Jolene O’Neil has wind, prairie, and cattle in her blood, but circumstances have removed her far from the ranch life she enjoys. John Harris, a handsome Air Force captain, is determined to win her heart, but then there is the ever-present, enticing, urbanite Dexter DeLange . . .
Dexter was the most complex, handsome, and exciting man she had ever known, and she loved him with abandon. However, there were moments she was suspicious of his motives, and even a little scared of his obsession with her . . .
If Jolene follows her heart, will she find happiness, even if she never rides the range again?
From the stability of the family ranch to the glamour of the modeling world, Jolene struggles to find herself and to discover God’s plan for her life. With the prairies of South Dakota and Nebraska as background for this unusual story, Jolene O’Neil rides over the pages and into your heart with refreshing honesty and humor.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Joyce Wheeler grew up on the prairies of South Dakota, learning at an early age to appreciate the greatness of God’s creation. The transition from rancher’s daughter to rancher’s wife when she married Justin came easy, and they have continued to pass their ranching tradition down to their children and grandchildren.
Joyce’s interest in adventure and intrigue persuaded her to conjure up meaningful stories about ordinary people in difficult circumstances. She has walked, ridden, and drove over prairie trails and used those times to not only praise our Creator, but also weave stories that would reflect her appreciation of God’s world.
As an avid reader, Joyce traveled the world in her armchair with a cup of coffee in one hand and a book in the other, until her own unfulfilled desire to write a book began to unfold. At the urging of friends and family, Joyce took delight in developing characters of her own in and among the settings of a ranching lifestyle in which she is knowledgeable. The result was Joyce’s very first book, entitled My Lady.
In addition to being a wife, mother, and grandmother, Joyce has enjoyed being a homemaker, bookkeeper, and gardener. Her hobbies include activities like family gatherings, music, horseback riding, hiking and ranch work. Some of her fondest memories are skiing with her grandchildren and white water rafting on the Snake River. Her greatest joy, however, is the growing knowledge that God is a part of every aspect of our lives and serving Him is the most exciting adventure of all.
MY REVIEW:
I guess you could say that I have mixed feelings about My Lady. The narrative style is not my favorite type book to read. I prefer one with more character interaction and dialogue. I also felt that there was so much going on in this book that it really deserved much more space to develop. Jolene’s first husband John was pretty much a nonentity due to lack of character development. For this reason, it was difficult to sympathize with Jolene’s grief at his death. Dexter, on the other hand, was an annoyance to me and I could not understand Jolene’s attraction to him. Chauncey was a different story. I really liked him but would have liked more character development there also.
Jolene’s life was filled with tragedy and vulnerability. Even her strong faith in God seemed unable to help her overcome her tendency to make poor and hasty choices. As the story progressed, Jolene learned some valuable lessons about herself and God’s faithfulness.
My Lady was provided for review by Wine Press Publishing Group through Glass Road Public Relations.
Thrills, mystery, suspense, romance: Margaret penned it all. Nothing wrong with this, except Margaret happened to be writing for the church newsletter. After making the church picnic read like a Grisham novel, her former pastor took her aside and said, “Maybe God’s calling you to write fiction.”
It turns out God was and Margaret did. She now has more than 20 novels to her credit. In addition, she’s written many Christian articles and a non-fiction book. Still, it took a lot of prodding from God before Margaret tried her hand at writing inspirational fiction which led to her Rocky Creek series. “I love writing about characters at different stages of faith,” she says of the new direction her writing career has taken, “and I’m here to stay.”
Happily married to her real-life hero, Margaret and her husband live in Southern California.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Sarah Prescott has never known a respectable life; just a hardscrabble childhood and brothers who taught her to shoot straight.
Justin Wells left Boston in disgrace, heading out alone on the dusty trail to Texas. But when the once-respected clergyman encounters a feisty redhead in handcuffs with a dying US Marshall at her side, their journey takes a dramatic turn.
His high society expectations and Sarah’s outlaw habits clash from the start. With a price on her head and a sweet orphan in tow, Justin and Sarah make the difficult journey toward Rocky Creek. There justice will be meted out hopefully with a portion of grace.
