Cathy Reviews: Serenity's Plain Secrets

My mother in law, and lately my co-blogger, Cathy is back today with her latest review!

The Serenity's Plain Secrets Series 1-3

Karen Ann Hopkins

Mystery/Thriller

Available Now

THE STORY
Lamb to the Slaughter (Book 1)
From Goodreads:

Lamb to the Slaughter is a story about the intertwining lives of three unlikely people in an Indiana Amish Community and the devastating results when a rebellious teenage girl is found shot to death in a corn field during the harvest. Serenity Adams is the newly elected young sheriff in the country town of Blood Rock and besides dealing with the threatening behavior of her predecessor, she now has a dead Amish girl on her plate. At first glance, the case seems obvious. The poor girl was probably accidently shot during hunting season, but when the elders of the Amish community and even the girl’s parents react with uncaring subdued behavior, Serenity becomes suspicious. As she delves deeper into the secretive community that she grew up beside, she discovers a gruesome crime from the past that may very well be related to the Amish girl’s shooting. Serenity enlists the help of the handsome bad-boy building contractor, Daniel Bachman, who left the Amish when he was nineteen and has his own dark reasons to help the spunky sheriff solve the crime that the family and friends who shunned him are trying desperately to cover up. Serenity’s persistence leads her to a stunning discovery that not only threatens to destroy her blossoming romance with Daniel, but may even take her life in the end.

CATHY'S THOUGHTS
The Serenity's Plain Secrets series first came to my attention because Jenny designed all their beautiful covers. Jenny did an amazing job setting the scene for each book. You can look at the covers and know exactly where these mysteries occur and with just the right amount sinister eeriness to draw you in. So the series was on my shelf and were so pretty that I didn't want to crack the spines, but you know how I love a good mystery. So I very carefully began turning to the first page of book one and before I knew it, I had finished three! I thought I would give you a mini review of the first three books so that you, too, can add them to your shelves.
 
Lamb to the Slaughter is the first in the series. We meet newly appointed sheriff Serenity Adams. She has returned to her hometown and her new territory which includes the nearby Amish community. She is a strong female character, which I love in a mystery. What also adds to the mystery is just the general mystic of the Amish culture. In this book we follow the story from several points of view, including that of the murdered Amish girl, Naomi. This really adds depth to the story. Serenity is a very by-the-book person and truly has a difficult time with the secretiveness of the Amish men. So, in an effort to understand and infiltrate the Amish she needs help. Meet Daniel - he used to be Amish but has left. He also becomes the love interest. Poor Serenity has to face a lot of frustration in this book, but for us it just adds to the suspense.
 
Whispers from the Dead is book two. Serenity's reputation at solving crimes, especially in the Amish community, finds her invited to another community having problems with arson. Then a body is found in one of the burned out barns. The intrigue in this story is intermingled with past crimes that had taken place in the town. She runs into that town's sheriff and definitely meets with not only resistance but outright animosity. The secretive nature of all the men in this book elevates the mystery and suspense. Daniel helps again with solving this case and putting himself closer to Serenity.
 
Secrets in the Grave is book three and it brings Serenity and Daniel back to the community Daniel grew up in. A new healer moves to the Amish community and a young pregnant woman bleeds to death. Checking into his past, it's found that this is not the first woman to die, even his wife had died. Is he a healer or a killer?  Even though Daniel has been shunned, his help with the case brings him closer to the community and his family.
 
All three books were pages turners. I think that the Amish overtones of secrecy add to the mystery and suspense. I like a little romance that is equally frustrating thrown in for good measure. I am so glad that Jenny did these covers so that they were put on my radar.

Rating: 4/5

Find Karen:

 

Website • Blog • Twitter • Facebook

Wednesday Flourish: Hidden in Plain Sight

I always love sharing my design work with all of you, so I'm really excited today to reveal the cover for Hidden in Plain Sight, the fourth book in the Serenity's Plain Secrets series by Karen Ann Hopkins. Karen is one of my longtime clients, and we've worked together on so many projects now that we've become a bit of a well-oiled machine which is really fun.

