Check out the cover for this upcoming release... Long Trail Home by Lacy Williams (Cover Reveal & #Giveaway) #longtrailhome #wagontrainmatches #lacywilliams #newbooks #bookx #christfic #christianromance @justreadtours

I'm taking part in the cover reveal for this new Christian historical romance, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours. Check it out and enter the giveaway below...

Long Trail Home

(Wagon Train Matches #9)

By Lacy Williams

Christian Historical Romance

eBook

February 26, 2026 by Lacy Williams Books LLC

Summary

All roads lead home in the dramatic conclusion to one family’s journey of love, sacrifice, and survival. 

Since the moment he saw her, Coop Spencer has been single-minded in his quest to protect Belle. She’s running from something—someone—and he’s never met anyone so scared. When the wagon master forces an ultimatum: a marriage or Belle is expelled from the wagon train, Coop makes the only choice he can. He’ll do everything in his power to prove he's the kind of man she can trust. But overcoming the mistakes of his past may prove too much... 

Belle knows that the danger she escaped is still out there, still hunting her. Experience has taught her that she can't rely on anyone, not even the man who promised their marriage was in name only. 

As they traverse the Oregon Trail together, Belle is taken in by Coop’s big family, and the more time she spends with her temporary husband and his siblings, the more she starts to long for something she'd forgotten ages ago: home. 

When danger closes in, one of them must sacrifice everything for love...

• Forced marriage of convenience
• Redemption
• Family saga
• Heroine with a dark past/sworn off men

(Affiliate link included.)

Goodreads | Amazon

About the Author

With multiple hits on the USA Today and Publishers' Weekly bestseller lists and more than 1 million copies sold, Lacy Williams has won the hearts of readers worldwide with her heartwarming romances set in the rugged beauty of the American West. A proud Oklahoman, she balances writing with the joyful chaos of raising four children and snuggling her fur babies.

Connect with Lacy by visiting lacywilliams.net to follow her on social media or subscribe to email newsletter updates.

Cover Reveal Giveaway

(1) winner will receive a paperback copy of A Trail so Lonesome and ebook copies of the rest of the series!

Be sure to check out each stop on the tour for more chances to win. Full tour schedule linked below. Giveaway began at midnight October 16, 2025 and lasts through 11:59 PM EST on October 23, 2025. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.

Enter Giveaway

Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!

What do you think of the cover? Have you read other books by this author or in this genre?

Can't Wait for... Revenge, Served Royal by Celeste Connally (Can't-Wait Wednesday) #CWW #WOW #bookx #newbooks #RevengeServedRoyal #CelesteConnally #histfic #historicalfiction #mystery #cozymystery #suspense

Can't-Wait Wednesday  is a weekly meme hosted here to spotlight the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they're books that have yet to be released. Find out more here.

This one looks and sounds like it will be an absolute delight to read! It's my pick this week...

Revenge, Served Royal

(Lady Petra Inquiries #3)

By Celeste Connally

Adult Historical Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Suspense

Hardcover & eBook, 336 Pages

November 11, 2025 by Minotaur Books

Summary

Bridgerton meets Agatha Christie in this dazzling third instalment to the captivating Regency-era Lady Petra Inquires mystery series.

September, 1815. Autumn is in the air as Lady Petra Forsyth and some of the most illustrious members of the ton descend upon Windsor Castle for a week of royal celebrations, with the highlight being Queen Charlotte’s inaugural patisserie contest for the best bakers employed by England’s finest houses. Not only is Lady Petra’s own cook one of the contestants, but Her Majesty has requested that Petra herself serve as one of the judges.

Petra’s happiness at tasting delicious cakes and biscuits only increases at finding her beloved Aunt Ophelia in attendance at Windsor, as well as Sir Rufus Pomeroy. As England’s most famous former royal chef-turned-cookbook author, Sir Rufus is slated to present his best recipes to the Queen during the festivities, with Petra being granted an early viewing in the royal library.

Yet upon arrival, Petra instead encounters a frantic housemaid pointing to a body of one of Her Majesty’s guests―and to the valet still tugging at the silk ribbon used to strangle the victim. What’s more, the valet turns out to be Oliver Beecham, the ne’er-do-well brother of Petra’s own lady’s maid, Annie. But as Oliver is hauled away to the dungeons, he protests his innocence, claiming the late guest argued with several aristocrats, including the Prince Regent and Petra’s Aunt Ophelia, and boasted about hiding a potentially scandalous document within the vastness of Windsor Castle.

