Gripping Marvel! ~ You Don't Know Me by Susan May Warren ~ Review

A gripping novel with the struggle of the human condition woven through the story and characters. A home town that draws the reader in and a story I couldn’t help but want to see resolved to a happily ever after. “You Don’t Know Me” is a gripping marvel of strong storytelling and solid characters that beg to have their story told in the way that has put Warren on the Christian fiction map.

            I couldn’t put this book down. No, once I met this Decker family, they became my next door neighbors and I wanted to know them better, watch them succeed. Annalise has spent her adult life living a lie and now it’s coming back to haunt the family she adores. How do you reconcile a past that could harm your family and yet never want to part with your heart’s reason to beat?

            The story is richly entwined with real-to-life characters. Subplots that contribute vital motivation for me to continue reading. This is definitely one of those stories that pulsed in my throat and wounded my heart when they struggled.

            It’s a story that feels…real. I’m never left unchanged after reading a Warren novel. The passion upon the page starts with the story and ends with hope and grace to be found in God’s love.

            A marvelous bit of news has become known that another Deep Haven will soon be entertaining readers again and I couldn’t be happier!

            This review is my honest opinion. Thanks to the publishers through Litfuse for my ARC to review.

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More about the novel...

A Deep Haven Novel

Sometimes the secrets we keep to protect ourselves can be our undoing.

To all who know her, Annalise Decker is a model wife and mother. She’s a permanent member of the PTA, never misses a sporting event, and is constantly campaigning for her husband’s mayoral race.

No one knows that Annalise was once Deidre O’Reilly, a troubled young woman whose testimony put a dangerous criminal behind bars. Relocated through the Witness Security Program to the quaint harbor town of Deep Haven, Deidre received a new identity and a fresh start, which began when she fell in love with local real estate agent Nathan Decker.

Twenty years later, Annalise couldn’t be more unprepared for her past to catch up with her. When Agent Frank Harrison arrives with news that the man she testified against is out on parole and out for revenge, Annalise is forced to face the consequences of her secrets. Will she run again, or will she finally find the courage to trust those she loves most with both her past and her future?

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Contest Info!!

Welcome to the campaign launch for Susan May Warren’s latest offering in her beloved Deep Haven series, You Don’t Know Me. Susan is celebrating with a $200 Weekend Getaway Giveaway and hosting a fun video Author Chat Party!

 

One fortunate winner will receive:

• A $200 Visa Gift Card (Use that to catch up with a loved one and “Get to Know” your spouse, friend, sister, mom…whomever!)
• The entire set of Deep Haven Books

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on October 22nd. Winner will be announced at the ”You Don’t Know Me” Author Chat Facebook Party on 10/23. Connect with Susan for an evening of book chat, Deep Haven trivia, and a live video chat! There will also be info about Susan’s BookShout read-along and a chance to win gift certificates, books, and other fun prizes!

So grab your copy of You Don’t Know Me and join Susan on the evening of the October 23rd for a chance to connect and make some new friends. (If you haven’t read the books – don’t let that stop you from coming!)

Don't miss a moment of the fun, RSVP today. Tell your friends via FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning. Hope to see you on the 23rd!

Giveaway! Winner's Choice

Sometimes I just have laugh.

Blogging is never a consistent thing, no matter how hard we try and make it such. So sometimes pulling a little trickery out of the bag has to be done to make sure we stay on schedule. ;-)

Because, after all, I am very much a schedule kind of girl.

ARC

You might have noticed that last week was allll book reviews. Yeah. Sorry. I was all "ooh! ooh! I want to read this book!" and then they all came due for review. At the same time. A week after I got back from ACFW. And none of them were read yet.

Yeah. But they were some awesome books. ;-)

Even if I did have to read them ultra-fast to get them reviewed in time...

I've spent the last two weeks hard at work on edits for my novel due to a request I received at ACFW. This certainly wasn't how I was expecting to spend my month of October, running around like a chicken with my head cut off (farm-girl humor) a-hem and while I am in NO way complaining, some other things have slipped through the cracks, this blog being one of them.

