Tag: Debut Novel

I keep wondering if Samuel 2.0 is going to reboot to his original factory settings.

Book Review | Julia Monroe Begins Again by Rebekah Millet

Julia Monroe is the widowed mother of two college-aged sons. She supports herself as a self-employed cleaner, and volunteers for the church cleaning ministry she established before her husband dies.

Ex-Green Beret Samuel Reed was Julia’s first love and first heartbreak. He’s back in town after an injury forces him out of the army. They meet at church, and it immediately obvious that Samuel wants to reconnect romantically with Julia. It’s equally obvious she has no interest in reestablishing any kind of relationship, even though it’s more than ten years since her husband died.

I could well understand Julia’s reluctance.

Having said that, I thought her big excuse (that her children were upset the last time someone asked her out) was a little weak given how much time had passed. I could also understand her reaction to Samuel’s over-confidence (which came across as almost arrogant). I get that he’s a Green Beret so his career has taught and required competence and confidence. But I did think a dose of humility might have helped his cause.

I’m amazed and impressed that Julia could support herself and two sons while working as a self-employed house cleaner. I’m also impressed that Samuel could go so long without a job. That speaks well to his financial sense – he’s a saver, not a spender.

The story is written in first person, and entirely from Julia’s point of view. While it might have been nice to get into Samuel’s head sometimes, we didn’t need to as there was no doubt about Samuel’s feelings or what he wanted from Julia. Being in Julia’s perspective meant we could journey with her on her journey from aversion and suspicion to friendship to more.

Yes, this is a romance.

There is definitely a “more” although it’s definitely on the slow-burn low-angst end of the scale. I liked that, because anything else wouldn’t have felt true to her character (and because there is enough angst in real life. I read to escape real life). I especially liked the Christian aspects of the story – the way Julia does (and doesn’t) pray about her problems (which felt realistic and believable), and the way she sees Samuel has changed since he became a Christian.

Julia Monroe Begins Again is an excellent second-chance #ChristianRomance from Rebekah Millet, and features an older couple. Recommended. #BookReview Click To Tweet

Julia Monroe Begins Again is an excellent second-chance romance featuring an older couple. The cover gives off a bit of a rom-com feel, but it’s more romance than rom-com (apart from regular appearances from Chewy, Julia’s dog. He’s named for Chewbacca, but the other meaning also holds true). This is Rebecca Millet’s debut novel, and I look forward to reading more from her.

Recommended for fans of first-person contemporary romance and authors such as Jan Thompson, Liwen Ho, and Courtney Walsh.

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

About Rebekah Millet

Rebekah MilletRebekah Millet is a Cascade Award and ACFW First Impressions Award-winning author of contemporary Christian romance novels. A New Orleans native, she grew up on beignets and café au lait, and she loves infusing her colorful culture into her stories. She exasperates her husband by rearranging their furniture and being a serial plant killer, while her two sons keep her laughing and share her love of strawberry Pop-Tarts.

Find Rebekah Millet online at:

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About Julia Monroe Begins Again

Samuel was back. It seemed unfair to be blindsided. And in church no less. Shouldn’t there be a commandment about that? Thou shalt not step foot inside thy ex’s place of worship.

Julia Monroe has just turned forty and has high hopes for a fresh start after the last decade of her life abruptly left her a young widow and a single mom. With both her boys off to college, she can finally focus on expanding her New Orleans-based cleaning business. Julia is ready for new beginnings–but God has other plans. Samuel Reed, the ruggedly handsome Green Beret who shattered her heart over twenty years ago, has returned to town and is the kind of distraction she never saw coming.

After their first interaction in years leaves her mind spinning and her emotions out of control, Julia knows she needs to avoid him if she wants any chance of preventing history from repeating itself, but her meddling best friend keeps throwing them together. And now it seems inevitable that the man who was hard to forget might just be impossible to resist.

Find Julia Monroe Begins Again 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!

