Showing posts with label grief. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grief. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 18, 2025

A Constant Love by Tracie Peterson

 



Wyoming after the Great Die-Up - a terrible winter after a drought, where livestock and people froze in 60 degrees below zero weather. Charlotte, her mother and their neighbor Micah suffer tragic losses during the deep freeze and get through things by working together, with love and healing. An additional deep threat also awaits them, where they all struggle and turn for aid to their Pastor and the Sheriff. Tracy is an expert at describing scenes and bringing people to life, at teaching Christian lessons through her characters' experiences, and you feel deeply for each one. Excellent story.

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

#AConstantLove #TraciePeterson #BooksYouCanFeelGoodAbout #CelebrateLit #BethanyHousePublishers #ChristianHistoricalFiction



About the Book

Book: A Constant Love

Author: Tracie Peterson

Genre: Historical Romance

Release date: March 4, 2025

Heartache has left them emotionally desolate, but traces of love and healing could forge a future.

In the wake of a harsh winter, Micah Hamilton and Charlotte Aldrich are grappling with loss and guilt after the disaster that took the lives of their loved ones. Struggling to cope with his grief, Micah abandons his father’s dreams of a prosperous ranch and cuts himself off from the rest of the world.

Charlotte has loved Micah her entire life and is determined not to lose him as well. With her mother’s help, she begins coaxing Micah to live again. Despite their enduring heartache, the affection between them deepens, but just as Charlotte thinks her dreams may come true, a scorned suitor threatens everything she holds dear. Micah and Charlotte must embark on a journey of healing and renewal to build a life founded on faith, hope, and love.

 

Click here to get your copy!

 

About the Author

Tracie Peterson is the bestselling author of more than 100 novels, both historical and contemporary, with more than 6 million copies sold. She has won the ACFW Lifetime Achievement Award and the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award. Her avid research resonates in her many bestselling series. Tracie and her family make their home in Montana.

 

 

 

More from Tracie

A Constant Love is a book near and dear to my heart. The book deals with tragedy and loss that came about during and after the Great Die-Up—a hideous winter of blizzards and desperately cold temperatures that affected the prairie states and up into the Rockies. Many of the ranchers in the areas were completely wiped out and gave up their ranches when their cattle died off in record numbers.

Ranchers and farmers had dealt with the elements turning against them prior to this, but the winter of 1886–1887 was different. The summer of 1886 had brought about record droughts, and many of the crops had failed. The livestock suffered as the grass died off and feed wasn’t readily available. By November, early and heavy snows started and continued. Temperatures dropped to record lows. In eastern Montana the temperatures were said to drop to negative 63 degrees Fahrenheit.

In January, a Chinook wind warmed things considerably, melting a lot of the snow. This just made things worse, however, because when the plunging sub-zero temperatures returned, the water froze a thick layer on top of what little grass the animals had been able to dig down to eat. Mass starvation followed, and thousands upon thousands of animals were lost. In reading about the era and all that happened, I came across comments from people that showed the great despair that flooded the states involved. The hopelessness of it all was overwhelming.

During the same time I was researching and mapping out this book, a beloved family member committed suicide. The devastation we felt was overwhelming, and it all seemed to come together with what I had been reading. I felt that deep sadness and despair. I read that some people had taken their lives after that winter. People were at a loss as to what to do, and in that day and age, the church was not always very kind to the families of those who killed themselves. As I prayed about the book I planned to write, I felt compelled to write about suicide and the ripple effect it has on family, friends, and even total strangers. I wanted to share the hope that I found in God’s Word, and A Constant Love was born.

There are times in our lives when we are overwhelmed to the point of despair, when giving up seems far easier than going on. I pray if you ever feel that way, you’ll reach out to someone and talk it through. But I also challenge those who aren’t feeling that way to be observant . . . to care about those around you enough to get in their business when things just don’t seem right. You might very well save a life. As the Bible says, we need to bear one another’s burdens. I hope you’ll keep that in mind as you read A Constant Love.

Blog Stops

Pens Pages & Pulses, March 8
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, March 8
Devoted To Hope, March 9
Allyson Jamison, March 9
Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions, March 10
Simple Harvest Reads, March 11 (Guest Review from Marilyn Ridgway)
Texas Book-aholic, March 11
Locks, Hooks and Books, March 12
Jodie Wolfe, March 12
Abba’s Prayer Warrior Princess, March 13
Life on Chickadee Lane, March 14
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, March 14
Stories By Gina, March 15 (Author Interview)
Mary Hake, March 15
Happily Managing a Household of Boys, March 16
Maureen’s Musings, March 16
She Lives To Read, March 17
Books You Can Feel Good About, March 18
For Him and My Family, March 18
Leslie’s Library Escape, March 19
Cover Lover Book Review, March 19
Holly’s Book Corner, March 20
Jeanette’s Thoughts, March 20
lakesidelivingsite, March 21
Pause for Tales, March 21

