Thursday, August 20, 2015

Ryan’s Love by C.A. Harm



"How could I ever go on without her..."


RYAN'S LOVE 
Author: C.A. Harms
Series: Sawyer Brothers #1
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Limitless Publishing
Release Date: August 11, 2015
- SYNOPSIS -
One of the hardest things I have ever had to do was bury my wife. 

The second hardest thing would be watching my 12 year old daughter fall to her knees as they lowered her mother into the ground to rest. 

A heart wrenching vision that will forever be etched in my mind.

Claire was my best friend, she had been since we were barely old enough to talk. I always knew, one day, I would marry her. I think I may have even told her that a few times while we were growing up. 

Never did I think I would lose her so suddenly.

I knew at that moment…
Our life would never be the same again…

My Thoughts…

C.A. Harm has a way with words.    Her characters are real, relatable, and so lovable.  I immediately became invested in the lives and the love that every character in this book had to share.  The feelings were true and not just instant feelings.    They were developed over time, taken into consideration of the surrounding and other people in their lives, and real.   

Ryan and Amber had an instant attraction.   Their steamy looks and sly smiles were true to a romance waiting to happen.    I loved that it was not an instant relationship.   It moved quickly, but not so quick as to make it unbelievable.   It was also nice to see them consider Olivia, Ryan’s daughter, before jumping into the relationship headfirst.    They took into consideration how their relationship would affect Olivia and included her in their lives.   Amber is the only type of girlfriend that would work in Ryan’s life.   Her consideration, understanding, and love are exactly what both Ryan and Olivia needed after the loss of their wife/mother.   

If you are looking for an emotional romantic story.   C.A. Harms has one for you.  Ryan’s Love is perfect.  

Make sure you check out the sexy cowboy on the farmer.  He is exactly what I picture as Ryan.
- PURCHASE -
#KindleUnlimited ~ http://amzn.to/1KbN83b

- EXCERPT -
I couldn’t contain my happiness. Hell, I had forgotten what it was like to hold a woman close. To hold her hand in mine or to bury my face at the base of her neck, just where it meets her shoulder. The comfort of having a woman in my arms was something I thought I’d never have the pleasure of again.

Amber was different than any other woman I had met over the years. She was so sweet, shy, and compassionate. She was so easy to talk to, and the way she listened to me made me feel like she was hanging on my every word. The way she looked at me also made me feel like I’d hung the moon. It was reassuring to have someone I could share time with, someone that didn’t know me during the darkest part of my life. She gave me the chance to let a little of the old me shine through. I had really missed the old me.

“Climb up,” I said from behind her as she stood staring up at the horse only a few feet from her with a look of panic on her face. I was more than positive this was the closest this city girl had ever been to one.

She peered back over her shoulder, and I almost laughed at how overwhelmed she looked.

“I’m from the city,” she said with wide eyes, emphasizing her loss at what to do. “Ryan, you do understand that we have subways and taxis, right? We do not have horses that are the size of SUVs. I’m going to need a little help if you expect me—” She pointed toward her chest, then spun around to point at the horse. “—to get up on that thing.”

Now I did chuckle. It was impossible not to. She was damn near panicking at the thought of how she would mount and then ride the horse.

I stepped up behind her, my chest fitting flush against her back. Gripping her hips, I leaned my head closer and grazed my lips over her ear. Her body relaxed against mine, and she tilted her head to the side, opening up her neck to me.

As I placed a kiss at the base of her neck, she shuddered in my arms. “You have to put your foot in the stirrups,” I whispered before kissing just below her ear. “I’ll lift as you pull yourself up.”

She nodded with her eyes closed as her chest moved up and down in small pants.

“Go on,” I urged.

I lifted her as she gripped the saddle, and she yelped when I firmly placed her atop Storm, my father’s Oldenburg stallion. Jackson held him steady as I pulled myself up and took my spot behind Amber. Our bodies were so close together I could feel her ragged breaths as she shifted against me with each one.

Earlier, I’d been worried about bringing her to my parents’ house. I wasn’t sure how they would feel about seeing me with another woman after all this time. When I stopped by last night for dinner, I wanted to make sure it was okay, and their answers shocked me. My mother cried and assured me that moving on was for the best. She then admitted she had worried I would never truly be happy again and that imagining me alone without someone to love me broke her heart.

My father gave me one of those manly hugs and said he looked forward to meeting the woman who was bringing back his son. His words rang true as I too felt Amber was allowing me to feel alive again. She had returned my desire to feel, to love.

Jackson, on the other hand, just kept commenting on how good-looking the girl that caught my attention was. He made sure to throw in the fact he met her first and had already been inside her apartment. The cocky son of a bitch was so full of himself, he chose to leave out the part about only being there to move furniture. Noah, of course, was more of the silent type, yet his eyes showed he was pleased with my choices.

