Round-Up of This Week's Daily Featured Books

The week of March 7-12 was a good one. It included a new release from a debut author, a couple contemporary favorites, some paranormal favorites, and, in honor of the time change this weekend, a couple time-traveler favorites too.  You even ended up getting a couple extra recommendations out of me during Thursday’s double-double-header features (2 sets of First- and Last/Most Recent- in a series) after I forgot to post a featured book on Wednesday.

So let’s get to the round-up of this week’s daily featured books!

REVIEW: Crossroads by Annie Rose Welch

Crossroads

by Annie Rose Welch

Romance

Blurb:

How do you get there, darlin’? Well, na’, you start by taking Brighten Place. Follow that road all the way down to Marigny Street. After you travel a little distance you’ll come to an old Red Dirt Road, and that road will take you even further, to Lotus Blossom Lane, but you’ve already been that way. Na’ you’re exactly where you should be, darlin’. You’ve arrived at The Crossroads of your life.

 

Gabriel Roberts is the most famous movie star in the world. He has everything one man could ever want. He has everything except the one thing he feels will fulfill his purpose and complete his life.

Raphael Rose is dying of pneumonia. As he waits on the waning clock of mortality to chime, he has a story to share. One of star-crossed lovers he has never lost hope for.

Two doors down, Madam Catalina has her own story – a shocking past, a love of a lifetime left undone.

Locked behind the doors of Charity Hospital during Hurricane Evangeline, the tangling of souls has unraveled and left each of them at the crossroads of their life. And in the end, whichever road they choose will lead them home.

Review: 

 

In many ways each of the books of the Saving Angels series is about life. Not just being or staying alive, but actually living during the time you have. Every story has been about appreciating every moment you're given, for standing up and fighting for what you believe in and for what's right, and for taking hold of the opportunities that come your way. Every story in the series has been about love - finding the love of your lifetime, learning that love takes work, realizing and understanding that with love comes risk, and believing that you're truly stronger with love in your life than without it. 

In Crossroads we're shown these truths with the story of Madame Catalina and her angel Raphael. It's about them finding their love, overcoming obstacles and being overcome, losing their love, feeling unworthy of reclaiming their love, living life to the best of their abilities and finally (truly) learning the ultimate lesson: that love especially when it's true, is the most powerful force on earth. 

We're also brought back to Eve and Gabriel in Crossroads, or perhaps it's more accurate to say that Eve and Gabriel are brought back to each other. I already fell in love with these two (in Marigny Street, book 1 of the series) and seeing them together again, watching them struggle to find a solid footing with one another again was wonderful. Seeing them learn from the mistakes and choices that Raphael and Catalina made in their youth was beautiful. Neither Eve nor Gabriel are the same people they were in Marigny Street; the course of Eve's life changed after the dream was over and Gabriel's life was altered by his experiences as well. While changed, they are in many ways stronger than they were the last time we saw them together and I think because of their differences they are even more suited for one another. 

There are so many threads being brought together in Crossroads - ones that I didn't even realize were left hanging in all the previous stories and books. With each of the previous Saving Angels books I thought I was catching all the important bits, but one thing that Crossroads has shown me is that Annie Rose Welch is far more subtle with nuance than I realized and that she's a master of weaving an intricate tale, especially this one with it’s abundance of incredibly delicate threads. Now I’m poised to read the final book, the final story of the series… And I can’t imagine what’s going to come next.

Purchase your copy of Crossroads by Annie Rose Welch today... 

Amazon

And you can find out all about this book and the series here...

Annie's Website

Lotus Blossom Lane by Annie Rose Welch

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Life after Yuma was blissful for Layla and Michael. After the turmoil of the old Red Dirt Road, their journey seemed to be moving them in the right direction, leading them to Ireland, Michael’s birthplace, where history runs deep and secrets run even deeper. As the road to happily-ever-after leads them down Lotus Blossom Lane, years of entombed history starts to emerge, changing the course of their lives forever. And the person waiting for them at the end of Lotus Blossom Lane, one of the biggest stars in the world, will bring them to the Crossroads of the Saving Angels Series.

