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she finally garnered national attention with her double final in the Genesis Contest, a fiction-writing contest for unpublished writers through ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers).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.
A note from Sheila Walsh!
I’m so excited to announce that the first book in my new children’s series, Gabby, God’s Little Angel releases this month! The official release date is the 20th, but it’s available now to pre-order.
Meet Gabby:
Watch video here:
This first book in a delightful new series offers a comforting message for young readers-God loves you very much and is always watching over you!
What little girl wouldn’t love her very own guardian angel? Parents and children alike will be won over by this humorous tale of Gabby, a guardian angel in training who has much to learn about taking care of God’s little ones. Her new assignment is to protect a young girl named Sophie, but Gabby soon realizes that watching after Sophie is a bigger challenge than she had expected! After a close call while riding her pony, Sophie learns what the Bible says about guardian angels: “He will put his angels in charge of you. They will watch over you wherever you go” (Psalm 91:11 ICB).
I set out to develop a new character that young readers would embrace and delight in, and out from my pen and from my heart poured a new series, Gabby, God’s Little Angel. Gabby is an adorable guardian angel in training who finds that she has so much to learn about taking care of God’s children.
I am so passionate about teaching the little angels in your own lives just how much God loves them. I pray that through my new little friend, Gabby, they will discover this truth and rest assured that He is always watching over them!
About Sheila Walsh:
Sheila Walsh is a powerful Bible teacher and best-selling author from Scotland with over 4 million books sold. A featured speaker with Women of Faith® conferences, she has reached more than 3.5 million women by combining honesty, vulnerability, and humor with God’s Word.
Sheila is the author of the best-selling memoir Honestly, the Gold Medallion Award nominee The Heartache No One Sees, the Retailer’s Choice Award nominee Beautiful Things Happen When A Woman Trusts God and the Gigi, God’s Little Princess series, which has won the National Retailer’s Choice Award twice and is the most popular Christian brand for young girls in the US. She just released her newest book and DVD Bible study for women The Shelter of God’s Promises. In 2012, she will release her life-message book God Loves Broken People.
Currently completing her Masters in Theology, Sheila lives in Frisco, Texas with her husband, Barry, her son, Christian, and her two little dogs, Belle and Tink.
I first became acquainted with the books of Stephen Lawhead over twenty years ago when a church friend loaned me a copy of Taliesin, the first book in The Pendragon Cycle. Since that time I have read and/or own almost all of his books. And I in turn have been privileged to introduce Mr. Lawhead’s books to friends and family. I was so excited to have the opportunity to review The Bone House.
The Bone House is the second book in the Bright Empire series. This series is one that you definitely DO NOT want to read out of order. Each book should be read in sequence to keep from being thoroughly confused. I was relieved that I had recently taken advantage of an offer for a free Kindle copy of The Skin Map and made it a point to read it first. The very nature of these books cause them to be just a bit difficult to keep sorted out so you don’t want to miss the foundation that was laid in The Skin Map.
That being said, The Bone House continues the story that began in The Skin Map although not in the usual chronological manner. Each chapter features different characters in different settings and time periods. New characters have been introduced and more background has been laid so that the reader gradually begins to understand a bit of what is going on. Connections between seemingly unrelated people are beginning to be drawn.
The Bone House is what I might describe as an intellectual fantasy. It contains a mixture of science, history, and geography that is woven into a tale about an ominiverse that is connected by ley lines that allow those who know how to use them to travel between alternate lands and time periods. The Skin Map holds the secrets of the ley lines and is sought by several of the characters – each of whom have different reasons for their quest.
Now that you are as thoroughly confused as I am in trying to describe this book (and series) adequately, let me say that like all of Lawhead’s earlier books, The Bone House is so well written that it is a joy to read. His imagination continues to astound me. Although I have enjoyed the series thus far, I feel certain that once it is completed, the Bright Empire series is one that I will go back and read again. If you have never read a book by Stephen Lawhead, this series might be a good place to start. Just be sure to take heed of the warnings and read The Skin Map first.
This book was provided for review by BookSneeze.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
One piece of the Skin Map has been found. Now the race to unravel the future of the future turns deadly.
An avenue of Egyptian sphinxes, an Etruscan tufa tomb, a Bohemian coffee shop, and a Stone Age landscape where universes collide …
Kit Livingstone met his great grandfather Cosimo in a rainy alley in London where he discovered the reality of alternate realities.
Now he’s on the run – and on a quest, trying to understand the impossible mission he inherited from Cosimo: to restore a map that charts the hidden dimensions of the multiverse while staying one step ahead of the savage Burley Men.
The key is the Skin Map – but where it leads and what it means, Kit has no idea. The pieces have been scattered throughout this universe and beyond.
Mina, from her outpost in seventeenth-century Prague, is quickly gaining both the experience and the means to succeed in the quest. Yet so are those with evil intent, who from the shadows are manipulating great minds of history for their own malign purposes.
Across time and space, through manifest and hidden worlds, those who know how to use ley lines to travel through astral planes have left their own world behind in this, the second quest: to unlock the mystery of The Bone House.
Stephen R. Lawhead is an internationally acclaimed author of mythic history and imaginative fiction. He is the author of such epics as The Skin Map; The King Raven, Song of Albion, and Dragon King Trilogies. Lawhead makes his home in Oxford, England, with his wife. Twitter @StephenLawhead, facebook.com/StephenRLawhead
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.
