Tag: Courtney Walsh

4 September 2023

Book Review | The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh

Researcher Isodora Bentley is turning thirty, and life has not turned out how she’d planned. Although she has a solid job that makes use of her intellect, she has not taken the world by storm, and she’s surviving rather than thriving.

When she sees a magazine article giving 31 steps to happiness, she decides to follow the steps so she can prove the author wrong. But her plans go awry after she meets her next-door neighbours and is assigned a new project at work.

Isodora a is a brilliant character in more ways than one.

She’s intelligent (I am always a sucker for intelligent heroines. And heroes.) She’s also a brilliant character in that she is likeable and sympathetic and compelling, the kind of character I want to get to know better in fiction (because the fictional Isodora shares more about herself than her real-life equivalent would).

I loved watching Isodora develop relationships with Marty, Darby, Delilah, and her handsome colleague, Dr. Cal Baxter.

All are wonderful characters who willingly help Isodora complete her “list”.

The novel is written in first person from Isadora’s point of view. She has a strong and unique voice made stronger by her habit of interrupting herself to give third-person observations of her own behaviour in the style and voice of David Attenborough. It’s a technique that adds to the story by showing us some of Isodora’s quirks.

The other character worth mentioning was ten-year-old Delilah, who is a twenty-years-younger version of Isodora, the answer to a long-ago prayer. While the Christian elements of the plot are not given a lot of emphasis, they are definitely there.

The Happy Life of Isodora Bentley mixes the quirky-colleagues vibe of All’s Fair in Love and Christmas by Sarah Monzon with The Secret to Happiness by Suzanne Woods Fisher (but without the awkward treatment of mental health).

It’s an excellent novel for anyone looking for workplace romances, or romances with characters with ADHD or similar.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About the Author

Courtney Walsh is a novelist, theatre director, and playwright. She writes small town romance and women’s fiction while juggling the performing arts studio and youth theatre she owns with her husband. She is the author of thirteen novels. Her debut, A Sweethaven Summer, hit the New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller lists and was a Carol Award finalist. Her novel Just Let Go won the Carol in 2019, and three of her novels have also been Christy-award finalists. A creative at heart, Courtney has also written three craft books and several musicals. She lives in Illinois with her husband and three children.

Find Courtney Walsh online at …

About The Happy Life of Isodora Bentley

She’s out to prove that there’s no such thing as choosing happiness.

Isadora Bentley follows the rules. Isadora Bentley likes things just so. Isadora Bentley believes that happiness is something that flat-out doesn’t exist in her life—and never will.

As a university researcher, Isadora keeps to herself as much as possible. She avoids the students she’s supposed to befriend and mentor. She stays away from her neighbors and lives her own quiet, organized life in her own quiet, organized apartment. And she will never get involved in a romantic relationship again—especially with another academic. It will be just Isadora and her research. Forever.

But on her thirtieth birthday, Isadora does something completely out of character. The young woman who never does anything “on a whim” makes an impulse purchase of a magazine featuring a silly article detailing “Thirty-One Ways to Be Happy”—which includes everything from smiling at strangers to exercising for endorphins to giving in to your chocolate cravings. Isadora decides to create her own secret research project—proving the writer of the ridiculous piece wrong.

As Isadora gets deeper into her research—and meets a handsome professor along the way—she’s stunned to discover that maybe, just maybe, she’s proving herself wrong. Perhaps there’s actually something to this happiness concept, and possibly there’s something to be said for loosening up and letting life take you somewhere . . . happy.

Find The Happy Life of Isodora Bentley online at:

Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

4 April 2022

Book Review | What Matters Most by Courtney Walsh

Even though her husband has been dead for five years, Emma Woodson has only just moved to Nantucket to claim the cottage and adjoining apartment she inherited from him. Now she’s hoping this will be a fresh start for her and her son, CJ, once she gets a job and finds someone to clear out the apartment so she can rent that out in holiday season. Falling in love with her tenant was not on her to-do list, aka the Year of Emma.

Jameson Shaw came to Nantucket to deliver Emma a letter confessing his role in her husband’s death. But when she assumes he’s answered her want ad to renovate the apartment, he takes the job and doesn’t give her the letter. He soon finds himself developing feelings for Emma which makes it harder and harder to tell her the truth …

And we can all see that’s not a great foundation for a lasting relationship.

