Yearly Archives: 2009

Offended? Cast Of Characters For Sins Of The Father

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I think I may have offended one of my blog readers with my review for Angela Benson’s novel, Sins Of The Father.

Anonymous made the following comment on my blog:
Bastard? Interesting word to use. I didn’t know anyone still used that word. I wonder if God sees them as bastards. I’m guessing no. You might want to consider seeing them as God seems them.

When I used the word bastard, I was thinking of the way I used to see it used in old-time TV shows, plus, Angela Benson (the author) used the word herself in the novel at least a few times? I recall the wife of Abraham – Saralyn – used the word, and it was obviously in a distasteful manner. I was comparing the novel to TV, and that’s a word that I used to see crop up on TV drama shows.

The first time I heard the word bastard was when I was about ten or eleven. It was summer time, and you’ll recall on my soap opera post that I was bored out of my mind during those hot summer months. When I was ten/eleven, I wasn’t reading romance novels or watching soap operas yet, but I did watch a great deal of television. I was watching old black and white reruns of The Big Valley. Remember, these were re-reruns. I believe when The Big Valley first came on the air, I wasn’t even born yet. Anyway, it’s about this family living on a ranch or someplace like that, and the show had a western theme. Heath (A character played by Lee Majors. I really remember Lee Majors as the Six Million Dollar Man – that show DID air during my time – I remember it well in the seventies.) shows up at the ranch, and another character, can’t recall his name, demands to know who Heath is. Heath’s response is, “I’m your daddy’s bastard son.” Then they break out in a fight (kind of like Angela had Isaac and Michael doing in the boardroom at Abraham’s company – see, I told you this book was just like a TV show!) Anyway, I turned to my mom, and asked, “Mom, what’s a bastard?”

She told me it’s a child who’s born to parents who are not married. But she went on to say, “It’s not a nice word, and I don’t want to ever hear you say that word.”

Suffice it to say, I never used that word, until yesterday’s blog post, so, if I offended anybody, I didn’t mean to…honest! Nowadays, there is no stigma to being born out of wedlock. I don’t even know if there’s a term used for children born to unmarried parents? Single unmarried mothers are common nowadays and I believe bastard was a word used more back in the eighteen and early to mid nineteen hundreds, perhaps? I know tons of people born to unmarried parents, and I know a lot of children born to unmarried parents and I don’t think of them as bastards…honest! When I read Angela’s book, that was the first time I’d seen the word bastard in ages.

Now, on to another subject! Wendy commented and asked:
Cecelia said:
I think the entire book should be placed on TV. Seriously. I felt like I was reading a script for a movie and I was ready to cast the actors for the parts.
Wendy’s question:
>>who would you cast as characters for the parts?

Who would I cast?

Abraham would be either Harry Belafonte or James Earl Jones.

Saralyn would be Diahann Carroll.

Issac and Michael? Well, remember in this soap opera post I talked about twins (or a variation of twins) being used in the soaps? Well, Issac and Michael would be played by the same person! Although they are not twins, they look an awful lot alike! I’d cast Shemar Moore to play both roles!
Deborah? Hmm. I’m not sure! Anybody have any suggestions on who should be cast as Deborah? I don’t know who I’d cast for the lawyer, the man that Deborah has a crush on, the man that’s old enough to be her daddy! I also don’t know who I’d cast to play Deborah’s and Michael’s mom! Anybody have suggestions for that?
Okay, I usually don’t blog about a book for more than a day! The few comments that came in sparked me to blog about the book again. If you enjoy soap operas and drama and TV, then I think you should check out Angela’s novel.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Sins Of The Father

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I mentioned this novel the day before yesterday. So, as promised, I’m posting my review. This novel reminded me of a soap opera because it had a lot of drama and real-life issues. Abraham is a successful businessman, but, he’s in the same boat as a lot of men (and women, nowadays) – he fathered a child before he got married. However, he was seeing two women at the same time and he married the one with the most wealth. Saralyn, his wife, hates that her husband has now turned soft-hearted and wants to unite with the children he had out of wedlock. I think the entire book should be placed on TV. Seriously. I felt like I was reading a script for a movie and I was ready to cast the actors for the parts. The drama between Abraham’s son, his wife, and his illegitimate children gets murky when Abraham’s in a serious accident, and is in a coma. Running his company is no picnic, but the characters need to learn that they need to forgive one another for all that’s happened in the past.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Article About Amish Fiction

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Here’s an article about Amish Fiction.

