Covers that Captivate
Welcome friends! This week I am highlighting the authors here on the Diamond Mine. This group has some great fiction. I especially wanted to highlight a few of their great covers! There is a giveaway, my newest eBook, Spun is the item up for bid for one lucky reader! Please leave a comment or fill out our contact form to enter.
Also, please read to the end. We are saying goodbye to a couple of dear authors for 2025, one of which, sadly enough, we are saying our final goodbye.
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The first cover I want to highlight is Yellow Roses by Suzie Waltner. I simply love all the Love in Color covers. Take a look:
Yellow Roses (Love in Color)
Mia Mason has always strived to meet others’ expectations. Her
adoptive family, her fans, even her friends in the band. She works hard at
pleasing everyone because she’s never felt like she truly belongs. After
connecting with a cousin through a DNA website, she plans a covert road trip,
hoping to find her biological mother and the answers she desires.
During a music awards ceremony, Levi Sinclair receives two
messages that ruin his night. One is a breakup text from his girlfriend of six
weeks. The other is from the father who abandoned his family seventeen years
ago and wants to reconnect. Then Levi discovers Mia’s secret mission and
insists on going along to keep her safe.
As the
two friends pass the miles and see the sights, Levi’s true feelings for Mia
rise to the surface. And her journey to the past might open the door to their
future. Family issues and a shared career are just two of the hurdles they’ll
have to jump if they want a shot at love. Could the end of the road lead these
friends to a new beginning?
Suzie Waltner is a lover
of fiction and is, first and foremost, a reader. When she’s not at work,
reading or writing, you can find her cheering on her hockey team or dancing an
hour away in Zumba class. Until her second year of college, her life plan was
to become a veterinarian. A fainting spell while watching a surgery performed
on a sheep changed that plan. Now she works in the corporate world during the
day while creating stories in her free time. Suzie resides in a suburb of
Nashville, TN and is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers as well as
Faith, Hope, and Love Christian Writers.
Clare Martin thought
nothing of agreeing to live with her dementia-ridden grandmother when her
parents left on mission. Balancing that with her job as a social worker and the
expectations of her career-driven boyfriend proved doable—until Grandma started
a house fire.
Mason Hughes has loved Clare for years, but the
time was never right to tell her and now she’s dating someone else, fixing
Mason firmly in the friend zone. He’s working to be a pediatric neurologist, a
dream inspired by a special boy with a terminal brain condition, and must
choose a medical school. Finances are so tight he’s forced to consider a
program across the country, a troubling fact he’s kept secret.
Lucia Roberts, a seventeen-year-old on Clare’s
caseload, loses her foster home and is placed in an unwelcoming group home. At
every turn she’s met with rejection and becomes desperate for any proof she has
value—enough to make choices that could affect the rest of her life.
When Grandma Dottie and Lucia's paths take a
dangerous turn, Clare frantically tries to save them. As their lives knit
together, will they find the love that’s right before their eyes?
Bio:
Carrie Walker lives in Michigan with her husband and seven
children. From her ten years serving as a high school youth minister,
adventures around the globe, and raising a family, many stories have been knit
within her heart.
As an avid reader she pens what she loves to read, contemporary
stories that bring hope to a hurting world. Weaving romance among story lines
of characters in struggle, she aims to show God working in all situations. When
she’s not playing board games with her husband, shuttling kids in the Walker
bus or wishing for snow, Carrie can be found at the keyboard bringing those
stories to life.
Carrie’s
writing has been recognized in many contests. Her debut novel, Emma’s Hero,
placed in the ACFW Crown Award, Monroe Walton Center for the Arts Award, and
won the 2020 ACFW First Impressions Contest.
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Our newest member, Christina Sinisi has some awesome covers, too. Here's Another Outer Banks Christmas. I admit my love for the series Outer Banks drew me to this one! And besides, who doesn't like to read a Christmas novel all 12 months of the year?!
As the daughter of missionaries, Kerrie Alexander has lived on Hatteras—an island in the Outer Banks—longer than any other place she’s been. When her parents inform her the family is slotted to go overseas again, she balks. Her life on the island—her job, her friends, even the handsome hero in her Sunday School class—makes her want to put down roots. But to do so, she’ll need to find a place to live, face being on her own separated from any close family—something she’s never done before.
