm" gives Rick the one thing he thought he'd never have again: a body that's as fast and as strong as he ever was before the accident. But the more time he spends in The Realm, the more questions he has. What secrets are these agents keeping from him? What really happened to his father? How many others have gone into The Realm already . . . and failed? And perhaps most important, is he the hero they think he is?

See what others are saying.
Buy the book: Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Kobo Books * The Book Depository

About the author: Andrew Klavan is a best-selling, award-winning thriller novelist whose books have been made into major motion pictures. He broke into the YA scene with the bestselling Homelanders series, starting with The Last Thing I Remember. He is also a screenwriter and scripted the innovative movie-in-an-app Haunting Melissa.

Connect with the author on his website, Goodreads, Twitter, and Facebook.

About the giveaway:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog tour organized by YA Bound Book Tours.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook free from the publisher via YA Bound Book Tours. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

"torn blood" by david j. bain: promo post

About the book: One man pursues a question left unanswered for four thousand years. His search takes him to the gates of Hell.
—Will it bring him back?

Three weeks before officially reporting for duty at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, Addison Deverell arrives in Israel to unearth an enigma.

Bound to an escort by the embassy, and unable to begin his search, time is running out. With mere days before he must report for duty Addison is freed from his escort’s bondage. Racing to find answers that promise to establish a career—and facing danger from those he seeks to understand—he finds himself in a fight to the death for a nation’s life.

Nearly seven thousand miles away, Dr. Janelle Henning confronts a peril that threatens to destroy her deepest soul. A search for understanding thrusts her into a world long buried to confront a heritage abandoned by the passage of time.

Brought together by events, Janelle and Addison discover identities hidden from them both in a relationship they have shared for a lifetime.

My take: I haven't had a chance to read all of this book yet, so look for a review of it in the coming weeks. What I've read so far has been fascinating, and I'm looking forward to finishing it.

Author Q & A:
How did you first come up with the idea for Torn Blood? 

I knew that Jews in Israel had been attacked multiple times before and after its founding in 1948, but I didn’t know the story behind the attacks. Warfare doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Torn Blood began as research for the story behind the story of those attacks and ended as a journey that challenged my faith and broadened my perspective about the world.

What have you learned personally about your own faith as you researched and wrote Torn Blood?

As a Christian I thought monolithically. There is the God of the Bible and there I am in relationship to the God of the Bible. While true, it’s too limiting because God works through all of mankind which includes through the Jewish people even when they, for the most part, reject that Yeshua/Jesus is God. God’s original covenant was with Adam. When Adam broke that covenant we then see God’s covenant with Abraham and that covenant is still in effect in spite of choices the Jewish nation and people have made over the millennia. Through the process of research and writing this story I came to find my faith centered more in God and less in what He could do for me which is both challenging and liberating.

My picture on reality was too small to include many important events occurring outside the frame of my singular life. I am now discovering a faith I only thought I had before this eight year journey to research and write Torn Blood began, and I understand this journey has just begun.

What impact do you hope Torn Blood has on readers?

When readers come to the end of Torn Blood, my hope is that they will have apprehended the heart of an Israel not seen before. It is this Israel, covenanted by God and not created by man, which can start a discussion, a dialogue, that may challenge our world.

About the author: David J. Bain is the author of Torn Blood, an adventure novel which celebrates the triumph of the Jewish spirit, their love of Eretz Yisra’el, the land of Israel, and how close the world’s ties are to the Jewish people.

He is one of the founders of Bo Iti Press, a niche publisher focused on stories
about the Jewish experience as well as the rights of Israel as a sovereign nation.

After attending the University of Oregon and University of Nevada Las Vegas, Bain worked in the business world for more than 30 years before turning his hand to writing. It was his collaboration on two screenplays that were made into movies, End of the Harvest and Time Changer, which revived his interest in Israel. After finishing the screenplays, Bain began to notice patterns that surfaced in country after country over the millennia. Familiar with Israel’s history, politics, military, and the habit modern Israel had for coming out on top in any conflict with neighboring countries, he determined to understand why the Jewish race consistently seemed to land in the middle of world events. He worked with research assistants from the United States and Israel for seven years to understand the truth behind what the world learns about Israel.

His desire is that Torn Blood will help readers discover the reason Jewish people around the globe are committed to their tiny nation floating in a sea of enemies—and it’s not what one is often led to believe.

David lives with his wife, Doris, in Oregon.

More information on David can be found at www.tornblood.com.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a copy of this book for review from Side Door Communications.  I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”