Shame. Like cancer, unseen from the world, it can eat away at the good. It spreads and ruins everything in its path.

Book Review | Not Quite Mr Darcy by Kim Griffin

Grieving widow Kate Thomas has moved from her US home to Kent, England, to take a role as an in-home nurse for a lady with Alzheimer’s. Kate thinks she’s a Christian when she arrives in England, but soon realises there’s a difference between the faith she’s grown up with and Margaret’s faith.

I enjoyed seeing Kate’s journey to Christian faith, as that’s something I don’t think we see enough of in Christian fiction.

I also enjoyed seeing Kate’s faith develop as she was faced with some difficult situations and calls to forgiveness. This spiritual depth was one of the strengths of the novel. Kate is put in some difficult situations and has to call on her newfound faith to guide her.

There are shades of The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs Kip in Not Quite Mr Darcy, although Mr Darcy doesn’t have the same level of polish. In particular, I found some of the dialogue overly formal to the point of being awkward, and not at all how people from London or Kent speak. I did enjoy reading about the location, as my grandmother was born only a few miles up the road.

Not Quite Mr Darcy is Kim Griffin’s first published novel, which she describes as women’s fiction with romance.

That fits the story well. It certainly starts as women’s fiction, as Kate arrives in England and settles into her new role. The romance was also present from early on, but I was less impressed with the romantic aspects. I am not a fan of the “other woman” plotline, particularly as it seemed like it was an issue that could have been solved with a simple conversation. (It was, but far too late in the plot for my taste.) I had the same misunderstanding as Kate (not surprising, as the whole story was told from her point of view). That meant I misjudged one of the characters, to the detriment of my enjoyment of the story.

Overall, Not Quite Mr Darcy was a solid first novel, recommended for readers looking for Christian women’s fiction which considers tough issues like infidelity and Alzheimer’s.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review.

About Kim Griffin

Kim GriffinKim Griffin is a former interior designer and homeschool mom who has been leading Bible studies for over 35 years and working in Women’s Ministry for over 25.  Several years ago, God led her to begin writing words of hope.  She writes Christian women’s fiction with clean romance. Her desire is that her books will draw readers closer to the God who sees all of their imperfections and loves them still.

Find Kim Griffin online at:

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About Not Quite Mr Darcy

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that Mr. Darcy does not exist.”

Many a young woman has spent years looking for her perfect Mr. Darcy, but Kate Thomas knows better. A 29-year-old recently widowed southerner, Kate sets off to find herself on the other side of the ocean in the very country where Mr. Darcy’s life was penned. Looking only to escape reminders of her heartache, Kate journeys to places she never thought she’d go—finding faith, love, and family along the way.

Not Quite Mr. Darcy is not a P&P retelling but the story of a woman’s journey to discover what real love is.

An ocean … it’s vast and powerful. The water that fills it can bring death, or offer life. Kate Thomas moves her life across an ocean to conquer the hold of her past and find new life for her future.

Not Quite Mr. Darcy is women’s fiction with clean romance (kisses only). It tackles forgiving the seemingly unforgivable and the disillusionment many a woman has faced upon realizing that the perfect husband they’ve been raised to look for doesn’t exist. Kate, a recent widow, leaves her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. Seeking distance from her past she takes a job in Kingsdown, England, working with a dementia patient in a cottage overlooking the English Channel. What she finds there is much more than she anticipated. Kate learns to find joy even in the hardest circumstances.

Find Not Quite Mr Darcy online at:

Amazon | Goodreads

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

You airmen are all the same, aren't you? Arrogant, conceited, and self-absorbed.

Book Review | Heart in the Clouds by Jennifer Mistmorgan

Australian Flight Sergeant Alec Thomas is the pilot of an Avro Lancaster bomber, with an ego to match. Women’s Auxiliary Air Force radio operator Maggie Morrison has sworn off men. Including arrogant pilots. Especially arrogant pilots who aren’t good Christian men.

