Ninety-one Books and Counting – Thank You for the Memories Lone Star Book Blog Tours and Authors

 

 

Since April 28, 2016, I have been a part of the Lone Star Book Blog Tours. It has been an unprecedented experience.

To date, I have reviewed ninety-one books and helped promote eighty-nine other books, mostly of Texas authors. The book reviews alone are an amazing accomplishment by me because I am not the fastest reader. I normally read from two to three or four books at time.

 

Many of the books I have reviewed for Lone Star Book Blog Tours are long forgotten but some remain with me every time I see their book covers on my bookshelf.

What I have loved most about being apart of this blog tour is being introduced to authors and stories that I would never have read otherwise. As a reader of nonfiction and authors like Laurel K. Hamilton and Kelly Armstrong, the genres I have been exposed uprooted me out of my comfort zone and expanded my reading world.

For instance, the entire Gethsemane Brown Mystery Series by Alexia Gordon is an outstanding example of my uprooting.  I never would have been exposed to this book series that has consistently reminded me of the lonely days when I would binge watch The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Is it even scarier that I know how to spell Gethsemane? Or the alternative history tale of Bonnie and Clyde by Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall. As a reader, I was secretly begging that this storyline be real because it’s so fantastic as an alternate history of the famed couple.

Then there are the towns of Comfort, Texas, and Bakersville, Texas created by Kimberly Fish and Dana Wayne that made me long for them. Truly, if any book had a dog in it and the dog survived – I loved the book. Somehow a cat came into the books by the name of Max and turned out to be delightful children’s book. Now I’m wanting to review and read more children’s books.

 

Then there are books that haunt me like the stories woven by Eliza Maxwell and Mayhem by Elizabeth Harris. Or the book by Maida Malby that makes me long for something more than just this plain, nondescript town I currently live in. Who knew a polar bear I’ve come to know as Harry the Polar Bear would endear my heart to him even more because of Susan Fletcher’s book Journey of the Pale Bear.

Then there are Pamela Fagan Hutchins books that have left me hanging from book to book, making me scream begging for the next book. Then there are DiAnn Mills stories that act like a wildfire with just enough romance and Christianity mixed to perfection. Then there are the stories that were true, like with the author Catherine Musemeche, M.D. in her book Hurt. Gotta give a shout-out to Ben English who makes me want to hike many of the trails of Big Bend.

This is not to mention one of the loves of my life cemeteries and ghosts by author Tui Snider.

With every book that arrived with extras at my Post Office Box, I have kept every single promotional item. They are treasures.

I could keep going. But with every book I have read so far, I thank the authors for opening my world wider. Thank you for inspiring me on many levels. A big heartfelt thanks to Lone Star Book Blog Tours and Kristine Hall for all these book memories. While I’m not leaving the Lone Star Blogger Team I do have to step back a bit to work on my own books, especially one that has been hanging around my neck for a decade.

My only regret is that I do not have actual copies of every book I have reviewed because seeing them on my bookcases is what brings the thankful memories. Now to figure out how to get the ones I do have all autographed by each of the beloved authors who have opened my world.

Most of all I am so grateful for the friendships all these books have brought into my life. To the bloggers’ apart of this tour, you make life more enjoyable. A shout-out to Belle, we could be sisters. Kelly, you make Twitter the best and even inspired me to change something in the Hunt book.  I could go on… To the authors who I’ve become friends with on Facebook or Twitter thank you. Elena you are an inspiration. Pamela, we have a love of cougars and wildlife. Teddy, I hope at some point to meet you this year. There are so many of you…

My last thanks go to Kristine. I’m so glad I answered your call for bloggers four years ago.  Your friendship has been a blessing.