Tag: Revell

A person’s gift is what they do best with the least amount of effort.

Book Review | The Blooming of Delphinium (Moonberry Lake #2) by Holly Varni

Moonberry Lake florist Delphinium Hayes has a gift, a strength, and a problem. Her gift is her empathy and care when it comes to dealing with difficult people–specifically, the seniors who have invaded her store. Her strength is her knowledge of flowers and their meanings, and her problem is that the bank is about to foreclose on her store and home.

Oh, and Delphinium has synesthesia.

This is a plot device I can only recall reading once before–Kaleidoscope Eyes by Karen Ball, which I loved because of the unique plot device. In Delphinium’s case, she can smell a person’s essential essence or personality. (I don’t know if this is a real variant of synesthesia, but it’s a fascinating plot device).

There were a lot of things to like about The Blooming of Delphinium.

There is some lovely symbolism in the title, given the story is literally about small-town florist Delphinium thriving—blooming—as she encourages the town’s senior population in her shop.

I liked the fact the story was written entirely from Delphinium’s point of view, which gave the story more of a women’s fiction vibe. Introducing a second point pf view (or more) would have given the novel more of a romance vibe and would have given away important aspects of the story.

I loved the way the story wove in the seniors from The Gardens, showing both their foibles and strengths, and reminding us of the challenges of growing older:

The one constant companion of old age is loss. Loss of people, familiarity, and ultimately loss of control.

I especially loved the humour woven throughout the plot. For example:

“This place is a little too flowery for my taste.”
Delphinium gawked at her. “It’s a flower shop.”

There were a few things I didn’t like so much. Delphinium has a tendency to let her emotions get in the way of logic which made her seem immature at times. The writing was occasionally less than polished.

But the thing that bugged me most was the lightweight faith content. Lightweight isn’t necessarily bad, but it can annoy me where there is a romantic element and one of the romantic partners (in this case, Delphinium) clearly isn’t a Christian. I was looking forward to a conversion scene (I can’t remember when I last read a good conversion scene) but was disappointed.

Despite that, The Blooming of Delphinium is an enjoyable story with a unique premise and some solid views on how society deals with the elderly.

The Blooming of Delphinium is the second book in Holly Varni’s Moonberry Lake series, following On Moonberry Lake. I haven’t read On Moonberry Lake and didn’t feel I’d missed anything. There was one scene that introduced Cora, the main character from the previous book, but this is definitely a standalone story.

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

About Holly Varni

Holly VarniHolly Varni is the author of On Moonberry Lake. A native Minnesotan of strong Norwegian descent, she was raised in the Lutheran Church that Garrison Keillor made a career depicting. Though she, her husband, and their three sons live along the Central Coast of California, her beloved Midwest roots continue to haunt everything she writes. She hosts the Moments from Moonberry Lake podcast, where she shares more stories of her beloved characters.

Find Holly Varni online at:

Website | Facebook | Pinterest | Podcast | Twitter

About The Blooming of Delphinium

As far as hidden talents go, Delphinium Hayes is blessed with one of the more unique ones. With the slightest passing whiff, she knows someone’s most admirable or weediest characteristic. This peculiar perception never fails to give her an advantage in life–until she meets two men who turn her world upside down.

Mason McCormack has agreed to help her with a group of seniors who have taken over her flower shop as their hangout. But his assistance is not without its price, and Delphinium agrees to compensate him with beautiful bouquets that seem to possess a bit of dating magic.

Elliot Sturgis, director of The Gardens Assisted Living Facility, is determined to discover why a group of his residents keeps sneaking over to Delphinium’s shop to play poker in the walk-in refrigerator. He soon finds himself as enchanted by Delphinium as everyone else. But his devotion to following the rules and maintaining order does not endear him to the shop’s owner.

Sparks fly as opposites attract and love finds a match in Delphinium’s Flora Emporium–even for those who resist it the most.

Find The Blooming of Delphinium 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

First Line Friday #346 | The Blooming of Delphinium by Holly Varni

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. I’m currently reading The Blooming of Delphinium by Holly Varni, the second book in her Moonberry Lake series.

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

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

About The Blooming of Delphinium

As far as hidden talents go, Delphinium Hayes is blessed with one of the more unique ones. With the slightest passing whiff, she knows someone’s most admirable or weediest characteristic. This peculiar perception never fails to give her an advantage in life–until she meets two men who turn her world upside down.

