Acquired By: I was selected to be a tour stop on the “My Wish List” virtual book tour through France Book Tours. I received a complimentary ARC direct from the publisher Penguin Group (USA), in exchange for an honest review.I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Book Synopsis:
A cathartic, charmingly tender, assuredly irresistible novel, MY WISH LIST imagines one answer to the question: If you won the lottery, would you trade your life for the life of your dreams? With sales of more than half a million copies in France alone, rights sold in twenty-five countries, and a major motion picture in development, this slim yet spirited tale has sewn up the interest of the literary world.
Jocelyne Guerbette is a forty-seven year old who runs a modest fabric shop in a nondescript provincial French town. Her husband—instead of dreaming of her—wants nothing more in life than a flat-screen TV and the complete James Bond DVD box set. And to Jocelyne’s two grown-up children, who live far from home, she’s become nothing but an obligatory phone call. Perpetually wondering what has happened to all the dreams she had when she was younger, Jocelyne finally comes to terms with the series of ordinary defeats and small lies that seem to make up her life.
But then Jocelyne wins the lottery: $25,500,000! And suddenly she finds the world at her fingertips. But before cashing the check, before telling a soul, she starts making a list of all the things she could do with the money. While evaluating the small pleasures in life—her friendship with the twins who manage the hairdresser next door, her holidays away, her sewing blog that’s gaining popularity—she begins to think that the everyday ordinary may not be so bad. Does she really want her life to change?
MY WISH LIST is an essential reminder of the often-overlooked joys of everyday life and a celebration of the daily rituals, serendipities, and small acts of love that make life quietly wonderful.
Author Biography:
Grégoire Delacourt was born in Valenciennes, France, in 1960. His first novel, L’Écrivain de la Famille , was published in 2011 and won five literary prizes. MY WISH LIST has been a runaway number-one bestseller in France; publication rights have been sold in more than twenty-five countries. Delacourt lives in Paris, where he runs an advertising agency with his wife.
My Book Review of My Wish List:
I was a bit taken aback from the bluntness of Delacourt’s writing, as although I’ve been reading quite of heap of French Literature over the months since I first started touring with France Book Tours, I must confess, he has a unique way for telling it like it is in a very cutting way as to leave nothing for the imagination. Somehow the opening bits of the story felt a bit awkward as I was expecting this entirely different story to shape into the starting bits of My Wish List. Not that this is entirely bad per se, but what I was sort of expecting was slightly different than what I was being given. I suppose in some ways, I felt she (Jo) might have had an idyllic life whilst owning her fabric shoppe, and that might have complicated things when her tides changed. Instead, I found a middle-aged French woman whose woes out number her blessings, and where a bit of crudeness intersects with her musings on why everything is unfair simply because life took a different path than she hoped it would.
The one part of her life I could settle into is the fact she’s an avid knitter, with projects cast on the needles all the time. She off-sets her business in fabric during the slow seasons by selling her creations in fiber, and that intrigued me. If this story was more about the haberdashery shoppe & her knitting adventures, whilst Jo turnt sour on her marriage and was looking for a bit of adventure to spice it back together, I think I would have found my footing a bit easier in the narrative. The necessity to express that life is spent whilst engaging in one lie after another lie was a bit daunting as I personally could not make a connection with the train of thought Delacourt was enticing his readers to connect with him.
His crude way of expressing intimacy and passion was a turn-off for me, as I appreciate romance and love in purer forms of expression. This is clearly one book whose premise led me astray as far as what I would find inside its covers, and I was not overly thrilled by what I was finding on the pages. In fact rather than finding an uplifting novel bent against a life shift opportunity to change one’s stars, I found the story to be sordidly depressing and full of negativity rather than light or grace. The entire world of Jo is painted black, and not in the ways you’d expect someone to find themselves depressed with their life in their middle forties!
The shortness of the story in length I wish had made up for the blights I felt against it. It was such a tug and pull to get into the heart of what makes Jo tick and why she feels the way in which she does. Each time I felt as though the story was making a turn for the better, the undertone of the elements turnt stark dark again. For me I did not make it even half-way through and that was the most I could tolerate. This is one author who disappointed me greatly whilst giving me food for thought about stories in French turnt in translation to English.
