Review of Laura Frantz's Love's Reckoning

Love’s Reckoning

By Laura Frantz

978-0-8007-2041-4

$14.99

Historical Romance

Revell Books

I loved Laura Frantz’s earlier historical sagas about the American frontier; fans will not be disappointed by this new story set shortly after the Revolutionary War on the western edge of Pnnsylvania—and the edge of known civilization.

Genre readers know what to expect when we pick our familiar favorites. There’s an expected outcome, a methodology to the tale, characters who meet and fall in love and must overcome obstacles. It’s the journey to the expected outcome that offers excitement. As a voracious reader, I appreciate being part of Frantz’s world without the need to stop and look up details, or verify historical issues that feel out of place. I’m a historian first, reader, second, and author, third, so I appreciate the level of research Frantz does to create a world that is both natural and satisfying to the historical fiction lover, full of daily chores, everyday dangers and people of both light and dark hearts—sometimes in one person.

An apprentice must finish his duty to obtain the coveted level of master blacksmith. Silas Ballantyne remembers the Scotland of his youth but refuses to allow the past to interfere with his dreams of becoming master of his own fate. A man of faith, it is only God who has allowed him to maintain his dignity through the terror, degradation and defeat that has taken his youth and young adulthood. Eden Lee’s life is one huge secret—some of which she authored, but many of which even she is ignorant. The daughter of the blacksmith, a depraved reprobate, will she allow those secrets to ruin her dreams of serving others? When Silas, Lee’s latest apprentice, and Eden, a daughter who dreams of escape, meet in this shadowed homestead of Leige Lee, it seems a simple enough plan for them to help each other. Love is only the gift that ties the bow on what should be a perfect package.

Sometimes, doing what’s best for another, no matter how noble the circumstances, ends up creating a disaster. Or does it?

Laura Frantz’s lovingly crafted tale of faith and redemption, desire and dreams will keep the reader turning pages and wishing for more after the last one.

 

Available September 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group

 

Also available at Barnes and Noble

Doctor Saundra - Seven Lies Women Tell Themselves

I am deeply honored to welcome Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith to Living Our Faith Out Loud Today.

Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith is a board-certified internal medicine physician who has been actively practicing medicine since 1999. She received her B.S. in Biochemistry at the University of Georgia and graduated with honors from Meharry Medical College in Nashville Tennessee. She completed her internal medicine residency at Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah Georgia. Dr. Dalton-Smith has been a adjunct faculty member at Baker College and Davenport University in Michigan. She teaches courses on health, nutrition, and disease progression. Dr. Dalton-Smith has offered health care from 2002-2007 through the National Health Service Corp.

Dr. Dalton-Smith is married and has two sons. She is a committed Christian and passionate about helping others experience freedom in Christ. Dr. Dalton-Smith has been published in national medical journals discussing the physicians' role in spirituality and patient care. She is also a national and international media resource on the mind, body, spirit connection. Dr.Dalton-Smith has a new book being released May 2011 by Revell/Baker Publishing Group titled Set Free to Live Free: Breaking Through the Seven Lies Women Tell Themselves that will be available wherever books are sold. You can pre-order you copy today at Amazon.com. Dr. Dalton-Smith is available to speak at women's conferences, lunch and learn meeting, and various church functions upon request.

1. Saundra, what motivated you to become a writer?

I've always loved reading and for me writing is a natural extension of that love. My writings began with my own personal journals. I never thought I would ever pursue publication, but a few precious women helped change my mind. One was a patient who presented to my office during a particularly busy day. I just did not have the time to spend with her that I desired. That night I thought, "I wish I had something I could have given her that shared my heart on her issues." From that I started putting together ideas for handouts to use at the office and it just escalated from there into a book.

2.  In Set Free to Live Free, you address not only patient’s physical issues but also their emotional and spiritual ones. To be able to give this type of guidance it seems like you would need longer than normal appointments with your patients. How much time do you set aside for appointments?

My office operates like most medical offices in that appointments are set at 15-30 minute intervals depending on the type of appointment. Every patient visit does not have the dynamics of those discussed in the book. There are quick visits for acute issues as well as longer visits where I manage chronic medical issues for my patients. During all visits I pay attention to the non-verbal language of my patients. I ask pointed questions based on my observations and see if a patient is ready to discuss further those areas. Some will be receptive leading to an extended visit and some will still have their personal walls up cutting our time short. So for every visit that goes over 10 minutes there is usually a corresponding visit that will be under the allotted time. It all just seems to work out in the end.

