Tag: Thomas Nelson

First Line Friday

First Line Friday #370 | So Into You by Kathleen Fuller

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. I’m reading a review copy of So Into You by Kathleen Fuller, who is more well-known for her Amish romances. It looks like this is her first venture into rom-com, and I’m looking forward to reading it.

Here’s the first line from Chapter One:

Lights? Check. Sound? Check. Script? Check?

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

About So Into You

Opposites attract when an introverted vlogger and a reformed party boy exchange lessons on art, confidence, and yacht rock.

Artist Britt Branch has a successful online channel where she teaches a variety of art lessons. Obsessed with the 1970s, she has a style all her own. But she also has a huge problem–severe social anxiety. She lives with her mom, and while she pays her own bills, she wonders if she’ll ever have the courage to move out and move on. When her best friend announces she’s getting married, Britt decides it’s time to make a change.

Gorgeous Hunter Pickett has always skated by on his model looks, applying very little effort to anything except sports, and even that was iffy at times. The third son of extremely wealthy and successful parents, he dealt with being the black sheep of the family by drinking and using drugs. By his third year of sobriety, he’s still dealing with aimlessness. Late one night he catches Britt’s channel and ends up watching her videos. He’s not interested in art . . . at first. And when he sends her an online message, he’s surprised she responds. Before long they are chatting every day, and once they start meeting in person, a spark-filled friendship begins.

But both of them are keeping secrets. Big ones. When all truths are revealed in one pivotal moment, Britt and Hunter are at a crossroads. Will he fight for the happiness he’s worked so hard to obtain? And will she continue to hide from life, or can she finally step out of her own shadow?

Find So Into You online at:

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Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

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

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His little sister had obviously never been anywhere near the vicinity of love. It didn’t started with mutual dislike. It began with attraction.

Book Review | Before We Were Us by Denise Hunter

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

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

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

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

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

Oops.

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

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

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

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

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

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

About Denise Hunter

Denise HunterDenise 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:

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About Before We Were Us

She can’t remember. He can’t forget.

Before We Were Us by Denise Hunter

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

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

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

Find Before We Were Us online at:

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Book Review | It’s All Relative by Rachel McGee

High school English teacher Helena Crosby needs a plus-one for her mother’s wedding, so invites workmate and best friend Landon Blake to go with her. She needs someone to introduce to The Perfects, as she has dubbed the family her mother is marrying into.

Amelia is a successful architect who singlehandedly kept her family together after the death of their mother three years ago, and who has planned the entire wedding and all associated activities.

Helena and Amelia are polar opposites–Helena is always late, and Amelia is always early. Amelia has lists for everything, while Helena can barely read a list (which did leave me wondering how she could possibly teach high school). Anyway, the two have little to no relationship because they have so little in common. Well, except for the small problem of Helena having a giant secret crush on Gage, Amelia’s fiance.

That could have been slightly eww-ish, but McGee made it work.

They arrive on Indigo Island, off the coast of Florida, where they immediately discover Amelia is none other than Mia, Landon’s college ex, the girl he never got over.

That sets the scene for some relationship puzzles.

Some romances give the game away by having only two point of view characters. It’s All Relative had four: Helena, Amelia, Landon, and Gage, which meant it was less clear who would end up with whom.

While there is a romance subplot, the main plot was more about family relationships and the relationship between Helena and Amelia. the story started with Helena so it felt like she was the one we were supposed to want to succeed, even when she did things that seemed a little silly (mostly because they didn’t fit Amelia’s timetable or lists).

The publisher is pitching It’s All Relative as A Midsummer Night’s Dream meets 27 Dresses, but I wouldn’t have picked that if they hadn’t said so.

It’s more a meeting of opposites and the ensuing complexities.

It’s a rom-com with a little more emphasis on the com than the rom, but it’s really a story of family relationships and the expectations we place on ourselves and others. It’s a fun read. The one fault is that there were no faith elements–it was a clean read, but not a Christian romance.

Recommended for readers looking for a feel-good clean read with comedic elements.

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

About Rachel McGee

Rachel McGeeRachel Magee writes rom-coms and women’s fiction with relatable characters, witty dialogue, and plenty of happily-ever-afters. Her stories are usually set in fun, sunny locations where she doesn’t mind spending lots of time ‘researching’. When she’s not out scouting the setting of her next book, you can find her at home in The Woodlands, Texas with her amazing husband and their two adventurous kids.

