Tag: Christian Romance

19 March 2021

First Line Friday | Week 177 | Better Than First by Kari Trumbo

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 Better Than First by Kari Trumbo, which promised to be a fun friends-to-more Christian romance … and I think it features a disabled heroine. I’m looking forward to it.

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

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

About Better Than First

A sweet romance that will leave you feeling the kisses in the falling snow and cheering for a happily ever after.

Isla won’t let anything hold her back, except telling her best friend she’s in love with him.

When Isla Florez’s coach and best friend challenges her to make a bucket list, she’s worried her dreams of a gold medal will slip away. If she agrees, won’t she miss time at the track?

The more she allows Duncan to show her, the more value she sees in everyday life…and love.

Duncan Schmitz went from homelessness to his dream job as a youth pastor, but it isn’t enough.

He’s loved Isla from afar for ten years. As a challenge, he takes it upon himself to remind her what life is like off the track. And maybe also remind her he’s not just her coach, but the friend who’s always been there for her.

You can find Better Than First online at

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

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

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15 March 2021

Book Review | The Doctor’s Honor (Back to the West #2) by Nerys Leigh

Mei Ling Chen is a woman disguised as a man working in a mining camp in 1859 California. Her brother is ill, so she escapes to try and find him some medicine. She arrives at the doctor’s house in Green Hill Creek, but is discovered by the doctor and his sister.

Noah is suspicious, but his sister, Lucy, persuades him to help the girl Noah assumes is a boy, and persuades Mei Ling to trust them. As Noah gets to know Mei Ling, he realises he is developing romantic feelings towards her … but how will a relationship between them ever work?

There were some insightful comments about racism.

Mei Ling isn’t immediately accepted in Green Hill Creek, and some of the residents think all Chinese women are prostitutes and attempt to treat her accordingly. Others merely want her out of town because she doesn’t fit in.

She is accepted once the people discover she is a trained midwife and that’s great, but wouldn’t it be better if we accepted people who are different to us based on who they are rather than based on what they can do? After all, God accepts us based on who we are … grace, not works.

Mei Ling also challenges the assumption that all Chinese are godless heathens. The reason she and her brother are in California at all is because her family is Christian and her parents were martyred for their faith.

As such, The Doctor’s Honor has all the strengths of Nerys Leigh’s previous books—excellent characters, solid plot, and plenty of humour to dispel the tension. But this goes a little deeper and challenges the reader’s beliefs about race and stereotypes.

Recommended for fans of Christian historical fiction.

About Nerys Leigh

Nerys Leigh writes thoroughly romantic Christian historical love stories. She loves heroes who are strong but sweet and heroines who are willing to fight for the life they want.

She’s from the UK, which you would think puts her in a unique position to not write about mail order brides in the American west, but the old adage of writing what you know has never appealed to her. She has an actual American read each book before publishing to make sure she hasn’t gone all English on it.

You can find Nerys Leigh online relaxing and generally enjoying the view at:

Website | Facebook

About The Doctor’s Honor

Funny how quickly life can get complicated.

As the only doctor in the tiny frontier town of Green Hill Creek, Noah Wilson lives a quiet life with his sister, and he’s fine with that. Until a Chinese woman breaks into his home and changes everything.

Before he knows it, his sister is promising Mei Ling their help and he’s mounting daring rescues and fighting to save her brother’s life and…

…and falling for a woman who can’t ever be his.

Overnight, life goes from simple to very complicated indeed.

But perhaps complicated is just what Noah needs.

Find The Doctor’s Honor online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

11 January 2021

Book Review | Nicole (Sewing in SoCal #3) by Sarah Monzon

Hairstylist Nicole Applegate is a single mother and vegan with a social conscience.

But her friends think she should have a man, so set her up on what turns out to be a bad blind date. She is rescued by Drew, who she knows socially, but who she is not interested in romantically. Ha. Famous last words, because this is their romance story.

Nicole finds Drew is the assistant coach for her daughter’s football team.

My initial thought was that football meant soccer, but no. It meant American football, and Sierra is the team’s quarterback–and the only girl on the team. But she’s her mother’s daughter, so that doesn’t phase her at all.

Despite being a doctor, Drew always has time for football practice, friends, and for Nicole. I’m not sure how realistic that, but it made for a good story. It meant that there were plenty of opportunities for Drew and Nicole (and Sierra) to spend time together, and to overcome Nicole’s hesitance about another relationship.