I found a few things interesting in this article. The first being that Amish ministerial leaders advise AGAINST reading these Amish books because:
“Romance books are a great hindrance to a Christian marriage,” said Andrew Troyer, a deacon in that community…
But they encourage the wrong foundation for marriage, he said.
“It gets young people all pumped up for the perfect setting, and that’s not reality. Marriage is God-ordained and divine and it’s wonderful to have a Christian marriage. But it takes give-and-take.”

Being a romance novelist myself, I certainly think it’s okay to read romance novels, as long as you realize that you are reading fiction. There are real elements woven into romance novels, even Amish romance novels, but, I don’t think they’re any less realistic than other forms of fiction and entertainment out there – like movies and secular novels.

The second interesting thing I noticed was the opinion of Amish books by Beth Graybill, a director of Mennonite Historical Society. She says: In life, she said, serious buggy accidents are rare, and outsiders adapting to Amish life even more so. Kidnappings are unheard of and good bishops outnumber the bad. As for rumspringa — a period when teens may explore outside ways while deciding whether to make a lifetime commitment to the Amish faith — most communities have taken steps to respond to past excesses, she said.

I recall when I read White Christmas Pie that I felt there were too many buggy accidents in that story. However, I can’t recall reading any of the Amish novels where I actually see the character going through Rumspringa. Usually, the character has already been through the Rumspringa phase, and it’s part of their past.

The third interesting thing I read was that Linda Byler, a Franklin County Amishwoman, writes Amish Fiction.
When Ms. Byler began writing in 2002, “we had lost our business and our home,” she said. “There’s not very much that an Amishwoman can do for making money except for quilting or a minimum-wage job. So I decided to try writing because I always liked the Laura Ingalls [Wilder] books.”

Her book “Lizzie,” was self-published in 2003. Filled with humor about her childhood, it was a hit among the Amish. Sequels followed Lizzie as she grew up, courted and married. Ms. Byler said she is about to sign with a publisher who can reach a mass market, and who plans to print the courtship and marriage books first.

She hasn’t read any of the romances written by outsiders, although Ms. Lewis once visited her. So far she has no imitators among the Amish.

“I write with a pen and a composition book. I don’t even have a typewriter,” she said. “I tell them it’s just like quilting. You just keep working at it.”

I’ve never read Amish fiction by a real Amish author. Anybody ever read Byler’s books? If so, did you like them?

From this article, I gathered that the Amish don’t read much Amish fiction with the exception of Byler’s books. I can’t imagine writing an entire novel in pen and ink, though! My hand would cramp up and it’d take me forever to get the novel done!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Sins Of The Father by Angela Benson

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It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today’s Wild Card author is:

and the book:

Sins of the Father

Avon A (August 25, 2009)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Angela Benson’s numerous novels include the Christy Award-nominated Awakening Mercy, the Essence-bestselling The Amen Sisters, and Up Pops The Devil. Currently an associate professor at the University of Alabama, she lives in Northport, AL. www.angelabenson.com

Visit the author’s website.

Product Details:

List Price: $13.99
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Avon A (August 25, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061468525
ISBN-13: 978-0061468520

AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:

Prologue

Sonny,

I know you hate it when I call you that, but if you’re reading this letter, I guess it’s okay since I’ve gone on to glory. I picked up the pen to write this letter right after you left my apartment, the one you bought for me, on Tuesday, November 15, 2006. I had to write it because I couldn’t tell you all the things I wanted to say. Somewhere along the line I became one of the people in your life who received money but very little else from you. I don’t know when it happened, but today I realized that in the process I had stopped being your mother and had become your dependent.

You’ve done a lot for me, Sonny, and I appreciate it more than you ever know, but I don’t think I’ve been a good mother to you. It was much easier when you were a boy and we had so very little when it came to material things. My job then was to keep you off the streets and out of trouble, to make sure that you went to school everyday and that you got your homework done each night. I cheered you on when your team won and encouraged you when they lost. I went without so that you might have the little extras that most kids took for granted – a new pair of off-brand sneakers or a new CD. I celebrated your every accomplishment and always told you that the world was yours if only you worked hard.

