This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:
Friday Mornings at Nine by Marilyn Brant Publication Date: Sept 28, 2010
Every woman remembers her firsts: Her first kiss. Her first lover. And her first time contemplating an affair...
Each Friday morning at the Indigo Moon Café, Jennifer, Bridget and Tamara meet to swap stories about marriage, kids and work. But one day, spurred by recent e-mails from her college ex, Jennifer poses questions they've never faced before. What if they all married the wrong man? What if they're living the wrong life? And what would happen if, just once, they gave in to temptation...
Soon each woman is second-guessing the choices she's made--and the ones she can unmake--as she becomes aware of new opportunities around every corner, from attentive colleagues and sexy neighbors to flirtatious past lovers. And as fantasies blur with real life, Jennifer, Bridget and Tamara begin to realize how little they know about each other, their marriages and themselves, and how much there is to gain--and lose--when you step outside the rules.
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!
***Special thanks to Julie Gwinn of B&H Publishing Group for sending me a review copy.***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Robin Caroll has authored eight previous books including Bayou Justice and Melody of Murder. She gives back to the writing community as conference director for the American Christian Fiction Writers organization. A proud southerner through and through, Robin lives with her husband and three daughters in Little Rock, Arkansas.
List Price: $14.99 Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: B&H Academic (February 1, 2010) Language: English ISBN-10: 0805449809 ISBN-13: 978-0805449808
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
Tuesday, 3:30 p.m. FBI Field Office Knoxville, Tennessee
Jonathan’s throat closed as he stared at the building from the parking lot. He gripped the package tight in his arthritic hands. Could he do this? Turn over evidence that would implicate him?
His heart raced and he froze. Not the best time for his atrial fibrillation to make an appearance. Despite being on the heart transplant list for eight months, it looked like his progressed heart disease would do him in. The most important reason he couldn’t go to prison—he’d never get a heart and would die. While Carmen wanted him to confess his crimes, she wouldn’t want him to die. The memory of saying good-bye to his beloved mere hours ago scorched his soul.
Her eyes fluttered open. Those blue orbs, which had once sparkled even in the absence of light, now blinked flat and lifeless.
He swallowed hard.
“Jonathan,” her voice croaked, “it’s time.”
Tears burned the backs of his eyes, and he rested his hand over her parchmentlike skin. “No, Carmen. Please, let me get the medicine.”
Her eyelids drooped and she gasped. Air wheezed in her lungs. “Sweetheart, the fight’s . . . gone from me.” She let out a hiss, faint and eerie. “The cancer’s . . . won.”
Jonathan laid his lips against her cheek, her skin cold and clammy, as if in preparation for the morgue. How could she continue to refuse the medicine? Even though she didn’t approve of his means of acquisition, the drugs had kept her alive for five years. Five years he cherished every minute of. He’d do anything to keep her alive and the pain at bay—the intense pain that had become her constant companion these last two weeks. It killed him to witness her agony.
She licked her bottom lip, but no moisture soaked into the cracked flesh. “You’ve done . . . your best by me, Jonathan. I know . . . you meant . . . no harm to . . . anyone.” Her eyes lit as they once had. “Oh, how I’ve enjoyed loving you.”
His insides turned to oatmeal. Stubborn woman—she’d allow herself to die, all because she discovered how he’d gotten the money.
“Promise me . . . you’ll . . . tell the . . . truth. Admit what . . . you’ve done.” Her breath rattled. “What you’ve . . . all done.”
Pulling himself from the wretched memory, Jonathan breathed through the heat tightening his chest. He’d secure himself the best deal possible—immunity—or he wouldn’t decipher the papers. And without him no one could make sense of the accounting system he’d created more than five years ago. Officials hadn’t a clue.
With a deep breath he headed to the guardhouse in front of the fenced FBI building. His legs threatened to rebel, stiffening with every step. He forced himself to keep moving, one foot in front of the other.
At the guardhouse, a man behind bulletproof glass looked up. “May I help you?”
“I need to . . . see someone.”
“About what, sir?”
“I have some information regarding a crime.” He waved the file he held.
“One moment, sir, and someone will be with you.”
Jonathan stared at the cloudy sky. He could still turn back, get away scot-free. His heartbeat sped. The world blurred. No, he couldn’t lose consciousness now, nor could he go back on his promise. He owed it to Carmen. No matter what happened, he’d honor Carmen’s dying wish.
“Sir?” A young man in a suit stood beside the fenced entry, hand resting on the butt of his gun. “May I help you?”
Jonathan lifted the file. “I have some evidence regarding an ongoing crime ring.”
The agent motioned him toward a metal-detector arch. “Come through this way, sir.”
