new romance from Robin Fuson

 

Worthless to Priceless

Robin Densmore Fuson

Buy on Amazon 

Ebook $2.99

Print $7.99

198 pp

July 2020

About the Book

At the tender age of thirteen, orphaned Jenny Low decides to take matters in her own hands and runs away from her captive life in a Ute tribe. Rescued from near death by a kindly teamster, Samuel Baunof, Jenny is sent to live with a family in Glenwood Springs, Colorado in 1886. She learns the truth of wickedness and runs again straight into true evil.

Meanwhile, Samuel holds his head up while facing life's cruelty head on. A few years later, he crosses paths with the orphaned girl he once rescued. Now a beautiful young woman, Jenny is a God-send in his time of need. Their trials aren’t over and Samuel finds himself tracking her through the wilderness where, unbeknownst to him, someone else is after her too. Will he get to her in time?

Can these two people with completely different backgrounds and beliefs help each other and those around them? Is Samuel able to rescue Jenny from the horror her life has been drawn into? Is his faith strong enough to help her understand that God loves her and didn’t abandon her? Jenny is challenged to accept love and forgiveness even when she feels the world closing in.

 

My review

Heart-achy love story between a young girl, brutally abused on the old west of Colorado, and a widower searching for someone to care for his young children.

It’s a familiar trope well-retold by a master storyteller. Fuson’s tales are always dramatic and life-changing no matter where or when they’re set.

Jenny has an almost True Grit aspect to her life, though she needs to kindness of others to help her escape the desperate circumstances she is in. After escaping from one horror and jumping into the next, this girl just can’t get a break until her life circles around to meet with the rescuer who thought he’d done a good deed.

Samuel has a good position as a teamster in Colorado; it’s just that he’s on the road for days at a time and when his wife passes away, he has three young tots to care for. Life is funny when it leads him back to the young girl he rescued from the desert. Horrified to learn the couple who took her in failed her dreadfully, and the next troubling circumstance she entered was even worse, Samuel was more than determined to see her safe.

Nicely told from both sides of gritty realism, romance readers will enjoy Fuson’s latest story.

About the Author

Robin recently moved to Tennessee with her husband Jimmy. Together, they celebrate with seventeen grandchildren. An award winner for romance and flash fiction. Robin is multi-published and writes stories on her blog for children. Robin is a member of ACFW, Vice President of ACFW Colorado Western Slope, and member of John316 Marketing Network. She enjoys leading a Bible study group and singing in two community choirs. Robin loves company and challenging her young guests to discover the many giraffes in the obvious and hidden nooks and crannies of their home.

DiAne Gates and her new novel Twisted

In these days of transient and blended families we’ve lost the generational stories of the good ole’ and not-so-good ole’ days, and have settled for the deception of a me-first, get-it-now culture. And relationships within families are the casualties. This breaks my heart for the kids, their parents, and grandparents.

My introduction to the action-packed world of rodeo, a number of years ago, seemed the perfect background to convey a story of teens trapped in circumstances beyond their control. Yet to confirm to teens and adults reading ROPED and TWISTED there is a Sovereign Creator God who is in control of all things. A God who loves them and died for them, so they in turn might live for Him—even when they don’t have a care or clue who He is or what He’s done.

But that process sometimes takes years, and some are lost in the process, as the Fairgate family history shouts.

The three teen personalities of ROPED and TWISTED had to be diametrically opposed to each other at the core of their being. And Crissy Crosby, Jodie Lea Fairgate, and Chun Len have lived up to and beyond my expectations—real life teens with a boo-coodle of every day and not so everyday problems they must face. Problems that threaten to destroy them and their families.

Jesus conveyed His message to the crowds by parables—stories of their culture which ordinary people could understand and hopefully apply to their lives. If our Lord used this method, don’t you think we might reach others for the Kingdom if we told our stories to those He places in our path?

Crissy Crosby, my protagonist, has a get-‘er-done at all costs attitude that is often annoying and generally plunges her in a heap-a-trouble. Guess whose character traits I followed for that girl? Uh-huh! Yours truly, my daughter, and granddaughter! Those apples didn’t fall far from that tree.

Jodie Lea Fairgate’s downright hateful and mean. Devoid of any comprehension of what’s right and good, while she lives in the luxury of the town’s rich, but bully father and coward mother.

Chun Len and his family immigrated from China and have just arrived in a small town in East Texas. Where the Fairgates despise anything different.