So I thank you for sticking around, continuing to comment and share in the little joys every day life gives us. 

I had a reschedule for today's giveaway slot, so I'm jumping in with a giveaway of new books I have stored away for just such an occasion. Standard giveaway rules apply and the books are shown here throughout this post. 

Thanks for being the awesome followers and friends that you are!

Please leave an email address! If I draw your name and there is no email, you will not win.

For extra entries:

~Be a follower
~Be a subscriber

Contest is only open in the U.S. and void where prohibited. Chances of winning are based on the number of entries and winner is draw from a non-biased third party- Random.org. I am not responsible for any lost or damaged items for said prize.

Thanks for coming by to enter! Contest ends on October 26th.

Attn Readers! If you're struggling to leave a comment on my blog, please email your comment entries (in ONE email) and I will submit it for you. But PLEASE only do this after you've failed to leave a comment. My email is: caseym.writer(@)gmail.com 

Dropping Bodies! ~ When a Heart Stops by Lynette Eason ~ Review

Oh the bodies are dropping! I think there must have been another murder every twenty pages and there really isn’t much time to do a whole lot of gawking with this novel.

           

I’m not a blood and guts kind of girl, I’d rather reader a romance over a murder, so when I read a murder, I take them suspenseful. If you’re going to creep me out…then. creep. me. out. I think this novel did a pretty fair job of that task. The balance between murder and romance was pretty well level, though it did tip a bit heavier towards the murder business side.

            

The novel did feel a bit as though there needed to be a killing to keep the tension level high, but I didn’t think it too much until the ending.

           

I loved it when the story took a personal turn for our heroine. Putting someone close to her in danger, totally upped the anty and pumped my blood. Excellent moment in the novel. The only place where I thought it totally came out of character for the novel was at the end and the twist. Which of course I can’t say anything, so my lips are sealed, except to say I didn’t see it coming and wasn’t sure it really fit…but that’s just my personal opinion.

            

All in all, great book, cliffhanger ending, darn that author! ;-) And I have to wait more months until we figure out what’s in that envelope people were killing over. Shoot.

          

  Pun intended.

           

This review is my honest opinion. Thanks to the publisher for my copy to review. 

            

**Available October 2012 from Revell, a division of Baker publishers**   

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More about the novel...

Spunky and outgoing, nothing much bothers medical examiner Serena Hopkins--except for the thought of falling in love again. But when a serial killer is picking off her former classmates, Serena's life becomes intertwined with her old high school crush, FBI agent Dominic Allen. Is the secret she's keeping putting her next on the killer's hit list? Can she trust Dominic with the truth before it's too late? 

Intense, emotional, and fast-paced, "When a Heart Stops" will have readers up late as they race to the finish to find out what happens.

So Sad to See this Series End! ~ A Love Surrendered by Julie Lessman ~ Review

Sob. Do I really have to write the last review for the last O’Connor book? Well, I won’t cry just yet, as there is one forthcoming O’Connor prequel, but I have a feeling it just won’t be the same to leave this dramatic, loveable family after spending six books knowing them. Well over 2500 pages have been consumed through my eager fingers over the years and this family has truly become my own.

            

This novel definitely had a different angle working against it as we don’t know the heroine from previous novels. Before, all the love stories have grown out of present relationships, but with Annie and Steven, it’s brand new. I honestly, wasn’t sure how I would like that. Would I like the heroine? Or would she just be a hussy coming in brand new to steal the final hero?

          

  Wellll…Besides the fact that I gave the book five stars and absolutely loved the fabulous twist I never saw coming, I loved Annie. She’s sweet and innocent, but has an edge to her that does not give this girl a weak spine. I loved her!

            

What I love so much about these series of novels, is the entire book is never about just one love story or one issue. It’s about several couples we’ve fallen in love with…and simply don’t want to say good-bye! Each story layers to build a cohesive and page-turning read. Talk about a heart-sigh on that last page.

