SMITTEN BOOK CLUB | KINDLE FIRE GIVEAWAY, FACEBOOK PARTY, AND SATURDAY BRUNCH

The century-old Gentlewoman’s Guide to Love and Courtship is no ordinary book club choice. But for the little book club in Smitten, Vermont, it might be their best pick yet!
The thick, leathery tome Heather pulled out of the dusty cardboard box was definitely coming home with her. Not only was The Gentlewoman’s Guide to Love and Courtship an appealing curiosity by virtue of its title; it was also written by Smitten, Vermont native Pearl Chambers, a local gentlewoman from three generations back.
Little did Heather know the repercussions this little curiosity would have on her and her friends’ romantic exploits.
When Heather and her fellow book club members begin passing the book around, their respective interpretations are unleashed on their respective love lives . . . for better or for worse. Is it a mystery? An idealist fantasy? An intimation of Jane Austen? As romantic love finds its way to each woman, the Guide proves itself both surprisingly prescient and hilariously irrelevant.
What’s more, a handwritten inscription indicates that the arcane book might hold the only extant clues leading to buried gold—exactly what one of the members needs to keep her house. How could they not go treasure hunting?
In this remarkable collaborative novel, besties Colleen Coble, Kristin Billerbeck, Denise Hunter, and Diann Hunt tackle the tale of the Gentlewoman’s Guide by writing for one book club member apiece. Smitten Book Club is a hopeful, hilarious story of friendship and healing, written by friends for friends.
Purchase a copy here.

 RITA-finalist Colleen Coble is the author of several best-selling romantic suspense novels, including "Tidewater Inn", and the Mercy Falls, Lonestar, and Rock Harbor series. * Christy Award finalist and two-time winner of the ACFW Book of the Year award, Kristin Billerbeck has appeared on The Today Show and has been featured in the New York Times. Her books include "A Billion Reasons Why" and "What a Girl Wants." * Denise Hunter is the award-winning and best-selling author of several novels, including "A Cowboy's Touch" and "Sweetwater Gap." She and her husband are raising three boys in Indiana. * Diann Hunt was a writer of romantic comedy and humorous women’s fiction. She lost her courageous battle with cancer last fall. A Hallmark Channel adaptation of her novel "For Better or For Worse" will air fall 2014.

 The Smitten gals are back with their newest release, Smitten Book Club! Colleen Coble, Kristin Billerbeck, and Denise Hunter are celebrating with a Kindle Fire giveaway, a Facebook party on February 20, and a nationwide book-club brunch on March 22.

 

One winner will receive:

• A Kindle Fire HDX


• The Smitten books (Smitten, Secretly Smitten, Smitten Book Club)

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on February 20th. Winner will be announced at the Smitten Book Club Facebook Author Chat Party on February 20th. Connect with Colleen Coble, Denise Hunter, and Kristin Billerbeck for an evening of book chat, trivia, laughter, and more! The Smitten gals will also be taking questions from the audience, giving away books and gift certificates, and sharing news about their upcoming nationwide Smitten Book Club brunch on March 22nd. (Sign up to host today!)

So grab your copy of Smitten Book Club and join Colleen, Denise, Kristin, and friends on the evening of February 20th for a chance to connect and make some new friends. (If you haven't read the book, don't let that stop you from coming!)

Don't miss a moment of the fun; RSVP today. Tell your friends via FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning. Hope to see you on the 20th!

Sign up to host a Smitten Book Club Brunch on March 22nd!


My Thoughts:



Four friends write about four friends living in Smitten, Vermont.  In preparing for a book sale to help Molly, whose husband was killed in a horrible fire, Heather finds a book written by Smitten native Pearl Chambers titled The Gentlewoman’s Guide to Love and Courtship. As they each take turns reading the book, they wonder if there is a mystery tucked within it’s pages.

In the four novella’s written by these amazing authors, Colleen Coble, Kristen Billerbeck, Diann Hunt, and Denise Hunter, the book by Pearl Chambers is passed around between Heather, Abby, Lia, and Molly as they read the pages their love lives begin to look very different.

Spend some time in Smitten with Heather, Abby, Lia and Molly along with their creators Colleen Coble, Kristen Billerbeck, Diann Hunt, and Denise Hunter.

Highly recommended. 

 




Finding that "Perfect" Someone

Three years ago I had gotten engaged to my amazing husband. While we have only been together three and a half years, our former marriages helped guide us to making a better, and healthier choice for us.
I had a list of what I did and did not want in a relationship and I know he had a list as well.
Being Christian's we knew no matter how well a person fit our list there was no "PERFECT" person out there. Christ was the only PERFECT man to walk the earth. Yet, I know people, women mostly who are looking for the absolute perfect man to sweep them off their feet. I have news for them. . .  there is no such thing. No matter how the other person fits your list, they will still have flaws, we're human.

