12 Days of Christmas Book Giveaways: The Introduction for this NEW series!

Dearest Blog Readers,

I'm excited to share my NEW blog series with you as we celebrate this glorious Christmas holiday season!

The series is called "12 Days of Christmas Book Giveaways."

Visit my “God is Love” blog every day from this December 1 through December 12 to discover a NEW giveaway featuring my author friends and their holiday books!

This is your chance to WIN wonderful Christmas stories by some of the most talented, bestselling Christian authors in the world! 

Please note: This giveaway is only for e-books that can be downloaded to the winners’ Kindle device. If you do not have a Kindle device, but you do have a smartphone, you can download the Kindle app for free and use it on your phone.

Merry Christmas, dear friends!

God bless you.

Love,

Alexis A. Goring

Founder of "God is Love" blog

When Love Inspires: The Introduction

Love is in the air! No, it's not Springtime yet BUT Valentine's Day (Feb. 14) is around the corner and I created "When Love Inspires" to celebrate!

"When Love Inspires" is a new series for my blog. Hint: Valentine's Day is my muse.

Every day, from February 1 through February 14, I will feature an author and their sweet romance story on my blog. All of my authors this time write for the Christian book market, so their stories are as captivating as they are clean and inspirational.

Featured authors will share what inspires them to write sweet romance stories. 

Here's what's in it for you: FREE books! Each author promised to give away at least one copy (paperback or digital) of their featured book. You can enter each book giveaway contest via the Rafflecopter widget that will be located toward the very end of each blog post.

I hope that this series, When Love Inspires, will be a blessing for your heart!

Love,

Alexis A. Goring

Founder of "God is Love" blog

Christmas on My Heart: The Introduction by Alexis A. Goring

Merry Christmas!

'Tis the season of happiness, joy, and gifts from the heart! 

Speaking of the heart, I'm hosting a NEW holiday series on my blog this December. The series is called "Christmas on My Heart."

Four times a week (Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday), I will feature a new holiday story and its author as part of Christmas on My Heart. This series will start on Saturday, December 1 and end on Sunday, Dec. 23.

Visit my blog to read author interviews, character interviews, devotionals based on a theme from the featured books, personal essays by the authors that show the story behind the story, and book review features that include an excerpt from the author's holiday story.

Best of all, the authors have promised to give gifts! At the end of each Christmas on My Heart blog post, you will have the opportunity to enter their giveaway contest for your chance to WIN a copy of their featured book!

Sound exciting?

Praying that this holiday series will bring happiness to your heart!

God bless you.

Love,

Alexis

Falling for Books: The Introduction

Dear Blog Readers,

Starting tomorrow (Sept. 23) the Fall Season will arrive in the United States! 

It's time for sweet potato or pumpkin pie, caramel apple cider, pumpkin spice lattes (though I've never had one, my friends with a Starbucks habit look forward to it every year) and plenty of beautiful backgrounds for photography opportunities if you live in an area where the tree leaves change into vibrant colors of red, orange and yellow! I love the Autumn/Fall season weather because of its sunny days, cool breezes, crisp air, and perfection everywhere!

In celebration of this delightful season, I'm starting a new series on my blog for Fall 2018. The series is called "Falling for Books" and it's going to be AWESOME!  

Every Sunday in Fall 2018 (from Sept. 23 to Dec. 16), you'll find a new Christian author who's visiting to talk about their book in a variety of special features that include author interviews, character interviews, devotionals based on their book, personal essays about the fall season and how it ties into their book's message or theme, book reviews and story excerpts!

By now you must know that Contemporary Romance is my favorite genre to promote on my blog but there's also room this Fall season for historicals, romantic suspense and women's fiction stories to be featured here on my blog. You should also know that the authors who visit my blog love to give away free copies of the books that we feature here! Yes, book giveaway contests are a part of this "Falling for Books" series. Happiness for your heart, right? 

So grab your favorite fall beverage, go to your favorite reading nook and soak in these fun features on my blog!

Love,

Alexis

Founder of God is Love (blog)

Summer Stories: The Introduction

June 21 is the first day of Summer 2018 and to celebrate, I'd like to introduce you to a new series on my blog, "Summer Stories"!

Every Sunday for the entire span of this summer, I will feature a new book and its author on my blog. The authors will contribute to my blog by way of author interviews, character interviews, devotionals based on their book, personal essays and book review plus story excerpt features.

The books that will be featured are from a variety of genres under the Christian fiction umbrella, including but not limited to Contemporary Romance, Historical and Amish fiction.

Best of all, you will have the chance to WIN a copy of the featured book each Sunday!