Usually Karen shoots me an email before we start a cover with a few key things she's looking for, and then lets me run with those ideas as I collect various images and group them into basic concepts to submit for approval. With this cover though Karen didn't have the same kind of specific imagery in mind as she's had for previous designs, and I'm grateful that she trusted me enough to let me try and point us both in the right design direction.

Amish stock imagery is poor at best, so it's always a bit of a challenge for me to create a cover for this series that suggests an Amish country setting while still having that ominous murder mystery feel. With this newest cover Karen wanted the Amish element to be a bit more front and center than in previous books, so it took a little extra magic to help me find my way to the final cover and I couldn't be happier with the result.

I hope you guys love how it turned out!

When a cold case heats up, Serenity won’t stop until she discovers the truth.

In the fourth installment of the bestselling Serenity’s Plain Secrets’ series, Serenity must work with US marshals to uncover the truth behind a shockingly brutal fifteen-year-cold murder.

Desperate for answers, Serenity finds herself in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where she unravels secrets that threaten to tear her and Daniel apart. But digging up the past is dangerous, and the quaint Amish settlement isn’t as safe as it seems.

If Serenity chooses to trust the man she’s come to love, it could mean a happily ever after… or her final act.

Goodreads 

• • • • • • • • • • • • •

Be sure and check out the previous books in the series!

SECRETS IN THE GRAVE

Serenity's Plain Secrets #3

Just when Sheriff Serenity Adams thinks life is getting back to normal, the death of a young, pregnant Amish woman rocks the community. Is it circumstance…or murder? It’s up to Serenity and her ex-Amish boyfriend, Daniel Bachman, to discover the truth about the new shaman-type medicine man who’s brought his dark secrets to Blood Rock.

But Serenity has secrets of her own, and if she and Daniel don’t work it out, the reappearance of a woman from his past could threaten to ruin their relationship.

The deeper Serenity delves into the magical world of Amish herbal medicine, the phenomenon of laying of the hands and other cultural healing oddities, the more she wonders if miracles are real. What she witnesses with her own eyes may be too fantastical for her to believe.

In this riveting third installment of Serenity’s Plain Secrets, beliefs are challenged, a way of life is questioned and family skeletons are unearthed, leaving no one untouched.  

Goodreads • Amazon

WHISPERS FROM THE DEAD

Serenity's Plain Secrets #2

Some Amish communities aren't so cozy.

Whispers From The Dead is the powerful and thrilling sequel to Lamb to the Slaughter, in the Amish mystery series, Serenity’s Plain Secrets.

Sheriff Serenity Adams and Daniel Bachman are once again partnered up in a criminal investigation, when they travel to a northern Amish settlement that has been riddled by arsons for the past two decades. Serenity quickly discovers that there is much more going on than just barns being set on fire in the touristy community, and that the new group of Amish has their own secrets to hide. She begins to unravel an extensive criminal underworld that threatens to destroy everything that the simple people of Poplar Springs hold dear and once again puts her own life in jeopardy.

And even though Serenity tries desperately to avoid it, things begin heating up between her and Daniel, making her wonder if true love and happiness are really within her grasp.

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N

LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER

Serenity's Plain Secrets #1

Lamb to the Slaughter is a story about the intertwining lives of three unlikely people in an Indiana Amish Community and the devastating results when a rebellious teenage girl is found shot to death in a corn field during the harvest.

Serenity Adams is the newly elected young sheriff in the country town of Blood Rock and besides dealing with the threatening behavior of her predecessor, she now has a dead Amish girl on her plate.  At first glance, the case seems obvious.  The poor girl was probably accidently shot during hunting season, but when the elders of the Amish community and even the girl’s parents react with uncaring subdued behavior, Serenity becomes suspicious.  As she delves deeper into the secretive community that she grew up beside, she discovers a gruesome crime from the past that may very well be related to the Amish girl’s shooting.

