Tag: Revell

I’ve been trying so hard to remember, I never thought about the repercussions when I do. Will it all be worth it?

Book Review | With Every Memory by Janine Rosch

I am a sucker for amnesia plots, and this is one of the best I’ve read. While amnesia is serious, many of the novels I’ve read have taken more of a rom-com approach, literary equivalents of Fifty First Dates. With Every Memory is more serious, although there are humorous moments.

Lori lost her memory ten months ago in the car accident that killed her teenage son.

Now she’s heading home after rehab to a sterile house she doesn’t remember, a distant husband, a rebellious teen daughter, and friends she no longer knows. What she does know is that the happy marriage she remembers has disappeared, and she has no idea why.

Avery lost her twin brother in the accident and has been lost ever since.

She’s flunking school and now the principal has threatened that she won’t be able to graduate with her class. He suggests a tutor—the annoying Xander, her brother’s best friend and the guy who put gum in her hair as well as a bunch of other stuff.

With Every Memory is written in first person point of view from Lori and Avery’s points of view. Two characters in first person does take a little getting used to and turns the story into a mix of women’s fiction (Lori’s story) and YA romance (Avery’s story).

Both women’s voices are equally strong in their own way, which is great.

I often find I prefer one character over another in stories like this. Lori’s story is strong, because it’s the amnesia story, and we get to see her gradually recovering her memories and rediscovering herself. Avery’s story is poignant, but also has touches of needed humour.

My favourite character was Xander, Austin’s best friend and Avery’s unwanted tutor, the guy who’s had a crush on her for half of forever. He sticks by Avery even when she’s pushing him away with her words and her actions. I admired him even while I felt sorry for him, because he understood (perhaps better than Avery) that her actions were borne out of grief. Xander wears his heart on his sleeve and is just plain wonderful—the guy any mom would want for their daughter.

Michael, on the hand, is more reserved, and is a workaholic. He justifies himself by saying he’s providing for his family, but Lori can’t help wonder if there’s something more, especially given what her friends say. that adds a tension to their relationship that kept me reading and made the book impossible to put down.

Overall, I loved With Every Memory, and it’s one of those books I’ll enjoy even more the second time through because I’ll know the ending so I’ll be reading with a different mindset.

However, it won’t be right for everyone. It is written in first person, and that’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Also, Lori’s grief over losing her son (and Avery’s grief over losing her twin brother) is a big part of the story, and some people won’t want to read that. There is also a reference to sexual assault.

But forewarned is forearmed, and it’s definitely worth reading for a story of enduring love even in the most difficult times.

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

About Janine Rosche

Janine Rosche - author photo
Janine Rosche is the author of the Madison River Romance and Whisper Canyon series of novels. Prone to wander, she finds as much comfort on the open road as she does at home. This longing to chase adventure, behold splendor, and experience redemption is woven into her stories. When she isn’t traveling or writing novels, she teaches family life education courses, produces The Love Wander Read Journal, and takes too many pictures of her sleeping dogs.

Find Janine Rosche online at:

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About With Every Memory

Is the Life She Can’t Remember One She’d Rather Forget?

One year after her family was in a tragic car accident that killed her teenage son, Lori Mendenhall returns home with a traumatic brain injury that has stolen the last eight years of memories from her. She is shocked to find that the life she was leading before the accident is unrecognizable. Her once-loving husband, Michael, is a distant workaholic she isn’t sure she can trust and her once-bubbly daughter, Avery, has spent the last year hidden away in her room.

For Avery, life stopped when she lost her twin. Now, if she wants to graduate high school, she’ll have to accept help from Xander Dixon, her brother’s best friend and the boy who relentlessly teased her for years. And if Lori wants to reconnect with her husband, she’ll have to grapple with information her brain is trying to keep secret. With every memory that returns, she can’t help but wonder if the life she can’t remember is one she’d rather forget.

Find With Every Memory online at:

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People think I'm simple. But I think they just make things complicated that aren't.

Book Review | Tacos for Two by Betsy St. Amant

Rory Perez hates cilantro and can’t cook, but she’s inherited a food truck specialising Mexican food and she needs the income from the truck to keep her cousin in her care home. Jude Worthington works for his father’s law firm but doesn’t want to take the bar and be a lawyer. He wants to be a chef.

The two are messaging and falling for each other via an app, but they communicate using pseudonyms, so don’t know it. In real life, they are both competing to win the prize in the local food festival—Rory because she needs the money, and Jude because he wants to get out of law.

