Chasing Sunsets by Eva Marie Everson - REVIEWED

About the Book: (from the publisher)

Sometimes you get a second chance at your first love

Kimberly Tucker's life hasn't turned out the way she thought it would. While her ex is living it up, she struggles to understand what went wrong. When her two sons end up spending five weeks of summer vacation with their father, Kim plans a respite at the family vacation home on tiny Cedar Key. As she revisits the long-forgotten past, she discovers that treasures in life are often buried, and sometimes you do get a second chance at love.

Let yourself get swept away to an island retreat of warm tropical breezes, sandy beaches, and the most glorious sunsets you can imagine.

Go HERE to read the first chapter!

My Thoughts:

“Pray about it, and God will take care of it in his time and in his way.” (p. 341)

This advice, while true and very, very accurate, is, in my opinion, the hardest truth for the human heart to receive and practice. Since the dawn of time mankind has tried to wrestle control of almost every circumstance from the hand of God. Then, when things don’t go the way they hoped or planned, they turn around and blame God for not answering their prayers. What folks get so mad about, is that God doesn’t always answer like they want. Hence, praying about things, and allowing God to work things out for our good and His glory, is a very hard thing to do.

Kimberly Tucker most certainly does her share of wrestling with the control of her circumstances. Her husband of sixteen years cheated on her, and her sons, ages eleven and fourteen, are caught in the middle of things. Divorce brings on a huge set of unpleasant challenges and compromises, but it also serves to show Kimberly that God alone is in control. The road she takes to arrive at that precious truth is filled with new friendships, renewed relationships and some time alone learning to seek God and follow where He leads.

Eve Marie Everson has written an emotionally charged story that reveals some pretty universal truths about human relationships. She uses very common circumstances to reveal the truth anew that God loves His children and He will work in our lives in mighty and unexpected ways if we will yield control. This is a thought-provoking book. I’ve read stories with similar story lines, but none that so beautifully illustrates what God can do if we will just lay our burdens at His feet and leave them there.

About the Author:

Eva Marie Everson is a successful speaker, a popular radio personality, and the award-winning author of Things Left Unspoken and This Fine Life. She is coauthor of the Potluck Club series and the Potluck Catering Club series. She lives in Florida.

The Sweetest Thing by Eliazbeth Musser - REVIEWED

About The Book: (from the publisher)

Compelling Southern Novel Explores Atlanta Society in the 1930s


Anne "Perri" Singleton's world is defined by the security of family, the camaraderie of friends at an exclusive Atlanta girls' school, and an enviable social life. She isn't looking for new friends when Mary Dobbs Dillard arrives from Chicago. Besides, "Dobbs," the passionate and fiercely individualistic daughter of an itinerant minister, is her opposite in every way.


But just as the Great Depression collides disastrously with Perri's well-ordered life, friendship blossoms--a friendship that will be tested by jealousy, betrayal, and family secrets...


With her endearing characters and poignant storytelling, Atlanta native Elizabeth Musser vividly re-creates the charm of her beloved city amid the poverty and plenty that shaped the 1930s.

My Thoughts:

“Quit telling me the truth, Mary Dobbs Dillard!...I am tired of hearing the truth!” (p.244)


The Sweetest Thing is a story of relationships and the powerful impact truth often has – both positively and negatively – upon them. Anne Perrin “Perri” Singleton and Mary Dobbs Dillard are the two young women at the center of this classic tale of friendship. As different as night and day when they first meet, Perri and Mary Dobbs forge a friendship that will weather both joy and tragedy. It is a friendship that is filled with truth, and sometimes the truth is so painful that it almost snuffs out both friendship and faith. It is a friendship that will weather many changes, many storms and many sorrows. As long as I live, I will never forget Mary Dobbs and Perri. Not ever.


I read a lot of books. Sometimes I read them hurriedly and probably miss a great blessing. The Sweetest Thing is a book I have savored. Set primarily in Atlanta, a place that was a huge part of my own childhood, I recognized many of the places described in the story. I recognized the timeless Southerness of many of the actions and the thought processes that motivated the characters. I have walked the “sawdust trail” – so dear to Mary Dobbs – on several occasions at tent meetings, with sawdust on the floor. In short, I connected with the characters in the story in a very deep and personal way, and when I read the definition of the sweetest thing I actually had to put the book down and weep. I’ve not been affected by a story so deeply in a very long time.


So, to say that I loved Elizabeth Musser’s The Sweetest Thing is a gross understatement! I think this is a classic story in so many, many ways. The faith written on the pages is simple, straightforward, and very, very genuine in both the lives of the characters and the life of the author. The truth about human relationship, both between the characters in the story and between the characters and God, is also very genuine and true. You cannot read this story and not feel its effect deeply in your heart and your soul. If you read one book this year, read The Sweetest Thing. It is superb in every way!


