Welcome to my Book Review Blog. My goal is to connect readers with the wonderful and amazing books I am blessed to reveiw. And to introduce you to the talented and wonderful authors responsible for writing these books. May my love for books show through my reviews on this site.
28 Jun 2011 Leave a comment
in Giveaways
Hi Folks, Just to let you know that K. Dawn Byrd’s giveaway for an ebook copy of Mistaken Identity ends this Sat. July 2. You really want to read this wonderful book by Ms. Byrd. You will be very glad you did! Go HERE to sign up!
And Just started today, Laura Hilton is giving away a copy of Patchwork Dreams, another must read, in my opinion! Go HERE to sign up for Laura’s book.
28 Jun 2011 Leave a comment
The Spirit in Football and The Spirit of Baseball Review
I love these books, they are awesome! Each one teaches Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness and Self-Control using Football and Baseball language, adding verses to each. They each have pictures to go with the sport, Football or Baseball. The book is adorable. I love the pictures, they make the book and the story come alive.
This is a great way to teach children the Fruits of the Spirit, because they will relate to the sports and be more excited about the study. I would encourage any Children’s Director or Children’s Minister to check these books out for your boys. This attractive book will be something they will want to keep and read again and again!
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!
and their books:
Cross Training Publishing (2008)
and
The Spirit in Sports (2010)
***Special thanks to Audra Jennings, Senior Media Specialist, The B&B Media Group for sending me a review copy.***
Kathryn Nixon was born in the small town of Rockingham, NC. She grew up involved in many sports including cheerleading, cross country and dance. After graduating high school, she attended Peace College and North Carolina State University where she received her BA with a major in communications and a minor in journalism. She went on to work as an associate producer for ESPN.
She met Trot Nixon when one of the coaches who recruited him to play baseball at NC State introduced them. They were married, and he was drafted by the Red Sox, where he became a 2004 World Series champion. While her husband was playing ball, Kathryn collaborated with the other wives on two children’s books: Fenway Park from A to Z and Fenway Park 1 2 3.
Her greatest desire is to touch the lives of children with the knowledge and experience of Christ’s love. Her passion is to gather children into the kingdom of God by planting His word in their hearts at an early age. Nixon and her husband, Trot, reside in Wilmington, NC, with their two sons, Chase and Luke.
Ana Boudreau was born in Williamsburg, VA, and grew up with the dream of being an artist and an illustrator. Her grandmother was a professional artist, and she passed down all of her supplies to her granddaughter. She was also involved in cheerleading and gymnastics as a girl, helping her further connect to the Spirit in Sports series.
Boudreau attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated with a BA in English literature. She met Kathryn Nixon when she was commissioned to paint murals in the preschool department of Nixon’s church. They struck up a friendship and began meeting to plan a series of books that would attract young children involved in sports. Boudreau treasured the opportunity to co-author children’s books that had the power to instill God’s values in the day-to-day lives of families, including her own.
Boudreau is an artist, muralist and an art teacher at Myrtle Grove Christian School. She has illustrated both The Spirit in Baseball and The Spirit in Football, along with a third book, How Bernie Madoff Saved My Life by Valorie Stackpole. She is married to Mark Boudreau, and they are blessed with three wonderfully athletic girls—Lauren is a cheerleader, Julia is a skater and Katherine is a tennis player. She and her family reside in Wilmington, NC.
Visit the author and illustrator’s website.
Sometimes, when we think about little league sports, the first thing that comes to mind are pushy coaches and over-competitive parents. However, there are many positive character qualities that children can develop while playing team sports. Kathryn Nixon and Ana Boudreau help to instill these virtues in their two books, The Spirit in Baseball and The Spirit in Football. Their books are based on the fruits of the Spirit as seen in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
The Spirit in Baseball applies the fruits of the Spirit to each aspect of playing the game of baseball, such as:
I LOVE my teammates. They are my friends. We spend a lot of time in the dugout together!
I am PATIENT and happy to wait until it is my turn to bat.
I do my best to be GOOD to others. I congratulate the other team if they win the game.
Each of the fruits is introduced by a Scripture verse, followed by the application. The colorful illustrations will draw in young readers, and a tiny fruit has been hidden on every page for the children to seek out. The book also includes words of encouragement from Kathryn’s husband, Trot Nixon, a 2004 Boston Red Sox World Series champion. The Spanish translation, El Espiritu en Beisbol, is also available.
The Spirit in Football focuses on the same virtues and format, but applies the fruits of the Spirit to football. Some examples include:
The fans cheered with excitement and JOY as our team scored the first touchdown of the game.
If we are upset about a penalty, instead of acting out in anger, God calls us to react with GENTLENESS and respect.
We must show SELF-CONTROL by not losing our temper when we are tackled aggressively by the other team.
The Spirit in Football includes a forward by Matt Hasselbeck, NFL quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks, encouraging children that “drive and competitiveness should never come before obeying the rules and being a good sport.”
Both books are great gifts for little league teams or any child who participates in sports. The books include a page for autographs, so parents can buy a copy for every team member and the children can sign each other’s books as a keepsake for years to come. The Spirit in Baseball and The Spirit in Football provide a practical way for any parent or coach to apply the fruits of the Spirit in the everyday lives of their children.
Product Details:
The Spirit in Baseball:
List Price: $10.00
Hardcover
Publisher: Cross Training Publishing (2008)
ISBN-10: 1450776256
ISBN-13: 978-1450776257
The Spirit in Football:
List Price: $10.00
Hardcover
Publisher: The Spirit in Sports (2010)
ISBN-10: 0615386695
ISBN-13: 978-0615386690
AND NOW…THE FIRST FEW PAGES (Click on images to see them better):
The Spirit in Baseball:
The Spirit in Football:
28 Jun 2011 18 Comments
Interview with Laura V. Hilton
Hey readers and bloggers. Laura Hilton is here today talking about her life and her books
Patchwork Dreams and The Harvest of Hearts. She is giving away a copy of her book Patchwork Dreams
to one reader that leaves an answer to her question. And don’t forget to leave your email address so
I can contact you if you win. The contest ends June 8th. I will announce the winner on the 9th or 10th so you 
can come back here to see who won!
Hey Laura, it’s great to have you on my blog today. Thank you so much for being here. Tell us a bit about yourself.
Thanks for having me, Joy. It’s a pleasure to be here. A little about me… I’ve been married for twenty-five years to the same man, we have five children, the oldest one is 20 and the youngest is six. I am a pastor’s wife, a homeschool mom, and a book reviewer. Oh, and we have a Siberian Husky who thinks he’s human.
Sounds like you have a busy life Laura. We are so blessed that you take the time out of your busy life to write these wonderful Amish books for us to read.
How long have you been writing?
Forever, I think. I remember writing stories in kindergarten – but in third grade the “bug” bit me. We were assigned a short story and my story wasn’t so short. I had some poems published in sixth grade and in high school. Now, I don’t know if I could write a poem anymore.
How awesome to be writing in the 3rd grade. I don’t think I could have written anything at that age. You just gotta have the talent.
What aspects of being a writer do you enjoy the most?
The writing part. I don’t plot my stories out, I just write and see where the story goes. It’s a discovery for me as I find out things about my characters – and I love it when I get to the end and the theme comes out and I realize that my characters knew it all along.
This is the part that goes over my head! I think it is awesome for you Laura to be able to just start writing and end up with a wonderful story.
What is your favorite Scripture?
Jeremiah 29:11. For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Plans for good and not for evil. Plans to give you a future and a hope.
That is one of mine too Laura, what an awesome promise from our Lord!
How do you find characters for your books? Are the influenced by family and friends?
No. I’m not influenced by family or friends – And I really don’t go looking for characters either. If I tried to copy someone’s character I’d probably fail miserable. The characterization comes to me as the character tells me her story. The type person she is (quiet or shy, rowdy, or whatever)
What are 4 things about yourself that most people wouldn’t know about ?
Oh, it seems there’s a lot of things.
I’m a breast cancer survivor. I went through chemo and radiation, the whole 9 yards, and with God’s grace flew through it. My Doctor told me that I was on the most aggressive treatment possible and he couldn’t believe how well I did on it. Of course, I had a three year old then… who has time to be sick?
I’m a quiet shy person. I tend to be super quiet around people I don’t know…
I once stood up to a country music star – I was a waitress and this star kept opening the window in the restaurant. The air conditioning was on, and my boss yelled at me because he kept opening the window. So—I hate being yelled at for things I didn’t do. It overcame shyness in a hurry. I marched out there and yelled at him for opening the window. He stood up and said “Do you know who I am?” and I said “No. Am I supposed to?” But for whatever reason he decided he liked me and left me the hugest tip – and he asked for me when he came back.
I love, love, love the beach and lighthouses.
What a blessing to be a breast cancer survivor. You ladies are always special to me because my mom was a breast cancer survivor and now so is my sister. And….lol how funny about the country music star! I guess you told him how important he really was! But I am glad he didn’t get upset at you, and at least give you a decent tip! And I’m with you Laura on the beach, wish I lived there all year!
When will your next book be out?
A Harvest of Hearts will be out in September 2011. It is the story of Jacob’s best friend, Matthew Yoder, (who was alos in the man swap) and Shanna Stoltzfus, an Amish girl who ran away from home to go to nursing school.
And I can tell everyone it is even better thank Patchwork Dreams, if you can get any better! I love the warm family feeling of reading an Amish fiction.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on the third book in the story about Matthew’s cousin, Joshua Esh, and Becky’s best friend, Annie Beiler. Annie is a school teacher for the Amish community, and Joshua is a part of the man swap—but he has some secrets…
And I for one can’t wait until I can read about Joshua and Annie. I love series because you get to know the characters much better.
