It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. Today I’m quoting from Valerie Rose, from new-to-me author Liz Chapman.

(I found this book as part of the Aussie August promotion, and it’s currently on sale for 99 cents.)

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

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

About Valerie Rose

Sometimes searching for love is like waiting for the rain.

When single mum Valerie Rose arrives in Everlynn Valley in the middle of a drought, she doesn’t expect to be dousing a perfect stranger with her iced latte. Perfect, and off limits. As chaplain at her son’s new school, Owen is definitely… maybe?… surely not an appropriate dating choice… at all…

Owen Campbell has been stuck in a rut of people-pleasing and conflict suppression all his life. He’s too nice. But when the new kid, Kai, is picked on at school, it tugs at Owen’s inner child. Years of bullies getting away with bad behaviour stops now. What Owen doesn’t expect is for Kai’s mum, Valerie, to pull at his heart in a different way entirely.

Meanwhile, Nettie Jones, a prayer warrior and spiritual godmother to many, feels led by the Lord to cover Valerie and Owen in prayer. But will it be enough when disaster and devastation hit Everlynn Valley? Or will Valerie and Owen’s hope for the future be extinguished for good?

Find Valerie Rose 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 #346 | What’s your favourite non-bookmark bookmark?

by Iola Goulton

27 August 2024

I don’t read a lot of physical books—I mostly read ebooks.

I’m reading more physical books now I’ve moved to Wellington and joined the local library (which I walk past on my way home from work).

So I don’t have a favourite bookmark or a favourite non-bookmark bookmark.

What I do have is the non-bookmark bookmark I use most often … which is the receipt for the books I’ve just borrowed from the library.

What about you? Do you read physical books? If so, what’s your favourite non-bookmark bookmark?

Book Review | Before We Were Us by Denise Hunter

by Iola Goulton

26 August 2024

Denise Hunter has written some great Christian romances, like the fabulous Sweetbriar Cottage. Sweetbriar Cottage is a sweet (!) yet powerful exploration of the nature of unconditional love, and a great second chance romance with some deep Christian themes.

Hunter has also written some novels that have just missed the mark for me. Riverbend Gap has heroine Katie dating one brother while falling for another, while Just a Kiss hinted at the physical and mental health issues facing returned servicemen and women but didn’t deliver.

I am usually a sucker for amnesia stories, but Before We Were Us didn’t hit the right notes for me.

Jonah is about to propose to Lauren when has an accident. She wakes up having lost four months of memories, and finding the annoying guy from the rustic resort she was working at hanging around for no known reason.

Then she finds out they were dating: during the missing four months, she and Jonah moved from enemies to friends to an adoring couple planning their wedding.

Oops.

I expected the story to start with Lauren’s accident (which it did), then to move forward and show her recover and falling in love with Jonah all over again (which it didn’t).

Instead, it flitted back and forth between the present timeline, which started in September, and how she and Jonah fell in love the first time. Nice, but we knew they’d fallen in love a first time.

What I wanted to see was Lauren falling for Jonah a second time.

Both timelines were told from both points of view, and it wasn’t always clear which timeline we were in (not helped by the fact I routinely don’t read chapter headings, which I know is a me problem).

As a result, I found it hard to engage with the story and with the characters and found the story ultimately unsatisfying.

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

About Denise Hunter

Denise Hunter is the internationally published bestselling author of more than 30 books, including “The Convenient Groom” and “A December Bride” which have been made into Hallmark movies. She has appeared on the The 700 club and won awards such as The Holt Medallion Award, The Carol Award, The Reader’s Choice Award, The Foreword Book of the Year Award, and is a RITA finalist.

Denise writes heartwarming, small-town love stories. Her readers enjoy the vicarious thrill of falling in love and the promise of a happily-ever-after sigh as they savor the final pages of her books.

In 1996, inspired by the death of her grandfather, Denise began her first book, writing while her children napped. Two years later it was published, and she’s been writing ever since. Her husband says he inspires all her romantic stories, but Denise insists a good imagination helps too!

When Denise isn’t orchestrating love lives on the written page, she enjoys traveling with her family, drinking good coffee, and playing drums. Denise makes her home in Indiana where she and her husband raised three boys and are currently enjoying an empty nest.