“You ready?” I asked Amber while wrapping my arms around her waist and grabbing the reins.

She nodded, and I looked over one last time to see Jackson grinning from ear to ear.



- ABOUT THE AUTHOR - 
CA Harms 
C.A. Harms is like any other addicted reader. She enjoys happy endings and HEA love stories. She hasn't always been a lover of Romance and had once been addicted to a good Mystery. Just recently she has taken on a new liking and now is a full blown Romance novel addict.

She lives in Illinois and enjoys spending time with her husband and two children. You will always find her with her kindle or paperback in hand as it is her favorite pass time.

NEWSLETTER: http://bit.ly/1xsgHCS




As of December 1, 2009, According to The Federal Trade Commission (FTC),  product reviewers on blogs must disclose whether they received products for free or received payment for their review.
 The books I review on this site ( A Soccer Mom's Book Blog) are sent to us by publishers, authors or downloaded from Netgalley. This is a very common practice.  I never take payments for these reviews and all the reviews on this site are our own thoughts and feelings and are not influenced.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Treasured by Thursday (The Weekday Brides #7) by Catherine Bybee & GIVEAWAY

Published September 22, 2015 by Montlake Romance

Gabriella Masini: She’s a woman haunted by her past, with the scars to prove it. She believes that fairy tales are for other people. An elite matchmaker at Alliance, she’s great at crunching numbers, but something doesn’t add up with her latest prospective client: a billionaire bad boy with his own secrets. When Gabi refuses to be his temporary wife, Hunter forces her hand with an offer she can’t refuse. But marriage to a man like that could never last…or could it?

Hunter Blackwell: Only his bank account is bigger than his ruthless ability to obtain anything he wants. These days, he has a secret reason to settle down, at least for a while—and he thinks the sensual and sassy Gabi will fit the bill perfectly. But when their marriage of convenience becomes downright dangerous, Hunter must decide how far to take his vow to honor and protect Gabi forever. 

My Thoughts…

I am sad to say that this series is now officially over.    The Weekday Brides Series by Catherine Bybee has always been a series of sweet romance books that I knew would make my heart beat faster, my eyes tear up, and keep me awake late at night having to keep reading.    With each book I met new friends, were reacquainted with old friends, and fell in love with the male heroes. 

In Treasured by Thursday we learn the rest of Gabi’s story.    When we left her in Seduced by Sunday she had just moved to the states after a disastrous marriage to a drug smuggler.    I felt for her then and still had those feelings picking up her story.     I was excited to jump into her story and find out if she could ever trust again, if she could find happiness, and most importantly if she could find love.    When Hunter comes into her work the sparks flew.    The attraction was obvious, yet the weariness from Gabi was expected.   While I did not love that she had to give in to Hunter, I loved that Hunter seemed to want to show her respect from the beginning of their relationship.     He did not push her to give more than what she was willing and accepted what she was willing to give.   

I felt like this was the perfect ending to the series.    Catherine Bybee tied up the loose ends with the other characters, letting the reader know what they were up to while not taking away from the main characters.     Each couple from the previous books made an appearance while adding to the current story.  

This is certainly a series that has to be read.   I recommend reading the books in order but each can be read as a standalone also.  

Book Links
Amazon   |   Amazon UK   |   Barnes and Noble   |   Goodreads

Other Books I have read by Catherine Bybee


Not Quite Forever

BIO:
New York Times & USA Today bestselling author Catherine Bybee was raised in Washington State, but after graduating high school, she moved to Southern California in hopes of becoming a movie star. After growing bored with waiting tables, she returned to school and became a registered nurse, spending most of her career in urban emergency rooms. She now writes full-time and has penned the Weekday Brides Series and the Not Quite Series. Bybee lives with her two teenage sons in Southern California.  

CONTACT LINKS:
www.catherinebybe.com
catherinebybee@yahoo.com
catherinebybee.blogspot.com

twitter.com/catherinebybee

Praise for Treasured by Thursday
“..an exquisitely written and complex story brimming with pride, passion, and pulse-pounding danger... Readers will gladly make time to savor this winning finale to a wonderful series.” –Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“Bybee concludes her popular Weekday Brides series in a gratifying way with a passionate, troubled couple who may find a happy future if they can just survive and then learn to trust each other. A compelling and entertaining mix of sexy, complicated romance and menacing suspense.” –Kirkus Reviews
The Weekday Brides never disappoint and this final installment is by far Bybee’s best work to date..” –RT Book Reviews, 4 ½ Stars, Top Pick!


a Rafflecopter giveaway




As of December 1, 2009, According to The Federal Trade Commission (FTC),  product reviewers on blogs must disclose whether they received products for free or received payment for their review.
 The books I review on this site ( A Soccer Mom's Book Blog) are sent to us by publishers, authors or downloaded from Netgalley. This is a very common practice.  I never take payments for these reviews and all the reviews on this site are our own thoughts and feelings and are not influenced.


Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Seaside Nights Release BLITZ

SN banner
Title: Seaside Nights (Love In Bloom: Seaside Summers, #5)
Author: Melissa Foster
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: August 12, 2015
goodreads
Synopsis
Fall in love with Sky Lacroux and Sawyer Bass in Seaside Nights, the fifth book in the Seaside Summers series by New York Times bestselling author Melissa Foster! Sky Lacroux has finally realized her dream and opened her own tattoo shop in Provincetown, Massachusetts. She's happy as can be, preparing the shop for its grand opening and renting a cottage in the Seaside community while renovations to her new apartment are being completed. The only thing missing is the one thing she longs for, and has no control over—love. Sawyer Bass, a professional boxer, plays his guitar at a local bar to escape the painful reality of his father's deteriorating health and a recent health warning of his own. But when he spots a stunning brunette across the room, escaping reality goes out the window, and the beautiful woman becomes the focus of his next song—and maybe even the rest of his life. When Sawyer walks into Sky's tattoo shop and sees the woman from the bar—Sky—the chemistry between them is instant. Sawyer is everything Sky could ever hope for in a man. He's honest, loving, sensitive, and potently virile—but boxing goes against everything Sky believes in. The closer they become, the more she realizes that her alpha boxer is waging his own emotional battle—only the battle she thinks he's waging isn't the one that threatens to tear them apart.
About The Author
Melissa
Melissa Foster is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling and award-winning author. She writes sexy and heartwarming contemporary romance, new adult romance (M/F, M/M, F/F), romantic suspense, thrillers, and historical fiction with emotionally compelling characters that stay with you long after you turn the last page. Melissa also co-writes the Love on Rockwell Island series with New York Times bestselling author Bella Andre. Melissa's emotional journeys are lovingly erotic and always family oriented. Her books have been recommended by USA Today's book blog, Hagerstown Magazine, The Patriot, and several other print venues. She is the founder of the World Literary CafĂ©. When she's not writing, Melissa helps authors navigate the publishing industry through her author training programs on Fostering Success. Melissa has painted and donated several murals to The Hospital for Sick Children in Washington, DC. Her interests include her family, reading, writing, painting, friends, helping others see the positive side of life, and visiting Cape Cod. Melissa is available to chat with book clubs and welcomes comments and emails from her readers. Visit Melissa on social media or her personal website. Never miss a release! Follow Melissa here on Amazon and sign up for her newsletter: www.MelissaFoster.com/Newsletter Newsletter | Website | Street Team | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Amazon | Goodreads  
love 2
 

Monday, August 17, 2015

A Second Chance (The Publicist Book 4) by Christina George

Published July 15, 2015
     
        
Mac Ellis is never down for long but this time is proving to be a little more challenging. It’s been almost two years since he and Kate split up and Mac’s still wrestling with the guilt of breaking her heart.

Mac Ellis is a legend both in and out of the bedroom and when an amazing opportunity comes his way to head up a publishing company, Mac grabs it and restarts his career. As luck would have it, he and Kate wind up vying for the same title: A book that promises to be the biggest book of the year, maybe of a career.

Smart, sexy, and beautiful Sydney Montgomery is a top CIA operative. Some at the agency call her a savant, but the world, if they knew, would call her Wonder Women, because she brought down what could have been one of the biggest terrorist threats the country would have ever seen. Now Sydney is telling her story and Mac wants to publish her book, but Sydney has a secret and when Mac meets her, he realizes she is not at all what he expected.

Because love the second time around is always sweeter... 

My Thoughts…

A Second Chance is exactly what Mac needs and deserves.   This is his story.   Mac Ellis has gotten a lot of what he deserved.   In his defense he was dealt a raw deal when his daughter dies shortly after her birth and his marriage starts to fall apart.     His past has caught up with him in this book.   He gets a book deal, meets the author, and has the feeling that he knows her.  As he continues to work with her he realizes that he really does know her.  He knows her very well.   The author is his first love.    

The Publicist series is one of my favorite.  I have read all four book, listened to the first two, and am always anxious for the next to be released.    While I have loved the series, A Second Chance closes out the series for me.  I am good with letting it go.   Everyone has found their happy place in their lives.    When Christina asked me if I was #TeamNick or #TeamMac I was always #TeamMac.    I hated his life choices, but needed him to be settled.   

Christina George has done a great job with the entire series.   I cannot imagine how hard it is to keep writing after you thought you were done with a set of characters.    She has done a perfect job tying this story up.  Ending it with a peak into everyone’s lives, showing how everyone has settled down and is living life.   


I definitely recommend checking out this series.    

