Thursday, May 31, 2007

Books Reviewed: The Faded Photographs Series by Andrea Boeshaar

Books Reviewed: Faded Photograph Series




I finished a wonderful trilogy last night (after working on my new research project). I wish there were more books in the series. The series is the Faded Photographs series by Andrea Boeshaar. The first book is titled "Broken Things" and follows Allie Littenberg. She finds a faded photograph of her with three of her friends from the sixties. She decides to try and contact them. In this first book she reconnects with Jack, a now bitter angry cop who used to be her boyfriend. She decided to return to Chicago to make amends to him and her stepfamily she left long ago during her rebelion after her mother died. This book is wonderful. It is not all nice and neat but enough to leave you excited. The second book focuss on Kylie who receives a copy of the faded photograph after her mother dies. Allie plays secondary in this book but we still find out more about her. All books tie in together. It leads her on a journey of self discovery with twists. I loved this book. It may be my favorite out of the series. The third book focuses on Blythe of Allie's friends in the photo. It is hard to describe this one without giving anything away. It is full of the same good plot lines and twists like the other ones.

I highly recommend this series. It will be staying on my bookshelf for some time. It might be hard to find them. I bought the one first in a used bookstore. I bought the second one through a used seller on Amazon and the third one I bought at CBD. It is well worth finding them.
I just discovered you can buy them from the author on her website.http://www.andreaboeshaar.com

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

"Spirit of Sweetgrass" by Nicole Seitz

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing

SPIRIT OF SWEETGRASS

Integrity/Thomas Nelson (March 6, 2007)

by
Nicole Seitz




ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

NICOLE SEITZ is a South Carolina Lowcountry native and freelance writer/illustrator published in South Carolina Magazine, Charleston Magazine, House Calls, The Island Packet and The Bluffton Packet.

A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Journalism, she also has a bachelor's degree in illustration from Savannah College of Art & Design. Nicole is an exhibiting artist in the Charleston, South Carolina area where she owns a web design firm and lives with her husband and two small children.



ABOUT THE BOOK:




Essie Mae Laveau Jenkins is a 78-year-old sweetgrass basket weaver who sits on the side of Hwy. 17 in the company of her dead husband, Daddy Jim.

Inspired by her Auntie Leona, Essie Mae finally discovers her calling in life and weaves powerful "love baskets," praying fervently over them to affect the lives of those who visit her roadside stand.

Relations are strained with her daughter Henrietta, who thinks Essie belongs in a retirement center. If Essie can't pay $10,000 in back taxes to save her home, she may have no choice. More tensions: her grandson EJ wants to marry a white girl, Essie discovers that a handsome man she's trying to find a girl for is gay, and her daughter carries a hidden secret.

When she's faced with losing her home and her stand and being put in a nursing home, Daddy Jim talks her into coming on up to Heaven to meet sweet Jesus-something she's always wanted to do.

The SPIRIT OF SWEETGRASS shifts less successfully to the afterlife, where her Gullah-Creole ancestors surround her; but soon, her heavenly peace is disrupted, for she still has work to do. Now Essie Mae, who once felt powerless and invisible, must find the strength within her to keep her South Carolina family from falling apart. Together, with Daddy Jim, they team up to return to Earth and battle two spirits conjured up by Henrietta's voodoo that threatens to ruin an attempt to save the sweetgrass basket weaving culture.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

"Snitch"

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing


SNITCH
(The Occupational Hazards)

(WaterBrook Press May 15, 2007)


by


Rene Gutteridge


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Rene Gutteridge is the author of several novels, including Ghost Writer (Bethany House Publishers) The Boo Series (WaterBrook Press) and the Storm Series, (Tyndale House Publishers. She will release three novels in 2006: Storm Surge (Tyndale) My Life as a Doormat (WestBow Press, Women of Faith)Occupational Hazards Book #1: Scoop (WaterBrook Press).

She has also been published over thirty times as a playwright, best known for her Christian comedy sketches. She studied screenwriting under a Mass Communications degree, graduating Magna Cum Laude from Oklahoma City University, and earned the "Excellence in Mass Communication" award. She served as the full-time Director of Drama for First United Methodist Church for five years before leaving to stay home and write. She enjoys instructing at writer's conferences and in college classrooms. She lives with her husband, Sean, a musician, and their children in Oklahoma City.