Lotus Blossom Lane

Book 3 - Saving Angels

by Annie Rose Welch

Layla and Michael defeated that which bedeviled them in Red Dirt Road (Saving Angels, book 2). In the aftermath of their battle they promised to love one another forever and to make vows of that eternal love. That is where Lotus Blossom Lane begins and just like a wedding is merely the beginning of the rest of their life together, so too is it simply the beginning of this story. 

The beauty of the love that Layla and her saving angel Michael share continues to shine like a beacon through this story – from the very first page to the final word. The struggles they have and the challenges they face in this third book of the series are almost mirror images to the experiences that Michael’s grandfather and grandmother went through decades ago. Their story, Daniel and Eliska’s, has been kept secret; the truth of their tragic tale held inside by the handful that knew it so well that not even their own family, the son they both loved nor his son, knew of it.

Then along came Layla and because she was new to the family and because she was curious about Michael’s family history, she was open to learning to the truth. And because of her own nature, her own past experiences, and because of the new strengths she’d come to realize she possessed, she was determined to know that truth and deeply touched by it. Little did she know how greatly all of their lives could be changed by learning of the past. Nor could she have guessed how deeply the people she and Michael meet along the way would affect their futures.

Lotus Blossom Lane is another emotional stunner by Annie Rose Welch. So far, the books of the Saving Angels series have all contained immense depth and color, and such striking feeling that you simply can’t help but be pulled in. With the first word, the first phrase I was hooked and for hours at a time I could do nothing but read. I cried and I laughed, and while the story of Daniel and Eliska’s love was heartrending, the way it made the depth of Layla and Michael’s relationship grow was simply beautiful.

Through it all we start to see the way all the threads of these stories will come together, how the characters that we’ve come to love will shape their own futures, and most of all, how the loves they find will enrich their souls and give their hearts the strength they’ll need to face whatever may come. And at the end of this story, when I flip the last page and find only a blank sheet, I can only wonder one thing… What happens next? 

Learn all about the book on Annie Rose Welch's website or the Goodreads page for the book!

And you can purchase your paperback copy of Lotus Blossom Lane here... 

Or get your Kindle e-copy here...  

Red Dirt Road by Annie Rose Welch

Red Dirt Road
by Annie Rose Welch
Genre: Romance (with a twist)
 
Death has always seemed just one step behind Layla Hill, taking almost everyone she’s ever loved. After she loses the love of her life, Layla vows to never love again—how could she, when she’s a death magnet?

Trying to outrun fate traveling with her uncle Willie and his band, Layla meets Michael Roberts, a beautiful Irish boxer as gentle on the piano as he is brutal in the ring. He proves as relentless in life, fighting for a place in her world even as she pushes him away, trying to protect him from her killer tendencies.

But neither foresees the sinister presence waiting for Layla at the end of the Red Dirt Road.

Find all the book information on the authors website or on the Goodreads page for the book. 

You can purchase your own copies of Welch's  

Red Dirt Road here:

Paperback or Kindle

And now, THE REVIEW:

 

Not too long ago I told you about the first book Annie Rose Welch's Saving Angels series, Marigny Street. It remains one book that even today, weeks later, lives still in my thoughts and heart. I truly believe it's simply one of those stories that stick with you. Not just because of what happened in the story, or to the characters; more, it is the emotion that it produced within me, and the varied paths my thoughts have taken because of it. 

However, Marigny Street is merely the first book in a series of what I'm coming to expect as books that will continue to emotionally knock me to my knees. Red Dirt Road tells a different story then its predecessor but the love that shines between its main characters, Michael and Layla is every bit as brilliant as that which we read about between Gabriel and Eva. Though the struggles they face are different (while aspects may carry some similarities), and the emotional barriers Michael and Layla have to cross have different sources, Red Dirt Road touched in me in much the same way that the first book in the series did. 

Layla has lost nearly everything she has ever loved and is, in quite a number of ways, hanging on by her fingernails - to life, to sanity and to some semblance of happiness. Her life has become something she never really intended for it to be but she has structured it that way to keep herself, and everyone around her, safe. But safety is sometimes a precept, like beauty, that can only be seen by the beholder. To others the safety Layla created for herself merely looked like a recipe for unending loneliness. 

