DBR Books Blog
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
To: Our Readers
For the rest of 2018, may we bring joy and holiday cheer to your Christmas shopping and gifting.
Here’s a bit of holiday advice: “Stand under the mistletoe more often this Christmas!”
We wish you the best for this holiday season and your heart’s desire for the upcoming year.
From: All of us at DB-R Designs
Enjoy our Catalog Here...
Friday, July 7, 2017
Monday, June 12, 2017
Enter this Goodreads Giveaway | The Virtuous Husband (Book 1 - Cannon & Durnam Trilogy)
Goodreads Book Giveaway
The Virtuous Husband
by Dawnette Blackwood-Rhoomes
Giveaway ends June 30, 2017.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
New Cover Release and Preview - The Hopeful Promise!
We said it! Now it's here! The new cover release for The Hopeful Promise!
Here's a little preview of The Hopeful Promise to whet your appetite!
With her wedding dress fluffed up around her, Jessica watched in the mirror as the woman touched up the last of her makeup. She wondered if anyone could hear her heart hammering away in her rib cage.
She
rubbed her sweaty palms together, trying hard to remember not to smooth them
along the white silky folds of the dress that Kent had picked out for her. She
was the unwilling bride who didn’t even get to choose her own dress!
The
dress was beautiful, she had to admit. But it was definitely not something she would
have chosen for herself. Being conservative and
traditional, she certainly wouldn’t have chosen
something that fitted her like a glove. The bouquet of
flowers they placed in her trembling hands were roses and baby’s breath. Not
the calla lilies she would have chosen to borrow their elegance to outfit the
ambience she would have gone for.
The reception hall sparkled, as if Kent hired a team of minions to
shine everything even down to the floor. The floral arrangement and the
sparkling chandeliers helped to cast a festive glow in the hall.
The guests came out in droves, none of whom she had personally
invited. Jessica
recognized many of them who were members of the small town.
Her
heart plummeted.
Everyone
had come out to see her marry Kent.
Everyone,
except her father!
Everything
about this wedding was all wrong!
The
wretched feeling only got worse when Kent’s sisters filed into the small
dressing room. Four women, whom she barely knew, introduced themselves as
Tracy, Liz, Carly and Kim. She smiled tightly at them as they fussed over her
dress.
“I
didn’t know my brother had such good taste,” Carly said, her voice sickeningly nasal.
Jessica
cringed. Did the whole world know that Kent chose the dress? Could this situation
get any more humiliating?
She
felt wronged. Somewhere deep within a scream was forming but it couldn’t
surface. Each time Jessica opened her mouth to protest amidst the oohs and
the aahs over the dress and flowers, and how wonderful it was of Kent to take care of
such things, the words evaded her lips and she clamped her mouth shut
again.
There
was a fire deep within her and she was burning to tell someone that she didn’t
agree to this wedding, but instead she allowed herself to be led down the hall
where her Dad’s longtime friend and the mill’s foreman, John Macpherson, waited
to escort her down the aisle and into the waiting arms of Kent Holmes.
And even as she glanced at John, her heart wrenched painfully in her
chest. The whole thing was terribly wrong! There was no way she’d ever get married
while her Dad was laid up in a hospital bed and in a coma! But Kent had taken
over everything and had bullied his way into her life. Never before had she
felt so helpless and hopeless.
Jessica
clasped John’s arm tightly as her knees threatened to give way under her. The
huge doors of the worship sanctuary yawned open
before her and she heard Bella, the church organist, belt out the first notes
of “Here Comes the Bride” on the church’s big organ that had been there ever
since Jessica could remember.
Everything
in the church hall seemed to glimmer and shimmer in the bright garish sunlight
that was streaming steadily through the church windows. A wedding should be a
joyous occasion, and yet she felt it was the most wretched day of her life. She
pasted on a smile; a faint tilt at the corners of her lips, and choked back the
tears that were threatening to come.
I could run, she thought.
But
then where would that get her? It would only prolong the inevitable until
her father emerged from his coma.
Jessica’s
legs were wooden and heavy, and she commanded them to move as John took one
step forward, gently tugging her arm as he went.
Reluctantly, Jessica put one foot in front of the other. It was as if she was
being led as a lamb to the slaughterhouse, ‘minus the bleating and the wailing
and the gnashing of teeth’, as her grandmother would say. She might as well
have been wailing, if only her mouth would open and the words would come.
