Friday, February 24, 2023

A Match in the Making by Jen Turano

Hold on to your hats! As always one of the most hilarious books you'll read. And so, so touching, heartrending, full of wisdom. We don't always realize the path we take is sending us in exactly the right direction. Gwendolyn needs a break from travelling and being a companion for her cousin, so she decides to be an assistant matchmaker in a resort area where the 400 go. She's pushed to find matches for society people that she doesn't like and who shun her, even though her family is as good as theirs. She's not doing it for the money. She meets a lot of people - you may need to keep a pad and pencil nearby to keep them all straight by the way. She always sees right through situations and knows exactly the right thing to do and say to straighten others out. Jen's typical madcap story that will keep you riveted to the wonderfully satisfying end. The chaos may not let you relax, but you'll surely get completely lost in it!! Another keeper.

I received this book free from the author, publisher and NetGalley book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

#NetGalley #AMatchInTheMaking #JenTurano #BooksYouCanFeelGoodAbout #ChristianHistoricalFiction #FiveStarNovel

My reviews:

Thursday, February 23, 2023

The Undercover Secretary by Ellie Midwood

BASED ON A TRUE STORY, AN UNPUTDOWNABLE AND HEARTBREAKING WORLD WAR TWO NOVEL

1933 to 1946. This one leaves a scar. It's impossible not to feel torn apart for Dora. An amazing strong, brave woman who learned how to put on a different skin and blend in as needed, while uncovering information with her photographic mind. What a rough road. But she made a big difference in winning the war, at a huge personal cost. Hard to put down. Excellent writing. Clean told.

I received this book free from the author, publisher and NetGalley book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

#TheUndercoverSecretary #NetGalley #EllieMidwood #BooksYouCanFeelGoodAbout @bookouture

My reviews

Monday, February 20, 2023

Southern Gospel Movie coming to theaters soon

Looks like another good movie is about to hit the theaters. Viewing the trailer (see link below) it seems to be beautifully filmed, another movie you can feel good about watching.

About the movie
Samuel Allen, a 1960's rockstar, finds himself in jail after struggling with years of anger and blame toward organized religion that has led him down a road of rebellion. In a moment of divine intervention, the judge dismisses drug charges against him under the pretense that Samuel speaks to local schools and churches about the dangers of drugs. Given a second chance, he follows in his father's footsteps to become a preacher, overcoming the influence of a powerful church leader with a personal vendetta against his family.

SOUTHERN GOSPEL is the story of a man overcoming brokenness and never surrendering the dream on his journey to find the gospel ... Southern Gospel.

Watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/embed/pmFGgkL8BMo?rel=0

In Theaters Everywhere March 10, 2023, with special screenings March 9

For More Information: https://www.southerngospel.film/

#SouthernGospelMIN #BooksYouCanFeelGoodAbout

Thursday, February 16, 2023

The Weight of Air by Kimberly Duffy

1891. Christian Historical. Fabulous story, very hard to put down. I felt engaged with the characters right away. A mother and daughter who are both in the circus, started out as a family, in Europe. A lot of problems are wrestled with, women who pursue traditionally male-dominated careers, couples who flip gender expectations (for instance, a heroine who towers over the hero), how completely exhausting and crushing postpartum depression and OCD are. Women were quite covered up with their clothing in those days, but these girls wore very skimpy costumes and were very exposed, ogled in their acts yet belittled outside the circus. Three generations of women go through similar feelings at some points in their lives. You can feel the excitement and tension of the circus acts. Love and fear bundled into their stories. Complicated relationships with their husbands. Excellent read.

I received this book free from the author, publisher and NetGalley book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

#NetGalley #TheWeightOfAir #KimberlyDuffy #BooksYouCanFeelGoodAbout #ChristianHistoricalFiction

My reviews

Friday, February 10, 2023

The Lumberjills: Stronger Together by Joanna Foat

1940. When the war started the UK didn't have much lumber stockpiled. A resource that they badly needed, so they opened it up for women to apply. Thousands did. These girls are tough beyond tough in this group. Man did they fight one another. Most had it tough at home growing up. A few of the girls' backgrounds come out here. Excellent read that keeps you engaged to the end. I could have done without some of the language but overall, it was mild.

