From Susan: I’ve always loved reading, history, and horses. These things come together in several of my historical books. My young adult novel, Sarah’s Long Ride, also spotlights horses and the rugged sport of endurance riding, as does the contemporary romance Trail to Justice. I took a vocational course in horseshoeing after earning a bachelor’s degree in history. I don’t shoe horses anymore, but the experience has come in handy in writing my books.
Another longtime hobby of mine is genealogy, which has led me down many fascinating paths. I’m proud to be a DAR member! Some of Jim’s and my quirkier ancestors have inspired fictional characters.
For many years I worked for the Central Maine Morning Sentinel as a freelancer, covering local government, school board meetings, business news, fires, auto accidents, and other local events, including a murder trial. I’ve also written many profiles and features for the newspaper and its special sections. This experience was a great help in developing fictional characters and writing realistic scenes. I also published nonfiction articles in several magazines and had several short stories appear in Woman’s World, Grit, and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.
My husband, Jim, and I moved to his birth state, Oregon, for a while after we were married, but decided to move back to Maine and be near my family. We’re so glad we did. It allowed our six children to grow up feeling close to their cousins and grandparents, and some of Jim’s family have even moved to Maine!
Our children are all home-schooled. The two youngest are still learning at home. Jim recently retired from his vocation as an editor at a daily newspaper, and we’ve moved from Maine to Kentucky. ABOUT THE BOOK:
Captive Trail is second in a six-book series about four generations of the Morgan family living, fighting, and thriving amidst a turbulent Texas history spanning from 1845 to 1896. Although a series, each book can be read on its own.
Taabe Waipu has run away from her Comanche village and is fleeing south in Texas on a horse she stole from a dowry left outside her family’s teepee. The horse has an accident and she is left on foot, injured and exhausted. She staggers onto a road near Fort Chadbourne and collapses.
On one of the first runs through Texas, Butterfield Overland Mail Company driver Ned Bright carries two Ursuline nuns returning to their mission station. They come across a woman who is nearly dead from exposure and dehydration and take her to the mission.
With some detective work, Ned discovers Taabe Waipu identity. He plans to unite her with her family, but the Comanche have other ideas, and the two end up defending the mission station. Through Taabe and Ned we learn the true meaning of healing and restoration amid seemingly powerless situations.
If you would like to read the first chapter of Captive Trail, go HERE.
Learn more about Susan and her books on her Website.
MY REVIEW:
Although Captive Trail is the second installment of The Texas Trail series, I had no problem at all keeping up with the characters. In fact, this novel qualifies so well as a stand-alone, I didn’t even know it wasn’t the first of the series until I had finished reading it.
Primary characters are Taabe Waipu, a young white woman who has been held captive by the Comanches for twelve years before her escape and Ned Bright, the stage driver who rescued her after an accident that left her incapacitated. Taabe Waipu remembers very little of her life before her capture and has even forgotten the English language but she has never given up hope of finding her true family. Her lengthy stay with a small group of Ursuline nuns begins her healing, not only in body but in mind and spirit also. Ned’s friendship with Taabe blossoms into a growing affection and although he knows he could lose her, he never gives up searching for her family.
Captive Trail is a well-written and researched novel with a perfectly paced plot, interesting characters, and just the right amount of drama, humor, and romance. If you enjoy historical westerns, Captive Trail may be something you would enjoy.
MY REVIEW: I’ve often heard the old axiom about getting “more bang for the buck”. A Heart Revealed is definitely a good example of that. First of all, the book itself is at least two hundred pages longer than most of the novels I read. Then, although the primary characters of the story are Emma Malloy and Sean O’Connor, the reader is also treated to the ongoing drama of the members of the O’Connor family who have been featured in the earlier novels of both The Daughters of Boston and the Winds of Change series.
A Heart Revealed is going to be a bit difficult for me to review without any spoilers but I shall give it a try. It should be fairly obvious that since this story features Emma and Sean, a romance between them will develop. It was evident that the two of them shared a platonic affection but the story was well advanced before either realized that their feelings were even stronger. Then there was the fact that Emma was already married. How would she and Sean overcome that obstacle? Well, I can say that my speculations were totally off track and there were several surprises in store before the book ended.
I have read every book in both of Lessman’s series and I think that A Heart Revealed has to be my favorite of them all. Julie’s skill with character and plot development has just improved with each book even though it has been excellent from the beginning. I admit that there were a few times that I became impatient with the length of the book but I believe that was more because I was trying to meet a deadline for this review. If I had been able to read it at my leisure, I would have savored it more. As in the previous books, A Heart Revealed is an honest portrayal of real life with all its best and worst and the human emotions and actions that keep it interesting. Woven throughout the narrative is one of the strongest messages of faith that I have encountered but it seems to be a natural part of the story.
