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

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Library Loot 2-18-09



Went to the library last night with Hubby and Son - I always feel guilty getting books from the library because I have too many arcs to read right now! We needed to go to get my son some new books though, and I can't resist checking out a couple for myself!



Title: Bitten
Author: Kelley Armstrong

From the cover: Young, beautiful, and successful, Elena Michaels seems to have it all. Her happy, organized life follows a predictable pattern: filing stories for her job as a journalist, working out at the gym, living with her architect boyfriend, and lunching with her girlfriends from the office. And once a week, in the dead of night, she streaks through a downtown ravine, naked and furred, tearing at the throats of her animal prey.
Elena Michaels is a werewolf.
The man who made her one has been left behind, but his dark legacy has not. And though Elena struggles to maintain the normal life she's worked so hard to create, she cannot resist the call of the elite pack of werewolves from her past. Her feral instincts will lead her back to them and into a desperate war for survival that will test her own understanding of who, and what, she is.





Title: Lost Girls: A Sherry Moore Novel
Author: George D. Shuman
From the cover: In Lost Girls, bestselling author George D. Shuman's riveting new thriller, beautiful blind psychic Sherry Moore becomes embroiled in her most perilous and disturbing case to date and finds that the lives of hundreds of women hand in the balance.
Sherry Moore would do anything for her confidant and best friend, retired Admiral Garland Brigham. So when he suddenly asks her to assist a team of U.S. Navy SEALs in a daring high-altitude rescue on Mount McKinley, she doesn't hesitate and soon finds herself flying across the country to hang vertically off an Alaskan cliff, tethered to Captain Brian Metcalf. Sherry, renowned for her ability to see the last eighteen seconds of a deceased person's memory, takes the hand of a dead climber, hoping to ascertain the whereabouts of his missing climbing team. But what she sees leaves her with visions that will haunt her long past Alaska.
While rumors of slave girls being trafficked around the Caribbean have circulated for years, little credible evidence has been uncovered about these "lost girls." When detective inspector Rolly King George recovers the body of a young blond woman, naked except for a shocking tattoo branded onto her cheek, he knows she may hold he key to toppling this criminal underworld. Through delicate back-channel negotiations, Sherry arrives in Kingston, Jamaica, to see the deceased and finds that things are more complicated than she thought: the remains are of Jill Bishop, an American teenager last seen in a Santo Domingo marketplace.
Carol Bishop, relentless in her pursuit to find out how her daughter died, and Sherry, the distressing images from Mount McKinley still fresh in her memory, embark on a frantic hunt for clues from the Dominican Republic to the remote jungles of Haiti, racing against time to save others from Jill's fate. Along the way, Sherry must confront a legendary voodoo priest, who possesses abilities eerily similar to her own and take on a man whose depraved practices give new meaning to the word evil.




My son racked up some books though:

Shape Space

Sailor Boy Jig

Freight Train

Curious George and the Hot-Air Balloon

Curious George and the Dump Truck

Kipper's Toybox

Maisy's morning on the Farm

Sheep in a Jeep

Hoppity Skip Little Chick

The Bestest Mom

So go visit Eva at A Striped Armchair and let her know what you checked out this week!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The Quote Game

Rebecca over at I'm Lost in Books has started a new weekly game! She is going to select a topic each week (this week it's dreams) and then we leave a comment on her post with our quote! It's fun to see all the different ways one word can be conveyed in writing. So head on over with your quotes for this week.

Where Are You? 2-17-2009


I am currently on a plane leaving South Korea - it is the country from whence I came, but I remember nothing of it - I cannot even speak the language. Olivier, my companion and lover is with me - we are now on our way to Hong Kong for Olivier's business. (From Trail of Crumbs by Kim Sunee)




Where is your reading taking you? Hosted over at An Adventure in Reading.

Teaser Tuesday 2-17-2009


TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:
Grab your current read.
Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
Please avoid spoilers!

Her lip starts to quiver, and then she buries her face in the towel. "I think he's going to have to do some time." (From - Trail of Crumbs by Kim Sunee, p271)

Monday, February 16, 2009

I ♥ Faces




I found a new blog that has photo contests every week - and I loved looking at all the pictures so much, thought I would enter one of my own.


This week's theme is *wonder*



So go on over to I ♥ Faces and get in on the fun!

Mailbox Monday 2-16-09




I love Mondays - because I get to take a closer look at the books I got during the week! When I see the UPS man on our street, I am disappointed when he doesn't stop at our house. Does anyone else feel that way?

Here are the books I got this week -



Title: To My Senses
Author: Alexandrea Weis

I received this book directly from the author. Thanks Alexandrea!

From the back cover: Sometimes love is the inspiration that can awaken you to your destiny.

For Nicci Beauvoir, disillusioned New Orleans debutante, life is about practicalities until she meets a secretive struggling artist and part-time gigolo named David Alexander. In his arms she learns of passion and he finds his artistic muse. But jealous rivals and intrigues conspire against them and a broken hearted Nicci turns to the cold and manipulative Dr. Michael Fagles for comfort. Soon fate and family intervene to save Nicci from a life without love. But her salvation comes with a tragic price that changes the course of her life forever.





Title: Kill For Me
Author: Karen Rose
I received this from Hachette Books - thanks Renee!



(This is the third book in the Daniel Vartanian series - I read and reviewed book 2 Scream For Me here.)

Five teenage girls have been viciously attacked. One survived. Only she can reveal the secrets of a disturbing ring of people who kidnap and sell teenage girls on the black market. But those responsible for the crimes will do whatever it takes to maintain her silence.