So sit back, relax, sip your favorite summertime beverage and get ready for Summer Stories!

Love,

Alexis
Founder of "God is Love" blog

Let Love Bloom: Where She Belongs by Johnnie Alexander

Find Your Way Home

A personal essay by Johnnie Alexander

My 2018 page-a-day calendar features a motivational message accompanied by one of Mary Engelbreit’s playful illustrations. I’m often inspired, amused, or delighted by the day’s design.

But last weekend’s page touched a special place in my heart. Along with Ms. Engelbreit’s adorable characters and a cute little cottage were the words "Find Your Way Home".

I couldn’t help but smile at this sweet token of God’s steadfast love.

You see, I’ve been a bit of a vagabond for the past several months. After living with my sister in the Memphis area for three years, I moved into my own apartment a couple of miles from my daughter’s family in Tampa.

Less than a year later, just a week before Christmas, I moved all my worldly possessions—except what I could fit in my Pontiac Vibe—into storage while I took off on a holiday road trip.

My route took me from Tampa to Memphis to Tulsa to Sierra Vista, Arizona to Tulsa to Clarence, Missouri, then back to Memphis.

When I left my apartment, I didn’t know where my next home would be. But that was okay because I knew that God knew.

Which brings us back to last weekend. By then, my two dogs and I had been hanging out with my sister for a couple of months.

I think of the message on the calendar page, “Find Your Way Home,” as an inside joke between God and me. The plans were already made. On Sunday I packed up my Vibe. And on Monday, I drove to my new home in Oklahoma.

In the opening pages of Where She Belongs, my heroine is trying to find her way home. Shelby is fulfilling her dream of raising her young daughters in the same house that gave her so many cherished childhood memories.

But as the story unfolds, Shelby realizes that home has a deeper meaning than even the most beloved house. She lets love bloom in her heart, and a new dream for her family replaces the old one.

God blesses us with our homes here on earth, but He’s preparing our eternal homes in Heaven.

His Word shows us the way.

~*~
Author Bio:

Best-selling author Johnnie Alexander imagines heart-tugging stories in multiple genres. Her debut novel, Where Treasure Hides, has been translated into Dutch and Norwegian. She also writes contemporary romance and cozy mysteries. 

Since Johnnie also loves to talk about writing, she interviews inspirational authors for Novelists Unwind, co-hosts Writers Chat, a weekly online show, and teaches at writers conferences and on Serious Writer Academy. 

Johnnie recently moved to Oklahoma with Griff, her happy-go-lucky collie, and Rugby, her raccoon-treeing papillon. 

Connect with Johnnie on her website or her Facebook Author Page.

~*~
Book blurb for Where She Belongs:

Shelby Kincaid is ready to move on from her grief. With high hopes for the future, she longs to purchase her family’s ancestral homestead so she can raise her young daughters in the only place she ever truly belonged. She plans to transform the abandoned house into the perfect home of her memories. But she’ll have her work cut out for her.

AJ Sullivan never wanted the homestead. Inherited as a punishment from his grandfather, it has sat empty for fifteen years and fallen into ruin. He’s glad to finally unload it. But a clean break isn’t possible when he can’t get the young widow Shelby off his mind.

Welcome to Misty Willow, a place that will have as great a hold over the reader as it does over its inhabitants.

~*~
Read a free preview of Where She Belongs on BookGrabbr

Buy Johnnie's book on Amazon or Other Retailers

~*~
Connect with Johnnie:
Website/Blog ~ Facebook Author Page ~ Twitter ~ GoodReads ~ Amazon Author Page  ~ BookBub

~*~
Enter this book giveaway contest for your chance to WIN a copy of this book by filling out the entry form on the Rafflecopter widget below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Let Love Bloom: The Introduction

The Spring season is here and I'm simply delighted!

I love this season so much because of its natural beauty and hope of new beginnings. People often say that "love is in the air" every time Spring arrives and this year, I'd like to celebrate that with my blog's new series "Let Love Bloom".

This special series is designed to promote pure romance stories written by Christian authors.

Every Sunday from March 25 through June 17, I'll host a new author on my blog and they'll host a giveaway of their book that we're featuring on that day. So that means you'll have a chance to win their book and read it for free!

But the authors are doing more than giving away copies of their books! They're also visiting with us via author interviews, character interviews, devotionals based on the book, personal essays related to a theme in the book, along with book review and story excerpt features from their stories.

I hope that you will enjoy this and "Let Love Bloom" in your personal collection of books and in your real-life stories too!

Happy Spring 2018!

