Peeking Between the Pages

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Hachette Blog Tours

Give Books, Not Roses Giveaway (US only)

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Happy Saturday everyone!  I’ve got a great treat for you today courtesy of Hachette Book Group and it’s a great idea – the Give Books, Not Roses campaign.  That’s certainly my idea of the perfect Valentine’s gift.  Here’s the editor from Hachette to explain it all much more eloquently than I ever could.  LOL.

 

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Dear Reader,

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! The crisp, cool air feels a little sweeter and stores are filling their shelves with greeting cards and candies. But instead of sharing the usual gifts, the way to someone’s heart can be through a story (and maybe a little bit of chocolate). Hachette Book Group is offering a “Give Books, Not Roses” Valentine’s Day giveaway for those of you who want to express your admiration for friends, family, and loved ones.

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Love Gently Falling written by Melody Carlson is a romantic novella about the power of Valentine’s Day and how one woman discovers love while at the same time saving her family’s business. Successful hairstylist to the stars Rita Jensen returns to her hometown in Chicago after receiving news that her mother has suffered a stroke. Though Rita must come up with a plan to save her mother’s salon, the oncoming holiday and her undeniable feelings for an old classmate become quite a distraction.

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Keys of Heaven is the second book in Adina Senft’s Healing Grace trilogy. Amish widow Sarah Yoder helps her community by creating teas and tinctures from the herbs she grows. She struggles to find love with an Amish man, and she doesn’t know what to do about her attraction to her friend Henry Byler, who has turned away from her beliefs. Sarah’s story will show anyone that romantic love is not the only love that matters.

Valentine’s Day is an internationally celebrated day of romance, dating back to the 5th Century. But today, love touches our lives in so many different ways. Whether you are dedicating the day to your good friends or your life partner, treat them to these wonderful stories of courage, kindness, and love.

Sincerely,

Christina Boys
Editor of LOVE GENTLY FALLING and KEYS OF HEAVEN

 

You can also pick up the book – just in case you don’t win…

LOVE GENTLY FALLING
Books-A-Million
Barnes & Noble
ChristianBook.com
Amazon

KEYS OF HEAVEN
Barnes & Noble
Books-A-Million
Amazon

 

GIVEAWAY – OPEN TO US RESIDENTS ONLY

1 lucky winner will receive a copy of both books featured above along with chocolate from Olive & Sinclair.  Yum!

*CLICK HERE* and fill out the form to enter

Draw Date February 28/15

 

 

Source: Post information and giveaway sponsored by Hachette Book Group.  No compensation was received.

Book Review: The Secret Keeper by Sandra Byrd

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Having read Sandra Byrd’s first book, To Die For (my review), in the Ladies in Waiting series and loved it, I knew that I had to read The Secret Keeper, the second in the series which just released on June 5 as well. This newest offer from Sandra Byrd is sure to please her fans along with any new ones looking for a good historical read. It is brimming full of court intrigue, betrayals, balls, scandal, and love and brings the Tudor world alive in stunning detail!

In The Secret Keeper our story is told by the fictional Juliana St. John but the tale surrounding is rich with historical detail. As her family has a relationship with Thomas Seymour Juliana is lucky enough to be asked to attend Kateryn Parr (Kate) who at the time is Lady Latimer. However soon enough Lord Latimer passes and Kate is pursued by Henry VIII, who as we all know gets what he wants. They marry despite Kate’s long time love for Thomas Seymour and Juliana goes along with Kate as one of her ladies-in-waiting.

Juliana forms a close relationship with Kate and views her as the mother she never had as her relationship with her own mother is not close whatsoever. In turn Kate also trusts Juliana with things she doesn’t trust her other ladies with. Juliana will and does do anything Kate asks of her and her loyalty to the queen never falters. Another unusual thing about Juliana is she possesses the gift of prophecy – she sees things that will happen in the future. She is always deeply disturbed by these visions but she also pays close attention to them and what they might mean for the future.

For Juliana life at court is something she could not have imagined. The balls and feasts astound her, as do all the young men. She meets one who catches her eye; an Irishman named Jamie but he seems quite popular with all the young women yet they seem to have an attraction to each other. However there are other less desirable men who have their eye on Juliana and one such man may take Juliana’s life and destroy it. As life at court continues Juliana returns home for a time but eventually is drawn back to court and to the queen by another vision.

Sandra’s retelling of Kateryn Parr’s life is exactly why I love historical fiction so much. I get a fictional tale of Juliana who is a great character and captured my interest with her loyalty and just how good a person she was but I also get to learn more about a favorite period in history. I love to read anything on Henry VIII’s wives and I hadn’t read a lot on Kateryn yet who was his sixth and final wife so this was a treat as is Sandra Byrd’s storytelling ability. The Secret Keeper is another winner for Sandra Byrd and just another reason I keep coming back for more. I can’t wait for the next novel in her Tudor series!

