Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Pieces of April by Jennifer Lynn Cary

About the Book

Book: Pieces of April: A Sweet, Quirky, Romantic Puzzle

Author: Jennifer Lynn Cary

Genre: Sweet, Clean Romantic Comedy

Release Date: January 20, 2026

She’s trying to move beyond her past…

…He wants to know who he was.

Will combining their pieces risk erasing their future together?

April Mathers wants to move forward. She can’t undo her impulsive high school blunder, so she keeps her head down, works hard, and prays for that long-awaited promotion. She’s cautious—even about the friends she chooses.

Then her next-door neighbor sublets her apartment to the one person capable of blowing up April’s world by repeating words that once shattered her.

Except he doesn’t remember saying them.

In fact, he doesn’t remember her.

Viet Nam vet Paul Romer has returned home hoping a support group can help him make peace with his permanent amnesia. All he has from before are flashes of a girl.

Then he finds her.
She lives next door.
And she definitely knows something—something not good.

Their chemistry is real, the tension tangled, and the secret between them is as stable as six-inch platform shoes. When the truth comes out, will it destroy their fragile beginning, or give them a future worth remembering?

Return to 1974 Kokomo, Indiana, where faith, love, and a legendary cardinal in a sycamore tree might fit the pieces into place.

You’ll swoon for this sweet, quirky, romantic tale of second chances, because sometimes sharing all those pieces of your heart is the only way to put it back together.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Historical Christian Romance author and three-time Selah Award nominee, Jennifer Lynn Cary, likes to say you can take the girl out of Indiana, but you can’t take the Hoosier out of the girl. Now transplanted to the Arizona desert, this direct descendant of Davy Crockett and her husband of forty-plus years enjoy time with family where she shares tales of her small-town heritage and family legacies with their grandchildren. She is the author of The Crockett Chronicles series, The Relentless series, and The Weather Girls trilogy, as well as the stand-alone novel, Cheryl’s Going Home, her novella Tales of the Hob Nob Annex Café, and her split-time novels The Traveling Prayer Shawl and The Forgotten Gratitude Journal. Her current spin-off series, The Weather Girls Wedding Shoppe and Venue, contains standalones with a common thread.

More from Jennifer

Ever have one of those songs that you’ve loved for a long time and then you discover someone else covered the song? As a general rule, I tend to like the first version better. It’s familiar and often brings up good memories.

However, (you knew there was a however coming, right?) I discovered a different version of “Pieces of April” solely by accident. And it was done by the guy who wrote the song, Dave Loggins. Three Dog Night’s version is great. Chuck Negron did some of his best work on that track. But Dave Loggins’s version touched me in a new way.

So, I did some investigating. For one thing, I wanted to know what the song was about. Was there really an April? Or was it just a play on words?

Turns out, there was an April. And that Dave Loggins enjoyed interacting with fans online. So he’d written that he and April (the girlfriend) had a relationship for three Aprils (meaning the month) before they broke up. He missed her and wrote the song for her and it was one of his favorites that he’d written.

However, (you should’ve known this one was coming ) Dave passe away in 2024 so I didn’t get to ask him any more questions.

As I was putting this series together, I listed all the rock and roll songs I could think of from 1960 to the early 1970s that had girls’ names in the titles. Then I grouped them for similarity in beat and title words. When I came to “Pieces of April”, I immediately knew it would have to be an amnesia story. I started it out as a young married couple who ends up going through this but it wasn’t working. I struggled a lot trying to rework what I’d been musing on for months and the funny thing is, once I got past chapter five, things started happening. I’m not a plotter but I’m not a pure pansters/discovery writer either. But this book was a lot of discovery for me and how the threads all got tied up, that’s a God thing.

Blog Stops

Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, April 14

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, April 15

Inspired by Fiction, April 16

Leslie’s Library Escape, April 17

Jodie Wolfe – Stories Where Hope and Quirky Meet, April 18 (Author Interview)

Pause for Tales, April 18

Texas Book-aholic, April 19

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, April 20

She Lives To Read, April 21

Books, Books, and More Books, April 22 (Author Interview)

For Him and My Family, April 23

A Modern Day Fairy Tale, April 24 (Author Interview)

Mrs. Ryan Moser’s Book and Movie Reviews, April 24

Paula’s Pad of Inspiration, April 25

Life on Chickadee Lane, April 26

Books Less Travelled, April 27 (Author Interview)

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Jennifer is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon Gift Card and an eBook copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://gleam.io/8J97u/pieces-of-april-celebration-tour-giveaway

Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Cerulean Rose by Demi Griffin

About the Book

Book: Cerulean Rose

Author: Demi Griffin

Genre: Romantasy/Fairy Tale Retelling

Release Date: January 20, 2026

Hidden in a tiny cottage away from the ordinary existence of Cerulean’s citizens, Aural lived a simple life with her father in Sabean Woods. When he is struck by a serious illness, that ordinary life suddenly became extraordinary.