The true gauge of a relationship is how a couple navigates the weaknesses and how they encourage each other to strengthen the weaknesses.
If marriage or a serious relationship is your desire, remember it will be work, and it may be more than you are willing to put in.
Love is finding someone who knows all your flaws, mistakes, and weaknesses and still thinks you're amazing!
I am in no way saying that anyone woman or man should settle . . . I believe no one should settle, however, I believe that you can especially after a divorce get caught up in finding the "PERFECT" someone that you may miss out on someone wonderful. We all have flaws, baggage, sins, and you may just be the "RIGHT" someone for that person, but if you get so nit picky you may be really sorry.

I pray this post encourages, and uplifts whoever reads it.

Happy Valentine's Day

Once Upon a Winter's Heart

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Once Upon a Winter's Heart Center Street (January 7, 2014) by Melody Carlson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Over the years, Melody Carlson has worn many hats, from pre-school teacher to youth counselor to political activist to senior editor. But most of all, she loves to write! Currently she freelances from her home. In the past eight years, she has published over ninety books for children, teens, and adults--with sales totaling more than two million and many titles appearing on the ECPA Bestsellers List. Several of her books have been finalists for, and winners of, various writing awards.

She has two grown sons and lives in Central Oregon with her husband and chocolate lab retriever. They enjoy skiing, hiking, gardening, camping and biking in the beautiful Cascade Mountains.


ABOUT THE BOOK

Emma Burcelli has suffered over a decade of dating disasters. But she concludes that love is officially dead when her grandfather Poppi suddenly passes, leaving her grandmother Nona devastated. To help out, Emma works in the family bookstore, which Nona insists must be decked out in sweetheart décor as Poppi would have done for Valentine's Day. Although she feels like a V-Day Scrooge, Emma quickly learns to enjoy the task with the help of a handsome family friend, Lane Forester, who shows her that hanging hearts is much more fun when done to the tune of Dean Martin. As Emma and Lane share time and memories of Poppi, she reconsiders the notion that romance is alive.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Once Upon a Winter's Heart, go HERE.

Love's Sweet Beginning by Ann Shorey

About the book:
It wasn't Cassie Haddon's fault that she had managed to reach the age of twenty-five without possessing any useful skills. Until the war, she had always had servants to wait on her. Since then, she and her widowed mother had moved from place to place, relying on family to care for them. Now she's forced to find work to support them both. What isn't in her plans is falling for Jacob West, a local restaurateur and grocer. She needs a job and he needs help. But what they both need is love.

Ann Shorey is the author of the At Home in Beldon Grove series, Where Wildflowers Bloom, and When the Heart Heals. She has also published selections in the Cup of Comfort series and in Chicken Soup for the Grandma's Soul. Ann and her husband make their home in southwestern Oregon. Learn more at www.annshorey.com.









My Thoughts:
Cassie has some spunk and snark. Something I love in a female character. Her mother on the other hand is has no desire to do anything but mooch off of someone. Cassie is determined to be more than some pretty face that is put up on the shelf to be admired.
Jacob West owns the restaurant and grocery store, he is reluctant to give Cassie a job because she has come from a privileged background. He gives her a job, and wishes she wasn't so cute, because she distracts him. Jacob is clearly attracted to her and would like to see her, but Jacob is 38 and says that at 22 she'd never be interested in him. We'll just have to see about that now Jacob, won't we.

Ann has written another great book. I highly recommend it.

Rachel by Jill Eileen Smith

About the book:

Beautiful Rachel wants nothing more than for her older half sister Leah to wed and move out of their household. Maybe then she would not feel so scrutinized, so managed, so judged. Plain Leah wishes her father Laban would find a good man for her, someone who would love her alone and make her his only bride. Unbeknownst to either of them, Jacob is making his way to their home, trying to escape a past laced with deceit and find the future God has promised him.

But the past comes back to haunt Jacob when he finds himself on the receiving end of treachery and the victim of a cruel bait and switch. The man who wanted only one woman will end up with sisters who have never gotten along and now must spend the rest of their lives sharing a husband. In the power struggles that follow, only one woman will triumph . . . or will she?

About this author

Jill Eileen Smith is the author of the Wives of the Patriarchs series featuring Sarai, Rebekah, and upcoming Rachel, (Releases 2-1-14) as well as, the bestselling author of Michal, Abigail, and Bathsheba, all part of The Wives of King David series published by Revell (Baker Publishing Group.)

Her writing has taken her from the Bible to Israel and she loves learning how women lived in Old Testament times. When she isn't writing she can be found hanging out with family and friends, reading, bike-riding, testing new restaurants with her husband, or snuggling one of two adorable kitties. She lives with her family in southeast Michigan. 
You can learn more about her and her books on her website http://www.jilleileensmith.com 


My Thoughts:

Jill Eileen Smith’s interpretation of Rachel is spot on. From the first page you are submerged into a rich story, full of vivid colors, and more drama than a house full of teenage girls. I guarantee you will be going to your Bible to refresh your memory on the story.

