Critical Care Giveaway

***Note to readers: be sure and read all the way to the end of this post where I will be giving away an autographed copy of Critical Care to one of our readers.

NEWSFLASH: The winner of the first signed copy of Critical Care is....Maryann Miller!
The winner of the second signed copy of Critical Care is...Vanessa Calleja!


The book:

After her brother dies in a trauma room, nurse Claire Avery can no longer face the ER. She's determined to make a fresh start--new hospital, new career in nursing education--move forward, no turning back. But her plans fall apart when she's called to offer stress counseling for medical staff after a heartbreaking day care center explosion. Worse, she's forced back to the ER, where she clashes with Logan Caldwell, a doctor who believes touchy-feely counseling is a waste of time. He demands his staff be as tough as he is. Yet he finds himself drawn to this nurse educator . . . who just might teach him the true meaning of healing.

The review:
I met, Candace Calvert, where all people seem to meet these days (smile) via Twitter. She was working through a challenging day of writing. We joked some together and by the end of the day she'd “rounded up” enough words to make her goal for the day. We had also become friends.

As time passed I learned that she had recently written her first “medical drama” and although, I rarely read Christian fiction, my interest was difficult to hide. Not only had I watching ER for years, I had spent hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of days in the hospital as a patient. That afforded me an opportunity to get a behind the scenes look more times than I care to remember. It also made it difficult for me to believe that someone could adequately pen a novel with believable medical scenes. Needless to say I was quite anxious to “scrub in” and see for myself.

The opening chapter of the book grabbed me instantly. As I experienced the author's ability to vividly paint scenes authentic enough to stir the senses I was totally hooked. Not too mention tha fact that “Dr. McSnarly” ate “chaos for breakfast.” The book might as well have been glued to my hands because I found myself delightfully lost in it from cover to cover.

Reading Critical Care was not like being there at Sierra Mercy Hospital. It was like being there with a bird's eye view. And not only during hospital hours, but after hours, too. Those after hours when all of the processing is done, the prayers are whispered, and romance blooms. From smelling the coffee to feeling the soaking rain, to seeing the hill of daffodils, to sensing the personal pain of each character the scenes remain, to this day, etched in my mind.

One of the most remarkable qualitites of this book was the ability to present the deep inward spiritual struggles that humanity faces in a realistic way. It is far more than a “hospital drama” minus the smut. As an evangelistic tool it gently points those who are spiritually lost to God while leading others who may have lost hope towards spiritual healing. It's the perfect prescription for broken lives in need of Critical Care.

I highly recommend that you move it to the top of your Christian fiction reading list. Candace's second book in the trilogy Disaster Status is soon to be released. Along with so many other readers I'm very anxious to catch up on what is going on in the life of charge nurse Erin Quinn as well as meet the new characters. I am quite certain that Disaster Status will make the third book in this trilogy, Code Triage, delightfully painful to wait for.

I'm giving an autographed copy of Critical Care away so please be sure to get the scoop at the end of this post and enter to win.

To read an excerpt from Critical Care click here.

Purchase your copy of Critical Care here.

If you are interested in pre-ordering Disaster Status you can do so here.

You will find a very interesting interview with author Candace Calvert here.

Her website is located here.

The author:
Candace Calvert is a former ER nurse who believes love, laughter, and faith are the best medicines. A multipublished author of humorous mysteries, she begins an exciting new direction with the debut of Critical Care. A mother of two and a grandmother, she is a native Californian, currently residing with her husband in the beautiful hill country of Texas.

God blessed her with a quirky wit, buoyant optimism, and a contagious sense of fun--but she didn’t come to know him until after the Triple Whammy that turned her life into bad country song. A painful and unexpected divorce, the merciless Northern California floods of 1997, and (just when she was coping like a champ, no problem) an equestrian accident that left her with fractured ribs, a bleeding lung, broken back, neck fractures and a spinal cord injury. She’ll tell you that God took drastic measures to get her attention.

In the months of rehabilitation, Candace healed in body and spirit. And came to fully understand the difference between being a strong woman and a woman of strength. The difference is faith, and that lesson has been her biggest blessing. Her story, “By Accident,” appears in Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul, and launched her writing career.
She is honored to bring readers a new medical drama series offering exciting entertainment and a healthy dose of hope. In these challenging times, she thinks it’s exactly what the doctor ordered!

The Giveway:
I recently won an autographed copy of Critical Care and felt it only fair to "share the wealth" with our friends by giving it away. If you would like to win a copy of Critical Care please leave a comment at the bottom of this post. If you tweet about the giveaway be sure to come back and leave an additional comment to let us know. The more you spread the word the greater your chances of winning.

The contest will end at midnight on February 21rst when a winner will be randomly selected. Please be sure to leave your email address in the comment section so that I can contact the winner to obtain mailing information.

Thank you...and good luck!