Author: Iola Goulton

First Line Friday

First Line Friday | Week 108 | The Dating Charade by Melissa Ferguson

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 The Dating Charade by Melissa Ferguson, a debut novel that releases in early December. Here’s the first line of Chapter One:

If one was going to dip one's toes into the murky pestilential waters of online dating, an escape plan was critical.

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

About The Dating Charade

Just when you think you’ve met your match . . . the charade begins.Cassie Everson is an expert at escaping bad first dates. And, after years of meeting, greeting, and running from the men who try to woo her, Cassie is almost ready to retire her hopes for a husband—and children—altogether.

But fate has other plans, and Cassie’s online dating profile catches the eye of firefighter Jett Bentley. In Jett’s memory, Cassie Everson is the unreachable girl-of-legend from their high school days. Nervously, he messages her, setting off a chain of events that forces a reluctant Cassie back into the dating game.

No one is more surprised than Cassie when her first date with Jett is a knockout. But when they both go home and find three children dropped in their laps—each—they independently decide to do the right and mature thing: hide the kids from each other while sorting it all out. What could go wrong?

Melissa Ferguson’s hilarious and warmhearted debut reminds us that love can come in very small packages—and that sometimes our best-laid plans aren’t nearly as rewarding and fun as the surprises that come our way.

You can find The Dating Charade online at

Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

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!

Liz Carlisle never imagined she'd be back in this place.

#ThrowbackThursday | As the Light Fades by Catherine West

As the Light Fades moves Catherine West away from her roots in Christian women’s fiction to tell a more general story with less of an overt Christian element. It’s still clearly written from a Christian viewpoint, as the main characters do have a subtle faith journey and sin is clearly portrayed as wrong.

This is clearly a general market novel.

West has described As the Light Fades as a loose sequel to The Things We Knew, one of her earlier novels. I have read The Things We Knew, but don’t remember the details (even after rereading the Amazon description. Well, I read a lot of books). Having said that, I don’t think my forgetfulness affected my enjoyment of As the Light Fades, and it can certainly be read as a standalone novel.

As the Light Fades takes several difficult contemporary issues and weaves them into a compelling story.

Liz Carlisle has returned to Nantucket, her childhood home, after leaving her abusive fiancé. Her father is suffering Alzheimer’s, and her landlord is the guardian to his niece, who has issues (to put it mildly). Yes, Mia is a typical teenage girl, with all the attitude that comes with being sixteen. But she’s also the daughter of an ex-drug addict, and Nick suspects she’s been sexually abused by her stepfather.

As the Light Fades by Catherine West does a masterful job of exposing the issues of Alzheimer's, domestic violence, and sexual abuse, without dwelling on the detail. #WomensFiction #BookReview @cathwest Share on X

That’s a lot of plot. And there’s more. Liz has her own secrets that play into her present actions … and inaction. Liz and Mia both have a journey to getting past their personal histories and not allowing that to affect their futures. Ironically, part of the cure for Mia comes from the character who can’t be cured—Liz’s father.

As the Light Fades a meaty story with a bit of everything—relationships, family drama, romance, and suspense. The writing is excellent, the story compelling, and West does a masterful job of exposing the issues without dwelling on the detail. Recommended.

About Catherine West

Author Photo: Catherine WestCatherine West is an award-winning author of contemporary women’s fiction. When she’s not at the computer working on her next story, you can find her taking her Border Collie for long walks or reading books by her favorite authors. She and her husband reside in Bermuda, and have two adult children and two beautiful granddaughters.

Catherine is the winner of the 2015 Grace Award (Bridge of Faith) and a two-time winner of Romance Writers of America’s Faith, Hope & Love Reader’s Choice Award (The Things We Knew, 2017 and Where Hope Begins, 2019) and recipient of ACFW’s Carol Award for Where Hope Begins.

You can find Catherine West online at:

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter

About As the Light Fades

Sometimes we’re placed in the strangest of circumstances for the most important reasons.