Virtual Road Map for “My Wish List” Blog Tour:
Be sure to scope out upcoming tours I will be hosting with:
{SOURCES: Cover art of “My Wish List”, book synopsis, author photograph of Mr. Delacourt, author biography, and the tour host badge were all provided by France Book Tours and used with permission. Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs.}
It is my pleasure to welcome Ms. Kaine to Jorie Loves A Story this Saturday, as I ask her questions revolving around her writing life and her Edwardian debut novel with ChocLitUK “Dangerous Decisions” of which was reviewed previously on 8th February, 2014!
I selected her novel as one of the first four *ChocLit* novels I would review on behalf of Indie Publisher ChocLit! My heart has become quite endeared focusing on ChocLit novels standing out from the crowd of romance on the market today; giving uplifting stories full of heart, soul, and strong relationship-based romances full of thoughtful narrative, intrigue mixed with suspense, joy, and the inertia of bliss when two hearts align towards a match!
I spoke about my affection for ChocLit throughout my first four ChocLitSaturdays feature showcases. However, it came to a bit of a head whilst spotlighting inspirational romance author Sandra Leesmith’s Cover Reveal. As I wanted to let inspirational readers know that there is this amazing Indie Pub (Publisher) in the mainstream who is knitting together gentle stories of love overcoming intense odds and whose stories lift my spirits in the same way as an inspiriational! Plus, it’s the dedication of the team behind ChocLit to bring quality stories to the forefront of romance readers that nearly makes me swoon each time I see a parcel arriving with new ‘ChocLit’ inbound!
Therefore, if you’re new to picking up a romance novel by this wicked sweet British Indie Press, I implore you to keep an eye on my hashtag #ChocLitSaturdays, to seek out when new novels will become featured here! Whilst you await the books perhaps reading over my notes and recollections of my previous selections will whet your thirst as well!?
Today, Ms. Kaine is going to be introducing us to her passion for writing historical romance set in the Edwardian era! Dear hearts, if you follow my Twitter feeds for JLAS, you might already be aware of my dedication to “Downton Abbey” up until this last series on Masterpiece Theatre where my heart for the series expired before the Christmas Special! Stories like Ms. Kaine give me new hope in finding writers who can unlock my joy of the Edwardian era in new ways, giving me a glimpse into the world lived both upstairs and downstairs outside the realm of Julian Fellowes.
Author Biography:
Born and educated in the Potteries in Staffordshire, Margaret Kaine now lives in Leicester. Her short stories have been published widely in women’s magazines in the UK, and also in Australia, Norway, South Africa and Ireland. Ring of Clay, her debut novel, won both the RNA’s New Writer’s Award in 2002 and the Society of Authors’ Sagittarius Prize in 2003. She has now published seven romantic sagas about life in Staffordshire between the 50’s and 70’s. Dangerous Decisions is Margaret’s debut novel with Choc Lit.
I have an exciting announcement to make today, for my dedicated readers of Jorie Loves A Story and new visitors alike, I have the absolute pleasure of announcing Ms. T.S. Krupa will be dropping by JLAS at 5:30pm Monday, 24th of March 2014 for a *LIVE!* Author Q&A! The entire blog event will be taking place underneath her Author Interview which will post earlier in the morning of the 24th! Readers and visitors are encouraged to leave their Questions for Ms. Krupa in the comment threads which will be actively monitored and accepted as each Question, Comment, or Thought is posted to Jorie Loves A Story!
Although comments are moderated by Jorie, comments are captcha-free and can easily be added by using your Email and/or WP, Google+, Facebook, or Twitter accounts to converse openly and freely during the event! I never believed in hindering a reader’s ability to leave a comment, and only moderate the comments to prevent spam! I will be present throughout the event making sure each comment goes live and that everyone has a great time interacting with Ms. Krupa!
Ms. Krupa will then start to respond to each comment she finds starting in the early evening giving you the opportunity to chat with her about her Indie début novel “Safe & Sound”!
This beautiful blog event banner badge was created by Caitlin O’Brient Bauer of http://www.royalsocialmedia.com!
When great love is lost forever, what does it take to find the courage to move on?