It’s obvious from the first chapter that Jamie has some kind of secret involving Cam, Emma’s dead husband. He doesn’t mention it immediately (and in his defence, it’s not his fault Emma jumped to 100% the wrong conclusion when she saw him). And I can understand why he didn’t tell her – there was no right time. But the bigger the secret and the longer it’s kept, the harder it is to reveal the truth … and that’s a big part of the tension in the story. It was done well, but the lying by omission still bugged me.

Emma also has a secret. It’s hinted at in the book description but we’re a long way through the novel before it’s mentioned, let alone revealed. In many ways, her secret is worse than Jamie’s, even if the results weren’t as catastrophic. In that, it kind of explains why she took so long to get over Cam’s death.

What Matters Most was Christian fiction at the low-key end of Christian.

Emma and Jamie each had their own internal journey to go through, and they both needed to forgive themselves sufficiently before they would even be in the right mental place to consider asking God’s forgiveness. (Fortunately, God forgives before we ask. But we can’t live in that forgiveness if we’re not ready to accept it.) Their eventual acceptance isn’t necessarily told on the page, but is shown by their actions. After all, actions speak louder than words.

What Matters Most by Courtney Walsh is a compelling romance with underlying themes of faith and forgiveness. #BookReview #ChristianRomance Click To Tweet

So while What Matters Most isn’t overt in its presentation of Christianity, faith and forgiveness are definitely the underlying themes. In that, it’s a compelling story with a lot of kisses in the meantime.

Recommended for fans of contemporary Christian romance from authors like Kara Isaac, Carolyn Miller, and Becky Wade.

Thanks to Tyndale and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About the Author

Courtney Walsh is a novelist, artist, theater director, and playwright. Change of Heart is her fifth novel and is set in the same town as Paper Hearts. Her debut novel, A Sweethaven Summer, hit the New York Times and USA Today e-book bestseller lists and was a Carol Award finalist in the debut author category. She has written two additional books in the Sweethaven series, as well as two craft books and several full-length musicals. Courtney lives in Illinois where she and her husband own a performing and visual arts studio. They have three children.

Find Courtney Walsh online at …

About What Matters Most

Emma Woodson is hoping the cobblestone streets of Nantucket and the charm of her late husband’s family cottage will be the fresh start she and her young son, CJ, need. Securing a dream job at an art gallery is one more step along the path to a new life . . . and away from a piece of her history she hopes will never be revealed. Falling in love with the kind and handsome guy she hires to clean out the rental apartment above the garage wasn’t part of the plan.

Jameson Shaw came to Nantucket for one reason: deliver his letter to Emma and never return. But when he sees an opportunity to help her, he takes a chance, desperate to atone for his past. He never planned to keep his connection to her husband a secret or to fall in love with her. After all, he knows that their new relationship might not survive the discovery of who he really is.

Find What Matters Most online at:

Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

5 April 2021

Book Review | Is It Any Wonder by Courtney Walsh

Is It Any Wonder starts with a bang.

What should have been a short paddleboard ride turns nasty when Louisa loses her paddle and is swept out to sea in a sudden storm. Louisa thinks about the mistakes she’s made … not wearing a lifejacket today, and never sending that apology letter to Mrs. Boggs after her husband died twelve years ago.

Rescue comes in the form of ex-boyfriend Cody Boggs, her “twin”, now an Executive Petty Officer with the US Coastguard. (He’s no relation, but they grew up together and share a birthday). Cody has been posted to Nantucket, against his protests. He has no desire to return to the place where his father drowned, nor to the ex-girlfriend he blames for his father’s death.

Is It Any Wonder is a very human novel.

It uses the tragic death of Daniel Boggs to address issues of guilt and forgiveness. Cody has the all-too-human tendency to count his failures rather than his successes. Louisa and Cody both remind us how easy it is to blame the wrong person when trouble strikes, and how easy it can be to accept that blame and the associated guilt. It reminds us how hard it can be to accept forgiveness, and even harder to forgive ourselves, or accept God’s forgiveness.