Serenity enlists the help of the handsome bad-boy building contractor, Daniel Bachman, who left the Amish when he was nineteen and has his own dark reasons to help the spunky sheriff solve the crime that the family and friends who shunned him are trying desperately to cover up.  Serenity’s persistence leads her to a stunning discovery that not only threatens to destroy her blossoming romance with Daniel, but may even take her life in the end.

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N

Find Karen:
 

Website • Blog • Twitter • Facebook

You can find more of my cover design work at Seedlings Design Studio!

Cover Evolution: Tempest

Happy Friday Everyone!

As you guys already know, I revealed the cover for the third book in the Wings of War series on Wednesday, and since the past couple cover evolution posts I've done have gone over really well, I thought it might be fun to do one for Tempest.

The covers for this series are all fairly special effects-heavy, meaning they require a lot of compositing different images together in order to fit Ember in various environments and craft the element-based wings as a focal point. Karen envisioned a stormy scene for Tempest, with Ember standing amid crashing waves as the water wings flare from her back, so my first order of business was to find a fitting background image.

When I came across this photograph I knew I'd found exactly what I was looking for, with one obvious exception: There was man in a business suit where I needed Ember to be. Removing a figure from an image in Photoshop can be tricky and time consuming depending on the background given you have to fill in what would otherwise be the empty white space left by the figure being removed. Luckily for me, the texture of the sky, water and rocks made his removal fairly easy, and after adding a bit more color and a few stormier clouds, I had Ember's perfect Tempest environment.

Next up was to add Ember herself. Karen and I always want to make sure each cover feels cohesive within the series while still standing out as unique, so with Tempest Karen wanted Ember to be partially turned and looking over her shoulder instead of simply facing forward. Finding a single stock image of a young woman who looked like the previous models we'd used while wearing non-ridiculous clothing (so many of them were in dresses and high heels - not really what one would wear climbing rocks by the sea) and with her head turned to the side proved to be an impossible task, so I needed to combine several different girls and Frankenstein Ember together.

I used the body of the top left figure and the head of the top right, but ran into a little issue given one had straight hair and one curly. Since the girl on the right also had shorter hair than the left, I needed to bring in a third image in order to blend the two and create a fuller head of wavy hair. I also wanted to make sure Ember's hair had movement since she was facing down a stormy, windy sea, so the bottom image proved to be just the ticket.

Obviously the hair color, skin tone, and lighting of all three images is slightly different, so even when I got all the pieces together in a single figure, it was still a bit of a mess visually:

As you can see, the hair is a patchwork of various colors and textures, and her skin is way too warm to be believable in this environment. After a fair number of color tweaks and adjustments, I was able to make Ember look not only like a single person but also more like she belonged on that rocky outcrop.

At this point, the trickiest parts were behind me and I was able to really let myself have fun building the wings. As with Embers and Gaia, I started with just the flat illustration of the wings before adding a base layer water texture to give them a little depth.

From here, I layered various water splashes in all shapes and sizes across the wings, masking the wing shape in a few places so it appears sections here and there are made entirely made of water, but overall they still retain the shape that links them to the previous two books.

The final step was to add in the title, tagline and Karen's name, as well as some additional water spray in and around the rocks to really give this cover a lot of movement, and the result was our final Tempest!

Ember must stop the apocalypse from happening, but at what cost?

The Angels of destruction have arrived, and only Ember stands in the way of their mission to carry out God’s wrath and annihilate His enemies.

When the barrier between celestial creatures and humans beings is broken and Angels descend to Earth, Ember soon learns there’s a fine line between good and evil. As she faces a world full of monsters and magic, a terrifying darkness rises and threatens to destroy everything she’s fighting for.

In the riveting third installment of The Wings of War series, Ember and her friends embark on an epic journey, where unlikely allies are forged and age-old beliefs crumble to dust. And just when Ember accepts love in her life, it’s ripped away from her in the most terrifying way possible.

