Showing posts with label Second Chances. Show all posts

Monday, July 8, 2024

My Thoughts on A Small Town Fourth of July by Janice Carter

About:

His return sets off fireworks…

But will it blow up her dreams?

When Theo Danby returns to Maple Glen to sell his inherited land, Maura Stuart panics. Selling the land could endanger Maura’s beloved donkey therapy business…and expose her secrets. Her only hope is to rope Theo into helping with the Fourth of July festival and make Theo fall in love with their small town. But if she trusts him with the truth, will he stay…or will she lose everything?

From Harlequin Heartwarming: Wholesome stories of love, compassion and belonging.

Home to Maple Glen

My Thoughts:

It never ceases to amaze me all the different ways people make their living. In this particular story, twin sisters, but not identical, have taken up their late father's business, donkey business. Actually, it is a donkey therapy business, which the author addresses in the book, which I found really interesting.

Life seems to have been a little bit stagnant for these characters, their life choices not working out, broken hearts, stuck in the same old same old, etc. Till one fateful day when a long-ago summer friend arrives back in town to take care of his inheritance. Then it seems that his decisions not only affect him and his son, but those of his neighbors, past friends, even the whole town.

I found this story to be not only just a romantic one between the two leads, but also the sisters' relationship with one another, father and son healing, and second chances to achieve your dreams. This was a sweet little story to read for the Fourth of July.

I was provided a copy of this novel from the author. I was not required to post a positive review and all views and opinions are my own.

Monday, June 24, 2024

My Thoughts on The Way Back by Heidi Chiavaroli

About:

Young love means everything . . . until it leaves you with nothing.

The summer before her senior year of high school, Laney Jacobs and her best friend jump from a six-story beachside cliff in an attempt to impress their boyfriends. Laney rose from the water. Her friend did not.

Six years later, when Laney’s troubled mother’s memoir hits the bestseller list airing the family’s destructive secrets, Laney is forced to relive the trauma, this time in the public eye. To escape the scrutiny, she seeks shelter at her estranged grandmother’s seaside inn. But she can’t reconcile the loving woman with the heartless parent in her mother’s book. As she looks for answers, the ex-boyfriend who’d witnessed her darkest days reappears, stirring up both pain and hope.

When her mother's vindictive fans threaten her grandmother's livelihood and the lighthouse Laney has come to love, she turns to the century-old words of a young lighthouse keeper to help her find the courage to move forward. But once truths from the past come to light and old love finds new beginnings, will Laney discover that forgiveness is the only way toward true healing?

My Thoughts:

In The Way Back, we have a story that really delves deep into the familial relationships. Especially those between mother and daughter. Laney Jacobs is a young woman who has not had an easy life. She has never met her father and her mother, for most of Laney’s growing up years, was strung out with whatever vise she could find. Laney felt mostly safe and loved among her best friend Maddie and her boyfriend Jacob, until tragedy struck. Not able to deal with life, Laney begins to self-harm.

Laney leaves her home in California and goes to Maine to meet the grandmother she never knew, especially now, as she wants to find out the truth about what really happened to her mother, now that her mother has written a famous memoir about herself and the lighthouse, she grew up in. Is what her mother says true, knowing her mother, or does her grandmother say something else? Shocking secrets do come out.

There is another young woman’s story we get to learn about along with Laney, written in the pages of a very old journal of a brave young woman lightkeeper. That story as well delved into a mother and daughter relationship and had me mesmerized along with Laney.

I really felt for Laney, the trauma she went through, even in her childhood where she did not have a responsible parent. The shame and guilt she is tackling with after her self-harm, it is heavy on her shoulders. I liked how the author showed us Laney’s continuing healing process, this was needed as the subject at times was heavy.

I never really know what I am going to get with this author’s work. Her stories really pull me in, and even when they broach uncomfortable subjects, she writes with empathy and hope for the characters. I am glad that there is a hope where Laney can experience healing in all of her relationships, find love, and forgive herself. There are some sensitive topics broached in this novel.

