Thanks so much to all the authors, publishers, and publicists for all of the awesome giveaways! They are so much fun to host and I know my readers appreciate them!! Thanks to everyone who entered the following giveaways! Stay tuned for more exciting giveaways!
Winners, please reply to the email I sent you today within 48 hours to claim your books. After 2 days you will be disqualified and a new winner will be picked. Rafflecopter picks all winners at random.
Publisher: Dundurn Press (June 18, 2024) Category: Historical Fiction, African American Historical Fiction, Women’s Literature Tour Dates September 10-October 3, 2024 ISBN: 978-1459752771 Available in Print and ebook, 306 pages
Description What They Said About Luisa by Erika Rummel
An enchanting telling of the complex and fascinating life of real-life Luisa Abrego of Seville, who forges a new life after freedom from slavery in colonial Mexico and gets caught in the far-reaching Spanish Inquisition.
Luisa Abrego, a slave in Seville, is set free upon her master’s death and marries a white man. After boarding Luisa’s illegitimate child with the nuns of St. Clare, the couple sets out for Mexico. There Luisa is accused of bigamy and tried in the court of the Inquisition.
The narratives here are not Luisa’s own. They are those of witnesses who encountered her: housewives, nuns, miners, lawyers, inquisitors. These are European voices, in whose accounts, a fractured portrait of a fascinating and complex woman emerges, like glimpses of a figure moving past a mirror.
Based on 16th century trial records of the real Luisa, this novel is not just one woman’s life in fragments, but a carefully researched imagining, told in vivid, distinct voices, of how the Inquisition affected the Spanish colonies.
Review What They Said About Luisa by Erika Rummel
“I wondered how the alumbrados would fare under the watchful eye of that court of justice once it started operating in Mexico – not much better, I warrant, than under the Spanish institution whose judgment they fled.”
A fascinating look at a very controversial time in history, ‘What They Said About Luisa,’ takes the life of a real woman, Luisa Abrego and gives a realistic take on what the people around her might have felt. Each chapter of this novel is told from a different perspective – one person who was affected by Luisa Abrego, the former slave who became a free woman and traveled to the new world.
Luisa first learned about the concept of bigamy after traveling to Mexico with her new husband, and began to fear that she was guilty of it, herself. See, Luisa had been proposed to by another young man shortly after she was granted her freedom at the death of her master. Although the two were not married in practice, the Catholic church’s rules for marriage essentially said that they were married in spirit. Luisa gave herself over to the Spanish Inquisition for trial, essentially leaving her fate in the hands of God.
Obviously, I’m not going to spoil the ending of the book, but with a writer like Ericka Rummel, even a story that you may have heard before becomes something new and exciting!
I have read four of Rummel’s other works, The ‘Loneliness of the Time Traveler,’ ‘Evita and Me,’ ‘The Inquisitor’s Niece,’ and ‘Head Games.’ Every one enthralled me. Rummel has such a talent for storytelling – particularly in historical fiction – that I find myself thrilled whenever I get the opportunity to read one of her novels! I can’t wait to find out what she has in store for us next!
About Erika Rummel
Award winning author, Erika Rummel is the author of more than a dozen non-fiction books and ten novels. Her tenth novel, ‘’What They Said About Luisa’ was published on June 18, 2024..
She won the Random House Creative Writing Award (2011) for a chapter from ‘The Effects of Isolation on the Brain’ and The Colorado Independent Publishers’ Association’ Award for Best Historical Novel, in 2018. She is the recipient of a Getty Fellowship and the Killam Award.
Erika grew up in Vienna, emigrated to Canada and obtained a PhD from the University of Toronto. She taught at Wilfrid Laurier and U of Toronto. She divides her time between Toronto and Los Angeles and has lived in Argentina, Romania, and Bulgaria.
Giveaway What They Said About Luisa by Erika Rummel
This giveaway is for 1 print copy or 1 pdf copy. Print is open to the U.S. only. eBook is open worldwide. This giveaway ends on October 3, 2024 midnight, pacific time. Entries accepted via Rafflecopter only.
