A Stitch In Crime by Cathy Elliot (Quilts Of Love Book #25)

It starts with a happy party celebrating quilts, but before long, sweet elderly Mary-Alice is laid out on the floor! She can't quite recall what happened, and though Thea was in the house, she wasn't upstairs when it happened. In fact, Thea was worrying where the guest of honor was. Why hadn't Dr. Cottle showed up yet? In the chaos of trying to figure out why someone else was upstairs and swears she didn't harm Mary Alice, a lone letter Thea and Mary-Alice were searching for is forgotten. So starts a quilting mystery that I didn't want to put down. This was a fun read, with a quilt centered Mrs. Marple style feel to this story.

Who conked Mary-Alice over the head, and why? WHERE did Dr. Cottle go? Who left the voice mails on Thea James's phone? Why has Renee, Thea's best friend for most of her life changed so much after her fancy honeymoon trip? Is she even a friend at all anymore? What do you do with the guy you like but are afraid to call your boyfriend? How do you handle a huge social quilting event when people keep quilting and there is only one of you to go around? Most of all, God help these fun loving folks find out who done it before they all come unraveled while working on their lives and their quilt mysteries.

Carol :)

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

A Stitch in Crime

Abingdon Press (January 20, 2015)

by

Cathy Elliot

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Cathy Elliott is a full-time writer who lives in northern California and whose cozy mysteries reflect her personal interests from playing her fiddle with friends to antique collecting and quilting. Besides collecting (too much) cool fabric, she also enjoys hunting for antiques and is several years into recovery from her eBay addiction. UPDATE: She backslid a while back, enticed to bid on a 1945 Singer Featherweight. (She won.) But now she’s back on the wagon. Except for the recent crazy quilt pillow purchase. She also leads music at church and enjoys time with her grandchildren.


ABOUT THE BOOK

Thea James has accepted an assignment as co-chairperson for Larkindale’s first quilt show extravaganza. Juggling the new assignment with running her antique business, she’s already feeling frayed when things start to unravel. Mary-Alice Wentworth, a much-loved town matriarch, respected quilt judge, and Thea’s dear friend, is covertly conked on the head during the kick-off Quilt Show Soiree, throwing suspicion on her guests. It also appears that a valuable diamond brooch has been stolen during the attack. The family is furious. But is it because of their mugged mother or the missing diamonds? When a renowned textile expert goes MIA and the famous Wentworth heritage quilt disappears, Larkindale’s reputation as a tourist haven is at risk. Thea attempts to piece the mystery together and save the town’s investment in the quilt show before Mary-Alice is attacked again . . . with far worse results.

If you would like to read the first chapter of A Stitch in Crime, go HERE.

Cathy can be reached through Facebook 

The book link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/142677365X

Hidden Agenda by Lisa Harris (Southern Crimes Series)

Micheal Hunt has been in hiding. He was undercover for 8 months until his cover was blown just one week away from closing the case. Now, you might thing that would be just go along with your life, but for Micheal that is so not the case. Instead, people want him DEAD. He knows there is corruption in the Atlanta P.D, making who to trust very, very complicated. Both the Cartel and someone else wants him out of their way. Olivia his only hope and her Dad wants him in on ice. After all her Dad is part of the Cartel. Can he stay alive, clear his name, recover from his faked death, and find love too? What is God's plan for his life while he is dealing with more than he ever dreamed of coping with at once?

I have really liked this series! Each book is about one of three siblings, and while they can stand alone, they are so good together! Micheal is a strong hero, and this book was fun to read.

Carol :)

His cover is blown. Now his enemies are on his heels and closing in.
Michael Hunt is alive--and on the run. Presumed dead by friends and family, the undercover assignment he's been working for the past eight months has just been blown. With a hit out on his life and corruption inside the Atlanta police department, Michael finds himself hunted by both the cartel and the law. His only hope is Olivia Hamilton--the daughter of the man who wants him dead.