Nicole is the third book in Sarah Monzon’s Sewing in So-Cal series. I’ve read the first (Molly), but haven’t read the second (Jocelyn, although it’s on my Kindle to-read pile). However, I don’t think I missed anything in Nicole from not having read Jocelyn. After all, they’re romantic comedy. We know the hero and heroine are going to end up together. We’re reading to be entertained as we watch them get their happy-ever-after.

And Nicole is certainly entertaining.

The writing is funny without bringing in the cringe factor, the characters are excellent, and the story touches on relevant contemporary issues, such as taking a knee in sport (something this non-American 100% doesn’t understand. Isn’t kneeling supposed to be a sign of submission?). I also loved seeing a main character on the plus-size side of humanity, but who wasn’t continually wishing she was a size 2.

I recommend Nicole by @MonzonWrites for anyone who enjoys a good romantic comedy with a little bit of real life thrown in. #ChristianFiction #CleanRomance Share on X

Recommended for anyone who enjoys a good romantic comedy with a little bit of real life thrown in.

Thanks to the author 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 Nicole

Who has time to date when she’s trying to raise a miniature human by herself AND save the planet from its irresponsible inhabitants? Not to mention my winning personality (snort) and my curves-have-curves figure (eyeroll) don’t exactly attract the opposite sex. Unfortunately, none of these reasons have stopped my best friends and SoCal sewing sisters from taking on the archaic role of matchmakers, and they’re not beneath a little bribery if that’s what it takes to get my cooperation. Let’s just say everyone has their weak spot, and donations to my favourite charities is mine.

If I were to consider a romantic relationship, my dream guy certainly wouldn’t be immature, everything-is-a-game Dr. Drew Bauer. The man raises my body temperature faster than global warming does the Earth’s! But life seems determined to keep throwing us together, especially now that one of my SoCal sewing sisters is engaged to his best friend, in which case there can only be one of two outcomes:

1. I kill him in a fit of annoyance.

2. My common sense escapes me, and I fall in love with him.

Honestly, I’m not sure which would be worse.

You can find Nicole online at:

Amazon | Goodreads

4 January 2021

Book Review | For the Love of Joy by Janet W Ferguson

Davis Donnelly has spent the last few years studying to work in Christian ministry after a bomb ended his military service. First, he has to sort out his marital status: is he divorced from Joy Lynn Jennings, or are they still married?

Joy Donnelly is an ICU nurse with an energetic two-year-old son who spends her spare time (!) studying to become a nurse practitioner so she can get more regular hours and give her son a better life.

When Joy gets a call to say her son Hankie has been “released” from daycare for bad behaviour, she knows she needs to find a babysitter, and quickly. But her day goes from bad to worse when Hankie escapes their third-floor apartment, she meets her ex outside, trips, and lands in surgery.

Davis helps, getting her to hospital and offering her a free place to recover … and his help with babysitting Hankie.

I will say that I’m not a fan of the secret baby plot, so it bugged me to find that Joy had never even told the baby’s father (not Davis) that she was pregnant. But Davis’s attitude towards Hankie blunted my annoyance, especially when we found out Davis’s own issues with caring for small boys.

The other thing that bugged me was the overabundance of quirky Southernisms. The first couple were amusing, then they got annoying, then I started ignoring them so I could focus on the story.

And it was a good story, especially once Joy and Davis arrive in St. Simons.

Here, Joy meets David’s friends and slowly learns that Christianity is more than the judgement pumped into her as a child and teen.

Instead, we see Christians living as the Bible asks us to live – loving our neighbours and looking after widows and orphans in their distress. Janet L Ferguson’s characters are Christians who do the hard things, rather than just praying and tithing and hoping others will do the hard things (not that I’m down on praying and tithing. But real faith is about living from the heart, not the rule book).

For the Love of Joy by Janet L Ferguson shows characters are Christians who do the hard things. Recommended #ChristianRomance #BookReview Share on X

Those who have read Janet L Ferguson’s earlier books set in St. Simons will recognise several of the characters, particularly Rivers and Connor. It’s good to see them again.