After her carefully constructed life crumbles, Liz Carlisle finds herself back on Nantucket, picking up the pieces. With the family estate under renovations, the solitude she craves seems out of reach.

Matthew Stone intends to steer clear of his new tenant. She’s carrying a load of baggage, but as long as she pays the rent, he’ll let her be. He’s got enough to deal with caring for his wayward niece, Mia.

Liz doesn’t have time for teenagers and her track record with men is abysmal, but an unlikely friendship forms between the three.

When her former boyfriend is charged with assault, Liz is called to testify against him. But he knows the darkest secrets of her life—secrets she’d hoped to keep buried forever, and he’s ready to reveal them. Telling the truth is the right thing to do, but it may cost her everything she’s worked so hard for, and all she’s come to love.

You can find As the Light Fades online at:

Amazon | Goodreads

Read the introduction to As the Light Fades below:

And click here to check out my Amazon shop!

You don’t want to miss the love that’s perfect for you just because you’re too busy searching for a fairy tale.

Book Review | Yours Truly, Thomas by Rachel Fordham

I requested Yours Truly, Thomas for review because I was intrigued by the idea of a dead letter office and how that would play into a romance novel. I didn’t get far into the novel before I realised it was the second in a series … and that I already own the first (The Hope of Azure Springs), but hadn’t read it.

Yours Truly, Thomas is Rachel Fordham's second novel, following The Hope of Azure Springs. Recommended for fans of Christian historical fiction. #ChristianRomance #WesternRomance Share on X

So I decided I’d read The Hope of Azure Springs first. That was a good idea, and a bad idea. Good, because The Hope of Azure Springs was excellent. Bad, because it set a high standard for Yours Truly, Thomas to live up to. And, unfortunately, it didn’t.

The main issue was that Yours Truly, Thomas took a long time to get going.

The nature of the story—the dead letter office—meant it had to start with Penny and Thomas in different places, and for there to be a reasonable period of time before they met. But I found the opening dragged as a result.

The story picked up pace and got a lot more interesting once Penny arrived in Azure Springs and met Thomas—and some of the other townspeople.

Penny—Penelope Ercanbeck—grew up in a privileged home, but now works in the dead letter office following her father’s death and the loss of his fortune. Thomas bought a farm in Azure Springs after becoming stranded in the small town. He writes letters to his beloved, Clara, describing his situation.

They aren’t delivered and end up in the dead letter office … where Penny reads them and becomes engaged in Thomas’s romance. Once the story got going, it was very good.

There was a mystery around Thomas and Clara’s relationship.

We know something happened between them, and Penny tells him Clara died, although doesn’t say how. Also, I wasn’t entirely sure Clara was dead, and we don’t find out what happened until close to the end of the story. I don’t think it would have affected the overall story to know the truth of that earlier, and it would have meant the story ran more smoothly in the beginning. After all, this mystery wasn’t central to the plot. There was also a light suspense thread, as someone appears to be trying to sabotage Thomas’s farm.

I enjoyed watching Penny’s developing relationship with Thomas. I loved Penny’s rambunctious dog, Honeysuckle, and I enjoyed revisiting some of the characters from The Hope of Azure Springs.

Yours Truly, Thomas does work as a standalone novel, and there is no need to read The Hope of Azure Springs first. (Although I still think The Hope of Azure Springs is a better novel).

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

About Rachel Fordham

Rachel FordhamRachel Fordham is the author of The Hope of Azure Springs. She started writing when her children began begging her for stories at night. She’d pull a book from the shelf, but they’d insist she make one up. Finally, she paired her love of good stories with her love of writing and hasn’t stopped since. She lives with her husband and children on an island in the state of Washington.

Find Rachel Fordham online at:

Website | Amazon | BookBub | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram

About Yours Truly, Thomas

For three years, Penny Ercanbeck has been opening other people’s mail. Dead ends are a reality for clerks at the Dead Letter Office. Still she dreams of something more–a bit of intrigue, a taste of romance, or at least a touch less loneliness. When a letter from a brokenhearted man to his one true love falls into her hands, Penny seizes this chance to do something heroic. It becomes her mission to place this lost letter into the hands of its intended recipient.

