Friendship.

Today a friend and her daughter came over, the friend and I have been friends, seems like forever, but it’s really been about 25 years. lol.

Her daughter is 6 days older than Youngest, and it was so fun to see them together. I took pictures of course, mainly for youngest’s benefit since he’s always had a huge crush on the girl. But also for my own benefit. I told them today, the two of them have basically been friends since before they were born.

When youngest was born, my friend came to see me in the hospital to see us, and brought her daughter with her. They first met there in the hospital, laying the hospital bed side by side. I remember a nurse come in to do vitals on youngest, he was only about 12 hours old, and she say the girl and youngest side by side, and said ” I didn’t know you had twins!” lol.

As they got older, around 3, a boy at church would always run up to her and grab her hand, youngest would go up and say, NO, that’s my girl! and pull her hand away. She would tell everyone that youngest was her husband.

They’ve climbed trees together, made mud pies together, tormented her younger brother’s together, and just generally grew up being great friends together.

Youngest is shy, really quiet. Around the Girl, he doesn’t have to be. He doesn’t feel the pressure to be someone he isn’t, or that he won’t measure up because he wears glasses, or has acne. He can just be himself. It was good to see them together today. She has grown in to a gorgeous young woman. I know the crush is still there. It probably always will be, but at least, they both know that above all else, they are friends for life.

Undeniably Yours

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Undeniably Yours

Bethany House Publishers (May 1, 2013)

by

Becky Wade

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

During her childhood in California, Becky frequently produced homemade plays starring her sisters, friends, and cousins. These plays almost always featured a heroine, a prince, and a love story with a happy ending. She’s been a fan of all things romantic ever since.

Becky and her husband lived overseas in the Caribbean and Australia before settling in Dallas, Texas. It was during her years abroad that Becky’s passion for reading turned into a passion for writing. She published three historical romances for the general market, put her career on hold for many years to care for her kids, and eventually returned to writing sheerly for the love of it. Her first contemporary Christian romance, My Stubborn Heart, has been named a finalist for Romance Writers of America’s RITA Award. Her newest release, Undeniably Yours, is available now.

These days Becky can be found failing but trying to keep up with her housework, sweating at the gym, carting her kids around town, playing tennis, hunched over her computer, eating chocolate, or collapsed on the sofa watching TV with her husband.

ABOUT THE BOOK

When Meg Cole’s father dies unexpectedly, she becomes the majority shareholder of his oil company and the single inheritor of his fortune. Though Meg is soft-spoken and tenderhearted–more interested in art than in oil–she’s forced to return home to Texas and to Whispering Creek Ranch to take up the reins of her father’s empire.

The last thing she has the patience or the sanity to deal with? Her father’s thoroughbred racehorse farm. She gives its manager, Bo Porter, six months to close the place down.

Bo’s determined to resent the woman who’s decided to rob him of his dream. But instead of anger, Meg evokes within him a profound desire to protect. The more time he spends with her, the more he longs to overcome every obstacle that separates them–her wealth, his unworthiness, her family’s outrage–and earn the right to love her.

But just when Meg begins to realize that Bo might be the one thing on the ranch worth keeping, their fragile bond is viciously broken by a force from Meg’s past. Can their love–and their belief that God can work through every circumstance–survive?

If you would like to read the first chapter of Undeniably Yours, go HERE.

New Wings

I gave this one to youngest to read, since he’s in the target age group for the book! When I asked him about it, the first thing he said, was how surprised he was at how good the book actually was. He was thinking it would be to girly for him. But the thing that he took away the most, and this is the thing that got me…

He said it was a good change to read something that dealt with angels instead of vampires, werewolves, demon’s and things like that. He said it opened his eyes, or made it more real that we do in fact have guardian angels and how much our lives depend on them.

His comments alone, make me thankful that Donna Stanley wrote New Wings. I have told everyone I know with teens they need to get this book. While we as parents may bring them up the way they should go, we can’t make some things real for our children. Yes we have all heard of angels, just as much as we have heard of vampires, and such, but do we see them are real? Or do we see them as a figurine siting on the shelf? Donna Stanley brings them to life. I think that is what we need today instead of filling our heads with things of a darker nature.

