Sunday, November 30, 2014

Review: A Cowgirl's Christmas by C.J. Carmichael










  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 1143 KB
  • Print Length: 165 pages
  • Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
  • Publisher: Tule Publishing Group (Oct. 27 2014)
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B00OYWP6G8



Book Description

For years Callan Carrigan has been her father's right hand man, so when her dad's will names city slicker Court McAlister the new owner of The Circle C Ranch, Callan feels betrayed on every level.

Then she and her sisters find their mother's diaries, hidden from them by their father since their mother's accidental death 18 years ago, and the shocking revelations explain a lot. Reeling, Callan seeks refuge in the local saloon, where it seems no one can reach her, until Court offers her a challenge.

If she agrees to be foreman at the Circle C for one year, he'll deed the ranch back to her and her sisters. The deal seems too sweet at first--until Callan realizes Court has his eyes on something she protects even more than her family's land--her heart.


If you love clean romance, Montana, cowboys, small-town settings and stories with family values, you will enjoy the Carrigans of the Circle C.

The Carrigans of the Circle C 
Book 1: Promise Me, Cowboy (Sage's story)
Book 2: Good Together (Mattie's story)
Book 3: Close To Her Heart (Dani's story)
Book 4: Snowbound in Montana (cousin Eliza's story)
Book 5: A Cowgirl's Christmas (Callan's story)


About the Author

RITA nominated author, C. J. Carmichael, has published over 40 novels and has twice been nominated for a career achievement award by RT Book Club. She likes to write stories about romance, family and intrigue, usually in small town or rural settings. When it's time to take a break from the computer, she heads to the Rocky Mountains near her home in Calgary where she lives with her partner Michael. If you'd like to learn more about her books, sign up for her newsletter on her website. C.J. likes to reward her loyal readers on this list with regular draws for free, autographed books.)
 
Facebook: authorcjcarmichael
Twitter: @cj_carmichael
More information about C.J. Carmichael:
http://cjcarmichael.com/bio.php 

http://cjcarmichael.com/

My Review

I've been enjoying C.J. Carmichael's Montana stories about the Carmichael family. C.J. knows how to write a good romance. A Cowgirl's Christmas is a great addition to the collection.

The Tule Publishing Montana books are somewhat connected as they are set in the same town of Marietta, Montana. I had a bit of a hint about Callan's story in Jane Porter's The Kidnapped Christmas Bride.

Callan is the youngest of the Carmichael sisters. She loves ranching and loves her life on The Circle C Ranch. When her father passes away she and her sisters are in for a big surprise. Secrets are exposed when their father leaves the ranch to their cousin Court.

A great clean romance that sparks a few tears and of course a happy ending. Great story. Well written enjoyable tale!


Review: The Brothers' Keepers (Parched, #2) by N.L.B. Horton



  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 592 KB
  • Print Length: 408 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0991401735
  • Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
  • Publisher: RidgeRoute Press (Nov. 8 2014)
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B00PEEEIAA


Kindle Fire Giveaway Link:  http://litfusegroup.com/campaigns/the-brothers-keepers-nlb-horton




Book Description

A friend's deception. A family's dilemma.

While cataloging looted antiquities in Brussels, archaeologist Grace Madison discovers that her daughter has vanished in France, and her son's bride has been attacked in Switzerland. After the Madison family unearths a relic whose taproot pierces the Ancient Near East, they realize that before they can save themselves, they must rescue an old friend. If he'll let them.

Because choosing what's right is all that's left.



About the Author

After an award-winning detour through marketing and a master's degree from Dallas Theological Seminary, NLB Horton began writing at the crossroads of faith and espionage. She has surveyed archaeological digs under heavy artillery fire from Syria and Lebanon, explored Machu Picchu after training with a shaman, and consumed tea on five continents.

A member of the venerable Explorers Club and mother of two adult children (the activities are related), she lives atop a Rocky Mountain with her husband of thirty years. She’s passionate about her faith, archaeology, women’s issues, and the environment. She’s also a world-class angler, competent wing-shooter, and dirt-encrusted gardener.

When Camels Fly and The Brothers’ Keepers are available on Amazon.

She is represented by Mary G. Keeley at Books & Such Literary Agency.




My Review


The Brother's Keeper by N.L.B. Horton is the second book in the Parched series. The Brother's Keeper was a roller coaster ride of suspense. It was quite the international thriller as well as being a family drama. I think everyone will find something to keep them riveted to the pages.

I always wanted to be an archaeologist when I was young and even took a few courses in university so I found the archaeology aspects of The Brother's Keeper to be most interesting. I also found the historical information to be fascinating. Lots of historical religious information about Martin Luther. I enjoyed the European and Holy Land settings.  N.L.B. Horton is a Christian writer and I liked the Christian dimension that was big part of this novel.

As I was mentioning above, The Brother's Keeper is the second book in a series, however you do not need to have read the first book...I hadn't and it did not hamper my understanding.

Great page turner..be sure to pick up a copy!



Friday, November 28, 2014

Review: The Kidnapped Christmas Bride by Jane Porter





  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 380 KB
  • Print Length: 150 pages
  • Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
  • Publisher: Tule Publishing Group (Nov. 25 2014)
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B00Q5OG0RM

Book Description

 All he wants is a Christmas memory...

Trey Sheenan has cultivated his reputation as Marietta’s resident bad boy, until one day he lets things go too far and he loses everything---his freedom, his fiance McKenna Douglas, and his infant son.

McKenna has loved Trey since they were kids, but she’s had enough. When Trey is sent away for five years, McKenna is determined to do what’s right for her and baby TJ, which means putting her mistakes—namely Trey—behind her, and move on.

When Trey is released early, he returns to Marietta determined to beg McKenna’s forgiveness and become the father TJ needs him to be, only to discover that he’s too late. McKenna’s marrying local insurance agent Lawrence Joplin in a candlelight Christmas wedding.

Or is she?

Once again, Trey risks everything, but this time it’s for love....and the memory of one perfect Christmas together as a family.


Taming of the Sheenan series:
 
Book 1: Christmas at Copper Mountain
Book 2: Tycoon's Kiss
Book 3: The Kidnapped Christmas Bride 


About the Author

http://janeporter.com/meet.php

I'm a small town girl at heart. Born in Visalia, California, I love central California's golden foothills, oak trees, and the miles of farmland. In my mind, there's nothing sweeter in the world than the heady fragrance of orange blossoms on a sultry summer night.

As a little girl I spent hours on my bed, staring out the window, dreaming of far off places, fearless knights, and happy-ever-after endings. In my imagination I was never the geeky bookworm with the thick coke-bottle glasses, but a princess, a magical fairy, a Joan-of-Arc crusader.

My parents fed my imagination by taking our family to Europe for a year when I was thirteen. The year away changed me (I wasn't a geek for once!) and overseas I discovered a huge and wonderful world with different cultures and customs. I loved everything about Europe, but felt especially passionate about Italy and those gorgeous Italian men (no wonder my very first Presents was Italian).

I confess, after that incredible year in Europe, the travel bug bit, and bit hard. I spent much of my high school and college years abroad, studying in South Africa, Japan and Ireland. South Africa remains a country of my heart, the people, the land and politics complex and heart-wrenching.

After my years of traveling and studying I had to settle down and earn a living. With my Bachelors degree from UCLA in American Studies, a program that combines American literature and American history, I've worked in sales and marketing, as well as a director of a non-profit foundation. Later I earned my Masters in Writing from the University of San Francisco and taught jr. high and high school English.

After sixteen years in Greater Seattle, I'm back in California, making my home in a historic Ole Hanson home in San Clemente, with my surfer husband and three very active sons. I love being near the beach and being able to walk everywhere, but I also love being at my desk, writing stories about women and our lives, as well as the need to love, and be loved. I like a story with a happy ending. But then, I believe, we all do.


My Review

Jane Porter is one the best authors when it comes to romance so I knew this book would be good! With December right around the corner I was ready for a Christmas story and The Kidnapped Christmas Bride was a perfect read.

The Kidnapped Christmas Bride has all the elements required in a good romance including a loving couple separated by circumstance, misunderstandings and miscommunications. Once McKenna and Trey find each other again, well he kidnaps her on her wedding day, then you just know they will find their way back to the love they always shared.