Mason McCormack has agreed to help her with a group of seniors who have taken over her flower shop as their hangout. But his assistance is not without its price, and Delphinium agrees to compensate him with beautiful bouquets that seem to possess a bit of dating magic.

Elliot Sturgis, director of The Gardens Assisted Living Facility, is determined to discover why a group of his residents keeps sneaking over to Delphinium’s shop to play poker in the walk-in refrigerator. He soon finds himself as enchanted by Delphinium as everyone else. But his devotion to following the rules and maintaining order does not endear him to the shop’s owner.

Sparks fly as opposites attract and love finds a match in Delphinium’s Flora Emporium–even for those who resist it the most.

Find The Blooming of Delphinium 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!

Book Review | The Road Before Us by Janine Rosche

Twenty-nine-year-old Jade Jessup is jobless, homeless, and owns little more than the fancy finance executive wardrobe she wore before she found out her fiancé and his father (her boss) were using her client’s money to finance their extravagant lifestyles through a giant Ponzi scheme.

Jade gets a shot at redemption when Berenice “Benny” Alderidge and her foster son, handsome playboy Bridger Rosenblum, invite her to join them on their roadtrip down Route 66, following Benny’s trip close to seventy years earlier.

The story starts with a Prologue which, honestly, was a little confusing. It’s one of those prologues that turns out to be from somewhere in the middle of the story, but it took a while to work out it was the future.

The story then moves between three timelines: Jade’s present story (told in first person present tense), Jades’s past story (also told in first person), and Benny’s past story (told in first person past tense). I enjoy stories told in first person, but I know not everyone does.

The Prologue, combined with the three timelines, made the story a little hard for me to follow at first.

Perhaps I should have read the book description …

The book description makes it quite clear there are three stories in this novel. However, I did work out the present journey was echoing the past—Benny’s original road trip to Hollywood with the man she later married, and Jade’s less-happy road trip as a child, when she was kidnapped by her father. As such, the time shifts were a clever way of sharing the information and showing the progression of the three stories.

Once I got into the flow of the story, I loved it.

Jade, Benny, and Bridger all had their own emotional journeys. I was fascinated by Bridger’s backstory—I hadn’t known about the Samoan adoption scandal before, and it’s horrible to think of all the people hurt through the lies. I love it when I read a novel and learn something new like this.

Bridger’s backstory was fascinating and tragic, but it came out fairly easily and naturally through the story. Jade’s backstory was fascinating and tragic in a different way, but was far harder to uncover, even though Jade was the main point of view character. It’s a testament to Janine Rosch’s strong writing that it never felt like Jade was hiding information from the reader, even though there were some big surprises in her story.

The writing was excellent, and while the novels wasn’t overtly Christian (in that there was no on-the-page prayers or church services), the story had definite Christian themes. And for the romance lovers out there, there is also a romance subplot …

Recommended for fans of dual (or triple) timeline fiction who don’t mind first person present tense.

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

About Janine Rosche

Janine Rosche - author photo
Janine Rosche is the author of the Madison River Romance and Whisper Canyon series of novels. Prone to wander, she finds as much comfort on the open road as she does at home. This longing to chase adventure, behold splendor, and experience redemption is woven into her stories. When she isn’t traveling or writing novels, she teaches family life education courses, produces The Love Wander Read Journal, and takes too many pictures of her sleeping dogs.

Find Janine Rosche online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest |Twitter

About The Road Before Us

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

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

I’ve been trying so hard to remember, I never thought about the repercussions when I do. Will it all be worth it?

Book Review | With Every Memory by Janine Rosch

I am a sucker for amnesia plots, and this is one of the best I’ve read. While amnesia is serious, many of the novels I’ve read have taken more of a rom-com approach, literary equivalents of Fifty First Dates. With Every Memory is more serious, although there are humorous moments.

Lori lost her memory ten months ago in the car accident that killed her teenage son.

Now she’s heading home after rehab to a sterile house she doesn’t remember, a distant husband, a rebellious teen daughter, and friends she no longer knows. What she does know is that the happy marriage she remembers has disappeared, and she has no idea why.

Avery lost her twin brother in the accident and has been lost ever since.

She’s flunking school and now the principal has threatened that she won’t be able to graduate with her class. He suggests a tutor—the annoying Xander, her brother’s best friend and the guy who put gum in her hair as well as a bunch of other stuff.