Is It Any Wonder is another great contemporary #ChristianRomance from @Courtney_Walsh—great writing, great plot, great characters. Recommended. Click To Tweet

As with all Courtney Walsh’s stories, everything is excellent—the writing, the characters, the plot. Sure, Cody’s attitude bugged me a few times, as did Louisa’s overwhelming sense of guilt. But they were necessary parts of the story, because they were needed to show the depth of love and forgiveness.

All in all, Is It Any Wonder is another great contemporary Christian romance from Courtney Walsh. Recommended.

Thanks to Tyndale House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About the Author

Find Courtney Walsh online at …

About Is It Any Wonder

Twelve years ago, Cody Boggs and Louisa Chambers made a pact that no matter where their lives took them, they’d return to Nantucket Island’s Brant Point Lighthouse on July 30, their shared golden birthday, and continue their tradition of exchanging birthday wishes. But that was before a tragic accident upended both of their lives, irrevocably pulling them apart.

Their worlds collide just months before that particular day when Louisa’s fledgling event planning company is hired by the local Coast Guard station, where she discovers Cody has recently returned to the island as the second in command. As they plan a regatta fundraiser, hoping to promote positive PR in the community, neither can deny the fireworks each encounter ignites. But working together also brings up memories of the day Cody’s father died, revealing secrets that have Cody and Louisa questioning everything they thought they knew and felt about their families and each other.

Find Is It Any Wonder online at:

Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

28 August 2020

First Line Friday | Week 150 | Just Like Home by Courtney Walsh

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. Today I’m sharing from Just Like Home by Courtney Walsh. Here’s the first line of Chapter One:

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

About Just Like Home

Prima ballerina Charlotte Page has a life any dancer would envy, but the tragic loss of her best friend, Julianna, leaves her wanting more. Or maybe—less. In an effort to make her life about something other than accolades and applause, Charlotte leaves professional ballet to save Julianna’s small-town dance studio. This lands her directly in the path of cranky high school football coach and Julianna’s older brother, Cole Turner.

Fresh off a state win and a bitter divorce, the last thing Cole expects is for a prima ballerina to chip away at the wall he’s grown quite comfortable hiding behind.

Will their fledgling relationship be strong enough to weather the storm of old secrets and a haunting past? Or will Charlotte lose the new, simple life she’s given up everything to gain?

You can find Just Like Home online at:

Amazon | Goodreads

Click the button to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today:

You can then click the link which will take you to the master page of all this week’s #FirstLineFriday posts.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

And don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

4 February 2020

Bookish Question #140 | Which authors or novels do you think best show realistic and inspiring Christian romantic relationships? Why?

Interesting question! I know the old saying is that the course of true love never does run smooth, and that’s certainly the case for most romantic relationships in fiction. After all, conflict is an essential element of fiction, so where would our fiction be if there was no conflict?

But just because conflict is the norm in fiction doesn’t make it the norm in Christian romance relationships … well, I hope it doesn’t. Because while it might be realistic, it’s not inspiring.

So which authors or novels do show realistic and inspiring Christian romance relationships?

Well, first we have to ignore pretty much the entire romantic suspense genre—that’s all blood and murder, which should stay in fiction, thank you very much.

We can safely ignore mysteries (too many dead bodies), thrillers (also too many dead bodies), and speculative fiction (dragons and aliens?).

We can also ignore most historical fiction (even the romance), because good historical fiction is based on historical fact, and the facts weren’t always kind to women or minorities.

Realistic AND inspiring, remember?

That leaves us with some contemporary romance and women’s fiction, because women’s fiction often shows romantic relationships, even if they’re not the main point of the plot. So here are my picks:

Rose Dee
Varina Denman
Denise Hunter
Toni Shiloh
Courtney Walsh

What do you think? Which authors or novels best show realistic and inspiring Christian romantic relationships? Why?

5 November 2018

Book Review | Things Left Unsaid by Courtney Walsh

When Cassie Jacobs drowned, she left behind a lot of messed-up people blaming themselves for her death.

Ten years later, people are pretending they’ve moved on. Cassie’s mother has organised a memorial party. Her father is withdrawn. Her brother owns an adventure tourism business. One of Cassie’s best friends getting married. Another is on the verge of a career breakthrough … if only she can open herself up to feeling emotion again.

