It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. I’m reading The Beacon Street Bookshop, the second book in Carla Laureano’s Haven Ridge clean contemporary romance series:

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

About The Beacon Street Bookshop

Ever since Olivia Quinn lost her husband to a freak plane crash, she’s been focused on one thing—making a stable life for her teen stepdaughter, Taylor, of whom she’s the sole guardian. But when she loses her job as a children’s book editor because she refuses to relocate from Colorado to New York, all her hard-won stability is shattered.

Then the opportunity arises to open Liv’s dream bookshop in Haven Ridge, offering not only the solution to her financial problems, but a chance to bond with her stepdaughter and become a real family for the first time. Soon, the wild idea transforms into a thriving nonprofit, thanks to the generosity and enthusiasm of the town—and a handsome contractor who stirs feelings in Liv she’d thought might be gone forever.

But just as she begins to lean into the new life she’s made for herself, a figure from her late husband’s past puts the life she’s been building with Taylor in jeopardy. And Liv must face the possibility that following her heart might just cost her a daughter.

Find The Beacon Street Bookshop online at:

Amazon | Goodreads

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Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

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Bookish Question #295 | Do you want detailed descriptions of a novel’s main characters?

by Iola Goulton

12 September 2023

What’s your view on detailed character descriptions in fiction?

Personally, I’m not a fan of detailed descriptions–whether that’s descriptions or character, setting, or anything else. I’d rather get on with the story. A brief description is fine, but please don’t spend pages and pages telling me things I don’t need to know.

(I don’t need to know the character’s eye colour or hair colour or blood type unless that’s going to be relevant to the story in some way.)

If authors do feel the need to include a description, make sure it’s not the character describing their own eye or hair colour. The only time I think about my hair colour is when I’m at the hairdresser … or deciding I really need to go to the hairdresser.

I do have a bad habit of skimming or ignoring overlong descriptions, particularly if I’ve already formed a mental image of the character. For example, if the author describes the character as attractive with a tidy beard, I have a problem. I do not find beards attractive, so I either have to imagine the character as attractive and cleanshaven, or not attractive.

I mostly read romance novels, so you can guess which one I pick.

As a result, I prefer more vague character descriptions. Tell me what I absolutely need to know, and let me imagine the rest.

What about you? Do you like reading detailed character descriptions, or do you prefer something vague?

Book Review | All’s Fair in Love and Christmas by Sarah Monzon

by Iola Goulton

11 September 2023

Mackenzie enjoys her job as a graphic designer, where she works with her best friend and housemate. But she’s less than thrilled when her boss says she’s up for a promotion to a supervisory role that will mean supervising staff and working more closely with clients, even though it will mean a pay rise—which she needs to pay for her mother’s nursing home.

Sofiya has pitched Mackenzie against Jeremy Fletcher, her longtime secret crush, and someone who always has the right words to say. But Mackenzie has to try, for her mother’s sake. And she’s noticed something about Sofiya’s promotion strategy: promotions always happen around Christmas, and always go to the person who does the best job of bringing Christmas cheer to the office.

I have mixed feelings about office romances in general, and about the trope that pitches the hero and heroine against each other for a promotion (which is probably a hangover from years working in HR).

I think Sarah Monzon managed those two aspects of the plot brilliantly.

It was funny and believable and romantic. And while the story certainly delivered on the romance front, that wasn’t what made it special.

I loved the way the story featured a main character with a mental health issue—social anxiety–in a sensitive and realistic way.

I loved the way the story struck just the right balance between believing God for healing while acknowledging that God sometimes uses modern medicine to perform that healing.

I appreciated the acknowledgement that mental health issues are health issues, that doctors can help, that it’s not enough to think positive or practice gratitude or even pray for healing.

I especially loved the way we gradually got to know the real Jeremy and watch as he began to see–and fall for–the real Mackenzie, social anxiety and all.

Like Kiss Me on Christmas, All’s Fair in Love and Christmas is a fun Christian Christmas romance which delivers all the romantic feels along with a healthy view of people with mental health challenges. (If you enjoy this, I also recommend checking out Sarah Monzon’s 2022 release, Kiss Me on Christmas).

Recommended for anyone looking for a Christmas rom-com or for a Christian workplace romance with a serious side.

Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Sarah Monzon

A Carol award finalist and Selah award winner, Sarah Monzon is a stay-at-home mom who makes up imaginary friends to have adult conversations with (otherwise known as writing novels). As a navy chaplain’s wife, she resides wherever the military happens to station her family and enjoys exploring the beauty of the world around her.

Find Sarah online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter

About All’s Fair in Love and Christmas

Two workplace rivals. One festive competition. And a romance that upends it all.

