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INSPY Awards ~ 2015 Shortlists Announced

With a record 160+ nominated and an incredible show of support for the INSPY program – and multiple book deliveries later, the Inspy Awards Advisory Board is thrilled to announce the 2015 shortlist contenders. A daunting task was placed before us to pick just 5 books in each category from a long list of 160 nominated by readers and bloggers around the world. After careful consideration and deliberation, the INSPYs Advisory Board is pleased to announce that the following books have been shortlisted in the 5th annual INSPY Awards.

CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE/ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

Beowulf: Explosives Detection Dog by Ronie Kendig

Somebody

…

The Thornbearer by Pepper Basham

Synopsis:~

Ashley Dougall has a terminal disease and forgiveness is the only cure.

Ashley Dougall’s father stole her innocence, her selfish fiancé stole her heart, and unforgiveness is slowly stealing her life. Drawn by the desire to help others, she tries to escape haunting memories and enlists her services as a nurse in war-torn Europe. Along with her childhood friend and fiance’s brother, Samuel Miller, the fragile threads holding Ashley’s life in place one-by-one begin to snap. From the deck of the ill-fated Lusitania to the smoke-filled trenches of WWI, Ashley must choose between forgiveness of the past, life in …

Character Spotlight: Lacy Williams’ Callum & Iris…with a giveaway

Meet a bullrider and a paramedic in

Lacy Williams’

contemporary romance

Secondhand Cowboy

Redbud Press

********

The Story

Iris Tatum hasn’t seen her high school sweetheart Callum Stewart since he left years ago without a single word. Then she witnesses an horrific hit-and-run accident, and comes face to face with her past–and Cal’s triplets. A volunteer paramedic, Iris can’t walk away. No matter how much she wants to.

Bull rider Callum Stewart was run out of town at age twenty and vowed never to return. Only one thing could bring him back: building a future for his sons. Now, thanks …

Bookish Question of the Week

There’s lots of focus on the next and best read, and I get that. You know me – love the excitement and anticipation of a new author and/or a new story. But there’s something to be said of searching back through your book treasures and rediscovering some books you adored some ten or twenty years ago! When I think of some beloved reads of many years past, here are some that come to mind for me:

Bodie Thoene’s Zion Covenant and Zion Chronicles series
Francine Rivers’ The Atonement Child
Linda Wichman’s Legend of the Emerald Rose
Karen Hancock’s Legends of

…

Character Spotlight: Kristy Cambron’s Kaja & Sera

Meet an art historian and a reporter in

Kristy Cambron’s

historical romance

A Sparrow in Terezin

Thomas Nelson

The Story

Bound together across time, two women will discover a powerful connection through one survivor’s story of hope in the darkest days of a war-torn world.

Present Day—With the grand opening of her new art gallery and a fairytale wedding just around the corner, Sera James feels she’s stumbled into a charmed life—until a brutal legal battle against fiancé William Hanover threatens to destroy the perfectly planned future she’s planned before it even begins. Now, after an eleventh-hour wedding ceremony …

To Win Her Favor by Tamera Alexander

Synopsis:~

A gifted rider in a world where ladies never race, Maggie Linden is determined that her horse will become a champion. But the one man who could help her has vowed to stay away from thoroughbred racing forever.

An Irishman far from home, Cullen McGrath left a once prosperous life in England because of a horse racing scandal that nearly ruined him. He’s come to Nashville for a fresh start, hoping to buy land and begin farming, all while determined to stay as far away from thoroughbred racing as possible. But starting over proves harder than he’d wagered, especially …