And you made me so proud. When I sat in that auditorium at that fancy Ivy League school and watched you walk across the stage, I knew I had done my job and done it well. A single uneducated mother with only her faith in God for support had reared a son who had not become a statistic – dead or in-jail before twenty. I thanked God because I had done my job so well. I even took a bit of pride in what I had done. My pride increased with each of your accomplishments. That’s my boy, I would tell folks, and watch their eyes widen in surprise, as though they couldn’t believe it.

You went beyond what I’d prayed when you started keeping the promises you’d made to me. One of these days, ma, you’re going to have a big house in one of those fancy neighborhoods. Ma, you’re gonna have one of those foreign cars. I’ll make sure you get a new one every year. Once I make it big, ma, you’ll never have to worry about money or work again because I’m gonna take care of you. You’re gonna visit the places in those travel books, ma, just you wait and see. Every promise you made to me you more than fulfilled.

So why am I writing this letter? Because today I realized that I had failed you. Somewhere along the line I forgot to warn you to take care of your heart. Sonny, I fear you’ve lost it in your quest to make money, to fulfill the promises you made to me and yourself. I worry that money and power have become your gods.

I tried to tell you some of this today, but you didn’t hear me. I realized that it’s been a long time since you’ve heard me. I’ve become another check that you write each month. Oh, how I wanted more for us than that! But it’s too late for us. I realized that today.

But it’s not too late for you. While in many ways, you’ve been a wonderful son, you’ve also been a disappointment. I blame myself for not providing you with a male role model who could show you what it meant to be a man. I tried to show you, but I failed. All you learned from me was that a man provided for his family. You didn’t learn that a man also cherished his family. Maybe you mistook providing for cherishing. But they’re not the same. Not by a long shot.

You’ve got some housekeeping to do, Sonny, and it has to start with Leah and those kids. Yes, I know about them, have known for years, but I never said anything. I kept waiting for you to say something and you never did. I have two grandchildren that I never got to know because I was too intimated by you to challenge you on your decisions. A good mother would have challenged you and made you do the right thing. A good mother would have welcomed her grandchildren even if her wayward son didn’t. God help me, but I haven’t been a good mother in a long time.

I love you, Sonny. No mother could love a son more. But I want more for you and expect more from you than you’ve shown. I want you to know love, that sacrificing kind of love that a poor single mother shows her only son. With all your money and all you’ve achieved, I don’t think you know that kind of love. How can you? Everything and everybody in your life have been second to your work and your goals.

I hope to be a better mother now than I was when we were together. Know that I’m watching from heaven and looking for you to become a better man than you are. You know where to start. Take that first step. God will lead you the rest of the way.

Your always loving mother.

Chapter 1

Four months later

You can’t buy me,” Deborah Thomas told the distinguished grey-haired man seated across from her in Justin’s, P. Diddy’s trendy Atlanta restaurant. The previously tasty salmon she’d been eating settled on her stomach with a thud. She met her lunch companion’s eyes. “Or my love,” she finished as she put down her fork. She picked up her white linen napkin and blotted her lips, fighting ball the bile that threatened to spill out. “Neither is for sale.”

She put down her napkin and was about to push back her chair when his hand grasped hers. She looked down at his hand and then back up at him, making sure her displeasure was evident in her glare. The mirth she saw in the eyes that met hers only added to her rising ire.

“I’m glad you find this humorous,” she said. She attempted to pull her hand away but he only held it tighter.

The mirth still in his eyes, he said, “You remind me so much of my mother. What you see is not humor, but joy. You have no idea what it does to me to see my mother’s face in your face, to know that her spirit lives on in you. She would have loved you so.”

Deborah snatched her hand away, remembering the contradicting emotions of joy and pain she’d felt the day he’d shown her pictures of his now-deceased mother. “And whose fault is it that she never had the chance? Whose fault is it that I never knew my own grandmother?”

He sobered then and released her hand along with a deep sigh. “I’ll go to my grave regretting the mistakes of the past.”