Thomas left his former life with no intention of ending up in Azure Springs, Iowa. He certainly didn’t expect a happy ending after what he had done. All he wanted to do was run and never look back. In a moment of desperation, he began to write, never really expecting a reply.

When Penny’s undertaking leads her to the intriguing man who touched her soul with his words, everything grows more complicated. She wants to find the rightful owner of the letter and yet she finds herself caring–perhaps too much–for the one who wrote it.

Find Yours Truly, Thomas online at:

Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

Read the introduction to Yours Truly, Thomas below:

Rainy weather was an introvert's best friend.

Belinda Blake and the Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing by Heather Day Gilbert

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 Belinda Blake and the Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing by Heather Day Gilbert. Here’s the first line of Chapter One:

Rainy weather was an introvert's best friend.

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

My Review

Belinda Blake and the Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing is the second book in Heather Day Gilbert’s Exotic Pet-Sitter series. As with the first book, the clue is in the title. This instalment features Belinda Blake in her job as a pet-sitter, this time helping out at the White Pine Wolf Preserve. It’s a murder mystery, so it’s not long before there is a body.

And a body means there is a mystery for Belinda to solve.

She’s not satisfied with the assumption that the wolves are the evildoers. While she’s no fan of wolves, their behaviour doesn’t stack up with the facts. Just as the title implies, things are not as they seem.

It’s clever. Very clever. And I like clever fiction, so I loved this second Belinda Blake novel.Yes, this is the second book in a series, but you don’t need to read the first book for this one to make sense. It’s a quick, fun read.

The title is clever, the plot is clever, and Belinda is clever.

She’s not your normal American twenty-something woman. She’s quirky, and I like quirky (even if I’d find her quirks possibly too weird in a real-life friend). She babysits snakes and wolves for one thing. She’s also a video game player and reviewer, and it’s great to see a female character who is out of the ordinary like this.

But Belinda is ordinary in other ways, and that makes her relatable. She has money troubles, a weird family, and a not-exactly-clear possible romantic relationship with an old friend … and another with her employer’s son. I’m looking forward to seeing that explored in future novels in the series.

Recommended for fans of exotic pets (if there is such a thing), and people who enjoy a cozy mystery with a sassy and intrepid heroine.

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

About Belinda Blake and the Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Exotic pet-sitter Belinda Blake is nervous about her new job at the White Pine Wolf Preserve, but it turns out that the care and feeding of wild carnivores may be the least dangerous part of the gig . . .

Pet-sitter Belinda Blake is no stranger to dealing with wild animals, but she’s wary when the owner of the Greenwich, Connecticut, preserve asks her to help out with her “fluffy darlings.” Her caution seems justified on her very first day, when she discovers a tour guide—dead, bloodied, and surrounded by wolves in the enclosure.

Was it death by predator or something more sinister? The body count rises, but something’s not adding up. As she gets to know the rescued wolves and wolf-dog hybrids better, Belinda realizes that her human colleagues are not above suspicion. With help from her own “pack”—her pregnant sister, Red the chauffeur/bodyguard, and hunky farmer Jonas—Belinda is hot on the killer’s tail, but if she doesn’t find him soon, he’ll do more than muzzle her to keep the truth from escaping.

You can find Belinda Blake and the Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing online at:

Amazon | Goodreads

About Heather Day Gilbert

Heather Day Gilbert, an ECPA Christy award finalist and Grace award winner, writes contemporary mysteries and Viking historicals. Her novels feature small towns, family relationships, and women who aren’t afraid to protect those they love.

Publisher’s Weekly gave Heather’s Viking historical Forest Child a starred review, saying it is “an engaging story depicting timeless human struggles with faith, love, loyalty, and leadership.”