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

About Janet W Ferguson

Janet W. Ferguson grew up in Mississippi and received a degree in Banking and Finance from the University of Mississippi. She has served her church as a children’s minister and a youth volunteer. An avid reader, she worked as a librarian at a large public high school. Janet and her husband have two grown children, one really smart dog, and a few cats that allow them to share the space.

Click here to read my interview with Janet W Ferguson.

Find Janet W Ferguson online at:

About For the Love of Joy

Is he married or isn’t he?

Years ago, a Dear John letter and then an IED explosion overseas rocked Davis Donnelly’s world and left him unclear about his marital status. He’d signed divorce papers, but broken mentally and physically, he’d never bothered to find out if his marriage actually ended. Now that he’s about to start a new position as an outreach minister, it’s time to settle things once and for all. At the moment he tracks down his wife—or former wife?—she takes a tumble while chasing a little boy. Her son. And that’s when life flips upside down.

Joy Jennings Donnelly made her share of mistakes. But one thing she never considered a mistake was her child, and she’ll do anything to protect him. Even keep his paternity a secret.

When she’s suddenly injured with not a soul to help her or her son, Joy is forced to rely on the man who has the most reasons to hate her.

You can find For the Love of Joy online at

Amazon | Goodreads

26 October 2020

Book Review | Autumn Skies (Bluebell Inn #3) by Denise Hunter

I can’t remember the title of the first Denise Hunter novel I read, but I do remember I wasn’t impressed—the central conflict hinged on the heroine having done something so completely out of character that I couldn’t buy into the concept. The next Denise Hunter book I read had an amnesia plot—one of my favourite tropes, and that got me hooked.

Since then, I think I’ve read every book Denise Hunter has published, and they get better and better.

Some of her novels have a strong and obvious Christian message, such as Sweetbriar Cottage, which was brilliant. Others are less overt—like Autumn Skies, the third and final novel in the Bluebell Inn series.

The Bluebell Inn series centres on the three siblings who co-own the Bluebell Inn, on the shore of Bluebell Lake in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The first two novels paired the other sister and brother off with a world-famous author and a Hollywood actress.

Autumn Skies focuses on the youngest sibling, Grace, who has established a business hiring out bicycles and canoes to tourists. Wyatt Jennings is a Secret Service agent who has been told to take time off for psychological reasons after being shot in the line of duty. He chooses to visit Bluebell Lake, because he wants to find the place where his mother died when he was a boy. They meet when Wyatt checks in to the Bluebell Inn—his childhood vacation home until his mother’s death.

There were two things that didn’t grab me in the beginning.

Grace’s instant attraction to Wyatt, and their age gap. I’m not a fan of instalust (shouldn’t true love be built on a meeting of minds and faith?). I’m also not a fan of big age gaps, and the beginning gave the impression Wyatt was in his thirties, compared to Grace’s mere twenty years. However, that was later clarified: she is twenty-one, and he’s only twenty-six.

That set my mind at ease, and I was able to enjoy the book.

As romance novels go, this one went fairly smoothly. That made for an enjoyable and relaxing read. Both Grace and Wyatt have external issues from their past they had to get over, and there was an unexpected twist near the end which gave the plot extra power. And the final chapter has that all-important aww factor we want from a romance novel 🙂

The story ends with an epilogue which rounds out the trilogy—so while this is a standalone story, Denise Hunter fans will want to read the trilogy in order.

Overall, Autumn Skies by Denise Hunter is a standalone #ChristianRomance that also serves as a fitting finale to the Bluebell Inn trilogy. #BookReview Share on X

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for provding 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 Autumn Skies

When a mysterious man turns up at Grace’s family-run inn, it’s instant attraction. But she’s already got a lot on her plate: running the Bluebell Inn, getting Blue Ridge Outfitters off the ground, and coping with a childhood event she’d thought was long past.

A gunshot wound has resurrected the past for secret service agent Wyatt Jennings, and a mandatory leave of absence lands him in Bluebell, North Carolina. There he must try and come to grips with the crisis that altered his life forever.

Grace needs experience for her new outfitters business, so when Wyatt needs a mountain guide, she’s more than happy to step up to the plate. As their journey progresses, Grace soon has an elusive Wyatt opening up, and Wyatt is unwittingly drawn to Grace’s fresh outlook and sense of humor.

There’s no doubt the two have formed a special bond, but will Wyatt’s secrets bring Grace’s world crashing down? Or will those secrets end up healing them both?

