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 Driftwood Bay by Irene Hannon, the fifth book in her Hope Harbor series. Here’s the first line of Chapter One:

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

About Driftwood Bay

After tragedy upends her world, Jeannette Mason retreats to the tiny Oregon seaside town of Hope Harbor to create a new life. Vowing to avoid emotional attachments, she focuses on running her lavender farm and tea-room–until a new neighbor with a destructive dog and a forlorn little girl invades her turf. But she needn’t worry. Dr. Logan West is too busy coping with an unexpected family, a radical lifestyle change, and an unruly pup to have any interest in his aloof and disagreeable neighbor.

Yet when both Jeanette and Logan find themselves pulled into the life of a tattered Christian family fleeing persecution in war-torn Syria, might they discover that love sometimes comes calling when it’s least expected?

Bestselling and award-winning author Irene Hannon invites readers back to the charming seaside town of Hope Harbor, where they are sure to find peace, healing, and a second chance at happiness.

You can find Driftwood Bay online at:

Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

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

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Book Review | The Key to Everything by Valerie Fraser Lusesse

by Iola Goulton

20 July 2020

Peyton Cabot has grown up listening to stories about how his father, Marshall, rode over six hundred miles from Okefenokee to Key West (and back) in 1921, the summer he was fifteen. When Peyton’s father is hospitalised and loses his memory after a riding accident, Peyton decides to replicate his father’s journey.

As such, this is a definite coming-of-age story, which is common in Young Adult fiction.

But I don’t know how many modern teens would want to read a novel set in The Olden Days (i.e. any time before the invention of the iPhone) and a plot that meanders at the speed of a bicycle rather than a Tesla.

Because it is set in The Olden Days (1947), The Key to Everything brings us back to a forgotten time … or perhaps a time that never really existed. In Peyton’s world, the police are the good guys, people are kind to strangers, and it’s perfectly safe for a teenager to ride unaccompanied for hundreds of miles with only a weekly collect call home to assure his mother he’s okay.

As such, it is an odd novel. The writing is excellent, with a strong voice that fits both the time and the place. Peyton is a young man of character and compassion, despite a privileged upbringing that could have taught him to overlook people less fortunate. He also has a refreshing lack of racism—although I have no idea how accurate that is for post-war (and pre-Civil Rights) Georgia and Florida.

No matter.

We’re living in strange times right now, and The Key to Everything was a fresh distraction with excellent characters, and some serious life lessons sprinkled along the journey.

Recommended.

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

About Valerie Fraser Luesse

Valerie Fraser Luesse is an award-winning magazine writer best known for her feature stories and essays in Southern Living, where she is currently a senior travel editor. Her work has been anthologized in the audio collection Southern Voices and in A Glimpse of Heaven, an essay collection featuring works by C. S. Lewis, Randy Alcorn, John Wesley, and others.

As a freelance writer and editor, she was the lead writer for Southern Living 50 Years: A Celebration of People, Places, and Culture. Specializing in stories about unique pockets of Southern culture, Luesse has published major pieces on the Gulf Coast, the Mississippi Delta, Louisiana’s Acadian Prairie, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Her editorial section on Hurricane Katrina recovery in Mississippi and Louisiana won the 2009 Writer of the Year award from the Southeast Tourism Society.

Luesse earned her bachelor’s degree in English at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, and her master’s degree in English at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. She grew up in Harpersville, Alabama, a rural community in Shelby County, and now lives in Birmingham.

Find Valerie Fraser Luesse online at:

Facebook | Goodreads

About The Key to Everything

Peyton Cabot’s fifteenth year will be a painful and transformative one. His father, the heroic but reluctant head of a moneyed Savannah family, has come home from WWII a troubled vet, drowning his demons in bourbon and distancing himself from his son. A tragic accident shows Peyton the depths of his parents’ devotion to each other but interrupts his own budding romance with the girl of his dreams, Lisa Wallace.

Struggling to cope with a young life upended, Peyton makes a daring decision: He will retrace a journey his father took at fifteen, riding his bicycle all the way to Key West, Florida. Part declaration of independence, part search for self, Peyton’s journey will bring him more than he ever could have imagined–namely, the key to his unknowable father, a reunion with Lisa, and a calling that will shape the rest of his life.