If you haven’t discovered Julie Lessman’s books yet, you are missing a treat. I strongly recommend A Heart Revealed as well as her previous novels.
This book was provided for review by Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
She Left Ireland And A Man Who Broke Her Heart… Only To Find An American Who Could Restore It.
Julie Lessman’s new novel A Heart Revealed (ISBN: 978-0-8007-3416-9, $14.99, 512 pages, September), the second offering in the “Winds of Change” series, opens in Boston in 1931, where thirty-one-year-old Emma Malloy has fled from an abusive marriage in Ireland. Although her former husband has left her haunted and deeply scarred. Emma cannot help but develop strong feelings for her friend Charity’s brother, Sean O’Connor. Described by his sister as very stubborn, Sean maintains that he is not the marrying kind. But as he and Emma draw closer and closer, will her strong, tender heart ensnare him and change his mind?
Transporting readers back to a time when the Empire State Building was brand new and the local speakeasy was a common destination, Lessman outlines the fascinating era and its citizens with deft precision. Lessman, who has been hailed as a writer with noteworthy skill by Publishers Weekly has once again delivered an epic tale featuring vibrant characterization, wonderful thrills, sharp dialogue, and surprises both large and small.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Julie Lessman is an award-winning author whose books give readers “Passion With a Purpose,” underscoring her intense passion for both God and romance. Julie is the recipient of 13 Romance Writers of America awards and was chosen as #1 Romance Fiction Author of the Year in the Family Fiction magazine 2011 Readers Choice Awards. She was the winner of the 2009 ACFW Debut Author of the Year and Holt Medallion Awards of Merit for Best First Book and Long Inspirational. She resides in Missouri with her husband, daughter, son and daughter-in-law and is the author of “The Daughters of Boston” series, which includes A Passion Most Pure, A Passion Redeemed, and A Passion Denied. Her“Winds of Change” series has recently released with A Hope Undaunted, which ranked #5 on Booklist’s Top 10 Inspirational Fiction for 2010. You can contact Julie through her website at www.julielessman.com.
A native of New Jersey, I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. I often joke that my fiction writing “career” began in elementary school as I wrote and shared silly stories with a close friend.
In 1991, I graduated from high school, and my parents and I moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia. My father retired, and my mother went to work full-time. I attended Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk, and I graduated with a degree in communications. I met my husband, Joe, during my senior year in college, a few days after my father had a massive stroke. Joe and I clicked instantly, and after a couple of months we started dating. We married four years later.
After graduating from VWC, I took a summer job with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk District, which turned into an eleven-year career. I worked in the Public Affairs Office for four years and then moved into Planning as a writer/editor.
One day while surfing the Internet for a professional editor’s group, I accidentally found a local fiction writing group, Chesapeake Romance Writers. I attended a meeting and I met writers in all stages of their careers. The group helped me realize that I did want to be an author, and it was my dream to see my name on the cover of one of my novels. Through Chesapeake Romance Writers, I learned how to plot, write, and edit a novel, and I also learned how to pursue an agent. I signed with Mary Sue Seymour at the Seymour Agency in 2006, shortly before Joe and I moved my parents and our sons to North Carolina.
My dream came true when I sold my first book in 2007. Holding my first book, A Gift of Grace, in my hands was exhilarating and surreal.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Take a trip to Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, where you’ll meet the women of the Kauffman Amish Bakery in Lancaster County. As each woman’s story unfolds, you will share in her heartaches, trials, joys, dreams … and secrets. You’ll discover how the simplicity of the Amish lifestyle can clash with the ‘English’ way of life—and the decisions and consequences that follow. Most importantly, you will be encouraged by the hope and faith of these women, and the importance they place on their families. Naomi’s Gift re-introduces twenty-four-year-old Naomi King, who has been burned twice by love and has all but given up on marriage and children. As Christmas approaches—a time of family, faith, and hope for many others—Naomi is more certain than ever her life will be spent as an old maid, helping with the family’s quilting business and taking care of her eight siblings. Then she meets Caleb, a young widower with a 7-year-old daughter, and her world is once again turned upside-down. Naomi’s story of romantic trial and error and youthful insecurities has universal appeal. Author Amy Clipston artfully paints a panorama of simple lives full of complex relationships, and she carefully explores cultural differences and human similarities, with inspirational results. Naomi’s Gift includes all the details of Amish life that Clipston’s fans enjoy, while delivering the compelling stories and strong characters that continue to draw legions of new readers.
If you’d like to read the first chapter of Naomi’s Gift, go HERE.