Find Heather Day Gilbert online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube

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!

A Woman of Fortune by Kellie Coates Gilbert

#ThrowbackThursday | A Woman of Fortune by Kellie Coates Gilbert

It’s Throwback Thursday! Today I’m resharing my review of A Woman of Fortune by Kellie Coates Gilbert, the first book in her Texas Gold series.

About A Woman of Fortune

You never know what you’re really made of until you lose everything.

Texas socialite Claire Massey is living the dream—designer clothes, luxury cars, stunning homes. But everything comes crashing down when her charming cattle broker husband is arrested for fraud. Suddenly she finds herself facing attorneys, a media frenzy, and a trail of broken hearts. Betrayed and humiliated, Claire must maneuver incredible odds to save her family—and discover a life worth living.

Author Kellie Coates Gilbert delivers a story both poignant and emotionally gripping that celebrates the kind of fortune that lasts.

Outstanding! (And you know how rarely I say that)

Claire Massey has it all. The mansion, the Maserati, the Jimmy Choo’s. The billionaire husband, the perfect son, and the daughter who is engaged to the man poised to become Texas’s youngest senator. Then it all goes wrong, when her husband is arrested as the mastermind behind a Ponzi scheme, a fall to rival that of Bernie Madoff.

It’s natural to not want to like Claire.

After all, she has everything, yet it was all built on smooth talking. That mind of success just isn’t normal. How could she not have known? Yet she doesn’t come across as the spoilt little rich girl (although her daughter, Lainie, certainly is). She’s honest, sincere, and hard-working, and believes in her husband against all the odds. Claire is one of the strengths of A Woman of Fortune. It’s tempting to not feel any sympathy for a woman who is left with a mere half million, yet somehow I did.

Another strength is Margarita, Claire’s housekeeper. While the Massey family are churchgoers, none of them show any evidence of a real Christian faith. Margarita does. In fact, all the characters are strong (they’re not all likeable, but that’s kind of the point).

A Woman of Fortune is a fascinating insight into the problems faced by a family who lose everything – money, reputation, friends – and have to navigate a range of unimaginable personal and social situations. It’s a strength of the novel that I actually sympathised with Claire, and even with her spoiled daughter, despite all the reasons not to.

Recommended.

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

About Kellie Coates Gilbert

Kellie Coates GilbertKellie Coates Gilbert has won readers’ hearts with her compelling and highly emotional stories about women and the relationships that define their lives. A former legal investigator, she is especially known for keeping readers turning pages and creating nuanced characters who seem real.

In addition to garnering hundreds of five-star reader reviews, Kellie has been described by RT Book Reviews as a “deft, crisp storyteller.” Her books were featured as Barnes & Noble Top Shelf Picks and were included on Library Journal’s Best Book List of 2014.

Born and raised near Sun Valley, Idaho, Kellie now lives with her husband of over thirty-five years in Dallas, where she spends most days by her pool drinking sweet tea and writing the stories of her heart.

Find Kellie Coates Gilbert online at:

Website | BookBub | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter

Find A Woman of Fortune online at:

Amazon US  | Amazon UK | Goodreads | Koboicon| Koorong

Read the introduction to A Woman of Fortune below:

#ThrowbackThursday | Hacker by Ted Dekker

It’s Throwback Thursday! Today I’m resharing my review of sci-fi thriller Hacker by Ted Dekker, a cross between Fringe and the Matrix.

About Hacker

My name is Nyah and I’m a hacker. I know things most people would never believe. Things that shouldn’t exist, but do.

Seventeen year old Nyah Parks is a genius hacker who makes a living by cracking the firewalls of the world’s largest corporations. But when the biggest job of her life goes wrong she’s plunged into a desperate situation with only one way out: one last hack that will either save her or kill her.

So begins Hacker, a modern day parable that examines the staggering world around us, the seen and unseen, and reminds us that there’s far more to who we are than meets the eye.