Jonathan’s steps wavered. He dragged his feet toward the archway.
A car door creaked. Jonathan glanced over his shoulder just as two men in full tactical gear stormed toward them. He had a split second to recognize one of the men’s eyes, just before gunfire erupted.
A vise gripped Jonathan’s heart, and he slumped to the dirty tile floor, the squeezing of his heart demanding his paralysis.
Too late. I’m sorry, Carmen.
Two Weeks Later—Wednesday, 3:45 p.m. Golden Gloves Boxing of Knoxville
Ooof!
Brannon Callahan’s head jerked backward. She swiped her headgear with her glove.
“You aren’t concentrating on your form. You’re just trying to whale on me.” Steve Burroughs, her supervisor and sparring partner, bounced on the balls of his feet.
“Then why am I the one getting hit?” She threw a right jab that missed his jaw.
He brushed her off with his glove. “Don’t try to street fight me. Box.”
She clamped down on her mouthpiece and threw an uppercut with her left fist. It made contact, sending vibrations up her arm.
He wobbled backward, then got his balance. “Nice shot.”
It felt good to hit something. Hard. Sparring with Steve was the best form of venting. The energy had to be spent somehow—why not get a workout at the same time? She ducked a right cross, then followed through with a left-right combination. Both shots made full contact.
Steve spit out his mouthpiece and leaned against the ropes. “I think that’s enough for today, girl. I’m an old man, remember?”
She couldn’t fight the grin. Although only in his late forties, the chief ranger looked two decades older. With gray hair, hawk nose, and skin like tanned leather, Steve had already lived a lifetime.
She removed her mouthpiece, gloves, and headgear before sitting on the canvas. “Old? You’re still kickin’ me in the ring.”
He tossed her a towel and sat beside her. “So you wanna tell me what’s got you all hot and bothered this afternoon?”
She shrugged.
“Come on, spit it out. I know something’s gnawing at you, just like you were picking a fight with me in the ring. What’s up?”
How could she explain? “I’m not exactly keen that the district feels there’s a need for another pilot in the park.” She tightened the scrunchie keeping her hair out of her face.
“That’s a compliment—having you on staff has been so successful they want to expand.”
“But I have to train him. Did you notice his arrogance?” She ripped at the tape bound around her knuckles. “He’s nothing more than a young upstart with an ego bigger than the helicopter.” While only thirty-six, she often felt older than Steve looked.
“You’re so good, you can come across a bit intimidating at first, girl.” Steve grabbed the ropes and pulled to standing, then offered her a hand. “Give him a chance.”
She let Steve tug her up. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even if he had maturity, I still have to train him. With all the rescues we’ve been called out on of late . . . well, I really don’t have the time.” She exited the ring. “Like those kids yesterday.” She shook her head as she waited for Steve to join her on the gym floor. “Their stupidity almost cost them their lives.”
“They were young, Brannon.”
“Please. Any amateur with half a brain should know better than to try to climb Clingmans Dome in winter.” Didn’t people realize if something happened to them they’d leave behind devastated family and friends? Loved ones who would mourn them forever? She fought against the familiar pain every time she participated in a search and rescue. All because people hadn’t taken necessary precautions.
“They didn’t know any better.”
“It takes a special kind of stupid not to have researched your climb.” Most SARs could be avoided if people planned a little more. It ripped her apart that so many parents, grandparents, siblings . . . fiancées . . . survived to deal with such grief. She’d tasted the bitterness of grief—twice—and the aftertaste still lingered.
Steve paused outside the locker rooms and shifted his sparring gear to one hand. “I agree, but most people don’t see the dangers we do every day.” He tapped her shoulder. “Hit the showers, champ. You stink.”
She laughed as she headed into the ladies’ locker room. Maybe Steve was right and the new pilot just made a lousy first impression. Maybe he’d be easy to train.
Please, God, let it be so.
Friday, 2:15 p.m. US Marshals Office, Howard Baker Federal Courthouse Knoxville, Tennessee
“You want me to escort a heart?” Roark struggled to keep his voice calm. He tapped the butt of his Beretta, welcoming it back to its rightful place on his hip.
Senior US Marshal Gerald Demott glared. “Look, I know you think this is a slight, but it’s important. And for your first assignment back on the job . . .”
“IA cleared me of all wrongdoing. I’m seeing the shrink and everything.” He gritted his teeth and exhaled. “I’ve been released to return to active duty.”
“This is active. It’s a field assignment, and it’s important. Here’s the case information.” Demott passed him a folder, then glanced at his watch. “You’d better hurry or you’ll miss your flight.”
Roark grabbed the file and turned to go.
