by admin | Apr 25, 2013 | Books, Contemporary Fiction
This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingWhen The Morning Glory BloomsAbingdon Press (April 1, 2013)byCynthia RuchtiABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Cynthia writes stories of hope that glows in the dark, merging her love for storytelling with inextinguishable hope for inexpressible hurts.
Cynthia spends her days diving into words, worship, and wonder and celebrating 40 years of marriage, three grown children, and five outrageously adorable grandchildren. One of her greatest joys is helping other writers grow in their craft. To that end, she served as the assistant director and a faculty member of the Quad Cities Christian Writers Conference, has served as worship and devotions staff for the Write-to-Publish conference, and teaches at other conferences as opportunities arise. She speaks to women’s groups, at mother-daughter banquets, and for women’s refresher days and retreats. It is her delight to serve on her church’s worship team. Rather than “busy,” she likes the term “active.”
For 33 years, Cynthia wrote and produced the radio broadcast The Heartbeat of the Home. The scripted radio drama/devotional broadcast aired on as many as 50 radio stations and two cable/digital television stations over the years. Cynthia was the editor of the ministry’s Backyard Friends magazine, a twenty-page, twice annual publication that reached 5,000 homes, churches, and parachurch outreaches.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Becky rocks a baby that rocked her world. Sixty years earlier, with her fiancé Drew in the middle of the Korean Conflict, Ivy throws herself into her work at a nursing home to keep her sanity and provide for the child Drew doesn’t know is coming. Ivy cares for Anna, an elderly patient who taxes Ivy’s listening ear until the day she suspects Anna’s tall tales are not the ramblings of dementia. They’re fragments of Anna’s disjointed memories of a remarkable life. Finding a faint thread of hope she can’t resist tugging, Ivy records Anna’s memoir, scribbling furiously after hours to keep up with the woman’s emotion-packed, grace-hemmed stories. Is Ivy’s answer buried in Anna’s past? Becky, Ivy, Anna–three women fight a tangled vine of deception in search of the blossoming simplicity of truth.
If you would like to read the first chapter of When The Morning Glory Blooms, go HERE.
MY REVIEW:
In When The Morning Glory Blooms, the stories of three unrelated women from different eras are woven together into a beautiful and meaningful tapestry for the heart. The common denominator between the three women is out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Present-day Becky spends her days caring for her daughter’s sweet son while her daughter completes her high school education. Ivy’s story takes place in 1951 when she finds herself expecting her fiance’s child after he is deployed to Korea. She meets and cares for Anna in a nursing home where Anna dictates her remarkable story about her life running a house of refuge for unwed mothers.
I’ll admit that books similar to When The Morning Glory Blooms are not my usual first choice in reading material but I am so glad that I had the opportunity to read it. While I liked everything about the book, I especially enjoyed Anna’s first-person narrative about her own experiences. I found those elements of the novel to be especially lyrical. I was happy to follow each woman’s journey as she grew in the strength and maturity of her faith.
When The Morning Glory Blooms examines unplanned pregnancies from several angles. The author does not attempt to offer easy answers but emphasizes the need of the young women for love and acceptance as well as preparation for their lives after they give birth with the importance of leading them to the Lord as a high priority. I would highly recommend this book , particularly for those who find themselves dealing with an unplanned pregnancy on any level.
by admin | Apr 22, 2013 | Books, Contemporary Fiction, Quilts, Romance
This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducing
A Healing HeartAbingdon Press (April 1, 2013)byAngela BreidenbachABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Angela Breidenbach is a speaker/coach in mental and physical health, author of A Healing Heart April 2013 from Abingdon Press in the Quilts of Love series, Gems of Wisdom: For a Treasure-filled Life, Creative Cooking for Simple Elegance, and Creative Cooking for Colitis. Other works by Angela include compilation books and devotionals from Guidepost, Group, and articles in magazines, ezines, and newspapers. She is certified in mentor/peer counseling as a CTA life coach, as a Stephen Minister, and a weight loss/nutrition coach. Angela serves as an assisting minister (worship/prayer leader) for her congregation in Missoula, MT. Not only did she walk the hard line of deciding to donate her mom’s brain for the study of schizophrenia, but she’s also on the brain donation list at the Brain Bank-Harvard McLean Hospital.