 3. Was there a section or chapter of Set Free to Live Free that was more difficult for you to write? If so, why? 

The section on balance (chapters 9 and 10) was definitely the most difficult for me to write. Balance is an area I am still working through myself, so it was as if I had to take a dose of my own medicine with each word. A much needed dose I must add. I think learning how to balance family and career is one of the hardest things a working mom faces. When I finally got to the point of writing Chapter 10 I had a hard time wording what I was feeling. So instead of just talking about what I was feeling I began that chapter actually describing the feelings as an analogy.  Sharing your raw emotions has a healing quality of its own. It began as the hardest chapter to write and ended as the one that gave me the most joy and peace.

4. There are many practical responses recommended in Set Free to Live Free. Do you recommend women go through the book on their own, join a study group, or go to a counselor for help in implementing the principles on a deeper level?

It really depends on the woman. I've had women come to me that have such a difficult time with self-disclosure that they would do best beginning the process alone (or one on one with a counselor) and then branch out to a group setting. I love small groups and I wrote the book with small groups in mind. It's beneficial to be with other women who are going through similar issues. You can build each other up and support each other. I would love to see little Diamond Societies popping up all over with women bound together in God's love and a shared journey to living free.

5. What’s next for your writing pursuits?

That's a great question but I don't have an answer for it! I do not currently have any other books penned. Of course I have some ideas and other areas I feel strongly about, but Set Free to Live Free is the book which discusses the issue I'm most passionate about: women living a flourishing and fulfilled life in Christ. For now I'm just thankful for the opportunity to share it with others and elaborate on applying it’s principles through online webinar bible studies and e-newsletter devotionals. 

~You can download the entire first chapter of Set Free to Live Free at www.setfreetolivefreebook.com ~

Dr. Dalton-Smith greatly honored me when she chose me to help edit this wonderful devotional.

I encourage you to check it out and sign up!

The Measure of Katie Calloway

The Measure of Katie Calloway

By Serena Miller

c. October 2011

Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group

ISBN: 9780800719982

14.99

Historical Fiction

Miller’s story about an antebellum abused wife fleeing north to Michigan timber country and winds up as a cook in a rough and tumble lumber camp is a satisfying step back in time.

Katie Calloway, young and naïve Pennsylvania minister’s daughter, marries her brother’s West Point friend and moves south to become mistress of a slave-run plantation. Not only does she enter the strange and confusing world of ownership of other humans, the War Between the States becomes a reality and she is left alone when her husband goes to fight. The story begins a couple of years after the conclusion of the war, when all that’s left to Katie and her young orphaned brother is her pride. Realizing that her husband does more than just despise her, she takes Ned and runs.

Blessed with jumping into the right place at the right time, Katie meets Robert Foster, owner of a lumber camp, who is in need of a cook. At the camp filled with rough lumbermen for a winter of work, Katie is thrust into an experience that will either make her stronger or break her spirit for good. Getting along with the wounded camp cook who is supposed to help her is only the first bump in the road. Falling in love with the wounded widower, Robert, and his children, and keeping her secret, is compounded when a former slave of her husband’s shows up to work at the camp. And when her brutal husband eventually tracks her down, will anyone come to her rescue?

Miller’s use of shanty song refrains to open each chapter is a delight, and adds just the right nuance to each section. I could hear the singing and fiddle playing, smell the pine trees and the flapjacks during her wonderfully smooth narrative. Characters that capture your heart, from the surly trickster Jigger, to the gentle carver Cletus, to Moon Song and her baby, to Skypilot, the once-upon-a-time preacher, readers of historical romantic inspirational fiction will escape to the years immediately following the Civil War in the boom time of Michigan with this lovely read. Reminiscent of other great reads, like Naomi Musch’s Empire in Pine series.

Serena Miller is the author of Love Finds You in Sugarcreek, Ohio, as well as numerous articles for periodicals such as Woman's World, Guideposts, Reader's Digest, Focus on the Family, Christian Woman, and more. She lives on a farm in southern Ohio.

Available October 2011 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group