Goodreads

Tempest releases late January 2016

Find Embers:

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N

Find Gaia:

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N

Wednesday Flourish: Tempest

Happy Hump Day Everyone!

I'm really excited today to reveal the cover for the third book in the Wings of War series by Karen Ann Hopkins, Tempest. I'm not going to say very much about our process in developing this third cover because I'm going to be doing a cover evolution post with Tempest on Friday, so you'll get to see the step by step process there:)

Before I share the cover though, here's a quick reminder of the first two books, Embers and Gaia:

Each of the books in this series focuses on a different element, with protagonist Ember learning how to wield fire in Embers and control earth in Gaia, so Karen and I wanted the wings to reflect the focal element of each book. What's the element for Tempest you ask? You might have an inkling based on the title. WATER. And this cover is definitely my favorite of the series, so I hope you guys love it as much as Karen and I do!

Ember must stop the apocalypse from happening, but at what cost?

The Angels of destruction have arrived, and only Ember stands in the way of their mission to carry out God’s wrath and annihilate His enemies.

When the barrier between celestial creatures and humans beings is broken and Angels descend to Earth, Ember soon learns there’s a fine line between good and evil. As she faces a world full of monsters and magic, a terrifying darkness rises and threatens to destroy everything she’s fighting for.

In the riveting third installment of The Wings of War series, Ember and her friends embark on an epic journey, where unlikely allies are forged and age-old beliefs crumble to dust. And just when Ember accepts love in her life, it’s ripped away from her in the most terrifying way possible.

Goodreads

Tempest releases late January 2016

Find Embers:

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N

Find Gaia:

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N

Cover Evolution: Gaia

Hi Everyone!

Some of you might remember a post I did a couple months ago where I walked through the cover design process for City of Fae, and since that seemed to be something everyone enjoyed seeing, I thought I would make it a semi-regular feature here on the blog :)

Today I'm sharing the cover evolution for Gaia, the newest installment of the Wings of War series by Karen Ann Hopkins. This series is always a trickier one for me in terms of the technical aspect of the design, as my background is heavily InDesign-based–my comfort zone being flat graphic illustrations and typography–so covers that require a lot of Photoshop manipulation are more intimidating for me from the start. There's nothing I love more than a challenge though, and I've had such fun bringing Embers and Gaia to life!

Karen wanted a more epic feel to Gaia, moving Ember out of the woods of the first installment and putting her in a more sprawling landscape that really spoke to the scope of the book. Here is the original, raw image.

Given this book focused on Ember's exploration of the earth element, Karen wanted it to be bright and vibrant with a bold use of color, so I think she was probably somewhat concerned when I told her I thought this image would work best from the initial group I sent her. The color is obviously drab and dull, but I thought it gave us the epic feel she was looking for, and it would allow for Ember to quite literally be standing on a precipice. We just needed a little color:

Color is one of the easier adjustments to make in Photoshop, so I added a series of layers to give the cover the vibrancy we wanted while ensuring it had an ominous quality as well since things get darker for Ember throughout the book.

The next step was to add Ember herself to the image, and it was by far the most challenging aspect of this design. The primary concern for me when compositing images together is lighting. The image we're taking the figure from (the source image) needs to match the image we're moving it to (the destination image) in terms of lighting or it's going to look digitally manipulated in the worst possible way.

I like to stick to studio shots of people rather than environmental shots when doing a more realistic composite, as the lighting is usually even overall instead of coming from one specific direction and creating harsh highlights or shadows. Since my background image above has a very muted quality–no sun to create directional shadows–the even tone of a studio shot is ideal (but not perfect, as you'll see below).

Here's the raw image of Ember:

While she looks great against the white, when I cut her out and added her to my existing background, you can see a number of problems arose:

She couldn't look less like she belongs in this environment, and instead is simply floating above the grass looking ridiculously out of place. In order to make the composition more seamless, I darkened her figure, added a shadow underneath her, and took some of the blades of grass and laid them over the heels of her boots so she would appear as though she was actually a part of the landscape around her. I also added some green highlights to her so she would look like she was lit by the glow of the wings when those came into play next.