Find Rachel McGee online at:

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About It’s All Relative

Helena’s a “fly by the seat of her pants” kind of girl. Amelia’s got her perfect life planned down to the minute. How will they ever get through their parents’ wedding–let alone a life as stepsisters–without ripping each other apart?

Twenty-seven-year-old Helena Crosby is over her mom Nora’s wedding–and it hasn’t even happened yet. For months, Helena’s been dreading the day she and Nora would become part of The Perfects, aka the Maddox family, led by oldest perfect daughter Amelia. Her complete opposite in every way, Amelia owns a house, runs her father’s architecture firm, and is engaged to her also perfect (and dreamy) fiancé Gage, all before the age of thirty. Helena has no idea how she’s going to fit into this family with their fancy traditions and strict timetables. Thankfully, her best friend Landon is joining the festivities as her emotional support plus one–and the perfect buffer between her and her new family.

Amelia Maddox has spent months planning the perfect wedding week for her dad Steve and his bride-to-be Nora. She’d planned for every consistency . . . except for her new free spirited stepsister’s deadly shellfish allergy, her brother’s insistence on blowing up his life, and an unexpected guest on Helena’s arm. A guest she hasn’t seen in years. A guest who held her heart years before her fiancé Gage ever did . . . her ex Landon Blake. But no matter–Amelia’s kept the Maddox family together since her mother died a few years ago. She’s not going to be thrown by Landon’s deep blue eyes and sun-bronzed forearms and the way he makes her feel all warm and cozy, like she’s come home to herself. Nope. She has duties to attend to: being the best daughter, sister, fiancée, boss, and wedding coordinator. And she’s going to bring her Eldest Daughter Energy to it all and push down those inconvenient feelings, no matter what.

Through a whirlwind week of wedding activities and a few near disasters, both Amelia and Helena realize that sometimes the blueprints for the perfect family and relationship look better on paper than in real life–and that family isn’t only made of the people you’re born with. Family is also made of the people we choose over and over again.

Find It’s All Relative online at:

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You have to find the things that fulfil you. Energize you. No matter what life you make for yourself, find some margin for those kinds of things.

Book Review | The Summer of Yes by Courtney Walsh

The Summer of Yes is the first book I’ve read in a long time that I finished then immediately re-read (okay, so I started from around a third of the way through the second time, but still.)

The story starts in New York City, where assistant editor Kelsey has woken up in hospital two days after being hit by a car. She’s immediately worried that she’s missing an important meeting at work …

Her hospital roommate is Georgina Tate, a famous businesswoman and founder of a cosmetics empire.

The entire story is told in first person point of view–Kelsey’s story and  Georgina’s story.

I found that a little confusing at first, because I missed the first time the story switched from Kelsey to Georgian (despite the big chapter heading). But once I got used to the two points of view, it wasn’t an issue.

The first part of the story had a women’s fiction feel, given Kelsey’s career revelation, the two female points of view, and the use of first person. The second half had more of a romance feel, thanks to the introduction of a single man who was simultaneously every Hallmark cliche and a unique and well-rounded character.

While the story isn’t overtly Christian (there are a handful of mentions of God), it’s an inspiring call to reconsider our priorities, and to not say “no” (or “yes”) to everything.

Recommended for contemporary Christian romance readers, especially those who can’t say no.

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

About the Author

Courtney WalshCourtney Walsh is a novelist, theatre director, and playwright. She writes small town romance and women’s fiction while juggling the performing arts studio and youth theatre she owns with her husband. She is the author of thirteen novels. Her debut, A Sweethaven Summer, hit the New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller lists and was a Carol Award finalist. Her novel Just Let Go won the Carol in 2019, and three of her novels have also been Christy-award finalists. A creative at heart, Courtney has also written three craft books and several musicals. She lives in Illinois with her husband and three children.

Find Courtney Walsh online at …

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About The Summer of Yes

Sometimes you’re so busy writing other people’s stories that you can lose the plot of your own.

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

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

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

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

So begins the Summer of Yes.

Find The Summer of Yes online at:

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I’m Cat Cranwell. Half owner of the platform about to take the world by storm. And famous for a living.

Book Review | Famous for a Living by Melissa Ferguson

Cat Cranwell is an online influencer who is unceremoniously cancelled when the new social network she’s promoting is found to be selling data.

My first impression of Cat was shallow.

My second impression was that she was clever enough to know she really should read a contract before signing it … but not clever enough to stand up for herself and insist that she (or her lawyer) actually read the contract. I almost stopped reading at this point. In fact, I did stop reading, only to return to the book several months later.