Through poignant prose and characters so real you’ll be sure you know them, Valerie Fraser Luesse transports you to the storied Atlantic coast for a unique coming-of-age story you won’t soon forget.

Find The Key to Everything online at:

Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

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

First Line Friday | Week 144 | Start With Me by Kara Isaac

by Iola Goulton

17 July 2020

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 Start With Me by Kara Isaac. Here’s the first line of Chapter One:

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

About Start With Me

Lacey O’Connor is finally a sure thing for the promotion she’s spent ten years working for. But when a scandal rocks her firm she finds herself on a collision course with the one person she has spent five years trying to forget. Only to discover he doesn’t even remember her…

Victor Carlisle has spent the last three years trying to convince his family he’s no longer the playboy alcoholic who tore their life apart. When a company merger is announced with a US sister firm, he’s presented with the perfect opportunity to prove he’s changed. Only to find himself falling for his competition and the one woman his family will never accept.

As the competition intensifies the choice looms between the professional and the personal. Can they find a way beyond their past decisions and present aspirations to take a chance on the one thing they’re not looking for?

You can find Start With Me 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!

Book Review | A Gilded Lady (Hope & Glory #2) by Elizabeth Camden

by Iola Goulton

13 July 2020

I almost didn’t read this novel, and that would have been my loss because it was excellent. I didn’t find the monochrome cover particularly appealing, and I’m somewhat tired of reading about the lifestyles of the privileged in the Gilded Age (the 1890’s aka the late Victorian era).

So what interested me about A Gilded Lady?

Simple. Caroline Delacroix is the secretary to the First Lady of the United States, and the promise of a glimpse inside the White House of 1900 was enough to hook me. I have been consistently impressed with Elizabeth Camden’s ability to weave a compelling romance around a combination of a little-known historical fact and a heroine with an unusual occupation.

And I was not disappointed.

Caroline works for Ida Garfield, a First Lady with a temper who suffered from epilepsy and probably depression, a result of losing both her daughters. Caroline basically runs her life, organising social events from a simple morning tea to an inaguration ball. She will do anything to maintain her role because her twin brother, Luke, has been jailed in Cuba for treason, and Caroline believes a presidential pardon is his only hope.

Life is not made easier by Nathaniel Trask, the new White House head of security, appointed after the assassination of the king of Italy. (Those familiar with US history will see the irony, as they will know what happens.) Caroline is attracted to him, but obviously can’t do anything about that without giving up on her brother.

So what did I like about A Guilded Lady?

I liked the inside look at the historical White House (I was less impressed by the cost of Ida McKinley’s ball dress—$8,000 is astronomical now. How much was it in 1900?) I liked Caroline, who was a lot more intelligent and practical than the heroines in most Guilded Age novels I’ve read. I liked the compelling yet understated developing relationship between Caroline and Nathaniel, and the equally compelling yet understated faith aspect.

In fact, I enjoyed the novel so much I then bought and read The Spice King, the first novel in the Hope and Glory series (and one I had discounted because of the uninteresting monochrome cover). It was equally enjoyable, although there are probably advantages in reading The Spice King first …

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 A Gilded Lady

Caroline Delacroix is at the pinnacle of Washington high society in her role as secretary to the first lady of the United States. But beneath the facade of her beauty, glamorous wardrobe, and dazzling personality, she’s hiding a terrible secret. If she cannot untangle a web of foreign espionage, her brother will face execution for treason.

Nathaniel Trask is the newly appointed head of the president’s Secret Service team. He is immediately suspicious of Caroline despite his overwhelming attraction to her quick wit and undeniable charm. Desperate to keep the president protected, Nathaniel must battle to keep his focus fully on his job as the threat to the president rises.

Amid the glamorous pageantry of Gilded Age Washington, DC, Caroline and Nathaniel will face adventure, danger, and heartbreak in a race against time that will span the continent and the depth of human emotion.