Alec and Maggie meet in London while on leave, then find they have both been deployed to the same air base – RAF Bottesford in Lincolnshire. Alec initially pursues Maggie because of a bet (so we know there’s going to be drama when she finds out), but the more he gets to know her, the more he is interested in her regardless of the bet.

I enjoyed watching the to-and-fro as Alec and Maggie got to know each other as colleagues, then friends with the possibility of something more. There was plenty of drama as well – relationship drama, family drama, the inevitable war drama, and the added drama of a thief on the base.

It’s evident that from Heart in the Clouds that Jennifer Mistmorgan has a deep love of World War II history. (It’s even more evident if you follow her on social media.) She has also researched the subject in depth, and that depth and breadth of knowledge shines through in the novel without ever overwhelming the story. I’ve recently discovered my grandfather served in Bomber Command in WWII, and Heart in the Clouds reminded me afresh of the difficulties of war, and the importance of being able to rely on God in such horrible times.

Recommended for fans of Sarah Sundin, Carrie Turansky, and World War II Christian romance.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review.

About Heart in the Clouds

He’s a charismatic Australian bomber pilot used to beating the odds.
She’s the radio operator he speaks to each night before he flies.
He makes a bet that he can steal a kiss….and ends up getting much more than he bargained for.

RAF Bottesford, November 1942Maggie Morrison joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force for a free ticket into the romance she craved, away from her sleepy life as a vicar’s daughter. But the men of Bomber Command are careless with the hearts of women. She hides the pain of her broken heart and mother’s sudden death behind calm confidence on the airfield radio, as the last voice men hear before they fly into danger.

Australian pilot Alec Thomas is a gambling man on a winning streak. Every night when he flies with RAF Bomber Command, the odds of surviving are fifty-fifty. And every night so far, he’s made it back to English soil. But as the battles over Europe intensify, Alec’s luck feels less certain.

When Alec bets with his crew he can get Maggie to kiss him before the year is out, he has no idea it’s the most important wager he’ll ever make. But pursuing her leads Alec to reexamine everything he believes about his so-called luck, prompting him to question what—or who—is behind it all.

Even if Alec can win his bet, can his risk-taking ways win her heart? Or will his luck in the brutal air war over Europe run out before their first kiss?

Find Heart in the Clouds online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

Love at first sight was never on my radar because I only thought it to be a result of a lack of impulse control.

Book Review | No Matter What by Jennifer Carr

Those of you who regularly read my reviews know I rarely gush about the books I’ve read. I suspect that’s partly because I read so mush fiction: it takes a lot to come up with a concept or content I find gushable (that’s a word, right?)

No Matter What by Jennifer Carr has got me gushing.

The main character, Jess, has a gift: she can read the emotions of others with remarkable accuracy. It’s never explained if this is a well-honed sense of empathy or whether it’s some kind of supernatural gift, and it doesn’t matter.  It’s a fascinating concept, and one I can’t remember reading before (which is always a great start).

It’s not perfect. The cover is underwhelming, I’m not a fan of whine or growl to describe the way characters speak, and there were aspects to the plot which broke all the “rules”. It also involves something close to the “love at first sight” trope, which is not one I usually enjoy.

Having said that (and without wanting to give any spoilers), part of what kept me engaged was the unexpected—the aspects which broke all the rules.

Jess is a fascinating character.

Her “gift” is even more pronounced when she touches people, so she likes to keep physical contact to a minimum. As a result, she’s never had a proper boyfriend … something her roommate, Stacy, wants to change. She’s  intelligent—as the story opens, she’s teaching college-level psychology and about to defend her PhD thesis.

The novel is written in first person, mostly from Jess’s point of view.

I think this is a definite strength, although I know some readers struggle with first person. I love it, because it allows the reader to get inside the character’s head. With Jess, this means we get first-hand insight into her gift as she meets and reacts to new people.