Anyway, Cat’s uncle invites her to his small town in Montanna, where he has a job she can do while she waits for the hullabaloo to die down. He’s the head Park Ranger for Kannery National Park, and hires Cat to reenergise their social media profiles and marketing in general.

So Cat catches a flight to the middle of nowhere, taking more suitcases than she should reasonably have been allowed to check in. (Who needs six suitcases to go anywhere?) She meets her uncle’s quirky colleagues, including the elusive Zaiah Smith.

Famous for a Living had the same city-girl-meets-country-boy grumpy sunshine plot and overall vibe as Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other. Brynn and Sebastian’s story had them both as point of view characters, while Cat’s story is told entirely in first person from her point of view.

I found that a little hard going … and I say that as someone who usually loves first person.

I think my problem was that I found Cat annoying and unlikeable for the first third of the book. She mellowed slightly in the middle third and was quite likeable by the end (although I still don’t see what Zaiah saw in her, or vice versa).

The cover gives off definite rom-com vibes, and there were some funny lines and even funny scenes. The writing was good and occasionally great, although there were a few times I had to backtrack because it felt like I’d missed something important (like Zaiah giving any indication he was romantically interested in Cat. Or vice versa). As such, the story was definitely more com than rom.

The story did make some solid points about social media use and addiction.

However, I would have liked to have seen that spread more evenly throughout the story. I guess it could be argued that the whole story was a warning against social media addiction, but that wasn’t the impression I got.

Famous for a Living is categorised as Christian fiction, and I kept waiting for Cat–or Zaiah, or anyone–to show some kind of Christian message (like how we, as Christians, should look to God rather than social media for love). But it never came. Yes, I guess it was a clean and wholesome romance, but I would have liked to have seen more of a faith element, and much more of a romance.

If you enjoy rom-coms from authors like Bethany Turner, then you may enjoy Famous for a Living.

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

About Melissa Ferguson

Melissa Ferguson

Find Melissa Ferguson online at:

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About Famous for a Living

She’s Insta-famous. He uses a flip phone.

When her business partner is accused of serious financial crimes, superstar influencer Cat Cranwell—an engineered marvel of beauty, energy, and fun—falls from her penthouse perch. Des­perate to get away from the online trolls and paparazzi docu­menting her disgrace, Cat accepts her uncle’s offer to work with him in Kannery National Park, Montana. About as far as possible from life as she’s known it.

Cat’s world shifts from the swirling haze of likes and comments to lit­eral blizzards of frostbite temperatures and waist-deep snow. In place of negotiating brand deals, she finds herself negotiating at the ledge of a frozen lake with her die-hard Polar Bear Plunge coworkers. Instead of padding through the marble kitchen of her Manhattan loft, she’s sharing a tent-sized cabin with a roommate eager to bond like characters in sitcoms. But something curious is also happening in this overwhelming breath of fresh air as she reacquaints with the most honest parts of her­self and begins to ask the hard questions. Can Cat love herself with, and without, the world watching?

Then there’s that other tiny problem—she’s falling for Zaiah, the ruggedly handsome park ranger—and he hates anything remotely connected to social media, quite possibly her included.

Written with bestselling author Melissa Ferguson’s signature wit and charm, this laugh-out-loud romantic comedy of opposites attract is full of hilarious romp and a romance that will melt readers’ hearts.

Find Famous for a Living online at:

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First Line Friday

First Line Friday #260 | Authentically Izzy by Pepper Basham

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 Authentically Izzy by Pepper Basham. It’s an epistolary novel, a genre I enjoy and would love to see more of.

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

This is a cautionary tale. A tale of family, literary classics, podiatry, matchmaking, Shakespeare, and distance.

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

 

About Authentically Izzy

Dear Reader,

My name is Isabelle Louisa Edgewood—Izzy, for short. I live by blue-tinted mountains, where I find contentment in fresh air and books. Oh, and coffee and tea, of course. And occasionally in being accosted by the love of my family. (You’ll understand my verb choice in the phrase later.) I dream of opening my own bookstore, but my life, particularly my romantic history, has not been the stuff of fairy tales. Which is probably why my pregnant, misled, matchmaking cousin—who, really, is more like my sister—signed me up for an online dating community.

The trouble is . . . it worked. I’ve met my book-quoting Mr. Right, and our correspondence has been almost too good to be true. But Brodie lives across an ocean. And just the other day, a perfectly nice author and professor named Eli came into the library where I work and asked me out for a coffee. I feel a rom-com movie with a foreboding disaster nipping at my heels.