Find Hacker online at:

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Goodreads | Kobo

Outstanding YA Sci-fi

Nyah is seventeen, brilliant, and has lost everything. Her father and brother died in a car accident which left her mother brain damaged. She’s been accepted into a medical trial which is going to cost $250,000—money she doesn’t have. She has a plan, but is left running for her life after it goes horribly wrong.

Nyah teams up with Austin, the only person she’s ever met who is smarter than her. Austin’s dying of a brain tumour, but he’s got a plan … which is a cross between Fringe and The Matrix. He’s trying to find a mysterious person known as the Outlaw, as Austin believes the Outlaw will be able to heal him. In order to find the Outlaw, Austin is hacking into the most complex computer on the planet: his own brain.

The plot is fast-paced as the danger grows ever closer to Nyah.

The characters are excellent and the writing outstanding. Dekker is one of the few authors I’ve read who have managed to pull off the combination of first person and third person point of view (first person from Nyah, third person from Austin and other characters). It shouldn’t work, because it’s a technique that reminds us we are *only* reading a book. It shouldn’t work, but it did.

This is only the second Ted Dekker book I’ve read. I like suspense, especially romantic suspense, but the previous Dekker I read (Three) was so full of psychological suspense I didn’t think I could put myself through that again (the only other book that’s come close was Abomination by Colleen Coble). Anyway, while Hacker was full of suspense, it was a mixture of physical and psychological, and I was better able to cope with that (although there was one scene where I closed my eyes. I don’t like drills). I still don’t know if I’m brave enough to read Dekker’s older books, but I certainly enjoyed this one.

Hacker is the fourth book in The Outlaw Chronicles, but is easily enjoyed as a standalone novel. I wouldn’t call it Christian fiction—Dekker’s presentation of life and death in Hacker seems to only allow for a pleasant afterlife. Despite this possible drawback, it’s excellent YA science fiction, recommended for teens who enjoyed tech-based Sci-fi.

Thanks to Worthy for providing a free ebook for review.

About Ted Dekker

Ted DekkerTed Dekker is a New York Times best-selling author of over thirty novels. Heralded as a“master of suspense” by Library Journal, Dekker has sold millions worldwide, establishing himself as one of the most widely recognized author brands.

Dekker was born to missionaries and grew up among cannibals of Indonesia, and his peculiar upbringing gives him a unique perspective outside the cultural bubble, allowing him the freedom to share provocative insights in his fiction. He resides in Austin, TX, with his wife and children.

Find Ted Dekker online at:

Website | Facebook

Read the introduction to Hacker below:

#ThrowbackThursday | My Hope Next Door by Tammy L Gray

It’s Throwback Thursday! Today I’m resharing my review of the RITA Award-winning novel, My Hope Next Door by Tammy L Gray. It’s the first of Tammy L Gray’s books I read, and she’s become one of my must-read authors.

Katie Stone escaped her home town of Fairfield four years ago and has felt guilty ever since. Now her dad needs help with her mother, so she’s home again. Reluctantly. Very reluctantly. But she’s changed: she’s no longer the drug addict who spends more time with her boyfriend than with her family. She’s become a Christian … as if anyone in Fairfield is going to believe that.

Once home, she finds her new next door neighbour is Asher Powell. Asher, pastor’s son and town good boy, the guy she teased for being so boring all through high school. And she finds her dad’s new best friend is her ex-boyfriend, the person she’s least in interested in spending time with. Oops.

Asher has his own issues with the church and mistakes and judgement. It’s not that he’s given up on God. Just the church his dad pastors, the church he’s attended all his life.

My Hope Next Door was one of the best Christian novels I’ve read this year. It had a clear Christian message—a message it delivers as much to the people in the church as outside:

Quote

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

About the Author

Author Photo Tammy L GrayTammy L. Gray lives in the Dallas area with her family, and they love all things Texas, even the erratic weather patterns. She writes modern Christian romance with true-to-life characters and culturally-relevant plot lines. She believes hope and healing can be found through high quality fiction that inspires and provokes change.