In search of a physician, Aural breaks her promise never to leave the woods. When her path crosses with a Mystic, the manipulative Duchess, and the Prince of Cerulean, Aural realizes something beyond her simple quest to help her dying father has mapped out her journey.

An ancient legend about a brotherly rivalry that resulted in tragedy stirs up the Fates guarding Cerulean. If the Cerulean Rose doesn’t bloom again, the kingdom is destined to perish.

A wild path filled with romance, mystery, and intrigue shapes Aural’s heart in ways she could not have imagined as she gets sucked into the legend. Would it be enough to restore the foundation of true love that established the kingdom of Cerulean hundreds of years ago? Could a simple girl satisfy the Fates, capture a prince’s heart, overcome a king’s prejudice, and save Cerulean’s Rose?

Click here to get your copy!

"Cerulean Rose" by Demi Griffin is the first book in this series. I didn't know anything about this book except it was a fantasy read! And to be honest I was thinking "No way am I going to like this book", I am not a fantasy fan, but I did enjoy it! It is filled with unexpected twists. This is a clean read. If you are a reader who likes marriages of conveniences and where a prince and a simple girl from the woods are the main characters, then this is the book for you to read next! If you are looking for a book that is Christian or that has Christian themes than you need to past on this book but again as I already posted this is a clean read with only kisses.

I received a complimentary copy from the author and Celebrate Lit and these opinions are my own.

About the Author

Demi (also D.M. Griffin) Griffin is the author of several novels and has won multiple literary awards. Her novels in The Encounter Series won various Independent Author awards in the category of Religious Fiction.

She writes Christian Fantasy, Biblical, and Historical Fiction. She currently resides in Northern California with her husband of over thirty years. She truly believes that a book that sits on a shelf unread is like a planted seed that never blossoms. Nothing delights her more than sharing a story.

More from D.M.

The inspiration behind The Fates Trilogy came after I spent a few years crafting an epic fantasy series called The Illumination Chronicles. I wanted to write something light-hearted and less involved. What began as a simple idea for a single story quickly escalated into a trilogy—all because of the final scene in the first book. Though it isn’t a cliffhanger, my author’s mind grabbed onto the possibilities, and the second book invaded my dreams at night. Then the third. The combination of romance and fantasy was too much fun to stop at writing one book.

The royalty element is what I enjoy most about the stories in this series. Exploring the complicated relationships between fathers and sons, and the unspoken bond of brotherhood, added depth to the otherwise light-hearted stories. In this trilogy, the Christian influence is less pronounced than in my other novels, but the overarching themes of unity and sacrifice reach their peak in the final book.

The characters in The Fates Trilogy struggle with issues that echo Christian values. Some of the issues include the sting of prejudice, the challenge of forgiveness, and the ache of feeling forsaken. Each book dives deeper into those ideas until they culminate in the epic climax in the last story.

However, my main goal in the first book was to ensure that the narrative centered on the theme of love. Fairy tales swirled in my mind during my childhood, weaving vibrant worlds in my imagination. Cinderella was one of my favorite fairy tales, so it comes as no surprise that those vibes worked their way into this story. Yet, putting my own spin on it, I added depth, intrigue, and instead of glass slippers… a blue rose.

While the vibes of that classic story have found their way into Cerulean Rose, it pulses with its own heartbeat. The faint imprint of a quest for true love feels familiar … but there is so… much…. more.

Blog Stops

Book Looks by Lisa, April 10

Simple Harvest Reads, April 11 (Author Interview)

For Him and My Family, April 11

Lily’s Corner, April 12

Artistic Nobody, April 13 (Author Interview)

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, April 14

Guild Master, April 15 (Author Interview)

The Lofty Pages, April 16

Fiction Book Lover, April 17 (Author Interview)

Texas Book-aholic, April 18

For the Love of Literature, April 19 (Author Interview)

Holly’s Book Corner, April 19

Tell Tale Book Reviews, April 20 (Author Interview)

Leslie’s Library Escape, April 21

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, April 22

Blossoms and Blessings, April 23 (Author Interview)

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Demi is giving away the grand prize of a $25 Amazon Gift Card and a copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://gleam.io/s3FDM/cerulean-rose-celebration-tour-giveaway

Sunday, April 12, 2026

The Star-Blessed by Angie Dickinson

About the Book

Book: The Star-Blessed

Author: Angie Dickinson

Genre: YA Fantasy Retelling

Release Date: March 10, 2026

Three legendary origins of power. Two royal bloodlines. One deadly curse.