To my delight, an abundance of historical western romance novels have recently come my way, including A Lady Like Sarah. At the moment, I just really seem to enjoy westerns. A Lady Like Sarah is an excellent read full of action, adventure, suspense, humor, and of course romance. The spiritual thread is not preachy but is woven naturally throughout the story. Characters and setting are all skillfully developed and I didn’t want to put this book down until its end.
On the surface, the hero and heroine of A Lady Like Sarah couldn’t be any more ill suited. Justin, a respectable pastor from Boston who has been exiled to Texas through no fault of his own, is a city boy who is totally unprepared for life on the western frontier. Sarah, raised by older brothers who turned to a life of crime in mistaken retribution for their parents’ deaths, knows how to take care of herself quite well but knows nothing about being a proper lady. During their journey together to reach Rocky Creek, each learns valuable lessons from the other and find their hearts forever united.
I would recommend A Lady Like Sarah to readers who enjoy a good romance, especially those who love westerns.
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
***Special thanks to Audra Jennings of The B&B Media Group for sending me a review copy.***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Chris Coppernoll has authored six books including A Beautiful Fall and Providence. A national speaker to singles, Chris is also the founder of Soul2Soul, a syndicated radio program airing on 800 outlets in 20 countries. Chris holds a Masters degree from Rockbridge Seminary and resides outside Nashville, Tennessee.
List Price: $14.99
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: David C. Cook; New edition (January 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1434764826
ISBN-13: 978-1434764829
AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:
I absolutely had to be in New York by 1:30 p.m. Did my life depend upon it? Yes, as a matter of fact, it did. Just the thought of calling Ben or Avril with bad news from O’Hare churned my stomach and made my face prickle with a dizzying fear. I joined a sea of travelers bundled in parkas, hoods, hats, and gloves; they stretched out in front of me, pressing in and wresting me through a queue of red velvet theater ropes.
All of Chicago wanted to flee the blizzard they’d awakened to. Sometime after midnight the sky exploded with snowflakes. Icy white parachutists fell from their celestial perch as innocently as doves. The year’s last snowstorm tucked the city in with a white blanket knitted through the long winter’s night.
When I reached the American Airlines check-in, I hoisted one of my two black canvas bags onto the scale for the ticket agent.
“Harper Gray?” she asked, confirming my reservation.
“Yes.”
She returned my driver’s license, dropping her gaze to the workstation and tapping my information into the system. At the kiosk next to me, a large Texan with a silver rodeo buckle typed on his iPhone with his thumbs, mumbling something about checking the weather in Dallas.
Computers, I thought. What don’t we use them for?
It was obvious how many of my fellow travelers were heading somewhere for the New Year’s Eve festivities. I couldn’t help but eavesdrop on a cluster of merry college students reveling in their Christmas break. They joked and chattered, mentioning Times Square, unbothered by long lines or the imminent threat of weather delays. At thirty, almost thirty-one, I could no longer relate to their carefree lifestyle. Too much water under the bridge, most of it dark and all of it numbing.
“Here you are,” the ticket agent said, handing me a boarding pass still warm from the printer. I fumbled with my things, stuffing my photo ID into my wallet as a mother and her young son squeezed in next to me. The crowd current swept me away from the ticket counter, denying me a chance to ask the agent the one question I most wanted answered.
Is anyone flying out of here this morning?
I rolled my carry-on through the main concourse. I’d used the small black Samsonite for so many trips, I thought the airlines should paste labels on it like an old vaudevillian’s steamer trunk. A row of display monitors hung from a galvanized pipe, cobalt blue icicles glowing all the brighter in the dark and windowless hallway. I joined a beleaguered crowd of gawkers studying the departure screens. Their collective moans of frustration confirmed what I already knew. My flight—indeed, all flights out of O’Hare—was:
DELAYED
I pinched my eyes shut. This was not what I needed. Not today, not today of all days. I absolutely had to be in New York by 1:30 p.m. Did my life depend upon it? Yes, as a matter of fact, it did.