Things Left Unsaid is one of those novels with a slow build. We’re introduced to each of the characters and their somewhat petty present-day problems (many of which are caused by the interfering Nora, Elle’s future mother-in-law). But as the plot develops and we get to know each of the characters, we start seeing beyond the petty and into their hearts as Walsh takes us into the hidden places and we see the hurts and where they’ve come from.

And that’s neither petty nor pretty. But it is powerful. And it’s worth reading.

But, as I said, the novel has a slow build. The first quarter feels almost confusing as it changes point of view often: Lyndie, Elle, Karen, Tucker. The story settles into itself in the next quarter, but it still feels like it’s lacking something. It’s lacking emotion, but that’s deliberate: all the characters are holding back emotionally, and that comes through in the writing.

The novel really comes into itself in the final quarter.

Secrets are acknowledged, things once left unsaid are said, and the emotion arrives like a roller coaster on that final downward swoop. Things Left Unsaid definitely hits all the right spots for a contemporary Christian romance with a side of real life.

Recommended for fans of authors like Robin Lee Hatcher, Denise Hunter, Kara Isaac, Amy Matayo, and Becky Wade.

Thanks to Waterfall Press and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About the Author

Find Courtney Walsh online at …

About Things Left Unsaid

An emotional novel of family, friendship and forgiveness from Courtney Walsh, the New York Times bestselling author of Hometown Girl.

Lyndie St. James is thrilled that her best friend, Elle, is getting married but unprepared for the emotional storm of the wedding week and returning to her childhood summer home of Sweethaven. The idyllic cottage community harbors some of her best—and worst—memories. It’s not only the tragic death of her childhood friend Cassie that has haunted her for ten years, it’s the other secrets she’s buried that have kept her from moving on.

But Lyndie isn’t the only one with secrets.

Cassie’s mother, father and brother, still struggling with the loss, have been drifting further and further apart. And Elle herself, the last to see Cassie alive, carries an impossible burden of guilt. Now reunited, each of them has a choice: to reveal the truths of that night or continue to live in its shadow. That means embarking on a personal journey of the heart—to escape the darkness and all its regrets and to finally come to terms with the past and, especially, with each other.

Find Things Left Unsaid online at:

Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads

Click here to find Things Left Unsaid and other great Christian fiction at my Amazon shop!

25 October 2018

#ThrowbackThursday | Book Review | Just Look Up by Courtney Walsh

It’s Throwback Thursday! Today I’m resharing Just Look Up by Courtney Walsh. This was the first Courtney Walsh novel I read, but I think I’ve gone on to read all the rest! In fact, you can click here to read my review of Just Let Go.

After tirelessly climbing the ranks of her Chicago-based interior design firm, Lane Kelley is about to land her dream promotion when devastating news about her brother draws her back home—a quaint tourist town full of memories she’d just as soon forget. With her cell phone and laptop always within reach, Lane aims to check on her brother while staying focused on work—something her eclectic family doesn’t understand.

Ryan Brooks never expected to settle down in Harbor Pointe, Michigan, but after his final tour of duty, it was the only place that felt like home. Now knee-deep in a renovation project that could boost tourism for the struggling town, he is thrilled to see Lane, the girl he secretly once loved, even if the circumstances of her homecoming aren’t ideal.

Their reunion gets off to a rocky start, however, when Ryan can’t find a trace of the girl he once knew in the woman she is today. As he slowly chips away at the walls Lane has built, secrets from his past collide with a terrible truth even he is reluctant to believe. Facing a crossroads that could define his future with Lane and jeopardize his relationship with the surrogate family he’s found in the Kelleys, Ryan hopes Lane can see that maybe what really matters has been right in front of her all along—if only she’d just look up.

My Review

I requested a review copy of Just Look Up because I’d heard so many good things about it. Surely it couldn’t possibly measure up?

It did.

Lane is an interior designer up for a big promotion at work when her mother calls to say her brother is on life support following a motorcycle accident. She returns home, but is immediately thrown into conflict with everyone in her family (except perhaps her father, who only gets about two lines in the whole novel). The reasons behind this conflict are gradually revealed as the novel progresses

Ryan was also in the motorcycle accident, but escaped with minor injuries. He’s from a bad background, but he’s made something of himself—with the help of the Kelley family, who were surrogate parents for him and his sister throughout his teenage years. He’s always had feelings for Lane, but never felt good enough for her. Now he meets the adult Lane, he realises she has issues, and he might be able to help.

