I believe that reviewing for Inspirational authors is my calling and ministry. The desire of my heart is that my blog is a light and source of encouragement for both readers and authors.
Bathsheba is a woman who
longs for love. With her devout husband away fighting the king's wars
for many months at a time, discontent and loneliness dog her steps--and
make it frighteningly easy to succumb to King David's charm and
attention. Though she immediately regrets her involvement with the
powerful king, the pieces are set in motion that will destroy everything
she holds dear. Can she find forgiveness at the feet of the Almighty?
Or has her sin separated her from God--and David--forever? With a
historian's sharp eye for detail and a novelist's creative spirit, Jill
Eileen Smith brings to life the passionate and emotional story of
David's most famous--and infamous--wife. Smith uses her gentle hand to
draw out the humanity in her characters, allowing readers to see
themselves in the three-dimensional lives and minds of people who are
often viewed in starkly moralistic terms. You will never read the story
of David and Bathsheba in the same way again.
First Line:
Jerusalem, 994 BC
Darkness curtained the sky, hiding the stars, sheltering Bathsheba in the inner courtyard of her home.
Visit these ladies and leave your first line in the comment section.
When I started blogging ten years ago I had never heard of biblical fiction let alone read one. Now, ten years later I have not only read bunches of them, they are one of my favorite genre's, and one of my favorite authors is Jill Eileen Smith. This week I will be giving away a copy of Rachel by Jill and posting memories of some of my favorite biblical novels.
About the book:
Rachel wants nothing
more than for her older half sister Leah to wed and move out of their
household. Leah wishes her father would find a good man who would love
her alone. 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. The man
who wanted only one woman ends 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?
Combining meticulous research with her own imaginings,
bestselling author Jill Eileen Smith not only tells one of the most
famous love stories of all time but will manage to surprise even those
who think they know the story inside and out.
To enter the giveaway you must be a follower of my blog. Also, please remember that we are now in November and the beginning of the holiday mailing season. Mail may take longer than normal.
The winner of Julie Lessman's prize package is Linda Finn!!!
I want to thank Julie for not only the giveaway but coming by all week to talk to all of you who came by.
I am having the most fun looking back. I will have another giveaway starting tomorrow.
Riley Callahan’s
plans to reveal his secret feelings for his best friend are derailed
when his life is drastically altered in Afghanistan.
Watching
the love of his life fall for his brother was enough to send Riley
straight to boot camp. But over a year later, he’s officially a marine,
and Beau and Paige are no longer an item. When Riley’s tour in
Afghanistan is up, he intends to confess his feelings to Paige and win
his best friend’s heart once and for all.
But all that changes
when an IED takes the life of a comrade and leaves Riley an amputee. Now
he’s heading home, injured and troubled. His plans to win Paige are a
distant dream. She deserves so much more than the man that’s left. All
he can do now is put some healthy distance between them. But upon his
return he discovers his family has arranged for him to stay with Paige.
Paige
is a nurturer at heart and happy to take care of her best buddy. By all
appearances Riley is adjusting miraculously well to his disability. But
as the days pass, Paige begins to see that the smiles and laughter are
just a mask for the pain he’s hiding. To make matters worse, her job is
in serious jeopardy. The animal shelter that she’s poured her heart into
has lost its funding, and she has three months to come up with the
money needed to save it.
As the weeks wear on, Paige’s feelings
for Riley begin to shift into uncharted territory. Why is she suddenly
noticing his arm muscles and the way his lips curl at the corners? Will
she be able to deny her feelings for another Callahan brother? And will
Riley let his heart heal so he can let Paige in?
My Thoughts:
I am really sad to see this series come to a close. I have loved each and every book, and getting to know the Callahan's and their quirky family side kicks. Denise creates characters and stories that evoke emotion, and this one is no different. Two friends who fall in love are the back drop for this story. Denise puts her characters in real life situations and then twists and turns the events for them to find where God wants them. I have to say that Riley and Paige are my favorite of her characters.
While it is no longer summer, this would be a great fall read, and while it is apart of a series it can stand alone, although you are going to want to read all of them.
They’ve weathered a lot
worse than winter. For widow June Harper, another cold front is about to
hit. Most call him Hugh. She’d call him Scrooge, except as the man
ensures her needs are met, June can’t help but wonder how to meet the
needs of his heart.
Netty Lewis can take care of herself, has
for a while now. Some hired help over the holidays doesn’t change that.
And even if Roy does take care of her, that doesn’t mean he cares for her or that he’ll stay past Christmas.
Pastor Colton McCabe is having the opposite problem. He’s not sure
he’ll make it through the holidays with his new housekeeper. Grace can’t
seem to do anything right but love. Perhaps being a homekeeper will
earn her a permanent residence in his heart.