Book Links
Amazon   |   Goodreads   


As of December 1, 2009, According to The Federal Trade Commission (FTC),  product reviewers on blogs must disclose whether they received products for free or received payment for their review.
 The books I review on this site ( A Soccer Mom's Book Blog) are sent to us by publishers, authors or downloaded from Netgalley. This is a very common practice.  I never take payments for these reviews and all the reviews on this site are our own thoughts and feelings and are not influenced.

Saturday, August 15, 2015

The Remingtons: A Texas Kind of Love by Melissa Storm

Published May 21, 2015 by Kindle Words

Louise Stark left her small Texas home town during high school and vowed never to look back. Unfortunately, she has no choice when she is called in to settle the estate of a great aunt she hardly knew. With her best friend Siena Remington in tow, she reluctantly takes a trip across the country and back into her past—planning to return to her fast-paced Manhattan life as quickly as possible.

Brady Williams leads a life filled with adventure, danger, and fame as the star bronco rider in a traveling rodeo. Proud of his reputation as the sexiest bad boy in Texas, he knows he can have any woman he wants. So why can’t he get his mind off straight-laced Louise, the girl he shared his first kiss with back in elementary school? And, more importantly, how can he convince her to stay in Jefferson long enough to give him a chance?

Louise and Brady are about to find out that no amount of distance can stand in the way of two hearts that fit perfectly together. So saddle up and get ready to fall in love with this sweet Western romance inspired by Melissa Foster’s Remington series.

My Thoughts…

If you are not familiar with the Remington’s from Melissa Foster’s series I recommend checking it out, but it is not necessary to love this novella.     This is part of the group of authors that wrote as part of the Kindle World Remington series.   

A Texas Kind of Love is a fun and wonderful novella.     There are amazing characters with strength and honesty that are found throughout the entire series of books.    Brady and Louise were middle school boyfriend and girlfriend.  In true middle school fashion their relationship did not last.    As soon as they saw each other again, having not talked in years, the sparks flew.    They did not give into past feelings and worked to discover if the feelings were still there.    I loved that they did not just fall into bed to feed the fire.    They went out, they rediscovered each other, and they worked to get to a place where they could be together again.   

This novella is the perfect accompaniment to the rest of the Remington series.  Please check out Melissa Storms take on them.   


Book Links
Amazon   |   Goodreads

Friday, August 14, 2015

Seaside Nights by Melissa Foster & GIVEAWAY


NEW RELEASE!  SEASIDE SUMMERS BOOK #5
Voted Beck Valley Books Reviewers Favorite Mini Series from the Love in Bloom Series 

SEASIDE SUMMERS joins the LOVE IN BLOOM series, featuring a group of fun, sexy, and emotional friends who gather each summer at their Cape Cod cottages. They're funny, flawed, and will have you begging to enter their circle of friends. You met them in READ, WRITE, LOVE, (The Remingtons, Book 5), follow these friends on their search for forever love in the Seaside Summers series.

SEASIDE NIGHTS 
Fall in love with Sky Lacroux and Sawyer Bass in Seaside Nights, the fifth book in the Seaside Summers series!

Sky Lacroux has finally realized her dream and opened her own tattoo shop in Provincetown, Massachusetts. She’s happy as can be, preparing the shop for its grand opening and renting a cottage in the Seaside community while renovations to her new apartment are being completed. The only thing missing is the one thing she longs for, and has no control over—love.

Sawyer Bass, a professional boxer, plays his guitar at a local bar to escape the painful reality of his father’s deteriorating health and a recent health warning of his own. But when he spots a stunning brunette across the room, escaping reality goes out the window, and the beautiful woman becomes the focus of his next song—and maybe even the rest of his life.

When Sawyer walks into Sky’s tattoo shop and sees the woman from the bar—Sky—the chemistry between them is instant. Sawyer is everything Sky could ever hope for in a man. He’s honest, loving, sensitive, and potently virile—but boxing goes against everything Sky believes in. The closer they become, the more she realizes that her alpha boxer is waging his own emotional battle—only the battle she thinks he’s waging isn’t the one that threatens to tear them apart.

My Thoughts…

Seaside Nights is the 5th book in the Seaside Summers series and the 25th book in the Love in Bloom Series.    That is a lot of books with reoccurring characters.   Yet each book is a new story, with new characters, and some old friends returning to say hi.    Melissa Foster has managed to keep each book fresh and new.   Each time I pick up a book from her I know that I will meet my new friends and get to catch up with some old ones.  

This is Sky’s story.    She is living her dream, opening her own shop and being happy with her friends.    Yet she is missing love.    Enter Sawyer Bass, sigh.     Sawyer the musician, the poet, and the boxer.    Sky is able to accept the musician and the poet but struggles with the boxer.     Fighting is not what an acceptable thing in Sky’s world.   She wants to be with Sawyer but is struggling to come to terms with his life.    The connection between these two is undeniable.    Yet, they have this boxing thing hanging between them.   When something happens, unexpectedly, they both question whether their relationship can work.     Will they walk away or find each other?


