Tree Swing Reading

Be Back Soon

Hi!  I know I need to start annoucing some more book winners, but we are going to be out of touch for a couple days.  I'll be back Sunday!

Christy Award Nominees Book Giveaway: Young Adult

The Christy Award is a "Christian fiction award to recognize novelists and novels of excellence in several genres of Christian fiction." The nominees for this year were announced recently and the winners will be announced June 24. Every year I make it my goal to read all the books that are nominated for the Christy Award. I also give them away!

I will giveaway the books by category while I am reading the books nominated in that category.

To enter to win any/all of these books, please do the following:

1. Post a comment indicating which book/books you would like to be entered for in the featured category.

2. Enter by the date indicated. For this category, please enter by JUNE 30, winners announced on July 1.

3. Respond within 10 days should you receive an email indicating you won a particular book.

Today's category is: "Young Adult" and the books are:

 

 

Book 1: Child of the Mountains by Marilyn Sue Shank

Description:

It's about keeping the faith.

Growing up poor in 1953 in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia doesn't bother Lydia Hawkins. She treasures her tight-knit family. There's her loving mama, now widowed; her whip-smart younger brother BJ, who has cystic fibrosis; and wise old Gran. But everything falls apart after Gran and BJ die and Mama is jailed unjustly. Suddenly Lydia has lost all those dearest to her.  

Moving to a coal camp to live with her uncle William and aunt Ethel Mae only makes Lydia feel more alone. She is ridiculed at her new school for her outgrown homemade clothes and the way she talks, and for what the kids believe her mama did. And to make matters worse, she discovers that her uncle has been keeping a family secret—about her. If only Lydia, with her resilient spirit and determination, could find a way to clear her mother's name. . . .

Book 2: Failstate by John W. Otte

Description:

Why did Robin Laughlin (a.k.a. Failstate) think being a superhero on a reality show would be a good idea? Things seemed so simple: Win the show, become an official, licensed hero. But with his brother, Ben (a.k.a. Gauntlet) stealing America's heart-and with Rob's own powers proving too unwieldy for TV-Failstate begins to wonder if he's going to live up to the failure in his name. Until one of his friends and fellow competitors is murdered. Robin vows to find the killer, and he sets out on a very real quest to unmask the hidden villain. Can Failstate find justice? Or will his lunk of a big brother ruin everything-including taking the girl who has stolen Rob's heart? Very soon, Failstate and Gauntlet will come to blows. Which has been the villain's plan all along.

Book 3: Interrupted: A Life Beyond Words by Rachel Coker

Description:

Can love really heal all things? If Sam Carroll hadn't shown up, she might have been able to get to her mother in time. Instead, Allie Everly finds herself at a funeral, mourning the loss of her beloved mother. She is dealt another blow when, a few hours later, she is sent from Tennessee to Maine to become the daughter of Miss Beatrice Lovell, a prim woman with a faith Allie cannot accept. Poetry and letters written to her mother become the only things keeping Allie's heart from hardening completely. But then Sam arrives for the summer, and with him comes many confusing emotions, both toward him and the people around her. As World War II looms, Allie will be forced to decide whether hanging on to the past is worth losing her chance to be loved.

Christy Award Nominees Book Giveaway: Visonary

The Christy Award is a "Christian fiction award to recognize novelists and novels of excellence in several genres of Christian fiction." The nominees for this year were announced recently and the winners will be announced June 24. Every year I make it my goal to read all the books that are nominated for the Christy Award. I also give them away!

I will giveaway the books by category while I am reading the books nominated in that category.

To enter to win any/all of these books, please do the following:

1. Post a comment indicating which book/books you would like to be entered for in the featured category.

2. Enter by the date indicated. For this category, please enter by JUNE 30, winners announced on July 1.

3. Respond within 10 days should you receive an email indicating you won a particular book.

4. Come back TOMORROW for the next category giveaway!

Today's category is: "Visionary" and the books are:

 

 

Book 1: Daugher of Light by Morgan L. Busse

Description:

What if with one touch you could see inside the soul?