Beautiful, heart-warming Christmas romance...you'll enjoy it!




Review: Gray Mountain by John Grisham







  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 1200 KB
  • Print Length: 386 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 038553714X
  • Publisher: Doubleday (Oct. 21 2014)
  • Sold by: Random House Canada, Incorp.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B00JYWUHO4


Book Description

  John Grisham has a new hero . . . and she’s full of surprises
The year is 2008 and Samantha Kofer’s career at a huge Wall Street law firm is on the fast track—until the recession hits and she gets downsized, furloughed, escorted out of the building. Samantha, though, is one of the “lucky” associates. She’s offered an opportunity to work at a legal aid clinic for one year without pay, after which there would be a slim chance that she’d get her old job back.

In a matter of days Samantha moves from Manhattan to Brady, Virginia, population 2,200, in the heart of Appalachia, a part of the world she has only read about. Mattie Wyatt, lifelong Brady resident and head of the town’s legal aid clinic, is there to teach her how to “help real people with real problems.” For the first time in her career, Samantha prepares a lawsuit, sees the inside of an actual courtroom, gets scolded by a judge, and receives threats from locals who aren’t so thrilled to have a big-city lawyer in town. And she learns that Brady, like most small towns, harbors some big secrets.

Her new job takes Samantha into the murky and dangerous world of coal mining, where laws are often broken, rules are ignored, regulations are flouted, communities are divided, and the land itself is under attack from Big Coal. Violence is always just around the corner, and within weeks Samantha finds herself engulfed in litigation that turns deadly.



About the Author

 "Long before his name became synonymous with the modern legal thriller, he was working 60-70 hours a week at a small Southaven, Mississippi law practice, squeezing in time before going to the office and during courtroom recesses to work on his hobby—writing his first novel.

Born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to a construction worker and a homemaker, John Grisham as a child dreamed of being a professional baseball player. Realizing he didn't have the right stuff for a pro career, he shifted gears and majored in accounting at Mississippi State University. After graduating from law school at Ole Miss in 1981, he went on to practice law for nearly a decade in Southaven, specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation. In 1983, he was elected to the state House of Representatives and served until 1990.

One day at the DeSoto County courthouse, Grisham overheard the harrowing testimony of a twelve-year-old rape victim and was inspired to start a novel exploring what would have happened if the girl's father had murdered her assailants. Getting up at 5 a.m. every day to get in several hours of writing time before heading off to work, Grisham spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987. Initially rejected by many publishers, it was eventually bought by Wynwood Press, who gave it a modest 5,000 copy printing and published it in June 1988.

That might have put an end to Grisham's hobby. However, he had already begun his next book, and it would quickly turn that hobby into a new full-time career—and spark one of publishing's greatest success stories. The day after Grisham completed A Time to Kill, he began work on another novel, the story of a hotshot young attorney lured to an apparently perfect law firm that was not what it appeared. When he sold the film rights to The Firm to Paramount Pictures for $600,000, Grisham suddenly became a hot property among publishers, and book rights were bought by Doubleday. Spending 47 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, The Firm became the bestselling novel of 1991.

The successes of The Pelican Brief, which hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list, and The Client, which debuted at number one, confirmed Grisham's reputation as the master of the legal thriller. Grisham's success even renewed interest in A Time to Kill, which was republished in hardcover by Doubleday and then in paperback by Dell. This time around, it was a bestseller.

Since first publishing A Time to Kill in 1988, Grisham has written one novel a year (his other books are The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Chamber, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, The Partner, The Street Lawyer, The Testament, The Brethren, A Painted House, Skipping Christmas, The Summons, The King of Torts, Bleachers, The Last Juror, and The Broker) and all of them have become international bestsellers. There are currently over 225 million John Grisham books in print worldwide, which have been translated into 29 languages. Nine of his novels have been turned into films (The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, A Time to Kill, The Rainmaker, The Chamber, A Painted House, The Runaway Jury, and Skipping Christmas), as was an original screenplay, The Gingerbread Man. The Innocent Man (October 2006) marks his first foray into non-fiction.

Grisham lives with his wife Renee and their two children Ty and Shea. The family splits their time between their Victorian home on a farm in Mississippi and a plantation near Charlottesville, VA.



My Review

 I will have to admit that I almost stopped reading Gray Mountain a few times, but I'm glad I stuck to it because really is a good book. John Grisham is a wonderful writer so Gray Mountain is a pleasure to read in that regard. I really liked the subject which is surface or mountain top removal mining in the Appalachians. I learned a lot and it was all very fascinating. I love the Appalachians and I was appalled at what I read about surface mining.

The story is very good. Young attorney Samantha Kofer is downsized from her prominent New York City firm in 2008 after the crash. She works for free at a legal aid clinic in a small town in the Virginia Appalachians. She quickly becomes involved then impassioned about the local issues related to the health issues and environmental issues caused by surface mining.

Good book. Everyone should know about what has been going on in the Appalachians. Loved the ending.

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Review: Tagged for Death: A Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mystery by Sherry Harris









  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 6809 KB
  • Print Length: 306 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1617730173
  • Publisher: Kensington Books (Dec 2 2014)
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B00KFP7YSG


Book Description

Starting your life over at age thirty-eight isn't easy, but that's what Sarah Winston finds herself facing when her husband CJ runs off with a 19-year-old temptress named Tiffany. Sarah's self-prescribed therapy happily involves hitting all the garage and tag sales in and around her small town of Ellington, Massachusetts. If only she could turn her love for bargain hunting into a full-time career.

One man's junk is another man's treasure

But after returning from a particularly successful day searching for yard sale treasures, Sarah finds a grisly surprise in one of her bags: a freshly bloodied shirt…that undoubtedly belongs to her ex, CJ, who now happens to be Ellington's chief of police. If that's not bad enough, it seems Tiffany has gone missing. Now it's up to Sarah to prove that her cold-hearted ex is not a cold-blooded killer…

But finding that treasure can be murder.



About the Author


Sherry Harris started bargain hunting in second grade at her best friend’s yard sale. She honed her bartering skills as she moved around the country while her husband served in the Air Force. Sherry uses her love of garage sales, her life as a military spouse, and her time living in Massachusetts as inspiration for the Sarah Winston Garage Sale series. Tagged for Death, first in the series, will be out in December 2014.


My Review

Phew....I hate to totally diss a book but this book is not at all what I expected. From the cover and the description, I was expecting a light cozy mystery. It is not. The main character is annoying beyond belief. I thought the focus would be on garage sales and it is not.

First, I don't think that I have been so annoyed in a main character in a long time. What a waste of space. For someone who is supposed to be starting life over, Sarah Winston cannot let go of her past life as an unemployed, volunteering obsessed wife of a military officer whose life revolves around military life on a base. If ever someone needed to move on. It is pathetic how she clings to everything about her life.

Second, she has dumped her husband for one indiscretion in twenty years. Dumped him without thinking about the repercussions in her own life. She stays in an area of the country where she has no family ties except for her ex. And even though all the military personnel she considered to be her children shun her, she stays. This does not make any sense.

Third, the police force in this small town seems to have a vendetta against her because of loyalty to an outsider who just became their boss. So unrealistic.

There are some bones found. The writing itself is easy to read and the book has been properly edited. And there are some garage sale tips at the end.

Friday, November 21, 2014

Review: Delightful (Big Sky Pie #3) by Adrianne Lee









  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 544 KB
  • Print Length: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Forever (March 4 2014)
  • Sold by: Hachette Book Group Digital, Inc.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B00CO7GI12

Book Description

 BAD BOYS ARE HER WEAKNESS

Ice Erickksen has "one-night stand" written all over him. Once he's finished shooting the Big Sky Pie reality show, this hot-as-hell TV producer is going to hightail it out of Montana and return to his glamorous life in L.A. But Ice gets into hot water when one of the goodies in the pie shop-a delightful blonde with marriage on her mind-burns up the camera lens.

Andrea Lovette, the manager of the shop, always picks the bad boys. But after her divorce, she's determined to find the good family man that her two young sons deserve. Although Andrea's body sizzles whenever Ice is near, she knows in her heart that he's not marriage material. Then why does the bad boy still seem like such a good idea?