Firefighter and EMT Wade Hampton can face pretty much any emergency, except his matchmaking grandpa threatening him with disinheritance if Wade doesn’t get married in just three months. Not that Wade objects to the idea of marriage, but how does a guy who has no problem running into burning buildings find the courage to ask a girl like Kerrie out for a date? She’s a role model for everything good, and he comes from a rough and broken home. Not to mention, Christmas is right around the corner!
Bio:
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Love, Lace, and Minor Alterations
Isabel “Izze” Vez,
bridal consultant extraordinaire, has been helping brides find The Dress for
years. She loves nothing more than helping make wedding dreams come true…but
sometimes the happy endings grate on her. How many times can a girl discover
someone else’s gown without dreaming of the day it’ll be her turn to wear one?
When James Miles Clayton walks into her life, he represents everything Izze
can’t handle: change. He’s determined to bring the Ever After Bridal Boutique
into the black…and to prove to Izze that she should give him a chance.
But if there’s anything Izze handles worse than change, it’s trust. She may
have a few issues—fine, she knows she does. But will they keep getting in the
way of any chance of her own Happily Ever After? She wants to trust God to give
her those dreams of love and lace, but that’s going to require some…minor
alterations.
Bio:
V. Joy Palmer loves to write romantic and comedic stories that reveal God’s deep love for us. Her books are closed door romcoms that are full of romantic tension, snark, and written from a Christian worldview. She’s a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and an avid reader. In her spare time, Joy loves to sing (especially Disney songs), drink large quantities of coffee, and create aesthetic content for Bookstagram. When Joy isn’t fighting with fictional people, she’s hanging out with her husband and their adorable children. Connect with Joy on her website!
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Then Regina Rudd Merrick has the next captivating cover of Carolina Dream. Good golly, Miss Molly there is very little I don't like about this cover. Victorian southern mansion, check, beachline, double check.
A Southern Breeze Series – Book One
Sarah Crawford wants more from life than to attend the wedding
of her ex-fiancée. An unexpected inheritance in South Carolina comes at the
perfect time, just as Sarah is willing to use any excuse to get out of town.
When she meets potential business partner Jared Benton and discovers that a
house is part of the inheritance, she is sure that God has been preparing her
for this time through a recurring dream.
But
will a dream about an antebellum mansion, many rooms to be explored, and a man
with dark brown eyes give her the confidence to take a leap of faith, leaving
friends, family, and her job behind?
Bio:
Regina Rudd Merrick has written all her life. From the scribbling of a young child writing "I love you" notes to her mother, to the teenager who tried to write a more satisfying sequel to Gone with the Wind, she developed a distinct love of "happily ever after." That love of fiction parlayed into a career as a librarian, and she is the former director of a small public library in Marion, KY. She began attending local writing workshops and continued to hone her craft by writing several short and novel-length fan-fiction pieces published online. In fact, it was after writing Christian-themed stories based on a television show that ended too soon that she decided to pursue original fiction. With encouragement from some writing friends, she attended her first ACFW conference and met like-minded writers that were as concerned with building others up as with their own careers. Regina is now an active member of the Ken-Ten Writing Group, which has participants from Western Kentucky and Western Tennessee, and helps plan the group's yearly conference. She is an instrumentalist and vocalist in the music program of her church and has participated in many areas of ministry over the years. Married for 30+ years, Regina and her husband, Todd, have two grown daughters who share her love of music, writing, and the arts. They live in Marion, in Western Kentucky, in a county where there are, literally, more deer than people. Her hobbies include watching other people work on houses on HGTV, decorating, antiquing (otherwise known as "picking"), cooking, reading, playing music, and dreaming of the beaches of South Carolina.
Here's Gay N. Lewis's (also G.N. Lewis) charming cover for Sarah and the Angelic Magical Makeover. Who doesn't love the aqua-marine (teal, turquoise~you pick your color label, LOL) cast?
Sarah and the Angelic Magical Makeover
How can a dyslexic,
low-esteemed, inexperienced angel help Valerie, an insecure, overweight woman
with a poor image of herself? To complicate matters, two men present themselves
as possible mates for Valerie, but only one is the real deal. Can Sarah achieve
a makeover while discovering the true love for Valerie?
Bio:
Gay N. Lewis, a Texas minister's wife writes
about angels and romance. She has two women's fiction books. Clue into Kindness
and Mattie's Choice. Mattie's Choice is historical. Often called upon as an
inspirational speaker, she uses humor with Biblical teaching.
