First Line Friday

First Line Friday | Week 130 | Take a Chance on Me by Becky Wade

by Iola Goulton

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 Take a Chance on Me by Becky Wade, which is a novella prequel to her new series. Here’s the first line of Chapter One:

The hospital's electronic doors whooshed open as Penelope Quinn rushed toward the emergency room.

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

About Take a Chance on Me

When baker Penelope Quinn steps in to help her brother’s family through a medical crisis, she’s forced into close proximity with charming Air Force fighter pilot Eli Price.

Penelope has one iron-clad dating rule—she does not date airmen. Months ago, she relaxed her rule with Eli and immediately lived to regret it. After a long deployment, he’s now back in Misty River and, to her dismay, she finds him just as tempting as always.

Eli’s spent months thinking about funny, feisty, creative Penelope. He once leveraged his focus and drive to become a pilot, his childhood dream. Now he’s set on leveraging that same focus and drive in order to convince Penelope to give him one more chance.

This romantic prequel novella introduces readers to the quaint mountain town of Misty River and a brand-new series from Christy-winning author Becky Wade!

You can find Take a Chance on Me online at:

Amazon | Goodreads

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

First Line Fridays hosted by Hoarding Books

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!

hat novels have you read and recommend that feature Easter?

Bookish Question #149 | What novels have you read and recommend that feature Easter?

by Iola Goulton

Lots of people write (and lots more read) Christmas stories. Valentine’s Day stories are also popular, especially in romance. But I can’t think of many novels that feature Easter as a central plot point. Sure, several take place in March/April, but there is more to Easter than roast lamb and hot cross buns on Good Friday, and Easter egg hunts on Easter Sunday.

The only novel I can think of that features Easter is A Stray Drop of Blood by Roseanna M White. It’s one of the many books on my to-read pile … Maybe I’ll get to it over Easter.

What novels can you think of that feature Easter? What do you recommend I check out?

She liked to refer to herself as a work in progress. Unfortunately, in some areas the progress part was pretty slow.

Book Review | Dead End (Kaely Quin Profiler #3) by Nancy Mehl

by Iola Goulton

Dead End is the third book in Nancy Mehl’s Kaely Quinn Profiler series. Kaely works in law enforcement, profiling and catching serial killers. She’s also the daughter of a serial killer, something that has shaped her life and career (for better and worse). And he’s back. At least, there is another serial killer on the loose, and he’s using her father’s signatures.

The suspense aspect of the plot was excellent.

It’s obvious that Kaely’s father isn’t the killer: he’s safe in jail. So who is it? It must be someone who knows her father well, but who? I had my suspicions, and they were wrong. That made it a nailbiting read that was hard to put down.

Kaely isn’t always an easy character to relate to.

She has her strengths: she’s intelligent, dedicated, and good at her job. But those are also her weaknesses: she can’t detach from her job, and she sometimes puts her own physical and mental health at risk to break the case. She comes across as mostly normal, but that hides a lot of inner insecurities and awkwardness.

Some of that awkwardness comes through in her faith. She’s been forced to seek answers to some of the hard questions about Christianity: can God save even the vilest sinner? Does anyone ever get so far from God that they can’t be saved? Does she have to forgive her father for his sins? Yes, there were strong faith aspects, and they were a strength of the story.

The writing was generally strong, although there were a couple of annoying instances when the point of view character discovered something but the reader didn’t know what. I guess that was supposed to add suspense. It kept me reading, but it did irritate me. My view is that if we’re in the viewpoint character’s head, we should be part of the conversation and not have the salient points blurred out for us to discover later.

But that’s a minor point in an otherwise excellent romantic suspense novel.

It is the third book in the series, but can easily be read as a standalone—while there are a few references to earlier events, they are minor (and won’t spoil the earlier books if you accidentally read them out of order).

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

About Nancy Mehl

Author photo: Nancy MehlNancy Mehl lives in Missouri, with her husband Norman, and her very active puggle, Watson. She’s authored thirty books and is currently at work on a new FBI suspense series for Bethany House Publishing.