With Every Memory is written in first person point of view from Lori and Avery’s points of view. Two characters in first person does take a little getting used to and turns the story into a mix of women’s fiction (Lori’s story) and YA romance (Avery’s story).

Both women’s voices are equally strong in their own way, which is great.

I often find I prefer one character over another in stories like this. Lori’s story is strong, because it’s the amnesia story, and we get to see her gradually recovering her memories and rediscovering herself. Avery’s story is poignant, but also has touches of needed humour.

My favourite character was Xander, Austin’s best friend and Avery’s unwanted tutor, the guy who’s had a crush on her for half of forever. He sticks by Avery even when she’s pushing him away with her words and her actions. I admired him even while I felt sorry for him, because he understood (perhaps better than Avery) that her actions were borne out of grief. Xander wears his heart on his sleeve and is just plain wonderful—the guy any mom would want for their daughter.

Michael, on the hand, is more reserved, and is a workaholic. He justifies himself by saying he’s providing for his family, but Lori can’t help wonder if there’s something more, especially given what her friends say. that adds a tension to their relationship that kept me reading and made the book impossible to put down.

Overall, I loved With Every Memory, and it’s one of those books I’ll enjoy even more the second time through because I’ll know the ending so I’ll be reading with a different mindset.

However, it won’t be right for everyone. It is written in first person, and that’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Also, Lori’s grief over losing her son (and Avery’s grief over losing her twin brother) is a big part of the story, and some people won’t want to read that. There is also a reference to sexual assault.

But forewarned is forearmed, and it’s definitely worth reading for a story of enduring love even in the most difficult times.

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

About Janine Rosche

Janine Rosche - author photo
Janine Rosche is the author of the Madison River Romance and Whisper Canyon series of novels. Prone to wander, she finds as much comfort on the open road as she does at home. This longing to chase adventure, behold splendor, and experience redemption is woven into her stories. When she isn’t traveling or writing novels, she teaches family life education courses, produces The Love Wander Read Journal, and takes too many pictures of her sleeping dogs.

Find Janine Rosche online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest |Twitter

About With Every Memory

Is the Life She Can’t Remember One She’d Rather Forget?

One year after her family was in a tragic car accident that killed her teenage son, Lori Mendenhall returns home with a traumatic brain injury that has stolen the last eight years of memories from her. She is shocked to find that the life she was leading before the accident is unrecognizable. Her once-loving husband, Michael, is a distant workaholic she isn’t sure she can trust and her once-bubbly daughter, Avery, has spent the last year hidden away in her room.

For Avery, life stopped when she lost her twin. Now, if she wants to graduate high school, she’ll have to accept help from Xander Dixon, her brother’s best friend and the boy who relentlessly teased her for years. And if Lori wants to reconnect with her husband, she’ll have to grapple with information her brain is trying to keep secret. With every memory that returns, she can’t help but wonder if the life she can’t remember is one she’d rather forget.

Find With Every Memory online at:

Amazon| BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

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

 

People think I'm simple. But I think they just make things complicated that aren't.

Book Review | Tacos for Two by Betsy St. Amant

Rory Perez hates cilantro and can’t cook, but she’s inherited a food truck specialising Mexican food and she needs the income from the truck to keep her cousin in her care home. Jude Worthington works for his father’s law firm but doesn’t want to take the bar and be a lawyer. He wants to be a chef.

The two are messaging and falling for each other via an app, but they communicate using pseudonyms, so don’t know it. In real life, they are both competing to win the prize in the local food festival—Rory because she needs the money, and Jude because he wants to get out of law.

There were a few things I didn’t like about Tacos for Two. The first  was that I started reading, and I immediately wanted to eat tacos. This is a problem as I had to stop reading and work out if I actually had the ingredients for tacos (yes, I did. Fortunately).

There were a couple of other things I didn’t get. If Jude is twenty-nine years old and hasn’t yet sat the bar exam, what has he been doing since he graduated college? Who is Fiona Stone and why is she mentioned so often (I honestly thought Rory was going to turn out to be Fiona Stone in disguise. She didn’t).

The romance itself was a fun play on You’ve got Mail, a modernised version using an app called Love at First Chat.

It’s a fun romp with plenty of laughs as well as some deeper thoughts on life and faith. As such, it’s an easy read that hits all the right notes and has a satisfying ending.

