Tag: Becca Kinzer

Have you read a Christian novel that features a character on holiday?

Bookish Question #328 | Have you read a Christian novel that features a character on holiday?

We considered this question around a year ago.

(Click here to read my response.)

A few different titles sprang to mind this year: two I’ve read and reviewed recently, two I’ve read and will review soon, and two I read years ago which feature my favourite US state: Hawai’i.

The Roads We Follow by Nicole Deese

The Roads We Follow by Nicole Deese might not count – it’s a road trip across the US, but it isn’t really a holiday. But it’s a great story!

Cover image: The Roads We Follow by Nicole DeeseAs the youngest daughter of a country music legend, Raegan Farrow longs to establish an identity away from the spotlight and publish her small-town romances under a pen name. But after her dream is dashed when she won’t exploit her mother’s fame to further her own career, she hears a rumor from a reliable source regarding a tell-all being written about the Farrow family. Making matters worse, the unknown author has gone to great lengths to remain anonymous until publication.

Raegan chooses to keep the tell-all a secret from her scandal-leery sisters as they embark on a two-week, cross-country road trip at their mother’s request and makes it her mission to expose the identity of the author behind the unsanctioned biography. But all is complicated when she discovers their hired bus driver, Micah Davenport, has a hidden agenda of his own–one involving both of their mothers and an old box of journals. As they rely on each other to find the answers they seek, the surprising revelations they unearth will steer them toward their undeniable connection and may even lead them down the most unexpected of paths.

Find The Roads We Follow online at:

Amazon BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads

Click here to read my review of The Roads We Follow.

Love in Tandem by Becca Kinzer

A 500-mile tandem bicycle ride isn’t my idea of a fun holiday, but Becca Kinzer turns it into a fun story.
Cover image - Love in Tandem by Becca KinzerShe’s perfectly content leading a quiet life in her small hometown. He’s an adventurer with unquenchable wanderlust. The two couldn’t be any more opposite if they tried. But a tandem bicycle and a 500-mile road trip just might change all that.

After a failed engagement and her mother’s battle with cancer, Charlotte Carter’s life is finally turning around now that she’s landed a dream job teaching music. What she didn’t see coming was the imminent closure of the school’s music program. She’s determined to save it, even if it means getting creative. There’s no way she’s chalking this up as just another failure in her book of recent embarrassments.

Zach Bryant is back in town just long enough to see his brother Ben get married and then he’s off traveling the world again. He never imagined he’d run into Charlotte Carter, his brother’s ex-fiancé, or that everyone would believe he and Charlotte are an item. He certainly didn’t dream he’d end up riding a tandem bicycle hundreds of miles with her in an attempt to raise funds for a defunct music program, but how can he say no when the prize money would help him out of his financial predicament too?

Charlotte is sure she can set aside her differences with Zach long enough to cross the finish line and win the giant cash prize . . . can’t she? A few hundred miles in, she’s questioning her deeply held assumptions about Zach and wondering if maybe tandem biking is only the start of their biggest adventure yet.

Find Love in Tandem online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

Click here to read my review.

The Summer of Yes by Courtney Walsh

An unusual and unpredictable unplanned holiday leads to Kelsey having a total rethink on life … and love. My full review will publish in July, but I couldn’t help myself – I had to read this as soon as I got my review copy!
Sometimes you’re so busy writing other people’s stories that you can lose the plot of your own.

This wasn’t how Kelsey Worthington’s day was supposed to go. She wasn’t supposed to be picking up Starbucks for her smarmy boss. She wasn’t supposed to get hit by a car that jumped the curb. And she certainly wasn’t supposed to wake up in a hospital room next to Georgina Tate—the legendary matriarch of New York City businesswomen.

Kelsey and Georgina couldn’t be more opposite. Kelsey’s a dreamer, a writer who questions her own skill. And Georgina is a confident businesswoman whose years of shouldering her way into boardrooms and making her voice heard have made her far too outspoken for the faint of heart.

But now, when Georgina’s failing kidneys force her to face some big regrets about the way she’s lived her life, the two women recognize they share a common thread. Maybe it’s time to confront a few things. They must ask themselves: What if I said yes to everything I’ve always said no to?