Go HERE to read the first chapter and purchase your copy TODAY!

About The Author:

Elizabeth Musser, an Atlanta native, lives in southern France with her husband and their two sons. Her acclaimed novel, The Swan House, was a Book Sense bestseller list in the Southeast and was selected as one of the top Christian books for 2001 by Amazon's editors. Searching for Eternity is her sixth novel. Visit Elizabeth's Web site at www.elizabethmusser.com

Shattered by Melody Carson - REVIEWED

My Thoughts:

“We can’t blame ourselves for things that were beyond our control for a lifetime…we have to accept that we don’t control anyone but ourselves. And we have to account for all the time we lost fretting over those things we can’t control.” (p.172)

How many times do we, as believers, take either credit or blame for things totally beyond our control? And isn’t the idea that we are unwilling to take the blame for something really a disguised longing to control our circumstances? And those of others as well? And when things don’t go the way we wanted or planned, because of the choices we DO make in an effort to control our own circumstances, we attempt to shift the blame somewhere else – anywhere else – to circumvent any pain or unpleasantness.

Sound familiar? Something you’ve done yourself? Well, the familiarity goes back to the down of time. Remember Eve in the Garden? Yeah. That far back. Melody Carlson takes this very basic human condition and creates a very realistic, often true story, of a young lady, Cleo Neilson, and her attempt to both control and blame shift her choices and circumstances. Cleo Neilson’s family is more typical than anyone realizes. And the resulting poor choices are also more common than anyone would like to acknowledge.

Shattered is a masterful look into a very real and growing problem among both youth and adults. Cleo is very fortunate that she is surrounded by people who love her and reach out to her in her time of need. Many who make the same choices are not so blessed – or either they reject the love that is offered to them. Once again, we come back to choices and consequences and the human desire to control both.

Inviting God into our messes, our pain and poor choices is a very hard lesson to learn. Cleo has the opportunity. Will she make a wise choice? Read Shattered and find out! This is an excellent – and frighteningly real – story! Melody Carlson very skillfully tackles a VERY DIFFICULT situation!

Spring for Susannah by Catherine Richmond - REVIEWED

About the Book: ( from the publisher)

Hundreds of miles from home, Susannah faces an uncertain future as a mail-order bride on the untamed Dakota prairie.

When her parents die suddenly, and no suitors call, Susannah resigns herself to the only option available: becoming a mail-order bride. Agreeing to marry her pastor's brother, Jesse, Susannah leaves the only home she's ever known for the untamed frontier of the Dakota Territory.

Her new husband is more loving and patient with her than she believes she deserves. Still, there is also a wildness to him that mirrors the wilderness surrounding them. And Susannah finds herself constantly on edge. But Jesse's confidence in her—and his faith in God's perfect plan—slowly begin to chip away at the wall she hides behind.

When she miscarries in the brutal Dakota winter, Susannah's fledgling faith in herself and in God begins to crumble. Still, Jesse's love is unwavering. Just when it seems like winter will never end, Susannah finally sees the first tentative evidence of spring. And with it, the realization that more than the landscape has changed.

She looks to the future with a renewed heart. Yet in her wildest dreams, she couldn't predict all that awaits her.

My Thoughts:

“It’s time for you to break out.” (p. 172)

Oh my! Oh my! Oh my!! Now I love a good historical setting with some romance thrown in, but I haven’t enjoyed a novel like this one in a while! I couldn’t read fast enough! I didn’t want to miss a thing!! I fell in love with Jesse a LOT long before someone else did!! And oh, how I enjoyed watching Jesse and Susannah forge their relationship! I loved the passage where Jesse compared Susannah to a hatchling chick. (you’ll have to read it to understand how beautifully appropriate it is!) I loved Ivar and Marta and Jake! I loved the descriptions of the land, the food, the bad dreams, the emotional struggles! Oh! I loved the way Jesse sang into life! I absolutely LOVED that!!

I short, this is the most refreshing, hopeful, truthful, wonderful love story I’ve read in a while! If you can’t figure that out by the insane amount of exclamation marks I’ve used in this post-----READ THE BOOK!!! It’s Wonderful!

About the Author:

Catherine Richmond was focused on her career as an occupational therapist until a special song planted a story idea in her mind. That idea would ultimately become Spring for Susannah, her first novel. She is also a founder and moderator of Nebraska Novelists critique group and lives in Nebraska with her husband.

How Huge the Night by Heather and Lydia Munn - REVIEW and GIVE AWAY!