Find Autumn Skies online at:

Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

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

17 August 2020

Book Review | Until I Met You (Restoring Heritage #2) by Tari Faris

I didn’t get a chance to read and review Tari Faris’s debut novel, but reading the reviews left me with high expectations for Until I Met You. And, I have to admit, it took a while to see what everyone else saw.

Until I Met You starts with Libby and Austin meeting when Libby’s dog escapes and makes friends with Austin’s dog. She’s a purebred he was hoping to breed, so is less than pleased. As such, it’s not a great introduction to him as a character, and I did find him hard to warm to.

But it’s not just Libby and Austin’s story.

It’s also Nate and Olivia’s story, and that’s something that confused me at first—Libby and Olivia had similar character voices, and I mixed them up a couple of times.

Nate is Austin’s younger brother, the prodigal. Austin has always done everything right, and picked up the pieces after Nate’s mistakes. Nate, now a pastor, is all too aware of his past mistakes and can’t get over them—to the point he keeps brushing off Olivia, who is interested in him.

I found Nate a much more engaging character than Austin. It did make me wonder what happened to the Biblical Prodigal Son after his father threw the party. Was he able to accept his inheritance, or was he more like Nate? I could totally see what Olivia saw in Nate, and why she kept pursuing him even after all the rebuffs.

Austin, on the other had, was somewhere between difficult and insufferable, and I had trouble working out what Libby saw in him. Yes, he’s loyal and hardworking and puts others first, but he is, frankly, self-righteous about it. And that makes him somewhat tiresome. The first half of Until I Met You had a lot of Austin being insufferable, and it got a little tired.

But the story picked up pace and interest in the second half.

That’s when the spiritual aspects started to come through more strongly, and that was the real strength of the novel. Until I Met You is Christian fiction where the characters actually find the answers to their problems in the truths of the Christian faith. It’s refreshing, and I can now see why everyone raved about You Belong With Me.

I didn’t realise when I started reading, but Until I Met You is a sequel to You Belong With Me. The beginning of Until I Met You might also have been an easier read if I had read the earlier book, as then I would have known some of the characters—-Until I Met You introduced a lot of characters early on, and it wasn’t always easy to see how they fitted together. I guess that was covered in the first book.

Yes, read You Belong With Me first if you can, but don’t worry if you can’t.

The strength of Until I Met You isn’t in the series characters, but in the relationship between the brothers. Like all relationships, it can be hard going but it’s worth the effort.

Thanks to Revell and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Tari Faris

I have been writing fiction for more than twelve years. It has been an exciting journey for this math-loving-dyslexic girl. I had read less than a handful of novels by the time I graduated from college and I thought I would end up in the field of science or math. But God had other plans and I wouldn’t trade this journey for anything. As someone told me once, God’s plans may not be easy, and they may not always make sense but they are never boring.

When I am not writing or working, I spend time with my amazing husband. We have been married for fifteen wonderful years and have three sweet children. In my free time, I love coffee, rock hounding with my husband and kids, and distracting myself from housework.

Find Tari Faris online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter

About Until I Met You

When she hears that the small town of Heritage, Michigan, is looking for a new librarian, Libby Kingsley jumps at the opportunity. Little did she know the library is barely more than a storage closet stuffed with dusty, outdated books. What the community really needs is a new building. But the only funds available are those being channeled into the new town square, and the landscape architect in charge of the project wants nothing to do with her plans.

All Austin Williams wants to do is get the town square project finished so he can do right by the family business and then extricate himself from the town that reveres the brother who cost him so much. But the local media and the town’s new librarian seem to be conspiring against him at every turn. Will the determined bookworm find her way into his blueprints–and possibly even his heart?

Find Until I Met You online at:

Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

18 May 2020

Book Review | A Mosaic of Wings by Kimberly Duffy

Christian Historical Romance with a Unique Setting

Nora Shipley is a woman ahead of her time, and a unique heroine. She doesn’t want to marry the man her stepfather has chosen for her (and no surprise there. He’s a misogynistic boor). She wants to go back to university and complete her master’s in entomology (yes, the study of insects). First she’ll need to win a scholarship … which means spending six months in India.

While I like butterflies and understand the importance of honeybees, I’m not a fan of other insects. And I definitely share Nora’s feelings about cockroaches. What captured my interest in A Mosaic of Wings was the Indian setting, and this was definitely the strength of the novel for me. These chapters showed the beauty of India, and something of the culture—both good and bad.

