CFBA: The Breath of Dawn by Kristen Heitzmann

Song Stuck on the Brain: You're Nobody 'Till Somebody Loves You by Dean Martin

I'm not sure what got this one stuck in my head. It's catchy, but I don't really buy it totally, not from a romantic point of view. However, Jesus loves me and that does make me somebody. That alone changes the world and makes me want to share that with someone else. If you haven't heard it yet. Jesus loves you too.

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing:   The Breath of Dawn Bethany House Publishers (November 1, 2012)   by   Kristen Heitzmann

MY TAKE:

How did I miss book 2?! I loved A Rush of Wings (book 1), Rick and Noelle's story captivated me. I should have read The Still of Night next, but somehow I missed it. Thankfully, Heitzmann's latest, The Breath of Dawn is very good to clearly explain what came before and the story is easily read despite my faux pas. Not just easy to read - but engrossing. I hated to set it down for any reason.

Morgan is like a powerful magnet, no matter how much you try to resist, your drawn to him with a power you can't really explain. In fact, you don't want to explain it, you just want to enjoy it. He's good looking, powerful, wealthy, and yet all he lives for is to help others. Everything in his life is just a by product of that. He enjoys it, but shares it freely. He's a fantastic father, but wounded and sensitive. You want to step into Quinn's shoes and be the one to lead him to healing. I also wouldn't mind looking like Quinn, but that's a whole other post. :)

Kristen Heitzmann has a gift with storytelling that puts many to shame. The emotion, romance, suspense, faith, it's all there. And it's REAL. It feels real to life - not just a story. When I put the book down, I feel like I could head to the mountains and really visit the ranch. She's not afraid to confront the touchy subjects and she doesn't shy away from the uncomfortable things in life. She just weaves a beautiful love story out of the mess that reality is every day.

I highly recommend her books. You can read my reviews of other books by Kristen Heitzmann at the following links: Indelible and The Edge of Recall


ABOUT THE BOOK:

Kristen Heitzmann Delivers Powerful New Romantic Suspense

Morgan Spencer has had just about all he can take of life. Following the tragic death of his wife, Jill, he retreats to his brother's Rocky Mountain ranch to heal and focus on the care of his infant daughter, Olivia. Two years later, Morgan begins to make plans to return to his home in Santa Barbara to pick up the pieces of his life and career.

Quinn Riley has been avoiding her past for four years. Standing up for the truth has forced her into a life of fear and isolation. After a "chance" first meeting and a Thanksgiving snowstorm, Quinn is drawn into the Spencer family's warm and loving world, and she begins to believe she might find freedom in their friendship.

The man Quinn helped put behind bars has recently been released, however, and she fears her past will endanger the entire Spencer family. As the danger heightens, she determines to leave town for the sake of the people who have come to mean so much to her.

Fixing problems is what Morgan Spencer does best, and he is not willing to let Quinn run away, possibly into the clutches of a man bent on revenge. But Morgan's solution sends him and Quinn on an unexpected path, with repercussions neither could have anticipated.

If you would like to read the first chapter of The Breath of Dawn, go HERE.



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

From the time my dad taught me to read at sit-on-the-floor school when I was four—launching me past kindergarten into 1st grade—I have loved learning and expressing what I know through art, music, and especially writing. Education came easily, and I grew accustomed to having my work read and displayed. But breaking out of the family mold, I left college to marry my husband Jim (celebrating our 29th this year.) Since then, life and all kinds of research have provided the grist for my stories. We have three awesome adult kids, and one incredible teenager. (You might think I’m biased, but ask anyone who knows them.)

While home schooling my four kids, I wrote my first novel. I pitched it for publication, and it became the first of a five book historical series. Since then, I have written three more historical novels and nine contemporaries. The Still of Night was nominated for the Colorado Book Award. The Tender Vine was a Christy Award finalist and Secrets won a Christy in 2005.

People often ask why I started writing, and I say to get the stories out of my head. Some say they’d like to write a book, but I say if you’re not wracked with labor pains, there are easier ways to express yourself. Being a writer is a solitary, eccentric, and often compulsive path. But I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

B4B: Indelible by Kristen Heitzmann

Indelible

by

Kristen Heitzmann

MY TAKE:

I think this might possibly have been the most moving book I've read this year. I couldn't put it down. The insight into humanity and who we are as individuals was very well done, but the use of Natalie's illness was brilliant. The inability to forget, not just an event, but every detail and micro expression. Emotions, in essence freezing as indelible images on her mind, blocking all but the insight she's been shown to the inner soul. Although a painful condition, she's used her sculpting to deal with it and create beauty. What has seemed like a curse to Natalie, may be more of a gift than she's ever realized.

There's definitely romance in the air for several couples, and the nail biting anticipation to discover who the creepy guy is that's photographing children in dangerous situations is suspense done right. But it's more than just a romance or a suspense, it's a love story. An example of an all encompasing love that looks beyond the pain, cracks and ugly to see what God really intended. Beautifully written. I can't recommend it enough.

And if you worry about sleeping at night, be sure to read it early in the day before it gets dark. :)

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Broken dreams don’t keep former gold medal skier and Search and Rescue volunteer Trevor MacDaniel from taking life head on, but personal loss has driven home how fragile and fleeting life and innocence are. He will risk his life for someone in need, as Natalie Reeve learns when her nephew is snatched from a trail by a mountain lion.

An eidetic savant, Natalie processes emotional images that lodge in her mind by sculpting the faces in clay. She displays her nature statues at her gallery, but hides the faces that are part of her gift, part of her disability. Seeing beneath the surface, she processes the micro expressions and reveals, in clay, the person she sees with God’s eyes.

Fleur Destry lost her sight at fourteen, but that doesn’t stop her from painting studies in colors she now sees only with her mind’s eye. Her oil paintings are the perfect match for Nattie’s sculptures, a fit as natural as their new friendship.

