Angel Harp by Michael Phillips

Hi Everyone,

This book was running way late, so the full review will have to post later. I can only say so far that Michael Phillips has written some others books I have liked, so this one looks very interesting.

Carol

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Angel Harp FaithWords (January 26, 2011) by Michael Phillips


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Michael Phillips has been writing in the Christian marketplace for 30 years. All told, he has written, co-written, and edited some 110 books. Phillips and his wife live in the U.S., and make their second home in Scotland.









ABOUT THE BOOK

Widowed at 34, amateur harpist Marie "Angel" Buchan realizes at 40 that her life and dreams are slowly slipping away. A summer in Scotland turns out to offer far more than she ever imagined! Not only does the music of her harp capture the fancy of the small coastal village she visits, she is unexpectedly drawn into a love triangle involving the local curate and the local duke.

The boyhood friends have been estranged as adults because of their mutual love of another woman (now dead) some years before. History seems destined to repeat itself, with Marie in the thick of it. Her involvement in the lives of the two men, as well as in the community, leads to a range of exciting relationships and lands Marie in the center of the mystery of a long-unsolved local murder. Eventually she must make her decision: with whom will she cast the lot of her future?

If you would like to read the first chapter of Angel Harp, go HERE

The book link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/044656771X 

Someone To Blame by C.S. Lakin

YEAH! 

It is time for another review! Today I am posting part of my review of Someone To Blame. I was quite happy when I realized that I was actually getting to review not one, but two books by C.S. Lakin this month. I was instantly draw to the name of this book. People are forever blaming someone for their problems. I have watched this with people for a while now. When something bad happens people tend to find a scape goat. Anyone that can be blamed for their problems or actions, or things just going plain wrong. Sometimes God gets the blame, sometimes Satan gets it, and much more often, other people are the ones blamed.

(I am back for an update here!) 

Working to leave their past far behind them, Irene, Matt and their daughter Casey move as far away as they can to try to heal. This family has lost about half their members. Their two sons are dead and such great pain and grief is so hard to deal with. Nothing is the same, but yet life must go on. Worse yet there is a shifty stranger hanging around. The Moores moved to find healing and peace, but each passing day and new dangers are bringing accusations, blame and issues not dealt with will not stay shoved down much longer!

Before too long the Moore family finds themselves in the middle of crimes that need to be solved, which only adds to the mystery of this book. After all, this book didn't open up with how the two Moore boys died, only that as we read, we learn they are dead...and those left alive are suffering.

This is a wonderful story of forgiveness, and how God can move in lives. Not everything is as it seems.
I am so glad I got to read this book!

Carol  

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Someone To Blame Zondervan (September 21, 2010) by C. S. Lakin



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

C. S. Lakin is a novelist and professional copyeditor and writing coach. She is currently working on her eleventh novel, a contemporary family saga drawn from the biblical story of Jacob. Someone to Blame(Zondervan), an intense relational drama and winner of the 2009 First Novel contest, released in October 2010, and she is also the author of the allegorical adult fantasy series The Gates of Heaven, featuring The Wolf of Tebron and the upcoming release The Map Across Time (March 2011). She is currently completing her tenth novel and developing a dog memoir of epic proportion.



ABOUT THE BOOK

In the wake of heartrending family tragedies, Matt and Irene Moore move with their fourteen-year-old daughter, Casey, to a small town. Their goal is to get far away from the daily reminders that leave each of them raw and guilt-ridden. Their hope is to find redemption, repair, and renewal. Instead, the threads that hold them together unravel even more.

Breakers, a small community perched on the rocky coast of the Pacific Northwest, is draped with cold isolation that seems to mirror the hearts. As they settle into their new life, old grief settles with them. Matt is always on edge and easily angered, Irene is sad and pensive, and Casey is confused and defiant. They've once more set the stage for calamity. Into this mix comes Billy Thurber, a young drifter with his own conflicts, whose life unexpectedly entangles with the Moores'.

His arrival in Breakers parallels a rash of hateful and senseless crimes, and soon the whole town -- eager for someone to blame -- goes after Thurber with murderous intent. Out of this dangerous chaos, however, the Moores find unexpected grace and healing in a most unlikely way.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Someone To Blame, go HERE.