Susannah Vartanian and Luke Papadopoulos have both sworn to stop the murderers for their own personal reasons. The investigation leads them to the shady realm of Internet chat rooms, where anyone can mask his or her identity. They soon discover a chain of deception so intricate they don't know whom to trust. Finding comfort in each other's arms, they begin to unravel the intricately knotted threads, but the killers are ruthless and determined, and won't hesitate to take extreme measures to insure their anonymity and keep their business intact. When Susannah proves to be inexplicably linked to the crimes, her life is soon in danger, and Luke will do everything he can to save the woman he loves.





I also received the first book in the series last week from Paperback Swap!


Title: Die For Me
Author: Karen Rose

COME TO ME - The first victim is found in a snow-covered Philadelphia field. Detective Vito Ciccotelli enlists the aid of archaeologist Sophie Johannsen to determine exactly what lies beneath the frozen ground. Despite years of unearthing things long buried, nothing can prepare Sophie for the matrix of graves dug with chilling precision. The victims buried there haunt her. But the empty graves terrify her-the killer isn't done yet.
SCREAM FOR ME - He is cold and calculating, the master of a twisted game. Even with Vito and Sophie hot on his trail, he will not stop. One more empty grave must be filled, and one last scream must be heard-the scream of an archaeologist who is too close for comfort and too near to resist...DIE FOR ME



Title: Unpolished Gem: My Mother, My Grandmother, and Me
Author: Alice Pung

I received this book through Penguin Group via Shelf Awareness.

From the back cover: Alice Pung's family fled the killing fields of Cambodia, arriving in Australia with only one empty suitcase and Alice in her mother's womb. Her father chose her name because he thought their new country was a Wonderland.

In this lyrical, bittersweet memoir - already hailed with several prestigious awards - Alice grows up straddling two worlds, East and West, her insular family and the Australia outside. With wisdom beyond her years and a keen eye for comedy in everyday life, she writes of the trials of assimilation and cultural misunderstanding, and of the tender but fraught relationships between three generations of women trying to live the Australian dream without losing themselves.

There is a Cambodian saying that states: "A girl is like white cotton wool - once dirtied it can never be clean again. A boy is like a gem - the more you polish it, the more it shines." Alice's memoir shows us the depths of beauty and untapped potential hidden just beneath the surface. Unpolished Gem is a moving vivid journey about identity and the ultimate search for acceptance and healing, delivered by a writer possessed of rare empathy, penetrating insight, and undeniable narrative gifts.




Title: Woman into Wolf: A True Crime Tale
Author: Alysse Aallyn

This book was offered to me by The Midnight Reader.

Short description: All is not right in the envied life of Persey Royall, trophy wife with a gift for unearthing cadavers. . . one of whom seems to be her husband's long dead twin brother. . . coming back with a vengeance.



Title: Ruby Among Us
Author: Tina Ann Forkner

I won this one off of Patty LeBlanc's blog - Thanks Patty and Tina!

From the back cover: Lucy DiCamillo is safely surrounded by her books, music, and art - but none of these reclusive comforts or even the protective efforts of her grandmother, Kitty, can shield her thoughts from the mother she can barely recall. Lucy senses her grandmother holds the key, but Kitty seems as eager to hide the past as Lucy is eager to find it.

From the streets of San Francisco and Sacramento to the lush vineyards of the Sonoma Valley, Lucy follows the thread of memory in search of a heritage that seems long-buried with her mother, Ruby.

What she finds is as enigmatic and stirring as it is startling in this redemptive tale about the power of faith and mother-daughter love.



Title: Daniel's Den
Author: Brandt Dodson

This book was received for a First Wild Card Tour coming up soon!

From the back cover: Daniel is a successful stock analyst in New Orleans. Laura operates a bed and breakfast in the Shenandoah Valley. He is wealthy, enjoys racquetball, and lives with Elvis, a black lab. She is a struggling single mother, works two jobs, and lives with her young son, Andy.

But when unseen forces send hit men after each of them, a twist of fate drives them together as they are forced to flee their common enemy. In a high stakes game of cat-and-mouse, they learn just how big the cat can be. And that it's no game.


Visit Mailbox Mondays over at The Printed Page and see what everyone else received!

First Wild Card Tour - Gingham Mountain by Mary Connealy

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!



You never know when I might play a wild card on you!





Today's Wild Card author is:





and the book:



Gingham Mountain (Lassoed in Texas, Book 3)

Barbour Books (February 1, 2009)



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:




MARY CONNEALY is married to Ivan a farmer, and she is the mother of four beautiful daughters, Joslyn, Wendy, Shelly and Katy. Mary is a GED Instructor by day and an author by night. And there is always a cape involved in her transformation.





Visit the author's website.



Product Details:



List Price: $10.97

Paperback: 288 pages

Publisher: Barbour Books (February 1, 2009)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1602601410

ISBN-13: 978-1602601413



AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:





Sour Springs, Texas, 1870





Martha had an iron rod where most people had a backbone.



Grant smiled as he pulled his team to a stop in front of the train station in Sour Springs, Texas.



She also had a heart of gold—even if the old bat wouldn’t admit it. She was going to be thrilled to see him and scold him the whole time.



“It’s time to get back on the train.” Martha Norris, ever the disciplinarian, had a voice that could back down a starving Texas wildcat, let alone a bunch of orphaned kids. It carried all the way across the street as Grant jumped from his wagon and trotted toward the depot. He’d almost missed them. He could see the worry on Martha’s face.



Wound up tight from rushing to town, Grant knew he was late. But now that he was here, he relaxed. It took all of his willpower not to laugh at Martha, the old softy.



He hurried toward them. If it had only been Martha he would have laughed, but there was nothing funny about the two children with her. They were leftovers.



A little girl, shivering in the biting cold, her thin shoulders hunched against the wind, turned back toward the train. Martha, her shoulders slumped with sadness at what lay ahead for these children, rested one of her competent hands on the child’s back.