When Jill met Jay Greenfield she knew she found her forever love. Together their lives were perfect. But when a tragic accident takes Jay’s life, this young bride is left to pick up the pieces. With support from her two childhood best friends, Lanie and Stella, Jill attempts to piece her life back together.
Meanwhile, in the process of settling the estate, Jill learns that her husband was not quite the man she thought he was. She finds herself transported to the small beach town of Oak Island, North Carolina. But the fairy tale ending she envisioned no longer exists. She must face the reality that Jay is gone as she finds herself having a chance at love one more time.
Safe & Sound follows the yearlong journey of love, loss, friendship, and conquering the unexpected.
I will be reviewing this lovely book on Friday, 28th March, 2014! Therefore, this is an opportunity to get to know the author personally before I reveal my thoughts and impressions of Safe & Sound!
Kindly help spread the word via your social media connections online & through your network of bookish friends offline!
I am looking forward to this *exciting new way of connecting readers with authors* on Jorie Loves A Story! This particular blog event was inspired by the serendipitous conversation spun around Cover Reveal “Love’s Promises”!
{Sources: Promotional badge/banner for Live Author Q&A with T.S. Krupa created by Ms. Krupa’s social media publicist Caitlin O’ Brient Bauer of Royal Social Media; used with permission for cross-promotion of blog event. Book Synopsis provided in the Press Kit via Ms. Bauer. Post dividers were provided by Fun Stuff for Your Blog by Pure Imagination.}
Acquired By: I was selected to be a tour stop on the “Citadel” virtual book tour through France Book Tours. I received a complimentary ARC direct from the publisher William Morrow, in exchange for an honest review.I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Encouraged to Read:
Mum has a foresight of knowledge of which books would whet my appetite for not only historical intrigue but deft story-telling, where the research slips past the reader’s eye, and allows one to insert one’s heart directly into the core of the narrative! I am always on the forefront of discovering ‘a genuine new voice in literature’ because I am always inspired and captivated by such an eclectically diverse sphere of writers! I like to seek out stories which not only challenge convention but the perceptional eclipse we might unintentionally tether ourselves too! I like to broach outside my comfort zones whenever possible, and sink into a portion of the historical past which is wholly unknown and unvisited previously! My literary adventures draw me one step closer to the world’s front door and a breath closer to empathy for the unsung heroes of a past fraught with drama, suspense, and intuitive souls who choose to lead rather extraordinary lives! In this intuited glimpse into my reader’s heart, Mum purchased Labyrinth for me whilst it was in paperback (as I recollect!?) release. I had oft meant to endow myself to the page, yet I never quite managed to broach into the novel. On the brink of a blog book tour in the bookish blogosphere, I find myself able to redeem my ill-wrought wanderings, bringing me full circle back into the realm of Kate Mosse! How fruitious it is that her name resonated with me whilst offered on tour!
Inspired to Share a Snippet of a Preview:
I originally intended to read the first two novels in the series Labyrinth & Sepulchre ahead of my book review for Citadel via France Book Tours. However, as life can dictate and quite often predict, the plans we set in motion are occasionally derailed for circumstances which arise altering our reading adventures! Therefore, I am stepping into the world of Kate Mosse’s literary threshold without prior knowledge of her characters nor of the direction in which her style illumines the narrative for the avid reader of her works! I am quite eager to read the forementioned previous titles on the footheels of this installment, but for now, I am overjoyed I have the pleasure of ‘meeting’ a new author of whom has held my intrigue for the years between Labyrinth & Citadel releases!
Kate Mosse discusses “Citadel” & ‘Sisterhood’ viaOrion Publishing
Book Synopsis:
From the internationally bestselling author of Labyrinth and Sepulchre comes a thrilling novel, set in the South of France during World War II, that interweaves history and legend, love and conflict, passion and adventure, bringing to life brave women of the French Resistance and a secret they must protect from the Nazis. In Carcassonne, a colorful historic village nestled deep in the Pyrenees, a group of courageous and determined operatives are engaged in a lethal battle. Like their ancestors who fought to protect their land from Northern invaders seven hundred years before, these women—codenamed Citadel —fight to liberate their home from the Germans.
But smuggling refugees over the mountains into neutral territory and sabotaging their Nazi occupiers is only part of their mission. These members of the resistance must also protect an ancient secret that, if discovered by the enemy, could change the course of history.
A superb blend of rugged action and haunting mystery based on real-life figures, Citadel is a vivid and richly atmospheric story of a group of heroic women who dared the odds to survive.
Author Biography:
Kate Mosse is the multimillion selling author of four works of nonfiction, three plays, one volume of short stories and six novels, including the New York Times bestselling Labyrinth and Sepulchre. A popular presenter for BBC television and radio in the UK, she is also cofounder and chair of the prestigious Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize) and a member of the board of the National Theatre of Great Britain. In 2013, she was named as one of the Top 100 most influential people in British publishing and also awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to literature. She divides her time between England and Carcassonne, France.
A Prelude to Citadel:
An absolute blessing of mine in receiving an ARC (advanced reading copy) to read of a novel, is the inclusion of both the Editor’s Note (generally found on the inside first page!) and/or a letter from the publisher which gives a bit of a history of how the novel was created or a bit about the author herself! For Citadel, I was twice-fold blessed! Not only was the Editor’s Note included but so was the publisher’s! I am fascinated truly by the marketing and promotional campaigns by publishers to alert the readership of an author’s work! Even for new readers of Mosse’s stories like me for instance, cannot help but become caught up in the excitement and the reverence of honour she is bestowed by her dedicated readership! IF a sequel to her last tome took four years, can you imagine how long we shall all be willing to wait for her next treasure of literature?!
The best of stories have to soak into their creators, they have to wholly absorb the characters, the setting, the era, and the entirety of the story’s essence in order to fully bring everything to illuminating light. I celebrate writers like Mosse who cherish the ‘process of writing’ and allow themselves the full measure of grace to produce heart-stopping narrative time and time again! At least this is my presumption prior to broaching the pages!
I’m entering this particular review a bit blind to the knowledge of Ms. Mosse, as when I read her championing spirit for bookish culture, writers, and wordsmiths I must confess my heart did a bit of skip and a jump! Especially on noting I had already planned to make an appearance on a Blog Talk Radio podcast the night prior to this review posting in which I would be drawing to light a topical bookish interest: volunteer public libraries set on trains running through New York City and London! A kindred spirit, most indeed!
Dear hearts, do you know what William Morrow included as a ‘extra special’ surprise for this particular book blogger!? OR, should I clarify, it wasn’t placed inside for ‘me’ in particular mind you, but rather those who received the ARC! A full-on brilliant interview by Ann Patchett & Kate Mosse! A most delectable treat I held off reading until ‘after I had read Citadel’!
A proper Introduction to the novel by the author:
There is an amazing breadth of history pulled out of World War II, where brave souls stood up in our conjoined living history of a time in our world where nothing made sense and everything was turnt upside down by the cruelty and evil of a world war. Mosse examines the inter-dimensional connections of the trilogy against the intricacies of research of the historical past. Her passion for the South of France and for this particular window she’s served as a portal for her audience to endear themselves to the women who stand strong allowing their courage to bolster us a bit in the present. These are stories on behalf of women who perhaps never saw themselves as heroes but to every life they positively affected they were! Mosse has such an effervescent passion for writing, and giving her readers such a full embodied story which can wash over you and give you a living experience.
Kate Mosse Over Citadel via bol.com {she speaks in English; Dutch subtitles}
An archaeological bent of historical intrigue:
From the time I was quite young, I was always caught up in the annuls of history, seeking out remnants of the past which could be brought into the present through the art of story-telling! My passion for history led me to consider bunkering into a life pursuit of archaeological digs, hidden ancestral passageways into the living past, and a life’s sole intent of preserving the artifacts I’d uncover. Ever since my eyes lit up with the pure joy of ‘digging in the dirt’ by theory not practice, I have had a keen attention placed on historical details in novels. Including ancient symbolism, dead languages, and the turnt of phrase fashioned centuries within the past where Old English was the everyday vernacular! Part of my interests in seeing the sociological perspectives in stories and the dynamics of a character’s action verse personality is rooted in my appreciation for archaeology’s introverted sister: anthropology which focuses on the study of societies and how people lived.
To find an author who has transmorphed an intricate range of research into a dense tome of historical fiction whilst remaining true to each era she’s brimming to life inside her narrative is nothing short of literary brilliance! I oft wondered if I could find an author who could fully immerse the reader’s senses into what I felt I had shared within my spirit whilst previously considering an entirely different lifepath! In Mosse, I do believe I have at long last found the writer, the wordsmith, and the story-teller I have sought so hard to find! And, I have my Mum to thank for this lovely discovery as my gratitude is hers forevermore!
My previous readings of Illuminations and A Study in Murder allowed me to understand the monk’s (Arinius) traditions of matins, sext, and nones! There is an entire pace to living whilst your sliding into a moment in history where tradition and ritual intersect and spirituality endeavours to give a calming balm to one’s day.
My Review of Citadel:
Oh, my oh dear my, such a delightful author who includes not only a full-on brilliant map to orientate the reader into the realm of the historical past she’s about to embark on visiting, but she is given an acute alacrity of the principal cast and characters in a proper pronouncement ahead of the beginning of Chapter I! Oh, my dear hearts, this reader was over the moon entranced by these short few pages,… wretched and jolted out of my reverie of an unsuspecting opening which would bring the level of brutality witnessed by survivors and members of resistance forces during World War II came startling into view as soon as I broached the Prologue. The recollections of my joyous heart can wait, the narrative cannot! I not merely ‘sense’ the urgency, I sense it! I am breathing it in with each drip of words formulating the paragraphs. A dire race is afoot and I am on the brink of understanding the fullness of its scope! The novel births unto the page with each delicate turnt page, words extending themselves into the edge-most sections of its published space; a murmuring echo of its story eager for the eyes of the reader to grasp its heart!
Mosse has a clever eye for evoking peripheral psychological hauntings of a world set askew by war. She invites you into the mind of her characters whilst they brace and bolt to live through a day of hell. Fraught with human anxiety and fears of what happens to those who are captured, the imagery is not a brutal one in totality but rather, a stark remembrance of the reality of being on the ground, running and scavenging for safety. I was quite startled to be pulled out of Southern France during World War II to arrive at the doorstop of AD 342, and yet, that is precisely where my timeclock registered me on the first page of Part I! I murmured to myself this might be a time slip, generational in-depth and millennia in scope!
Meeting Arinius as he made his journey to free the Codex text he believed to be absolute truth ahead of dipping into Sandrine’s world in 1942; the year she was eighteen, two years past her mother’s deathwas quite the unique place to enter both of their lives. Each were on the footfalls of reaching a new pathway in their lives which would transform their futures. Sandrine was not unlike her age of peers, where she was standing on the tipping stone of adulthood, eager to greet the morrow and make her way in life. She was thirsty for experience and for the sweetness of freedom outside the stagnant pattern of her days. Sandrine comes from an ethereal section of France, where murmurings of spirits and of divine knowledge echo out across the land and encroach on the open hearts and minds of those willing to listen.
I appreciated the symbolism of Sandrine’s thoughts being interwoven and threaded as a knitter’s skein of fiber! The observation is at the closing end of Chapter 7, but it simply warmed this knitty girl’s heart to see one of the clever turnt phrases to be a reflection of an interest held most dear! I can oft relate to how she felt; muddle yet unclear of the placement of the events and memories. Uncertain if memory is the fault or if memory is the key to understanding what happened. We can become caught up in ourselves to where we second guess our instincts and the intuition that is a constant guide.
Sandrine was still an innocent as her hometown of Carcassonne was evolving into a deadly sufferage of wills between those who first would commit harm to gain secrets within the arms of the war and those who would rally to bolster the shield around the innocents who died. Her older sister Marianne sheltered her younger sister too well, in not giving her the ability to see past the illusion of memory. Her spirit stirred and soared standing in the warming sea of voices raised high for the liberation of France. She was starting to put the pieces of the picture together, forming her own opinion where her life was leading her and how where she was living was all but directing its course. She was thrust into the throes of war without the foreknowledge to understand its intricacies. Yet. I mused if perhaps this was almost a better approach? To not be as self-aware at first in order to have the courage in the long-term to act without a thought for yourself but to act to protect and free people you might never know?