Rowen Mar finds a strange mark on her hand, and she is banished from her village as a witch. She covers the mark with a leather glove and seeks sanctuary in the White City. She lives in fear that if she touches another person, the power inside her will trigger again, a terrifying power that allows her to see the darkness inside the human heart . . .

But the mark is a summons, and those called cannot hide forever. For the salvation of her people lies within her hand.

Book 2: Soul's Gate by James L. Rubart

Description:

“Every now and then we get a break from reality. A glimpse into the other world that is more real than the reality we live in 99 percent of our days. The Bible is about a world of demons and angels and great evil and even greater glory.”

What if you could travel inside another person’s soul? To battle for them. To be part of Jesus healing their deepest wounds. To help set them free to step boldly into their divinely designed future.

Thirty years ago that’s exactly what Reece Roth did. Until tragedy shattered his life and ripped away his future.

Now God has drawn Reece out of the shadows to fulfill a prophecy spoken over him three decades ago. A prophecy about four warriors with the potential to change the world . . . if Reece will face his deepest regret and teach them what he has learned.

They gather at a secluded and mysterious ranch deep in the mountains of Colorado, where they will learn to see the spiritual world around them with stunning clarity—and how to step into the supernatural.

Their training is only the beginning. The four have a destiny to pursue a freedom even Reece doesn’t fully fathom. But they have an enemy hell-bent on destroying them and he’ll stop at nothing to keep them from their quest for true freedom and the coming battle of souls.

Book 3: Starflower by Anne Elizabeth Stengl

Description:

When a cursed dragon-witch kidnaps the lovely Lady Gleamdren, Eanrin sets boldly forth on a rescue mission... and a race against his rival for Gleamdren's favor. Intent upon his quest, the last thing the immortal Faerie needs is to become mixed up with the troubles of an insignificant mortal.

But when he stumbles upon a maiden trapped in an enchanted sleep, he cannot leave her alone in the dangerous Wood Between. One waking kiss later, Eanrin suddenly finds his story entangled with that of young Starflower. A strange link exists between this mortal girl and the dragon-witch. Will Starflower prove the key to Lady Gleamdren's rescue? Or will the dark power from which she flees destroy both her and her rescuer?

Christy Award Nominees Book Giveaway: Suspense

The Christy Award is a "Christian fiction award to recognize novelists and novels of excellence in several genres of Christian fiction." The nominees for this year were announced recently and the winners will be announced June 24. Every year I make it my goal to read all the books that are nominated for the Christy Award. I also give them away!

I will giveaway the books by category while I am reading the books nominated in that category.

To enter to win any/all of these books, please do the following:

1. Post a comment indicating which book/books you would like to be entered for in the featured category.

2. Enter by the date indicated. For this category, please enter by JUNE 29, winners announced on June 30.

3. Respond within 10 days should you receive an email indicating you won a particular book.

4. Come back TOMORROW for the next category giveaway!

Today's category is: "Suspense" and the books are:

 

 

Book 1: Downfall by Terri Blackstock

Description:

Emily Covington has turned her life around after a drug addiction, but her family still has trouble trusting her. Though Emily has committed herself to a year-long treatment program and has been sober for almost a year beyond that, even her mother walks on eggshells around her, fearing she'll relapse. After her behavior during her drug years, Emily realizes she has a lot to prove. When police discover a homemade bomb under Emily's car, and she then learns the wife of one of her friends was murdered that same morning, she knows things are deadly serious. But who wants Emily dead? And why? A conversation she had with two men, an Alfred Hitchcock movie, and a plan for a double murder all conspire for one explosive ride ... and Emily is the only one who can identify the killer and save the life of the next potential victim. As she frantically works to solve this ever more complicated puzzle, Emily finds herself playing right into the killer's hands.

