The Hunted Hare by Fay Sampson - Reviewed!

ABOUT THE BOOK:  (from Monarch Books)
Pennant Melangell lies at the head of a mountain valley in North Wales. It consists of a church, with the medieval shrine and pilgrimage site of St Melangell, a few cottages - and a newly constructed hotel, The House of the Hare, built by its imposing director Thaddeus Brown. To the House of the Hare come Aidan and Jenny Davison, with their seven-year-old daughter Melangell. Jenny is dying of cancer, but is determined to live life to the full while she can. She looks forward to using the hotel's archery range. Thaddeus Brown's new centre has provoked fierce opposition. When Brown is found dead, an arrow in his eye, suspicion falls first upon Lorna, his vulnerable young niece, and then upon an eccentric and passionate local man. Then young Melangell goes missing - The first of a series of new mysteries featuring Aidan and Melangell and set in what Fay Sampson describes as the 'thin' places of the Celtic world.

My Thoughts:

I am always THRILLED to find a new mystery author to savor, and Fay Sampson is one such author.  Her Aiden Mystery series begins with The Hunted Hare, and I will eagerly anticipate the next book in the series!  I love the setting (North Wales), I love the people, and I love the fact that the villain is hidden right until the last pages! That is a GOOD mystery!

I also love the fact that the Davison family is walking a path that no one ever wants to walk, and that they have come to a place dear to their hearts to make life long memories with their daughter.  Even though their trip is turned on its ear several times, and they face personal trials as the mystery escalates, the reader is given a delightful town and its people to enjoy along the way.  The Davison family are well-developed and the reader comes to care for them a great deal in the course of the story.

The ultimate question: will healing be found at the end of the journey?  Will the family survive their trip in tact? I highly encourage readers who are looking for a fresh mystery series to choose Fay Sampson’s Aidan Mysteries!  I have thoroughly enjoyed my visit to North Wales and the House of Hare! 

About the Author:

Fay Sampson was born in Plymouth, UK, in 1935, the daughter of a Royal Marine bandsman. She grew up in Lympstone, a farming and fishing village on the Exe. She graduated in mathematics at the University College of the South-West, now Exeter University. She taught in high schools in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, and married Jack Priestley. They went to a teacher training college in Northern Rhodesia/Zambia, where their two children were born. After their return to Exeter, Fay began writing, as well as teaching part-time.

In 1987 she left teaching to write full-time and began to write novels for adults as well, often based on myths and legends. She has also published four books on church history, using the research for her novels.

She lives with her husband in a Tudor cottage in mid-Devon. Her hobbies are family history, walking, and activities at her Methodist church.

Learn more about Fay at her website!

The Breath of Dawn by Kristen Heitzmann - REVIEWED

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing The Breath of Dawn Bethany House Publishers (November 1, 2012) by Kristen Heitzmann

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

From the time my dad taught me to read at sit-on-the-floor school when I was four—launching me past kindergarten into 1st grade—I have loved learning and expressing what I know through art, music, and especially writing. Education came easily, and I grew accustomed to having my work read and displayed. But breaking out of the family mold, I left college to marry my husband Jim (celebrating our 29th this year.) Since then, life and all kinds of research have provided the grist for my stories. We have three awesome adult kids, and one incredible teenager. (You might think I’m biased, but ask anyone who knows them.)

While home schooling my four kids, I wrote my first novel. I pitched it for publication, and it became the first of a five book historical series. Since then, I have written three more historical novels and nine contemporaries. The Still of Night was nominated for the Colorado Book Award. The Tender Vine was a Christy Award finalist and Secrets won a Christy in 2005.

People often ask why I started writing, and I say to get the stories out of my head. Some say they’d like to write a book, but I say if you’re not wracked with labor pains, there are easier ways to express yourself. Being a writer is a solitary, eccentric, and often compulsive path. But I wouldn’t trade it for anything.



ABOUT THE BOOK

Kristen Heitzmann Delivers Powerful New Romantic Suspense

Morgan Spencer has had just about all he can take of life. Following the tragic death of his wife, Jill, he retreats to his brother's Rocky Mountain ranch to heal and focus on the care of his infant daughter, Olivia. Two years later, Morgan begins to make plans to return to his home in Santa Barbara to pick up the pieces of his life and career.

Quinn Riley has been avoiding her past for four years. Standing up for the truth has forced her into a life of fear and isolation. After a "chance" first meeting and a Thanksgiving snowstorm, Quinn is drawn into the Spencer family's warm and loving world, and she begins to believe she might find freedom in their friendship.

The man Quinn helped put behind bars has recently been released, however, and she fears her past will endanger the entire Spencer family. As the danger heightens, she determines to leave town for the sake of the people who have come to mean so much to her.

