Litfuse Blog Tour - Spring for Susannah by Catherine Richmond

About the book:

With the death of her parents still fresh, Susannah Underhill agrees to become a mail-order bride, and marry her preacher's older brother, Jesse, a homesteader in the the rough Dakota Territory.
 
Susannah is very shy, and has suffered numerous hurts. Yet, despite her petite size Susannah proves herself in valuable time and time again, but she lives in constant fear of Jesse sending her back to Detroit. But Jesse is kind and far better than Susannah believes she deserves, she struggles with questions of doubt and self worth. But Jesse's confidence in her-and his faith in God's perfect plan-slowly begin to chip away at the wall she hides behind.
 
When she miscarries in the brutal Dakota winter, Susannah's fledgling faith in herself and in God begins to crumble. Still, Jesse's love is unwavering. Just when it seems like winter will never end, Susannah finally sees the first tentative evidence of spring. And with it, the realization that more than the landscape has changed.
She looks to the future with a renewed heart. Yet in her wildest dreams, she couldn't predict all that awaits her.


What the critics said: Booklist says, "Inspired by [folk] lyrics, Richmond arrives on the inspirational fiction scene with a moving debut novel. Readers will be filled with hope that Susannah will learn the true meaning of love. Highly recommended where inspiring, romantic historical fiction is in demand."

What other authors said: “I devoured Spring for Susannah in one lovely gulp. Richmond is an author to watch. Highly recommended!” -Colleen Coble, author of the Mercy Falls Series

"Filled with history and well-researched, Spring for Susannah kept me cheering for these well-developed characters until the very last page."
-Beth Wiseman, best-selling author of Seek Me with All Your Heart

"A stunning debut that will capture your heart and never let go."
-Julie Lessman, best-selling author of A Hope Undaunted



About the author:


Catherine Richmond was focused on her career as an occupational therapist till a special song planted a story idea in her mind. That idea would ultimately become Spring for Susannah, her first novel. She is also a founder and moderator of Nebraska Novelist critique group and lives in Nebraska with her husband.


For more about Catherine, please visit http://www.catherinerichmond.com/.

My review: Catherine Richmond is a gifted writer. She made me fall in love with her characters, they fairly danced across the page. Susannah draws you into her plight, and makes you genuinely feel for her. Susannah's character development throughout this book was excellently executed, Ms. Richmond had me cheering for her the whole way!
The other characters are also well done, Jesse was the spotlight to Susannah's star, they complemented each other nicely. I especially loved their Norwegian neighbors, they were some of the best secondary characters that I've read in awhile. They were absolutely delightful, and made this story all the richer because of them. I don't really have much to say about Jesse, because honestly, I can't really pin down how I felt about him. I didn't fall head over heels in love with him, but I didn't really dislike him either. His character was well written, but I personally don't have much to say about him.

 But I feel that I should warn readers that,this is a very romantic book, and at times I felt that in the intimate scenes between Jesse and Susannah that the bedroom door could have been closed a tad sooner, but that's mostly my personal preference. Even though they were married I felt that less detail could have been given.  Also, in the story a doctor talks very crudely about birth control, just so you are warned. And for this reason I would recommend it to mature readers, say sixteen and up.

But overall this was a really well written book, that captivated my attention from page one, I especially enjoyed the second half of the book when we see Susannah's fledgling faith really grow, and mature. I read  this book in just one day! This is an excellent debut novel from Catherine Richmond, and I'm hoping that we'll see a lot from her in the future!

Buy the book Here!

Be sure to enter the giveaway:

To celebrate her debut novel, Catherine and her publisher, Thomas Nelson,
have teamed up to give away a Spring For Susannah Prize Package worth over $150!

One grand prize winner will receive:

* A brand new Latest Generation KINDLE with Wi-Fi and Pearl Screen

* Spring for Susannah by Catherine Richmond (for KINDLE)

To enter just click one of the icons below and then tell your friends! But hurry,
giveaway ends on June 27th. Winner will be announced on Tuesday, June 28th at 5
PM (6PM MST, 7PM CST, & 8PM EST) during Catherine's Spring for Susannah Book
Club Party on Facebook! Catherine is rustling up some fun for the party - she'll
be chatting about the story behind her novel, hosting a book club chat, testing your mail-
order bride trivia skills, and giving away some GREAT prizes! Don't miss the fun and tell
your friends!

                                                           

And be sure to check out other reviews this month! Check out this blog tour calendar!


