Christy Award Finalist - General Fiction

GIVEAWAY

What are the Christy Awards?

The Christy Award is destined to nurture creativity and quality in the writing and publishing of fiction written from a Christian worldview and showcase the diversity of genres. These 2022 finalists are books published in 2021.

How does this giveaway work?

You select one of the General Fiction finalists you would like to receive if you name is drawn. Mention the title in a comment (or in an email if you're entering that way.) If you win, that's the book that will be sent to you. Easy Peasy. Here are the finalists. (I have provided links to me reviews of the books I have read.)

GENERAL FICTION

The Letter Keeper by Charles Martin, Thomas Nelson

(Murphy Shepherd; 2)

Combining heart-wrenching emotion with edge-of-your-seat tension, Charles Martin explores the true power of sacrificial love.

He shows up when all hope is lost.

Murphy Shepherd has made a career of finding those no one else could -- survivors of human trafficking. His life's mission is helping others find freedom.

But then the nightmare strikes too close to home.

When his new wife, her daughter, and two other teenage girls are stolen, Murphy is left questioning all he has thought to be true. With more dead ends than leads, he has no idea how to find those he loves.

After everything is stripped away, love is what remains.

Hope feels lost, but Murphy is willing to expend his last breath trying to bring them home.

The Secret Keepers of Old Depot Grocery by Amanda Cox, Revell / Baker Publishing

Present Day. After tragedy plunges her into grief and unresolved anger, Sarah Ashby returns to her childhood home determined to finally follow her long-denied dream of running Old Depot Grocery alongside her mother and grandmother. But when she arrives, her mother, Rosemary, announces to her that the store is closing. Sarah and her grandmother, Glory Ann, make a pact to save the store, but Rosemary has worked her entire life to make sure her daughter never follows in her footsteps. She has her reasons -- but she'll certainly never reveal the real one.

1965. Glory Ann confesses to her family that she's pregnant with her deceased fiancé's baby. Pressured into a marriage of convenience with a shopkeeper to preserve the family reputation, Glory Ann vows never to love again. But some promises are not as easily kept as she imagined.

This dual-timeline story from Amanda Cox deftly explores the complexity of a mother-daughter dynamic, the way the secrets we keep shape our lives and the lives of others, and the healing power of telling the truth.

Under the Magnolias by T.I. Lowe, Tyndale House

This night not only marked the end to the drought, but also the end to the long-held secret we'd kept hidden under the magnolias.

Magnolia, South Carolina, 1980

Austin Foster is barely a teenager when her mama dies giving birth to twins, leaving her to pick up the pieces while holding her six siblings together and doing her best to stop her daddy from retreating into his personal darkness.

Scratching out a living on the family's tobacco farm is as tough as it gets. When a few random acts of kindness help to ease the Fosters' hardships, Austin finds herself relying upon some of Magnolia's most colourful citizens for friendship and more. But it's next to impossible to hide the truth about the goings-on at Nolia Farms, and Austin's desperate attempts to save face all but break her.

Just when it seems she might have something more waiting for her -- with the son of a wealthy local family who she's crushed on for years -- her father makes a choice that will crack wide-open the family's secrets and lead to a public reckoning. There are consequences for loving a boy like Vance Cumberland, but there is also freedom in the truth.

T.I. Lowe's gritty yet tender and uplifting tale reminds us that a great story can break your heart...then heal it in the best possible way.

 

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

This giveaway is for a paperback or ebook copy -- winner's choice.

If you would like a chance to win a copy of one of the  General Fiction finalists, leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoreadATyahooDOTca. If you add an email to your comment, remember to use AT and DOT instead of @ and . in order to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email, please add the title to the subject line so it's easy to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday November 12 2022 . Offer open to International Readers.