Redford, Colorado, has recovered from the bizarre events of the previous fall, but Jonah Westfall is still intent on protecting his own when something dark once again threatens the tranquility of his burgeoning town. Strapped for personnel and resources, he relies on Trevor and even Natalie to unravel the threat posed by someone who identifies himself with the fallen angel of Milton’s Paradise Lost and imagines Trevor his opposite, an archangel and heaven’s chosen.

To read an excerpt click HERE.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kristen Heitzmann is the bestselling author of two historical series as well as ten contemporary romantic and psychological suspense novels, including The Still of Night, nominated for the Colorado Book Award; The Tender Vine, a Christy Award finalist; and the Christy Award-winning Secrets.

She lives in the Colorado Rocky Mountain foothills with her husband Jim and sundry family members and pets.


I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review

A Rush of Wings by Kristen Heitzmann

Song Stuck on the Brain: If I Were a Rich Girl by Gwen Stefani

Bethany House Publishers sent me a free copy of A Rush of Wings by Krisen Heitzmann to review, and I'm so glad they did. Wow, I love Kristen's work. She has such emotional and spiritual depth to her stories and characters.

In A Rush of Wings, Noelle St. Claire flees her wealthy and elite life in New York to escape her ex-fiance and a terror she doesn't fully comprehend. Running on pure instinct, chased by fragments of memory and horrifying images, she lands at the Rocky Mountain horse ranch owned and run by Rick Spencer. Noelle wants to hide and find a new life for herself. Rick and his brother, Morgan, are both willing to help in their own ways, all while falling in love with her. But Noelle's past is darker and more twisted than even she realizes, the more Morgan and Rick pick at her protective shell, the more wounds she finds. Wounds that no human love can heal.

Noelle's journey to find her independence, faith and healing is emotionally stunning. Rick and Morgan are like two sides of the same coin, just as in life and faith we must choose one of two paths, so does Noelle. Will she choose Morgan and his busy, world driven life? Or Rick and his solid faith?

I loved this novel. Every image is carefully formed to be crystal clear, where you can smell the dusty horses and see the gold aspen leaves against the clear blue sky. The characters are fully fleshed and compelling. Even Rick and Morgan's extended family. Although the Christmas spent with the Spencer family almost felt too perfect, it was a good contrast for the life Noelle used to lead; showing her just how different life could be with Jesus as your Savior. It made me wish I could celebrate with them this Christmas.

Rush of Wings isn't a Christmas specific story, but what better way to honor the birth of our Savior, than a story of healing, redemption, hope and the ultimate love?

A.

CFBA: The Edge of Recall by Kristen Heitzmann

Song Stuck on the Brain: Back in the Saddle Again by Gene Autrey

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing:


The Edge Of Recall


by


Kristen Heitzmann(Bethany House July 1, 2008)



MY TAKE:

This was the first book of Kristen's I've read. Which is actually really silly, because I own at least three others written by her. They caught my interest in the bookstore, whispered to me that I couldn't possibly walk out without them. They came home and joined my massive library and the giant To Be Read stack that seems to grow all of it's own accord. And despite the fact that they spoke to me in the store, I haven't read them yet. Maybe it's because I have so many TBR now, that the whispers get jumbled and I have a hard time choosing the next book to read. That's a real trial sometimes, choosing what to read next.

Anyway, back to the real topic at hand, I read my first Heitzmann, and I can't believe I've never read her before. This book was really fantastic. I love her voice and style. Tessa and her labyrinths had me hooked so thoroughly, that when I did finally put the book down, I dreamed of labyrinths and chases and mystery. Which didn't really do well for a good night's sleep, but it certainly had me on pins and needles all day at work, anxious to come home and find out what happened next.

Kristen wove a fantastic suspense, with twists and turns that caught me by surprise more than once. But it was her use of labyrinths and the parable she formed that stuck with me the most. Every time I thought I knew just what the labyrinth stood for, a new layer of meaning was revealed, kind of like an Oprah "Aha" moment. Which of course is very fitting for a labyrinth.

I hate to say more, because I don't want to give anything away. The discovery is the best part of the journey.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Tessa Young, an up-and-coming landscape architect who specializes in the design and creation of labyrinths, has immersed herself in the mythological, spiritual, and healing aspects of the elaborate structures. She also is searching for God and hoping to make sense of the nightmares that have plagued her since childhood.

When Smith Chandler, an estranged colleague--with whom she'd half fallen in love a dozen times before catching herself every time--calls to propose a project he claims is the opportunity of a lifetime, she reluctantly agrees to check it out. Smith is reconstructing a pre-Revolutionary War abbey for wealthy clients. Among its remarkable features is an overgrown labyrinth.

Unable to resist, Tessa accepts his offer to work with him. Soon she is immersed in the project of a lifetime. But one evening, after weeks of work in the labyrinth, Tessa and Smith are attacked. While protecting Tessa, Smith is stabbed, and the nightmare begins...again.


If You would like to read the first chapter, go HERE


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Of her three main interests, art, music and writing, she chose to study English at the University of Colorado and thrived on Creative Writing and Literature classes. She married her husband Jim, and turned her energy to building a family. They have four children whom they have home schooled for all or most of their education. Kristen is a music minister with the ecumenical covenant community People of Praise.

Once she realized the stories in her head were truly a calling from the Lord, she made writing not just a passion, but a ministry. She has written seven historical fiction novels as part of the The Rocky Mountain Legacy series, the Diamond of the Rockies series, and the Christy Award winner Secrets. Most recently, she has written several contemporary fiction novels, including Echoes, Freefall and Unforgotten.

Kristen and her husband, Jim, and their family live in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where she serves as worship leader in their church.