         

   I’ve loved these books. There is more than a twinge in my heart to leave them behind. But I plan to visit those pages again soon!

          

  This review is my honest opinion. Thanks to the publishers for my copy to review.

           

**Available October 2012 from Revell, a division of Baker Publishers**

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More about the novel...

Orphaned in Iowa, Annie Kennedy moves to Boston to stay with her spinster aunt. She longs for romance to fill the void left by her parents' death. But when she falls hard for Steven O'Connor, the man who broke an engagement to her sister, Annie is worried. Will he break her heart too when he discovers who she really is?

Original Civil War Novel ~ All Things New by Lynn Austin ~ Review

In a time when it’s more popular to write a novel about the lives of Antebellum plantations during the Civil War, “All Things New” begins at the end of the war and continues into the late months of that same year.

           

I will admit to wondering what the “point” of the novel was going to be in the first couple of chapters, but once I read past the preliminary set up, I was taken into a world completely far from my own. It’s a devastated South with plantations families that have been destroyed, their lively hoods gone. Their past rising to haunt them, with no money or threats to keep things quiet. To imagine once having so much power and now having it stripped away as though it never existed – except you have to live in the evidence.

          

  This novel gives a window’s view from the newly freed slaves, a young woman forced into a new identity, or maybe just discovering Christ’s identity for her and an aristocratic mother who can’t release her past.

         

   The different threads and layers of the story made for a great plot. The subtle taste of romance was just enough added incentive for me to become that much more invested. I was taken into 19^th century Southern culture, for it truly was a culture, a way of living completely upended. This novel shows it so well. The reader will only continue to find hidden depths.

         

   This review is my honest opinion. Thanks to the publishers through CFBA for my copy to review.

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More about the novel and author...

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing All Things New Bethany House Publishers (October 1, 2012) by Lynn Austin

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

For many years, Lynn Austin nurtured a desire to write but frequent travels and the demands of her growing family postponed her career. When her husband's work took Lynn to Bogota, Colombia, for two years, she used the B.A. she'd earned at Southern Connecticut State University to become a teacher. After returning to the U.S., the Austins moved to Anderson, Indiana, Thunder Bay, Ontario, and later to Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Lynn resigned from teaching to write full-time in 1992. Since then she has published twelve novels. Five of her historical novels, Hidden Places, Candle in the Darkness, Fire by Night, A Proper Pursuit, and Until We Reach Home have won Christy Awards in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008, and 2009 for excellence in Christian Fiction. Fire by Night was also one of only five inspirational fiction books chosen by Library Journal for their top picks of 2003, and All She Ever Wanted was chosen as one of the five inspirational top picks of 2005. Lynn's novel Hidden Places has been made into a movie for the Hallmark Channel, starring actress Shirley Jones. Ms Jones received a 2006 Emmy Award nomination for her portrayal of Aunt Batty in the film.

ABOUT THE BOOK

In the aftermath of the Civil War, Josephine Weatherly and her mother, Eugenia, struggle to pick up the pieces of their lives when they return to their Virginia plantation. But the bitter realities of life after the war cannot be denied: their home and land are but shells of their previous grandeur; death has claimed her father and brother; and her remaining brother, Daniel, has returned home bitter and broken. The privileged childhood Josephine enjoyed now seems like a long-ago dream. And the God who failed to answer any of her prayers during the war is lost to her as well.

Josephine soon realizes that life is now a matter of daily survival--and recognizes that Lizzie, as one of the few remaining servants, is the one she must rely on to teach her all she needs to know. Josephine's mother, too, vows to rebuild White Oak...but a bitter hatred fuels her.

With skill and emotion, Lynn Austin brings to life the difficult years of the Reconstruction era by interweaving the stories of three women--daughter, mother, and freed slave--in a riveting tale.

If you would like to read the first chapter of All Things New, go HERE.

