Wyoming Christmas Quadruplets

GIVEAWAY

KEMERER, JILL
WYOMING CHRISTMAS QUADRUPLETS

A nanny at Christmastime...will she find love in this Wyoming Cowboys novel?

Six weeks on a ranch caring for quadruplets -- aspiring nurse Ainsley Draper's prepared for a busy Christmas. When the children's handsome uncle opens the door, her task gets extra complicated. Marshall Graham is upholding his promise to look after his twin sister, the babies' mom. But as family loyalty clashes with new love, will the perfect present include a future with Ainsley?

My Review:

Cuteness overload on that cover!!! And you might think it promises a light, fluffy, holiday read but you'd be wrong! Kemerer tackles some hard-hitting issues with grace and hope. Ainsley and Marshall are survivors of family dysfunction, but still carry the scars from their childhoods. It's particularly hard for Marshall to come to grips with his past and what he needs to do in order to secure a healthy future -- both for himself and his sister. This is a slice of real life and the author handles everything with compassionate sensitivity.

Having said all that, there's something about a clueless cowboy willing to take on baby duty x 4 because of brotherly devotion. He's clearly out of his element -- and knows it! Which is why he's hired a nurse to help until Christmas. He just didn't expect that nurse to be so...alluring. Snatching moments between baby wrangling isn't an easy way to conduct a romance but where there's a will there's a way...even if it's a convoluted, angst-riddled journey to a happily ever after!

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

If you would like a chance to win a copy of Wyoming Christmas Quadruplets, leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoreadATyahooDOTca. If you add your email to a 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 Sunday September 9 2018. Offer open to International Readers. Good luck!

The Best of Intentions

GIVEAWAY

MASON, SUSAN ANNE
THE BEST OF INTENTIONS

She swore to protect her nephew at any cost...but what if that price is a chance at love?

In the aftermath of WW1, Grace Abernathy is determined to reunite her family, crossing an ocean to convince her widowed sister to return home to England. Yet, in Toronto she discovers more tragedy -- her nephew Christian in the custody of his paternal relatives, the formidable Easton family, who rejected Grace's sister because of her low social status.

Unconvinced the Eastons can be fitting caretakers, Grace uses an assumed name to secure the position of Christian's nanny and moves into the Easton estates. There she can observe the family up close, while ensuring Christian's well-being. In the course of her new role, she is shocked to find herself falling in love with Andrew Easton, the boy's guardian. Unfortunately, Andrew is promised to a spoiled socialite who is sure to make a terrible stepmother for Christian. Will Grace be able to protect her nephew...and her heart?

My Review:

Squeeeeaaaalll!!! A new series by Susan Anne Mason and it has a Canadian setting! Super jazzed about that and the way she brought historical Toronto to life. Very Murdoch Mysteryish (without the mystery) and a decade later. :-) And I loved the prologue where she sets things up for the series by introducing readers to the characters who will take centre stage in the next two books. Quinn in particular caught my attention...can't wait to discover more about that man of mystery.

The Best of Intentions is about...well, how the best of intentions can go awry and both Grace and Andrew are exasperatingly full of good intentions! Unfortunately that has them at cross-purposes which leads to all kinds of conundrums and dilemmas and put my gentle reader's heart through some painful paces. Sweetly tender at times and then wrenchingly agonizing at others. And, oh, but there were times I wanted to reach into the book and thwack some heads together and strangle a certain character and pummel another one...and I'm not a violent person -- honest! Love a story that pulls my emotions to bits and makes me slightly crazed. Though it can be mildly alarming to fellow transit commuters. :-)

Book provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf Martin Communications Inc.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

If you would like a chance to win a copy of The Best of Intentions, leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoreadATyahooDOTca. If you add your email to a 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. Draw will be held and winner announced on Sunday September 9 2018. Offer open to International Readers. Good Luck!

Accidental Eyewitness

GIVEAWAY

KARL, MICHELLE
ACCIDENTAL EYEWITNESS

In a killer's sights...
a lawman at her side
A Mountie Brotherhood story

After Ellen Biers witnesses a theft turned homicide, the killer targets her. But her childhood crush, Mountie Leo Thrace, vows to protect her. Leo plans to keep his long ago promise to Ellen's brother -- and his best friend -- that he'd never date her. But with a killer determined to no loose end untied, keeping Ellen close might be the only way to save her.

My Review:

"A lawman at her side..." but not just any lawman! A bonafide Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer!!! Another Officer Thrace...this time it's middle brother Leo -- and be still my heart, there's still one more brother to go! Woot! I'm loving this series.

So, Leo and Ellen have a history...the unrequited love kind. Only it really wasn't unrequited because they were both crushing on the other in high school but Ellen has an over protective brother who just happens to be Leo's best friend and that kinda put a damper on romance.

Fast forward to present day and Leo and Ellen are thrown together in a desperate bid to stay alive! They are hunted in the most unusual and alarming ways. This author has one scary, devious mind to think up this kind of stuff. Lots of gasp-out-loud, cringe-and-duck moments that contributed to my frenetic page-turning. And the whys and wherefores of the case are positively intriguing. And there's horseback riding, people! I mean, seriously, what more could you ask for in a romantic suspense?

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

If you would like  a chance to win a copy of Accidental Eyewitness, leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstreadATyahooDOTca. If you add your email to a 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 Sunday September 8 2018. Offer open to International Readers. Good luck!

The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond

GIVEAWAY

WRIGHT, JAIME JO
THE RECKONING AT GOSSAMER POND

For over a century, the town of Gossamer Grove has thrived on its charm and Midwestern values, but Annalise Forsythe knows painful secrets, including her own, hover just beneath the pleasant facade. Yet her strange and sudden inheritance of a run-down trailer home -- full of pictures, vintage obituaries, and old revival posters -- leaves her wholly unprepared for how truly dark and deadly those secrets may be.

A century earlier, Gossamer Grove is stirred into chaos by the arrival of controversial and charismatic twin revivalists. The chaos takes a murderous turn when Libby Sheffield, while working on her father's newspaper, receives an obituary for a reputable church deacon hours before his death. As she works with the deacon's son to solve the crime, it becomes clear that a reckoning has come to town -- but it isn't until another obituary arrives at the paper that they realize the true depths of the danger they've waded into.

Two women, separated by a hundred years, must unravel the mysteries of their own town before it's too late and they lose their future -- or their very souls.

My Review:

"Life is hard and it takes guts, faith, and a massive amount of out-of-this-world grace." (p 307)

Wow...this is another how-do-I-find-the-words-to-explain-how-I-feel kind of books. Definitely masterfully written. The way Wright weaves together past and present...the pacing of information revealed, the mystery build up -- it's incredibly well done. Kept me hanging every time we flipped from 1907 to present day. And the author is infuriatingly (and delightfully) slow at revealing all the pieces of the puzzle. I went from lost, to grasping at hints of clues to formulating a hypothesis only to have it dashed and scrambling to start all over again.

At first, the stories seem so separate and unconnected in any deep way but that gradually changes with every new revelation until they converge on each other in a frantic rush of action and danger in the nail-biting conclusion. Phew! I was riveted. And a little swoony over the Gothic elements that created all that moody ambiance!

Jaime Jo Wright is a gifted wordsmith and I kept pen and paper on hand to copy down bits of exquisite perfection that I didn't want to forget. Lots had to do with the exceptional inspirational threads on forgiveness and grace woven into both time periods....mind boggling doesn't begin to cover it. Maybe the most compelling and moving I've ever read in a novel. She doesn't shy away from awkward questions and hard realities. And she writes in a way that urges the reader to dig deep and come to their own reckoning.

"Denying God's ability to forgive...is denying oneself the ability to live." (p206)

and

"One may carry guilt and shame with them for years, only to discover that while they attempted to dodge God's judgement, they instead cheated themselves of His forgiveness." (p 163)

What more can I say? Two incredible heroines, a complicated mystery that spans a century and the kind of  delicious writing that begs to be read out loud...with frequent pauses so you can sit in the moment and absorb it all. Sublime!

Book provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

If you would like a chance to win a copy of The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond, leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoreadATyahooDOTca. If you add your email to a 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 Sunday September 9 2018. Offer open to International Readers. Good luck!

The Abolitionist's Daughter

GIVEAWAY

MAHER, KATHLEEN L.
THE ABOLITIONIST'S DAUGHTER

The crusading daughter of a Washington politican, Marietta Hamilton, comes between twin brothers as the country plunges toward Civil War. Horse traders from Virginia, Ethan Sharpe and his brother Devon would defend their livelihood from her interfering kind. When love ignites, friends become enemies separated over the course of a long and brutal conflict. Can the very influences which carved a chasm unite a torn family against all odds?

My Review:

First off -- isn't that a gorgeous cover?! There's something so soft and yet strong about the heroine. I look at that expression and think stoic and determined. Life is serious but there is hope for a future with the man she loves if they stay true to their faith and each other. A great illustration for the beguiling story inside.

I knew I was going to like Marietta when I found her lurking in the hearth as she uses the flue in the chimney to eavesdrop on her parents' conversation. And feeling wholly justified because they are in the middle of deciding her future! She's young and passionate and determined to make something of her future beyond the usual finishing school and perfecting of womanly arts. She has a passion for justice and desires to follow in her abolitionist father's footsteps. Even so, she's naive and spoiled and hasn't been tempered by life's hardships. Yet. That's all about to change as politics and war test her faith and her devotion to those she loves.