Book 2: The Last Plea Bargain by Randy Singer

Description:

Plea bargains may grease the rails of justice, but for Jamie Brock, prosecuting criminals is not about cutting deals. In her three years as assistant DA, she’s never plea-bargained a case and vows she never will. But when a powerful defense attorney is indicted for murder and devises a way to bring the entire justice system to a screeching halt, Jamie finds herself at a crossroads. One by one, prisoners begin rejecting deals. Prosecutors are overwhelmed, and felons start walking free on technicalities. To break the logjam and convict her nemesis, Jamie must violate every principle that has guided her young career. But she has little choice. To convict the devil, sometimes you have to cut a deal with one of his demons.

Book 3: Rare Earth by Davis Bunn

Description:

Marc Royce stares down from the helicopter on the Rift Valley slashing across Africa like a scar. Tribal feuds, drought, and dislocation have left their devastation. And he sees a new wound--a once-dormant volcano oozing molten lava across the dry landscape-and clouds of ash obscure his vision. His undercover assignment is similarly obscured. Supposedly dispatched to audit a relief organization's accounts, Marc finds himself amid the squalor and chaos of Kenyan refugee camps caught in a stranglehold of corruption and ruthlessness.

But his true task relates to the area's reserves of once-obscure metals now indispensible to high-tech industry. The value of this rare earth inflames tensions on the world's stage as well as among warring tribes. When an Israeli medical administrator, Kitra, seeks Marc's help with her humanitarian efforts, they forge an unexpected link between impoverished African villages and another Silicon Valley rising in the Israeli desert. Precious metals and inventive minds promise new opportunities for prosperity, secure futures, and protection of valuable commodities from terrorists. As Marc prepares to report back to Washington, he seizes a chance to restore justice to this troubled land. This time, he may have gone too far.

Book 4 (four books because there was a tie): Submerged  by Dani Pettrey

Description:

A sabotaged plane. Two dead deep-water divers.

Yancey, Alaska was a quiet town...until the truth of what was hidden in the depths off the coast began to appear.

Bailey Craig vowed never to set foot in Yancey again. She has a past, and a reputation--and Yancey's a small town. She's returned to bury a loved one killed in the plane crash and is determined not to stay even an hour more than necessary. But then dark evidence emerges and Bailey's own expertise becomes invaluable for the case.

Cole McKenna can handle the deep-sea dives and helping the police recover evidence. He can even handle the fact that a murderer has settled in his town and doesn't appear to be moving on. But dealing with the reality of Bailey's reappearance is a tougher challenge. She broke his heart, but she is not the same girl who left Yancey. He let her down, but he's not the same guy she left behind. Can they move beyond the hurts of their pasts and find a future together?

 

Books winners

Congrats to the following books winners:

You Don't Know Me: Merry

Waiting for Sunrise: Grams

Two Destinies: Cindi H

Thanks for entering!

Christy Award Nominees Book Giveaway: Historical Romance Category

The Christy Award is a "Christian fiction award to recognize novelists and novels of excellence in several genres of Christian fiction." The nominees for this year were announced recently and the winners will be announced June 24. Every year I make it my goal to read all the books that are nominated for the Christy Award. I also give them away!

I will giveaway the books by category while I am reading the books nominated in that category.

To enter to win any/all of these books, please do the following:

1. Post a comment indicating which book/books you would like to be entered for in the featured category.

2. Enter by the date indicated. For this category, please enter by JUNE 28, winners announced on June 29.

3. Respond within 10 days should you receive an email indicating you won a particular book.

4. Come back TOMORROW for the next category giveaway!

Today's category is: "Historical Romance" and the books are:

 

 

Book 1: Against the Tide by Elizabeth Camden

Description:

Love and Lives are Threatened in Camden's Latest Offering

As a child, Lydia Pallas became all too familiar with uncertainty when it came to the future. Now, she's finally carved out a perfect life for herself--a life of stability and order with no changes, surprises, or chaos of any kind. She adores her apartment overlooking the bustling Boston Harbor, and her skill with languages has landed her a secure position as a translator for the U.S. Navy.