This nonstop chase from Christy Award-winning Lisa Harris will leave you breathless.

Praise for Lisa Harris's Southern Crimes Series
"Readers looking for a strong female protagonist and a unique murder mystery will find much to admire in Harris's work."--Publishers Weekly on Dangerous Passage

"Harris takes you on a trail that leads straight to the worst kind of evil--and the lives of those who are determined to stop it."--bestselling author Lynette Eason on Dangerous Passage
"A thrill ride from start to finish. Full of twists and turns, this exciting story will keep readers enthralled."--RT Book Reviews on Fatal Exchange
Lisa Harris is the award-winning author of more than twenty books, including the Christy Award winner Dangerous Passage and Fatal Exchange. Winner of the Best Inspirational Suspense Novel for 2011 from Romantic Times, Harris has spent over ten years living with her family as missionaries in Mozambique, where she leads a women's group and runs a nonprofit organization that works alongside their church-planting ministry. Visit www.lisaharriswrites.com for more.

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   © Mariah Harris

   Lisa Harris is a bestselling author, a Christy Award winner, and the winner of the Best Inspirational Suspense Novel for 2011 from Romantic Times. She has sold over thirty novels and novella collections. Along with her husband, she and her three...

   Continue reading about Lisa Harris
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Reviews:

Praise for Dangerous Passage
"Readers looking for a strong female protagonist and a unique murder mystery will find much to admire in Harris's work."--Publishers Weekly
"Harris begins a new series with a novel that delves into the horrors of human trafficking. Although the subject seems heavy for the genre, the author deftly handles the plot while making it relevant and interesting to the reader and softening it with a sweet love story."--RT Book Reviews, 4 stars

"The combination of police procedural and a Christian love story is nicely plotted, and the characters are interesting, boding well for the future of the series."--Booklist 

Praise for Fatal Exchange
"The second book of Harris's Southern Crimes series is a thrill ride from start to finish. Full of twists and turns, this exciting story will keep readers enthralled--flawed characters and all. The romance is believable and fits well within the plot."--RT Book Reviews, 4 stars

"Harris's follow up to Dangerous Passage is packed with plenty of nail-biting action. Add her signature complex characters, a well-developed Southern setting, and a dash of romance and you have a compelling, quick read to satisfy the most rabid romantic suspense fan."--Library Journal

Emissary by Thomas Locke (Legends of the Realm #1)

O.k. I have read several of Bunn's books. Since we are allowed to know that Locke is Bunn - I have to say this is the BEST book of his I have read thus far.

Hyam's mother is dying. Her request.... find your father and tell him I'm gone. Ouch. Just ouch, but this gives Hyam a mission, a quest. His dad left a long time ago. He went to live where they keep people who have wizardry and magic gifts. Three Valley's Long Hall (great name), and he use to live there. He didn't like it though and now, he is back.

It seems that his Dad has passed four years ago, and now things get crazy for Hyam. His Father, isn't his father after all. Ok then. Another whammy. Mom, isn't his Mother!! If he wants to know who he is, he has to seek out Trace, a mage who is suppose to have the answers to his past, and his future. He's about to find out about power, war, good, evil, make some friends and start on his calling. Romance, action, adventure - it is all packed in here.

Some people I have noticed are upset that they didn't feel this book pushed enough Christian views. I didn't feel that way, but I read into things deeper than many people and I know that in a trilogy there is plenty of room for things to change in the next books.

Carol :)

About the Book:

With his twenty-first birthday, Hyam begins a journey that will lead him to his destiny--or his doom.

Hyam has always shown a remarkable ability to master languages, even those left unspoken for a thousand years. But now the shadow of suspicion that was cast upon him as a child prodigy at Long Hall is lengthening, and he must keep his identity hidden--or face annihilation.

As Hyam's mother slips toward death, she implores him to return to Long Hall before he settles down to farm his land. This journey born from duty becomes an impassioned quest for the truth. War is coming swiftly, and Hyam must rely upon his newfound powers and the friends he meets along the way in order to unravel the puzzling past and ensure that he--and the realm--will have a future.