There were a few things I didn’t like about Tacos for Two. The first  was that I started reading, and I immediately wanted to eat tacos. This is a problem as I had to stop reading and work out if I actually had the ingredients for tacos (yes, I did. Fortunately).

There were a couple of other things I didn’t get. If Jude is twenty-nine years old and hasn’t yet sat the bar exam, what has he been doing since he graduated college? Who is Fiona Stone and why is she mentioned so often (I honestly thought Rory was going to turn out to be Fiona Stone in disguise. She didn’t).

The romance itself was a fun play on You’ve got Mail, a modernised version using an app called Love at First Chat.

It’s a fun romp with plenty of laughs as well as some deeper thoughts on life and faith. As such, it’s an easy read that hits all the right notes and has a satisfying ending.

Tacos for Two by Betsy St. Amant is a fun romp with plenty of laughs as well as some deeper thoughts on life and faith. #BookReview #ChristianRomance Click To Tweet

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

About Betsey St. Amant

Betsy St. Amant Haddox is the author of over fifteen inspirational romance novels and novellas. She resides in north Louisiana with her hero of a hubby, two total-opposite young daughters, a vast collection of coffee mugs, and an impressive stash of Pickle chips. Betsy has a B.A. in Communications and a deep-rooted passion for seeing women restored in Christ. When she’s not composing her next book or trying to prove unicorns are real, Betsy can usually be found somewhere in the vicinity of a white-chocolate mocha–no whip.

Find Betsy St. Amant online at:

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About Tacos for Two

Rory Perez, a food truck owner who can’t cook, is struggling to keep the business she inherited from her aunt out of the red–and an upcoming contest during Modest’s annual food truck festival seems the best way to do it. The prize money could finally give her a solid financial footing and keep her cousin with special needs paid up at her beloved assisted living home. Then maybe Rory will have enough time to meet the man she’s been talking to via an anonymous online dating site.

Jude Strong is tired of being a puppet at his manipulative father’s law firm, and the food truck festival seems like the perfect opportunity to dive into his passion for cooking and finally call his life his own. But if he loses the contest, he’s back at the law firm for good. Failure is not an option.

Complications arise when Rory’s chef gets mono and she realizes she has to cook after all. Then Jude discovers that his stiffest competition is the same woman he’s been falling for online the past month.

Will these unlikely chefs sacrifice it all for the sake of love? Or will there only ever be tacos for one?

You can find Tacos for Two online at:

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This entire building is filled with people to trained to appear genuine. It's our job.

Book Review | Lights Out (The SNAP Agency #1) by Natalie Walters

CIA operative Brynn Taylor has almost completed her latest mission— running an international inter-agency program teaching agents from seven countries how to locate and identify domestic terrorists—when one of her students disappears.

Was she really supposed to rely on a bomb expert, a giant techie, a young woman dressed like she'd spent all night at a club, and an ex-boyfriend.

Jack Hudson left the CIA and joined SNAP, the Strategic Neutralization and Protection Agency, a private security firm employing a band of talented misfits that reminded me of CSI characters. Jack is also Brynn’s ex-boyfriend from eight years earlier.

So Lights Out is a second-chance romance.

One of the problems with this kind of plot is that it can be hard to come up with a convincing reason the couple broke up in the first place that still allows room for them to get back together. Often it comes down to a simple misunderstanding that could have been resolved with a single adult conversation, and I thought that was the case with Lights Out.

We realise early in the story that something happened when Brynn and Jack were going through CIA training, but we’re not sure what. When I finally found out, I didn’t think it was convincing. In fact, it gave me the impression Jack didn’t understand one of the key training objectives … which leaves me wondering about his professional competence.

Lights Out by Natalie Walters is a strong suspense story with all the chases and bangs readers want interspersed plenty of banter and a second-chance romance. #ChristianFiction #BookReview Click To Tweet

But that was the only thing that annoyed me. The main plot was a strong suspense story set in and around Washington DC, with all the chases and bangs readers want … interspersed with the comic relief of the banter between the members of SNAP, and the will-they-won’t-they Brynn/Jack relationship.

Recommended for fans of DiAnn Mills and Irene Hannon.

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

About Natalie Walters

Natalie WaltersNatalie Walters is a military wife who currently resides in Hawaii with her soldier husband and their three kids. She writes full-time and has been published in Proverbs 31 magazine and has blogged for Guideposts online. Natalie comes from a long line of military and law enforcement veterans and is passionate about supporting them through volunteer work, races, and writing stories that affirm no one is defined by their past.