Learn more about Angela and her books on her Website.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Mara Keegan is an uber-successful mother and a widow of three years. She’s been chasing success and all the “good things in life” for her family to make up for the cruel whim God played on them by taking her husband. In an effort to be the perfect mom, she decides to make a photo memory quilt, a graduation present for her daughter, Cadence.
She’s not yet finished when she experiences a heart attack. While Mara recuperates, she revisits the choices she’s made that led to this physically and spiritually broken heart. The memory quilt must be finished in time for Cadence’s big day, but Mara struggles with her burgeoning feelings for the man who must keep Mara’s business going during her recovery, Joel Ryan. Can Joel find his way into Mara’s heart and onto Cadence’s quilt?
If you would like to read the first chapter of A Healing Heart, go HERE.
MY REVIEW:
Mara Keegan barely has a chance to register that her new business coach is none other than Joel Ryan, the man who attempted a hostile takeover of her company several years earlier when she is forced to depend on him to keep her company afloat while she recovers from first a broken ankle, then a heart attack. Not only does he manage her company but also becomes nearly indispensable to her and her three children. Joel soon sees the Keegans as the family he has dreamed of being a part of, especially Mara who quickly gains a special place in his heart. If only he could help her to let go of her driven determination to make her late husband’s dream succeed and become the woman God intends her to be. Is it possible for Mara to trust Joel and God with the lives of herself and her children?
I found myself quickly drawn into A Healing Heart and fell in love with its characters. It was easy to identify with Mara and her tight control of her life as she struggled to run a successful business as well as being the perfect mother. Joel was the perfect hero, always ready to help, compassionate, and trying to follow the Lord’s lead in every situation. And I loved their dog – enough to shed some tears near the end. A Healing Heart is filled with true-to-life scenes, wisdom, faith, and love overflows its pages.
I’ll admit I didn’t know what to expect when I opened A Healing Heart but it didn’t take very long to find it difficult to put down. I gladly endorse this novel.
by admin | Apr 18, 2013 | Books, Contemporary Fiction
MY REVIEW:
The fourth offering in Cathy Bryant’s Miller’s Creek series, Pilgrimage of Promise finally offers her readers the backstory for Mona Beth and Bo, well-loved characters from the previous novels in the series. Their story unfolds through present-day scenes as well as flashbacks and through letters from the past. Concentrating primarily on Bo and Mona Beth, the story also includes glimpses of other loved characters from earlier books. As in her previous books, Cathy has portrayed her characters in such a way that the reader can relate to them as friends and/or family and will therefore rejoice or grieve with them as is appropriate.
Pilgrimage of Promise is a wonderful story of God’s faithfulness even through the most difficult and trying times of our lives, illustrated especially through Mona Beth’s experiences. It is a poignant tale that brought me to tears more than once but it is ultimately a story of triumph over circumstances through the strength that only comes from trusting in the Lord.
I have not seen Cathy’s books promoted as actively as many of the books I read and review but her Miller’s Creek novels have always been numbered among my favorites. If you have not read any of her books, I suggest you give them a try. I don’t think you will be sorry.
A digital copy of the book was provided by the author in exchange for my honest review.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Broken promises, enduring love…
A dusty stack of unopened love letters forces Bo and Mona Beth Miller to revisit a part of their past they’d rather leave buried–especially in the face of death. Only as they retrace history will they learn the truth about the shattered promise that threatens to come between them. But can their relationship endure the deception and sabotage they unearth, or will the experience compel them to trust more fully in the promises that never fail?
