Christmas in July Reader Extravaganza! Win prizes!

 

More than 70 Christian authors have teamed up to bring you the Second Annual Christmas in July Reader Extravaganza. It’s an awesome celebration of Christmas books and holiday items. 

I'm participating with my book A Christmas Duet. I'll be giving away a beautiful ornament and a paperback copy of my book to one lucky winner. Click the graphics to sign up. You'll be taken to Sarah Hamaker's site. She's the hostess who coordinated the Extravaganza. 

 

 

 

Ornament and paperback copy of my book A Christmas Duet that one lucky reader will win

The event runs July 1 through July 31. Sign up here today! (You can sign up anytime in June or July 2025.)

Each day during the celebration, you’ll get an email promoting that day’s Christmas books by Christian authors. After you've signed up, there is NOTHING else you need to do to enter these giveaways. We will draw daily and grand prize winners from the subscriber list you are already on! 

Periodically during July, the daily email winners will be for our international readers only. Plus we have put together a special International Readers grand prize in addition to the other overall contest prizes. Don’t worry—there’s more than enough authors so that everyone will have loads of chances to win! 

Daily winners will be selected to receive a print book and Christmas-themed goodie from that day’s participating authors. (Winners will be notified via the email they signed up with and will be given 48 hours to respond before another winner will be picked for that prize.) 

On August 1, the two grand prizes (US and International), plus the other 10 overall prize winners (US) will be selected. 

2025 Christmas in July Reader Extravaganza will hand out more than $2,000 worth of grand prizes to 12 overall prize winners, plus 74 daily winners. 

To see the entire list of grand prizes, plus the authors and which days they’ll be featured, visit https://sarahhamakerfiction.com/2025-christmas-in-july-reader-extravaganza/ 

We can’t wait to bring you wonderful Christian Christmas-themed reads, plus a ton of giveaways, so get ready for a Christmas in July like you’ve never seen before! 

PS for my blog readers: I'll have a surprise for my readers in July as well. Stay tuned! I'll share on this blog. Click here to see the surprise!

Everything's Coming up Rosie by Courtney Walsh

 

Everything's Coming up Rosie by Courtney Walsh

Let’s begin with the summary: 

Sometimes what you think you want and what you actually want turn out to be different things. 

Rosie Waterman has one dream: to become a working actor. But lately, that hasn't been working out. When she loses her apartment and her job on the same day, she does what she always does--puts herself out there, ready to find the next big thing. But a trip home makes her realize that while she's been struggling to make this dream come true, all her friends have become real adults with careers and weddings and babies on the way. Rosie's been at this for years, and she has nothing to show for it. But how does she simply let go of her dream? 

When she's offered a job as the director of a regional theatre's production of Cinderella, she jumps at the chance--even though she's only directed in college and the job is in Door County, Wisconsin, and not in New York. She has no other offers, and at least she'll be getting paid to do something theatrical. But when she arrives, she quickly realizes that the "regional theatre" is actually in a retirement community, and the "actors" are actually senior citizens with no acting experience whatsoever. 

Working on the show presents new challenges, forcing Rosie to learn how to step up and be the leader this fledgling theatre troupe needs. The more time she spends with her new cast, the more she begins to rethink what it means to dream big, especially when that big dream hasn't turned out to be at all what she thought it would be. It's not at all what she expected, but could it be exactly what she needs? 

And now, my review: 

We get a behind-the-scenes peek into acting with this story set in the theater. Loved that! 

The heroine feels things deeply, but then must portray only the emotion she’s acting out, even when they’re opposites—an insightful conflict. She also doesn’t love a spotlight, in some ways, which is a great challenge for her stage-centered life. 

Since she isn’t self-centered or vain, readers can better relate with and root for her. On stage she feels both “safe and vulnerable” at the same time. Relatable! We find out “place” but being there often pushes us out of our comfort zone. 

One of my favorite lines was this: “I might not like to be the center of attention, but I wouldn’t mind being the center of his.” 

Unfortunately, I did see a lot of redundancy in the early version I read. I also don’t love the mention of women’s body parts that I see repeatedly in this author’s work. That may seem relatable to women, but the term she chooses feel derogatory to me. 

Overall, this was a satisfying read. The genre often struck me as women’s fiction, which I liked. Of course, there’s a strong romantic thread—a win-win for readers. Loved the secondary characters. 

Highly recommended.

The Garden down the Beach is out Today!

 

Hey, friends! Today is release day for my latest book, the prequel of my new Seashells & Sailboats series. 

Sign up for my newsletter to read it free or find it as an ebook on Amazon and free with Kindle Unlimited. 

 

The Garden down the Beach: A novelette

Her gardening business needs more clients. 
His property needs restoration. 
Can a not-so-chance meeting lead to more than a landscaping job?

Kamber Dai believes in creating peaceful garden spaces. She's often online, sharing her plant updates and offering her consulting services. Her house-sitting gig is almost up, and she'll need a lot more clients to afford housing in the region. 

Shiloh Boyd lives two miles down the beach on Sandbrooke Island, Washington, in his grandparents’ house. He’s tasked to return the property's garden to what it once was, in honor of his late grandmother. The view of Puget Sound from the baby grand piano inspires him as he creates calming, soft-voiced audio clips for use in reels. 

Online followers, and Gramps, want to see Kamber and Shiloh spend time together, but each is focused on building their careers. 

 

Happy reading!