About the Book

Will money ruin everything?

Nina Warrenton is ready for the next step in her life plan—marriage, but no one has proposed. Taking matters into her hand, she places an ad in the newspaper hoping to entice a willing stranger. But when she begins to fall for the small-town chef, she realizes how much she wants him to love her and not her money.

Dwight Williams needs fast cash to save the family restaurant. When he sees Nina’s monetary offer for a husband, he goes for it. He’s determined to save the legacy his dad left him, but can he let it go to prove his love for her?

Can Nina and Dwight find true love, once money has entered the equation?

My Review

Toni Shiloh, author of A Life to Live, has done it again! Her new book, Buying Love, will keep you entertained, as you follow the characters in this refreshing story about faith, patience, and finding true love.

Nina Warrenton has managed to become a successful career woman despite her less than ideal childhood. She’s independent and used to doing everything for herself. Why should finding love be any different? She places an ad in the newspaper advertising her quest to find a husband, which catches Dwight Williams attention. Is he interested in marriage or the money? In true love or debt relief? Holy matrimony or financial freedom? Only time will tell.

Dwight’s protective family and other quirky characters such as Kandi added flavor to the story. In this contemporary Christian story, we follow Nina as she realizes how important it is to depend on God for everything, including love. Sometimes being self sufficient stands in our way of seeing God for who He really is.

There are many lessons sprinkled throughout Buying Love along with a heartfelt story about a girl who is desperately looking for true love and a family to call her own. If you’re looking for a sweet story to read, one you can share with your young daughter, Buying Love is the book for you. I give this book 5 stars for its clean Christian content that will warm your heart.

About the Author

Toni Shiloh is a wife, mom, and Christian fiction writer. Before pursuing her dream as a writer, Toni served in the United States Air Force. It was there she met her husband. After countless moves, they ended up in Virginia, where they are raising their two boys. When she’s not typing in imagination land, Toni enjoys reading, playing video games, making jewelry, and spending time with her family. Toni is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) as well as the ACFW Virginia Chapter.

Guest Post From Toni Shiloh

Hi, Reader Friends!! I’m so excited to be here at Celebrate Lit for the kick off of my new release, Buying Love. I wrote this book last year for National November Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). In one month, I managed to write a little over 50,000 words. However, that’s not why this book holds a special place in my heart. No, it’s the message in the story.

Nina Warrenton has struggled with being alone in life. Thus, she decides to take matters into her own hand and places an ad for a husband, complete with a monetary offer. What seemed like an intelligent and simplistic way to get a husband, soon proves to have a multitude of complications. Not only that, but Nina has to discover who God is in her life and the body of Christ fits into that.

Y’all have you ever felt alone in a room full of people? Or felt isolated? Or maybe you’re an orphan…whatever your background, I hope that this book shows you that God loves you. He loves you so much, He’s adopted you into the body of Christ. So if you’re a believer, we’re family. As a person who always wanted a friend and lots of family, that’s music to my soul. It’s what I wanted Nina to discover and what I hope the readers discover.

Ephesians 1:4-6, “According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved” (KJV).

Blog Stops

October 27: Bibliophile Reviews

October 27: Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations

October 28: Reading Is My SuperPower

October 29: Moments Dipped in Ink

October 30: Reviewing Novels Online

October 30: Artistic Nobody

October 31: A Baker’s Perspective

November 1: blogging it out

November 2: Christian Author: A.M. Heath

November 3: autism mom

November 3: Simple Harvest Reads (Spotlight)

November 4: Chas Ray’s Book Nerd Corner

November 5: inklings and notions

November 6: just the write escape

November 7: Carpe Diem

November 8: Quiet Quilter

November 9: Bukwurmzzz

November 9: The Power of Words

Giveaway

In honor of her tour, Toni is giving away a $50 Amazon gift card! Click the link below to enter; be sure to comment on this post to claim your nine bonus entries for this giveaway! https://promosimple.com/ps/a650

A bunch of my writer friends and I are about to leave this world to create a whole new one with our imaginations. It’s National Novel Writing Month!!!! 😀 (NaNoWriMo) The goal is to write at least 50,000 words in 30 days. That’s about 1667 words per day. It’s definitely doable with discipline. And guess who will do his very best to distract us. Yup . . .