Read a sample chapter of the work in progress (unedited) HERE.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Cathy’s desire is to write heart-stirring stories about God’s life-changing grace. Her first novel, Texas Roads, was a 2009 American Christian Fiction Writers’ Genesis finalist. Her second novel, A Path Less Traveled, was published in 2010. The Way of Grace, the third book in the Miller’s Creek novels was released in 2012, and Pilgrimage of Promise was released in 2013. A native Texan, Cathy currently resides in the beautiful Ozark mountains of northwest Arkansas with her husband of thirty years, and near the world’s cutest grandson and granddaughter. She’ll be moving to New Mexico in the near future. You can find out more about Cathy’s books under the Miller’s Creek Novels tab on her website.
by admin | Apr 2, 2013 | Amish, Books, Contemporary Fiction, Romance
This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingThe GuardianBethany House Publishers (March 26, 2013)byBeverly LewisABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Beverly’s first venture into adult fiction is the best-selling trilogy, The Heritage of Lancaster County, including The Shunning, a suspenseful saga of Katie Lapp, a young Amish woman drawn to the modern world by secrets from her past. The book is loosely based on the author’s maternal grandmother, Ada Ranck Buchwalter, who left her Old Order Mennonite upbringing to marry a Bible College student. One Amish-country newspaper claimed Beverly’s work to be “a primer on Lancaster County folklore” and offers “an insider’s view of Amish life.”
Booksellers across the country, and around the world, have spread the word of Beverly’s tender tales of Plain country life. A clerk in a Virginia bookstore wrote, “Beverly’s books have a compelling freshness and spark. You just don’t run across writing like that every day. I hope she’ll keep writing stories about the Plain people for a long, long time.”
A member of the National League of American Pen Women, as well as a Distinguished Alumnus of Evangel University, Lewis has written over 80 books for children, youth, and adults, many of them award-winning. She and her husband, David, make their home in Colorado, where they enjoy hiking, biking, and spending time with their family. They are also avid musicians and fiction “book worms.”
Learn more about Beverly and her books on her Website.
MY REVIEW:
ABOUT THE BOOK:
When schoolteacher Jodi Winfield goes for a morning run, the last thing she expects is to find a disheveled little girl all alone on the side of the Pennsylvania road, clad only in her undergarments, her chubby cheeks streaked with tears. Jodi takes the preschooler home with her, intending to find out where she belongs. But Jodi is mystified when no one seems to know of a missing child, and the girl herself is no help, since she can’t speak a word of English. It’s as if the child appeared out of nowhere.
As the days pass, Jodi becomes increasingly attached to the mysterious girl, yet she is no closer to learning her identity. Then an unexpected opportunity brings Jodi to Hickory Hollow–and into the cloistered world of the Lancaster Old Order Amish. Might the answers lie there?
If you would like to read the first chapter of The Guardian, go HERE.
MY REVIEW:
With her descriptive and easy-to-read style, Beverly Lewis takes the reader into Hickory Hollow and its slower yet comfortable way of life. This time we view this unique place through the eyes of schoolteacher Jodi Winfield who inadvertently finds herself involved with an Amish family and thoroughly charmed by their way of life. Still grieving her sister’s death, Jodi has wandered away from her faith yet finds a sympathetic friend in Amish widow Maryanna. As their friendship develops, each woman realizes that Jodi’s involvement in the Amish community may just have been orchestrated by God.
I enjoyed reading about the Amish in The Guardian, especially since there was very little emphasis on their strict rules and practices but highlighted their love of family and friends and their faith in God even in the face of tragedy. Although there was some romance, it was not the focus of this novel. Instead I saw how both Jodi and Maryanna grew in their faith and were able to overcome their grief to move on with their lives.
by admin | Mar 27, 2013 | Books, Contemporary Fiction, Romance
This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingThreads of HopeAbingdon Press (March 1, 2013)byChrista AllanABOUT THE AUTHOR:
A true Southern woman who knows that any cook worth her gumbo always starts with a roux and who never wears white after Labor Day, Christa is a writer of not your usual Christian Fiction. She weaves stories of unscripted grace and redemption with threads of hope, humor, and heart. Christa is the mother of five adult children, a grandmother of three, and a brand new retired teacher. She and her husband Ken live in New Orleans with their three cats and do their best to dodge hurricanes.
