Women's Fiction

No One Ever Asked by Katie Ganshert – Review and Giveaway

April 5, 2018 by Suzie Waltner 19 Comments

Have you ever read a story that just gut-punched you? One that forced you to hold a mirror up to yourself and ask some hard questions?

Katie Ganshert delivers exactly that with No One Ever Asked. Hold on friends, because I have a lot to say about this one! In fact, this book is so relevant and so poignant, I’m giving away a copy to two readers.

The Forgotten Girl by Heather Chapman – Book Spotlight, Author Interview & a Giveaway

April 2, 2018 by Suzie Waltner 2 Comments

The Forgotten Girl Tour (2)

About the Book

The Forgotten Girl

Genre: Historical; Coming of Age; Women’s Fiction
Publisher: Cedar Fort
Publication date: February 13, 2018

It is 1906, and sixteen-year-old Stella’s life in Durliosy, Poland, is bleak. Her only hope of surviving is to travel to America, a land of freedom and opportunity, and reunite with her brother in Baltimore. There she’ll find new challenges, and perhaps, if she can put her painful past behind her, a new chance for love and lasting happiness.

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About the Author

Heather Chapman

Being the youngest of four sisters (and one very tolerant older brother), Heather grew up on a steady diet of chocolate, Anne of Green Gables, Audrey Hepburn, Jane Austen, and the other staples of female literature and moviedom. These stories inspired Heather to begin writing at an early age. After meeting and marrying her husband Mark, Heather graduated magna cum laude from Brigham Young University and finally settled down in a small farming community in southeastern Idaho with her husband and four children. In her spare time, Heather enjoys time spent with family, volleyball, piano, the outdoors, and almost anything creative.

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Author Interview

If you could go to tea with one of the characters in The Forgotten Girl, who would you pick and why?

Definitely Stella. I would love to hear her actual story, feel of her strength, and ask her all the questions I wished I could ask her while I was writing this story.

In the story, who was the easiest character to write? Who was the hardest?

I didn’t feel like any character was particularly easy to write. They all came with their own challenges, but I enjoyed creating Bronia’s character the most, perhaps making her the easiest emotionally to write. Stella was the most complex character I’ve ever attempted to create. She was strong and courageous, but she didn’t realize it. She was beautiful and influential, but she never saw that. It was difficult to show her good qualities to the reader while also hiding them from the MC.

If you were to travel back in time and visit your favorite time period, where would you go and why?

Probably regency England or ancient Egypt.

My top pick is $egency England as well but I’d most likely be below stairs. What top 5 books do you currently have on your TBR pile?

1)Turtles all the way down by John Green; 2)Why not me by Mindy Kaling; 3)Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy; 4)Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy; and 5)What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Two of these are on my TBR as well! I’ll let you guess which ones.What is something unique about you that most of your readers don’t already know?

My first job was working as a map folder for the government. Seriously. I took maps the size of ping pong tables and folded them to fit into binder sheet protectors.

Finding Evergreen by Jennifer Rodewald – Review

March 24, 2018 by Suzie Waltner 1 Comment

Friends, this book wrung me out. So much so, I’m going to warn you about my rambling review. There was so much to digest and ruminate on. Finding Evergreen is definitely one read that left me with a book hangover.

In My Opinion

While I’m a fan of romance reads (and Hallmark movies and chick flicks), I’m also well aware that life continues past the first kiss, past the proposal, past the wedding.

In a market saturated with Happily Ever Afters and even Happy for Nows, writing about the pain and heartache of real life takes courage on the author’s part. Life is messy, filled with disappointments, disagreements, and pain. Especially during the first year of marriage where two people are struggling to learn to merge their lives. Add in a faster child with a chip on her shoulder and messy becomes chaotic.

What Dreams May Come by Alana Terry (Guest Post, Review & Giveaway)

February 15, 2018 by Suzie Waltner 3 Comments

About the Book

Title: What Dreams May Come

Author: Alana Terry

Genre: Christian Romance

Release Date: October 24, 2017

She’s got her heart set on becoming a missionary. He’s determined to recruit her for the job.

But is it possible to fall in love with someone you’ve never even met?

Susannah’s convinced that God has called her to the mission field. That’s why she’s serving him with single-minded focus in Orchard Grove, waiting for the day when she can leave her small town to take the gospel to the nations.

Is falling in love with her missionary recruiter part of God’s plan for her life or a distraction from the real goal?

Scott loves his life. Traveling the globe, offering spiritual support to missionaries around the world offers enough excitement that the loneliness hardly ever gets to him …

Until he receives an application from a young girl with a heart for the mission field as large as his own, a young girl he finds himself falling for even before they get the chance to meet face-to-face.

Unfortunately, a promise Susannah made to her family may tear her and Scott even farther apart than the miles that separate them.

Book one in an inspirational sweet romance series by award-winning Christian author Alana Terry, who has won awards from Women of Faith, The Book Club Network, Grace Awards, and several others, What Dreams May Come is based off of the author’s own experiences falling in love with (and eventually marrying) her missionary recruiter.