About the Author

 FOLLOW Adrianne Lee:

Website http://www.adriannelee.com

FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Adrian...

Blog www.adriannelee.wordpress.com

Amazon www.amazon.com/author/adriannelee

Twitter https://twitter.com/akaAdrianneLee

HOMETOWN HEROES Hotter Ever After bundle is available now for a limited time. 17 authors, many NYT & USA TODAY best sellers, 16 full-length novels.

All proceeds go to http://www.pets-for-vets

As the mother of a Veteran, I'm so happy that this is the charity we've chosen. I have two adopted cats and know the joy and comfort they can bring into a life.

While all of the heroes are not Vets, they are heroes in their own right.

If you love pies and sexy guys and hot romance, please come join the lovers at Molly McCoy's Big Sky Pie for a slice of something irresistible.

DELECTABLE & DELICIOUS are available for eReaders and in mass market paperback. DELIGHTFUL & DECADENT are also available for eReaders and will be available in mass market paperback in Nov and Dec. This series is contemporary romance set in a Montana pie shop. Along with a sizzling hot romance, pie recipes are included in each book.

I'm currently working on A WEDDING TO DIE FOR, Weddingville series #1. It will release for eReaders in May. This is a brand new, cozy mystery series with romantic overtones.

If mysteries are your thing, check out my Jack B Smart mystery series. Book #1 YOU DON'T KNOW JACK is available for eReaders everywhere. Book #2 coming in 2015.

Happy Reading!!!



My Review

Delightful is a lovely quickly read romance by author Adrianne Lee. This is the first book of Lee's that I have read. Delightful is the third book in the series but you don't have to read the first two to enjoy this one...I didn't.

I really enjoyed the story about a young single Mom and the dashing but dangerous man who walked into her life in the bakery she works in. If you like a good romance then Delightful is a good one!



Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Review: Makin' Miracles by Lin Stepp








  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 973 KB
  • Print Length: 273 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1617732788
  • Publisher: Kensington Books (Dec 30 2014)
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B00LEU4R72


Book Description


 "A charming portrait of the Smokies, their people, and a wonderful way of life." --Deborah Smith, New York Times bestselling author

Set in Tennessee's postcard-perfect Smoky Mountains, Lin Stepp's Makin' Miracles is an inspiring tale that reveals why love and forgiveness are most important just when they seem most impossible. . .
Zola Devon has always been a little different. Half Tahitian, with long black hair and dark eyes, she's especially distinctive in the mountain town of Gatlinburg. She even stocks her gift shop, Nature's Corner, with items that reflect her island heritage and tantalize tourists. But it's her spot-on intuition that truly sets Zola apart. When she gets a hunch about a person, she's almost always right. And when the surly photographer who owns the gallery next door starts meddling in her business, she can only hope that, for once, her instincts are wrong.

The one thing Spencer Jackson loves more than his camera is the majestic scenery of the Smoky Mountains. Reeling from his painful past, he's settled in a cabin in the woods to train his lens on the breathtaking landscape. A woman as uniquely beguiling as Zola could only throw his simple, uncomplicated days into chaos--and force him to lay bare his darkest secrets. But as their lives become unavoidably intertwined, they both may discover the beauty of the truth, and the joy of the unexpected.

Praise for Lin Stepp and her Smoky Mountain Novels

"I've finally come across someone that believes in all the things that I do. . .love, family, faith, intrigue, mystery, loyalty, romance, and a great love for our beloved Smoky Mountains." –Dolly Parton

"A wonderful, new Southern voice." --Joan Medlicott, author of the bestselling The Ladies of Covington series


About the Author

 Dr. Lin Stepp is a native Tennessean, a businesswoman, and an educator. She is an adjunct faculty at Tusculum College where she teaches research and at King University where she teaches a variety of psychology and counseling courses. Her business background includes over 25 years in marketing, sales, production art, and regional publishing. She has editorial and writing experience in regional magazines and in the academic field. Down by the River is the sixth novel by Stepp set in the Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee. Stepp has five published works, each set in different locations around the Smoky Mountains. Her next Smokies novels, including Down by the River, Makin’ Miracles, and Saving Laurel Springs will be released by Kensington Publishing in 2014 and 2015 – as well as a short novella A Smoky Mountain Gift to be included in a 2014 Christmas anthology, featuring Fern Michaels and titled When the Snow Falls. Previous titles include: Second Hand Rose, Delia’s Place, For Six Good Reasons, Tell Me About Orchard Hollow, and The Foster Girls. Stepp and her husband have published a Smokies hiking guide titled The Afternoon Hiker (2014).


My Review

 Lin Stepp's Makin' Miracles takes me right back to the gorgeous Smoky Mountains of Eastern Tennessee. Makin' Miracles is the latest book in Stepp's Smoky Mountain series. It is available online and in stores on December 30th.

Stepp's Smoky Mountain series is a Christian romantic contemporary series. Makin' Miracles is the love story of Zola and Spencer. Spencer's photographic art gallery is located in the same area as Zola's nature shop. Zola has deep family roots in the Gatlinburg are whereas Spencer left his family ties behind in Virginia. As we learn more about the two them, we discover Spencer has deep animosities toward his family and in particular his brother who married the woman Spencer considered to be his true love.

Stepp has added an extra dimension to Makin' Miracles. Zola has a spiritual gift that sometimes allows her to see the near future. This is not a flaky New Age medium type of gift. It is a spiritual gift from God. The strong Christian theme throughout the story is very refreshing.

Makin' Miracles is a lovely romance that will warm your heart! It is a great addition to Stepp's Smoky Mountain series. I highly recommend Makin' Miracles.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Review: Bad Country: A Novel by CB McKenzie









  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Minotaur Books (November 4, 2014)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1250053544
  • ISBN-13: 978-1250053541


Book Description

The newest winner of the Tony Hillerman Prize, a debut mystery set in the Southwest starring a former rodeo cowboy turned private investigator, told in a transfixingly original style.

Rodeo Grace Garnet lives with his old dog in a remote corner of Arizona known to locals as El Hoyo. He doesn't get many visitors in The Hole, but a body found near his home has drawn police attention to his front door. The victim is not one of the many undocumented immigrants who risk their lives to cross the border in Rodeo's harsh and deadly "backyard," but a member of a major Southwestern Indian tribe, whose death is part of a mysterious rompecabeza—a classic crime puzzler—that includes multiple murders, cold-blooded betrayals, and low-down scheming, with Rodeo caught in the middle.

Retired from the rodeo circuit and scraping by on piecework as a bounty hunter, warrant server, and divorce snoop, Rodeo doesn't have much choice but to say yes when offered an unusual case. An elderly Indian woman from his own Reservation has hired him to help discover who murdered her grandson, but she seems strangely uninterested in the results. Her attitude seems heartless, but as Rodeo pursues interrelated cases, he learns that the old woman's indifference is nothing compared to true hatred, and aligned against a variety of creative and cruel foes, the hard-pressed PI is about to discover just how far hate can go.

CB McKenzie's Bad Country is a noir novel that is as deep and twisty as a desert arroyo. With confident, accomplished prose, McKenzie captures the rough-and-tumble outer reaches of the Southwest in a transfixingly original style that transcends the traditional crime novel.


About the Author

 C.B. MCKENZIE JR. teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and has also taught at the University of Arizona, Arizona State, Farleigh Dickinson, and Pima Community College. He is the author of Bad Country and lives in New York.

“Winner of the Tony Hillerman Prize for the Best Debut Mystery set in the Southwest, this edgy noir offers a master class on how to create a vivid sense of mood and place. Rodeo is a hard-nosed, hard-drinking man who searches for the truth as he understands it. Fans of the late, great Hillerman will cheer the arrival of a promising newcomer.”–Library Journal


My Review

What an incredible read! It is beautifully written. I am a massive fan of Tony Hillerman's work and CB McKenzie is a very deserving winner of the Tony Hillerman Prize. Bad Country is set in southernmost Arizona in Indian country. While different than Hillerman's Navajo country setting, McKenzie brings the desolate area around Tucson to life. 