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing How Huge the Night Kregel Publications (March 9, 2011) by Heather Munn and Lydia Munn



ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Heather Munn was born in Northern Ireland of American parents and grew up in the south of France. She decided to be a writer at the age of five when her mother read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books aloud, but worried that she couldn’t write about her childhood since she didn’t remember it. When she was young, her favorite time of day was after supper when the family would gather and her father would read a chapter from a novel. Heather went to French school until her teens, and grew up hearing the story of Le Chambonsur-Lignon, only an hour’s drive away. She now lives in rural Illinois with her husband, Paul, where they offer free spiritual retreats to people coming out of homelessness and addiction. She enjoys wandering in the woods, gardening, writing, and splitting wood.

Lydia Munn was homeschooled for five years because there was no school where her family served as missionaries in the savannahs of northern Brazil. There was no public library either, but Lydia read every book she could get her hands on. This led naturally to her choice of an English major at Wheaton College. Her original plan to teach high school English gradually transitioned into a lifelong love of teaching the Bible to both adults and young people as a missionary in France. She and her husband, Jim, have two children: their son, Robin, and their daughter, Heather.







ABOUT THE BOOK

Fifteen-year-old Julien Losier just wants to fit in. But after his family moves to a small village in central France in hopes of outrunning the Nazis, he is suddenly faced with bigger challenges than the taunting of local teens.



Nina Krenkel left her country to obey her father's dying command: Take your brother and leave Austria. Burn your papers. Tell no one you are Jews. Alone and on the run, she arrives in Tanieux, France, dangerously ill and in despair.



Thrown together by the chaos of war, Julien begins to feel the terrible weight of the looming conflict and Nina fights to survive. As France falls to the Nazis, Julien struggles with doing what is right, even if it is not enough-and wonders whether or not he really can save Nina from almost certain death.



Based on the true story of the town of Le Chambon-the only French town honored by Israel for rescuing Jews from the Holocaust-How Huge the Night is a compelling, coming-of-age drama that will keep teens turning the pages as it teaches them about a fascinating period of history and inspires them to think more deeply about their everyday choices.



My Thoughts:

“We have to be really, really careful. We have to stay off the road and cross at night.”
(p. 42)

There are some things that cannot be hidden by the night. Your nationality, your religion, your ethnic background, even your social status are clear to all have eyes to see. When Julien’s family moves from Paris to the small town of Tanieux it is evident to everyone that they are not local and only displaced by the war brewing along the Maginoux line. Family friends of German decent and Jewish background leave their son Benjamin with Julien’s family, and that only makes his differences all the more evident. Living in war time is troublesome enough, but for a teenage boy trying to fit into a strange school in a strange town…well, there are smaller, daily wars that rage in Julien’s world, and every one of them is significant and emotionally turbulent.

How Huge the Night captures the nuances and dangers of life in France during WWII. The setting of the small, rural village of Tanieux is an effective background for the emotional and sometimes physical turbulence brought to bear in a young boy’s life as the adults struggle with the economic and political stresses brought to bear by the war that rages with Germany. Like any young boy of the era, Juliene initially longs to fight and protect his family. However, his is soon consumed with just trying to manage the every day struggles that come as he tries to fit in among his peers.

Another plot line is woven amid the story about two young Austrian children who find themselves adrift amid strangers with they are abruptly orphaned. Trying to follow their father’s instructions becomes nearly impossible when they find themselves homeless and penniless on the streets of France. Will the people of Tanieux reach out to these young orphans or will they let the fears warring in their hearts keep them from showing basic human kindness as war rages around them?

This is a premier of the mother-daughter writing duo Heather and Lydia Munn. I eagerly await more stories from their pen! This is an excellent story and one readers will long remember!


I have an extra copy of this book to give away, so if you would like to read it, please leave your name and contact information on this post!


Endorsements

“The Munns have written an engrossing historical novel that is faithful to the actual events of World War II in western Europe during the tumultuous year 1940. But How Huge the Night is more than good history; it is particularly refreshing because the reader sees the conflict through the lives of teenagers who are forced to grapple with their honest questions about the existence and goodness of God in the midst of community, family, and ethnic tensions in war-ravaged France.”—Lyle W. Dorsett, Billy Graham Professor of Evangelism, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University



“Seldom have the horrors of war upon adolescents—or the heroism of which they are capable—been so clearly portrayed. I loved this coming-of-age story.”—Patricia Sprinkle, author of Hold Up the Sky



“The book expertly weaves together the lives of its characters at a frightening moment in conflicted times. As we read of their moral dilemmas and of their choices, we too wonder, Would I do has these in the story have done?”—Karen Mains, Director, Hungry Souls

