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May 27th, 2010
 Today I’m reviewing A TAILOR-MADE BRIDE, by Karen Witemeyer, published by Bethany House.
Hannah Richards has come to Coventry, Texas to achieve her dream–to open up a dressmaker’s shop, having inherited the title of a building from a wealthy customer. But achieving her dream causes her to run afoul of liveryman J.T. Tucker, who’d planned to buy that building himself to benefit a widow. And there is another reason for J.T. to dislike Hannah–her taste for stylish clothes reminds him too much of his vain, self-centered mother.
But Hannah is nothing like her mother, and soon shows that by her acts of kindness and unlikely friendship. Much against his iron will, J.T. begins to fall in love with pretty Hannah, and she with him. The story of their courtship is engaging and charming, and the spiritual takeaway was that everyone has value and worth. I loved the heroine’s friendship with a grieving widower and his resultant transformation, as well as the heroine’s ahead-of-her-time interest in fitness.
I’ve become a fan, and I will be watching for future books by this great author. I highly recommend that you not miss this one!
This book was provided free for review by Bethany House.
Blessings, Laurie Kingery.
Tags: A TAILOR-MADE BRIDE, Christian fiction, Karen Witemeyer, western historical fiction
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May 27th, 2010
 It’s been a loooooong time since I’ve added anything but a book review to my blog. I feel like a diver that ’s coming up for air after a very lengthy submersion.
A couple of days ago I turned in my third book for Steeple Hill Love Inspired Historicals, a book that I had been referring to as THE WEDDING TREE, but the Powers That Be at my publisher have renamed it THE SHERIFF’S SWEETHEART. Sigh. This was out of a list of alternate titles I gave them, but I have to admit to you, my blog readers, that it’s not my favorite title. I was really invested in THE WEDDING TREE, since I’d been to San Saba County last April and visited the real “Wedding Oak,” but I understand what they’re doing at Steeple Hill–they’re trying to give the series titles a certain same rhythm based on the occupation of the hero. So the books in this series so far will be: MAIL ORDER COWBOY (Nov. ‘10), THE DOCTOR TAKES A WIFE (Jan.’11) and THE SHERIFF’S SWEETHEART (Apr.’11).
It’s been a long, hard sprint through a deadline I made short–I had a lot of the book done when it was contracted, so I figured it wouldn’t be hard to finish in the allotted time, but some early revisions and some medical problems definitely slowed me down during the middle writing. After a flareup of tendinitis, I spent many long hours and $$$ in the podiatrist’s office, treating the pain of aging nurse joints and getting fitted for orthotics. They’ve helped some, but a long night in the ER still has me reaching for the ibuprofen bottle. :/
Now we’re getting ready to take a much-deserved vacation in Wyoming to see Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, Cody and Jackson Hole. I’ve sent off my computer with the techie to get some service, so hopefully it will stop locking up in Word and “sticking” on AOL, so that my typing doesn’t appear on the page until it suddenly appears in a rush. I felt like I was sending off my firstborn, seeing it go off in the techie’s arms…I’m getting ready to write the next book in the contract, another “Simpson Creek Brides” story, COURTING CARO. Oh, but they’ll change it from that, I’m sure. :/
Anyway, thanks for being patient about my absence. I hope to be blogging a lot more often now that I’m done with this deadline. I’ve missed it! I’d love comments–it gets lonely on here with the only comments being spam from online poker and drug companies….
Blessings, Laurie
Tags: ER nursing, podiatrists, Simpson Creek Brides, Steeple Hill Love Inspired historicals, Texas, THE SHERIFF'S SWEETHEART, writing life
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May 25th, 2010
 Today I’m reviewing THE LAST CHRISTIAN by David Gregory, a futuristic inspirational novel that was quite different from anything I’ve ever read before.
In 2088 the world has changed completely from the world we know today. Abigail Caldwell, the daughter of missionaries, emerges from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to find that the United States her dead parents had told her about has vastly changed. Almost everything is done via the Grid, which is what the internet has morphed into. No longer tied to computers, it can be instantly called up by the mind. People meet each other and spend most of their time in Virtual Reality. There are no rules, for Christianity has died. Now science has developed an artificial brain that far surpasses any human brain or computer. The only trouble as Abby sees it is that once the new “perfect” brain has been surgically installed, one loses God. It’s not seen as a problem to modern mankind, for they’ve decided a long time ago that there is no God, but Abby vows to bring Christianity back to America, and hopefully, the modern world.
The moment she begins to attempt restoring the spiritual dimension to humanity, those that are trying to make brain transplants universal are out to get her. Allied with historian Creighton Daniels, they become unwitting targets of powerful men. It will take courage and sacrifice, but Abby and Creighton are willing to take on the challenge.
This was a riveting novel from Waterbrook Press, and it has the potential to be a powerful movie. I hope it’s made into one someday. The option of a brain transplant is a powerfully seductive one offering all knowledge–much as the devil in the guise of a serpent once offered it to Eve in the garden of Eden. The moral choice then was as important as that offered to the world of THE LAST CHRISTIAN. I highly recommend this fascinating book. It can be ordered from Waterbrook at www.waterbrook.com/catalogue and was provided free for review to me.
Blessings, Laurie Kingery
Tags: Christian fiction, David Gregory, futuristic fiction, THE LAST CHRISTIAN, Waterbrook
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April 12th, 2010
 Today I am reviewing Vicki Hinze’s inspirational romantic suspense novel, FORGET ME NOT. This is a story about amnesia and intrigue. The heroine, who undergoes three name changes during the course of the story before she arrives at her real one, Kelly, is running, but she awakens not only not knowing who she is, but from whom she is running. She arrives at the Crossroads Crisis Center and causes shock to everyone there, for she is a dead ringer for hero Ben’s late wife, who was murdered along with their child. He suspects her motives, for he knows his wife is dead. Like Kelly, he is a Christian, but he’s left his faith because he is so bitter about her loss, and for awhile he is unable to relate to her as an innocent victim and as a woman he could love.
This is a convoluted story where nothing is as it seems. The viewpoints of the plotting antagonists are shown, and at times it’s hard to follow. But I found the heroine genuinely appealing, especially when her past as an abused orphan is portrayed, and when it’s shown that her next home, while she is well cared for, does not provide a warm father figure either. I felt the frustrations of amnesia, and the patchy way memory sometimes returns in cases of amnesia, were very accurately shown. And I very much appreciated that the hero did not find it easy to just drop his mourning for his dead wife and fall in love with the heroine, especially when further revelations arise that may make it impossible for them to ever have a relationship. This made it much more realistic than many books of its type. I also appreciated the gradualness of the hero’s return to faith.
Vicki Hinze is a well-known name in romantic suspense and I look forward to further inspirational suspense novels from this author.
This book was provided free for review by Waterbrook Multnomah. It can be ordered at http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/catalog.php?isbn=9781601422057
Blessings, Laurie
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March 15th, 2010
 Today I’m reviewing PLAIN PURSUIT, the second novel in the “Daughters of the Promise” series by Beth Wiseman. This is a wonderful story set in Pennsylvania Amish country in which the heroine, Carley Mayek, badly in need of a vacation to heal her aching soul, goes to visit her friend Lillian, who has married an Amish man and become Amish herself. She only plans to rest and recuperate and write a story on the Amish for her newspaper. But her visit becomes more than a visit to a simpler way of life in a peaceful setting.
Lillian’s husband Samuel’s family has experienced a rift after his brother Noah left his Amish life to become a doctor. He has been shunned by the Amish for that and for a book he had written which spoke too frankly of matters private to his family. When Lillians’s stepson David becomes critically ill, Carley meets the Dr. Noah and they are mutually attracted, but if Carley lets the attraction progress, she risks upsetting Samuel and his family. It becomes necessary for Noah to make a great personal sacrifice to save his nephew, but at first it seems the family will not allow it due to the shunning.
But even after the boy’s life is saved and a sort of peace and acceptance exists between Noah and the Amish, the hero and the heroine are not completely free to love, for Carley has a heartbreaking secret that may prevent Noah’s happiness if he marries her. It’s not until Carley tries to leave and the secret is confronted that this hero and heroine can enjoy their happily-ever-after.
This book deals honestly with the reality of Amish life and does not try to idealize it. The practice of shunning those who go against the Ordnung, the code of Amish rules, is one of the less pleasant of the realities, and one which the non-Amish including myself find hardest to accept. The Amish are steadfast Christians, yet this practice seems to go against grace. Yet I suppose if the Amish did not have this practice, their belief system and way of life would have become hopelessly compromised and watered-down.
I appreciated that in the end the family finds a way to come around and accept Noah, even if only unofficially. I would have liked to see the bishop come around too, but perhaps that would have been too idealistic. I also appreciated that God showed a way to solve Carley’s heartbreaking secret in such a marvelous way.
I’ve become a fan of Beth Wiseman in reading this book, and I hope to read many more. This book was provided for review by Booksneeze.com.
Blessings, Laurie Kingery
Tags: Amish, Beth Wiseman, Christian fiction, Thomas Nelson Publishers
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February 25th, 2010
 Today I am reviewing DEEP HARBOR by Lisa Tawn Bergen, the second in the Northern Lights series.This is a wonderful Christian historical novel which deals with the themes of redemption, second chances, and waiting on God’s perfect timing. Initially, I found it hard to get into, since I had not read the first book in the series, THE CAPTAIN’S BRIDE. And I found the first female protagonist presented, Tora Anders, very difficult to relate to, for she is selfish, manipulative and very much into the pleasure of riches and power. But it was Tora who won my heart as she became broken, lost her wealth and the man she craved. She became very much a nineteenth century female version of the Prodigal Son. One of the other female protagonists, Kaatje, is a hardworking farm woman whose husband had an affair with Tora, then left for Alaska, causing Tora to leave their baby with Kaatje. Kaatje took baby Jessica in, then feared someday Tora would someday return to claim her. The last of the three heroines, Elsa, is the wife of a ship’s captain who sails with him. The three women are all connected as Bergensers (Norwegians who immigrated to America), and their stories intersect continually in a way that really drew me in.
I found Elsa, the widow of a ship’s captain who bears his posthumous child after he falls overboard and drowns, hardest to sympathize with. I did like that she aided Tora in her quest to become a new person in Christ. But knowing there is a pirate looking for her in a desire for revenge since the first book, and knowing he is still looking for her in the second book, she nonetheless goes back to sea with her children along, including the baby, and writes articles to the New York Times detailing her whereabouts, which the villain takes full advantage of. This seems not only foolish but not what God would have a responsible mother do to ensure her children’s safety. It seems she is a little carried away by pride, especially since she is known as “The Heroine of the Horn” from the first book. But this weakness never seems to change or is even portrayed as a weakness. And I realize this may only be my own opinion. The redemption of Tora and hints that she will eventually marry her true love do a lot to compensate for Elsa.
I had a couple of minor quibbles with the author’s style–one, that she repeatedly refers to Tora before her redemption as a “maven” of roadhouse development. The word “maven” was not used in the late 1800’s; it is a Yiddish word which first comes into American use in the 1950’s or ’60’s, depending which dictionary one consults. This jarred me out of the nineteenth-century atmosphere the author had conveyed. And she uses “quip” as a dialogue tag far too often. As an author myself, I realize that there is often a word or words that I’ve overused in the manuscript, but these should get edited out by the author or during the publisher’s editing.
As I said, these are minor things which may only bother me. This was a very spiritually uplifting book about hardworking, determined Christian women and the equally determined men who love them. I found the eventual reconciliation of Tora and Kaatje inspiring. The story will be continued in the next book in the series, MIDNIGHT SUN, in which the characters all journey to Alaska to forge new lives. I would recommend this book.
This book was provided for review by Waterbrook.
Blessings, Laurie Kingery
Tags: Christian fiction, DEEP HARBOR, Lisa Tawn Bergen, Northern Lights series, Waterbrook
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February 23rd, 2010
 Every winter since we’ve been married, my husband and I plan a remodeling project during his downtime when remodelling jobs become scarce. This year it’s rugs for the master and guest bedrooms. We decided to do the guestroom first, which necessitated moving hundreds of books from my two TBR (to-be-read, as every booklover knows) bookcases–and a task I’ve been looking forward to and dreading at the same time.
I’ve accumulated a lot of books over the years, more than any one person (at least one with a job) could possibly read. If one loves books, one is given them in stacks when people clear out their own bookshelves. Writers and aspiring writers are given them free at conferences, and buy them by the dozens too. I used to come home with a lot more freebies than I do now, not only because I’ve become more selective but because airline baggage charges have made that too expensive a practice to continue. I used to think I would get to every book I owned, eventually. I always had, and I never ever wanted again to be in the horrific (to a booklover) position of having Nothing To Read, as I was in the Blizzard of ‘78. And so I had accumulated romances and novels of all kinds–historicals, category romance, suspense, horror, vampire, even some glitz-and-glamour from the 80’s. (I just want to say I did NOT buy that!)
And I’d come to the conclusion that, since I’ve becoming a published author, not only had my available reading time shrunk, but my tastes had changed. I’m now an author of Christian fiction, and there was no way I would ever read some of these books. Not even during a blizzard. So I embarked on the Great Discard. I set up two series of boxes, one for the Kidney Foundation, one for my sister-in-law Carole, who loves the old, lush historicals once disdainfully referred to as bodice rippers. The contemporary fiction went to the Kidney Foundation.
I kept a lot of them–about half. All the Christian fiction, and the best of the historicals, the westerns, medievals and Regencies, as well as many suspense and legal thrillers. A whole shelf of vampire romance. I now have a manageable amount on those two bookcases, with room for more. Looking at those old covers, reading the back blurbs, was like walking down the memory lane of my book-collecting life. How the covers have changed! Much more tasteful now–at least the ones I like. Nothing that would embarrass me to be seen reading it in public. But there was something really appealing in the best of those old lush covers of the longer books of that era when historicals really hit it big.
I bought a lot more books in those days “to be nice,” frankly. I bought books of email contacts I thought were friends. Not all of them really were. I’ve stopped buying books that way any more. I’m more careful with my book dollars, as I suspect most of us are.
Now I have some vacant shelf space–where is that book catalogue?  I need to buy some more!
Blessings, Laurie
Tags: books, TBR pile, writing life
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February 22nd, 2010
 Today I’m reviewing SECRETS by Robin Jones Gunn for Random House/Multnomah. I’ve read several of Gunn’s “Sisterchicks” books, so I was happy to receive this book to review.
Jessica Morgan is a woman with secrets who comes to Glennbrook to begin a new life. Fleeing her past–and the reader is not let in on what is her dark secret that she flees from until much later–Jessica Morgan arrives in Glenbrook to take up the job of teacher. Because she crashes her car on the way in, the first person she meets is a friendly, handsome paramedic, Kyle, who rescues her and takes her to the hospital. Here she finds out her friend and confidant, the principal of the school, has had a stroke and Jessica must begin her new life on her own. She goes astray immediately by taking on a false last name to hide her past, fearing her last name would reveal her secret and drag her back into the life she is trying so desperately to escape. She might have succeeded but for the suspicious meddling of the unfriendly interim principal and the continued interest of the paramedic, who is a Christian. His caring leads Jessica on a quest to learn to trust. Accompanying Kyle and some Christian kids on a mission trip to Mexico, she meets her Lord and learns she can trust Him as well as the man he has picked out for her, Kyle.
Gunn’s style is very readable. The book is a page turner and has undeniable spiritual value in teaching the reader that secrets can build a wall that keep us from trusting our Lord and those who would help us and enrich our lives. Yet I felt there are parts that could have been made more believable–the car crash, her treatment in the E.R. (I’m an E. R. nurse), the heroine’s existing on practically no food until her first paycheck, and the fact that the school seems to have no way of checking the heroine’s teaching license status–even though the book was originally written in 1995, that seems a bit unbelievable . And the past that the heroine is fleeing doesn’t seem all that dire, when it’s finally revealed. The book really gains strength during the mission trip when Jessica comes to grips with her Savior. And I have to admit I enjoyed the spiteful interim principal’s comeuppance.
I felt the good parts of the book far outweighed the parts that could have been better and I remain a fan of Robin Jones Gunn.
This book was provided free for review by Random House/Multnomah.
Blessings, Laurie Kingery
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February 7th, 2010
 The storm that swept through the midwest Friday and went on to bury Washington D.C. has left my little part of the world a winter wonderland. We have about ten inches of snow here, and thanks to my wonderful husband who shovels it by hand and our wonderful neighbor who frequently shows up to plow out our driveway with his truck, I can mostly just sit here and enjoy its beauty, rather than having to do the backbreaking work of shoveling it myself. I had to work at the ER last night, so I had to get out and drive in it, but I really have to admit I find driving in snow something of an adventure. It’s as close to living on the edge as I really want to be. I’m aware that I probably wouldn’t like it at all if I’d ever had an accident because of the snow…
Thanks to a low census undoubtedly due to the weather, I was privileged to come home after only 8 hours last night, and got to experience the adventure again, along with the deep peace that driving along in the dark with the countryside all silver and white, with snowflakes swirling all around me. It didn’t get at all scary until I reached my own road, which hadn’t been blessed by the snowplow since the afternoon. Getting into the garage from the driveway, which had drifted over somewhat, was a challenge too, but I made it, so I said a prayer of thanks and went to bed early!
I’d really prefer the glories of spring, but as long as it must be winter, let it snow! Do you like the snow? Write and let me know.
Blessings, Laurie
Tags: seasons, snow
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February 6th, 2010
 I’m actually a little late announcing this, but it’s been a busy week. I can finally say I’ve sold two more books in the Simpson Creek Brides series! The book I am presently writing, working title THE WEDDING TREE, will be the first book in the contract. It’s Prissy’s story. Prissy Gilmore was the best friend of Sarah Matthews in THE DOCTOR TAKES A WIFE, and I felt it was time she had her own story–and her own hero, Sam Bishop, a down-on-his-luck gambler who decides he needs a different location after he runs afoul of gambling hall kingpin Kendall Raney in Houston. He also wants a different direction in his life, and thinks nothing could be better than marrying a pretty girl who is also conveniently rich. Prissy is a girl who’s in love with love. She’s watched several others of the Simpson Creek Spinsters’ Club find their matches, including best friend Sarah, and she’s more than ready to find her own true love. Neither is what the other expected, and the course of love never does run smooth, to quote Shakespeare–but if it did, that would make for a mighty short book. My deadline for this book will be June 1, and I’m already revising the first part a bit per my editor’s suggestions.
Book 2 in the contract, as yet untitled, is Caroline Wallace’s story. She’d thought she’d found her forever true love, but the flu epidemic in THE DOCTOR TAKES A WIFE cost the life of the man she’d met through the Spinsters’ Club. Caroline is sure she’s lost her chance at love and is meant to live as a single woman the rest of her life. Since she will never have children, she throws her energy into teaching Simpson Creek’s children, but when the brother of her late fiance comes to town, unaware that his brother has died and expecting his brother and his new wife to watch his two children while he traipses off to Montana, the fireworks begin…
I don’t have publishing dates for these two books yet, but it’s nice to know I’ll be able to bring two new Simpson Creek Brides stories to you!
Blessings, Laurie
Tags: Christian fiction, Steeple Hill Love Inspired historicals, THE DOCTOR TAKES A WIFE, THE WEDDING TREE, writing life
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