ALSO:
C.S. Lakin hails from a family of writers; not just would-be writers, but people who actually lived off what they made from writing. Being an editor and having written ten books so far, it is clear that C.S. Lakin has the blessed ability to follow in that same direction. Having written sci-fi stories, fantasy material, and young adults as well as contemporary fiction, C.S. Lakin has the talent to branch into more than one fiction genre. Someone to Blame won the Zondervan First Novel contest at Mount Hermon in April 2009 and is not the only award this author has won.


The book link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0310327393

Serendipity by Cathy Marie Hake

Good Morning Dear Readers! 

I really wasn't sure what I thought of this book in the first few opening pages. I didn't mind the well written accents of the opening characters at all though. Maggie (Magpie) Rose is from Arkansas in 1893. Maggie lives with her Uncle Bo and takes care of a passel of chores, a heap of men in her family. She barters and trades and is rather happy and settled in her life. However, her Uncle Bo is praying about when she meets and marries the right man, and Maggie doesn't want to hear of it! Her Uncle is forever praying for God to send a man to her to marry her and give her a wonderful life for his much loved niece. Maggie just wishes he would get over it and let her be. 

One of Maggie's gifts is that she is is virtually a doctor. She is very gifted with getting people well, not just making soap and using wonderful recipes that were handed down to her, or bartering for all sorts of things. So when Todd and his sick Mother find come to her for help, Uncle Bo sees the man he prayed in come to wed his darling niece and Maggie just isn't so sure.

Todd wasn't one whit happy that the Doctor was a woman, but as he watches Maggie take care of his mother, he sees another plan. Pretty soon Maggie and Todd have a pretty good mutual attraction happening. After all, it ain't just every day that the Good Lord drops a spouse off at your door...'specially if you ask Maggie's Uncle Bo! Todd quickly snatches Maggie up into an agreement so his Mother will have a full time nurse and a fast wedding follows and Maggie, her new husband Todd, and her Mother-In-Law head off to Gooding, Texas. 

Thus starts a major clash. Two more opposite people have not often gotten married! Todd's Mother, Mrs. Crewel, a very apt name I have to add,  are soon all wondering what have we done.  Mrs. Crewel is mean, in fact, she is cruel! To top that off, the three of them are living in a one room house. (Not as uncommon then, but not easy no matter when or where!)  Todd realizes that he has to do some major work to save his new marriage if he wants it and that he has to do something to keep his Mother from being mean to his wife, and they have to have a meeting of the minds on some common goals and dream for their relationship to move forward. 

I am NOT telling you the end of the story... that wouldn't be fair. I can say that this was my first book by Cathy Marie Hake and I enjoyed it.  I tend to like it when the author works so hard on the accents of the characters, as well as the humor that was included! I liked the ending well enough. 

So check out Serendipity! 

Carol 

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Serendipity Bethany House (August 1, 2010) by Cathy Marie Hake
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


Known for surfing across the kitchen on a dropped dill pickle slice, waterskiing on sea anemone spit, and using Right Guard® as hair spray; she considers herself living proof that God does, indeed, possess a healthy sense of humor.

Cathy loves classical music, romantic getaways with her husband, and Diet Pepsi Free®. "I need chocolate to survive, love my friends, and enjoy a deep personal relationship with the Lord. Although an extrovert, I'm very conservative on a personal level."

In her writing, Cathy attempts to capture a unique glimpse of life and how a man and woman can overcome obstacles when motivated by love. In her inspirational pieces she enjoys the freedom of showing how Christ can enrich a loving couple's relationship.

Cathy Marie Hake is a registered nurse who worked for many years in an oncology unit before shifting her focus to perinatal care. The author of over twenty novels, she lives with her husband and two children in Anaheim, California.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Todd Valmer should have known better. A farmer who's been through several disasters, he travels to Virginia to fetch his widowed mother to cook and help him around his Texas farm...or that was the plan until she keels over on the train and they get kicked off.

Maggie Rose barters for a living and also makes soaps, lotions, and perfumes with a special rose recipe passed down from mother to daughter for generations. She hasn't wanted to marry...until that handsome Texan shows up.

