Revell; 355 pages; $14.99; Amazon

While I have been a book lover ever since I could read my first word, I wasn't a fan of romance novels until I was in my early twenty's. I mostly read horror novels (Stephen King, Anne Rice, John Saul, etc.) during my teenager years. I read my very first Amish fiction title when I was in my 20's, and I've been a fan of the genre ever since.

Released last year from Revell is The Quieting, book two of the Bishop's Family series, by author Suzanne Woods Fisher. You might recall me reviewing the first book, "The Imposter," during my Holiday Gift Guide in 2015.

The sequel once again focuses on the Stolzfus family, though this time the man character is Abigail, a young who is sent to Stoney Ridge (the same setting in book one), where her grandmother, Mammi, wants her to find an eligible bachelor to marry. The only problem is that there aren't any single men available, except for Dane Glick, who is all wrong for her.

To kickoff my new review post "Late Night Fitness Review," I'm featuring the Protein & Energy protein powder supplement by Trusource; which I was sent two single-serve samples to review a few weeks ago.

The flavors that were sent to be were Vanilla Latte and Chocolate Mocha; each containing 15 grams of protein and 75mg of caffeine.

Yes, that might seem like a lot caffeine to some people, but for a coffee lover like myself, 75mg was no big deal to me. Actually, it's just the right amount to wake me up in the mornings, which is probably why the supplement is called Protein & Energy to begin with.

Total calories for each the samples is 90, with 20 calories of fat and 1g of sugar. The protein used in the mixes is from whey protein concentrate.

Besides from protein, the mixes contain the following vitamins:

Vitamin E
Thiamin
Riboflavin
Vitamin B6

Note: It does contain milk and soy.




What does the Protein & Energy samples taste like?

I kicked off the start of 2017 by brewing a nice cup of TAYST Coffee Roaster.

What is TAYST Coffee Roaster?

Well, this coffee brand is Eco-Friendly and 100% compostable. The pods/cups are compatible with KEURIG and NESPRESSO coffeemakers.

Each Purpod100™ has three layers: a lid, a ring, and a mesh. The lid is made from bio materials. The printing on the lid is made from water-based compostable ink. The ring is made from natural bean skins, and the mesh is made from renewable bio reins. Once composted in the ground, it will add nutrients into the soil.

Currently there are several different coffee flavors:

Now available from Apatite Publishing is the paranormal romance Trick Me Once, book three in the Magical Matchmaker Series, by Sharon Clare.



The author has taken a few minutes out of her busy schedule for a Q&A about her newest novel.


When did you become interested in storytelling?

First, I want to thank you for hosting me today.

I’ve always made up stories in my head, but I didn’t start writing seriously until later in life when I went back to school to do a science degree. My course load was heavy, and I was managing a household with 3 young kids. To lighten the load, I took a course on creative writing. Small class sizes and the professor read beautiful prose to us. I fell in love with storytelling.

I ended up doing a minor in professional writing and when I finished my degree, I missed writing classes so much, I found a correspondence course to take with a college in the states. From there, I realized this is my passion and I am forever hooked!

What was your first book/story published?

My first novel was a romance published by Crimson Romance. Love of Her Lives was the first book in The Magical Matchmaker series.

What inspired you to write Trick Me Once?

One day I watched Dave, my cat, drinking from the pond in my garden. The goldfish seemed fascinated by this intrusion into their world, but there was no way they understood Dave was a cat on planet Earth just inches from their world. As Dave lapped water, the fish hovered just under his nose, his tongue, his teeth. Lucky for them, he wasn’t hungry.

The fish made me wonder about perception. A story idea started to percolate that became the premise for the series. What if there was another world just one step away that we don’t perceive?

In Trick Me Once, Aiden MacAuley returns to Earth after being trapped in Alfheim, an Elvin world, for over a century. The gateway between Earth and Alfheim is guarded by the MacAuley clan, and like the fish in the pond, Alfheim is only a step away. Unfortunately, it was a step Aiden couldn’t take until the story begins.

