Colleen’s Kindle: April 2023, Part Two: Books by Lisa M. Lilly, Author

Let me introduce you to the books filling my Kindle this month. (Not all of them are KU—I’ll identify the ones that are KU). Click the book image to visit the books on Amazon.com.

Super Simple Story Structure: A Quick Guide to Plotting and Writing Your Novel (Writing As A Second Career Book 1) by L.M. Lilly

Blurb: Struggling to start your novel? Stuck in the middle? Finished a first draft, but it doesn’t really grab you?

This short, easy-to-read book helps you speed through your first draft, minimize major rewrites, and keep readers turning the pages.

Using specific questions and prompts to expand and focus your story idea, plus examples from plots as diverse as The Terminator, The Awakening, and Gone With The Wind, bestselling author L. M. Lilly walks you through the five simple steps she’s used to write every novel she’s published. Keep your pen, keyboard, or phone at your side as you read and you’ll learn to create:

• Strong Conflict
• Characters The Reader Cares About
• Five Basic Plot Points
• Compelling Subplots

Most important, Super Simple Story Structure walks you through what should happen in the middle of the novel–-that spot that many writers approach with dread.

What you’ll create won’t be so structured that you’ll feel hemmed in and stifled, but it will be enough that you can write your first draft quickly, without getting stuck staring at a blank screen for an hour, then giving up and checking your social media accounts.

Get started today by downloading Super Simple Story Structure: A Quick Guide to Plotting & Writing Your Novel.

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My Recommendation: I’ve had a few ideas for a fiction book rolling around in my brain, but I always choke when it comes to getting the plot and plot points where they should be. In fact, I’ve read many books on the art of story structure. So, when I found the Super Simple Story Structure on KU, I wanted to read it. The reviews were great, and I had to read what this author suggested. After the first few chapters, I realized I finally understood the examples the author presented.

One of her examples came from her own series, “The Awakening Series Complete Supernatural Thriller Box Set:

 The Awakening , The Unbelievers, The Conflagration, The Illumination. (I’ll review these books below).

The Awakening is Book 1 in a four-book supernatural thriller series. The Awakening has been downloaded over 50,000 times and has reached No. 1 in numerous categories for free and paid books on Amazon, including

Occult, Horror, Feminist, and Paranormal. The fourth and final book is being released May 15, 2017. All the books are (or will be) available on multiple platforms in ebook, paperback, and audiobook editions.

Lilly, L. M.. Super Simple Story Structure: A Quick Guide to Plotting and Writing Your Novel (Writing As A Second Career Book 1) . Spiny Woman LLC. Kindle Edition.

The reason why this book helped me understand the plot structure process is because the examples were so easy to understand. Nothing is complicated, and written in an easy-to-understand language. She also uses examples from “Gone With the Wind,” one of my favorite movies and books of all time.

I enjoyed this book so much; I had to read the Awakening Series and see for myself if Lilly’s structure could work!

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My Recommendation: When Tara finds out she’s pregnant, her life turns upside down. She tells her boyfriend, and he freaks out and immediately breaks up with her. He’s positive Tara cheated on him!

The problem is Tara’s a virgin, and no one believes her. Not even her friends or her parents. She puts medical school on hold and tries to grapple with what’s happening to her.

When a mysterious stranger from a religious cult approaches Tara, he tells her he believes she’s a virgin. She’s uneasy with all the religion being thrown at her, but Cyrill seems sincere.

Tara takes a DNA test and discovers a shocking truth. Things get interesting when Cyrill tells Tara she will trigger an Apocalypse.

I started reading this book and could not put it down! The pacing is taunt and runs at a breakneck speed. Once Tara confirms her pregnancy, things move quickly. She maneuvers from one obstacle to the next, taking the reader along for the ride. Throughout the book, (and the series) it’s never clear who is really being honest, which really ramps up the suspense and the mystery.

There is quite a lot of religion in the book, which I thought was necessary for the plot to work.

The first book is free, and I guarantee you will be totally hooked on the characters by the time you finish book one.

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The Unbelievers (The Awakening Series Book 2)

My Recommendation: You will want to read the first book before you read this one.

Tara’s baby is born!! As she settles into the Willow Springs community, she hopes her new life will allow her the safety she needs away from The Brotherhood religious order and from Cyril Woods.

But things drastically change when her baby goes missing, and someone attacks her dear friend! Now Tara knows she must find out the truth about her virgin pregnancy.

Could Tara’s child be the next messiah? This creates some real problems for the believers, specifically, the Catholic Church, because her child is a girl. Tara sets out to discover the meaning of her pregnancy and her daughter’s role in the world. Meanwhile, dark forces fight her every step of the way.

After a visit overseas, Tara brings back the fragments of an ancient document that may reveal the answers she seeks.

This second book ramps up the series to new heights of suspense. The book is almost better than the first as the characters really come alive in this book. The plot is fast moving. Once again, I stayed up way too late to find out what happens next.

This was a real page turner! But the book ends on a cliffhanger. You know I bought the next book that night and dove into the next book in the series!

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The Conflagration (The Awakening Series Book 3)

My Recommendation: Tara struggles to understand the meaning of an ancient letter that says she will destroy the world. So, she sets off to learn the truth behind the letter. They described a conflagration as an extensive and destructive fire. And in this third volume, Tara Spenser finds herself and her baby setting fire to what is perceived to be the truth of Christian religious teachings.

Just when you think a series can’t get any better, it does. The suspense continues at a fever pitch. The author excels at keeping the mysteries and the clues unfolding, so the reader stays glued to the story.

By now, these characters have grown on me. Tara proves to be a strong woman who will protect her child at all costs. This book went into greater detail with Tara’s ability to perform miracles. I found the descriptions totally believable. In fact, I had to keep telling myself that I was reading fiction…

Of course, I bought the next book in the series!

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The Illumination (The Awakening Series Book 4)

My Recommendation: In this final installment of the Awakening series, Tara Spencer confronts the cause of her mysterious pregnancy. She also learns the truth about her child’s creation and her own. 

After thirteen months, Tara awakens from a coma to find her beloved child doesn’t know her. To make matters worse, the baby isn’t speaking yet. The violence has split apart her family, and protestors dog Tara everywhere she goes.

If she can find the answers she seeks, she will bring about the end of The Brotherhood once and for all.

The ending was every bit as dramatic as I thought it would be. Things wrapped up neatly… maybe too neatly. I never found out exactly how Tara and the other women got pregnant. But maybe that became irrelevant by the end of the book.

This was an excellent series filled with enough twists and turns to keep the suspense amped up to the last page. It was an excellent read!

Who knew a guide about planning your novel would lead to such great entertainment? Find the author on LisaLilly.com.

 If you have your book listed on BookBub, I will add my review there also! Click HERE to follow me! (Colleen M. Chesebro) Let me know in the comments if you follow me so I can follow you!

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