Grant noticed the girl limping. That explained why she hadn’t been adopted. No one wanted a handicapped child. As if limping put a child so far outside of normal she didn’t need love and a home. Controlling the slow burn in his gut, Grant saw the engineer top off the train’s water tank. They’d be pulling out of the station in a matter of minutes.



“Isn’t this the last stop, Mrs. Norris?” A blond-headed boy stood, stony-faced, angry, scared.



“Yes, Charlie, it is.”



His new son’s name was Charlie. Grant picked up his pace.



Martha sighed. “We don’t have any more meetings planned.”



“So, we have to go back to New York?” Charlie, shivering and thin but hardy compared to the girl, scowled as he stood on the snow-covered platform, six feet of wood separating the train from the station house.



Grant had never heard such a defeated question.



The little girl’s chin dropped and her shoulders trembled.



What was he thinking? He heard defeat from unwanted children all the time.



Charlie slipped his threadbare coat off his shoulders even though the wind cut like a knife through Grant’s worn-out buckskin jacket.



Grant’s throat threatened to swell shut with tears as he watched that boy sacrifice the bit of warmth he got from that old coat.



Stepping behind Martha, Charlie wrapped his coat around the girl. She shuddered and practically burrowed into the coat as if it held the heat of a fireplace, even as she shook her head and frowned at Charlie.



“Just take the stupid thing.” Charlie glared at the girl.



After studying him a long moment, the little girl, her eyes wide and sad, kept the coat.



Mrs. Norris stayed his hands. “That’s very generous, Charlie, but you can’t go without a coat.”



“I don’t want it. I’m gonna throw it under the train if she don’t take it.” The boy’s voice was sharp and combative. A bad attitude. That could keep a boy from finding a home.



Grant hurried faster across the frozen ruts of Sour Springs Main Street toward the train platform and almost made it. A tight grip on his arm stopped him. Surprised, he turned and saw that irksome woman who’d been hounding him ever since she’d moved to town. What was her name? Grant’d made of point of not paying attention to her. She usually yammered about having his shirts sewn in her shop.



“Grant, it’s so nice to see you.”



It took all his considerable patience to not jerk free. Shirt Lady was unusually tall, slender, and no one could deny she was pretty, but she had a grip like a mule skinner, and Grant was afraid he’d have a fight on his hands to get his arm back.



Grant touched the brim of his battered Stetson with his free hand. “Howdy, Miss. I’m afraid I’m in a hurry today.”



A movement caught his eye, and he turned to look at his wagon across the street. Through the whipping wind he could see little, but Grant was sure someone had come alongside his wagon. He wished it were true so he could palm this persistent pest off on an unsuspecting neighbor.



Shirt Lady’s grip tightened until it almost hurt through his coat. She leaned close, far closer than was proper to Grant’s way of thinking.



“Why don’t you come over to my place and warm yourself before you head back to the ranch. I’ve made pie, and it’s a lonely kind of day.” She fluttered her lashes until Grant worried she’d gotten dirt in her eye. He considered sending her to Doc Morgan for medical care.



The train chugged and reminded Grant he was almost out of time. “Can’t stop now, Miss.” What was her name? How many times had she spoken to him? A dozen if it was three. “There are some orphans left on the platform, and they need a home. I’ve got to see to ’em.”



Something flashed in her eyes for a second before she controlled it. He knew that look. She didn’t like orphans. Well, then what was she doing talking to him? He came with a passel of ’em. Grant shook himself free.



“We’ll talk another time then.”



Sorely afraid they would, Grant tugged on his hat brim again and ran. His boots echoed on the depot stairs. He reached the top step just as Martha turned to the sound of his clomping. She was listening for him even when she shouldn’t be.



Grant couldn’t stand the sight of the boy’s thin shoulders covered only by the coarse fabric of his dirty, brown shirt. He pulled his gloves off, noticing as he did that the tips of his fingers showed through holes in all ten fingers.



“I’ll take ’em, Martha.” How was he supposed to live with himself if he didn’t? Grant’s spurs clinked as he came forward. He realized in his dash to get to town he’d worn his spurs even though he brought the buckboard. Filthy from working the cattle all morning, most of his hair had fallen loose from the thong he used to tie it back. More than likely he smelled like his horse. A razor hadn’t touched his face since last Sunday morning.



Never one to spend money on himself when his young’uns had needs—or might at any time—his coat hung in tatters, and his woolen union suit showed through a rip in his knee.



Martha ran her eyes up and down him and shook her head, suppressing a smile. “Grant, you look a fright.”



A slender young woman rose to her feet from where she sat at the depot. Her movements drew Grant’s eyes away from the forlorn children. From the look of the snow piling up on the young woman’s head, she’d been sitting here in the cold ever since the train had pulled in, which would have been the better part of an hour ago. She must have expected someone to meet her, but no one had.



When she stepped toward him, Grant spared her a longer glance because she was a pretty little thing, even though her dark brown hair hung in bedraggled strings from beneath her black bonnet and twisted into tangled curls around her chin. Her face was so dirty the blue of her eyes shined almost like the heart of a flame in a sooty lantern.



Grant stared at her for a moment. He recognized something in her eyes. If she’d been a child and looked at him with those eyes, he’d have taken her home and raised her.



Then the children drew his attention away from the tired, young lady.



Martha Norris shook her head. “You can’t handle any more, Grant. We’ll find someone, I promise. I won’t quit until I do.”



“I know that’s the honest truth.” Grant knew Martha had to protest; good sense dictated it. But she’d hand the young’uns over. “And God bless you for it. But this is the end of the line for the orphan train. You can’t do anything until you get back to New York. I’m not going to let these children take that ride.”



