Once in a Blue Moon by Leanna Ellis (Review and Giveaway)

***Leave a comment on this post before March 24 at midnight to be entered to win a copy.***

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Once in a Blue Moon

B&H Books (March 1, 2010)

by

Leanna Ellis





ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Leanna's sister recommended that she write, since she ‘wrote in her journal all the time.’ The idea took root and began to grow. So after five years of teaching, she quit and started writing, with no clue about the book business. Ignorance is bliss. If she’d known the odds against her, she might not have ever started writing.



For about three years, she wrote with a collaborator, but because she had so many ideas she began to write more stories on her own. She suffered numerous rejections. Deservedly so. But she was growing as a writer and learning. She went to as many conferences as she could manage. During that time, she met her future husband, fell in love and became engaged. She also began to final in contests and then actually began to win! The contests helped her get noticed by editors and agents. In March, the year Braveheart won the Best Picture Oscar, Victor/Victoria opened on Broadway, she sold her first book. It was her Cinderella year. She sold her book, got married and won RWA’s Golden Heart Award in Hawaii.



She wrote six books between her first baby’s birth and when the second baby turned one. Then she hit a wall. Not literally. But creatively. It’s not that she didn’t have any ideas, but her ideas didn’t fit the romance market. These new characters, random and weird as they were, began to take over the part of her brain that wasn’t domesticated. These stories were about all types of women, and so she began to let her writing grow in new and different ways.



Leanna Ellis sold more than 1.3 million romantic novels writing as Leanna Wilson, winning a Readers’ Choice award and the Romance Writers of America Golden Heart award for her work. Elvis Takes a Back Seat is the first book published under her married name, marking a new creative direction in her writing. Like Francine Rivers before her, Leanna has left behind a successful career as an author of secular romances to write novels of faith that glorify God. A former schoolteacher, Leanna is now a homeschool mom and lives with her husband and children in Keller, Texas.



ABOUT THE BOOK

Bryn Seymour was nine years old when her mother died under mysterious circumstances on the same day Apollo 11 made its historic lunar landing. Forty years later—divorced, working as an obituary writer, and duly cynical—she meets Howard, a conspiracy theorist who knew her mom and believes a small Texas town may hold clues to what really fueled her demise. Seeking closure, Bryn goes along for this men-in-black ride. But upon meeting Howard’s son Sam, an outspoken Christian, she can’t decide whose beliefs are more pie-in-the-sky.



The gravity of life has pulled Bryn down for decades. But a perfect love could be her first step to soaring. It only happens once in a blue moon.



If you would like to read the first chapter of Once in a Blue Moon, go HERE



Watch the book trailer:

My Review:

I have mixed feelings about this book. It bothered me that in the beginning there were sensual innuendos between Bryn and her much younger boyfriend. I understand that she was not really a Christian yet but I still think it pushed the limit of what is acceptable. The conspiracy theory was not what I expected especially the ending. I would have liked to seen more of it developed because it went more toward the background a little after Bryn met Howard's son Sam . Bryn and Sam's relationship developed fast but I did like the spiritual aspect he brought to her life. He was a great character. The ending surprised me in some aspects but I will not spoil it for you. I liked the space/NASA theme a lot. I have read her other Christian fiction books and liked them so if you like edgy contemporary Christian fiction then I think you might like this book. Recommended. I have a giveaway starting today if you would like to read the book.