The final step before adding the copy was to give her wings. As mentioned in the cover reveal, Ember explores her ability to control a different element in each book, so I wanted the wings to reflect the specific element central to each installment. I started with just a flat illustration of the wings that I'd drawn in InDesign:

Since Gaia sees Ember learning to harness the Earth element, I wanted to build the wings out of various leaves and branches and really make them a focal point. I started with a couple leaf and bark textures as a foundation, and then threaded 3 different types of branches in and through the illustration before finishing with a subtle glow around both wings.

So close! The last step was to add one last layer of color as well as the title, series title, Karen's name and the tagline, and then we had our finished cover:

Friday Flourish (+ Giveaway!): Secrets in the Grave

Happy Friday Everyone!

I've been crazy busy with work lately which never ceases to amaze me–in the best possible way–as for a while there I was sure designing book covers was only ever going to be a dream job. Luckily enough though, I've had a number of fantastic authors and publishers take a chance on me, and I'm always so excited to share the final products with all of you.

I've had the pleasure of working with Karen Ann Hopkins on all of her indie published books, and I'm so absurdly grateful to her for bringing me such fun and challenging projects. Her Wings of War series and Serenity's Plain Secrets series couldn't be more different in look and feel, so I always enjoy bouncing back and forth between them (Karen writes crazy fast!). The third installment of her Amish murder mystery series is titled Secrets in the Grave, and we kept to the aesthetic established with the previous two books, focusing on an ominous outdoor landscape with lots of color to make sure it stands out online. I hope you guys love this latest installment as much as we do!

SECRETS IN THE GRAVE

Serenity's Plain Secrets #3

Just when Sheriff Serenity Adams thinks life is getting back to normal, the death of a young, pregnant Amish woman rocks the community. Is it circumstance…or murder? It’s up to Serenity and her ex-Amish boyfriend, Daniel Bachman, to discover the truth about the new shaman-type medicine man who’s brought his dark secrets to Blood Rock.

But Serenity has secrets of her own, and if she and Daniel don’t work it out, the reappearance of a woman from his past could threaten to ruin their relationship.

The deeper Serenity delves into the magical world of Amish herbal medicine, the phenomenon of laying of the hands and other cultural healing oddities, the more she wonders if miracles are real. What she witnesses with her own eyes may be too fantastical for her to believe.

In this riveting third installment of Serenity’s Plain Secrets, beliefs are challenged, a way of life is questioned and family skeletons are unearthed, leaving no one untouched.  

Goodreads

WHISPERS FROM THE DEAD

Serenity's Plain Secrets #2

Some Amish communities aren't so cozy.

Whispers From The Dead is the powerful and thrilling sequel to Lamb to the Slaughter, in the Amish mystery series, Serenity’s Plain Secrets.

Sheriff Serenity Adams and Daniel Bachman are once again partnered up in a criminal investigation, when they travel to a northern Amish settlement that has been riddled by arsons for the past two decades. Serenity quickly discovers that there is much more going on than just barns being set on fire in the touristy community, and that the new group of Amish has their own secrets to hide. She begins to unravel an extensive criminal underworld that threatens to destroy everything that the simple people of Poplar Springs hold dear and once again puts her own life in jeopardy.

And even though Serenity tries desperately to avoid it, things begin heating up between her and Daniel, making her wonder if true love and happiness are really within her grasp.

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N

LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER

Serenity's Plain Secrets #1

Lamb to the Slaughter is a story about the intertwining lives of three unlikely people in an Indiana Amish Community and the devastating results when a rebellious teenage girl is found shot to death in a corn field during the harvest.

Serenity Adams is the newly elected young sheriff in the country town of Blood Rock and besides dealing with the threatening behavior of her predecessor, she now has a dead Amish girl on her plate.  At first glance, the case seems obvious.  The poor girl was probably accidently shot during hunting season, but when the elders of the Amish community and even the girl’s parents react with uncaring subdued behavior, Serenity becomes suspicious.  As she delves deeper into the secretive community that she grew up beside, she discovers a gruesome crime from the past that may very well be related to the Amish girl’s shooting.