I enjoyed seeing Nora develop as a character and make some difficult choices.

The novel wasn’t overtly Christian, but Nora’s responses to her most difficult choices were definitely based on a Christian world view—even when those choices contradicted the decisions made by some of the Christians she met.

I didn’t enjoy the US-based scenes nearly as much.

That was mostly because of stepfather Lucius, although partly because of Nora’s mother. She was a frustratingly weak character who seemed to spend her time either ill in bed, or arranging social events her daughter wanted no part of. She was such a vapid character that I sincerely wondered if she was being drugged by Lucius (she wasn’t, but that would have been the most logical explanation for much of her behaviour).

Lucius is plainly set up as the antagonist and has no redeeming features except for loving Nora’s mother. Well, he says he does. He certainly doesn’t act as though he does. Mind you, the same could be said of Nora’s mother’s attitude towards Nora. As a result, while Nora’s difficulties with Lucius drove most of the novel’s conflict, I didn’t find it entirely believable. Lucius tries to force Nora to do something, saying she gave her word. Fine. She did, and she is a woman who seeks to keep her word. But I don’t think she needs to keep her word when he has so plainly not kept his.

Overall, this is a novel about choices and freedom.

Some people have more choices than others. It’s also about how sometimes we have to make a choice that might not be the easiest choice for ourselves, but is the right choice for others.

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

P.S. If you read or have read A Mosaic of Wings and you’re as horrified by Sita’s predicament as Nora is, then I encourage you to check out the Dignity Freedom Network and their work rescuing jogini girls in India. Yes, this practice is still going on despite having been outlawed in 1988.

About Kimberly Duffy

Kimberly Duffy enjoys writing historical fiction that takes readers back in time and across oceans. Her books often feature ahead-of-their-time heroines, evocative settings, and real-life faith. When not writing or homeschooling her four children, she enjoys taking trips that require a passport and practicing kissing scenes with her husband of twenty years. A Long Island native, she currently resides in southwest Ohio.

Find Kimberly Duffy online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram

About A Mosaic of Wings

It’s 1885, and all Nora Shipley wants, now that she’s graduating from Cornell University as valedictorian of the entomology program, is to follow in her late father’s footsteps by getting her master’s degree and taking over the scientific journal he started. The only way to uphold her father’s legacy is to win a scholarship, so she joins a research expedition in Kodaikanal, India, to prove herself in the field.

India isn’t what she expects, though, and neither is the rival classmate who accompanies her, Owen Epps. As her preconceptions of India–and of Owen–fall away, she finds both far more captivating than she expected. Forced by the expedition leader to stay at camp and illustrate exotic butterflies the men of the team find without her, Nora befriends Sita, a young Indian girl who has been dedicated to a goddess against her will.

In this spellbinding new land, Nora is soon faced with impossible choices–between saving Sita and saving her career, and between what she’s always thought she wanted and the man she’s come to love.

Find A Mosaic of Wings online at:

Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

4 May 2020

Book Review | Stay With Me (Misty River Romance #1) by Becky Wade

Eighteen years ago, Genevieve was one of five miracle children who survived days trapped in rubble in San Salvador, after an earthquake hits the during their junior high mission trip. Now, she’s an online celebrity, a famous author of Bible studies for women. And she’s hiding a prescription drug addiction that could destroy her career, and wondering what secrets her family is hiding. Because there is definitely something, if the anonymous letter she received is any indication.

But she knows something has to change after she wakes up in a stranger’s house with no memory of how she got there. But she can’t go to rehab. That would mean the end of her career. And there is also the question of how her parents will react, especially her overprotective mother.

Sam Turner is an Australian American who owns his own coffee shop and is a big advocate of healthy eating and healthy lifestyles. (Okay, so the one thing I’m not convinced about is a man who voluntarily eats kale, but there you go.) Anyway, Sam agrees—against his better judgment—to help Genevieve detox.

Stay With Me is a strong romance with excellent characters. It’s strong Christian fiction, because faith is central to both Genevieve and Sam’s lives. But the real strength is the way it deals with Genevieve’s addition, an issue that’s rarely discussed in Christian fiction, and the subtle warning against putting other Christians—especially Christian leaders—on pedestals.