If you are looking for a book that will capture you from the first page and keep you entertained until the last page Seaside Nights is the book for you.    This is the perfect read.   

SEASIDE SUMMERS are the newest addition to the LOVE IN BLOOM series
**CONTENT WARNING: Due to mature content, recommended for readers aged 18+**

Available to buy from...... 

Never miss a brand new release, special promotions or inside gossip again by simply signing up to receive your newsletter from Melissa.
About Melissa Foster

Melissa Foster is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling and award-winning author. She writes contemporary romance, new adult, contemporary women’s fiction, suspense, and historical fiction with emotionally compelling characters that stay with you long after you turn the last page. Her books have been recommended by USA Today’s book blog, Hagerstown Magazine, The Patriot, and several other print venues. She is the founder of the World Literary CafĂ© and Fostering Success. When she’s not writing, Melissa helps authors navigate the publishing industry through her author training programs on Fostering Success. Melissa has been published in Calgary’s Child Magazine, the Huffington Post, and Women Business Owners magazine. 

Melissa is available to chat with book clubs and welcomes comments and emails from her readers. Visit Melissa at The World Literary Cafe or her personal website.  Never miss a brand new release, special promotions or inside gossip again by simply signing up to receive your newsletter from Melissa.
Follow the author on the followings sites....
Facebook   Twitter    Google+   Pinterest   Goodreads   Amazon Author Page


Follow the Book Tour

Photobucket
I received this book to review through Beck Valley Books Book Tours, all the opinions above are 100% my own.
ALSO AVAILABLE IN THE LOVE IN BLOOM SERIES... 
NOW FOR THE AUTHOR'S GIVEAWAY !!

Five lucky winners will each receive the Sisters in Bloom ebook
Ending on Sunday 20th September at 11.59pm EST
Open Worldwide

Enter Below & Good Luck !!


As of December 1, 2009, According to The Federal Trade Commission (FTC),  product reviewers on blogs must disclose whether they received products for free or received payment for their review.
 The books I review on this site ( A Soccer Mom's Book Blog) are sent to us by publishers, authors or downloaded from Netgalley. This is a very common practice.  I never take payments for these reviews and all the reviews on this site are our own thoughts and feelings and are not influenced.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Q&A with Val Brelinski, author of THE GIRL WHO SLEPT WITH GOD


Set in Arco, Idaho, in 1970, THE GIRL WHO SLEPT WITH GOD tells the story of three sisters: moral-minded Grace, gregarious and strong-willed Jory, and young Frances. Their father, Oren, is a respected member of the community and science professor at the local college. Yet their mother’s depression and Grace’s religious fervor threaten the seemingly perfect family, whose world is upended when Grace returns from a missionary trip to Mexico and discovers she’s pregnant with—she believes—the child of God.

Distraught, Oren sends Jory and Grace to an isolated home at the edge of the town. There, they prepare for the much-awaited arrival of the baby while building a makeshift family that includes an elderly eccentric neighbor and a tattooed social outcast who drives an ice cream truck.
Book Links





