August Adams has failed his family before. He’s sacrificed relationships in pursuit of adventure, fame, and money. Now the very lives of those he loves depend on his ability to decipher a centuries-old puzzle encrypted in the colorful hand-painted illuminations that adorn three rare Gutenberg Bibles.

It’s a secret that could yield unimaginable wealth, undermine two major religions, and change the course of Western civilization. Two ruthless, ancient organizations are willing to do anything to get their hands on it. And August has the span of one transatlantic flight to figure it out.

If he fails, those he holds most dear will die. If he succeeds, he’ll destroy a national treasure.

The clock ticks, the suspense mounts, and the body count rises as August pits his
knowledge and his love for his family against the clock, secret societies, and even Johannes Gutenberg himself.

“…this rare breed of suspense thriller combines mysterious hidden clues, secret societies, buried treasure, double agents, and the Knights Templar…if you turned National Treasure into international treasure, traded DaVinci codes for Gutenberg Bibles, married it to Indiana Jones, and added the pacing of 24 you’d be in the neighborhood of Illuminated…on a scale of one to 10, this one goes to 11.”
-Aspiring Retail Magazine

You can buy the book here.
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I’m going to share something personal here. I didn’t join CFBA in time to receive this book, but I wanted to post on it anyway. I bought it immediately. Never done that before. As soon as I saw the premise of the story, I wanted to drop to my knees and scream. Let’s just say that maybe I did, in fact, do that. The reason? Well, if you’ve been writing for long you may have already guessed because you’ve experienced the same thing.

This was supposed to be MY story. My book. I’ve been percolating my idea and collecting and researching to write a very similar book and in fact, I’m reading Dan Brown books because I love his style! This is not the first time this has happened, nor will it be the last. Have you worked on a project only to see it in bookstores before you finished by another author? One might say that I should have been faster to write it. I have a friend who has written her books and they’re circulating with publishers right now, and books are coming onto the market with the same premise and characters.

God knew of course, even as I prayed about my idea, that this book by Matt Bronleewe was already in the works. So I have to trust that Matt was the best person to write this book and that mine would be a far different story anyway.

Someone once told me it was like God sprinkles his ideas to a few people in the world, and then the first one to the finish line wins.

So I’m taking a poll (if I can figure out how to do it). Do you think I should write my story anyway, or fogeddaboudit. If I can figure out how to post the poll thing on the sidebar, you can do that. Otherwise just comment:) Imagine that Flood is playing now by Jars of Clay.

Beth