Stay With Me by @BeckyWade is a great start to a new series, a Christian novel that isn't afraid to ask tough questions about faith and life. #BookReview #ChristianRomance Share on X

Stay With Me is a great start to a new series, a Christian novel that isn’t afraid to ask tough questions about faith and life. Recommended.

Thanks to Baker Publishing and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Becky Wade

Becky is the Carol and Christy award winning author of heartwarming, humorous, and swoon-worthy contemporary inspirational romances.

During her childhood in California, Becky frequently produced homemade plays starring her sisters, friends, and cousins. These plays almost always featured a heroine, a prince, and a love story with a happy ending. She’s been a fan of all things romantic ever since.

These days, you’ll find Becky in Dallas, Texas failing to keep up with her housework, trying her best in yoga class, carting her three kids around town, watching TV with her Cavalier spaniel on her lap, hunched over her computer writing, or eating chocolate.

You can find Becky Wade online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter

About Stay With Me

A mysterious letter alluding to a secret in her parents’ past brings Genevieve Woodward back to her Blue Ridge Mountains hometown, but she’s also in need of a break from a high-profile career that has left her dangerously burned out and concealing a powerful secret of her own. When she wakes inside an unfamiliar cottage to find the confused owner staring down at her, she can no longer ignore the fact that she needs help.

Sam Turner has embraced his sorrow and his identity as an outsider. The solitary, disciplined life he lives on his historic farm is the life he’s chosen for himself. The last thing he wants is to rent his cottage to a woman as troubled as she is talkative. Yet, he can’t force himself to turn her away right when she needs him most.

As Genevieve researches her family’s history and her and Sam’s emotions deepen, they will have to let go of the facades and loneliness they’ve clung to and allow light to illuminate every hidden truth.

Find Stay With Me online at:

Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

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

27 February 2020

Book Review | A Girl’s Guide to the Outback by Jessica Kate

A Girl’s Guide to the Outback takes Kimberly and Sam from Jessica Kate’s debut, Love and Other Mistakes, and transplants them to Sam’s family farm in the Australian Outback. Sam is convinced he’s a failure, so quits Wildfire, the youth mission he founded. When he gets home, he finds his sister Jules with a broken leg, and the farm under threat of bankruptcy.

Wildfire doesn’t go well without him either.

Kimberly is packed off to Australia to convince Sam to return to the program. Sam won’t return until he knows the farm will be okay, so Kimberly is bribed to stay and help even though she and Sam go together like oil and water. She offers her financial and management smarts to help in the hope she can get Sam back to Wildfire.

I grew up in a farming community, but Kimberly’s research showed me there is a lot more to farming than I knew (especially Aussie farming. New Zealand doesn’t have the same fire and flood risks as Queensland).

Reading this against the backdrop of the Australian fires had a sobering affect on what is otherwise a fun romantic comedy.

And it is funny. As a Kiwi, I found several giggles and groans in the Aussie cultural references as Kimberly settles in to life in ‘Straya. Mick drinks kombucha, which shows he’s a better person than me—I’ve only tried it once, and it was nasty. Sam wears Stubbies, a fashion staple of rural Australia and New Zealand in the 1970s:

Yes. That’s a fashion item that should have stayed in the 1970s (and if you think that photo is scary, click through to the website, which also offers an enlarged view and a back view).

Kimberly packs a picnic basket and includes:

“Canadian bacon—known in Australia simply as ‘bacon,’ plus Vegemite and Weetbix cereal for a traditional Australian touch.”

So if I call it “bacon” and Americans call it “Canadian bacon”, what’s the stuff on the American fast-food menus that they call bacon? Or don’t I want to know?

Also, while I do know some people who eat Weetbix with butter and Marmite (the Kiwi version of Vegemite, and we won’t get into any arguments about which tastes better, thank you very much), I don’t know anyone who’d eat Weetbix, Vegemite, and bacon at the same time. Well, I hope I don’t.

A Girl’s Guide to the Outback has all the wit and sass of Love and Other Mistakes, plus a healthy dose of ‘Straya.

The Australian setting means it also has ample opportunity to showcase the highs and lows, from brown snakes and early-morning avian wake-up calls to the beauty of the Outback and the Gold Coast beaches.

But there are some serious life lessons hidden in the banter.