Find Denise Hunter online at:

Website | Facebook

About Before We Were Us

She can’t remember. He can’t forget.

When Lauren Wentworth wakes up in the hospital after falling from a ladder, she has more questions than answers. Way more. She knows where she is—the wilds of New Hampshire. But she’s apparently lost the last four months of her life. Is she really contemplating forfeiting her big-city dream job for a position at a rustic resort? And how did her number one nemesis become her adoring boyfriend?

Jonah Landry is crushed to learn Lauren has forgotten their entire summer together. Terrified of losing her for good, he determines to help her remember their deep connection as she finishes her obligation to the resort. But soon it becomes apparent Lauren doesn’t want to remember falling in love with him or rethinking the entire course of her career. She wants to pretend the summer never happened and move on with her life. Without him.

As Lauren falls back into the steady routines of resort work with Jonah, she’s relieved her memories haven’t returned and remains resolute about her big-city future. But as autumn leads into winter, she begins to see glimpses of the Jonah she’s forgotten. Will she be able to resist the steady love of this patient man? Or Is her heart destined for its own freefall?

Find Before We Were Us online at:

Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Koorong

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

It’s Aussie August!

by Iola Goulton

24 August 2024

… and a bunch of top Australian authors have teamed together to introduce you to some of the best of Aussie fiction. (And one Kiwi—me.)

So if you’re looking for something to read this winter/spring, click here to check out Aussie August, featuring:

Narelle Atkins
Liz Chapman
Amanda Deed
Christine Dillon
Jenny Glazebrook
Iola Goulton
Sheridan Lee
Carolyn Miller
Jennifer Mistmorgan
Meredith Resce
Jessica Wakefield

The novels in the promotion include all three finalists in the Adult Fiction category of the 2024 CALEB Awards from Omega Writers, Australia’s network for Christian writers. The finalists are:

Where Our Hearts Lie by Jenny Glazebrook
Broken Spirit by Sheridan Lee
Heart in the Clouds by Jennifer Mistmorgan

The Aussie August lineup also includes several other CALEB winners:

The Game by Amanda Deed (2010)
Grace in the Shadows by Christine Dillon (2019)
In Want of a Wife by Meredith Resce (2022)

I recently read a blog post by Australian book reviewer Jenny Blake where talked about how she prefers promotions that are all Christian stories, rather than a mix of Christian and clean fiction.

While I haven’t read all the novels in the promotion, I have read most of them and can confirm they are Christian fiction, not just fiction written by Christians or “clean reads”.

The two authors I haven’t read are Sheridan Lee and Liz Chapman, and I’m looking forward to reading Broken Spirit and Valerie Rose soon … just as soon as I get the draft of Always in My Heart off to my fellow Trinity Lakes authors to beta read.

Jenny also mentioned how much she’s enjoying her two-month subscription to Kindle Unlimited (aka KU), which is a good time to point out that all the Trinity Lakes novels are in KU …

So if you’re looking for something to read on Kindle, check out Aussie August. And if you prefer paper books, most of the titles are available from Koorong or Amazon.

First Line Friday #352 | The Berlin Letters by Katherine Reay

by Iola Goulton

23 August 2024

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 The Berlin Letters by Katherine Reay. It’s not advertised as Christian fiction, but her first few novels were Christian romance so I’m hopeful.

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

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

About The Berlin Letters

From the time she was a young girl, Luisa Voekler has loved solving puzzles and cracking codes. Brilliant and logical, she’s expected to quickly climb the career ladder at the CIA. But while her coworkers have moved on to thrilling Cold War assignments—especially in the exhilarating era of the late 1980s—Luisa’s work remains stuck in the past decoding messages from World War II.

Journalist Haris Voekler grew up a proud East Berliner. But as his eyes open to the realities of postwar East Germany, he realizes that the Soviet promises of a better future are not coming to fruition. After the Berlin Wall goes up, Haris finds himself separated from his young daughter and all alone after his wife dies. There’s only one way to reach his family—by sending coded letters to his father-in-law who lives on the other side of the Iron Curtain.