I wanted to pair Aiden (born in the nineteen hundreds) with a contemporary woman who would never believe in elves.

What character in Trick Me Once is the most/least like you, and in what ways?

Revell; 350 pages; $14.99; Amazon

While my favorite romance novels are the historical kind set during the 1800s, I have been trying to expand my reading horizons by reading contemporary titles. This lead me to read Silence In The Dark by author Patricia Bradley, which is book 4 in the Logan Point series. I remember reading book two in the series, A Promise to Protect, a few years ago, so I thought I would give the 4th entry a try.

Yes, the cover art looks like an advertisement for a made-for-Hallmark mystery flick, and, unfortunately, the plot feels like one of those movies as well.

I'm going to try my best not to include any "spoilers" or repeat the book's blurb. The plot involves a woman named Bradley on the run from the cartel. Coincidentally, she runs into her ex-fiance, Danny, and of course he is going to help her.

Now available from author Karen Greco, is the urban fantasy/paranormal romance Steele City Blues, book three in the Hell’s Belle Series.




When did you become interested in storytelling?

I think on some level, I was always interested in telling stories, or being a part of them. I started actor training when I was 12, and did that all through high school and it started as my major in college. But by the time I went to uni, I had found some young success as a playwright and really loved creating characters and telling stories. I think that was the pivot point, so at age 17.

What was your first book/story published?

My first published work was one of my plays, when I was in college. After that, it was Hell’s Belle. I took a professional detour as a magazine writer/editor and then entertainment publicist.

What inspired you to write Steele City Blues?

It’s the third book in the Hell’s Belle series, so Hell’s Belle (book 1) and Tainted Blood (book 2) for sure! Otherwise, I think the driving force behind the books is figuring out what makes a family, that it’s not about blood relatives, but about the people you gravitate towards over the course of your life who become the people you rely on the most. It’s also about living in the gray zone. So much of life is presented to us as a dichotomy: black and white, good and evil. The shades of gray are important. Can you be a good person but still drain the blood from someone’s body? And, how do you rectify that in your mind?

What character in Steele City Blues is the most/least like you, and in what ways?

Bethany House; 320 pages; $14.99; Amazon

Probably like most reader, I do enjoy reading an old fashioned mystery; you know, the kind that have an Agatha Christie's plot and Sherlock Holmes-like detective.

The closest books that I have found that resemble the old classic mysteries is the Drew Farthering Mystery series by author Julianne Deering. With an early 1900's stylish cover art on every title, I have been intrigued with every new entry in the series.

The fourth installment, titled Dressed for Death, was released last year by Bethany House. Sadly my review copy somehow got on the bottom of my to-be-read pile on my desk and I'm just now getting around to reviewing it.

Set in December 1932, the novel centers on Drew Farthering, a man who always happens to be at the right place at the wrong time. This time up, Drew and his wife Madeline are attending a Regency-ear house part at the Winteroak House, where he plans on reuniting with an old Oxford classmate, Talbot Cummins. However, it seems death is always following Drew, as someone dies at the party - Alice Henley, who happens to be Talbot's fiancee.

After the police arrest a possible suspect, Drew takes it upon himself to unravel the mystery behind Alice's death.

Now available is the young adult fantasy Twisted: The Girl Who Uncovered Rumpelstiltskin by author Bonnie M Hennessy.



The author has taken a few minutes out of her busy schedule for a Q&A about her newest novel.




When did you become interested in storytelling?