“Actually, Libby joined us after we’d left New York. It was a little irregular, but it’s obvious the child needs a home.” Martha kept looking at him shaking her head.



“Irregular how?” He tucked his tattered gloves behind his belt buckle.



“She stowed away.” Martha glanced at Libby. “It was the strangest thing. I never go back to the baggage car, but one of the children tore a hole in his pants. My sewing kit is always in the satchel I carry with me. I was sure I had it, but it was nowhere to be found. So I knew I’d most likely left it with my baggage. I went back to fetch it so I could mend the seam and found her hiding in amongst the trunks.”



Grant was reaching for the buttons on his coat, but he froze. “Are you sure she isn’t running away from home?” His stomach twisted when he thought of a couple of his children who had run off over the years. He’d been in a panic until he’d found them. “She might have parents somewhere, worried to death about her.”



“She had a note in her pocket explaining everything. I feel certain she’s an orphan. And I don’t know how long she was back there. She could have been riding with us across several states. I sent telegraphs to every station immediately, and I’m planning on leaving a note at each stop on my way back, but I hold out no hope that a family is searching for her.” Martha sighed as if she wanted to fall asleep on her feet.



Grant realized it wasn’t just the children who had a long ride ahead of them. One corner of Grant’s lips turned up. “Quit looking at me like that, Martha, or I’ll be thinking I have to adopt you so you don’t have to face the trip.”



Martha, fifty if she was a day, laughed. “I ought to take you up on that. You need someone to come out there and take your ranch in hand. Without a wife, who’s going to cook for all these children?”



“You’ve been out. You know how we run things. Everybody chips in.” The snow was getting heavier, and the wind blew a large helping of it down Grant’s neck. Grant ignored the cold in the manner of men who fought the elements for their living and won. He went back to unbuttoning his coat, then shrugged it off and dropped it on the boy’s shoulders. It hung most of the way to the ground.



Charlie tried to give the coat back. “I don’t want your coat, mister.”



Taking a long look at Charlie’s defiant expression, Grant fairly growled. “Keep it.”



Charlie held his gaze for a moment before he looked away. “Thank you.”



Grant gave his Stetson a quick tug to salute the boy’s manners. Snow sprang into the air as the brim of his hat snapped down and up. He watched it be swept up and around by the whipping wind then filter down around his face, becoming part of the blizzard that was getting stronger and meaner every moment.



Martha nodded. “If they limited the number of children one man could take, you’d be over it for sure.”



Grant controlled a shudder of cold as he pulled on his gloves. “Well, thank heavens there’s no limit. The oldest boy and the two older girls are just a year or so away from being out on their own. One of them’s even got a beau. I really need three more to take their places, but I’ll settle for two.”



Martha looked from one exhausted, filthy child to the other then looked back at Grant. “The ride back would be terribly hard on them.”



Grant crouched down in front of the children, sorry for the clink of his spurs which had a harsh sound and might frighten the little girl. Hoping his smile softened his grizzled appearance enough to keep the little girl from running scared, he said, “Well, what kind of man would I be if I stood by watching while something was terribly hard on you two? How’d you like to come out and live on my ranch? I’ve got other kids there, and you’ll fit right in to our family.”



“They’re not going to fit, Grant,” Martha pointed out through chattering teeth. “Your house is overflowing now.”



Grant had to admit she was right. “What difference does it make if we’re a little crowded, Martha? We’ll find room.”



The engineer swung out on the top step of the nearest car, hanging onto a handle in the open door of the huffing locomotive. “All aboard!”



The little girl looked fearfully between the train and Grant.



Looking at the way the little girl clung to Martha’s hand, Grant knew she didn’t want to go off with a strange man almost as much as she didn’t want to get back on that train.



“I’ll go with you.” The little boy narrowed his eyes as he moved to stand like a cranky guardian angel beside the girl.



Grant saw no hesitation in the scowling little boy, only concern for the girl. No fear. No second thoughts. He didn’t even look tired compared to the girl and Martha. He had intelligent blue eyes with the slyness a lot of orphans had. Not every child he’d adopted had made the adjustment without trouble. A lot of them took all of Grant’s prayers and patience. Grant smiled to himself. He had an unlimited supply of prayers, and the prayers helped him hang onto the patience.



Grant shivered under the lash of the blowing snow.



The boy shrugged out of the coat. “Take your coat back. The cold don’t bother me none.”



Grant stood upright and gently tugged the huge garment back around the boy’s neck and began buttoning it. “The cold don’t bother me none, neither. You’ll make a good cowboy, son. We learn to keep going no matter what the weather.” He wished he had another coat because the girl still looked miserable. Truth be told, he wouldn’t have minded one for himself.



Martha leaned close to Grant’s ear on the side away from the children. “Grant, you need to know that Libby hasn’t spoken a word since we found her. There was a note in her pocket that said she’s mute. She’s got a limp, too. It looks to me like she had a badly broken ankle some years ago that didn’t heal right. I’ll understand if you—”



Grant pulled away from Martha’s whispers as his eyebrows slammed together. Martha fell silent and gave him a faintly alarmed look. He tried to calm down before he spoke, matching her whisper. “You’re not going to insult me by suggesting I’d leave a child behind because she has a few problems, are you?”



Martha studied him then her expression relaxed. Once more she whispered, “No Grant. But you did need to be told. The only reason I know her name is because it was on the note. Libby pulled it out of her coat pocket as if she’d done it a thousand times, so chances are this isn’t a new problem, which probably means it’s permanent.”



Grant nodded his head with one taut jerk. “Obliged for the information then. Sorry I got testy.” Grant did his best to make it sound sincere, but it hurt, cut him right to the quick, for Martha to say such a thing to him after all these years.



“No, I’m sorry I doubted you.” Martha rested one hand on his upper arm. “I shouldn’t have, not even for a second.”



