Where I share my love of books with reviews, features, giveaways and memes. Family and needlepoint are thrown in from time to time.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Can't Stop Believing by Jodi Thomas (Book Review) w/ a guest post by Jodi Thomas!

Title: Can't Stop Believing
Author: Jodi Thomas
Publisher: Berkley

About the Book: NY Times and USA Today bestselling author Jodi Thomas takes us back to Harmony, Texas, in CAN’T STOP BELIEVING. The sixth book in her popular Harmony series presents a story where big dreams are brewing—and anything and everything is possible…

Cord McMillan gave up his freedom at eighteen when he went to jail for a crime he didn't commit. Now, ten years later, he's about to give it up again for a piece of land. Nevada Britain, his neighbor, has just made him an offer he can't refuse: If he'll marry her, she'll sign over a section of property that their families have been fighting over for a hundred years. Nevada refuses to ex-plain why, but Cord knows the bargain is in his favor. 

He just has one condition--she has to sleep in his bed every night as long as their doomed marriage lasts.  

Nevada only wants to maintain her family's legacy--and redeem herself for a wrong she did Cord years ago. But as she spends more time with her husband by necessity, she discovers something unexpected--a love so deep it takes her breath away. 

“Another winner...Fans will be delighted.”
-Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Compelling and beautifully written.”
-Debbie Macomber, #1 New York TImes Bestselling author


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My thoughts: First I want to apologize to Jodi for being late with my review.  She is one of the nicest authors I have ever worked with and I hate it that I missed my review date!  And I absolute love her Harmony series.  

This is book 6 in the series, and I have loved - loved - loved - the ones that I have had the good fortune to read! (Welcome to Harmony, Book 1; Somewhere Along the Way, Book 2; The Comforts of Home, Book 3) and really hope that I can fit the two I missed in my reading schedule! (Just Down the Road, Book 4Chance of a Lifetime, Book 5)

I think the reason that I like her books so much is that her characters are flawed, which makes them so real.  They have things in their pasts that they are ashamed of, but those things have helped shape who they are.  They are not always the best looking, like you seem to find in all the romance novels. They might be overweight, or handicapped, or made to feel homely or unloved, but this just makes them more believable.  These are people that you could meet in your hometown, or right next door.

The books in the series, while they might focus on a person or couple, are really about all the people in the town.  You never know who might show up from previous books, or who you might be meeting that is going to be a major player in a book down the road. I loved it that this book, Can't Stop Believing, revisited Ronny from The Comforts of Home and brought some closure to a chapter in her life, as well as Tyler Wright, whom we met in Welcome to Harmony.

By no means don't think that you have to read them in order though!  Like I said, I missed two books in the middle, but that did not affect this storyline at all.  I think what it will do though, is make you hungry for more and you will find yourself traveling back to Harmony again and again.



About the Author: Jodi Thomas is the NY Times and USA Today bestselling author of 37 novels and 11 short story collections. In June 2011, WELCOME
TO HARMONY, the first book in the Harmony series, won a RITA, the highest award for women’s
fiction. Jodi currently serves as the Writer in Residence at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas.

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From the day I started writing CAN’T STOP BELIEVING, I felt like I was surrounded by people I could love.  These characters walked off the pages and said hello.  I had to laugh when Martha Q, a widow seven times married, forms a writing group and then decides to help folks out whether they want it or not.  I cried when Ronny first sees a love she thought she’d lost.  And I fell in love with Cord and Nevada as they fought their way through all the baggage they both carried to find something worth keeping.

People often ask me where my characters come from.  In truth, I don’t feel like I make them up.  I feel more like they sit down across the desk and talk to me as I write.  They tell me the story and some nights I stay up longer to get it all down.

Cord McMillan stopped my heart when I first saw him.  He was a man trying to stand tall even after life had done its best to knock him down.  He doesn’t think he has a friend in the world and every time someone shows him a kindness, he pays it back double.  He can’t believe it when his rich, spoiled neighbor offers a bargain he can’t turn down.  He offers her the one thing she can’t buy, honesty.

CAN’T STOP BELIEVING will warm your heart.  The people of Harmony will stay with you long after you finish reading.  Come along with me into a story that will make you laugh and cry and fall in love for the first time, for the last time, forever.

Enjoy the book,

Jodi Thomas



3 comments:

Sandie said...

This book needs to be on my MRL. It sounds fantastic!

bermudaonion said...

I can tell how much you love this author's work. I'm adding her to my list of authors I need to try.

Vicki said...

I've never read a book by this author. The book sounds good, so I'm adding her to my "authors I need to check out" list.

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