Every December two things are guaranteed for graphic designer Mackenzie Graham–Christmas celebrations and the annual promotion at her workplace. Those two things are by no means mutually exclusive. In fact, the better an employee is at harnessing the Christmas spirit, the more likely they’ll win the new job. With her social anxiety, Mackenzie never thought she’d be a contender in her company’s holiday competition, so how exactly has she found herself dueling her workplace crush with wrapping paper tubes and using tinsel as her weapon of choice for a much-needed raise?

Jeremy Fletcher’s life is meticulously planned out, including how to win this year’s promotion at work. Not only will the new position fulfill some of his career goals, but as a single guardian to his twin niece and nephew, he needs the salary increase to support his family. Jeremy has barely noticed Mackenzie Graham around the office, but now that she’s his rival, he can’t stop thinking about her. Her quirkiness intrigues him, and he’s afraid that if he can’t get his head on straight, the promotion isn’t the only thing he’ll end up losing to Mackenzie.

Find All’s Fair in Love and Christmas online at:

Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

First Line Friday #302 | Memory Lane by Becky Wade

by Iola Goulton

8 September 2023

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. I’m quoting from Memory Lane by Becky Wade, an amnesia story … because I’m always a sucker for a good amnesia story.

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

About Memory Lane

After surviving a trauma several years back, Remy Reed relocated to a cottage on one of Maine’s most remote islands. She’s arranged her life just the way she wants it, spending her time working on her wood sculptures and soaking in the beauty of nature. It’s quiet and solitary—until the day she spots something bobbing in the ocean.

Her binoculars reveal the “something” to be a man, and he’s struggling to keep his head above water. She races out to save him and brings him into her home. He’s injured, which doesn’t detract from his handsomeness nor make him any easier to bear. He acts like a duke who’s misplaced his dukedom . . . expensive tastes, lazy charm, bossy ideas.

Remy would love nothing more than to return him to his people, but he has no recollection of his life prior to the moment she rescued him. Though she’s not interested in relationships other than the safe ones she’s already established, she begins to realize that he’s coming to depend on her.

Who is he? What happened that landed him in the Atlantic Ocean? And why is she drawn to him more and more as time goes by?

There’s no way to discover those answers except to walk beside him down memory lane.

Find Memory Lane online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

Bookish Question #294 | What books have you read that are unforgettable?

by Iola Goulton

5 September 2023

One of the downsides of being an avid reader is there are So. Many Books. And it’s impossible to remember all the details. This means I only remember the very best … or the very worst.

(But I’m not going to mention them.)

There is also this little issue called age which means I’m more likely to remember a book I read years or decades ago than a book I read last week or last month?

(Or is that just me?)

Having said that, there are a lot of books I do remember for different reasons (mostly good).

Here are a few that have stuck with me over the years:

Danger in the Shadows by Dee Henderson, the prequel to her well-known O’Malley romantic suspense series. I read and enjoyed the whole series, but the prequel and first two books (The Negotiator and The Guardian) were by far my favourites.

Christy by Catherine Marshall, based on the her mother’s story. Christy was is one of the first Christian fiction novels and was later turned into a television series. Now, the annual Christy Awards recognise the best in Christian fiction.

Frasier Island by Susan Page Davis, a military romantic suspense with a very low-key romance, a book I’ve read and re-read because I loved the premise and the characters. I recently re-read and enjoyed as much as I remembered.

Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite by Lianne Simon, a coming-of-age Christian novel set in the 1970s which raised my awareness and understanding of some of the complex issues around gender and God.

And for something more recent, When the Day Comes by Gabrielle Meyer, a unique twist on Christian historical romance (followed by the even-better sequel, In This Moment).

That’s five books I’ve read, re-read, remembered, and enjoyed.

What about you? What books have you read that are unforgettable?

Book Review | The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh

by Iola Goulton

4 September 2023

Researcher Isodora Bentley is turning thirty, and life has not turned out how she’d planned. Although she has a solid job that makes use of her intellect, she has not taken the world by storm, and she’s surviving rather than thriving.

When she sees a magazine article giving 31 steps to happiness, she decides to follow the steps so she can prove the author wrong. But her plans go awry after she meets her next-door neighbours and is assigned a new project at work.

Isodora a is a brilliant character in more ways than one.

She’s intelligent (I am always a sucker for intelligent heroines. And heroes.) She’s also a brilliant character in that she is likeable and sympathetic and compelling, the kind of character I want to get to know better in fiction (because the fictional Isodora shares more about herself than her real-life equivalent would).

I loved watching Isodora develop relationships with Marty, Darby, Delilah, and her handsome colleague, Dr. Cal Baxter.

All are wonderful characters who willingly help Isodora complete her “list”.

The novel is written in first person from Isadora’s point of view. She has a strong and unique voice made stronger by her habit of interrupting herself to give third-person observations of her own behaviour in the style and voice of David Attenborough. It’s a technique that adds to the story by showing us some of Isodora’s quirks.

