Waterbrook; 342 pages; $14.99; Buy Link; Blog Tour

Now available from Waterbrook is the mystery-thriller Bringing Maggie Home by Kim Vogel Sawyer. 

If you follow this blog regularly, then it shouldn't be a surprise to see me reviewing a Kim Vogel Sawyer novel. I have been a big fan of her writings for years, and I was more than excited when I received an advanced copy of her newest novel.

Bringing Maggie Home centers on eighty-year-old Hazel DeFord, who's haunted by an event that occurred during her childhood. When she was only ten years old, her three-year-old sister, Maggie, disappeared while picking blackberries. Hazel has kept her painful past from her loved ones, which has put a damper on her relationship with her daughter, Diane. However, she's close with her granddaughter, Meghan, who's a cold case agent.

Situations occur that brings all three women to live under the same roof, where Meghan is stuck as the mediator between her mother and grandmother. After learning about what happened to Maggie in 1943, Meghan use her investigative techniques to try to solve what happened to her great-aunt.

Nickelodeon; 89 minutes; Amazon

The current Nickelodeon TMNT series is coming to the end this year. The fifth season, which is retitled as Tales of the Teenage Mutant Turtles, has been a rocky one for fans, as Nickelodeon has been airing only two or three episodes at a time before going on hiatus for several weeks. The most recent episodes have been airing on NickToons.

Now available on DVD is Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Wanted: Bebop & Rocksteady, featuring the upcoming special "Wanted: Bebop & Rocksteady," the flashback episode "Lone Rat and Cubs," and an exclusive Ice Cream Kitty music video.

"Wanted: Bebop & Rocksteady" is technically three episodes (Wanted: Bebop & Rocksteady, The Foot Walks Again!, and The Big Blowout), but it's featured as 67 minute movie/special on the DVD.  The plot involves the 1987 Krang and Shredder bringing the technodrome to the Nickelodeon TMNT's dimension, where they enlist the new Bebop & Rocksteady, along with the 1987 robot foot soldiers, to help them conquer New York City by opening a portal to Dimension X. To stop the Shredder and Krang, the turtles must join forces with the 1987 teenage mutant ninja turtles.

"Lone Rat and Cubs" is a flashback episode that takes place fifteen years prior, where Master Splinter is telling the young turtles the story of how he found them as babies (back when they were first mutated) and how he survived a fight against the Kraang.

Buy the album here!

Now available from Sparrow Records (Capitol CMG Label Group) is the newest album from  English Christian singer Matt Redman, titled "Glory Song."

Matt Redman co-wrote the song "Blessed Be Your Name" which won a Dove Award in 2005 for Worship Song of the Year. He also co-wrote the Grammy Award-nominated "Our God."

He has won two Grammy Awards for the Best Contemporary Christian Music Song and Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance.

For the album "Glory Song," Matt has teamed up with several other Christian singers - Kierra Sheard, Guvna B, Madison Cunningham, and Kim Walker-Smith.



Songs on the album are:

Being released on October 17th is the science fiction romance antholoy Other Worlds, featuring stories by Allyson Lindt, Award-Winning author A.D. Trosper, Cheri Schmidt with Tristan Hunt, Akaria Gale with Award-Winning author R. A. Steffan, Jennifer Rose McMahon, Award-Winning author Amy L Gale, Shawnee Small with K. R. Fajardo, Award-Winning author Lea Kirk, Mychal Daniels with Laura Hysell, Shawna Romkey with Elizabeth Ryder, E.A. Weston, Award-Winning author Lindsay Avalon, LaVerne Thompson with Starla Night, and Jayne Fury with Isadora Brow.

Author LaVerne Thompson has taken a few minutes to answer a short Q&A.


When did you become interested in storytelling? 

I’ve been creating stories from my imagination for as long as I can remember. As a child, I’d make up a story about the sky.

What was your first book/story published? What inspired you to write Zeus- Lost Gods? 
 

Promises was the first book I ever published. I’d begun writing it in a creative writing class in college and a million years later finished it and it was my first book published. It’s a story loosely based on my cousin who married someone she’d known all her life. 

