I can think of a lot of characters I wouldn’t want to go on holiday with …
I like modern comforts such as electricity, hot and cold running water, and flush toilets. On that basis, I think I’ll avoid holidaying with any characters from historical fiction.
I live in New Zealand, so I’ve already visited most of the locations in Close to You by Kara Isaac. I’d definitely recommend a holiday with Alison Shire and Jackson Gregory if you’re a Lord of the Rings fan … or if you just want to visit New Zealand.
I do enjoy a good road trip, and a few road trip novels do spring to mind:
I recently read an advance copy of The Summer of Yes by Courtney Walsh, and it’s one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Kelsey and Georgina have a lot in common (although neither wants to admit it). I enjoyed tagging along on their fictional road trip, especially once we met Georgina’s son …
Another road trip that springs to mind is The Roads We Follow by Nicole Deese. Raegan Farrow heads off on a cross-country road trip with her country music star mother, her sisters, and a driver. They’re a fascinating family, and it’s sounds like a great trip.
And one more: The Billionaire’s Teacher by Elizabeth Maddrey is set in the Caribbean, so features lots of warm islands and no pesky restrictions on budget. It also happens to be a great romance.
Overall, I think my pick is Wes and Sunny in the Caribbean, simply because of the location.
So those are my picks.
What about you? Which character would you most like to go on holiday with?
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!
As 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.
A 500-mile tandem bicycle ride isn’t my idea of a fun holiday, but Becca Kinzer turns it into a fun story.
She’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.
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.
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.
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 …)
When 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.
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.
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.
Raegan Farrow is the much-younger sister of control freak Adele, who is the CEO of the family record label, and distraught and depressed Hattie, whose slimy ex has taken their two children to Greece for the summer to meet his much-younger fiancé’s family. Raegan also works for the family record label as general assistant and gopher, constantly being ordered about by Adele and generally taking care of Hattie.
But Raegan has a secret dream to write.
She has actually completed a young adult fantasy novel that she submits for publication. The publisher is interested because of her family name, but Raegan wants to publish under a pen name—she’s had enough of being part of the family rather than her own person.
I admired Raegan for not taking the easy way out, of wanting her writing to sell and be read because of the story, not because she was trading on her mother’s name … even when that meant her own dream was less likely to come to fruition. I admired her loyalty to her family and her willingness to stay with them and do the hard things, even when that meant she wasn’t following her own dreams.
Luella is singing at Watershed, a music festival in California. Almost at the last minute, she upends Adele’s careful plans with a decision the family will take a road trip from Nashville to California, and impels her daughters to join her.
Micah Davenport has recently lost his mother to kidney disease.
That would be devastating enough. What is even more devastating is the discover that he and his brother are only half-brothers, which leads Micah to volunteer to be Luella’s bus driver for her cross-country road trip in the hope that will help him discover the identity of his biological father.
Micah was born to be a therapist and is a great character because his professional expertise and consequent emotional maturity provides the perfect foil to the messed-up Farrow family. But he’s not perfect–he’s currently unemployed and searching for his identity and purpose in life in exactly the same way as Raegan.
The story is alternately narrated by Raegan, the youngest daughter of country music icon Luella Farrow, and Micah Davenport, oldest son of Luella’s once-best friend and onstage co-star, Lynn Hershel-Davenport. Raegan and Micah’s stories are both told in first person, which was a little confusing at first (and which I know some people don’t like). If that’s you … this story is worth the effort.
The main story is about search for identity.
Micah is searching for his biological father and Raegan is searching for her identity as someone other than the daughter of Luella Farrow. But there is also a sweet slow-build romance between Raegan and Micah (after a slightly awkward case of mistaken identity, where Micah is attracted to Raegan before realising she could be his half-sister, and his subsequent relief when he finds out she can’t be).
I particularly liked the faith elements of the story.
All the main characters are Christians with a deep level of faith that underpins what they say and do. They start each day of their travels with prayer, but their faith is understated and personal—this isn’t a rah-rah-rah-come-to-Jesus story, but the faith elements are clear.
The story is a kind-of sequel to The Words We Lost, with a common underlying story element, but with a completely different setting and only one character in common—Chip, the acquisitions editor at Fog Harbor Books. (I like Chip, and I hope he gets his own story at some point.)