Her heart skips a beat, and when he proposes, a hasty marriage follows. What ensues, however, is a clash of culture and a battle of wills--and it's clear they both mistook instant attraction and infatuation for love. As their marriage loses its sparkle and fills with disillusionment, Todd and Maggie must determine what is worth fighting for. He dreams of a farm. Maggie wants to fulfill the family tradition with her rose perfumes.

Todd's mother, however, has entirely different plans for her son that do not include Maggie. In light of their hasty marriage and mistaken dreams, is there any hope of recapturing their love and building a future together?

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

The book link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764203215 

The Girl In The Gatehouse by Julie Klassen

Ah, Dear Readers,

Now this is my kind of book! I can't help myself, The Girl In The Gatehouse had me intrigued by page two!
This book opens with Mariah Aubrey being sent away from her family home due to some sort of horrible scandal. We aren't sure what the scandal is yet, but it was bad enough to send her away with only one faithful servant as her companion. Upon arriving at the last refuge afforded to her, she is not allowed to live in the main house, but is sent to dwell in the gatehouse!

O.k... let's go ahead and add in here, what a gatehouse is! I knew before reading this book, but not everyone might. A gatehouse house that is attached to the gates that lock the main gates to an estate. They were normally used only for a lone gatekeeper, typically a male in this era. For a woman to live in a gatehouse would be quite unusual to start with! A few gatehouses were quite large, but for most estates a large one was not necessary.

So here is Mariah, living in a gatehouse, and her Aunt who lives in the manor is very ill, and dying. To top that off, Mariah realize she is living next to the parish poor house. And now she is rescued a horse, and the man that was riding that horse, Captain Bryant.

Before anyone knows it, Captain Bryant is the new renter of the manor! Mariah has secrets her Aunt wants her to find answers to, and meanwhile Mariah is struggling to support herself by secretly writing novels! (Oh I love that part a lot!)

While this is my first book by Julie Klassen, I would really love to read some of her other books to see how they compare. Lots of wonderful dynamics are in play in this book! It is a romance, and a mystery, and it is exciting, and peaceful all at the same time. A beautiful "classic" type writing style is sure to please any one who reads this book! The characters are vivid and full of mystery and history which draw the reader into the book quickly and easily, and did not disappoint!

Carol

This week, the  Christian Fiction Blog Alliance  is introducing  The Girl in the Gatehouse  Bethany House (January 1, 2011)  by  Julie Klassen ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 
Julie says: My background is in advertising and marketing, but I am blessed with a dream job—working as an editor of Christian fiction. I have been writing since childhood, but Lady of Milkweed Manor was my first novel. It was a finalist for a Christy Award and won second place in the Inspirational Reader's Choice Awards. My second novel, The Apothecary's Daughter, was a finalist in the ACFW Book of the Year awards. I am currently writing one novel a year.

I graduated from the University of Illinois and enjoy travel, research, BBC period dramas, long hikes, short naps, and coffee with friends.

My husband and I have two sons and live near St. Paul, Minnesota.



ABOUT THE BOOK

Miss Mariah Aubrey, banished after a scandal, hides herself away in a long-abandoned gatehouse on the far edge of a distant relative's estate. There, she supports herself and her loyal servant the only way she knows how--by writing novels in secret.

Captain Matthew Bryant, returning to England successful and wealthy after the Napoleonic wars, leases an impressive estate from a cash-poor nobleman, determined to show the society beauty who once rejected him what a colossal mistake she made.

When he discovers an old gatehouse on the property, he is immediately intrigued by its striking young inhabitant and sets out to uncover her identity, and her past. But the more he learns about her, the more he realizes he must distance himself. Falling in love with an outcast would ruin his well-laid plans. The old gatehouse holds secrets of its own. Can Mariah and Captain Bryant uncover them before the cunning heir to the estate buries them forever?

If you would like to read the first chapter of The Girl in the Gatehouse, go HERE

The book link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764207083 

The Wolf Of Tebron by C.S. Lakin

Happy New Year Everyone!

What a wonderful book to open 2011 with! The Wolf of Tebron is most interesting and I look forward to the next books in the series.

