Welcome to the Blog + Review Tour for The Ties That Loose by Felicia Ferguson, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!
About the Book
Title: The Ties That Loose
Author: Felicia Ferguson
Publisher: Salt & Light Publishing
Release Date: May 23, 2025
Genre: military romantic suspense / women's fiction
Can you really trust God when life plummets out of your control?
While clearing out her mother’s estate, Dani Robicheau Kirkland makes a shocking discovery: a box containing pieces of her parents’ life hidden away after her father was declared Killed in Action in the Vietnam War. Inside she finds her mother had once clung to faith and the desperate certainty her husband was alive before she spiraled into the devastated alcoholic Dani has known.
Dani’s F-15 pilot husband, Chris, chafes under his father’s expectations to live up to his granddad’s legacy as WWII pilot. While the Bosnian War rages, Chris is tasked with a clandestine mission: flying an unsanctioned diplomat into Bosnia. But when his plane goes down due to a bird strike, Chris is trapped behind enemy lines with little hope of rescue.
Dani is terrified she’ll nosedive like her mother did, but still clings to hope and a certainty that Chris remains alive despite the Air Force’s doubts. As she searches for a way to bring Chris home and he strives to stay alive, they each battle their family histories desperate to find God’s future for them both.
Family ties ensnare them. Can God loose their grip forever?
PURCHASE LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub
Excerpt from The Ties That Loose
Baron’s lips thinned. “Badger wants you in the vault.”
First, the block of flying time scheduled for his plane, and now a summons to the vault?
As one of the squadron’s instructor pilots, regular calls to the operations officer’s office weren’t out of the ordinary. But those requests were always via email or phone call. A personal, verbal invitation would leave no paper trail and could be silenced under orders. And the invitation was not to the office but to the vault, a location that housed all the classified materials behind a steel door and was littered with alarms.
Curiouser and curiouser. Chris gave his schedule another glance, the FHP piece slowly rotating in his head. “On my way.”
Baron nodded but didn’t leave. Instead, he stepped back and waited while Chris password-protected his computer screen.
They made the short walk to the vault in silence. Once there, Baron stepped in front of him and led him to one of the offices inside. He rapped twice, then opened the door and stepped back. Chris nodded and glanced into the room, smothering his surprise.
Badger, Lt. Col. Conrad Marks, the operations officer was there as expected. But Lt. Col. Javier Brown, the squadron commander, as well as Chris’s flight commander, Captain Jimmy Hoyle, callsign Dodger, filled the other chairs around the metal table.
Something big was up.
About the Author
Felicia Ferguson achieved master’s degrees in Healthcare Administration and Speech-Language Pathology, but has written since childhood and dreamed of authoring books that teach and inspire others. An award-winning fiction and non-fiction freelance writer, she has published several devotions and sweet romance short stories. Her passion, however, is writing women’s fiction and romantic suspense with strong female characters who work through their traumas and tragedies using biblical principles and counseling techniques.
As a child, Felicia lived in Kansas, Texas, and Louisiana before her family settled on a horse and cattle farm in Kentucky. As an adult, she lived in Tennessee for two years and later spent ten years in the Florida panhandle soaking up the sand and sun. But then God moved her once again. This time out of the South and into the mountains of Colorado. When she’s not glued to her laptop, Felicia enjoys hiking, Bible studies with friends, and looking forward to the next story.Connect with Felicia by visiting feliciafergusonauthor.com to follow her on social media and subscribe to email updates.
Author Interview
Q: What inspired you to write The Ties That Loose?
Q: How long did it take to write this book?
Felicia: It took me eight months to write this story because of all the research involved. I contacted Air Force pilots for specific details Chris would experience in flight and behind enemy lines. I read numerous books about the Bosnian War or books related to it. And I picked the brain of my across-the-street neighbor at the time who worked in Dani’s position at Eglin Air Force Base.
Q: What surprised you while researching/writing this novel?
Felicia: The biggest surprise was that a plane’s cockpit will smell like cooked chicken after a bird strike to the engine.
Q: Do you have a favorite quote from The Ties That Loose?
Felicia: My favorite quote is from Grand-Mére Genevieve to Dani.
“Cher, your Mama had a hole in her heart big enough to walk through—and on stilts. Part of that had to do with her own Daddy’s death. It took a long time for me to come to peace with the reality I couldn’t do a thing for her except pray. And even then, that still didn’t seem to help. Ya’ gotta want help, gotta want to heal, before ya’ can. And your mama never got to that place.”
Q: When did you first know you wanted to be an author?
Felicia: I knew in the fifth grade that I wanted to be a writer. Before I ever knew about fanfiction, I co-wrote Sweet Valley High stories with a classmate and friend. We’d trade off chapters and another classmate would draw the covers for us. I wrote several “books” in high school ranging from Star Trek to women’s fiction, but none that I would ever want to see the light of day today!
Q: Would you share something about yourself that most readers wouldn’t know?
Felicia: I can curl my tongue lengthwise.
Q: What are you currently reading?
Felicia: Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline for my radio show spots, historical books on the Golden, Colorado area in the 1900s for my current project, and I just started a Bible study on Mark.
Q: What is your favorite genre to read?
Felicia: Oh, that’s tough. I’m a very eclectic reader. I love Star Trek, the classic Star Wars (not the Disney version), David Baldacci’s King & Maxwell and Robie & Reel series, James Rollins’s Sigma Force series, Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters. And then I’ll read a book or two in police procedural mysteries, a little Louis L’Amour, and romantic suspense.
Q: What is your favorite hobby?
Felicia: Taking road trips. Long or short, I love seeing God’s creation and meeting people in different locations of the country.
Q: What is your favorite season and why?
Felicia: That answer depends on where I’m living at the time. In Kentucky and Tennessee, definitely spring. In Florida, the fall. In Colorado, summer. I’m not a fan of snow (and yes, God moved me to Colorado), but I’m also not a fan of humidity. Colorado’s summer is amazing compared to Florida’s and yet, Florida’s fall is still warm with an edge of cool whereas Colorado’s fall is cool to cold, even though the skies are a brilliant blue. And Kentucky and Tennessee have all the flowers and flowering trees I love and miss out here in the mountains: dogwoods, magnolias, weeping cherries, and a longer growing season for the flowers.
Tour Giveaway
(1) winner will receive a That's So 90s Trivia Game, in honor of the book being set in the 1990s!
Full tour schedule linked below. The giveaway begins at midnight June 16, 2025 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on June 23, 2025. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.
Giveaway is subject to JustRead Publicity Tours Giveaway Policies.
Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!
