CFBA: A Promise in Pieces by Emily T. Wierenga

Song Stuck on the Brain: God's Not Dead by Newsboys

 



This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing:   A Promise in Pieces Abingdon Press (April 15, 2014) by   Emily T. Wierenga
MY TAKE:

A very sweet and moving story. Even in the middle of World War II, not all innocence has been destroyed. Clara begins as a young impulsive young woman ready to take on the world and make a difference, unaware of how much it will truly change her life. When she returns home from war life has taken on a whole new meaning.

I don't the think the dates matter, war is war and the experiences in it are universal. So much of what Clara shares is identifiable, even 80 years later.

Great story, don't miss it.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

After the end of World War II, Clara Kirkpatrick returns from the Women’s Army Corp to deliver a dying soldier’s last wishes: convey his love to his young widow, Mattie, with apologies for the missed life they had planned to share.

Struggling with her own post-war trauma, Clara thinks she’s not prepared to handle the grief of this broken family. Yet upon meeting Mattie, and receiving a baby quilt that will never cuddle the soldier’s baby, Clara vows to honor the sacrifices that family made.

Now a labor and delivery nurse in her rural hometown, Clara wraps each new babe in the gifted quilt and later stitches the child’s name into the cloth. As each new child is welcomed by the quilt, Clara begins to wonder whatever happened to Mattie—and if her own life would ever experience the love of a newborn. Little does she know that she will have the opportunity to re-gift the special quilt—years later and carrying even greater significance than when it was first bestowed.

If you would like to read the first chapter of A Promise in Pieces, go HERE.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A Word from the Author:

I’m Emily, and I’m honored and humbled to meet you, friend. We’re all stumbling along on this journey and you can approach me about anything okay? I’m an open book, with dog-eared pages and a worn cover.

I’m mama to two boys, ages two and four, and married to a farm-boy-turned-math-teacher. We live in a small Dutch hamlet with three churches, one Co-Op and no stop lights. There are a lot of fields out here, there’s a lot of space and sky for breathing and running and writing.

We foster two boys in addition to our own two, and before I had kids, I took care of my Mum who had brain cancer. She fought back and has recovered, all glory to God, and my pastor-father still holds her hand while they go for daily walks.

I battled anorexia nervosa as a child, and then again as a newly married woman, and I write a lot about body image now and have a passion for women to learn to love themselves.

My husband and I have battled infertility and are currently trying to adopt our third child through the local Alberta government.

I hurt for the church, and believe in it, and pray for it, as I’ve grown up inside its walls and have heard its groanings.

I have a heart for Africa, particularly Uganda, and went there in January on a bloggers’ trip with World Help.

My favorite things to do are read literary novels, play guitar, snowboard, paint with oil and acrylics and hug my babies.

I am the author of two books on eating disorders, a novel releasing this spring, and a memoir coming out this summer.

I hope you’ll connect with me on FB: https://www.facebook.com/emilytwierenga, or if you prefer, Twitter: @emily_wierenga. I’d love to have a virtual glass of wine, or cup of coffee, with you.

Peace to you friends,
E.

Flight of Shadows by Sigmund Brouwer

Song Stuck on the Brain: Million Pieces by The Newsboys

Today I'm touring a book I received free for review from WaterBrook Multnomah through their Blogging for Books program.




Flight of Shadows: A Novel

by

Sigmund Brouwer

MY TAKE:

Flight of Shadows, Sigmund Brouwer's follow-up to Broken Angel, was a very pleasant surprise. I'd read Broken Angel and enjoyed it, but had no idea that a sequel had been written. Reading Flight of Shadows was like stumbling across a group of long lost friends. Finding Caitlyn, Billy, and Theo again, and joining them on this new journey was perfect.

Brouwer's depiction of our near future is indeed dismal, with the worst in humanity on display from politics to religion. But through it all runs a very firm strand of hope. This may be speculative fiction, a story that begs us to look a little deeper at our true nature and how close we all walk the line between good and evil, but it's also a fantastic, fast paced, nail-biting read that keeps you up to all hours of the night.