I cannot praise this book enough. At first I had a few problems with the punctuation style but once I got reading I found the novel flowed and was distinct because of the lack of quotation marks. It made the book rougher. And this is a rough novel. This is not a novel for people who are turned off by swearing. It is a novel for people who want an excellent read. That it encompasses a world that is much grittier than most of us are used to (I hope), is what sets it apart and above many others.

The story and the characters are compelling and original. And I felt like I was right there the entire time.  The characters were all flawed people who were realistically represented. The main character, Rodeo Grace Garnet, isa rough guy who loves his dog and is heroic in so many different ways. The story kept getting better with each page I turned. I love how it all flowed together in the end. Perfect ending! Just loved it!


You need to read this amazing book! I highly highly recommend it. All books should be this gripping and captivating. I cannot wait for CB McKenzie's next book!


 

Review: The Escape (John Puller #3) by David Baldacci





  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 1882 KB
  • Print Length: 432 pages
  • Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (Nov. 18 2014)
  • Sold by: Hachette Book Group Digital, Inc.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B00IRISI42


Book Description


It’s a prison unlike any other. Military discipline rules. Its security systems are unmatched. None of its prisoners dream of escaping. They know it’s impossible.

Until now.

John Puller’s older brother, Robert, was convicted of treason and national security crimes. His inexplicable escape from prison makes him the most wanted criminal in the country. Some in the government believe that John Puller represents their best chance at capturing Robert alive, and so Puller takes on the burden of bringing his brother in to face justice.

But Puller quickly discovers that there are others pursuing his brother, who only see Robert as a traitor and are unconcerned if he survives. Puller is in turn pushed into an uneasy, fraught partnership with another agent, who may have an agenda of her own.

They dig more deeply into the case together, and Puller finds that not only are her allegiances unclear, but that there are troubling details about his brother’s conviction….and that someone is out there who doesn’t want the truth to ever come to light. As the nationwide manhunt for Robert grows more urgent, Puller’s masterful skills as an investigator and strength as a fighter may not be enough to save his brother—or himself.


About the Author

 David Baldacci published his first novel, Absolute Power, in 1996. A major motion picture adaptation followed, with Clint Eastwood as its director and star. In total, David has published 28 novels, all of which have been national and international bestsellers; several have been adapted for film and television. His novels have been translated into more than 45 languages and sold in more than 80 countries; over 110 million copies are in print worldwide. David has also published four novels for children. He has received numerous accolades for his writing; most recently, he was inducted into the International Crime Writing Hall of Fame and received the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award.

A lifelong Virginian, David received degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Virginia School of Law, after which he practiced law in Washington, D.C.

While David is involved with several philanthropic organizations, his greatest efforts are dedicated to his family’s Wish You Well Foundation®. Established by David and his wife, Michelle, the Wish You Well Foundation supports family and adult literacy in the United States by fostering and promoting the development and expansion of literacy and educational programs. In 2008 the Foundation partnered with Feeding America to launch Feeding Body & Mind, a program to address the connection between literacy, poverty and hunger. Through Feeding Body & Mind, more than 1 million new and used books have been collected and distributed through food banks to families in need.

David and his family live in Virginia.



My Review

 Wow! Loved the new thriller, The Escape, by author David Baldacci. What a great story! Lots of action and suspense. So many plot twists! Who can you really trust?

I had a really hard time putting this book down. Of all of Baldacci's characters, I like John Puller the best. In the first book, he reminded me quite a bit of Jack Reacher but Baldacci has fleshed him out since then and I feel like I get to know him better with each book. He actually has a heart. 

The book revolves around Puller's brother Robert's escape from a maximum security military prison in Kansas. The reader has known the Robert was in prison but didn't really know any of the details until now. What a great story! Highly recommend Baldacci's newest thriller, The Escape.



Friday, November 14, 2014

Review: Where Treetops Glisten: Three Stories of Heartwarming Courage and Christmas Romance During World War II by Tricia Goyer , Cara Putman , Sarah Sundin









  • File Size: 1784 KB
  • Print Length: 368 pages
  • Publisher: WaterBrook Press (September 16, 2014)
  • Sold by: Random House LLC
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B00JNQMZ1Y


Book Description

The crunch of newly fallen snow, the weight of wartime

Three siblings forging new paths and finding love in three stories, filled with the wonder of Christmas

Turn back the clock to a different time, listen to Bing Crosby sing of sleigh bells in the snow, as the realities of America’s involvement in the Second World War change the lives of the Turner family in Lafayette, Indiana.

In White Christmas by Cara Putman, Abigail Turner is holding down the Home Front as a college student and a part-time employee at a one-of-a-kind candy shop. Loss of a beau to the war has Abigail skittish about romantic entanglements—until a hard-working young man with a serious problem needs her help.

Abigail’s brother Pete is a fighter pilot hero returned from the European Theatre in Sarah Sundin’s I’ll Be Home for Christmas, trying to recapture the hope and peace his time at war has eroded. But when he encounters a precocious little girl in need of Pete’s friendship, can he convince her widowed mother that he’s no longer the bully she once knew?

In Tricia Goyer’s Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Meredith Turner, “Merry” to those who know her best, is using her skills as a combat nurse on the frontline in the Netherlands. Halfway around the world from home, Merry never expects to face her deepest betrayal head on, but that’s precisely what God has in mind to redeem her broken heart.

The Turner family believes in God’s providence during such a tumultuous time. Can they absorb the miracle of Christ’s birth and God’s plan for a future?



Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

White Christmas
by Cara Putman
Excerpted from Where Treetops Glisten by Tricia Goyer, Cara Putman, and Sarah Sundin

Thursday, October 29, 1942

Lafayette, Indiana
 
 
Tackle your greatest fear?


Professor Plante had smiled as he issued his challenge, as if the assignment was easy to achieve. Even a privilege. Yet five minutes after class ended, Abigail Turner remained frozen at her desk. A school project worth twenty-five percent of her grade tied to her greatest fear? And one that had to be developed and completed before the holidays? The professor called it a simple way to overcome the past by focusing on the future. A way to explore the principles they’d discussed and apply them to their own lives before trying the ideas on future clients. Didn’t he see how tied the two were? How there was nothing simple about confronting dark moments in the past that were best avoided?


Abigail pushed back from the desk and joined the last students streaming through the door to the hall. She didn’t notice anyone else who had broken into a cold sweat at the professor’s instructions. In fact, most joked and bantered like another week of school was almost over, leading to another weekend of studying, Purdue football, and any odd jobs they worked. Maybe her fellow students didn’t carry the fears and weight of the past as tightly as she did.


She tried to shake it off as she’d done over the years. She still had weeks to create the right experience for the project—at least until the end of the semester. Professor Plante had even made it sound like the students could have longer if they didn’t mind an incomplete on their transcript.

As Abigail entered the hallway of Purdue’s University Hall, she froze. The October wind gusted through the door and toyed with her hat, but that didn’t account for her inability to move. No, she could only blame that on the reality that if she was truly to do this assignment, she had to find a way to open her heart to someone else. How could she make Professor Plante or anyone else understand that she couldn’t do that? Not when it risked someone else leaving her.


“I have to get to work.” She whispered the words as she tightened her grip on her bag, which was loaded down with textbooks, then forced her legs to move.


What would her life be like if Sam Troy, her high school love, hadn’t enlisted and then died that terrible day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor? With his death, her carefully constructed dreams for the future crashed into an abyss, one she couldn’t seem to climb from.


She glanced at her watch and frowned. If she dawdled any more, she’d miss the bus that would carry her down the hill, across the Wabash River, and to downtown Lafayette in time for her shift at Glatz Candies. With the weekend approaching, she looked forward to a couple of days to concentrate on the confections that made the restaurant and candy shop known around town. Soon she’d learn the secret to making the popular candy canes. Maybe she could coax the owner into teaching her the tricks to the twisted sweet that night.


“Slow down, Abigail.”


Abigail grinned as her classmate Laurie Bertsche hurried up, her polo coat buttoned to her throat.
Abigail nudged her friend in the shoulder. “It’s not cold enough for that coat yet.”


“I’m from Florida. We don’t do cold.”


“Then why pick Purdue?”


“It picked me, since it was as far away from home as I could afford.” Laurie shuddered and gripped the coat around her throat. “What do you think of that assignment?” She rushed on before Abigail could interrupt. “It should be fun to think of something. There are so many people who need help.” Laurie paused, frowned for a moment, then shrugged. “I’m not sure what I’ll do yet. Do you have ideas?”