Where can our readers find you?
On face book – Author Laura V. Hilton – or at my blog http://laurav.hilton.blogspot.com/
Thank you Laura, and bloggers I would encourage you to go by and check out Laura’s blog and like her on facebook so you can keep up with her new books.
Anything else you want to add?
Let me ask your readers a question. Would you like to be a part of an arranged swap (of adults, between states)? Why or why not?
And for my answer, I would say YES…that is if I was young, not attached to anyone. I think it would be fun to see how someone else lives. It could or could not be better than the life you have. I think I would want the option to move back if I didn’t like it. Something like a trial period thing.
Ok bloggers…its your turn, leave an answer this questions to enter for a copy of Laura’s book Patchwork Dreams.
And I wanted to save this one until last, Tell us a bit about Patchwork Dreams and what Inspired you to write this wonderful Amish Fiction.
Patchwork Dreams Book 1 of The Amish of Seymour, Missouri
Becky Troyer has committed the ultimate sin, and finds herself on the edge of her Amish community. Jacob Miller believes he was sent to the Old Order Community in Missouri to help out a distant cousin. Instead, he discovers he was part of an arranged swap–sending men from his Pennsylvania district to the Missouri district to bring new blood into the Amish community. Becky dreams of marriage, but doesn’t dare hope that anyone would choose her–not with her history. Can God use the lies that have affected Becky and Jacob to bring them together? Or will Jacob rebel and head home to his first love
What inspired me to write it?
Well, my agent suggested I try an Amish fiction, and since I love reading it, and since I have Pennsylvania Amish in my ancestors, I thought I’d give it a try. I got the idea from reading another story about a man who was sent away to a community to get him away from his first love—but he returned home to her—And it was written in his first love’s point of view. Suffering without him… I thought what if… What if the man stayed? What if he fell in love? And I prayed about it, and it came from there. I set the story in Seymour, Missouri because my husband has a non-Amish aunt there, and the town is only two hours away from me. I could run over there for research any time I wanted.
For me, Amish is wonderful for you, I love your first two books in this series and I just know the next one will be awesome too. Thank you Laura for sharing that with us. And thank you again for being with us today. Blessings to you with your writing, and we especially thank you for the biblical content of your books. Anyone can read your books and clearly know what it means to accept the Lord as their Savior. Thank you for honoring Him.
Ok bloggers, Answer Laura’s question for a chance to win her book. And don’t forget to go by and leave Laura a message on one of her sites.
26 Jun 2011 Leave a comment
Choosing Gratitude by Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Paperback: 240 pages
Is the gratitude that flows out of your life as abundant as the grace that flows into your life? This question is on the back of this book, and it so rightfully sums up this book. Nancy DeMoss looks at what it means to be a grateful person and why it matters much deeper than we usually think about gratefulness.
Choosing Gratitude takes being grateful and thankful to a whole new level. As with all of Nancy Demoss’s books, this one gets right to the heart of the subject in the very beginning. There is so much chunked in this book I needed to read it slow, and go over the pages more than once to get the impact of what Nancy was teaching. One of the many precious topics to me was reading when and where we can be thankful. And as she points out it is anytime, morning and evening, three times a day, in the middle of the night and continually. And at the end of the section she writes: “So gratitude should be an every moment, every hour, every day, lifetime commitment. Will we ever run out of things to be thankful for? Not a chance……………. Wow, that gives me something to think about.
And as a bonus with this book, you get a 30 day devotion in the back of the book that you can read anytime during the year.
I love Nancy Leigh Demoss’s books and teachings. And this book was just as awesome as her others that I have read. To me, she can say more in one chapter than many can say in an entire book. Her love for the Lord and commitment to following Him is very evident in her writings and teachings. I have been blessed to hear her teach in person, and her live teachings are covered in the love of God and His Word just as her books are.
This is a book that I recommend for all ladies for personal reading and studying or Bible Study groups. Just remember to have your notebooks and pens ready to take notes as you read and study, and enjoying what Nancy has to teach you!
I want to thank Moody Publishers for providing this book for me to read and review. The opinions in this review are mine only.
Nancy Leigh DeMoss grew up in a family deeply committed to Christ and to the mission of world evangelization. At an early age, she surrendered her life to Christ and to His 
call to fulltime service.
Nancy graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in piano performance and went on to serve as the Primary Children’s Ministries Director in a large local church. Since 1980, she has served on the staff of Life Action Ministries, a revival ministry based in Buchanan, Michigan. Until 2001, she served as the Director of Women’s Ministries and as the editor of Spirit of Revival magazine.
Today, Nancy mentors millions of women through Revive Our Hearts (an outreach of Life Action Ministries) and the True Woman Movement, calling them to heart revival and biblical womanhood. Her love for the Word and the Lord Jesus are infectious, and permeate her online outreaches, conference messages, books, and two daily nationally syndicated radio programs—Revive Our Hearts and Seeking Him with Nancy Leigh DeMoss.
Her books have sold more than 2,000,000 copies, and include Lies Women Believe, Choosing Forgiveness, A Place of Quiet Rest, A Thirty Day Walk with God in the Psalms, Brokenness: The Heart God Revives, Surrender: The Heart God Controls, and Holiness: The Heart God Purifies. She also co-authored Seeking Him and Lies Young Women Believe, and is the general editor of Becoming God’s True Woman.
You can purchase this book at Moody Publishers The Authors Website and Amazon
25 Jun 2011 Leave a comment
in Booksneeze
The Promise of an Angel by Ruth Reid
Book Blurb
All Judith Fischer ever wanted is to marry within her community and raise a family. She longs for the day when her parents will allow Levi Plank to officially court her.
But on the day Judith suspects Levi will ask her parent’s permission, her younger brother Samuel has an accident under her charge. Rushing to Samuel’s aid, Judith spies a strange man helping him; a man she later believes was an angel.
When she shares her conviction with her family and close friends, she is shocked to find that no one believes her, including Levi. In the days following the accident, the angel visits Judith with information that may guide her down the path of faith, should she choose to follow.
As her community slowly distances themselves, only one person is willing to stand up for her―the bishop’s son, Andrew Lapp. But can he convince the settlement to listen to her? With a show of faith that flies in the face of her conservative upbringing, can Judith hold strong to the promise that there are even greater things in store for those who believe in God’s miracles?
This Amish was a little different than most I have read. Though I liked the idea of the angel, sometimes I lost the story when it went back and forth from the angel scenes to the rest of the story. And I really got irritated at Martha and Levi because they both acted like jerks, but then I guess that is the way some teenagers act, especially toward their families. I think my favorite character of them all was Andrew, the Bishop’s son. He was very caring, didn’t judge Judith, and wanted to shelter her from the hurtful things her long time love Levi was doing to hurt her.
Overall this was a pretty good story and I would recommend it to anyone liking a good light read, and especially if you like Amish fiction.
I received this book free from Booksneeze.com blogging for books program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 55.
23 Jun 2011 Leave a comment
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!
and the book:
Summerside Press (June 1, 2011)
***Special thanks to Audra Jennings, Senior Media Specialist, The B&B Media Group for sending me a review copy.***
David Housholder is a philosophical-spiritual influencer, a sponsored snowboarder and a surfing instructor who dreams of making this world a better place. As the senior pastor at Robinwood Church, an indie warehouse church near the beach in California, he can often be found preaching verse by verse in his bare feet. With his increasing desire to change the world around him, he is the director for several non-profit organizations. Housholder loves to travel and is an international conference speaker. He has spoken to groups in Ethiopia, Malaysia, Canada and London and has also been involved with mission trips. He is especially energized by evangelistic work among Muslims.
Housholder is an avid reader and carries an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. He received his undergraduate degree from Pacific Lutheran University and went on to receive his Master of Divinity from the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago. Then he spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar at the Universität-Bonn in Germany. Housholder fluently speaks three languages, English, Dutch and German, and enjoys reading biblical Greek and Hebrew.
Housholder and his wife, Wendy, have one grown son, Lars. They reside in Huntington Beach, California. Some of his hobbies include photography and tinkering on his 1971 VW bug.
Visit the author’s website.
The Blackberry Bush begins with two babies, Kati and Josh, who are born on opposite sides of the world at the very moment the Berlin Wall falls. You would think that such a potent freedom metaphor would become the soundtrack for their lives, but nothing could be further from the truth. They will follow a parallel path connected by a mistake their great grandparents made years before.
Despite his flawless image, Josh, an artistic and gifted Californian skateboarder and surfer, struggles to find his true role in the world. He fears that his growing aggression will eventually break him if he can’t find a way to accept his talent and the competition that comes along with it. Kati, a German with a penchant for classic Swiss watches and attic treasure-hunting, is crushed with the disappointment of never being “enough” for anyone—especially her mother. She wonders whether she will ever find the acceptance and love she craves and become comfortable in her own skin.
Craving liberation, Kati and Josh seem destined to claim their birthright of freedom together. With the help of their loving grandparents, they will unlock the secrets of their pasts and find freedom and joy in their futures. Today, like Katie and Josh, our youth often fall into two different cultures. Josh is part of the “bro” culture which is outdoor-oriented, with sports as a focus, and generally more conservative. Whereas Kati is part of the “scene” culture which is more liberal and indoor-oriented, focusing on music. These cultures are apparent in the novel and can aid in a better understanding of the issues today’s 21st century youth are facing as well as the struggles they have in coming to faith.
Product Details:
List Price: $14.99
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Summerside Press (June 1, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1609361164
ISBN-13: 978-1609361167
AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:
~ Behind the Story ~
Angelo
Think for a moment. Isn’t there a splendid randomness to the way your day is coming together today?