The kingdom of Stelauris is slowly dying. A season of poison infects the air, earth, and water with increasing deadliness each year, and a deep love of gold and power infects the failing mind of the king. His only daughter and first in line to the throne, Princess Seren, lives in tightly controlled isolation. When she is suddenly thrust into royal society, she struggles to hide the strain of untamed magic awakening in her blood.

Seren’s newly appointed personal guard, Sir Corin, resents the exile of his people. As heir to a long-banished line of succession and the last of the land’s legendary protectors, he holds no loyalty for the current royal family and their history of unhinged cruelty.

As death steals over the kingdom and the schemes at court grow deadlier, the princess and the guard are forced to face their fears, their troubled pasts, and the cost of personal freedom.

The Star-Blessed is a reimagining and reinventing of two fairy tales: “Rumpelstiltskin” and “Cat-Skin” by the Brothers Grimm.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Angie Dickinson is a lifelong lover of magical stories that point to truth, hope, and redemption. She is the author of Truth Cursed, a YA fantasy with Enclave Publishing. Angie especially loves to read and write historically inspired fantasy, mystery, and fairy tales. She enjoys Earl Grey tea, reading too late at night, and spending time with her husband and children at their home in the woods of Michigan.

More from Angie

If you’re like me, I suspect you can still remember the soft sounds and smells of the local or school library that you visited in childhood. You can probably remember the thrill of finding a book that you longed to spend time paging through in peace. For me, the greatest thrills came whenever I found a beautifully illustrated fairy tale. Fairy tale collections were always my favorite, and finding illustrated versions by talented artists made my heart sing.

Reading and re-reading fairy tales as a child eventually led to writing my own retelling as an adult. I began with an unusual tale that was very familiar to me via its illustrated retelling: “Cat-Skin” by the Brothers Grimm has been gorgeously retold (and mercifully sanitized) by Charlotte Huck, and illustrated by Anita Lobel. This picture book for children is titled Princess Furball, and is one of my old favorites that never left me. I chose this story and its original source for my retelling, lightening the darker original elements in my own way, but including the story beats, themes, and motifs that were so dear to me. I put my own twist on the tale, which surprisingly (even to me) included a subplot that was a retelling of its own: “Rumpelstiltskin.” I have loved many versions of this familiar story over the years, but my favorite is an illustrated retelling by Paul O. Zelinsky. I have read this one to my children countless times, and it has always set my mind whirring with the different ways that it could be told again.

For my retelling, I lovingly mined these two stories, “Cat-Skin” and “Rumpelstiltskin,” and worked them together into a foundation for a new fairy tale. The frame holds pieces of the old tales, but it’s wrapped up in something brand new. This is a story of a young woman and a young man whose paths cross and wend down a road marked by destiny, shadowed by grief, and lit by courage. Their story is a new fairy tale, reflected in gold and fortified by the faithful gleam of the stars.

Blog Stops

Texas Book-aholic, March 31

Devoted Steps, April 1

The Lofty Pages, April 1

Inspired by Fiction, April 2

Because Fiction, April 3 (Author Interview)

Lily’s Corner, April 4

Blogging With Carol, April 5

Artistic Nobody, April 6 (Author Interview)

Holly’s Book Corner, April 7

Guild Master, April 8 (Author Interview)

Tell Tale Book Reviews, April 9

Simple Harvest Reads, April 10 (Guest Review from Mindy)

Fiction Book Lover, April 11 (Author Interview)

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, April 12 (Spotlight)

To Everything There Is A Season, April 12

Vicky Sluiter, April 13 (Author Interview)

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Angie is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon Gift Card and a hardcover copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://gleam.io/0iDN2/the-star-blessed-celebration-tour-giveaway

Saturday, April 11, 2026

The Last Quiet Autumn by Loni Kemper Moore

About the Book

Book: The Last Quiet Autumn

Author: Loni Kemper Moore

Genre: Christian historical fiction with strong faith themes

Release Date: September, 2025

One letter stitched a family together. Now, with war on the wind, only love—penned note by note—holds the threads in place.

Autumn 1941

Three young women—strangers to one another—each receive an alluring invitation they cannot and dare not refuse—Thanksgiving dinner in Texas with a mysterious ninety-year-old woman.

Virginia Campbell, a poised Boston socialite on the brink of marrying into a powerful political family, is entrusted with a delicate family mission—one that could jeopardize the perfect wedded life she so carefully planned.

Eulalia Bell, a spirited nursing graduate, earned her scholarship in Nebraska thanks to the Orphan Train. But the truth of her past threatens the career she’s fought hard to build.