She glanced
at the people standing in the pew; women craning their necks to get a better
view of the bride, while some dabbed at their
tears with their husbands’ handkerchiefs. Of course,
their husbands stood aloof and straight-faced, waiting for the boring ceremony
to end and for the festivities to begin. Jessica’s heart lurched inside her
chest when she caught sight of Mark in the pew amongst a group of teetering old
ladies, on the left side of the church; the bride’s side. That side of the
church was scanty in comparison to the groom’s side.
Mark
stood a full two feet above them, his sandy brown hair glimmered
in the sunlight streaming from the skylight above their heads.
He
smiled at her. It lit up his face, and she immediately became furious with him.
What was he so happy about? She sent him a “Help me!” look but he smiled even
more and even winked at her!
Jessica’s
heart sank. Any hopes of rescue from her fate seemed dashed now as Mark was
clearly no longer on her side. Furious, she looked straight ahead. Now it was
up to her. Again the thought resurfaced, she
could simply become the runaway bride and just break free and take a hike for
it. But where would that leave her and her father’s mill? Then again, how
was marrying Kent any good for her father’s mill? Didn’t it just mean that
he would have access to her shares and more controlling power of the mill?
But it also meant she would have access to his 30 percent. Maybe she could
eventually buy him out and then she would have full control. She prayed silently for God's help because she had no idea what she should do.
She
kept moving in the direction toward the smug groom waiting at the end of the
aisle. Jessica squared her shoulders and placed one shaky, sweaty hand into
Kent’s large one. Her heart constricted as she took note of Kent’s wolfish grin
and how his hand clasped her fingers tightly.
They
turned and faced the minister. Jessica didn’t hear much of the
minister’s drone as he spoke about the sanctity of marriage and how it should
not be entered into lightly. Her heart squeezed in her chest when she heard
Kent say “I do”; and then it was her turn to answer.
She
opened her mouth to say something…anything…but the words seemed to squeeze
along her throat, cutting off her air supply. Gulping,
she clutched at her heart; the sudden pain, unbearable. Beads of sweat
dotted her brow.
If she didn’t
turn and run now, she would never get another chance!
However,
it seemed as if Kent had guessed her thoughts as
his clutch on her hand became tighter, almost cutting off the blood flow to her
fingers. She glanced up at him and saw that his wolfish grin had transformed into
a fiendish sneer.
Dear God! She was
marrying the devil!
- Excerpt from The Hopeful Promise (Book 3 - Cannon & Durnam Textile Legacy)
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Book Review | Susan's Shadow by Dr. Julia E. Antoine
Drawing
inspiration from the very illustrative poem My Shadow by Robert Louis
Stevenson, author Julia E. Antoine writes the eleventh and final installment in
the Too Clever series.
Twelve
year old Susan, who is on the brink of adolescence, hates being called Peter’s
shadow. At the rate at which Susan is growing, it seems as if she’ll never
catch up in height to her brother Peter and his friends. However, when she
looks at her shadow, it seems to be as tall as Peter’s! As a result of this, Susan
wants to get to the bottom of the puzzling mystery of the height of the shadow.
The
book highlights Susan’s desire which is to appear as a real adolescent in the
eyes of her brother and his friends. In an underlying tone, the book further
highlights the struggle pre-teens face as they are caught between two worlds – the
world of childhood and the world of adolescence. We can see this in Susan’s
refusal to play with her best friend Marcie and her dolls, and her need to fit
in with Peter and his friends. Hence, the struggle Susan faces is
fostered in her curiosity to understand how the shadow works. Believing that
her shadow seems taller because she had miraculously grown an inch is a subconscious
yearning to actually be as tall as her shadow portrays. Her shadow
was doing for her what her body had failed to do.
The
information she picked up from her research on shadows for her class project casts
light on the subject, and she found that the position of the sun
determines the length and the size of her shadow. Realizing that in fact the
truth lies in the light source and not her body actually growing was a real eye-opening experience for Susan. What she couldn’t make up for in height, she made
up for in knowledge. That evening at the dinner table when she spoke about
her project, even Peter had to admit he didn’t know the sun’s
position determines the height of the shadow. Susan felt taller then.