Both Sam and Kim have mistakes from their past they need to overcome, both for their own sakes and to draw them together as a couple. Jules (Sam’s sister) has her own issues with Mike, the guy she broke up with years ago because she wanted to stay on the farm and he wanted to move to the coast. It’s fun watching both couples fall apart, get together, and work through their issues. It’s also a reminder of the power of God … when we get out of His way.

A Girl's Guide to the Outback by Jessica Kate @JessicaKate05 has plenty of wit and sass, and some serious topics hidden in the banter #ChristianRomance #BookReview Share on X

Recommended for anyone looking for a fun romantic comedy in a unique setting.

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

About Jessica Kate

Australian author Jessica Kate writes inspirational romances that are fun, sassy and real. Jess is a screenwriting groupie, co-host of the StoryNerds vlog and podcasts, and her favorite place to be – apart from Mum and Dad’s back deck – is a theme park.

She’s traveled North America and Australia, and samples her favorite pasta wherever she goes – but the best (so far) is still the place around the corner from her corporate day job as a training developer.

She loves watching sit-coms with her housemates and being a leader in a new church plant.

You can find Jessica Kate online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Podcast | Twitter

About A Girl’s Guide to the Outback

How far will a girl go to win back a guy she can’t stand? This funny, sweet, and romantic story proves that opposites do attract—and that God has a sense of humor.

Samuel Payton is a passionate youth pastor in Virginia, but below the surface, he’s still recovering from the blow of a failed business and insecurities he can’t shake. His coworker, start-up expert Kimberly Foster, is brilliant, fearless, and capable, but years of personal rejection have left her defensive and longing for a family. Two people have never been more at odds—or more attracted to one another. And every day at work, the sparks sure do fly.

When Kimberly’s ambitious plans for Sam’s ministry butt up against his risk-averse nature, Sam decides that obligations to family trump his work for the church. He quits the ministry and heads home to Australia to help his sister, Jules, save her struggling farm. As Kimberly’s grand plans flounder, she is forced to face the truth: that no one can replace Sam. Together they strike up a deal: If Kimberly comes to work on Jules’s dairy farm and lends her business brains to their endeavor, then maybe—just maybe—Sam will reconsider his future with the church.

As Kimberly tries her hand at Australian farm life, she learns more about herself than she could’ve ever expected. Meanwhile Sam is forced to re-evaluate this spunky woman he thought he already knew. As foes slowly morph into friends, they wonder if they might be something even more. But when disaster strikes the farm, will Sam find it within himself to take a risk that could lead to love? And will Kimberly trust God with her future?

Find A Girl’s Guide to the Outback online at:

Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong | Kobo

You can read the introduction to A Girl’s Guide to the Outback below:

And don’t forget to visit my Amazon store to find A Girl’s Guide to the Outback and other great Christian fiction!

20 January 2020

Book Review | Star Rising (Coastal Hearts #4) by Janet W Ferguson

Star Youngblood is rebuilding her life.

A horrible childhood sent her into alcoholism and addiction. She’s now a Christian, has been sober for a year, and is supporting herself by working as an aide and housekeeper for the elderly Mrs. Kelly, who has become surrogate mother. Star’s troubles start when Mrs. Kelly has a heart attack. Her son, Paul, returns and takes an instant dislike to Star.

Then Mrs. Kelly decides she wants to complete the trip she’d planned to take with her husband—to Ireland. She invites Star along as her caregiver, a move which raises Paul’s ire and suspicion. He ends up tagging along, more to keep an eye on Star than to care for his mother.

Star has problems, but she has identified them, is working on them, and most are a direct or indirect result of her childhood mistreatment. While I couldn’t Star’s background from personal knowledge (thankfully), I could respect and admire her progress into becoming the woman God created her to be. Paul Kelly? Not so much.

I will admit that I had a lot of unChristian feelings for Paul.

Sure, he’d given up on Christianity, but he’d also turned into an unkind and suspicious person. I also suspected he never had a deep Christian faith to begin with, as the event that caused him to lose his faith didn’t seem a big enough deal to abandon faith in God. (Abandon the church, sure. But not God.) That low baseline meant Paul had a lot of room to grow and improve— and he had a lot of improving to do if he was going to be worthy of Star.

Janet Ferguson did a brilliant job of redeeming Paul.