The Crossing is not a pretty story with a fairytale ending where everyone lives happily ever after. Actually it is a gritty, down-to-earth, real life narrative centered around a ten-year-old unsolved school bus murder and the lasting effects it has had on several witnesses and the people in their lives.
Two of the students on board the bus on that fateful night experience symptoms of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). Claudia Campbell experiences increasing bouts of anxiety attacks and her spending habits have gotten out of control. Police officer Casio Hightower struggles with out-of-control bursts of rage that physically harm the people he loves most. When Claudia’s husband Victor, an assistant DA reopens the case in hopes of helping his wife, Casio determines to help him solve the case. As new clues come to light, secrets of the past are revealed that change everything they believed to be true.
The Crossing was a new reading experience for me. Just when I thought I knew how everything would turn out, something totally unexpected and/or shocking would occur. Interspersed between present day narrative were the last thoughts of the murder victim as she lay dying. Although this did not contribute to the solving of the case, it did add extra insight to the story. The book is well written with evident thought given to the characters and their unique reactions to their shared experience with an emphasis on how faith made a difference in their circumstances.
Although The Crossing is very different than the books I usually choose, I would highly recommend it for its honest and insightful look at how one event can change a life forever.
This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group Blogging for Books program.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Imprisoned by memories, Claudia Campbell lives each day in the shadow of a ten-year-old murder. Who can set her free?
On the way home from a football game, a decade earlier, a masked gunman opened fire on a Texas school bus. Cheerleading coach B.J. Remington was killed, but her murderer was never found. Claudia, who had a close friendship with the young, spirited teacher, constantly relives the anguish of that day, caught in one moment in time. When her husband, the assistant district attorney, becomes determined to uncover the mystery of that tragedy, the secrets buried over the years threaten to tear their family apart.
Officer Casio Hightower will never forget the day his dreams were destroyed. A star quarterback with a promising future, Casio was on top of the world—until one bullet changed everything. He is eager to help Victor Campbell find B.J.’s killer, the man who shot him. Maybe solving the case will help silence the demons driving Casio to hurt the woman he loves.
As the Campbells and Casio teeter on the brink of losing everything, will they be able to discover that what begins at the crossing ends at the cross?
“Serita Jakes has created a rich story about confronting the debilitating wounds of one’s past and standing at a crossroads of hope and healing—or ongoing suffering. Her characters take meaningful and relatable journeys, and they will serve as an inspiration for many to find the path toward wholeness.”
—Dr. Frank Lawlis, bestselling author, consultant to the Dr. Phil show, and the author of revolutionary program PTSD Breakthrough
“An amazing story of hope, loss, and the unconditional love that brings us back to God, Serita Jakes has created a meaningful novel that tears at your heart while mending your brokenness at the same time. The Crossing is powerful storytelling.”
—Pat Smith, founder and CEO of “Treasure You”, President of Pat & Emmitt Smith Charities
“The Crossing is captivating from page one. Serita chronicles a remarkable tale of betrayal, pain and spiritual anguish. Her writing uncovers an important core message: how to find freedom from past hurts and wounds, and move toward a life of forgiveness, healing and Divine wholeness.”
—Dr. Tim Clinton, president of the American Association of Christian Counselors
“Serita Jakes’ The Crossing is so much more than you expect. She’s a brilliant woman of God and this stirring novel will reach so many hearts and lives with its message of grace and healing.”
—Lisa Osteen Comes, associate pastor Lakewood Church in Houston Texas, and author of You Are Made For More
“First Lady Serita Jakes is a unique lady with a big heart. She has experienced hurt in her life, therefore The Crossing is a perfect novel for her to write. She is a woman who loves much and wants to help others. This book will impact, and may even, save your life. I salute Serita and consider her one of my children.”
—Dodie Osteen, co-founder Lakewood Church and author of Choosing Life.
I hope whoever reads this book never has had to go through loss and suffering. But should you be faced with one or the other or both, Mrs. Jakes’ powerful words will help you through it because it demonstrates God’s forgiveness, powerful healing and unconditional love for us all.
—Jamie Foster Brown, publisher, Sister 2 Sister Magazine
“Serita Jakes has captured the true meaning of what it means to “wear the mask”. And the phrase ‘cover your sins and keep up appearances’ penned in The Crossing—says it all. The depiction of the novel’s main character Claudia reveals the devastating and irreversible effects of untreated trauma and the dire consequences if left undiagnosed and untreated—as it does all too often. The Crossing hits home on these important issues in a down-to-earth and entertaining way. The Crossing is an important novel and I highly recommended.”
—Terrie M. Williams, author of Black Pain
“A meaningful novel about loss, forgiveness, suffering, and God’s healing, unconditional love. A perfect read for women who have seen hard times. I highly recommend it.”
—Paula White, Paula White Ministries/Senior Pastor, Without Walls International Church
SERITA ANN JAKES has been involved in Christian ministry all of her adult life and has served alongside her husband, Bishop T. D. Jakes, throughout their entire marriage of nearly 30 years. In addition to raising three sons and two daughters, Mrs. Jakes is Executive Director of the WoMan To Woman Ministries of The Potter’s House of Dallas where her husband is Senior Pastor.
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