The Maze

"From the sound of it, a maze was being constructed, and he knew what that meant: someone stood at a moral crossroads, about the make a life-changing decision. The Piper had to act quickly.

Bricks were laid using grief as a mortar. Walls were cemented in place with sorrow. Lights were forsaken in favor of darkness. Crude agonizing designs were etched into the floors, and the history of one man's sin was scrawled in painstaking detail on every inch of the dreadful place."

In the novel, The Maze, Jason Brannon takes an interesting spin on the consequences of our moral life-changing decisions and shows us what happens when we are literally on the verge of life and death. In this fantastic and wonderful written novel, we follow Jamie Burroughs, a successful businessman, husband and father who is about to stand at the threshold of a life altering choice. When his wife, Amy, confronts him about a recent bank withdrawl, she questions Jamie's intent. Is he planning on using the money as a cash payment on a hotel room to have an affair and destroy their marriage like their friends did? Jamie understands how following the clues from someone else's choice can make his wife question his choices even though that is not what he intends to do EVER. He reassures her that his vows to her are rock solid and that introduces us to the Piper, who begins to play his tempting tune to entice Jamie along another road. One that manifests during a business lunch in which his ex-girlfriend, Karen is there waitress.

Soon Jamie finds himself drawn to her in a way he cannot explain much like the rats did for the Piped Piper of Hamlin. In this interesting look at what happens in the course of our lives suddenly is transformed when Jamie literally hovers on the brink of death after attempting to follow his quest to know "What if."

Jamie finds himself literally in a maze designed by all the choices and decisions he has made over his life. It was designed by The Architect and will test his ability to view his life in a completely different way. The choice he has made not necessarily with his actions, but also his thoughts and words. He will be challenged by the race against the Minotaur who feeds on the sins present in his life. 

 "Think of this maze as one big example of cause and effect. Everything you do has a consequence here. Getting here was a consequence of intent. This place is a manifestation of your entire life. Your deeds are sewn into the fabric of this maze. Your sins are the mortar that holds these walls in place.

This game is just like everything else in your life. You're blessed more than most people, and you can't see all the good things in front of you. All you see are the problems, the trials, the tribulations, the darkness. All you see is what you don't have."

This is such a fabulous novel that speaks to the heart and soul of the reader. It makes you take a hard line approach at your own life and question things you have done. It really takes you into the deepest, darkest places of your own life and teaches us all what it really means to repent and accept Christ as our Savior. Nothing else will save us in the end. I found myself with pages of notes from this novel that I intend to apply as a measuring stick in my own life. No one is perfect and this novel takes you into the seemingly innocent things we do every single day and the consequences it has on our soul.

I'd rate The Maze by Jason Brannon a 5 out of 5 stars and look forward to digging a bit deeper into his literary works to find even more surprises tucked inside. I received this novel compliment of Pump Up Your Book Tours and Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable review aside for a free copy of this novel and the opinions contained here are my personal and honest ones.. For those of you that wonder just how innocent your lives are, I'd encourage you to check this one and and re-evaluate what you find inside.

For more information about The Maze, Jason Brannon or where to pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:

The Maze - The Lost Labyrinth by Jason Brannon

You can find Jason Brannon on Facebook to stay up to date on all his latest novels. 

To read more reviews on The Maze, please visit Pump Up Your Book Tour page. 

The Ticket

Some people never realize how difficult it can be growing up and dealing with all the stereotypes in school. From those social group "clicks" to just knowing how to process what teens deal with in school to making that transition from home all while dealing with the changing of hormones and brain development. Harder than it looks and one we don't give them enough credit for.

In Debra Coleman Jeter's coming of age novel, The Ticket, we get a long look at how hard that life is for Tray Dunaway who has to deal with all those peer pressures that come from going to school and being seen as less than worthy in the eyes of not only her classmates but also from her own mother. Being raised in a poor family, her grandmother painstakingly makes all of Tray's clothes which are mocked by those she faces whenever she goes to school. This pushes Tray to become the shy social outcast who prefers to stay by herself whenever possible but longs for a life that everyone seems to have who have more than she does. She desperately wants to fit in and be accepted, but finds those opportunities have been shut off from her.

She longs for the day when she might be able to buy something that would make her feel the way she dreams about and in the meantime, spends those wasted moments looking through a catalog hoping one day soon, she might be able to buy something instead of homemade clothes. Her mother struggles with a deep depression, spending her days stuck in bed and dealing with migraines that only seem to increase whenever Tray possess a question about when things might change, like simply being able to buy a new pair of socks that won't slide down when she wears them, but is met with less than worth responses you would expect from a mother. When her father is given a lottery ticket as a way of thanking him for driving a man into town to purchase his, they aren't prepared the amount of problems that they will have to face when they actually win. Is this the life she dreamed she'd have one day or is this simply a way of introducing a set of problems they never dreamed they would have when the man suddenly wants a share of the winnings!