Susan’s Shadow by Dr. Julia E. Antoine is a fun and lively read, with subtle undertones
about pre-teen struggles which can be seen in the constant tug-of-war between childhood innocence and puberty.
This final installment brings
to a close the Too Clever series, and as usual, Antoine brings the plot to an
end with the warmth of friendship, an underlying thread that runs throughout
several stories in the series.
Collect all eleven
installments! Visit the author’s website for more details at www.too-clever.com
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Author Interview with Christine Cruz
1. Congratulations on both your books, Can I Always Come Back Home? and ABC Questions! We've had the pleasure of reviewing Can I Always Come Back Home? and find the book quite charming. Tell us about the inspiration behind this book.
I wrote Can I Always Come Back Home? after speaking with my youngest. I have three children, all boys. By the age of five, they all seemed to ask the same question, just presented in different ways. They all wanted to know if they left home, could they come back? I thought how wonderful it would be to answer this question in the form of a book.
I wrote Can I Always Come Back Home? after speaking with my youngest. I have three children, all boys. By the age of five, they all seemed to ask the same question, just presented in different ways. They all wanted to know if they left home, could they come back? I thought how wonderful it would be to answer this question in the form of a book.
2. Will we be seeing the main character Tyler in any future series?
Can I Always Come Back Home? was created as a stand alone book. However, based on the reactions I have received, there's a possibility we will see Tyler again.
3. The book offers assurance to sensitive children experiencing anxiety. How is the feedback so far on this book? Do you think parents and teachers find the book helpful?
I have received wonderful reviews. Teachers have used Can I Always Come Back Home? at circle time to reassure new students. I had a Family Worker approach me at a school I was working at. He told me he bought Can I Always Come Back Home? for his Mother. He explained that he was moving out and it was hard on her. He bought her the book to reassure her he knew where his home is. She loves the message Can I Always Come Back Home? sends. The moment they both shared over my book is priceless.
4. Tell us a little about your recently released ABC Questions, and how is it different from other alphabet books?
ABC Questions is about a girl named Beverly, who is starting school for the first time. One of her first lessons is the Alphabet. Beverly is filled with amusing questions about her ABCs. Instead of a traditional A is for Apple book, I take the letters of the alphabet and make them a part of the story highlighting the alphabet in color and capitalization.
Can I Always Come Back Home? was created as a stand alone book. However, based on the reactions I have received, there's a possibility we will see Tyler again.
3. The book offers assurance to sensitive children experiencing anxiety. How is the feedback so far on this book? Do you think parents and teachers find the book helpful?
I have received wonderful reviews. Teachers have used Can I Always Come Back Home? at circle time to reassure new students. I had a Family Worker approach me at a school I was working at. He told me he bought Can I Always Come Back Home? for his Mother. He explained that he was moving out and it was hard on her. He bought her the book to reassure her he knew where his home is. She loves the message Can I Always Come Back Home? sends. The moment they both shared over my book is priceless.
4. Tell us a little about your recently released ABC Questions, and how is it different from other alphabet books?
ABC Questions is about a girl named Beverly, who is starting school for the first time. One of her first lessons is the Alphabet. Beverly is filled with amusing questions about her ABCs. Instead of a traditional A is for Apple book, I take the letters of the alphabet and make them a part of the story highlighting the alphabet in color and capitalization.
5. What do you want young readers to learn from this book?
I want them to learn that learning is fun. Their ability to imagine can take them through anything.
6. What's next for Christine Cruz? What are you working on now?
I am working on three bilingual books (English and Spanish) that celebrate Grandparents. I am hoping that all three will be out in 2017. I am currently researching book charities in Honduras, Ecuador and Puerto Rico. I will be donating books to each charity. If anyone knows of a charity, please take a moment and email me at c.cruzbooks@gmail.com
See our Book Review of Can I Always Come Back Home?, here.
Check out the author's website for upcoming new releases.
I want them to learn that learning is fun. Their ability to imagine can take them through anything.
6. What's next for Christine Cruz? What are you working on now?
I am working on three bilingual books (English and Spanish) that celebrate Grandparents. I am hoping that all three will be out in 2017. I am currently researching book charities in Honduras, Ecuador and Puerto Rico. I will be donating books to each charity. If anyone knows of a charity, please take a moment and email me at c.cruzbooks@gmail.com
See our Book Review of Can I Always Come Back Home?, here.
Check out the author's website for upcoming new releases.
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