At the age of 58, The Girl Who Slept with God is your first published book. What was your journey to becoming a full-time writer?
I didn’t begin to write fiction until the age of 42, which is obviously amazingly late to be starting a writing career. Much of the reason for this delay was my extreme evangelical upbringing which told me that novels were frivolous, sinful things written by dissolute and worldly people who lived in New York City and smoked lots of cigarettes. Growing up in rural Idaho, I had never met a novelist and certainly didn’t know how to become one, even if I had wanted to. Although I was a serious and devoted reader, and had been since early childhood, the authorial world was simply not open to me. By the time I was 32, I was a single mother whose main goal was paying my rent. I managed this by teaching English at an enormous public high school, a job that demanded unending patience and stamina. After several years, I asked my principal if I could teach creative writing, something that sounded potentially more fun than attempting yet again to stuff The Scarlet Letter down hundreds of unwilling adolescent throats. My principal wanted to know what fiction I had written, and I hemmed and hawed, and then went home and wrote a short story, which I submitted (with utter naivetĂ©) to a contest. The contest’s judge was the author George Garrett, and he not only awarded me first place, but later offered me a spot in the MFA program at the University of Virginia, as well. Without hesitation, but with plenty of admonitions from my family, I packed up my entire life and headed off to Charlottesville. After I received my MFA, I was awarded a Wallace Stegner fellowship at Stanford, and thanks to these two incredible writing programs and their fantastic teachers, here I am now.
Chronicling the Quanbecks, a devoutly religious family living in a small town in rural Idaho, The Girl Who Slept with God is very much a work of autobiographical fiction. What were your experiences growing up in a strict evangelical household?
Like Jory, the protagonist in my novel, I was the middle daughter in a family of extremely conservative evangelical Christians. My parents (like hers) took the notions of holiness and God-likeness very seriously, and the list of things we were not allowed to do or own or wear was lengthy, to say the least. We couldn’t attend circuses or movies or dances or pool parties, and we couldn’t eat at any restaurants that served alcohol or allowed smoking. Our clothing had to be extremely modest and we weren’t allowed to wear makeup or have pierced ears. We went to church at least three times a week, and attended private, fundamentalist schools where we watched films about the hoax of dinosaur bones and carbon dating, and the imminence of the Rapture. In the summer we went to Bible camp and Vacation Bible School and outdoor camp meetings where people wailed and wept and ran down to the altar to get saved. This environment made up my entire world, since I was not allowed to associate closely with anyone who was not a fellow evangelical. Unfortunately, I was a stubborn, naturally rebellious child, who got kicked out of high school for arguing with my Bible teacher about whether Jesus had a crew cut or not, and put on probation because my skirt was two inches above my knee (the latter was determined be having me kneel on the floor of the principal’s office while he measured my skirt with a ruler). My childhood and adolescence were marked by frequent acts of sin for which the price was public humiliation and emotional abasement. And just like Jory and Grace in my novel, I was banished from my home. My familial expulsion however, happened repeatedly. Whenever I did something my mother disapproved of, I would come home to find the door locked and a grocery bag full of my clothes waiting on the front porch. I then had the option of ringing the bell and facing my furious mother, or knocking on my sister’s window and begging her to let me in. After a certain number of these evictions, I finally had enough, and at age 17, I moved out of my home and began living with two other teenagers in a tiny house that we rented with waitressing money. My father would occasionally come visit me at this little house, asking me when I was going to come home, and I would always reply, “When Mom asks me to,” an event I knew was highly unlikely. I lived in this house for the next year and a half, awaiting an invitation home that never came.
Was there one particular event in your childhood that became the impetus for the novel? Are there any personal memories that you chose to include in the book?
At the age of 8, my older sister announced to our parents that she had been saved and was now going to become a missionary to foreign lands. She began studying Spanish and reading a Spanish Bible, and indeed, she went on her first mission to Mexico when she was just 16. From then on, she spent her summers in South or Central America, testifying and ministering to the “heathen.” When she came home, she would work as a youth minister in our church and then put the paycheck she had just been handed directly into the offering plate during morning service. She essentially outdid my parents at their own religiosity, an act that seemed to me like a reverse form of teenage rebellion. One summer though, she came home early from a mission and no one would explain why. Years later, in a moment of confessional weakness, my father said that it was because of “something that had happened with a man.” My imagination concerning this strange event grew and expanded, and the end result was my first novel.
So much of Grace, Jory, and Frances’ evangelical upbringing in rural Idaho in 1970, seems foreign to many readers today. What elements of their childhood do you think readers will be able to relate to?
While the specifics of the Quanbeck sisters’ struggles with their parents center around religious strictures, the general conflict is the age-old, universal battle for independence and autonomy. Like adolescents everywhere, Jory and Grace want to be loved by their parents, but also want the power to choose their own individual paths, to form identities that may run counter to those imagined for them by their parents. Anyone who has been an adolescent will surely relate to the struggles, dangers, and bittersweet thrills involved in experiencing a taste of grown-up freedom for the very first time.
In my novel, much is left unsaid between the parents and their daughters, although the dramatic actions that each group takes renders speech practically moot. The Quanbeck’s communication gap is never really bridged, and what remains unexpressed provides some of the novel’s most interesting conflicts. A lack of communication between parents and children has always been an issue. Whether it is the ‘70s or today, parents always downplay the scariness and random nature of life so that their children won’t be afraid, while children and teenagers hide the realities of their own new experiences so that their parents won’t be shocked or dismayed. Each thinks it is protecting the other, often to the detriment of both.