Love,

Alexis

Cozy Christmas Reads: The Introduction by Alexis A. Goring

Merry Christmas, dear blog reader friends!

I am so excited to announce my blog’s holiday series, “Cozy Christmas Reads”!

It’s going to be a daily series that will take place on my “God is Love” blog every day starting this Friday, Dec. 1 and ending on Dec. 25, 2017.

Each day will feature a Christian author and a Christmas story that they wrote.

The authors will share insights to their story via fun guest post features like author interviews, character interviews, devotionals based on their book, personal essays, along with story excerpts and book reviews!

Book giveaways are mandatory of this daily dose of Christmas joy, so remember to enter the daily book giveaway contest via the Rafflecopter widget which you will find toward the end of each post.

I hope that "Cozy Christmas Reads" is a blessing to you and that you will enjoy this holiday season.

God bless your dear hearts!

Love,

Alexis

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Introduction: Fall into Love

Happy first day of Fall 2017!

I love this season because of the cool breezes, soft sunshine, gorgeous changing colors of the tree leaves, caramel apple cider and the fact that it's the perfect time to wear boots.

This year, I'm excited to introduce a new series for my blog titled, "Fall into Love." It's a weekly series featuring real stories about how my author friends first fell in love with the person they married. Every Sunday for all of Fall 2017, you will find a new feature on my blog.

Some Sundays, you'll receive a bonus that includes a blurb for the featured author's book and a fun book giveaway contest! However, since not all of the authors are published yet, so on their Sundays you will only read about their real-life love story. There is a chance that I'll feature some authors who ARE published but NOT married yet so on those Sundays, the focus will be on their book and giveaway contest.

All of the books featured in this Fall into Love blog series will be pure romance fictional stories.

You are encouraged to interact with the authors by writing notes to them in the comment section toward the end of their blog posts. Just like readers love receiving free books, the authors who give away those free books love to hear kind words from their readers! :) So let's encourage the hearts of these creative people who you will "meet" during the span of this series.

Until next Sunday,

Alexis

Summer Love: The Introduction

"Summer Love" is the name of my new series and it's purposed to celebrate summertime by promoting pure romance stories written by Christian authors.

"Summer Love" will be a weekly series with a new post published each Sunday for every week of Summer 2017. 

So each Sunday here on my "God is Love" blog will feature a Christian author who writes romance for the following categories: Contemporary, Inspirational, Suspense, Chick Lit, Historical, and Amish stories. Each author has promised to give away a copy of their featured book to the winner of the book giveaway contest hosted by Rafflecopter.

You are invited to enjoy "meeting" these authors and learning about their stories through features that vary from author interviews to character interviews, devotionals to personal essays, and book reviews with excerpts from the story. 

The "Summer Love" series ends when Autumn 2017 begins. 

I hope that you will enjoy this new series!

Love,

Alexis

Words of Faith: The Introduction

Dear Wonderful Readers of "God is Love" (blog): 

I'd like to introduce a new series coming soon to my blog! Starting on Friday, Jan. 1, 2016, we will have special guests talking about their faith journey with God. We will host a special guest every Friday throughout the year 2016.

"Words of Faith" will provide YOU, my readers, with a focus on faith in God as told through real-life experience from followers of Jesus Christ! Our special guests want to share stories of their faith in God with you to encourage you along your journey through life.

An emphasis on Bible verses that teach us about faith will be a focus throughout this series. So, at least one bible verse on faith will be included in every story told for this series.

Every Friday, you can expect a devotional or a personal essay (guest post) about what faith means to one of our guests. Example of talking points from our guests include but are not limited to: talking about how and when they first found faith in God, sharing a testimony about how their faith in God helped them to overcome an obstacle, showing us how to "grow up" in the faith, speaking on why faith without works is dead, sharing how they apply their faith in God to their everyday life (and how you can too), talking about how their faith has helped others find a relationship with Jesus Christ, sharing how their faith impacts their world and why they choose to keep the faith....the variety of topics and depth of story may be the very hope and inspiration you need.

"Falling in Love with Jesus" told us WHY people have faith in God, now "Words of Faith" guests will show you HOW people can find faith and hope in a broken world. 

So that's all for now. Stay tuned for more every Friday, right here on this blog! 

Love,

Alexis

Introducing "His Yes Girls" in a new feature

Dearest readers of my blog, “God is Love”:

I am so excited to share with you a brand new feature coming soon to my blog—seasonal guest posts!

Yes, I said seasonal, which means I’ve invited people who are passionate about sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ to write one guest post per season (spring/summer/autumn/winter) to be posted on my blog. As I bring in more writers, there will be more introductions. But for now, I’d like to introduce you to two women who love God and want to share the lessons they’re learning in their daily faith journey with Jesus Christ—Austi and Kait, welcome to my blog!