Francesca Smythe, a resilient wife and mother on an Oklahoma ranch, survived the Dust Bowl and Depression. She longs for the warmth and connection of a true family. When the letter arrives, she wonders if it holds the key to the belonging she’s yearned for all her life.

As secrets unfold and pasts entwine, these three women are drawn to a truth that will reshape their lives—about love powerful enough to face a potential world at war, desires too strong to be silenced, and the courage to claim their place in history.

Click here to get your copy!

"The Last Quiet Autumn "by Loni Kemper Moore is the third book in this series and I definitely liked it better than the second one. This is a novel based a little on history with strong faith belief. This book also has themes of forgiveness. I really liked the ending and yes, I even think it is also a clean love story. I received a complementally copy from Celebrate Lit and the author and these opinions are my own, but I listen to the audiobook, and I am glad I do because it had an epilogue that had letters written between the characters that aren't included in the print book I have. I have read all three books, but I think this book could be read and enjoyed without reading all three, but again I have to ask why wouldn't you read the entire series to get the full story.

About the Author

Loni Kemper Moore is a sports-cheering, Diet-Pepsi-sipping, Rocky Mountain–adventure-seeking storyteller who longs to reflect God’s beautiful love through life’s hardest places, especially for remarkable women around the globe.

A preacher’s kid at heart though her father joined her mother in Heaven, Loni’s wanderlust was sparked early by family and missionary stories. She has visited more than a dozen countries, learning from other cultures while often experiencing life as “the other.” Though she attended multiple schools as a minority and later discovered African heritage through DNA testing, she approaches those experiences with humility rather than assumption.

Loni earned bachelor’s degrees in Education and Biblical Studies from the former Denver Baptist Bible College and completed graduate work in Education at the University of Evansville.

A Jesus-following history enthusiast, Loni was named Leonnie Sue after generations of strong women. Leonnie was her maternal great-grandmother, who died during the Influenza Pandemic, leaving behind her husband and four teenagers. Sue traces through the family tree to Susanna Dean, who stepped off a ship in Korea, Maine, in the 1640s. These inherited collections of more than 500 spoons; stories of faith, endurance, and love deeply shape Loni’s writing.

Her novel The Last Quiet Autumn came to life after cousin reunions on both sides of her family stirred memories of childhood gatherings at her grandparents’ homes—one on a Loudoun County, Virginia farm and the other on a southern Colorado ranch. Reflecting on shared family experiences and her parents’ childhood just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Loni began to wonder how different her life might have been without nearly two dozen cousins spread across four time zones. That question sparked a story that grew far beyond her original imagination.

When she isn’t writing, Loni is visiting friends, studying history, and exploring meaningful places—like the Cherwell River near Oxford, UK where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis once walked. During a trip to Swindon, England, she visited the Eagle and Child pub, where the Inklings met, a moment that proved especially encouraging.

Loni is the proud mom of Adam, a CAD engineer and YouTuber; Becca and Anthony, who made her a delighted grandmother of her “GrandMiracles,” Naomie and Zemira; and a frequent traveler with her beloved “Hugsband,” Robert, an embedded engineer. A granddaughter of ranchers and farmers, Loni holds close the legacy of trusting God through tragedy—faith that carried her grandparents and parents through the World Wars and continues to anchor her stories today.

More from Loni

I can still picture my grandmother standing at her farmhouse stove, cracking open precious eggs she’d just sold back to herself. The surplus eggs were sold to allow her to buy rationed products.

One recipe she made regularly was this ‘Wacky Cake’—a chocolate cake so frugal it needed no eggs, butter, or milk. While historians debate the exact origin of the name, the most likely explanation is that it earned its playful moniker from the unconventional method of mixing everything directly in the baking pan—no bowl required. Homemakers could hardly believe a cake without eggs or butter would actually rise and taste good. But it does!

As a child spoiled by Betty Crocker mixes, I had to admire her ingenuity, even if I couldn’t quite share her enthusiasm for the taste. When my character Chessa bakes in ‘The Last Quiet Autumn,’ I drew directly from recipes like this one. Understanding how women stretched ingredients during wartime rationing helped me write scenes that felt authentic.

Have you tried Depression-era recipes? I’d love to hear about your family’s resourceful traditions from that era.

It reminded me how faith, like that cake, often rises when we least expect it to.

Wacky Chocolate Cake

(a.k.a. Depression Cake or Crazy Cake)

Circa 1940s

Ingredients:

1½ cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon vinegar (white or apple cider)
⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup cold water

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°F
In an ungreased 8×8-inch square baking pan, sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
Make three wells in the dry mixture:

o In one well, pour the vanilla.

o In the second, the vinegar.

o In the third, the oil.

Pour the cold water over everything and mix well with a fork or whisk until smooth.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let cool in the pan. Dust with powdered sugar or enjoy plain.