When Luisa Voekler discovers a secret cache of letters written by the father she has long presumed dead, she learns the truth about her grandfather’s work, her father’s identity, and why she has never progressed in her career. With little more than a rudimentary plan and hope, she journeys to Berlin and risks everything to free her father and get him out of East Berlin alive.

As Luisa and Haris take turns telling their stories, events speed toward one of the twentieth century’s most dramatic moments—the fall of the Berlin Wall and that night’s promise of freedom, truth, and reconciliation for those who lived, for twenty-eight years, behind the bleak shadow of the Iron Curtain’s most iconic symbol.

Find The Berlin Letters 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 #345 | Do you use physical bookmarks?

by Iola Goulton

20 August 2024

Since moving to Wellington I’ve been making use of the local library. Borrowing and reading physical books means using physical bookmarks again.

I do have a collection of “real” bookmarks, including souvenirs from writing conferences and bookmarks I’ve bought or been given over the years.

However, I don’t have any of my “real” bookmarks in the apartment, so I’m mostly using either library checkout receipts (which make handy bookmarks because they serve the added function of reminding me of the due date), or junk mail flyers.

So I guess that’s a yes … kind of.

What about you? Do you use physical bookmarks?

Book Review | Dead Ahead (Ruthless the Killer #1) by Susan J Bruce

by Iola Goulton

19 August 2024

Dead Ahead is the first book in The Ruthless the Killer Mystery series.

I thought the series name was a typo when I first saw it, but it’s not: Ruth Smythe’s unfortunate nickname is Ruthless the Killer. It’s inaccurate (as she—and we—will learn). But, as Ruth says, logic rarely stands a chance against the ghosts of the past.

Ruth has returned to Australia from the USA to the stone cottage she has recently inherited from her father. She’s looking for peace and quiet, but events get in the way: she’s barely moved in before someone is murdered in her barn. And things basically go downhill from there.

Dead Ahead is the first book in what promises to be an enjoyable cozy mystery series. Sure, it has the inevitable “problem” of all cozy mystery series: the unrealistic ratio of murderers (and victims) to regular people (is there anyone still alive in Midsomer?). But let’s be honest—that’s why we read cozy mysteries.

Dead Ahead has everything cozy mystery readers want.

A small town setting, complete with quirky townsfolk. A slow-burn not-there-yet promise of romance between Ruth and the local hunk. The ex-girlfriend. A whole cast of characters who could have motive for murder (or who could be future victims).

And it’s got the plucky and likeable amateur sleuth who may or may not solve the mystery (because to tell you would be a spoiler),but who certainly gets involved to the point she annoys the real investigators.

The story is set in Australia, and the setting definitely adds to the story. Dead Ahead does use Australian spelling and vocabulary, and the “Aussie lingo” defined at the beginning. The lingo isn’t forced into the story in a cliche stone-the-crows way, but in a way that reads as authentic to the characters and which doesn’t distract from the story.

Overall, Dead Ahead is an enjoyable read, recommended for cozy mystery fans.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review.

About Susan J Bruce

Susan J Bruce is a former veterinarian turned award-winning author, professional copywriter and animal artist. Susan’s veterinary background invades her writing and animals run, fly, or crawl into nearly all of her tales. When Susan’s writing group challenged her to write a story that didn’t mention any animals—she failed! Susan lives in sunny South Australia with her husband, Marc, and their furred and feathered family. This currently includes a fat tortoiseshell cat, a rescue cockatiel, and an irrepressible ShiChi (Shih Tzu x Chihuahua) who thinks her mission in life is to stop Susan writing.

Running Scared is Susan’s first novel and was awarded the 2018 Caleb Prize for an unpublished manuscript.

Find Susan J Bruce online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | X

About Dead Ahead

A deliciously twisty Aussie cozy mystery with a side of rom-com!

Ruth is desperate for a fresh start, but a body in her shed, an inconvenient romantic attraction, and a secret childhood reputation as a ‘harbinger of death’ get in the way.

As they do…

Murder and mayhem mingle with matters of the heart as Ruth soon discovers the town holds buried secrets and scandals—some of which may even involve her own late father.