All of Nancy’s novels have an added touch – something for your spirit as well as your soul. “I welcome the opportunity to share my faith through my writing,” Nancy says. “It’s a part of me and of everything I think or do. God is number one in my life. I wouldn’t be writing at all if I didn’t believe that this is what He’s called me to do. I hope everyone who reads my books will walk away with the most important message I can give them: God is good, and He loves you more than you can imagine. He has a good plan especially for your life, and there is nothing you can’t overcome with His help.”

You can find Nancy Mehl online at:

Website | Suspense Sisters | Facebook

About Dead End

When a body is discovered in a field in Iowa, the police uncover fourteen additional corpses ranging from 20 years old to recent. The remains point to a serial killer with an MO the authorities have seen before–Ed Oliphant, a man who has been in prison for over 20 years . . . and is Special Agent Kaely Quinn’s father. After several failed interview attempts to discover if Ed has been training someone to be a copycat killer, the police turn to Kaely in St. Louis.

Kaely promised herself she would never step foot in her hometown or set eyes on her father again. She’s always refused to confront her past, but if she wants to prevent any more deaths, she must come face-to-face with the man she’s hated for years.

As more bodies are discovered, Kaely races against time and her own personal turmoil to uncover the killer. Will this most personal case yet cost Kaely her identity and perhaps even her life?

Find Dead End 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

First Line Friday | Week 129 | Formula for a Perfect Life by Christy Hayes

by Iola Goulton

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 Formula for a Perfect Life by Christy Hayes (which I edited. I can recommend it as a great read for rom com fans).

Here’s the first line of Chapter One:

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

About Formula for a Perfect Life

Two practical strangers. One fateful night. Two pink lines.

College senior and obsessive romantic Kayla Cummings’ dreams of a storybook life are spun off course by an unplanned pregnancy after a one-night stand with her secret crush. Devastated, Kayla turns to her roommates and best friends for advice. No matter what she decides, no matter how deeply embarrassed, she has to tell the father.

Ben Strickland’s future is written in stone—as long as he gets a decent score on the Law School Admission Test. Feeling pressure from all sides, Ben struggles to juggle his upcoming finals, another shot at the LSAT, and his needy girlfriend Darcy. When the girl he spent a memorable night with weeks ago shows up at his doorstep pregnant, his already chaotic life spins out of control.

With the clock ticking, decisions to make, and a boatload of people to disappoint, Ben and Kayla embark on a journey neither anticipated—a journey where falling in love might be the biggest surprise of all. But when old hurts and buried secrets pose a greater threat to their future than impending parenthood, will Ben and Kayla go their separate ways or forge a new path to happy ever after?

You can find Formula for a Perfect Life online at:

Amazon | Goodreads

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

First Line Fridays hosted by Hoarding Books

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!

 

Do you re-read books? Why or why not? What's your favourite book to re-read?

Bookish Question #148 | Do you reread books? Why or why not?

by Iola Goulton

Why or why not? What’s your favourite book to reread?

I used to re-read a lot of my favourite books. Back when I bought and read paper books, most of my bookshelf was books I’d read and re-read (the books I didn’t like enough to re-read were donated to the local charity book sale). I re-read books because I didn’t have an unlimited book budget, which meant there were times when I didn’t have anything new to read. So I’d re-read an old favourite.

I still have a shelf of paper books, and a lot of them are favourites, but I rarely re-read them.

Actually, I rarely re-read at all, and that’s mostly because of the Kindle. First, I do most of my fiction reading on the Kindle. Second, because Kindle has dramatically decreased the average cost of a novel, so I’m never in the situation where I don’t have anything new to read.

What about you? Do you re-read books? Why or why not? What’s your favourite book to re-read?

Sometimes I wondered if my sister's only criteria for matchmaking was male and breathing.

Book Review | Before I Called You Mine by Nicole Deese

by Iola Goulton

Before I Called You Mine is the story of Lauren, a single elementary school teacher who wants to adopt an orphan from China.

This means staying single, because the adoption agency only allows children to go to single mothers or to couples who have been married more than two years. Single hasn’t been a problem until she meets the substitute teacher across the hall …

In some respects, Before I Called You Mind is a typical contemporary romance novel with a unique application of the “decides to remain single, then meets Mr Perfect” trope. But setting the novel against a backdrop of international adoption introduced a whole bunch of questions, many of them uncomfortable. One of the characters says of a child adopted internationally:

“Leaving the only place she’s ever called home, and the only people who’ve ever cared for her, is a traumatic event. That’s a fact, not an opinion … She won’t know the language, the food, the sounds, the smells.”