 LOL

Our skill tool is of course our brain. Satan’s battlefield is our mind. Our weapon is the word of God. As we embark on this task, we have to renew our minds to stay focused. If something should come up, we have to remember that God is with us no matter what. There’s no need to panic.

 God is always in control!

When the enemy tries to distract us (And he will) with all kinds of nutty thoughts, we have to remember Philippians 4:8-And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

The work you have to do for the Lord is valuable. Don’t let the enemy stand in your way.

I’m not exempt. I’m . . .

Just blogging it out . . . Oh and Happy NaNoWriMo!!!

Continue to pray!!!

Photo by AlexBov

 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:3)

Trusting God should put us at ease like the relaxed kitten in the pic.

Just blogging it out . . .OH, and Happy Friday Night!!

Keep praying!

It’s hard to find a great show on TV nowadays. There are a few I watch on a regular basis that are actually surviving and thriving, like Once Upon A Time (Don’t judge me. LOL), Blackish (Love this show!), and Survivor (Yup, I still watch it.) to name a few. There are quite a few shows I thought were really good, but despite my opinion they were canceled after one season, like Stalker. Remember that one? Oh and I’ll never forget when they canceled American Dreams after the third season without a series finale. I absolutely loved American Dreams and looked forward to watching it Sunday evenings. It was a wholesome family show that was centered around two families in the 1960’s. Even though I watched it faithfully, it was canned for poor ratings. 😦

Ok, so now I absolutely love a show that started last month called, This Is Us. Here’s a synopsis copied from Wikipedia: The series follows twins Kate and Kevin along with their adopted brother Randall as their lives intertwine. Kate and Kevin were originally part of a triplet pregnancy, however their biological brother was still-born. Their parents, intent on bringing home three babies, decide to adopt another newborn (Randall) who was brought to the hospital after his father abandoned him at a fire house.

The cast is great, which includes Milo Ventimiglia, who also starred in American Dreams. HA! Imagine that. Also starring: Mandy Moore, Sterling K. Brown, Justin Hartley, Ron Cephas Jones, Chrissy Metz, Chris Sullivan, and Susan Kelechi Watson. I won’t spoil the episodes by writing spoilers, but I will say my favorite thing about this show is that it’s centered around family. Just regular people dealing with life. No pimps, prostitutes, or basketball or hip hop wives. And so far, the ratings are good.

If you’ve watched This Is Us, tell me what you think about it. If you haven’t, give it a chance and then tell me what you think about it. LOL 😀

Just blogging it out . . .Oh, and Happy Tuesday Night!! 😀

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (Philippians 4:8)

Well, our vacation has ended and in the morning, it’s back to work as usual. It’s been raining all day, which to me is a bonus. Saw a few extravagant lightening bolts and heard the deep rumbling sounds of thunder too. Kind of reminded me of the Midwestern storms I experienced growing up. I was always more afraid of the harmless crackling sound of thunder rather than the lightening, which of course is quite harmful. LOL For some reason, I thought if the thunder was loud enough, it would rip our house apart. Silly me. I spent many nights close to suffocation trying to protect myself by hiding under a blanket until the thunder stopped. 😀

The idea of thunder being harmful was all in my mind. I’m quite certain one of my siblings had something to do with it. 😀 Being the youngest made me an easy target for brainwashing. LOL What’s my point?

One of my favorite and most applied bible verses is Philippians 4:8. (Actually, the entire chapter, but let’s focus on just this verse for this post.) Sometimes it’s easy to be distracted. The enemy would love for us to focus on everything except the things of God. He’ll use whatever it takes to steer us off course. Things we like and dislike. Activities, foolishness, and thoughts. It’s up to us to let him succeed or not. I choose NOT! Focus on Him!

Just blogging it out . . . OH and Happy Monday Night! 😀

Continue to pray!

I woke up this morning without a care in the world. I looked around the RV thinking, ahhhh the simple life. Pack up and hit the road. Stop for a few days then head for the next destination. Peace, quiet, and comfort. COMFORT!! I had a fleeting thought of how nice it would be to live comfortably for the rest of our lives. Spending my time with Antoine and Scout away for the chaos of the world. How happy would I be engaging in my favorite activities ALL DAY, EVERYDAY:  hiking, reading, writing, and eating my sister’s Heavenly Cashew Crunch. 😀 I thought, wouldn’t it be great if we could live in comfort for the rest of our lives???