History has a unique way of imparting important acknowledgements out of the past, by finding the ways in which the words can travel through vessels of time. Words handed and passed down through generations, from family to stranger seeking a confidence of protection is one of the most reliable methods of keeping knowledge secret from eyes who would take the same words and twist them into harmful deeds. It’s how we as a society react and root out resilience in the face of our foremost dire fears and shake away the rootings of evil. Resistance from oppression and the strife of a regime bent against the welfare of the people is true courage lit aflame.
Sandrine, Marianne, their close friends, and French Resistant fighter Raoul are being shadowed by a thrilling chase against time. By the time my mind realised the full perimeter of the story, I was all but rushing to find my voice to shout-out a decree of bravery I was slowly losing sight of as I watched how their individual plights grew more dim. The hardest time in life to latch onto Hope is when every effort you make to walk out of the adversity you have lived through starts to unfold and uncoil around you. You fight as hard as you dare, you believe as willingly as you dream, but in the end, without the additional help of others acting on your behalf; you can find yourself truly alone betwixt a choice for flight, freedom, or the valor of saving lives.
Sandrine is an intuitive woman who was set apart from others; she could see past the veils of our reality and into the next life just beyond our focus. She was tuned into mystical truths which gave her a bolster of strength in the nanoseconds where her own inner resolve faltered. Her life was writ to be in service of others, and in of giving all of her mind, body, and soul to fighting for the sanctity of life, liberty, and freedom. Citadel is epic in scale, emotionally convicting, and powerfully written to leave you quite still at its conclusion retrospectively museful, and enlightened. Your heart shatters and aches in an indescribable way when you read the four sentences on page 673. With eyes too blurry and a heart too gutted to carry-on into the Epilogue.
Fly in the Ointment:
In this instance, it is more of a forewarning for a sensitive heart reading the book, as although I was quite thrilled to see Mosse tempering the harsh realities of war and giving us a proper sense of the danger, the blight, and the misery without fuller details which would make even a strong man gag; there are passages where naturally the narrative has to take a sharper intact of detail. Where the horrors of the war during World War II under the Nazi regime are represented for what they were and how they were elicited out through the ranks. Before I reached Chapter 14, I languished in the beauty of the words which felt like soft pebbles rather than hardened spikes of a war drama. I am not sure why, but Chapter 14 re-presented the reality for me, where Antoine is being tortured into submission. Except to say, Mosse holds back, she gives you the ease to breathe and to realise although your being led into one of the darkest corners of the past, inside history’s dark hours, you are going with a guide who respects what you can handle and the elements of which you cannot. And, how she maintains this balance between the evil darkness and the light is a credit to her as a story-teller.
The most sickening part though lies in the truth inside the torture for information: that there are certain people who feel that inflicting unimaginable pain is justified in the end if it yields a response they are searching to hear. Mosse gives you a lot to muddle over and ruminate about as this is a novel whose layers are half-hidden and seen throughout the action of where the story evolves into being. There is a greater message than a recollection of war-time horror, survival, and courage. We are never quite as alone as we fear we have been cast out from our protective spheres of love’s embrace. Always guided over and protected by the Ones we cannot see but sometimes can hear as our heart listens for the cues our eyes have forgotten to see.
I must confess, I am always quite curious about how each of us selects which book we want to engage in. With Mosse, I feel as though I was always meant to be a reader of hers, but the timing hadn’t quite aligned for me to broach her writings until ‘this moment’ whilst I am participating on a blog book tour with France Book Tours! Do you ever find there is a particular time for you to soak into a narrative or an author? What do you think prompts the discovery to be a bit delayed from our initial moment of curiosity!? Also, have you read each of the Languedoc trilogy books as they released, or did you discover them out-of-order!? I’d be keen to hear your recollections and ruminations on behalf of either Citadel, Kate Mosse, or the trilogy! I do know, it will not be long from now before I am reading the first ‘two’ installments to have the richness of the tapestry expanded inside my mind!