Tammy is often lauded for her unique writing style within the inspirational genre, preferring to use analogies verses heavy-handed spiritual content. Her characters are real, relatable and deep, earning her a 2017 RITA award nomination in the Romance with Religious and Spiritual Elements category.

When not chasing after her three amazing kids, Tammy can be spotted with her head in a book. Writing has given her a platform to combine her passion with her ministry.

Tammy L. Gray has lots of projects going on.

You can find Tammy Gray online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter | Goodreads

About My Hope Next Door

Can love grow in the shadow of a broken past?

Former bad girl Katie Stone can feel the weight of her reputation settle over her as she drives home for the first time in years. Feeling deeply guilty about her past mistakes, Katie wants to do the right thing for once. But the small town where she grew up is not nearly as forgiving as she’d hoped. Despite it all, she’s determined to help her parents cope with her mother’s recent illness, and Katie finds a surprise ally in the man next door.

Asher Powell never minded being the son of a small-town pastor until a recent breakup leaves him wounded by lifelong members of his church. He remembers his new neighbor as a mean-spirited high school troublemaker, but he senses that her newfound faith and desire for forgiveness are sincere.

Through an unexpected friendship, two people from different worlds find peace, hope, and a second chance they never dreamed was possible.

You can find My Hope Next Door online at:

Amazon | Goodreads

You can read the introduction to My Hope Next Door Below:

Click here to find My Hope Next Door and other great Christian fiction in my Amazon shop!

#ThrowbackThursday | With Every Breath by Elizabeth Camden

It’s Throwback Thursday! That means it’s time for me to revisit a review of an older book I enjoyed. Today I’m resharing my review of With Every Breath by Elizabeth Camden, one of my favourite Christian historical romance authors. I especially love the way she weaves real-life historical events into her stories.

Elizabeth Camden has done it again

Elizabeth Camden is fast becoming one of my favourite authors. She’s won well-deserved RITA and Christy awards with her previous novels, and she just keeps getting better.

Kate Norton lost her chance to go to college in 1879 when Trevor McDonough won the scholarship they were both competing for. She has worked as a statistician at the census bureau since then, but is now offered a new opportunity working for Dr T M Kendall at Washington Memorial Hospital, analysing data and predicting trends in health. She is shocked to find Dr Kendall is her high school nemesis, but soon finds there is more to him than she knew.

Trevor is attempting to find a cure for tuberculosis, an infectious and misunderstood disease.

He’s convinced that rest, good diet and sunshine are key, but a series of malicious newspaper articles bring the project under scrutiny, and he and Kate have to work together.

I thought everything about With Every Breath was excellent—the characters (especially the brilliant but socially awkward Trevor), the plot, and especially the writing, which was a masterful exercise in restraint in the way so much was happening beneath the text. With Every Breath is Christian fiction, although the faith elements are understated.

The information around tuberculosis gate a poignant and bittersweet note to With Every Breath, because I knew Dr Kendall wasn’t going to discover the cure. My great-grandfather, a postman, died of pulmonary tuberculosis and exhaustion on Christmas Day 1925, and Her Daughter’s Dream by Francine Rivers (and based on her family history) featured a character suffering from the disease in the early 1950’s. Reading this made me thankful for the men and women like Kate and Trevor who have dedicated their lives to finding cures for horrible diseases over the years. Recommended.

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

About Elizabeth Camden

Elizabeth Camden is a research librarian at a small college in central Florida. Her novels have won the coveted RITA and Christy Awards. She has published several articles for academic publications and is the author of four nonfiction history books. Her ongoing fascination with history and love of literature have led her to write inspirational fiction. Elizabeth lives with her husband near Orlando, Florida.

Find Elizabeth Camden online at:

Website | Facebook

About With Every Breath

In the shadow of the nation’s capital, Kate Livingston’s respectable life as a government worker is disrupted by an encounter with the insufferable Trevor McDonough, the one man she’d hoped never to see again. A Harvard-trained physician, Trevor never showed the tiniest flicker of interest in Kate, and business is the only reason he has sought her out now.