It is not often that I run across a book written from a female perspective by a male author and I wondered if Chris Coppernoll would be able to carry it off through the entire book. All I can say is that his wife must be tremendously blessed to be married to a man who understands women so well.
Screen Play is one of those books that began innocuously but gradually built and before I realized it I was totally immersed in the story. After Harper Gray’s salvation experience, she emerges from a deep depression and begins working again in the field she loves. Harper’s primary desire is to please God and as the book progressed I could seen the fingerprints of God all over her life. Coppernoll’s narrative of theater life and online dating added details that kept me intrigued. Screen Play is a story of hope and evidence that with God nothing is impossible.
I will leave details of the book for other readers to discover for themselves. It’s so much more fun to read when the plot hasn’t been divulged. I heartily recommend Screen Play and hope that everyone will pick up a copy of their own.
Peggy Sue Yarber, PhD in psychology, lives in central California with her husband, two daughters, six turtles and two dogs. She works in the field of education.
The Judas Ride was inspired by her current and previous students. She has seen and experienced and seen similarities between the students and Jesus’ traitor, Judas Iscariot. She has always been fascinated with Judas. Yarber went to a catholic school when she was young and Judas was always portrayed like a mysterious rebel.
She ventures to say, “I guess he was my James Dean of the Bible. But in a good way! In the way that…he did something so wrong so that the entire world could be saved. He had to betray Jesus in order for the rest of the story. I have always wondered what it would be like to not do that one bad thing that would lead to that one great thing. So I had the Vader character sort of run through the paces of Judas.”
Redemption and reality are the two distinguishing features about Yarber’s writing. Not all teens find redemption in The Judas Ride. Yarber considered trying to show the negative outcomes as much as the positive. She wasn’t thinking in terms of positive and negative but she did try to balance the two sides. Yarber says she often sees people daily that , “…have even more screwed up lives than these characters.” Yarber admits sometimes there is not an ending to the madness unless someone dies and then even after the death the ripples still linger. She has written another novel TARE and a children’s book Rocketships to Heaven and the SOS Fuel Station. She loves to run, read, shoot guns and watch her daughters play soccer.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
An unwed (and unwanted) teen pregnancy with two possible fathers. Abusive relationships. Drug and alcohol addiction. Rape and molestation. The struggle to understand grace, forgiveness, and free will versus predestination. The Judas Ride hits the road running in the opening pages, where Sonia and Xavier argue explosively about whether Sonia should have their unborn child and about who the father is: Xavier, a struggling Christian, or Vader, an abusive and abused drug dealer. As the pages turn, readers continue to meet a hodgepodge of troubled teens and eclectic characters, including Pastor Manny, a quirky immigrant pastor infatuated with John Wayne. Pastor Manny desires to help the tortured souls in his community but finds that it takes more than unconditional love to reach them. Secrets literally kill in The Judas Ride, an edgy, in-your-your face Christian novel that boldly explores the struggles of modern-day young people.
I tried to read The Judas Ride, I really did. I struggled through many chapters with characters and events that got progressively worse as I read, hoping for a glimpse of redemption in the midst of all the ugliness. I never did find it and chose to stop reading before I reached the end. The characters were so unlikeable that I could not drum up even an ounce of sympathy for even one of them. I had a stack of much more inviting books waiting to be read and I gave in to their invitation.
I do not object to reading books about real life situations. Edgy fiction does not bother me. Unfortunately The Judas Ride did. I simply cannot recommend this book to anyone.
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Jolene O’Neil has wind, prairie, and cattle in her blood, but circumstances have removed her far from the ranch life she enjoys. John Harris, a handsome Air Force captain, is determined to win her heart, but then there is the ever-present, enticing, urbanite Dexter DeLange . . .
Joyce Wheeler grew up on the prairies of South Dakota, learning at an early age to appreciate the greatness of God’s creation. The transition from rancher’s daughter to rancher’s wife when she married Justin came easy, and they have continued to pass their ranching tradition down to their children and grandchildren.