Overall, The Roads We Follow is an excellent story that’s part family relationships, part romance, and all Christian. Recommended.
Thanks to Bethany House for providing a free ebook for review.
About Nicole Deese
Nicole Deese is an award-winning author who specializes in humorous, heartfelt, and hope-filled novels. When not working on her next contemporary romance, she can usually be found reading one by a window overlooking the inspiring beauty of the Pacific Northwest. She currently resides with her happily-ever-after hubby, two sons, and a princess daughter in Idaho.
As 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.
It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. I’m reading an advance copy of the next book in Nicole Deese’s Fog Harbor series, The Roads We Follow. Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:
What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?
About The Roads We Follow
As 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.
Heartwarming? While I read a lot of romance, which is often considered a heartwarming genre, I don’t think all romances are actually heartwarming in that while I can cheer for the characters, they generally don’t incite my sympathy.
Over the Rainbow (Trinity Lakes 8) by Meredith Resce
Over the Rainbow is the next release in the Trinity Lakes multi-author series I’m part of. In this story, Arianne Rayne has relocated to Trinity Lakes to rebuild her life after being paralysed in a car accident. It’s a heartwarming romance that deals with some tough questions around life, love, and God’s healing power in our lives.
The Roads We Follow (Fog Harbor 2) by Nicole Deese
I’ve just finished an advance copy of The Roads We Follow by Nicole Deese, which should probably be classified as Christian women’s fiction with romantic elements.
It’s in first person from two points of view (Raegan and Micah), which give the impression it’s a romance. But it’s a story of search for identity: Micah is searching for the identity of his biological father, and Raegan is searching for her identity as an individual, not as the daughter of country music megastar Luella Farrow. It’s a heartwarming (ha!) romance that shares some deep truths about life.
Leaving Oxford (Southern Hearts #1) by Janet W Ferguson
I reread this series towards the end of 2023. While all four books qualify as heartwarming for different reasons, Leaving Oxford was the standout title for me. it’s the story of a woman facing panic attacks whenever she tries to leave her small hometown, and her growing relationship with the local football coach. They’re an unlikely couple, but Janet Ferguson makes it work.
We’re almost at the end of 2023, and I must be getting older because I am sure the years are going faster. Yet again, I’ve read a lot of books (and published one, which was a first!). Some were excellent, some were fun but forgettable, and some were unforgettable for all the wrong reasons.
But today it’s time to share the books I enjoyed most in 2023. Most are contemporary Christian fiction, because that’s the genre I read most. But one is Biblical fiction (Plagues and Papyrus), one is multi-timeline (In This Moment), and one is perhaps more women’s fiction than romance (The Words We Lost).
So here’s my list, most of which I have already reviewed or featured on the blog:
I know a lot of people rave about Nicole Deese’s writing, but the first of her books that I bought I couldn’t even finish. I don’t remember what it was called, as I’ve long since given it away, but I tried to read it two or three times and never got beyond halfway. The plot was interesting, but the characters didn’t grab me.
Then I read another where I really liked the writing, but there was one aspect of the plot that really got to me. The book has around a gazillion five-star reviews on Amazon, so I’m obviously alone in this feeling.
I decided to give her books one more chance because I did like her writing in that second book. I bought All That Really Matters in a Kindle sale, and loved it so much I immediately bought the sequel, All that It Takes.
It was just as good, so now I’m a definite Nicole Deese fan.
(In fact, I’ve recently reviewed her latest release, The Words We Lost, which was excellent.)
I guess there are a few lessons here:
Not all books are for all readers.
If you don’t like one book by a writer, try another.
Writers improve as they write more books, so we especially shouldn’t judge a writer by their early titles.
(That might sound a little self-indulgent given I’ve just released my first novel, but think of it this way: would you really want to read a brilliant first novel from an author then find their subsequent novels didn’t live up to expectation? I wouldn’t. I want to see them get better in the craft of writing, and for each story to be better than the book before. That’s certainly what I’m aiming for.)
What about you? Is there a book you enjoyed more than you expected?
What first caught my attention about The Words We Lost was the cover.
