Becky Wade

Dear Readers,

I am sure that I have mentioned that one of my perks for this job is the chance to read books before they release.  It is a fun perk that has its good and bad sides.  I love having the chance to find out for you what is coming and if it is going to be worth your time and money to read.   It also helps me discover new authors that I can get excited about and share with you. 

Becky Wade Is a new author from Baker Publishing group.   Her book, My Stubborn Heart, was not completely what I expected.  It is in the romance genre and yes that is what it fits, but it is a little bit more than that.  It is also about looking for and finding the reason that God may have led you somewhere.  Sometimes it is not what we always expect.

Kate has agreed to accompany her grandmother to renovate the family home in Redbud, Pennsylvania.  Gran wants to return the house to its former grandeur and Becky is very excited about the project.  Chapel Bluff has been in the family since 1820.  It should have been a job that could overwhelm anyone and yet Kate can hardly wait to get started.

Matt has had it all.  He was on top of the world, he was a star in the NHL, he had a wife he loved and he had the world by the tail.  Then his wife was diagnosed with brain cancer and his world crumbles.   After his wife passes, he retires from hockey and goes and hides from the world.   He does odd jobs here and there to keep busy and that is what brought him to Kate’s doorstep. 

What neither one of them knew was God brought them together for a completely different reason.    Matt needed a friend and Kate was going to help him by being that friend. 

So I am sure you can figure out the romance part of this story, but don’t let that keep you from reading this book.  Like I said earlier, it is a romance, but so much more than that.  It is about answered prayer and how the answer is not always exactly what we ask for. 

The prologue is actually what got me reading.  I had a couple different books I could have started here on lunch and was looking through them all.  Becky has such a different take on her prologue that it got me interested in the book, but it was the last tiny paragraph that really caught my attention.  “Funny thing about prayers, God hears them.  But you just never know if, when, or how he’s going to answer them.”  How true, how true and I guess that is what makes life so very interesting. 

Happy Reading.

New Releases May 7 - 12

Dear Readers,

This past Saturday I will have competed in the Grand Rapids River Bank Run.  It is a 25k run, which in American means 15.5 miles.  That is something I never thought I would do.  Really.  Running and I get along much better when someone else is doing it or I am all finished.  Then I like it.

It is amazing to me what I have done in these last couple of years.  I have found myself over and over saying “it isn’t something I thought I could do.”   The things I am doing are all fun exciting things and now that I started I don’t want them to end.  I am enjoying this new confidence that I have gotten and I will say this freely.  It is a God thing, because without him I wouldn’t be able to do any of it.

How about you?  Anything interesting happening that you never thought would be something you would do?  Care to share?

Touching the Sky - Tracie Peterson - #2 in the Land of the Lone Star series - Her heart is caught between the man she love and the sister she's desperate to protect.

Short-straw Bride - Karen Witemeyer - Meredith decides to take a risk to help someone who helped her years ago.  With the debt paid costing her more than she was able to pay with Travis be able to rescue her again.

Love in Disguise - Carol Cox - Ellie's first assignment for Pinkerton Dectective Agency is in Arizona.  She needs to figure out how is stealing the silver shipments. 

Wedding Bells - Janice Hanna - Lottie has big plans to help Gilbert save his ranch, the problem is the single guys in town sabotaged them and not is turning out the way it should.

Wildflowers from Winter - Katie Ganshert - Bethany returns to her home town to lend support to a long lost friend.  What she finds instead is a way to make peace with her strange childhood her had.

The Bride wore Blue - Mona Hodgson - #3 in the Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek - Headed toward a fresh start, but tethered by her past, Vivian longs to break free and find forgiveness and love.

The Widow of Saunders Creek - Tracey Bateman - Corrie knows she doesn't want to live without her husband, Jarrod.  She moves back to his family farm and starts believing she sees and hear his spirit every where.  Is it really Jarrod's ghost or something much more sinister?

Flame of Resistance - Tracy Groot -  If you read one book this year, read this one.  Set during WWII with the French resistance playing center stage.

Katie Ganshert

Dear Readers,

With the job I have I try very hard to read books by any and all new authors.  It can give me a good feel of their writing style, but also an idea of what type of readers to recommend them to.   

So when Stuart, the rep for Waterbrook, mentioned new author Katie Ganshert's book Wildflowers from Winter, he told me right away that he was getting me a copy as soon as it became available (I have trained him well :-).

Bethany is achieving her dream   She lives and works in Chicago.  She has a job at a prestigious architect firm.  She has no attachments that tie her back to Peaks, Iowa.  Well, her mother does call and interrupt her life once in a while, but Bethany is willing to put up with that as long as she never ever has to go back again.

That is until the phone call that tells her that her best friend from when she was growing up has had a great tragedy in her life.  Bethany's mother tells her she should come home and at least visit with Robin and lend moral support.   

Bethany's Chicago life spirals out of control and she finds herself back in Peaks to live.  She is now forced to face her past in ways she is just not ready to. With the love and support of new friends and family will she be able to come to terms with her life's defining moments?

I had a bit of a hard time getting started in the book.  Bethany herself is a character that is a bit harder to like.  Her personality is rough and she doesn't open up to new people.  If she was a real person, I may not have gotten to know her as I probably would have not wanted to take the time required.  Once I got to know her better and the storyline developed it was a good read.   

Katie is a new author who I will watch and see what she comes up with next.

Happy Reading

P.S. This book is available at Baker Book House or by request at bakerbookstore.com

Used Fiction

Dear Readers,

I had a usual project this past week.  I worked in the used fiction department to get it ready to be moved at least one time if not more in the next several weeks of the remodel.  What that means is I got to go through the entire used fiction department picking out the books we wanted to keep on the shelves during the summer and which ones we wanted to store and or donate.  It was so fun.

I found different books on the shelves that I didn’t know we had and I found books that I knew we had several of.  It was interesting to look at old covers and see how those have changed over the years.  Until just a few years ago, covers were all hand drawn art work.  Some of them quite good, but others made Joel, the guy helping me, and I laugh right out loud.  (Sorry, but it is true)

I started telling you this to let you know that our used fiction department looks very different.  It is smaller and doesn’t have even half the books in it that it right now.   No worries though, all it really means is when we restart the department later this year we will be starting fresh and new.  Well not new “new” books, but books that you all have been holding on to waiting to sell them to us. 

So I am asking you to bear with us during this time of transition, we will get through it together. 

Happy Reading

New Releases April 30 - May 5

Dear Readers,

The remodel of Baker Book House has slowly gotten started.  Like any other large project it has taken a little bit to get in motion, but now it is starting to move right along.    We are in the process of moving the used book department, which contains over 90,000 used books.  Most of which are very heavy, I know I have been helping them move them and go home at the end of the day very tired. 

The fun thing about moving the books is the chance to see what people have written about over the years.  Some of it is very important to know and understand, Bible commentaries and studies of Prayer etc.., but then there are others that are very dated and I really don’t see who would be interested in that topic any more.   A book about woman’s place in the home really did make most of us laugh right out loud. 

There are old classics that we get request for all the time or beloved authors that someone read years ago and happen to just stumble on that certain book.  I love being able to visit with customers who have found that type of book back there and personally  I was able to buy a book for my mom a few years ago.  That was very exciting as it was from one of her favorite authors and she had never read it before. 

Used books are a wonderful thing to be able to share with others, but they are not the easiest thing to move. 

Happy Reading.

Darkroom - Joshua Graham - Xandra is on a journey to find out the truth behind her father and her family.  She finds her mother's journal that talks of many things including surviving the fall of Saigon.

After All - Deborah Raney - A Hanover Falls novel - After her husband's death, Susan discovered a secret to his grave.  Will she ever get over something that puts her entire marriage in question?

Hannah's Joy - Marta Perry - #6 Pleasant Valley - Hannah is trying to find her place in the world.  Is the Mennonite community she returned to or is it in the world she came from?

Wish You Were Here - Beth K. Vogt - Allison is suppose to get married in 5 days.  So why is she kissing her grooms brother?  Is she marring the wrong guy? 

The Telling - Mike Duran - Zeph is a prophet who has with drawn from society.  Now he is investigating his own murder and trying to close the 9th gate of hell. 

The Prairie Romance - Hake/Miller/Coleman/Davis/Ford - 9 historical romances from America's great plains.

The Soul Saver - Dineen Miller - Lexie starts her day off with a face she is suppose to meet that day.  What happens when she and her family are the mission?

A Sister's Forgiveness - Anna Schmidt - In a moment two families are torn apart.  Tessa and Sadie were  best friends besides being cousins.  Will either family survive after the death of one of them?

Dani Pettrey

Dear Readers,

There has been one author that hasn't written in the past few years that I still get asked about.  Dee Henderson.  So far I have had to say "no she isn't writing anything new" but she has been mentoring several new authors with great results.  Lynette Eason is one and now you can add Dani Pettrey to the list.   

Dani's first book Submerged just released and if you are/were a Dee Henderson fan I recommend this book.  It has the feel of Dee's O'Malley series and I am almost certain who the next two characters of her series are going to be (that is not a bad thing, just fun to watch their storyline develop).

The setting for Submerged is Yancy, Alaska which gives it a dramatic backdrop.  One of the main characters actually sounds better suited to be set in Hawaii, but it does work with how Dani writes them. That is probably the two things that I liked the most about the book, the rich setting and fun characters.   

Bailey left town as quickly as she could after high school and has not been back since.  She has avoided the town even though the only family she knows still lives there.  When Aunt Agnes is killed in a plane crash, Bailey knows she must return to town to put her aunt's affairs in order.  She wants to make sure she sees as few people as possible and just get in and get out.  That is until the bodies start mounting and her aunt's death might not have been the accident that the authorities thought at first.  Bailey may be the only one who can put all the answers together, but will she stay long enough to find them?

Romantic suspense has been one of those categories that the readers have been asking about, but the publishers have been not able to fill until just recently.  Dani will be one of those authors that those readers will be able to enjoy for years to come. 

Happy Reading

Family Fiction

Dear Readers,

I am going to shamelessly promote myself a minute.  To say that I am a wee bit excited about this happening is not even close. 

I am a published author now.  Who would have thunk it.  :-D

I was asked many months ago to write for Family Fiction magazine.  It is a neat little magazine that I have been following since I found them.  They promote new books with author interviews and lovely emails/Facebook notices.  Their goal is to let readers know about good Christian fiction. 

They have a sister magazine called Family Fiction Edge with their focus being suspense, thriller and speculative fiction. 

Anyways back to my news.  Here is the link to follow off to my column if you are interested in reading it.  I would love to hear from you if you know of a library or bookstore that I could feature in my column.  Thank you for all your support.

http://www.familyfiction.com/magazines/2012/may-jun/pageflip.aspx

Happy Reading

Chris

P.S.  There is also a very nice interview about Tracy Groot in this edition.