With Georgina as her companion, Kelsey soon finds herself doing things she’s never done before. Eating street food. Swimming in the ocean. Matchmaking for Georgina with the help of Georgina’s handsome son. And writing her own romance—both in book form and in real life.

So begins the Summer of Yes.

Find The Summer of Yes online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

The Road Before Us by Janine Rosche

Join Jade, Benny, and Bridger on 2,448-mile road trip down the historic Route 66. Now I want to  My full review will publish in May.

How far would you go to fix the mistakes you’ve made and regain the trust you lost? For Jade Jessup, the answer is 2,448 miles. Once one of Chicago’s significant financial advisors, Jade lost her credibility when her fiancé (and coworker) stole millions of dollars from their clients in a Ponzi scheme. Now she’s agreed to help one of them–an aging 1960s Hollywood starlet named Berenice “Benny” Alderidge–seek financial restoration.

Jade sets off along Route 66 with Benny and her handsome adult foster son, Bridger, who is filming a documentary retracing the 1956 trip that started the love story between Benny and her recently deceased husband, Paul. Listening to Benny recount her story draws Jade into memories of her own darker association with Route 66, when she was kidnapped as a child by a man the media labeled a monster–but she remembers only as daddy.

Together, all three of these pilgrims will learn about family, forgiveness, and what it means to live free of the past. But not before Jade faces a second staggering betrayal that changes everything.

Find The Road Before Us online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

Freefall by Kristen Heitzmann

I’ve visited Hawai’i several times, including two visits to the Big Island and one to Maui, but I’ve never been to Kauai. Hawai’i is my favourite US state – its the best of New Zealand combined with the best of the USA (although I haven’t yet visited Alaska yet, so that view may change …)

Freefall by Kristen HeiztmannWhen a young woman stumbles out of the Hanalei Mountains on the island of Kauai with no memory of who she is or how she got there, Cameron Pierce reluctantly agrees to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding her arrival. As pieces begin to fall into place, he suspects her injuries were no accident, but he’s far from convinced she’s an innocent victim. And there’s that nagging feeling he’s seen her somewhere before….

Now known as Jade, the woman begins to recall fragments of what led her to this place, and she realizes the danger isn’t over. Jade and the cynical Hawaiian investigator attempt to reconstruct the threads of her identity, but the stakes are far higher than either expected.

Find Freefall online at:

Amazon

Whispers by Robin Jones Gunn

I enjoyed the entire Glenbrooke series, but love the first three books the most. Whispers takes us hiking in Maui, and it was great to see the island through Teri’s story.
Whispers by Robin Jones Gunn
Version 1.0.0

Teri leaves Glenbrooke thinking her visit to see her sister on Maui is going to be her chance to reconnect with the Marine biologist she met last summer.

She’s surprised to run into an old high school love interest from Escondido. And who is this clumsy, endearing guy from Australia who keeps showing up? Three men want her attention. What a vacation this is turning out to be!

Only one of them makes it clear that he’s got what it takes to win her heart. How does Teri know? The answer comes to her in whispers.

Come to Glenbrooke – a quiet place where souls are refreshed.

Find Whispers online at:

Amazon

What about you? Have you read any Christian novels that feature a character on holiday?

It’d be nice to spend one entire day where nobody looks at me like I’m on the verge of jumping off a bridge because my brother stole the love of my life.

Book Review | Love in Tandem by Becca Kinzer

Charlotte Carter is a music teacher who is about to lose her job because of a lack of funding. So it’s up to her to figure out how to earn the money over the summer. She also wants to avoid her ex-fiancé … which becomes a little more difficult when she meets his brother in somewhat awkward circumstances.

Things go from bad to worse when Charlotte finds herself and Zach signed up to complete a five-hundred mile tandem bicycle ride which, if they can complete the ride in ten days, will earn hem enough to fund the music programme. The catch is that the cycle ride is for couples, so Charlotte and Zach have to pretend to be dating. Pretending should be harder than it is.

Given the title and book description, I’d expected the race to start earlier in the book. As it was, we were a third of the way through the story before the race was introduced, which meant I spent a good portion waiting for the “actual” story to start. As a result, I found the early chapters didn’t capture my interest.