Illustrated covers have been a thing in contemporary romance for a while, although they tended to indicate rom-coms rather than pure romance. This style of cover is newer, but I really like the illustrated look with a focus on the title. Indigo Isle had the same kind of cover, and the same kind of vibe. Both novels are definitely Christian romance, but which have the depth of characterisation and overall character journey that’s more common in women’s fiction.
Yes, The Words We Lost is a romance, but with that women’s fiction vibe.
Ingrid Erikson is the Senior Acquisitions Editor at San Francisco publisher Fog Harbor Books, having built her career on the sale of a five-book Young Adult fantasy series by her now-dead best friend. Unfortunately, Cecelia Campbell—CeCe—had the misfortune to die before turning in her final contracted manuscript, which is now missing. Fog Harbor wants to find the missing manuscript, and Ingrid is charged with finding it.
But Ingrid’s grief over CeCe’s death has led to an unusual disability … and one that is potentially career-ending for an editor.
She can’t read. Well, she can read the words. She just can’t comprehend them. So she heads to Port Townsend to work with Joel, CeCe’s cousin and Ingrid’s teenage sweetheart, to retrieve a package she hopes will be the manuscript that will save her career.
This is a romance novel, so we know how the story is going to end.
We also know the course of love is destined to never run smoothly, particularly in terms of Ingrid’s relationship with Joel. It’s safe to say The Words We Lost was anything but predictable, in the best possible way.
I’ve read a lot of novels about novelists, but very few about an editor in a publishing house (the only other one I can recall is Stealing Adda by Tamara Leigh, which was about an author and her editor). As such, I enjoyed seeing the publishing industry shown from a different angle.
I especially enjoyed the fact The Words We Lost was written in first person.
I always find that brings me closer to the characters. Despite her problem with words, Ingrid has a distinctive and compelling character voice … perhaps made more compelling because she’s a professional who has built her career on words but has lost those same words.
The Words We Lost is subtitled A Fog Harbor Romance, and I do hope that means it’s the beginning of a series because there are several characters I’d like to meet again—not least, the ever-peppy Chip, the preppy editorial assistant.
I recommend The Words We Lost to fans of romance/women’s fiction authors such as TI Lowe, Tammy L Gray, Irene Hannon, or Carmen Schober.
Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.
About Nicole Deese
Nicole Deese is an award-winning author who specializes in humorous, heartfelt, and hope-filled novels. When not working on her next contemporary romance, she can usually be found reading one by a window overlooking the inspiring beauty of the Pacific Northwest. She currently resides with her happily-ever-after hubby, two sons, and a princess daughter in Idaho.
Three friends. Two broken promises. One missing manuscript.
As a senior acquisitions editor for Fog Harbor Books in San Francisco, Ingrid Erikson has rejected many a manuscript for lack of defined conflict and dramatic irony–two elements her current life possesses in spades. In the months following the death of her childhood best friend and international bestselling author Cecelia Campbell, Ingrid has not only lost her ability to escape into fiction due to a rare trauma response, but she’s also desperate to find the closure she’s convinced will come with Cecelia’s missing final manuscript.
After Ingrid jeopardizes her career, she fears her future will remain irrevocably broken. But then Joel Campbell–the man who shattered her belief in happily-ever-afters–offers her a sealed envelope from his late cousin, Cecelia, asking Joel and to put their differences aside and retrieve a mysterious package in their coastal Washington hometown.
Honoring Cecelia’s last request will challenge their convictions and test their loyalties, but through it all, will Ingrid and Joel be brave enough to uncover a twice-in-a-lifetime love?
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 All That Really Matters by Nicole Deese, a 2022 Christy Award and ACFW Carol Award winner.
What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?
About All That Really Matters
Molly McKenzie’s bright personality and on-trend fashion and beauty advice have made her a major social media influencer. When her manager-turned-boyfriend tells her of an upcoming audition to host a makeover show for America’s underprivileged youth, all her dreams finally seem to be coming true. There’s just one catch: she has little experience interacting with people in need.
To gain an edge on her competitors, she plans to volunteer for the summer at a transitional program for aged-out foster kids, but the program’s director, Silas Whittaker, doesn’t find her as charming as her followers do. Despite his ridiculous rules and terms, Molly dives into mentoring, surprising herself with the genuine connections and concern she quickly develops for the girls–and Silas. But just as everything seems perfectly aligned for her professional future, it starts to crumble under the pressure. And as her once-narrow focus opens to the deep needs of those she’s come to know, she must face the ones she’s neglected inside herself for so long.