As a wounded, beat up wizard flees the darkness closing in around him, so opens this book. Soon we meet a man., Joran. He is having nightmares about his wife, Charris, who is the love of his life. He keeps dreaming that he can't get to her. Becoming very worried he checks it out, only to find out she has vanished! Loosing her simply will not do, so he goes on a major quest to find her. Finding her is not going to be easy at all!
As Joran searches for his love, he meets with a huge wolf, Ruyah. This giant beautiful wolf is able to talk to Joran and help him in his search for his wife. ( I have a fondness for talking animals in books, so this was fun!)

Joran finds he will have to traverse the world and more in his extensive search. This is not easy for Joran is only a human man, and as such has his own flaws and issues to cope with. He is a wonderful husband, and I appreciate that! Joran will do what it takes, with faithful Ruyah at his side, in order to return Charris to his side.

For those who care to see, and I do, redemption and love, hope and faith are easily seen in this book. While compared in many places to C.S. Lewis's work, I find it different, and wonderful as well! I am eagerly awaiting the next books in The Heaven's Gate series!

Carol

Synopsis & Book Info:
A young blacksmith must undertake a perilous journey to the four ends of the world to rescue his wife, who is held captive by the Moon. Along the way, he befriends a powerful wolf who encourages, protects, and ultimately sacrifices his life to save his human friend. A stirring allegory of Gods love in classic fairy tale tradition. 


Author Bio:
Susanne C. S. Lakin comes from a family of successful writers. She grew up collating television scripts for her mother, a screenwriter, story editor, and producer for television. As an adult, Susanne assisted in developing series for television, and while raising two daughters and running a bed and breakfast inn in northern California, wrote her first three novels and a cookbook. In 2009, Susanne s contemporary novel, Someone to Blame won the Zondervan First Novel contest at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. The novel will be published by Zondervan in August of 2010. She and her husband, Lee Miller, continue to live in California, where she currently works as a freelance copy editor and writing mentor.

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. 
Link to the book Series: http://www.gatesofheavenseries.net/
Book link - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0899578888
Author’s web site - http://www.cslakin.com/
Author’s blog - http://cslakin.blogspot.com/

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Red Bissell
Justin Boyer
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Christian Fiction Book Reviews
Carol Bruce Collett
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Katie Hart
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Carol Keen
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Rachel Starr Thomson
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Brilliant Disguises by William Thornton

Alerting my Readers,

I have had the privilege of reviewing this book, and I have to find Mr. Thornton's e-mail address.
I greatly appreciate his allowing me to review his work! This is one INCREDIBLE self-published book, and worth the time you need to take to read it.

Brilliant Disguises follows a large time frame in the life of Leon Cameron. Leon takes a job that requires him to be a Christian, so instead of having a one-on-one relationship with Christ, Cameron gets involved in a church and learns to play the Christian game.

(I can't tell you how many people over the years I have felt  have been doing this! My own Grandfather was a Pastor. He said his ministry was to the lost, but that his mission every Sunday was to reach the lost church members!)

Cameron finds out what church his boss goes to, and he joins. He excels in wearing the mask, playing the Christian game, and is good at his job that he has secured by doing so. The head of the company and ministry, Dr. Foster, has his directives sent down, but few people ever meet him. Sometimes it seems he isn't even real!

Cameron marries a good Christian wife. He helps council those in need as he sees their issues, and figures if nothing else that knowledge gives him power. He wrestles with his Sister In Law begging for him to speak to her in Peter's voice. You see Cameron is a good imitator. He can imitate his deceased brother Peter.
He can imitate being a good husband, and he can imitate being a Christian. As the years of his life go by in this book, things just get in deeper and deeper.

In the course of the book Cameron comes to realize that almost everyone he knows is wearing a mask. He gets quite good at figuring out what their mask is, and why they wear it. But Cameron can't figure out one of the most important things... himself. Cameron lives among Christians, but he is not going to loose control and let God have him, and so he has a very odd "relationship" with God, and all those around him. He can quote the Bible quite well, and tends to understand the meanings that he should, but it is all head knowledge, and not from the heart.

And through it all, God himself never stops reaching out to Cameron, waiting, being who He is, our ever loving Father, waiting. The end of the book was good, but shocking.

