Friday, April 26, 2013

When the Morning Glory Blooms by Cynthia Ruchti

"Where the Morning Glory blooms is not your garden variety novel."--me

 There are some words that invoke a visceral response. Teen pregnancy. Abortion. Adoption.
Going there invites confrontation and conflict. Everyone has an opinion--a definitive position on the subject--until, perhaps, one is tested.

Cynthia Ruchti introduces the reader to three generations of characters whose lives are changed forever by the choices that they make regarding unwanted pregnancy. She explores family relationships rocked by disappointment and shattered dreams. The status quo no longer exists and navigating these new waters requires major paradigm shifts-- the "new normal" is no longer a trendy cliche', but a rip-out-your heart necessity.

Friendships are tested and help comes, at times, in surprising ways.

Gods fingers moving softly on the key boards of our lives.

Where the Morning Glory Blooms is so relevant to today. Look around, listen to the news, lend a helping hand where you can. Pray.

That is what this book prompts in me.
Please read on for more information!



This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

When The Morning Glory Blooms

Abingdon Press (April 1, 2013)

by

Cynthia Ruchti


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:




Cynthia writes stories of hope that glows in the dark, merging her love for storytelling with inextinguishable hope for inexpressible hurts.


Cynthia spends her days diving into words, worship, and wonder and celebrating 40 years of marriage, three grown children, and five outrageously adorable grandchildren. One of her greatest joys is helping other writers grow in their craft. To that end, she served as the assistant director and a faculty member of the Quad Cities Christian Writers Conference, has served as worship and devotions staff for the Write-to-Publish conference, and teaches at other conferences as opportunities arise. She speaks to women’s groups, at mother-daughter banquets, and for women’s refresher days and retreats. It is her delight to serve on her church’s worship team. Rather than “busy,” she likes the term “active.”


For 33 years, Cynthia wrote and produced the radio broadcast The Heartbeat of the Home. The scripted radio drama/devotional broadcast aired on as many as 50 radio stations and two cable/digital television stations over the years. Cynthia was the editor of the ministry’s Backyard Friends magazine, a twenty-page, twice annual publication that reached 5,000 homes, churches, and parachurch outreaches.

ABOUT THE BOOK



Becky rocks a baby that rocked her world. Sixty years earlier, with her fiancé Drew in the middle of the Korean Conflict, Ivy throws herself into her work at a nursing home to keep her sanity and provide for the child Drew doesn't know is coming. Ivy cares for Anna, an elderly patient who taxes Ivy's listening ear until the day she suspects Anna's tall tales are not the ramblings of dementia. They're fragments of Anna's disjointed memories of a remarkable life. Finding a faint thread of hope she can't resist tugging, Ivy records Anna's memoir, scribbling furiously after hours to keep up with the woman's emotion-packed, grace-hemmed stories. Is Ivy's answer buried in Anna's past? Becky, Ivy, Anna--three women fight a tangled vine of deception in search of the blossoming simplicity of truth.


If you would like to read the first chapter of When The Morning Glory Blooms, go HERE.






Wednesday, April 24, 2013

A Healing Heart by Angela Breidenbach

Mara Keegan's husband David died in an avalanche. He left behind three great kids, an awesome dog named Louie, a business that he co-ran with Mara, and a gaping wound in Mara's heart.

The story begins with Mara choosing photos for a memory quilt for her daughter Cadence's graduation present. Memories come to the surface, as well as anger and bitterness toward God, for allowing her to suffer such loss. She is supremely gifted, but trying to keep it all together on her own is wearing her out physically and emotionally--the bitterness isn't exactly contributing (positively) either.

Some thing's gotta give--fast! Mara must let go and let God (and others) help her-- or the icy slope of self-dependency will kill her.

Maybe you know someone like that? Maybe it's you.

This book was a reminder of God's enduring love and kindness in and through the most difficult situations. His love breaks through.

May God bless you in all of your situations.

A Healing Heart is part of the Quilts of Love Series. The publisher has some really good information if you will kindly read on.




This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

A Healing Heart

Abingdon Press (April 1, 2013)

by

Angela Breidenbach


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:






Angela Breidenbach is a speaker/coach in mental and physical health, author of A Healing Heart April 2013 from Abingdon Press in the Quilts of Love series, Gems of Wisdom: For a Treasure-filled Life, Creative Cooking for Simple Elegance, and Creative Cooking for Colitis. Other works by Angela include compilation books and devotionals from Guidepost, Group, and articles in magazines, ezines, and newspapers. She is certified in mentor/peer counseling as a CTA life coach, as a Stephen Minister, and a weight loss/nutrition coach. Angela serves as an assisting minister (worship/prayer leader) for her congregation in Missoula, MT. Not only did she walk the hard line of deciding to donate her mom’s brain for the study of schizophrenia, but she’s also on the brain donation list at the Brain Bank-Harvard McLean Hospital.


ABOUT THE BOOK





Mara Keegan is an uber-successful mother and a widow of three years. She's been chasing success and all the "good things in life" for her family to make up for the cruel whim God played on them by taking her husband. In an effort to be the perfect mom, she decides to make a photo memory quilt, a graduation present for her daughter, Cadence.


