Saturday, March 7, 2020

Review, Guest Post, and Giveaway: Vestige of Hope by Sara Blackard


About the Book


Book:  Vestige of Hope
Author: Sara Blackard
Genre:  Christian Historical Romance
Release Date: December, 2019

Does his future lie in the past?
Thrown out of his element into a time not his own, he must overcome his doubts to save the life he never knew he wanted.

Soldier, Hunter Bennet, is always in control…

…control of his missions.
…control of his life.
…control of his emotions.
Until he hesitates on an important mission, leaving a child orphaned. Chased by the demons of failure, he finds himself thrown back in time. Why has God called him here?
Viola Thomas’s idyllic life in the new state of Colorado is shattered when her father fails to return from his winter trapping trip in the Rocky Mountains and a man tumbles into her life from the future. Threats from an unwanted suitor who has pestered her for years jeopardize all she holds dear. Now she must trust a man from a world far from her own.

Hunter must reach through the shadows of doubt to save his future but in doing so will he fail in the most important mission of all?

Click here for your copy!

My Thoughts:
I enjoy out of the box stories and what I really liked about Vestige of Hope, was that the author made time travel seem so plausible. What happens when a soldier, a US Army Delta Force one, takes a hike on a mountain? Well I will leave his journey to your reading, but Hunter ends up back in time to the year 1877. 
Hunter is injured and meets two sisters, Viola and Beatrice, who are awaiting their father and brother to return home. I really enjoyed the realization of both parties, that Hunter was not in the right time.  The terrors that he clearly felt and the marvelous things he told the sisters about the future and that they saw on his phone. The way it was written was so good that even I was believing the story Hunter concocted in his head, that he really could not be in the past.
There are bad guys (creepy evil ones), strong faith, overwelming sadness, and exhilarating romance in this delightful time travel romp. I also found out there is a novella prequel to this series that I am anxious to get my hands on now. And I look forward to reading the next and learning more about this family.
I received a copy of this novel from the author. I was not required to post a positive review and all views and opinions are my own.

About the Author


I’ve been a writer for as long as I can remember being able to hold a pencil. In elementary school, I had journals full of short stories and poetry. While it’s always been a passion of mine, I didn’t think I could write for a living until I told my kids their only limit is the limit they put upon themselves. With that little piece of encouragement, I had to obviously show them I was right. Now I’m enjoying the adventure of writing and diving into the publishing world. I love to write romantic stories full of adventure and weaved with God’s message of love.

Between school and my launch into authorship, I’ve been busy having and homeschooling five children, moving to the wilderness of Tok, Alaska, serving in different ministries, building a house ourselves, and purchasing multiple businesses.

More from Sara


I’ve always had a fascination with speculating on how I would react if I suddenly ended up in another time. Growing up, I’d daydream about finding myself in a field of heather in medieval Scotland, waking in the back of a wagon traveling across the prairie, or walking through the wilderness with the colonials. I loved reading and wanted desperately to jump into the scenes I experienced while turning the page of a cherished novel. Of course, there’s no real way a person can time travel, so my dreaming was just that, dreaming … or was it?

A few years ago, I was doing a Kid’s Club Bible lesson at the local school about Philip and the Ethiopian and had my mind blown. In that event, God transported Philip to a town about twenty miles away. It was like Scotty beaming Kirk up and placing him where he was needed. I’d read that story before, but for some reason skipped right over that little nugget of information. Now here’s the part that got my mind spinning, if God could move someone in the blink of an eye across miles, why couldn’t He move someone through time? Time travel was now not only feasible, but God revealed a greater depth of Himself to me.

My mind started exploding with a story of a family in the middle of Colorado at the cusp of its statehood. What would cause God to throw a person in the middle of the wilderness? What would it reveal about the journey each person had to take to find their identities in who God created them to be? Hours, months, and years passed as the characters and story grew until they spilled upon the computer screen in a river of words.

One small sentence tucked within the middle of Acts opened my heart to a new dimension of God’s magnitude and released the dream of writing I had buried within me. I love how God does that, opens the well deep in us, nurturing the desires hidden there to reveal bit by bit who we are in Him. With Him nudging me along, my childhood fantasy of becoming a writer and transporting people to another time and place has become a reality with my debut novel Vestige of Hope, the first book in the three-book series Vestige in Time. My prayer is that my writing shows the traces of hope God leaves in my reader’s own hearts and lives. I pray God will ignite passions as He reveals himself one small sentence at a time through His word.

Blog Stops

Texas Book-aholic, February 26
Betti Mace, February 29
Artistic Nobody, March 1 (Author Interview)
Vicky Sluiter, March 5 (Author Interview)
My Devotional Thoughts, March 9 (Author Interview)

Giveaway


To celebrate her tour. Sara is giving away the grand prize package of a $30 Amazon Gift Card and a paperback copy of Vestige of Hope & Vestige of Legacy!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.
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