Find A Gilded Lady online at:

Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

Read the introduction to A Gilded Lady below:

First Line Friday | Week 143 | A Gilded Lady by Elizabeth Camden

by Iola Goulton

10 July 2020

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 A Guilded Lady by Elizabeth Camden, the second book in her Hope and Glory series. Here’s the first line of Chapter One:

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

About A Gilded Lady

Find A Gilded Lady online at:

Amazon | 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!

Book Review | Fragments of Light by Michele Phoenix

by Iola Goulton

6 July 2020

Fragments of Light starts in France on D-Day, then moves to Winfield, Illinois, in the present day.

The past story is crammed into the hours and days of the D-Day landings, while the present story is Ceelie’s story as she recovers from breast cancer … and the devastation of her husband’s desertion.

Ceelie befriends Darlene, another cancer survivor, and the two of them undertake a journey into Darlene’s past, trying to find what happened to her father. Cal was a World War II soldier who went to war, came home, then disappeared. Why? She has nothing more than a few letters and an old photo. But Ceelie gets caught up in the journey, and in finding if there can be good hidden in the bad.

Most of the dual timeline novels I’ve read move between the past and present throughout the novel.

Fragments of Light is different, in that it moves exclusively to the present timeline at about the halfway point. As with all good dual timeline stories, there is no obvious or immediate connection between the past and present stories. That’s only revealed as the story progresses, and it certainly packs a punch when we make the connection. There’s even more of a punch when past and present meet.

I was impressed by Michele Phoenix’s earlier novel, The Space Between Words, and was equally impressed by Fragments of Light. It’s a powerful story of love, redemption, and forgiveness as the characters in the present discover and learn from the past. There’s a lesson there …

Fragments of Light by Michele Phoenix is a powerful story of love, redemption, and forgiveness as the characters in the present discover and learn from the past. #BookReview #ChristianFiction Share on X

Recommended for fans of Christian fiction with a deeper message from authors such as Elizabeth Musser, Susie Finkbeiner, Catherine West, or Christine Dillon.

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

About Michele Phoenix

Born in France to a Canadian father and an American mother, Michèle is a consultant, writer and speaker with an international perspective. She taught for 20 years at Black Forest Academy (Germany) before launching her own venture advocating for Third Culture Kids. Michèle travels globally to consult and teach on topics related to this unique people group. She loves good conversations, mischievous students, French pastry, and paths to healing.

Find Michele Phoenix online at:

Website | Facebook | Twitter

About Fragments of Light

An impossible decision in the chaos of D-Day. Ripples that cascade seventy-five years into the present. And two lives transformed by the tenuous resolve to reach out of the darkness toward fragments of light.

Cancer stole everything from Ceelie—her peace of mind, her self-image, perhaps even her twenty-three-year marriage to her college sweetheart, Nate. Without the support of Darlene, her quirky elderly friend, she may not have been able to endure so much loss.

So when Darlene’s prognosis turns dire, Ceelie can’t refuse her seemingly impossible request—to find a WWII paratrooper named Cal, the father who disappeared when Darlene was an infant, leaving a lifetime of desolation in his wake.

The search that begins in the farmlands of Missouri eventually leads Ceelie to a small town in Normandy, where she uncovers the harrowing tale of the hero who dropped off-target into occupied France.

Alternating between Cal’s D-Day rescue by two young French sisters and Ceelie’s present-day journey through trial and heartbreak, Fragments of Light poses a timeless question: When life becomes unbearable, will you press toward the light or let the darkness win?

Find Fragments of Light online at:

Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

First Line Friday | Week 142 | Can’t Beat the Chemistry by Kat Colmer

by Iola Goulton

3 July 2020

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 Can’t Beat the Chemistry, a hilarious young adult novel from Australian author Kat Colmer.

Here’s the first line of Chapter One:

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

About Can’t Beat the Chemistry

Ionic and covalent bonds are a piece of cake for MJ. But human bonds are a little harder …

There are only two things MJ wants in her final year of high school:

1) Glowing grades and …

2) To convince uber-smart, chiselled-jaw Jason they’d be a winning team outside the science lab as well as in.

