Fit to Be Tied by Robin Lee Hatcher

by | Nov 9, 2009 | Books, Romance, Western

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Fit to Be Tied

Zondervan (November 1, 2009)

by

Robin Lee Hatcher


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Robin Lee Hatcher discovered her vocation as a novelist after many years of reading everything she could put her hands on, including the backs of cereal boxes and ketchup bottles. The winner of the Christy Award for Excellence in Christian Fiction (Whispers from Yesterday), the RITA Award for Best Inspirational Romance (Patterns of Love and The Shepherd’s Voice), two RT Career Achievement Awards (Americana Romance and Inspirational Fiction), and the RWA Lifetime Achievement Award, Robin is the author of over 50 novels, including Catching Katie, named one of the Best Books of 2004 by the Library Journal.

Robin enjoys being with her family, spending time in the beautiful Idaho outdoors, reading books that make her cry, and watching romantic movies. She is passionate about the theater, and several nights every summer, she can be found at the outdoor amphitheater of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, enjoying Shakespeare under the stars. She makes her home outside of Boise, sharing it with Poppet the high-maintenance Papillon

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Cleo Arlington dresses like a cowboy, is fearless and fun-loving, and can ride, rope, and wrangle a horse as well as any man. In 1916, however, those talents aren’t what most young women aspire to. But Cleo isn’t most women. Twenty-nine years old and single, Cleo loves life on her father’s Idaho ranch. Still, she hopes someday to marry and have children.

Enter Sherwood Statham, an English aristocrat whose father has sentenced him to a year of work in America to “straighten him out.” Sherwood, who expected a desk job at a posh spa, isn’t happy to be stuck on an Idaho ranch. And he has no idea how to handle Cleo, who’s been challenged with transforming this uptight playboy into a down-home cowboy, because he has never encountered a woman succeeding in a “man’s world.”

Just about everything either of them says or does leaves the other, well, fit to be tied. Cleo Arlington knows everything about horses but nothing about men. And though Cleo believes God’s plan for her includes a husband, it couldn’t possibly be Sherwood Statham. Could it?

Their bumpy trot into romance is frustrating, exhilarating, and ultimately heartwarming.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Fit to Be Tied , go HERE.

Watch the book video Trailer:

MY REVIEW:

As I have said before, I love westerns, especially those with interesting characters and plenty of humor. Fit to Be Tied definitely meets all my requirements for a good western.

Cleo Arlington, a strong, independent cowgirl, dresses like a man and  can do most anything a man can do (and sometimes better) on the family ranch. When her father agrees to provide a job for Sherwood Statham as a favor to her sister’s husband, Cleo can only dread a year of trying to teach the stuck-up English dandy how to be a cowboy. Although the two clash from the beginning, it is only a matter of time before each of them begins to see a few redeeming qualities in the other.

How will it all turn out? Will Sherwood (Woody) overcome his stern upbringing and the nightmares from his war experiences that haunt him? Will Cleo find the man of her dreams in this unlikely fellow? If you are interested in finding out, run to your nearest bookstore and buy a copy. If you haven’t read A Vote of Confidence, the story of Cleo’s sister Gwen, you might want to pick up a copy of it too.

Fit to Be Tied was such a fun read I hated for it to end. I can’t wait for Daphne’s story in the next Sisters of Bethlehem Springs installment.

Book Giveaway – White Picket Fences

by | Nov 9, 2009 | Books, Contemporary Fiction, Giveaways

WhitePicketFencesI have a copy of White Picket Fences by Susan Meissner to give away this week. To enter to win, please read the review post about the book and leave a comment on this post telling me why you would like to read this book. The entry deadline is Friday, November 13. I will post the winner on Saturday if possible.

U. S. residents only please.

White Picket Fences by Susan Meissner

by | Nov 9, 2009 | Books, Contemporary Fiction

MY REVIEW:

After a nomadic lifestyle with her father, Tally thinks her Aunt Amanda’s home and family are like a dream come true but soon discovers that all is not as it seems on the surface. Working together to interview survivors of  the Treblinka concentration camp for a school project, Chase and Tally become friends and confidants. While Chase grapples with the haunting dreams of a devastating fire that came close to claiming his life as a small child, his parents struggle to keep their marriage together as their secrets push them apart.

White Picket Fences is a multi-layered narrative with several simultaneous plot lines as well as a story from the past. This book is a frank look at how a home that looks perfect on the exterior can actually hide the painful secrets and troubled lives of its inhabitants. An emotionally charged essay about a family in crisis, White Picket Fences illustrates the impact past events can have on the present, the danger of keeping secrets, and the serious consequences that can result when a parent withdraws from a child. White Picket Fences is a well written book that has a few surprises and neatly ties up all the sub-plots by its end.

ABOUT THIS BOOK:

WhitePicketFencesWhen her black sheep brother disappears, Amanda Janvier eagerly takes in her sixteen year-old niece Tally. The girl is practically an orphan: motherless, and living with a father who raises Tally wherever he lands– in a Buick, a pizza joint, a horse farm–and regularly takes off on wild schemes. Amanda’s idyllic home seems the perfect place for her niece Tally to stay while her vagabond brother is in Europe, but the white picket fence life Amanda wants to provide is a mere illusion. Amanda’s husband Neil refuses to admit their teenage son Chase, is haunted by the horrific fire he survived when he was four, and their marriage is crumbling while each looks the other way.

Seventeen-year-old Chase Janvier hasn’t seen his cousin in years, and other than a vague curiosity about her strange life, he doesn’t expect her arrival will affect him much–or interfere with his growing, disturbing interest in a long-ago house fire that plagues his dreams unbeknownst to anyone else.

Tally and Chase bond as they interview two Holocaust survivors for a sociology project, and become startlingly aware that the whole family is grappling with hidden secrets, with the echoes of the past, and with the realization that ignoring tragic situations won’t make them go away.

Will Tally’s presence blow apart their carefully-constructed world, knocking down the illusion of the white picket fence and reveal a hidden past that could destroy them all–or can she help them find the truth without losing each other?

Readers of emotional dramas that are willing to explore the lies that families tell each other for protection and comfort will love White Picket Fences. The novel is ideal for those who appreciate exploring questions like: what type of honesty do children need from their parents, or how can one move beyond a past that isn’t acknowledged or understood? Is there hope and forgiveness for the tragedies of our past and a way to abundant grace?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

SusanMeissner2Susan Meissner cannot remember a time when she wasn’t driven to put her thoughts down on paper. Her novel The Shape of Mercy was a Publishers Weekly pick for best religious fiction of 2008 and a Christian Book Award finalist. Susan and her husband live in Southern California, where he is a pastor and a chaplain in the Air Force Reserves. They are the parents of four grown children.

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

Learn more about White Picket Fences and where to buy it at the Random House website.