Just Look Up was a great title that worked on many levels.

There was the obvious, that we have to look up to see the world around us, to live. Lane spent much of time looking down at her phone that she missed what was going on around her. And the more subtle, the way Lane consciously or subconsciously looked down on herself.

It seemed to me that looking down was a habit formed early in her teenage years, where she looked down because of her low self-esteem. I could relate to this—and I suspect many grown women can, especially those of us who were bookish teenagers who were never part of the ‘cool’ crowd.

To me, Just Look Up showed the lie that many of us believe in our teenage years.

The lie that we don’t fit in because aren’t good enough. Lane was different to the others in her family—lactose intolerant in a family that made and sold cheese for a living, unattractive and unpopular (or so she thought) in a family that were attractive and popular.

What especially hurt for Lane was that her family perpetuated the lie through their ‘harmless’ name calling (‘Pudge’ is not term of endearment. Ever). The result, I think, was a teenager and adult who never understood how precious she was to God, because she never felt she was precious to her family.

Overall, Just Look Up is a story about how achieving our dreams might not be everything we thought it might be, but the answer might have been in front of us all along.

Recommended.

Thanks to Tyndale Books and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About the Author

Find Courtney Walsh online at …

Click below to buy Just Look Up:

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon AU | Kobo

You can read the introduction to Just Look Up below:

Click here to find Just Look Up and other great Christian fiction in my Amazon shop!

11 June 2018

Book Review | Just Let Go (Harbor Pointe #2) by Courtney Walsh

Grady Benson is a big-name big-ego Olympic skier who has landed in the small tourist town of Harbor Pointe, Michigan … and finds himself staying longer than planned after an unfortunate run-in with the law. Now he’s stuck in town paying his debt to society with various do-good community service projects when he should be on the slopes, qualifying for the next Olympics.

Quinn Collins is the small-town girl who’s never gone anywhere, and tells herself she doesn’t want to. What she wants is to win Best Design at the upcoming Michigan Floral Expo, in the hope that a win will enable her to reconnect with her mother—the mother who deserted her family years ago.

I have to say that I didn’t like either character at the beginning of the book.

Grady was too full of himself, and I didn’t understand Quinn’s obsession with reconnecting with a mother who abandoned her husband and two small daughters. First, has she never heard of Facebook? Second, many parents have days when they want to abandon their families (or is that just me?). It’s a test of character that we don’t.

Both characters changes and grow as the novel progresses, but it was Grady’s change that most impressed me. By the end of the story I was half in love with him myself, and he’d almost converted me to skiing (I like the concept, but I can no longer deal with the cold). Anyway, Grady’s redemption was definitely the high point of the story.

The writing was excellent, with many quotable lines.

Just Let Go follows Just Look Up in the Harbor Pointe series, but can easily be read as a standalone.

Thanks to Tyndale House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About the Author

Find Courtney Walsh online at …

About the Book

For Quinn Collins, buying the flower shop in downtown Harbor Pointe fulfills a childhood dream, but also gives her the chance to stick it to her mom, who owned the store before skipping town twenty years ago and never looking back. Completing much-needed renovations, however, while also competing for a prestigious flower competition with her mother as the head judge, soon has Quinn in over her head. Not that she’d ever ask for help.

Luckily, she may not need to. Quinn’s father and his meddling friends find the perfect solution in notorious Olympic skier Grady Benson, who had only planned on passing through the old-fashioned lakeside town. But when a heated confrontation leads to property damage, helping Quinn as a community-service sentence seems like the quickest way out—and the best way to avoid more negative press.

Quinn finds Grady reckless and entitled; he thinks she’s uptight and too regimented. Yet as the two begin to hammer and saw, Quinn sees glimpses of the vulnerability behind the bravado, and Grady learns from her passion and determination, qualities he seems to have lost along the way. But when a well-intentioned omission has devastating consequences, Grady finds himself cast out of town—and Quinn’s life—possibly forever. Forced to face the hurt holding her back, Quinn must finally let go or risk missing out on the adventure of a lifetime.