Find Natalie Walters online at:

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About Lights Out

CIA analyst Brynn Taylor developed a new program to combat terrorism, and she invited members of foreign intelligence agencies to America to foster cooperation between countries. Now one of them, Egyptian spy Remon Riad, is missing.

Jack Hudson has been working for the Strategic Neutralization and Protection Agency (SNAP) for almost nine years and takes the lead in hunting down the missing spy. But he isn’t at all pleased to find out Brynn is involved. It’s hard to trust a woman who’s already betrayed you.

Every lead they follow draws them dangerously deeper into an international plot. Kidnapping, murder, explosions, poisoning–the terrorists will do anything to accomplish their goal of causing a digital blackout that will blind a strategic US military communications center and throw the world into chaos.Can Brynn surrender control to a man who doesn’t trust her? And can Jack ever get over what she did to him? The fate of the world–and their hearts–hangs in the balance.

Find Lights Out online at:

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Book Review | Living Lies (Harbored Secrets 1) by Natalie Walters

I read Living Lies right after reading two other brilliant Christian thriller novels. That may well have been a mistake, because Living Lies didn’t measure up. But the other two novels were both from multi-published award-winning authors, and I fully expect one or both of those other novels to feature in various 2020 award lists. So it may not be a fair comparison, given that Living Lies is the debut novel from Natalie Walters.

Lane Kent is the widowed mother of a young son, and the owner of a small-town bakery. She lives a quiet life, but that changes when she discovers a body in the woods. Charlie Lynch, the new deputy in town, is assigned to the case. This brings him into contact with Lane and her son. The police think the case a suicide at first, but it soon becomes apparent that it’s a murder … a murder to hide another crime.

Living Lies is one of the few Christian novels I’ve read that depicts mental health issues in a realistic way.

In addition, it was refreshing to see Christian fiction where the mental health issue wasn’t PTSD resulting from the hero’s time in military service in some place with more sand than water. After all, Christian fiction readers tend to be women, so it’s good and healthy to see a romance novel dealing with an all-too-common mental health issue that affects women as much as or more than men.

But there were a few things which bothered me.

One was the heroine’s name: Lane Kent. Every time I saw it, my brain thought “Lois Lane and Clark Kent”. Yeah, that’s weird. But it is what it is. Another botheration was a research fact: I’ve heard (from a forensic pathologist) that Jane Does are identified by fingerprints, dental records, or DNA—not by distraught parents (apparently, distraught friends and relatives have a nasty habit of getting IDs wrong, especially when bodies have been in the woods for a few days).

The final botheration was Lane’s father’s attitude towards her depression. He came across overbearing and controlling for most of the novel. I later realised this was the attitude of a caring and protective father who didn’t know how to deal with something he didn’t understand, but by then the damage had been done. I’d been set up to not like him, and I didn’t.

Overall, Living Lies was a solid first novel that addresses issues most Christian fiction ignores.

It was perhaps a bit too careful to tick all the plot and character boxes (but that’s better than the opposite), and I’ll look forward to seeing what Natalie Walters can produce next.

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

About Natalie Walters

Natalie WaltersNatalie Walters is a military wife who currently resides in Hawaii with her soldier husband and their three kids. She writes full-time and has been published in Proverbs 31 magazine and has blogged for Guideposts online. Natalie comes from a long line of military and law enforcement veterans and is passionate about supporting them through volunteer work, races, and writing stories that affirm no one is defined by their past.

Find Natalie Walters online at:

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About Living Lies

In the little town of Walton, Georgia, everybody knows your name–but no one knows your secret. At least that’s what Lane Kent is counting on when she returns to her hometown with her five-year-old son. Dangerously depressed after the death of her husband, Lane is looking for hope. What she finds instead is a dead body.

Lane must work with Walton’s newest deputy, Charlie Lynch, to uncover the truth behind the murder. But when that truth hits too close to home, she’ll have to decide if saving the life of another is worth the cost of revealing her darkest secret.

Debut novelist Natalie Walters pulls you to the edge of your seat on the first page and keeps you there until the last in this riveting story that will have you believing no one is defined by their past.

Find Living Lies online at:

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Read the introduction to Living Lies below:

#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:

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Read the introduction to Missing Isaac below:

Click here to find Missing Isaac and other great Christian fiction at my Amazon store!