Love in Tandem is a rom-com with an emphasis on the comedy, from Charlotte and Zach’s initial meeting to the tandem bicycle ride. Becca Kinzer says in her author’s note that many of these scenes were inspired by her own long-distance tandem bicycle ride with her then boyfriend (now husband) in 2010. All I can say is that she hasn’t convinced me to take up the sport.

This is the first novel I’ve read by Becca Kinzer, and I thought it was her debut. It’s not—she is also the author of Dear Henry, Love Edith, which got excellent reviews when it released last year. I guess it’s time I put that on my to-read list.

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

About Becca Kinzer

Becca KinzerBecca Kinzer lives in Springfield, Illinois where she works as a critical care nurse. When she’s not taking care of sick patients or reminding her husband and two kids that frozen chicken nuggets is a gourmet meal, she enjoys making up lighthearted stories with serious laughs. She is a 2018 ACFW First Impressions Contest winner, a 2019 Genesis Contest winner, 2021 Cascade Award winner, and all-around champion coffee drinker.

Find Becca Kinzer online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

About Love in Tandem

Cover image - Love in Tandem by Becca KinzerShe’s perfectly content leading a quiet life in her small hometown. He’s an adventurer with unquenchable wanderlust. The two couldn’t be any more opposite if they tried. But a tandem bicycle and a 500-mile road trip just might change all that.

After a failed engagement and her mother’s battle with cancer, Charlotte Carter’s life is finally turning around now that she’s landed a dream job teaching music. What she didn’t see coming was the imminent closure of the school’s music program. She’s determined to save it, even if it means getting creative. There’s no way she’s chalking this up as just another failure in her book of recent embarrassments.

Zach Bryant is back in town just long enough to see his brother Ben get married and then he’s off traveling the world again. He never imagined he’d run into Charlotte Carter, his brother’s ex-fiancé, or that everyone would believe he and Charlotte are an item. He certainly didn’t dream he’d end up riding a tandem bicycle hundreds of miles with her in an attempt to raise funds for a defunct music program, but how can he say no when the prize money would help him out of his financial predicament too?

Charlotte is sure she can set aside her differences with Zach long enough to cross the finish line and win the giant cash prize . . . can’t she? A few hundred miles in, she’s questioning her deeply held assumptions about Zach and wondering if maybe tandem biking is only the start of their biggest adventure yet.

Find Love in Tandem online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

First Line Friday

First Line Friday #329 | Love in Tandem by Becca Kinzer

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 Love In Tandem by Becca Kinzer, which is partly inspired by her own tandem bicycle ride with her then-boyfriend (now husband) in 2010.

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

It’s a terrible thing when a teacher survives an entire school year only to die the first minute of summer vacation.

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

 

About Love in Tandem

Cover image - Love in Tandem by Becca KinzerShe’s perfectly content leading a quiet life in her small hometown. He’s an adventurer with unquenchable wanderlust. The two couldn’t be any more opposite if they tried. But a tandem bicycle and a 500-mile road trip just might change all that.

After a failed engagement and her mother’s battle with cancer, Charlotte Carter’s life is finally turning around now that she’s landed a dream job teaching music. What she didn’t see coming was the imminent closure of the school’s music program. She’s determined to save it, even if it means getting creative. There’s no way she’s chalking this up as just another failure in her book of recent embarrassments.

Zach Bryant is back in town just long enough to see his brother Ben get married and then he’s off traveling the world again. He never imagined he’d run into Charlotte Carter, his brother’s ex-fiancé, or that everyone would believe he and Charlotte are an item. He certainly didn’t dream he’d end up riding a tandem bicycle hundreds of miles with her in an attempt to raise funds for a defunct music program, but how can he say no when the prize money would help him out of his financial predicament too?

Charlotte is sure she can set aside her differences with Zach long enough to cross the finish line and win the giant cash prize . . . can’t she? A few hundred miles in, she’s questioning her deeply held assumptions about Zach and wondering if maybe tandem biking is only the start of their biggest adventure yet.

Find Love in Tandem 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!

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