Month: November 2015

Reading is an interesting venture. I liken it almost to the fashion industry. What’s in one year is perhaps out the next…usually because everyone’s wearing it.

In this case, for me, what’s out is broken heroines. Ironically, enough I may never get enough of broken heroes….

The reason I think I’m over broken heroines is because, as a female reader, it is the heroine that I am supposed to identify with. And sometimes, as a reader, I don’t feel like being broken.

When I read a novel, I want it to be like Calgon…take me away. I think a broken heroine may work for a few chapters, but if she’s still broken by the 50% mark on my kindle, I’m usually very perturbed.

It’s hard for the novel to get any rhythm or to move forward. But this is just my two cents. Anyone who reads my blog knows I’m harder on the girls than the boys.

What are your thoughts? Read any broken heroines lately?

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I’m so thankful for a lot of things: my God, my family, my friends, my health, my books, my blog, my blog readers, my book readers, books….everything!

It’s been a bit of a slow year blog wise, I’ve needed some time to step back, but here’s to another year of bigger and better!

I DNF’d (placed in my do not finish book pile) a book this week. A book I had really looked forward to. A book by a legit favorite author of mine. I kid you not that I own all of her books (with the exception of two) and that I have reread most of her books several times. But this latest book had me like this:

The whole time I was reading it, all I could think was

Like the dialogue literally gave me a headache. The author in question is usually traditionally published, but she decided to self-publish this one. That meant this book was riskier and edgier (and kinda boring) for the Christian market. Anyone who reads this blog knows I love edgy Christian reads. But the key word here is Christian. We should be in this world not of it. And the problem with traditional publishing houses is that they pretend that we’re not in this world. The problem with this book is that it pretended like we were of it. The things this main character did were mind-blowing for a believer. AND IT IS POSSIBLE, that she corrected in the end. I just didn’t want to go on the journey with her to find out.

So, have you ever DNF’d a book? Why? or Why not?

 

Roxie Sunshine Hardy is perfectly happy living in Philadelphia, far away from her hometown. Growing up as a chubby nerd obsessed with classic literature, Roxie finally feels like she’s found her place in the world. She’s kept her full name a secret and has never, ever, ever told a single soul how she spent her high school years. People might think growing up in a family bakery is delightful, but Roxie knows the reality. Spending countless sweaty afternoons inside Sunshine Bakery’s big, pink foam cupcake costume is the stuff of her nightmares.
Those terrible days are behind her now, but when her family needs her, Roxie decides to return to Natchitoches. She assures herself that it’s only for a few weeks, and there isn’t a snowball’s chance in Dante’s Inferno that she’ll have to get into that cupcake suit.
Moving from New York City to Natchitoches shouldn’t be a problem for Andy McBride. The slower pace, Creole culture, and friendly locals make up for the lack of any good Thai take-out. But Andy hasn’t counted on how much he’d miss his brother, Mark. He can’t uproot Mark from his group home for the mentally disabled back in New York, so Andy tries to go on as usual. To everyone else, including his fascinating neighbor from Philly, he’s living the carefree life of a wealthy bachelor, but Andy is haunted by the knowledge that Mark might not be around for much longer.
When an unlikely friendship blossoms with Sunshine Bakery’s anonymous dancing cupcake, Andy decides to stop pretending to be someone he’s not. He learns seizing the day isn’t just for poets, and life is too short to be without the people you love. A story of family, loyalty, and a true love that can’t be disguised, A Star to Steer By will warm your heart.

How does the band Bleu Streak celebrate the holidays? By singing, of course. Go on tour with this zany group as they get into all kinds of mischief along the way.
Oh…
And Maverick King? Oh yeah. This devilishly handsome drummer gets a special gift for Christmas. The trouble is trying to convince Izzy Walker to allow him to have her…

From the minute Grace Evangeline throws her sweet tea in Devin Bressard’s face, their battle of wits and cross-purposes overtakes their lives. Sassy “angelic” Grace Evangeline will stop at nothing to see her romance novel produced for Broadway. Devin Bressard knows all about the commercial success of Ms. Evangeline’s “novels”—as far from his literary, nerve-striking plays as anything could be.
Grace intends to pull his head out of the rarified air long enough to make her point, even if it involves stalking him and infiltrating his friends and colleagues. Devin knows she’s trouble, but who would guess the spokesperson for strength and virtue would be a calamity vortex? He mounts a fierce resistance, but when he’s forced to work with Grace, his profession and sanity aren’t the only things at risk. Collapsing walls on both sides bring a détente that could shatter their bond—or resound through more lives than their own.

What are you reading this week?

 

What happens when a margrave realizes he’s fallen in love with a servant?

The Margrave of Thornbeck has to find a bride, fast. He invites ten noble-born ladies from around the country to be his guests at Thornbeck Castle for two weeks, a time to test these ladies and reveal their true character.

Avelina is only responsible for two things: making sure her deception goes undetected and avoiding being selected as the margrave’s bride. Since the latter seems unlikely, she concentrates on not getting caught. No one must know she is merely a maidservant, sent by the Earl of Plimmwald to stand in for his daughter, Dorothea.

