Monday, January 26, 2026

#BookBlitz: Long Lost Midwife by @skyesmith_writer @RABTBookTours



 


Historical Fiction | Race & Identity | Women’s Stories | 1930s America

Date Published: September 19, 2025

Publisher: MindStir Media



Set against the charged racial landscape of 1934 St. Louis, Long Lost Midwife is a gripping historical novel about identity, obsession, and the dangerous cost of defying social order.

Pamela appears to be a privileged young white socialite, newly married and expecting her first child. But beneath the polished surface lies a restless, unsettled woman struggling against the suffocating expectations placed upon her. As her pregnancy advances, Pamela becomes fixated on one thing: finding Miss Minnie, the Black midwife who delivered her at home in 1911.

Her request ignites fierce resistance. Both families condemn the idea, and Pamela’s husband, Frank, fearing scandal and loss of control, tightens his grip—bringing in relatives to monitor her movements and even hiring surveillance to ensure she never makes contact with the midwife. Determined and increasingly reckless, Pamela secretly pressures her Black maid to help locate Miss Minnie, setting in motion a chain of events neither family can contain.

What begins as a quiet domestic drama escalates into a volatile confrontation with race, power, and truth. As long-buried histories surface, the search for a midwife becomes a catalyst for racial tension, betrayal, and violence—raising the chilling question: will this birth end in life… or murder?

Long Lost Midwife starts with measured restraint and builds relentlessly toward a tempestuous, unforgettable conclusion. It is a haunting exploration of white blindness, Black resilience, and the fragile illusions that sustain privilege in early 20th-century America.

#AudioBookTour: Treacherous Hack by @KGChapman @RABTBookTours #Giveaway






Mike Stoneman #7


Mystery / Thriller / Police Procedural

Date Published: 01-04-2026

Publisher: First Legacy Publishing



From the award-winning Mike Stoneman Thriller series comes Book #7 — a gripping crime thriller set in the heart of a frozen New York City.


When electronics store owner Lou Palazzo is gunned down at a snowy Manhattan intersection, NYPD homicide detectives Mike Stoneman and Jason Dickson catch a case that’s anything but ordinary. Back at Lou’s shop, two Chinese nationals linked to a powerful Shanghai cybercrime ring are dead. The only clue? A missing laptop computer, possibly containing something Lou was willing to die to protect.


Meanwhile, NYU student Ryan Gelb is panicking. His hacked laptop held the stolen university data — data he quietly gave to his Uncle Lou. Now Lou is dead, and whoever killed him is coming for the file. . . and for Ryan.

Caught between international cybercriminals, New York mobsters, and the police, Ryan is desperate to recover the file and avoid being expelled — or worse, executed.


As Mike and Jason untangle a web of secrets, lies, and digital deception, they're met with stonewalling from all sides: NYU won’t talk, witnesses are hiding the truth, and even their closest allies are keeping dangerous secrets.

With the body count rising and a deadly showdown looming, the race is on to solve the mystery, recover the missing file, and avoid turning Lower Manhattan into a bloodbath.


Perfect for fans of Michael Connelly, John Sandford, and David Baldacci, this high-stakes police procedural mixes hard-boiled action, cybercrime intrigue, and unforgettable characters in a page-turning thriller you won’t be able to put down.

#BookReview: Firebird (The Fire That Binds #1) by @juliettecrossauthor

Book Cover
Synopsis:
DELUXE EDITION—featuring beautiful original illustrated stenciled edges with a foil case stamp, and designed endpapers!

An instant New York Times bestseller!

House of the Dragon meets From Blood and Ash in this epic, scorching dark romantasy.


A conqueror captivated…
A witch prophesied to save them all…
An unforgiving world where dragons rule Rome.

Julian Dakkia, Roman general and nephew to the emperor, has played his role as conqueror well. Yet, the moment he laid eyes on Malina, he was enthralled by the Dacian dancer. Years later, the fierce beauty stands before him, a captive on a scarred battlefield, her life in danger. He instinctively shifts into his fierce dragon form to save her, an action that may mean his head on the imperial gate.

The rules of their world dictate that he is the conqueror and she is the captured. But he and his dragon know one thing: their bond has nothing to do with the laws of mighty Rome. She belongs to them. And they belong to her.

Fierce and powerful, twenty-one-year old Malina has survived the loss of her family and she is determined to fight until her dying breath. Still, she can’t believe that the centurion who had once bestowed a secret talisman on her is the Roman general of legendary brutality…and now holds her life in his hands. Nor can she deny how her soul has always seemed to answer his. Slowly she learns that Julian is caught in his mad uncle’s machinations for domination, and helps him plot the downfall of the empire itself.