I received this book free from the author, publisher and NetGalley book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

#NetGalley #TheLumberjills #JoannaFoat #BooksYouCanFeelGoodAbout #HistoricalFiction

My reviews

Thursday, February 9, 2023

The Confession Musical

Wonderfully done! Excellent acting. Musical numbers are very good, some are especially touching and so beautiful. I think the story almost has more meaning and depth with the musical numbers.

Even though I'd read the book some time ago and I knew how it was going to go, I laughed and cried and sighed. This stage play really brought out the story and has been updated to this generation.

It's a Christian story about love and adoption, devotion to one another through everything. Did I mention Katie's fiancé who was believed to have drowned? The Mothers song with Katie joining in made me sob. So much beauty. There are wonderful messages about salvation and forgiveness embedded. And the comedy is great. Chonda somewhat stole the show at times, excellently.

Even though it puts you through the wringer emotionally, it makes you feel better for having watched it.

Many thanks to Blue Gate Musicals for providing a sample of the product for this review. Opinions are 100% my own.

#TheConfessionMIN and #ConfessionMusicalMovie #ChristianFiction #BooksYouCanFeelGoodAbout #FiveStarMovie #ChondaPierce #JohnSchneider

"The Confession Musical” is in theaters for one night only on February 20th!

The Confession Musical” is based on the New York Times best-selling book series “The Heritage of Lancaster County,” written by Beverly Lewis and written for the stage by Emmy-Nominated screenwriter Martha Bolton.

Katie Lapp, a young Amish girl, discovers her parents have been keeping a secret from her… she is adopted. Katie decides to seek her birth mother, defying the rules of her Amish village and risking a shunning. Meanwhile, her wealthy birth mother, Laura Mayfield, battling an illness that might take her life, begins searching for her long-lost daughter to bequeath her inheritance before it is too late. Secretly plotting against her is the gold-digging husband Dylan (played by John Schneider), who is scheming to make sure he inherits her fortune. With the help and prayers of her Christian maidservant (played by Chonda Pierce), they try to foil Dylan’s plan and reunite Katie and Laura. And then there's Katie's lost fiancé and the mystery around him.

• Blog Post from Beverly Lewis: LINK

• Buy tickets today to see THE CONFESSION musical movie exclusively in theaters February 20th!

Movie Website: https://confessionmusicalmovie.com/

Buy Tickets Link: https://www.fathomevents.com/events/The-Confession-Musical

Giveaway: $10 Amazon gift card

(Note: This is limited to US winners only. Winner chosen randomly from comments to this post by 2/22/23. I will need the winner’s full name and email address.) (There will be no spam!)

Tuesday, February 7, 2023

The Sharecropper's Sister by Martha Hutchens

Missouri 1942. Dot is doing her best to try to run her brother's farm while he's away serving in the war. But she needs help. She's never run the tractor before. Nate came and offered to teach her, but she couldn't imagine why, since Landowners didn't mix with Sharecroppers. She and her brother grew up as sharecroppers, but her brother purchased this farm with a loan at the bank. A bank with a filthy rotten dirty no good superior acting nephew making calls. And so the story starts. Sweet romance with loveable characters. I felt right at home. Excellent read - I didn't want to see it end.

This was a gift from Martha Hutchens for signing up for her newsletter. Link here.

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The Inn at Cherry Blossom Lane

Quick read. Contemporary. Alex and Claire work together after being separated for several years. She had been married and had a little girl. After her divorce she moved back to her grandmother's, and they started building a bed and breakfast. Interesting story with romance and a bit of danger. Keeps you interested till the end.

Sunday, February 5, 2023

What I Would Tell You by Liz Tolsma

Enriching, inspirational story that can be hard to read. It's heartbreaking. The timeslip format makes it easier with Tessa learning about Mathilda, her family and friends, gradually unfolding the story. Complicated life in 1941 Salonika, Greece, especially after the Nazis took over Greece. Pulls your heart strings right to the end. It's so well written that you forget it's a book, no surprise with Liz Tolsma.