And, since she is not fond of writing about herself in third person, she asked her oldest daughter to contribute. Like her mother, Erin is not at a loss for words…
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Passed over for promotion and dumped by her boyfriend, Nina O’Malley is further frustrated when her editor assigns her one of the “soft” stories she despises—covering a gala benefit supporting the AIDS Memorial Quilt. More determined than ever to prove she deserves a promotion to the NY office, Nina decides to write a series featuring a local quilting group raising money for AIDs research. At the event, she runs into her high school nemesis: Greg is a widower and the adoptive father of Jazarah, an HIV positive girl from Ethiopia. Unlike Nina, Greg has faith in a loving God, and he trusts in God’s plan for his life. Greg and Nina grow closer, and as Nina interviews the quilt families, she begins to question the choices she has made and her lack of faith. Nina suddenly finds herself facing two possible dreams, two paths for her life.
If you would like to read the first chapter of Threads of Hope, go HERE.
by admin | Mar 25, 2013 | Contemporary Fiction, Romance, Suspense
This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingThe SurvivorZondervan (March 5, 2013)byDiAnn MillsABOUT THE AUTHOR:
DiAnn Mills believes her readers should “Expect an Adventure.” She is a fiction writer who combines an adventuresome spirit with unforgettable characters to create action-packed novels. Her books have won many awards through American Christian Fiction Writers, and she is the recipient of the Inspirational Reader’s Choice award for 2005, 2007, and 2010. She was a Christy Award finalist in 2008 and a Christy winner in 2010.
DiAnn is a founding board member for American Christian Fiction Writers, a member of Inspirational Writers Alive, Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, and is the Craftsman Mentor for the Christian Writer’s Guild. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops.
DiAnn and her husband live in Houston, Texas. Visit her website or find her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/diannmills
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Kariss meets Dr. Amy Garrett, who survived a brutal childhood attack in which the assailant was never found. Now Dr. Garrett wants her story written in a novel. Kariss wishes she could seek the advice of Special Agent Tigo Harris, but she broke off the relationship a few months prior and seeing him again would be too painful. She interviews Amy and conducts her own research, stepping unaware into a viper’s pit of danger. Tigo misses Kariss and wants her back, but he understands why she broke off their relationship. Instead, he concentrates on solving a car bombing and bringing the killer to justice. As Kariss’s new story attracts an onslaught of danger that she never expected, can Tigo save the woman he loves and find who wants her dead for writing about an unsolved cold-case?
If you would like to read the first chapter of The Survivor, go HERE.
MY REVIEW:
Featuring talented but stubborn author Kariss and Special Agent Tigo from Mills’ previous novel The Chase, The Survivor continues their story in another nail-biter by this master suspense storyteller. Once again I found myself sitting up well past my bedtime just to find out how everything would pan out for the duo, especially since their personal relationship had fractured.
Although one would think Kariss had already learned her lesson the hard way, she agreed to write a novel about now adult Amy Garrett’s brutal childhood attack. Despite every caution and all advice, Kariss continued to pursue the project – even as it became apparent that her life just might be in danger. As Tigo and his partner worked to solve a car bombing with very few clues, they became involved in trying to protect both Kariss and Amy after attacks on them.
At times there seemed to be several unique cases for Tigo and the department to solve, but little by little, tiny clues began to connect the dots and the relationship between the cases became undeniable yet still a mystery. Mills did a wonderful job of keeping it all just out of reach with her masterful plot twists and revelations. I loved the way she waited until almost the very end to neatly tie up all the loose ends – some of which were surprises to me.
If you are a lover of suspense novels with a touch of romance, do not hesitate to pick up a copy of The Survivor. You might also want to start with The Chase so you can enjoy the entire story of Tigo and Kariss. I don’t think you’ll be sorry.
