Jan Sikes

Friday Free For All #BookReviews @suecoletta1 @JillWeatherholt @StevieTurner6 @jacqbiggar

Happy Friday! It’s been quite a week. How is everyone?

Featured Image for Friday Free All

As you already know, A Beggar’s Bargain launched this week and I’ve started a blog tour. If you receive my newsletter, you know there are some perks to following along on the blog tour. It pays to play!

I received some early reviews from Reader’s Favorite and I am thrilled that they all gave the story 5-stars! I am deeply grateful. So, what’s next? There will be three more stops next week, then the next and the next. Then once this tour finishes, I will launch another blog tour through Lone Star Literary Life. Onward and upward! It is such a terrifying moment when you send your story out into the world. It’s much like children leaving home and you can only hope they’ll be safe and remember to brush their teeth and put gas in the car. 🙂 So it is with a new book.

If you missed the two blog stops this week, you can find the links here on the static blog tour page. I’d love to see everyone along the way.

I realized today that it is now past the first quarter of the year and I’ve hardly shared any reviews, except for the ones I did for Lone Star Literary, Mae Clair, and Gwen Plano. Shame on me! I am going to blame it on the debacle I wrestled with moving my blog here to my website. But I’ve read some really great books. Here are four that touched me. You can click on the covers to purchase, if you see any you can’t live without. 🙂

I began this series with book # 6, and I loved it so much I had to start back at the first of the series to catch up with the characters and how they got to where they were in the sixth book.
Shawnee has a tragic background and wound up tossed from foster home to foster home after her parents’ deaths. So she learned some invaluable street survival skills, including burglary. She became known as a cat burglar and stole from those who had stolen from others.
Then, she also is a professional computer hacker employed by the police department to delve into confiscated computers for criminal evidence.
A serial killer is wreaking havoc and fear in the community. What are the odds that Shawnee would choose his house to burglarize? The events that unfold are gripping and, at times, life threatening. Detective Levaughn is smitten with Shawnee, so the web gets unbelievably tangled. How can she have a relationship with a detective when she is a criminal herself? And how will she escape the clutches of the killer? You’ll have to read the book to find out. I’m looking forward to what’s next for Shawnee Daniels. I enjoyed meeting some of the side characters in this story, especially Nadine, Shawnee’s best friend. If you are a fan of thrillers, you will enjoy this first book in the series!

This was a short fun read that I enjoyed. This book is a brief snapshot into the lives of an aging rock band and the health issues they are all dealing with. From tennis elbow, back problems, insomnia, throat issues, prostrate and alcoholism, this author touched on it all.
And throw in an accidental murder and you’ve got a big story unfolding in these few pages.
It’s hard to pick a favorite character, but I think it has to be Seth for me. He steps up and tries to protect his band mates and keep the peace, which is no easy task with a vixen named Sonia in the mix.
If you are looking for a quick, entertaining read that will whisk you away to England’s countryside and into a different world, you will enjoy this book.
It is well written, and the pacing is fast and furious. I highly recommend it.

This is the kind of story that restores faith in all good things in life. It is set in a small town in Colorado where everyone knows everyone and rallies to help when someone needs a hand. It depicts life the way it should be lived with neighbors caring for neighbors. I loved all the characters in this story, from the humans to the dogs.

Jake Beckett is doing his best to take care of his two children, Kyle and Kayla, while still grieving over the loss of his wife and unborn baby. He trains dogs to be service animals and loves his work. An elderly lady in the community, Myrna, is losing her eyesight and Jake has made a promise to provide her with a service dog to help her continue to live independently.

Only Myrna’s granddaughter, Olivia, has other ideas. She’s come to take Myrna back to Miami to live with her. After all Olivia is a doctor and well equipped to take care of her grandmother. It becomes quickly evident that no one in the community is ready to give up Myrna, most of all Jake and his two children who have a close relationship with her.

I love how events unfold in the story, each one believable and relatable. The author did a great job of keeping the story moving and pacing even and steady. Faith is a strong underlying theme of the story as is family. This book is well-written and a true joy to read. It is a sweet romance with a wonderful ending. I highly recommend it.

