A Promise in Pieces by Emily Wierenga was an amazing book. I loved this book because it has to do with WWII and everyone knows that I loved that time period. I don’t know that I have ever read a book that has to do with WWII that I haven’t liked. Anyway lets get to this review. I loved the authors writing but I have to say I didn’t like the ending. I feel like parts of the book were never wrapped up and I was left wondering about how things worked out and what characters thought about things. I feel like the ending was rushed and that kind of made me sad because I am still wondering what happened with some of the loose ends. All in all it was a great book and I am still glad that I read it.
About The Book
A baby quilt touches many hearts as it travels from family-to-family and through generations.
After the end of World War II, Clara Kirkpatrick returns from the Women’s Army Corp to deliver a dying soldier’s last wishes: convey his love to his young widow, Mattie, with apologies for the missed life they had planned to share.
Struggling with her own post-war trauma, Clara thinks she’s not prepared to handle the grief of this broken family. Yet upon meeting Mattie, and receiving a baby quilt that will never cuddle the soldier’s baby, Clara vows to honor the sacrifices that family made.
Now a labor and delivery nurse in her rural hometown, Clara wraps each new babe in the gifted quilt and later stitches the child’s name into the cloth. As each new child is welcomed by the quilt, Clara begins to wonder whatever happened to Mattie—and if her own life would ever experience the love of a newborn. Little does she know that she will have the opportunity to re-gift the special quilt—years later and carrying even greater significance than when it was first bestowed.
About The Author
Emily Wierenga is a former editor, ghostwriter, freelance writer and staff journalist, a monthly columnist for The Christian Courier, and the author of Save My Children(Castle Quay Books, 2008), Chasing Silhouettes (Ampelon Publishing, 2012) and Mom in the Mirror(Rowman & Littlefield, 2013). Emily resides in Alberta, Canada. This is her first novel.
Quilts tell stories of love and loss, hope and faith, tradition and new beginnings. TheQuilts of Love series focuses on the women who quilted all of these things into their family histories. A new book releases each month and features contemporary and historical romances as well as women’s fiction and the occasional light mystery. You will be drawn into the endearing characters of this series and be touched by their stories.
Critical Condition by Richard L. Mabry, M.D. was a great book to read. Once again I was not let down by Richard Mabry’s medical suspense book. I have loved both of the other books I have read by him. I love his books and I can’t wait for the next one to come out. In this book you get to follow along with Shannon as she tries to find out why a man was killed on her front lawn along with her trying to figure out if she wants to marry her longtime boyfriend. I love how up until the end you still aren’t sure what is going on.
About The Book
Dr. Frasier couldn’t save the gunshot victim on her front lawn. Now she’s fighting for her own life.
It began as a quiet dinner party honoring Dr. Shannon Frasier’s colleague, but became a nightmare when a man was shot on her lawn, reviving emotions from a similar episode a decade ago. Then a midnight call from her sister, Megan, causes Shannon to fear that her sister is on drugs again.
Her “almost-fiancé” Dr. Mark Gilbert’s support only adds to Shannon’s feelings of guilt, since she can’t bring herself to fully commit to him. She turns for help to her pastor-father, only to learn that he’s just been diagnosed with leukemia. Shannon thought it couldn’t get any worse. Then the late-night, threatening phone calls begin, the rough voice asking, “What did he say before he died?”
With everything around her in a critical state, simply staying alive will require all the resources and focus Shannon has.
About The Author
A retired physician, Dr. Richard Mabry is the author of four critically acclaimed novels of medical suspense. His previous works have been finalists for the Carol Award and Romantic Times Reader’s Choice Award, and have won the Selah Award. He is a past Vice-President of American Christian Fiction Writers and a member of the International Thriller Writers. He and his wife live in North Texas.
Tea & Primroses by Tess Thompson was a fun book to read. I didn’t read book on in this series but I do want to go back and read it now that I have finished this book. At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this book but after I read a few pages I was hooked and didn’t want to stop reading it until I finished the book. I loved the characters. I also love how the author tells the story and I can’t wait to read more books in this series.