But I’ve played it safe for a long time. Maybe it’s time for me to be as brave as my favorite literary heroines. Maybe it’s time to take the adventures from the page to real life. Wish me luck.

Authentically,

Izzy

Find Authentically Izzy online at:

Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

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

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She was beginning to wonder if loving a man like Michael was truly worth all she had given up.

Book Review | Something Good by Vanessa Miller

Well, there’s plenty of conflict in Something Good.

Jon-Jon’s family is suffering financial because of his injuries in an accident that wasn’t his fault. Their insurance won’t pay for the operation he needs, and they’re not getting any help from Alexis Marshall, the woman who caused the accident.

Alexis wants to help, but her husband won’t let her because he thinks it will affect his big business deal. He’s too busy trying to present a perfect persona, which impacts on Alexis’s relationship with her mother.

Marquita Lewis has had a tough upbringing, with a mother who has serious mental health issues and who hasn’t been taught a lot of what we might think are the basics of life. When she shows up on the Marshall’s doorstep, it challenges them all.

The overriding theme of Something Good is implied by the title.

God can bring something good out of even the worst of circumstances if we let him. It’s a great theme, and the novel does a great job of showing this at the big-picture level.

My problems with Something Good were in the detail.

First, this book has a plot that shouldn’t be allowed to happen. I will admit to Kiwi privilege here: I live in a country with “socialist” national healthcare as well as separate state-funded medical insurance for those injured in accidents. As such, it grates that Jon-Jon’s medical expenses cause his family such financial stress. It’s a sad indictment on “the land of the free” that this plot is  possible and all-too believable.

Second, there were a lot of editing issues e.g. misspelled words (e.g. Epson salt), awkward tense changes (maybe they’re in italic in the paper version, but they weren’t in my ebook review copy), repetition (arms and hands flailing in consecutive paragraphs, as though the sentence was moved but the original sentence not deleted), and weird dialogue tags (objected, joked).

But the main problem the dialogue—it felt wooden, unnatural, and inconsistent with the characters. The quality of the editing was an unpleasant surprise, because Thomas Nelson novels are usually edited to a much higher standard. The editing drew me out of the story many times which is a shame, because Something Good is a powerful story that deserves to be read.

In particular, I found Alexis an inspiring character.

Why? Because of her determination to hold onto God despite her circumstances, and her habit of praying her way through the bad times. I found that encouraging, and it’s great to see Thomas Nelson returning to their heritage of novels displaying strong Christian values. More, please!

Meanwhile, I look forward to exploring some of Vanessa Miller’s extensive list of previous novels.

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

About Vanessa Miller

Vanessa MillerVanessa Miller is a bestselling author, with several books appearing on Essence Magazine’s Bestseller’s List. She has also been a Black Expressions Book Club Alternate pick and #1 on BCNN/BCBC Bestsellers’ List. Most of Vanessa’s published novels depict characters that are lost and in need of redemption. The books have received countless favorable reviews: “Heartwarming, drama-packed and tender in just the right places” (Romantic Times Book Review) and “Recommended for readers of redemption stories” (Library Journal).

Find Vanessa Miller online at:

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About Something Good

When three women find their lives inextricably linked after a terrible mistake, they must work together to make the most of their futures.

Alexis Marshall never meant to cause the accident that left Jon-Jon Robinson paralyzed—but though guilt plagues her, her husband hopes to put the past behind them. After all, he’s in the middle of selling a tech business—and if Alexis admits to texting while driving, the deal could collapse and cost them millions. Meanwhile, Alexis’s life is not as shiny and perfect as it may seem from the outside. She has secrets of her own. As she becomes consumed with thoughts of the young man she hit, can she reconcile her mistake with her husband’s expectations?

Trish Robinson is just trying to hold it together after the accident that left Jon-Jon dependent and depressed. As the bills pile up, Trish and her husband, Dwayne, find themselves at odds. Trish wants to forgive and move on, but Dwayne is filled with rage toward the entitled woman who altered their lives forever. Trish can’t see how anything good can come from so much hate and strife, so she determines to pray until God intervenes. Then one afternoon Marquita Lewis rings their doorbell with a baby in her arms and changes everything.

Vanessa Miller’s latest inspirational novel reminds readers that differences may separate us, but if we cling to each other, God can bring something good out of our very worst moments.

You can find Something Good 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!

