New Review of Deadly Exposure

Deadly Exposure
By Cara Putman
Review by Roseanna White

Dani Richards thinks she was getting a night off from journalism when she takes her aunt to the theater—but that’s before she discovers a dead body in the next box. And before her old flame Caleb arrives, now an investigator for the local police. She gets to cover the case by default—but the deeper she digs, the clearer it becomes that the killer won’t rest until she backs off. And that’s something she just can’t do.

Caleb Jamison is determined to catch the man responsible for the death of the grad student in the theater—and even more determined to protect Dani, who doesn’t have the good sense to leave the investigating to him. He lost her once because of his own youthful selfishness. He isn’t going to lose her again now. But can he convince her that he’s changed, that she can depend on him, before the killer catches up with her?

Deadly Exposure is an action packed read that will keep you flipping the pages as fast as you can. Though a quick read, the story is well developed and the characters full and lively. I enjoyed getting to know both Dani and Caleb and was never disappointed by how Putman delivered.

Love Inspired Suspense readers will love the addition of Cara Putman to the team, and any fans of romantic suspense should run out and pick up this engrossing little book.

Review and Giveaway: My Heart Remembers

In My Heart Remembers, Kim Sawyer returns with a book that starts with a punch of emotion that doesn’t stop until the last page. I have really enjoyed each of her books so far, and this one lived up to what I've come to expect from her:

-- a historical setting that I am transported to,
-- characters who are far from cookie-cutters, and
-- a historical hook that captures my attention.

Kim is a skilled author, and this book is a great addition to her body of work.

Orphaned in a tenement fire, three Irish-immigrant children are sent to Missouri to be adopted. Despite eight-year-old Maelle’s desperate attempts to keep her siblings together, each child is taken by a different family. Yet Maelle vows that she will never stop searching for her brother and sister – and that they will be together one day in the future.

The years pass, and Maelle continues to look for her siblings even as her hope of truly finding them is waning.

This story bounces between the perspectives of the three siblings. Each of them have had very different experiences with their new families, and their backgrounds are now so different I wondered if they’d ever recognize each other. The book also focuses on the plights of the abandoned children who were forced to work as some sought to institute child labor laws.

As a reader, it occasionally got frustrating to see the siblings so close, yet know they had no idea. Yet the barriers that kept them apart weren’t artificial. Each rang true. And the characters developed on many levels through the book.

The message of hope rings loud and clear in this book. Even when all seems lost, we can find hope when we place our lives in God’s hand.

This book will be a wonderful addition to your reading if you love historicals rich with characters you can root for.

To be entered for a chance to win this book, leave a comment with a way to reach you if you win.

Embrace Me

Embrace Me is the latest offering from Lisa Samson. I had hoped to read this book before the blog tour, but the arrival of Rebecca threw off my reading schedule just a bit. The book looks intriguing and has the mix of characters and edginess I've come to expect from a Lisa Samson book.

Biting and gentle, hard-edged and hopeful...a beautiful fable of love and power, hiding and seeking, woundedness and redemption.

When a "lizard woman," a self-mutilating preacher, a tattooed monk, and a sleazy lobbyist find themselves in the same North Carolina town one winter, their lives are edging precariously close to disaster...and improbably close to grace.

Valentine, due to her own drastic self-disfigurement, has very few friends in this world and, it appears as if she may be destined to spend the rest of her life practically alone. But life gives her one good friend, Lella, whose own handicap puts her in the same freakish category as Valentine. As part of Roland's Wayfaring Marvel and Oddities Show, a traveling band of misfits, they seem to have found their niches in an often curiously cruel world.

Residing in a world where masks are mandatory, Valentine has a hard time removing hers, because of her disfigured face but more so because of her damaged soul. It is much easier for her to listen endlessly to different versions of a favorite song, Embraceable You, and escape reality. Yet, life has more in store for her when she meets Augustine, replete with the tattoos, dreadlocks, and his own secrets. With his arrival, Valentine's soul takes a turn.

If you would like to read the first chapter, go HERE

Thoughts on Our New Arrival

Thanks to everyone who has left comments on Rebecca's arrival. She has been an absolute delight. The only thing that will make her better is when she starts sleeping a little more consistently at night, but hey, she's only one week old :-)

Here are a few thoughts and cute stories.

Jonathan was a bit upset to learn we'd had a girl. Tears and everything I'm told. But Abigail quickly helped him get redirected by pulling out his baby album and talking to him about how cute he was.