Despite her misgivings, Kate agrees to Trevor’s risky proposal to join him in his work to find a cure for tuberculosis. As Kate begins to unlock the mysteries of Trevor’s past, his hidden depths fascinate her. However, a shadowy enemy lies in wait and Trevor’s closely guarded secrets are darker than she ever suspected.

As revelations from the past threaten to destroy their careers, their dreams, and even their lives, Trevor and Kate find themselves in a painfully impossible situation. With everything to lose, they must find the strength to trust that hope and love can prevail over all.

Find With Every Breath online at:

Amazon US | Goodreads | Koboicon | Koorong

Read the introduction to With Every Breath below:

And click here to check out With Every Breath and other great Christian fiction in my Amazon shop.

Quote from Hidden Among the Stars: My story is the same as any other in that no one owns it except me. And it’s filled with threads of achievements and regrets.

#ThrowbackThursday | Hidden Among the Stars by Melanie Dobson

It’s Throwback Thursday! Today I’m resharing my review of Hidden Among the Stars by Melanie Dobson, a powerful dual timeline story—one of the best books I read in 2018.

The past story begins in Austria in 1938, just after Adolf Hitler has annexed the country.

Anyone who knows anything of twentieth century history suspects this isn’t going to end well. Max is the only son of a well-off Vienna banker. Luzi is the Jewish violinist he loves, and Annika is the daughter of a family servant … who loves Max.

The present story is that of Calisandra Anne Randall.

Callie is the half-owner of a children’s bookstore in small-town Ohio. The bookstore has been Callie’s refuge since she was a child. Now she’s making it a place where the next generation of children meet and come to love some of her favourite fictional characters.

Callie sells both new and secondhand books, and often finds things hidden in the books she sells. But Bambi is different. It’s not just the photograph hidden inside the book that captures her attention. It’s the German words written between the lines of the book. Callie’s attempts to find the story behind the book lead her to Austria and a mystery that’s almost eighty years old.

There were so many things that impressed me about Hidden in the Stars.

The way the two plot lines intertwined and intersected. The characters. The writing. The excellent historical research. The faith aspect. It all adds up to a lot more than the cover promised. And I was equally invested in the past and present stories, which is rare. (Yes, I’m one of those readers who usually wants to skip forward and read only half the story.)

 

The writing was excellent. My writer/editor self I was especially impressed by the way the author combined first person present tense for the contemporary story with third person past tense for the historical story. Mixing first and third person is not a technique for beginners. Mixing present and past tense is even more impressive. That Melanie Dobson managed to do both seamlessly is outstanding writing.

The historical research never overwhelmed the story. It was good to read a novel set in Austria rather than the more traditional Germany. And it was wonderful to read a story that didn’t have any obvious historical inaccuracies yet managed to share new information. (The author’s note at the end explained a couple of things I’d wondered about.)

I was also impressed by the way the Christian elements were woven into the plot.

The first half had very few religious references—Jewish or Christian. The second half brought out many truths about the nature of God, and the nature of good and evil. Unfortunately, World War II taught us a lot about evil … if we care to learn.

Recommended for fans of dual timeline stories with a hint of romance from authors like Kristy Cambron, Heidi Chiavaroli, and Cathy Gohlke.

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

About Melanie Dobson

Author photo - Melanie DobsonWriting fiction is Melanie Dobson’s excuse to explore abandoned houses, travel to unique places, and spend hours reading old books and journals. The award-winning author of twenty novels, Melanie enjoys stitching together both time-slip and historical stories including Catching the Wind, Enchanted Isle, Beneath a Golden Veil, and the Legacy of Love novels.

Chateau of Secrets received a Carol Award for historical fiction, Catching the Wind’s audiobook won the 2018 Audie for Inspirational Novel, and The Black Cloister was ForeWord’s Book of the Year for Religious Fiction. Her next time-slip novel, Hidden Among the Stars, comes out in September.