Martha eased back and spoke normally again. “We think Libby’s around six.” She swung Libby’s little hand back and forth, giving the girl an encouraging smile.



All Grant’s temper melted away as he looked at the child. “Hello, Libby.” Crouching back down to the little girl’s eye level, he gave the shivering tyke all of his attention.



Too tiny for six and too thin for any age, she had long dark hair caught in a single bedraggled braid and blue eyes awash in fear and wishes. Her nose and cheeks were chapped and red. Her lips trembled. Grant hoped it was from the cold and not from looking at the nasty man who wanted to take her away.



“I think you’ll like living on my ranch. I’ve got the biggest backyard to play in you ever saw. Why, the Rocking C has a mountain rising right up out of the back door. You can collect eggs from the chickens. I’ve got some other kids and they’ll be your brothers and sisters, and we’ve got horses you can ride.”



Libby’s eyes widened with interest, but she never spoke. Well, he’d had ’em shy before.



“I can see you’ll like that. I’ll start giving you riding lessons as soon as the snow lets up.” Grant ran his hand over his grizzled face. “I should have shaved and made myself more presentable for you young’uns. I reckon I’m a scary sight. But the cattle were acting up this morning. There’s a storm coming, and it makes ’em skittish. By the time I could get away, I was afraid I’d miss the train.”



Grant took Libby’s little hand, careful not to move suddenly and frighten her, and rubbed her fingers on his whiskery face.



She snatched her hand away, but she grinned.



The smile transformed Libby’s face. She had eyes that had seen too much and square shoulders that had borne a lifetime of trouble. Grant vowed to himself that he’d devote himself to making her smile.



“I’ll shave it off before I give you your first good night kiss.”



The smile faded, and Libby looked at him with such longing Grant’s heart turned over with a father’s love for his new daughter. She’d gotten to him even faster than they usually did.



Martha reached past Libby to rest her hand on the boy’s shoulder. “And Charlie is eleven.”



Grant pivoted a bit on his toes and looked at Charlie again. A good-looking boy, but so skinny he looked like he’d blow over in a hard wind. Grant could fix that. The boy had flyaway blond hair that needed a wash and a trim. It was the hostility in his eyes that explained why he hadn’t found a home. Grant had seen that look before many times, including in a mirror.



As if he spoke to another man, Grant said, “Charlie, welcome to the family.”



Charlie shrugged as if being adopted meant nothing to him. “Are we supposed to call you pa?”



“That’d be just fine.” Grant looked back at the little girl. “Does that suit you, Libby?”



Libby didn’t take her lonesome eyes off Grant, but she pressed herself against Martha’s leg as if she wanted to disappear into Martha’s long wool coat.



The engineer shouted, “All aboard!” The train whistle sounded. A blast of steam shot across the platform a few feet ahead of them.



Libby jumped and let out a little squeak of surprise. Grant noted that the little girl’s voice worked, so most likely she didn’t talk for reasons of her own, not because of an injury. He wondered if she’d seen something so terrible she couldn’t bear to speak of it.



The boy reached his hand out for Libby. “We’ve been together for a long time, Libby. We can go together to the ranch. I’ll take care of you.”



Libby looked at Charlie as if he were a knight in shining armor. After some hesitation, she released her death grip on Martha and caught Charlie’s hand with both of hers.



“Did I hear you correctly?” A sharp voice asked from over Grant’s shoulder. “Are you allowing this man to adopt these children?”



Startled, Grant stood, turned, and bumped against a soft, cranky woman. He almost knocked her onto her backside—the lady who’d been waiting at the depot. He grabbed her or she’d have fallen on the slippery wood. Grant steadied her, warm and alive in his hands.






I have not read this book yet - but it will be soon! Watch for my review!

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Big Giveaway from Hachette Books at So Many Precious Books, So Little Time

Hachette Books (I love Hachette books!) is giving away a set of 11 books - yes 11 - to 5 lucky winners.

Here's what each set will include:
1. Love in 90 Days By Diana Kirschner
2.Sundays at Tiffany’s By James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet
3.Free Yourself to Love By Jackie Kendall
4.The Italian Lover By Robert Hellenga
5.Looking for Mrs. Friedman and Other Really Bad Ideas Steve Friedman
6. Getting Naked Again By Judith Sills
7.We Take This Man By Candice Dow and Daaimah Poole
8.Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me By Ben Karlin
9.Sexcapades By HoneyB
10.Love and Other Natural Disasters By Holly Shumas
11.Send Yourself Roses By Kathleen Turner

Get over to Teddy Rose's blog and get your name in!

The Lord's Prayer

My aunt sent me this clip and it was too adorable not to share! Hope you enjoy this.





Let's Be Friends Award


Audra over at Seriously? awarded me the Let's Be Friends Award. Thanks Audra!
Here's the criteria: These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.
She told me I didn't need to pass it on since I did it recently - so if you are reading this and you have not been awarded a Friends award yet - I do consider you my friend! Say hello and claim this for yourself!

Friday, February 13, 2009

The Friday 56 - 2-13-2009


Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of Storytime with Tonya and Friends.
*Post a link along with your post back to Storytime with Tonya and Friends.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

The closest book to me is Gatekeepers by Robert Liparulo -
He held a magazine closer to the dome light and read: "Authorities in West Virginia are investigating reports of unidentified lights in the sky, which correspond with the claims of a Braxton County woman that a 'monster' attacked her German shepherd and ate it. 'It was horrible,' said Nanci Kalanta.

Simple Wishes by Lisa Dale (Book Review)


Title: Simple Wishes
Author: Lisa Dale
Publisher: Forever/Hachette Book Group
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Available: Now


First Sentence: For her twelfth birthday, a classmate gave Adele a book of New York City in photographs.