This gift and the compelling yet believable way it is portrayed dragged me straight into the plot and didn’t let go. I was totally on board with the instant attraction between Jess and Bryan, even when I realised Jess wasn’t a Christian and the two were therefore unequally yoked.

However, that paved the way for something I’d love to see more of in Christian fiction—a believable come-to-Jesus conversion scene for an adult main character. Yes, I know they’re hard to write, so I do love it when an author achieves the almost-impossible and brings a Christian and a non-Christian together in a way that rings true.

I thought I had a perfect plan for my life, and now I was hearing that God actually had a better plan than the one I’d concocted.

I also loved the fact that Jess was clearly then discipled as a Christian by her pastor’s wife. No, we didn’t see this on the page (this is romantic suspense fiction, not how-to-disciple-a-new-believer nonfiction), but it was clearly part of her character journey.

And at the end, that’s what No Matter What was about. Yes, there are suspense elements and there are some puzzles to solve, but that’s not the core of the story. The core of the story is about character change: how the author shows characters change as they come to know Jesus, with the unwritten implication that He can do the same for us.

Because He loves us. No matter what.

And, despite what some might see as many faults, that’s why I’m left gushing about No Matter What.

Thanks to Jennifer Carr for providing a free ebook for review.

About Jennifer Carr

Jennifer CarrHaving always enjoyed books, writing, and daydreaming, Jennifer wanted to know what it would feel like to combine the three and write a book. Once she started writing, everything changed. Within a matter of months she had multiple projects started and found a love for writing in a way she never knew was possible. Married to her childhood best friend and the mom of a creative daughter, Jennifer enjoys baking, reading romance novels, and living the quiet life on a farm in Alabama.

Find Jennifer Carr online at:

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About No Matter What

Bryan Carsen, a member of the United States Cyber Force, and Jess Hayley, a brilliant profiler with a unique set of skills, are about to set off to live a life they never knew they ever wanted. Two complete strangers, Bryan and Jess find themselves on a roadtrip rescue mission to save a best friend, finding love on the way. But instead of a happily ever after, Bryan stumbles upon a covert hacking operation inside his unit that upends the future he had planned.

When Jess finds herself the recipient of a mysterious box of evidence related to Bryan’s investigation she knows everything she holds dear is about to be threatened. Jess turns to the only person she knows she can trust, but can she trust that her heart won’t become the next casualty?

Find No Matter What online at:

Amazon| Goodreads

There was another rule for her future bestseller on dating: never freak a guy out with three kids twenty-four hours after your first date.

Book Review | The Dating Charade by Melissa Ferguson

I wanted to read The Dating Charade as soon as I heard about it: a couple meet through an online dating service, both having said they’re not interested in children. Within a day of their first date, both find themselves the unexpected guardians of three children.

Oops.

I expected the story to get straight into the first date and the accidental acquisition of children.

It didn’t, which means I did find the beginning slow. However, I was invested enough in the premise to keep going in the hope of the eventual payoff, and I was rewarded. But it took a while, and I may have succumbed to the temptation to skim.

The Dating Charade by Melissa Ferguson takes a while to get going, but is worth the effort. Recommended for fans of Kara Isaac and Jessica Kate. #RomCom #ChristianRomance Click To Tweet

The characters were excellent. Cassie can’t have children, hence her dating profile. But she manages an after-school programme for at-risk children and teens, which is how she ends up with three accidental children. Jett is a firefighter whose upbringing left him certain he doesn’t want children. But then his addict sister shows up with her three pre-schoolers … and leaves without them.

Oops.

The Dating Charade is a romantic comedy, so has the obligatory bizarre situations (like Cassie’s go-to plan for abandoning an undesirable first date). But it also deals with some tough real-life issues in a sensitive way—drug addiction, alcoholism, abandonment, interracial fostering, infertility.