One of my edit partners fell in love with Chun from the get-go. And oh my, doesn’t racial prejudice punch a hot button in our world today? But Crissy can’t abide prejudice in any shape, size, or form—especially from Jodie Lea Fairgate.

ROPED gave us a peek into the dark side of consequences, but TWISTED rips off the secret death shroud of the Fairgates cesspool of relatives.

I’m seven chapters into Book Three, UNTIED, and all I can tell y’all is hang on to your hats!!! It’s going to get gruesome! But God is still in control.

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 NAS).

Buy Twisted on Amazon $4.99
Buy Roped on Amazon $3.99

About DiAne:

Texas writer, DiAne Gates, illustrates and writes fiction for children and YA, and serious non-fiction for the folks. Her passion is calling the Church’s attention to how far we’ve catapulted from God’s order and walking in obedience to Him as evidenced by her blog Moving the Ancient Boundaries.

DiAne worked as a photographer and writer for the East Texas Youth Rodeo Association magazine, and had the opportunity to be in the rodeo arena, feel the sting of Texas turf in her face and across her camera lens, giving birth to her western rodeo adventure series, released by Prism Book Group in August of 2015, ROPED. This first book of the series placed #5 on Top Ten Christian Reads for Teens and Tweens, 2016, as well as being a finalist in the 2015 Grace Awards, and a finalist in The Christian Literary Henri Awards for 2016.

 Book Two in the ROPED SERIES—TWISTED, was released by Pelican Book Group July 14, 2017.  And the third book, UNTIED, her current WIP, continues the adventure of two Texas teens and their families. DiAne writes a monthly article for Crosswalk, an online Christian magazine.

She also leads LifeSavers, an adult edit group for North Texas Christian Writers. And has a new blog THE SOUTHERN SIDE OF FLAVOR, where she shares family recipes and many tricks to cutting calories while retaining a massive injection of southern and southwest flavor into each tasty bite. DiAne facilitates GriefShare, an international support ministry for those who’ve lost loved ones.

Wife, mother, and Mimi, her passion is to share those hard life lessons God allows in our lives. Lessons she hopes will leap from the page into your heart and play out in loving family relationships.

Movingthe Ancient Boundaries

TheSouthern Side of Flavor

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New Historical Fiction from Janalyn Voigt

Hills of Nevermore, Montana Gold Book 1

Janalyn Voigt

Mountain Brook Ink Publishers

May 1, 2017

Inspirational historical romance

Electronic: $.99

Buy on Amazon

About the Book

Can a young widow hide her secret shame from the Irish preacher bent on helping her survive?

In an Idaho Territory boom town, America Liberty Reed overhears circuit preacher Shane Hayes try to persuade a hotel owner to close his saloon on Sunday. Shane lands face-down in the mud for his trouble, and there’s talk of shooting him. America intervenes and finds herself in an unexpectedly personal conversation with the blue-eyed preacher. Certain she has angered God in the past, she shies away from Shane.

Addie Martin, another widow, invites America to help in her cook tent in Virginia City, the new mining town. Even with Addie’s teenage son helping with America’s baby, life is hard. Shane urges America to depart for a more civilized location. Neither Shane’s persuasions nor road agents, murder, sickness, or vigilante violence can sway America. Loyalty and ambition hold her fast until dire circumstances force her to confront everything she believes about herself, Shane, and God.

Based on actual historical events during a time of unrest in America, Hills of Nevermore explores faith, love, and courage in the wild west.

My Review

Two lost souls risen from the ashes of loss of opposing hardships find freedom, redemption, and a new start on the American frontier.

A privileged young woman with a big lie on her heart feels she’d been dealt God’s justice when her new husband dies and she’s left to fend for herself and her newborn. A circuit preacher faces his sense of inadequacy when he sees little reward for his labors in the wild west just opening up to fortune-hunters and the fast life that goes with it.

America Reed and her infant daughter Liberty hitch up with a wagon train heading for Idaho, and befriends another woman and her teenage son who have suffered the terrible drowning loss of Addie’s husband on the route. The wagon train breaks up when they reach a settlement near which a gold strike entices many to stake their claim. America is disheartened by the roughness and wild antics of the west. Unwilling to return to her wealthy disinterested and dysfunctional home in St. Louis, she does the best she can, partnering with Addie who plans to open her own restaurant. When strange feelings over a circuit riding minister tickle America’s conscience, she knows she must spurn his interest in her lest he, too, serves as punishment for her sinful past.