ABOUT THE BOOK:

Old School meets New School meets Homeschool

Just shy of retirement and a well-earned pension, Las Vegas Police Department Sergeant Ron Yeager's definition of "active duty" involves shifting his bad leg into a more comfortable position. But when he's requested from his mind-numbing desk job to head an undercover auto theft task force, the former narcotics officer determines to prove he's still got the right stuff.

That is...until he meets his unlikely team of officers.

As Yeager soon finds out, not all the crazies are on the street. An undercover rookie, the audaciously honest Mackenzie "Mack" Hazard sends Yeager's blood pressure skyrocketing by wearing her faith like an ever-present badge. Then there's Jesse Lunden, a maverick undercover officer who refuses to learn anything from an old guy with a cane. Can this tangle of egos and eccentrics be trained into a lean, mean, crime-fighting machine...even while they are being drawn into something much bigger and more dangerous than anyone imagined?

In her trademark style, Rene Gutteridge blends zany, original characters, sincere faith, and surprising plot twists into one hilariously addictive read.



"Snitch is an engaging crime novel, balanced between sheer whimsy and genuine human drama."

....CHRIS WELL, author of Tribulation House


"A wonderful, fully developed ensemble cast makes Snitch an entertaining, engaging read. Rene's flair for a comedic, well-turned phrase shines here. Snitch is worth snatching."

...SUSAN MEISSNER, author of Widows and Orphans


I just received this book today. I ordered it from B+N. I am planning on reading it starting tomorrow. I still have class and work so it might take two or three days.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

"Return to Me" by Robin Lee Hatcher


The author sent me an advance copy to read and post reviews about. I lovved this book. I think it may now be my new favorite book of hers. Victory Club was also great. This book is a retelling of the Prodigal son except she changes it to daughter. There is a short book that comes before it titled "A Carol for Christmas" about Roxy Burke's mother. Roxy is the main character and the prodigal daughter who goes to Nashville to be a country music star. Discouraged and destitute, her dreams shattered, Roxy Burke is going home. But what lies beyond the front door? Rejection ... or a brighter future?

I really connected with Elena the older sister in the book. I don't want to give too much of the story away for it is an awesome book and I highly recommend reading it ASAP!

Monday, May 21, 2007

"Defiant Heart" by Tracey Bateman

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing

Defiant Heart

(Avon Inspire May 8, 2007)

by

Tracey Bateman

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tracey Bateman lives in Missouri with her husband and four children. Their rural home provides a wonderful atmosphere for a writer'simagination to grow and produce characters, plots, and settings.

In 1994, with three children to raise, she and her husband agreed that she should go to college and earn a degree. In a freshman English class, her love for writing was rekindled, and she wrote a short story that she later turned into a book.

Her college career was cut short with the news of their fourth baby's impending arrival, but the seeds of hope for a writing career had already taken root. Over the next several years she wrote, exchanged ideas with critique partners, studied the craft of writing, and eventually all the hard work paid off.

She currently has over twenty-five books published in a variety of genres. Tracey Bateman believes completely that God has big plans for his Kids and that all things are possible to anyone who will put their hope and trust in God!



ABOUT THE BOOK:


Will Fannie be able to keep her family...and her heart, safe and find a new life on the frontier?

Book One of the Westward Hearts series, orphans Fannie Caldwell and her two young siblings have spent the last three years as indentured servants under a cruel master. Desperately wanting a better life for her brother and sister, Fannie devises a plan to secretly join a wagon train heading west.

Her plan immediately runs into trouble when the handsome yet bullheaded wagon master Blake Tanner refuses to allow an unmarried woman on the train.

But Fannie's determined...she'll escape and go west with or without help!

As life on the trail tests everyone's endurance and faith, Fannie soon realizes the perils of being a single woman on the frontier. Witnessing Fannie fending off one scare after another, Blake slowly recognizes how much he cares for this alluring young woman.

Will Blake sacrifice his own dreams and guide Fannie to safety?


Or will Fannie's stubborn independence keep her from finding true love?

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing

ORCHARD OF HOPE


(Revell March 1, 2007)


by


Ann Gabhart


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


Ann H. Gabhart has published a number of adult and young adult novels with several different publishers. The author of The Scent of Lilacs, Ann and her husband live a mile from where she was born in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky. She is active in her country church, and her husband sings bass in a southern gospel quartet


ABOUT THE BOOK:

Nothing will be the same after the summer of 1964.