In a world where magic has been outlawed for centuries, one young man discovers that he possesses powers beyond his wildest dreams.

But he does not realize how pivotal this gift will be in the days to come.

Except for the healing arts, magicking is a punishable offense in the realm. The only places it is still practiced are the Long Halls scattered throughout the land--isolated haunts of wizards called mages and their long-suffering students.

But hidden rivers of power course deep beneath the earth, and not everyone has obeyed the edict banning magic. Vixens lie in wait on the Galwyn road. A mysterious race of telepaths comes and goes invisibly. It is even rumored that Elves still hide among the wizened trees. And somewhere beyond the badlands, a growing menace threatens the hard-won peace of the realm.

This young man could stem the ominous tide . . . but only by turning away from everyone and everything he has ever known. And facing dangers he cannot fathom.



MORE about the book:
Hyam is a likeable lad who will make a fine farmer someday. But he carries a burden few can fathom. As his mother slips toward death, she implores him to return to Long Hall, where he spent five years as an apprentice. It was there that Hyam's extraordinary capacity for mastering languages came to light--and soon cast him into the shadows of suspicion. How could any human learn the forbidden tongues with such ease? When Hyam dares to seek out the Mistress of the Sorceries, her revelation tears his world asunder.

He has no choice but to set out on the foreboding path--which beckons him to either his destiny or his doom. An encounter with an enchanting stranger reminds him that he is part hero and part captive. As Hyam struggles to interpret the omens and symbols, he is swept up by a great current of possibilities--and dangers. 

With lyrical prose that unveils a richly imaginative world, Thomas Locke takes readers on a journey into the Realm. There he invites them to awaken their sense of wonder. This cracking adventure moves like a contemporary thriller but harkens back to the enduring genre of classic fantasy.

About the Author:
Thomas Locke is a pseudonym for Davis Bunn, the award-winning novelist with total worldwide sales of seven million copies. His work has been published in twenty languages, and critical acclaim includes four Christy Awards for excellence in fiction. Davis divides his time between Oxford and Florida and holds a lifelong passion for speculative stories. Davis's screenplay adaptation of Emissary is currently under development as a feature film with a British production company. Learn more at www.davisbunn.com.

My book came from Revell in exchange for my honest review and nothing more. 

Soul Painter by Cara Luecht

Yes, we can have something that could be called Christian and Gothic! This is a wonderful read that you don't want to put down! Miriam is rich, she is an heiress. Even so, she has decided to live over a her Dad's warehouse. He has passed, but the apartment is across from a cathedral. This gives Miriam a prefect view of the comings and goings below. Since she is an artist, this is some major inspiration and she also likes to mingle with them.

Miriam has past hurts, fears, but even so, she reaches out to a young woman in need. A woman in bad circumstances, a "woman of the streets". A prostitute and she has been hurt. Someone is harming them. Their are priests, are they the good folks or the bad ones? Miriam can't paint people's souls, but can she help solver her fears and the plight of these women?

Can Miriam let God heal her, and will they catch the people behind this? Grace and forgiveness, murder and mercy, pain and healing - this book has it all. The ending was a bit fast, but even so I hope to read more books from this Author. This was my first one and I'm so very pleased I got to read it!

Carol :)

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Soul Painter

WhiteFire Publishing (March 15, 2014)

by

Cara Luecht

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A Word from the Author:
I never planned to be a writer. In fact, it took me a while to finish college. But I did, and here I am. And I now I can’t imagine not being a writer.

By day, I am an English Instructor at MATC, Marketing Manager for Degnan Design Builders, Inc., mother to four amazing children, wife to an eternally patient and supportive husband, and Worship Leader for Living Hope Fellowship in Sun Prairie, WI. In the evening, when I can squirrel away some quiet time, I read and write historical fiction.

I have a B.A. in English Lit. from UW Whitewater and an M.F.A in Creative Writing from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, NJ.

