This week Liz Johnson, Lacy Williams, Steven Hunt and Murray Pura

» Posted on Dec 10, 2012 in Blog | Comments Off on This week Liz Johnson, Lacy Williams, Steven Hunt and Murray Pura

Congratulations to Jasmine for winning Nicole O’Dell’s The Shadowed Onyx,  to Anne for winning Joi Copeland’s Hope for the Journey, to Heather for winning Virginia Carmichael’s Season of Joy, and to David for winning Marlene Banks’ Greenwood and Archer.

This week I’m hosting  Liz Johnson with A Promise to Protect, Lacy Williams with Counterfeit Cowboy, Steven Hunt with Chasing Christmas and Murray Pura with Ashton Park.  If you want to enter the drawings for the books, please leave a comment on one of the post during the week with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (December 16th) evening.

Bio for Liz Johnson:

Liz Johnson graduated from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff with a degree in public relations and set out to work in Christian publishing. In 2006 she got her wish when she accepted a publicity position at a major trade book publisher. While working in the industry, she decided to pursue her other dream—becoming an author. She is now a two-time ACFW Carol Award finalist, and A Promise to Protect is her fourth novel with Love Inspired Suspense. Liz makes her home in Nashville, TN, where she enjoys theater, exploring the local music scene, and making frequent trips to Arizona to dote on her two nephews and three nieces. She loves stories of true love with happy endings. Keep up with Liz’s adventures in writing at www.lizjohnsonbooks.com , Twitter @LizJohnsonBooks, or Facebook.com/LizJohnsonBooks.

Blurb for A Promise to Protect by Liz Johnson:

Navy SEAL Matt Waterstone knows about keeping people safe. When his best friend’s sister is attacked, Matt promises no harm will come to Ashley Sawyer–not on his watch. But Matt’s not the only protective one. Ashley will do anything to safeguard the residents of the battered women’s shelter she runs. She’s sure she can handle the threats she gets in return. What she can’t handle is the way Matt scales the walls around her heart. Yet when she falls prey to a crime web more sinister than she’d realized, trusting Matt could be the only way to survive.

Bio for Lacy Williams:

By day, Lacy Williams is a stay-at-home mom battling dirty diapers and dog-hair dust-bunnies. By night, she is a novelist with two books nominated for RT Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice Awards (2011 & 2012). Her current projects include more books for Harlequin’s Love Inspired Historical line (cowboys!) and a screenplay.

Blurb for Counterfeit Cowboy by Lacy Williams:

A con man with a conscience…

From the moment Jesse Baker collides with Erin O’Grady on a Boston train platform, he faces a dilemma. For once, Jesse doesn’t want to lie about who and what he is. Yet if she learns he’s a con artist, not a cowboy—and the urchin with him is certainly not his brother—she’ll never give him a chance.

Erin suspects there’s more to the enigmatic cowboy than meets the eye. But the sheltered socialite is certain his deep compassion is real. On the long Christmastime train ride to Wyoming, hearts and courage are tested and true motives revealed. And the journey than began in a charade may end with redemption—and a very real love.

Bio for Steven Hunt:

Steven Hunt’s action/adventure novels explore life’s difficult situations in an uplifting Christian outlook. With experience as a police investigator, Steven is able to add a sense of realism to his books, narrowing the gap between truth and fiction. He and his wife live in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and have two children and two grandchildren.

Blurb for Chasing Christmas by Steven Hunt:

Christmas has never meant so much.

Depression entrenched; entrepreneur Teddy Whitaker absconds aboard a freight train through the Ozark Mountains to escape his past and his problems.

Startled by an angel who appears to him in a boxcar, Teddy discovers to defeat the darkness and reclaim his life he must submit to three lessons before Christmas morning. But first, Teddy must learn to trust the angel so he can begin trusting himself.

If he succeeds, he will become a new man.

If he fails, he will lose his life.

Deep in the thick woods of Missouri stalks a certain evil; an evil determined for Teddy to fail. 

Bio for Murray Pura:

Murray Pura earned his Master of Divinity degree from Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and his ThM degree in theology and interdisciplinary studies from Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. For more than 25 years, in addition to his writing, he has pastored churches in Nova Scotia, British Columbia, and Alberta. Murray’s writings have been shortlisted for the Dartmouth Book Award, the John Spencer Hill Literary Award, the Paraclete Fiction Award, and Toronto’s Kobzar Literary Award. His novels for Harvest House include /Face of Heaven /and /The Wings of Morning. /Murray pastors and writes in southern Alberta near the Rocky Mountains. He and his wife, Linda, have a son and a daughter.

Blurb for Ashton Park by Murray Pura:

For fans of the hugely popular Downton Abbey series, comes this equally enthralling story of the Danforth family of Ashton Park.Among the green hills and trees of Lancashire, only a few miles from the sea, lies the beautiful and ancient estate of Ashton Park. The year is 1916. The First World War has engulfed Europe and Sir William’s and Lady Elizabeth’s three sons are all in uniform–and their four daughters are involved in various pursuits of the heart and soul.

As the head of a strong Church of England family for generations, Sir William insists the Danforth estate hold morning devotions that include both family and staff. However, he is also an MP and away at Westminster in London whenever Parliament is sitting. During his long absences, Lady Elizabeth discreetly spends time in the company of the head cook of the manor, Mrs. Longstaff, who is her best friend and confidante. This friendship includes visits to a small Baptist church in Liverpool that exposes Lady Elizabeth to a less formal approach to Christian worship and preaching than she is used to and which she comes to enjoy.