This was a touching quick read that left me and the family in the story with good feelings. It is the tale of tragic miscommunication, or in this case, lost communication.
How can children deal with the feelings of abandonment? Even as adults, it still haunts.
And a man who put the need to defend his country over the needs of his family lives with crippling guilt.
I won’t leave a spoiler. I will say I loved this story and the hope it brought to a struggling family. It gives them a starting place to rebuild.
Well written, compelling, with a great message about forgiveness. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Hopefully, I will get back into a routine of posting reviews.

On the home front, I am house sitting and taking care of one of my granddogs while my daughter and her family are on a spring break trip. This is Rosie.

She is a Borderdoodle and is no trouble at all to take care of. One of her parents was a Border Collie and the other a Poodle. Then on Saturday, I will take Rosie and go to my other daughter’s house to stay with the two younger grandsons and their three dogs while my daughter and oldest grandson fly to Michigan to check out Calvin College.

Busy times, but all good. I am ready to settle back into a routine and return to my WIP and finish the second story in The Bargainers Series.

Because I won’t be home, there will be no Monday post next week. I’ll return to the regular schedule the following week. That’s it for now. I wish you a wonderful weekend!

38 thoughts on “Friday Free For All #BookReviews @suecoletta1 @JillWeatherholt @StevieTurner6 @jacqbiggar”

    1. Jacquie’s newest landed on my Kindle today. Can’t wait to read it. Glad to hear some of these books are already on your TBR, Robbie. Thanks for visiting!

    1. You are most welcome, Jacquie. I agree that Rosie is a pretty girl and so sweet and loving, too. Your newest release hit my Kindle today and I look forward to reading it!

  1. Loved these reviews Jan. I’ve read Stevie’s book and all the others already on my TBR. (ps your sharing bar on the right takes us to your personal pages, not post sharing.) 🙂 x

    1. Hi, Debby. Glad you enjoyed the reviews. I know you will enjoy all of these books if you read them. The social media sharing buttons are just below each post not on the side. Hope to get all this ironed out soon!

  2. D.L. Finn, Author

    Great reviews, Jan. I have read everything, but Farwell, and its on my reading list.
    All fantastic reads and I did the same thing with the Mayhem series, so good! Have fun house sitting and watching grandogs and all! Hugs xo

    1. Thanks for adding your recommendations for the books, Denise. I need to hurry up and get caught up on the Mayhem series before the next one releases. Thank you for stopping by! Hope you’re having a great weekend.

  3. I am getting all of your posts now, but they’re a day late. I catch them by rolling back past things I read the day before and there they are. They weren’t there before. It’s weird having one that works that way, but I think I can keep up.

  4. You’re so right about new book babies, Jan. It’s exciting and terrifying rolled into one. Congrats on your early reviews! And thank you for the review for Wings of Mayhem! It seems like I wrote it an eternity ago. 😂 Give Rosie a hug from me! 🖤

    1. The way you are cranking out the books in the Mayhem series, I’m sure this first book seems like eons ago. I enjoyed it and onward through the series! Thanks for stopping by and I’ll give Rosie a hug. Have a great weekend!

  5. Congrats on the early reviews, Jan. I’m doing a Snoopy dance for you!

    And congratulations to the authors on their great reviews. I’ve read all the books featured here with the exception of Stevie’s. I enjoyed each novel, and Stevie’s also sounds good.

    Rose is adorable. How could anyone resist that face, LOL!

  6. I love “My Baby Wrote Me a Letter.” It was so sweet. 🧡🌷 I really want to read the other books, too. And, congratulations, Jan on “A Beggar’s Bargain! It looks so good! And, I’m so happy it’s gotten such rave reviews! xo

    I love Rosie. Have fun watching her. 🙂

    1. I really enjoyed “My Baby Wrote Me A Letter.” It was a great new beginning for the family. I’m glad the other books intrigue you. Thank you for the congrats and I’m happy you stopped by!

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