Adele Matin is a woman with a problem. She made a careless mistake that cost her job in New York City at an art gallery. Without a job, her apartment soon followed. She returned home to Grumble Knot on Notch Lane (don't you just love these names!), a house which her mother Marge had left to her in her will. She hadn't been back to rural Pennsylvania since she was seventeen - when she had left with these thoughts - to make it in New York City and be rid of her past and her demanding and unloving mother for good. So her return to Grumble Knot seemed to her the worst possible thing that could happen, but she had no where else to go.


Jay Westvelt had been taking care of the cabin in the years since her mother had died. He was a recluse and an artist who lived in a cabin called Tarpaper - next to Grumble Knot. He and Adele soon become close, even though they both seem to have issues from the past that are threatening their future.


Beatrice is Adele's Korean neighbor who was also Marge's friend. She knows the secret that Marge did not want her daughter to find out. She also has a secret of her own. She does her best to keep Adele from digging into the past.


As Adele and Jay grow closer, Adele also begins closing in on the secrets that she is sure everyone is keeping from her. When she finally uncovers the truth, will it send her back to New York City where a new job in a new art gallery awaits? Or will she finally learn to trust and believe in love?


I enjoyed this book very much. It had conflict, romance, mystery, heartache. The characters were great and I felt like they were people I could actually meet! They were dealing with issues that are relevant today - conflicts between mothers and daughters, teenage sex, family skeletons. As for the romance factor, I enjoyed reading a book that wasn't "love at first sight - sparks flying" and then "happily ever after". Jay and Adele had to learn to trust each other and had fights and misunderstandings along the way. This was a good read for right before Valentine's Day!

Friday Finds - 2-13-09

Since tomorrow is Valentine's Day - I thought that I would try to have a theme for this week's Friday Finds.


First up - Kiss by Ted Dekker


Book Description
Let me tell you all I know for sure. My name. Shauna.


I woke up in a hospital bed missing six months of my memory. In the room was my loving boyfriend-how could I have forgotten him?-my uncle and my abusive stepmother. Everyone blames me for the tragic car accident that left me near death and my dear brother brain damaged. But what they say can't be true-can it?


I believe the medicine is doing strange things to my memory. I'm unsure who I can trust and who I should run from. And I'm starting to remember things I've never known. Things not about me. I think I'm going crazy.


And even worse, I think they want to kill me.


But who? And for what? Is dying for the truth really better than living with a lie?




Second is Kissing Games of the World by Sandi Kahn Shelton



ABOUT THIS BOOK
If there’s one point that Jamie McClintock and Nate Goddard can agree upon, it’s that love is overrated. Jamie doesn’t have time for it. Nate doesn’t need it. And they certainly don’t want it from each other.


Jamie, a struggling free-spirited artist, is a devoted single mother who hasn’t been in a serious relationship since her boyfriend abandoned her after their son was born. Nate, a charismatic jet-setting salesman, is widowed and estranged from his father and five-year-old son, Christopher. Jamie would rather glue glitter to pinecones than go out on a date. Nate spends most of his nights wooing his clients. Then one afternoon Nate’s father drops dead of a heart attack. In that moment, their highly guarded worlds collide.


When Nate shows up at his childhood home to settle the estate and reclaim his son, he discovers that Jamie has been living in the Connecticut farmhouse as his father’s roommate. Mistrustful of each other’s motives, Nate and Jamie bicker about everything from children’s nicknames to Jamie’s fashion choices to Nate’s home renovation methods. It doesn’t help that Christopher prefers Jamie to his absentee father.


But after the funeral, Nate and Jamie begin to see each other in a more forgiving light. Nate, traveling to sales conferences all over the country with a sullen Christopher in tow, learns he can’t breeze his way through single parenthood. Jamie, who has moved back in with her sister, wonders at the wisdom of her unconventional choices as a woman with a child to support. And both begin to realize they don’t know as much about love as they thought. Still wounded by past heartbreak and sorrow, can they learn to trust each other and open their hearts?



Next is A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

About the book.
Rural Wisconsin, 1909. In the bitter cold, Ralph Truitt, a successful businessman, stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement for "a reliable wife." But when Catherine Land steps off the train from Chicago, she's not the "simple, honest woman" that Ralph is expecting. She is both complex and devious, haunted by a terrible past and motivated by greed. Her plan is simple: she will win this man's devotion, and then, ever so slowly, she will poison him and leave Wisconsin a wealthy widow. What she has not counted on, though, is that Truitt — a passionate man with his own dark secrets —has plans of his own for his new wife. Isolated on a remote estate and imprisoned by relentless snow, the story of Ralph and Catherine unfolds in unimaginable ways.

With echoes of Wuthering Heights and Rebecca, Robert Goolrick's intoxicating debut novel delivers a classic tale of suspenseful seduction, set in a world that seems to have gone temporarily off its axis.




Flirting with Temptation by Kelley St. John is next.

Product DescriptionBabette Robinson changes careers and lovers as easily as she changes hairstyles. But after losing her last job, she's beginning to see that her feather-to-the-wind mentality can be unsatisfying in the long run. She's been helping a string of friends solve their relationship problems, and when one pal points out to Babette that she could make a career out of curing people's romantic ills, she decides to dub herself "The Love Doctor" -- a match-mender-for-hire.

Living in Birmingham, Alabama, with its elite class of wealthy women, Babette has access to the ideal clientele, including the well-known Birmingham socialite Kitty Carelle. Having unceremoniously dumped her lover, Kitty now regrets her hasty decision and wants him back. Trouble is, the man Kitty seeks to recapture is none other than Jeff Eubanks -- Babette's ex! The carefree Babette of three years ago had written him off with a shrug, yet now she can't help remembering that he did give her the absolute best sex of her life...not to mention his charm, good looks, and brains.