The other character worth mentioning was ten-year-old Delilah, who is a twenty-years-younger version of Isodora, the answer to a long-ago prayer. While the Christian elements of the plot are not given a lot of emphasis, they are definitely there.

The Happy Life of Isodora Bentley mixes the quirky-colleagues vibe of All’s Fair in Love and Christmas by Sarah Monzon with The Secret to Happiness by Suzanne Woods Fisher (but without the awkward treatment of mental health).

It’s an excellent novel for anyone looking for workplace romances, or romances with characters with ADHD or similar.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About the Author

Courtney Walsh is a novelist, theatre director, and playwright. She writes small town romance and women’s fiction while juggling the performing arts studio and youth theatre she owns with her husband. She is the author of thirteen novels. Her debut, A Sweethaven Summer, hit the New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller lists and was a Carol Award finalist. Her novel Just Let Go won the Carol in 2019, and three of her novels have also been Christy-award finalists. A creative at heart, Courtney has also written three craft books and several musicals. She lives in Illinois with her husband and three children.

Find Courtney Walsh online at …

About The Happy Life of Isodora Bentley

She’s out to prove that there’s no such thing as choosing happiness.

Isadora Bentley follows the rules. Isadora Bentley likes things just so. Isadora Bentley believes that happiness is something that flat-out doesn’t exist in her life—and never will.

As a university researcher, Isadora keeps to herself as much as possible. She avoids the students she’s supposed to befriend and mentor. She stays away from her neighbors and lives her own quiet, organized life in her own quiet, organized apartment. And she will never get involved in a romantic relationship again—especially with another academic. It will be just Isadora and her research. Forever.

But on her thirtieth birthday, Isadora does something completely out of character. The young woman who never does anything “on a whim” makes an impulse purchase of a magazine featuring a silly article detailing “Thirty-One Ways to Be Happy”—which includes everything from smiling at strangers to exercising for endorphins to giving in to your chocolate cravings. Isadora decides to create her own secret research project—proving the writer of the ridiculous piece wrong.

As Isadora gets deeper into her research—and meets a handsome professor along the way—she’s stunned to discover that maybe, just maybe, she’s proving herself wrong. Perhaps there’s actually something to this happiness concept, and possibly there’s something to be said for loosening up and letting life take you somewhere . . . happy.

Find The Happy Life of Isodora Bentley online at:

Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

First Line Friday #301 | No Matter How Far by Sara Beth Williams

by Iola Goulton

1 September 2023

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. No Matter How Far by Sara Beth Williams is the seventh book in the Trinity Lakes multi-author contemporary Christian small-town romance series. Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

About No Matter How Far

He ran away to escape his fear. She faces her fear every day.

After the death of his late wife, associate professor Dylan Mackay never thought he’d fall for another woman, until the stubborn and beautiful Jocelyn rescues him from the top of a ski slope—though he needed no such rescuing. The blissful whirlwind week spent together at Trinity Lakes Ski Resort is one of the happiest in recent memory.

After a messy breakup followed by her parents’ sudden divorce, local Trinity Lakes paramedic Jocelyn Monroe had sworn off dating, until she is forced to rescue an injured Australian against his will while volunteering for the mountain ski patrol. Dylan is stubborn, handsome, intelligent and honorable, with a swoony Aussie accent to boot and she finds herself falling head over heels before the week is out.

Once down the mountain, the spontaneity and carelessness of their rushed relationship comes full circle in devastating blows. Each one grapples with life-altering decisions that would result in moving out of Trinity Lakes—her a short distance away, him across the world. Neither one wants to leave the other, nor do they want to leave the charming town itself. Can they lean on God and trust that He will hold onto them no matter how far they go?

A second chance, opposites attract, small town Contemporary Christian romance.

Find No Matter How Far online at:

Amazon | Goodreads

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

Bookish Question #293 | Do you prefer to buy ebooks or borrow them?

by Iola Goulton

29 August 2023

I tend to buy ebooks (or get review copies from NetGalley).

I haven’t signed up for Kindle Unlimited as a reader because I already have so many unread books that I’ve bought. I really feel I need to read them first!

(I also should read the books I have before buying more, but that’s a problem for another day.)

I also haven’t signed up for KoboPlus or any other ebook borrowing programme.

I haven’t even borrowed any ebooks from my local library, even though they do offer ebooks on loan, again because I have so many of my own unread books.

Howeve, I have recently been checking out the library’s online collection and there are a few nonfiction books I’m interested in reading … so maybe I’ll request them.

What about you? Do you borrow or buy ebooks?

Book Review | A Beautiful Disguise (Imposters #1) by Roseanna M White

by Iola Goulton

28 August 2023

Roseanna M White’s historical fiction has ranged from Biblical fiction to Gilded Age America to Edwardian England. My favourite stories are her romantic suspense stories set in England and which feature spies or investigators.