Learn more about Amy and her books on her Website.
MY REVIEW:
Naomi’s Gift is a quick to read novella that gives the reader a glimpse of life among the Amish as the Christmas season approaches. Although the Amish may seem quaint and certainly different from the world known by those of the English persuasion, Clipson’s narrative reveals that in many respects they are much like people everywhere. One of the characters of Naomi’s Gift is even a busybody/gossip which totally blows the perception of Amish perfection out of the water.
Because of two past failed relationships, Naomi King has resigned herself to a life caring for her younger brothers and sisters. She is certain that the Lord must not have a husband and children in his plans for her. As Christmas draws near, time spent with a young girl and her widowed father reopens her heart and makes her hope once again for love. Caleb Schmucker’s grief over his wife’s death two years previous has kept him just going through the motions of living and taking care of his daughter Susie. Each encounter with Naomi has touched his heart and caused him to reconsider plans for his future. However, detractors are at work to keep them apart. Caleb’s sister has other plans for him and goes to great lengths to implement them. Naomi’s own mother discourages her interest in Caleb and she hears and sees things that tend to support the fact that Caleb could not be the man for her.
Naomi’s Gift is a sweet story that would be perfect for a relaxing break during the hectic days leading up to Christmas.
Christmas in Sugarcreek is an easily read, sweet Amish romance that is just right for a lazy afternoon by the fire with a warm beverage. In this story, the reader returns to the small town of Sugarcreek where Judith Graber might just receive a Christmas surprise she never expected.
Judith is the quintessential “good girl”. In her opinion, everyone in her family depends on her way too much and seem to take her for granted. But being the good girl that she is, she stuffs her dissatisfaction and continues to help where needed without complaint. Just when she thinks she cannot handle another extra responsibility, her father hires a temporary employee to help her in the family store. Unfortunately that helper turns out to be Ben Knox, the former “bad boy” of Sugarcreek before he left town. Although they have both matured, Judith is not sure she can trust Ben because of everything she has heard about him. But as the two are forced to spend many hours working together, Judith slowly begins to realize that Ben is not the person she thought he was.
Yes, this is one of those “good girl” falls in love with the “bad boy” romances but it is one with a difference. Christmas in Sugarcreek teaches a valuable lesson about judging people by appearances or actions without looking to see the true inner person. Although the outcome of the story is obvious from the beginning, it is a charming and delightful read.
This book was provided for review by the Amazon Vine™ Program.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Judith Graber has always been the obedient daughter. When her older brother Josh struggled with his love life, she offered wise counsel. When her younger brother Caleb flirted with the idea of leaving their order, she firmly told him he was wrong. Over the years, she’s watched her younger siblings, helped around the house, and worked in her family’s store during her spare time. Judith feels overworked, overlooked, and underappreciated this holiday season.
But everything changes when her father hires Ben Knox.
Ben Knox is the “bad boy” of Sugarcreek. Though he’s never considered jumping the fence, he’s certainly never tried to be anything close to dutiful. Two years ago he left Sugarcreek under a cloud of shame. Rumors circulated that his rumspringa had been filled with more than the usual harmless explorations.
Now he’s back and working side by side with Judith.
As the chaos of the holiday season threatens to sap all joy, sparks fly between Ben and Judith. But Judith steels herself to ignore her infatuation. The last thing she wants to be is just one more girl who falls under Ben’s spell. Ben, on the other hand, wants Judith to realize there’s more to him than his bad reputation. When he fled Sugarcreek, he was running from a disruptive home life. Now that he’s back, he wants a fresh beginning.
Could this Christmas season bring love and a new life for the unlikeliest pair in Sugarcreek?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Shelley Shepard Gray is the beloved author of the Sisters of the Heart series, including Hidden, Wanted, and Forgiven. Before writing, she was a teacher in both Texas and Colorado. She now writes full time and lives in southern Ohio with her husband and two children. When not writing, Shelley volunteers at church, reads, and enjoys walking her miniature dachshund on her town’s scenic bike trail.
Jody has written novels for the last 18 years (with a hiatus when her children were young). After many years of writing and honing her skills, she finally garnered national attention with her double final in the Genesis Contest, a fiction-writing contest for unpublished writers through ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers).
Her first published book, The Preacher’s Bride (2010 Bethany House Publishers), hit the CBA Best Seller list on two different occasions and has won multiple awards.
Her second book, The Doctor’s Lady, released this September. She has completed a third book which will be released in 2012. She’s currently busy researching and writing another book!