“Holland.”
He looked back at his boss. “Yeah?”
Demott held out Roark’s badge. “You might want to take this with you, too.”
Roark accepted the metal emblem, then clipped it to his belt before marching out of Demott’s office. A heart. His job was to escort a human heart from North Carolina to Knoxville. Any rookie could handle that. But no, they still didn’t trust him enough to handle a real assignment.
He’d done everything they asked—took a medical leave of absence while Internal Affairs went over every painful minute of his failed mission, saw the shrink they demanded he speak to every week since Mindy’s death, answered their relentless questions. The shrink reiterated he’d been forgiven for acting on his own.
Maybe one day he’d forgive himself. How many innocent lives would he have to save for his conscience to leave him be?
Roark slipped into the car, then headed to the airport. But to be assigned a heart transport? Not only was it wrong, it was downright insulting. After almost fifteen years as a marshal, he’d earned the benefit of the doubt from his supervisors. Especially Demott. His boss should know him better, know he’d only disregard orders if it was a matter of life and death.
But Mindy Pugsley died. They’d all died.
He pushed the nagging voice from his mind. Even Dr. Martin had advised him not to dwell on the past. On what had gone wrong. On disobeying a direct order.
If only Mindy didn’t haunt his dreams.
Roark touched the angry scar that ran along his right cheekbone to his chin. A constant reminder that he’d failed, that he’d made a mistake that took someone’s life. He’d have to live with the pain for the rest of his life.
He skidded the car into the airport’s short-term parking lot. After securing the car and gathering the case folder, Roark grabbed his coat. Snowflakes pelted downward, swirling on the bursts of wind and settling on the concrete. The purple hues of the setting sun streaked across the mountain peaks beyond the runways, making the January snow grab the last hope of light.
Yes, he’d handle this mundane assignment, then tell Demott he wanted back on real active duty. Making a difference would be the best thing for him. Would make him feel whole again.
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 have given! Please avoid spoilers!
"Before she knew it, his arms were encircling her. Donald kissed her so tenderly she could not help responding, telling herself that he meant what he said, that he loved her still, that he --" (Here Burns My Candle, by Liz Curtis Higgs, p213)
Here Burns My Candle Publisher/Publication Date: WaterBrook Press, Mar 2010 ISBN: 978-1-4000-7001-5 480 pages
They're the McCords...three rugged, sexy cowboy cousins who'll inherit the family range--if they seek the treasure hidden on it. But even more precious are the women who can tame their wild hearts...
She was the one person who shook Jesse McCord's quiet determination. She was the only one he ever let in, body and soul. Then suddenly Amy Parrish was gone and the oldest McCord cousin devoted his life to the family ranch. Now Amy is back, offering help to Jesse find the McCord gold. Yet Jesse's not about to give her a second chance, and he hopes his pride will protect him from her irresistible charms. But under the wide prairie skies a dangerous, unseen enemy is fast closing in, threatening Amy and Jesse's very lives and the promise of their ...
MONTANA LEGACY.
New York Times bestselling author R.C. Ryan has written more than ninety fiction novels, both contemporary and historical. Quite an accomplishment for someone who, after her fifth child started school, gave herself the gift of an hour a day to follow her dream to become a writer.
The Lost, an anthology of stories by J.D. Robb, Mary Blayney, Patricia Gaffney, and R.C. Ryan writing as Ruth Ryan Langan was published in Fall 2009. Ms. Ryan’s story, “The Legacy,” is an exciting tale of intrigue and other-worldly adventure.
In a career spanning more than twenty years, Ms. Ryan has given dozens of radio, television, and print interviews across the country and Canada, and has been quoted in such diverse publications as the Wall Street Journal and Cosmopolitan. She has also appeared on CNN News, as well as Good Morning America.
1. The names of all three cousins in this series are famous Western names that I've always loved: Jesse (James), Wyatt (Earp), and Zane (Grey).
2. There really was a gold strike in 1862 Montana at Grasshopper Creek. I doubt the nuggets were as big as a man's fist or thumb, but why not dream big? I love the idea of a treasure lost for a century or more, leading a family into the treasure hunt.
3. In Montana Legacy, part of the fun of reading is that Jesse McCord and Amy Parrish were childhood sweethearts, separated by circumstances. I think everybody can recall their first big love. A few very lucky people actually reconnect with that first love and make it work. Oh, I'm one of them. Very happily married to the guy I met in first grade.
4. Montana is one of my favorite locations in which to set a series because it has such an ever-changing landscape. In that single state, you can find plains, hills, mountains, waterfalls, and four distinct seasons, each of which is simply more spectacular than the last, and I purposefully tried to use all of them in this series.