Good, she thought, but she didn’t voice the words. The sincerity and pain in his voice stopped her from taking any pleasure in his regrets. A part of her was glad he felt remorse because it meant that he cared a little, maybe. For so long she’d never dared to hope for his caring, couldn’t even dream that he loved her. His absence from her life all these years had been too much evidence for a young girl’s wishes to overcome. He didn’t love her. He never had.

“I’m not trying to buy you or your love,” he said, his gaze holding hers. “But there was a time when that would have been my strategy.”

Deborah didn’t respond.

“Look,” he said, leaning towards her. “I made you the offer because I think you’re right for the job. If nothing else, I’m a business man. I don’t take the future of any of my company lightly. Even though Walk Worthy was a steal and brings needed diversity to my existing publishing holdings, I admit that I had you in mind when I bought it.”

Lord help her, her heart beat faster at his words. She felt like the little girl she’d once been, the one who longed for a daddy to make her hurts go away. “I have a job that I love,” she said, overstating the truth a bit. “Why should I even consider your offer?”

That sparkle returned to his eye. “You might love your job, but I’m offering you your own imprint. Will Prisom Publishing do that for you? Though you’ve been in and around the publishing world since you were in college, you’re young yet, only twenty-eight. You’ll have to wait years to get your own imprint there and you know it.” He reached for her hand again, squeezing it lightly. “It’s a great offer, Deborah. Think about it. Walk Worthy is established enough that it has name recognition in the marketplace so you wouldn’t have to start at ground zero, yet it’s new enough for you to make your own mark both on it and with it.” He gave her hand a quick squeeze, released it, and sat back in his chair. The twinkle in his eyes was gone.

Deborah tried to stare him down, but his eyes had turned to that innocent pleading that reminded her so much of her older brother when he wanted her to agree to one of his schemes. She looked away, toward the piano where a balding man strummed the keys to a jazz oldie.

“I’m not trying to buy you or your love, Deborah,” he said, causing her to turn back him. “I’ve enjoyed getting to know you these last few months. I know it’s too late for me to play daddy to you but I hoped we could at least become friends.”

Friends, she thought. I have enough friends. I could still use a father, she admitted to herself. How she hated that weakness! “So you want me to work for you so that we can become friends?”

“I want you to work with me so that we can continue to get to know each other. I’d also like to think that you can learn a few things from an old fossil like me.”

Deborah couldn’t help but smile at that comment. Abraham Martin had been described in a lot of ways — an entrepreneurial genius and a publishing trendsetter are two that came to mind –but never had anyone referred to him as an old fossil.

“That’s better,” he said. “I love it when you smile.”

Deborah could feel herself being swept back under the spell he’d begun weaving around her since the first day they’d had lunch together four months ago. “We can’t go back, Abraham,” she said. “It’s too late.”

He shook his head. “It’s not too late. Not as long as you have breathe in your body and I have breath in mine. We’ve lost a lot of years, all my doing,” he said. “But we don’t have to lose another day. You’re my daughter and my business is your business. I’m not offering you a job, Deborah. I’m offering you your rightful place as my daughter.”

==
My thoughts? I haven’t finished this novel yet. Just started it. When I’m done, I’ll be posting a full review. So far, I’m enjoying the book, and I usually enjoy all of Angela Benson’s novels. So far, it’s a good read, and you should give it a try!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Should Christians Watch Soap Operas?

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SHOULD CHRISTIANS WATCH SOAP OPERAS PODCAST

This blog post is sponsored by Divine Desserts Publishing LLC. If you enjoy soap operas then you should try Rocky Road Dreams by CECELIA DOWDY. Rocky Road Dreams is about a lawyer named Kyle Baxter. Kyle is on a month-long Christmas hiatus from his job. He rents a house on the Outer Banks for his extended vacation. Melanie Richards, his childhood friend, lives across the street. When they were kids, Melanie had a crush on Kyle’s identical twin brother Keith. Kyle never thought he stood a chance with Melanie since she was smitten with his brother. Keith is now married and both Kyle and Melanie are single.

Will Melanie give him a chance?

Kyle’s mom died when he was three and he barely remembers her. He’s determined to find out more about his mom. As Melanie and Kyle reconnect during the holiday season they take a long road trip during a snowstorm so that Kyle can find answers to his questions about his mother. The road trip is also something that Melanie must do so that she can save her business. See ceceliadowdy.com/books or click on the link at the end of this blog post to purchase Rocky Road Dreams. Rocky Road Dreams is available on Amazon.