However, it is her talent for translation that brings her into contact with Alexander Banebridge, or "Bane," a man who equally attracts and aggravates her. When Bane hires Lydia to translate a seemingly innocuous collection of European documents, she hesitantly agrees, only to discover she is in over her head.

Just as Bane's charm begins to win her over, Lydia learns he is driven by a secret campaign against some of the most dangerous criminals on the East Coast, compelled by his faith and his past. Bane forbids any involvement on Lydia's part, but when the criminals gain the upper hand, it is Lydia on whom he must depend.

Book 2: Be Still my Soul by Joanne Bischof

Description:

Night’s chill tickled her skin. Lonnie pressed her hands together and glanced up. He was even more handsome up close. Having grown up the shy, awkward daughter of Joel Sawyer, she’d hardly spoken to any boy, let alone the one who had mothers whispering warnings in their daughter’s ears and fathers loading shotguns.
 
Pretty Lonnie Sawyer is shy and innocent, used to fading into the background within her family, and among the creeks and hollows of the Appalachian hills. Though her family is poor and her father abusive, she clings to a quiet faith.  But when handsome ladies’ man and bluegrass musician Gideon O’Riley steals a kiss, that one action seals her fate. 
 
Her father forces her into a hasty marriage with Gideon—a man she barely knows and does not love. Equally frustrated and confused by his new responsibilities, Gideon yearns for a fresh start, forcing  Lonnie on an arduous journey away from her home in Rocky Knob.
 
Her distant groom can’t seem to surrender his rage at the injustice of the forced matrimony or give Lonnie any claim in his life.  What will it take for Gideon to give up his past, embrace Lonnie’s God, and discover a hope that can heal their two fractured hearts?
 
Gideon only ever cared about himself. Now that Lonnie is his wife, will he ever be worthy of her heart?

Book 3: Love's Reckoning by Laura Franz

Description:

On a bitter December day in 1785, Silas Ballantyne arrives at the door of master blacksmith Liege Lee in York, Pennsylvania. Just months from becoming a master blacksmith himself, Silas is determined to finish his apprenticeship and move west. But Liege soon discovers that Silas is a prodigious worker and craftsman and endeavors to keep him in York. Silas becomes interested in both of Liege's daughters, the gentle and faith-filled Eden and the clever and high-spirited Elspeth. When he chooses one, will the other's jealousy destroy their love?

In this sweeping family saga set in western Pennsylvania, one man's choices in love and work, in friends and enemies, set the stage for generations to come. Love's Reckoning is the first entry in The Ballantyne Legacy, a rich, multi-layered historical quartet from talented writer Laura Frantz, beginning in the late 1700s and following the Ballantyne family through the end of the Civil War.

Trouble Commenting?

I heard a report that there's trouble commenting on my blog.  I apologize if you've been unable to enter the drawings because of it. 

I am looking into it and hope to get it fixed.  In the meantime, fee free to enter by commenting on the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/treeswingreading

or by emailing me: [email protected]

Thanks for your patience!

Christy Award Nominees Book Giveaway: Historical

The Christy Award is a "Christian fiction award to recognize novelists and novels of excellence in several genres of Christian fiction." The nominees for this year were announced recently and the winners will be announced June 24. Every year I make it my goal to read all the books that are nominated for the Christy Award. I also give them away!

I will giveaway the books by category while I am reading the books nominated in that category.

To enter to win any/all of these books, please do the following:

1. Post a comment indicating which book/books you would like to be entered for in the featured category.

2. Enter by the date indicated. For this category, please enter by JUNE 27, winners announced on June 28.

3. Respond within 10 days should you receive an email indicating you won a particular book.

4. Come back TOMORROW for the next category giveaway!

Today's category is: "Historical" and the books are:

 

 

Book 1: Flame of Resistance by Tracey Goot

Description:

Years of Nazi occupation have stolen much from Brigitte Durand. Family. Freedom. Hope for a future, especially for a woman with a past like hers. But that changes the day American fighter pilot Tom Jaeger is shot down over occupied France. Picked up by the Resistance, Tom becomes the linchpin in their plan to infiltrate a Germans-only brothel and get critical intel out through Brigitte, a prostitute rumored to be sympathetic to the Allied cause.