5. I'm not certain this story could work anywhere else but in the rough, rugged west. Though Jesse tries to be politically correct, there's just something in his genes that has him breaking a lot of rules. I find readers are much more willing to give a pass to a cowboy. Don't you agree? But maybe I'm prejudiced, since Jesse was inspired by my husband—a blunt, plain-spoken rule-breaker. A warrior who would risk his life for the people he loves. And for all his rough edges, he's the most loving, tender-hearted man I know.
And now for the giveaway!
I have five copies of this paperback book to giveaway courtesy of Hachette Books. For your first entry (MUST DO THIS ONE FOR ANY OTHER ENTRIES TO COUNT) What's a "western sounding" name that you like - be creative! Oh - and leave your email address.
For additional entries you can sign up to follow (old followers let me know), Twitter or post it on your blog. Each entry must have it's own comment. (Four entries total.)
This giveaway if for U.S./Canada only - no PO boxes and will end Apr 12!
A mother who cannot face her future. A daughter who cannot escape her past.
Lady Elisabeth Kerr is a keeper of secrets. A Highlander by birth and a Lowlander by marriage, she honors the auld ways, even as doubts and fears stir deep within her.
Her husband, Lord Donald, has secrets of his own, well hidden from the household, yet whispered among the town gossips.
His mother, the dowager Lady Marjory, hides gold beneath her floor and guilt inside her heart. Though her two abiding passions are maintaining her place in society and coddling her grown sons, Marjory’s many regrets, buried in Greyfriars Churchyard, continue to plague her.
One by one the Kerr family secrets begin to surface, even as bonny Prince Charlie and his rebel army ride into Edinburgh in September 1745, intent on capturing the crown.
A timeless story of love and betrayal, loss and redemption, flickering against the vivid backdrop of eighteenth-century Scotland, Here Burns My Candle illumines the dark side of human nature, even as hope, the brightest of tapers, lights the way home.
LIZ CURTIS HIGGS is the author of twenty-seven books with three million copies in print, including: her best-selling historical novels, Thorn in My Heart, Fair Is the Rose, Christy Award-winner Whence Came a Prince, and Grace in Thine Eyes, a Christy Award finalist; My Heart’s in the Lowlands: Ten Days in Bonny Scotland, an armchair travel guide to Galloway; and her contemporary novels, Mixed Signals, a Rita Award finalist, and Bookends, a Christy Award finalist. Visit the author’s extensive website at www.lizcurtishiggs.com.
Giveaway
I have one copy of this paperback book to giveaway courtesy of Waterbrook Multnomah Books. For your first entry (MUST DO THIS ONE FOR ANY OTHER ENTRIES TO COUNT) what is your favorite Bible story (this book is a retelling of the beloved Old Testament story of Ruth and Naomi set in 18th Century Scotland)? Oh - and leave your email address.
For additional entries you can sign up to follow (old followers let me know), Twitter or post it on your blog. Each entry must have it's own comment. (Four entries total.)
This giveaway is for U.S.only and will end Apr 12!
What are you reading on Mondays is now being hosted bySheila at One Person's Journey - You can hook up with the Mr. Linky there with your own post - but be sure and let me know what you are reading too!
Forget Me Not by Vicki Hinze (Blog tour for Waterbrook Multnomah - there will be a giveaway!)
Their elusive enemies took everything. Now they want more.
Crossroads Crisis Center owner Benjamin Brandt was a content man - in his faith, his work, and his family. Then in a flash, everything he loved was snatched away. His wife and son were murdered, and grief-stricken Ben lost faith. Determination to find their killers keeps him going, but after three years of dead ends and torment, his hope is dying too. Why had he survived? He'd failed to protect his family.
Now, a mysterious woman appears at Crossroads seeking answers and help - a victim who eerily resembles Ben's deceased wife, Susan. A woman robbed of her identity, her life, of everything except her faith - and Susan's necklace.
The connections between the two women mount, exceeding coincidence, and to keep the truth hidden, someone is willing to kill. Finding out who and why turns Ben and the mystery woman's situation from dangerous to deadly. Their only hope for survival is to work together, trust each other, and face whatever they discover head on, no matter how painful. But will that be enough to save their lives and heal their tattered hearts? (back cover)
Just Let Me Lie Down Necessary Terms for the Half-Insane Working Mom by Kristin van Ogtroop (from Hachette for review and watch for a giveaway)
Kristin van Ogtrop has a nice career, a dependable husband, and three healthy kids who occasionally make their beds. You could say she is average, but lucky. You could also say that she is half-insane -- but just try to name one working mom who isn't. Like all of us, van Ogtrop needs a bit of guidance from time to time. Yet when she searched the bookshelves for something to help put a little order into her average/lucky/chaotic life, she came up short. And so she had an idea.