When some poisoned tea meant for Petra is consumed by one of her fellow judges, it’s clear the real killer is still walking the castle’s halls. Indeed, in order to prove the innocence of Annie’s brother and find the incriminating document, Petra will need to act like a lady, eat like a chef, and think like one of Her Majesty’s best spies before a murderer can turn the celebrations from sweet to royally deadly.

(Affiliate links included.)

Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop | B&N

Will you be reading this one?

An intriguing and thought-provoking sci-fi... Singularity by Shannon McDermott (Review & #Giveaway) #Singularity #TheEternitiesDuology #ShannonMcDermott #newbooks #bookx #scifi @celebrate_lit

Welcome to my tour stop! Read my review and enter the giveaway below ...

Singularity

(The Eternities Duology #2)

By Shannon McDermott

Science Fiction

Audiobook, Hardcover & eBook, 256 Pages

October 7, 2025 by Enclave Publishing

Summary

Machines in rebellion, humanity on the brink…

Lila Stanislaw, a freelance analyst with a roster of foreign clients, is summoned by the U.S. government to hunt down a mysterious threat. She joins a team of strangers with pasts as colorful as her own. The mission spirals when they discover that the AI created to run the new colony on Mars has gone rogue on Earth. As the conflict mounts to war, Speaker of the House Manasseh Cruz joins the fight with an implacable will to destroy the enemy. But the team, racing to find any vulnerability, must first confront the question of what the AI truly is.

As robots stalk the landscape and toxins poison the air, Lila is certain that the AI must be completely destroyed for the good of humanity. But she will find that not all humans, or even all of her teammates, agree.Machines in rebellion, humanity on the brink…

Lila Stanislaw, a freelance analyst with a roster of foreign clients, is summoned by the U.S. government to hunt down a mysterious threat. She joins a team of strangers with pasts as colorful as her own. The mission spirals when they discover that the AI created to run the new colony on Mars has gone rogue on Earth. As the conflict mounts to war, Speaker of the House Manasseh Cruz joins the fight with an implacable will to destroy the enemy. But the team, racing to find any vulnerability, must first confront the question of what the AI truly is.

As robots stalk the landscape and toxins poison the air, Lila is certain that the AI must be completely destroyed for the good of humanity. But she will find that not all humans, or even all of her teammates, agree.

(Affiliate links included.)

Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop | B&N

My Review

SINGULARITY is one of those stories with a motley crew (one of my favorite things!) with complex personalities and vague in their thoughts and intentions all working in some way to solve an ever-escalating situation. The world-building is unique and immersive with pertinent references to artificial intelligence. For sci-fi fans with who like quirky characters, government versus a faction versus and entity with characters stuck in the middle and a unique plot, this story is for you!

This story drops you right into this world and its characters. I found the plot and characters intriguing to the point that I kept picking this one up when I had time to read until I finished over just a few days. It's definitely a story that is so bizarre, original and compelling that it's hard to put down. I was so curious what all the characters would choose and how they would for and then carry out a plan. And, of course, I had to know how it all would end. There were also so many moments that made you think about ethics, morals, corruption, humanity, intelligence and bravery. I can't say that I loved the characters. They were all so vague as was the story in places... more in not telling you what to think or what was happening, but letting you come to your own conclusion and figure things out on your own (also another plus for this story). And even thought I didn't love the characters, I found them to be fascinating and was fully invested in the outcome.

There were some things here and there that I would have liked smoothed out more. Some of the vagueness was maybe too vague? And I had trouble linking the first book in this series that I read last year and which takes place about half the time on Mars. I wanted more of a tie-in to that story.

In the end, was it what I wished for? Overall, this was a very unique, fascinating science fiction with complex characters. A story that kept me turning pages. Definitely recommended to strong sci-fi fans!

Content: Some violence, but clean.
Source: I received a complimentary copy through Celebrate Lit, which did not require a positive review. All opinions are my own.

Other Books in the Series

(Image linked to my review.)

About the Author

Shannon McDermott is an author of science fiction and has been occupied for years with constructing scenarios of the colonization of Mars. Always a fan of the genre, she reviews Christian speculative fiction with Lorehaven. Her interests include history, classic literature, and lattes. She lives in the great Midwest, where she does her best to avoid icy weather, sweltering heat, and tornadoes, according to the season.

