This week, the  Christian Fiction Blog Alliance  is introducing  Operation Bonnet   David C. Cook; New edition (February 1, 2011)  by  Kimberly Stuart  


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:     Kimberly says:

I am a writer of comedic fiction, and would like to suggest that you laugh regularly when reading my books. Let’s also try for one to two teary moments. If you are crying more than that, you don’t understand my sense of humor and should move on to another author.


I grew up in a book-loving home. Actually, that’s not entirely accurate. My mom loves books. My dad loves to read the first chapters of books and then make us all listen as he recites his favorite passages. I, however, enjoy reading books in their entirety and came into writing as a result of book-love. After earning two fancy degrees in education and Spanish, I promptly let the thinking part of my brain take a breather and instead became pregnant. (I’m sure a lot of other things happened between early literacy and pregnancy but I don’t really remember any of that. If you also have shared your uterus with another human, you understand.)

In an effort to author a book that would entertain my sassy, irreverent, breast-feeding/drooping friends, I wrote my first novel, Balancing Act. People were so nice to me after that, I decided to continue with writing. Also, I can’t craft, knit, or scrapbook, so what else was a nice, Christian girl to do?

In addition to writing books to make my friends laugh and cry, I observe the chaos at the home I share with my unfailingly supportive husband and three offspring. We’re doing our best and so far, no one’s been to prison.

ABOUT THE BOOK  

Twenty-year-old Nellie Monroe has a restless brilliance that makes her a bit of an odd duck. She wants to be a private investigator, even though her tiny hometown offers no hope of clients. Until she meets Amos Shetler, an Amish dropout carrying a torch for the girl he left behind.


So Nellie straps on her bonnet and goes undercover to get the dish. But though she’s brainy, Nellie is clueless when it comes to real life and real relationships. Soon she’s alienated her best friend, angered her college professor, and botched her case.

Operation Bonnet is a comedy of errors, a surprising take on love, and a story of grace.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Operation Bonnet, go HERE.

Watch the book video trailer:

This week, the  Christian Fiction Blog Alliance  is introducing  Words  B&H Books (February 1, 2011)  by  Ginny Yttrup  


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  

Ginny Yttrup is an author, freelance writer, and writing coach. As she writes, speaks, and coaches, her prayer is that God will use her words to replace the lies so many believe about themselves with the truth of His unconditional love and grace. To see someone grasp, perhaps for the first time, the truth of God's love, is truly an honor. Through a relationship with the Truth, Jesus Christ, the bonds of shame are loosed and freedom abounds!


When Ginny is not working, she loves spending time with her two college-age sons or with friends. She is surrounded by the most amazing people--each a gift in their own way. If she can spend time outdoors with those she love, it's even better. And she thoroughly adores her dog, Bear. He's a book lover too.

She has two grown sons and lives near Sacramento, California. Words is her first novel.

ABOUT THE BOOK  

"I collect words. I keep them in a box in my mind. I'd like to keep them in a real box, something pretty, maybe a shoe box covered with flowered wrapping paper. Whenever I wanted, I'd open the box and pick up the papers, reading and feeling the words all at once. Then I could hide the box. But the words are safer in my mind. There, he can't take them."


Ten-year old Kaylee Wren doesn't speak. Not since her drug-addled mother walked away, leaving her in a remote cabin nestled in the towering redwoods-in the care of a man who is as dangerous as he is evil. With silence her only refuge, Kaylee collects words she might never speak from the only memento her mother left behind: a dictionary.

Sierra Dawn is thirty-four, an artist, and alone. She has allowed the shame of her past to silence her present hopes and chooses to bury her pain by trying to control her circumstances. But on the twelfth anniversary of her daughter's death, Sierra's control begins to crumble as the God of her childhood woos her back to Himself.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Words, go HERE.

Watch the book trailer video:

Promises to Keep by Ann Tatlock

What can I say about Promises to Keep?

Well, first of all, the character Roz is going up in my fiction hall of fame as one of the most honest characters ever!  I loved her eleven year old voice.  Clear and observant.  Not so much a child of the sixties, but a young girl living in the time period of social upheaval, as the happenings in her life reflect the turmoil of the era.

What I loved about her is the grace and hope that she exhibits in spite all evidence to the contrary.  Her father is an abuser, and yet she still loves him and sees the good in him.  She hopes for the best, though the odds that he will change are not good.

It is a story about dreams.  Dreams that include her father's love and being a family restored.

In the end, this book is about the Father's love, the yearnings that we all have, to experience unconditional love and security.  It's about the small moments and desires of the heart, and finding that one in a million best friend, who just happens to share the same dream.   And the faith that wins out- even if it's not the kind of winning we would have expected.  As I found out, Ann Tatlock does not write the expected.

What she does is get you thinking.  Am I living the small moments in my life to the fullest?  The baby's smile, the teenager's droll sense of humor, the family sitting around the table... the sunset?

Am I walking hand in hand with my Father?