Austi and Kait have co-founded a blog called His Yes Girls: Our Walk with God in Blog Form. They are passionate about helping people come to know and love God and have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I think you will love what they have to say it the upcoming seasonal guests post but for now, I’ll let this introduction continue in a (short bio) message from Austi and Kait:

Meet Austi:

My name is Austi, and I am the co-founder/author of His Yes Girls, which was born of Kait and I’s hunger for the Lord, our love of writing and our desire to share the love and grace that the Lord has bestowed upon us. We firmly believe that God has called us to write and share our findings and revelations of the Word in order to reach out and touch the lives of others.

I recently married the most supportive loving, and handsome man I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, and I am blessed beyond words that God brought him into my life (and is letting me keep him forever). I have a huge passion for all things creative: writing, photography, design, etc. I hope and pray that one day (soon) I will be able to focus more on those passions and even have the opportunity to build a career out of them.

Writing for His Yes Girls has not only given me the opportunity to share my faith and belief with others, but has also brought my personal relationship with my Savior to a whole new level. And, it is still growing every single day! I absolutely love discovering new lessons as I [do my best to] walk hand in hand of the Lord. I just pray that the light of the Lord shines through me always, and that I may lead by example so that others may be inspired to seek the Light of His Grace!

Fulfilling His Purpose | Philippians 2:13

~Austi

... 

Meet Kait: 

Hi Y’all!! My name is Kait and I am a co-founder and writer for His Yes Girls. His Yes Girls was created with the belief that when God calls us, we strive to always be obedient and do what He needs us to do. We want to be the ones who God knows He can tell to do anything He needs done and know that we will immediately say YES! 

We want to always say YES to God at all times, in all things! God put a blog on mine and Austi’s hearts so we created His Yes Girls in December of 2013. I am currently a senior Business Administration major at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, TX and will be attending the University of Texas at San Antonio in the Fall to pursue a Master’s Degree in Accountancy. 

My heart longs to help people in other countries, to travel the world and experience different cultures. My heart longs for every girl that I meet to want to know more about God and more about Jesus, for them to want to be His Yes Girl. Every day my walk with God is different but one thing is constant--I am constantly trying to draw closer to Him.I want my life to be an example of how much He loves me; I want His light to shine through me to all I see.

I strive to not just read the Bible, but study it and lean on revelations from God and the prompting of the Holy Spirit to help me understand because The Lord gives us understanding in all things! We will continue writing to share our journey to live a God-filled life and take everything back to scripture because we know God’s word is truth.

His Yes Girls ministry aims to lead people to know who Jesus is and all that salvation is and bring together the entire body of Christ, glorifying God in all that we do. We aim to spread the burning desire to know Him by studying The Bible, seeking Him in all things and being fervently obedient, knowing perfection in all areas of our lives are in His perfect plans for us, and for us all accomplish all the good works God has for us to do.

Fulfilling His Purpose | Philippians 2:13 

His Yes Girl, 

Kait

~*~

There you go! Are you excited about this new feature? I hope so!

Stay tuned for their first guest post coming soon in April!

God bless you!

Sincerely,

Alexis

31 Days of Prayer: The Introduction

December 1st marks day one in the "most wonderful time of the year"! Why is it called the most wonderful time of the year? Oh, for so many reasons! It's the holiday season and the birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated. It's a pure delight for me to see the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ celebrated around the world! :) 

What else is there to love about Christmastime? I love the beautiful Christmas lights and decorations that line the driveways and decorate the homes of so many beautiful places and spaces. I adore the variety of Christmas gifts, cards and ideas available in the store and via online shopping! And I absolutely adore it when snow covers the ground, creating a winter wonderland! :)

So much to celebrate in this season of good cheer, so much to be thankful for that I thought why not celebrate on my blog with my first "31 Days" blog series! Now I'm new to the whole concept of writing about a specific topic for 31 Days so I'd like to start it off simple yet profound. What topic have I chosen? PRAYER.

Every day from now until Dec. 31, I will write about the topic of prayer. Some days it may simply be a prayer for someone or something. Other days, it may be a lesson on prayer I've learned or book recommendations that talk about prayer. But everyday, I am already hoping and praying I will have something wonderful to share with you about this gift from God (prayer).

Please note: If you'd like for me to pray for you, e-mail me at capturingidea@gmail.com and let me know if you want me to mention my prayer for you on my next blog post.

Looking forward to praying for you and with you!