Serenity enlists the help of the handsome bad-boy building contractor, Daniel Bachman, who left the Amish when he was nineteen and has his own dark reasons to help the spunky sheriff solve the crime that the family and friends who shunned him are trying desperately to cover up.  Serenity’s persistence leads her to a stunning discovery that not only threatens to destroy her blossoming romance with Daniel, but may even take her life in the end.

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N

Find Karen:
 

Website • Blog • Twitter • Facebook

You can find more of my cover design work at Seedlings Design Studio!

• • • • • • • • • • • 

GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wednesday Flourish: Gaia Cover Reveal + Giveaway

Today I'm more than a little excited to be a part of the cover reveal for Gaia by Karen Ann Hopkins, the second book in her paranormal YA Wings of War series. I've had the pleasure of working on several projects with Karen, and I have more and more fun each time.

I've found that designing for sequels is far trickier than designing for book one (much as writing them would be I'm sure) because I have to create something new but still make sure it fits within the aesthetic established in the previous design. I absolutely adored the cover for Embers, so I spent a long time staring at a blank page trying to figure out how to make Gaia equally successful (to me) while ensuring it checked all the Wings of War design boxes.

Karen is someone who always has a clear idea of what she's looking for in her covers, pointing me in the right direction and then letting me take her must-have imagery and run with it. Since protagonist Ember's control over one of the elements is a focal point of each book (fire for Embers and earth for Gaia), I wanted to make sure that element was prominent and instantly recognizable in the design. It's possible I love the cover for Gaia even more than Embers, and I hope you guys love it as well!

GAIA

Watchers and Angels are at war. Which side will Ember choose?

As the apocalypse draws near, Demons are becoming bolder and Watchers are joining forces to fight them. But the Watchers have their own agenda, one that defies Biblical scripture. They don’t want the rapture to happen, making them enemies of the Celestial Host.

Against her own better judgment and an impassioned plea from a higher being, Embers stays true to her first mentor, seeking out a powerful earth Watcher to continue her supernatural lessons. Ember has had a glimpse into the future and knows what’s coming. She is being forced to develop her powers as quickly as possible, to fight the dark forces that are spreading across the earth. Heaven’s sentinels have abandoned their posts to prepare for war. And the walls between the planes of existence are weakening. But who can Ember trust? Her guardian and lover is a Demon. Her best friend is a growler. And her mentor is a psychopath. Humankind is on the precipice; at the end of times. As Ember struggles with morality, she soon discovers that there’s something more frightening than anything she’s faced before.

Goodreads 

Excited about Gaia? Then be sure and sign up to be a part of the blog tour in August! 

EMBERS

There are descendants of angels walking among us. Ember is one of them. And she may be the only hope mankind has as the rapture approaches and evil rises.

Embers is an epic paranormal adventure about an eighteen year old girl who discovers that she's immune to fire and any other injury when she’s in a horrific car crash that kills her parents. Following a violent episode with her aunt's boyfriend, Ember flees Ohio to live with an old relative in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Ember's exuberance at escaping a bad home life soon turns to trepidation when she finds out that she's a Watcher, a descendant of angels. While Ember learns about her heritage and the powers that go along with it, she strikes up friendships with two young men who live in a frightening walled compound in the forest. Inexplicitly drawn to one of the men in particular, an impossible romance develops. But it is cut short when Ember discovers that her new friends are fighting on the opposite side of a war—one that’s been raging between two factions of Watchers for thousands of years. When the compound’s inhabitants threaten the townspeople, Ember takes action, sealing her fate in the ancient battle of good versus evil—and the grayness in between. Ember is up to the challenge, until she realizes that she isn’t only fighting for the lives of the locals and the souls of her new friends. She also might be one of the few champions who will make a stand for all of mankind as the rapture approaches and the end of days begin.

