I admit it. I love Sophie Kinsella books. I do. They are my top choice for plane rides and late night reads. When I need a mental break, I pull out Confessions of a Shopaholic, Can You Keep a Secret? or Undomestic Goddess. My latest is probably one of my favorites, “Remember Me?” I’m not sure exactly what it is, but I love Kinsellas’ voice and specifically, her heros. The heorines always have a thousand quirks that ususally rub me the wrong way. Maybe its because I can’t sympathize with the desire to pay “thousands of quid” for a pair of shoes…But her heros. They always make me swoon somehow....
Review: Plain Pursuit
When I read the synopsis for “Plain Pursuit” by Beth Wiseman (Thomas Nelson, 2009), something seemed to hook me. Not sure if it was the fact that the protagonist is a journalist, but that is a definite possibility. Either way, I dove into the novel a little wary of Amish fiction to begin with. I’ve read very few Amish novels since Beverly Lewis’ “The Shunning,” so I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. I found myself drawn in from page one and unable to put the book down. Instantly, the reader is drawn to every single character and though there is a strong thread of romance, there are so many...
Review: Love Finds You in Liberty, Indiana
Synopsis: Liberty, Indiana, is home to a stop on the Underground Railroad operated by Anna Brent and her father, covert abolitionists who harbor runaway slaves traveling toward freedom. When Anna’s work on the Underground Railroad is threatened, can she turn to newspaper editor, Daniel Stanton, a man she barely knows, to ensure the safety of the slaves so dear to her? Will she and Daniel be willing to risk everything for their beliefs including their personal liberty? My Review: Love Finds You in Liberty, Indiana, by Melanie Dobson, has kept me captive for the past few days. This was a novel that defied all expectations. It broke the mold of...
Review: The Piano Teacher
This was one of those cases (we’ve all read at least one) where the premise was perfectly set up and the potential for knocking the wind out of the reader was there…but the author simply failed to deliver. Janice Y.K. Lee’s The Piano Teacher, a historical romance set in Hong Kong during and after World War II, is about two love affairs in different times. In 1942, Will Truesdale and Trudy Liang are swept up in the glamour of pre-war Hong Kong, but quickly find their world ripped from their under their feet. Ten years later, Claire comes to Hong Kong with her husband and finds a job as a...
Latest Manuscript News
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: contests are invaluable to writers! First, it gives you deadlines to work by, and then it forces you to get your manuscript out there. I entered “A Long Way From Home,” my NaNoWriMo manuscript, into the Novel Journey’s “Out of the Slush Pile” contest that they are running all through 2010. I went online the moment I woke up on the day they were to announce the winners on the blog and was saddened to see that I was not the winner for the historical category. So, I get ready for work and trek into the office. Then, I pull up...