If you would like to read an excerpt from How Huge the Night, go HERE



Watch the book video:

Revenge of the Red Knight by Marianne Hering and Paul McCusker - REVIEWED

About the Book: (from the publisher)
In this Imagination Station adventure, Patrick and Beth find themselves as guests in a beautiful castle in 15th-century England. Through a series of events, the steward of Lord Darkthorn’s castle finds the cousins with three artifacts collected in their previous adventures: the stone, the cup, and the golden tablet. They are accused of being thieves and locked in jail. Beth escapes and discovers the identity of the real thief, leading to a jousting contest with a surprising outcome. Set during the War of the Roses in England, Revenge of the Red Knight will teach readers about the Crusades, the integrity of knights and the vows they took, and why men would choose to risk their lives to fight for Christianity.

My Thoughts:

Revenge of the Red Knight is the 4^th adventure in The Imagination Station series, and it is packed with lots of excitement and danger! Young readers will be anxious to learn who has been stealing the treasures from history and how the knight has appeared in the Imagination Station. The ending of this book is both a thrill and a surprise, and just like Patrick tells Beth about their adventures: “…I think we’re going to have a few more.”

I do too, Patrick! Because thing have definitely been left in a precarious state! Mr. Whitaker has no way, as of yet, to get the Imagination Station to work for him, so he will have to depend on his young time travelers to sort this out I’m sure!

Focus on the Family will have parents searching for the next books in this series for sure! Write quickly Marianne and Paul! Write quickly!!

Peril in the Palace by Marianne Hering and Paul McCusker - REVIEWED

About the Book: (from the publisher)
The place? China in 1271. The quest? The golden tablet of Kublai Khan. The problem? Just about everything!

The Imagination Station adventures continue as cousins Patrick and Beth are kidnapped by Mongol warriors. Only the friendship of fellow traveler Marco Polo saves them from harm. They are brought to the Mongol palace, where the Kublai Khan dislikes both their gifts and their message about Christianity. The tension grows when the Mongol magicians challenge the cousins to a spiritual power showdown. As war breaks out, Beth and Patrick are locked in a secret room to prevent their escape.

How do the cousins get the golden tablet they need to save Mr. Whittaker’s friend Albert? How do they escape the city and find the Imagination Station? Enter the perilous palace and find out!

My Thoughts:

Once again, Beth and Patrick are thrown into an exciting and unpredictable adventure as they travel to the 13^th century and encounter Kublai Khan! The mysterious knight who keeps leaving messages in the Imagination Station has left a plea fro a golden tablet from Kahn’s ancient kingdom. Mr. Whitaker supplies the children with a strange bag of “gifts” with the only instructions spearing on the tags on each of the packages.

Since this is Beth and Patrick’s third trip into an ancient time period, they have become a little less fearful and a little more intuitive to their circumstances and change in surroundings. Young readers will thrill to witness Mongol warriors, giant eagles and the magical “wise” men of Kublai Kahn’s court. The action steadily builds, and by the time the reader reaches the final page…

Well, let’s just say you better have adventure #4 ready to go! This is another exciting duo of books in Focus on the Family’s The Imagination Station series for young readers!

About the Author:
Marianne Hering is a prolific writer, having written hundreds of articles and a number of books for children and parents. For nine years she worked for several magazines in Focus on the Family's periodicals department and became the editor of Clubhouse, a Focus on the Family children's magazine with a circulation of over 100,000.

Marianne's book titles include two series for girls (Lights, Camera, Action; and White House Adventures) and a recent biography of William Bradford. Her most recent title is a compilation of activities from Clubhouse magazine, the Focus on the Family Clubhouse Family Activity Book.

As a mother of three children, Marianne is interested in parenting and education issues, including home schooling and tutoring reading. She graduated from Biola University (La Mirada, California) with a degree in psychology and has continued her education with courses in writing and editing. She and her husband, Doug, live in Colorado with their nine-year-old daughter, Danielle, and two-year-old twin sons, Justin and Kendrick.

Paul McCusker is the creative content director for Focus on the Family. He has been a writer of fiction, nonfiction, and drama since 1979. His work includes over forty published novels, full-length plays, dramatic sketch collections, and song lyrics. For the Adventures in Odyssey series alone, he has written over 200 half-hour radio episodes, eighteen novels, and two screenplays for the best-selling animated videos. He has dramatized many classics for Focus on the Family Radio Theatre, including A Christmas Carol and Jan Karon's At Home in Mitford. He also wrote and directed the Peabody Award–winning Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom and created the highly acclaimed Father Gilbert Mysteries series. Paul lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with his wife, Elizabeth, and their two children.