***Update – 9/22/2019 – see the end of this blog post for the update

The other day, my husband sent me this link to an article stating that the soap opera, The Guiding Light, will be canceled after 72 YEARS ON THE AIR…this soap opera pre-dates television (I’m assuming it started as a radio show)! He sent me the article because he knows that I used to watch soap operas – but I’ve never watched The Guiding Light.

A few years ago, I blogged about soap operas here.

After I wrote that blog post (I was mostly talking about The Young And The Restless on that post) I stopped watching soap operas. I got into a time crunch and the soap operas didn’t make my TO DO list.

I started watching soap operas in high school because I was bored. I lived in a remote rural area. During the summertime, there was really no place to go. My mom didn’t drive, my dad was at work all day, I had no money, and I had no car to drive. I spent my summer days walking around the neighborhood, reading books, and watching soap operas! Since I read books so quickly – I practically inhaled them, I got most of my titles from the bookmobile that came to town every two weeks. I also fondly remember watching General Hospital while Luke and Laura fell in love and out of love. I recall watching All My Children when Greg and Jenny fell in love and evil forces strove to keep them apart. I also remember Jessie Hubbard and Angie getting together and falling in love. I’d get freaked out when these storybook romances would end, but watching these stories gave me something to do during those boring hot summer days. To top it off, I’d spend the rest of my day reading romance novels. It’s hard for me to get into the soaps nowadays, I guess, because the stories never end. They go on and on…imagine, a 72-year-old story like The Guiding Light?

I’ve sometimes dreamed of having a Christian soap opera on the air where people can talk about finding faith and forgiving others.

Do any of you watch soap operas now, or did you used to watch them? If so, which ones did you watch? Why do you like them? How long have you been watching the soaps? Do you think Christians should watch soap operas? I’ll start by saying I don’t see anything wrong with watching them as long as you don’t get too carried away…it’s kind of like, reading a secular novel or watching a movie. It’s entertainment and overall, soaps aren’t any better or worse than a lot of the other secular entertainment out there.

I enjoyed the soaps because they were entertaining and I’d get caught up in the characters’ lives. Sometimes they were placed in perilous situations and I just wanted them to get rescued! If they were hurt and in the hospital, I wanted them to recuperate and get better! But, if they died, it’s possible they could come back from the dead later! LOL!

Feel free to answer these questions and to throw in any other opinions you have about soap operas. I’m kind of anxious to hear what others have to say!

***Update 9/22/2019 – There have been two soap opera style shows on Hallmark Channel. These “soap operas” are clean and Christians can watch them without getting offended. The shows to which I’m referring are Chesapeake Shores and Cedar Cove (which is now off the air). 

This blog post is sponsored by Divine Desserts Publishing LLC. If you enjoy soap operas then you should try Rocky Road Dreams by CECELIA DOWDY. Rocky Road Dreams is about a lawyer named Kyle Baxter. Kyle is on a month-long Christmas hiatus from his job. He rents a house on the Outer Banks for his extended vacation. Melanie Richards, his childhood friend, lives across the street. When they were kids, Melanie had a crush on Kyle’s identical twin brother Keith. Kyle never thought he stood a chance with Melanie since she was smitten with his brother. Keith is now married and both Kyle and Melanie are single.

Will Melanie give him a chance?

Kyle’s mom died when he was three and he barely remembers her. He’s determined to find out more about his mom. As Melanie and Kyle reconnect during the holiday season they take a long road trip during a snowstorm so that Kyle can find answers to his questions about his mother. The road trip is also something that Melanie must do so that she can save her business. See ceceliadowdy.com/books or click on the link at the end of this blog post to purchase Rocky Road Dreams. Rocky Road Dreams is available on Amazon.

SUBSCRIBE TO CECELIA DOWDY’S HALLMARK MOVIE BLOG

 Rocky Road Dreams

~Cecelia Dowdy~

September Book Giveaway!

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It’s time for another book giveaway! This contest is for US and Canada residents only. Please be aware that, if you win, I’ll be posting your first and last name and city and state on my blog. Also, by entering the drawing, you’ll automatically be added to my email list – but I only send out newsletters a few times a year, so you won’t be bombarded with email from me. Please leave your email address in your comment so that I can contact you if you win!