After all, it’s not the big, dramatic things we foresee and expect that make all the difference in our lives. It’s the chance, random encounters—the subtle things that surprise us…and change the very course of our individual destinies.
The Blackberry Bush is a story about awakening to the fullness of this reality.
And you will never want to go back to sleep.
You can call me Angelo. I’ll be the one telling this story. As you and I travel together across generations and continents in a journey that will take just a few hours, you’ll discover not only the gripping stories of Kati, Josh, Walter, Nellie, and Janine but also uncover your own compelling back-story that will change you in ways you can never imagine.
And you’ll never be the same again….
PROLOGUE
1989
Berlin, Germany
Occasionally, out of nowhere, history turns on a dime in a way no one sees coming. Listen…do you hear the sound of jackhammers on dirty concrete?
“Wir sind ein Volk (We are one people)!” A large European outdoor crowd chants this over and over into the chilly November night. “Wir sind ein Volk!”
Thousands of hands hold candles high in the darkening night of Berlin. Throngs of young people with brightly colored scarves crowd the open spaces between concrete buildings. !ere are parties—with exuberant celebrants of all ages—even along the actual top of the wall. Flowers are stuffed into once-lethal Kalashnikov rises. Hope is contagious.
It’s November 9, 1989. The first sections of the Berlin Wall are removed, to mass cheers, with heavy machinery. It seems incomprehensible that a small weekly Monday prayer meeting in Pastor Magerius’s Leipzig, Germany, study grew into the pews of the Nicolai Church and eventually out into the Leipzig city square. !en today, this “Peace Prayer,” figuratively speaking, traveled up the Autobahn to Berlin and converged as an army of liberation on that iconic concrete symbol of Cold War division—with world-news cameras whirring.
Little things can make a big difference. Subtle potency. Gentle power.
“Wir sind ein Volk,” the crowd chants as one. The Berlin Wall—a filthy, gravity-based ring of rebar and concrete, tangled with barbed wire and patrolled by German shepherd attack dogs–has encircled and separated West from East for twenty-eight years. Now it is irreparably pierced.
Unthinkable. No one saw this coming.
Walls are real, you see, yet they always come down. Creation and nature never favor walls. They start to crumble, even before the mortar dries.
*
Elisabeth Hospital
Bonn, Germany
A day’s Autobahn drive from the festivities in Berlin
That same instant, a severely pregnant woman’s water breaks in the tall-windowed birthing room of the Elisabeth Hospital in Bonn, Germany.
Hours later: “Ein Mädchen (a girl)!” Een meisje, translates the exhausted mother with silently moving lips into her native Dutch. Linda, a sojourner in Germany, was born a generation ago in Holland.
Mere blocks away from the birth scene, the mighty Rhine River flows past Bonn on its way downstream to the massive industrial port city of Rotterdam, Linda’s hometown. Only a few hours away by river barge, Rotterdam, Holland, couldn’t be farther from Germany—on so many levels.
The labor has been long and brutally hard. !e father, Konrad, takes little newborn, black-haired Katarina up the elevator to the nursery. On the way up, an old woman in a wheelchair spontaneously
pronounces God’s blessing over baby “Kati” (pronounced “KAH-tee,” in the German way) with the sign of the cross. Kati focuses her glassy little eyes on the woman’s wristwatch.
Konrad is concerned about how pale Katarina is. Was her older sister, Johanna, this porcelain-skinned at birth? Perhaps it’s the thick shock of black hair that sharpens the contrast with her complexion. How will Kati and Johanna get along? he wonders. I guess that will all
start to unfold soon, when they meet each other for the first time.
I won’t be able to protect her, thinks Konrad. Parental anxiety starts creeping up his spine in ways it never did when Johanna, now two, was born.
Perhaps little Kati will need that elevator blessing, he muses uncomfortably.
*
Zarzamora, California
1989
Another Woman With Rotterdam Bloodlines, across the planet in sunny Zarzamora, California, is giving birth at the very same moment (although earlier in the day because of the time difference) to a boy. !e tiny $at-roofed hospital up in the mountains of the Los Padres forest is the port of entry for little baby Joshua.
Janine smiles up at husband, Michael, and takes a first look at Josh, expecting, for whatever reason, to see a pale baby girl. Genuinely surprised—after all, this is in the days before ultrasound was universal—to see a vibrant, reddish-hued boy, she suppresses a giggle of delight, a catharsis of joy after so many miscarriages. What fun they will have together! Will he lighten up her melancholy
disposition, perhaps?
Janine sighs in relief as she confirms to herself, We’re not going to have to take care of him much. He’s going to be okay. I’m sure of it. I can tell.
The trumpets of the practicing local high school marching band waft through the open windows as German-born father Michael washes his son off in the sink of the delivery room. The piercing eyes of baby Josh, almost white-blue, glisten in the overhead lights. They stop to focus on Michael for a fleeting minute, then zero in on some yet unseen reality behind his father’s shoulder.
Shouldn’t I be saying some ancient German words, a blessing or something, while I’m doing this? Michael asks himself.
But he can’t think of any. He is adrift in the flowing current of this new experience.
The marching band plays on outside. Are they really circling the hospital, or does it just sound like that? the new father thinks… .
~ Behind the Story ~
Angelo
I can watch both births as I pick and eat blackberries from the thicket back in rainy Bonn. I smile. Joshua looks so happy to be here. He radiates physical warmth and doesn’t seem to need his blanket. He welcomes the new climate.
But Kati doesn’t like the cold. There’s almost a 30-degree (Fahrenheit) difference in ambient temperature from the womb to the room, and I see her struggle.
And then there’s the brand-new “breathing” thing. How can breathing go from unnecessary to essential in a few seconds? Yet some days we don’t even think about breathing, not even once. Amazing. Joshua’s American birth certificate reads 11-09-1989. Kati’s European one reads 09-11-1989.
How much of their lives are preprogrammed? How much of their minds will be stamped with the thoughts of others? Is life a roll of the dice, or is it a script we just read out to the end? Don’t we all
wonder that same thing sometimes?
As Kati and Joshua start to adjust to life outside the womb, the Berlin Wall continues to crumble to shouts of joy.
I write the names Linda and Konrad in Germany, Janine and Michael in California on the inside of the book cover I’m holding. I always do that, so I don’t get confused about who’s who as I travel
through their stories.
Both fathers, Konrad and Michael, have roots in the Germany that was rebuilding after World War II. Both are self-doubting, somewhat weak Rheinlanders married to practical, sober, very Protestant Dutch women.
Katarina and Joshua are on parallel paths. But only perfectly parallel paths never meet as they stretch into infinity. And since these paths, like ours, aren’t perfect…well, you can guess what might happen in this story.
Kati and Josh, born on one of the greatest days of freedom for all human kind, will grow up snared in the blackberry bush…like you.
But if you dare to engage their story at a heart level, a fresh new freedom might just be birthed in you.
So why not listen to that subtle twitter of conception inside your soul? !e one that says, !is year something exciting is going to happen that I can’t anticipate. And I’ll never be the same….
PART ONE
1999
Oberwinter am Rhein, Germany
Just south of Bonn
Kati
I love looking out our back picture window at the rolling farms. I’m watching for Opa, my dear grandfather Harald, who said he’d be home by 4 p.m. We live at the top of the road that winds uphill from the ancient Rhine River town of Oberwinter, just upstream from Bonn. That’s how everybody here writes it, but they say “Ova-venta.” I walk up and down the sidewalk along the switchback road almost every day.
Our home is perched at the top of the hill with the front of the house facing the street that skirts the skyline of the ridge and the back looking away from the river, out at the plateau of peaceful farms, which Opa says the ancient Romans probably worked.
Opa knows a lot of secrets. If he told me what he knows every day for the rest of my life, he’d never run out of things to say. But sometimes he gets sad. He never likes to talk about how things were when he was my age. His voice starts to sound shaky, and that makes me sad too. I stopped asking him about his wartime childhood a long time ago.
My watch says it’s another hour to wait. Really, it’s his watch, big on my wrist. The leather band smells like Opa. I’m very careful with it since it’s a Glashütte, which is infinitely special.
Sometimes Opa shows me his watch collection from the big mahogany box that’s a lot like Mutti’s (that’s what I call my mother) silverware holder. But the Glashütte was always my favorite, and one day he gave it to me. I’ve worn it ever since.
Mutti was angry at Opa for giving it to me. “It’s worth as much as a car!” she said. But Opa simply smiled. He never minds when people are upset with him.
Opa’s study is a magical place. In the corner is the totem pole he brought home from Alaska. !e wooden desk is covered with a sheet hands with people in suits and, right in the middle, a recent picture of me. !e books on his shelves are in English and German. He has me read aloud from the chair across the desk from his and tells me that I speak English without an accent, just as they speak it in Seattle, Washington, where he worked for a few years. We’re on our second time through Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. Opa says it’s a very important book, so I believe him.
Opa is the only one who doesn’t seem worried about me. He never seems worried about anything. I can’t remember seeing him angry. Ever.
I hope he takes me out to his workshop in the shed this evening. It’s my favorite place. My big sister, Johanna, says it’s not fun for girls, but she’s wrong. Opa has hand tools and power tools, and all of them are perfectly hung and positioned. !e shed is as clean as Mutti’s kitchen.
Opa tells me that the Bible says all people have “gifts” from God and that all the gifts are open to girls as well as boys. He tells me I have the gifts of craftsmanship and interpretation. Those are big words, but they make me feel good.
