Shades of Morning

The book:
Marnie Wittier has life just where she wants it. Quiet. Peaceful. No drama. A long way away from her past. In the privacy of her home, she fills a box with slips of paper, scribbled with her regrets, sins, and sorrows. But that’s nobody else’s business. Her bookstore/coffee shop patrons, her employees, her friends from church—they all think she’s the very model of compassion and kindness.

Then Marnie’s past creeps into her present when her estranged sister dies and makes Marnie guardian of her fifteen-year-old son—a boy Marnie never knew existed. And when Emmit arrives, she discovers he has Down syndrome—and that she’s woefully unprepared to care for him. What’s worse, she has to deal with Taylor Cole, her sister’s attorney, a man Marnie once loved—and abandoned.

As Emmit (and Taylor) work their way into her heart, Marnie begins to heal. But when pieces of her dismal past surface again, she must at last face the scripts of paper in her box, all the regrets and sorrows. Can she do it? Or will she run again?

The review:
As the aunt of a niece, with Down syndrome, this book grabbed me at the prologue. The storyline flowed smoothly, in Shades of Morning, and I quickly was lost in the lives of Marnie,Taylor, Emmit, and their friends.

As the story flashes back from past to present intrigue is built regarding "the secret" which seems to have been kept from both Marnie and Taylor. Call me inquisitive, perhaps plain ole nosey, but I was so interested in knowing what troublemaker Craig was going to such great extremes to announce that I was unable to put the book down until I got to the end, which for me, was where the trouble began.

It is a rare thing for me, as a reader, to wish a book had ended dramatically different. When it comes to the genre of Christian fiction I am generally pleased with the outcome of the story, however unbelievable it might be. This was not the case with Shades of Morning.

While I truly enjoyed the book, felt it was well written, and clearly saw the spiritual message woven within; the ENDING, despite the element of surprise, was a total letdown for me. To say more, however, would be a spoiler for other readers.

I found some comfort in reading the author's explanation regarding how she came up with the idea for the story. Still, even as I write this review a day later, I sincerely wish that an alternate ending had been chosen for Shades of Morning. There was so much presented within the storyline to work with and I remain disappointed.

Despite my feelings regarding the ending, I do recommend the book. There is a great deal which can be gleaned from the lives of the main characters in this story. Throughout the book the message of grace, hope and redemption are clearly depicted and it is generally a very good read. The reading guide that is provided would also make it a suitable candid for book clubs.

The author:
Marlo Schalesky is the author of several acclaimed novels, including Christy Award winner Beyond the Night. A graduate of Stanford University, Marlo also has a masters of theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. She’s a regular columnist for Power for Living and lives with her husband, Bryan, and five children in California.

To read an excerpt from Shades of Morning click here.

To purchase a copy of Shades of Morning click here.

To visit the author's website click here.

[This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.]

The Last Christian

The book:
It’s 2088 A.D. and missionary daughter, Abigail Caldwell, has emerged from the jungle for the first time in her thirty-four years, the sole survivor of a mysterious disease that killed her entire village. Abby goes to America, only to discover a nation where Christianity has completely died out. A curious message from her grandfather assigns her a surprise mission: re-introduce the Christian faith in America, no matter how insurmountable the odds.

But a larger threat looms. The world’s leading artificial intelligence industrialist has perfected a technique for downloading the human brain into a silicon form. Brain transplants have begun, and with them come the potential of eliminating physical death altogether—but at what expense?

As Abby navigates a society grown more addicted to stimulating the body than nurturing the soul, she and Creighton Daniels, a historian troubled by his father’s unexpected death, become unwitting targets of powerful men who will stop at nothing to further their nefarious goals. Hanging in the balance—the spiritual future of all humanity.

In this fast-paced thriller, startling near-future science collides with thought-provoking religious themes to create a spell-binding “what-if?” novel.

The review:
When I initially read the summary of The Last Christian, on the back cover of the book, I was unsure if this novel would have the ability to hold my interest. New to the sci-fi genre of Christian fiction what books I have read thus far has been mediocre at best.

The Last Christian involves a very believable story line based on the character of Abigail Caldwell who has spent her life in Papua New Guinea until forced to leave in order to find help for a mysterious illness that is wiping out the Inisi people group. Help comes too late and as a result Abby leaves the jungle and enters a highly advanced technological world. While there she discovers a message from her grandfather which thrusts her into a mission to re-start Christianity in America. This seems impossible at best, and deadly at its worst.