 More from Shannon

AI looms everywhere. It lives on our devices, occupies the public discourse, and haunts the horizon. Whatever tomorrow brings, AI will be there.

Singularity—the point at which artificial intelligence becomes self-aware—is an old prophecy. Now the public is finally beginning to believe it. We already have a sense that AI is escaping us. That we don’t really understand it, can’t fully control it, and don’t know what it is becoming.

AI could go rogue. It could even develop something that might be called a soul.

Congress has held hearings on AI. Hollywood has released doomsday movies. The prophets of the twenty-first century have written books and articles and social media posts, trumpeting the warning signal. All are messengers of the same idea: AI, when it becomes ascendant, will not be benevolent.

Yet there is dissent. There are those who think that AI will prove both beneficial and benevolent. If I may put it this way (they wouldn’t), they welcome our new AI overlords.

The eagerness with which some people have awaited singularity is striking. There is a strain of religious feeling toward AI—not as it is, to be sure, but as it will be. They are hoping for the day when AI, surpassing humanity, will guide us into a better world. They want, as so many people have wanted, a superhuman intelligence to show them the way.

When I wrote Singularity, I incorporated both antagonism and religiosity toward AI. I have my own viewpoint, but I wanted to represent the most likely reactions if AI turned against us. The divide over whether such an AI should be treated as a person or a machine, a potential friend or an irreconcilable enemy, would be sharp and weighty. And the AI could not be defined without also defining humanity.

The singularity of AI confronts us with the singularity of humanity. Are we truly unique, truly singular? And if so, how?

These questions create the double meaning of the title Singularity. I wrote Singularity to explore the concept of AI. By a logical necessity, it became also an inquiry into the nature of humanity. This novel presents one vision of the singularity, and raises the universal questions of artificial intelligence.

Tour Schedule

The Lofty Pages, October 11

Simple Harvest Reads, October 12 (Author Interview)

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, October 13

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, October 14 (Spotlight)

Wishful Endings, October 14

Texas Book-aholic, October 15

Artistic Nobody, October 16 (Author Interview)

CeCe Reads and Sings, October 16

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, October 17

Fiction Book Lover, October 18 (Author Interview)

Book Butterfly in Dreamland, October 19

Tell Tale Book Reviews, October 20 (Author Interview)

For Him and My Family, October 21

Guild Master, October 22 (Spotlight)

Blogging with Carol, October 23

Stories By Gina, October 24 (Author Interview)

Tour-Wide Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Shannon is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon Gift Card and a copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

ENTER HERE

Have you read any other books like this? What sounds intriguing about this one?

Congratulations to the 2025 Christy Award Finalists! (Event & #GIveaway) #bookx #christyawards #christfic #christianfiction @justreadtours

Welcome to the Takeover Blitz for The Christy Award Finalists 2025 organized by ECPA and hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours! We extend our sincere and enthusiastic congratulations to The Christy Award 2025 Finalists & Winners (announced on November 7th)!

You are Invited

The Christy Award Gala 2025 

 Via webcast November 7, 2025 | 7 pm CT 

 Featuring Chris Fabry, T.I. Lowe, Jessica Hooten Wilson, and a host of Christy-winning authors

This is our year to gather together VIRTUALLY to celebrate and honor the best Christian fiction of the year. The Christy Award® Gala Webcast will be held the evening of Friday, November 7th and will feature a premiere cast of the industry’s authors to announce The Christy Award winners in nine categories, The Christy Book of the Year®, and The Amplify Award for Christian Fiction.

The special evening will be hosted by radio personality and award-winning novelist Chris Fabry and will include keynotes by Fletcher Jones Chair of Great Books at Pepperdine University, Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson and award-winning and Christy Book of the Year 2024 author, T.I. Lowe. The event will also include award-winning novelists Jaime Jo Wright, Johanna Rojas Vann, Lori Z. Scott, Katie Powner, Jamie Ogle, Rachelle Nelson, Vanessa Miller, Gabrielle Meyer, Crystal Caudill and Amanda Barratt.

