The power of fiction, the beauty of words, and the God who made us to wield them for His glory.

First Line Friday – Cast the First Stone (David James Warren)

Happy Friday and welcome to First Line Friday, hosted by Hoarding Books. Time-travel is not my normal reading fare, but I have to say I’m super excited for this new time-travel thriller series coming from the combined talents of Susan May Warren, her son David Warren, and James L. Rubart. If you want to know more about the series, make sure you check out their website at rembrandtstone.com. In the meantime, the first in the series released last Tuesday, so you can start reading right now! (After you finish reading this post, of course. 😉) I’m part way through and loving it!

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First Line Friday – The Words Between Us (Erin Bartels)

Happy Friday and welcome to First Line Friday, hosted by Hoarding Books. Tonight is our first book club for 2021, and our first book club read is my first line Friday choice this week: The Words Between Us by Erin Bartels. I’m looking forward to some good discussion about this one!

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An Unlikely Proposal (Toni Shiloh) – Review + Giveaway

Their friendship can survive almost anything


For two best friends, marriage could be their greatest test yet


Trinity Davis must not have heard firefighter Omar Young correctly. Did her handsome widowed best friend just suggest they get married? Omar needs a mom for his adorable little girls, and it’ll fix Trinity’s financial woes. But saying “I do” isn’t just business. Especially when the only vow they’re in danger of breaking is their promise to not fall in love


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Top Ten Tuesday – Books Written Before I Was Born TBR

Happy Tuesday, reading friends, and welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, thanks to That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is Books Written Before I Was Born, and I’ve decided to do a TBR take on the topic. For the purposes of this post, let’s just say I’m a child of the late-seventies and leave it at that. 😉 All of the books I’ve listed below were written well before that time anyway, so the precise year of my birth doesn’t matter.

As I’ve made it one of my goals to read more Shakespeare this year, I could have been boring and just listed ten of his plays, but I also have a long list of classics that I want to read (I often have a classic on the go at the same time as a modern novel), so it wasn’t too difficult to come up with my ten this week. And most of them are fairly well-known novels, so I’d love to know if you’ve read any of them!

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Everything Behind Us (Jennifer Rodewald) – Review

Neither wants to relive the past, but they need each other to face the future.

Connor Murphy lives by a code of honor and service. Dignified, duty-bound, and responsible, he’s spent the past eight years as a single enlisted airman, determined never to mess up another person’s life the way he did Sadie’s. As long as he follows orders, does his job well, and avoids romantic entanglements, he’ll do just fine. Of course, that last part was easier before Sadie rolled back into town.

Sadie Allen never intended to return to Sugar Pine—her hometown hosts too much regret—but she can’t face her health crisis alone. Not with a four-year-old depending on her. Even so, Connor Murphy’s proposal of a marriage of convenience wasn’t exactly what she had in mind. She can’t fault his reasoning—her prognosis is grim and her son could use a father—but her heart aches at the thought of a marriage without romance. Especially to the one man she’s never gotten over.

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Cover Reveal! Before Time Runs Out (Amy Matayo)

Welcome to the cover reveal for Before Time Runs Out by Amy Matayo.

Graduate student Bree Sanders is failing the one class she needs to get her degree. So when her professor gives her an ultimatum—ace her dissertation or risk having to repeat her final semester—she knows she has to pull out all the stops. After scrambling for an idea, she decides to create her own Ghost Club, a club that blames ghosts for unsolved crimes, the same type of club originally founded two centuries ago by Charles Dickens. 

What she doesn’t expect is to find an original copy of one of Dickens’ early works, or to be transplanted into Dickens’ actual ghost club meeting, circa 1870, the instant she picks it up.

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Beauty Among Ruins (J’Nell Ciesielski) – Review + Giveaway

In Ciesielski’s latest sweeping romance, an American heiress finds herself in Scotland amid the fallout of the Great War, and a wounded Scottish laird comes face-to-face with his past and a woman he never could have expected.

American socialite Lily Durham is known for enjoying one moment to the next, with little regard for the consequences of her actions. But just as she is banished overseas to England as a “cure” for her frivolous ways, the Great War breaks out and wreaks havoc. She joins her cousin in nursing the wounded at a convalescent home deep in the wilds of Scotland at a crumbling castle where its laird is less than welcoming…

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Top Ten Tuesday – New-To-Me Authors in 2020

Happy Tuesday, reading friends! It’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday post, thanks to That Artsy Reader Girl, and this week’s topic is New-To-Me Authors I Read in 2020. When I went back through my Goodreads list, I discovered I could actually do almost three lists this week—that’s how many new-to-me authors I read in 2020! So I’ve decided to give you a two-for-one deal today. I’m giving you a list of ten Christian fiction authors who were new to me in 2020 AND a list of general market authors who were new to me in 2020.

Some of these authors have been around for many years, and I decided to finally see what all the fuss was about, others are as new to everyone else as they are to me, and others are somewhere in between. I wonder whether I will manage as many new-to-me authors in 2021!

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