#ThrowbackThursday | Thin Ice by Irene Hannon

It’s Throwback Thursday! Today I’m resharing my review of Thin Ice by Irene Hannon. This review originally appeared at Suspense Sisters Reviews.

Thin Ice started with a bang and didn’t let up all the way right to the last page. Lance McGregor is a brand new FBI agent who finds himself with a mystery involving Christy Reed, an attractive ice skater who appears to be receiving letters from her sister, who supposedly died in a house fire two months earlier. Lance and Christy are both excellent characters, and their mutual attraction almost sizzles on the page.

Hannon adds to the tension by including scenes from the viewpoint of the kidnapper, and these were well done: too many novelists give their evildoers horrific childhoods, as though that is to blame for their adult actions. Hannon shows that while this antagonist did have a difficult upbringing, he was also a cruel boy who has grown up to be a cruel man who blames others for his less-than-perfect life.

It’s classic Irene Hannon

A strong hero with a military background (and the emotional baggage that brings), a beautiful yet self-sufficient heroine who understands people (especially the hero), a suspense-driven plot with plenty of unpredictable twists and turns, and a strong underlying romantic tension. Add in a good dose of Christian faith, and you’ve got a classic Irene Hannon novel. She’s one of my favourite romantic suspense authors, and she delivers another winner with On Thin Ice. Recommended for romantic suspense fans.

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

About Irene Hannon

Author Photo: Irene Hannon

Irene Hannon is the best-selling author of more than 35 novels. Her books have been honored with the coveted RITA Award from Romance Writers of America, the HOLT Medallion, the Reviewer’s Choice Award from Romantic Times BOOKreviews magazine and the Daphne du Maurier Award for mystery/suspense. Irene and her husband make their home in Missouri, USA.

Find Irene Hannon online at:

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About Thin Ice

After losing her parents in a car accident and her sister to a house fire, Christy Reed has been mired in grief. Life is finally starting to feel normal again when an envelope arrives in the mail–addressed in her sister’s handwriting. And the note inside claims she is still alive.

FBI Special Agent Lance McGregor, a former Delta Force operator, is assigned to reopen the case, but he’s coming up with more questions than answers. If Ginny Reed is still alive–who is the woman buried in her grave? Where is Ginny? And is Christy a pawn in a twisted cat-and-mouse game–or the target of a sinister plot? As he digs deeper, one thing becomes clear: whoever is behind the bizarre ruse has a deadly agenda.

You can find Thin Ice online at:

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You can read the introduction to Thin Ice below:

Quote from A Secret to Die For: My name's Grace Callahan and someone's just broken into my house.

Book Review | A Secret to Die For by Lisa Harris

Another Gripping Thriller from Lisa Harris

Psychologist Grace Callahan suspected her client Stephen Shaw might be suffering from paranoia … but she reconsiders after a masked man breaks into her house looking for the key Shaw supposedly gave her.

It’s Detective Nathaniel Quinn’s first day back on the job when he’s assigned a suicide case that turns out to be murder. The victim is Stephen Shaw, and Grace’s business card is in Shaw’s pocket. It turns out that Nate used to be friends with Grace and her ex-husband.

Shaw worked in computer security and was also contracted to the FBI … or was he? A cryptic telephone message leads Grace and Nate on a chase to find the killer before the killer finds her.

A Secret to Die for is Christian romantic suspense at its best. The suspense starts on page one and doesn’t let up, while the the romantic thread takes a little longer to get going (which is appropriate. I’m always suspect of the relationships that begin in a high-stress situation, because I’m not convinced they’ll last). The Christian element is an underlying theme that gets more and more pronounced as the story progresses.

Overall, A Secret to Die for is another great romantic suspense novel from Lisa Harris. Recommended for fans of Irene Hannon and Diann Mills.

As an aside, I’m seeing a lot of suspense titles with these pink/purple covers with white text, and I love the effect!

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

About Lisa Harris

Lisa HarrisI’m a wife, mom, teacher, author, dreamer, photographer, world explorer, but most importantly a follower of Christ Jesus.

I currently live with my husband near the Indian Ocean in Mozambique where we work as church-planting missionaries. We’ve started the empty next stage with two children spread around the globe and a third—thankfully—still at home.

As a homeschooling mom, life is busy, but I see my writing as an extension of my ministry which also includes running a non-profit organization.