Nothing is as it seemed in calm, quaint Legley Bay.
Famous novelist Constance Mansfield lived a seemingly straightforward – if private – and somewhat predictable life. Friends, beloved daughter Sutton, a beautiful home, and all the success an author could wish for. A perfect life….but was it?
When a hit and run accident suddenly takes her mother’s life, Sutton finds hidden secrets with her heartbreak. Emotional walls she assumed Constance had built to protect her privacy may have been to protect something – or someone – else entirely. Family and friends return home for support, including her own lost-love, Declan. He’s the first thing she craves to help her cope with her loss and the questions she’s left with, but he’s also the last person she wants to see. Will he be able to put down roots at last?
Can the loss of true love be the making of a life, or is it destined to be the undoing of everything? When money, power and love combine across time, anything is possible.
Tess Thompson is a novelist and playwright. She has a BFA in Drama from the University of Southern California.
After some success as a playwright she decided to write a novel, a dream she’d held since childhood. She began working on her first novel, Riversong while her second daughter was eight months old, writing during naptimes and weekends. She considers it a small miracle and the good-nature of her second child (read: a good napper) that it was ever finished. Riversong was released in April 2011 by Booktrope, a Seattle publisher and subsequently became a #1 Nook book and Kindle best seller. Learn more about Booktrope at http://www.booktrope.com
Like her main character in Riversong, Tess is from a small town in Southern Oregon. She currently lives in Snoqualmie, Washington with her two small daughters where she is inspired daily by the view of the Cascade Mountains from her home office window.
She was an active member of the theatre community in Seattle as an actor and director during the late nineties. In 2000 she wrote her first full-length play, My Lady’s Hand which subsequently won the 2001 first place prize for new work at the Burien Theatre.
A voracious reader, Tess’s favorite thing to do is to curl up on a rainy afternoon and read a novel. She also enjoys movies, theatre, wine and food. She is fed emotionally by her friends and family and cherishes relationships above all else.
Tess will be releasing her second novel, Caramel and Magnolias, in February 2013. She is busy working a historical fiction set in 1930’s Alabama that is based on a short story of her great-great grandmother’s.
Welcome to the REVIEW EVENT for Chris Datta’s Historical Fiction Novel Touched with Fire! We have a great giveaway at the bottom of the post and hope you enjoy hearing about this fabulous book. But first, the details:
Ellen Craft is property
In this case, of her half-sister Debra, to whom she was given as a wedding gift. The illegitimate daughter of a Georgia plantation owner and a house slave, she learned to hate her own image, which so closely resembled that of her “father:” the same wiry build, the same blue eyes, and the same pale—indeed, lily-white—skin.
Ellen lives a solitary life until she falls, unexpectedly, in love with a dark-skinned slave named William Craft, and together they devise a plan to run North. Ellie will pose as a gentleman planter bound for Philadelphia accompanied by his “boy” Will. They make it as far as Baltimore when Will is turned back, and Ellie has no choice but continue. With no way of knowing if he is dead or alive, she resolves to make a second journey—South again. And so Elijah Craft enlists with the 125th Ohio Volunteers of the Union Army: she will literally fight her way back to her husband.
Eli/Ellie’s journey is the story of an extraordinary individual and an abiding love, but also of the corrosive effects of slavery, and of a nation at a watershed moment.
Author: Christopher Datta
Genre: Historical/Women’s/African American Fiction
From the minute I started this book right up until the end of the book. I haven’t read a book like this before in the aspect that it is from the slaves point of view and it was an amazing change in perspective for me. I also can’t wait to check out more books by him. I loved how Ellen was white but because of her mother she was treated as a slave. The one part this sticks out to me was when there was a woman visiting from the north and she didn’t understand why Ellen was treated as she was even though she was white. For me that sticks out because it breaks my heart to know what other people will do to people because of their skin color. Anyway this is a great historical fiction part and I would recommend it to anyone.