She’s not yet finished when she experiences a heart attack. While Mara recuperates, she revisits the choices she's made that led to this physically and spiritually broken heart. The memory quilt must be finished in time for Cadence's big day, but Mara struggles with her burgeoning feelings for the man who must keep Mara's business going during her recovery, Joel Ryan. Can Joel find his way into Mara's heart and onto Cadence's quilt?


If you would like to read the first chapter of A Healing Heart, go HERE


Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Josiah's Treasure by Nancy Herriman

Inheritances can be really messy things...

When Daniel Cady knocks on Sarah Whittier's door one evening declaring himself the rightful heir to everything-- including the home left to her by her friend and employer Josiah Cady her plans for her future are threatened to the core.

Why did Josiah fail to tell her that his children were alive and well and living in Chicago? His son Daniel is understandably upset and wants what belongs to him and his sisters, but Sarah is committed to helping young women leave dangerous situations by establishing a design studio where they can make a living legitimately.

Other nefarious types also want a piece of the action. It is rumored that Josiah has hidden a fortune in gold nuggets somewhere on the premises...

Nancy Herriman writes of life in 1880's San Francisco following the Gold Rush with clarity and warmth, love and danger. If I squint a bit I could see this made into an MGM movie classic musical (just for fun)... If only they made em' like they used to.

This one's a real gem! Please read on for more from the publisher. (Worthy Publishing)




This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Josiah's Treasure

Worthy Publishing (April 16, 2013)


by

Nancy Herriman


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:






Nancy Herriman abandoned a career in Engineering to chase around two small children and take up the pen. She has been writing for longer than she would like to admit. Her work has been a finalist in several Romance Writers of America contests and she won the 2006 RWA Daphne du Maurier award for Best Unpublished Mystery/Romantic Suspense. In 2009, she was an ACFW Genesis finalist. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Romance Writers of America.


When she is not writing, or gabbing over lattes about writing, she is either watching history shows on cable TV or singing. She lives in the Midwest with her husband and sons, and wishes there were more hours in the day.



ABOUT THE BOOK





In 1882, Sarah Whittier dreams of opening an art studio run by immigrant women. She plans to use the house left to her by family friend Josiah Cady as collateral for her studio. But will all be lost when the inheritance is challenged by an angry man claiming to be Josiah's son and legal heir? Rumor of gold nuggets hidden in the house, place Sarah's life in danger. Her future uncertain and her safety threatened, Sarah has nowhere to turn. That is, unless she can soften a vengeful man's heart-and they both learn that love is finer than any gold.



If you would like to read the first chapter of Josiah's Treasure, go HERE.




 

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

The Guardian by Beverly Lewis

Little Sarah Esh tumbles out of her family's buggy one summer evening--and wanders right into the heart of Jodi Winfield, an Englischer from Vermont.

Jodi is emotionally and spiritually lost after the death of her sister, and she and her fiance' seem to be drifting apart. She pounds the pavement as a long distance runner, letting the rhythmic pace sooth her weary soul. She just can't seem to outrun her grief.


Maryanna Esh, Sarah's widowed mother, is beside herself with worry when she realizes that Sarah is missing. She endures an endless night of worry and panic--she lost her beloved husband to an accident, will she also lose her precious child? 


Beverly Lewis lovingly crafts the third book in the Home to Hickory Hollow series. Every time I read one of Beverly's books I'm sure that it's my favorite...then she writes another.

Beverly writes with clarity and compassion. Her characters are both real and likable. I find myself living out their situations right alongside. Their faith journey becomes my faith journey-- sometimes that's just what my weary soul needs.

Please read on for more information from the publisher!




This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

The Guardian

Bethany House Publishers (March 26, 2013)

by

Beverly Lewis


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:




Beverly's first venture into adult fiction is the best-selling trilogy, The Heritage of Lancaster County, including The Shunning, a suspenseful saga of Katie Lapp, a young Amish woman drawn to the modern world by secrets from her past. The book is loosely based on the author's maternal grandmother, Ada Ranck Buchwalter, who left her Old Order Mennonite upbringing to marry a Bible College student. One Amish-country newspaper claimed Beverly's work to be "a primer on Lancaster County folklore" and offers "an insider's view of Amish life."

Booksellers across the country, and around the world, have spread the word of Beverly's tender tales of Plain country life. A clerk in a Virginia bookstore wrote, "Beverly's books have a compelling freshness and spark. You just don't run across writing like that every day. I hope she'll keep writing stories about the Plain people for a long, long time."

A member of the National League of American Pen Women, as well as a Distinguished Alumnus of Evangel University, Lewis has written over 80 books for children, youth, and adults, many of them award-winning. She and her husband, David, make their home in Colorado, where they enjoy hiking, biking, and spending time with their family. They are also avid musicians and fiction "book worms."        

ABOUT THE BOOK



When schoolteacher Jodi Winfield goes for a morning run, the last thing she expects is to find a disheveled little girl all alone on the side of the Pennsylvania road, clad only in her undergarments, her chubby cheeks streaked with tears. Jodi takes the preschooler home with her, intending to find out where she belongs. But Jodi is mystified when no one seems to know of a missing child, and the girl herself is no help, since she can't speak a word of English. It's as if the child appeared out of nowhere.


As the days pass, Jodi becomes increasingly attached to the mysterious girl, yet she is no closer to learning her identity. Then an unexpected opportunity brings Jodi to Hickory Hollow--and into the cloistered world of the Lancaster Old Order Amish. Might the answers lie there?


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