This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Blue Moon Bay
Bethany House (February 1, 2012)
by
Lisa Wingate
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lisa Wingate is an award-winning journalist, magazine columnist, popular inspirational speaker and a national bestselling author of sixteen books. Her first mainstream novel, Tending Roses, is in its eighteenth printing from Penguin Putnam. Tending Roses is a staple on the shelves of national bookstore chains as well as in many independent bookstores.

Recently, Lisa’s Blue Sky Hill Series, set in Dallas, received national attention with back-to-back nominations for American Christian Fiction Writers Book of the Year Award for A Month of Summer (2009) and The Summer Kitchen (2010). Pithy, emotional, and inspirational, her stories bring to life characters so real that readers often write to ask what is happening to them after the book ends.

Lisa is one of a select group of authors to find success in both the Christian and mainstream markets, writing for both Bethany House, a Christian publisher, and NAL Penguin Putnam, a general market publisher. Her bestselling books have become a hallmark of inspirational fiction. Her works have been featured by the National Reader’s Club of America, AOL Book Picks, Doubleday Book Club, the Literary Guild, Crossings Book Club, American Profiles and have been chosen for numerous awards.

When not busy dreaming up stories, Lisa spends time on the road as a motivational speaker. Via internet, she shares with readers as far away as India, where her book, Tending Roses, has been used to promote women’s literacy, and as close to home as Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the county library system has used Tending Roses to help volunteer mentors teach adults to read. Recently, the group Americans for More Civility, a kindness watchdog organization, selected Lisa along with Bill Ford, Camille Cosby, and six others as recipients of the National Civies Award, which celebrates public figures who work to promote greater kindness and civility in American life.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Heather Hampton returns to Moses Lake, Texas, to help facilitate the sale of a family farm as part of a planned industrial plant that will provide the area with much-needed jobs. Heather’s future fiance has brokered the deal, and Heather is in line to do her first large-scale architectural design–if the deal goes through.

But the currents of Moses Lake have a way of taking visitors on unexpected journeys. What was intended to be a quick trip suddenly morphs into Valentine’s week–with Blaine Underhill, the handsome banker who just happens to be opposing Heather’s project. Spending the holiday in an ex-funeral parlor seems like a nightmare, but Heather slowly finds herself being drawn into the area’s history, hope, and heart.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Blue Moon Bay, go HERE.

Learn more about Lisa and her books on her Website.

MY REVIEW:

I have been a big fan of Lisa Wingate since I read my first book that she had written and have pretty much made it my goal to collect each and every one of her novels. I have yet to read all of them but only because I have had very little time to fit them into my crowded blog review schedule. But they are on my shelf waiting for me when I can find a few extra hours. For that reason, I am always thrilled to find her newest offering on my review schedule so that I don’t have to fit it in.

Blue Moon Bay did not disappoint. In fact it reinforced that repressed desire in me to move to Texas with a place like Moses Lake high on my preference list. As usual, Lisa’s characters seemed to step off the pages and could be someone I know. Sometimes they almost seem to be even more real. Maybe it’s because I wish I really knew people like them (or at least most of them). Anyway in my opinion, it doesn’t get much better than this. A great setting, strong and interesting characters, some action and suspense, romance, and a journey to self-discovery and faith.

If you want to know more about the plot, there are plenty of other reviews that may tell you even more than you want to know. Reading the first chapter will give you a quick look but Blue Moon Bay is a story that takes a little while to develop. I found myself just as confused as Heather for much of the book but that helped me to identify with her better and to watch everything develop through her eyes.  Loved this book and recommend that you run out and buy a copy for yourself as well as every one of Lisa’s other books. I am a certified fan and want everyone else to be too.