As they navigate a world where flying deathriders conquer and burn, their love will ignite a firestorm that can only end in heartbreak or death. Or both.

Firebird is a fantasy with some dark themes, including elements of master/slave relationship, attempted sexual assault (not between MCs), and dubious consent (not between MCs). Readers who may be sensitive to these elements, please take note.

Saturday, January 24, 2026

Sometimes It Feels Like It Is Not Worth It


Sometimes, do you ever sit there and think… is this even worth it?

I've been book blogging on Crossroad Reviews since 2010. That is a long time to pour your heart into something. I do not make money most of the time. There are no big influencer checks, no brand deals, no viral moments paying my bills. I do it because I genuinely love books and I love helping authors get their stories out into the world.

#BookBlitz: The Eternal Flame & the Children of the Promise by #PJPatrickFlynn @RABTBookTours





Christian Non-Fiction

Date Published: December 23, 2025



The Eternal Flame and the Children of the Promise traces the thread of God's covenant promises through Scripture and history, showing how the "eternal flame" of God's purpose has been guarded, opposed, and carried forward to our own generation. It is written for thoughtful lay believers and seekers, pastors, and small group leaders who feel the weight of current events and want to test every headline against the unshakeable promises of God rather than speculation or fear.

Drawing on careful biblical exegesis, historical research, and engagement with contemporary scholarship, it seeks to equip readers to recognize the patterns of God's dealings with His people, discern the times without sensationalism, and anchor their hope where Scripture does: in the faithfulness of the One who calls Himself "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

By the end, readers will better understand where we are in the story of redemption—and what it means to live as children of the promise in an age of upheaval.

Friday, January 23, 2026

#BookTour: The Bridge of Fire by @maria___karamanou @rrbooktours



The Bridge of Fire 

Release Date: October 2024

Genre: Gothic Mystery/ Thriller

Cover Artist: @selkkiedesigns

Haunted village
Trauma-bonded sisters
Hidden diary mystery
Prophetic dreams
Femme fatale revenge arc
Morally grey love interest
Dark family secrets
Deadly games & deception

In the quiet village of Snowshill, where shadows linger longer than the daylight, two sisters uncover a truth that was never meant to surface.

Victoria is haunted by vivid, prophetic dreams, visions that pull her toward a darkness buried deep within the village’s past. When she and her sister, Alice, discover a hidden diary detailing a string of unsolved murders, they awaken something ancient… and vengeful.

Alice, driven by pain and a dangerous need for retribution, slips into the underbelly of Snowshill, gambling, deceiving, and risking everything to chase a justice that could consume her. But the deeper she goes, the more she realizes her greatest enemy may not be the monsters lurking in the shadows… but the truth she’s been running from.

As history threatens to repeat itself, the sisters must confront the secrets that shaped them, the evil infecting their bloodline, and a destiny that has been waiting for them in the dark.

Some secrets were never meant to be found.
Some murders were never meant to be solved.
And in Snowshill… the truth always demands a sacrifice.

In the end, one haunting question remains: Who will survive to tell the tale of Snowshill?

A gothic psychological thriller about sisterhood, trauma, revenge, and the thin line between love and destruction

Beyond Smut: The Art and Evolution of Erotic Fantasy Selene Wilderwind

Book Cover
Synopsis:
Erotic Fantasy is rarely examined as literature. More often, it is dismissed, marginalized, or misclassified—treated as indulgence rather than as a meaningful narrative form.

Beyond Smut is a work of literary criticism and cultural analysis that examines Erotic Fantasy as an artistic, historical, and symbolic genre. Rather than approaching sexuality as provocation or entertainment, this book analyzes how desire functions within myth, worldbuilding, symbolism, and narrative power—alongside themes such as transformation, authority, ritual, and identity.

Tracing the genre’s roots from ancient mythologies and sacred traditions through periods of censorship and moral regulation, Demosthenes Ignis maps how Erotic Fantasy has been shaped, constrained, and misunderstood across time. The book explores how intimacy operates as a structural narrative force—one capable of driving character development, cultural meaning, and imaginative systems as profoundly as war, prophecy, or political conflict.

This is not erotic fiction. It contains no explicit scenes and is not written for arousal. It is a critical examination of how sexuality has been encoded, suppressed, and reclaimed within speculative and fantastical storytelling traditions.

Written for readers, writers, and theorists interested in literature, semiotics, and cultural power, Beyond Smut argues that Erotic Fantasy deserves recognition not as a niche indulgence, but as a legitimate and historically grounded mode of artistic expression.