What character in Zeus- Lost Gods is the most/least like you, and in what ways? 

Dragon’s Heart Story of the Brethren, Maya only in that I would have totally embraced the idea of being a dragon shifter. Lol I do after all wear a tattoo of a dragon on my back. 'Can you hear my dragon roar?' 

What is your favorite part in Zeus- Lost Gods? 

Zeus-Lost Gods. ***spoiler***When Kassia dies and Ze has to remember who he once was to save her.   

What was the hardest part to write? 

Being released on Digital HD from HBO Home Entertainment on September 26th is Game of Thrones: The Complete Seventh Season. The season will also be released on Blu-ray and DVD on December 12th.

Based on the popular book series “A Song of Ice and Fire,” by George R.R. Martin, the seventh season of this hit Emmy®-winning fantasy features returning series regulars Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Emmy® and Golden Globe® winner Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister), Aidan Gillen (Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish), Kit Harington (Jon Snow), Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), Diana Rigg (Lady Olenna Tyrell), Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark) and Maisie Williams (Arya Stark).

Season Seven centers on  Daenerys Targaryen finally setting sail for Westeros with her armies, dragons and new Hand of the Queen, Tyrion Lannister. Jon Snow has been named King in the North after defeating Ramsay Bolton in the Battle of the Bastards and returning Winterfell to House Stark. In King’s Landing, Cersei Lannister has seized the Iron Throne by incinerating the High Sparrow, his followers and her rivals in the Sept of Baelor. But as old alliances fracture and new ones emerge, an army of dead men marches on the Wall, threatening to end the game of thrones forever. 

Digital Download Exclusive Bonus Features Include:

• Creating the North and Beyond- Behind-the-scenes featurette delving into the massive undertaking of creating and filming the battle in Episode 6 of Season 7.

Blu-ray™ & DVD Exclusive Bonus Features Include:

• Conquest & Rebellion: An Animated History of the Seven Kingdoms- From the Game of Thrones realm comes the never-before-seen story of the tumultuous events that shaped the world of Westeros for thousands of years before the series start. Cast members Pilou Asbæk (Euron Greyjoy), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Aidan Gillen (Littlefinger), Conleth Hill (Varys), Harry Lloyd (Viserys Targaryen) and Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark) team up to narrate the animated telling of Aegon Targaryen’s attempts to conquer the Seven Kingdoms, written by show writer Dave Hill.
• From Imagination to Reality: Inside the Art Department- Extensive two-part featurette detailing the astonishing work of Production Designer Deborah Riley and her Art Department, dissecting the process behind the creation of this season’s incredible new sets, including Dragonstone, Casterly Rock, Highgarden, the Dragonpit, and more.
• Fire & Steel: Creating the Invasion of Westeros- Revisit this season’s most pivotal moments with this behind-the-scenes featurette, including interviews with key cast and crew breaking down how fans’ favorite moments were created.
• Audio Commentaries- Commentaries on every episode with cast and crew including David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Jacob Anderson, Gwendoline Christie, Liam Cunningham, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, and more. 

Blu-ray™ Exclusive Bonus Features Include:

• Histories and Lore- 7 new animated pieces that give the history and background of notable season 7 locations and storylines including The Dragonpit, Highgarden, Prophecies of the Known World, the Rains of Castamere and more all narrated by cast members including Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Aidan Gillen, Iain Glen and more.
• In-Episode Guides- In-feature resource that provides background information about on-screen characters and locations.

Waterbrook; 392 pages; $15.99; Buy Link; Blog Tour

Now available from Waterbrook, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, is the historical-drama Many Sparrows by Lori Benton.

Set in 1774, the novel centers on Phillip Inglesby, his pregnant wife, Clare, and their four-year-old, son, Jacob, who are traveling from the Ohio-Kentucky frontier to the west. After an accident occurs, Phillip is forced to leave his family behind in the covered wagon, while he journeys back to Redstone Fort for help.

Meanwhile, shortly after Phillip leaves, Jacob is kidanpped by the Shawnee Indians during the night. Now all alone, Clare goes into labor and somehow she must find a way to save her son before giving birth to her second child.