When I was a little girl, I was a rather shy, quiet girl who went unnoticed by my peers and teachers. I was never disruptive, but I never shined or stood out either. I was invisible, and I accepted my invisibility. When I was in the 6th grade we had to write about a time in our lives when we felt challenged and explain how we got through it. I wrote about my parents’ divorce and how I coped. This was a controversial topic back then, as there were very few kids with divorced parents. My teacher, Mrs. Stockman, loved it and she had me read it in front of the class. I can still remember how my feet stuck like glue to the floor in front of the podium where I had never been asked to stand because I had never done anything worthy of standing at the front of the class. I talked about hearing my parents argue, missing my dad, and wishing that the divorce was just a bad dream. At the end of it, everyone was looking at me, seemingly mesmerized by my words. Even the noisy boy in the back corner next to whom the teacher sat me every year was watching me and listening. I wasn’t an athlete. I wasn’t popular. Boys were not interested in me. And I had never had a lot friends. But somehow my silly words had gotten everyone’s attention. I was noticed. It was a terrifyingly exhilarating moment. I didn’t understand it at that time, but looking back that was a moment when I realized that I wasn’t just scribbles on the page. I could affect other people with it, if I used it.

What was your first book/story published?

Back in 2009 an online magazine, Mamazine.com, published a piece I had written about the day I found out my husband had cancer. It explored the sad and gritty emotions that plagued me as I digested the news – all while diapering my six-week-old son and my twenty-month-old daughter. I had always kept my writing to myself, so seeing it in on the internet was as frightening as the day I read my sixth-grade essay to the class. I felt like the whole world was watching. I received kind-hearted responses, but they were more about my difficult situation than about my writing. I savored the first step towards admitting out loud that I was a writer, but I knew that my heart lay in telling other people’s stories, rather than my own.

What inspired you to write TWISTED?

While putting my daughter to bed one night, I read the tale of Rumpelstiltskin from the yellowed pages of my childhood book. The first page’s illustration showed a demur girl bowing her head dutifully before a king who pointed his jeweled finger at her and, as the story goes, ordered her to spin a whole room full of hay into gold - all because the girl’s father had bragged that his daughter could turn anything she touched into gold. While she was left alone to cry over the futility of her task, a little man with magic showed up and said he would help her if she promised to give him her first born child.

After I put my daughter to bed, I kept thinking about this poor girl in the story who had been cornered and tricked by every man she came across in her life: Father, King (eventual husband), and magical little man. Every feminist bone in my body was annoyed, and I found myself imagining all the comebacks I would have said to these men if I were her. You know, the kind of stinging rebuttals you always think about after the argument is over.

Like an itch in my brain that I couldn’t quite reach, this girl’s predicament kept nagging at me until I got out of bed at 5:30 the next morning and snuck past my two little kids’ bedrooms and out the door to a coffee shop with my laptop under my arm. I spent every Saturday and Sunday morning getting up at the same un-Godly hour to drink coffee and figure out what really happened to this girl until the last page was written and rewritten and rewritten again and again.

What character in Twisted is the most/least like you, and in what ways?

Being released on January 24th, 2017 from Filament Publishing is the contemporary fiction Family Sailaway, book two in the Sailaway Trilogy, by author Derek Curzon.


The author has taken a few minutes out of his busy schedule for a Q&A about his newest novel.


When did you become interested in storytelling?

My wife and I’s first cruise was our honeymoon back in 2005. We were instantly hooked and have never looked back. After our fifth cruise, we discussed making notes/diaries of our cruises for our own memories. I started thinking about taking this a stage further and soon I was thinking about plots and characters!

What was your first book/story published?

Surprise Sailaway, the first book in the Sailaway Trilogy.

Amazon; Author's Website

What inspired you to write Family Sailaway?

I had thought about a Sailaway trilogy at the outset & was keen to develop the story further after I wrote Surprise Sailaway. This book follows on from the first one with a bigger book, longer cruise, more characters and a bigger adventure.

What character in Family Sailaway is the most/least like you, and in what ways?

Most like – Gavin (Sarah and Megan’s uncle): Business Professional with a witty sense of humour and who knows who the boss is between his wife and himself! Least like – George (Youngest brother): ‘Street-wise’ and confident, but sometimes ‘cocky’.

What is your favorite part in Family Sailaway?

Megan is looking for a relaxing afternoon sunbathing and meets Rebecca who she has befriended. As two brothers watch from the bar, Rebecca is visited by 3 other characters with their own separate agendas.

What was the hardest part to write?