*To avoid a conflict of interest I must, in order to comply with the FTC, inform you that I received this book for free in exchange for my help promoting this book and my honest opinion. I was not required to give a positive review. So this is my honest opinion. Thanks!

And special thanks to Litfuse Publicity  and Thomas Nelson Publishing for my complimentary copy of Spring for Susannah.

Hey there! I had a great time at the Creation conference, I saw a good friend there whom I have not seen in forever! I also learned about 3 ways to make an ape man (all man made) - since God obviously didn't! I also learned about the intricacies of the ears and eyes, and how non of it could have evolved slowly over time by "Dumb luck!" I'm a very conservative teenaged homeschooled girl, if you didn't already know that. And yeah, I'll admit there weren't many kids there and the ones that were, were homeschooled. But I am extremely blessed with this opportunity.

Just so you know, I'm taking the time to be crazy and random because next week will leave little time for that. But don't worry, I'll post!

And just because I like ya'll here's a joke (it's not that funny):

Now there once was a lady who didn't know much about computers and her computer was going crazy on her, so she called the geek squad. Now the young man who came to work on her computer needed an access code, so he asked the lady, "Ma'am what's your access code?"

And she replied, "Mickey, Minnie, Daffy, Donald, Pluto, Bugs, Kermit, and Washington D.C."

"What made you choose that for a password?" the curious young geek asked, confusion creasing his brow.

"Well, it told me to use 7 characters and 1 capital!"

I know, that was bad but it's the best I can do right now. Have a great weekend!

Hey there! Just thought I'd check in and tell ya'll what going on in my life. Tomorrow I'm going to a Creation conference taught by Dr. Menton, and I'm really excited about that because I am really passionate about Creation, and Answers in Genesis, a Creation ministry. I've seen Dr. Menton so many times on DVDs and read his books so I'm really excited about actually seeing him!
I have some interesting posts coming up next week, so be sure and stop in!
I've been reading a really good book that has been on my list forever, Passion and Purity by Elizabeth Elliot and it details her struggles being patient and waiting to know if God's will was for her and Jim to be together. I love it already.
My cousin broke a ligament, and she's in some pain right now. Her horse fell on her. Please pray for her.
I'll try to post something tomorrow, thanks for stopping by!

The Lady of Bolton Hill by Elizabeth Camden - Review

About the book: Clara Endicott is beginning to make a name for herself as a journalist who is intent on exposing the dark side of industry. In the splendor of gilded age America, she soon finds herself face to face with the childhood sweetheart who is no longer the impoverished steel worker she once knew.
Daniel Tremain has risen to become a powerful industry giant. He always idolized Clara, but when she writes an exposé about his company, her words trigger a series of events that threaten to destroy them both.

Read the first chapter HERE.

My review: This book swept me away! I'll admit that it was a bit slow moving in the first few chapters, while the characters were being established, but after that I couldn't put it down!

Elizabeth Camden transported me to Baltimore, 1879, at a time when factory riots were almost a daily occurrence and the wealthy railroad barons ruled the roost of society. I could tell that no small amount of research went into the making of this fine book.

Ms. Camden's vibrant descriptions really brought this book to life, I could feel the crush of the mobs, and the purity of a summer day. The little details are what made this book stand out, and truly come to life.

How an author deals with tough issues, often makes or breaks a book. In this book, Ms. Camden dealt with the issues of suicide and the difficulty of forgiving, both of which I thought she handled expertly.

Not to mention all the action, suspense, conspiracy and romance! By the end of the this book, I was riveted to the each page, hanging on every word, hoping that this book would never end. In all, The Lady of Bolton Hill is a terrific debut novel, that Ms. Camden should be very proud of, I am eagerly awaiting her next novel, which is rumored to be titled, The Rose of Winslow Street, coming out in 2012.

Buy the book HERE!


*To avoid a conflict of interest I must, in order to comply with the FTC, inform you that I received this book for free in exchange for my help promoting this book and my honest opinion.I was not required to give a positive review. So this is my honest opinion. Thanks!

Extra thanks to Bethany House Publishers who provided this book for me to review free of charge!