D-day looms and everyone knows that invasion is imminent. But so is treachery, and the life of one American pilot unexpectedly jeopardizes everything. He becomes more important than the mission to a man who cannot bear to lose another agent and to a woman who is more than just a prostitute, who finally realizes that her actions could change the course of history.

Book 2: Wedded to War by Jocelyn Green
(also nominated in the "First Novel" category)

Description:

Tending to the army's sick and wounded meant leading a life her mother does not understand and giving up a handsome and approved suitor. Yet Charlotte chooses a life of service over privilege, just as her childhood friend had done when he became a military doctor. She soon discovers that she's combatting more than just the rebellion by becoming a nurse. Will the two men who love her simply stand by and watch as she fights her own battles? Or will their desire for her wage war on her desire to serve God?

Wedded to War is a work of fiction, but the story is inspired by the true life of Civil War nurse Georgeanna Woolsey. Woolsey's letters and journals, written over 150 years ago, offer a thorough look of what pioneering nurses endured. This is the first in the series "Heroines Behind the Lines: Civil War," a collection of novels that highlights the crucial contributions made by women during times of war.

Book 3: A Wreath of Snow by Liz Curtis Higgs

Description:

All Margaret Campbell wants for Christmas is a safe journey home. When her plans for a festive holiday with her family in Stirling crumble beneath the weight of her brother’s bitterness, the young schoolteacher wants nothing more than to return to the students she loves and the town house she calls home.
 
Then an unexpected detour places her in the path of Gordon Shaw, a handsome newspaperman from Glasgow, who struggles under a burden of remorse and shame.
 
When the secret of their shared history is revealed, will it leave them tangled in a knot of regret? Or might their past hold the threads that will bind their future together?
 
As warm as a woolen scarf on a cold winter’s eve, A Wreath of Snow is a tender story of love and forgiveness, wrapped in a celebration of all things Scottish, all things Victorian, and, especially, all things Christmas.

Christy Award Nominees Book Givaway: First Novel

The Christy Award is a "Christian fiction award to recognize novelists and novels of excellence in several genres of Christian fiction." The nominees for this year were announced recently and the winners will be announced June 24. Every year I make it my goal to read all the books that are nominated for the Christy Award. I also give them away!

I will giveaway the books by category while I am reading the books nominated in that category.

To enter to win any/all of these books, please do the following:

1. Post a comment indicating which book/books you would like to be entered for in the featured category.

2. Enter by the date indicated. For this category, please enter by JUNE 26, winners announced on June 27.

3. Respond within 10 days should you receive an email indicating you won a particular book.

4. Come back TOMORROW for the next category giveaway!

Today's category is: "First Novel" and the books are:

 

Book 1: Into the Free by Julie Cantrell

Description:

Just a girl. The only one strong enough to break the cycle.

In Depression-era Mississippi, Millie Reynolds longs to escape the madness that marks her world. With an abusive father and a "nothing mama," she struggles to find a place where she really belongs.

For answers, Millie turns to the Gypsies who caravan through town each spring. The travelers lead Millie to a key that unlocks generations of shocking family secrets. When tragedy strikes, the mysterious contents of the box give Millie the tools she needs to break her family's longstanding cycle of madness and abuse. 

Through it all, Millie experiences the thrill of first love while fighting to trust the God she believes has abandoned her. With the power of forgiveness, can Millie finally make her way into the free?

Saturated in Southern ambiance and written in the vein of other Southern literary bestsellers like The Help by Kathryn Stockett and Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin, Julie Cantrell has created in Into the Free—now a New York Times Best Seller—a story that will sweep you away long after the novel ends.