International adoption rips a child from everything familiar—their country, their culture, their language, even their name (yes, the main character planned to change her child’s name). That bugged me. What psychological message does that send to a child, that not even their name is theirs and has value? It smacks of a nineteenth-century white saviour complex, where the missionaries converted the natives and changed their names to “Christian” names. I’d hoped we’d got beyond that, but comments about “dark chocolate, almond-shaped eyes” suggested we haven’t.

When I started the novel, I was in two minds about international adoption.

I read plenty of stories about how the US foster care system is crying out for qualified carers. Why choose international adoption when there are thousands of disadvantaged and needy children in the US?

The author herself has adopted internationally, but says the purpose of the novel isn’t to persuade readers to adopt a child from overseas. Rather, it’s to challenge us to find the hard thing that God’s asking us to partner with Him in. Do I think it met that objective? No. But was it a good story? Mostly.

Lauren is torn between her desire to adopt internationally, and her attraction to Joshua … who also happens to be the son of the education expert who inspired many of Lauren’s most successful teaching methods. The family is everything Lauren’s family isn’t—friendly, loving, Christian.

There were times when I didn’t have a lot of sympathy for Lauren and her predicament.

She complains about her family, then insults her mother and wonders why they don’t have a great relationship. She has been working towards adopting an orphan from China for two years, and had been considering it for three years before that, yet had never bothered to learn any Mandarin, or anything about Chinese food or culture.

Before I Called You Mine by @NicoleDeese is a well-written story with great characters and plenty of conflict. It's memorable, and will definitely make you think. #BookReview #ChristianFiction Share on X

At the same time, I could empathise with Lauren. She’d been earnestly seeking God and was convinced He placed the idea for international adoption on her heart and brought her into contact with people who could encourage and support her in that journey. Then God throws Joshua in her path, and she starts second-guessing herself. It made fascinating and compelling reading.

Overall, this is a well-written story with great characters and plenty of conflict. It’s memorable, and will definitely make you think.

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

About Nicole Deese

Nicole Deese is an award-winning author who specializes in humorous, heartfelt, and hope-filled novels. When not working on her next contemporary romance, she can usually be found reading one by a window overlooking the inspiring beauty of the Pacific Northwest. She currently resides with her happily-ever-after hubby, two sons, and a princess daughter in Idaho.

Find Nicole Deese online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

About Before I Called You Mine

Lauren Bailey may be a romantic at heart, but after a decade of matchmaking schemes gone wrong, there’s only one match she’s committed to now–the one that will make her a mother. Lauren is a dedicated first-grade teacher in Idaho, and her love for children has led her to the path of international adoption. To satisfy her adoption agency’s requirements, she gladly agreed to remain single for the foreseeable future; however, just as her long wait comes to an end, Lauren is blindsided by a complication she never saw coming: Joshua Avery.

Joshua may be a substitute teacher by day, but Lauren finds his passion for creating educational technology as fascinating as his antics in the classroom. Though she does her best to downplay the undeniable connection between them, his relentless pursuit of her heart puts her commitment to stay unattached to the test and causes her once-firm conviction to waver.

With an impossible decision looming, Lauren might very well find herself choosing between the two deepest desires of her heart . . . even if saying yes to one means letting go of the other.

Find Before I Called You Mine online at:

Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Kobo | Koorong

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

First Line Friday

First Line Friday | Week #128 | A Gift to Cherish by Victoria Bylin

by Iola Goulton

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 Gift to Cherish by Victoria Bylin. It’s the second book in her Road to Refuge series, set in the cute Wyoming town of Refuge. Here’s the first line of Chapter One:

A woman's scream cut through the night. Sharp. Penetrating.

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

About A Gift to Cherish

Rafe Donovan, a cop from Cincinnati, is haunted by a recurring nightmare about the death of his high school sweetheart. Those nightmares force him to take leave from his job, seek help, and shelter in Refuge, where he pounds nails for his brother’s construction business. Rafe has no desire to stay in Wyoming. His goal is to get back to being a cop in Ohio as soon as possible.

