Thursday, April 30, 2015

Daughter of the Cimarron by Samuel Hall

Divorcing a cheating husband means disgracing her family, but Claire Devoe can’t take it anymore. Forced to provide for herself, she travels the Midwest with a sales crew. Can she trust the God who didn’t save her first marriage to lead her through the maze of new love and overwhelming expectations? The long twilight of the Great Depression—with its debt, disgrace, drought, and despair—becomes the crucible that remakes her life.

Daughter of the Cimarron is the fictionalized tale of the author’s mother as she went from ragtime to breadlines, from the silent cities and melancholy towns to a dugout overlooking the Cimarron Canyon, from brokenness to strength. 











This book is based on the author's parents during the time of the Great Depression. It is a very interesting read, slow in places, and it ended abruptly, however it shows how women were treated at that time, and how difficult it had to have been in the position Claire was, with a cheating husband, and divorcing. My grandmother divorced her first husband because he was abusive and married my grandfather in the 1930's. I heard about what my grandmother went through, I couldn't imagine living it.

Recommended!



 

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Every Bride Needs a Groom by Janice Thompson



Small-town girl Katie Fisher is planning her wedding. Sure, her boyfriend hasn't managed to pop the question just yet, but that doesn't mean she shouldn't enter a contest in Texas Bride magazine to win the dress of her dreams, right? But when her boyfriend breaks up with her and takes a job in another town--the very same day Katie wins her dream dress--her world is turned upside down. Should she claim her prize? And will the hunky former pro-basketball player who runs the swanky Dallas bridal shop--yeah, you read that right--catch on to her humiliation if she does?

Janice Thompson designs a romance sure to delight, with plenty of fish-out-of-water moments, a hilarious supporting cast, and more of the wedding biz world her readers adore.

 Janice Thompson is a seasoned romance author and screenwriter. An expert at pulling the humor from the situations we get ourselves into, Thompson offers an inside look at the wedding business, drawing on her own experiences as a wedding planner. She is the author of the hugely popular Weddings by Bella series and the Backstage Pass series, as well as Picture Perfect, The Icing on the Cake, and The Dream Dress. She lives in Texas. Learn more at www.janiceathompson.com.










Janice has out done herself with her new book, Every Bride Needs a Groom, which is the first book in her new series A Bride With Style. The cast of characters could be anyone in your own family. An eccentric grandmother, Queenie, a cousin whose husband couldn't find his way out of a paper bag, and Katie the heroine who wants to tell the truth about her "engagement" but is afraid to say anything for fear someone's feelings may be hurt. And all Katie did was enter an essay contest to win a wedding gown.
I laughed out loud as I read this book, it is one of my favorites and I know I will re-read it!




Friday, April 24, 2015

The Thornbearer (Penned in Time #1) by Pepper Basham


Pepper D. BashamPepper D Basham has been telling tales ever since she was a little girl and fell in love with storytelling while listening to her granny share oral history. A native of the Blue Ridge Mountains, mom of five, speech-language pathologist, and lover of chocolate, Pepper enjoys sprinkling her native Appalachian culture into her fiction wherever she can. She currently resides in the lovely mountains of Asheville, NC, where she works with kids who have special needs, searches for unique hats, and plots new ways to annoy her wonderful friends at her group writing blog, The Writer’s Alley. She is represented by Julie Gwinn of Seymour Literary Agency. Her debut novel, The Thorn Bearer, arrives on May 7th 2015 and is the first book in the Penned in Time series. Her first contemporary romance, A Twist of Faith, is slated to release later the same year. You can find her at www.pepperdbasham.com or follow


her writing antics on her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pepper-D-Basham or Twitter at https://twitter.com/pepperbasham





Ashley Dougall has a terminal disease and forgiveness is the only cure. Ashley Dougall’s father stole her innocence, her selfish fiancé stole her heart, and unforgiveness is slowly stealing her life. Drawn by the desire to help others, she tries to escape haunting memories and enlists her services as a nurse in war-torn Europe. Along with her childhood friend and fiance’s brother, Samuel Miller, the fragile threads holding Ashley’s life in place one-by-one begin to snap. From the deck of the ill-fated Lusitania to the smoke-filled trenches of WWI, Ashley must choose between forgiveness of the past, life in the present, and a Savior who is willing to help her face them both.





I just love debut authors, and Pepper will be one to watch for years to come. In her debut novel, she takes the tragedy of the sinking of the Lusitania, and the WWI's war and creates characters that tug at your heart-strings, make you laugh. Her writing is both lyrical, and moving. The spiritual thread is there, but not overwhelming. I loved this book and am anxious for the next one. This book will be on my end of the year favorites! Great job Pepper! Highly recommended!




First Line Friday Featuring Riot (A Breed Apart: Legacy #3) by Ronie Kendig and JJ Samie Myles

  Happy Friday!! Welcome to the weekend!!! Today I am featuring one of my favorite authors, Ronie Kendig. I loved A Breed Apart series and I...