Here are the books that I’m giving away for September. All of these books will be given to ONE winner:

1. Coming Attractions by Robin Jones Gunn

2.
Embrace Grace by Liz Curtis Higgs
From Amazon.com:
From Publishers Weekly
Higgs, bestselling author of Bad Girls of the Bible, offers a sweet but substantial gift book about accepting God’s grace and leaving the past behind. Higgs’s personal history includes “a lost decade of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n ‘roll,” and though she doesn’t focus on her past, she writes believably as someone who struggled with accepting grace herself. Each chapter contains multiple Scripture verses strung together with comments she’s received from readers (such as, “I don’t feel I am worthy of having God forgive me of my sins and weaknesses. I feel like a failure.”) and reflections from her own life. She walks through several stages of receiving grace—including doubting that grace could be possible, confronting sin, forgiving yourself and repenting. Readers will feel at ease with Higgs’s down-home style that’s never preachy. Higgs aims to provide “a field guide, tracing a well-worn footpath from doubt to belief, pointing us away from shame and toward hope.” She succeeds, and readers who are looking for more insight from this former Bad Girl will be very thankful. (Sept. 19)

3. A Life God Rewards by Wilkinson
From Amazon.com:
Product Description
Those who have read A Life God Rewards have discovered there’s an infinitely richer approach to life — an awareness that the smallest actions of every day have an eternal impact. Bruce Wilkinson has written this personal devotional for those who are eager to reach for God’s amazing and generous best for their lives — starting today! With thirty-one days of inspiring readings, true stories, thought-provoking questions, practical suggestions, classic quotes, and Scriptures, every day becomes a meaningful investment in eternity.

4. The Master’s Match by Tamela Hancock Murray
From Heartsong Presents website:
Nash is beyond Becca’s wildest dreams. Never in a million years would Becca have imagined herself wed to someone like trading company tycoon Nash Abercrombie. Yet on the very day he hires her to be his scullery maid, he asks her to become his wife. Nash is running from a very persistent – and unpleasant – woman who is determined to marry him and run his life. Surely marriage to the sweet and humble Becca would be better than that of the harridan Hazel! Can true love ever blossom from a union like this?

5. Under The Tulip Poplar by Diane Ashley and Aaron McCarver
From Heartsong Presents website:
Rebekah eagerly anticipates the return of her childhood sweetheart from college…and his long-awaited proposal. But when Asher instead tells her that their wedding must wait while he fights for his country, Rebekah’s dreams seem to shatter around her. Asher longs to provide a life of wealth and position for his true love, Rebekah. But when she balks at some of his plans for their future, he begins to question the dreams he believed they shared. Will Rebekah and Asher lose their dreams of love or follow God’s leading to the life He has for them together?

6. Stillwater Promise by Becky Melby and CAthy Wienke
From Heartsong Presents website:
How can Sara trust a man who abandoned her twice? When Sara’s dream of her own bed-and-breakfast is finally coming true, the man who left her twice shows up wanting to be her prince again. Life has been harsh for James since he ran out on Sara for the second time. None of his music dreams have been realized. As a new Christian, he truly wants to make amends – but knows he won’t be welcomed warmly. Will James and Sara surrender their marriage to the Lord? Or will misconceptions and selfish ambitions once again cause James to run?

7. A Wagonload Of Trouble by Vickie McDonough
From Heartsong Presents website:
When Bethany’s dad needs her help, she returns to her family’s guest ranch, only to find that it’s in financial distress and mysterious events are putting their property and guests in danger. Evan is completely out of his element. Despite a pressing deadline, he’s accompanying his niece on a two-week wagon train tour with her history class. To make matters worse, the pretty gal heading up the tour thinks he’s a geek extraordinaire, but he can’t help his attraction to her. Can Bethany and Evan uncover the perpetrators before someone is seriously injured – or the ranch is driven into bankruptcy?

