Audra Jennings

This week launches the tour for Neta and Dave Jackson's Pound Foolish. Definitely in my "To Be Read" pile, but I've been just a little busy lately! To read reviews on the book, click here to visit their campaign page , then click the review bar. And use the search on this blog for more information about all of the books in the Windy City Neighbors series. {MORE ABOUT  POUND FOOLISH } Book Four in the Windy City Neighbors series (Castle Rock Creative, October 2014) Greg Singer coordinates consumer sports shows for powerboats, four wheelers, snowmobiles, and jet skis-macho toys for outdoor men like himself. But the job puts tremendous stress on his marriage with Nicole, who for the first time notices the handsome lawyer at the end of the block. “Greener pastures?” When the recession hits Greg’s industry, he thinks the crisis is merely an opportunity for God to bless him with unmatched prosperity, a promise he hears preached each Sunday, and he steps ...

Don’t miss  Dave & Neta Jackson ‘s latest book in the Windy City Neighbors series,  Penny Wise . Meet another family in “the neighborhood”-the Jaspers, busy with demanding jobs, busy with church, busy volunteering, parents of three active teenagers, juggling sometimes crazy schedules. All good things. Until all those “good things” feed into a series of crises that affects the whole family. Something’s gotta change! {MORE ABOUT  PENNY WISE } A Windy City Neighbors book Michelle Jasper doesn’t have much time to hang out with her neighbors—not with thirteen-year-old twins, another teen with hoop dreams, a full-time job as a caseworker, volunteering at a crisis pregnancy center, and heading up the women’s ministry at Northside Baptist. Her husband’s constantly changing shifts as an air traffic controller at the world’s busiest airport—Chicago’s O’Hare International—and responsibilities as a trusted deacon at Northside only add to the juggling act at t...

Last week I finished my latest "non-Litfuse, for my own reading pleasure book." Every once in a while I do get those in between other books I am reading for and from work.  Today's featured book Derailed , book 2 in the Windy City Neighbors series by Neta and Dave Jackson  (thank you Worthy Publishers) . About Derailed : What's it going to take to get him back on track? After marrying Estelle, the love of his life, ex-cop Harry Bentley's apartment feels too cramped, especially since he's now raising his grandson. God seems to provide the perfect solution - a two-flat that would also provide an apartment for his elderly mother. But when plans go awry, Harry has to go back to work as a detective, receiving a bizarre undercover assignment that sends him across the country by train and raises suspicions about his own son's involvement in a major drug cartel. It feels like God keeps switching signals - left, right, stop, go? Each time Harry thinks...

My blog has always had a major book element to it. I set it up as a way to promote the books I work on. And yes, lately, it's been really book heavy. A) Litfuse is working on a lot of great books and B) I don't have a lot exciting going on in my life anyway, so I can easily talk about it on the weekends. The truth is, there's not enough time in the day to read every book I post about all the way through. Therefore, I don't request a lot of books to read and write reviews for. Until last week, I hadn't bought a book in months since I have so many great options coming to me for work and some really great Kindle freebies.  However, I have requested some books to review lately. Today's featured book is one of them (thank you Worthy Publishers) .   You know I have an affinity for Neta and Dave Jackson. They have a brand new series out, so I'd like to share more about it and my thoughts on the first book in the series, Grounded .  About the Windy City Nei...

I am so fortunate to be sent so many books that I rarely request books for review. I only ask for my favorite authors/series. My blog readers well know I grab up Neta Jackson's books as soon as they come out. Her latest is Come to the Table , the second SouledOut Sisters book. (A spin-off series of the Yada Yada Prayer Group and Yada Yada House of Hope  series.) If you haven't read Stand by Me , it will be hard to pick up on what is going on in this book. You'll greatly benefit from reading the other series to be able to keep up with ALL the other characters in Come to the Table .  About the book:  Kat Davies is suddenly wondering if her good deed was a bad idea. Kat may be new in her faith, but she’s embraced the more radical implications of Christianity with reckless abandon. She invited Rochelle—a homeless mother—and her son to move in the apartment she shares with two other housemates. And she’s finally found a practical way to channel her passion for healthy...

Today marks the release of Lucy Come Home by Dave and Neta Jackson. If you ever wanted to know more about the back story of Lucy, here's your chance! Lucy Tucker, the feisty old bag lady we all loved from Neta Jackson's  House of Hope   series, has confounded everyone. Why won't she come off the streets of Chicago? How did she ever end up there in the first place? Why did she disappear again? We didn't mean to leave you hanging, but now we can tell the whole story. It all started back in the summer of 1942 when she and a dashing young man from a traveling carnival ran away together to escape a murder charge... Oh, but you'll want to read the whole book yourself about carnivals, migrant camps, the war, and true love lost and found. {More about Lucy Come Home} Fifteen-year-old Cindy worked long days beside her migrant worker family in Michigan's sugar beet fields in the early 1940s -- the "war years" -- until she met a dashing young man ...

I posted my review last week, but wanted to go ahead and post the tour too. Enjoy! It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book! You never know when I might play a wild card on you! Today's Wild Card author is: Neta Jackson and the book: Stand By Me Thomas Nelson (March 13, 2012)   ***Special thanks to Thomas Nelson Publishers, for sending me a review copy.*** ABOUT THE AUTHOR: As a child growing up on the campus of a Christian school where her parents taught, Neta Jackson began creating imaginary worlds at a young ag...

I thought with my job transition that I would have some free time for reading. I've been crocheting instead. Probably not a smart move as I've gotten into a new job, and have some press kits that I need to write which requires some reading. Two of which I have PDFs on, and I'm not wild about reading on the computer screen. Make that three. I've also had a couple of hard copies come in the mail for work. And a book an author graciously offered me for review. And I ordered 5 on Amazon this week. Wow. I need to not think about all the books piling up.  Yes, I bought books. I wanted to start reading the Stephanie Plum books after watching the movie One for the Money and a couple of friends told me that they were hilarious. And the latest Charles Martin and Randy Singer books came out and I wanted those as well. And I need to quit buying books and keeping them because I already bought a new shelf last year, and there's really not anymore room on it. (No, it...

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I really don't understand how book bloggers are able to read so many books and are always posting. I guess I am always to busy working with everyone covering books all the time (literally) in order to share what I do read for fun. And I don't get too much time to do it. Even the books I have read, I haven't found the time to blog about. However, sending out posting reminders, and an email from a client convicted me to get some posts made this week. But the email from the client wasn't accusatory in any way and had nothing to do with my blog. She just mentioned she knew I liked a certain author, and I remembered I had asked her for a book I hadn't posted on. Actually two. The only two books I have asked for in who knows when! And I don't ask for books because I know I myself can't be timely in actually blogging about them. That's why I buy a good number of the fiction books I read. I'm aware of m...

You can only walk forward when you learn how to lean. Just months after her husband threw her out of their penthouse and sent their two sons away, Gabrielle Fairbanks is finally getting back on her feet. She has a job she loves at the homeless shelter, an apartment for her and the boys, caring friends, and even a new love interest. Best of all, an unexpected windfall has given her a brand-new dream--a House of Hope for homeless mothers and their children. Piece by piece, Gabby's new life is coming together--but the old one keeps dragging her back. First her husband Philip hints at a reconciliation...then hits her up for a loan to pay his gambling debts. And when Gabby tells him no, he makes a desperate move that puts them all in harm's way. How can she even think of embarking on a new venture when so much is up in the air? Gabby is realizing that she needs something far greater than her own strength or even that of her friends. That to move forward, she must first lean on...