Sitting on the Porch, Visiting with Lynn Donovan: Entertaining Angels, Cover Reveal by Emerald Barnes

I am super thrilled to show you the beautiful cover for Emerald Barnes's newest and upcoming novel, Entertaining Angels. Again, my cover artist was Natasha Brown, and she is super talented. She brought my disjointed vision to life, and I don't think I'll ever be able to thank her properly.

I can't wait to publish it, which I'm hoping will be in May. That's what I'm estimating anyway. But, I couldn't wait any longer to show you my beautiful cover!

I asked Emerald to give me a Guest Post and boy did she write me a guest post. I LOVE God stories! Here's Emerald's:

What happens when God tells you to write a story? You write it.

I spent some time in prayer over my story, Entertaining Angels because I had no idea where to take my story. I knew that I wanted it to be a sweet little romance for young adults to read so they could have clean fiction to read. (I think it’s important to have clean fiction for young adults.) My story wasn’t exactly what I wanted it to be. There was something missing, and I knew that. I sought God.

He planted the idea in my mind about Entertaining Angels. He told me He wanted me to write a novel that would help young girls. I wasn’t sure that I could do that. You know how we are as humans, we doubt. Here I am, doubting what God has told me. I kept thinking, My gosh, what are people going to think about this? What are they going to think?

Well, my hopes are that they’ll think about themselves a little differently. Entertaining Angels focuses on Madison Andrews; she’s sixteen and overweight. Basically, she’s me in high school minus the devastatingly hot new guy and nerdy best friend. Well, I did have a nerdy best friend, but things were a bit different between us.

What I’m saying is that the thoughts and feelings that Madison feels, I felt. This made it one intense and emotional ride for me as I wrote it. I had to face how I felt about myself, but also, I had to face how I was looking at myself versus how God was looking at me.

He’s told me before that I’m beautiful, but I didn’t let that sink in. I didn’t let His words truly sink in. So it was far past time that I started listening to Him, and it was my job to pass God’s words along. He wants His children to know how much He loves them. He sends people to us just to show us how much He cares. He sent His only Son to die for our sins, so that should tell us how much He does love us. Yet, we don’t always listen. We push Him aside, and we focus on us and our emotions. We should be focusing on God and how much He loves us. You’re His Sons and Daughters. He loves you, and He wants us to love ourselves. If we can’t face ourselves, how can we help His kingdom? We can’t.

Today, I hope that you look in the mirror and tell yourself how beautiful you are and also how lucky you are to have God as your Father. He wants you to know He loves you. Let’s start believing Him.

About Entertaining Angels:

Madison Andrews can’t face her reflection in the mirror. All she sees is a big, fat nobody. Yet, deep inside she longs for something more, something that’s not skin deep.

Along comes Zach, the new guy in school. He’s smoking hot and totally out of her league. She somehow catches his eye, and he makes her feel beautiful for once. But just as she gets close to Zach, her nerdy best friend, Chase, won’t let Madison doubt her true beauty, no matter how many meals she skips.

Even as Madison begins to realize that she is more than what she thinks, darker forces are at work, darker than the lies and mocking from her peers, stopping her from amounting to her full potential. Can Madison find true happiness in her own skin?

Are you a book reviewer? If so, please sign up for an ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) of my novel here.

About Emerald:

Emerald Barnes graduated with a B.A. in English with an emphasis on Creative Writing at Mississippi University for Women. She resides in a small town in Mississippi and has the accent to prove it.

She mainly writes suspense/thrillers in the YA genre, but she dabbles in other genres and her books are enjoyed by all ages! She's constantly working on new novels and has more ideas than she knows what to do with. She blogs which takes up more of her time than she anticipates but loves it so very much! She's also a volunteer at the World Literary Cafe which is amazing, and she is a crazy grammar nazi who proofreads novels!

She's an auntie to three beautiful nieces and two handsome nephews who take up the other half of her time, but she couldn't imagine spending her time in any other way!

She's a Whovian, a little bit of a nerd, a reader, a writer, and a family-oriented person. God is number One in her life, and she thanks Him continuously for His love and favor.