Tutoring deadbeat drummer, Luke, isn’t part of the plan. After all, he has average intelligence, takes disorganised notes and looks like a partied-out zombie at their study sessions! Not even his taut biceps will win MJ over.

But MJ learns that she could be tutored in a few life lessons too: That sometimes there’s good reason to skip chemistry tutorials. That intelligence is so much more than a grade average.

And that sometimes you can’t beat the chemistry.

You can find Can’t Beat the Chemistry 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!

Book Review | Dead Silence by Robin Caroll

by Iola Goulton

29 June 2020

Dead Silence opens with a bang disguised as a whisper when sign language interpreter Elise lipreads a threat against her mother-in-law. She is then contacted to say her deaf son has fallen in the playground, so she rushes to the hospital and forgets what she saw … until the next morning, when the news reports her mother-in-law has been murdered.

There are a couple of credibility gaps.

No matter how concerned you were about your son, would you really forget to tell someone you “overheard” a death threat? Especially a death threat against your mother-in-law, your child’s grandmother, who also happens to be a US Senator. Also, why did no one call Elise to tell her the Senator was dead?

The family spend a lot of time together during the course of the novel, which adds even more to the credibility gap. Okay, so I can perhaps believe that Elise was too stressed to call her mother-in-law. But then neither the father-in-law or sister-in-law call to say the mother-in-law has been murdered. Instead, they allowed her to find out by watching the TV news. And it’s not a big family: the Senator only had two children and one grandchild.

Yes, that bugged me.

But it didn’t bug me enough to stop reading, because the overall premise was unique, and the story was fast-paced enough that I didn’t stop to think. It picks up pace again after Elise receives a “gift” on her doorstep—a dead rat, an obvious message that she shouldn’t share what she knows.

Another “gift” the next day, and Elise is convinced there is a leak in the FBI. After all, the only people she’s told are the two agents. This got a little frustrating as well—anyone with half a brain could work that out, but not the FBI. Again, that does slightly strain credibility (overall, the FBI do come across as less than competent). But, again, I kept reading because I had to. The story was that compelling.

Elise is an excellent character—a determined single mother with a strong desire to protect her only child from whoever is trying to harm them. She’s independent, but not afraid to ask for help, and her background as a trial interpreter gives her an insight into the legal and investigative process that comes in handy.

Overall, Dead Silence is a fast-paced and compelling thriller featuring a main character with a unique occupation. It’s well worth reading for those looking for a straight thriller with no romance.

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

About Dead Silence

Political games can be deadly…

Elise Carmichael is a court sign language interpreter who reads lips all the time. As a widow with a young son who is deaf, lip reading is simply second nature, until the day she reads the lips of someone on the phone discussing an attempt to be made on a senator’s life—a senator who just happens to be her mother-in-law. Before she can decide what she needs to do, she receives the information that her son is rushed to the ER and she must leave.

Then she later sees the news report that her mother-in-law has been shot and killed. But when she comes forward, her life, as well as her son’s life, may now be in the crosshairs of the assassin.

Find Dead Silence online at:

Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

About Robin Caroll

Robin Caroll grew up in Louisiana with her nose in a book. She still has the complete Trixie Belden series, and her love for mysteries and suspense has only increased with her age. Robin’s passion has always been to tell stories to entertain others and come alongside them on their faith journey—aspects Robin weaves into each of her published novels.

Best-selling author of thirty-plus novels, ROBIN CAROLL writes Southern stories of mystery and suspense, with a hint of romance to entertain readers. Her books have been recognized in several awards, including the Carol Award, HOLT Medallion, Daphne du Maurier, RT Reviewer’s Choice Award, and more.

When she isn’t writing, Robin spends quality time with her husband of nearly three decades, her three beautiful daughters and two handsome grandsons, and their character-filled pets at home in the South. Robin serves the writing community as Executive/Conference Director for ACFW.