Yes, there are times when it verges on ridiculous, but I find the comic relief is necessary when dealing with such tough subjects. It’s that old line about vinegar and honey, with the comedy being the honey.

Recommended for fans of Kara Isaac and Jessica Kate.

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

About Melissa Ferguson

Melissa Ferguson

Find Melissa Ferguson online at:

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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 here to find The Dating Charade and other great Christian fiction in my Amazon shop.

First Line Friday

First Line Friday | Week 112 | Heart of a Royal by Hannah Currie

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 Heart of a Royal, the debut release from Australian author Hannah Currie. Here’s the first line of Chapter One:

First line from Heart of a Royal: If mortification could kill, I’d be six feet under.

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

About Heart of a Royal

Brought to the palace as a newborn, the royal life bestowed upon Mackenna Sparrow was never meant to last forever. With Princess Alina engaged to be married, Mackenna’s presence as companion is no longer required and, like it or not, she must return to the birthright which should have been hers – that of a commoner. But not everyone at the palace wants her gone.

When the truths she’s based her life on start crumbling as fast as her future, will she find the courage to trust, both herself and the prince she’s fallen in love with?

You can find Heart of a Royal 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!

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!

#ThrowbackThursday | Missing Isaac by Valerie Fraser Luesse

It’s Throwback Thursday, and today I’m sharing my January 2018 review of Missing Isaac by Valerie Fraser Luesse. It was an outstanding debut novel from this Southern author, and I’m looking forward to reading and reviewing her second novel, Almost Home, which releases this week.

Valerie Fraser Luesse’s writing style runs counter to some modern conventions.

She uses dialect and non-standard spelling. There are unnecessary adverbs and repetition. The dialgoue tags are often clunky. The point of view is often distant, and slips into omniscient at times.

Yet Missing Isaac works despite these “errors”. Or perhaps because of them.

When Pete’s father dies in a farm accident, Pete’s relationship with Isaac is the one thing that keeps him going. It didn’t matter that Isaac was only a field hand, or that he was black—even in 1960’s Alabama.

But when Isaac disappears, leaving only his truck, no one seems much inclined to find out what happened. Except Pete.

Missing Isaac doesn’t fall neatly into any one genre. It’s part mystery, as Pete tries to find the truth of what happened to Isaac. It’s part family saga, as Pete grows up, and part romance, as he meets Dovey. And it’s part historical fiction, in that it’s a story set in a time far removed from ours, in terms of culture and attitude, if not years.

The writing is strong, with a unique and lyrical style, and a lot of home truths. This line struck me as particularly relevant:

Quote from Missing Isaac

It’s Dovey talking to Pete—the privileged white boy/man who doesn’t understand his privilege because it’s all he’s ever known. It could equally be talking to those in the modern world who don’t understand why #MeToo or #BlackLivesMatter are newsworthy.

Missing Isaac is a strong debut novel, with a solid story driven by strong characters and set in a time of great social change. 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.

About Missing Isaac

There was another South in the 1960s, one far removed from the marches and bombings and turmoil in the streets that were broadcast on the evening news. It was a place of inner turmoil, where ordinary people struggled to right themselves on a social landscape that was dramatically shifting beneath their feet. This is the world of Valerie Fraser Luesse’s stunning debut, Missing Isaac.

It is 1965 when black field hand Isaac Reynolds goes missing from the tiny, unassuming town of Glory, Alabama. The townspeople’s reactions range from concern to indifference, but one boy will stop at nothing to find out what happened to his unlikely friend. White, wealthy, and fatherless, young Pete McLean has nothing to gain and everything to lose in his relentless search for Isaac.

In the process, he will discover much more than he bargained for. Before it’s all over, Pete–and the people he loves most–will have to blur the hard lines of race, class, and religion. And what they discover about themselves may change some of them forever.

Find Missing Isaac online at:

Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong 

Read the introduction to Missing Isaac below:

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