I read The Secret Keeper by Sandra Byrd for her book tour with Historical Fiction Virtual Blog Tours.  Be sure to check out all the other tour stops and you can find Sandra on her website as well as Facebook and Twitter!  Your own copy of The Secret Keeper can be purchased here in the US or here in Canada.

Be sure to pop back in tomorrow as Sandra joins us with a guest post and giveaway of The Secret Keeper!

Book Review: Love in Mid Air by Kim Wright

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Love in Mid Air by Kim Wright was one of those novels I describe to myself and others as addictive.  It’s about a woman, Elyse, who is unhappy in her marriage and while on a plane trip home, meets a man that she finds herself extremely attracted to.  She goes back and forth with herself on whether to pursue this interest even though she has a husband and daughter at home.  Now I do have to say I don’t condone affairs yet this book and the character of Elyse are so much more than a woman just deciding to have an affair.

Elyse is approaching 40 and has been married for nine years.  The problem is she made a mistake in marrying Phil and while she’s tried over the years to make it work, especially for their seven year old daughter Tory, she knows she’s fighting a losing battle.  When Elyse met Phil she knew he wasn’t the normal type of man she went for but at the same time thought that  because he wasn’t, their relationship might just work.  He’s a good man, he’s provided her with a very comfortable lifestyle yet something has always been missing from this seemingly perfect world that really is more broken than perfect.

At first things seem ok but as time wears on and Elyse gets older she realizes just how unhappy she is.  Her chance meeting on the plane with Gerry is just the clincher in something she already knew – that her marriage was over and nothing was going to change that.   Elyse jumps into an affair with Gerry – it’s exciting, it’s different, and it’s fulfilling her in a way her marriage never did.  She has no romantic notions about Gerry; she knows that he isn’t going to leave his wife for her.  Yet that doesn’t seem to bother her; she shares all her thoughts and feelings with Gerry – in some ways I think this was healing for her as strange as that sounds.  She even tries counseling with her husband Phil but this doesn’t change her feelings; really it only seems to make her more determined to end her marriage. 

In Elyse’s world, women stay in marriages even if they aren’t completely happy.  Really, who’s happy all the time?  They get up each day and carry on with their routines throughout the day, go home – make supper and get the kids ready for bed.  Another day over and yet did they find themselves really feeling happy at any time in that day?  Elyse is tired of  all that and in this novel she is very real and straight forward about it.  She doesn’t make any apologies for her flaws or what she wants.  She begins talking about it with her friends in her book club ultimately making everyone uncomfortable as they then have to step back and take a look at their own lives.

The author, Kim Wright, has a way of bringing her characters to life in a real and unflinching way.  Nothing is sugar coated.  I have never been married but have been in a long term relationship in which I felt very trapped.  I could feel Elyse’s unhappiness and I don’t think it’s about her wanting something more exciting for her life.  It’s about wanting something better, some reason to get up in the morning and look forward to the day and be happy about it.  Elyse feels that Phil doesn’t see her and doesn’t listen to her.  She needs to feel like she is somebody – somebody valuable.  I get that.  So while this book is about a marriage on the rocks and a woman wanting a divorce, you also need to look past that to the reasons behind it.  To the woman wanting more for herself- Elyse.

We often wonder how things get to a point where there isn’t any turning back but they do and most often it creeps up on you.  This novel is really quite intense and honest.  How well do we really know anyone’s lives?  We see people and think they’re happy – they seem happy but this isn’t always the case.  What lies under the veneer of happiness is sometimes intense loneliness and unhappiness.  Is it worth it to keep on and keep trying?  That’s a question with an answer that would be different for everyone.  What I really liked about Elyse’s story is that in the end she doesn’t have any fairy tale ending – there is no tall, dark and handsome man waiting – there is only she and her daughter looking to rebuild their lives.

This would make a great book club read.  There’s so much to discuss and it’s definitely a topic that would generate a lot of conversation.  Be forewarned though that there is some pretty graphic hanky panky going on and bad language.  It’s not overwhelming but it’s there.  This is Kim Wright’s first novel and I think it’s a solid book well worth reading. 

I read Love in Mid Air by Kim Wright to start off her blog tour with Hachette Book Group.  You can see other tour stops here and you can purchase Love in Mid Air here in the US and here in Canada.  Be sure to pop back in tomorrow as Kim stops by to share a guest post with us.

My thanks…to Miriam with Hachette Book Group for my review copy of Love in Mid Air by Kim Wright.