Find Just Let Go online at:

Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

You can read the introduction online below:

27 February 2018

Bookish Question #47 | What’s your favourite Christian book genre?

Asking a keen reader their favourite genre is like asking any addict about their favourite fix. Well, I assume it is. I haven’t spent a lot of time around addicts!

My favourite genre is romance, which shouldn’t come as any surpirse to anyone who reads my reviews on a regular basis. But romance is a huge genre, so what are my favourite novels within romance? I have three:

Regency Romance

Regency Romance is set in England during the period of the British Regency—when King George III was deemed mentally unfit to rule, so his son (the future King George IV) was named Prince Regent in his place. A lot of Georgette Heyer’s novels are set in the Regency period, and it’s also the time when Jane Austen was writing and publishing. Regency Romance characters are often members of the aristocracy, so the stories are complete fantasy when compared to my way of life!

My favourite Christian Regency Romance authors are Julie Klassen, Kristi Ann Hunter, and Carolyn Miller.

Romantic Suspense

I also enjoy romance with a suspense or thriller element. The mix of romance and suspense provides the classic mix of internal and external conflict, and provides plenty of opportunity for the hero and heroine to get to know each other as they work together to solve the crime (or stop one happenning).

My favourite Christian romantic suspense authors are DiAnn Mills, Lynette Eason, Terri Blackstock, and similar authors.

Contemporary Romance

My absolute favourite genre is contemporary romance. But not just any contemporary romance. I like stories that are a realistic and even a little gritty, that show life like it is but still show the hope of Jesus. And a little comedy doesn’t hurt, as a way of diffusing tension.

My favourite contemporary Christian romance authors are whichever book I’ve read most recently. Kara Isaac, Bethany Turner, Jennifer Rodewald, Brandy Bruce, Carla Laureano, Tammy L Gray, Courtney Walsh, Amy Matayo … the list goes on.

What about you? What’s your favourite Christian book genre?

Let me know in the comments, then pop over to Australasian Christian Writers and share there!

2 November 2017

Book Recommendation | Hometown Girl by Courtney Walsh

Beth is the sensible one in the Whitaker family, a fact she’s reminded of when younger sister Molly shows up announcing she’s bought the derelict Fairwind Farm. Molly wants to restore the apple orchard and Christmas tree farm into the centre of the community it used to be. Beth is convinced she’ll never succeed … but somehow finds herself a partner in the venture.

The solitary Drew Barlow is returning to Willow Grove and Fairwind Farm for the first time in twenty years. He volunteers in a community working bee, and ends up being recruited as the farm’s all-round Mr Fixit. Maybe this will help him remember what happened, help him solve the mystery, help him find closure. Or maybe he’ll just fall for his pretty yet reserved employer …

This is the second Courtney Walsh book I’ve read this year.

The first was Just Look Up, which was a romance novel with a deeply symbolic title that made me think on many levels (click here to read my review). Hometown Girl was a little different—it had plenty of romantic and situational tension, but it also had a suspense thread around Drew’s history with the Fairwind property.

Drew and Beth both had secrets that came out during the story. Drew’s secret was hinted at from his very first scene, with his reluctance to return to Fairwind, and the knowledge that something bad had happened. His reluctance to revisit the past made his secret feel natural. It helped that he had no memory of the actual event, just the knowledge he was there.

Beth’s secret wasn’t so obvious, but it was something recent, something she knew about, and something she didn’t share. It made it feel as though she wasn’t a trustworthy character, yet she was obviously supposed to be the heroine. That annoyed me, as it left me feeling conflicted. Was I supposed to sympathise with her, or not? This was probably the weakest aspect of the novel for me.

But this was more than made up for by the rest.

I especially enjoyed by the underlying suspense thread of the mystery over Jess’s disappearance twenty years ago. Yes, I would have liked for Drew to fess up to his prior knowledge of Fairwind earlier, but I could see why he didn’t. In the end, that aspect of the plot was just plain sad.

It was also good to watch the relationship develop between Beth and Drew, especially the way Beth was able to draw him out. I also enjoyed the minor characters—I do hope this is part of a series, because I’d like to see Ben and Callie together, and I wonder who might be right for the flighty Molly.