“Not yet.”


“You’re so intense; I know you’ll come up with something brilliant.” Merriment danced in Laurie’s green eyes. “I need a favor tomorrow night. One of the guys I know from town asked me to a movie and dance. I said yes, but the problem is he has a buddy. Say you’ll join us.”


“You know my stance on boys.”


Laurie singsonged as they waltzed through the doors. “No dating until this war business is over.” She paused and a serious glint entered her expression. “This isn’t a boy like you’d see here. He’s not a student, but a man supporting his family.”

“I can’t, Laurie. If he’s not in the military yet, he will be any day. Life is too uncertain to risk even friendship.” Abigail had certainly learned that lesson between Sam, her brother Alfie, and her sister Annie. Professor Plante wanted her to confront her fears by acting in opposition to those very fears that life had branded into her. How could she do something and then write an essay explaining how the action had changed her? What if she did something and found she was still afraid of losing someone she loved? Should she help the military boys in some way? Or should she focus on children? Would either satisfy her professor?


“You mean you won’t. I intend to have a great time with Joey, but I wish you’d come. Joey’s friend seems nice, and you don’t need to worry that it will be for more than one night. Now if something develops with Joey, that’s just icing for me.”


“Try ice on the Wabash,” Abigail mumbled. “The kind you fall through.” The kind that broke your heart into shattered pieces, like the fragile ice coating the wide river, and left you frozen inside when you fell into the cold current.


Laurie shook her head. “Too early for that kind of ice. I’ll have enough fun for the two of us. Call if you change your mind. If not, I’ll see you in class Monday.”


The rumble of the bus on State Street warned Abigail she’d better hurry.
 
 
Don’t leave! I can’t be late for work.


She waved frantically as the driver shifted the bus into gear. She rushed into State Street, waving. Brakes screeched and someone tugged her back to the curb right before a car whizzed by, horn blaring. Her heart stuttered in her chest. She’d come too close to landing under the wheels of that car.


“You all right, miss?”


“Thanks to you.” She turned to her rescuer, and his gaze captured her, a mix of sadness and concern swirling in his eyes.


“You coming? Or standing out there all day?”


Heat flooded Abigail’s cheeks at the bus driver’s barked words. After checking for traffic, she hurried across the street, then tripped up the stairs, thrust a token into the box, and stepped down the aisle, barely noticing the young man who had rescued her following with a slight limp. The grinding gears and the bus’s accompanying lurch pushed her down the aisle, and she
collapsed onto an empty seat. The young man took the one opposite her.


She glanced at him under her lashes, noting the broad shoulders that indicated a life of work. There was something about him, as if his dog had just died, that made her want to reach out.


He slouched in his seat, hands clasped in his lap, shoulders slumped forward. A hat was crammed on top of dark hair that curled at the nape of his neck, longer than the regulation cuts worn by enlisted men. There was something familiar about him, yet she was certain they’d never been introduced. Abigail shrugged off the feeling. Even in the United States’ heightened war machine during 1942, Purdue’s campus flowed with men. The difference was many wore a uniform. This one didn’t. Why? Could it be whatever had caused his limp?


His glance rose, colliding with hers. Caught. He’d discovered her staring. Still she couldn’t look away, not when such uncertainty resided in the pools of his hazel eyes. Something inside her froze, caught between wanting to help and distancing herself from the pain she saw reflected in the depths of his gaze.


Maybe the pain was what she recognized.


She swallowed around a sudden tightness in her throat. “Thank you for what you did out there.”


“You’re welcome.” His deep voice made it sound like it was nothing. He simply took heroic actions every day.


“I’m Abigail. Abigail Turner.”


“Jackson Lucas.” He looked back down at his hands.


Abigail felt the chill of the disconnection. She yanked a psychology text from the bag at her feet and opened it to the next chapter. The short ride would be better used preparing for Monday’s class than wondering about the man seated across the aisle from her.


Her vow to avoid romantic relationships, no matter how casual, had not been some fly-by-night decision. She had carefully considered her course after Sam’s death.

***

I’ll Be Home for Christmas

by Sarah Sundin
Excerpted from Where Treetops Glisten by Tricia Goyer, Cara Putman, and Sarah Sundin

Friday, December 3, 1943

Lafayette, Indiana


Grace Kessler poked harder at the typewriter keys, trying to drown out the song. Her fingers betrayed her and tapped to the rhythm. Why did Ruby Schmidt insist on singing in the secretarial pool? Why did she have to choose Christmas songs? And couldn’t she at least pick a song with a faster beat?


Grace deciphered her shorthand notes on the spiral-bound tablet to her right and finished a business letter from Mr. Dubois in Alcoa’s procurement department to Mr. Parkhurst with the War Production Board. She zipped the letter out of the typewriter, removed the carbon paper, and laid the original in her outgoing basket and the copy in the file basket.


Alcoa was America’s top producer of aluminum, crucial for the production of airplanes and other defense materials. A secretary’s work might not be as glamorous as a nurse or a WAVE or a Rosie the Riveter, but it allowed Grace to support both her daughter and the war effort.


Grace’s gaze slid to the silver picture frame on her desk, which held the last photo taken of George and Linnie together, over two years earlier. Linnie had just turned four. She sat on George’s lap, and father and daughter grinned at each other with total adoration. No little girl could have loved her daddy more.


Pain rose in Grace’s heart, and she ripped her attention back to the typewriter. The faster she typed, the faster Alcoa could produce aluminum, the faster planes could come off the assembly line, and the sooner this war would be over and no more men would be shot down by Japanese bullets over Filipino jungles.


They never even found George’s body.
 
 
“I’ ll be home for Christmas . . .” Ruby’s song drifted closer.


Grace winced. No, he wouldn’t.

Something scratched the top of Grace’s head, and Ruby giggled.

“Ouch.” Grace extracted a little leafy branch from her hairdo—and a couple strands of her own dark brown hair.

“Mistletoe, sweetie.” Ruby puckered lips as red as holly berries. “You need some Christmas spirit.”

Grace replaced a bobby pin and forced herself to smile and wink at Ruby. “I need to get back to work, and so do you.”

Ruby fluffed her platinum hair. “You need a date in the worst possible way. Bobby knows the nicest young man—”

“No.” Grace pinned her strongest look on the girl. “No blind dates. Besides, who in this town would agree to baby-sit Linnie?”

“She’s a handful, isn’t she?”

“Yes, she is.” Grace rolled new paper into her typewriter, flipped the release lever, and aligned the sheet. “You’d best get back to work before Norton sees you.”

Sure enough, the door to the supervisor’s office swung open. Grace swept the mistletoe into her lap and handed a blank piece of paper to Ruby. “Thank you for taking care of this, Miss Schmidt.”

“You’re welcome, Mrs. Kessler.” Ruby skedaddled back to her desk.

“Mrs. Kessler.” Mrs. Norton glared at Grace. “Phone call. Your baby-sitter.”

Sympathetic murmurs rose from the other secretaries, but Grace’s lips and fingertips went numb. Not again.

Somehow she stood. She hid the mistletoe in the hip pocket of her bottle-green suit jacket and walked on wobbly ankles down the aisle between all the clattering typewriters.

“Thank you, Mrs. Norton.” She edged past her matronly supervisor and through the doorway to the office.

Mrs. Norton crossed her plump arms. “You’re the only one, Mrs. Kessler. The only one who takes so many personal calls. You need to get a handle on that child of yours.”

“Yes ma’am.” Grace turned her back on her supervisor to hide her anguish, and she picked up the receiver. “Mrs. Harrison?”

“I’ve had it. I’ve had it up to here.” The baby-sitter’s voice climbed and shivered. “When she’s here . . . oh, my nerves! And when she goes wandering, well, just how much can a woman take?”

Grace clenched the cold black receiver. “Is Linnie there?”
 
“Of course not. She’s trying to kill me, I’m sure of it.”
 
Inside Grace, frustration with Mrs. Harrison wrestled with worry for Linnie. The clock read 4:05. Linnie should have arrived half an hour earlier. Teaching her daughter how to ride the bus had been necessary when Linnie started school in September, but it only encouraged her wandering. Her searching.
 