I’m thrilled to see her new series is back in my favourite sub-genre.

A Beautiful Disguise is the first in the Impostors series, and features Lady Marigold Fairfax, her brother, Lord Yates Fairfax, and the rest of their ragtag household. They make up the Impostors, a group of incognito private investigators who use their position in society–and their unconventional skills and talents–to ferret out information people need to know.

They are commissioned by Lieutenant Colonel Sir Merritt Livingstone to discover who Lord Hemming is corresponding with in Germany, England’s enemy and why.

We’re dropped straight into the story, as Marigold and Yates use their acrobatic skills to eavesdrop on a conversation that solves their current case, and the pace never lets up, taking us from London to a rugged coastal home with some unexpected residents.

Lady Marigold is my favourite kind of heroine.

She’s intelligent and brave and will do anything for her family and friends. She has a range of unusual skills, including the curious ability to be both the centre of attention and barely noticed. Sir Merrit notices her, and for all the right reasons. I’m always a fan of a man who notices and values the heroine’s intelligence, personality, and faith, rather than her looks and station in life.

But Marigold is obviously hiding a secret, so there’s the ongoing tension of if and how Merrit will find out, and how he will react. I have to say I thought that was brilliantly done, and spoke will to both their characters.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching these two characters fall for each other, and I am looking forward to the next story in the series.

A Beautiful Disguise has all the same strengths as White’s Shadows over England and Codebreakers trilogies: a closeknit group of friends and family working together to serve their country, and finding love along the way.

Recommended for fans of historical Christian romantic suspense, and circuses.

Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Roseanna M White

Roseanna M. White pens her novels beneath her Betsy Ross flag, with her Jane Austen action figure watching over her. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two children, editing and designing, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna has a slew of historical novels available, ranging from biblical fiction to American-set romances to her new British series. She lives with her family in West Virginia.

Find Roseanna M White online at:

About A Beautiful Disguise

In Edwardian London, not all that glitters is gold as a lady and an intelligence officer’s secret mission take them from the city’s dazzling ballrooms to its covert intelligence offices.

Sir Merritt Livingstone has spent a decade serving the monarch in the field, but when pneumonia lands him behind a desk in the War Office Intelligence Division just as they’re creating a new secret intelligence branch, he’s intent on showing his worth. He suspects an aristocrat of leaking information to Germany as tensions mount between the two countries, but he needs someone to help him prove it, so he turns to The Imposters, Ltd. No one knows who they are, but their results are beyond compare.

Left with an estate on the brink of bankruptcy after their father’s death, Lady Marigold Fairfax and her brother open a private investigation firm for the elite to spy on the elite. Dubbed The Imposters, Ltd., their anonymous group soon becomes the go-to for the crème of society who want answers delivered surreptitiously. But the many secrets Marigold learns about her peers pale in comparison to her shock when she and her brother are hired to investigate her best friend’s father as a potential traitor.

Lady Marigold is determined to discover the truth for her friend’s sake, and she’s more determined still to keep her heart from getting involved with this enigmatic new client . . . who can’t possibly be as noble as he seems.

Find A Beautiful Disguise online at:

Amazon | Bookbub | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

First Line Friday #300 | With All My Heart, Joy by Emily Dana Botrous

by Iola Goulton

25 August 2023

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. Today I’m sharing from With All My Heart, Joy by Emily Dana Botrous, the third book in her Scripted Love series.

I read the first, With Love, Melody, in under a day after Narelle Atkins recommended it on the Story Chats at Inspy Romance podcast. Then I read the second, Forever Yours, Lucy, the next day. So now I’m up to the third book in the series … it’s been a long time since I binged a series, so that’s got to tell you something!

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

About With All My Heart, Joy

A lonely single dad. A young influencer in need of counsel. Is their age difference a divide too big to bridge this Christmas?

Joy Halverson isn’t living up to her name. Being a kill-joy to those around her—and hiding reality from her online viewers—only makes her depression worse, and with the holidays coming, it’s time to do something about it. But there’s one thing she didn’t expect—to be attracted to her counselor. Her much older counselor.

Isaac Miller’s only priority in life is providing a stable environment for his disabled daughter. He has no time for flakey women who can’t commit to Paisley. When the young counseling client he can’t stop thinking about steps in to skillfully care for his daughter in a pinch, he is caught by surprise.

As a client, Joy is off limits to Isaac. He could never deserve her, anyway. An anonymous Christmas-card exchange is enough romance for him, right?

Besides, Joy doesn’t believe any man would want her for long in real life, no matter his age. Her counselor tries to challenge her thinking—but what will she do when he captures her heart?

Find With All My Heart, Joy online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.