This is the kind of book that "sleeping" Christians need to read! This is the kind of book that will provoke you to think, and think you should! I can see how it might really offend some people, how some people will be aghast, and then I can see how this book has the potential to help many. I am very glad I got to read it.

In the grouping of books that make you think, Brilliant Disguises and Imaginary Jesus are on the top of my list for this year. If you are able to et a copy, grab one quickly!

Carol

  Product Description

"Cameron Leon is the best man in his church,
but he doesn’t believe a thing.
He assumes many guises but runs the risk of losing everything.
Except himself. He lost that a long time ago.
Only One can give it back to him.
And Cameron has been imitating Him all along..."

http://www.amazon.com/BRILLIANT-DISGUISES-William-Thornton/dp/1441591311/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

The Charlatan’s Boy by Jonathan Rogers

Hello Dear Readers,


Get a copy of this one under the tree this year for any of your young'uns. This book would also be great for Grandpaw to read to the the whole family each night. The Charlatan's Boy  is quite captivating. 


Enter the world of Grady, and the Feechie. As you read about them, you will probably realize you might have see a Feechie, in disguise probably acting like civilized folk.  Grady isn't a real Feechie, though he would rather think he was sometimes than wonder where he really came from. Being shown off as the World's Ugliest Boy isn't much fun, but what is a feller to do for a living? Grady often longs for another life, but at the same time can't bring himself to leave the only man he has ever know, the one who has raised him, Floyd. 


Floyd will not tell Grady where he really came from, and sometimes it is just heart rending for Grady to not know who his parents were, but at the same time he can't blame them because who would want to keep a child as ugly as him? 


Grady's got a good honest soul, and he would rather work in the Feechie trade than several of Floyd's more dishonest ventures. A man has to eat, but Grady would rather do that with a kind of fun and prank that feels more honest and has more showmanship to it than selling folk fake liver pills, or bottles of cod liver oil type things to make you young again. 


About when things are at their worst Floyd decides to make sure that the whole island knows that Feechie aren't dead or gone. They are alive and well, and scary! To help everyone believe again Grady and Floyd set out on a grand scheme to create quite a scare. Grady even winds up using a "roaring machine". I remember hearing about those from my Grandparents. Seems they make such a dreadful noise that they were outlawed in some place for scaring cattle. 


And I am not going to tell you what happens from the great Feechie scare on. You are going to have to The Charlatan's Boy for yourself to find out if the Feechie are going to wind up murdering people in their beds at night, or eat'n up all the cows on the Drover's trail. 


Carol :)  

“I only know one man who might be able to tell me where I come from, and that man is a liar and a fraud.”

As far back as he can remember, the orphan Grady has tramped from village to village in the company of a huckster named Floyd. With his adolescent accomplice, Floyd perpetrates a variety of hoaxes and flimflams on the good citizens of the Corenwald frontier, such as the Ugliest Boy in the World act.

It’s a hard way to make a living, made harder by the memory of fatter times when audiences thronged to see young Grady perform as “The Wild Man of the Feechiefen Swamp.” But what can they do? Nobody believes in feechies anymore.

When Floyd stages an elaborate plot to revive Corenwalders’ belief in the mythical swamp-dwellers known as the feechiefolk, he overshoots the mark. Floyd’s Great Feechie Scare becomes widespread panic. Eager audiences become angry mobs, and in the ensuing chaos, the Charlatan’s Boy discovers the truth that has evaded him all his life—and will change his path forever.

________


“Jonathan Rogers has created a new kind of story—part fantasy, part southern fiction. It’s sad and funny and heartwarming. Imagine a southern version of a C. S. Lewis story or a Christian version of a Mark Twain tale. Imagine a world where dragons are alligators, the American South is an island kingdom of cowboys and swamp dwellers, and ugliness, it turns out, is profoundly beautiful. Jonathan Rogers, a Georgia boy with a PhD, a strong faith, and a healthy imagination, gives us a timeless story no one else could have written. I loved it.” —Andrew Peterson, author of The Wingfeather Saga
___________


Book link  - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0307458229
Author’s blog/web site - http://jonathan-rogers.com/ (Be sure to check out the Feechie Film Festival for some fun!!!)


In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. 

Participants’ links
Sally Apokedak
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