Hi ya'll! As you have probably guess Summer is a busy time for me and most people my age. Not busy in the usual sense, but busy because I'm trying to squeeze all the things I was too busy for this last school season, into 3 short months. Crazy, huh?
I've been reading some great Summer Reads, and making a lot more time for writing. Which I have been trying to do forever! Convincing your parents to let you procrastinate on your schoolwork because you are busy writing the next Great American Novel, doesn't fly to far. If you've tried, which I think a lot of people have, you know what I mean. So this Summer I made a word per day goal of 300 words per day, which has been working great. But then, I've only been doing it for about 2 days.
I chose 300 words because it seemed achievable, and I didn't want to start out with a goal so high that I would completely burn out on the first day. I've actually been getting a lot more than 300 words in lately, so I think it's working. After 300 it's hard to stop!
I've been reading this major tough book called When Skeptics Ask by Norman Geisler and Ronald Brooks. It really is a great book, but it's not the typical Summertime Read, it's something better swallowed in small doses, but total gold! It is a book outlining how to answer skeptics' tough questions, by defending our faith biblically and logically. Something that could always be better, no matter how good at it you are.
I guess I should get to that writing I was talking about, oh, and for you information I do take a break on Sunday, considering that everyone in our family is banned from the computer on Sundays.
Well, toodle-dee-doo!

Litfuse Blog Tour - God and Stephen Hawking by John C. Lennox

About the book: Science has immense cultural and intellectual authority in our sophisticated modern world. With this kind of cache, it must nevertheless be pointed out that not all statements by scientists are statements of science. Therefore such statements do not carry the authority of authentic science, even though it is often erroneously ascribed to them.

Commonly written off as the inevitable clash between science and religion, the God debate is actually one between theism and atheism, where there are scientists on both sides. With a remarkable surge of interest in God that defies the so-called secularization hypothesis, it could well be that it is precisely the perceived failure of secularization that is driving the God question ever higher on the agenda. Book after book is being published on the subject by prominent scientists, as Francis Collins, Richard Dawkins, Robert Winston, etc. But were Galileo, Kepler, Newton and Maxwell, to name a few, really all wrong on the God question?

With such a lot at stake we surely need to ask Hawking to produce evidence to establish his claim. Do his arguments really stand up to close scrutiny? Has the Grand Master of Physics checkmated the Grand Designer of the Universe?

In lively, layman's terms, Lennox guides us through the key points in Hawking's arguments-with clear explanations of the latest scientific and philosophical methods and theories-and demonstrates that, far from disproving a Creator God, they make His existence seem all the more probable. Lennox's book is a great resource for Christians, churches and those in ministry who seek to educate themselves and open authentic dialog with those who question.

God and Stephen Hawking (Kregel Publishers, September 2011,ISBN: 9780745955490, $5.99).

About the author:
John C. Lennox is Fellow in Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science at the University of Oxford, and author of the bestselling God's Undertaker. He lectures on faith and science at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. He has lectured around the world, including in the United States for Ravi Zacharias; in Austria; and in the former Soviet Union. For more about John C. Lennox, please visit http://johnlennox.org

Buy the book HERE!

My review: This book is energetically written and you can immediately feel his passion for this subject. Mr. Lennox refutes Mr. Hawking using logic and reason, adding humor and common sense. I really liked his energy throughout the entire book, his train of reason was easy to follow along with and I enjoyed the straightforward style of his writing, as if he were talking right to me. I felt that he argued well and that I learned somethings about other worldviews that I'd never thought about before. I also appreciated how he he stayed right on topic throughout the entire book.

On the negative, and I really don't like to say things that are negative but I felt that I had to speak up. In this book Mr. Lennox briefly mentioned the timeline of Creation and implied that nobody knows how much time it took and that it could have taken 13.7 billion years. This goes against my beliefs, I believe in a literal 6 day creation as written in the Bible. I felt that Mr. Lennox should have stood up for a literal 6 day creation, though I applaud him for boldly speaking out for unique Creation by the One and Only God, a thing that too few people do these days.

Overall I thought that this was an engaging read, that was easy to understand, and I learned a lot! But I would advise this book to be read with discernment, by a teenage and adult audience. Thanks!


*To avoid a conflict of interest I must, in order to comply with the FTC, inform you that I received this book for free in exchange for my help promoting this book and my honest opinion. I was not required to give a positive review. So this is my honest opinion. Thanks!

And a special thanks to Litfuse Publicity and Kregel Publishing for my complimentary copy!

P.S. I'm sorry about not posting yesterday, I was reading this book!