I received The Ticket by Debra Coleman Jeter compliments of Firefly Southern Fiction, a division of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas, and Christian Fiction Blog Alliance for my honest opinion. I did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable review and the opinions contained here are strictly my own. The one thing I truly loved about this novel is how it is written from Tray's perspective. How she views her life before the ticket and even afterwards. How she believes money will change things and doesn't realize how greed can destroy much more than poverty can. She dreams of a day when this might happen, and when it does, the reality is a lot different than what she imagines and it might be just what the family needs to learn how to appreciate the riches they never noticed before. I give this one a 4.5 out of 5 stars in my opinion and thing this is a great young adult novel for any teen struggling to find their sense of purpose and self worth in the world, when faced with seeing things through a different perspective!

For more information about The Ticket, Debra Coleman Jeter or where you can pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:

The Ticket by Debra Coleman Jeter

You can find Debra Coleman Jeter on Facebook to stay up to date on all her latest books.

To read more reviews on The Ticket, please stop by Christian Fiction Blog Alliance's Book Tour page. 

The Maze - The Lost Labyrinth

"From the sound of it, a maze was being constructed, and he knew what that meant: someone stood at a moral crossroads, about the make a life-changing decision. The Piper had to act quickly.

Bricks were laid using grief as a mortar. Walls were cemented in place with sorrow. Lights were forsaken in favor of darkness. Crude agonizing designs were etched into the floors, and the history of one man's sin was scrawled in painstaking detail on every inch of the dreadful place."

In the novel, The Maze - The Lost Labyrinth, Jason Brannon takes an interesting spin on the consequences of our moral life-changing decisions and shows us what happens when we are literally on the verge of life and death. In this fantastic and wonderful written novel, we follow Jamie Burroughs, a successful businessman, husband and father who is about to stand at the threshold of a life altering choice. When his wife, Amy, confronts him about a recent bank withdrawl, she questions Jamie's intent. Is he planning on using the money as a cash payment on a hotel room to have an affair and destroy their marriage like their friends did? Jamie understands how following the clues from someone else's choice can make his wife question his choices even though that is not what he intends to do EVER. He reassures her that his vows to her are rock solid and that introduces us to the Piper, who begins to play his tempting tune to entice Jamie along another road. One that manifests during a business lunch in which his ex-girlfriend, Karen is there waitress.

Soon Jamie finds himself drawn to her in a way he cannot explain much like the rats did for the Piped Piper of Hamlin. In this interesting look at what happens in the course of our lives suddenly is transformed when Jamie literally hovers on the brink of death after attempting to follow his quest to know "What if."

Jamie finds himself literally in a maze designed by all the choices and decisions he has made over his life. It was designed by The Architect and will test his ability to view his life in a completely different way. The choice he has made not necessarily with his actions, but also his thoughts and words. He will be challenged by the race against the Minotaur who feeds on the sins present in his life. 

 "Think of this maze as one big example of cause and effect. Everything you do has a consequence here. Getting here was a consequence of intent. This place is a manifestation of your entire life. Your deeds are sewn into the fabric of this maze. Your sins are the mortar that holds these walls in place.

This game is just like everything else in your life. You're blessed more than most people, and you can't see all the good things in front of you. All you see are the problems, the trials, the tribulations, the darkness. All you see is what you don't have."

This is such a fabulous novel that speaks to the heart and soul of the reader. It makes you take a hard line approach at your own life and question things you have done. It really takes you into the deepest, darkest places of your own life and teaches us all what it really means to repent and accept Christ as our Savior. Nothing else will save us in the end. I found myself with pages of notes from this novel that I intend to apply as a measuring stick in my own life. No one is perfect and this novel takes you into the seemingly innocent things we do every single day and the consequences it has on our soul.

I'd rate The Maze, The Lost Labyrinth by Jason Brannon a 5 out of 5 stars and look forward to digging a bit deeper into his literary works to find even more surprises tucked inside. I received this novel as a self purchase and received no monetary compensation for a favorable review. For those of you that wonder just how innocent your lives are, I'd encourage you to check this one and and re-evaluate what you find inside.

For more information about The Maze - The Lost Labyrinth, Jason Brannon or where to pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:

The Maze - The Lost Labyrinth by Jason Brannon

Redeeming Grace

The one thing I've come to realize in life is that you can't outrun your past. No matter how much you try to hide it, unless you confront it head on, it will find you especially when it comes to politics. There is always someone willing to dig into closets to find the skeletons we kept in our past to bring them to light once again. In other cases, people will use such skeletons to blackmail people into accomplishing their own agendas and without involving themselves in it personally.

In the latest novel, Redeeming Grace by Ward Tannenberg, he uses these elements to create such a mind boggling story you can't help but wonder just how much of this could be used even today to create a master puppet show involving our own government leaders. While they receive the blame for the decisions they make, the rest of us refuse to accept the fact that they could be blackmailed into performing atrocities. We don't see the real show going on behind the scenes.