This week, the  Christian Fiction Blog Alliance  is introducing  Promises to Keep  Bethany House (February 1, 2011)  by  Ann Tatlock  



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  

Ann Tatlock is the author of the Christy Award-winning novel All the Way Home. She has also won the Midwest Independent Publishers Association "Book of the Year" in fiction for both All the Way Home and I'll Watch the Moon. Her novel Things We Once Held Dear received a starred review from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly calls her "one of Christian fiction's better wordsmiths, and her lovely prose reminds readers why it is a joy to savor her stories." Ann lives with her husband and daughter in Asheville, North Carolina.


ABOUT THE BOOK  

Eleven-year-old Roz (Rosalind) Anthony and her family have just moved to Mills River, Illinois, to escape an abusive situation. Only days after settling into their new home, they are surprised to find the previous owner, Tillie Monroe, on their front porch reading the newspaper.


Though her sons have sold the house and sent her to a facility for the aged, she is determined to die in the place she lived her life, and somehow manages to find her way "home" day after day. Feeling sympathy for the elderly woman, Roz's mother allows Tillie to move back in.

Mara Nightingale becomes Roz's first friend in Mills River. In spite of their many differences, the girls discover they have something in common that binds them together--both are hiding secrets. So they make a promise--"cross my heart and hope to die"--never to tell anyone else. When danger stalks the Anthonys, Tillie exhibits unimaginable courage and selfless love in her determination to protect the family she has adopted as her own.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Promises to Keep, go HERE.

Watch the book trailer:

Larkspur Cove by Lisa Wingate - REVISITED

"There's something about Moses Lake that changes people." - Mart McClendon - game warden

Well, upon finishing Larkspur Cove, I have to agree.  I've been reading Christian fiction with an open heart  lately.  I am asking the questions, who are the characters, and what do their stories have to teach me?

I won't ruin any surprises, and there are many in this book.  But here's something that I'm carrying away from my visit to Moses Lake.  God is there, even when I cannot see Him.  Even when I'm facing obstacles unique to my own life, and He will lead me where I need to go.

The characters of Larkspur Cove needed to get to the place where they could come to terms with happenings beyond their control, happenings filled with regrets, loss and uncertainty.  The book is about their journey:

Andrea Henderson's carefully constructed life blows up in her face when her husband, a Christian college administrator leaves her and their teen-aged son for another woman.

Mart McClendon must deal with the death of beloved family members whom he feels personally responsible.  If only he had done things differently.

Who is the little mystery girl?

These are questions that you are going to want to get to the bottom of, and you will, if you take a boat ride on the Lake and let it work it's magic on your heart.

Blessings!

Larkspur Cove by Lisa Wingate

This week, the  Christian Fiction Blog Alliance  is introducing  Larkspur Cove  Bethany House (February 1, 2011)  by  Lisa Wingate  



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  

Lisa Wingate is an award-winning journalist, magazine columnist, popular inspirational speaker and a national bestselling author of sixteen books.  Her first mainstream novel, Tending Roses, is in its eighteenth printing from Penguin Putnam.  Tending Roses is a staple on the shelves of national bookstore chains as well as in many independent bookstores.


Recently, Lisa’s Blue Sky Hill Series, set in Dallas, received national attention with back-to-back nominations for American Christian Fiction Writers Book of the Year Award for A Month of Summer (2009) and The Summer Kitchen (2010).  Pithy, emotional, and inspirational, her stories bring to life characters so real that readers often write to ask what is happening to them after the book ends.

Lisa is one of a select group of authors to find success in both the Christian and mainstream markets, writing for both Bethany House, a Christian publisher, and NAL Penguin Putnam, a general market publisher.  Her bestselling books have become a hallmark of inspirational fiction. Her works have been featured by the National Reader's Club of America, AOL Book Picks, Doubleday Book Club, the Literary Guild, Crossings Book Club, American Profiles and have been chosen for numerous awards.

When not busy dreaming up stories, Lisa spends time on the road as a motivational speaker. Via internet, she shares with readers as far away as India, where her book, Tending Roses, has been used to promote women's literacy, and as close to home as Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the county library system has used Tending Roses to help volunteer mentors teach adults to read.  Recently, the group Americans for More Civility, a kindness watchdog organization, selected Lisa along with Bill Ford, Camille Cosby, and six others as recipients of the National Civies Award, which celebrates public figures who work to promote greater kindness and civility in American life.



ABOUT THE BOOK  

Adventure is the last thing on Andrea Henderson's mind when she moves to Moses Lake. After surviving the worst year of her life, she's struggling to build a new life for herself and her son as a social worker. Perhaps in doing a job that makes a difference, she can find some sense of purpose and solace in her shattered faith. For new Moses Lake game warden Mart McClendon, finding a sense of purpose in life isn't an issue. He took the job to get out of southwest Texas and the constant reminders of a tragedy for which he can't forgive himself. But when a little girl is seen with the town recluse, Mart and Andrea are drawn together in the search for her identity. The little girl offers them both a new chance at redemption and hope--and may bring them closer than either ever planned.


If you would like to read the first chapter of Larkspur Cove, go HERE.