Olivia Stanton always knew that the Bible says guardian angels exist. But, in all her seventeen years, she assumed they only showed up when people were dying or needed rescue from sudden disaster. Her assumption is shattered with the appearance of her own guardian angel – in the form of good-looking Mike, no less. As Olivia gets to know Mike, more and more of her misconceptions about the spiritual realms are revealed. And, as her spiritual eyes are opened to the presence of angels all around, she’ll find they can be good or evil.

About Donna Stanley

Donna Stanley lives in the beautiful Endless Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania with her husband, Jonathan, and their teenage daughter, Olivia. She attended Philadelphia Biblical University, Moody Bible Institute, and Mansfield University, where she studied angelology, demonology, and the anthropology of religion. She was a youth leader for ten years and a pastor’s wife for sixteen years. She now serves as a young adult mentor and leader in her local church.

It Happened At the Fair

In today’s age, Cullen and Della have what is called a “meet-cute”. They meet at the fair, when he rescues her from a mob trying to see President Cleveland open up the Chicago World’s Fair. Della’s father filled her head with the notion that all men are lechers and not to be trusted before letting her go to work at the Chicago Fair, while Cullen get’s roped into an engagement by an over zealous childhood friend before he leaves for Chicago. What a pair these two make! With her reservations about men, him trying to reconcile if he’s really engaged or not, not to mention all the other things life throws in their way, it’s a wonder these two get to be friends, much less anything more!

I enjoyed reading It Happened at the Fair, probably more for the history lesson than anything else! I had no idea the history of the Chicago Fair and all it’s issues. It made me go Google it to learn more on my own! I love it when book does that. As far as Dell and Cullen go, I just couldn’t get that invested in their relationship or in them as characters, but I loved all the background and side dramas!

More about It Happened at the Fair:

A transporting historical novel about a promising young inventor, his struggle with loss, and the attractive teacher who changes his life, all set against the razzle-dazzle of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

Gambling everything, including the family farm, Cullen McNamara travels to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair with his most recent invention. But the noise in the Fair’s Machinery Palace makes it impossible to communicate with potential buyers. In an act of desperation, he hires Della Wentworth, a teacher of the deaf, to tutor him in the art of lip-reading.

The young teacher is reluctant to participate, and Cullen has trouble keeping his mind on his lessons while intently watching her lips. Like the newly invented Ferris Wheel, he is caught in a whirl between his girl back home, his dreams as an inventor, and his unexpected attraction to his new tutor. Can he keep his feet on the ground, or will he be carried away?

Purchase a copy here.

Meet Deeanne:

Deeanne Gist—known to her family, friends, and fans as Dee—has rocketed up bestseller lists and captured readers everywhere with her very fun, very original historicals. She has received numerous RITA nominations, two consecutive Christy Awards, and rave reviews. Deeanne has a background in education and journalism and a degree from Texas A&M. She has written for People, Parents, and Parenting. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband and has four grown children. She has a very active online community on her website at IWantHerBook.com and at Facebook.com/DeesFriends.

Seeds of Evidence

Ever read a book that kept your heart pounding from the first page on? Ever read a book that by paragraph two you knew you would not be putting it down until you read the final period? Ever picked up a book and said, eh, this might be a good read, only to be completely and totally blown away? Seeds of Evidence by Linda J White is THAT book.

From page one I felt like I had been sucked in through some hole and transported to Virginia and was hovering over the characters as their story played out. And the most impressive thing was, I didn’t want to leave. It’s rare that a book so completely and totally takes me in, to where I feel humidity in the air, the breeze off the ocean, smell the scent of the saltwater. I got chills, thrills, and yes a few tears. You can put me at the very top of Linda J White’s fan list.

Stressed-out FBI Special Agent Kit McGovern returns to her grandmother’s Chincoteague Island home in search of peace. But when a little boy’s body washes up on the beach, Kit cannot resist throwing herself into the mystery of his murder. Her only clues: the tomato seeds in the Latino boy’s gut, and the acorns in his pockets.

The medical examiner points out that the volume of tomato seeds in the boy’s gut could indicate he was from a farm worker’s family. But the acorns? Kit discovers they’re from a Virginia live oak, not native to the area where the boy was found. Can she use those to identify his origins anyway? And why hasn’t anyone reported him missing?

