Welcome to 12 Months of Reading! Each month in 2024, I will host a different reading challenge category. These categories are broad, and, chances are, whatever you’re reading may fit in them.
To celebrate the fun of my LAM Summer Reading Challenge, I encourage you to read a book by one of this year’s Featured Authors. Keep reading for links to join the challenge and learn more about all the authors, but first … allow me to introduce these five books and their lovely authors!
Muffalettas and Murder: Evangeline Delafose is finding Graisseville, Louisiana, just as she remembered—boring and uneventful. Until her brother Nate asks her to help solve a murder. Follow Ev as she navigates clues, dead bodies, and quirky small-town residents to solve a mystery. And of course, show her little brother that she’s still got it.
Jann Franklin: Muffalettas and Murder begins her collection of Small Town Girl Mysteries. A faith-based author, Jann has also produced the Small Town Girl Life Series. She sets her stories in fictional Graisseville, LA, but the characters and their adventures are true-to-life. Her books combine elements of small town values, hilarity and hope.
Regeneration: One foster kid. Two worlds. If she can’t catch a dangerous convict, she’s going to lose the only thing she cares about in either of them. Her foster parents.
Cassie Greutman: Regeneration, a 2022 regional Indie Author Project winner, kicks off her Penchant for Trouble series with a pop! Cassie marries realistic characters in the foster system with portals to fantastic realms and the fae. A lifelong writer and avid horse lover, Cassie never strays far from a computer, book or horse stall.
Abigail’s Song: Cast out from her home after her mother’s death, orphan Abigail Jones wanders around her English town on Christmas Eve of 1809. Desperately trying to suppress her cough—the same that killed her mother—Abigail begs for coins on the freezing cold streets. With the help of the medical student, Oli Higgins, she recovers and avoids being sent to the cruel orphanage. Oli then reveals his secret: he is hiding his Jewish identity and his birth name, David Fridman, to pursue his chosen profession. He brings her into his devout, loving Jewish home. Over time, she embraces her found family and discovers her talent for music.
Alina Rubin: Abigail’s Song, Alina’s latest release, begins a new series: Hearts and Harmony. Related, yet separate, this and her Hearts and Sails series combine to showcase two heroines, strong in different ways. An award-winning author of historical fiction, Alina lights up when she discusses her characters and the research behind them.
Harper and the Raptor Rescue: Harper wants to be at Critter Camp more than anything but she didn’t expect so many of the critters to be birds. Birds would be fine if she wasn’t terrified of them — especially the meat-eating ones. She’s determined to make friends and face her fears, until she comes face-to-face with one tiny owl. Who knew something so small could cause such big problems?
Kizzi Roberts: Harper and the Raptor Rescue introduces middle grade readers to a camp full of friends: human, furry, feathered and scaled. Young readers discover problem-solving strategies, learn about creatures and witness budding friendships in the Critter Camp Kids Series. An author and illustrator, Kizzi has also produced a collection of whimsical picture books.
One Good Thing: Through a series of unsent letters to the sweetheart he left behind, Jack Calhoun unpacks his rage and grief and wrestles with questions of the soul like, “Who am I?” Rachael Burns, the girl he left, uses her journal to make sense of his abandonment.
Joy E. Rancatore: One Good Thing completes her collection of Southern fiction with Christian roots. Told around multiple related characters, this collection explores faith, life, death and the demons within through four mediums—novel, novella, short stories and epistolary. An award-winning, multi-genre Indie Author, Joy believes extraordinary things await her characters and their tales.
For a chance to win autographed copies of each of these books, sit in on a live chat with each of the authors and have a summer full of bookish fun, head to the LAM Summer Reading hub page to join. It’s as easy as 1-2-3! https://joyerancatore.com/summer-reading/
I’d love to hear which book (or books) you read! Drop a comment below to let me know what you’re reading. Mark your calendar for June 6 and plan to join my virtual LAM Book Club to share your favorite bits with fellow readers.
What will you read? Comment below with your choice. Return once you’ve finished to share your review and thoughts. Remember to #ShareTheRead! Tap the graphic below to download each month’s graphic to share on your social media. How many reader friends can you bring to the party?
Tap the image above to download each month’s graphic. Share on your social media with #ShareTheRead and #12MonthsOfReading and tag @joyerancatore!
Tap the graphic above to join LAM Book Club for an extra way to #ShareTheRead with fellow readers! No set book. Meet virtually once a month. Share what you’re reading or ask for recommendations.