Tacos for Two by Betsy St. Amant is a fun romp with plenty of laughs as well as some deeper thoughts on life and faith. #BookReview #ChristianRomance Share on X

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

About Betsey St. Amant

Betsy St. Amant Haddox is the author of over fifteen inspirational romance novels and novellas. She resides in north Louisiana with her hero of a hubby, two total-opposite young daughters, a vast collection of coffee mugs, and an impressive stash of Pickle chips. Betsy has a B.A. in Communications and a deep-rooted passion for seeing women restored in Christ. When she’s not composing her next book or trying to prove unicorns are real, Betsy can usually be found somewhere in the vicinity of a white-chocolate mocha–no whip.

Find Betsy St. Amant online at:

Website | Facebook | Twitter

About Tacos for Two

Rory Perez, a food truck owner who can’t cook, is struggling to keep the business she inherited from her aunt out of the red–and an upcoming contest during Modest’s annual food truck festival seems the best way to do it. The prize money could finally give her a solid financial footing and keep her cousin with special needs paid up at her beloved assisted living home. Then maybe Rory will have enough time to meet the man she’s been talking to via an anonymous online dating site.

Jude Strong is tired of being a puppet at his manipulative father’s law firm, and the food truck festival seems like the perfect opportunity to dive into his passion for cooking and finally call his life his own. But if he loses the contest, he’s back at the law firm for good. Failure is not an option.

Complications arise when Rory’s chef gets mono and she realizes she has to cook after all. Then Jude discovers that his stiffest competition is the same woman he’s been falling for online the past month.

Will these unlikely chefs sacrifice it all for the sake of love? Or will there only ever be tacos for one?

You can find Tacos for Two online at:

Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

This entire building is filled with people to trained to appear genuine. It's our job.

Book Review | Lights Out (The SNAP Agency #1) by Natalie Walters

CIA operative Brynn Taylor has almost completed her latest mission— running an international inter-agency program teaching agents from seven countries how to locate and identify domestic terrorists—when one of her students disappears.

Was she really supposed to rely on a bomb expert, a giant techie, a young woman dressed like she'd spent all night at a club, and an ex-boyfriend.

Jack Hudson left the CIA and joined SNAP, the Strategic Neutralization and Protection Agency, a private security firm employing a band of talented misfits that reminded me of CSI characters. Jack is also Brynn’s ex-boyfriend from eight years earlier.

So Lights Out is a second-chance romance.

One of the problems with this kind of plot is that it can be hard to come up with a convincing reason the couple broke up in the first place that still allows room for them to get back together. Often it comes down to a simple misunderstanding that could have been resolved with a single adult conversation, and I thought that was the case with Lights Out.

We realise early in the story that something happened when Brynn and Jack were going through CIA training, but we’re not sure what. When I finally found out, I didn’t think it was convincing. In fact, it gave me the impression Jack didn’t understand one of the key training objectives … which leaves me wondering about his professional competence.

Lights Out by Natalie Walters is a strong suspense story with all the chases and bangs readers want interspersed plenty of banter and a second-chance romance. #ChristianFiction #BookReview Share on X

But that was the only thing that annoyed me. The main plot was a strong suspense story set in and around Washington DC, with all the chases and bangs readers want … interspersed with the comic relief of the banter between the members of SNAP, and the will-they-won’t-they Brynn/Jack relationship.

Recommended for fans of DiAnn Mills and Irene Hannon.

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

About Natalie Walters

Natalie WaltersNatalie Walters is a military wife who currently resides in Hawaii with her soldier husband and their three kids. She writes full-time and has been published in Proverbs 31 magazine and has blogged for Guideposts online. Natalie comes from a long line of military and law enforcement veterans and is passionate about supporting them through volunteer work, races, and writing stories that affirm no one is defined by their past.

Find Natalie Walters online at:

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram | Twitter

About Lights Out

CIA analyst Brynn Taylor developed a new program to combat terrorism, and she invited members of foreign intelligence agencies to America to foster cooperation between countries. Now one of them, Egyptian spy Remon Riad, is missing.

Jack Hudson has been working for the Strategic Neutralization and Protection Agency (SNAP) for almost nine years and takes the lead in hunting down the missing spy. But he isn’t at all pleased to find out Brynn is involved. It’s hard to trust a woman who’s already betrayed you.