And no one longs
for a home more than Connie Lancaster. She’s determined to return to St.
Louis, and no cowboy can change her mind. But if Isaac can change her
heart, maybe Connie will see the homecoming she’s been waiting for isn’t
to a place but a person.
Julie's novella in this collection is: Last Chance Christmas
Last Chance, California Fall 1885
First line: Shelter, food, and babies. Lord, that's all I ask.
Visit these lovely ladies for more first lines, and leave yours in the comment section.
I thought for fun, I'd re-post an interview I did with Julie Lessman's characters Cassidy McClare and Jamie MacKenna from her book Love At Any Cost. The first book in her Heart of San Francisco series.
About the book:
Jilted by a fortune
hunter, cowgirl Cassidy McClare is a spunky Texas oil heiress without a
fortune who would just as soon hogtie a man as look at him. Hoping a
summer visit with her wealthy cousins in San Francisco will help her
forget her heartache, Cassidy travels west. But no sooner is she settled
in beautiful California than Jamie McKenna, a handsome pauper looking
to marry well, captures her heart. When Jamie discovers the woman he
loves is poorer than he is, Cassidy finds herself bucked by love a
second time. Will Jamie discover that money can't buy love after all?
And can Cassidy ever learn to fully trust her heart to a man? With
delectable descriptions and a romantic sensibility, bestselling author
Julie Lessman brings the Gilded Age to life in this sumptuous new
series. Readers will faithfully follow Lessman to the West Coast for
more romance, passion, and surprising revelations found in Love at Any Cost.
Here’s a clip from the book where we see this lasso-loving
heroine through the eyes of our handsome hero Jamie MacKenna:
At twenty-five and newly graduated from Stanford Law, he
was used to a warmer reception from women—a lot warmer, as a matter of fact—and
although the petite blond was pretty in a cute and clumsy kind of way, she
certainly didn’t compare to some of the women who vied for his attention. A
slow exhale breezed over his lips. Although never had he seen more unusual eyes—the
color of his favorite green agate marble as a boy—like pale green jade,
hypnotic, mesmerizing, fringed with honeyed lashes as thick as her Texas drawl.
Does she have a
passion for something?
You mean besides hogtying pretty boys and sending them packing??
Yes! Cassie has a passion for the underdog, those people who have been
ostracized and ridiculed by others. Because of her commitment to teach on the
local Indian reservation and her close friendship with two young women who are
Indians, Cassie is shunned by the prissy debutantes and their upper-crust
mothers, never quite fitting into the high society of Humble, Texas. Which is
why her Aunt Cait’s Hand of Hope School for disadvantaged young women in the
Barbary Coast is so appealing to her, to once again be a teacher there who can reach
out to the underdog.
Is there something
that gets on her nerves?
HA! The hero Jamie MacKenna, BIG TIME!! Not only does he
remind her of the “pretty boy” who just jilted her back in Texas, but she sees
him as nothing more than a “yellow-bellied snake of a womanizer” after he
steals a kiss.
Does she have a
quirk?
Well, she’s rather fond of electric cattle
prods—especially when Jamie gives her problems, but she also packs her lasso in
her suitcase wherever she goes, along with her boots and spurs. More cowgirl
than wealthy oil heiress over the years, Cassie was the type of little girl who
slept with her lasso rather than a bear.
What drew you to
make her a pool shark and a cowgirl?
Well, I wanted a quirky heroine, someone who was down-home
and natural beneath the Gibson Girl hairstyle and stylish clothes that mama
forces her to wear when she visits her wealthy and proper San Francisco cousins.
Cassie’s basically a tomboy, the only child of a formerly prosperous Texas
oilman and rancher, so her daddy teaching her to be proficient at the three “p’s,”—poker,
pinochle and pool—gave her the quirky edge I needed when she trounces Jamie at
all three. I chose pool as the main pursuit for several scenes because it was a
sport that requires skill and movement, which made the scene more fun and
lively than a simple card game.
Did you have
someone in mind as you wrote her? If so, who?
I really didn’t have anyone particular in mind when I
wrote Cassie’s personality, although I did send Revell a picture of a blonde
Rachel McAdams, which is how I pictured her to look.
Mmmm … how ‘bout I describe him through Cassie’s eyes when
he “bowls” her over at the train station in their first meeting?
