Guide to Categories : Excerpt – I have not read this book so I cannot speak to its appropriateness for a K-12 Christian School library. I encourage librarians to read the book before making a purchasing decision.

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About the Book – A Storm of Doubts

Book Title: A Storm of Doubts

Author Name: JPC Allen

Genre: YA Cozy Mystery

Release Date: March 1, 2024

Her dad said nothing could hurt their relationship. But what if he isn’t her dad? 

Summer gets off to a rocky start for twenty-year-old Rae Riley when the ex-wife of family friend Jason Carlisle claims their youngest child isn’t his and Rae’s con man uncle Troy returns to Marlin County, Ohio. Rae is already at odds with her father, Sheriff Walter “Mal” Malinowski, over her desire to help people in trouble. When she extends that help to Troy and Jason’s ex-wife, Ashley, she and Mal clash even more. 

Then Ashley disappears, and Jason and his brother Rick are the main suspects. As Rae and her aunt Carrie, a private investigator hired to protect Jason’s kids, work to discover what really happened to Ashley, Rae wrestles with Troy’s insinuations that she may be calling the wrong Malinowski “Dad.”

Book Excerpt #1

“Just stop it!”

The shout made me jerk and get poked by a dead branch of a honeysuckle bush.

Wasn’t that a woman’s voice? Not a girl’s, not my cousin Coral’s.

Swiveling on my hips, I sat higher and caught strands of my dark gold hair on the bush. The fox cubs or kits or whatevers I’d been photographing leaped and rolled over each other between muted beams of sunlight, undisturbed.

Two voices, one higher, one lower, slipped through the budding understory shrubs and bushes .

Who would be out in the woods on the morning of Memorial Day between my cousin’s farm and my dad’s? If we were still on family land.

Coral knew exactly where we were, which was why I’d asked her to guide me after she told me about the fox babies. But Coral didn’t care much for civilization and nothing at all for ridiculous things like property boundaries.

“Coral?” I called, long, white honeysuckle blossoms brushing my cheeks, their thick Easter-y scent clogging my nose.

When had she left me? I couldn’t have been photographing foxes that long. Although she was the guide, she was only twelve, and I was just a day short of twenty. So it was my responsibility to return Coral home in pristine condition.

The voices continued, but too quiet for me to catch any words, their murmur blending with the faint rustle of leaves in the morning breeze.

So Coral might have met someone. But she knew not to talk to strangers.

I collected my camera and the small tripod it sat on and eased myself backward through the thicket.

Did not talking to strangers still apply if you met one in the middle of nowhere in the middle of a county as rural as Marlin County, Ohio?

“Coral?” I ticked up the volume.

“Leave me alone!” The woman’s voice again. She sounded desperate, not angry.

Missed Any Excerpts, Go Here

Excerpt One: http://kid-lit.library-lady.blog/epic-book-launch-and-excerpt-a-storm-of-doubts-young-adult/

Excerpt Two: https://blossomsandblessings.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-storm-of-doubts-by-jpc-allen-epic.html

Excerpt Three: https://moments-of-beauty.blogspot.com/2024/02/epic-book-launch-storm-of-doubts-by-jpc.html

Excerpt Four: https://carolkeen.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-storm-of-doubts-epic-book-launch.html

Excerpt Five: https://storiesbygina.com/2024/02/12/a-storm-of-doubts-epic-book-launch-with-celebrate-lit-publicity/

Excerpt Six: https://www.artistwriterandstudentohmy.com/posts/a-storm-of-doubts-epic-book-launch/

Excerpt Seven: https://coverloverbookreview.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-storm-of-doubts.html

About the Author – JPC Allen

JPC Allen started her writing career in second grade with an homage to Scooby Doo. She’s been tracking down mysteries ever since. Her Christmas mystery “A Rose from the Ashes” was the first Rae Riley mystery and a Selah-finalist at the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference in 2020. Her first Rae Riley novel, A Shadow on the Snow, released in 2021. Online, she offer tips and prompts to ignite the creative spark in every kind of writer. She also leads workshops for tweens, teens and adults, encouraging them to discover the adventure of writing. Coming from a long line of Mountaineers, she’s a life-long Buckeye.

Preorder A Storm of Doubts on Amazon – https://amzn.to/3wbL7Uf

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