{"id":16479,"date":"2014-02-26T20:42:54","date_gmt":"2014-02-27T01:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/?p=16479"},"modified":"2014-02-26T20:42:54","modified_gmt":"2014-02-27T01:42:54","slug":"dating-dining-and-desperation-by-melody-carlson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/?p=16479","title":{"rendered":"Dating, Dining, and Desperation by Melody Carlson"},"content":{"rendered":"<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/blogger\/5500\/1432\/1600\/CFBAreviewer_gif.0.gif\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"cursor: hand; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/blogger\/5500\/1432\/320\/CFBAreviewer_gif.0.gif\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><center><span style=\"font-size: 130%;\">This week, the<\/span><\/center><center><a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianfictionblogalliance.com\/\"><span style=\"font-size: 100%;\">Christian Fiction Blog Alliance<\/span><\/a><\/center><center><span style=\"font-size: 100%;\">is introducing<\/span><\/center><center><span style=\"color: #993300; font-size: 130%;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1433679310\">Dating, Dining, and Desperation<\/a><\/span><\/center><center>B&amp;H Books (March 1, 2014)<\/center><center>by<\/center><center><span style=\"color: #006600; font-size: 130%;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/melodycarlson.com\/\">Melody Carlson<\/a><\/span><\/center><strong>ABOUT THE AUTHOR:<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\" href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-2FQccw7bpLE\/TnajU3AgNzI\/AAAAAAAAED0\/YrmEY8M7rz0\/s1600\/melody.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-2FQccw7bpLE\/TnajU3AgNzI\/AAAAAAAAED0\/YrmEY8M7rz0\/s200\/melody.jpg\" width=\"160\" height=\"200\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Over the years, Melody Carlson has worn many hats, from pre-school teacher to youth counselor to political activist to senior editor. But most of all, she loves to write! Currently she freelances from her home. In the past eight years, she has published over ninety books for children, teens, and adults&#8211;with sales totaling more than two million and many titles appearing on the ECPA Bestsellers List. Several of her books have been finalists for, and winners of, various writing awards.<\/p>\n<p>She has two grown sons and lives in Central Oregon with her husband and chocolate lab retriever. They enjoy skiing, hiking, gardening, camping and biking in the beautiful Cascade Mountains.<\/p>\n<p>Learn more about Melody and her books on her <a href=\"http:\/\/melodycarlson.com\/\">Website<\/a>.<br \/>\n<strong>ABOUT THE BOOK:<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\" href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-tFSNkeye7fw\/Uw1fygejiNI\/AAAAAAAAGmk\/rCCHdaKQn6E\/s1600\/Dating,+Dining,+and+Desperation.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-tFSNkeye7fw\/Uw1fygejiNI\/AAAAAAAAGmk\/rCCHdaKQn6E\/s1600\/Dating,+Dining,+and+Desperation.jpg\" width=\"130\" height=\"200\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Daphne Ballinger has learned to accept her deceased, eccentric aunt\u2019s strange request that she marry in order to inherit her estate, along with taking over her aunt\u2019s hometown paper\u2019s advice column.<\/p>\n<p>But knowing and accepting that God\u2019s will be done becomes harder when a new neighbor, a divorced socialite, learns of Daphne\u2019s predicament and takes on the task of finding her the perfect man, even if it includes speed dating. When God does open Daphne\u2019s heart, it is instead to take in a young girl left parentless and in the care of her dying grandmother. It may be a temporary arrangement until the girl\u2019s uncle returns from the Marines, but God uses Daphne to speak His heavenly love and protection into the life of the child &#8212; whom Daphne soon discovers has a very handsome and single uncle.<\/p>\n<p>If you would like to read the first chapter of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1433679310\">Dating, Dining, and Desperation<\/a>, go <a href=\"http:\/\/thestorybeginnings.blogspot.com\/2014\/02\/dating-dining-and-desperation-by-melody.html\">HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10857\" alt=\"divider2\" src=\"http:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/divider2.png\" width=\"317\" height=\"61\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/divider2.png 317w, https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/divider2-150x28.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 317px) 100vw, 317px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>MY REVIEW:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1433679310\">Dating, Dining, and Desperation<\/a>, the second installment of Melody Carlson&#8217;s <em>Dear Daphne<\/em> series continues where &#8220;Lock, Stock, and Over a Barrel&#8221; ended. Time seems to be running out for Daphne to keep the inheritance left by her Aunt Dee and her best option seems to have disappeared. A new neighbor becomes a new friend who pushes Daphne to improve her image and to date more actively. During the course of the book Daphne meets several new possibilities but none of them seem to be a good match. It is only when she learns to wait on God and becomes involved in reaching out and helping others that Daphne finds real joy and is content with whatever her life brings &#8211; even if it means giving up her inheritance.<\/p>\n<p>Once again Carlson has given her readers a fun and humorous story that is filled to the brim with wisdom and encouragement. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1433679310\">Dating, Dining, and Desperation<\/a> is a prime example of why I keep reading her books and recommend them to others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingDating, Dining, and DesperationB&amp;H Books (March 1, 2014)byMelody CarlsonABOUT THE AUTHOR: Over the years, Melody Carlson has worn many hats, from pre-school teacher to youth counselor to political activist to senior editor. But most of all, she loves to write! Currently she freelances from her home. In the past [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,60,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-contemporary-fiction","category-romance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16479"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16481,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16479\/revisions\/16481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}