Mrs. Harrison jabbered about her nerves, and guilt filled Grace. What kind of mother allowed her six-year-old daughter to roam the city alone?
 
“Excuse me, Mrs. Harrison. I need to call the police.” Again.
“This is it. This is the last time. I simply cannot take it any longer. I quit.”
 
Outside the tiny office window, Alcoa’s red brick smokestack jutted into the gray sky. Grace laid down the receiver, missed, and finally settled it in place.
 
Mrs. Norton sniffed. “Don’t even think about asking to get off early.”
 
“I know, ma’am.” Grace’s voice came out choked. “May I make another call, please?”
 
“I ought to charge you.”
 
Grace dialed 4045 for the Lafayette Police Department, a number she knew by heart. While the phone rang, she rubbed the aching knot at the base of her skull. Lord, please keep my baby safe.
So many horrible things could happen to her little girl. And her job. She’d worn out every available baby-sitter.
 
How could she stay employed without a baby-sitter? And without a job, how could she pay the bills?
 
Worst of all, Grace’s love wasn’t enough for her daughter.
 
That knowledge hollowed into her soul.


_________

Lieutenant Pete Turner trudged down Sixth Street, hands deep in the pockets of his olive drab trousers, his pilot’s crush cap shoved low on his forehead.

He passed Glatz Candies on the far side of the street, angling his head away from the cheery red-and-white awning. A year ago, he would have bugged his little sister Abigail behind the counter and savored an ice cream soda.

Not now. Nothing sounded good. Not ice cream, not teasing, not even family.

A two-hundred-hour combat tour flying a P-47 Thunderbolt fighter plane over Nazi-occupied
Europe had drained him of all grief, all anger, and all joy. So many deaths. So many good young men gone down in flames.

The marquee of the Lafayette Theater advertised For Whom the Bell Tolls. Pete had read Hemingway’s book. He’d memorized John Donne’s poem at Jefferson High.

“Never send to know for whom the bell tolls,” Pete muttered, “it tolls for thee.”

Today even Pastor Hughes hadn’t helped. All Pete wanted was a few words of wisdom and comfort to make him feel again. Feel anything.

The pastor had gotten him through his big brother Alfred’s death back in ’27, when Pete was fifteen. Pete owed Pastor Hughes for his salvation, for his very life.

But today? Pastor Hughes had leaned back in his leather chair, holding his reading glasses and rubbing them with a handkerchief while Pete talked. Didn’t he understand how hard it was for Pete to spill his guts? And the pastor just rubbed his glasses.

When Pete was done talking, Pastor Hughes leaned forward and said, “Give.”

Give?

“When you’re empty inside,” Pastor Hughes said, “the best thing you can do is give. Find a need, step outside of yourself, and give.”

Pete turned right onto Columbia Street. Maybe the pastor was going senile. Pete was an empty pitcher. How could he pour anything out from nothing?

He’d have to find his own way to fill up again. And soon. On January 1, he had to report for transition training with the Air Transport Command Ferrying Division. He had to fly again.

Maybe that was why he was roaming downtown. To fill up on all the sights he’d grown up with. The memories of a lifetime called out from each brick.

He squinted at the buildings, at the trees in their square holes in the sidewalk, at the overcast sky. He trained his senses to the chill in the air, the sounds of traffic—light as it was—and the conversations of passersby. But he didn’t feel anything.

Ahead of him rose the high pointy dome of the Tippecanoe County Courthouse in all its Victorian glory. Pete and his best friend, Scooter, had loved running around the grounds, playing cops and robbers. How many times had they decorated the statue of the Marquis de Lafayette or added soap to the fountain at his feet? How many times had they been caught?

The thought should have summoned up either guilt or a smile. Nope. Nothing.

He headed down the left side of the street, across from the courthouse. A few blocks more and he’d reach the Wabash River. Maybe the sound of running water would awaken something.

The door of Loeb’s department store opened, and Pete held the door for two ladies burdened with packages. When they thanked him, he said, “You’re welcome” but couldn’t smile. How could he with that infernal song billowing through the open door?

***

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

 by Tricia Goyer
Excerpted from Where Treetops Glisten by Tricia Goyer, Cara Putman, and Sarah Sundin

Thursday, December 21, 1944

Nieuwenhagen, the Netherlands


Gray. The color of the sky outside the makeshift hospital. Gray. The bare tree limbs that reached into the horizon, as if offering naked prayers for the Dutch countryside and its war-torn people.
 
Gray. The ashen faces of the soldiers as the stretcher bearers carried them in on litters. American soldiers, mostly, but Germans too, like the man who lay on the cot before her.
 
Meredith Turner tried to be gentle as she bandaged the shoulder of the unconscious German before he awoke confused and in pain. The bleeding from his ears meant he had a concussion—a serious one—but there wasn’t much they could do for that except keep him still.
 
She worked quickly. Her fingers did their job with skill and speed so that she could get back to the cleanup work in the operating room.
 
Not ten minutes ago, Dr. Anderson had shaken his head, telling her their patient hadn’t made it. They’d tried their best to save the young American soldier, but his injuries had been too extensive.
 
She’d stood there, clamp in hand, unmoving. Another life gone. Another family whose boy wouldn’t be coming home. Pain knotted her gut.
 
Dr. Anderson had looked at her with compassion. He was one of the few field doctors who understood the nurses’ pain when seeing the limp bodies of the soldiers being carried away.
 
“Change the bandages on that German brought in earlier, and then you can come back and deal with the mess,” he’d told her and then walked toward the front door, going outside for fresh air and to clear his head.
 
Meredith couldn’t help thinking of her brother Pete as she bit her lip and finished winding a clean bandage around the arm of the injured German. Pete was home. He was safe. She thought of another man she’d loved once, wondering if he was in harm’s way, but she quickly pushed the memory of David’s handsome face from her mind. She wouldn’t think of him now. To do so would only bring hurt, and she was carrying enough of that.
 
Meredith gazed down at the dark-haired man before her. His head was traumatized, and shrapnel had been dug from his arm, shoulder, and neck. His wounds weren’t any worse than many others. In time he’d recover and return to his family, who probably waited and prayed.
 
While it wasn’t popular to say, German mothers loved their sons as much as American mothers, she supposed. German hearts loved too.

She’d known that kind of love. She’d seen it in David’s eyes. The only thing that pushed his abandonment from her thoughts was caring for the soldiers who returned from the front lines in the ambulances’ steady flow. Her mind stayed busy doing her part in making sure those men returned home.
 
Home.

Someday she’d return to Lafayette, Indiana. She wanted that more than anything. But since she wouldn’t be returning anytime soon, did she dare hope that the Germans wouldn’t get too close? That their American field hospital would stay out of harm’s way? And maybe, well, was it too much to wish for a little music this Christmas, singing around the piano as they always had in the Turner house?

Looking back, she couldn’t believe she’d run so far, leaving behind the family she loved. Meredith had thought she was too big for that town. She couldn’t wait to see what the expansive, wide world had for her. To find sunshine and worth. But it hadn’t worked.

Meredith shivered as a cold wind hit the window of the schoolhouse where their unit had been set up. The school had four wings, and they put them to good use as a receiving room, a shock ward, surgery, and post-op. She liked working in the post-operation room the best. Even though it tugged on her emotions, she liked being there when the soldiers awoke from surgery. She liked encouraging them, talking of home, and praying with them. She wanted to be the first friendly face they saw when they realized that the war was over for them. Because their injuries were debilitating, for most of them it meant they’d be going home.

There was also a wood-burning stove in each room. There wasn’t enough wood to keep the place much above freezing, but the walls offered some relief from the frigid chill outside.

At least it was more protection than the medical tents she’d been working in since July. The maps, posters, and children’s pictures pinned to the walls of the schoolhouse brightened her spirits. They reminded her of why she was here—who the American soldiers were fighting for.

She and the other nurses had landed on Utah Beach July 15, a month after D-Day. She’d expected to see signs of the struggle. Blood on the sand. Even though the beach was broken up, hit by war, there was no evidence of the thousands and thousands of lives lost there. What the soldiers hadn’t cleaned up, the sea had washed away.