Drought has gripped the quiet Kentucky town of Hollyhill, and the town seems as if it is holding its breath--waiting. Jocie Brooke is nervous about starting high school. Her sister Tabitha is experiencing the weariness of waiting for a new baby. Her father David is feeling the timidity of those first steps toward true love. All of these pivotal steps in life are awaiting the Brooke family.

Into this cloud of tense anticipation, a black family from Chicago, the Hearndons move here to plant an orchard outside of town. Fresh off the Freedom Train, Myra Hearndon is sensitive to what the color of her skin may mean in a Southern town. Her family will have to contend with more than the dry ground and blazing sun as they try to create their ORCHARD OF HOPE.

Jocie finds herself befrending a boy that some townspeople shun. Due to unspoken racial lines in this southern town, the presence of these newcomers sparks a smoldering fire of unrest that will change Hollyhill..and Jocie...forever.

In this close-knit community, everything is about to change.

Let this riveting novel take you along to experience unexpected love, new life, and renewed faith amid life's trials.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Two Books Reviewed


I finished the DMZ by Jeannette Windle. I could have lived without the first eighty pages but the rest was fantastic and more than made up for the first eighty pages.
You just have to make it through the first eighty pages. I look forward to reading her other books.



I also read "Mirror, Mirror" by Judy Baer. It is technically not out yet but I ordered direct from the Steeple Hill people. I love all of Judy Baer's books I have read so far. The Whitney Chronicles has a permanent place on my bookshelf. Back to the present book. This book was no is fantastic. It sheds light on the obsession our culture has with being perfect on the outside without paying attention to who we are on the inside. It also talked about who we are in Christ and how that affects our inner beauty which in turns outshines our physical look. Some of the most ugly people are beautiful because of what they look like on the inside. I highly recommend this book. :)

Next up is a trilogy of books by Gayle Roper focusing a newspaper reporter who moves to a new town and inadvertently solves crimes. The first book is titled "Caught in the Middle".

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Tagged

I have been tagged by CeCe so ...
1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves

2. People who are tagged write a blog post about their own 8 random things and post these rules

3. At the end of your blog you need to tag 8 people and post their names

4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Okay...here I go:

1. I have a bachelor's degree in biology with a minor in secondary education and a teaching license but I work in a doctor's office.
2. I used to be a big romance reader and now I am a big mystery/suspense reader with a little romance thrown in. Dee Henderson is my all time favorite author.
3. My second toe is longer than my first toe. I was always told I have Cajun toes. My mom is half.
4. I used to strongly dislike animals but now have to live with three cats and now I love them.
5. Reading is my favorite thing to do but I majored in science.
6. I hate TV but I watch it almost every night now. I still think I could live without it and be happier. Maybe I will go on another no TV spree like high school.
7. My big fluffy cat likes to smell my breath esp. if I have been eating meat.
8. I have had a seizure disorder since I was five but they do not define who I am.

I tag Rel, Deena, Bonnie, Cara, Susan Warren

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Ransomed Dreams by Amy Wallace

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

RANSOMED DREAMS

(Multnomah April 16, 2007)

by

Amy Wallace


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


Amy Wallace is a member of the CFBA and an avid Blogger. A self-confessed chocoholic, this freelance writer is a graduate of the Gwinnett County Citizens Police Academy and serves as the liaison for the training division of the county police department. Amy is a contributing author of God Answers Moms' Prayers, God Allows U-Turns for Teens, Chicken Soup for the Soul Healthy Living Series: Diabetes, and A Cup of Comfort for Expectant Mothers. She lives in Georgia with her husband and three daughters.





ABOUT THE BOOK:

Drama. Tragedy. Thriller. Romance. Can these four actually go together? Amy Wallace's meaty first book of the Defenders of Hope Series, RANSOMED DREAMS, has successfully united these genres.


It is one of those books that after you read a little and put it down, the desire to see what will happen next is so strong that it will occupy your thoughts, compelling you to make the time to finish. But watch out! It is best consumed where no one will hear you cry because, if you have children, it will hit you like a stab in the gut and wrench you with a twist of the knife.

Although the subject at first depresses, the characters are so real and likable that you need to see what will become of them.

This book will NOT bore you.

BACK COVER COPY:


Chained To Yesterday

When tragedy struck and Gracie Lang lost everything, her faith crumbled, and nothing but the drive for justice propelled her forward. But after two years of dead-end searching, the truth Gracie seeks is the very thing her stalker will stop at nothing to hide.