Publisher: Jaytech Publishing, May 2024 Category: Medical Thriller Tour Dates September 16-October 7, 2024 ISBN: 978-0965771597 Available in Print and ebook, 320 pages
Description Waterborne by J. Luke Bennecke
Civil engineer Jake Bendel is in danger—in danger of running afoul of the Governor of California. Jake, the project director of a multi-billion-dollar plan to solve California’s drought crisis, is spearheading a controversial, polarizing, but revolutionary desalination project. But the project is only 3/5 complete, and time is running out on what’s hailed as a last resort in California’s battle against a brutal, decades-long drought.
Running afoul of the Governor is about to be the least of Jake’s concerns when he and his longtime friend and fellow engineer Paige Terner find themselves terrorized by a maniacal, stop-at-nothing terrorist intent on revenge—revenge and catastrophe.
Jake learns that a mysterious waterborne virus is poisoning people throughout the state—and the source of the virus is his desalination plants. But how has this mystery virus wiggled its way into the water supply?
In a pulse quickening race against time, Jake must uncover the truth. And that means dodging bullets, confronting the ghosts of his past, weathering a mounting body count, and withstanding threats that come way too close to home.
What Jake uncovers is a secret network of vengeful terrorists with an unspeakably sinister plan. But before Jake can find a way to cure the masses, he is injected with the virus. Against the backdrop of a ticking clock, Jake is forced to track down the leader of the terrorist group. The stakes couldn’t be higher as he navigates through layers of betrayal and manipulation.
Millions of lives hang in the balance—including Jake’s—in this standout thriller about bioterror unleashed, the brilliance of scientific pursuit, and the enduring spirit of a man who refuses to give in.
A high octane, high tech, high stakes thriller that brims with action, tantalizing twists, and a pulse-racing plot, Waterborne grabs readers from the first page—and doesn’t let go. Arresting, imaginative, disquieting, and teeming with tension, Waterborne is unrelenting, unquestionably realistic, and unputdownable. J. Luke Bennecke’s Waterborne is a masterfully-rendered, gripping tale that will leave readers breathless.
Review Waterborne by J. Luke Bennecke
“No, Dr. Bendel. I believe we’re looking at a terrorist with a heart, if such a thing exists. Bottom line: if you find the source of the infection and remove it, the outbreak will cease, the virus will stop causing damage. Period. We still must deal with what’s already been done, which right now looks like upwards of maybe several hundred thousand infected men, along with several millions of acres of crops.”
With everything going on in today’s world, it’s not hard to imagine a terrorist plot to poison a state’s water supply. In the book, ‘Waterborne,’ by J. Luke Bennecke, a group of terrorists try to do just that by kidnapping the head of a project that is supposed to change the way that the state of California deals with it’s water supply issues.
Jake Bendel is an incredibly intelligent man, but even he cannot see the terrorist plot coming as the group give him a drug that makes him forget everything that passed while he was kidnapped. Alone and groggy the next morning, Jake wakes up in his own house with no idea that there is even a problem. All he knows is that he is almost done with the water purification plants that the governor has been on top of him about for the entire project, and he is happy to move on. But, of course, that is not how things go.
This was a really thrilling story with a different hero than you might usually find in a novel of this kind. Bennecke’s writing is both interesting and clever with a lot of gripping moments and tense plotting. I haven’t read anything else by him, but I will definitely be looking out for more in the future! This was just the kind of book that I love!
About J. Luke Bennecke
Multi award winning and best selling author, J. Luke Bennecke is a veteran civil engineer with a well-spent career helping people by improving Southern California roadways. He is the author of three bestselling, award-winning thrillers: Civil Terror: Gridlock, Waterborne, and his 2023 release Echo from a Bayou
This giveaway is for 1 print or 1 ebook copy and is open worldwide. This giveaway ends on October 18, 2024 midnight, pacific time. Entries accepted via Rafflecopter only.