8. Heart’s On The Road by Diana Lesire Brandmeyer
From Heartsong Presents website:
Truck driver Randi Davis crisscrosses Wyoming with a broken heart, vowing never to love another man. Suddenly Matthew Carter, a pastor in search of a mobile ministry, is thurst into her life and into her cab. And there’s nothing she can do about it. Matthew sees the seedier side of trucking every day, and he feels a definite call to minister there. But getting this ministry established is proving more difficult than he imagined. Soon Randi and Matthew find themselves at cross-purposes. Will this be the end of the raod for Randi and Matthew’s romance?

9. Polly Dent Loses Grip by S. Dionne Moore
From the back cover:
Polly Dent loses grip on the treadmill and takes a fatal spill that’s ruled an accident. Helping her mother-in-law move into Bridgeton Towers Assisted Living, but the scars from LaTisha Barnhart’s surgically removed bunions tell her something’s afoot. The residents’ gossip is revealing all kinds of motives for murder. Gertrude Herrman is out looking for love in the form of Thomas Philcher’s fat wallet, and Polly’s fall eliminates her competition once and for all. Otis Payne, the venerable director of Bridgeton Towers, is over a barrel when his wife demands cash, or she’ll carry on without him. Mitzi Mullins’s penchant for rhyme puts her in direct line as perpetrator of the crime, and Sue Mie’s mistake seals Polly’s fate.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Coming Attractions by Robin Jones Gunn

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Coming Attractions by Robin Jones Gunn
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Zondervan (July 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0310276586
ISBN-13: 978-0310276586

From Amazon.com:
Product Description
The third book in the Katie Weldon Series takes Katie through her last semester in college. As Katie ponders life after graduation, she’s asking serious questions about her future. Will it be with Rick? And what about her growing friendship with Eli? And most important of all, is she really serious about her relationship with God?

From the Back Cover
In this third book in the Katie Weldon Series, Katie is rolling into her final semester at Rancho Corona with one major question for her boyfriend: “Are you serious?” Katie’s come to the conclusion that she really, truly loves Rick and it’s time for him to make a declaration about his future intentions. The biggest obstacle to such a conversation is the craziness of their schedules. Katie’s close friend, Nicole, is spending more time with Rick than Katie is, and the once mysterious Eli is now the person to whom Katie is opening her heart. What is happening to her should-be-predictable world?

Soon Katie finds she’s the one who is asking herself, “Are you serious?” Katie ponders what that means in her life: from her relationship with Rick to what she plans to do after graduation. Could it be that God is asking her the same question about her relationship with Him?

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This book was a cute, light, enjoyable read. The subject matter wasn’t too heavy, but I did enjoy this book more than Robin’s Christy Miller Series. Katie is running around with a heavy schedule – she’s a Resident Assistant (RA) at her dorm and she also has a full load of classes, plus, she’s juggling her relationship with Rick. They’ve been a couple for awhile now, and Katie’s been smitten with him since she was a child. Now that her dream of dating Rick has finally come true, the next step should be marriage, right?

But why does she keep thinking about Rick’s roommate Eli? When Katie is sick, Eli comes to her rescue bearing New Zealand bottled water and cold medicine. Why is she able to talk to Eli freely, while she doesn’t share such close camaraderie with her boyfriend Rick?

This book is about Katie’s journey to knowing her true self, and about how to make her own choices that will affect her future.

I think high school and college students may enjoy this novel, too. It’s also a great adult read!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Far Behind…

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I’m so far behind in my reading for this blog. I have the following novels in my to-be-read pile:
Sins Of The Father by Angela Benson
What The Bayou Saw by Patti Lacy
and a Robin Jones Gunn novel – can’t remember the title to that one.

As you know, I do read some secular fiction occasionally. I couldn’t resist starting New Moon (the second in the Twilight Series). I read the first one awhile back, and I purchased the whole set since I enjoyed the first one so much. I enjoyed New Moon until about the last 1/3 of it, and I doubt I’ll finish it word by word. I’ll probably skim the rest. Didn’t find it overall as intriguing as Twilight. My eyes started glazing over around the time they made the trip to Italy to save Edward. Don’t know when I’ll get around to reading the other two books in the series. After I’ve read them all, I’ll probably do a giveaway. I seldom keep books once I’ve read them.

I’m hard at work on a manuscript, plus, I’m getting a proposal together with three other authors. My plate is so full, don’t know how I’m going to do all that needs to get done!

~Cecelia Dowdy~