Forgiveness Unlocks the Future

An FBI agent in the Crimes Against Children Unit, Steven Kessler spends his days rescuing other people’s children and nights caring for his son. He’s through with God, embittered by his ex-wife who abandoned them both, and definitely doesn’t expect what’s coming next.

The Past Is the Key

A plot to kidnap a British ambassador’s daughter dangerously intersects Steven and Gracie’s worlds–a collision that demands a decision. But are they willing to pay the high ransom required to redeem dreams and reignite hope?

ENDORSEMENTS:


Steeped in police intrigue and rich characters, Ransomed Dreams entertains, educates, and captivates. Amy Wallace is a fresh, vibrant voice in the Christian market

~Mark Mynheir, Homicide Detective and Author of The Void

Ransomed Dreams had me hooked from the start and didn't let go until the deeply satisfying ending.

~Kristin Billerbeck, Author of What a Girl Wants

Ransomed Dreams by Amy Wallace

This week, the



Christian Fiction Blog Alliance




is introducing



RANSOMED DREAMS





(Multnomah April 16, 2007)

by


Amy Wallace


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


Amy Wallace is a member of the CFBA and an avid Blogger. A self-confessed chocoholic, this freelance writer is a graduate of the Gwinnett County Citizens Police Academy and serves as the liaison for the training division of the county police department. Amy is a contributing author of God Answers Moms' Prayers, God Allows U-Turns for Teens, Chicken Soup for the Soul Healthy Living Series: Diabetes, and A Cup of Comfort for Expectant Mothers. She lives in Georgia with her husband and three daughters.







ABOUT THE BOOK:



Drama. Tragedy. Thriller. Romance. Can these four actually go together? Amy Wallace's meaty first book of the Defenders of Hope Series, RANSOMED DREAMS, has successfully united these genres.


It is one of those books that after you read a little and put it down, the desire to see what will happen next is so strong that it will occupy your thoughts, compelling you to make the time to finish. But watch out! It is best consumed where no one will hear you cry because, if you have children, it will hit you like a stab in the gut and wrench you with a twist of the knife.

Although the subject at first depresses, the characters are so real and likable that you need to see what will become of them.

This book will NOT bore you.

BACK COVER COPY:


Chained To Yesterday

When tragedy struck and Gracie Lang lost everything, her faith crumbled, and nothing but the drive for justice propelled her forward. But after two years of dead-end searching, the truth Gracie seeks is the very thing her stalker will stop at nothing to hide.

Forgiveness Unlocks the Future

An FBI agent in the Crimes Against Children Unit, Steven Kessler spends his days rescuing other people’s children and nights caring for his son. He’s through with God, embittered by his ex-wife who abandoned them both, and definitely doesn’t expect what’s coming next.

The Past Is the Key

A plot to kidnap a British ambassador’s daughter dangerously intersects Steven and Gracie’s worlds–a collision that demands a decision. But are they willing to pay the high ransom required to redeem dreams and reignite hope?

ENDORSEMENTS:


Steeped in police intrigue and rich characters, Ransomed Dreams entertains, educates, and captivates. Amy Wallace is a fresh, vibrant voice in the Christian market

~Mark Mynheir, Homicide Detective and Author of The Void

Ransomed Dreams had me hooked from the start and didn't let go until the deeply satisfying ending.

~Kristin Billerbeck, Author of What a Girl Wants

Monday, May 7, 2007

Books and School

I just finished my last test. YES! I have the rest of the week to cram as many books in after work as possible. I start the May summer term on May 14th and it last two weeks. Then the day after Memorial Day I start summer school session one. Not a lot of a break but it works. I have a stack of books beside my bed and more on the way. I don't know where to start. :)


Getting an college degree online to get a degree is a great way to get one. The medical industry is getting a lot of attention and with medical coding and medical billing course studies it would be a good idea to get a head start. The online universities out there offer courses in just about any field and being able to take them makes online colleges a great way to attain a degree.

Saturday, May 5, 2007


I am sorry I have been so busy again with school. I take my last final exam for the semester on Monday night. I have been trying to read in between stuff. Bad Brittanie because I need to be studying. I have read quite a few books that I have not posted on. I will try to remember all of them and catch up. One I read recently that I liked a lot was the new Lori Copeland book "Simple Gifts". I post some on books over on my xanga site as well. It is www.xanga.com/booklover1983
More later... I need to go study for Med. Micro. test. :)

Classics Club Spin 18

My Classics Club Spin List for August This is a hodgepodge of books left on my list I made in 2017 for the Classics Club. Tomorrow the clu...