We’ve made and fixed so many things together there. I have my own safety glasses. He lets me run the band saw all by myself. I can tell by looking at his eyes that he knows I’ll be safe. Mutti doesn’t have the same look in her eyes, no matter what I’m doing.
Mutti cuts my hair really short because she’s afraid it’s going to get caught in one of the power tools. I hate how it looks. She also tries, continually, to get me to eat more. She doesn’t like how skinny I am.
Papa works in Berlin. He got transferred there when the German government moved from Bonn after the Wall fell, when I was little. He comes home on the train most weekends. He works for the foreign
diplomatic service, and he told me this month that he might get transferred again soon, and that we might have to move to America. He and Mutti have been arguing a lot about it while I try to get to sleep at night.
I can tell the arguments are bad, because Mutti slips back into Dutch when she gets angry and also when she talks to me and Johanna. Anger and parenting seem to come out of the same place inside her.
Mutti, unlike Opa, loves to talk about growing up, and how wonderful everything was then. It’s fun to hear the stories—and to see her smile while she tells them. We take the train to visit her Dutch parents often. It takes only a few hours to reach Rotterdam. I love riding through Cologne, past the blackened dual-spired cathedral. I have another grandfather in Holland who is kind of funny and crabby at the same time. I only have one grandmother, because my German Oma died of cancer before I was born.
I love Rotterdam. My Dutch grandfather (my other Opa) takes me on bike rides through the tunnel, under the big river, and to my favorite place—the Hotel New York in the heart of the port. He buys
me a chocolate milk every time, and we watch the big ships come and go. He doesn’t like to talk about Germans, even though he reminds me that they built the bike tunnel and highway under the river. Every now and then someone mentions the War. I’ve always known my Dutch grandparents don’t like my father. They say it’s not because Papa’s German, but I think it is. He never comes along on our visits to Rotterdam.
Now I’m looking out the farm-facing window, still waiting for Opa. At the end of our backyard, the blackberry bushes start and wander off into the countryside in lots of directions. I could swear
they get bigger every year. I love to play back there—especially with Johanna. I don’t ever remember a time when I didn’t have a few scrapes on my arms and legs from the thorns. !e farmers in the fields work so hard to raise crops, but blackberry bushes grow all by themselves without any help.
I’m getting impatient, so I enter Opa’s study to wait there. In his le” second drawer is his drawing kit. Precise instruments to make perfect circles and angles. Papa tells me Opa designed this house with that kit.
Opa lets me play with everything in his desk. Using the compass, I draw a perfect circle. !en I draw myself in it. I’ve done this so many times. But I’m older in the picture than in real life. And my hair isn’t short. But I can’t stop drawing circles with slightly different sizes. Once I caught myself drawing dozens of overlapping circles around the picture of me. I’m not smiling in any of these pictures. I think a lot when I’m drawing the circles.
To me, getting older just means harder jobs. Johanna works harder than I do, and I know I’ll have to be like her soon. She evenmakes dinner sometimes. Math problems get harder. Books lose their pictures and are more challenging to read. I learn so much better with Opa, because there’s no pressure.
My parents fight about me when they think I’m asleep. Papa was angry with Mutti because she yelled at me about my school grades. Mutti shot back with, “She has to get good grades because she’s not pretty.” My whole body froze in bed when I heard that. I’m not really sure what grades have to do with being pretty, but it’s very bad somehow. I think Papa would like to be more like Opa, but he can’t make it happen.
They don’t know how good I am at English. I speak it a lot better than they do. I have to keep from laughing when they try. There’s an American couple down in the village with a new baby, living in an
old, crooked apartment. I heard them speaking English and jumped in to their conversation. They asked me where in America I was from.
I fibbed and said, “Seattle.”
I think about America a lot. Maybe I could be a different person there.
Johanna’s pretty; even I can see that. It makes people, all kinds of people, happy to look at her, and they look at her longer than they mean to. I, on the other hand, make people nervous. Except for Opa, people don’t like to look right at me.
And everyone always wants me to do better than I am doing. They say it’s because they want the best for me. But it doesn’t feel good. The older I get, the further behind I am. I don’t have enough
friends. I haven’t finished enough homework. My room is not clean enough. I wasn’t polite enough to my parents’ guests. And the hardest of all: people don’t like me enough. It’s really hard work to get people to like you. Or maybe I’m especially easy to dislike.
Opa’s study has a big mirror on the door. Standing in front of it, I’m surprised by how white my skin is. My hair is black, and I have a big nose. Opa says that’s because most of the families in town have Roman heritage, and that I must have ended up with the local hair and nose. Opa tells me this town has been around for at least a hundred generations. We go for walks in the hills around the village, and he shows me where the Roman roads, walls, and vineyards were. How can anyone know so much?
Even better, Opa is the one person who knows me. Last week he brought me a present from Bonn. I opened up the long, little box and removed a black, elegant Pelikan fountain pen. It came with a bottle of ink.
He then pulled out a fresh new ledger. I had to laugh. Opa knows how much I hate math at school. It doesn’t feel real—like somebody got paid to think up a bunch of problems to drive kids like me crazy.
But Opa keeps telling me how important math is for real life, even if I don’t think so now.
For the rest of that afternoon, Opa taught me double-entry bookkeeping in ink. Real-life stuff I can actually use even now, when I’m nine years old, to keep track of the little money I earn and spend. He told me that reckoning in German marks was only for practice, because they were going to disappear in a few years, replaced by the euro.
He also taught me that money is magic, and that if you give a lot of it away to improve the world, you’ll always have more left over than you started with. That’s not what my teacher says about
subtraction, but I know, without a doubt, that Opa is right, as usual. He showed me his accounting books, going back to the 1940s. The numbers got bigger and bigger over the years.
“How does that work?” I asked
.
He showed me the number in a special column telling how much he gave away last year. I gasped, and my hand came to my mouth.
“That’s how,” he answered.
I asked him what I would do if I made a bookkeeping mistake with the pen.
“You won’t,” he said and smiled.
Opa believes in God. My parents are not so sure. !is confusesme all the time. Opa takes me to church on Sundays. We walk down the hill together. He and I are evangelisch—Protestant or Evangelical. It’s hard to translate the term into English. Most of our neighbors in Oberwinter are Catholic. Our stone Protestant church is very small, very old, and musty smelling. !e temperature is always cooler inside than outside. I sometimes fall asleep there on Opa’s shoulder, and he likes that.
The organist is amazing. She plays on national radio. And the organ is very old: 1722 is painted on the pipes. For the rest of my life, I’m going to make sure I can listen to organ music. My imagination
can go almost anywhere when she’s playing. After every Sunday service, the organist gives a little concert from the rear balcony where she sits. We stand, lean on the pews behind us, and watch her. We always clap when she’s done.
Johanna comes with us sometimes, but Opa says it’s important to go to church only when you want to. For whatever reason, Opa and I always want to. Maybe it’s just so we can spend Sundays together, but I know Opa would go even if I didn’t exist. It seems to help him be happy all the time and everywhere. I hope he’ll teach me this magic when I’m old enough.
I don’t understand much about what goes on in church, but I love it when they read the Bible stories for children’s worship, and the littler kids come and plop right down on my lap, as if they belong there. !is Sunday was the story about Joshua and the walls of Jericho. The German Bible says the Israelites were blowing trombones, and Opa’s English Bible says trumpets. Things like that make me think.
I hear the door.
Opa’s home.
MY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS BOOK
The Blackberry Bush
Two babies were born into the world on the day the Berlin Wall fell. One in America and one is Germany One family celebrating their baby Josh in the USA and the other family celebrating their baby Kati in Germany. The author takes us on a journey of Josh and Kati as they tell about their lives, their difficulties and struggles from an early age on. And as we read their stories, we can see a little of each of us as well. The author created wonderful and unique characters, making Josh and Kati feel so real that it seemed they were sitting beside us as they told about the choices they made in life. And like us, they made good and bad choices, but were able to work through them.
I’m really not fond of books telling the story in the first person point of view. So it was a more difficult book for me to read, and I just couldn’t get into the book like I wanted to. But that is just my opinion, if you like this type, then you will love reading this book. And the book is lovely! The cover is very attractive, and I like the uneven edges of the pages.
I was provided a copy of this book from the publisher through B & H Media to read and review. The opinions in this review are mine only.
23 Jun 2011 1 Comment
Pookster and the Unloose Tooth by Rhonda Funk
Pookster could hardly wait to for her two front teeth to come loose because she wanted so bad to sing “All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth. And well, it finally happened. Then she really wasn’t so happy that she was toothless.
This is such a cute book about a child loosing teeth, and the importance of letting them fall out on their own. Being on a child’s level of learning, the young reader can identify losing a tooth with the need to be patient and wait on the Lord. This is a very well written little story and with the awesome comic pictures and fonts use, this makes a loveable teaching story that will surely capture the interest of any young reader.
The words are clear enough that any child can understand them…and the pictures are great enough that children can understand the story through pictures. I really can’t say enough about this adorable book! I think you fill fall in love with it just as I did! And you even get a CD to go along with it. It just doesn’t get any better than this!!
I recommend this book to any family with young children, because all children are going to lose their teeth at some time, and what child doesn’t need to be taught patience?
And this has nothing whatsoever to do with the books, except that this is the author singing a beautiful song. I just heard it for the first time today. Though you may want to play it while you are reading the reviews. Very powerful song!
Pookster and the Practically Perfect Pickle By Rhonda Funk
. Pookster loves pickles, even though they look like frog skins. (Never heard this before but the actually do!) One day while playing with her pickles, she yelled and said some bad things to her brother. Her mom reminded her that pickles can be pretty but they were sour, and that Pookster was pretty but sometimes she says sour things.