Embers is a dark and gritty YA novel that’s the first book in the series, The Wings of War.

Goodreads • Amazon

 • • • • • • • • • • •

KAREN ANN HOPKINS

Karen Ann Hopkins resides in northern Kentucky with her family on a farm that boasts a menagerie of horses, goats, peacocks, chickens, ducks, rabbits, dogs and cats. Karen's main job is home schooling the kids, but she finds time to give riding lessons, coach a youth equestrian drill team, and of course, write. She was inspired to create her first book, Temptation, by the Amish community she lived in. The experiential knowledge she gained through her interactions with her neighbors drove her to create the story of the star-crossed lovers, Rose and Noah.

Karen grew up about a mile from Lake Ontario in Upstate New York. She was bitten by the horse bug at the age of five, and after diligently taking riding lessons for several years, was rewarded with her first horse when she turned eleven. The feisty horse's name was Lady, a Quarter Horse-Thoroughbred cross, who became Karen's steadfast companion. Through the years, the constant force in her life was horses. Eventually, she found her place as a riding instructor herself. Before accepting her fate in the barnyard, she worked a short stint as a paralegal, traveled abroad, and guided tourists on horseback riding tours in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

Karen is currently working on her Amish mystery series, Serenity's Plain Secrets, along with the YA paranormal/fantasy series, The Wings of War.  Karen is also excited to announce the Temptation series has been optioned for TV by Pilgrim Studios and is available on Audible. More books in the Temptation series are in the works.

Website • Blog • Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads

• • • • • • • • • • • 

GIVEAWAY

One lucky winner will receive a $25 gift card (Amazon, B&N, iTunes), and three winners will each receive a paperback copy of EMBERS (book one)! Please enter via the Rafflecopter form. Giveaway is open internationally.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Rachel's Deception Blog Tour: Interview + Giveaway

I'm incredibly pleased today to welcome author Karen Ann Hopkins back to the blog to talk a little bit about Rachel's Deception, the fourth book in her young adult Temptation series. Rachel's Deception catches us up with Noah and Rose while at the same time delving deeper into the life of Noah's little sister Rachel, and I couldn't wait to ask Karen a few questions about how everything plays out. Don't forget to check the bottom of the post for the full list of participating blogs as well as all the details on a fantastic giveaway!

If Rachel could sit down with you and ask you a single question about the way you’ve told her story, what do you think she’d most want to know?

That’s an interesting question. I think Rachel would wonder how an outsider like me knew about the issues she was struggling with in the Amish community. I would tell her that several Amish teens came to me, discussing in detail, their personal troubles living the Amish life. I gathered information from these discussions, and along with my own observations, I was able to write realistic portrayals of the characters and events in the Temptation series.

What one character from another piece of fiction do you think would be a great confidante and dispenser of advice for Rachel with all that she goes through in Rachel’s Deception?

I would like to put Rachel in touch with Dallas in The Outsiders. Why Dallas? Rachel is the type of girl who gets along better with guys, than girls. She’d probably open up more to a male, the same way she opened up to Justin and Micah in the book. The advice Dallas could impart to Rachel is that there are consequences to your actions. He would probably tell her, with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, that if she lives a dangerous life, she’s going to die young.

What are 3 things about Rachel’s life in the Amish community that people might be surprised by?

1) That Rachel can pick out the boy who she wants to court, as long as he’s Amish.

2) That she’ll begin working, either at the family household and farm, or at an outside Amish business right after she’s finished with eighth grade.

3) That she’ll have to give her parents ninety percent of her income until she’s engaged. At that point the amount will lessen depending on what the family decides.

What was one of the biggest challenges of getting inside Rachel’s head after spending so much time with Noah and Rose?