In his dreams Michael has been fighting to find, save and hold one thing all his life. Each night in his sleep he battles to seize the thing that will finally make him whole. But during his waking hours Michael has been fighting one battle after another as well - in the boxing ring, making a name and unquestionable reputation for himself. Yet he's not just a determined warrior, he's also a poet and a lover, a musician, and a man with an impeachable set of morals, quick wit and wicked humor. When he sees Layla, he knows she's the one thing he has been waiting, searching and fighting for for so long. And he knows that he'll spend the rest of his life fighting for her too. 

Now to convince her that not only is she worthy of the fight, but that she's strong enough to battle beside him as well - secure in the knowledge that if she should falter, he will always be there for her, just as he trusts that she would always support him when or if he needed help. 

It's hard to explain exactly what makes me love these characters, or the menagerie of supporting characters that surrounds them. There's no one thing that makes me love the story, nor any single specific aspect that has me (already) anticipating the next book in the series. Simply put, Welch has written a story in Red Dirt Road that makes you love it and leaves you aching for more. I so look forward to continuing the journey that the Saving Angels series is taking me on, and discovering how the threads of all the stories will intertwine. And just as I have enjoyed both the stories I have now read from the series, I truly believe you will enjoy them too. 

REVIEW - Marigny Street by Annie Rose Welch

Marigny Street
by Annie Rose Welch
Genre: Romance (with a twist)

 

Blurb:

 

Do you believe in the power of dreams?

 

Way down south on Marigny Street in the heart of New Orleans, the land of Catholic intercessions, purgatory, and supernatural superstitions, young Evangeline Chenier dreams of a radiant boy who saves her from a storm. She takes the dream seriously – in her family, dreams are sometimes more than dreams. Sometimes they foretell the future. Sometimes they create it.

 

Years later, Eva is no longer the same wistful girl but a hardened woman who no longer believes in dreams. Losing faith in her gift, she becomes lost in a nightmare of emotion, mourning her son, separating from her husband, and stewing in a dead-end job. And then fate brings her an unlikely surprise: one of the most famous movie stars in the world, Gabriel Roberts.

 

Caught by something in his eyes, Eva agrees to show him the real Big Easy on his last night in New Orleans—an evening that turns into four dreamy days spent recapturing lost faith and discovering a love neither expected. Realizing Gabriel is the boy from her childhood dream, Eva must leave everything behind—her husband, her family, her history, and the beautiful city she calls home—and gamble it all for the dream that has saved her on MARIGNY STREET.

Find out more about this book on the Goodreads Page...
 

REVIEW

Life is complicated.

No one knows that better than Evangeline Chenier. Having suffered a serious personal loss, Eva didn’t believe that she really deserved to be happy ever again. Despite what her family tells her, despite everything that she was ever taught, she simply struggles to believe that she deserves to be happy after failing to protect her unborn child. But what happened wasn’t her fault and perhaps, for someone like Eva anyways, a dream is the only way to truly make her understand that.

Gabriel Roberts isn’t your average Irishmen. He’s not even your average Hollywood heartthrob. He is everything you’d imagine in a superstar, without any of the possible negative traits, and he's a surprisingly sweet, almost naïve male specimen as well.

He’s just what Eva needs. Exactly what her heart is yearning for, without her even knowing, and the one thing that will bring her back to life. But have they missed their chance at forever before they ever even have the chance to try?

I read Marigny Street without any clear understanding of what the story was about. I didn’t even realize (until I’d finished the book) that it was simply the first book in a series that already has multiple books available for purchase. I’d never even heard of Annie Rose Welch.

Boy, was I pleasantly surprised.

I loved the characters and their humanity. Not the usual turn of phrase there but it's entirely accurate in this case. I loved Eva and the pain and unrelenting guilt over her unborn child’s death. Not because the pain was there, of course, but because it showed that she had flaws and imperfections. Gabriel had his own as well – he was impulsive and rash, impatient and somewhat over-emotional. For both of them, those things made them who they were and were the factors that made them perfect for one another.

I could go on and on, and on, about the story and about how it made me think about life, loss and love. I could talk about how it touched my heart and made me bleed. But the truth is you simply have to experience it for yourself. I loved Welch’s story and I fully intend to search out and read the rest of the Saving Angels series so that I can fully experience the tale that Welch intends to tell. I hope you’ll give them a try too.

And I hope you’ll be touched as deeply as I was.

Purchase Your Copy of Marigny Street today:

 

Amazon

 

And to learn more about the books in the Saving Angels series, visit Welch's website.