Book Review: The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker

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Ted Dekker has done it again! In his newest novel The Bride Collector, to be released April 13, 2010, Dekker takes us deep into the mind of a psychotic killer and what a ride it is! I’ve been a fan of Dekkers for a while now, reading quite a few of his novels and this one is one of the best. The story builds relatively slowly giving you background on people and setting the scene. Once the story takes off though it’s hard to put this novel down and get back to real life. You just want to keep going and find out what’s coming next and those pages fly by until you find sadly that you’ve already come to the conclusion of the story.

FBI special agent Brad Raines is tracking The Bride Collector who has already killed four beautiful women. The Bride Collector, in his delusional mind, feels he is the chosen one to find and bring the perfect bride to God. The Bride Collector, thus called this because after he is finished putting the women through his horrors, he leaves them with a bridal veil. The worst thing is he leaves nothing at the crime scenes in terms of evidence; he cleans up thoroughly leaving Brad and his partner Nikki with no leads to follow.

The Bride Collector is looking for seven brides – the number of perfection. Brad and Nikki haven’t got much time to find the killer before he grabs his next victim. The situation is getting desperate, desperate enough that Brad decides to enlist the help of patients at the Center for Well-being and Intelligence – they feel that the killer may have been a patient at a mental institution at some point. These are people, who while mentally ill, are also extremely intelligent and gifted. The one person’s thoughts he’s keen on getting are those of Paradise who has the ability to touch a dead person and see the last moment’s of their lives.

Meantime Brad has become the object of The Bride Collector’s interest. Unfortunately for Brad, the killer feels he is a worthy adversary. This also doesn’t bode well for Brad’s partner Nikki as she becomes the next target of The Bride Collector’s fantasies. This has become very personal for Brad and the hunt intensifies. The patients at the Center for Well-Being and Intelligence are brought in even further in an attempt to find out who the killer may be. With their extraordinary talents and odd ways of coming to conclusions it makes for interesting reading. They need to hurry though because if they don’t, it may be TOO LATE!

Dekker has done a good job with the characters in this novel. Brad Raines is a likable guy and as the story evolves so does he. Paradise from the Center is another character I really liked. She’s had a rough childhood and with her illness, things haven’t always been easy for her. Another individual at the Center is Roudy who is actually quite amusing along with being very good at analyzing crime scenes. As well, the ex-nun Allison, who runs the Center is a great character who does everything she can to help her patients and have them treated as normal human beings.

Ted Dekker always has a message to share and his books will always make you stop and think. One other thing I have to mention about Ted Dekker novels is that you get this great suspenseful, sometimes horrific stuff going on yet there is never any bad language – this I find pretty impressive. This novel I think shows us that the mentally ill aren’t just people put away somewhere. Most often they are extremely intelligent people who just don’t have the capabilities of handling their gifts. Dekker also shows us that to love everyone is what God wants for us. This is another really great novel from Dekker and one well worth reading for those who want a suspenseful thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat!

I read The Bride Collector for Ted Dekker’s pre-publication Blog Tour with Hachette Book Group. Again, The Bride Collector by Tedd Dekker will be released April 13, 2010 and can be pre-ordered here in the US and here in Canada.

Darlene

My thanks…to Miriam with Hachette for my review copy of The Bride Collector and the opportunity to participate in Ted Dekker’s Blog Tour.

Book Review: Damas, Dramas, and Ana Ruiz by Belinda Acosta

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Damas, Dramas, and Ana Ruiz by Belinda Acosta was a good read. At first I had thought it would be a funny book and it is amusing but there is also a much deeper thread running through that involves family drama and a coming of age for both daughters and mothers as women. It’s an interesting story that kept me turning the pages and I was really pleased with it.

The story focuses on Ana Ruiz, recently separated from her husband Esteban, and their two children Diego and Carmen along with her niece Bianca thrown in for good measure. The separation has caused a lot of anger with the children especially Carmen as she’s a daddy’s girl. Carmen of course blames Ana for the separation and is very angry with her and shows her no respect whatsoever. Ana decides to plan a quinceanera – a fifteenth birthday party for Carmen as a way for them to spend more time together and maybe mend some fences. However all best laid plans usually go awry especially when you’re trying too hard and Ana’s are no different. Carmen agrees to the party but she’s not going to make any of it easy on Ana.

Ana is having such a hard time adapting to being without her husband and having her life in a shambles. She’s so frustrated with her daughter but she just can’t tell her the truth about her father and ruin her little girl’s starry eyed picture of her daddy. She’s also hurt, betrayed and still wanting to keep her marriage together for her children. Along the way a very hot artist comes to work at the university where Ana works and she plays at flirting for a while with him. It feels good to be attractive to someone again and feel beautiful.