The ECHO Project works in southern Africa promoting Education, Compassion, Health, and Opportunity and is a way for us to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves…the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice.” (Proverbs 31:8)

When I’m not working l love hanging out with my family at the beach, playing games, cooking different ethnic dishes, and heading into the African bush on safari.

Find Lisa Harris online at:

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About A Secret to Die For

Psychologist Grace Callahan has no idea that she has a secret–one worth killing for. But when she finds out one of her clients has been murdered, she quickly realizes that the computer security specialist wasn’t simply suffering from paranoia.

Detective Nate Quinn has just been cleared for active duty after a bombing killed eighteen people, including his partner, and left him dealing with PTSD. His first case back on the job involves the murder of Stephen Shaw, and his only lead turns out to be an old friend, Grace Callahan–and her life is in grave danger. Someone believes Shaw gave his psychologist information before he died. Information they are willing to kill for.

With her signature pulse-pounding suspense, Lisa Harris takes readers deep into the heart of fear in this race against the clock.

Find A Secret to Die For online at:

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Read the introduction to A Secret to Die For below:

Click here to check out A Secret to Die For and other great Christian fiction at my Amazon shop!

First Line Friday

First Line Friday | Week 42 | The Theory of Happily Ever After

It’s First Line Friday, which means it’s time to open the book nearest you and share the first line. Today I’m sharing from The Theory of Happily Ever After by Kristen Billerbeck. I’m actually sharing the first two lines, because the first line only makes sense if you also read the second.

Here’s the first line:

First line: Life is filled with irony. I mean, I wrote the book on bliss, and currently I am the most miserable person I know.

About The Theory of Happily Ever After

According to Dr. Maggie Maguire, happiness is serious science, as serious as Maggie takes herself. But science can’t always account for life’s anomalies–for instance, why her fiancé dumped her for a silk-scarf acrobat and how the breakup sent Maggie spiraling into an extended ice cream-fueled chick flick binge.

Concerned that she might never pull herself out of this nosedive, Maggie’s friends book her as a speaker on a “New Year, New You” cruise in the Gulf of Mexico. Maggie wonders if she’s qualified to teach others about happiness when she can’t muster up any for herself. But when a handsome stranger on board insists that smart women can’t ever be happy, Maggie sets out to prove him wrong. Along the way she may discover that happiness has far less to do with the head than with the heart.

Filled with memorable characters, snappy dialogue, and touching romance, Kristin Billerbeck’s The Theory of Happily Ever After shows that the search for happiness may be futile–because sometimes happiness is already out there searching for you.

You can find The Theory of Happily Ever After 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!

#ThrowbackThursday | Pursued by Lisa Harris (Nikki Boyd #3)

It’s Throwback Thursday! Today I’m sharing a review I originally wrote for Suspense Sisters Reviews in May 2017, the third book in the Nikki Boyd series by Lisa Harris. Spoiler: if you like suspense novels, you should read the whole series, starting with Vendetta.

Pursued starts with a bang, literally, as Nikki Boyd’s plane crashes. No one notices the woman she was sitting beside disappear in the confusion following the crash, and when Nikki questions investigators, they seem to think she is traumatised and hallucinating, because the flight manifest says the seat next to her was empty.

That’s soon cleared up, and now Nikki has two days to find the missing Erika Hamilton. The race is on, and the pace never lets up. There are constant twists and turns as Nikki and her partner follow a trail of clues to find Nikki … and realise she’s not the only person they need to find. It’s a great plot, and a great read.

Pursued is the third book in The Nikki Boyd Files, and I hope it’s not the last! The series has an overall storyline of Nikki joining the police force to find her younger sister, who went missing ten years ago. There is also the romantic element, with her developing relationship with Tyler, the husband of Nikki’s dead best friend. I’d like to see these storylines resolved before I say goodbye to Nikki.

Pursued is a standalone novel and you don’t have to have read the earlier books in the series to understand it. But if you’re a suspense fan, you’ll want to read them all and it would be best to read them in order: Vendetta, then Missing, then Pursued. Recommended for all Christian suspense fans.

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

About Lisa Harris

Lisa HarrisI’m a wife, mom, teacher, author, dreamer, photographer, world explorer, but most importantly a follower of Christ Jesus.

I currently live with my husband near the Indian Ocean in Mozambique where we work as church-planting missionaries. We’ve started the empty next stage with two children spread around the globe and a third—thankfully—still at home.

As a homeschooling mom, life is busy, but I see my writing as an extension of my ministry which also includes running a non-profit organization.

