‘Restless Writer’ Stirs up Fun & Fudge!

Second Book in New Series

“Small-Town Hearts” is this Author’s Amazing Fifth Book!


Small-Town Hearts
by Ruth Logan Herne
Love Inspired
On sale date: May 1, 2011
Publication date: Jun 1, 2011
Miniseries: Men of Allegany County




Ruth Logan Herne is like a baseball pitcher with at least five different major league pitches. I can’t get comfortable at the plate. I don’t know what to expect next in her books but I know it’s going to be good. I consider Ruth the ‘Restless Writer’ – willing to take on any theme and ride any challenge.

“Small-Town Hearts” is as sweet as the cover art. The heroine, Megan Russo, is a candy maker in a quaint little town where Megan and some other locals dress in 19th Century clothing. She even speaks in old English. No it’s not Williamsburg – it’s much further north in, Jamison, New York.


Megan has issues with men. Her first fiance had to call off the marriage when he got another girl pregnant and her second fiance sent her a text message calling the wedding off. She has had it with men but that just makes her want a man even more! She can’t help herself and her biological clock keeps ticking.


There is a lot of stress and conflicting emotions in “Small-Town Hearts”.


The hero, Danny Graham , is an executive in a large candy company, Grandma Mary’s, (think See’s) in fact, he is the grandson of the founders and will someday inherit the business. Danny is a nice guy but he is in town to pick a location for a Grandma Mary’s tribute store. Mary is from Jamison. So while Danny is fascinated by Megan’s cute ways, period clothing, and old English speech, he knows that he will most likely put her struggling business out of business. Yet he is very attracted to her. Megan is also very attracted to Danny and she is forever making resolutions to avoid him but then doing what is necessary to see him.


Megan is a very interesting character.


As in all Herne’s books there are abundant story lines that add to the conflict and establish multiple motivations for each of the character's actions.


While “Small Town Hearts” is not a romantic comedy, it’s just as much fun. This is a very enjoyable book to read from start to finish.


About the finish: This is a genuine fun book. The ‘stand-up and cheer’ ending involves the whole town! You’ll remember this ending for a long time.


BONUS: at the end of the book there is the heroine’s secret candy recipe: Meg’s Allegany Maple Fudge. I must say that I, a mere man, made this fudge with no help and it came out perfect the first time! Everyone who has tried it loves it! This recipe is wortht he price of the book. 

Perfect on First Try

To Die For Maple Fudge

"Small-Town Hearts":
Read it for the Enjoyment.
Buy it for the Maple Fudge!

Note: You Can Read Reviews of all Five Ruth Logan Herne Books on this site. Start here.   

News from the Front: Tulsa Book Signing Photos

Vickie McDonough, Vince, Kathleen Y’Barbo

My first visit to Lifeway Christian Bookstore for Vickie’s book signing today. Beautiful store. They are having a ‘Fiction Day’ sale and were giving away books when you buy a fiction title. My wife received three current novels including “When Sparrows Fall” when she bought one of Vickie’s books! Amazing!

We met Kathleen Y’Barbo and Margaret Daley at the event. If you have time, you might check and see if Lifeway has a similar sale where you live.

Mary Connealy had five titles on display.

Answers to Famous Quotes Quiz X Now Posted

Go Here to See all the Famous Quote Quizzes with Answers.

A Book That May Sell a Million Copies!

I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t benefit from reading this book or who wouldn’t enjoy reading it.

Stephanie Grace Whitson
Product Details: At This Time
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 203 KB (Print copy to come).
Publisher: Greenbrier Book Company (April 9, 2011)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, $2.99

Wisdom inside a great love story…

I loved this book. I don’t know anyone who needs this book more than I do. In one way, I am fearless; I have no problem giving a speech to thousands of people. Yet, the prospect of talking to one grieving widow or widower can render me speechless and keep me awake at night. I don’t know what to say but I do know, all too well, what I don't want anyone to tell me:

Don't tell me that my loved one is in a better place. (Her best place is here besides me.)

Don't tell me that this is all according to God’s plan. (I'm not exactly happy with God at the moment.)

Don’t tell me that you know how I feel. (You'd have to be me to know how I feel and you're not me.)

While I know what I would not want to hear, I don’t know what to say or what to do to help a greiving person. Death is kept hidden in our society. It’s all so sanitary. Death is so behind the scenes. We are not practiced in death and dealing with the grieving. Some may think they know what they are doing but their lack of genuine knowledge often makes them capable of causing great pain with their well meaning clichés. If only they knew. If only they had read "How to Help a Greiving Friend".

What should we do and what should we say to the grieving?

Why hasn't someone, who is wise and knows what they are talking about, written a book to tell the rest of us?

Someone has. The book is here now. The book is, “How to Help a Grieving Friend”.

While this book is about grieving, it is also a great love story. Read about the author:

“In 1996, Stephanie lost her best friend to cancer three days after her own husband was diagnosed with an incurable form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (he subsequently died in 2001). Later that same year, her mother and father died within six weeks of each other. Thus, 1996 marked the beginnings of the grief journey that has resulted in “How to Help a Grieving Friend.”

Everyone Grieves differently.
How can one book tell us what to do?

I can say that in reading “How to Help a Grieving Friend” I found nothing that I disagreed with and many things I wish I had known before now. I can think of only two other non-fiction books which impacted me with such emotional power: “The Diary of Anne Frank” and “Man's Search for Meaning”.

“How to Help a Grieving Friend” didn’t trickle down from selected holy book passages. It’s not derived from anyone’s favorite pop psychologist. No, “How to Help a Grieving Friend,” sprang from the soil of suffering. Its price was high but its rewards are many and they run deep.

The only way to really show this is to provide a few quotes expressing the authors sentiments. If you agree with these quotes, this book is for you. I can’t imagine there being a better book on this topic.

BE PATIENT
I am making my way in a world where my primary connection to reality is gone. Don’t tell me I should ‘get over it” and ‘move on.’ As soon as I’m ready, I will. But your timetable is irrelevant to my reality.

Don’t speculate about the unknowable.
If your faith teaches that the dead don’t see us and don’t care about life on earth “in light of eternity,” keep it to yourself. Saying that is the same thing as saying he or she doesn’t love me anymore.

Leave the self-help books at home. Unless you can say, “This helped me when my ____ died,” just don’t say it.

Delete comfort clichés. I know every cloud has a sliver lining. Remind me another time. Hurt with me now.

Tell Me I’m Okay
Grief makes people a little crazy. Remind me that I shouldn’t be expected to behave ‘like my old’ self.’ It’s good to know I’m not going crazy – at least not permanently.

Accept My New Quirks.
If I’m reluctant, don’t push it. Grief changes people – permanently. I may never be ‘my old self’ again. But I just might be a better self if you’ll give me some time.

Don’t say, “You need to make new memories”
Right now, I need to remember the old ones.

Accept No for an answer.
It’s exhausting pretending to be happy in a group so I don’t depress everyone around me. If I say no, it doesn’t mean I don’t want your friendship. It just means I’m too tired to hang out right now.

Accept My Tears
Don’t’ be embarrassed when I cry. Tears are healing. They must be shed. Crying alone hurts worse.

What I’ve quoted above is only a tiny part of the wisdom in this book. Each chapter is divided into two parts: How it Feels and How to Help. There are twenty-five short chapters.

“How to Help a Grieving Friend” is the real thing. It’s a book that has been long needed. I can’t imagine an author better positioned to write this book. The author tells us it was painful to write. It took a very long time to complete. It is the product of much suffering tempered by a wisdom that transcends all the clichés that many of us never believed anyway. “How to Help a Grieving Friend” gives us a compass we can believe in.

I truly believe that when word gets out, “How to Help a Grieving Friend” will sell a million copies. Read it for yourself, then help spread the word. Rarely have I read a book that was more needed than this one.

 I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t benefit from reading this book or who wouldn’t enjoy reading it.

Best "Love Inspired Suspense" Romance I’ve Ever Read!

"The Officer’s Secret" Is Enough to Make Me a Suspense Fan!

"The Officer’s Secret"

Debby Giusti

Miniseries: Military Investigations
Category: Inspirational Romance

 

I can say this with enthusiasm because ‘The Officer’s Secret” is outstanding on three different levels: it’s an intriguing mystery, a breathtaking suspense story and a compelling romance. This is very unusual because normally there is not enough time in a suspense story to develop a satisfying romance. (Love Inspired Suspense Romances tend to be short format and take place over a few days.)  In a suspense story the suspense normally get center stage. Moreover, there often is not a mystery to solve in a suspense. The 'suspense' is involves whether the hero and heroine will survive the threat that is causing the suspense.

“The Officer’s Secret” is a very good suspense story because there is the constant threat of death right up to the last page. To add even more suspense, the heroine’s dead sister warned her not to trust any of the authorities including the military police. Even the weather threatens to kill the hero and heroine! This story is about as suspenseful as a suspense gets!


The mystery is so intricate and well plotted, with ample red herrings and logical twists and turns, that I doubt even hardened mystery fans will figure out ‘who done it’. I’m good at solving mysteries and I couldn’t do it. The romance also works well because both the hero and heroine are at turning points in their lives and both have suffered similar traumatic experiences. The hero and heroine are ideally suited for each other and it is enjoyable to watch them come to this realization in the story given all the trust issues and secrets they have. How could they fall in love in a few days? Because they are perfect for each other.


The Story:


The heroine, Maggie Bennett, finds her sister, a major in the Army, dead in the sister's attic -- an apparent suicide. Before she died she called her sister to come to the Army post and help her out of some problem. She was also told not to trust the authorities.


The hero, Nate Patterson, is a militarily policeman in the CID, criminal investigations division. Everyone seems convinced the sister’s death was a suicide. All evidence leans that way. However, Maggie is convinced it was murder and she tries her best to get Nate to investigate it as a murder. There's a problem however, since Maggie cannot trust the military police (who might be involved in a smuggling cover-up), she can’t give Nate all her reasons for believing it might not be a suicide. Because Nate suspects that Maggie is holding back information, he has trust issues with her as well. If she is innocent why is she holding back information? Could Maggie be involved in the killing?


Of course, if it is not a suicide, then there are murders out there with good reason to kill anyone who might try and show the death was a murder. This puts both the hero and heroine under constant danger of death.


This is the first book in the author’s “Military Ingestions” series, (the Army version of NCIS). You just know it had to be a very strong story to sell the series to the publisher. It is! Actually, I liked this story better than NCIS and I used to be in the military police. The author was an 'Army brat' with excellent current military advisors in the family so she has all her military details down pat.


“The Officer’s Secret” is a 5-star thriller.


I wonder if the next books in this CID series can possibly be as good as this one. Time will tell. In the meantime, if you like a good mystery, a good suspense story, and a good romance, I don't think you can do better than reading "The Officer's Secret".

Don’t Miss This Thriller Mystery!
5-Star Military Suspense!

Still No Hook! Lots of Description! Even a 86-Word Sentence on the Opening Page!

Summer Seaside Wedding


Summer Seaside Wedding
by Abigail Gordon
Harlequin Medical Romance
On sale date: Apr 1, 2011
Miniseries: The Bluebell Cove Stories
Category: Classic Romance

Here’s how “Summer Seaside Wedding” opens:

“It was June and the hot summer sun above made the confines of the car feel restricting as Leo Fenchurch drove along the road at the top of the cliffs in Bluebell Cove, a costal village in the Devonshire countryside.

“It had been a long morning. The first surgery of the day had been followed by home visits to the patients of the Tides Practice, where he was employed as one of the two doctors here, and now every time he glanced down at the sea, blue and dazzling as it danced onto the sandy beach, his collar felt tighter, his smart suit more a burden than an asset, and the yearning to pull into a deserted lay-by and change into the swimming trunks he always carried in the car was strong.”

 (Note the 86-word sentence. This would probably give a contest judge a heart attack!)

I love it! Love it! Love it!

When I reviewed Abigail Gordon’s “The Village Nurse’s Happy-Ever-After” back on February 26, 2011, I marveled at how the story did not open with a hook, how the first chapter featured plenty of back story, and how there was plenty of physical description. New writers are told not to do these things as they slow up the story.

Also new writers are told, in so many words, that today’s readers are so dimwitted that if each paragraph doesn’t open with a hook and end with a cliffhanger, even fans will lose interest and pick up another book. (It’s a good thing not many fans read writing books.)

After reading, “The Village Nurse’s Happy-Ever-After” (see my review here), I just couldn’t wait to read the next "Bluebell Cove" book. Why? Because Abigail Gordon is a great storyteller. She lets you know she is going to tell you a story, she sets the scene and when the stage is set, she spins her tale. It’s so natural and smooth that I just loved it. When I read, “The Village Nurse’s Happy-Ever-After,” I wondered if the author always writes in this storyteller mode of if “The Village Nurse’s Happy-Ever-After” was just a one-off.

Well, “Summer Seaside Wedding” is even better! I liked it even more! Almost every bit of dialogue between the hero Dr. Leo Fenchurch and heroine is highly emotionally charged. The heroine, Dr. Amelie Benoir, is so feisty that she instantly asks questions that almost anyone else would have the good sense not ask – at least not so early as the first day in a relationship.

These hero/heroine conversations are like lightening flashes on a very warm summer’s night. All I can say is ‘wow’! “Summer Seaside Wedding” offers a great case study in how to write dialogue that fires up the reader’s attention.

The Story:

The hero, Dr. Leo Fenchurch, is a handsome bachelor with no intention of getting married any time soon. The heroine, Dr. Amelie Benoir, is a brand new French doctor who arrives in Bluebell Cove on what would have been her wedding day. Only she was jilted! She’s come to England for a six month stay to get experience in General Practice. Amelie is an outspoken Plain Jane who usually says what’s on her mind and then wishes she could take what she said back. She believes in moving a relationship along in giant leaps! “Summer Seaside Wedding” is about as fast a moving story as you’ll ever read.

The story is really about fireworks. Nothing fancy just toally captivating storytelling!

I think everyone should read at least one Abigail Gordon Medical Romance!

Highest Recommendation!

“Tempted by Trouble” Cover Challenge

North American Edition

Which of these Covers for Liz Fielding's New Romance Do You Like Best?

The North American Edition (top) or the UK Edition (lower)?



UK Edition





Do you think Kate looks
like the North American
model above?