By the end I was convinced that he and Star would make a great couple. This is a credit to the excellent writing. Overall, Star Rising is an excellent example of Christian romance, with an emphasis on the “Christian”. The Christian elements are well integrated into the plot so they’re essential, but never preachy.

Recommended.

Note that Star Rising is the third novel in the Coast Hearts series, but can easily be read as a standalone story.

Star Rising by @JanetwFerguson is another excellent example of Christian fiction showing the challenges new Christians face, and their victory over their pasts. #BookReview #ChristianRomance Share on X

About Janet W Ferguson

Click here to read my interview with Janet W Ferguson.

Find Janet W Ferguson online at:

About Star Rising

Star Youngblood has always been a fighter–a necessity after her mother married a monster of a man. Now, she’s finally on the path to the stable life she’s always wanted. Her employer, Priscilla Kelly, is a sweet woman ravaged by rheumatoid arthritis, and Star will do anything to help her. Even if that means going toe to toe with Mrs. Kelly’s neglectful son.

After being betrayed on the mission field and devastated by the tragic death of his father, Paul Kelly gave up on God. He lives life on his own terms, biding his time as a corporate pilot until he can save enough money to begin his own flight school closer to home. His mother is all he has left, and he wants to be near her. He just didn’t expect her health to decline so quickly. When he discovers his mother has taken in a stray—a woman he’s not at all sure can be trusted—his protective instincts kick into high gear. Paul’s handled a lot of turbulence, but he’s never gone up against a force like Star.

As Paul and Star strive to protect his mother in their own ways, they soon find their own hearts are at the greatest risk.

Find Star Rising online at:

Amazon | Goodreads

About Better Than First

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

There were some insightful comments about racism.

About Nerys Leigh

You can find Nerys Leigh online relaxing and generally enjoying the view at:

About The Doctor’s Honor

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Hairstylist Nicole Applegate is a single mother and vegan with a social conscience.

Nicole finds Drew is the assistant coach for her daughter’s football team.

And Nicole is certainly entertaining.

About Sarah Monzon

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About Nicole

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Davis helps, getting her to hospital and offering her a free place to recover … and his help with babysitting Hankie.

And it was a good story, especially once Joy and Davis arrive in St. Simons.

About Janet W Ferguson

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About For the Love of Joy

You can find For the Love of Joy online at

Since then, I think I’ve read every book Denise Hunter has published, and they get better and better.

There were two things that didn’t grab me in the beginning.

That set my mind at ease, and I was able to enjoy the book.

About Denise Hunter

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About Autumn Skies

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But it’s not just Libby and Austin’s story.

But the story picked up pace and interest in the second half.

Yes, read You Belong With Me first if you can, but don’t worry if you can’t.

About Tari Faris

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About Until I Met You

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Christian Historical Romance with a Unique Setting

I enjoyed seeing Nora develop as a character and make some difficult choices.

I didn’t enjoy the US-based scenes nearly as much.

Overall, this is a novel about choices and freedom.

About Kimberly Duffy

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About A Mosaic of Wings

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About Becky Wade

You can find Becky Wade online at:

About Stay With Me

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Wildfire doesn’t go well without him either.

Reading this against the backdrop of the Australian fires had a sobering affect on what is otherwise a fun romantic comedy.

“Canadian bacon—known in Australia simply as ‘bacon,’ plus Vegemite and Weetbix cereal for a traditional Australian touch.”

A Girl’s Guide to the Outback has all the wit and sass of Love and Other Mistakes, plus a healthy dose of ‘Straya.

But there are some serious life lessons hidden in the banter.

Recommended for anyone looking for a fun romantic comedy in a unique setting.

About Jessica Kate

You can find Jessica Kate online at:

About A Girl’s Guide to the Outback

How far will a girl go to win back a guy she can’t stand? This funny, sweet, and romantic story proves that opposites do attract—and that God has a sense of humor.

Find A Girl’s Guide to the Outback online at:

You can read the introduction to A Girl’s Guide to the Outback below:

Star Youngblood is rebuilding her life.

I will admit that I had a lot of unChristian feelings for Paul.

Janet Ferguson did a brilliant job of redeeming Paul.

Recommended.

About Janet W Ferguson

Find Janet W Ferguson online at:

About Star Rising

Find Star Rising online at:

Read the introduction to Star Rising below: