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