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Priscilla White knows she’ll never be a wife or mother and feels God’s call to the mission field in India. Dr. Eli Ernest is back from Oregon Country only long enough to raise awareness of missions to the natives before heading out West once more. But then Priscilla and Eli both receive news from the mission board: No longer will they send unmarried men and women into the field.
Left scrambling for options, the two realize the other might be the answer to their needs. Priscilla and Eli agree to a partnership, a marriage in name only that will allow them to follow God’s leading into the mission field. But as they journey west, this decision will be tested by the hardships of the trip and by the unexpected turnings of their hearts.
Learn more about Jody and her books on her Website.
Watch the book trailer:
MY REVIEW: The Doctor’s Lady may be one of the best historical novels of the year. With well developed characters, a well paced plot, drama, adventures, and romance, this story has something for everyone.Featuring Priscilla and Eli who both feel a strong call to be missionaries but each of them have run into a huge obstacle. The missions board will not accept unmarried missionaries. Although Priscilla had her heart set on India, she reluctantly agreed to Eli’s persuasion to marry him in name only and go west with him to the Oregon Territory to minister to the natives. Their seven month trek over what is now known as the Oregon Trail was a grueling adventure that pitted them against raging rivers, blazing sun, torrential downpours, disease, unfriendly tribes, and dishonest guides. Priscilla’s naivete and lack of preparation for the hardships of the mission field were tempered by her zeal and determination. Her situation was so typical of how even today we see missionaries who are sent to foreign lands with very little idea of what they will really encounter.
Eli doubted Priscilla’s ability to withstand the rigors of the trail but he grudgingly learned to respect her persistence and grew to love her in spite of his plans to remain single. In turn, Priscilla grew to care for Eli as she came to depend on his strength and tenderness. Each privately longed for a true marriage but neither of them could overcome their own self-doubt enough to totally trust the other. Only their faith and the Lord could ultimately bring them together as man and wife.
I truly enjoyed The Doctor’s Lady and highly recommend it to lovers of historical fiction. This is one book you need on your keeper shelf.
While I have been writing for what feels like my whole life, I began seriously studying the craft in 2000. Since then I have completed five novels, had several pieces published in local periodicals, attended six writing conferences and managed to final in ACFW’s Genesis contest in 2006, 2008, and 2009. My first historical novel, Wings of a Dream, will be released in September 2011, with another historical novel to follow in 2012. But writing is only a piece of my life.
I am mostly just a woman trying to live her life in a manner pleasing to the Lord. That involves being a wife to Jeff and a mother to my three teenagers–neither role coming easily but both roles stretching me, requiring me to press in closer to Jesus. And because of this, Jesus has taken an insecure, fearful, sometimes angry girl and is turning her into a more trusting, peaceful, grace-filled woman. At least some of the time. There is still such a long way to go!
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Rebekah Hendricks dreams of a life far beyond her family’s farm in Oklahoma, and when dashing aviator Arthur Samson promised adventure in the big city, she is quick to believe he’s the man she’s meant to marry. While she waits for the Great War to end and Arthur to return to her so they can pursue all their plans, her mother’s sister falls ill. Rebekah seizes the opportunity to travel to Texas to care for Aunt Adabelle, seeing this chance to be closer to Arthur’s training camp as God’s approval of her plans.
But the Spanish flue epidemic changes everything. Faced with her aunt’s death, Arthur’s indecisiveness, and four children who have no one else to care for them, Rebekah is torn between the desire to escape the type of life she’s always led and the unexpected love that just might change the dream of her heart.
Learn more about Anne and her books on her Website.
MY REVIEW:
Wings of A Dream was an enjoyable historical romance that I breezed through in a day. Ann Mateer’s writing style flows so naturally that it is easy to lose oneself in the story. Her characters are fully developed with many that I loved and others that I really, really disliked.
I thought the author’s portrayal of Rebekah was excellent. Her attitude varied from one chapter to the next which is so common for a young woman of her age. Although her original motive in going to help her aunt was mostly selfish, Rebekah passed the test when difficulties arose. Her love and dedication to the motherless children revealed her true heart and the way she naturally took charge of the household and farm showed a maturity beyond her years. Even so, there were times when Rebekah fell back into her old habit of thinking only of herself. I liked the fact that each time that happened, Rebekah learned from it and grew up a little more. And in the end, she realized that even though true love and God’s plan for her life were not exactly what she had planned for herself, it was the perfect plan.
Rebekah’s story resonated with me because of similarities to my own life. I grew up in a small town/rural area and all I could think of was moving to the city once I was old enough. I never dreamed I would marry a farmer and move even further out in the country. Now I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
I really enjoyed Wings of A Dream and recommend it to anyone who loves a sweet historical romance with a few unexpected surprises.
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MY REVIEW:
