By The Book

Top 10 Tuesday — Typography!

Happy Tuesday! Today TTT is featuring book covers with interesting typography. What is typography, you may ask? From Google AI —

Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable, and visually appealing.

There were a lot of different directions to go with this topic, but I finally narrowed it down to titles with two or more fonts. While some are more subtle than others, the visual interest really grabbed my eye. What do you think?

For more on the subject, please visit That Artsy Reader Girl.

Top Books with Interesting Typography

The Bounty Hunter’s Surrender by KyLee Woodley

The Burning of Rosemont Abbey by Naomi Stephens

For A Lifetime by Gabrielle Meyer

The Heart of Bennet Hollow by Joanne Bischof DeWitt

The Highland Heist by Pepper Basham

The Indigo Heiress by Laura Frantz

Lost Hours by Susan Sleeman

Midnight on The Scottish Shore by Sarah Sundin

Specters in The Glass House by Jaime Jo Wright

Wicked is The Hollow by K. E. Ganshert

Tags: Gabrielle Meyer, historical fiction, historical romance fiction, Jaime Jo Wright, Joanne Bischof DeWitt, K. E. Ganshert, KyLee Woodley, Laura Frantz, mystery fiction, Naomi Stephens, Pepper Basham, romantic suspense fiction, Sarah Sundin, Susan Sleeman, YA fiction, YA speculative fiction

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Categories Uncategorized

Spotlight on Historical Romance — Texas Reclaimed

3 Feb

Welcome to the Blog + Review Tour for Texas Reclaimed by Sherry Shindelar, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

About The Book

Title: Texas Reclaimed
Series: Lone Star Redemption #3
Author: Sherry Shindelar
Publisher: Wild Heart Books
Release Date: February 3, 2026
Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Can love blossom between a woman haunted by her family’s past and a man haunted by the trauma of war?

Cora Scott is determined to hold onto her family’s Texas ranch and provide a stable home for her young half-brother, Charlie, despite the mounting challenges of post-Civil War frontier life. But when a scheming creditor threatens to seize their land, she must accept help from Ben McKenzie, a former Yankee soldier sent by her late brother. Though Ben’s generosity and strength draw her, the man’s private struggle she stumbles upon—too reminiscent of her father’s alcoholism—makes her question whether she can trust her heart to him.

Ben McKenzie arrives in Texas intent on fulfilling his promise to his dying friend to protect Cora and Charlie. While using his inheritance to save their ranch, he battles not only the loss of their cattle but also his dependency on laudanum—a medicine that turned into a curse after his imprisonment at Andersonville. As his feelings for Cora deepen, he must choose between his promise to his father to take over their Philadelphia newspaper and his growing dream of a life with Cora in Texas.

When a Comanche warrior begins courting Cora and Ben’s responsibilities in Philadelphia threaten to tear them apart, they must decide if their love is strong enough to overcome their fears and forge a future together on the Texas frontier.

Excerpt

Ben’s fingers curled into a fist atop the bureau. A whole year he’d been home. Regaining his health. Working for his father. Courting Olivia. But falling short of everything he’d vowed to do when he’d hobbled out of the hell on earth that had been Andersonville.

How could he expect to get a grip on his need for laudanum and bring an end to the war in his soul if he didn’t show himself a man by keeping his promises?

His chest squeezed as if someone had tightened a vise around it. He strode over to the window and threw up the sash, desperate for fresh air. Beyond the barren maples and winter-dead lawn, the western sky glowed orange above the tree-topped ridges. Maybe freedom lay somewhere out there. He had to get out of the house and away from Philadelphia. He couldn’t marry. Not yet. Not until he made things right.

He stared down at the bottle still lying on the carpet. Surely, half a teaspoon wouldn’t hurt. Just enough to abate his symptoms until after he went downstairs and set matters straight with Olivia.

With leaden feet, he walked over to the desk, bent down, and picked up the bottle. His palm tingled against the cool glass. He could almost hear the hiss of the serpent eating away at everything he had been. This is how it’d been last time he’d abstained. Except he’d made it for a whole week. Then he’d given in for one sip, followed by another, and another…until the fetter was fully fastened again. Dear God, no. Don’t let it be so.He marched back to the window, opened the bottle stopper, and drained the contents onto the bushes below. Lord, help me to be the man You’ve called me to be. He slung the bottle as hard as he could.

More in This Series

About The Author

Originally from Tennessee, Sherry Shindelar is a romantic at heart who enjoys taking her readers into the past. She fell in love with writing when she was nine years old. Decades later, she is living out her dream of writing stories from her heart and sharing them with the world. Sherry is a multi-award-winning author: 2025 Maggie Award Winner, 2023 ACFW Genesis Finalist, and 2022 Crown Finalist. She currently resides in Minnesota with her husband of forty-one years. They have three grown children and three grandchildren.

Connect with Sherry by visiting sherryshindelar.com to follow her on social media and subscribe to email updates.

Tour Giveaway

(1) winner will receive a signed copy of Texas Reclaimed and $40 gift card to winner’s choice of Amazon or Barnes & Noble!

Full tour schedule linked below. The giveaway begins at midnight February 3, 2026 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on February 10, 2026. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US/CAN only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to JustRead Publicity Tours Giveaway Policies.

Enter Giveaway

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

Tags: historical romance fiction, Sherry Shindelar

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Categories What's New

If You Liked . . . All We Thought We Knew

30 Jan

My book club absolutely loved All We Thought We Knew by Michelle Shocklee. Although it wasn’t what I would call an easy read it was full of heart and emotion. It also brought to light new details of 2 eras we thought we knew. This Christy Award Book of The Year is a definite must-read. If you liked it too, here are a few more books to read. Enjoy!

All Manner of Things by Susie Finkbeiner (available on Kindle Unlimited)

When Annie Jacobson’s brother Mike enlists as a medic in the Army in 1967, he hands her a piece of paper with the address of their long-estranged father. If anything should happen to him in Vietnam, Mike says, Annie must let their father know.

In Mike’s absence, their father returns to face tragedy at home, adding an extra measure of complication to an already tense time. As they work toward healing and pray fervently for Mike’s safety overseas, letter by letter the Jacobsons must find a way to pull together as a family, regardless of past hurts. In the tumult of this time, Annie and her family grapple with the tension of holding both hope and grief in the same hand, even as they learn to turn to the One who binds the wounds of the brokenhearted.

Author Susie Finkbeiner invites you into the Jacobson family’s home and hearts during a time in which the chaos of the outside world touched their small community in ways they never imagined.

The Last Year of The War by Susan Meissner

In 1943, Elise Sontag is a typical American teenager from Iowa—aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal U.S. resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where, behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity.

The only thing that makes the camp bearable is meeting fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles, whose friendship empowers Elise to believe the life she knew before the war will again be hers. Together in the desert wilderness, Elise and Mariko hold tight the dream of being young American women with a future beyond the fences.

But when the Sontag family is exchanged for American prisoners behind enemy lines in Germany, Elise will face head-on the person the war desires to make of her. In that devastating crucible she must discover if she has the will to rise above prejudice and hatred and re-claim her own destiny, or disappear into the image others have cast upon her.

The Last Year of the War tells a little-known story of World War II with great resonance for our own times and challenges the very notion of who we are when who we’ve always been is called into question.

The One True Love of Alice-Ann by Eva Marie Everson

Living in rural Georgia in 1941, sixteen-year-old Alice-Ann has her heart set on her brother’s friend Mack; despite their five-year age gap, Alice-Ann knows she can make Mack see her for the woman she’ll become. But when they receive news of the attack on Pearl Harbor and Mack decides to enlist, Alice-Ann realizes she must declare her love before he leaves.

Though promising to write, Mack leaves without confirmation that her love is returned. But Alice-Ann is determined to wear the wedding dress her maiden aunt never had a chance to wear—having lost her fiancé in the Great War. As their correspondence continues over the next three years, Mack and Alice-Ann are drawn closer together. But then Mack’s letters cease altogether, leaving Alice-Ann to fear history repeating itself.

Tags: Eva Marie Everson, general fiction, historical fiction, Susan Meissner, Susie Finkbeiner

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Categories If You Liked . . .

First Line Friday — Deadly Currents

30 Jan

Happy Friday! Today I am featuring a highly anticipated romantic suspense — Deadly Currents by Elizabeth Goddard. I LOVE her books! This is the 3rd book in the Hidden Bay series. If you haven’t started the series, what are you waiting for?!

Here’s the first line:

“The sea never gives back what it claims . . .”

Investigative journalist Cressida Dane arrives in Hidden Bay after a worldwide journey to finish her late father’s manuscript on shipwrecks. As she tries to discover the story behind the “ghost ship” Specter’s Bounty, her only lead is a name her father left behind–Evelyn Monroe. As Cressida uncovers more about the ship, she quickly realizes that her research has placed her in the crosshairs of dangerous forces.

County detective Braden Sanders is in Hidden Bay for one reason–to get his niece lifesaving medical treatment. To do that, he is assigned to protect Cressida from a revenge-driven enemy. Together, Braden and Cressida dig deeper to discern the myth from the facts surrounding the Specter’s Bounty.

But more is brewing under the surface than they could ever imagine. Entangled in secrets, they must unravel the past before the current sweeps away their future.

Elizabeth Goddard is the PW, ECPA, and USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of over sixty novels, including the Missing in Alaska and Rocky Mountain Courage series. Her books have sold more than 1.5 million copies. She is a Christy Award, Carol Award and Reader’s Choice Award winner and a Daphne du Maurier Award and HOLT Medallion finalist. When she’s not writing, she loves spending time with her family, traveling to find inspiration for her next book, and serving with her husband in ministry. For more information about her books, visit her website.

Tags: Elizabeth Goddard, romantic suspense fiction

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Categories First Line Friday

Spotlight on Devotional Guide — Across The Lake

29 Jan

Across the Lake JustRead Blog Tour

Welcome to the Blog Tour for Across the Lake: Traveling with Jesus Around the Sea of Galilee by Barbara M. Britton, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!