Book 2: Tangled Ashes by Michele Phoenix

Description:

When Marshall Becker arrives in Lamorlaye, France, to begin the massive renovation of a Renaissance-era castle, he unearths a dark World War II history few in the village remember. The project that was meant to provide an escape for Becker instead becomes a gripping glimpse into the human drama that unfolded during the Nazi occupation and seems to live on in midnight disturbances and bizarre acts of vandalism.

Book 3: Wedded to War by Jocelyn Green

Description:

Tending to the army's sick and wounded meant leading a life her mother does not understand and giving up a handsome and approved suitor. Yet Charlotte chooses a life of service over privilege, just as her childhood friend had done when he became a military doctor. She soon discovers that she's combatting more than just the rebellion by becoming a nurse. Will the two men who love her simply stand by and watch as she fights her own battles? Or will their desire for her wage war on her desire to serve God?

Wedded to War is a work of fiction, but the story is inspired by the true life of Civil War nurse Georgeanna Woolsey. Woolsey's letters and journals, written over 150 years ago, offer a thorough look of what pioneering nurses endured. This is the first in the series "Heroines Behind the Lines: Civil War," a collection of novels that highlights the crucial contributions made by women during times of war.

Christy Award Nominees Book Giveaway: Contemporary Stand Alone

The Christy Award is a "Christian fiction award to recognize novelists and novels of excellence in several genres of Christian fiction." The nominees for this year were announced recently and the winners will be announced June 24. Every year I make it my goal to read all the books that are nominated for the Christy Award. I also give them away!

I will giveaway the books by category while I am reading the books nominated in that category.

To enter to win any/all of these books, please do the following:

1. Post a comment indicating which book/books you would like to be entered for in the featured category.

2. Enter by the date indicated. For this category, please enter by JUNE 25, winners announced on June 26.

3. Respond within 10 days should you receive an email indicating you won a particular book.

4. Come back TOMORROW for the next category giveaway!

Today's category is: "Contemporary Stand Alone" and the books are:

 

Book 1: The Air We Breathe by Christa Parrish

Description:

Seventeen-year-old Molly Fisk does not go outside. She's ruled by anxiety and only feels safe in the tiny tourist-town museum she and her mother run and call home. Yearning to live free but unable to overcome deep wounds from her past, she stays hidden away. Then the chance arrival of a woman Molly knew six years ago changes everything.

Six years ago, newly single Claire Rodriguez was an empty shell. Only in the unique friendship she strikes up with a young girl--a silent girl who'll only talk to Claire--does she see the possibility of healing. But one day the girl and her mother vanish, their house abandoned. What happened that drove them away? And how can Claire now offer Molly the same chance at finding a life anew?

Book 2: Borders of the Heart by Chris Fabry

Description:

Desperate to escape haunting memories, J. D. Jessup travels from Nashville to Tucson and volunteers on an organic farm. The hardened landowner has one prevailing rule: If J. D. sees an “illegal,” call the border patrol. But when an early morning ride along the fence line leads him to a beautiful young woman named Maria, near death in the desert, his heart pulls him in another direction. Longing to atone for the choices that drove him to Tucson, J. D. hides her and unleashes a chain of deadly events he could never have imagined. Soon they are running from a killer and fighting for their lives. As secrets of their pasts emerge, J. D. realizes that saving Maria may be the only way to save himself.

Book 3: Not in the Heart by Chris Fabry

Description:

Truman Wiley used to report news stories from around the world, but now the most troubling headlines are his own. He's out of work, out of touch with his family, out of his home. But nothing dogs him more than his son's failing heart.

With mounting hospital bills and Truman's penchant for gambling his savings, the situation seems hopeless . . . until his estranged wife throws him a lifeline-the chance to write the story of a death row inmate, a man convicted of murder who wants to donate his heart to Truman's son.

As the execution clock ticks down, Truman uncovers disturbing evidence that points to a different killer. For his son to live, must an innocent man die? Truman's investigation draws him down a path that will change his life, his family, and the destinies of two men forever.