I was provided a copy of this novel from the publisher. I was not required to post a positive review and all views and opinions are my own.

Thursday, April 18, 2024

My Thoughts on Love in Tandem by Becca Kinzer

About:

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.

My Thoughts:

It has been a while since I laughed out loud many times over a book and got strange looks from my cat, and this one broke my streak. This was a fun read about a couple of characters who get themselves into quite a conundrum due to a series of comical mishaps and miscommunications that, frankly, all started as a sweet gesture. These two are a little bit stubborn and hardheaded, so they do not choose the way out as a normal person would. No, they keep up the pretense. And thank goodness for that, as this was such a fun story to read.

Charlotte’s last day of school for summer break does not quite unfold the way she hoped. An avalanche of unbelievable mishaps and letdowns begin happening, and she is already facing a tough weekend ahead. Her ex-fiancé is getting married, two years after he broke off their wedding. Now everything else she hoped for in her future is going away as well.

Zach Bryant, the brother of Charlotte's ex-fiancé, has to come back for his brother’s wedding. Even though he would rather not since his brother is marrying his ex-girlfriend. But due to unforeseen circumstances, who should show up at the most inconvenient time, but Charlotte? Or maybe it’s serendipitous? And his fake relationship with Charlotte begins.

With comical adventures ahead of them and heartfelt feelings stirring, we get to go along with Zach and Charlotte on their tandem bicycle adventure as they find out that maybe things worked out the way they did for a reason. Throw in a secondary comical story with Charlotte’s sister, Sophia, and you have a story to lose yourself in for a while.

I was provided with a copy of this novel from Tyndale House Publishers through Interviews & Reviews. I was not required to post a positive review, and all views and opinions are my own.

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

My Thoughts and More on Reclaiming the Spy by Lorri Dudley

About the Book

Book: Reclaiming the Spy

Author: Lorri Dudley

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release Date: August 29, 2023

How can he protect her from himself when she keeps winding up in his arms?

She never gave up hope. After ten years of prayers for her husband, presumed dead in the Peninsula Wars, Abigail Emerson is shocked to discover him alive. Yet what should be the happily ever after of fairy tales becomes a nightmare when he coldly instructs her to forget she’d ever seen him. Abigail refuses to let her beloved slip through her fingers again, and she’s willing to battle for his love, despite the walls he’s created to barricade his heart.

Nicholas Emerson’s time as a spy for the War Office has left physical and mental battle wounds. He can never be the charming, carefree man he once was—the man his wife deserves—but when a threat to Abby’s life returns him to their small Midland village, keeping her safe proves more challenging than expected. If only Abby would forget him and remarry, then he wouldn’t have to face the torment of all the tender, buried feelings she evokes. The consequence of his life as a spy means he can never have her again…

Click here to get your copy!

My Thoughts:

I adored this story and have been waiting for Abby and Nick's story since finishing the first in the series. They have been married for ten years, really only spending one day and night together, their wedding day, before Nick was expected to pay his due to his commission. A reckless decision he made when he purchased that commission, all due to a snide remark that Abby made once upon a time.

Now ten years later, Abby is living on her own having just lost her mother-in-law. She has not given up on her hopes of Nick being alive, even though the crown had a funeral for him and declared him dead. There was no body, and Abby is not quite ready to let the love of her life go.

Nick is a spy, and his next mission has brought him close to home. However, he cannot bear to let Abby see his scars that almost killed him. Nor can he control the night terrors he is suffering because of his PTSD. He does not want to harm her, nor does he want to be sent away to Bedlam and never return. So, he keeps to himself, working missions alone, hoping that Abby will move on with her life.

That is not to be done once Abby finds out her husband is alive. She is willing and will fight the uphill battle for him. She is so thankful her prayers were answered that she views his scars as testament to those answered prayers. But she is fighting alone, as Nick is very hardheaded about his views.