Such is the case with Grace Grafton, the main character in Redeeming Grace. Grace is the catalyst that ignites the firestorm of controversy and shows how things can escalate quite innocently and yet all are tied together. Grace was part of a controversy that happened seven years ago. She and two of her friends, Ilene and Bonnie Jo were hired as escorts to simply provide conversation and act as female dining companions for some high level political men at a dinner party. However when they arrive and things are not as they should be, it becomes apparent that the men have more on their minds then simply dinner. Things turn ugly and soon Grace has to flee for her life. It's a secret she has kept hidden this long because those high level political men are now in the running for president and vice president and they know that Grace is the wild card they need to gain control of.

I received Redeeming Grace by Ward Tanneberg compliments of Christian Fiction Blog Alliance and Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas for my honest review. The story is exceptional once you ignore some of the inconsistencies that you may come across. In one scene Ilene is referred to as Irene and you find yourself stopping and wondering what just happened. In other places in the book, paragraphs and sentences repeat themselves one after another as if this book made it to publishing without a good and thorough edit. However, taking that all aside, this is an incredible book. It engaged me after about the 7th chapter due to the introductions of all the characters taking place at the beginning of subsequent chapters and then a vague prologue makes you wondering how it all connects. But trust me when I say, stick with it! It's so worth it and caught me staying up way to late to attempt to finish it. It was that hard to put down. It felt like a blend of Ransom and Taken mixed together to create a great suspense thriller that you wonder how it will all turn out. I rate this one a 4 out of 5 stars!

For more information about Redeeming Grace, Ward Tanneberg, or where you can pick up a copy of this book today, please click on the links below:

Redeeming Grace by Ward Tanneberg

You can also find Ward Tanneberg on Facebook to stay up to date with all his latest novels.

You can also read more reviews on Redeeming Grace from the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance Book Tour by clicking here. 

My Father's Business

"The only reliable way to be truly guided by God is to assimilate the Word of God to your character...Scripture reveals God's will only if we allow His Holy Spirit to apply it to our circumstances." ~ Oswald Chambers.

Have you ever wondered what it means to discern God's Will for your life? How can you hear His call? The word discernment comes from two Latin words: discernere (to perceive) and discretis (to separate). To discern God's voice and will is to converse with Him. In both Hebrew and Greek, the word will means "to yearn." When we say, "Lord, Your will be done," we are asking God to infuse His deepest yearnings into our spirit and alter the circumstances of our lives in order that we may grow. God sees beyond our past and knows our secret desires, even those desires yet to be born. "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express" (Romans 8:26, NIV).

As you seek to discern and do God's will, ask the following questions:

Will this course of action use my gifts, talents, and passions?

How has my previous experience prepared me for this task?

Will this new opportunity cause me to be more loving?

Is this an expansion of my influence for God?

Will I feel more fulfilled and have a greater sense of inner peace?

Who will benefit from my actions?

What will it cost me and my family?

Is this a time sensitive opportunity?

We often complicate the business of knowing God's will, but His word is clear: "And You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:13, NKJV) Those who seek and ask, hear His voice. The devotional stories in this book, illustrate how others have heard God's call and heeded his voice. My prayer is that you, too, will learn to recognize God's voice so that you will be able to both discern and to do his will." (pg 9-10).

In this wonderful inspirational book, My Father's Business connects some well known celebrities and tells us their personal story of how they were able to discern what God's will was for them in their own lives despite what others felt about their decision. For example the story of Walt Disney following his dream to build a magical theme park for families. He had it all planned out in his head, but those around him saw it as merely a large piece of dirt and sage filled land. Walt had to help them "see" his vision. Along with this story that reader is taken into the Bible, to the prophet Joel who spoke of a vision he had when God would pour out His Spirit on His people and infuse them with new visions. As the conclusion of each chapter, there are some study questions for the reader to dig into the Bible deeper for more understanding on what it means to work towards God's will in your life and some opportunities to pray for others along the way.

I received My Father's Business by Eddie Jones compliments of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas, The Kindred and The Vessel Project for my honest review. I've always been a fan of using short stories like Jesus used parables to define life lessons for us. These stories that Eddie Jones have compiled are much like modern day parables for us to discern and move us forward in finding out what God's will is for us in our own lives. This can be used for individual or small group Bible study's or merely for your own enjoyment. There are numerous quotes from Oswald Chambers at the beginning of each chapter to inspire you to further introspection. I easily rate this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars.

For more information on My Father's Business,Eddie Jones, or where to pick up a copy of this book today, please click on the links below:

My Father's Business by Eddie Jones

You can also find Eddie Jones on Facebook by clicking here. 

To read more reviews from The Vessel Project by clicking here.