Noah and Rose are both good kids. Their only problem was falling in love. Rachel is another story altogether. She’s jealous, resentful, and angry at the world. Part of her feelings are attributed to her circumstances of being Amish and having lost her sister, Sarah, in a tornado that she herself survived. She wants to be good, but she enjoys being bad. She’s a very complicated person, and complicated people are more difficult to write than less dimensional people. I worked very hard with Rachel’s character to create a troubled girl that the reader would want to slap at times, but would also like. It’s a fine line. I hope I succeeded.

All the books in the Temptation series have a natural outdoor setting on the cover. Looking forward to the next book, what weather conditions might fit the mood/feel of that story?

The fifth Temptation novel is titled Summer’s Song. One of the POV’s will be Summer Sage, Rose’s best friend, and Sam’s girlfriend. She’s going to have her own adventure. And while we’ll be checking in with Rose, Noah, Rachel, Justin, Micah, and everyone else in the Meadowview Amish community, this one is going to be Summer’s book. Summer is strong, optimistic, and cheerful. I’d like the next cover to reflect her personality, so I’m envisioning a brighter book cover, with the sun shining. She might even be standing in a field full of wildflowers.

Thanks so much for stopping by Karen!

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RACHEL'S DECEPTION

Growing up Amish is difficult…but leaving it behind is even harder.

Noah was Amish...Rose wasn't. Being together should have been impossible. But somehow they found a way to make it work. They are finally a family, but their happily-ever-after is still a long off. Will Rose and her friends be able to force real change?

Karen Ann Hopkins returns with a gripping new book in the YA Temptation series. The powerful family saga continues with Rachel's Deception, as events spiral out of control in the sleepy farming community of Meadowview. And Rachel Miller has her own secrets to hide. Noah’s younger sister has been living a double life. That is, until Justin Cameron, Rose's little brother, catches her in the act. Rachel is not the obedient Amish girl that her sister was, and her rebelliousness takes her to a very dangerous world. A world that only her true friends can help her escape from.

As Rachel questions all she has been taught about love, family, and commitment, Rose discovers what it really means to be shunned. And an evil shadow looms on the horizon, threatening not only Rose, but everyone she holds dear.

Amazon • B&N • Goodreads

THE TEMPTATION SERIES:

Temptation (Book 1)

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N • Indiebound

Belonging (Book 2)

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N • Indiebound

Forever (Book 3)

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N • Indiebound

Audiobook lovers, be sure and order Temptation (you can check out a sample here) which is now available on Audible!

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KAREN ANN HOPKINS

Karen Ann Hopkins resides in northern Kentucky with her family on a farm that boasts a menagerie of horses, goats, peacocks, chickens, ducks, rabbits, dogs and cats. Karen's main job is home schooling the kids, but she finds time to give riding lessons, coach a youth equestrian drill team, and of course, write. She was inspired to create her first book, Temptation, by the Amish community she lived in. The experiential knowledge she gained through her interactions with her neighbors drove her to create the story of the star-crossed lovers, Rose and Noah.

Karen grew up about a mile from Lake Ontario in Upstate New York. She was bitten by the horse bug at the age of five, and after diligently taking riding lessons for several years, was rewarded with her first horse when she turned eleven. The feisty horse's name was Lady, a Quarter Horse-Thoroughbred cross, who became Karen's steadfast companion. Through the years, the constant force in her life was horses. Eventually, she found her place as a riding instructor herself. Before accepting her fate in the barnyard, she worked a short stint as a paralegal, traveled abroad, and guided tourists on horseback riding tours in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

Karen is currently working on her Amish mystery series, Serenity's Plain Secrets, along with the YA paranormal/fantasy series, The Wings of War. Karen is also excited to announce the Temptation series has been optioned for TV by Pilgrim Studios and is available on Audible. More books in the Temptation series are in the works.

Website • Blog • Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads

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GIVEAWAY

Karen is offering up a fantastic prize pack, with one lucky winner receiving the following:

• $50 gift card (Amazon, B&N or iTunes)
• A complete set of her books (Temptation, Belonging, Forever, Rachel’s Deception, Lamb to the Slaughter, Whispers from the Dead and Embers!)

Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY. Please enter via the Rafflecopter form.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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