Awakening by JoAnn Durgin

Awakening by JoAnn Durgin

c. 2010

TornVeil Books

ISBN: 978-1926712697

$12.99

Christian romance

JoAnn Durgin's debut novel, Awakening, is a romance to tickle your fancy, keep your pulse hopping and your hands busy turning pages.

Lexa Clarke wants to satisfy an elusive longing to do the right thing. Sam Lewis tried love once, but it didn't work very well, so he figures he's done looking. He might have been done looking, but it found him anyway, and with the most inconvenient timing – right in the middle of his eight-week TeamWork Christian work camp rebuilding houses on the Texas coast after a hurricane.

Lexa, a citified financial professional, takes a big chance with her job when she takes a two-month leave to try to scratch her itchy conscience and make a difference in the world. How better than to help people make a new start after the hurricane? She picks TeamWork and moves to San Antonio for the summer, realizing the organization is Christian, but not undertanding what an impact the people and the experience would have. Sam is also a financial professional, successful in his own right, from a large loving family, and faithful from the crown of his Stetson to the tips of his cowboy boots. From the start, Lexa is a problem child; one who rattles his cage and makes him step back and look at his well-practiced faith from a fresh angle. Lexa learns not only how to wield a hammer and how to be useful in a group setting, she finds that elusive joy through faith she's been missing her whole life.

Lexa and Sam's relationship is tested through the camp setting, and through a strange twist of a scary intruder bent on hurting one of the other TeamWork members. As Sam and Lexa work out this problem together, they grow in faith and love. Sam, however, finds a new calling that Lexa can't share. Will their love withstand a separation?

JoAnn's story is filled with lots of good kissing and intense moments of danger and high emotion. She describes her settings so faithfully that you feel like you're there. Lovers of romantic stories set in wonderful locations like San Antonio will truly enjoy this story.

I read this on Kindle!

Elaine Marie Cooper - The Road to Deer Run

The Road to Deer Run

By Elaine Marie Cooper

Greenleaf Publishing

iUniverse

c. March 2010

ISBN: 978-1-4502-1919-8

Retail: $18.96

1777. Massachusetts Colony. Red Coats. Continental Army. Well, we know who didn’t win, but now we have another story behind the scenes. And the best part is that The Road to Deer run is based on family history.

The Thomsen family has already lost husband and father, a young brother to the ravages of hostile environment and the Revolution; another brother is currently serving in the war effort. Widow Ruth Thomsen is left to run her farm with the help of her eldest and youngest daughters. Deer Run settlers are a close-knit community, and the widow is also a healer and midwife. When Mary Thomsen makes a disturbing discovery on the family property, she must decide whether or not to keep the secret.

Daniel Lowe is a young Lieutenant in his majesty’s forces, wounded and taken prisoner after the loss at the Battle of Saratoga. Daniel’s physical wound is secondary to the loss of his young brother, who had died in his arms. Daniel accepted his fate when a Continental saber threatened to end his life, but Daniel’s life was spared. As a prisoner, the lieutenant attempted to keep his fellow soldiers’ spirits up on the terrible march to Boston, even knowing his festering gunshot wound would end his life sooner than later. Hoping for a lonely place to crawl off and die, Daniel takes advantage of a distraction and escapes…or so he thinks. He may not only lose his leg, but also his heart to a lovely American woman.

It doesn’t take long for Daniel to appreciate the cause of the Americans and for Mary to give him her heart.

Told in a dynamic flowing omniscient voice, Cooper’s story unfolds with the coziness of a family hearthside story. The fact that she based this lovely little story on her own family history makes it that much more precious. Well-done research and interesting farming and government details make The Road to Deer Run a very sweet historical love story.

She's got a pretty cool trailer on her web site too!

Yesterday's Tomorrow

Yesterday’s Tomorrow

Catherine West

March 15, 2011

OakTara Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-60290-278-7  

From the publisher: Kristin Taylor wants to go to Vietnam to report on the war, and honor her father’s memory by becoming an award-winning journalist like he was, as well as to keep tabs on her brother who's in service. But no editor will send her. So she strikes out on her own and steps into a world more terrifying than she’d imagined. When she meets photographer Luke Maddox, Kristin knows she’s found a story. With war raging all around them, they engage in their own tumultuous battle of emotions and private agendas. Kristin is after a story that might get her the Pulitzer. Luke wants retribution from the enemy that took away his family. In the face of death, Kristin and Luke must decide if they’re willing to set aside selfish ambition for the love that seems to have ambushed them and captured their hearts.

My review: I intended to take this book in chunks, but when I reached my first self-imposed stopping point, I ignored it. Yesterday's Tomorrow is so compelling that I had to keep turning pages. Delicious characters who live so fully that they allow themselves to get filthy and face evil and temptation from friends as well as obvious foes will make you remember them for a long time. Cathy's story isn't about women's rights, although the late sixties in America is a testing time. The character of Kristin isn't out to prove that a woman can do a war-time correspondent job; she's out to prove that she has an eye for a story like no one else. A chance meeting with international journalists gives Kristin a roommate in Saigon; the roommate has a brother who's a mysterious photo-journalist. Although Kristin has defied her mother and her boss to go to Vietnam, she quickly grows up, finds the right connections and the chance to write the story of a lifetime on the unspoken role of the US government behind the scenes. Luke lives fast and recklessly, and when he and Kristen are thrown together as a team for Life magazine, they share secrets that bind them long after the war is over.

I remember all those messed-up soldiers coming home. I was in junior high and very impressionable, and lived through some pretty gruesome aftereffects in our neighborhood, including the stabbing of a neighbor's wife. As I read the book I wondered if Cathy had lived through the era, and found out later that she had researched well. The book is so complex in that Cathy touches on women's rights, racism, espionage, the fallout of war on orphans, temptation and the aftermath, besides a raw faith element. All of the beautiful ingredients create a rich and sensuously satisfying meal. She also has a great book trailer.

When I first received this book for review, I read the opening and part of the first chapter, then went to check out the author. I still have trouble believing that this is Cathy's debut novel. I read a lot of books for review and I rarely give raves, but this book is rave-worthy. For readers who like thought-provoking, gritty, death-defying and fast-paced realism in their recent history entertainment, or for those who just want a taste of what it was like for people going through this devastating time in American history, Yesterday's Tomorrow will satisfy you for the moment and stay with you long afterward.

The Barn Door: Guest CJ Darlington talks about Bound by Guilt

The Barn Door: Guest CJ Darlington talks about Bound by Guilt