This is an adorable story about pickles to teach young readers about using sweet words instead of sour words when talking to others. I think adults could relate to this story as well, and remember that sometimes even though we seem nice, we can also say things that hurt people.
The funny comic pictures are just adorable, and the font just goes prefect with the story and the pictures. This book and the first one in the series is the sweetest and well put together books I’ve read for children. It is strikingly adorable….from the pictures to the font to the colors used to the story itself, you will just fall in love with Pookster and her family. And you get a CD to go with the book as well, and as I said before, it just doesn’t get any better than this!
Thank you to Bring it on Communications for providing a copy of these 2 books. I was not expected or required to write a positive review of these books. The opinions in these reviews are mine alone.
To Purchase a copy of these adorable books go to
22 Jun 2011 Leave a comment
in Giveaways
Win Karen Witemeyer’s book ‘To Win Her Heart’ HERE Do NOT leave a comment here….you must click HERE to go to the form to enter
22 Jun 2011 2 Comments
in Giveaways
Today Wed June 22 is the last day to sign up for Meg Moseley’s When Sparrow’s Fall, Click to go to sign up screen
And Sunday June 26 is the last day to sign up for K. Dawn Byrd’s Mistaken Identity Click here to go to sign up screen
22 Jun 2011 Leave a comment
in Bibles
Is the Bible Reliable? A Focus on the Family DVD Seri
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishing
List Price: 39.99
ISBN: 978-1-58997-569-9
Trim Size:
Binding: Video (2 DVDs) + 1 booklet
Release: June 2011
I think some questions most Christians are ask at some point in their life is; Is the Bible Reliable? Or How do you know the Bible is Reliable? And this DVD series answers those questions very well.
It has 10 session topics which are:
In the Footsteps of Abraham;
The Exodus: From Egypt to Canaan;
The Israelites Conquer the Promise Land;
Israel’s Rise to Prominence through David and Solomon;
The Assyrian Invasion;
The Babylonian Conquest of Judah;
Investing the Historical Authenticity of the New Testament;
The Reliability of Luke and Acts;
How Archaeology Backs Up the New Testament;
The Trial of Jesus
These 10 very interesting and detailed bible sessions are well organized and easy to understand and follow. This is a wonderful Bible Study for all Christians, young and old in age and young and old in the Lord. A lot of the information on these DVD’s I have heard or studied before, but there was also a lot of new things for me in these studies as well. And the great thing about these DVD’s is having it all together in one study.
And as a bonus, you get a copy of the Study book that goes along with the DVD’s. The book not only is awesome as far as the information in it, the colors are awesome, white with a shade of blue and brown that it just easy and pleasing to the eye. I highly recommend any young leader or church leader to check into this DVD Series. And since I will be keeping this as a family resource, I recommend this for any Christian family library as well. You can’t go wrong with this product.
I was provided a copy of this DVD Series by Tyndale House Publishers. I was not required or expected to write a positive review of this product. The review is my opinions only.
Purchase this DVD Series at Amazon
21 Jun 2011 12 Comments
in Giveaways, K Dawn Byrd, Uncategorized
HI Everyone, I am so glad to be featuring K. Dawn Byrd and her new book Mistaken Identity on my blog today. And she is giving away a gift card for a copy of her wonderful book Mistaken Identity this week. To win you MUST leave a comment AND your email address so I can contact you. Thanks much and I will let K. Dawn Byrd tell you a bit about herself and the book.
Title: Mistaken Identity
Book blurb: Eden Morgan longs for a boyfriend of her own, an impossible goal when her best friend, Lexi Branson, gets all the attention and all the guys. When they fall in love with the same guy, Eden believes she doesn’t have a chance. She can only hope that sometimes the good girl gets the guy.
1) How did this story come to you?
Sometimes I get the strangest ideas! I wondered what would happen if a not-as-pretty good Christian girl and her gorgeous non-Christian best friend fell in love with the same guy. Who would get the guy?
2) Tell us about the journey to getting this book published.
I had already published several book with Desert Breeze Publishing when they opened a young adult line. I’d been writing romantic suspense and thought it would fun to try my hand at a young adult novel. It was so much fun that I’m signing a contract for a young adult mystery series that will debut in January.
3) Tell me three things about yourself that would surprise your readers.
1) I own two hairless Chinese Crested dogs.
2) I love sour things….pickles, lemons, sour candy.
3) I used to ride a Harley, but gave it up in order to have more time to write. (My husband always wanted to stay out way too long and take the scenic route home. He still has his bike, but I don’t miss mine at all.)
4)What are you working on now and what’s next for you?
I’m editing my October release with Desert Breeze. This Time for Keeps is an inspirational romance.
5)Parting comments? Thank you for hosting me! For those of you who love Christian fiction, please check my blog for weekly book giveaways. I interview 3-5 authors a week who give away their books. www.kdawnbyrd.blogspot.com
6) Where can fans find you on the internet?
Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geWeGQ6Ueu4
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-178/K-Dawn-Byrd-Mistaken/Detail.bok
I’m also on Twitter (kdawnbyrd) and facebook (K Dawn Byrd.) I am the moderator of the Christian Fiction Gathering facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=128209963444) If youjoin this group, you’ll get reminders about the weekly book giveways.
Best friends Eden Morgan and Lexi Branson are as different as day and night. Lexi can get any boyfriend she wants, and Eden longs for boyfriend of her own. As this story unfolds new neighbors move in next door to Eden’s family. And we have all heard about the ‘boy next door’ right? Well these new neighbors included that boy Channing, and wow was he ever drop dead gorgeous! He and Eden seemed to hit it off from the beginning, but the problem was that Lexi wanted him too. And what Lexi wants she gets.
Mistaken Identity, a wonderful and sweet love story that anyone romance fan would like. And I would especially encourage any teenage young lady to read this book because dating is something they will all face at sometime. I loved the teen characters in this story; they made me feel as though I was watching this story in real life! Channing was just a sweet and hot guy that every girl at school had their eye on. The idea of having a Christian and non-Christian going for the same guy was cool. And it kept me wanting to finish the story to see just who Channing would pick, Eden or Lexi. It just all depended on what Channing was looking for in a girlfriend. Now you just need to read the book to find out who the winning woman turned out to be.
I want to thank K. Dawn Byrd for providing me with a copy of this book to read and review. I was not expected or required to write a positive review. The opinions in this review are mine only.
You can purchase the book at AMAZON and BARNES AND NOBLE
16 Jun 2011 Leave a comment
in Giveaways, Richard Mabry, Winners
Wilma Metcalf ………is the winner of Dr. Richard Mabry’s book “Diagnosis Death”
A big Thank You to everyone who participated and for all of the wonderful comments. If you haven’t read any of Dr. Mabry’s books, get copies and read them! I already know you are gonna love them as much as I do! And if you do read any of his books, go to some of the online bookstores such as Amazon, CBD Books-A-Million, Barns and Noble and leave a review to help promote his books. And drop him an email through his website and let him know what you think of his books. I know he will appreciate it!
14 Jun 2011 1 Comment
in Giveaways
Ok tomorrow is the very last day to enter to win Dr Mabry’s book
“Diagnosis Death” the third book in his Prescription for Trouble Series.
Go Here to enter….and please leave your email address so I can contact you if you win!
Also my new giveaway is a copy of Meg Moseley’s “When Sparrows Fall” .
Go Here for on interview with Meg and be sure to see the question Meg asks you bloggers.
You MUST answer the question for a chance at winning the book.
13 Jun 2011 34 Comments
in Meg Moseley
Interview with Meg Moseley, Author of new debut book”When Sparrows Fall”
Hello bloggers, I am so happy today to have Meg Moseley her with us today. Meg’s debut novel “When Sparrows Fall” just came out and Meg is giving away one of her books to one blessed blogger this week. You will need to answer Meg’s questions in the interview to qualify for winning. And I want to thank Meg for taking time out of her busy schedule to be with us. Now for the interview.
Hello Meg, it’s great to have you on my blog today. Thank you so much for being here. Tell us a bit about yourself.
Thanks for having me, Joy! Well, I’m a California girl, married to a Michigan man and living near Atlanta. Our three children are grown and we’re nearly empty-nesters. I love cats, gardening, motorcycles, the Detroit Red Wings, public libraries, poetry, coffee, and almost any form of chocolate.
Wow you sound like a busy lady Meg. I’m an empty-nester too but my son lives close by and I see him a lot. Still not like having them at home. We are very happy you find time to write in the mist of your busy schedule.
How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing something from the time I learned to spell, but I didn’t try writing a novel until about fourteen years ago. I didn’t have a clue about how to go about it. That miserable first attempt will never see the light of day. I promise.
After reading your debut novel ‘When Sparrows Fall’ I can’t imagine it not being a good book!
What aspects of being a writer do you enjoy the most?
My favorite part so far has been working with an editor. From the macro-edits to the picky details, I love the process of making a story better. I want to learn as I go, so I’ll improve my writing as I move on to new stories.
Editing has always been an interest to me. I keep wondering what the story was like before the edits. I think it would be interesting to read the before and after.
What is your favorite Scripture?
It varies, depending on what’s happening in my life, but one of my favorites is Galatians 5:1. “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery.”
This is a wonderful scripture, and thanks for sharing that with us today. I wonder sometimes why we seem to often forget that do have freedom in Christ and we can stand firm in Him. Thank you for sharing this Meg.
How do you find characters for your books? Are they influenced by family and friends?
I don’t think I’ve ever knowingly based a character on a real person, although some of them are a conglomeration of bits and pieces of real people. I often start with a vague, murky idea that gradually becomes a “real” person as I play with details and try out different names.