Shane Hayes, an Irish immigrant so desperate to meld with America that he’s changed his name, faithfully follows God’s call to keep religion alive in a land determined to profane it. Hoping to make great advances for the Lord, he practices what he preaches by turning the other cheek and eye and jaw so often he loses the respect of those he wants to reach. To top it off, he’s become distracted by a widow who obviously needs Christian charity in light of her situation…and succeeds in securing more than his Christian love. Trying twice to convince his superiors he’s not fit for his call, one last piece of advice and encouragement from his friend helps Shane find his way.

Vogt’s research and use of recorded events bring this story of redemption and romance alive. The side stories all effectively channel the tale to a satisfying conclusion. Told in multiple viewpoints, those who enjoy reliving the wild west will enjoy this vicarious visit to the birth of Virginia City.

About the Author

My father instilled a love of literature in me at an early age by reading chapters from The Wizard of Oz, Robinson Crusoe and other classics. When I grew older, and he stopped reading bedtime stories, I put myself to sleep with tales I "wrote" in my head. My sixth-grade teacher noticed my penchant for writing and encouraged me to become a novelist.

 

I'm considered a multi-genre author, but I like to think of myself as a storyteller. The same elements appear in all my novels in proportions dictated by their genre: romance, mystery, adventure, history, and whimsy. 

This is the Christmas Gift You've Been Waiting For

I wasn't biased before I was asked to help work on it. I loved it from the moment the concept was born. I loved it when I started reading a proof copy with typos. I adored the gorgeous, perfectly designed interior.

You will too.
Have someone hard to gift this season of giving? Need a lift yourself? A half-hour getaway every once in a while? Stories from the poignant to bust a gut laughing, everyone will enjoy this book

Try this: Christmas Campfire Companion.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Iowan small press, Port Yonder Press, is pleased to announce the release of the

CHRISTMAS CAMPFIRE COMPANION.

Join 14 of today’s top western authors in this definitive collection. Stories by L. J. Washburn, Troy D. Smith, Frank Roderus, Tim Champlin, Larry D. Sweazy, Robert Vaughan, Douglas Hirt, Dusty Richards, Kerry Newcomb, Matthew P. Mayo, Robert Randisi, Rod Miller, James Reasoner, and Terry Burns in this heartwarming collection of Christmas stories in a western setting. Beautifully illustrated. Rated PG for some language.

Edited by Chila Woychik, managing editor at Port Yonder Press, Shellsburg, Iowa. 319-436-3015.

The Christmas Campfire Companion

ISBN: 9781935600084 (Softcover, $12.95)

ISBN: 9781935600107 (Trade Cloth $15.95)

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Give the Lady a Ride

By Linda Yezak

c. 2011

Port Yonder Press

ISBN: 9781935600190

$12.99

Contemporary western romance

From the publisher: Patricia Talbert is a high-class social coordinator from New York. Talon Carlson is a rugged bull rider from Texas. He thinks she’s too polished. She thinks he’s insane.
Opposites aren’t quick to attract when the lady who enters the cowboy’s world is on a mission to sell the ranch. But a box of letters changes her mind and her heart.

My review:

So I'm a sucker for westerns, what can I say with Zane Grey as one of my favorite authors. I fell in love with Linda's as yet unnamed story when it first crossed my desk. Already polished, I often forgot to edit as I read, which is something that rarely happens to me even with big-name publishers.

Talon (doncha love the name, but there's a reason for it, which you'll have to find for yourself), was left in charge of a Texas spread after Jake and Loretta, the owners, passed on. Leader of a rag-tag group of cowboys, he's waiting on Jake's will, hoping to be named the new owner since Jake and Loretta had practically raised him. When Jake's lawyer mentioned that Jake had left the place to a distant relative, who turned out to be a big-city socialite, Talon is devastated. Even more so when the hoity-toity young lady, senator's daughter Patricia, lets him know the place is for sale.

The cowboy's a man of faith, whereas the socialite hasn't had much time to spare for religion. When Patricia sees her first rodeo, all the horse-back riding lessons, and even a long-forgotten visit to the ranch, come flooding back. This ranch lifestyle tugs at her, and is much more appealing than the brittle glitter of New York. Talon might have an ulterior motive for convincing the lady to stay so that he can convince her not to sell; and Patricia a not-so-subtle reason for asking for bull-riding lessons, but they soon realize they're smitten with each other.

I love the behind-the-scenes looks Linda adds to the story to make bull-riding and rodeos and ranch life feel natural and alluring. In my mind those touches, along with appealing characters and heart-felt, heartstring-tugging romance makes Give the Lady a Ride a very sweet read indeed.

Lisa Lickel

Lisalickel.com