Fixing problems is what Morgan Spencer does best, and he is not willing to let Quinn run away, possibly into the clutches of a man bent on revenge. But Morgan's solution sends him and Quinn on an unexpected path, with repercussions neither could have anticipated.

My Thoughts:

“Sometimes you just act.”  (p 427)

When Morgan Spencer speaks these words, he is speaking a profound truth and acknowledging a profound shift in his heart.  Kristen Heitzmann has created a character in Morgan Spencer that just gets into your soul!  He is a person who reaches out to others, gives his very best to everything, yet he is a man who has experienced such great loss, that his growth and healing are like a precious gift within the story. Heitzmann gives you every nuance, every emotion, every significant change in such a realistic way that by the time you reach the end of the story, you’ve shed your fair share of tears for Morgan – both in sorrow and in joy.

Quinn Reilly is the other major character painted upon the canvas of this story, and, like Morgan, she becomes someone you learn to love a great deal.  Her experiences within the story are both emotionally difficult and heart-poundingly frightening - for it is Quinn who is threatened by a very subtle enemy and a deadly set of circumstances.  There are several chapters that threaten to take her out of the story all-together!

Once again, Heitzmann has created a host of characters that the reader comes to care for very deeply, then she sets up situations that have you racing toward the end of the story with your heart pounding, and your breathing rather faulty!  Romantic suspense is an art that this author has perfected, and The Breath of Dawn will keep her fans happily reading well into the night!  Bravo!!! 

If you would like to read the first chapter of The Breath of Dawn, go HERE.

Soul's Gate by James L. Rubart - REVIEWED

About Soul's Gate: 

Book 1 in the Well Spring series.

"Every now and then we get a break from reality. A glimpse into the other world that is more real than the reality we live in 99 percent of our days. The Bible is about a world of demons and angels and great evil and even greater glory."

What if you could travel inside another person's soul? To battle for them. To be part of Jesus healing their deepest wounds. To help set them free to step boldly into their divinely designed future.

Thirty years ago that's exactly what Reece Roth did. Until tragedy shattered his life and ripped away his future.

Now God has drawn Reece out of the shadows to fulfill a prophecy spoken over him three decades ago. A prophecy about four warriors with the potential to change the world . . . if Reece will face his deepest regret and teach them what he has learned.

They gather at a secluded and mysterious ranch deep in the mountains of Colorado, where they will learn to see the spiritual world around them with stunning clarity-and how to step into the supernatural.

Their training is only the beginning. The four have a destiny to pursue a freedom even Reece doesn't fully fathom. But they have an enemy hell-bent on destroying them and he'll stop at nothing to keep them from their quest for true freedom and the coming battle of souls.

Buy your copy of the book HERE!

My Thoughts:

“You are life.  We need it.  You are freedom.  We long for it.  You are truth.  We have to have it.  Come now, Spirit of God.  Come now, Jesus.  Come, Abba.  We invite you in to do what you would do.  So be it.”  (Reece’s prayer early in the novel)

Oh reader, don’t read this book as you would some fairy tale.  I almost did.  And then I realized the truth that was captured in this story.  And it blew me away.  True, the Soul’s Gate journey is fiction in a literal sense, but the truth that all Christians are in a warfare against evil is very true.  Spiritual battles can and should be waged.  Believers need to believe God’s Word as truth and live in the victory that comes from listening to and obeying the Holy Spirit.

Soul’s Gate is an amazing story that, if you will open your heart and mind, will have a profound effect on your spiritual life.  I loved the brokenness of each of the characters.  I loved the way they wrestled against sharing the truth.  I loved the way that the truth did indeed set them free.  I love the fact that God has placed a “Reece” in my life at this moment, and I will be paying close attention to their guidance.

I’ll close with more words from Reece: “We are living in the midst of an epic battle that will not end till the new heaven and the new earth are revealed.  There are no neutral zones; there is no Switzerland in this fight.  And sticking our heads in the sand is not an option.”  VERY TRUE!! VERY TRUE!! Read this book! Seriously!

About the Author:

James L. Rubart is a professional marketer, speaker, and writer. While being the owner of Barefoot Marketing certainly keeps him on his toes, his passion is writing fiction.

Rubart is an ECPA best-selling author who has been positively reviewed by both Publisher's Weekly and Romantic Times. His first novel, Rooms, won a Best Books 2011 award from USA Book News, as well as a Romantic Times Book Reviews Reviewers Choice Award. His debut release was followed by Book of Days and The Chair. Soul's Gate is Rubart's fourth release.

In addition to being an author, Rubart is also a photographer, guitarist, professional speaker, golfer and semi-pro magician. With all of this, he says that he barely sleeps. Rubart lives with his wife and sons in the Pacific Northwest.