Every lead they follow draws them dangerously deeper into an international plot. Kidnapping, murder, explosions, poisoning–the terrorists will do anything to accomplish their goal of causing a digital blackout that will blind a strategic US military communications center and throw the world into chaos.Can Brynn surrender control to a man who doesn’t trust her? And can Jack ever get over what she did to him? The fate of the world–and their hearts–hangs in the balance.

Find Lights Out online at:

Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

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

Book Review | Living Lies (Harbored Secrets 1) by Natalie Walters

I read Living Lies right after reading two other brilliant Christian thriller novels. That may well have been a mistake, because Living Lies didn’t measure up. But the other two novels were both from multi-published award-winning authors, and I fully expect one or both of those other novels to feature in various 2020 award lists. So it may not be a fair comparison, given that Living Lies is the debut novel from Natalie Walters.

Lane Kent is the widowed mother of a young son, and the owner of a small-town bakery. She lives a quiet life, but that changes when she discovers a body in the woods. Charlie Lynch, the new deputy in town, is assigned to the case. This brings him into contact with Lane and her son. The police think the case a suicide at first, but it soon becomes apparent that it’s a murder … a murder to hide another crime.

Living Lies is one of the few Christian novels I’ve read that depicts mental health issues in a realistic way.

In addition, it was refreshing to see Christian fiction where the mental health issue wasn’t PTSD resulting from the hero’s time in military service in some place with more sand than water. After all, Christian fiction readers tend to be women, so it’s good and healthy to see a romance novel dealing with an all-too-common mental health issue that affects women as much as or more than men.

But there were a few things which bothered me.

One was the heroine’s name: Lane Kent. Every time I saw it, my brain thought “Lois Lane and Clark Kent”. Yeah, that’s weird. But it is what it is. Another botheration was a research fact: I’ve heard (from a forensic pathologist) that Jane Does are identified by fingerprints, dental records, or DNA—not by distraught parents (apparently, distraught friends and relatives have a nasty habit of getting IDs wrong, especially when bodies have been in the woods for a few days).

The final botheration was Lane’s father’s attitude towards her depression. He came across overbearing and controlling for most of the novel. I later realised this was the attitude of a caring and protective father who didn’t know how to deal with something he didn’t understand, but by then the damage had been done. I’d been set up to not like him, and I didn’t.

Overall, Living Lies was a solid first novel that addresses issues most Christian fiction ignores.

It was perhaps a bit too careful to tick all the plot and character boxes (but that’s better than the opposite), and I’ll look forward to seeing what Natalie Walters can produce next.

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

About Natalie Walters

Natalie WaltersNatalie Walters is a military wife who currently resides in Hawaii with her soldier husband and their three kids. She writes full-time and has been published in Proverbs 31 magazine and has blogged for Guideposts online. Natalie comes from a long line of military and law enforcement veterans and is passionate about supporting them through volunteer work, races, and writing stories that affirm no one is defined by their past.

Find Natalie Walters online at:

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram | Twitter

About Living Lies

In the little town of Walton, Georgia, everybody knows your name–but no one knows your secret. At least that’s what Lane Kent is counting on when she returns to her hometown with her five-year-old son. Dangerously depressed after the death of her husband, Lane is looking for hope. What she finds instead is a dead body.

Lane must work with Walton’s newest deputy, Charlie Lynch, to uncover the truth behind the murder. But when that truth hits too close to home, she’ll have to decide if saving the life of another is worth the cost of revealing her darkest secret.

Debut novelist Natalie Walters pulls you to the edge of your seat on the first page and keeps you there until the last in this riveting story that will have you believing no one is defined by their past.

Find Living Lies online at:

Amazon US | Amazon AU | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Kobo icon| Koorong

Read the introduction to Living Lies below:

#ThrowbackThursday | Missing Isaac by Valerie Fraser Luesse

It’s Throwback Thursday, and today I’m sharing my January 2018 review of Missing Isaac by Valerie Fraser Luesse. It was an outstanding debut novel from this Southern author, and I’m looking forward to reading and reviewing her second novel, Almost Home, which releases this week.

Valerie Fraser Luesse’s writing style runs counter to some modern conventions.

She uses dialect and non-standard spelling. There are unnecessary adverbs and repetition. The dialgoue tags are often clunky. The point of view is often distant, and slips into omniscient at times.