I found this novel absolutely captivating. It was very well written, easy to follow, yet difficult to predict. Putting it down was like pressing the pause button while watching a movie. I couldn’t wait to get back to it and see what would happen next.

A fast-paced thriller, which contains some romance, The Last Christian also has deep religious undertones. It leaves the reader thinking about the possibility it presents, fictionally, of Christianity dying out in America due to secularism, humanism, and the advancements of technology. It also corrects an often presented distorted Gospel message with one that is scripturally correct. That message has the power to change lives, even in a society where Christianity has long been dead.

Whether you are looking for a good futuristic novel or something decidedly Christian I highly recommend David Gregory’s novel, The Last Christian, and look forward to passing it on to other family members who are anxiously waiting to read it.

The author:
David Gregory is the best-selling author of Dinner with a Perfect Stranger, A Day with a Perfect Stranger, The Next Level, and the coauthor of the nonfiction The Rest of the Gospel. After a ten-year business career, he returned to school to study religion and communications, earning master’s degrees from Dallas Theological Seminary and the University of North Texas. A native of Texas, he now lives in the Pacific Northwest.

Download and read the first chapter of The Last Christian here.

Read an excerpt from The Last Christian here.

To purchase a copy of The Last Christian click here.

To visit the author's website click here.

[This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.]

The Search for God and Guinness by Stephen Mansfield

When one thinks of Guinness, it’s usually an image of lifting a pint down at the local pub or a record book listing all sorts of wild accomplishments. There are many aspects of this company and its 250 year history. It would be too simplistic to say that this book is the story of how a Dublin brewery owner can leave a legacy of benevolence and employee loyalty.

Stephen Mansfield has written a book which looks into the back story of how the Guinness brewing business and Guinness family developed the heritage that they have today. Many family members were in Christian ministry and believed in social responsibility. This sense of responsibility also guided their business principles.

These principles are best put in a quote from the book; “Guinness understood this. The company did not drain a man and then expect the church or the state to rebuild him again. They invested. They paid high wages, offered every type of education, provided medicine, sports, entertainment, and even a place to think, and assured every kind of a financial safety net for those who served them well. They also built houses, sent sons to college, and lifted whole families to new economic heights. They did this because it was the right thing to do, yes, but also because it made their firm more successful than those who did not understand this vital kind of investment.”

It doesn’t seem that God and beer mix but Mansfield has crafted an inspiring story of how Christian principles shaped this world renowned company. I would recommend this book for anyone who is curious about the history of the company and how it became successful.

Forget Me Not

The book:
THEIR ELUSIVE ENEMIES TOOK EVERYTHING. NOW THEY WANT MORE.

Crossroads Crisis Center owner Benjamin Brandt was a content man—in his faith, his work, and his family. Then in a flash, everything he loved was snatched away. His wife and son were murdered, and grief-stricken Ben lost faith. Determination to find their killers keeps him going, but after three years of dead ends and torment, his hope is dying too. Why had he survived? He’d failed to protect his family.

Now, a mysterious woman appears at Crossroads seeking answers and help—a victim who eerily resembles Ben’s deceased wife, Susan. A woman robbed of her identity, her life, of everything except her faith—and Susan’s necklace.

The connections between the two women mount, exceeding coincidence, and to keep the truth hidden, someone is willing to kill. Finding out who and why turns Ben and the mystery woman’s situation from dangerous to deadly. Their only hope for survival is to work together, trust each other, and face whatever they discover head on, no matter how painful. But will that be enough to save their lives and heal their tattered hearts?

The review:
Forget Me Not is book #1 in the “Crossroad Crisis Center Series” and author Vicki Hinze’s first Christian work. A fast-paced storyline, revolving around a mysterious connection between Ben Brandt and Kelly Walker (initially known only as Susan), the plot thickens as the tale unfolds.

Kelly initially arrives on the scene as an amnesiac injured and running for her life. Bearing a remarkable resemblance to Ben's wife, who was murdered along with their son, the mystery unfolds as to the connection between them along with who is trying to kill Kelly and why as her memory gradually returns.

By the time it's all done a terrorist ring is exposed, love blossoms, and spiritual healing begins in the life of a man whose faith had been shattered by devastating loss.

I must admit that this is the first Christian suspense book that I have read so I was unsure of what to expect. Despite an abundance of characters, to the point that I had difficulty keeping them straight, and an overly rapid romantic build-up between the two main characters I found Forget Me Not very difficult to put down. The story continually unfolded including enough twists and turns that my curiosity demanded satisfaction.