Textured Romance ~ The Trouble With Cowboys by Denise Hunter ~ Review

I was talking with a friend about this novel and I realized just how much I really enjoyed this last book in the Moose Creek series. It has such a fun quality to the story, but holding onto that mature (note: not edgy) texture I’ve come to expect from the author’s talented pen.

            This last book set in Moose Creek, Montana might be my favorite of the three. Maybe it was the characters. Maybe it was the dialogue. Maybe it was because it felt like a forbidden romance that was thriving to succeed anyway. Whatever it was, I thought this book was more than worth the hours I spent reading it.

          

  Dylan is a bad boy hero after my own heart. Now in real life, I’ll take the man who’s livin’ the straight and narrow, but in fiction, give me the bad boy any day. Hmm, saying something more about me then maybe I want to admit? ;-)

        

   Annie is a sweet heroine, but she has her spunk and spark. Nothing is easy for this girl and I had to respect her need to provide and protect those she loved. But watching her release those worries and fears was one of the best places in the book.

            

Truly, a blissful romance. I’m sorry to see the series come to an end, but ever so eager for news on the next tale sure to give my heart a sigh.

            

This review is my honest opinion. Thanks to the publishers through Litfuse for my copy to review.

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More about the novel...

Only one pair of boots—and the cowboy wearing them—can get Annie out of the mess she’s in.

Annie Wilkerson is Moose Creek’s premiere horse trainer and equine columnist for Montana Living. Money is tight as she tries to put her kid-sister through college and provide for her young nephew. When Annie’s column is cancelled, she’s given first shot at a new lovelorn column—and she can’t afford to turn it down. Only problem is . . . Annie’s never been in love.

Always resourceful, she reluctantly strikes a deal with the town’s smooth-talking ladies’ man Dylan Taylor: She’ll work with his ailing horse, Braveheart, if he’ll help her answer the reader letters.

Working closely with Dylan is harder than Annie imagined, and she quickly realizes she may have misjudged him. But her unwavering conviction that cowboys are nothing but trouble has kept her heart safe for years. And she can’t risk getting hurt now.
The more Annie tries to control things, the more they fall apart. Her feelings are spinning out of control, and her sister’s antics are making life increasingly more difficult. Annie knows she needs to turn the reins over to God, but surrender has never come easily.

When Dylan reveals his feelings for her, Annie doesn’t know what to trust—her head or her heart. The trouble with this cowboy is that he might just be exactly what she needs.

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Contest Info!

To celebrate the release of The Trouble with Cowboys Denise is hosting a fun Author Chat Party on Facebook. She'll connect with readers and give away some amazing prizes - including a Kindle Fire! 
Save the Date for October 11th!


Grab your copy of Denise Hunter's latest book and join her for an Author Chat Party on October 11th at 8:00 PM EST (that’s 7:00 Central, 6:00 MST, & 5:00 PST)! Haven't read The Trouble with Cowboys yet? That's okay, don't let that stop you from coming to the party! (You may win a copy!)

During the evening she’ll be sharing the story behind the book, posting discussion questions, testing your trivia skills, and of course, there will be plenty of chatting and fun giveaways – books, gift certificates and – a Kindle Fire! She’ll also be giving you a sneak peek of her next book too!

RSVP today and then come back on the 11th … and bring your friends!

Find more reviews and what the reviewers are saying here!

Queen of the Waves by Janice Thompson ~ Where the Trail Ends by Melanie Dobson ~ Reviews

Queen of the Waves...

I don’t believe I have read a novel set aboard the Titanic…and if I have I know I haven’t read one written in such a dramatic fashion.

            There were twists and turns to this novel, deception and fear, faith and despair that kept emotions at riveting heights. The voice behind this story was engaging at the core and the character’s struggles constantly kept the story moving forward.

             The first hundred or so pages I wondered what was bringing these multitude of characters from so many walks of life together on one ship, but read far enough and you’ll find that each one has a careful place to play in the story.

