Zondervan; 333 pages; Amazon

I have a bad habit of signing up to review books just because it's set around the Amish. Yes, I do like reading Amish fiction, but there are good ones and then there are the ones that aren't so great. I keep telling myself to try a different genre, but here I am reviewing the book A Place At Our Table by Amy Clipston, and as you have probably have guessed, it's an Amish romance tale.

Set in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the novel centers on two main characters - Kayla Dienner and Jamie Riehl. Kayla has had her handful trying to stop her younger brother, Nathan, from becoming a firefighter. Their older brother had died in a fire and she'll do anything to keep Nathan safe and sound. The last thing she has on her mind right now is love, but this is a romance story. Isn't it?

When Jamie Riehl isn't busy working on his family's farm, he's volunteering at the local fire department. Shortly after meeting Kayla, he starts to fall in love with her. However, her feelings aren't exactly the same, as she trying to protect herself from getting hurt.

Thomas Nelson; 306 pages; Amazon

New American Library; 374 pages; Amazon

Ink and Bone, book one in The Great Library series, has been sitting in my to-be-read pile for awhile now. I believe I had received the book through the Blogging for Books program. I knew nothing about the series prior to reading the book last Friday, well, except for the fact that's it's written by Rachel Caine, the author of the Morganville Vampires series.

The novel is set in a world where the Great Library is available in every city. While people can have access to the wide-range of books in the library, you cannot own any books. Alchemy (aka the government) wants to control what written knowledge is available to the people.

The main character is Jess Brightwell, who believes in the value that each book possesses in the library. However, most of his knowledge came from the illegal books owned by his family.  At the request of his father, Jess joins the Library training program, which is located in Alexandria. Of course his father has other reasons for why he wanted Jess to join, such as stealing books.

The training program is led by Scholar Christopher Wolfe, who doesn't want to teach a bunch of teenagers the way of the Great Library. One by one the students are kicked out the program, but Jess makes it to the final assignment, which involves searching for lost books in a war zone area.

Book Boss Publishing; 276 pages; $15.99; Amazon

I know I keep saying that I'll finally catch up on all my "needs-to-be-review pile, but I really mean it this time. Well, at least that was one of my New Year's Resolutions for 2018.

For my first review of the year, I'm reviewing the book Cars, Coffee, and a Badass Ninja Toilet by K.C. Hilton. I've had this book sitting around for awhile now. I've attempted to read it several times, but something always comes up and I have to set it aside.

Loosely inspired by the author's own life, the novel is more or less a series of short tales centering around Julia Karr, a used car lot owner. It's a hilarious look into the life of a business owner who must deal with rude, odd, and just downright weird customers. Then's there's Julia's quest to buy a toilet that can flush multiple golf balls.

It's only the 6th day of the year and I've already gotten a several things I wanted to get done done! Yes, this is includes working on my procrastination issues, which I have talked about on this blog several times. Exercising - well, that's a completely different story. Originally, I wanted to begin a new workout program on the 1st, then I told myself to start on the 2nd, and well, as you can probably guess, I keep talking myself out of it. Now, my plans are to begin a new workout program tomorrow morning.

What program am I going to start?

Who knows!

I haven't made that decision yet. I still have a subscription on Beachbody On Demand, so I will probably start one of their programs.

Anyhow, the Book Blogger Hop landing page has been updated with new questions for the entire year. I've brought back the thumbnail link widget, which costs $2.99 per month. While I prefer to use the free widget, it only allowed me to schedule future hops a month in advanced. I went ahead I got the subscription, so I can schedule the hop for the entire year, as there has been a few times where I just had forgotten to post the weekly hop on time. This way I won't have that problem this year. I have all the hop's posts set up as a 'drafts,' but I have only three months completed so far. I hoping to finish scheduling the rest of the posts over the weekend.

By the way, if you haven't noticed, this is a new weekly post called "Saturday Mornings," where I'll talk about anything and everything. While I'm writing this I'm listening to Nelly Furtado's album "The Ride" and drinking a cup of Green Mountain Coffee: Pumpkin Spice. I love this brand of coffee, but their K-Cups are extremely expensive. Luckily for me, I found a 18-count box on clearance at Walmart for under $4 yesterday.

Now available to purchase on Amazon, Walmart, Barnes & Noble, ThriftBooks, and Target is the fantasy novel CrossTown by Loren W. Cooper.




The author has taken a few minutes out of his busy schedule to talk about his new novel CrossTown.



When did you become interested in storytelling?

As early as I can remember, I hung on family stories, I read voraciously, and I told myself stories in play or for relaxation. It took me until college to think about writing for publication.

What was your first book/story published?

First short story published was Eyes of Yesterday in 1995.

What inspired you to write CrossTown?

The initial scene with the Jigsaw Man came to me after seeing a horror movie done badly. It made me want to write a scene with similar elements where it was done well.

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

The White Wolf is the most fun to write. He captures my smartass element. Unlike me, he feels little need to filter his acerbity.

What is your favorite part in CrossTown?

The setting itself. All the myriad Ways of Possibility branching out through time and space.

What was the hardest part to write?

The setting. CrossTown blurs character and setting. Capturing the breadth and depth of it is impossible. You can only shoot and hope to get close to the target.

What would your ideal career be, if you couldn't be an author?

This year will mark my ninth anniversary of blogging! Yes, I've been blogging for almost a decade. I guess time really does fly by quick when you keep yourself busy like me. For those of you who have followed me from the beginning, my blog started out strictly as a book review blog, but over the years I have expanded my reviews into other territories, such as movies and certain products that fall into my own personal niche. Additionally, I've worked with a few companies on several sponsored posts. (Yes, your blog earn money!)

While having your own blog domain is the right direction to go if you want to look professional, you don't have to start out with one at the beginning. I didn't have the budget to purchase a domain when I first started out, so I went the simple and cheap route by created a free blog on Blogger, which you'll be given a blogspot.com URL. There's also weebly.com, wix.com, squarespace.com, and many other free blog platforms you can choose from.

Once you get some content (aka - posts) and some followers/readers, then I would recommend getting a domain. Use your blog's own stats platform, an analytics website, or a consumer growth platform to determine how many followers/readers your blog is receiving.

The biggest question on every newbie blogger's mind is, "What do I blog about?" Well, that's an easy question to answer, blog about what you know. If you like to read Stephen King novels, then you should review Stephen King novels! If you like to read romances, then you should review romance novels!

When I first started out, I reviewed the books that I already owned. My goal wasn't to the get the attention of publishers or authors; I just wanted to share my love of reading with others. However, my reviews caught the attention of authors and publishers, which lead to me reviewing Advanced Reader Copies.

If you want to receive free books to review on your blog, the only thing you have to do is review the books that you own or have checked out at the library! Eventually, you're blog will attract readers and loyal followers.