Find out more about Jim at http://jimrubart.com/.

Julie Elias - A Wild Rose - REVIEWED!

“I’ve always believed you can hear words, but you can feel music,” says Elias. “What is a relationship with God without feeling His presence through your entire being? Sometimes songs can touch you in a way that words cannot."  (from Julie's website - go to the website to read her full bio!)

My Thoughts:

When the storms won’t subside

When my heart breaks inside

I will look up, yet fall on my knees

With your Word in my hands

On your truth I will stand

My shelter, redeemer, my friend…I am yours.  (from the Chorus of I am Yours)

Julie Elias has answered God's call on her life, and the songs she has written and that she performs on A Wild Rose are evidence of the grace of God in her life as she has answered His call!  I have been ministered to, challenged, encouraged and just thoroughly blessed by every song on this album!

I love the way the songs switch tempo, and reflective mood.  All of the songs on this album are a form of praise in its most amazing fullness, and the truths contained in each song are scripturally sound and reflect the redeeming work of Christ in the life of His child.  

This would make an awesome gift of encouragement to any believer, and will satisfy a wide variety of musical tastes!

When Your Husband in Addicted to Pornography: Healing Your Wounded Heart

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today's Wild Card author is:

Vicki Tiede

and the book:

When Your Husband Is Addicted to Pornography: Healing Your Wounded Heart

New Growth Press (October 1, 2012)

***Special thanks to Blythe Daniel for sending me a review copy.***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Author Vicki Tiede, MEd, MMin, is a Bible teacher, speaker, author and a contributing author for five other books. Vicki is also a wife, homeschooling mom, and women’s ministries coordinator at her local church in Rochester, Minnesota.

Visit the author's website.

SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:

When your husband is struggling with pornography, after the shock wears off, you are still left feeling shattered and betrayed. Writing from personal experience, author Vicki Tiede guides readers through the intricate steps of finding hope and spiritual healing in the arms of the Almighty despite a husband's daily choices.

Product Details:
List Price: $15.99
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: New Growth Press (October 1, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1936768631
ISBN-13: 978-1936768639

My Thoughts:

There are vitally important books being written that address a current plague on society  - pornography addiction.  Vicki Tiede has written a very honest, heart-healing book about this topic that will be life-changing no matter your perspective.  If your life and your marriage has been touched by this plague, you need to buy a copy of this book – TODAY!  There is life that God has planned for you after you walk this very devastating path, and Vicki’s book will equip you for the journey.

.

Be prepared to dive into God’s Word, and approach the devastation of your life with honesty and openness, and healing will, in fact, begin.  It is not an easy nor pain-free path, but if God has allowed this to touch your life, He will provide the tools for healing to take place.

This is a hugely important book, and I cannot begin to tell you how it has touched my heart!  This was a God-appointment in my life, and I am rejoicing that I have been given the opportunity to promote this book!!

AND NOW...TO READ THE FIRST CHAPTER, PLEASE PRESS LOOK INSIDE:

LOOK INSIDE

A Thousand Sleepless Nights - by Micheal King - REVIEWED!

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing A Thousand Sleepless Nights Realms (October 16, 2012) by Michael King

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

When Mike Dellosso won a one-year battle with colon cancer he set out to help readers of his books discover it before they had to go through what he experienced.

“I want others to avoid what I had to go through,” he says. “It was an experience that taught me a lot about myself, others, and God, but one I wouldn’t want to repeat. If I can help even one person battling this disease, it would have been worth it.”

Mike set about writing a novel quite different from what his fan base had come to expect from him. Not a thriller, but a character-driven novel, so he wrote it under a pen name, Michael King, and entitled it A Thousand Sleepless Nights. His publisher, Charisma Media, went for it and the first copies went on sale in October.

Mike’s next step was to determine whether a partnership between him, Charisma Media, and the Colon Cancer Alliance was possible. This month both announced their cooperative fundraising venture, with Charisma Media making a significant contribution to CCA and Mike committing a portion of the proceeds from the book through December to CCA.

Speaking about A Thousand Sleepless Nights Mike says, “I want people to see colon cancer (and all the other cancers) for the monster it is, but also to show it does not need to defeat us. There is hope, there is strength, and there is courage and love. And though cancer may rob us of our physical vitality, it has no power over our spirit.”

ABOUT THE BOOK

In the 1970s, escaping a home where he knew nothing but violence and hate, Jim Harding found work, and love, on the largest horse ranch in Virginia. The object of his affections, Nena St. Claire, is the daughter of the owner—a man who ruled his ranch with an iron fist and would do whatever it took to keep Nena and Jim apart.