Melanie and her husband, Jon, have two daughters. After moving numerous times with Jon’s work, the Dobson family has finally settled near Portland, Oregon, and they love to travel and hike in both the mountains and the cliffs above the Pacific. When Melanie isn’t writing, she enjoys exploring ghost towns and dusty back roads, dancing, and reading stories with her girls.

Find Melanie Dobson online at:

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Pinterest | Twitter

About Hidden Among the Stars

The year is 1938, and as Hitler’s troops sweep into Vienna, Austrian Max Dornbach promises to help his Jewish friends hide their most valuable possessions from the Nazis, smuggling them to his family’s summer estate near the picturesque village of Hallstatt. He enlists the help of Annika Knopf, his childhood friend and the caretaker’s daughter, who is eager to help the man she’s loved her entire life.

But when Max also brings Luzia Weiss, a young Jewish woman, to hide at the castle, it complicates Annika’s feelings and puts their entire plan—even their very lives—in jeopardy. Especially when the Nazis come to scour the estate and find both Luzia and the treasure gone.

Eighty years later, Callie Randall is mostly content with her quiet life, running a bookstore with her sister and reaching out into the world through her blog. Then she finds a cryptic list in an old edition of Bambithat connects her to Annika’s story . . . and maybe to the long-buried story of a dear friend. As she digs into the past, Callie must risk venturing outside the safe world she’s built for a chance at answers, adventure, and maybe even new love.

Find Hidden Among the Stars at:

Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

Read the introduction to Hidden Among the Stars below:

Click here to check out Hidden Among the Stars and other great Christian fiction at  my Amazon shop.

What's the strangest destination you've ever travelled to in a book?

Bookish Question #123 | What’s the strangest destination you’ve ever travelled to in a book?

Armchair travel is one of the reasons I love reading.

My husband loves watching travel shows or actually traveling (well, I love actually traveling as well, but that costs a lot more money that armchair travel). In fact, we’re traveling this week, visiting the South Island.

And while I’ve travelled to some unusual and exotic foreign locations in my reading, most of them were just that: Exotic. Foreign. Foreign and exotic is different, but it’s not strange. And many of these foreign and exotic locations are places I’ve either visited (e.g. Israel) or would like to visit (e.g. Iceland).

Calling armchair travelers: What's the strangest destination you've ever travelled to in a book? Is that somewhere you'd like to visit in real life? #BookishQuestion #BookWorm Share on X

Then I remembered Betrayed by Jeanette Windle. Windle is a brilliant writer who loves writing about unusual and exotic settings such as South America or the Middle East. But Betrayed had the strangest setting:

A rubbish dump in Guatemala City.

Here’s the book description:

Fires smolder endlessly below the dangerous surface of Guatemala City’s municipal dump. Deadlier fires seethe beneath the tenuous calm of a nation recovering from brutal civil war. Anthropologist Vicki Andrews is researching Guatemala’s “garbage people” when she stumbles across a human body. Curiosity turns to horror as she uncovers no stranger, but an American environmentalist—Vicki’s only sister, Holly.

With authorities dismissing the death as another street crime, Vicki begins tracing Holly’s last steps, a pilgrimage leading from slum squalor to the breathtaking and endangered cloud forests of the Sierra de las Minas Biosphere. But every unraveled thread raises more questions. What betrayal connects Holly’s murder, the recent massacre of a Mayan village, and the long-ago deaths of Vicki’s own parents?
Nor is Vicki the only one demanding answers. Before her search reaches its startling end, the conflagration has spilled across international borders to threaten an American administration and the current war on terror. With no one turning out to be who they’d seemed, who can Vicki trust and who should she fear?

Yes, that’s definitely the strangest—and most foreign—location I can think of. And one I have no desire to visit in real life. I’ll stick with my armchair travel, thank you.

What about you? What’s the strangest destination you’ve ever travelled to in a book?