However, Ana’s focus is really her children. The author portrays all the characters very realistically. You really get a sense for Carmen’s anger and her son Diego’s sweetness towards his mother. He’s a really mature young man considering all that is going on in his life. Ana’s niece Bianca is another character you grow to care about. Her mother has a mental illness and Bianca is left to try to come to terms with it and how she handles it. All the characters really grew in one way or another throughout the novel and I cared about them all and wanted to see the best happen for them.

The novel is well written. I did have some trouble with the Spanish used throughout the book although not to any great length. You won’t have any trouble at all understanding is being said as there is enough said to put the idea across quite well. I think it might have been nice to have a little mini page at the end of the novel with some of the words and sayings but as I said not really necessary. The best thing is this is a start of a Quinceanera Club series and I can’t wait to read the next one called Sisters, Strangers, and Starting Over. Oh, and as I was reading this novel I thought that it would really make a great book club pick and there’s even a Reading Group Guide available here. There’s so many issues to discuss between marriage problems and the difficulties kids face dealing with all the drama and just plain learning to find yourself in all the craziness.

I read Damas, Dramas, and Ana Ruiz by Belinda Acosta for her blog tour with Hachette Book Group – yet another wonderful novel published by Hachette. Many thanks to Miriam with Hachette for sending me the book and having me participate in the tour. Make sure to visit Belinda Acosta’s website here and you can purchase Damas, Dramas, and Ana Ruiz here in the US and here in Canada. Also, make sure to check out all the other blog tour stops that are planned for Belinda – you can see a listing of them here.

Book Review: The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand Blog Tour

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The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand is a great summer read brimming with drama! It’s an emotional novel about what happens when good friends are lost and secrets and betrayals are lurking in the background. My, my, what it can do to a group of friends is tear them up inside and leave them questioning their every move and wondering how to move on from the devastation.

The Castaways is about a group of eight individuals, four couples. There is Ed and Andrea, Jeffrey and Delilah, Addison and Phoebe and Greg and Tess. Theirs are all complicated relationships in many ways. Some have dated before, some are having affairs and some are contemplating them. There is definitely a lot of drama within this close knit group of friends who have dubbed themselves the Castaways.

The trouble starts when Greg and Tess who have had more than their fair share of marital problems due to some carousing on Greg’s part decide to go out sailing for their anniversary. Mysteriously their boat capsizes and they both drown leaving two small children and a group of friends who are emotionally devastated and at a loss as to how to deal with the aftermath of what has happened. These four couples lived and breathed each other in a sense. They went on vacations together, spent holidays together and just spent day to day life with each other in their lives all the time. Now a huge piece is missing.

Andrea, being Tess’ cousin feels she is the most bereft. She has been taking care of Tess their whole lives. She and her husband Ed take the young children but truthfully Andrea is such a mess that she can’t possibly care for kids. Phoebe, since her brother died in The World Trade Centre, has been a mess. She’s on some serious meds and most of the time hasn’t got a clue. Delilah is different from the rest. I think she is so conflicted with who she is and what she wants. She’s married with children yet still wants to stay out and party every night after work. Yet at the same time she’s kind of the life of the group, she keeps them together in a sense with her home parties where she makes fantastic food and drink.

Ed, Andrea’s hubby is the town Sherrif and seems a pretty serious and upstanding guy who would pretty much do anything for his friends. Jeffrey, ironically, used to date and live with Andrea. He was so busy making sure his farm thrived that he began to lose sight of his relationship and Andrea found Ed instead. Addison is the rich boy of the group. He is quite the talker. On the whole it seems that these people may not have a lot in common yet they have formed an incredibly strong bond with each other.

After the accident everyone falls apart. Secrets being carried by some are eating away at them and many feel to blame for what has happened to Greg and Tess for various reasons. Eventually they all need to come together and discuss what has happened in order to heal and move on. This novel is a passionate story of friendship and forgiveness. Can the bonds of friendship and marriage be strong enough to withstand the secrets and betrayals that have happened? Can people learn to forgive and move on to build even stronger friendships and marriages? Ultimately though, they can never forget the love for the couple lost but they can do their best by the children left.

The Castaways is more than your average beach read or chick-lit. There is a strong story within the pages and taking place on the island of Nantucket adds such a wonderful element. As a note there is some bad language and hanky panky but nothing overwhelming at all. For me, it was a really good read and I enjoyed it. I read The Castaways for the July Blog Tour with Miriam from Hachette and I think it was a wonderful pick for the month! Check out other tour stops here and make sure and check out Elin Hilderbrand’s wonderful website here. Castaways releases July 7, 2009 and you buy it here in the US and here in Canada.