But when a close friend goes missing, and the police fear the worst, all Ruth can think about is unravelling the mystery and finding her friend.

Can Ruth solve the crime in time to save her friend? Will she succeed or will bad luck be the death of her?

Dead Ahead has slow-burn romance, heaps of heart, murder and mayhem, small town vibes, friends who care, a grumpy cat and a mysterious meta plot. The final HEA of the romantic subplot will be at the end of the series—but there will be lots of fun in-between.

Find Dead Ahead online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

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

First Line Friday #351 | The Larkspur House by Carla Laureano

by Iola Goulton

16 August 2024

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 The Larkspur House, the third (and hopefully not final) book in Carla Laureano’s Haven Ridge series.

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

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

About The Larkspur House

Rose Cameron holds the record for bad decisions. Not only did she drop out of grad school to get married, but her husband wasn’t who he pretended to be—and his shady business dealings threatened both her reputation and her freedom.

With no job, no friends, and her bank account nearing zero, an online job posting offers a place to escape from her shattered life: house assistant in a historic manor in the tiny town of Haven Ridge, Colorado.

But the Larkspur House isn’t the refuge she expected. For one thing, it’s not just a house, but a derelict, honest-to-goodness American castle. For another, the co-inheritor of the house—the brusque, uptight Will Parker—makes no secret of his desire to see her gone.

He’s more interested in selling the place before it crumbles into the Colorado landscape or bankrupts the trust that maintains it.Just when Rose is convinced she’s made yet another terrible decision, she stumbles upon hidden secrets within Larkspur House’s storied history—ones that could bridge the gap between her and Will, making Haven Ridge her forever home.

But try as she might, Rose can’t escape her past…and her own secrets just might destroy the new life she’s begun building.

Find The Larkspur House 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 #344 | Have you ever been disappointed by a book everyone else seemed to love?

by Iola Goulton

13 August 2024

There have been a few books from authors I’ve previously read and enjoyed that just haven’t captured my attention.

For example, I bought and Her Mother’s Hope and Her Daughter’s Dream by Francine Rivers. I read the first and while it was well-written, I found the story depressing (which shouldn’t be a surprise: it was set in the 1930s Depression, and ended just as the USA entered World War II). I never even read the second book.

I loaned both books to a friend who loved them, as did most online reviewers.

I’m glad she enjoyed them, even if I didn’t.

There are other authors (more than a few)I’ve tried to read based on reviews and the recommendations of multiple other Christian readers, but I haven’t been able to get into their stories.

One of the culprits might be the attitude of Christians toward book reviews. There’s a view that if reviewers can’t give a glowing five-star review, then they shouldn’t review the book at all (a variation of Thumper’s rule, perhaps?).

So perhaps I’m not the only person disappointed by certain books. Perhaps we’re all ignoring Matthew 7:5, John 8:32, and similar verses because we’re following the Bambi rule, not the Bible.

What about you? Have you ever been disappointed by a book everyone else seemed to love?

First Line Friday #350 | Home Town Melody by Milla Holt

by Iola Goulton

9 August 2024

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 Home Town Melody, the new release from Milla Holt, which has some of my favourite tropes: rock star romance, reunion romance, and secret baby.

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

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

About Home Town Melody

Everything is at stake when a Christian recording artist learns he fathered a child during a one-night stand.

It was just one lapse in self-control, one poor decision, one night when he was in a dark place.

Since then, Levi Falconer has done his best to move past that almost-forgotten illicit encounter. No one knows what he did, and he and his brothers are bringing their contemporary Christian music band back together for a long-awaited reunion album. But he’s about to learn that his night of forbidden passion resulted in a little boy.

Highschool dropout Adria Baines got her real education from the school of hard knocks. After aging out of foster care, she’s no stranger to struggles. She planned on making her own way, even after a surprise pregnancy. But when she runs out of options, she realizes she’ll have to do the one thing she swore she’d never do: get help from the father of her child.

Levi and Adria never should have met. But their lives are on a collision course once again as they learn how God can transpose the broken chords of their mistakes into a beautiful melody.

Find Home Town Melody 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.