I also think that every child imagines a life without his or her parents, and every parent fears the type of behavior that would merit genuinely serious punishment. In my novel, I create a nightmarish situation that makes real this subconscious wish for a familial separation, and then I let this situation play out, for better and worse.
The novel explores many themes, perhaps none more fascinating than the relationship between science and religion. Oren Quanbeck, the family’s patriarch, seems to embody this conflict both as an astronomy professor with a PhD in Physics from Harvard and as a father deeply devoted to his evangelical Christian beliefs. Was your own father the inspiration for the character of Oren? What did you come to understand while examining the relationship between science and religion?
Oren is nearly an exact representation of my real-life father, especially in his life philosophy, which somehow found no friction between rationality and religion. My father was raised as an evangelical and when he later discovered the world of science (while working on the Manhattan Project and studying physics in grad school), he worked hard to come up with a personal theology that could accommodate both. The church talk that Oren delivers in the novel is a paraphrased version of a speech I heard my father give at various religious and academic functions, and the ideas are ones with which I am extremely familiar. As a teenager, I questioned him constantly about his ideology. My father revered science and logic and theoretical physics, but he also valued caution and restraint and personal stability. For him, the Christian lifestyle promised both an earthly and eternal safety from drama, shame, and embarrassment, and it provided him a template for his own behavior. He was a man who lived by his convictions, and my admiration for him knows no bounds, even though I cannot share his religious ideals. His effect on me was enormous, and my love of knowledge, education, and logic is a direct result of his incredible impact on my life.
How did you decide to draw from your own family and childhood experiences for this novel? Do you have a sense of how the book will be received by your family?
I had many doubts about the creation of this book, primarily because I did not want its publication to hurt my parents. My actions brought them all kinds of trauma when I was an adolescent and young adult, and I was worried that this book with its many autobiographical elements, might produce more of the same. My family is also a very private one, and personal laundry-airing is something we shy away from. Because of this, the novel originally had a very different second half. After my father and mother died within four months of each other, and after a period of grief, I rewrote the latter portion of the novel, giving it the more complex and realistic ending that I had subconsciously envisioned, but hadn’t originally dared to include.
No one in my family has read the book yet. My younger sister is a writer herself and will have no problems with the novel’s contents, but I can’t entirely predict how my older sister will respond. She still lives in our home town and is a devoted Christian. She is also highly supportive of all my endeavors and is the most loving person possible, but privately she may be somewhat appalled or dismayed by her role in the book. If so, I will certainly understand.
Marilynne Robinson once said of Flannery O’Connor’s fiction: “There’s a lot of writing about religion with a cold eye, but virtually none with a living heart.” The opposite seems to ring true in The Girl Who Slept with God, a story written with deep compassion for not only Christianity but the people with unwavering faith. What’s your relationship with religion now and how has it informed your writing?
I am no longer a follower of any type of religion, although I have nothing but respect for those believers who actually reveal a Christ-like kindness and forgiveness in their daily behavior. I continue to be fascinated by writers (Marilynne Robinson, Andre Dubus, and Miriam Toews, to name just a few) who address the notions of faith without resorting to stereotypes or satire. The struggle to be devoted to one’s own belief system without forcing its dictates on others is another interest, so too is the story of “the good person doing good” whose actions result in near or complete disaster. I never was a very good evangelical, even though I was immersed in its lifestyle and surrounded by its tenants everyday for 40 years. I was too much of a doubter; I simply couldn’t believe in a judgmental god who had set the sin game in motion and then folded his arms and stepped back and waited for humans to mess up. Also, I couldn’t imagine a better god than the one I already had: my father. His love for me and his endless forgiveness of my personal failings gave me the sensation that I was already saved, and safe. And for that I am eternally grateful.
What do you hope readers will take away from The Girl Who Slept with God?
I would love to think that readers of my novel will be given a fairly accurate depiction of conservative Idaho during the early 1970s, and an insider’s view of the even stranger environment of my deeply devout, painfully private and clannish family—a perspective I didn’t possess myself until I left this unusual world at age 42. I would also be happy if readers found the book’s characters deeply flawed and yet, entirely worth caring about. And I would be delighted if they understood that these characters’ actions, although not always wise, and sometimes severely misguided, spring from the same reservoir that all our actions do: the muddled minds and hearts of complicated human beings.
Oren and Esther Quanbeck are reminders to the reader that parents are god-like creatures and need to be aware of the power they wield, so that they may exercise benevolence, rather than judgment and revenge. However, every character in the novel, including the protagonist, is less than understanding of those who differ from him or her, and it is only after each of them loses something unreclaimable that any change or acceptance of the “other” begins to occur. This is a painful lesson that, like most, only comes after the fact.
As even adolescents like Jory know, love comes with a price that sometimes seems too terrible to bear, and yet, in life and in this novel, that is all there is. I hope that readers of my novel will see that even in the most contentious and complex of relationships, like Jory’s with Grace, and Oren’s with each of his daughters, while there is life, there is always the possibility of further understanding, and even more important, there remains the possibility of true and loving forgiveness.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE GIRL WHO SLEPT WITH GOD
“Val Brelinski manages to make a foreign world utterly familiar with prose that’s heartfelt, provocative, and wistful. A striking debut.”
—Kaui Hart Hemmings, author of The Descendants
 