Last Sunday morning, I'm told our camera circulated through the church as people noticed I wasn't there and Eric had a hospital band on. Abigail told one of our friends that her mommy had her stomach back LOL. That's the beautiful part of having the weight gain be pretty much exclusively baby.

And I had been really concerned about how I would feel having Rebecca. I knew I'd be thrilled to hold our baby after so many months and years of waiting, grieving, and longing for this addition to our family. But I wasn't sure at all how it would make me feel about our angel baby. Would I miss that child even more? I didn't want the emotions associated with that loss to overshadow the beautiful gift we've been given.

I have to admit there have been moments of tears, but they've been moments. I am even more eager in some ways to get to heaven and learn more about that baby. But I also have been able to fully enjoy Rebecca and the miracle and blessing that she is. God is so good. And Rebecca was worth the wait.

I love the baby scent, the baby sounds. The hiccups that erupt for no reason at all and shake her little body like she used to shake inside me. The baby smiles. The baby faces. I'm delighting in it all. Her times of growing awake time. The bright blue eyes that take everything in.

All I can say is God is so good. And Rebecca is one more of reflection of that added to Jonathan and Abigail, the two best big sister and brother on the planet.

A Whisper of Freedom MEME

Tricia Goyer's latest book A Whisper of Freedom has just released. This book is a wonderful conclusion to her Spanish Civil War series. And to celebrate the launch, she's having a fun MEME contest. Here are the questions and my responses, but be sure to read to the end to see how you can participate and win some great prizes.

1. List three things you would do with a chest full of gold (assuming you got to keep it!)

1) Keep half of it and invest it for college funds.

2) Take a portion for a round the world adventure.

3) Use the other half to start a foundation to support Christian organizations.

2. List three charities/missions/organizations you support (and why).
1) Campus Crusade: we have a couple friends who are missionaries through that organization.

2) Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship: we have friends working on college campuses through this ministry that we both participated in during college.

3) Organizations like Family Life Today and Focus on the Family that work to support families and provide wonderful tools.

3. List three ways you have volunteered your time/services.
1) I served on the board of our local Big Brothers Big Sisters for several years.

2) I lead Bible studies and Sunday School classes at our church.

3) We host a small group at our home a couple times a month.

4. List three things you keep "hidden" when company comes over.
Hmm, there really isn't anything that I can think of. I've worked hard to reach a point where I hold the things we have loosely. They are tools to minister to others through hospitality. :-)

5. List the last three things you've lost.
Gosh, I can't think of any right now. I'm always misplacing things -- but to truly lose them and not find them again -- can't think of anything.

6. List the last three things you've found.

1) My cell phone. It didn't get put back in my pocket after the last call, but it's there now.

2) My sanity LOL. It comes and goes.

3) My love of just holding a baby. That fresh newborn smell is so sweet!

During the tour, you can enter to win one of FIVE signed copies of A Whisper of Freedom by signing up for Tricia's newsletter here!

Three brave "players" will be selected at random to win their own lost gold (Gourmet chocolate coins and all three books in the Chronicles of the Spanish Civil War series). To enter all you have to do is answer the MEME on your blog and then leave a comment on Tricia’s blog tour post here http://triciagoyer.blogspot.com/2008/03/whisper-of-freedom-meme-sticky-post.html that you’ve posted your MEME. Easy.

About the Book:

Battles heat up…not only those being waged by the soldiers on both sides fighting for Spain, but in the hearts and minds of the men and women who must sacrifice more than their dreams to save the lives of their loved ones.

In this meticulously researched novel, brave and idealistic Sophie, Philip, Jose, and Deion realize their only hope for freedom is escaping Spain's borders.

By continuing the story of this band of volunteers during the Spanish Civil War, A Whisper of Freedom proves that there are whispers of hope and liberty that resonate through even the darkest night.

To read an excerpt from the book, click here. And to watch the series trailer, click here.

Now it's your turn to answer these questions. Then leave a comment and let me know that you're playing and I'll enter you in a drawing for a book.

Mother's Day Special Delivery

I'm not sure we could have scripted a better Mother's Day blessing for our family.

While our daughter arrived on Saturday night, it has been a delight to celebrate with family and friends today on Mother's Day.