In Just Let Me Lie Down, van Ogtrop provides a new lexicon for the half-insane working mom. Using experiences and insights from her own life, she presents terms and concepts to illustrate the highs (children who know where their soccer cleats are, coworkers who never hit "Reply to All," dogs who helpfully eat whatever falls from the table) and lows (getting out of the house in the morning, getting along with everyone at work, getting dinner made before everyone starves, getting willful kids into bed) of trying to combine work and family in the same life.
Filled with essays, lists, poignant observations, and more than a few embarrassing stories, Just Let Me Lie Down shows that if you can't laugh at the nonsense that is daily life for the working mom, then you might need to reconsider your entire existence, or at least take a nap. (inside book jacket)
This Little Prayer of Mine by Anthony DeStefano illustrated by Mark Elliott (Blog tour for Waterbrook Multnomah - there will be a giveaway!)
Nothing Compares to Childlike Faith
I know you're up in heaven, God, and you can hear my voice from there. I'm just a little child. Will you answer my short prayer?
So begins this delightful book that affirms God's readiness to answer our prayers, no matter what our age.
With engaging rhymes and beautiful illustrations, This Little Prayer of Mine assures children that God is always near -- watching, listening, and eager to respond to their requests. They'll also learn that prayer isn't just about asking for things, but about sharing their feelings of sadness and uncertainty as well as of thanksgiving and joy.
Most important, This Little Prayer of Mine reminds children -- and those who love them -- that they can trust God to tenderly care for them, no matter what the future holds. (back cover)
The Threadbare Heart by Jennie Nash (for review and contest from Jennie Nash)
A photo of her sons. A doormat from Target. Twenty-three tubs of fabric. Somehow it comforts LIly to list the things she lost when a wildfire engulfed the Santa Barbara avocado ranch she shared with her husband, Tom. He didn't make it out either. His last act was to save her grandmother's lace from the flames -- an heirloom she has never been able to take scissors to, that she was saving for someday. . .
As she negotiates her way through her grief, mourning both the tangible and intangible, Lily wonders about her long marriage. Was it worth all the work, the self-denial? Did she stay with Tom just to avoid loneliness? Should she have been more like her mother, Eleanor - thrice-married and even now, approaching eighty, cavalier about men and, it seems, even about her daughter's emotions?
It is up to Lily to understand what she could still gain even when it seems that everything is lost. Someday has arrived. . . (back cover)
Read, Remember, Recommend Created by Rachelle Rogers Knight (for review from Sourcebooks)
A must-have for book lovers, Read, Remember, Recommend contains:
More than 2,500 cross-referenced award-winning and notable reading suggestions from every celebrated literary award and book list available, guaranteed to help you discover great literature and new authors.
Checklists to help you organize and keep track of books you want to read, books you've loaned or borrowed, books you've read, and books you want to recommend.
Journal pages to record your thoughts, ideas, and discussion points on books and authors.
A comprehensive list of literary blogs, book award lists, and literary terms.
Perfect for book clubs and anyone who loves a good book, Read, Remember, Recommend is the ultimate way to enhance your love of reading. (back cover)
The Swimming Pool by Holly LeCraw (for review from Doubleday via Shelf Awareness)
A heartbreaking affair, an unsolved murder, an explosive romance: Welcome to summer on the Cape in this powerful debut.
Seven summers ago, Marcella Atkinson fell in love with Cecil McClatchey, a married father of two. But on the same night their romance abruptly ended, Cecil's wife was found murdered. The case was never solved, and Cecil died soon after, an uncharged suspect.
Now divorced and estranged from her only daughter, Marcella lives alone, mired in grief and guilt. Meanshile, Cecil's grown son, Jed, returns to the Cape with his sister for the first time in years. When he finds a woman's bathing suit buried in a closet -- a relic, unbeknownst to him, of his father's affair -- he decides to confront Marcella on a hunch.
When, to their deep surprise, they fall into an affair of their own, passion temporarily masks their shared pain. But as we are left to believe on the last stunning page, the betrayals of the past cannot be ignored and will have a ripple effect on these two families for years to come.