It was also enjoyable to read a suspense novel with strong Christian overtones. There were many "teaching moments" within Forget Me Not. The ending of the book sends a very strong message while dangling the carrot for the next book in the series. There is also a reader's guide that allows for additional spiritual application at the very end of the book. This would make it a good read for a book club or teen group.

Riveting, rousing, redeeming, and refreshing Forget Me Not was all I had anticipated it would be. I suspect that the follow-up book, which will feature two currently undeveloped characters, will be even better than the first.

The author:
Vicki Hinze is an award-winning author of twenty-three novels, three non-fiction books, and hundreds of articles. Selected for Who’s Who in America in 2004 as a writer and educator, Hinze is active in Romance Writers of America and serves as a vice president of the International Thriller Writers Board of Directors. Vicki lives in Florida with her artist husband, a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel.

Download and read the first chapter of Forget Me Not here.

Read an excerpt from Forget Me Not here.

To purchase a copy of Forget Me Not click here.

To visit the author's website click here.

You can find the author on Facebook here.

Vicki Hinze tweets as @vickihinze on Twitter.

[This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.]

An Absence So Great

The book:
While growing in confidence as a photographer, eighteen-year-old Jessie Ann Gaebele’s personal life is at a crossroads. Hoping she’s put an unfortunate romantic longing behind her as “water under the bridge,” she exiles herself to Milwaukee to operate photographic studios for those owners who have fallen ill with mercury poisoning.

Jessie gains footing in her dream to one day operate her own studio and soon finds herself in other Midwest towns, pursuing her profession. But even a job she loves can’t keep painful memories from seeping into her heart when the shadows of a forbidden love threaten to darken the portrait of her life.

The review:
An Absence So Great is the story of, Jessie Gaebale, a young single woman with a dream of proving herself to be a capable photographer in a time when such a goal, for a female was inconceivable.

Set in the early 1900’s, and based on the life of the author’s grandmother, this book shares Jessie’s inward and outward struggles to obtain her goals and maintain her ideals and beliefs in what might be considered “a man’s world.”

It also weaves in a story of “forbidden love” from which Jessie tries initially to flee, which I’ve come to understand, actually began in the first book in this series Flickering Light. Not having read part one of the series took very little away from An Absence So Great.

Photographs and letters sprinkled throughout the book lengthen the time it takes to read it but also provide education and a greater awareness of the characters. They aren’t essential to the plot of the book but would be enjoyable for true historians. There is also an interview with the author in the back of the book and a reader's guide.

While not overtly Christian, An Absence So Great, does send a subtle spiritual message. Humans are flawed, life is fragile, relationships fail but God is faithful. Through all of life’s ups and downs and twists and turns there is grace and also redemption.

I found Jane Kirpatrick’s writing to be both historical and relevant. Though it draws on the past it presents a scenario that is not unimaginable today. It also sends a message that with God’s help people are able to attain their dreams despite their own imperfections.

Not only would I recommend the book to others I have given one copy away and will soon give the other one to my neighbor.

The author:
Jane Kirkpatrick is an award-winning author of sixteen historical novels, including A Flickering Light, the first part of Jessie Gaebale’s story, and three nonfiction titles. Known for her unique insights into the exploration of community, family and faith of actual historical women, the Wisconsin native and her husband have called their ranch in Oregon home for the past 25 years.

To read an excerpt of An Absence So Great click here.

To purchase your copy of An Absence So Great click here.

Visit the author's website at: http://www.jkbooks.com/

Her blog can be found at: http://janekirkpatrick.blogspot.com/



[This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.]

Here Burns My Candle

The book:
A mother who cannot face her future.

A daughter who cannot escape her past.

Lady Elisabeth Kerr is a keeper of secrets. A Highlander by birth and a Lowlander by marriage, she honors the auld ways, even as doubts and fears stir deep within her. Her husband, Lord Donald, has secrets of his own, well hidden from the household, yet whispered among the town gossips.

His mother, the dowager Lady Marjory, hides gold beneath her floor and guilt inside her heart. Though her two abiding passions are maintaining her place in society and coddling her grown sons, Marjory’s many regrets, buried in Greyfriars Churchyard, continue to plague her. One by one the Kerr family secrets begin to surface, even as bonny Prince Charlie and his rebel army ride into Edinburgh in September 1745, intent on capturing the crown.

A timeless story of love and betrayal, loss and redemption, flickering against the vivid backdrop of eighteenth-century Scotland, Here Burns My Candle illumines the dark side of human nature, even as hope, the brightest of tapers, lights the way home.