{SOURCES: Cover art of “Citadel”, book synopsis, author photograph of Ms. Mosse, author biography, and the tour host badge were all provided by France Book Tours and used with permission. The book trailer by Orion Publishing had either URL share links or coding which made it possible to embed this media portal to this post, and I thank them for the opportunity to share more about this novel and the author who penned it. Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Tweets were able to be embedded by the codes provided by Twitter. Bookish Events badge created by Jorie in Canva.}
Sandra Leesmith has an exciting new release today! I came to know her publicist Ms. Stokes via Twitter whereupon we broached a conversation about hosting blog tours & spotlights on Jorie Loves A Story! I was quite delighted with the suggestion, as I have always appreciated inspirational fiction stories!
Ever since I was a young girl who grew up on the “Mandie” series as reflected in my “One Book Everyone Should Read Once” post! As well as why I am embarking on a personal quest to read *70 Authors!* who are new-to-be in the inspirational fiction world! Reading the premise of “Love’s Promises” I felt I had found an author who writes uplifting stories similar to the authors I already have come to know and love! A truly heart-warming story filt with characters who are struggling to resolve their differences and remain together!
Currently available in e-book format, I am hoping this particular title will be released in either POD or print format, whereupon I can be a stop on the blog tour once this novel starts to hop around the bookish blogosphere! I decided to highlight select books which whet my palette of interest even if they are currently available in a format I cannot read at present; for the hope of being available to in the near future!
Artwork Credit: Lena Goldfinch
Book Synopsis:
For Monica Scott, building her late father’s house at Lake Tahoe isn’t an option—it’s a necessary distraction from confusing memories and an uncertain future. But a handsome planner working for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) is keeping Monica from moving forward with the project. Never mind that he’s young and charming with a great sense of humor. No one is going to stop Monica from making her father’s dream—and her own—a reality.
All Greg Linsey wants is for his work to mean something. His job at TRPA gives him the opportunity to fight for the environment he loves and make a difference in his small corner of the world. But with the sophisticated Monica Scott’s arrival, his dedication is tested as never before, especially when Monica turns to his unscrupulous nemesis for assistance. As Greg and Monica’s animosity turns into something far sweeter, can they learn to accept each other’s promises and avoid the growing danger to their lives and hearts?
Author Biography:
SANDRA LEESMITH loves to travel in her RV and explore all of nature’s beauty, discover America’s history, and fellowship with the wonderful people she meets while on the road. She enjoys reading, writing, hiking, swimming, and pickleball. Learn more about Sandra and her books at sandraleesmith.com.
Book Cover Designer Biography:
LENA GOLDFINCH writes fantasy and romance for teens and adults. She’s a sucker for a good old-fashioned romance, whether it’s a novel, novella, or short story, young adult or adult, fantasy or realistic, contemporary or historical. Elements of romance, fantasy, and mystery have a way of creeping into her writing, even when she’s writing something light and contemporary like her latest releases, Haunting Joy and Take a Picture. Lena has been a finalist in several national writing contests, including the RWA Golden Heart and ACFW Genesis contests. She lives in a scenic small town in Massachusetts with her husband, two kids, and a very spoiled Black Lab. Learn more about Lena and her books atlenagoldfinch.blogspot.com.
Similar to blog tours, when I feature a showcase for an author via a Guest Post, Q&A, Interview, etc., I do not receive compensation for featuring supplemental content on my blog.
Reader Interactive Question:
If you a regular reader of Inspirational / Christian fiction, what do you appreciate the most about the stories you find inside the novels and novellas!? Do you seek what I do? Do you wish there were more publishers who put more stock and weight into relationship-based stories (i.e. mainstream publisher ChocLitUK does!) rather than the causal dating scene that is so very rampant!? What stills your heart the most!?
{SOURCES: Cover art of “Loves Promises”, author & illustrator photographs, book synopsis, and publicity badge were all provided by Editing Through The Seasons and used with permission. Cover Reveal badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination.}
Kate Mosse is the multimillion selling author of four works of nonfiction, three plays, one volume of short stories and six novels, including the New York Times bestselling Labyrinth and Sepulchre. A popular presenter for BBC television and radio in the UK, she is also cofounder and chair of the prestigious Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize) and a member of the board of the National Theatre of Great Britain. In 2013, she was named as one of the Top 100 most influential people in British publishing and also awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to literature. She divides her time between England and Carcassonne, France.