From France, they’d moved leapfrog-style, following the movement of troops to the front line. There were three field units in the 53rd Field Hospital. Meredith was in the 3rd Unit. Soldiers with stomach and chest wounds who needed immediate care were sent to them first. And the sooner the better. Everyone called the first hour after an injury the “golden hour.” Depending on his injuries, if the field hospital could get the wounded soldier within that time frame, stabilize him, and treat him for shock, then the chance for survival was good.

Another round of artillery boomed in the distance, causing a shudder to move through the small brick school.

Meredith willed the front lines to stay far away and the supply lines to stay open. She released the breath she’d been holding. Her fingers trembled as she worked, and she wondered if she’d ever be used to war.

Footsteps sounded outside, and two ambulance drivers rushed into the hospital with an injured man. The wounded soldier shivered. His face was as pale as the snow outside.

“He’s in shock. We need plasma now!” Dr. Anderson called from across the room. He’d returned without Meredith seeing him.

Dina, one of the other nurses, rushed to assist him. They all took turns with the bad cases. Meredith was thankful it was Dina’s turn. She had cleanup to attend to. Would she be able to wipe up the spilled blood without shedding a few tears for the lost soldier this time? She doubted it.

Meredith tried not to think about that as she listened to the shuffle of nurses’ feet scurrying around the room. She finished her bandaging, said a quick prayer over the German soldier, and moved to the bucket in the corner to retrieve the mop. Thankfully someone had brought in clean water.

The last operating area waited—empty, silent. She moved toward it and with a swish of the mop started sopping up the blood. As the mop swished in a swooping pattern, she looked out the window at the mother and three children who hurried by with bundles of wood in their hands. They’d been fighting for those kids. For their freedom. The Dutch people had been under Nazi occupation for years, but the Americans had freed them. The big booms of the distant artillery and the news from the front lines that trickled down to them proved the Nazis wanted to reclaim their lost hold, but the American boys were here to make sure that wasn’t going to happen.

Meredith was witnessing history, and all the nurses were glad to be doing their part, though their part was far from easy. A few nurses had already lost their lives on the front lines. To the readers of Stars and Stripes, they were sad stories, but to Meredith they were Francis and Betty. Friends she’d laughed with and talked late into the night with, sharing secrets and stories.

Meredith returned the mop to the bucket. As she plunged it down, the water turned red. How much blood had been spilled on foreign soil? Too much. That was why it was so important to find a way to make Christmas special for the injured. Special Christmas music—it was the one thing that wouldn’t leave her thoughts. Meredith knew how to sing a number of Christmas carols, and she was sure they’d find more talent among the other nurses and doctors. Maybe they could even practice a few new numbers to help the soldiers feel not so far from home.

In the classroom next door, Dr. Anderson’s frantic voice interrupted her hopeful thoughts. The injured soldier who’d just been brought in had been placed on the operating table, and Meredith could hear Dr. Anderson’s pleading.

“C’mon, boy. Hold on. Your mama wants you home, son . . .”
About the Authors


 Cara C. Putman, the award-winning author of 19 books, graduated high school at 16, college at 20, and completed her law degree at 27. FIRST for Women magazine called Shadowed by Grace"captivating" and a "novel with 'the works.'" Cara is active at her church and a lecturer on business and employment law to graduate students at Purdue University's Krannert School of Management. Putman also practices law and is a second-generation homeschooling mom. Putman is currently pursuing her Master's in Business Administration at Krannert. She serves on the executive board of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), an organization she has served in various roles since 2007. She lives with her husband and four children in Indiana. You can connect with her online at: caraputman.com

 Tricia Goyer is a busy mom of six, grandmother of two, and wife to John. Somewhere around the hustle and bustle of family life, she manages to find the time to write fictional tales delighting and entertaining readers and non-fiction titles offering encouragement and hope. A bestselling author, Tricia has published thirty-three books to date and has written more than 500 articles. She is a two time Carol Award winner, as well as a Christy and ECPA Award Nominee. In 2010, she was selected as one of the Top 20 Moms to Follow on Twitter by SheKnows.com. Tricia is also on the blogging team at MomLifeToday.com, TheBetterMom.com and other homeschooling and Christian sites.In addition to her roles as mom, wife and author, Tricia volunteers around her community and mentors teen moms. She is the founder of Hope Pregnancy Ministries in Northwestern Montana, and she currently leads a Teen MOPS Group in Little Rock, AR. Tricia, along with a group of friends, recently launched www.NotQuiteAmishLiving.com, sharing ideas about simplifying life. She also hosts the weekly radio podcast, Living Inspired. Learn more about Tricia at www.triciagoyer.com.

Sarah Sundin enjoys writing about the drama and romance of the World War II era. The Wings of the Nightingale series (With Every Letter, 2012, On Distant Shores, August 2013, and In Perfect Time, August 2014) follows three World War II flight nurses as they find love, friendship, and peril in the skies and on the shores of the Mediterranean. The Wings of Glory series from Revell (A Distant Melody, A Memory Between Us, and Blue Skies Tomorrow) follows three brothers who are B-17 bomber pilots during World War II.

Sundin lives in northern California with her husband, three children, an antisocial cat, and a yellow lab bent on destroying her writing career. When she isn't driving kids to tennis and karate, she works on-call as a hospital pharmacist and teaches Sunday school and women's Bible studies.



My Review

 I was excited to read Where Treetops Glisten as I am a huge fan of author Sarah Sundin. Where Treetops Glisten is a book containing three short novels that take place during World War II at Christmastime. I love reading Christmas books to get me in the mood for Christmas and I am sure that you probably do too! And if you haven't been reading Christmas themed books to get you in the mood for Christmas, it is time to start now.

What is particularly enjoyable about Where Treetops Glisten is that the three short novels are all linked to one another. The three short novels included revolve around the Turner family. There is a bit of something for everyone in these short novels. These books are written by Christian authors therefore you know the stories are going to have a message. As the setting is during World War II, these short novels are great for people who like historical novels. They are great for people who like romances as well as people who like chick lit. There is something for everyone!

So relax and let Where Treetops Glisten let your mind wander back to World War II at Christmastime. I highly recommend this collection of WWII Christmas stories.




 

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Sainsbury's OFFICIAL Christmas 2014 Ad


All advertisements should be this good: 



New Video: "All About Those Gains" - Meghan Trainor - "All About That Bass" PARODY

I would appreciate it if you could watch and/or share this new YouTube video released by my future DIL who performs under the name Kassie K. There is even a small cameo by my son. Thank you.




Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Review: Five Fires by Laura Lippman








  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 720 KB
  • Print Length: 28 pages
  • Publisher: Byliner (Oct. 21 2014)
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B00ODFRFAG


Book Description

Laura Lippman, New York Times bestselling author of What the Dead Know, The Most Dangerous Thing, and most recently, After I'm Gone, delivers a suspenseful short story with an unexpected twist in her Byliner Original, Five Fires.

Everyone in small-town Belleville is talking about a series of mysterious fires disrupting the typically tranquil summer. The authorities attribute them to heat lightning, but some Belleville residents are not so sure…

High-school student Beth, like everyone else in Belleville, has been following the fires – she has plenty of time between her monotonous day job at the deli and solitary nights at home while her mom works late. The fires aren’t the only unusual occurrence – Beth’s old friend Tara, who left town the year before after a scandal, returns with no real explanation. Circumstances only get stranger when Beth unwittingly discovers clues as to what – or who – is the cause of the fires.

About the Author

Laura Lippman was a reporter for twenty years, including twelve years at The (Baltimore) Sun. She began writing novels while working fulltime and published seven books about “accidental PI” Tess Monaghan before leaving daily journalism in 2001. Her work has been awarded the Edgar ®, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Shamus, the Nero Wolfe, Gumshoe and Barry awards. She also has been nominated for other prizes in the crime fiction field, including the Hammett and the Macavity. She was the first-ever recipient of the Mayor’s Prize for Literary Excellence and the first genre writer recognized as Author of the Year by the Maryland Library Association.

Ms. Lippman grew up in Baltimore and attended city schools through ninth grade. After graduating from Wilde Lake High School in Columbia, Md., Ms. Lippman attended Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Her other newspaper jobs included the Waco Tribune-Herald and the San Antonio Light.