Nick and Abby belong together, Abby and everyone else knows that. Nick needs to realize that too and to fight for his marriage. Ten years have already gone by. This makes for a great fall read as talks and rumors of a werewolf roaming about the woods adds to the drama.

I was provided a copy of this novel from the publisher. I was not required to post a positive review and all views and opinions are my own.

About the Author

Lorri Dudley has been a finalist in numerous writing contests and has a master’s degree in Psychology. She lives in Ashland, Massachusetts with her husband and three teenage sons, where writing romance allows her an escape from her testosterone filled household. Find her online at www.lorridudley.com.

More from Lorri

When writing stories, I delve into research to provide the best experience for my readers, hoping to transport them to another time and setting, in this case, the lush green rolling hills of England’s Cotswolds at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. However, God had an alternative plan for me during my research and writing of Reclaiming the Spy. To prepare for the beginning scene with Mama Em, I read Glimpses of Heaven by Trudy Harris, RN. Trudy Harris was a hospice nurse and wrote about her clients in their final days. I’ve never sobbed through every book chapter quite like I had this one. At the same time, I was encouraged to hear how many of her patients heard glorious music, observed beautiful scenes, had visions of past friends or family members, witnessed angels, or even saw their Savior, Jesus Christ.

I didn’t realize that God was preparing me through my research for my dad to go into hospice care. In his final stages, my dad spoke of seeing his parents in vivid dreams, and thanks to reading about similar situations in Glimpses of Heaven, I know they were waiting to welcome him into heaven. I’m so grateful for how God readied my heart, and I was able to draw comfort in seeing how He blurs the lines of this realm and the next to make for an easier transition. God is good all the time, and I felt his presence beside me the entire way.

I’d initially titled my manuscript Love Never Fails because Abby and Nicholas struggle to learn the qualities of love from 1 Corinthians 13, “Love is patient, love is kind… love believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Nicholas’s debilitating spells and nightmares after serving as a spy in the Napoleonic Wars cause him to fear Bedlam and that he may hurt Abby. Post-traumatic stress disorder wasn’t a mental health diagnosis of the early 1800s, but it did exist. Mental hospitals (or madhouses) were frightening places where inmates were often treated like zoo animals. Spectators would come for enjoyment to stare and laugh at the men and women housed there.

While my parents didn’t have a wartime story like Abby and Nicholas, they shared a love that endured through good and bad times and celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this past year. The last few days my dad was alive, he sang Amazing Grace and to my mom a Doris Day song, I Love You a Bushel and a Peck. They shared a love that never failed, and that is the love I hoped to convey through Abby and Nicholas’s story.

Blog Stops

Alena Mentink, August 30

lalkesidelivingsite, August 30

Melissa’s Bookshelf, August 31

Connie’s History Classroom, August 31

Betti Mace, September 1

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, September 2

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, September 2

She Lives To Read, September 3

Texas Book-aholic, September 4

Sylvan Musings, September 4

Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions, September 5

Locks, Hooks and Books, September 6

The Book Club Network, September 7

Becca Hope: Book Obsessed, September 7

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, September 8

Books You Can Feel Good About, September 8

For Him and My Family, September 9

Lily’s Book Reviews, September 10

Christina’s Corner, September 10

Book Looks by Lisa, September 11

Cover Lover Book Review, September 11

Gina Holder, Author and Blogger, September 12 (Author Interview)

Pause for Tales, September 12

Holly’s Book Corner, September 13

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Lorri is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon Gift Card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/278c0/reclaiming-the-spy-celebration-tour-giveaway

Saturday, August 19, 2023

My Thoughts and More on Love's True Calling by Lori DeJong

About the Book

Book: Love’s True Calling

Author: Lori DeJong

Genre: Contemporary Christian Romance

Release Date: June 27, 2023

After years of jumping through other people’s hoops to be all they thought she should be, and enduring a tragedy no mother should, self-described “newbie” Christian, Harper Townsend, has finally found her true calling … and her true love. Until it appears that to follow one may mean leaving the other behind.