In this scintillating and intensely powerful debut, Holly LeCraw delivers a sensuous narrative of such force and depth that you won't be able to put it down. (back cover)
The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno by Ellen Bryson (for review from Henry Holt via Shelf Awareness)
Bartholomew Fortuno, the world's thinnest man, believes that his unusual body is a gift. Hired by none other than P.T. Barnum to work at his spectacular American Museum -- a modern marvel of macabre displays and live performances by Barnum's cast of freaks and oddities -- Fortuno has reached the pinnacle of his career. But after a decade of solid performance, he finds his contentment flagging. When a carriage pulls up outside the museum in the dead of night, bearing Barnum and a mysterious veiled woman -- rumored to be a new performer -- Fortuno's curiosity is piqued. And when Barnum asks Fortuno to follow her and report back on her whereabouts, his world is turned upside-down. Why is Barnum so obsessed with this woman? Who is she, really? and why has she taken such a hold of the hearts of those around her?
The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno is a moving novel about human appetites and longings. With pitch-perfect prose, Ellen Bryson explores what it means to be profoundly unique -- and the power of love to transcend even the greatest divisions. (back cover)
How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly by Connie May Fowler (for review from Hachette)
Set amidst the lush pine forests and rich savannahs of Florida's Northern Panhandle, this is the story of one woman whose existence until now has seemed fairly normal: She is thirtysomething, married, and goes about her daily routine as a writer. But we soon learn that ghosts, an indifferent husband, and a seemingly terminal case of writer's block are burdening Clarissa's life. She awakes on the summer solstice and, prodded by her own discontent and one ghost's righteous need for truth, commences upon a twenty-four-hour journey of self-discovery. Her harrowing, funny, and startling adventures lead Clarissa to a momentous decision: She must find a way to do the unthinkable. Her life and the well-being of a remarkable family of blithe spirits hand in the balance.
In How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly, Connie May Fowler once again demonstrates her keen abilities as a storyteller. A remarkably original and empowering novel about an unexpected midlife awakening, it will resonate and be discussed for years to come. (inside book jacket)
Too Close to Home by Lynette Eason (Blog tour for Baker Publishing)
The FBI has a secret weapon. But now the secret's out.
When missing teens begin turning up dead in a small Southern town, the FBI sends in Special Agent Samantha Cash to help crack the case. Her methods are invisible, and she never quits until the case is closed.
Homicide detective Connor Wolfe has his hands full. His relationship with his headstrong daughter is in a tailspin, and the string of unsolved murders has the town demanding answers. Connor is running out of ideas -- and time.
Samantha joins Connor in a race against the clock to save the next victim. And the killer starts to get personal.
Too Close to Home ratchets up the suspense with each page even as love blossoms in the face of danger. Read this one with the lights on! (back cover)
Violet Parry is living the quintessential life of luxury in the Hollywood Hills with David, her rock-and-roll manager husband, and her darling toddler, Dot. She has the perfect life--except that she's deeply unhappy. David expects the world of Violet but gives little of himself in return. When she meets Teddy, a roguish small-time bass player, Violet comes alive, and soon she's risking everything for the chance to find herself again. Also in the picture are David's hilariously high-strung sister, Sally, on the prowl for a successful husband, and Jeremy, the ESPN sportscaster savant who falls into her trap.
I hope you utilize this great reading group guide:
1. In many ways, this is a very “LA” story. To what extent do you think the characters’ attitudes and actions are shaped by Los Angeles? Could you see this story taking place anywhere else?
2. How does the title, “This One Is Mine,” interplay with the story? The poem at the beginning of the book opens with the image of a slave block. Are any of the characters in the book “enslaved” in a way?
3. In the first chapter, David is upset with Violet for what he perceives to be her lack of interest in maintaining the household. Is his anger justified?
4. What does Violet find sad about Los Angeles? Where do you think this sadness stems from?
5. What do you think about Sally’s friendship with Maryam? Why does Maryam put up with her?
6. Why do you think Violet is drawn to Teddy? What makes her risk “losing everything,” as David puts it?
7. Los Angeles could be said to be a city of ambition. How do the characters’ ambitions relate to one another’s? What fuels those ambitions, and when do they get out of control?
8. In some ways, Sally seems to want everything that Violet has: a successful husband, financial security, a nice house, and classy friends. Do you think Sally would be happy if she suddenly had everything she wanted? What similarities to you see in Sally and Violet?
9. Conversely, do you see any similarities between David and Jeremy?
10. Teddy seems to have a set of problems that make Violet’s (and everyone else’s) pale in comparison. Do you think Violet is drawn to him because of or in spite of these traits?
11. What do you think of Sally and Jeremy’s relationship? Do you think there is a way that it could have worked out?
12. Why is Violet happy when Sally tells her that she never really liked her?
13. At the end of the book, Violet, Sally, and David all go to visit Teddy in the hospital. In what ways did Teddy’s entrance in their lives bring them all together? How would this story have turned out differently if Violet had never met him at the health fair?