The review:
It’s been 4 years since Liz Curtis Higgs’s last novel. She is now back, having made good use of the time to study Scottish history, and offers in Here Burns My Candle, one of the most beloved stories of the Old Testament which is based on the book of Ruth.

Set against the backdrop of 18th Century Scotland the author has done a masterful job of retelling the story of Naomi and Ruth. The attention given to historical details and the vivid painting of the characters brings this story to life and draws the reader in very quickly. 

Masterfully using her pen to weave a story of intrigue, romance, tragedy, and faith the author has capably conveyed the message that despite tragedy hope still flickers when small glimmers of faith remain. A message that you will be contemplating long after you have laid the book down.

Aside from a few struggles with the Scottish dialect peppered throughout the book and what felt like a slow moving start I found this book to be enjoyable.

Lovers of Christian fiction, including other novels by this author, will not be disappointed by Here Burns My Candle.

The author:
LIZ CURTIS HIGGS is the author of twenty-seven books with three million copies in print, including: her best-selling historical novels, Thorn in My Heart, Fair Is the Rose, Christy Award-winner Whence Came a Prince, and Grace in Thine Eyes, a Christy Award finalist; My Heart’s in the Lowlands: Ten Days in Bonny Scotland, an armchair travel guide to Galloway; and her contemporary novels, Mixed Signals, a Rita Award finalist, and Bookends, a Christy Award finalist.

To read an excerpt from Here Burns My Candle click here.

To download the first chapter click here.

To purchase your copy of Here Burns My Candle click here or here.

Visit the author’s extensive website at http://www.lizcurtishiggs.com/



[This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.]

The New Living Translation Break Through to Clarity Bible Contest and Giveaway

Tyndale Publishers is currently having a contest that you don't want to miss. Here is the scoop on what you need to do to enter:

Visit www.facebook.com/NewLivingTranslation and click on the tab that says "Sweepstakes"

Fill out a simple form, take a quick Bible clarity survey, invite your friends to join and you’ll be entered to win one of our exciting prizes.

With each fan number milestone a new prize will be given away.

Grand Prize

Apple iPad 64G and a Life Application Study Bible

Awarded when the NLT Fan Page hits the fifth milestone

Retail Value: $829.00

2nd Prize - Already awarded

32G iPod Touch and a Life Application Study Bible

Awarded when the NLT Fan Page hits the fourth milestone

Retail Value: $300.00

3rd Prize – Will be awarded when fan count hits: 3500

Kindle DX and a Life Application Study Bible

Awarded when the NLT Fan Page hits the third milestone

Retail Value: $489.00

4th Prize Will be awarded when fan count hits: TBD

Apple iPad 16G and a Life Application Study Bible

Awarded when the New Living Translation Fan Page hits the second milestone

Retail Value: $499.00

5th Prize Will be awarded when fan count hits: TBD

Apple iPad 32G and a Life Application Study Bible

Awarded when the NLT Fan Page hits the first milestone

Retail Value: $599.00

Prize Eligibility – Recently updated to include more countries

Sweepstakes participants and winner(s) can be U.S. residents of the 50 United States, or residents of any country that is NOT embargoed by the United States, but cannot be residents of Belgium, Norway, Sweden, or India. In addition, participants and winner(s) must be at least 18 years old, as determined by the Company.

Sweepstakes Starts

March 17, 2010 @ 10:24 am (PDT)

Sweepstakes Ends

April 30, 2010 @ 10:24 am (PDT)

Wait, there’s more!

Visit http://biblecontest.newlivingtranslation.com/index.php for a chance to win a trip for two to Hawaii!

Here are the details:

Choose one of six passages of Scripture from the New Living Translation and consider:

How do these verses encourage you to know God better?

What is God teaching you in this passage?

How does this passage apply to your life?

Submit your answer and you’ll be entered to win.Just for signing up: Everybody Wins! Win a Free .mp3 download from the NLT’s new Red Letters Project. It’s the dynamic, new presentation of the sung and narrated words of the Gospel of Matthew. You win the download just for entering! Or choose to download the NLT Philippians Bible Study, complete with the Book of Philippians in the NLT.Every day, one person will win the best-selling Life Application Study Bible! The grand prize: One person will win a fantastic trip for two to the crystal clear waters of the Turtle Bay Resort on Oahu’s North Shore in beautiful Hawaii.

I've already entered--now it's your turn!