catholic fiction

Where Angels Pass Blog Tour

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About the Book:

Teenager Evie Gallagher is stunned when her 45-year-old father dies tragically and suddenly. Too many unanswered questions accompany Evie’s challenging journey to adulthood. When she finally discovers the reason her father led such a troubled life, shock turns to anger. She is determined to find justice for her father.

Nervous about the first day of his freshman year, 14-year-old Hank Gallagher steps inside Holy Archangels High School for the first time in September of 1954. Although the majestic Holy Archangels statues inside the school’s grand lobby present an air of protection, it is not long before Hank passes right under them and into the hands of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Confused and cornered by threats, Hank attempts to abandon his secret to the past, but a horrible wound on his heart eventually leads to a catastrophic breakdown.

Based loosely on actual events, chapters alternate between Evie and Hank to reveal a life haunted by betrayal and a revelation of true justice and hope.

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#CatholicFictionChallenge 2021

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I made a last-minute decision to bring back one of the best things I did online in 2020 – the #CatholicFictionChallenge! I’ve kept some categories the same, others are new. Still 100% fun.

So, why bring it back?

One of my “things” is to be an advocate for Catholic fiction!

What is Catholic fiction? Well, we could have a scholarly discussion on the topic, but for our purposes here, let’s say it’s fiction written with a Catholic worldview.

To help bring some of the fantastic Catholic fiction out there to the forefront, I’m again hosting an IG challenge in February that will allow us to share our favorites and not-yet favorites that have caught our eye so that more and more readers (including me!) can discover them.

If you’re on Instagram, please join in the #CatholicFictionChallenge beginning February 1, 2021. Join us for one day, every day, or somewhere in between.

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Vampires, fairy tales, & more: an interview with author & editor Karen Ullo

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It’s been a while since I’ve read Twilight, but Jennifer the Damned seems to be almost its opposite. The romanticism of immortal love is traded for the dangers of disposable liaisons, as just one example. Where do you position Jennifer the Damned in terms of classic and modern vampire tales?

My editor likes to refer to Jennifer the Damned as the antidote to Twilight. The absolute inanity of modern vampire tales was certainly one of my inspirations, in the sense that I wanted to combat it with something more substantive, and I drew from those modern stories in terms of setting and tone to try to appeal to the same readers. But of course there’s a lot of Dracula in my book, too, going back to the idea that vampires pose a threat to both body and soul that only the pure of heart who are armed with Christ can defeat. The story itself is really taken from Crime and Punishment. Jennifer is Raskolnikov, testing the limits of human law and morality because she perceives herself as existing outside them. So where does Jennifer the Damned fit? I think that’s a question for readers and critics more than for me. I like to think it’s a literary novel masquerading as a teen vampire story, but maybe it’s the other way around.

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FQP Books Christmas Sale Through 12/15

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Now through December 15, 2020, Amazon paperbacks from FQP authors are discounted for Christmas shopping!

Stay With Me, Come Back to Me, and Rightfully Ours are all available at a reduced price.

You’ll also find books by Ellen Gable, Erin McCole Cupp, Karin Fabian, Amanda Lauer, and many more authors with novels in a variety of genres including historical, contemporary, romance, science fiction, fantasy, suspense, and mystery.

The Woman in the Trees – New Marian Fiction

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The Woman in the Trees

The Woman in the Trees:

A novel about America’s first approved Marian apparition

by Theoni Bell

About the book:

Set within the expanses of the American frontier, The Woman in the Trees follows Slainie, an inquisitive pioneer girl, whose life is forever transformed when a mysterious seer shows up at her door. Amidst the backdrop of the Civil War, family tragedy, and the nation’s most destructive wildfire, Slainie must navigate her rugged pioneer life as she encounters love and loss, and comes face to face with the story of America’s first approved Marian apparition.

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Shadow in the Dark: A Spooky Historical Novel for Kids & Teens

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Shadow in the Dark by Antony Barone Kolenc

Book 1 in The Harwood Mysteries from Loyola Press.

Shadow in the Dark

About the book:

An attack by bandits in the middle of the night leaves a young boy with no memory of who he is or where he is from. Nursed back to health by the devoted monks in a Benedictine abbey, he takes the name Alexander, or Xan for short. Aided by the kindly Brother Andrew, Xan commits himself to finding out who he really is.

Does he have a family? Are they still alive? And who—or what—is the shadowy figure creeping around the abbey in the dead of night?

Embark on an adventure while reading Shadow in the Dark as young Alexander tries to recover his memory and, with his new friends, uncover the mystery of the shadowy figure in the dark.

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Three Last Things: New Fiction from Corinna Turner

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About the Book:

“Love doesn’t exist. And Fr. Jacob is right about one thing. 

Without it, life is utterly meaningless.”

NO LOVE. NO NOTHING.

Carl Jarrold, a convicted assassin, believes that all human relationships turn on what one human being wants from another: that there is no such thing as love and thus no meaning to life. Prison chaplain Fr. Jacob, the closest thing he has to a friend, has struggled for three long years to convince Carl how wrong he is—to no avail. But the day of execution has finally arrived, and nothing goes quite as Carl expects. Soon it’s shaping up to be the strangest day he has ever had. But will it prove the worst day of his life…or the best?

This tense, “psychologically-compelling,” spiritual thriller is a standalone novella from the Carnegie Medal Nominated author of the award-winning I AM MARGARET series. Described as “beautiful,” “fantastically good,” and “one of the most moving stories I have ever read,” this is a race against time for the highest possible stakes.

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