The ECHO Project works in southern Africa promoting Education, Compassion, Health, and Opportunity and is a way for us to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves…the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice.” (Proverbs 31:8)

When I’m not working l love hanging out with my family at the beach, playing games, cooking different ethnic dishes, and heading into the African bush on safari.

Find Lisa Harris online at:

Website | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter

About Pursued

Nikki Boyd’s flight into Nashville was routine–up until the crash landing at the airport. When the dust settles, Nikki discovers that the woman who had been seated next to her on the plane is missing–and no one will admit she was ever there. Erika Hamilton had been flying to Nashville with an air marshal as a key witness in an upcoming grand jury trial. When she flees from the crash, is she running from trouble or straight into it? Before Nikki can even see her family, she and her team are pulled into a missing persons case where the motives are as unclear as the suspects.

Bestselling and award-winning author Lisa Harris has planted danger around every turn in this can’t-put-it-down thrill ride that will leave readers stunned.

You can find Pursued online at:

Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

You can read the introduction to Pursued below:

Book Review | Lady Jayne Disappears by Joanna Davidson Politano

I’m not the biggest fan of writers writing novels about writers—it seems to take the advice to “write what you know” a little too literally for my taste. But Lady Jayne Disappears worked in spite of this, perhaps because Aurelie Harcourt is the transcriber for author Nathaniel Droll rather than the author himself … although that changes as the story moves forward.

Aurelie is trying to find the identity of her mother, who disappeared from her ancestral home of Lyndhurst Manor when she was a baby. Mr Rotherham is trying to find the identity of Nathaniel Droll (great name, by the way). And various members of the Harcourt household are keeping their own secrets as well …

Lady Jayne Disappears has a strong plot with an intriguing mystery and more than a hint of romance. The characters are strong and likeable, and many have their own secrets which adds to the overall mystery. The writing was excellent. I especially liked the many lines about reading and writing. Here are a few of my favourite:

Fiction was not always a lie, but a truth told in parallel to real life. A pill of advice disguised in an easy-to-swallow tale.

Reading is the perfect way to engage and excite your mind while appearing to merely pass the time.

There were also some excellent lines about human nature, such as:

Every girl is born with the ability to be herself. Many simply unlearn it because they do not like who that is, and they thing no one else will either.

I also liked the strong Christian thread, and the distinction between religion and true Christianity:

This house simply oozes religion, but has precious little of God.

My one problem with Lady Jayne Disappears was the number of anachronisms. I’m a history fan and a marketing major, and a character discussing book marketing in Victorian England isn’t right (my dictionary confirms my marketing lecturer was right: “marketing” in Victorian England was the activity of going to the market). Victorian English residents were also unlikely to “schlep”, and didn’t write checks (okay, that’s an Americanism rather than an anachronism). I also suspect they were more likely to eat French pastries than Danish.

I know, I know. Most people won’t notice these things, and they certainly shouldn’t allow them to detract from a solid debut novel with a unique twist. I hope to see more of Aurelie and Nathaniel Droll in future.

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

About Joanna Davidson Politano

Author Photo - Joanna Davidson PolitanoJoanna Davidson Politano freelances for a small nonfiction publisher but spends much of her time spinning tales that capture the colorful, exquisite details in ordinary lives.

Her manuscript for Lady Jayne Disappears was a finalist for several contests, including the 2016 Genesis Award from ACFW, and won the OCW Cascade Award and the Maggie Award for Excellence.

She is always on the hunt for random acts of kindness, people willing to share their deepest secrets with a stranger, and hidden stashes of sweets. She lives with her husband and their two babies in a house in the woods near Lake Michigan.

You can find Joanna online at:

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About Lady Jayne Disappears

Book Cover - Lady Jayne DIsappearsWhen Aurelie Harcourt’s father dies in debtor’s prison, he leaves her just two things: his wealthy family, whom she has never met, and his famous pen name, Nathaniel Droll. Her new family greets her with apathy and even resentment. Only the quiet houseguest, Silas Rotherham, welcomes her company.

When Aurelie decides to complete her father’s unfinished serial novel, writing the family into the story as unflattering characters, she must keep her identity as Nathaniel Droll hidden while searching for the truth about her mother’s disappearance–and perhaps even her father’s death.

Author Joanna Davidson Politano’s stunning debut set in Victorian England will delight readers with its highly original plot, lush setting, vibrant characters, and reluctant romance.

You can find Lady Jayne Disappears online at:

Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

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