FTC:I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Born in Washington, DC Chris Datta, Foreign Service officer, has been on numerous battlefields for his job and country. He has seen mass graves, brought war criminals to justice and in this new chapter, Datta brings readers a stunning historical account of the American Civil War with Touched with Fire. His attention to detail is superb, and his experiences abroad have given him ample stories to tell for years to come.
His action packed life has taken him across the world from the United States to Liberia and Southern Sudan. Not only serving in active war zones but often battling tropical diseases, Datta has nurtured his fascination with civil conflict by diving into the history books and historical records of America’s past. His research is meticulous, and his attention to detail creates vivid pictures of the past.
Follow Chris on his website for updates about new releases and upcoming events: http://touchedwithfire.org
A Sensible Arrangement by Tracie Peterson was a fun book. I started this book and didn’t want to put it down until I got about halfway through the book. I am not sure why but I struggled to finish this book and I think it was because the middle of the book got kind of slow and I always felt like I was waiting for something to happen and nothing really did happen. I did like this book though and I love Tracie Peterson’s books so I can’t wait to read more of her books.
About The Book
A Lone Star Brides book.
Marty Dandridge Olson is ready to leave behind the pain of the past.
Answering an advertisement for a “Lone Star bride,” she leaves her Texas ranch and heads to Denver to marry a man she doesn’t know.
Jake Wythe is the man waiting for her.
Burned by love, he marries now simply to satisfy the board of Morgan Bank, which believes a man of his standing in society should be wed. Together Jake and Marty agree they are done with romance and love and will make this nothing more than a marriage of convenience.
When missing money and a collapsing economy threaten his job, Jake’s yearning to return to ranching grows ever stronger, much to Marty’s dismay. But a fondness has grown between them, as well, further complicating matters.
What will happen when their relationship shifts in unexpected ways . . . and dreams and secrets collide?
About The Author
Tracie Peterson is the award-winning author of over eighty novels, both historical and contemporary. Her avid research resonates in her stories, as seen in her bestselling Heirs of Montana, and Alaskan Quest series. Tracie and her family make their home in Montana.
Maybelle In Stitches by Joyce Magnin was a great book to read. I loved this book from the first page right up until the end. I love all books that take place during WWII and this one didn’t let me down. I can’t even pick a part as my favorite because I loved everything about this book. There are parts where I literally laughed out loud and other times when I wanted to cry because I felt so bad for the characters. I do wish that there were going to be more books with these characters because I would love to know what happens with Doris & Roger but the way it was left I can make up that in my head.
About The Book
Maybelle Kazinzki can’t sew. She was after all, the only girl in the seventh grade Home Economics class to sew the zipper in the neck hole of the A-Line dress they were supposed to make. But when she finds an unfinished quilt in the attic of her mother’s house she gets the crazy idea to finish it—somehow, come heck or high water. She thinks it will help fill the lonely nights while her husband, Holden, is serving overseas during World War II.
Her recently departed mother’s quilt is made from scraps of material Maybelle traces back to her mother’s childhood, her grandmother’s childhood and her own childhood. She tries to add one of Holden’s stripes to it but the sewing is not going well and neither is her life. After receiving some harsh news, Maybelle’s faith falters and she puts the quilt away and stops trusting God. But God is faithful—no matter what. And it’ll take a group of neighborhood women armed with quilting needles to help Maybelle believe that.
Learn more about this book and the series at the Quilts of Love website.
About The Author
Joyce Magnin is the author of the Bright’s Pond novels, including the award-winning The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow. A member of the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Fellowship, Joyce is a frequent workshop leader and the organizer of the StoryCrafters fiction group. She lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Quilts tell stories of love and loss, hope and faith, tradition and new beginnings. TheQuilts of Love series focuses on the women who quilted all of these things into their family histories. A new book releases each month and features contemporary and historical romances as well as women’s fiction and the occasional light mystery. You will be drawn into the endearing characters of this series and be touched by their stories.
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