Click here to purchase your copy today!

Christmas Embers by Chautona Havig (Guest Post, Giveaway & Review)

December 18, 2017 by Suzie Waltner 2 Comments

About the Book

Name of book: Christmas Embers

Author: Chautona Havig

Genre: Contemporary Christmas

Release Date: November 25, 2016

It’s a truth universally unacknowledged that sin will hunt you down and advertise its presence the moment you try to hide it.

Emily Byrne sits in her daughter’s classroom listening to the deepest wishes of twenty kindergarteners as she sketches them. But when little Joey Cordell breaks down, weeping and insisting the only thing he wants to find is his father, she isn’t sure where her Christmas project will take her.

Davia Cordell came to Rockland for one purpose–find her son’s father before she dies. An ex-prostitute, she’s well aware that the news will cause waves, but what’s a mother to do?

As these women join forces to search for Joey’s father–a Rockland area pastor, no less– Emily learns compassion for a woman who just wants the best for her son and can’t quite imagine that Jesus wants anything to do with her.

Each day, Davia weakens until Emily isn’t confident she’ll find the boy’s father in time–if at all. Doubts form. Should she look? Is it right to risk destroying a family like this–an entire church? The weight of that responsibility crushes her as Davia wastes away before her eyes.

A mother’s love. A boy’s confidence. A family’s faith. A preacher’s failure. Is redemption even possible anymore?

Christmas Embers: a story of love, failure, and redemption.

Click here to purchase your copy!

In My Opinion…

This book is not your typical Christmas story. Instead, it lays bare the devastating effects infidelity leaves in its wake, leaving everyone near drowning.

Chautona Havig calls out a sin too often hidden or swept under the rug. While delicately balancing the different reactions of the community with the shattering of marriage vows, she exposes the emotions involved—sometimes overwhelming, sometimes confused, sometimes lost, and sometimes hope-filled. Children don’t understand what happened to make their mommy and daddy sad and blame themselves; extended family takes sides and makes accusations; and friends weep for the loss of trust and the difficulty of the act of obedience in forgiveness.

No, this is not your typical Christmas story, but is raw and real. It’s hard to read at times but it shines Light in the darkness. Grace is great than our deepest hurts.

My Rating:

Disclosure statement:
I receive complimentary books for review from publishers, publicists, and/or authors, including NetGalley. I am not required to write positive reviews. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

About the Author

Author of the Amazon bestselling Aggie and Past Forward Series, Chautona Havig lives and writes in California’s Mojave Desert. With dozens of books to her name, Chautona spends most of her time writing, but when she takes the rare break, she can be found reading, sewing, paper crafting, or sleeping and dreaming of finishing the dozens of books swirling in her overly-active imagination at any given moment.

Guest Post from Chautona Havig

Infidelity to the Tune of Adeste Fideles

“I think my husband is having an affair.”

An explanation followed. Look, I tend to be one who assumes the best of others—to a fault even. I read the “evidence” and frankly could see it going either way. It’s hard to tell across thousands of miles. While others on the message board saw red flag after red flag—and frankly, I did, too—I also saw perfectly innocent explanations for things. It’s a curse sometimes—that ability to see both sides of an issue. I cautioned against assumptions no one would want other people to make of themselves. And I prayed she was wrong.

She wasn’t.

It wasn’t the first time I’d come face to face with infidelity. As a child, there was an extended family member. As a newlywed, one of my wedding party—then another. Then another. The excuses, the justifications. Friends and I went to confront a sister in Christ on her affair with her husband’s best friend. We foolishly asked “what happened?” regarding her marriage. Her words: “We drifted apart.”

I wanted to scream the words that battered my brain and heart. “Then row back together!”

But over the years, it just grew worse. One by one, wives and husbands tossed aside vows made to a brother or sister in Christ—vows made before the Lord—in favor of what sometimes were serial affairs. Abuse. Horror.

I’ve prayed women I love through court cases, medical visits, and disclosures from children no mother should ever have to hear. I’ve prayed for men I didn’t even like because of the pain their wives inflicted each time she left them alone with the kids. He knew. He always knew.

Adultery is real. It’s ugly. And there’s absolutely a cure for it. Jesus. 100% surrender to Jesus. But as long as we rely on those little loops on the back of our boots instead of the saving, healing, strengthening power of Jesus, we’re just as vulnerable as the next person.

And that’s why I wrote Christmas Embers. I took every heartbreaking story I’d observed over the years and put in each character for a reason. Every scene, every plot point, every twist—I put them exactly how and where they are for a reason.

They’re there as a warning.

This isn’t your lighthearted Christmas novel. Some have suggested I shouldn’t have set it at Christmastime. But you know what? Over half the disclosures I’ve ever heard of happened between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. I couldn’t get the idea of Joey’s story out of my head. And to write his story, it had to be at Christmas.

Let me say it again. While Christmas may not seem like the optimal time for a hard-hitting book like this, I had to do it. Adultery is reaching epidemic proportions in the church. There’s a solution. His name is Jesus.