Ethan has spent his life in the shadows of his gregarious twin brother. More thoughtful and sensitive than Devon, he's been content to allow his brother to lead while he follows. Until they meet a certain young woman -- but Marietta's Northern politics and deeply rooted faith are at conflict with the devil-may-care attitude the twins have adopted. Even so, Ethan is drawn to "...the prettiest thing he'd ever seen, even if she was fiercer than a feral cat." (p19)

Marietta challenges Ethan to examine his faith and his beliefs. I love her fearless zeal as she fervently shares her views with him. And suddenly Ethan finds himself questioning the very backbone of the society he has grown up in. It isn't long before he is forced to stand up for what he believes to be right even though it turns his brother into his enemy.

Maher has done an excellent job of meshing tumultuous emotion with riveting historical facts in this sweeping family saga. And she expertly weaves a strong inspirational thread throughout. This is just as much a story about God's love as it is about the love between a man and a woman. A truly captivating historical romance.

My thanks to the author for gifting me with a copy of this book.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

If you would like a chance to win a copy of The Abolitionist's Daughter, leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoreadATyahooDOTca. If you add your email to a 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 Sunday September 9 2018. Offer open to International Readers. Good luck!

September Giveaway -- Week One

WON BY MADDY

WON BY HEIDI

WON BY KAY GARRETT

WON BY PATTY

WON BY CONNIE LEE

WON BY ANDREA MCCULLEY

You know the drill: winners will be contacted if they left their email address otherwise it's up to the winner to contact me at kavluvstoreadATyahooDOTca with their mailing address. From time to time a winner and I do not connect so I have a one month time frame on giveaway wins. If I haven't been able to reach you in 30 days of your win, it will be forfeited. This has happened a few times now, so, please, DON'T BE SHY -- CONTACT ME IF YOU DIDN'T LEAVE YOUR EMAIL OR IF I HAVEN'T BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN REACHING YOU.

Books are usually ordered within a week of receiving your mailing address but give it a full month before inquiring about the status of an order to allow for processing and shipping times. Thank you!

LOOKING AHEAD TO NEXT WEEK:

The Snow Angel

GIVEAWAY

BECK, GLENN
THE SNOW ANGEL

The woman in the picture was so young she looked like a child. Her hair was loose, eyes wide, blue T-shirt stark agains the pale lines of arching collarbones. I felt the air leave me in a quiet rush. Not because of the way the photograph capture her fleeting youth, but because of the way it highlighted the bruise. 

It was a photo of me.

Rachel Price has just one happy memory from her childhood: the moment her father took her hands outside on a cold, snowy day and called her his angel. It was a rare and sacred moment in her young life, one in which she finally felt safe, love and protected.

But it didn't last long.

Years later, Rachel's daughter is the only light in what has become a dark life. Rachel repeats the patterns she learned as a child and exposes her own daughter to those same destructive behaviors. Consumed by an abusive marriage, but secure in the safety of the familiar, she is too afraid to escape.

Rachel accepts what her life has become, even as she makes excuses for those who keep her in a constant state of despair and regret. But then, an unexpected phone call from an old friend changes everything. Her ordered world is turned upside down as she's set on a journey that might be her last chance to salvage the life she'd given up long ago.

While new friendships tentatively blossom, Rachel realizes that everything she once believed may be nothing but lies and misunderstandings. But knowing the truth is not as easy as it seems. Sometimes ignorance truly is bliss. As the snow falls and promise of Christmas redemption nears, Rachel begins to see her entire childhood in a brand-new light and must now decide what her future holds -- and what her past really means. Will knowing the truth set her free, or will it condemn her to a life full of regret and 'what ifs'?

The Snow Angel is a poignant tale about family, forgiveness, and the freedom to live a future free of the past.

My Review:

published in 2011
My thanks to my public library for providing this retro read in audiobook format!

What a truly touching Christmas story! It has all the elements of a blockbuster holiday spectacular. Broken relationships that need mending, an exuberant little girl who still believes in miracles, the healing power of friendship and a woman who discovers her real worth. Goosebumping and sniffle inducing! A powerful story about love and forgiveness -- and the hope in second chances!

I listened to the audio version of this book and I think that made it even more enjoyable for me. Ron McLarty and January LaVoy's interpretation of these characters brought the entire story to life. I was riveted and pretty much 'binge listened' right to the very end...and then I was disappointed because it was all over. Simply stunning!

Because I loved the audio version so much, I'm giving the winner the choice of receiving either the book OR the audio CDs. Please mention in your comment which you'd rather win if your name is chosen. 

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

If you would like to win a copy of The Snow Angel, leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoreadATyahooDOTca. If you add your email to a 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 Sunday September  2018. Offer open to International Readers. Good luck!