The Christy Award Finalists 2025

Contemporary Romance - tie

A Run at Love, Toni Shiloh (Bethany House/ Baker Publishing Group) The Nature of Love, Toni Shiloh (Bethany House/ Baker Publishing Group) The Roads We Follow, Nicole Deese (Bethany House/ Baker Publishing Group) Who Touches the Mountains, Deborah Raney (Raney Day Press)

First Novel

 

Darkfell, Amanda Wright (Quill and Flame Publishing House) Until Our Time Comes, Nicole M. Miller (Revell/ Baker Publishing Group) The Yellow Badge, Addison Crissone (Addison Crissone)

General Fiction - tie

Between the Sound and Sea, Amanda Cox (Revell/ Baker Publishing Group) Bitter and Sweet, Rhonda McKnight (Thomas Nelson) Lowcountry Lost, T.I. Lowe (Tyndale House Publishers) The Way Back, Heidi Chiavaroli (Hope Creek Publishers)

Historical

All We Thought We Knew, Michelle Shocklee (Tyndale House Publishers) Born of Gilded Mountains, Amanda Dykes (Bethany House/ Baker Publishing Group) The Queen's Cook, Tessa Afshar (Bethany House/ Baker Publishing Group)

Historical Romance - tie

As Sure as the Sea, Jamie Ogle (Tyndale House Publishers) The Elusive Truth of Lily Temple, Joanna Davidson Politano (Revell/ Baker Publishing Group) The Seaside Homecoming, Julie Klassen (Bethany House/ Baker Publishing Group) Walking on Hidden Wings, Rachel Scott McDaniel (Kregel Publications)

Mystery/Suspense/Thriller - tie

The Crown Conspiracy, Connie Mann (Tyndale House Publishers) Night Falls on Predicament Avenue, Jaime Jo Wright (Bethany House/ Baker Publishing Group) Serial Burn, Lynette Eason (Revell/ Baker Publishing Group) Shattered Sanctuary, Nancy Mehl (Bethany House/ Baker Publishing Group) Terminal Danger, Jerusha Agen (SDG Words)

Short Form - tie

A Daffodil in the Dress (within Something Borrowed), Susie Finkbeiner (Kregel Publications) Forgiving the Cowboy, Tabitha Bouldin (Love Inspired) A Heart in Disguise (within Something Borrowed), Rachel Scott McDaniel (Kregel Publications) A Letter to Eli (within Something Borrowed), Allison Pittman (Kregel Publications)

Speculative - tie

 

A Slice of Sky, Nancy Moser (Mustard Seed Press) Darkfell, Amanda Wright (Quill and Flame Publishing House) Memoria, J.J. Fischer (Enclave, a division of Oasis Family Media) Protector, Megan Schaulis (WhiteCrown, an imprint of WhiteFire Publishing)

Young Adult - tie

\

Ben Washington is the Newbie on the Block, Jasmine Mullen (Moody Publishers) The Chaos Grid, Lyndsey Lewellen (Enclave Escape, a division of Oasis Family Media) Echo Nova, Clint Hall (Enclave Escape, a division of Oasis Family Media) Jake Rogers' Planet, Philip Wilder (Great Commission Alliance)

 

Register

Register for The Christy Award 2025 Winners Webcast

The Christy Award winners webcast on November 7 at 7 p.m. CT. – free but registration is required. Celebrate this year’s finalists and winners with authors, editors, publishers, and readers!

REGISTER

The Christy Award® is a program of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) and is the foremost award honoring and promoting excellence in Christian fiction since 1999. For more information about ECPA, visit ECPA.org. For more information about the Christy Awards and Art of Writing conferences, visit ChristyAwards.com or email TheChristyAward@ecpa.org

Author and Reader Event

Join fellow readers and 46 writers at the third annual Rendezvous to celebrate Christian fiction and sweet reads. This event, modeled after the Christian Fiction Readers Retreat and organized by JustRead Publicity Tours, aims to sweeten reading and storytelling experiences with fellowship and encouragement. Activities will include corporate worship, The Christy Award webcast watch party, speaker sessions, author panels, small group discussions, games, giveaways, a pop-up book shop, and author signings.

Learn more about the 2025 Read Write Rendezvous

Registration Ends Oct 15!

Tour Giveaway

(1) winner will receive print copies of The Christy Award 2025 finalist titles for one category of their choice!

Be sure to check out each stop on the tour for more chances to win. Full tour schedule linked below. Giveaway began at midnight October 10, 2025 and lasts through 11:59 PM EST on October 17, 2025. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.

ENTER GIVEAWAY HERE

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Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!