With the exception of one year in Oklahoma,
Gay N. Lewis and her pastor husband served churches in Texas. Before becoming a
full time author, her livelihood embraced interior design, photography, and
communication. She's written and produced videos for the retail market and for
local churches. These videos include Psalms from the Mountains and The Canadian
Rockies.
Prism Book Group signed her in 2012 to a three
book contract for the Sarah Series. Sarah is a dyslexic angel who romantically
links couples together, but she does it with a lot of whacky goof ups along the
way. The Sarah Series is a bit of I Love Lucy, I Dream of Jeanie, and Touched
by an Angel rolled into one. Sarah provides chuckles and a bit of inspiration
on her missions. The Sarah Series provides uplifting and feel good moments.
To date, Pelican Book Group, the Prism Imprint
continues to sign Gay Lewis to book contracts. Books are available in eBook,
print, and audio.
Gay Lewis says,
"Parsonage life requires angels, and I've seen one or two. Without a sense
of comedy, life is too dull."
My friend, Nancy Shew Bolton is up next to show you her hippy-flippy cover of her book entitled The Flip Side of Love. I'm a sucker for the 70s vintage look!
In the unsettled days of 1972, music is the steady focus of
Ruth's life and the high point of each college day. But when her happiness
derails in the span of a few seconds time, Ruth is left to piece together a
life that becomes fraught with confusion and emotional turmoil.
Paul has worked hard to school his stormy personality into a
career that satisfies his love of music and a desire to teach. Yet his own
actions threaten to rob him of his vocation, his reputation, and his view of
himself. Confronting his own shortcomings was not part of his plans. But when
he meets Ruth, everything changes.
Amid
the challenges of life in the politically and socially turbulent 1970s, both
must find comfort and support through the music they love and each other.
Bio:
Nancy Shew Bolton is a widow after 44 years of marriage, a
mother of five grown sons, and grandmother to a boy and girl. Ever since she
learned to write, she would jot down her thoughts and impressions in little
snippets of inspiration in the form of poetry, song lyrics, or short essays.
About 10 years ago, she decided to try her hand at writing a full length book.
She's since written 8 more works of fiction, one non-fiction, and is working on
an idea for a children's book, as well as more fiction manuscripts.
Writing a full-length work is much more challenging than she
thought, and she has received so much valuable assistance from other writers,
especially from the ACFW critique groups. Her husband had been supportive of
her long hours spent at the keyboard. Many thanks to her beloved Johnny! And
now she's under contract with Pelican Book Group's Prism Imprint. What a
journey!
Nancy
loves to write character-driven stories about relationships of love and faith,
since she is fascinated by the complexities within this emotional terrain. She
thanks God and His Son for her life, her loved ones and the spark of creativity
inside every person. She believes each person is a unique creation, with their
own special voice and place in this amazing universe. God's handiwork amazes
her every day!
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Lastly, let me toot my own horn, thank you for your patient indulgence. From the moment I saw this cover, I knew, KNEW it was Maggie, my main squeeze in Spun. Little side note, this story is a spin off of Rumpelstiltskin. The more you know....
No. No more fairy tales. Widow Maggie Robbins would be a
fool no more. She’d married a thief believing him to be her gilded deliverer
during her mother’s unexpected illness and death. Now, tucked in her cabin,
Maggie and her eight-year-old son, are surrounded by the gang who killed her
thieving husband. They demand her dead husband’s last heist—gold—and lots of
it. Among the evil men is Maggie’s
childhood love, Hank Sutter, who’d abandoned her years ago. Time and
circumstance has curdled the love she once held for him and she dare not trust
him.
Hank’s only thought
is of Maggie who he never stopped loving. On a mission to become a Ranger to be
worthy of her, he’s infiltrated a gang of bank robbers. He’s torn between
extracting information from Maggie and his desire to keep her safe. But when he
discovers his bogus contact is merely measuring out revenge on Maggie and her
son, Hank must recover the boy and protect Maggie at all costs. Can he and
Maggie find the child before he’s gone for good? Or will Maggie forever blame
him for abandoning her again when she needs him most?
To find my bio, check the tabs at the top where you can access any Diamond Mine Author's info. Thanks for checking by and reading up on our current interviewers. Please leave a comment or use our contact form to enter the drawing to win my newest book, Spun!
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