14. In Leo Tolstoy’s classic, Anna Karenina, Anna is miserable in a loveless marriage and recklessly succumbs to her desire for the dashing Vronsky. What similarities do you see between Tolstoy’s novel and This One Is Mine?
15. What other books did this one remind you of? What was similar or different about them?
I have three copies of this paperback book to giveaway courtesy of Hachette Books. For your first entry (MUST DO THIS ONE FOR ANY OTHER ENTRIES TO COUNT) I found this to be an interesting cover - what did you think of when you saw it? Oh - and leave your email address.
For additional entries you can sign up to follow (old followers let me know), Twitter or post it on your blog. Each entry must have it's own comment. (Four entries total.)
This giveaway if for U.S./Canada only - no PO boxes and will end Apr 10!
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!
***Special thanks to Audra Jennings, Senior Media Specialist, of The B&B Media Group for sending me a review copy.***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Focusing on ancient women’s history, critically acclaimed author Ginger Garrett creates novels and nonfiction resources that explore the lives of historical women. In addition to her writing, Garrett is a frequent radio and television guest. A native Texan, she now resides in Georgia with her husband and three children.
List Price: $14.99 Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: David C. Cook; New edition (March 1, 2010) Language: English ISBN-10: 1434768015 ISBN-13: 978-1434768018
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
Prologue
Fourth Day of the Month of Av
Year 3414 after Creation
If you have opened this, you are the chosen one.
For this book has been sealed in the tomb of the ancients of Persia, never to be opened, I pray, until G-d1 has put His finger on a new woman of destiny, a woman who will rise up and change her nation. But we will not talk of your circumstances, and the many reasons this book may have fallen into your hands. There are no mistakes with prayer. You have indeed been called. If this sounds too strange, if you must look around your room and question whether G-d’s finger has perhaps slipped, if you are not a woman with the means to change a nation, then join me on a journey. You must return with me now to a place without hope, a nation that had lost sight of G-d, a girl with nothing to offer, and no one to give it to.
I must introduce myself first as I truly am: an exiled Jew, and an orphan. My given name was Hadassah, but the oppression of exile has stripped that too from me: I am now called Esther,2 so that I may blend in with my captors. My people, the Hebrew nation, had been sent out of our homeland after a bitter defeat in battle. We were allowed to settle in the kingdom of Persia, but we were not allowed to truly prosper there. We blended in, our lives preserved, but our heritage and customs were forced underground. Our hearts, once set only on returning to Jerusalem, were set out to wither in the heat
of the Arabian sun. My cousin Mordecai rescued me when I was orphaned and we lived in the capital city of Susa, under the reign of King Xerxes.3 Mordecai had a small flock of sheep that I helped tend, and we sold their fleece in the market. If times were good, we would sell a lamb for someone’s celebration. It was always for others to celebrate. We merely survived. But Mordecai was kind and good, and I was not forced into dishonor like the other orphans I had once known. This is how my story begins, and I give you these details not for sympathy, but so you will know that I am a girl well acquainted with bitter reality. I am not given to the freedom in flights of fantasy. But how can I explain to you the setting of my story? It is most certainly far removed from your experience. For I suspect that in the future, women will know freedom. And freedom is not an easy thing to forget, even if only to entertain an orphan’s story.
But you must forget now. I was born into a world, and into this story, where even the bravest women were faceless specters. Once married, they could venture out of their homes only with veils and escorts. No one yet had freed our souls. Passion and pleasure, like freedom, were the domain of men, and even young girls knew the wishes of their hearts would always be subject to a man’s desire for wealth. A man named Pericles summed up my time so well in his famed oration: “The greatest glory of a woman is to be least talked about by men, whether they are praising you or criticizing you.” Our role was clear: We were to be objects of passion, to receive a man’s attention mutely, and to respond only with children for the estate. Even the most powerful woman of our time, the beautiful Queen Vashti, was powerless. That was my future as a girl and I dared not lift my eyes above its horizon. That is how I enter this story. But give me your hand and let us walk back now, past the crumbling walls of history, to this world forgotten but a time yet remembered. Let me tell you the story of a girl unspared, plunged into heartache and chaos, who would save a nation. My name is Esther, and I will be queen.
1 Out of respect for God, Jews write the name of God without the vowels, believing that the name of God is too holy to be written out completely by a human. God is referred to as either “G-d” or “YHVH.”