The characters in you book are so real and believable, it is amazing how you created them to seem that real, and they blend together in the story so well.
What are 4 things about yourself that most people wouldn’t know about ?
I grew up listening to opera, and I still enjoy it in small doses.
I’m a Larry Norman fan. He wrote amazing lyrics.
When I lived in Alabama, I slept through a hurricane on purpose. I figured somebody should be rested for the cleanup the next day.
I can’t swim worth beans.
Wow, I always like these questions…. thanks for sharing these bits of information about your life. I can relate to the swim one, not matter how I tried, I couldn’t seem to get it, even though I love to go swimming, I don’t let it go over my head!
When will your next book be out?
I’m hoping for a release in the summer of 2012.
I, for one will be looking forward to next summer, and I know a lot of others will as well. You really have tons of fans out there. We thank you for entertaining us through your writing.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a novel about a young woman who lost her father to a deep mountain lake when she was a teenager, but his body was never found. Now it seems that he faked his drowning and ran to the wilderness. As she and her longtime friends search for answers, they uncover memories of a mysterious event in their childhood that may explain everything.
Ok mysteries are some of my favorite books. I hope this is your new book you are talking about.I your next book. Only now I really can hardly wait!
Where can our readers find you?
At www.megmoseley.com and on Facebook. I’m trying to figure out Twitter too, but I’m a bit of a techno-klutz so wish me luck.
LOL It too me a few years on Twitter but now that I am active, I love it. There is so much information you can get from Twitter, and you don’t have to answer back so it doesn’t take so much of your time.
Anything else you want to add?
I just want to thank you for being such an enthusiastic ambassador for fiction. Readers like you bring untold joy to the heart of a novelist.
And thank you so much Meg for being here and sharing bits about your life and your books with us. I love reading, and I love helping authors. I’m so glad I found a way to help all of you by reading and reviewing your books. And having you on my blog. I’m really thrilled you took time from your busy schedule to be here. We will look for your new book in the future, and while we are waiting, we will keep in touch and tell everyone we know about “When Sparrows Fall”
What question do you want to ask our readers?
When you pick up a novel, what will make you put it down without finishing it?
Ok readers, here is the question you need to answer when you enter for the drawing to win Meg’s debut book “When Sparrows Fall.” And make sure you leave your email so I will know how to get in touch with you. And go to Facebook and to Meg’s website and support her with her first book.
Thanks to all of you readers for stopping by.
Go HERE to see my review of Meg’s book
13 Jun 2011 2 Comments
Spring for Susannah by Catherine Palmer
About the book: Spring for Susannah
Booklist says, “Inspired by [folk] lyrics, Richmond arrives on the inspirational fiction scene with a moving debut novel. Readers will be filled with hope that Susannah will learn the true meaning of love. Highly recommended where inspiring, romantic historical fiction is in demand.”
Hundreds of miles from home, Susannah faces an uncertain future as a mail-order bride on the untamed Dakota prairie.
When her parents die suddenly, and no suitors call, Susannah resigns herself to the only option available: becoming a mail-order bride. Agreeing to marry her pastor’s brother, Jesse, Susannah leaves the only home she’s ever known for the untamed frontier of the Dakota Territory .
Her new husband is more loving and patient with her than she believes she deserves. Still, there is also a wildness to him that mirrors the wilderness surrounding them. And Susannah finds herself constantly on edge. But Jesse’s confidence in her-and his faith in God’s perfect plan-slowly begin to chip away at the wall she hides behind.
When she miscarries in the brutal Dakota winter, Susannah’s fledgling faith in herself and in God begins to crumble. Still, Jesse’s love is unwavering. Just when it seems like winter will never end, Susannah finally sees the first tentative evidence of spring. And with it, the realization that more than the landscape has changed.
She looks to the future with a renewed heart. Yet in her wildest dreams, she couldn’t predict all that awaits her.
After Susannah’s parents passed away, leaving her with no money and no I income and she just needed to get away, move to somewhere different. That’s when her pastor hooks her up with his brother Jesse. Jesse had moved to the Dakota Territory to claim land for his farm, so the two of them wrote letters for a while, and later, Susannah became his mail-order-bride.
Jesse was different than any many Susannah had ever been around. He was loving, loyal, a hard worker, and wanted to provide for his new bride. He loved the Lord, was faithful to Him, and trusted Him for what happened in his life.
Having always loved mail-order bride stories, I was excited to read and review this wonderful debut novel from Catherine Palmer. I really enjoyed the story up until the point of Jesse’s surprising twist in the story, and from then on, I had a difficult time following the plot. The change in the plot just seemed out of place or something, just felt like something was missing. And I didn’t care for the ending, with Jesse’s return and then boom it was over, leaving a lot of loose ends and questions and confusion. It really needs a second book make it more complete.
I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher through Litfuse Publicity Group to review for the Litfuse blog tour. I was not required or expected to write a positive review. The opinions in this review are my honest opinions.
About Catherine: Catherine Richmond was focused on her career as an occupational therapist till a special song planted a story idea in her mind. That idea would 
ultimately become Spring for Susannah, her first novel. She is also a founder and moderator of Nebraska Novelist critique group and lives in Nebraska with her husband.
For more about Catherine, please visit www.catherinerichmond.com.
Link to buy the book: http://www.amazon.com/Spring-Susannah-Catherine-Richmond/dp/1595549242?ie=UTF8&tag=sprightly-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969
Button:
HTML Giveaway post:
To celebrate her debut novel, Catherine and her publisher, Thomas Nelson, have teamed up to give away a Spring For Susannah
One grand prize winner will receive:
* A brand new Latest Generation KINDLE with Wi-Fi and Pearl Screen
* Spring for Susannah by Catherine Richmond (for KINDLE)
To enter just click one of the icons below and then tell your friends! But hurry, giveaway ends on June 27th. Winner will be announced on Tuesday, June 28th at 5 PM (6PM MST, 7PM CST, & 8PM EST) during Catherine’s Spring for Susannah Book Club Party on Facebook! Catherine is rustling up some fun for the party – she’ll be chatting about the story behind her novel, hosting a book club chat, testing your mail-order bride trivia skills, and giving away some GREAT prizes! Don’t miss the fun and tell your friends!
11 Jun 2011 1 Comment
This Little Prayer of Mine by Anthony DeStefano
Illustrated by Mark Elliot
This is a book of children praying to God about things in their life. Some of the things they are praying to God about is fear, sadness, making the right choices, forgiveness, being alone, helping people, and their future. I like that this book is teaching the young reader that God is in Heaven and they can pray to Him about anything at anytime and He can her them. The pictures are beautiful, the cover is beautiful, inviting any child to pick up the book to pray.
I did not care for the last page where the child is asking God again to continue to love him and love him forever. Isn’t what God does anyway? He loves us no matter what, and a child doesn’t need to feel like God will stop loving him at some point. It’s just not the truth. If the gospel had been included in this little prayer book, it would be perfect.
I received this book free from Waterbrook Multnomah blogging for books program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 55.
You can purchase this book on Amazon
09 Jun 2011 Leave a comment
in Giveaways
Enter to win a copy of Susan Sleeman’s Behind the Badge and a $50 Amazon gift card!
Susan Sleeman here. Behind the Badge, my second romantic suspense book for Love Inspired Suspense will release on June 6th and in honor of all of you, the readers, I am hosting a special contest on my website for the month of June.
Let’s face it. Without you, the wonderful readers, books would not exist and I wouldn’t be able to wake up looking forward to a job that is fresh and exciting each and every day. Praise God for this incredible opportunity!
Now back to the contest. All you have to do is read the excerpt below then go to my WEBSITE and answer the following question. That’s it. You’re entered to win.
If you’d like to sign up for my mailing list to learn of other contests in the future you can do that at the same time, too. Full contest rules are on the entry page. Remember only one entry per person.
QUESTION: How many gunshots to the chest did Carl Dixon suffer?
SUSAN SLEEMAN is a best-selling author of romantic suspense and mystery novels. She grew up in a small Wisconsin town where she spent her summers reading Nancy Drew and developing a love of mystery and suspense books. Today, she channels this enthusiasm into writing romantic suspense and mystery novels and hosting the popular internet website TheSuspenseZone.com.
Her books include Nipped in the Bud, High-Stakes Inheritance, Behind the Badge, and The Christmas Witness. Also watch for the first two romantic suspense books in her Justice Agency series coming from Love Inspired suspense in 2012 and featuring a private investigations firm specializing in helping those who traditional law enforcement has failed.
Susan currently lives in Florida, but has had the pleasure of living in nine states. Her husband is a church music director and they have two beautiful daughters, a very special son-in-law and an adorable grandson.
To learn more about Susan visit her website, Facebook , or Twitter.
|
The Morgan Brothers – Bk 2 Love Inspired Suspense June 6, 2011 ISBN-10: 0373444478 ISBN-13: 978-0373444472 |
“YOUR SISTER IS NEXT!” A killer is threatening the life of rookie cop Sydney Tucker’s sister-unless Sydney turns over evidence from a drug bust. But she doesn’t have the evidence. Not that the thug believes her. Now she and the sibling in her care are under the watchful eye of Logan Lake police chief Russ Morgan…but will his protection be enough? The killer is closing in, picking off the people and places that mean the most to Sydney. A list that now includes Russ. To protect her loved ones, will she pay the ultimate price-her life? |
READ AN EXCERPT:
Chapter One
Gunshots split the inky darkness.
