Spotlight: The Unicorn Tree

About the Book
A teenage girl whose brother is lost at sea…the diary of a nineteenth-century woman…and the special place that binds them.

Lisa Duncan, a seventeen-year-old high school senior, has an assignment to tour historic Mirabelle Manor, a large estate built in 1850 by a sea captain for his wife. During the tour, she begins to suspect that Mirabelle’s ghost is watching her. One of the items on display is a diary, open to a passage about going to a place called the unicorn tree to watch for ships. This appeals to Lisa whose brother is currently sailing across the Atlantic on a commemorative voyage. When news arrives that his ship is lost at sea, her interest in the diary deepens as the past and present lead her to discover what happened.

About the Author

Cynthia Collins writes stories that combine the past and present through historical settings with the aid of ghosts and family. She is a two-time award winner of The Storyteller magazine's People's Choice Award - 1st Place Fiction. She had every intention of pursuing a classical music career but, after moving to New York City, spent her spare time watching the ships in New York Harbor. This led to volunteering, sail training, and employment at various maritime historic sites. As a result, she has written both fiction and numerous non-fiction articles about historic house museums and tall ships. 

She is from Jefferson City, Missouri, graduated from Drury University in Springfield, Missouri with a Bachelor of Music, received a certificate from the Salzburg Universitat Summer School in Salzburg, Austria, and studied music composition at Mannes School of Music in New York. 

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Disclosure: this post contains links to an affiliate program (Amazon), for which I receive a few cents if you make purchases.

Spotlight: Acts of Courage

Book Blurb:
Fen has been busy. He took an unexpected trip, hung around some important people – who are also dead – all the while keeping a deep secret.

Fenmore Jacks does things on a grand scale. His personality is huge. His wit is enviable, especially among the other fourth graders. And his school career? It is a colossal – failure. He has to hide the fact that he is dyslexic, and he uses his behavior to do it.

Learning through reading has become an impossible feat, and he wants to quit school, but it’s not looking good since he is only ten. One day, something bizarre happens. He is whisked away and finds himself journeying with George Rogers Clark on a seemingly impossible expedition during the Revolutionary War. While learning the historical facts in Acts of Courage, Fen learns even more about himself, which is a much greater lesson. He is shocked as he discovers who he really can be. He finds that just because he feels fear does not mean that he lacks courage, and he finds that maybe, just maybe, his dyslexia is more a gift than the disability he thought it was.

About the Author:

Pamela Horner lives in Bedford, Indiana. She has taught English for over twenty years to middle school students. She enjoys reading several different genres but truly has a pull toward historical fiction since it teaches a lot of accurate information but in a more interesting format.

She has a YA fantasy collection of short stories out called Rats, Pumpkins, and Other Rumors and has also written her first YA historical fiction novel, Acts of Courage. Both books are in e-books and paperback formats.  The Amazon link and contact information for Pamela:

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Spotlight: The Fairy Boy of Calton Hill

Book Blurb:

Liam, a young loner boy who recently lost his father, is befriended by G, a different kind of Fairy from what he is use too, on top of Edinburgh's Calton Hill, when she breaks the strict rules of her troubled, magical world and intervenes after Liam is beaten up by a gang of school bullies. 

Immediately G and Liam form a deep bond of friendship that takes them on a whirlwind adventure inside her fantastical but dark world, from the great cliffs of doom and the flesh eating forest to the great lake of Silence, and all the weird and wonderful creatures that inhabit them, from fire wolves and rainbow dragons to the more sinister lurking Weasel bats. 

But G's world is no longer the tranquil haven it once was, and is now a world ruled by a tyrant Fairy King, his mysterious evil wizard, Zorn, and their army of Wretchids - a half goblin, half werewolf mix breed creature, with one hell of a bite. 

Things take a darker turn when Liam, looking to impress his new crush, the pretty and feisty Irish girl next door, Lucy, secretly brings her into the magical world, but against the wishes of his new fairy friend. And when the Fairy King captures the young trespassing teens, instead of executing them on the spot, he decides, with the help of his cruel wizard, to play a wicked and manipulative game, where the pair must complete a seemingly simple task in order to win back their freedom.

Author Bio
Born in London to Scottish and Irish parents, Sean spent most of his childhood and teenage years growing up on the move in the likes of Cyprus, Germany, Wales and England as an army brat. With a keen interest in both reading and writing he was diagnosed with the travel and writing bugs very early on in life.

Now, writing, reading and traveling are his main passions in life, but he also loves outdoor sports too from Rugby and Hiking to Tennis and Boxing.

His main inspiration for writing today comes from living in such a beautiful, Gothic and hauntingly, awe inspiring city such as Edinburgh. This charming wee city has given Sean so much amazing inspiration to write the more time he spends there.

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Spotlight: The Dean Machine

            Meet Dan Delacor, an utterly boring citizen of Yellow City. Every day he puts on his yellow shoes, yellow shirt, yellow pants, and yellow tie, and catches a ride on the Tunnel Runner from the suburbs into downtown. He has a job, a home, and a girlfriend, and he never wonders what waits beyond the giant glass wall that surrounds Yellow City.

Except… Dan isn’t as boring as he seems. He often wonders why everything in Yellow City has to be yellow. He wonders why he suffers frequent anxiety attacks, and why he can’t help himself from strolling through dangerous neighborhoods, or running wildly through the fields that separate downtown from the suburbs. Mostly though, Dan wonders why he can’t remember how he lost his right arm, or anything that happened before five years ago.

            So, when Dan’s mundane yellow world is interrupted with the seemingly impossible presence of a little red dog named Dean, he quickly finds out there are answers to his questions, and that everything he knows is a lie.

            Follow Dan as he learns the secrets of his true identity, the scope of the world beyond the wall, and the true intentions of Yellow City’s mysterious leader, Chancellor Elgrey Vinsidian. Meet Wendy, the twelve-year-old girl on a rescue mission, Echo Valkzdokker, the woman with a love for danger, James Perkins, the wily pilot who has a way with words, and Bianna Kensington, the cold-mannered rebel with a cause. Look through the cracks of this new world with Dan as he learns why his little friend is nicknamed The Dean Machine, what special bond they share, and why the dog deserves a legacy that should live on forever.

He lives to love.

He would die to protect.

His heart is a machine.

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