To save her newfound career and prove she can stick with something--if not someone--Babette is determined to mend Kitty and Jeff's broken relationship, but Jeff has other plans. He was crazy about Babette when she suddenly bailed on their relationship, and after Kitty did the same he became convinced that no woman can ever commit. To prove his point, Jeff issues Babette a challenge: no flirting for a week, and he'll talk to Kitty. That is, if, after seven tempting nights on the beach with Jeff, it's still with Kitty that she wants him to reconcile.


And last but by no means least is Need by Carrie Jones.


Product Description
Now fans of Stephenie Meyer and Melissa Marr have a new author to devour . . . Zara collects phobias the way other high school girls collect lipsticks. Little wonder, since life’s been pretty rough so far. Her father left, her stepfather just died, and her mother’s pretty much checked out. Now Zara’s living with her grandmother in sleepy, cold Maine so that she stays “safe.” Zara doesn’t think she’s in danger; she thinks her mother can’t deal. Wrong. Turns out that guy she sees everywhere, the one leaving trails of gold glitter, isn’t a figment of her imagination. He’s a pixie—and not the cute, lovable kind with wings. He’s the kind who has dreadful, uncontrollable needs. And he’s trailing Zara.

With suspense, romance, and paranormal themes, this exciting breakout novel has all the elements to keep teens rapidly turning the pages.



What great books did you find this week?? Stop over at Should Be Reading and share yours!

First Wild Card Tour - This Side of Heaven by Karen Kingsbury

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

I have not read this book yet, but it is on the horizon - I have read Karen Kingsbury in the past and have loved her. Be sure to watch for my review.





Today's Wild Card author is:




and the book:



This Side of Heaven

Center Street (January 6, 2009)



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury is America's #1 inspirational novelist. She's written more than thirty novels, ten of which have hit #1 on bestseller lists, and her Center Street novel Just Beyond the Clouds hit #13 on the New York Times bestseller list. There are nearly seven million copies of her award-winning books in print, including more than two million copies sold last year alone. She lives in Washington state with her husband, Don, and their six children, three of whom are adopted from Haiti.

Visit the author's website.

Product Details:

List Price: $14.99
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Center Street (January 6, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1599956780
ISBN-13: 978-1599956787

AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:



Thursday, February 12, 2009

Thursday Thunks 2-12-2009



I found this new meme and it looked like fun! If you want to play along go here.


1. You are driving down the road and there is a puddle in the road. A big puddle. Not one that will really wreck your car or anything, but a big puddle. There is no other cars in front of you or behind you - do you drive through the puddle or drive around it? I would probably drive around it - with my luck it would be really deep and would be the one that would give me a flat tire!



2. Go to Google Images, type in any word that comes to mind and post the 1st picture you see.


Can you guess the word I typed? I played with my son for about an hour earlier - and he is still at it!
3. A college calls you up and says that you have been selected to take get any degree that you want on their dollar.... what do you choose? I would have to say masters in library science... I have been toying with this idea lately!



4. Are you blogging on a laptop or desktop? Desktop



5. Which store, excluding a grocery store, do you shop at most often? Probably Target!



6. My daughters tried out for the school musical last night. Were you ever in a school play/musical? Which one? I was actually in a school musical - Oklahoma - just a townsperson though - but I was also in two plays - Arsenic and Old Lace (I was the old lady) and Beautiful Beulah Belle - I was Beulah Belle!


7. I read yesterday that a school PTA group wants to try to ban white bread, cakes, brownies or any other "treat" from their lunch menus... plus make kids' lunchboxes brought from home not include any "junk food". Thoughts on that one? I grew up on sack lunches - and I brought a ho-ho or something every day - and I think I turned out just fine. Moderation is the key! But limits need to come from home - not school.



8. How many people can your kitchen table seat? 4 comfortably, but we do have 5 chairs if we need them!



9. What time is it right now? It is 4:52- time to go start dinner!



10. Walk out the front door of your house/apartment, turn right, walk 2 blocks. What do you see? Well, first I have to cut through some people's yards, because at the end of the block you either have to turn right or left - so after two blocks I would see some medical office buildings and some new condos - with lots of trees behind them.
This was fun! Go on over to Thursday Thunks and play along!

First Wild Card Tour - A Lever Long Enough by Amy Deardon

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

I am about half way through book - so far so good! Check back to see my review!





Today's Wild Card author is:




and the book:



A Lever Long Enough

Taegais Publishing, LLC (January 12, 2009)



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:






Amy Deardon is a skeptic who came to faith through study of the historic circumstances surrounding the death of Jesus. This is her first book.

Visit the author's website.

Product Details:

List Price: $15.95
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Taegais Publishing, LLC (January 12, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0981899722
ISBN-13: 978-0981899725

AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:



“Give me a lever long enough, and a place to stand, and single-handed I can move the world.”

—Archimedes of Syracuse

287-212 B.C.E.


●1●


The ancient Qumran Mountains were hard and dusty, fists of rock pushing upwards to strike the face of the sky. As the helicopter trailing the two paragliders banked to the left, Benjamin watched the lead figure closely. Sara soared between two peaks, smooth, so smooth, as she dodged a cliff and spun another turn in her ascent.

Benjamin shook his head. “She flies that thing like it was a part of her.” He saw his pilot, Caleb Mendel, glance over at him.

“They’re looking good,” Mendel said. The earphone in Benjamin’s helmet crackled, the voice tinny and mechanical from the transmitter.

“I’m pleased.”

The two paragliders dangled about twenty feet below the arched cloth wings, the fanned lines passing in a spread to their hands, but Sara flew far ahead—silhouetted against the next cliff now, too close to it. Even as he watched, she executed another sharp turn and dove down, circling out of it and up again as the giant fan strapped to her back pushed the wing’s edge forward. Benjamin let out his breath.

