Pagan Spirits Gone Mild!

Is it just my imagination, or does my blog seem a little tame this month? First my guest blogger was Sandra Lopez, a young adult author. Her book, Beyond the Gardens, about a Latina college student, sounds like an amazing read. It's completely appropriate for young adult readers.

THEN it was National Day of Prayer, and I gave a shout-out to Mary Ford-Grabowsky, the queen of multicultural, woman-inclusive prayer books for all people of faith. It was a nice post. So nice, not even a nun could object.

THEN, in keeping with the prayer theme, I reviewed two mini-books from White Rose Publishing, a sweet purveyor of faith-based romance novels without any explicit sexual content.

Later this month, I'm going to host an actual children's author for the first time! Rene Colato Lainez will be here to promote his book about the Tooth Fairy. (We take our fairies very seriously here at Pagan Spirits.)

Sooooooooo......let's take a brief walk on the not-so-mild side of Pagan Spirits a moment and enjoy these photos of my #1 celebrity crush.

Mini-Reviews of Short, Free EBooks

White Rose Publishing specializes in romance novels...not the smutty kind, but the sweet, clean kind. It's not my usual favorite genre to read, but who can resist the appeal of a free e-book? I can't. I'm a free e-book collector. If you are, too, go to whiterosepublishing.com and click on the "Free Reads" link. There are actually twelve of them to choose from (IF you choose to choose...you could get them all!).

I've read two, "Catching the Bouquet" and "An Uncommon Sparrow." Both are Rosettes, or single short stories. "Bouquet" is only 13 pages, and "Sparrow" only 11, including the cover and the title page.

"Catching the Bouquet" by Kara Lynn Russell is set at the wedding of Tony and Jasmine. Tony's younger sister Angel is in a serious relationship with Jeff, but lately Angel hasn't seemed like herself. She's beginning to wonder if her own wedding day will ever come. Does Jeff really love her, or is he already getting tired of her? Angel keeps getting mixed signals. Will Angel catch the bouquet and be the next to get married, or will she lose out to one of Jasmine's flirty cousins?

"An Uncommon Sparrow" by Janelle Ashley is set in the late 18th century, yet the story is timeless. "Bouquet" is romantic, contemporary, and straightforward, but "Sparrow" is a little more fun. Its heroine is 19-year-old Pricilla. Pricilla is always in the shadow of her gorgeous best friend Mercy. At the governor's ball, there seems to be one man who isn't enraptured by Mercy's charms: Luke Ainsworth, a war hero. Could he really be interested in Pricilla, the sparrow-like brunette?