Deputy Sydney Tucker hit the cold ground, a jagged rock slashing into her forehead on the way down. She reached for her service weapon. Came up empty handed. She’d stopped after work to check on the construction of her townhouse and left her gun and cell phone in the car.
Dumb, Sydney. Really dumb. Now what’re you gonna do?
Inching her head above knee-high grass, she listened. The keening whistle of the wind died, leaving the air damp and heavy with tension but silence reigned.
Had she overreacted? Could be target practice. But at night? Maybe. Hunters did crazy things sometimes.
Footfalls pounded from below like someone charging through the brush. No. Two people. Maybe a chase. One person after another. A loud crash, branches snapping.
“What’re you doin’, man,” a panicked male voice traveled through the night. “No! Don’t shoot! We can work this out.”
Three more gunshots rang out. A moan drifted up the hill.
Not target practice. Someone had been shot.
Sydney lurched to her feet, dizziness swirling around her. Blood dripped into her eyes. She wiped it away, blinked hard and steadied herself on a large rock while peering into the wall of darkness for the best escape route.
Heavy footfalls crunched up the gravel path.
“I know you’re here, Deputy Tucker,” a male voice, disguised with a high nasally pitch, called out. “We need to talk about this. C’mon out.”
Yeah, right. Come out and die. Not hardly.
Praying, pleading for safety, she scrambled deeper into the scrub. Over rocks. Through grass tangling her feet. Her heart pounded in her head, drowning the prayers with fear.
“I’m losing patience, Deputy,” he called again in that strange voice. “You’re not like Dixon. He had it coming. You don’t.”
Dixon? Did he mean the man she arrested for providing alcohol to her teenage sister and for selling drugs? Was that what this was about?
Rocks skittered down the incline. The shooter was on the move again. No time to think. She had to go. Now!
Blindly she felt her way past shrubs, over uneven ground. Dried leaves crunched underfoot. Branches slapped her face and clawed at her arms, but she stifled her cries of pain.
“I hear you, Deputy.”
She wrenched around to determine his location. A protruding rock caught her foot, catapulting her forward. She somersaulted through the air. Her knee slammed into the packed earth and she crashed down the hill. Wrapping arms around her head for protection, she came to a stop, breath knocked out of her chest, lying flat on her back in a thick stand of weeds.
“So you want to play it that way, do you Deputy? Fine. Just remember, you can run, but you can’t hide. I will find you. This will be resolved one way or another.” His disembodied laugh swirled into the night.
The darkness pressed closer. Blinding. Overwhelming. Terrifying.
She was easy prey. Even with her bulletproof vest, a few rounds fired in her direction would take her out. She had to get up.
She rose to her knees, but pain knifed into her knee, keeping her anchored to the ground.
Lord, please don’t let me die like this. Give me the strength to move. I need to live for Nikki. She’s only seventeen. She has no one.
Sydney uncurled and came to a standing position. Taking a few halting steps, she tested the pain. Nearly unbearable. But she could-no she had to do this for her sister.
Thinking of Nikki, she gritted her teeth and set off, moving slowly, taking care not to make a sound.
Out of the darkness, a hand shot out. Clamped over her mouth.
Screams tore from her throat, but died behind fingers pressed hard against her lips.
A muscled arm jerked her against a solid chest and dragged her deep into the brush.
God, please, no.
She twisted, arched her back, pushing against arms like iron bands.
She dug her heels into the ground, but he was too strong. He kept going deeper into the brush before settling them both on the ground behind a large boulder.
“Relax Sydney, it’s Russ Morgan,” Logan Lake’s Police Chief whispered, his lips close to her ear.
Russ Morgan? What was he doing here?
“Sorry about the hand.” His tone said she was nothing more than a stranger instead of someone she’d known for years. “I didn’t want you to alert the shooter with a scream. I’m gonna remove my hand now. Nod if you understand me.”
She let all of her relief escape in a sharp jerk of her head. His fingers dropped away.
“Once the shooter rounded that curve, you would’ve been a goner,” he whispered while still firmly holding her. “Good thing a neighbor reported gunshots.”
Sydney started to shiver and breathed deep to steady her galloping pulse. Air rushed into her lungs. She was alive, but barely. No thanks to her own skills.
“You okay?” he asked, his breath stirring her hair.
“Yes.” She willed her body to stop shaking and eased out a hiss of disappointment in her performance as a deputy. “How long have you been here?”
“Long enough to hear the shooter claim he’s hit Dixon and is coming after you next,” he whispered again, but urgency lit his voice and rekindled her fear. “This have to do with your arrest of Carl Dixon the other day?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered back. “I just stopped to check on the construction of my townhouse on my way home from work.”
“Off duty, huh? Explains why you don’t have your weapon drawn.”
“I left my duty belt in my car.” She waited for his reaction to not carrying, but he simply gave a quick nod as footfalls grated against gravel.
“Shh, he’s about to pass us.” Russ leaned forward and drew his gun with his free hand, but didn’t release his hold on her.
Crunching steps came within a few feet of their location. Halted.
“Can you feel me breathing down your neck, Deputy? I’m inches from finding you.” He didn’t know the accuracy of his words.
She felt Russ’s breathing speed up, upping her concern and washing away the brief blanket of security his arms provided. Adrenaline urged her to move. To keep from panicking, she focused on Russ’s unwavering weapon.
The shooter took a few steps closer. Her heart thumped, threatening to leave her chest. Russ tightened his hold as if he knew she wanted to bolt.
The shooter spun sending gravel flying then headed up the path.
As his footsteps receded, she tried to relax taut muscles. The warmth from Russ’s body helped chase out her fear and the chill of the night. Thank God Russ was here. If he hadn’t come.
She refused to go there. God had watched over her. Provided rescue, just not in the form she’d have chosen.
Not only was Russ an officer from the city police force-a team often in competition with the county sheriff’s department where she worked-but a man she’d had a crazy crush on in high school. A man whose rugged good looks still turned women’s heads.
She let out a long sigh.
“I know this’s awkward,” he whispered, “but hang tight for a few more minutes. We need to wait for him to head back down the hill.”
She wanted to protest and suggest they flee now, but not Russ. He thought clearly. Taking off now gave the killer the advantage of higher ground, making them moving targets. They’d have to sit like this until he passed them again.
If they made it out of here, which the approaching footfalls told her wasn’t at all certain.
They pounded closer. The shooter moved at a quick clip this time as if he thought she’d gotten away and he was fleeing. Or maybe he was heading to her car to lay in wait for her.
As the footsteps receded again, she felt Russ’s arm slacken.
“Time to roll,” he whispered. “Stay here.”
“But I-”
“You have a backup?” He referred to a back up gun officers often carry.
She shook her head.
“Then wait here.” He gave her the hard stare that’d made him famous around town and crept toward the path.
She leaned against the boulder and wrapped her arms around the warm circle on her waist where he’d held her. Without his warmth, she couldn’t quit shaking. The reality of the night froze her inner core.
She should listen to Russ. Lay low. Wait until he apprehended the killer.
That was the safe thing to do.
The easy thing to do.
The wrong thing to do.
Not for everyone, but for an officer of the law, letting a shooter escape without trying to stop him wasn’t an option. Even if that shooter had her in his sights, she’d make her way to her car for her gun and help Russ stop this maniac before he hurt anyone else.
*****
Near the ditch, Russ came to a stop and fought to catch his breath. Taillights on a mud splattered dirt bike roared up the trail. He’d warned the suspect to stop, but short of shooting him in the back, Russ couldn’t stop him from fleeing into the dark.
At least he’d accomplished his primary objective. To protect Sydney and keep her alive. Now he needed to alert his men and the sheriff’s office to the suspect’s whereabouts.
He lifted his shoulder mic and ordered a unit from his office to stake out the end of the trail for the motorcycle and an ambulance in case Dixon survived. Then he asked dispatch to patch him through to the county sheriff’s department to make sure they knew he’d taken charge of the scene so none of their hotshot deputies arrived with the hope of usurping control.
He turned on his Maglight and headed up the hill. The beam of light skipped over gravel and lush plants lining the winding path. Midway up, rustling brush stopped him cold. He’d left Sydney higher up. Nearer the lake.
Was a second shooter hoping to ambush him?
He flipped off his light and sought protection behind a tree. His breath came in little pulses in the unusually cold air for a typical Oregon fall. Adrenaline with little time to ebb away came roaring back, but even as the noise grew louder, he resisted the urge to take action
Maybe it was Sydney. The Sydney he used to know wouldn’t have listened to his directive and stayed put. She’d trounce down the hill, her chin tilted at the same insolent angle as when he told her he didn’t return her crazy crush her freshman year of high school. Not that he’d wanted to send a beautiful, lively girl like her away. He could easily have dated her, but he was four years older, in college. With their age difference, it wouldn’t have been right.
Bushes at the path’s edge shook then parted. Slowly, like a sleek panther, Sydney slipped out. He watched until she stood tall on those incredibly long legs he’d admired since she was sixteen before lowering his gun and aiming his flashlight at her.
She jumped. Peered up at him, an impudent look planted on her face. This was the Sydney he’d known as a teen and heaven help him, in less than thirty minutes, she’d sparked his interest again.
“Care to shine that somewhere other than my face.” She perched her hand over her eyes, warding off the glare.
He moved the light but not before he caught a good look at a gaping wound running from her hairline to eyebrow, covered in congealed blood. He lifted his hand to check out her injury, but stopped. He wouldn’t probe a wound on one of his men’s faces. As a fellow LEO-law enforcement officer-he wouldn’t treat Sydney any differently.
“I told you to stay put.” He infused his words with authority.
“I wanted to help. Wish I’d listened. I tripped over the body.” She held out blood-covered hands. Her eyes watered as if she might cry.
