books

Excited about Reading ~ Until I Found You by Victoria Bylin

/ Dora Hiers
Purchase Link

The Cover Story~
Finding each other was only the beginning . . . 

When Kate Darby swerves off a mountain road to avoid hitting a California condor, she ends up trapped in her car, teetering on the edge of a cliff. Terrified, she breathes a prayer that changes her life.

It’s Nick Sheridan who comes to Kate’s rescue. Nick is handsome and confident, and he seems to develop a habit of rescuing her, but Kate is in town only until her grandmother recuperates from a stroke. She’s not planning to get involved with one of the locals.

Nick is a reformed veteran of life in the fast lane, a new Christian, and a travel writer. When he sees a car dangling on the edge of a cliff, the daredevil in him jumps into action. He doesn’t expect to be swept off his feet by the car’s occupant. He’s made a vow–no dating for a year–but keeping that vow is going to be a lot more difficult now that he’s met Kate Darby.

My takeaway~
Kate Darby’s career is on the fast track until her grandmother’s stroke. Leona is all the family she has left, and she’s determined to help her grandmother until she’s back on her feet. But she has a hard time accepting her grandmother’s faith, and has lived her adult life making “safe” choices and being independent, relying only on herself. Travel writer Nick Sheridan has always lived life on the edge until a tragedy sends him to the top of Mount Abel to wrestle with God. He came off that mountain a new man, vowing a year of not dating.

Kate laid her head on his shoulder. “I’m scared.”
“Of what?”
“Everything,” she said in a whisper. “I don’t know how to live like this, how to mix the old and the new.”
The black and white balloons were more fitting than he had imagined. An artist blended the two colors to make shades of gray. People compromised. But some decisions really were black and white. A person couldn’t go east and west at the same time, but two people could walk side by side in the same direction. At some point, though, they had to agree which way to walk. If they couldn’t and they still wanted to be together, someone had to make a sacrifice.

That excerpt pretty much sums up the book for me. Nick and Kate were attracted to each other immediately, and the story was a romance from the first page to the last, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t have to work through their share of problems. I felt that Nick’s love for Kate was a symbol of Christ’s love for us. Saddened and distressed by the gulf widening between them, he woos and loves her back.

I thoroughly enjoyed Until I Found You. Bursting with emotional depth, packed with a spiritual punch, it also carried just the right amount of sizzle for me. The parallel between human relationships and condors, rare birds who mate for life, was a bonus. Definitely a keeper!

“Faith is what allows us to see the daffodil in an ugly seed, the chick in an egg. We don’t understand how God works, but if we look, we see His handiwork everywhere–even in the mirror.” ~Leona


Disclaimer: I received this book free from Amazon. The opinions expressed in this review are my own, and I received no monetary compensation.

Excited about Reading ~ Secretly Yours by Valerie Comer

/ Dora Hiers / 4 Comments
Purchase Link~Amazon

The Cover Story ~ Chef Lindsey Solberg agrees to cater the church’s Valentine’s Day fundraising banquet as a favor to her teen sister, but she’s shocked to discover the bad boy from her high school days is now Riverbend’s youth pastor. Seriously? How could he have changed that much? Nick Harrison has prayed for years for an opportunity to make amends. Now Lindsey’s back in Riverbend and won’t give him the time of day. What’s a guy to do except leave a trail of gifts from a secret admirer?

Lindsey’s heart takes a beating when she realizes the boy who was never good enough is now a far better man than she deserves.


My takeaway ~ Food, faith and romance? How could I resist, especially when this little gem was offered free on Amazon. lol.

Overall, I enjoyed the story especially how Nick wooed Lindsey even after she was rather rude to him in the beginning. I admit having a hard time believing that Nick wanted to pursue her, but then I realized that it was the perfect picture of how Christ romances us even after we reject Him. 

Weighing in at only 91 pages, I breezed through this novella rather quickly. There were some light moments, but it also packed a powerful message.

“Love isn’t something we deserve. Any of us. But God gave us an example. He loved us when we didn’t deserve it at all. When we were mean to Him and hurled our filth in His face. Still He gave us His greatest treasure, His only Son, because He loved us that much.” ~ Nick


If you like romances with a strong faith message, you will enjoy Secretly Yours. I would definitely read more books by Valerie Comer.

Disclaimer: I received my copy of Secretly Yours while it was offered free on Amazon. This review is my opinion, and I received no compensation.

Crazy about Writing: Beaver Pond Newspaper

/ Dora Hiers / 2 Comments
Lifestyle, May 1, 2015
Meet Tate and Shelby Malone, owners of Beaver Pond’s newest and funkiest art boutique, From Junk to Treasure
By James Collins

Recently, I met with Tate and Shelby in the most eclectic art boutique Beaver Pond has ever seen. What most people would consider junk or toss in the trash, Shelby Malone revives and repurposes into unusual art pieces. Clothes, plastic bottles, aluminum cans, pallets, you name it. They’re all here.

Shelby and Tate sat across from me, practically sharing the same space on a revitalized couch. His arm was draped across the back of the couch and his fingers toyed with the tips of her apricot hair. Newlyweds of just a few weeks. Meet Tate and Shelby Malone…

“So tell me. Where did you two first connect?”

A slow grin slides across Tate’s face, and Shelby’s face sports a bright pink hue.

This I can’t wait to hear.

“The men’s restroom,” Tate replies.

OK. That was rather unexpected.

“I tend to be rather clumsy. Tate came to my rescue that time—”

He laughs.

“Well, lots of times actually,” she amends. “Growing up, my parents joked that their insurance company always required extra coverage for me.”

“You both work at Beaver Pond High School, right?”

“Yes. Shelby decided to keep teaching full-time, and I’m a guidance counselor.”

“Did you grow up wanting to be a counselor?”

“Not exactly,” Tate’s jaw clenches.

“He had a wonderful role model. Just like he is to the students in Beaver Pond.” Shelby casts an adoring look at her husband.

“You rose above the homeless statistics to graduate from a top-rate college.” I skim my research notes for the counselor’s name. “Mr. Harris, wasn’t it?”

Tate stiffens. His thick eyebrows narrow. “Yes.”

Shelby pats his thigh in a comforting gesture, and he visibly relaxes back against the couch.

“Was it love at first sight?”

“Yes!” Shelby nodded, as if her ‘yes’ wasn’t emphatic enough. “But, not so for Tate. He took a little convincing.”

“That’s not quite—”

“How so?” I ask, interrupting Tate.

“For starters, he’d given up dating.”

“Not into the bar scene?”

Grimacing, he shakes his head.

“It’s tough when the ones who are supposed to love us let us down, isn’t it?” Compassion warms her face. She turns to her husband, her knuckles skimming his whiskered jaw. “His parents’ abandonment created this emotional barricade. He worried about losing the people he loved, and he mistakenly assumed his disadvantaged upbringing would keep me from loving him. As if I cared about material things.”

“That seems rather obvious.” I glance rather pointedly around the space filled with recycled treasures.

“Her parents actually bought a store for her! How could I compete with that?” Tate asks, brandishing a palm.

“I could see how that might present a problem. So what happened with that?”

“They only put down a deposit to hold it. They didn’t actually buy it. Besides, it was in Promise Lake. I told them my heart was here, in Beaver Pond. With Tate.”

“You did?” Tate’s words come out soft, as if only meant for her, but his deep voice carries.

She nods. “I had to show him that I wasn’t going anywhere and that thingsweren’t important. He was.” Although her words indicate she’s speaking to me, her head is turned towards Tate.

Tate smiles, kisses the top of Shelby’s head.

Thick lashes shutter over ivory cheeks, but only for a few seconds before she focuses on me. “He lived through horror, but he never gave up. He’s the kind of man teenagers can look up to because he gives 100%. He taught me that dreams don’t always come wrapped in shiny packages like we expect. Sometimes you just need to let them go, and then they come back to you, a hundred times better than what you imagined. He’ll make a wonderful daddy someday.”

Tate’s chest puffs up, and a clump travels down his throat. “And Shelby…she saw into my soul and reinvigorated my wounded spirit much like she does with her art. Where everybody else sees junk, she sees treasure.”


And there you have it, folks. The real deal. Tate and Shelby Malone, owners of From Junk to Treasure.

****
Available 5/1 by Subscription
to Pure Amore

Did you enjoy meeting Tate and Shelby? Friends, I’m so excited to share May’s Pure Amore release, When Hope Rises, with you!


Art teacher Shelby Coltman transforms junk into treasure and longs for a place to showcase her creations. She’s thrilled when her friend volunteers to room with her. Shelby can finally buy a storefront. Unfortunately, Kennedi’s brother can’t seem to let go.

Abandoned as a teenager, guidance counselor Tate Malone has become surrogate and over-protective father to his sister. Life is great until Shelby Coltman wheedles his impressionable sister into sharing an apartment. Raised in wealth, the beautiful Shelby could never understand poverty or rejection, and Tate doesn’t appreciate her uprooting his sister.

When Shelby hands over her savings to a homeless student, will God obliterate Tate’s fears and deliver all of Shelby’s dreams…when hope rises?