Yet Missing Isaac works despite these “errors”. Or perhaps because of them.

When Pete’s father dies in a farm accident, Pete’s relationship with Isaac is the one thing that keeps him going. It didn’t matter that Isaac was only a field hand, or that he was black—even in 1960’s Alabama.

But when Isaac disappears, leaving only his truck, no one seems much inclined to find out what happened. Except Pete.

Missing Isaac doesn’t fall neatly into any one genre. It’s part mystery, as Pete tries to find the truth of what happened to Isaac. It’s part family saga, as Pete grows up, and part romance, as he meets Dovey. And it’s part historical fiction, in that it’s a story set in a time far removed from ours, in terms of culture and attitude, if not years.

The writing is strong, with a unique and lyrical style, and a lot of home truths. This line struck me as particularly relevant:

Quote from Missing Isaac

It’s Dovey talking to Pete—the privileged white boy/man who doesn’t understand his privilege because it’s all he’s ever known. It could equally be talking to those in the modern world who don’t understand why #MeToo or #BlackLivesMatter are newsworthy.

Missing Isaac is a strong debut novel, with a solid story driven by strong characters and set in a time of great social change. Recommended.

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

About Valerie Fraser Luesse

Valerie Fraser Luesse is an award-winning magazine writer best known for her feature stories and essays in Southern Living, where she is currently a senior travel editor. Her work has been anthologized in the audio collection Southern Voices and in A Glimpse of Heaven, an essay collection featuring works by C. S. Lewis, Randy Alcorn, John Wesley, and others.

As a freelance writer and editor, she was the lead writer for Southern Living 50 Years: A Celebration of People, Places, and Culture. Specializing in stories about unique pockets of Southern culture, Luesse has published major pieces on the Gulf Coast, the Mississippi Delta, Louisiana’s Acadian Prairie, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Her editorial section on Hurricane Katrina recovery in Mississippi and Louisiana won the 2009 Writer of the Year award from the Southeast Tourism Society.

Luesse earned her bachelor’s degree in English at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, and her master’s degree in English at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. She grew up in Harpersville, Alabama, a rural community in Shelby County, and now lives in Birmingham.

About Missing Isaac

There was another South in the 1960s, one far removed from the marches and bombings and turmoil in the streets that were broadcast on the evening news. It was a place of inner turmoil, where ordinary people struggled to right themselves on a social landscape that was dramatically shifting beneath their feet. This is the world of Valerie Fraser Luesse’s stunning debut, Missing Isaac.

It is 1965 when black field hand Isaac Reynolds goes missing from the tiny, unassuming town of Glory, Alabama. The townspeople’s reactions range from concern to indifference, but one boy will stop at nothing to find out what happened to his unlikely friend. White, wealthy, and fatherless, young Pete McLean has nothing to gain and everything to lose in his relentless search for Isaac.

In the process, he will discover much more than he bargained for. Before it’s all over, Pete–and the people he loves most–will have to blur the hard lines of race, class, and religion. And what they discover about themselves may change some of them forever.

Find Missing Isaac online at:

Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong 

Read the introduction to Missing Isaac below:

Click here to find Missing Isaac and other great Christian fiction at my Amazon store!

#ThrowbackThursday | Thin Ice by Irene Hannon

It’s Throwback Thursday! Today I’m resharing my review of Thin Ice by Irene Hannon. This review originally appeared at Suspense Sisters Reviews.

Thin Ice started with a bang and didn’t let up all the way right to the last page. Lance McGregor is a brand new FBI agent who finds himself with a mystery involving Christy Reed, an attractive ice skater who appears to be receiving letters from her sister, who supposedly died in a house fire two months earlier. Lance and Christy are both excellent characters, and their mutual attraction almost sizzles on the page.

Hannon adds to the tension by including scenes from the viewpoint of the kidnapper, and these were well done: too many novelists give their evildoers horrific childhoods, as though that is to blame for their adult actions. Hannon shows that while this antagonist did have a difficult upbringing, he was also a cruel boy who has grown up to be a cruel man who blames others for his less-than-perfect life.

It’s classic Irene Hannon

A strong hero with a military background (and the emotional baggage that brings), a beautiful yet self-sufficient heroine who understands people (especially the hero), a suspense-driven plot with plenty of unpredictable twists and turns, and a strong underlying romantic tension. Add in a good dose of Christian faith, and you’ve got a classic Irene Hannon novel. She’s one of my favourite romantic suspense authors, and she delivers another winner with On Thin Ice. Recommended for romantic suspense fans.