“She sure likes to cut it fine,” Mendel said. “That gust of wind almost knocked her against the rock.”

“She’s all right,” Benjamin replied.

There were three and a half days until FlashBack.

The pilot touched the controls, and Benjamin felt the slight dip as the helicopter rolled to the right on a longer trajectory to keep from staying ahead of the gliders. Thumpa thumpa thumpa…he felt the vibration as the rotors of the helicopter shook the pod. They were going around the turn now and the waters of the Dead Sea spread out before them, glinting red in the late sun. Several small boats floated near a trawler—Benjamin knew they were searching for the weak signal of a nuclear battery.

He was thinking of FlashBack, and the time machine.

Mendel glanced over at the trawler. “It doesn’t look like they’re wrapping up yet. Can they continue to search in the dark?”

“Not as well, but they will. If they find the data now, it will let some pressure off.”

He shifted in his seat. The men on the boats were searching for the data capsule that he wouldn’t deposit in the Dead Sea for another week, yet it may have been there since before the Roman conquest of Jerusalem. It was unclear how the time strands worked.

“If it’s there, it could have corroded through,” the pilot said.

Benjamin shook his head. “Unlikely.” The titanium capsule was sixteen inches in diameter with extraordinarily tight seals. More probable that it was masked from detection by a two-thousand-year-old coating of deposited salt.

He turned his attention back to the soldiers riding on the air currents. How different would it be when they went back?

“Let’s finish up,” he said. The sky was bruising dark as the sun fell, and the gliders still had a good ten minutes to go before they landed.

Rebecca Sharett, behind Sara, was having trouble keeping to a smooth course. Benjamin knew that she wasn’t confident in the air, but really, it wasn’t critical, since they would use the paraglider only as a desperate measure to deliver the information capsule so that it could be carbon-dated. It was treacherous, that was for sure.

Sara cornered another turn, and Benjamin smiled despite himself. She was so smooth. Not just this, but everything to which she touched her hand, or her mind. Lately she seemed to be in his awareness more and more—

Don’t think about her.

The helicopter turned course, following the gliders through the hard range. There were long shadows over the terrain.

“One more line of mountains,” Mendel said.

“Excellent time,” Benjamin replied. “Sara would be running under three and a half hours if she weren’t turning back all the time to wait for Rebecca.”

From the top of his helmet, the pilot pulled down infrared goggles against the growing dark. Full sunset now, deep shadows merged to black on the ground. Benjamin reached for his own set.

They flew on.

To the west the city lights of Jerusalem scattered the infrared image to a green shadow on the periphery of his vision. As they topped the last ring of mountains, he watched Sara glide several hundred feet farther, turn off the fan’s engine on her back, and begin her landing cone of intention. He shook his head. Despite the darkness, Sara barely slowed. She was going to get herself killed.

The new Israeli military complex loomed ahead: multiple buildings guarded by a wickedly sharp perimeter fence and towers. It had been locked down for the past week in preparation for FlashBack. He watched the pilot flip on the microphone to receive clearance for landing in the restricted airspace.

“We’re set,” Mendel said after a moment. “They’re putting on the lights now.”

The helicopter jostled in the air current, and Mendel pulled up on the controls. “Wind’s picking up.”

Benjamin glanced at the lights of the complex, then back at his soldiers. Sara touched down, the cloth wing collapsing behind her like a giant blanket. The two men on the transport vehicle ran forward and began pulling out the wing before she’d even unclipped the harness. Rebecca began to circle. The helicopter whipped through one last circuit as Mendel began their own landing sequence.

Then the pilot made a sudden move.

Benjamin looked over. “What is it?”

The pilot stared hard at the residential building through his infrared goggles, as if trying to see the afterimage of something fleeting. Benjamin hadn’t seen anything himself.

“I’m not sure,” Mendel said slowly.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Waiting on Wednesday: The Color of Lightning

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:






The Color of Lightning by Paulette Jiles
Publication date: March 31 (which just happens to be my b-day!)

Book Description

In 1863, the War Between the States creeps slowly yet inevitably toward its bloody conclusion—and eastern thoughts are already turning to different wars and enemies.

Searching for a life and future, former Kentucky slave Britt Johnson is venturing west into unknown territory with his wife, Mary, and their three children—wary but undeterred by sobering tales of atrocities inflicted upon those who trespass against the Comanche and the Kiowa. Settling on the Texas plains, the Johnson family hopes to build on the dreams that carried them from the Confederate South to this new land of possibility—dreams that are abruptly shattered by a brutal Indian raid upon the settlement while Britt is away establishing a business. Returning to face the unthinkable—his friends and neighbors slain or captured, his eldest son dead, his beloved Mary severely damaged and enslaved, and his remaining children absorbed into an alien society that will never relinquish its hold on them—the heartsick freedman vows not to rest until his family is whole again.

Samuel Hammond follows a different road west. A Quaker whose fortune is destroyed by a capricious act of an inscrutable God, he has resigned himself to the role the Deity has chosen for him. As a new agent for the Office of Indian Affairs, it is Hammond's goal to ferret out corruption and win justice for the noble natives now in his charge. But the proud, stubborn people refuse to cease their raids, free their prisoners, and accept the farming implements and lifestyle the white man would foist upon them, adding fuel to smoldering tensions that threaten to turn a man of peace, faith, and reason onto a course of terrible retribution.

A soaring work of the imagination based on oral histories of the post–Civil War years in North Texas, Paulette Jiles's The Color of Lightning is at once an intimate look into the hearts and hopes of tragically flawed human beings and a courageous reexamination of a dark American history.

What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

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