Giveaway


To celebrate her tour, Tracie is giving away the grand prize of a $15 Amazon gift card and a copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/00adcf54169


My reviews

Sunday, October 20, 2024

Trail to Love by Susan F. Craft

 


Great Wagon Road 1753 Philadelphia to Graniteville South Carolina in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I really loved reading this book. The characters are quite real and it's easy to get attached to each of them. The country and many of their experiences made me wish I was there with them, that I was taking part. I'm sure I'd love it there. The beauties along the trail, the experiences with the Native Americans and how gorgeous the farm is, and then Anne's dream after emigrating from Scotland unfolding to being a tailor/seamstress with her own shop. The dangers of the trail and the terrible experiences are all part of the unexpected path they traveled on, taking them exactly where God led them.

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

#TrailToLove #SusanFCraft #BooksYouCanFeelGoodAbout #CelebrateLit #ChristianHistoricalRomance #WildHeartBooks


About the Book

Book: Trail to Love

Author:Susan F. Craft

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release date: September 17, 2024

A widowed father…a heartbroken nanny…and a wagon train journey that will change their lives forever.

Since the death of her fiancé, Anne Forbes has given up on the life she thought she’d have. After taking a role as nanny to her two young nephews, she’s grown close to her brother’s family—a replacement for the one she never had the chance to start. But when she accompanies them on the wagon trail to their new life in South Carolina, a handsome and gallant widowed father who’s also part of the group catches her eye and her heart, making her wonder if God might have plans of love for her after all. If only the beautiful woman the man escorts didn’t have her sights set on him.

Michael Harrigan never considered remarrying after the death of his wife. No woman could ever compare. But when he meets the gentlehearted Anne while escorting his sister-in-law on their journey to the Blue Ridge Mountains, he’s taken aback by Anne’s lovely voice and her compassion. As they face the trials and adventures of life on the trail, he finds himself open to the idea of marriage for the first time in many years.
But when disaster strikes the wagon train, Michael and Anne must work side-by-side to save lives. In the midst of their struggles, can they find a way to abandon their separate trails of grief and hardship for the trail to love?

 

Click here to get your copy!

 

About the Author

Susan F. Craft retired after a 45-year career in writing, editing, and communicating in business settings.

She authored the historical romantic suspense trilogy Women of the American Revolution—The Chamomile, Laurel, and Cassia. The Chamomile and Cassia received national Illumination Silver Awards. The Chamomile was named by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance as an Okra Pick and was nominated for a Christy Award.

She collaborated with the International Long Riders’ Guild Academic Foundation to compile An Equestrian Writer’s Guide (www.lrgaf.org), including almost everything you’d ever want to know about horses.

An admitted history nerd, she enjoys painting, singing, listening to music, and sitting on her porch with her dog, Steeler, watching geese eat her daylilies. She most recently took up the ukulele.

More from Susan

A History of Buttons

In my Christian Historical Romance, my main character, Anne Forbes, is a tailor and seamstress. When she arrives in Philadelphia from Scotland in 1753, she visits several shops and is amazed by the huge supply of buttons.

Buttons have been around for 3,000 years. Made from bone, horn, wood, metal, and seashells, they didn’t fasten anything but were worn for decoration.

The first buttons to be used as fasteners were connected through a loop of thread. The button and buttonhole arrived in Europe in 1200, brought back by the Crusaders.

The French, who called the button a bouton for bud or bouter to push, established the Button Makers Guild in 1250. Still used for adornment, the buttons they produced were beautiful works of art.

By the mid-1300s, tailors fashioned garments with rows of buttons with matching buttonholes. Some outfits were adorned with thousands of buttons, making it necessary for people to hire professional dressers. Buttons became such a craze that the Church denounced them as the devil’s snare, referring to the ladies in their button-fronted dresses.

In 1520 for a meeting between King Francis I of France and King Henry VIII of England, King Francis’ clothing was bedecked with over 13,000 buttons, and King Henry’s clothing was similarly weighed down with buttons.

In the 16th century, the Puritans condemned the over-adornment of buttons as sinful, and soon the number of buttons required to be fashionable diminished, though they were made from gold, ivory, and diamonds.

By the mid-1600s, button makers used silver, ceramics, and silk and often hand painted buttons with portraits or scenery.

The late 17th century saw the beginning of the production by French tailors of thread buttons, little balls of thread. This angered the button artisans so much that they pressured the government to pass a law fining tailors for making thread buttons. The button makers even wanted homes and wardrobes searched and suggested that fines be levied against anyone wearing thread buttons. But in la Guerre des Boutons, it’s not clear that their demands went beyond fining of tailors.