Ms. Lippman returned to Baltimore in 1989 and has lived there since. She is the daughter of Theo Lippman Jr., a Sun editorial writer who retired in 1995 but continues to freelance for several newspapers, and Madeline Mabry Lippman, a former Baltimore City school librarian. Her sister, Susan, is a local bookseller.



My Review

A fascinating short story from Laura Lippman.  In Five Fires, Lippman explores the effect that high school football has on small towns. How it effects the residents. And how they react to it. I am a huge fan of Laura Lippman and found this short story extremely well written and thought provoking. It will have to tide me over until Hush Hush...the new Tess book which is due out early next year.


Review: Murder at the Brightwell by Ashley Weaver



  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 663 KB
  • Print Length: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Minotaur Books (Oct. 14 2014)
  • Sold by: Macmillan CA
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B00IWUXVME




Book Description


Amory Ames is a wealthy young woman who regrets her marriage to her notoriously charming playboy husband, Milo. Looking for a change, she accepts a request for help from her former fiancé, Gil Trent, not knowing that she’ll soon become embroiled in a murder investigation that will test not only her friendship with Gil, but will upset the status quo with her husband.

Amory accompanies Gil to the Brightwell Hotel in an attempt to circumvent the marriage of his sister, Emmeline, to Rupert Howe, a disreputable ladies’ man. Amory sees in the situation a grim reflection of her own floundering marriage. There is more than her happiness at stake, however, when Rupert is murdered and Gil is arrested for the crime. Amory is determined to prove his innocence and find the real killer, despite attempted dissuasion from the disapproving police inspector on the case. Matters are further complicated by Milo’s unexpected arrival, and the two form an uneasy alliance as Amory enlists his reluctant aid in clearing Gil’s name. As the stakes grow higher and the line between friend and foe becomes less clear, Amory must decide where her heart lies and catch the killer before she, too, becomes a victim.

Murder at the Brightwell is a delicious mystery in which murder invades polite society and romance springs in unexpected places. Weaver has penned a debut in the tradition of Jacqueline Winspear.



About the Author

ASHLEY WEAVER is a library manager in the USA and has worked with books since the age of 14. Murder at the Brightwell is her first book.


My Review

Murder at the Brightwell is a lovely period murder mystery. It is set in 1930s  Britain at a seaside resort where the upper most cream of society is vacationing.Well according to Milo, not the upper most cream...

Amory Ames is married to high society rogue Milo Ames. Five years ago she jilted her fiance Gil Trent to marry Milo. Now Gil is at her door inviting her to help him save his sister from marrying a fellow very similar to Milo. Amory agrees and heads off to Brightwell to help with Gil's sister Emmaline. Before anyone can get settled into their seaside vacation, Emmaline's suitor Rupert is murdered and Milo shows up further complicating things.

This story was a pleasure to read. It is well written and is full of twists and turns. Great mystery to try to solve. The characters were all fascinating. I loved the main character Amory Ames. And I loved the British seaside setting. I am looking forward to reading more of Ashley Weaver's books in the future!



Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Book Release: Home For Christmas: A Holiday Duet by Joann Ross and Jessica Scott




  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 1721 KB
  • Print Length: 1 pages
  • Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B00MRHG7JM


Book Description


An all new holiday duet featuring brand new works from New York Times Bestselling author JoAnn Ross and USA Today Bestselling author Jessica Scott featuring brand new Shelter Bay & Coming Home novellas.

You Again - A Shelter Bay Novella
A book nerd, a brainiac science guy, and a misplaced killer whale...

Meghann Quinn wasn’t always a hugely successful author. Adam Wayne wasn’t always a marine biologist studying whales. Back in high school in Shelter Bay, Oregon, she was the shy book nerd helping the brainiac science guy pass English. Meghann had no idea Adam would turn into such a hottie. Adam has no idea their once-upon-a-time sweet summer romance inspired Meghann’s popular teen novels.

Two shy geeks didn’t have the courage to share their true feelings back then. But now that Meghann’s back in town, they’re pondering life’s important questions. Such as, will Adam ask her to the Snow Ball? And what are they going to do about the lost Orca who shows up on Christmas Eve? And can two nerds get past their initial insecurity to take a second chance on a once-in-a-lifetime love?

All I Want For Christmas Is You - A Coming Home Novella

From USA Today Bestselling author Jessica Scott comes an all new novella about a woman who came back from war changed and the man who loves her enough not to let her go.

All Major Patrick MacLean wanted was Christmas with the woman and child who were his family in everything but name. But Captain Samantha Egan has come back from the war a different woman than the one who left - and she doesn't know if she can love him anymore.

But neither of them counted on the determination of a little girl they both call daughter and if Natalie has her wish, her parents may have no idea what's coming for them. It's going to take Christmas miracle to bring these two wounded warriors back from the edge of a broken heart.

About the Authors

Joann Ross

New York Times bestselling author JoAnn Ross has written around a hundred novels for a bunch of publishers. Two of her titles have been excerpted in Cosmopolitan magazine and her books have also been published by the Doubleday, Rhapsody, Literary Guild, and Mystery Guild book clubs.

A member of the Romance Writers of America's Honor Roll of best-selling authors, she's won several awards, including Romantic Times's Career Achievement Awards in both category and contemporary single title.

Currently writing her Shelter Bay series, along with a River's Bend spin-off trilogy, featuring three sexy Murphy Brothers, and also expanding her award- winning Castlelough Irish series, JoAnn lives with her husband (her high school sweetheart, who proposed at the sea wall where her Shelter Bay books are set), and three rescued dogs, who pretty much rule the house, in their beloved Pacific Northwest.


 Jessica Scott

USA TODAY Bestselling author Jessica Scott is a career army officer, mother of two daughters, three cats and three dogs, wife to a career NCO and wrangler of all things stuffed and fluffy. She is a terrible cook and even worse housekeeper, but she's a pretty good shot with her assigned weapon and someone liked some of the stuff she wrote. Somehow, her children are pretty well adjusted and her husband still loves her, despite burned water and a messy house.

She's written for the New York Times At War Blog, PBS Point of View Regarding War, and IAVA. She deployed to Iraq in 2009 as part of OIF/New Dawn and is currently a company commander stationed at Fort Hood.

Most recently, she's been featured as one of Esquire Magazine's Americans of the Year for 2012.



Amazon Canada Link



Sunday, November 9, 2014

Review: A Last Goodbye (Ali Reynolds #9.5) by J.A. Jance




  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 883 KB
  • Publisher: Pocket Star (Nov. 24 2014)
  • Sold by: Simon & Schuster Canada, Inc.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B00MK38YL2


Book Description

New York Times bestselling author J.A. Jance brings her trademark breakneck pace to this fun and exciting e-novella, where fan favorite Ali Reynolds takes on double responsibilities as both sleuth and bride.

Ali Reynolds is finally getting married to her longtime love B. Simpson. They wanted a simple Christmas Eve wedding, but nothing is ever simple with Ali. Even as a motley crew of her friends—Leland Brooks, Sister Anselm, and others—descend on Vegas, the bride-to-be finds herself juggling last-minute wedding plans and a mystery in the form of a stray miniature dachshund. Ali’s grandson rescues the little dog, but Ali’s not in the market for a new pet right before her honeymoon, and leaves no stone unturned in hunting for the dog’s owner. But what she finds is more than just a shaggy dog story…Bella’s elderly owner has vanished, and her son seems to be behind it. So it’s Ali and B. to the rescue—and still making it to the church on time!


About the Author

 Judith Ann Jance is the top 10 New York Times bestselling author of the Joanna Brady series; the J. P. Beaumont series; three interrelated thrillers featuring the Walker family; and Edge of Evil, the first in a series featuring Ali Reynolds. Born in South Dakota and brought up in Bisbee, Arizona, Jance lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington, and Tucson, Arizona.



My Review

A Last Goodbye is a lovely short Christmas novella featuring J.A. Jance's Ali Reynolds. Ali and her boyfriend B are getting married in Las Vegas over Christmas. If you have been following the Ali Reynolds series then this novella is not to be missed. It accomplished having a wedding without having to deal with it in a full novel. And it is a cute story for dog lovers as well.