Yeah, of course, but how would I fulfill my purpose? And we all know, comfort and growth are not synonymous. Growth requires us to move out of our comfort zone. There’s no denying these last 6 months have been quite difficult for me. And because they were difficult for me, they were probably difficult for Antoine too because he was with me every step of the way. The outcome of the production (I Came to Tell You About . . . THE GREAT REDEEMER) was a lot better than I imagined. Many people were blessed and God was glorified, which was the goal. It drained me. And while this little getaway is wonderful, my renewed strength and ability to keep moving forward comes from the Lord. He’s the ultimate refresher. The bible verse that comes to mind is: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk, and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

I find comfort in knowing I can ALWAYS rely on the Lord for any and everything I need. Vacations and getaways are great. My connection with the Lord is priceless and irreplaceable.

Just blogging it out . . . Oh and Happy Wednesday!! 😀

Keep praying!!

We had such a busy weekend that our anniversary flew by yesterday. Antoine and I were exhausted, we laid down for what we thought was a nap, but ended up being a good night sleep in our clothes with the lights and TV on all night. So basically, we spent our anniversary napping. LOL

I can’t believe we’ve been married for 17 years and have known each other for 27. I know we’re getting older, but it doesn’t seem like it. I’d like to believe it’s the joy the Lord has given us that keeps us young. We’ve had endless joy even during the tough times like in 2009 with my mother’s diagnosis and subsequent death from breast cancer or in 2006 when Antoine received one of those dreaded letters telling him he would be losing his job in two months. I think the joy we have has given some people the impression that we’re living on Easy Street. NOT! We have difficult times like everyone else. We cling to the Lord! The scripture that comes to mind is Psalm 30:5 For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.

Marriage takes effort from both sides. A LOT OF EFFORT!! I’m looking forward to all the years Antoine and I have together. I’m also looking forward to putting in more EFFORT!

LOVE HARD & ON PURPOSE!

Just blogging it out . . . Oh and HAPPY BELATED ANNIVERSARY TO US!!

#oct16th

Just when the photographer was about to take the picture, “OOPS! What’s that on my shoe?” LOL So, I decided I wanted to wear my favorite look of all time (big black ball skirt and a crisp white cotton blouse) and take professional photos. By the way, I’m not actually wearing shoes. I can’t remember why I’m looking down, but I’m glad the photographer, Meka, snapped the pic. Turns out, this is my favorite pic of the bunch. I like it because it’s different!!

And now, tonight’s topic . . .

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. (Philippians 1:6)

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I want to give up on everything I’m doing, put on my favorite holey t-shirt & shorts, get comfortable on the sofa in front of the TV, and eat CAKE!!! Not just any cake. I would eat lemon cake with cream cheese lemon frosting. 😀

The above scripture is one of my go-to scriptures for encouragement. It’s a reminder that I shouldn’t rely on my own strength and abilities because they will land me on my sofa behaving unproductively and more than likely obese from eating too much cake. LOL If I’m thinking about quitting, I’m not focused on Him. I have to trust Him even when I’m tired and keep moving forward.

If you’re thinking about giving up and binging on cake, DON’T! Remember, God will finish the work He began in you too. Trust Him!!

Just blogging it out . . . OH, and Happy Thursday Night!! 😀

Continue to pray!!

Photo taken by my cousin, Meka @ SpiderMeka Photography

http://www.spidermeka.com/

Marketing is definitely not my cup of tea but I’ll give it a shot. 😀

We’re at it again! The New Day Drama Team is raising money for our Missions Ministry. There are so many people in need in the world that it may seem impossible to help if we try to do it alone. But together we can make a big difference. We are humbly asking for a small donation of $30 and in return you will receive a gift. 🙂 A ticket to see an amazing play, THE GREAT REDEEMER, and a special surprise upon your arrival. Go to http://www.eventbrite.com/e/25560493123 to get your ticket. Or, if you’re out of town and would like to donate, go to www.newdaycorona.com -click on the giving tab-click on Production tickets. Remember: Each Admission Supports The Great Commission!

Click here for a quick promotional video.

Just blogging it out . . . Oh, and Happy Tuesday Night! 😀

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. (Galatians 6:9)

Stay focused on the Lord. It’s worth it!!

Just blogging it out . . . Oh, and Happy Monday Night! 😀

Continue to pray for our country. If you’ve been watching/reading the news or if you watched the presidential debate, you know exactly how important it is to continue to PRAY!