Overall, Hometown Girl is an excellent contemporary Christian romance. Recommended for fans of Brandy Bruce, Kara Isaac, Melissa Tagg, and Becky Wade.

Thanks to Waterfall Press and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Courtney Walsh

Find Courtney Walsh online at …

About Hometown Girl

Beth Whitaker isn’t supposed to be a small-town girl. She’s always dreamed of leaving Willow Grove, Illinois, for the big city, but she feels trapped, struggling to make up for a mistake that’s haunted her for years. Just when Beth is finally ready to break free, her sister impulsively buys a beloved but run-down farm on the outskirts of town, and she begs Beth to help with the restoration. Reluctantly, Beth agrees to help—and puts her own dreams on hold once again.

Drew Barlow hasn’t been back to Fairwind Farm since he was a boy, and he’s spent all these years trying to outrun the pain of a past he thought he buried long ago. When he learns that the owner has passed away, his heart knows it’s finally time to do the right thing. Returning to Willow Grove, Drew revisits the old farm, where he attempts to piece together his memories and the puzzle of the crime he witnessed so long ago.

Both on a journey to find peace, Beth and Drew are surprised when they begin to experience a restoration of their own. But when long-buried secrets break through the soil and the truth unfurls, will it threaten their budding relationship—and the very future of the farm?

Click below to buy Hometown Girl:

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon AU

Isodora a is a brilliant character in more ways than one.

All are wonderful characters who willingly help Isodora complete her “list”.

It’s an excellent novel for anyone looking for workplace romances, or romances with characters with ADHD or similar.

About the Author

Find Courtney Walsh online at …

About The Happy Life of Isodora Bentley

She’s out to prove that there’s no such thing as choosing happiness.

Find The Happy Life of Isodora Bentley online at:

And we can all see that’s not a great foundation for a lasting relationship.

What Matters Most was Christian fiction at the low-key end of Christian.

Recommended for fans of contemporary Christian romance from authors like Kara Isaac, Carolyn Miller, and Becky Wade.

About the Author

Find Courtney Walsh online at …

About What Matters Most

Find What Matters Most online at:

Is It Any Wonder starts with a bang.

Is It Any Wonder is a very human novel.

All in all, Is It Any Wonder is another great contemporary Christian romance from Courtney Walsh. Recommended.

About the Author

Find Courtney Walsh online at …

About Is It Any Wonder

Find Is It Any Wonder online at:

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

About Just Like Home

You can find Just Like Home online at:

Click the button to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today:

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

So which authors or novels do show realistic and inspiring Christian romance relationships?

Realistic AND inspiring, remember?

What do you think? Which authors or novels best show realistic and inspiring Christian romantic relationships? Why?

When Cassie Jacobs drowned, she left behind a lot of messed-up people blaming themselves for her death.

And that’s neither petty nor pretty. But it is powerful. And it’s worth reading.

The novel really comes into itself in the final quarter.

About the Author

Find Courtney Walsh online at …

About Things Left Unsaid

An emotional novel of family, friendship and forgiveness from Courtney Walsh, the New York Times bestselling author of Hometown Girl.

Find Things Left Unsaid online at:

My Review

It did.

Just Look Up was a great title that worked on many levels.

To me, Just Look Up showed the lie that many of us believe in our teenage years.

Recommended.

About the Author

Find Courtney Walsh online at …

Click below to buy Just Look Up:

You can read the introduction to Just Look Up below:

I have to say that I didn’t like either character at the beginning of the book.

The writing was excellent, with many quotable lines.

About the Author

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About the Book

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You can read the introduction online below:

Regency Romance

Romantic Suspense

Contemporary Romance

What about you? What’s your favourite Christian book genre?

This is the second Courtney Walsh book I’ve read this year.

But this was more than made up for by the rest.

Overall, Hometown Girl is an excellent contemporary Christian romance. Recommended for fans of Brandy Bruce, Kara Isaac, Melissa Tagg, and Becky Wade.

About Courtney Walsh

Find Courtney Walsh online at …

About Hometown Girl

Click below to buy Hometown Girl:

You can read the introduction to Hometown Girl below: