Valerie Hansen
Contemporary Inspirational Romance
Steeple Hill Books
With Valerie Hansen’s Healing the Boss’s Heart, the folks at Steeple Hill have launched a unique miniseries of romance novels they have titled After the Storm (a Kansas community unites to rebuild). All six books deal with how the people in High Plains, Kansas cope with the aftermath of a killer tornado, the worst one since “the big one in 1860.”
Healing the Boss’s Heart begins with the tornado scene, unsuspecting lives lofted into nature’s take-no-prisoners maelstrom. Hansen introduces the main characters as the life-threatening events unfold with a fury. Greg Garrison, a wealthy businessman in town, was thought of as being rather stiff and unreachable. The tornado made a rapid change in him. He rescued an orphan boy and even spent quite a bit of time looking for his dog. He made resources available from his hardware store to help out the people and the church.
Maya Logan, Greg Garrison’s secretary, was not only in shock because of the tornado but also by the changes in formal, sober, Mr. Garrison. He helped her and her daughter get situated with an open heart and kindness, expecting nothing in return. Others noticed the difference in him, too. Especially those who knew his father who was generally quite unpleasant and looked down on others, including his own son.
While High Plains, Kansas, had many losses from the tornado, it also experienced gains in the closeness and helpfulness of the people. Some good seems to come from everything.
While this series is tied together by the worst tornado since the Civil War, just like the cover illustration of Healing the Boss’s Heart, none of the titles trade on the storm’s inherent drama. The final book, Kathryn Springer’s Jingle Bell Babies, wraps the series in December with the storm nowhere in evidence. Just like with most good series books, the story in each novel appears to be dramatically valid in its own right. That means you can join the series in progress, with any title at any time; but if the drama of the killer tornado stirs your heart (no pun intended) and you’re intrigued how such an event might stir the lives of the people living in High Plains, starting at the beginning is never a bad plan.
Showing posts with label Contemporary Inspirational Romance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Contemporary Inspirational Romance. Show all posts
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
His Forever Love
Missy Tippens
Love Inspired Contemporary Romance
Steeple Hill Books - June, 2009
Missy Tippens’ His Forever Love introduces the “forever” tree, and who could resist such a deciduation? Her “forever” tree is the sacred stuff out of which the romance genre was birthed. (Where’s screen director Frank Capra [“It’s a Wonderful Life”] when you have such a great story for him?)
Legend has it that every couple who holds hands around the “forever” tree will experience an unending love for each other. Oh, please! I’m already in tears of joy because I can sense a wonderful ending around the final carefully-plotted turn. But our leading characters are only ten years old when they invoke the legend. Guess what? The two kids meet years later. Will the “forever” tree legend hold water?
Ooo, I can hardly wait.
But that’s only part of our story. Both Lindsey Jones and Bill Wellington have grown up as poster people for low self esteem, the sin de jour in this self-indulgent era. But, can you believe it? The “forever” tree wins out in the end, and Tippens’ story roars into an uplifting ending as the two characters come to discover, each through the eyes of the other, the great value each one has. Is that not the essence of our favorite genre?
Yes, boys and girls, His Forever Love is a lovely read.
After ten years of paying her writer dues, this is Missy’s second book for Steeple Hill. With any luck she and her pastor husband will continue holding hands around her “forever” computer, and that will inspire Missy to many more delightful journeys into the world of Steeple Hill romance.
Love Inspired Contemporary Romance
Steeple Hill Books - June, 2009
Missy Tippens’ His Forever Love introduces the “forever” tree, and who could resist such a deciduation? Her “forever” tree is the sacred stuff out of which the romance genre was birthed. (Where’s screen director Frank Capra [“It’s a Wonderful Life”] when you have such a great story for him?)
Legend has it that every couple who holds hands around the “forever” tree will experience an unending love for each other. Oh, please! I’m already in tears of joy because I can sense a wonderful ending around the final carefully-plotted turn. But our leading characters are only ten years old when they invoke the legend. Guess what? The two kids meet years later. Will the “forever” tree legend hold water?
Ooo, I can hardly wait.
But that’s only part of our story. Both Lindsey Jones and Bill Wellington have grown up as poster people for low self esteem, the sin de jour in this self-indulgent era. But, can you believe it? The “forever” tree wins out in the end, and Tippens’ story roars into an uplifting ending as the two characters come to discover, each through the eyes of the other, the great value each one has. Is that not the essence of our favorite genre?
Yes, boys and girls, His Forever Love is a lovely read.
After ten years of paying her writer dues, this is Missy’s second book for Steeple Hill. With any luck she and her pastor husband will continue holding hands around her “forever” computer, and that will inspire Missy to many more delightful journeys into the world of Steeple Hill romance.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Tides of Hope
Irene Hannon
Contemporary Inspirational Romance
Steeple Hill Books - May, 2009
Irene Hannon’s Tides of Hope is another recent Steeple Hill romance set on Nantucket Island, but this one is contemporary. Kate MacDonald is a widow who has taken over her husband’s charter boat business. While she’s a strong willed, no-nonsense woman successfully navigating a demanding business, she’s been unable to handle her husband’s death. He was too handsome, too wonderful, and too perfect. Kate is also having an increasingly difficult time with her four year-old daughter who wants a dad.
Craig Cole, the new commander at Nantucket’s Coast Guard station might, be a good candidate if he weren’t so picky. Kate understands that anyone earning their living from the sea has to honor the details. Not doing so can kill you, but this Craig Cole guy is ridiculous. Everyone else thinks Craig is a gorgeous hunk and much to be desired. Of course, Craig had his own problems. He was a widower with a four-year-old daughter. He, like Kate, was still grieving the death of his wife and son from an accident for which he felt some guilt. Therefore, he was racked with grief. His daughter was with him full-time now.
That was an adjustment since she had spent a lot of time with nannies and Craig’s relatives in their prior location.
Psychologically, both people are dealing with painful issues. After such losses, each of them feared having new relationships especially with the possibility of those ending unexpectedly, too. This book deals with tough stuff, but, we believe that love will win out in the end, which, since Tides of Hope is a romance novel, Guess what? Enjoy this page turner that Anna Schmidt has provided us.
Contemporary Inspirational Romance
Steeple Hill Books - May, 2009
Irene Hannon’s Tides of Hope is another recent Steeple Hill romance set on Nantucket Island, but this one is contemporary. Kate MacDonald is a widow who has taken over her husband’s charter boat business. While she’s a strong willed, no-nonsense woman successfully navigating a demanding business, she’s been unable to handle her husband’s death. He was too handsome, too wonderful, and too perfect. Kate is also having an increasingly difficult time with her four year-old daughter who wants a dad.
Craig Cole, the new commander at Nantucket’s Coast Guard station might, be a good candidate if he weren’t so picky. Kate understands that anyone earning their living from the sea has to honor the details. Not doing so can kill you, but this Craig Cole guy is ridiculous. Everyone else thinks Craig is a gorgeous hunk and much to be desired. Of course, Craig had his own problems. He was a widower with a four-year-old daughter. He, like Kate, was still grieving the death of his wife and son from an accident for which he felt some guilt. Therefore, he was racked with grief. His daughter was with him full-time now.
That was an adjustment since she had spent a lot of time with nannies and Craig’s relatives in their prior location.
Psychologically, both people are dealing with painful issues. After such losses, each of them feared having new relationships especially with the possibility of those ending unexpectedly, too. This book deals with tough stuff, but, we believe that love will win out in the end, which, since Tides of Hope is a romance novel, Guess what? Enjoy this page turner that Anna Schmidt has provided us.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
The Baby Bond
Linda Goodnight
Contemporary Inspirational Romance
Steeple Hill Books - May - 2009
The blurb in The Baby Bond indicates that Linda Goodnight has written 9 books for Steeple Hill. Three of these are a series, The Brothers’ Bond. She’s also published in Harlequin’s Silhouette series. According to her biography, she’s written some 19 books since 2000. That’s nearly 6 novels a year, an average of one every two plus months. Whew, but she’s not just an assembly line. In 2007 she won the RITA for the best inspirational novel. Quantity plus quality. It doesn’t get much better than that. She’s also a gut writer. Most of her characters arrive in her head complete with names. She tends not to know the ending of a book when she begins it. The characters know, and Linda trusts them.
The Baby Bond is a story with both tragedy and adventure. It also has love and lack of trust. Firefighter, Nic Carano, rescues baby Alex from a burning house. Baby Alex and Nic form an immediate bond. Alex’s parents were both lost in the fire.
Nic was thought of as a playboy who refused to grow up. He had that reputation when he and Cassidy Willis were in college together. Cassidy Willis is Alex’s aunt and becomes his guardian. Nic was attracted to Cassidy but she refused to get close to him. To her, every time Nic went to work he was in danger of dying in a fire. She wanted none of that! Cassidy’s parents died in a tornado in the Philippines where they were missionaries. She was trapped in a collapsing school building. She could smell smoke and feared being burned to death.
Psychologically, these are people with problems. Nic has done such a good job of looking like a playboy that no one has noticed that he is also a responsible person. True, he hasn’t wanted to get hooked by a woman and pressured into marriage. He put out love with the same skills he used putting out fires. He wasn’t anti-marriage just not ready yet. Cassidy had an irrational fear about fire. She was living a nightmare that had reached dysfunctional proportions. She spent her time being self protective. Actually, all this makes for a very good story.
Laugh, cry and enjoy this well-written story with a very satisfying ending.
Contemporary Inspirational Romance
Steeple Hill Books - May - 2009
The blurb in The Baby Bond indicates that Linda Goodnight has written 9 books for Steeple Hill. Three of these are a series, The Brothers’ Bond. She’s also published in Harlequin’s Silhouette series. According to her biography, she’s written some 19 books since 2000. That’s nearly 6 novels a year, an average of one every two plus months. Whew, but she’s not just an assembly line. In 2007 she won the RITA for the best inspirational novel. Quantity plus quality. It doesn’t get much better than that. She’s also a gut writer. Most of her characters arrive in her head complete with names. She tends not to know the ending of a book when she begins it. The characters know, and Linda trusts them.
The Baby Bond is a story with both tragedy and adventure. It also has love and lack of trust. Firefighter, Nic Carano, rescues baby Alex from a burning house. Baby Alex and Nic form an immediate bond. Alex’s parents were both lost in the fire.
Nic was thought of as a playboy who refused to grow up. He had that reputation when he and Cassidy Willis were in college together. Cassidy Willis is Alex’s aunt and becomes his guardian. Nic was attracted to Cassidy but she refused to get close to him. To her, every time Nic went to work he was in danger of dying in a fire. She wanted none of that! Cassidy’s parents died in a tornado in the Philippines where they were missionaries. She was trapped in a collapsing school building. She could smell smoke and feared being burned to death.
Psychologically, these are people with problems. Nic has done such a good job of looking like a playboy that no one has noticed that he is also a responsible person. True, he hasn’t wanted to get hooked by a woman and pressured into marriage. He put out love with the same skills he used putting out fires. He wasn’t anti-marriage just not ready yet. Cassidy had an irrational fear about fire. She was living a nightmare that had reached dysfunctional proportions. She spent her time being self protective. Actually, all this makes for a very good story.
Laugh, cry and enjoy this well-written story with a very satisfying ending.
Blind-Date Bride
Jillian Hart
Contemporary Inspirational Romance
Steeple Hill Books - May, 2009
Blind Date Bride is book number 18 in Jillian Hart’s McKaslin Clan series, so if you like this one, great reads lie ahead. The bottom line for me is that Blind Date Bride is a sweet little story, but the problems Brianna McKaslin (Brandilyn’s twin sister) and Max Decker face aren’t particularly significant. They are to them, make no mistake, but in the larger scheme of things, they’re more a footnote. Blind Date Bride is true to the romance formula. It’s an easy read. It moves well; and typical of most Steeple Hills, Hart skillfully blends in the Christian message. Both characters have problems that mediate against their chances at romance, but guess what? They’re all solved by page 267 and the words “The best was yet to come.”
Contemporary Inspirational Romance
Steeple Hill Books - May, 2009
Blind Date Bride is book number 18 in Jillian Hart’s McKaslin Clan series, so if you like this one, great reads lie ahead. The bottom line for me is that Blind Date Bride is a sweet little story, but the problems Brianna McKaslin (Brandilyn’s twin sister) and Max Decker face aren’t particularly significant. They are to them, make no mistake, but in the larger scheme of things, they’re more a footnote. Blind Date Bride is true to the romance formula. It’s an easy read. It moves well; and typical of most Steeple Hills, Hart skillfully blends in the Christian message. Both characters have problems that mediate against their chances at romance, but guess what? They’re all solved by page 267 and the words “The best was yet to come.”
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