I received this book free from the author, publisher and NetGalley book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

#WhatIWouldTellYou #NetGalley #LizTolsma #BooksYouCanFeelGoodAbout #ChristianHistoricalFiction #christianbooksandcoffee

About the Book

Book: What I Would Tell You

Author: Liz Tolsma

Genre: Christian Fiction / Romance / Historical Fiction

Release date: January 1, 2023

DNA Test Unlocks a Family Mystery

Sephardic Jew Mathilda Nissim watches in horror as the Germans invade her beloved city of Salonika, Greece. What angers her most is the lack of resistance her people put up to their captors. In secret and at great risk to her life, she continues to publish her newspaper, calling her people to action. She doesn’t trust God to help them. When she and her husband find out they are expecting a child, Mathilda may have to resort to desperate measures to ensure her daughter’s survival.

Three generations later, college student Riley Payson and her cousin take a popular DNA test only to discover they don’t share any common ancestors. In fact, the test shows Riley is a Sephardic Jew from Greece. This revelation shakes Riley’s tenuous faith and sends her on a journey to discover what happened to her great-grandmother and how all this relates to her faith and her life today.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Liz Tolsma is the author of several WWII novels, romantic suspense novels, prairie romance novellas, and an Amish romance. She is a popular speaker and an editor and resides next to a Wisconsin farm field with her husband and their youngest daughter. Her son is a US Marine, and her oldest daughter is a college student. Liz enjoys reading, walking, working in her large perennial garden, kayaking, and camping. Please visit her website at www.liztolsma.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter (@LizTolsma), Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest. She is also the host of the Christian Historical Fiction Talk podcast.

More from Liz

Take a Trip to Greece with Me

I was privileged to travel to Greece last year to research my upcoming WWII novel, What I Would Tell You. God orchestrated it so beautifully. Because of Covid, we weren’t sure my daughter would be able to travel there for the summer internship she had applied for. Eight weeks before her scheduled departure, Greece reopened to foreign visitors. Around that same time, I sold What I Would Tell You, which is set in Thessaloniki, Greece, to Barbour Publishing. I had to go and visit!

Greece is a beautiful country. The pictures you see don’t do it justice. And to someone like me, the history is one of the best parts. My daughter and I explored the old city wall, built in the 1400s, many churches that predated the Ottoman Empire, and many excavated Roman ruins that have been dug up in the city’s process of putting in a subway system.

Because this is a WWII book, we also spent a great deal of time learning about the history of the Jews in the city. The Kapani Market, just down the street from our apartment, was a vibrant mix of colorful fruits, fragrant spices, and a cacophony of languages. I could well imagine what this old Jewish market was like prior to the war with people hawking olives, fish, and oregano.

We wasted no time in visiting the Jewish museum. I was shocked by the heavy security presence with armed guards outside of the building. Once inside, we had to show our IDs and were required to turn in our phones. Antisemitism is alive and well in Greece. But what a place. There were displays after displays tracing the history of the Jewish people in Thessaloniki from 1492 until WWII. The most breathtaking was the room with stone-covered walls, the names of all 48,000 Salonikan Jews killed in the Holocaust carved into the marble. There’s an entire scene in the book that deals with this room.

What saddened me most was what we saw when we visited the trainyard where the Jews were herded into cattle cars and shipped to Auschwitz. Before we got to where the station once stood, there was a wall on which someone had pained a mural covered with black-and-white figures in their striped uniforms, their eyes and mouths wide in horror. As if that weren’t difficult enough to view, what sickened me was the blue swastikas someone had painted over them.

We also trekked to the other side of the city to visit what had once been the Jewish cemetery, now the grounds of Aristotle University. All that remains to testify that half a million people were once buried here is a small, ill-kept memorial. There were two dead Christmas wreaths placed there. We visited in August.

In addition to a moving and thought-provoking story, I hope to also introduce you to the amazing city of Thessaloniki and give you a peek into the people and the culture of this amazing place. If you ever find yourself in Greece, plan some time in Thessaloniki. Many Americans miss this gem, but it’s packed with charm and history.