Man. Don’t do that. Don’t fall apart. He couldn’t remain detached if she started crying. He’d have to empathize, maybe give her a reassuring pat on the arm. Maybe feel her pain and resurrect all the reasons he’d left his homicide job in Portland.
He changed his focus. Nodded at the brush. “Show me the body.”
As a faint whine of sirens spiraled in the distance, she limped into tall grass, a grimace of pain marring her beautiful face. He followed, illuminating the area ahead of her. About ten feet in, she suddenly stopped. He shone his light a few feet ahead of her.
Diffused rays slid over a young male lying on his back. Russ swung the beam to the man’s face landing on open eyes staring into the blackness above.
Sydney gasped and swung around him. She rushed toward the main path. Even though Russ knew it was a lost cause, he bent down to check for a pulse. No question, this man hadn’t made it and no question about his identity. Carl Dixon, a man every LEO in the area knew from his frequent blips onto the police radar and the most recent arrest for selling drugs.
All that ended with three gunshots to the chest at close range from what Russ could see with his flashlight. Once they thoroughly processed the scene, he’d know better. But first, they needed to vacate the area before further contaminating the scene.
He found Sydney near the path, gaze fixed in the distance, hands clasped on her hips and exhaling long breaths as if trying to expel what she’d just seen.
Haunted eyes peered at him. “He’s dead, right?”
“Yeah.”
“And what about the killer?”
“Couldn’t catch him. He took off on a dirt bike.”
Disappointment crowded out the fear on her face. “Did you at least see him?”
“From the back. He was my height or a little taller, but lean. Wore a black stocking cap. The bike has a plate so it must be street legal. I caught the first few digits.”
“That’s something, then.”
Russ didn’t want to tell her it would do little for them in terms of searching DMV records as three digits would return thousands of bikes, but he didn’t think she could take any more bad news so he kept quiet. “Let’s head down to the parking lot.”
He gave her the flashlight and urged her to take the lead down the steep hill. Once on solid concrete, she handed it back to him. Holding it overhead, he watched her closely for dizziness or other impairments from her fall. He saw nothing out of the ordinary, but a head injury could mean a concussion. He’d have the EMT’s check her out when they got here.
He pointed at a rough-hewn bench. “Maybe you should sit down.”
“I’m fine ” Her voice cracked and she seemed embarrassed over reacting to the murder.
“It’s okay to be upset, Syd. A horrible thing happened tonight.”
“I’m fine really. I’ll be back to a hundred percent by morning.”
Text copyright © by Susan Sleeman
Permission to reproduce text granted by Harlequin Books S.A.
09 Jun 2011 1 Comment
Surrender the Night…..By MaryLu Tyndall
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Category: New Releases,Historical
ISBN: 9781602601666
Binding: Paper
Page Count: 320 pages
Availability: Available- In Stock
BiographyWhen you pass through the waters, I will be with you; Isaiah 43:2
Many other miracles have happened in my family since I gave my life
to Jesus, and all I can say is I truly look forward to every day.
MaryLu Tyndall, a Christy Award Finalist, and best-selling author of the Legacy of the King’s Pirates series is known for her adventurous historical romances filled with deep spiritual themes. She holds a degree in Math and worked as a software engineer for fifteen years before testing the waters as a writer. MaryLu currently writes full time and makes her home on the California coast with her husband, six kids, and four cats. Her passion is to write page-turning, romantic adventures that not only entertain but open people’s eyes to their God-given potential. MaryLu is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Romance Writers of America. For more information on MaryLu and her upcoming releases, please visit her website at http://www.mltyndall.com or her blog at http://crossandcutlass.blogspot.com/
Orphaned when she was a young child, most of her inheritance taken by her caretaker, and a horrible experience on the way to her aunt and uncle’s, life hasn’t been easy for Rose McGuire. She has lived at the farm for 5 years now, and loves farm life, and she makes the farm animals her pets. Being in midst of the war of 1812, it is not always safe being alone on the farm. British soldiers could attack at any time, and this is just what happened to Rose this one day in their family barn. Although Alexander Reed was there and saved her life, he was seriously wounded during the attack, so Rose had no choice except to hid him and nurse him back to health. Rose started feeling an attraction to Alex as she helped him, but then she hated him at the same.
Alexander Reed was a British 2nd Lieutenant and had no idea he would have to defend a young woman from his superior 1st Lieutenant Mr. Garrick, but he had no choice, it was either Garrick or the woman. Now he was here, in the enemy’s barn, the woman having removed a bullet from his leg, facing death if he was found. Yet as the story unfolds, he was later forced to be hired by Roses family as farm help, and he grew attached to the love and family he never had. And Rose was a huge attraction as well, that just kept growing.
Surrender the Night, with the historical setting in the war of 1812 was filled with love, forgiveness, family, war, hate, romance, suspense, and patriotism all blended with a cast of characters that pull you into the story and make you feel as though you are right there with them. This is my first book to read of Mary Tyndall’s; I can’t believe I haven’t found her books before now!! My heart went out to Alex, as he was trying to choose between a family that disowned him because he wasn’t good enough in their sight and Rose, a young woman he loved and adored, with a family that treated him like one of their own. And Rose’s grandfather was a great humble, wise gentleman, full of love, wisdom and knowledge for anyone that needed it. He was just a sweetheart! And I love how the author uses these characters to show that God is with us in each situation we face, even when we cannot feel his presence. And God can and will work each detail of our lives for our good and His glory. Just as Alex and Rose were at the right place at the right time, it is the same with our daily lives.
If you are a history buff and like historical fiction, run out and buy a copy of Surrender the Night by MaryLu Tyndall. You will not be disappointed. It will be well worth your read!
A huge thank you to the author MaryLu for providing me a copy of this book to read and review. I was not expected or required to write a positive review. The opinions in this review are my own honest opinions.
To Purchase this book, go to AMAZON BOOKS A MILLION GOODREADS CBD BARNS AND NOBLE
BARBOUR BOOKS or to any of your favorite local or online bookstores
05 Jun 2011 1 Comment
in Giveaways
here on my blog. You have until June 15th to enter HERE
04 Jun 2011 Leave a comment
Mine is the Night by Liz Curtis Higgs
After reading Here Burns My Candle, I just had to finish the story with Mine is the Night. To me, I liked this book much better. I enjoyed reading the glorious ending to a wonderful story as it follows the lives of Marjory and Elizabeth Kerr. The mother-in-law, daughter-in-law pair finally makes their way to Marjory’s cousin Anne’s in Selkirk, but Gibson should already be there but he hasn’t shown up, causing the two ladies to worry about him, and it seems no one else has seen him. Living was to be entirely different, with Marjory, Elizabeth and Anne now living in a one room apartment. Anne and Elizabeth had to struggle making the money to survive, leaving Marjory to do the cooking, which was interesting since she was the one that hired help to cook for her. Living by Faith and trusting the Lord was the only thing left to do. They had nothing, no money, home, husbands to take care of them, they had to make it on their own.
It was heartwarming to see the turnaround personality change in Marjory during this time, from the very wealthy to the very poorest of circumstances. She dealt with the change well, being willing to learn to cook and keep the one room house herself while the others worked. Elizabeth is a lady we all want to be like. Her love and care of her mother-in-law Marjory was unbelievable. And God did guide every step of their life, leading Elizabeth into a job as seamstress for the retired and very wealthy Admiral Jack Buchanan. Buchanan is not like most wealthy men, he really cares for his workers, and is especially attracted to Elizabeth, who was still wearing her black, mourning the death of her husband. But what about the 12 month mourning period? Does she really have to wait the entire twelve months? And then there is a twist to the story that makes the story even more interesting as an unexpected visitor/worker comes to town. As the story keeps unfolding, and finally comes to an amazing end, the reader will witness a heartwarming account of redemption and restoration that these ladies never imagined. Truly God loved them and was watching over them the entire time. What he had in store for the Kerr ladies was truly exceedingly, abundantly above everything they could have ask or even thought about. And to have it all take place in a Scottish setting was the icing on the cake! To feel the country of Scotland, the food, cloths, people, atmosphere, and beauty was breathtaking. This was Liz Curtis Higgs at her best!
I recommend this book to anyone liking a good historical fiction playing out a story in Bible times. I received this book free from Waterbrook Multnomah blogging for books program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 55.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
In her best-selling series of Bad Girls of the Bible books, workbooks, and videos, Liz Curtis Higgs breathes new life into ancient tales about the most infamous—and intriguing—women in scriptural history, from Jezebel to Mary Magdalene. Biblically sound and cutting-edge fresh, these popular titles have helped more than one million women around the world experience God’s grace anew. Her best-selling historical novels, which transport the stories of Rebekah, Leah, Rachel, Dinah, Naomi, and Ruth to eighteenth-century Scotland, have also helped her readers view these familiar characters in a new light. And her nonfiction book, Embrace Grace, winner of a 2007 Retailers Choice Award, presents her message of hope in an engaging and personal way, speaking directly to the hearts of her readers.
A veteran speaker, Liz has presented more than 1,600 encouraging programs for audiences in all 50 states and 11 foreign countries:
South Africa, Indonesia, Germany, France, England, Canada, Thailand, Ecuador, Scotland, Portugal, and New Zealand. In 1995, she received the Council of Peers Award for Excellence from the National Speakers Association, becoming one of only 35 women in the world named to their CPAE-Speaker Hall of Fame. Her alma mater, Bellarmine University, presented her with a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2005, and she received an Honorary Doctorate from Georgetown College in 2010.
Visit Author’s Website
Purchase this book at Amazon
splashesofjoy 