Kit meets David O’Connor, a D.C. homicide detective in Chincoteague recovering from a shooting incident. She makes it clear she’s not interested in a relationship, but their passion for justice is mutual and they soon forge a partnership to find the boy’s murderer. As plant DNA evidence leads them straight into the dark world of human trafficking, Kit and David wrestle with the depths of human evil, with questions of faith, and with possibilities for hope. “Seeds of Evidence” takes readers on a white-knuckle ride they won’t soon forget

By day, Linda J. White writes editorials for The Free Lance-Star, a newspaper in Fredericksburg, VA. By night, she plays the “what-if?” game, entangling engaging characters in “white-knuckle” plots. Her first FBI thriller, “Bloody Point,” was published in 2005. “Seeds of Evidence” (Abingdon Press) will be released in April 2013. Linda’s husband, Larry, was a video producer/director at the FBI Academy for over 27 years. Married since 1970, they have three grown children and now live with two dogs and two cats on two beautiful, wooded acres in Virginia.

You can visit Linda’s website at http://www.lindajwhite.com.

Is it too much to ask?

I’ve noticed something around my house, I don’t have a lot of conversations with the older ones.

I work.

I work 4 jobs.

When the older ones are home, Oldest, his wife, Son3 and when Son2 comes to visit, I am typically working. Usually I am working my call center job, which means I can’t talk to anyone other than the callers I have on the phone. So I don’t get to sit and talk with them much. I have to find out through Stud what is going on in their lives. Do you know how hard it is to get detailed information that is so important to women out of a man? It’s nearly impossible.

Like now, I’m working, in between calls, and I can hear oldest in the living room, conversing with stud about something that happened at the gym. I can’t catch all the details and when I ask stud later, he will pooh-pooh it off and eh it was no big deal, just some “thing” that happened. I’ll as Oldest about it, and my reply will be Eh it was nothing, and he will go on playing his video game.

This saddens me.

I know they are grown, I know they are adults but can’t they throw a mom a bone and give her some sort of information. It’s like pulling teeth to find out anything going on in their lives. Especially the two oldest. All mom want’s is to have a clue what’s going on. I don’t have to have deep details, but I would like to know, for instance if you are planning on going back to school, or if you are changing jobs, or why the heck your hair is so long when normally you keep your head shaved. Is that really too much to ask?

Boys start out all close to their mom’s early in life. Mom is the best thing ever. Then as they mature, that devotion goes from all encompassing to none at all. As teens, they wouldn’t dare let anyone know they even have a mother, much less have a conversation with her. Now, don’t mess with the mom of a boy/male/manchild, because he will whoop your rear. But would never let you know he has one. Then as the get on in to adulthood, dad is the go to guy. I get that. I know that. But that doesn’t mean I have to like. Not one bit.

Pastor’s Wives

What’s it like when the man you married is already married to God? asks Pastors’ Wives, an often surprising yet always emotionally true first novel set in a world most of us know only from the outside.

Lisa Takeuchi Cullen’s debut novel Pastors’ Wives follows three women whose lives converge and intertwine at a Southern evangelical megachurch. Ruthie follows her Wall Street husband from New York to Magnolia, a fictional suburb of Atlanta, when he hears a calling to serve at a megachurch called Greenleaf. Reeling from the death of her mother, Ruthie suffers a crisis of faith—in God, in her marriage, and in herself. Candace is Greenleaf’s “First Lady,” a force of nature who’ll stop at nothing to protect her church and her superstar husband. Ginger, married to Candace’s son, struggles to play dutiful wife and mother while burying her calamitous past. All their roads collide in one chaotic event that exposes their true selves. Inspired by Cullen’s reporting as a staff writer for Time magazine, Pastors’ Wives is a dramatic portrayal of the private lives of pastors’ wives, caught between the demands of faith, marriage, duty, and love.

Purchase a copy here.

Meet Lisa:

Lisa Takeuchi Cullen was a longtime staff writer for TIME magazine. She now develops TV pilots for production companies and recently sold her first pilot for “The Ordained” to CBS. Born in Japan, Cullen lives in New Jersey with family.

Find out more about Lisa at http://lisacullen.com