2 The name Esther is related to the Persian name of Ishtar, a pagan goddess of the stars.
3 Esther refers to the king by his Persian name. In the Hebrew texts of antiquity, he is also referred to as Ahasuerus.
1
Eleventh Day of Shevat
Third Year of the Reign of Xerxes
Year 3394 after Creation
Was it today that I became fully awake, or have I only now begun to dream? Today Cyrus saw me in the marketplace haggling gently with my favorite shopkeeper, Shethana, over the price of a fleece. Shethana makes the loveliest rugs—I think they are even more lovely than the ones imported from the East—and her husband is known for his skill in crafting metals of all kinds. When I turned fifteen last year, he fashioned for me a necklace with several links in the center, painted various shades of blue. He says it is an art practiced in Egypt, this inlaying of colors into metal shapes. I feel so exotic with it on and wear it almost daily. I know it is as close to adventure as Mordecai will ever allow.
But as Shethana and I haggled over the fleece, both of us smiling because she knew I would as soon give it to her, Cyrus walked by eating a flatbread he had purchased from another vendor. He grimaced when he took a bite—I think he might have gotten a very strong taste of shallot—and I laughed. He laughed back, wiping his eyes with his jacket and fanning his mouth, and then, oh then, his gaze held my eyes for a moment. Everything in my body seemed to come alive suddenly and I felt afraid, for my legs couldn’t stand as straight and steady and I couldn’t get my mouth to work. Shethana noticed right away and didn’t conceal her grin as she glanced between Cyrus and me. I should have doubled the price of her fleece right then!
Cyrus turned to walk away, and I tried to focus again on my transaction. I could not meet Shethana’s eyes now—I didn’t want to be questioned about men and marriage, for everyone knows I have no dowry. To dream of winning Cyrus would be as foolish as to run my own heart straight through. I cannot dream, for it will surely crush me. And yet I can’t stop this warm flood that sweeps over me when he is near.
I haven’t told you the best part—when Shethana bought her fleece and left, I allowed myself to close my eyes for a moment in the heat of the day, and when I opened them again, there was a little stack of flatbread in my booth. I looked in every direction but could see no one. Taking a bite, I had to spit it out and started laughing. Cyrus was right—the vendor used many bitter shallots. The flatbread was a disaster.
Paddy Meehan is no stranger to murder--as a reporter she lives at crime scenes--but nothing has prepared her for this visit from the police. Her former boyfriend and fellow journalist Terry Patterson has been found hooded and shot through the head. Paddy knows she will be of little help--she had not seen Terry in more than six months. So she is bewildered to learn that in his will he has left her his house and several suitcases full of notes. Drawn into a maze of secrets and lies, Paddy begins making connections to Terry's murder that no one else has seen, and soon finds herself trapped in the most important--and dangerous--story of her career.
Here is the Reading Group Guide for Slip of the Knife -
1. Why do you think Denise Mina chooses to begin the novel from Terry’s point of view? Is his death so early in the novel a surprise?
2. Paddy’s family members play important roles in this novel. How have the Meehan family dynamics changed since the death of Paddy’s father? What is the importance of Mary Ann’s vocation to her mother? Discuss the alternative forms of “family” that the novel presents. How does Paddy’s own definition of family change in the course of the novel?
3. How does Paddy’s life as a single mother affect her relationship to her work? What does the novel suggest about the balance between personal and professional obligations for a character like Paddy?
4. Discuss the role Callum Ogilvy plays in the story. Does your opinion of him change from the novel’s beginning to end?
5. Discuss the ways in which religion limits different characters’ views of each other in the novel.
6. Much of Slip of the Knife is concerned with changes to the journalistic profession and the economic difficulties facing newspapers today. Describe some of these changes, and discuss the ways in which they affect the kinds of journalism that gets published.
7. Discuss the differences between Brian Donaldson and Martin McBree. Is either of them ever a sympathetic character? Why do you think Denise Mina chooses to narrate parts of the novel from Martin McBree’s perspective?
8. Explain why the Scottish police are protecting Martin McBree. How does this novel change your understanding of present day relations between Scotland and Ireland? Among Scotland, Ireland, and England?
9. What is Slip of the Knife saying about the usefulness of revenge? Does the novel carry a message about what makes a political cause just or unjust?
10. What do you think the future holds for Paddy and Dub as a couple?
Giveaway
I have five copies of this paperback book to giveaway courtesy of Hachette Books. For your first entry (MUST DO THIS ONE FOR ANY OTHER ENTRIES TO COUNT) give me a link to your blog - or if you don't have a blog - you're favorite blog! Oh - and leave your email address.
For additional entries you can sign up to follow (old followers let me know), Twitter or post it on your blog. Each entry must have it's own comment. (Four entries total.)
This giveaway if for U.S./Canada only - no PO boxes and will end Apr 9!
This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:
Friday Mornings at Nine
by Laura Childs
by Ginger Garret
by Kathy Cano-Murillo