Adolescent Psychologist, Wyatt McCowan, is beyond delighted to have the-girl-that-got-away back in his life, and his heart. But even as they fall more in love, he realizes that being obedient to God’s calling on each of their lives may pull them apart. She rejected him once in favor of another, which left him hurt and angry. But this time, he can’t fault her for following hard after the God she loves with all her heart, even if it means leaving him once again.

Click here to get your copy!

My Thoughts:

Love. What is love really and what can it look like? Well, this is a story of second chances for the main couple and for the kids in their ministry that they are trying to help. It is also of a story of looking past the cover, so to speak, to go skin deep into the life of someone who is hurting. Not to judge a person by their haves or haves not.

Wyatt and Harper had been the best of friends. Then during their teenage years, Wyatt was considered nerdy and picked on, while Harper grew into a beauty. Their friendship broke down after Wyatt confessed his feelings to her and life got out of control. Wyatt left with a bruised, broken heart and a new purpose for life. Harper did what everybody told her to do.

Then one fateful day they meet again, he a professor and she a student. What happens is a whirlwind of getting to know each other again, Harper becoming involved in Wyatt's ministry, and the help they are giving to kids who don't quite fit in. Until Harper, who has learned a thing or two about herself after a terrible heartbreak, sees another need. One Wyatt does not. Are they to be forever apart due to class status?

This was a very uplifting read of growing past life's hurdle, tragedies, and mistakes and pursuing a present and future that is joyous and a help for others. This story does deal with some hard topics such as bullying, suicide, a child's death, and divorce. In the end, will Wyatt and Harper realize that their best work is together? Second chances for everyone.

I received a copy of this novel from the author. I was not required to post a positive review and all views and opinions are my own.

About the Author

Lori enjoys writing stories full of grace and the redemptive power of God’s love that inspire hope, joy, laughter, and perhaps even touch a soul or two to get to know Him better. She resides in Georgetown, Texas, with her husband and two fur-babies and is the mother of one grown daughter. Love’s True Calling is the 2022 winner of the ACFW Genesis Award for Romance.

More from Lori

I’ve had a dream for a very long time. In fact, I had this dream long before I was even doing anything to achieve it! Turns out I’ve wanted to be a published author since the 1990’s. And I didn’t even start writing, join writers’ groups, or attend conferences to learn the craft until 2002. Something inside me apparently knew more than I did when I put on my 1996 long-term goals list: To be a published author.

Fast forward to 2023 and my debut novel is being published. I’m not great at math, but even I know that’s A LOT of years that have gone by since I first identified that long-term goal. So the take-away from that should be, if you set a goal, no matter what it is, make a plan. Immediately. Not years later. Seriously. Don’t be me.

So, I chugged away at this writing goal for a few years, until my husband was laid off when the economy tanked in 2009 and our lives turned upside down. I didn’t write again until 2020, when we found ourselves empty-nesters and I started listening once again to those voices in my head begging me to write their stories.

Which brings me to how my first published novel was born. Would you believe it was homework? True story! When I came back to writing in 2020, I needed to re-hone my skills. So I took an online class that required us to plot an entire manuscript based on our characters’ motivations. What do they want out of life and why do they want it?

That’s how I came up with Wyatt, the high school geek now an accomplished and handsome college professor and adolescent psychologist, and Harper, the high school Miss Everything who’d weathered plenty of storms in her life before going back to school a decade after graduation to finally get her degree. What happens when Wyatt sees the girl who broke his teenage heart sitting in his class?

I plotted out this story as homework, never intending to write it. But I fell in love with these two and they were clamoring for me to tell their story. Two years later, that story won the ACFW Genesis award and is now being published by Scrivenings Press. Best takeaway from that? Never. Ever. Give. Up.

Who knew that a class assignment could bring about the realization of a twenty-some-odd-year-old goal? Make a dream come true? God did. And I’m so glad I listened to Him as I put this story to paper.

I hope you’ll read and enjoy Love’s True Calling, a story of love rediscovered, the joy of finding purpose, and the blessing of obedience.