CFBA presents The Art of Losing Yourself by

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

The Art of Losing Yourself

WaterBrook Press (April 21, 2015)

by

Katie GanshertABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Award-winning author, Katie Ganshert, graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Madison with a degree in education, and worked as a fifth grade teacher for several years before staying home to write full-time. She was born and raised in the Midwest, where she lives with her family. When she’s not busy penning novels or spending time with her people, she enjoys drinking coffee with friends, reading great literature, and eating copious amounts of dark chocolate.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Just like in my dream, I was drowning and nobody even noticed.

Every morning, Carmen Hart pastes on her made-for-TV smile and broadcasts the weather. She’s the Florida panhandle’s favorite meteorologist, married to everyone’s favorite high school football coach. They’re the perfect-looking couple, live in a nice house, and attend church on Sundays. From the outside, she’s a woman who has it all together. But on the inside, Carmen Hart struggles with doubt. She wonders if she made a mistake when she married her husband. She wonders if God is as powerful as she once believed. Sometimes she wonders if He exists at all. After years of secret losses and empty arms, she’s not so sure anymore.

Until Carmen’s sister—seventeen year old runaway, Gracie Fisher—steps in and changes everything. Gracie is caught squatting at a boarded-up motel that belongs to Carmen’s aunt, and their mother is off on another one of her benders, which means Carmen has no other option but to take Gracie in. Is it possible for God to use a broken teenager and an abandoned motel to bring a woman’s faith and marriage back to life? Can two half-sisters make each other whole?

If you would like to read the first chapter of The Art of Losing Yourself, go HERE.

Wishing on Willows my Katie Ganshert

ABOUT THIS BOOK

A three-year old son, a struggling café, and fading memories are all Robin Price
has left of her late husband. As the proud owner of Willow Tree Café in small
town Peaks, Iowa,  she pours her heart into every muffin she bakes and espresso
she pulls, thankful for the sense of purpose and community the work
provides.

So when developer Ian
McKay shows up in Peaks with plans to build condos where her café and a vital
town ministry are located, she isn’t about to let go without a fight.

As
stubborn as he is handsome, Ian won’t give up easily. His family’s business
depends on his success in Peaks. But as Ian pushes to seal the deal, he wonders
if he has met his match. Robin’s gracious spirit threatens to undo his resolve,
especially when he discovers the beautiful widow harbors a grief that resonates
with his own.

With polarized opinions forming all over town, business
becomes unavoidably personal and Robin and Ian must decide whether to cling to
the familiar or surrender their plans to the God of Second Chances.

 

 MY THOUGHTS ON THIS BOOK

Robin Price didn’t care of Ian McKay or his business in the small town of Peaks. He wanted to uproot the town and especially her small café, and she would never give it up. And Ian needed this job to prove himself to his dad, so he wasn’t about to give up. But as the story unfolds, and the situation begin to heat up in the town over Ian’s business, and as Ian and Robin and Ian spent more time together, things begin to change. But it was all still so difficult.

 

I liked this story, the characters were realistic and believable and played their part well as the story unfolds. Ian and Robin were equally stubborn and it was fun watching the interaction between the two. The town was clearly in need of the changes Ian’s company wanted to do, and the tension between everyone kept me reading to the end, because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. If you are in for a good, relaxing, romance, this would be a good book for you. And don’t forget the first book in this series, Wildflowers from Winter.

 

A copy of this book was provided by Blogging for Books through their book review program. I was not required or expected to write a positive review. The opinions in this review are mind only.

Wildflowers From Winter by Katie Ganshert

 

 

 

Wildflowers from Winter 

by Katie Ganshert

 

Book Blurb

A young architect at a prestigious Chicago firm, Bethany Quinn has built a life far removed from her trailer park teen years. Until an interruption from her estranged mother reveals that tragedy has struck in her hometown and a reluctant Bethany is called back to rural Iowa. Determined to pay her respects while avoiding any emotional entanglements, she vows not to stay long. But the unexpected inheritance of farmland and a startling turn of events in Chicago forces Bethany to come up with a new plan.

Handsome farmhand Evan Price has taken care of the Quinn farm for years. So when Bethany is left the land, he must fight her decisions to realize his dreams. But even as he disagrees with Bethany’s vision, Evan feels drawn to her and the pain she keeps so carefully locked away.

For Bethany, making peace with her past and the God of her childhood doesn’t seem like the path to freedom. Is letting go the only way to new life, love and a peace she’s not even sure exists?

 

MY THOUGHTS ON THIS BOOK

Wow what a debut novel. Bethany Quinn lives far away from her trailer park home where she grew up and has built a life of her own in Chicago as an architect. A contact from her mom causes a trip back home to pay last respects because of a tragedy, but in now way will she stay long enough to feel any emotions. But an inheritance gets in the way of going back to Chicago quickly, and so forces her to stay longer than expected, thus causes a digging through of feelings long past forgotten.

 

I love this book! It captured my heart and I was hooked from the first pages. Katie Ganshert creates characters that are real, loveable and enjoyable and you feel like they are part of your life, and its difficult to get them out of your mind after you finish the book. I love books like this! Bethany being so determined to want to leave her hometown and go back to Chicago, not wanting anything to do with the hometown people, and certainly one certain man that threw here into disagreements so much. Never would she have a relationship with someone like him, but now would she? This is where the book gets even more interesting. A nice, great, love story in itself, you will not want to miss this one Not sure if there is a book two, but I am hoping there will be.

 

A copy of this book was provided by Blogging for Books through their book review program. I was not required or expected to write a positive review. The opinions in this review are mind only.

 

 

 

 

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