Today I welcome guest author Lauralee Bliss as she shares about her latest book and offers a giveaway. Read through for instructions on how to enter a random drawing.

We’re always on the look-out for heroes and heroines to do the miraculous. We look for the adventure of the hero or heroine that undergoes dangerous missions, defies the odds, and comes out victorious in the end.

But sometimes it’s in the ordinary circumstances that lead people to do the extraordinary. That is how the book, Escape from Amsterdam was born—out of the ravages of an occupied Netherlands during World War II.

The German invaders of the Dutch nation came with a brutality beyond imagination, reducing the country’s Jewish population by two thirds and wreaking havoc across the country by the destruction of property and livelihood. The Netherlands found its freedom curtailed, food and clothing rationed, and on the brink of the Allied liberation, without food and facing starvation in the winter of 1945.

Despite these terrors, there’s hope. Escape from Amsterdam seeks to uplift and remember those who gave their lives to rescue the innocent, especially the children caught up in the German deportation of Jewish families The heroine and hero in the book are doing the normal activities of Dutch citizens in studying to become a teacher and running a store respectively. But step-by-step through the invasion and occupation that overwhelms them, Helen and Erik rise above their own inadequacies and do what most would deem impossible—rescue children from the oncoming onslaught that seeks to destroy them.

I don’t want to give away too much, but suffice it to say that this book celebrates the actual events that did occur during World War II in the Netherlands and how its citizens coped. Several of the characters in the book were actual people that lived and breathed and ultimately gave their lives for the cause. This book is for them. It is hoped that through a book like this, we become a people that will look beyond ourselves to the extraordinary and open our hearts and minds to be used of God.

About Lauralee: 

Lauralee Bliss is a published author of romance novels and novellas, both historical and contemporary. Lauralee’s prayer is that readers will come away with both an entertaining story and a lesson that speaks to the heart and soul. When not writing, Lauralee can often be found on the trails where the author has logged over 10,000 miles of hiking and has written two books about her hiking experiences in the Hiking Adventure Series. She makes her home in the Blue Ridge mountains with her family.  Visit Lauraleebliss.com  to follow the adventure and sign up for the adventure newsletter!

Connect online:

Website: Lauraleebliss.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorLauraleeBliss

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/lauralee-bliss

Buy Links for Escape from Amsterdam

Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc  https://www.barbourbooks.com/escape-from-amsterdam/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1636093760

Christianbook.com: https://tinyurl.com/2p8mhh28

Barnes and Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/escape-from-amsterdam-lauralee-bliss/1141091061?ean=9781636093765

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60500104-escape-from-amsterdam

Getting to know Lauralee:

What are two things unique about yourself?

I have hiked the Appalachian Trail twice, both north and south, and trying for my third go-around! (The book giveaway is a personal account of my first hike on this unique trail of over 2,000 miles. Find out more about my hiking adventures at www.blissfulhiking.com

I love to garden. I grow a vegetable garden, roses, and plant annuals every year. Last year in honor of the book, I planted a whole bunch of tulips from the Netherlands. It was bittersweet though, knowing the Dutch people ate tulip bulbs to survive in World War II. But the results of the bulb planting were beautiful come spring.

Please describe yourself with three words.

Adventurer, visual learner

What can readers expect next from Lauralee Bliss?

Releasing this fall in time for the holidays is Christmas Angels of Virginia. Follow three heroines that save the men they love through times of trial in this historical collection that spans three centuries, from the Jamestown settlement to the Revolutionary War in Williamsburg to the Civil War raging in the streets of Fredericksburg. Releasing 9/30/22 on Amazon

Sign up for Lauralee’s newsletter for more information and a special bonus novella coming soon at Lauraleebliss.com

Excerpt - Escape from Amsterdam

Pop, pop, pop.

What was that?

Sharp prickles of fear raced through Helen Smit’s fingertips. She gripped the handlebars, her feet jostling on the pedals, forcing the bicycle to a screeching stop. Dirt spit up from the front wheel, splattering her white cotton bobby socks and bare calves.

Boom!

Her head jerked to the left and the right as she steadied the bicycle with her feet on the ground. Fields of waving emerald grass wanted to calm her anxious heart, but she’d have none of it. Instead, she sucked in a sharp breath, murmured a prayer, and forced her feet back onto the pedals, pushing the bike as fast as she could. Boom! What is that noise? her mind cried again. Her hands shook the handlebars. The bicycle wobbled, and the front wheel caught on some rocks.

Suddenly a scream rose from her throat, and she stared at the ground. For an instant her arms and legs froze, even as she spit out grainy sands of dirt. When she finally did move, she felt a pain in her leg. I’ve fallen, her mind finally realized.

“Gaat het?” A gentle voice asking if she was okay floated over her head along with a tapping on her shoulder.

Giveaway:

Lauralee is offering a free giveaway of her Appalachian Trail adventure - Mountains, Madness, and Miracles - a journey she made with her teen son. Comment below with a favorite memory of an adventure you have undertaken to be entered! Please disguise your email address so you hide from those nasty bots. For example: Donna AT livebytheword DOT com