Before I Called You Mine is the story of Lauren, a single elementary school teacher who wants to adopt an orphan from China.
This means staying single, because the adoption agency only allows children to go to single mothers or to couples who have been married more than two years. Single hasn’t been a problem until she meets the substitute teacher across the hall …
In some respects, Before I Called You Mind is a typical contemporary romance novel with a unique application of the “decides to remain single, then meets Mr Perfect” trope. But setting the novel against a backdrop of international adoption introduced a whole bunch of questions, many of them uncomfortable. One of the characters says of a child adopted internationally:
“Leaving the only place she’s ever called home, and the only people who’ve ever cared for her, is a traumatic event. That’s a fact, not an opinion … She won’t know the language, the food, the sounds, the smells.”
International adoption rips a child from everything familiar—their country, their culture, their language, even their name (yes, the main character planned to change her child’s name). That bugged me. What psychological message does that send to a child, that not even their name is theirs and has value? It smacks of a nineteenth-century white saviour complex, where the missionaries converted the natives and changed their names to “Christian” names. I’d hoped we’d got beyond that, but comments about “dark chocolate, almond-shaped eyes” suggested we haven’t.
When I started the novel, I was in two minds about international adoption.
I read plenty of stories about how the US foster care system is crying out for qualified carers. Why choose international adoption when there are thousands of disadvantaged and needy children in the US?
The author herself has adopted internationally, but says the purpose of the novel isn’t to persuade readers to adopt a child from overseas. Rather, it’s to challenge us to find the hard thing that God’s asking us to partner with Him in. Do I think it met that objective? No. But was it a good story? Mostly.
Lauren is torn between her desire to adopt internationally, and her attraction to Joshua … who also happens to be the son of the education expert who inspired many of Lauren’s most successful teaching methods. The family is everything Lauren’s family isn’t—friendly, loving, Christian.
There were times when I didn’t have a lot of sympathy for Lauren and her predicament.
She complains about her family, then insults her mother and wonders why they don’t have a great relationship. She has been working towards adopting an orphan from China for two years, and had been considering it for three years before that, yet had never bothered to learn any Mandarin, or anything about Chinese food or culture.
At the same time, I could empathise with Lauren. She’d been earnestly seeking God and was convinced He placed the idea for international adoption on her heart and brought her into contact with people who could encourage and support her in that journey. Then God throws Joshua in her path, and she starts second-guessing herself. It made fascinating and compelling reading.
Overall, this is a well-written story with great characters and plenty of conflict. It’s memorable, and will definitely make you think.
Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.
About Nicole Deese
Nicole Deese is an award-winning author who specializes in humorous, heartfelt, and hope-filled novels. When not working on her next contemporary romance, she can usually be found reading one by a window overlooking the inspiring beauty of the Pacific Northwest. She currently resides with her happily-ever-after hubby, two sons, and a princess daughter in Idaho.
Lauren Bailey may be a romantic at heart, but after a decade of matchmaking schemes gone wrong, there’s only one match she’s committed to now–the one that will make her a mother. Lauren is a dedicated first-grade teacher in Idaho, and her love for children has led her to the path of international adoption. To satisfy her adoption agency’s requirements, she gladly agreed to remain single for the foreseeable future; however, just as her long wait comes to an end, Lauren is blindsided by a complication she never saw coming: Joshua Avery.
Joshua may be a substitute teacher by day, but Lauren finds his passion for creating educational technology as fascinating as his antics in the classroom. Though she does her best to downplay the undeniable connection between them, his relentless pursuit of her heart puts her commitment to stay unattached to the test and causes her once-firm conviction to waver.
With an impossible decision looming, Lauren might very well find herself choosing between the two deepest desires of her heart . . . even if saying yes to one means letting go of the other.
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Nicole Deese is an award-winning author who specializes in humorous, heartfelt, and hope-filled novels. When not working on her next contemporary romance, she can usually be found reading one by a window overlooking the inspiring beauty of the Pacific Northwest. She currently resides with her happily-ever-after hubby, two sons, and a princess daughter in Idaho.