            For anyone with any knowledge of American/British history, it was hard to read the scenes aboard the Titanic, knowing that the ship was not long for the high seas. The final scenes as the ship was going down were difficult to read, hoping that the characters I’d spent over three hundred pages with were among those going to make it.

            I thought that the offerings of this novel were epic, well written and tasteful. I had a sense of being on the ship with the characters, a sense of being there as the ship went down. All in all a very enjoyable read.

         

  This review is my honest opinion. Thanks to the publishers through Litfuse for my copy to review.

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More about the novel...

When pampered Jacqueline Abington secretly elopes with the family gardener, she asks another woman to take her place on the much anticipated maiden voyage of the Titanic. Tessa Bowen hails from a poor corner of London but has been granted the opportunity of a lifetime—a ticket to sail to America aboard a famed vessel. But there’s a catch: she must assume Jacqueline’s identity. For the first time in her life, Tessa stays in luxurious quarters, dresses in elegant gowns, and dines with prestigious people. Then a wealthy American man takes an interest in her, and Tessa struggles to keep up the ruse as she begins falling for him. When tragedy strikes, the game is up, and two women’s lives are forever changed.

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Where the Trail Ends...
Being an Oregonian since the age of two, I’m always eager to find a book set in Oregon or on the Oregon Trail since I’m a historical junkie. The latest novel set on the path walked by hundreds of pioneers couldn’t exactly be classified as a romance, as the reader doesn’t meet the hero until a hundred pages from the end, but it certainly is a journey for a heroine that is determined and strong!

          

  I think more than anything, the style of this novel wasn’t my perfect fit. Probably because we don’t meet the love part of the story until almost at the end and then it felt a bit rushed for me personally.

         

   Taking the journey across the Oregon Trail has never been something that has been portrayed as easy and I have to feel for the people who walked so many miles and had to give up so much along the way. It tears at the heart a little bit and yet gives great respect to the dream of so many.

            

“Where the Trail Ends” wasn’t exactly my favorite, but what respect I have for the characters and the journey they took across such a harsh landscape.

           

This review is my honest opinion. Thanks to the publishers through Litfuse for my copy to review.

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More about the novel...

A young woman traveling the Oregon Trail in 1842 must rely on a stranger to bring her to safety. But whom can she trust with her heart?

For two thousand miles along the trail to Oregon Country, Samantha Waldron and her family must overcome tremendous challenges to reach the Willamette Valley before winter. Together they weather autumn storms, hunger and thirst, and the dangers of a wild and unfamiliar country. But when their canoe capsizes on the Columbia River, they must rely on handsome British exporter Alexander Clarke to rescue them from the icy water.

Alex escorts Samantha and her young brother, Micah, to Fort Vancouver. There Samantha is overwhelmed with men vying for her affections, but the only one who intrigues her-Alex-is the one she cannot have. When his betrothed arrives unexpectedly from England to escort him home, Samantha becomes determined to create a home for herself and Micah in the fertile valley far away from the fort. But how will an unmarried woman support herself and her brother in the wilderness alone? 

Then Micah disappears into the wilderness one rainy night, and Samantha must rely on the man she loves-the man she’s trying desperately to forget-to rescue her brother before it’s too late.

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Contest Info!

Celebrate with Janice by entering to win a Kindle Fire!

 

One fortunate winner will receive:

• A Kindle Fire
• Where the Trail Ends by Melanie Dobson
• Queen of the Waves by Janice Thompson

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on October 17th. Winner will be announced at the American Tapestries Author Chat Facebook Party on 10/18. Connect with authors Janice Thompson and Melanie Dobson for an evening of book chat, trivia and fun! There will also be gift certificates, books, and a Book Club Prize Pack to be won (10 copies for your book club or small group)!

So grab your copy of Queen of the Waves and Where the Trail Ends and join Janice Thompson and Melanie Dobson on the evening of the October 18th for a chance to connect with the authors and make some new friends. (If you haven’t read the books – don’t let that stop you from coming!)

Don't miss a moment of the fun, RSVP today. Tell your friends via FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning. Hope to see you on the 18th!