First Line Friday

First Line Friday | Week #223 | Something Good by Vanessa Miller

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 Something Good by Vanessa Miller, a new-to-me author. Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

These gluten free, avocado-toast-eating-green smoothie-drinking bougie country folk got on Marquita Lewis's last nerve.

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

 

About Something Good

When three women find their lives inextricably linked after a terrible mistake, they must work together to make the most of their futures.

Alexis Marshall never meant to cause the accident that left Jon-Jon Robinson paralyzed—but though guilt plagues her, her husband hopes to put the past behind them. After all, he’s in the middle of selling a tech business—and if Alexis admits to texting while driving, the deal could collapse and cost them millions. Meanwhile, Alexis’s life is not as shiny and perfect as it may seem from the outside. She has secrets of her own. As she becomes consumed with thoughts of the young man she hit, can she reconcile her mistake with her husband’s expectations?

Trish Robinson is just trying to hold it together after the accident that left Jon-Jon dependent and depressed. As the bills pile up, Trish and her husband, Dwayne, find themselves at odds. Trish wants to forgive and move on, but Dwayne is filled with rage toward the entitled woman who altered their lives forever. Trish can’t see how anything good can come from so much hate and strife, so she determines to pray until God intervenes. Then one afternoon Marquita Lewis rings their doorbell with a baby in her arms and changes everything.

Vanessa Miller’s latest inspirational novel reminds readers that differences may separate us, but if we cling to each other, God can bring something good out of our very worst moments.

You can find Something Good online at:

Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

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

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She'd had exactly four dates since high school, all of them forgettable.

Book Review | Much Ado About a Latte by Kathleen Fuller

Anita Bedford is happy in her job as a waitress at the Sunshine Diner in the small town of Maple Falls, even if it means working with Tanner Castillo, her high school crush and first kiss. But she wants to prove to her family and herself that she can do more, by buying the abandoned building next door to the diner and opening a cafe that sells proper barista coffee.

(I can only assume both rent and property are extremely cheap in Maple Falls, because every other novel I’ve read with a waitress as the heroine has shown her living paycheck to paycheck and barely able to afford rent, let alone buy a building. Or perhaps she’s got the only waitressing job in North America that pays a living wage).

Tanner Castillo’s father died when he was a child, so he and his mother have been working two jobs since forever to make ends meet and to give Tanner’s younger brother the opportunity to go to college. But he’s managed to save some money as well, because he wants to buy the Sunshine Diner and drag it into the twenty-first century with new decor and proper coffee.

Well, it’s not hard to see where the story is going and that there are problems ahead.

There’s plenty of room for tension—romantic and otherwise. The story delivers that in spades, helped by two compelling main characters who can’t both succeed …

I had a couple of reservations about the novel. First, there is a scene where a character drinks three cocktails in a very short space of time, and there are the obvious consequences. I know many Christians drink and I’m sure some drink too much, but this scene felt out of place in what I thought was a Christian rom-com. Such a scene might have fit in a novel with a theme around the dangers of excess alcohol, but I didn’t think it fit here. Of course, that statement assumes the novel is Christian fiction. While it’s categorised as Christian romance, there was nothing especially Christian about it except one character who teaches Sunday School.

The other thing I didn’t like was the ending. It felt rushed, and I thought the epilogue felt forced.

Much Ado About a Latte by Kathleen Fuller delivers romantic tension in spades, helped by two compelling main characters who can't both succeed. #BookReview #ChristianRomCom Share on X

But the other 90% of the novel was great fun, with plenty of humour and several excellent side characters. The romance builds well, and all the tension only makes the eventual payoff sweeter.

This is the second book in the Maple Falls series. I haven’t read the first, but this was a standalone novel and I didn’t feel like I’d missed anything.

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

About Kathleen Fuller

Kathleen Fuller

With over a million copies sold, Kathleen Fuller is the author of several bestselling novels, including the Hearts of Middlefield novels, the Middlefield Family novels, the Amish of Birch Creek series, the Amish Letters series, the Brides of Birch Creek series, the upcoming Mail Order Brides of Birch Creek, as well as a middle-grade Amish series, the Mysteries of Middlefield. She has also contributed to numerous novella collections.

She and her husband James live in Arkansas and have three adult children. When she’s not writing, Kathleen is avidly crocheting, reading, and traveling, sometimes all at the same time. She runs the Facebook group Books & Hooks, which combines her love of books, crochet, and collecting recipes that she’ll never have enough time to make.

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About Much Ado About a Latte

A coffee war is brewing in Maple Falls, where Anita and Tanner are serving up plenty of steam to keep the town buzzing.

