“Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” ― G.K. Chesterton

Thursday, August 30, 2012

CFBA Blog Tour--A Duke's Promise by Jamie Carie

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
A Duke's Promise
B&H Books (September 1, 2012)
by
Jamie Carie


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

As Jamie’s relationship with God grew, she discovered her heart was filled with songs and poetry. During high school she wrote lyrics for her brother’s band. (And she sang them too!) After college, Jamie married, had two sons and decided to stay home with them. While she homeschooled she wrote skits, poems, plays and short stories for school and church.
When her eldest son turned five she dove into the world of novels. She’d read romance novels for years, but couldn’t relate to the flawless, saintly heroines in Christian romance novels. So she decided to write her own.

Snow Angel was born on a frosty night in an old farmhouse in Fishers, Indiana, where the cold floor gave plenty of motivation for the snow scene. Jamie loves to write late at night when the house is quiet and the darkness seems alive. Elizabeth and Noah had been playacting in her head for a long time, so the story went fast.
Ten years later Snow Angel was published and won the ForeWord magazine Romance Book of the Year winner, was a National “Best Books 2007” Awards winner, and a 2008 RITA Awards® Best First Book finalist. It was the beginning of her dream career.

Jamie and her husband Tony have been married for twenty-one years and live in Indianapolis with their three sons and a giant of a dog named Leo.

If she could only say one thing to her readers it would be, “Live the dreams God has destined you for!”

ABOUT THE BOOK

From the Land of Fire and Ice back to England’s shores, Alexandria Featherstone finds herself the new Duchess of St. Easton. Her husband has promised a wedding trip to take them to the place where her imperiled parents were last seen -- Italy and the marble caves of Carrara -- but a powerful Italian duke plots against Alex and her treasure-hunting parents.

Hoping to save them, Alex and Gabriel travel to Italy by balloon. Fraught with danger on all sides and pressured by Gabriel’s affliction to the breaking point, they must learn to work and fight together. The mysterious key is within their grasp, but they have yet to recognize it. This journey will require steadfast faith in God and each other -- a risk that will win them everything they want or lose them everything they have.

If you would like to read the first chapter of A Duke's Promise, go HERE.

Jamie can be reached through the Contact link on her Website


Sunday, August 19, 2012

Outrunning the Trials of War - A Review of "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand

Book Description
Copied from Amazon.com

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood.  Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared.  It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard.  So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini.  In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails.  As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile.  But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.a

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater.  Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion.  His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

Book Review

"Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" is the newest book from Laura Hillenbrand, author of "Seabiscuit."  Let me start off by saying that "Unbroken" is amazing.  The story it tells is awe-inspiring, and the writing which conveys it is beautiful.

From the very first chapter I knew I was in for a treat.  Hillenbrand immediately takes the reader deep into the life of Louis Zamerini, the main character.  Nearly every passage in this book is informed by the immense amount of research that Hillenbrand did, and that research shines through every page.  Facts about Louis's track days are scattered through the first chapters, quotes from first-hand witnesses are inserted often, and photographs provided directly from the main players in the story and their families are littered throughout.  The reader really gets to know Zamperini and all the supporting cast very intimately.

However, all this factual information would be nothing without beautiful writing to tie it all together, and Hillenbrand brings it in spades.  Through all the climactic moments, and all the lulls, Hillenbrand's writing carries the reader through the story with grace - and what a story it is!  I find it hard to think of anyone who would not enjoy this book.  It is a story of human resilience and the strength to overcome seemingly impossible obstacles.  It is also a wonderfully moving story of Christian faith.  I am inspired by the stories of the men and women in this book and I think anyone who reads it will be too.

I give it 5 out of 5 stars.  This is a clean read.

This book was reviewed by my husband, Addison.

I want to thank Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers  for the complimentary copy of this book for review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I express in this review are my own. This is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s CFR 16, Part 255.