Despite Avelina’s best attempts at diverting attention from herself, the margrave has taken notice. And try as she might, she can’t deny her own growing feelings. But something else is afoot in the castle. Something sinister that could have far worse—far deadlier—consequences. Will Avelina be able to stop the evil plot? And at what cost?

Sophie Dupont, daughter of a portrait painter, assists her father in his studio, keeping her own artwork out of sight. She often walks the cliffside path along the north Devon coast, popular with artists and poets. It’s where she met the handsome Wesley Overtree, the first man to tell her she’s beautiful.

Captain Stephen Overtree is accustomed to taking on his brother’s neglected duties. Home on leave, he’s sent to find Wesley. Knowing his brother rented a cottage from a fellow painter, he travels to Devonshire and meets Miss Dupont, the painter’s daughter. He’s startled to recognize her from a miniature portrait he carries with him–one of Wesley’s discarded works. But his happiness plummets when he realizes Wesley has left her with child and sailed away to Italy in search of a new muse.

Wanting to do something worthwhile with his life, Stephen proposes to Sophie. He does not offer love, or even a future together, but he can save her from scandal. If he dies in battle, as he believes he will, she’ll be a respectable widow with the protection of his family.

Desperate for a way to escape her predicament, Sophie agrees to marry a stranger and travel to his family’s estate. But at Overtree Hall, her problems are just beginning. Will she regret marrying Captain Overtree when a repentant Wesley returns? Or will she find herself torn between the father of her child and her growing affection for the husband she barely knows?

Review

I am now convinced that Julie Klassen loves drama. Regency drama that is. I mean, her last book Lady Maybe, just had me in shock the whole time. From her books I have learned that regency ladies were not as um…virtuous as we have supposed or Klassen really likes the complex characters.This was no different.

What I liked:

The quick marriage. I like married couple books, even if its a marriage of convenience. It’s kind of nice knowing who the ‘guy’ is right away (that is, if this was a normal book, there’s a bit of a question as to who the guy is in this one). I liked watching Captain Overtree and Miss Dupont learn of each other. When you’re married, you’ve got no real excuse.

Class issues. Because, it’s not regency if there are no class issues.

Romance. It was filled with complexity, but the two people who ended up together in the end really needed to be together.

Slight mystery. There are strange things going on at Captain Overtree’s house. It adds an almost gothic feel to the novel.

Ironically enough, the drama. Generally speaking I hate drama, but I think I’ve come to expect it and appreciate it in a Julie Klassen book. One minute the book made me want to cry:

And then the next thing I knew I wanted to through it across the room:

And then characters made decisions that left me confused.

But honestly, all of it was kind of fun.

Spiritually, I enjoyed watching one character’s strong faith and the other character learning of God.

What I didn’t like:

The only thing I didn’t like was that I wanted more time between the love interests.

Romantic Scale: 8

Overall, so much fun to read. I never know what’s going to happen next. I’m beginning to think that Klassen’s covers are not right. They make the book look all calm and docile and that’s simply not the case. Read this one, you’ll enjoy the ride.

** I received a copy from Netgalley. My opinion was not affected in anyway.**

Take some time today and check out these books that honor those who served:

Roseanna M. White (Revolutionary War and War of 1812)

Laura Frantz (Revolutionary War)

Margaret Daley (War of 1812-From This Day Forward)

Lynn Austin (Civil War)

Gilbert Morris (Civil War & others)

Maureen Lang (WWI)

Sarah Sundin (WWII)

Bodie & Brock Thoene (WWII)

Lori Wick (WWII, Every Storm)

Cathy West (Vietnam War)

1990s on-

L.K. Malone

Ronie Kendig

Gayle Roper

Dee Henderson

Anyone want to add to the list?

Deputy Sheriff Michael Keane doesn’t particularly enjoy being touted as the hero of Hidden Springs after pulling a suicidal man back from the edge of the Eagle River bridge in front of dozens of witnesses–a few of whom caught the breathtaking moments with their cameras. But the media hype doesn’t last long as a new story pushes its way into the public consciousness of Hidden Springs’ concerned citizens.

Photos of a dead girl arrive in the mail, and Michael becomes convinced she was murdered by the man he saved. With a killer one step ahead, things in Hidden Springs begin to unravel. Now Michael must protect the people he loves–because the killer could be targeting one of them next.

Katie Fisher is ecstatic. Pro basketball star Brady James has proposed, and she can’t wait to start planning their life together. She’s confident she’ll make it down the aisle this time–but it still may be easier said than done. A high-society Houston bride has Katie and the Cosmopolitan Bridal team scrambling to get the perfect dress done in time for her spectacular wedding. Meanwhile, Katie finds herself bombarded with everyone’s competing visions regarding her own special day–and she’s beginning to worry that her own ideas will get lost in the crossfire. Will she ever manage to settle all of the details for her perfect day? Or will bridal shop chaos and overzealous friends and family make a mess of everything?

