B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree

Nazi Saboteurs on the Bayou

Nazi Saboteurs on the Bayou
Title: Nazi Saboteurs on the Bayou
ASIN: B01MYLUNUK
Tag:
Published: November 15, 2016
Author's Twitter: @steven_burgauer
Nazi Saboteurs on the Bayou intertwines historic persons, events and locales of World War II with a fictional Nazi plot to disrupt the manufacture of Higgins boats, the Allied landing craft which won the war.  Spanning the globe from amphibious landings at Gavutu and Guadalcanal, to the Navajo code talker school near San Diego, to the exotic environs of New Orleans, to the secret world of Bletchley Park, England, to the Allied invasion of North Africa, this tautly written thriller, covering two weeks during the summer of 1942, combines an intriguing cast of characters with the historically important Andrew Jackson Higgins, Admiral John Godfrey of British Intelligence, Navajo code talker Chester Nez, Colonel “Wild Bill” Donovan of the OSS (later the CIA), Commander Ian Fleming of MI6, along with a Polish intelligence officer code-named “Rygor,” and Sylvestro “Silver Dollar Sam” Carolla, the crime boss of New Orleans.   A German dies in a New Orleans whorehouse.  He is carrying a mysterious notebook filled with hand-drawn maps, surveillance notes and cryptic codes.  As a result, Nazi Waffen SS conspirators ruthlessly search for that notebook, killing anyone, including two U.S. Marshals, who get in the way of their plans to disrupt the production of the Eureka steel-ramped landing crafts built by Higgins Industries.   Can this sabotage be stopped by a U.S. Navy intelligence officer, or a New Orleans Mafia don and his Cuban mistress with ties to British MI6, or the brilliant codebreakers of Bletchley Park?  The lives of U.S. Marines and Navajo code talkers in the Pacific and the Allied Forces of Operation Torch in North Africa are depending on their success in disrupting the plot.   The victory of Allied Forces hangs in the balance.

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King’s Table

King’s Table
Title: King’s Table
ASIN: B00TOWT7KY
Category:
Published: February 28, 2015
Becoming a Thane—an elite rebel spy trained to deceive, manipulate and kill—was Timothy’s life. He was driven. Obsessed. Fanatical. Then, in a moment, he lost everything. Now Timothy fights for survival and revenge in the Huctan death rings. When his recklessness and skill take him all the way to the Huctan capitol, he finds himself enmeshed in a deadly game of lies and deception. While his brother leads a last desperate rebellion in Botan, Timothy must rub shoulders with the Huctan princess, match wits with the man who betrayed his country, and navigate the plots, duplicity, and tests of loyalty that could decide the fate of his nation. The thrilling conclusion of the Everknot Duet.

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Hosanna

Hosanna
Title: Hosanna
ASIN: B01FDT2ZZ0
Publisher:
Published: May 8, 2016
The last thing Hosanna wants is a bucket, a dishrag, and a brush. After all, it’s been fifteen years. Her heart and knees have grown callous from years of scrubbing floors for her racist grandmother who’s disgusted over the unlawful deeds of Hosanna’s white mother and black father. But Hosanna is now tired. Tired of her grandmother who has cloaked the family’s shame for far too long. So tired, she has waxed in wrath, counted every injustice, and rebelled against all who obstruct her quest for truth. So will she ever find peace? This uniquely-crafted story transcends time and takes us from the racial animus of 1945 to the abiding power of grace that heals and binds divisive wounds.

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The Locksmith’s Secret

The Locksmith’s Secret
Title: The Locksmith’s Secret
Published: April 8, 2016
Author's Twitter: @TahliaNewland
Ella’s boyfriend Jamie seems to be her perfect match until a death in the family calls him back to England and it becomes clear that he’s hiding something. Can their relationship survive the revelation of something so astounding that it completely changes Ella’s perception of him and his place in her world? While Jamie struggles with family responsibilities, Ella’s steampunk murder mystery develops a life of its own, raising disturbing memories of her time as a striptease artist and a past life as a sexually abused Italian nun. She also dreams of an ephemeral city, where she seeks to unravel the locksmith’s secret and find the key that opens a door to other realities. All these, together with a lost brother, a desperate mother, a demanding cat, and a struggle to live up to Buddhist ideals, weave together in a rich tapestry that creates an extraordinary work of genre-bending treansrealist fiction    