The Girl Who Slept With God is a lushly detailed and immensely compelling portrait of adolescence, Idaho, sisterhood, the 1970s, and the painful, precious mystery of family. Any reader who has ever sought to love someone beyond her understanding will relish this lovely book.”
—Eleanor Henderson, author of Ten Thousand Saints
 
The Girl Who Slept with God is a deeply moving and beautiful novel that challenges our notions about faith, family and community. Val Brelinski is a gorgeous writer—compassionate and spare, generous and insightful—and this novel will stay with me for a long time. I loved it.”
Molly Antopol, author of The UnAmericans
 
“What is it about the stark snows and broiling summers of Idaho that make an evangelical life seem both so compelling and so alien? Brelinski’s gorgeously textured debut novel reveals the love and the pain of growing up in a community at war with the worldly, and thus the world. Inventive and dynamic, The Girl Who Slept With God put me constantly in mind of Housekeeping, but rubbed roughly against life as we live it, with drugs and high school and “A Whiter Shade of Pale.” The questions in these pages are, above all, moral ones: what can we do when our duty toward our God-fearing family contradicts our duty toward God? And what if both those duties contradict our duty toward ourselves? Twinning grace and humor with startling psychological depth, Brelinski’s debut novel is bold, sometimes unnerving, and chock full of the moments, insights, and beauty we read for.”
—Scott Hutchins, author of A Working Theory of Love
 
The Girl Who Slept With God is a gorgeously harrowing examination of a family facing perils so great everything they know about faith and love is challenged. Val Brelinski is a writer of uncommon precision and empathy, and this novel makes for a brilliant and commanding debut.”
—Laura van den Berg, author of The Isle of Youth and Find Me




Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Seaside Heartbeats: A Sweet Romance (The Seaside Hunters Book 2) by Stacy Claflin

Published June 17, 2015

After years of hard work, architect Lana Summers just wants a relaxing vacation in the beach town of Kittle Falls. Instead, she suffers unexpected heart problems, and finds herself in the office of a gorgeous cardiologist—who only makes her heart work harder.

Brayden Hunter left his successful cardiology practice in Dallas to be closer to his aging parents. Focused on building a health care clinic in his hometown, he doesn't want any distractions. However, the beautiful Lana is one he can’t seem to avoid.

As their attraction grows, they stumble upon a 160-year-old mystery. Brayden catches her adventurous spirit as they chase after answers, and he can’t help falling for her.

My Thoughts…

Everyone who ever grew up near or in a tourist town knows that tourists are no-no’s for long term relationships.   Then there is Brayden and Lana.  Lana the tourist, visiting for the summer with her family and Brayden the cardiologist with dreams to stay in Kittle Falls forever.    Of course, they meet and sparks fly. 

The romance between these two is great.   It is an instant attraction yet they both try to deny it and not act on their feelings.    When they finally do get to know each other, they really get to know each other.   It is a PG rated romance.    They are attracted yet both want more than just some quick fun.    Their looks are steamy, the kisses even hotter, but it is their personalities that make their relationship turn into something more.   

While the romance in this book is fun, the mystery is great also.  I loved that they decided to investigate a 160 year old disappearance together.    I had ideas as to what might have happen but Stacy Claflin kept me guessing.    I always love finding out the history of a place and Kittle Falls has a lot of history.    


This is Book 2 of the series, yet it can be read as a stand alone.   The Hunter family is one that I cannot wait to learn more about.    

**Thank you Stacy Claflin for providing me a review copy.**

Book Links

As of December 1, 2009, According to The Federal Trade Commission (FTC),  product reviewers on blogs must disclose whether they received products for free or received payment for their review.
 The books I review on this site ( A Soccer Mom's Book Blog) are sent to us by publishers, authors or downloaded from Netgalley. This is a very common practice.  I never take payments for these reviews and all the reviews on this site are our own thoughts and feelings and are not influenced.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Promise My Love by Melissa Foster

(Love in Bloom #39)
Publish date August 2015 by World Literary Press

Sweet and sexy wedding romance, PROMISE MY LOVE, the follow-up novella to DESTINED FOR LOVE (The Bradens). Catch up with all of your favorite Bradens and enjoy Rex Braden and Jade Johnson’s wedding.

My Thoughts…

Short, sweet, and still so sexy.     That is exactly how I would describe Promise My Love.     The Bradens are known for being so sexy and tough but what I really love about them is the sweet and sensuous sides of these hunky men.    Although this is a novella, I read it in one night, there is a story here.    The story of Rex and Jade’s wedding.    There is love, trust, and of course a twist.     

My favorite Bradens (TREAT!) make appearances and you get a small peek into what is happening in their lives.   With all the babies being born Melissa Foster could be writing this series forever!  I am not sure that the Braden bloodline will ever stop.      


Usually I would say that each of the Love in Bloom books can be read as a stand alone book, but this time I believe you need to have read some of the Braden part of this series to truly appreciate this story.   I highly recommend starting with the first one and reading them in order, believe me you won’t be able to put them down. 

Book Links
Goodreads   |   Amazon

As of December 1, 2009, According to The Federal Trade Commission (FTC),  product reviewers on blogs must disclose whether they received products for free or received payment for their review.
 The books I review on this site ( A Soccer Mom's Book Blog) are sent to us by publishers, authors or downloaded from Netgalley. This is a very common practice.  I never take payments for these reviews and all the reviews on this site are our own thoughts and feelings and are not influenced.