But then he meets Daisy Riley . . . When he finds her stranded late at night with a flat tire, he’s impressed by her courage. Daisy is equally impressed by him, but as a former victim of violence, she treasures her secure life in Refuge. Together they navigate the road to love—one that’s complicated by Daisy’s troubled best friend, online dating, and the impossible obstacle of 1,600 miles between her home and his.

You can find A Gift to Cherish online at:

Amazon | Goodreads

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

First Line Fridays hosted by Hoarding Books

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!

Do you read book endorsements? Do they influence your book buying decisions?

Bookish Question #147 | Do you read book endorsements?

by Iola Goulton

No, I don’t read book endorsements, and they don’t influence my book buying decisions.

There is a reason for this. I had a bad experience a few years back when I bought a book based on the endorsement of an author I enjoyed reading. I can’t remember the book or the author (either of them). All I know is that I didn’t enjoy the book, and I was left feeling that the author endorsing the novel had misled me.

Then it happened again, with a different book and different authors.

I learned that some authors are expected to endorse other authors with the same publisher, which lessened the impact of all endorsements in my eyes. I later learned that some authors don’t even read the books they’re asked to endorse, which makes the endorsement the sad waste of a tree.

Fake endorsements are like fake reviews.

If you can’t tell which reviews are genuine and which are fake, you’re going to be wary of all reviews.

I’ve had a similar experience with those authors who advertise books in their newsletters. To me, advertising a book in a newsletter constitutes an endorsement. At first, I thought the authors were recommending books they’d read and enjoyed (and, to be fair, most are). But some are engaging in newsletter swaps to build their email list, and that means featuring books they haven’t read. It seems to me that advertising or endorsing a book you haven’t read could hurt your brand if your readers decide the books you’re endorsing aren’t up to standard.

And that’s why I started ignoring book endorsements.

What about you? Do you read book endorsements, and do they influence your book buying decisions?

First Line Friday

First Line Friday | Week #127 | Kitty Confidential by Molly Fitz

by Iola Goulton

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 Kitty Confidential by Molly Fitz. Here’s the first line of Chapter One:

The first thing you should know about me is that I hate lawyers. The second is that I work for them.

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

About Kitty Confidential

I was just your normal twenty-something with seven associate degrees and no idea what I wanted to do with my life. That is, until I died… Well, almost.

As if a near-death experience at the hands of an old coffeemaker wasn’t embarrassing enough, I woke up to find I could talk to animals. Or rather one animal in particular.

His full name is Octavius Maxwell Ricardo Edmund Frederick Fulton, but since that’s way too long for anyone to remember, I’ve taken to calling him Octo-Cat. He talks so fast he can be difficult to understand, but seems to be telling me that his late owner didn’t die of natural causes like everyone believes.

Well, now it looks like I no longer have a choice, apparently my life calling is to serve as Blueberry Bay’s first ever pet whisperer P.I while maintaining my façade as a paralegal at the offices of Fulton, Thompson & Associates.

I just have one question: How did Dr. Dolittle make this gig look so easy?

You can find Kitty Confidential online at:

Amazon | Goodreads

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

First Line Fridays hosted by Hoarding Books

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!

What about you? How often do you like to receive author newsletters?

Bookish Question #146 | How often do you like to receive author newsletters?

by Iola Goulton

It depends.

There are some newsletters I’ve unsubscribed from because they emailed too often—generally once a week (sometimes more). The problem wasn’t so much the frequency as the fact that the email didn’t have any content I found useful. Often, it was little more than links to books by other authors in the same genre, and the author said s/he hadn’t read the books. Why would someone advertise or endorse a book they hadn’t read? It seems like a recipe for disaster.

I don’t mind more frequent emails when there is something to say e.g. a book is available on preorder, or there a book is on sale. I especially don’t want to miss out on sale books, and a lot of sales only last a few days. Readers might miss out of the author waited for their regular monthly or even weekly newsletter.

But in general, less is more.

I’m happy to receive a newsletter once a month, or more often if there is a good reason. Otherwise, I’m likely to either unsubscribe or (worse) delete without reading.

What about you? How often do you like to receive author newsletters?