I dare you not to find a part of yourself that identifies with genetically manipulated Caitlyn, or gentle giant Billy, or even street savy Razor, in some way. It's the sign of a truly gifted writer, that character's become people who live and breathe in our minds. Paper images of our own hidden thoughts and fears that allow us to imagine 'what if'. Alter egos of a sort, that give us the opportunity to explore new worlds and learn the great lessons in life, all while encouraging us to look past the evil in the world and see the hope that is still there for all to receive.

This is definitely speculative fiction at it's best.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Her genetic secret could change humanity forever.
Her DNA grants her the ultimate power.
But all she wants is to disappear.

Looming buildings rise into the sky of a near-future America, shadowing the desperate poverty of the soovie parks, death doctors, and fear bombs. In this world of walled cities, where status matters most, Caitlyn Brown is desperate to remain invisible, wrongly believing what she needs to hide is the deformity on her back. The powerful want her for so much more.

She’s forced to take flight again, relying on the help of Razor, a street-smart illusionist she can’t trust. Her only hope is to reach friends already tracked by government.

With a twisted bounty hunter in full pursuit, she and Razor begin to learn the unthinkable about her past and the unique gifts of her DNA. It leads Caitlyn to a choice between the two men who love her, and whether to keep her freedom or sacrifice herself to change human destiny.

In this lightning-fast chase through an all-too-plausible future, best-selling author Sigmund Brouwer is at his best. Flight of Shadows is a terrifying ride into the heart of compelling moral questions about science and society.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sigmund Brouwer is the author of eighteen novels with nearly three million copies in print. His recent novel The Last Disciple was featured in Time magazine and on ABC's Good Morning America. Sigmund is married to Christian recording artist Cindy Morgan, and they and their two daughters divide their time between homes in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada and Nashville, Tennessee.

CFBA: Blood Ransom by Lisa Harris

Song Stuck on the Brain: Shine by the Newsboys

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing:





Blood Ransom
Zondervan (April 1, 2010)



by


Lisa Harris




MY TAKE:

Lisa Harris has done a great job here. She took an unsettling and very compelling setting and made it real to the reader. I will probably never see Africa, nor be able to volunteer at a missionary hospital. But I felt like I was part of the story. The suspense is gripping and I found myself holding my breath. The romance is woven in well, working with the story without interrupting the flow of the suspense. Great job.



ABOUT THE BOOK :

Natalie Sinclair is working to eradicate the diseases decimating whole villages in the Republic of Dhambizao when she meets Dr. Chad Talcott, a surgeon on sabbatical from a lucrative medical practice now volunteering at a small clinic.

Meanwhile, things are unraveling in Dhambizao. Joseph Komboli returns to his village to discover rebel soldiers abducting his family and friends. Those that were too old or weak to work lay motionless in the African soil. When Chad and Natalie decide to help Joseph expose this modern-day slave trade---and a high-ranking political figure involved in it---disaster nips at their heels.

Where is God in the chaos? Will Chad, Natalie, and Joseph win their race against time?

Romance and adventure drive Blood Ransom, by Lisa Harris, a powerful thriller about the modern-day slave trade and those who dare to challenge it.

If you would like to read the prologue and first chapter of Blood Ransom, go HERE.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Award-winning author Lisa Harris has been writing both fiction and nonfiction since 2000 and has more than fifteen novels and novellas in print. She currently lives with her family in Mozambique, Africa, where they work as missionaries.

From Lisa:

Have you ever noticed how God often uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things? In writing Blood Ransom, I wanted my heroes and heroines to be ordinary people, faced with extraordinary circumstances. Chad and Natalie’s lives were changed not only through the challenges they faced, but also through their reliance on God. And when they set off on their journey to the capital to save Joseph’s family, they never imagined that God would call them to a task that was beyond the scope of their own power.

But while this story is fictional, the issue of a modern day slave trade is very real. It is estimated that there are currently more than 27 million slaves on the world today from Africa, to Eastern Europe … to the United States of America. The fact is, we don’t have to travel around the world to see people hurting and exploited. They’re real people we pass every day, living in our neighborhoods, and attending our churches and schools. They’re empty and broken, searching for freedom and hope in an often hopeless world.