Towards the end of the 1700s in Europe, big metallic buttons came into fashion. At this time, Napoleon introduced the use of sleeve buttons on tunics. This time period saw the development of the double-breasted jacket. When the outside of the jacket was soiled, the wearer would unbutton it, turn the soiled surface to the inside, and re-button.

Thread buttons were used on men’s shirts and other undergarments from the late 17th into the early 19th century. Cheaper, they wouldn’t break when laundresses scrubbed and beat the material. They were also used on shifts and undergarments because they were soft and comfortable. Other types of thread buttons were death head buttons, star buttons, basket buttons, and Dorset buttons.  Some said that death head buttons were called that because they resembled a skull and crossbones, memento mori, a reminder that life is short and should be lived as well as possible.  Dorset buttons originated in Dorset in southern England where they became a cottage industry. Families, prison inmates, and orphans were employed in the manufacture of thousands of Dorset buttons each year, which were used throughout the UK and exported all over the world.

Bone button molds, slightly domed on one side and flat on the other, were common in the mid to late 18th century. Button molds were used to make both cloth and thread (passementerie) covered buttons.

Horn buttons were used mostly for spatterdashes and gaitered trousers. These strong durable buttons were competitive in price with other types but available in limited numbers in the 18th century since the making of them was slow.

Many colonial American buttons were made from seashells, wood, wax, and animal bones.  The bones were boiled for 12 hours, cut into small pieces, shaved around the edges and had a hole punched through them with an awl. The shape was up to the maker — round, oval, square, rectangular, or octagonal.

Brass buttons, functional and ornamental, were also popular in colonial America. In 1750 in Philadelphia, a German immigrant, Caspar Wistar, made brass buttons guaranteed for seven years. He later opened the first successful glass making factory in the colonies.

(I want to thank the William Booth Drapers of Racine, WI, for some of the information provided in this post.  Please visit their website at www.wmboothdraper.com where you’ll find a treasure trove of books about 17th and 18th century fashion — shoes, slippers, hats, bonnets, buttons and trimmings, etc., and Packet books about sewing. Fantastic resource.  Thank you, William Booth Drapers.)

 

Blog Stops

Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions, October 8
Simple Harvest Reads, October 9 (Guest Review from Donna Cline)
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, October 10
DevotedToHope, October 10
Lighthouse Academy Blog, October 11 (Guest Review from Marilyn Ridgway)
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, October 12
Texas Book-aholic, October 13
For Him and My Family, October 13
lakesidelivingsite, October 14
Locks, Hooks and Books, October 15
An Author’s Take, October 16
Blossoms and Blessings , October 16
Happily Managing a Household of Boys, October 17
Life on Chickadee Lane, October 18
Karen Baney Reviews, October 19
Holly’s Book Corner, October 19
Books You Can Feel Good About, October 20
Cover Lover Book Review, October 21
Pause for Tales, October 21

Giveaway



To celebrate her tour, Susan is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon card!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/00adcf5462






My reviews

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

A Love Discovered (The Heart of Cheyenne Book #1)

 

A young couple, friends, come together over tragedy and loss. They marry out of convenience and move to wild Cheyenne to make a new life for themselves. A great deal awaits them there, with struggle and pain as well as great friendship and opportunity. Bittersweet. 

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

#ALoveDiscovered #NetGalley #TraciePeterson #BethanyHousePublishers #BooksYouCanFeelGoodAbout


My reviews

Friday, March 1, 2019

High as the Heavens by Kate Breslin

https://www.amazon.com/High-as-Heavens-Kate-Breslin/dp/076421781X/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?crid=XSZE5JM8XM4K&keywords=high+as+the+heavens+kate+breslin&qid=1551480228&s=gateway&sprefix=High+as+the+heaven%2Caps%2C170&sr=8-1-fkmrnullhttps://www.christianbook.com/high-as-the-heavens/kate-breslin/9780764217814/pd/217814?product_redirect=1&Ntt=217814&item_code=&Ntk=keywords&event=ESRCPhttps://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/high-as-the-heavens-kate-breslin/1124824740?ean=9780764217814https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32497037-high-as-the-heavens?from_search=true

Beautiful, rich story. An author you'll love.
Christian historical. A novel of spies and underground fighters in WW2. It amazes me that with all the war stories, there are still so many more.This is intricate. The author strove to show the hardships of those who lived in occupied countries like Belgium and France, and to share the remarkable people of the Great War who worked behind enemy lines. You'll become completely engrossed as the characters come fully to life, full of grief and pain, and very little hope, yet doing their best to fight back in ways they could. And what they did was significant. People were so incredibly smart and resourceful even when they seemed completely dominated, yet they contributed to the fall of the German army. Excellent story to get lost in!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher and NetGalley book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

#HighAsTheHeavens #KateBreslin #NetGalley

My Reviews:
Goodreads
BookFun
Pinterest
Twitter
Facebook
ChristianBook
Amazon