The Appomattox Saga by Gilbert Morris

  
Hi ya'll. My last post was rather rushed as you could probably tell so today I thought I'd share one of my favorite book series with you. The Appomattox Saga by Gilbert Morris, who is my all time favorite author.
They are as the title implies a Historical fiction series, about the Civil War. But the Saga begins in the 1840's with two cousins, Clay and Gideon Rocklin. Two men both in love with the same woman. The rivalry drives one man to near ruin and the other to great sucess. So begins the Appomattox Saga, the epic 10 book series about a family split by the war that split the country in two.

The series follows the children of Clay and Gideon, as well as the many cousins, all of whom have a part in the Civil War. Many a Rocklin or Rocklin cousin serves their country in the colors blue or gray. A couple of them are even spies! Thoughout this series many of the Rocklin family puts their faith in the only true God, while dodging many dangerous circumstances. If I went into too much detail I'm afraid that I would bore ya'll to death and that I would probably end up writing a review for each and every book!

The pictures I used above are the cover photos of the omni-bus reprints that came out a in about 2009. You can find them at CBD, Barnes and Noble, Amazon for about $14 dollars each, which is a good deal for 3-in-1 (the 3rd omni-bus is a 4-in-1) books!
I enjoyed all of the series and all of them were excellent, but a few standouts in the series were:

#3 Where Honor Dwells

#4 Land of the Shadow

#5 Out of the Whirlwind

#7 Wall of Fire

#8 Stars in Their Courses

All the ones in between were great too! And you have to read #1 because it sets the stage for the whole series! There were just certain ones that I personally am more attached to, I recommend them all!

Thanks so much for letting me share with you!

*I would like to let you know that I was not compensated for this review in anyway, and that this is my honest opinion and I just really like these books!

I would appreciate your feedback!

Hey there! I'm so excited to be back to blogging but I wanted to ask ya'll a quick question. Would you rather have me write a long historical blog series about the Founding Fathers and the truth about Freemasons or would you rather have me just write a review of a book that you guys can read for yourselves?

To answer a few quick questions, no, it will not be about the evil practices of Freemasons, or a hate filled expos`e. In the blog series I would cover the surprising truth about the Freemasons in early America and how they differed dramatically from the Freemasons of Europe. Also I will include the true about the question of whether the Founding Fathers were Freemasons or not (there is a complicated answer, that is very detailed, but if you don't want to go into that the answer is simply, no). I will also attempt to help you understand how American Freemasonry changed suddenly, evolving into the image we have of it today. Not so good. But I won't go into morbid detail of their practices, or anything weird like that.

I would love to share all of this with you and I would love to know what your questions are so I can address them. So please comment below.

Also, I would like to inform you that I will be taking a Conservative Christian standpoint on this topic.

I would like some feedback on this, but if I don't hear from anyone I'll go with the long many part series (don't worry I'll take short breaks and do my normal posts and books review in between!)

Marshmallow Wars and Cattle Drives

Hi ya'll! Sorry that I couldn't get to the computer earlier, but here I am.
I thought you might like to hear the highlights of my trip. One of them was that it snowed, which is amazing since where I am now it is well  over 100 degrees. Yeah, we're all sweating it out!

Some of the highlights were the many cattle drivers I participated in, driving stubborn, dog-hating cows up mountains and across the prairie. Not to mention all the grand times I had with my cousins!
I did my cousins hair into cornrows, and we drove around in her truck blasting Katie Armiger's Best Song Ever.
But on the last day, my cousins (3 of them that is), Uncle T. and Uncle G., my brother, my dad and I had an all out marshmallow war! The marshmallows were stale, but not hardened into rocks yet. (My uncle stuck some in his ears and used them for ear plugs!) The marshmallows hurt a little when we got hit, but not too bad. But it was sooooooo fun!
There were also 4 crazy dogs (including mine) running around, barking their heads off and gobbling up marshmallows as soon as they hit the ground! The marshmallows did not help the dogs calm down.
In all I had a blast!
I rode horses nearly every day, and had a total blast, not to mention almost reading my head off!
I'll be posting everyday this week now to make up for the deficiency in posts the last 2 weeks. So see ya then!

Sorry this isn't much of a post, but I will be back to posting normally on Monday the 6th. If Monday is the 6th...Hmm. Well on Monday I will be back. Thanks for your patience with me.
Tomorrow I'm going on a cattle drive down the mountain. Today I fixed fence. And I drove cattle, on Tuesday, and Saturday as well.
My horse is behaving beautifully!
Thanks!