Find Robin Caroll online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Tumblr | Twitter

First Line Friday | Week 141 | Grace in the Desert by Christine Dillon

by Iola Goulton

26 June 2020

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 Grace in the Desert, the fourth book in the Grace series from Australian author Christine Dillon. Here’s the first line of Chapter One:

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

About Grace in the Desert

Sometimes the pain of the past destroys the hope for the future.

Rachel Macdonald is learning how to navigate the unfamiliar world of being a Christian.

She’s been estranged from her father for decades but now he claims to be a new man. Surely God can’t expect her to forgive him? Forgiving feels like a denial of all the pain and suffering he caused. Rachel can remain bound by anger and hurt, or embrace the future God has planned.

Past tragedy almost overwhelmed Pete Klopper and the hardest person to forgive is himself. Now he’s taken over the family plant nursery it could be the fresh start he hopes for. If, his past doesn’t drag him down.

You can find Grace in the Desert 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!

Book Review | The Widow’s Secret by Katharine Swartz

by Iola Goulton

22 June 2020

I read this novel about three months ago, at the beginning of lockdown, but I’m finally writing the review the night before this post goes live. That’s not my usual practice—my routine is to write my review as soon as possible after finishing a book. That’s for two practical reasons: so my reviews don’t pile up, and so I don’t forget the details. Yes, it happens.

Some novels are forgettable. The Widow’s Secret is not.

The Widow’s Secret is a unique dual timeline story set in Whitehaven, a small village in northern England. The present story is about marine archaeologist Rachel Gardener, who tends to place her career ahead of her relationship with her husband, to his annoyance. The past story is about Abigail, the wife of an eighteenth-century maritime trader.

A good dual-timeline story always has a clear relationship between the past and the present story. With The Widow’s Secret, it doesn’t take long to work out that the link must be the ship Rachel is investigating, given that Abigail’s husband was a ship’s captain. We watch Rachel discover aspects of Abigail’s story in the present, then see more of Abigail’s life in the past story.

Abigail is definitely the heroine in this story.

Her prospects for making a good marriage are rapidly declining when she meets Mr Fenton, a newcomer to their village. He is a ship owner, a man with excellent prospects, and she is delighted to marry him. Her delight is tempered when she is unable to present him with a son. He gifts her a slave, a young girl, which raises more discord in their marriage.

As Abigail’s circumstances change, she has to reconsider everything she was raised to believe. And that’s what makes her a brilliant character. She’s not content to believe what everyone around her believes. Instead, she makes her own decisions based on Christian values. And that includes some tough decisions.

As the news is constantly reminding us, the USA is still suffering the aftereffects of slavery. What’s less well-known is the role of the English in the slave trade. The Widow’s Secret is an outstanding novel that shows the power of looking beneath our obvious differences to our underlying humanity.

Recommended.

Thanks to Lion Publishing and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Katharine Swartz

After spending three years as a diehard New Yorker, Katharine Swartz now lives in the Lake District with her husband, an Anglican minister, their five children, and a Golden Retriever. She enjoys such novel things as long country walks and chatting with people in the street, and her children love the freedom of village life—although she often has to ring four or five people to figure out where they’ve gone off to!

She writes women’s fiction as well as contemporary romance for Mills & Boon Modern under the name Kate Hewitt, and whatever the genre she enjoys delivering a compelling and intensely emotional story.

Find Katharine Swartz online at:

About The Widow’s Secret

Marine archaeologist Rachel Gardener is thrilled to be summoned to the coast of Cumbria to investigate a newly discovered shipwreck. She is also relieved to escape the tensions of her troubled marriage, and to be closer to her ailing mother. Yet the past rises up and confronts Rachel, as seeing her mother surfaces hidden childhood hurts. When the mysteriously sunken ship is discovered to be a slaving ship from the 1700s, Rachel is determined to explore the town of Whitehaven’s link to the slave trade.

Soon she learns of Abigail Fenton, the young wife of a slave trader, who has a surprising secret of her own, lost to the ages. The more Rachel learns about Abigail, the more she wonders if the past can inform the present… Perhaps Rachel can learn from Abigail and break free from her troubled history, and embrace the future she longs to claim for her own?

Find The Widow’s Secret online at:

Amazon | Goodreads | Koorong