“Are you okay?” Nudging the boater up, he held out a blunt hand
attached to a muscled arm that strained beneath a crisp, white pinstripe shirt,
its casually rolled sleeves in stark contrast to a meticulous four-in-hand tie
and a high starched collar. He could have walked off the pages of Men’s Wear Magazine, easily six foot one
with a boyish smile that lent a roguish air Cassie recognized all too well. A
thick curl of dark brown hair that was almost black toppled over his forehead,
obviously a stray from the slicked-back style of the day. Hazel eyes the color
of coffee with cream assessed her with a crimp of concern wedged between thick,
dark brows, reminding her so much of Mark, she cringed.
Make that cold, bitter
coffee.
Hand still extended, he eased into a smile that at one time would
have generated as much heat as the platform beneath her body, a gleam of white
in a chiseled face that sported a California tan. “I beg your pardon, miss, but
I never even saw you.” A sparkle warmed his gaze as it slowly trailed down the
upturned brim of her hat, past renegade curls from her upswept hair to her
white silk shirtwaist, hesitating long enough to prompt a blush in her cheeks. “Which
is pretty hard to believe,” he mumbled, almost to himself. His bold look
continued to roam her gored navy skirt only to halt with several blinks at the
peek of her forbidden cowboy boots—the ones she’d put on after Mama and Daddy left the station. A grin inched across his
face as his eyes slowly trailed back up as naturally as his dimples deepened
with the lift of his smile. Heat suffused her cheeks, as much from the obscene
number of petticoats Mother had insisted she wear as the Romeo’s frank perusal.
Flattery will get you nowhere, mister.
Her lips took a slant. Though it’d certainly gotten Mark’s ring on her finger.
She issued a silent grunt. A history
lesson unto itself, she thought,the
smell of horse manure from buggies lining the terminal oddly comforting.
And appropriate.
Does he have a
passion for something?
Ah, yes—as a street rat who grew up in a brothel on the
Barbary Coast, Jamie’s passion is to afford a surgery for his crippled sister
whose infirmity he blames on himself, and to see both is mother and sister living
in the lap of luxury on Nob Hill.
Is there something
that annoys him?
Actually Jamie is pretty easy-going, but he does get
miffed when anyone mistreats the prostitutes who used to be his neighbors or
the young street urchins who roam the streets of the Coast. He also gets rather
ticked at Cassie mid-book when she agrees to consider courting him only if he goes to church twice a week,
reads Pilgrim’s Progress with her,
and keeps his hands to himself. :)
Does he have a
quirk?
Not a “quirk,” per se, but a definite mindset about
marrying well, taking great pains to pursue only wealthy young women with
political connections so he can afford an operation for his sister. The
illegitimate son of a 15-year-old girl who worked in a dance hall to avoid
starving, Jamie is also determined to become a senator so he can legislate productive
change in the Barbary Coast, making sure young women aren’t trapped in the same
vicious lifestyle as his mother had been.
Did you have
someone in mind as you wrote him? If so, who?
Oh, yes! I pictured Jamie and his personality a lot like
this picture of Matt Bomer (from White
Collar TV show). Gorgeous, mischievously handsome, and the type of man who
sets a girl’s pulse a-pumping at first sight.
Young Elizabeth O'Connor
is the little sister John Brady always longed for. But she wants much
more than that from her spiritual mentor. As she blossoms into a
beautiful young woman intent on loving John, he must push back the very
real attraction he feels for her. His past just won't let him go there.
Unfortunately, Lizzie won't let him go anywhere else--until she
discovers he is not all that he seems. Can true love survive such
revelations? Full of the romance and relationships Lessman readers have come to love, A Passion Denied is the final book in the popular Daughters of Boston series.
I found my review of this book the other day, and it had me laughing and brought back loads of memories. I still remember reading it and being sad that this wonderful series was ending.
My Review:
In a book that is over 400 pages long
you'd think that there would be a chance to catch your breath or even
blink. Not so in a book written by Julie Lessman. The Passion is so
intense that you don't want to for fear that you're going to miss
something. I'm not talking about that kind of Passion, although that is
in there, only in the way God intended it to be, between a man and a
woman when they are married. With each turn of the page the character a
long with the reader is going through the emotional roller coaster that
Julie has created. While this book is Lizzie's story it is also every
woman's story. We all have read fairy tales growing up, dreamed of the
"knight in shinning armor" that is going to sweep us off our feet, we'd
get married and live happily ever after. That's just not real life and
it's also not what God has for us either. Once again Julie takes
Lizzie's story and by weaving God's word into it makes it for all of us.
I give this book a lighthouse and shine a light on it for pointing a
path to God.
In any of Julie's books I don't think there is a chance to catch your breath, which is one of the reasons why I love her writing so much. The banter between her characters are so real you can actually see the back and forth. I'd love to hear your favorite book of Julie's. I have a hard time choosing just one, I have to say that the Daughter's of Boston Series is my all time favorite because it introduced me to Julie.