If you have a question for me, or if you are local and would like me to stop by your book club or writer’s group, please drop me a line via the “Ask the Author” tab. I always love the opportunity to meet with others who share my love of books.


ABOUT THE BOOK

Miriam paints the future…but can she change it?


Chicago – 1890


Miriam watches the people jostle their way below the windows of her warehouse home, never thinking to look up at her as she paints their faces. But Miriam's gift as an artist goes beyond a mere recording of what is: Miriam paints their futures. Only once was she wrong. One woman doesn't match the future Miriam saw. The bright girl was supposed to grow into a respected businesswoman. Instead, Ione disappears nightly into the shadowed alley next to the cathedral with the other prostitutes. Then one night, while walking through the city fog, Miriam finds Ione broken and beaten. Miriam is forced to open her home to the stranger whose face she knows so well and open her life to change she never could have foretold. Women are missing—some found floating in the river, some never seen again. The deacon from the cathedral is the first to help. Soon Miriam’s solicitor, Michael, aids her in rejoining society so they might uncover the evil at work in the corrupt city...and awakens feelings she had never considered before. Finally engaged with the world she has so long observed, finally stirred by love and friendship, Miriam realizes the responsibility of her gifting. No longer can she just paint what will be. She must now help Ione find the future she is meant to have...and find her own along with it.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Soul Painter, go HERE.
Cara can be reached through the Contact link on her Website 

The book link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1939023246 

Doctor Who: Silhouette by Justin Richards

It's time! Time for me to review another Dr. Who book! YEAH! 

It's the 12th Doctor and I'm behind on my 8th Season so I'm still getting to know him. 

I enjoyed him and Clara in this book though! Great humor and epic danger are often at hand, and didn't disappoint in Silhouette. It's a well paced read that you will not want to put down as you go along with the Doctor to find out who, or what is the silhouette. What powers her or it? 

Yeah for fun Dr. Who read! 

Carol 

About the Book:

"Vastra and Strax and Jenny? Oh no, we don't need to bother them. Trust me."  

Marlowe Hapworth is found dead in his locked study, killed by an unknown assailant. This is a case for the Great Detective, Madame Vastra. 

Rick Bellamy, bare-knuckle boxer, has the life drawn out of him by a figure dressed as an undertaker. This angers Strax the Sontaran. 

The Carnival of Curiosities, a collection of bizarre and fascinating sideshows and performers. This is where Jenny Flint looks for answers.      

How are these things connected? And what does Orestes Milton, rich industrialist, have to do with it all? This is where the Doctor and Clara come in. The Doctor and his friends find themselves thrust into a world where nothing and no one are what they seem. Can they unravel the truth before the most dangerous weapon ever developed is unleashed on London?

   About the Author

JUSTIN RICHARDS has written for stage and screen as well as writing novels and graphic novels. He has also co-written several action thrillers for older children with the acknowledged master of the genre Jack Higgins. Justin acts as Creative Consultant to BBC Books' range of Doctor Who titles, as well as writing quite a few himself. Married with two children (both boys), Justin lives and works in Warwick, within sight of one of Britain's best-preserved castles. 

My copy came from Blogging For Books in exchange for my honest review and nothing more.

Love Unexpected (Beacons of Hope) by Jody Hedlund

The prequel to this book is "Out of the Storm", which is good as well, but this book can stand alone if you so choose. From the opening this book is engaging. It is a page turning book that grips you quickly with out loosing your interest even while being soaked in History. Dying on board a ship isn't a great option. Emma survives, but at what cost? Having lost everything, she is now homeless and penniless, and frankly without and in need.

Patrick has lost his wife, and has a child to care for. Thrown together Emma is soon wife to a man she hardly knows, and mother to a boy named Josiah. As daily life progresses, it looks like Patrick and Emma could have a good life, and a happy family. However there are secrets. Patrick has some deep, dark hidden things that are coming to light.