Against the wishes of her family, Nena marries Jim, and after her father dies, she sacrifices everything—including her family—to keep the ranch alive. Now their three grown children have lives of their own and want nothing to do with Nena. She was never the mother they needed.

When cancer strikes and Nena is given a devastating diagnosis, can Jim reconcile the family before it is too late?

My Thoughts:

“Just because He’s God and I’m His child doesn’t mean I get excused from the sufferings of this world. There’s no get-out-of-suffering- free cards.” (p.172)

The truth of these words are the summation of a concept many Christians struggle with as they walk through this life. The characters in Michael King’s debut novel,A Thousand Sleepless Nights, takes a family through a perfect storm of trial that threatens to rob them of everything – everything that matters to them in the present. The story is told from the vantage points of Jim and Nena Hutching and their three children and respective families. Each family is facing unexpected crisis, and each must decide how they will react to their circumstances.

How we react to circumstances in our lives is often affected deeply by circumstances that happened earlier in our lives, and the Hutching family is no exception. They are made aware of the consequences of poor choices in the past, and they must choose whether or not they will go forward differently. That process is most often terrifying , and the temptation to return to familiar patterns of behavior – even though wrong –is a huge temptation. However, when your life is in the balance, somehow taking chances isn’t as scary, because eternity is at stake. That’s where you find the Hutching family – at the crossroads that separates the present circumstances from eternity itself.

The choices this family makes are pretty universal in their familiarity. At least they were to me. So many times the choices they made were simply out of a desperate need to get away from the pain of their past mistakes. It isn’t until they are brought together as a family that they are forced to face the past and reconcile their present behavior with God . The change that is wrought is not without painful consequences, but the strength to survive is evident by the end of the story.

This is an excellent modern-day story of family, faith and a fiery trial. Readers will identify with one or more of the characters in the story, and will be challenged to look at their own life differently. The author, Michael King, knows the struggles of the Hutching family intimately, because he is a cancer survivor. Bravo!! This is a beautiful story!

If you would like to read the first chapter of A Thousand Sleepless Nights, go HERE.

Placebo by Steven James - REVIEWED!!!

About the Book:
While covertly investigating a controversial neurological research program, exposé filmmaker Jevin Banks is drawn into a far-reaching conspiracy involving one of the world's largest pharmaceutical firms. After giving up his career as an escape artist and illusionist in the wake of his wife and sons' tragic death, Jevin is seeking not only answers about the questionable mind-to-mind communication program, but also answers to why his family suffered as they did.

Rooted in ground-breaking science and inspired by actual research,Placebo explores the far reaches of science, consciousness, and faith. Readers will love this taut, intelligent, and emotionally gripping new thriller from master storyteller Steven James.

My Thoughts:

“Our thoughts can heal or destroy us.  Placebos.  Curses.”  (p. 396)

Steven James has plunged into the depths of the human mind in Placebo – the first of his new Jevin Banks series!  Once again, he has created a very three dimensional, very flawed and sometimes quirky group of characters that capture your heart from the very beginning.   (well, some will capture your heart and others will inhabit your nightmares!)  James doesn’t shy away from some very esoteric ideas in this novel, and you really have to stay open-minded and intellectually flexible while you read.  I love it when that happens!  Not only are you challenged to figure out the answer to the plot, but you are challenged to consider how the human brain responds to a variety of information.  Apparently, our thoughts are far more powerful than I ever considered.

Jevin Banks is introduced to the reading audience during a particularly traumatic time in his life.  He has changed careers, and sets out to debunk a theory of quantum physics as it relates to the way the human brain transmits thoughts and how those thoughts impact the lives of those with which you are emotionally entangled.  Well, that’s stretching it a bit as far as Jevin Banks in concerned – especially when it seems he is entangled with his co-worker Charlene.  Things quickly get dangerously entangled when Charlene and Jevin are brutally attacked as they try to breach the security of the test facility!  They discover in very short order that what they set out to do is only the tip of a very large iceberg of alarming and disturbing information.

What is unexpectedly discovered in the lives of a least one of the characters is the power and strength that exists within faith and hope.  Something that science cannot explain.

The pace and complexity of this novel is unbelievable!! It builds the story into something the reader never expects and takes your mind and heart places you never expected to go!  So hang on, readers! It’s a pretty wild ride! And as far as understanding quantum physics Mr. James describes it best:  “Progress was more often than not about one person piggybacking on the work of another to answer a question neither of them fully understood.” (p.  111)

ENJOY THIS THRILL RIDE!!

About the Author:

Critically acclaimed author Steven James has written more than thirty books, includingStory, A Heart Exposed, and the bestselling Patrick Bowers thriller series. He is considered one of the nation's most innovative storytellers and versatile authors, and is a contributing editor to Writer's Digest. Steven lives in Tennessee with his wife and three daughters.