When Jacob arrives to find a wife at his Uncle Laban’s home, he is immediately drawn to Rachel. Laban agrees to let Jacob marry Rachel after he works for him for seven years. After Jacob worked for the seven years, Laban pulls a wedding day switcheroo and Leah was the one he married. Because of the custom Jacob didn’t realize it was Leah until the next morning. Furious he tells Laban that he wants Rachel, to receive Rachel who he was already betrothed to, which is being married in their time, Laban gives Rachel to Jacob, yet he has to work another seven years.

If that isn’t bad enough, Rachel is unable to conceive and Leah conceives with ease. Talk about sister-wives, here is our first glimpse of sister-wives and why God told His people to not have more than one wife. As we see through Jill’s text, Leah and Rachel compete, are jealous to the point that like their relative Sarah, they get their maids involved in sleeping with Jacob for more children.

I have to say, that had Jacob not taken Esau’s birthright he would’ve had Rachel all to himself, which would of course mean that Esau couldn’t have married a Canaanite.

It made me think how many times we get in God’s way and not receive the full blessing from God.

This is a must read, and I highly recommend it!

     

                                                       

Freedom Fight by W. Frank Lattimore

Freedom Fight: Sometimes Evil Has Green Eyes and Strawberry Blonde Hair (The Otherealm Saga, #1)

"Welcome to the Otherealm, where Heaven, Hell, and Man Battle for the Soul."

Brent Lawton’s entrance into the occult was an accident; a combination of ignorance and naïveté. He is drawn into a life-paralyzing darkness that threatens to destroy him. Brent tries desperately to escape, even to the point of attempting suicide. However, his deadly deliberations are temporarily stalled by the thought of two possible after-life destinations—one of them probable—planted in his mind by his grandmother.

Tara Baker’s involvement in the occult was no accident. Painful secrets from her past prompt her to push forward to acquire more dark power. Motivated by a malevolent intent to destroy the walk of two “Christlings,” she leverages both physical and spiritual influences to again prove her worthiness to an angry mentor who no longer trusts her emotional stability.

Brent’s and Tara’s paths will cross. Two different powers will compete for their lives and reputations. Neither Brent nor Tara will come out of the experience without scars, but one will encounter an ancient power so boundless that he … or she … will come face-to-face with eternity.

About this author

When I was 14 years old, I saw the movie Star Wars. Its impossible to fully describe the excitement it created within me. It was the catalyst that birthed a desire to write my own grand adventures.

A lifetime later, I was tasked to come up with, and to write, a story for a local stage production. That's when I knew that my passion for writing, though it had lain dormant for decades, was still there. I had stories to tell. Stories that I hoped would change lives.

In 2006 I began writing a novel called Otherealm. As later became two separate books, Freedom Fight and Freedom War, the first two novels of the Otherealm Saga. By 2011 both novels were complete. In 2012 a third novel was written for the saga, Freedom Zone.
You can learn more about Frank at his web site http://impactwriter.wix.com/wfranklinlattimore


My Thoughts:

Move over Frank Peretti, there is another Frank in town. Frank has written a book that takes you right into the middle of spiritual warfare. After Brent sees a magic trick done he tries to repeat it and in doing so he has no clue as to the foothold he has just given Satan. He becomes a person that no one recognizes, his coach can't figure out why he's being so different, he tries to commit suicide. Brent is a mess and has no idea that spiritual warfare is raging for his soul.
His grandmother, Hannah, who is a believer is woken up and spends nights praying for her grandson.  We watch Brent become a believer, and how Satan uses Tara to come after Brent. Tara has been warned about the Christlings by her mentor and spirit guide, as she calls them.Tara isn't prepared for the power of Christ that Brent has at his disposal.
These characters are well developed and make you want to care about them. Highly recommended!

The Art of Falling by Kathryn Craft

About the book:
All Penny has ever wanted to do is dance—and when that chance is taken from her, it pushes her to the brink of despair, from which she might never return. When she wakes up after a traumatic fall, bruised and battered but miraculously alive, Penny must confront the memories that have haunted her for years, using her love of movement to pick up the pieces of her shattered life.

                      

About this author

Kathryn Craft, a former dance teacher and choreographer, wrote dance criticism for nineteen years for The Morning Call daily newspaper in Allentown, PA. She has a bachelor’s in biology education and a master’s in health and physical education with a dance concentration from Miami University (OH). Long a leader in the dance and literary scenes in southeastern Pennsylvania, she mentors other writers through workshops and writing retreats. She has lived in New York, Maryland, Ohio, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and now lives with her husband in Doylestown, PA. THE ART OF FALLING is her first novel. Her second, WHILE THE LEAVES STOOD STILL, is due from Sourcebooks in Spring 2015.
You can read more about her on her website http://www.kathryncraft.com/ 




I am a huge fan of debut authors. I was drawn to this book because I love the art of dance. I took tap when I was a kid, nothing more than that. As a woman I can also understand the frustration with body image.
Penny was a character you could get behind and root for. A good debut.