Though it means giving up the chef’s job at her uncle’s small town Italian restaurant in Washington, Tia D’Amico is thrilled to move to San Francisco to help her aunt with a new business venture: transforming an old luxury yacht into an upscale floating restaurant. The icing on the cake is that Leo Parker, Tia’s crush from a long-ago sailing camp, has been hired as the yacht’s captain. The only problem is that he’s engaged to someone else.

Tia hides her feelings and rolls up her sleeves as she sets out to make her aunt’s dream a reality. But as the tide turns on Leo’s relationship, does Tia dare hope he might set a course for her heart?

After a devastating layoff, attorney Eric Nash heads back to the town where he grew up–only to discover that his childhood home is being transformed into a bed & breakfast. Instead of plotting his next career move in peace, he’s constantly distracted by noise, chaos–and BJ Stevens, the attractive but prickly blonde architect and construction chief who’s invaded the house with her motley crew.

As for BJ, her client’s son might be handsome, but after a disastrous romance, dating isn’t high on her agenda. Yet when they join forces to create a program for Hope Harbor seniors, might they also find healing, hope, and a new beginning themselves?

Leta Breckenridge is forced to drop out of college to care for her dementia-ridden mother. After learning a severely delinquent account may force her mother into a less desirable facility, Leta steps out of her comfort zone and lands a high-paying job at an Austin public relations firm. But her dream job turns into a nightmare when she learns the firm is a front for a political opposition machine–and that the research she’s been collecting will be used against her new love interest, Nathan Emerson.

Nathan is a rising political star being pressured to run a bid to unseat the current governor of Texas. He’s already in a relationship with a woman much better suited to be a politician’s wife, but he’s never met anyone like Leta. Could this feisty, challenging woman hold the key to his heart?

Some of these authors I have either never read, or have stopped reading. Is there anyone that I should go back to or start?

A volunteer for the newly established Weather Bureau, Sophie van Riijn needs access to the highest spot in her village to report the most accurate readings. Fascinated by Dierenpark, an abandoned mansion high atop a windswept cliff in the Hudson River Valley, Sophie knows no better option despite a lack of permission from the absent owners.

The first Vandermark to return to the area in sixty years, Quentin intends to put an end to the shadowy rumors about the property that has brought nothing but trouble upon his family. Ready to tear down the mansion, he is furious to discover a local woman has been trespassing on his land.

Instantly at odds, Quentin and Sophie find common ground when she is the only one who can reach his troubled son. There’s a light within Sophie that Quentin has never known, and a small spark of the hope that left him years ago begins to grow. But when the secrets of Dierenpark and the Vandermark family history are no longer content to stay in the past, will tragedy triumph or can their tenuous hope prevail?

Review

I love, love, love Elizabeth Camden novels because I know I’m going to get a smart heroine, a unique hero, and some fascinating history. My thoughts:

• Beauty and the Beast. Though this book is different than Beauty and the Beast, upon finishing the novel, I felt like I had read Beauty and the Beast. And I loved that feeling because Beauty and the Beast is my absolute favorite fairytale.
• Histories mysteries. The backdrop of this novel concerns what took place between two brothers about two hundred years before the novel took place. Even though I guessed a part of it, I didn’t guess all of it and I found myself as invested as the characters in finding out what happened.
• Romance. This was a romance that was built about friendship and respect (hence my love for Beauty and the Beast). Sophie may have been beautiful but that was not what drew Quentin. And well…Quentin didn’t have a lot of redeeming qualities at first glance, but you slowly come to love him.
• Secondary characters. It’s not often an author can make me care about secondary characters as much as the main characters, but here I found myself valuing every page that Quentin’s grandfather and son were.
• Generational curses. There’s an element of the supernatural that is discussed here that somehow manages to add suspense to the story.
• Spiritually, I loved watching certain members of the novel get introduced and later fall in love with Jesus. Salvation stories can sometimes feel corny, but this didn’t feel corny to me in anyway. It was slow-going, but very profound.

Romance scale: 8.9

Overall, I loved the characters, I loved the situation, and I loved this book.

**I received a copy of this book from Netgalley. My opinion was not affected in anyway.**

From the minute Grace Evangeline throws her sweet tea in Devin Bressard’s face, their battle of wits and cross-purposes overtakes their lives. Sassy “angelic” Grace Evangeline will stop at nothing to see her romance novel produced for Broadway. Devin Bressard knows all about the commercial success of Ms. Evangeline’s “novels”—as far from his literary, thought-provoking plays as anything could be.

Grace intends to pull his head out of the rarified air long enough to make her point, even if it involves stalking him and infiltrating his friends and colleagues. It’s research, after all. Devin knows she’s trouble, but who would guess the spokesperson for strength and virtue would be a calamity vortex? He mounts a fierce resistance, but when he’s forced to work with Grace, his profession and sanity aren’t the only things at risk. Collapsing walls on both sides bring a détente that could shatter their bond—or resound through more lives than their own.

It’s been so long since a Kristen Heitzmann novel came out!!!! So Excited!!!