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

About Irene Hannon

Author Photo: Irene Hannon

Irene Hannon is the best-selling author of more than 35 novels. Her books have been honored with the coveted RITA Award from Romance Writers of America, the HOLT Medallion, the Reviewer’s Choice Award from Romantic Times BOOKreviews magazine and the Daphne du Maurier Award for mystery/suspense. Irene and her husband make their home in Missouri, USA.

Find Irene Hannon online at:

Website | Facebook | Twitter

About Thin Ice

After losing her parents in a car accident and her sister to a house fire, Christy Reed has been mired in grief. Life is finally starting to feel normal again when an envelope arrives in the mail–addressed in her sister’s handwriting. And the note inside claims she is still alive.

FBI Special Agent Lance McGregor, a former Delta Force operator, is assigned to reopen the case, but he’s coming up with more questions than answers. If Ginny Reed is still alive–who is the woman buried in her grave? Where is Ginny? And is Christy a pawn in a twisted cat-and-mouse game–or the target of a sinister plot? As he digs deeper, one thing becomes clear: whoever is behind the bizarre ruse has a deadly agenda.

You can find Thin Ice online at:

Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

You can read the introduction to Thin Ice below:

Quote from A Secret to Die For: My name's Grace Callahan and someone's just broken into my house.

Book Review | A Secret to Die For by Lisa Harris

Another Gripping Thriller from Lisa Harris

Psychologist Grace Callahan suspected her client Stephen Shaw might be suffering from paranoia … but she reconsiders after a masked man breaks into her house looking for the key Shaw supposedly gave her.

It’s Detective Nathaniel Quinn’s first day back on the job when he’s assigned a suicide case that turns out to be murder. The victim is Stephen Shaw, and Grace’s business card is in Shaw’s pocket. It turns out that Nate used to be friends with Grace and her ex-husband.

Shaw worked in computer security and was also contracted to the FBI … or was he? A cryptic telephone message leads Grace and Nate on a chase to find the killer before the killer finds her.

A Secret to Die for is Christian romantic suspense at its best. The suspense starts on page one and doesn’t let up, while the the romantic thread takes a little longer to get going (which is appropriate. I’m always suspect of the relationships that begin in a high-stress situation, because I’m not convinced they’ll last). The Christian element is an underlying theme that gets more and more pronounced as the story progresses.

Overall, A Secret to Die for is another great romantic suspense novel from Lisa Harris. Recommended for fans of Irene Hannon and Diann Mills.

As an aside, I’m seeing a lot of suspense titles with these pink/purple covers with white text, and I love the effect!

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

About Lisa Harris

Lisa HarrisI’m a wife, mom, teacher, author, dreamer, photographer, world explorer, but most importantly a follower of Christ Jesus.

I currently live with my husband near the Indian Ocean in Mozambique where we work as church-planting missionaries. We’ve started the empty next stage with two children spread around the globe and a third—thankfully—still at home.

As a homeschooling mom, life is busy, but I see my writing as an extension of my ministry which also includes running a non-profit organization.

The ECHO Project works in southern Africa promoting Education, Compassion, Health, and Opportunity and is a way for us to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves…the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice.” (Proverbs 31:8)

When I’m not working l love hanging out with my family at the beach, playing games, cooking different ethnic dishes, and heading into the African bush on safari.

Find Lisa Harris online at:

Website | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter

About A Secret to Die For

Psychologist Grace Callahan has no idea that she has a secret–one worth killing for. But when she finds out one of her clients has been murdered, she quickly realizes that the computer security specialist wasn’t simply suffering from paranoia.

Detective Nate Quinn has just been cleared for active duty after a bombing killed eighteen people, including his partner, and left him dealing with PTSD. His first case back on the job involves the murder of Stephen Shaw, and his only lead turns out to be an old friend, Grace Callahan–and her life is in grave danger. Someone believes Shaw gave his psychologist information before he died. Information they are willing to kill for.

With her signature pulse-pounding suspense, Lisa Harris takes readers deep into the heart of fear in this race against the clock.

Find A Secret to Die For online at:

Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

Read the introduction to A Secret to Die For below:

Click here to check out A Secret to Die For and other great Christian fiction at my Amazon shop!