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Lies of the Dead

Lies of the Dead
Title: Lies of the Dead
ASIN: B00DNSDELS
Published: June 26, 2013
Author's Twitter: @shaunabickley
What would you risk to find the truth? When Liam disappears in a suspected suicide, his brother Tom is propelled into a world of lies and crime. Liam’s legacy of deceit is dangerous, and when Tom and his sister Andi find themselves in a dangerous showdown, Tom realises the truth may have too high a price. How well do we know those closest to us? When the police accept Liam’s disappearance as suicide, his older brother Tom needs to know more. Tom and his sister Andi search for answers, but don’t know who they can believe as they discover Liam’s friends and associates aren’t the people they claim to be. They are propelled into a world where their ideas of right and wrong don’t exist, and where people demand what neither of them possesses. Liam’s legacy of deceit is dangerous, and when Andi and her twin daughters find themselves in a dangerous showdown, Tom realises the truth may have too high a price. What would you risk to find the truth?

Assessed for Awesome Indies

Trusting the Currents

Trusting the Currents
Title: Trusting the Currents
ASIN: B00GH15WB8
Publisher:
Published: November 4, 2013
Author's Twitter: @lynndapollio
Trusting the Currents is a unique visionary novel that guides readers into their own truth and transformation. Narrated by Addie Mae Aubrey, a Southern, African American woman, Trusting the Currents is a universal story of faith, courage, forgiveness and the uneasy search for one’s place in life. There are three levels to the book: the story of Addie Mae’s teenage years in the late 1930s rural South, spiritual life messages woven throughout the story, and high energetic frequencies embedded in the writing that shift consciousness into the heart when reading. Addie Mae reveals how life blossoms when we have the courage to not only accept but also learn from our mistakes and sorrows. Her story may belong to one woman, but the lessons it teaches belong to everyone willing to open their hearts and listen to the truth within their souls.

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Four Nails

Four Nails
Title: Four Nails
ASIN: B01DNN51L8
Published: February 2, 2016
Author:
In ancient India, tragedy strikes a young elephant trainer. Forced into a slave caravan that takes him through perilous lands and into a world at war, Ashoka befriends a special elephant. He and that elephant, Four Nails, together lead Hannibal’s army over the Alps and down the back of Rome. Though a time of constant danger and uncertainty, Ashoka finds beauty and kindness while helping others enslaved for the pleasure of ruthless rulers. To survive this remarkable journey, the elephant trainer calls upon his unique ways with the great greys and a strength known only to those with nothing left to lose.

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Tomorrow Is A Long Time

Tomorrow Is A Long Time
Title: Tomorrow Is A Long Time
ASIN: B00ODHR0NQ
Published: November 23, 2014
Author:
Author's Twitter: @TabithaVohn
Tomorrow Is A Long Time is an intertwining of two stories, both exploring the boundaries of romantic love and the consequences of pushing those boundaries. It tests preconceived notions of age, fidelity, and sacrifices made for love.

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A Chance to Come True

A Chance to Come True
Title: A Chance to Come True
ASIN: B018JNTALO
Category:
Published: November 25, 2015
Author:
Author's Twitter: @SMSpencerAuthor
Caity Jones has given up on men after a long relationship ends. She moves to a small town outside Melbourne and buys herself a 5-acre property with the intention of becoming a writer. What she doesn’t expect is to meet a man she can’t resist. Caity Jones wasted a lot of years waiting for the “two kids, a dog and a white picket fence” dream to come true, but she’s ready to move on now. Letting go of society’s idea of the perfect life, she’s purchased a five-acre property in the small rural town of Willows. She’s determined to live a solitary life and become a writer. And that means staying away from men altogether. Tom Murray owns and runs the local feed store in Willows. His marriage was a failure but his family is strong, and he can’t imagine a world that didn’t include his three young children. He’s an uncomplicated man, living an uncomplicated life – and he has every intention of keeping it that way. Both are mature… both have baggage… and both have agendas that don’t include romance.

Assessed for Awesome Indies