Anita Bedford needs to face reality. It’s time to decaffeinate the dream that she and Tanner will ever be more than friends. Growing up in small-town Maple Falls, she’s had a crush on Tanner for years. But he’ll only ever see her as good, old, dependable Anita. Now she’s finally ready to make her own goals a reality. In fact, that deserted building next door to Sunshine Diner looks like a promising location to open her own café.

Tanner Castillo may know how to operate a diner, but he doesn’t know beans about love. After pouring his life savings into buying the Sunshine Diner, he needs to keep his mind on making a success of it and supporting his widowed mother, not on kissing Anita Bedford. First order of business: improve his customers’ coffee experience. Next, he should probably find out who bought the building next door.

It’s a bitter cup to swallow when ambition turns longtime friends and coworkers Anita and Tanner into rivals. Now that they own competing businesses, how could they ever compete for each other’s hearts? Or will the two of them come to see what’s obvious to the whole, quirky town of Maple Falls: potential for a full-roast romance, with an extra splash of dream?

Welcome to Maple Falls, where everyone knows your name and has thoughts on your love life.

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Quote from State of Lies: Not too many employers were looking for quantum physicists. People tended to look at you strangely when you spoke of things like time travel, parallel dimensions, and wormholes as matters of fact.

Book Review | State of Lies by Siri Mitchell

It’s been a while since I’ve read a novel by Siri Mitchell. Her first novels were contemporary Christian romance, and I enjoyed the writing and the humour. She then moved into Christian historical romance. I read a couple and enjoyed Flirtation Walk, but didn’t enjoy the other—I didn’t like the characters, and found the language bloated when compared with her contemporary reads. However, after reading the other reviews, I see mine was a minority opinion.

I then read and enjoyed The Miracle Thief, the first of two general market historical novels released under the pen name of Iris Anthony. I thought it was a wonderful story, and was pleasantly surprised to find it actually had more Christian content than many of the Christian novels I read (and I’m not sure what it says about the publishing industry that the Christian publishers weren’t prepared to publish a novel featuring miracles, but a general market publisher was).

And now Siri Michell is back, and writing in a fourth genre: romantic suspense.

State of Lies is published by Thomas Nelson, part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, and is like many current Thomas Nelson books: well-written with a great plot and characters, but no overt Christian content. Despite that, it’s a great read.

Georgia Brennan is a physicist in Washington, DC. She’s married to Sean, a historian, is the mother of six-year-old Sam, and the daughter of a US Army general who might just be the next secretary of defence. Life is great.

Sean is killed in a car accident on his way to pick up a part he needed to fix the kitchen sink.

Months later, when Georgie goes to fix the sink, she realises Sean was lying. That starts Georgie following a trail of lies and leaves her questioning everything she knows to be true.

The novel is Georgie’s story, written in first person point of view. She is an intelligent woman, which is something I always like to see in fiction. She is a strong character with a strong voice, a voice which drives the narration forward without slowing the pace.

State of Lies is a brilliant thriller, with political and military links as befits the Washington DC setting. It’s well-written, with excellent characterisation, and just the right balance between red herrings and genuine clues … along with plenty of surprises. I like to be able to figure some things out when I read a thriller or suspense novel, but I also like to be wrong occasionally.

I hope this is the first of many suspense novels from Siri Mitchell. Recommended for fans of the Criss Cross series by CC Warrens, and the If I Run trilogy by Terri Blackstock.

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

About Siri Mitchell

Siri MitchellSiri Mitchell is the author of 14 novels. She has also written 2 novels under the pseudonym of Iris Anthony. She graduated from the University of Washington with a business degree and has worked in various levels of government. As a military spouse, she lived all over the world, including Paris and Tokyo. Siri is a big fan of the semi-colon but thinks the Oxford comma is irritatingly redundant.

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About State of Lies

The secrets of those closet to us can be the most dangerous of all.

Months after her husband, Sean, is killed by a hit-and-run driver, physicist Georgie Brennan discovers he lied to her about where he had been going that day. A cryptic notebook, a missing computer, and strange noises under her house soon have her questioning everything she thought she knew.

With her job hanging by a thread, her son struggling to cope with his father’s death, and her four-star general father up for confirmation as the next Secretary of Defense, Georgie quickly finds herself tangled in a political intrigue that has no clear agenda and dozens of likely villains. Only one thing is clear: someone wants her dead too.

The more she digs for the truth, the fewer people she can trust.

Not her friends.

Not her parents.

Maybe not even herself.

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