The kids and I visited Cara and baby Rebecca at the hospital before heading over to our church this morning. We might be excused for our late arrival but I ought to seek forgiveness for creating the distraction that followed. As we joined the service already in progress, sharp-eyed friends noted the hospital tag strapped around my wrist and discreetly asked,"did Cara have the baby?" Wouldn't you know it but this proud papa had a digital camera full of photos and slipped it to the family right behind us. In a moment the camera was circulating 15 rows behind us and worship took a bit of a detour for the families in our immediate location!

Suffice it to say, we're blessed, blessed, blessed to welcome Rebecca to the family. Enjoy the photos and I'm sure Cara will have much to share when we let her get back to her laptop again.

Healing Promises: Review and Giveaway

This week's CFBA Tour focuses on Amy Wallace's latest book Healing Promises. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in the series, but I have to tell you Healing Promises hit a whole new level of depth and intensity.

Clint Rollins is a FBI agent who is used to having his life firmly under control. His wife Sarah is the same way. As an oncologist, she is used to doing everything she can to help patients and then focus on her family. But their worlds are as tightly controlled as possible for a FBI agent and oncologist. Then Clint is shot. And in a day their lives are turned upside down.

This book is a study of how we respond when life treats us in ways that we can't control or anticipate.

The full range of characters is back from the first book. And Amy does a masterful part of weaving the characters together in a strong web. The book is fully fleshed out, and the suspense element is very well constructed. This book has depth on soooo many levels.

I highly recommend it -- and am delighted to be able to give a copy away. Leave a comment to be entered in the contest. And I'll pull a winner next week.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Facing a new threat.

When FBI Agent Clint Rollins takes a bullet during a standoff, it might just save his life. But not even the ugly things he’s seen during his years working in the Crimes Against Children Unit could prepare him for the overwhelming powerlessness of hospital tests revealing an unexpected diagnosis. If only Sara weren’t retreating into doctor mode…he needs his wife now more than ever.

Frozen in fear.

Sara Rollins is an oncologist with a mission–beating cancer when she can, easing her patients’ suffering at the very least. Now the life of her tall Texan husband is at stake. She never let the odds steal her hope before, but in this case, the question of God’s healing promises is personal. Can she hold on to the truth she claimed to believe?

Faith under fire.

As Clint continues to track down a serial kidnapper despite his illness, former investigations haunt his nightmares, pushing him beyond solving the case into risking his life and career. Clint struggles to believe God is still the God of miracles. Especially when he needs not one, but two. Everything in his life is reduced to one all-important question: Can God be trusted?

If you would like to read the first chapter, go HERE

Sincerely, Mayla

"Lord," I said, swallowing past the tightness in my throat, "I know the Bible says You'll take care of me. I guess now's Your chance to prove it. And I sure would appreciate it if You don't wait too long, okay?"

Will Mayla Strong's life ever resemble normal? Just as she settles into a great place with God, everything else falls apart. In the course of a single week she loses her job, wrecks any chance at a relationship with Pastor Paul, gets the cold shoulder from her friend Stuart, and learns that Lindsey-the teenage sister of her late friend Alex-needs a place to stay. What good is being a control freak if nobody will do what you tell them?

Taking advantage of her newfound "vacation time," Mayla flees to her grandmother's house in Florida. But one by one, her problems follow . . . literally. In this touching sequel to Just As I Am, quirky Mayla Strong comes face-to-face with the responsibilities and joys of friends and family. As she tries to help her loved ones, Mayla begins to realize that God has all the answers-the trick is letting go long enough for Him to prove it.

Sincerely, Mayla is the latest release from one of my favorite authors Virginia Smith. This book tugs at your heartstrings from the first page and doesn't need to be read after the first book. I still haven't read Just As I Am, though I've heard great things about it, and was sucked into Mayla's life from the first chapter in Sincerely, Mayla.

Read the first chapter here.

Sincerely, Mayla is an honest book touching many issues young adults face today. Smith writes vibrant characters and tackles taboo subjects with grace and intelligence. She helps readers understand the beauty and complexity of every human being, pierced or not.

—Mary E. DeMuth

Christy Nominee, Watching the Tree Limbs

“If Mayla stole your heart in Just As I Am, she’ll own it in Sincerely, Mayla. Juggling unemployment, unrequited love, and shepherding a runaway teen takes hilarious and poignant turns in Mayla’s quirky hands. Throw in a visit to the grandmother she hasn’t seen in thirteen years, and readers will savor a rich dish of laughter, tears, and life-lessons sure to leave a permanent mark.

—Jill Elizabeth Nelson

Author of the To Catch a Thief series