Can grace and forgiveness be allowed to work in their lives or will the dark hidden things destroy them all?
Redemption is a wonderful thing and so was reading this book.

Carol :)

 About the Book:

1859
Presque Isle, MichiganWhat Is the Secret That Could Shipwreck Both of Their Lives?
All Emma Chambers ever wanted was a home, but when her steamboat sinks just outside Presque Isle, she's left destitute and with no place to stay.

An unlikely solution arises when the lighthouse keeper arrives in town. He's just lost his wife and is having a difficult time caring for his child. So a traveling preacher gets the idea that the keeper and Emma might be the answer to each other's dilemma. After a hasty marriage, she finds herself heading to the lighthouse with this handsome but quiet stranger. Nothing in her aimless life, though, has prepared her for parenting a rambunctious toddler, as well as managing a household.

Emma soon suspects Patrick may be hiding something from her, and then she hears a disturbing rumor about the circumstances surrounding his late wife's death. It seems as if her wish for a home and family of her own could end up leading her once more into turbulent waters.

"Romance, an almost Hitchcockian mystery, and a tale of repentance make a fine mixture in Hedlund's captivating and suspenseful inspirational novel." -Booklist

  About the Author 

Jody Hedlund is the bestselling author of seven novels, including Captured By Love, Rebellious Heart, and The Preacher's Bride,winner of the 2011 Award of Excellence and a finalist for the 2011 Carol Award in First Novel. She received a bachelor's from Taylor University and a master's from University of Wisconsin, both in social work. Currently she makes her home in Midland, Michigan, with her husband and five busy children. She can be found online at www.jodyhedlund.com.

http://www.amazon.com/Love-Unexpected-Beacons-Hope-Hedlund/dp/0764212370

Thanks to Bethany House for my copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. 

Masterpeice Marriage by Gina Welborn (Quilts of Love Series #24)

It is January, and it is 2015! Things are still catching up from last year, including my book in the mail.
So until it is here, and I can read it - all I can give you is the lovely write up CFBA gives us.
I intend to be back to update this post!

Carol :)

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Masterpiece Marriage

Abingdon Press (December 16, 2014)

by

Gina Welborn

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


After Gina Welborn earned a Communications degee from an Oklahoma university, she thought the perfect career choice was working at a news radio station writing commercial copy, public service announcements, and news reports. A PSA writer, sadly, can only be so creative when describing ketchup and Geronimo’s grave. (No, she never combined those two elements in the same script, but now that she thinks about it, she wishes ... ) Thus Gina "retired" to focus on goal, motivation, and conflict within her family before discovering her niche in writing romances. A member of RWA and ACFW, Gina has four published novellas, including one in the ECPA-bestselling Mistletoe Memories, and three short historical romances: The Heiress's Courtship, The Marshal's Pursuit, and Masterpiece Marriage. A moderately obsessive fan of Community, Once Upon a Time, and Chopped, Gina lives in Oklahoma with her pastor husband, their five Okie-Hokie children, a box-lab, two rabbits, four guinea pigs, and a fancy Russian dwarf hamster named Tom Bob Deucalion. Gina is represented by the Steve Laube Agency.


ABOUT THE BOOK


After a flood damages the looms at Zenus Dane’s Philadelphia textile mill and the bank demands loan payment, Zenus turns to his aunt for help repurposing his textiles. Trouble is . . . his aunt has already been hired by the lovely yet secretive Englishwoman Mary Varrs. Eager to acquire his aunt’s quilt patterns, Zenus attends the summer Quilting Bee, a social event his aunt has uniquely designed with the secret purpose of finding Zenus a wife. However Zenus only has eyes for Mary, but Mary has no such desire for him. Though his aunt is determined to design a masterpiece marriage, both Zenus and Mary will have to overcome their stubborn ways. Can he realize that love requires stepping out of his routine? And will she recognize that following her heart doesn’t mean sacrificing her ambition?


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

Gina can be reached through the Contact link on her Website 

The book link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1426773633