Here Burns My Candle
March 19, 2010
This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Here Burns My Candle
WaterBrook Press (March 16, 2010)
by
Liz Curtis Higgs
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
In her best-selling series of Bad Girls of the Bible books, workbooks, and videos, Liz Curtis Higgs breathes new life into ancient tales about the most infamous—and intriguing—women in scriptural history, from Jezebel to Mary Magdalene. Biblically sound and cutting-edge fresh, these popular titles have helped more than one million women around the world experience God’s grace anew. Her best-selling historical novels, which transport the stories of Rebecca, Leah, Rachel, and Dinah to eighteenth-century Scotland, have also helped her readers view these familiar characters in a new light. And her nonfiction book, Embrace Grace, winner of a 2007 Retailers Choice Award, presents her message of hope in an engaging and personal way, speaking directly to the hearts of her readers.
A veteran speaker, Liz has presented more than 1,600 encouraging programs for audiences in all 50 states and 10 foreign countries: South Africa, Indonesia, Germany, France, England, Canada, Ecuador, Scotland, Portugal, and New Zealand. In 1995, she received the Council of Peers Award for Excellence from the National Speakers Association, becoming one of only 32 women in the world named to their CPAE-Speaker Hall of Fame.
Feature articles about Liz have appeared in more than 250 major newspapers and magazines across the country, as well as online with Salon.com, Beliefnet.com and Spirituality.com. She has also been interviewed on more than 600 radio and television stations, including guest appearances on PBS, A&E, MSNBC, NPR, TBN with Kirk Cameron, CBC Canada, BBC Radio Scotland, Rhema Broadcasting New Zealand, Radio Pulpit South Africa, LifeToday with James Robison, Focus on the Family, Janet Parshall’s America, 100 Huntley Street and Midday Connection.
Liz is the author of twenty-six books, with more than three million copies in print.
Her fiction includes two contemporary novels, one novella, and four historical novels. And she has written five books for young children.
ABOUT THE BOOK
A mother who cannot face her future.
A daughter who cannot escape her past.
Lady Elisabeth Kerr is a keeper of secrets. A Highlander by birth and a Lowlander by marriage, she honors the auld ways, even as doubts and fears stir deep within her.
Her husband, Lord Donald, has secrets of his own, well hidden from the household, yet whispered among the town gossips.
His mother, the dowager Lady Marjory, hides gold beneath her floor and guilt inside her heart. Though her two abiding passions are maintaining her place in society and coddling her grown sons, Marjory’s many regrets, buried in Greyfriars Churchyard, continue to plague her.
One by one the Kerr family secrets begin to surface, even as bonny Prince Charlie and his rebel army ride into Edinburgh in September 1745, intent on capturing the crown.
A timeless story of love and betrayal, loss and redemption, flickering against the vivid backdrop of eighteenth-century Scotland, Here Burns My Candle illumines the dark side of human nature, even as hope, the brightest of tapers, lights the way home.
If you would like to read the first chapter of Here Burns My Candle, go HERE.
Sally Says: This is the first of Liz Curtis Higgs’ historical novels that I’ve read, and I’ve decided I need, need, need to go back and read the others.
When I think of novels set in Scotland, I think of stories set in lonely castles overlooking the sea, you know? Here Burns My Candle is set in Edinburgh, Scotland, a city very crowded for its day. And I can feel the tight quarters. That unique Scotland setting surprised me.
The main characters surprised me as well. We find out very quickly that Elisabeth, our heroine, is not a Christian and follows what we’d call a pagan religion. Her husband, Donald, is not a faithful husband, and yet Higgs does an amazing job in making him a character we root for.
As for the plot, the events fit the characters and kept me reading. Edinburgh is caught in the middle of bonny Prince Charlie’s Jacobite rebellion, and thankfully my history is fuzzy enough that I’m not sure how everything turns out. Right now I’m halfway through the book, due to this one arriving at the same time as the previous one I had to review. But I’m sure I’ll finish it by Sunday. Maybe even Saturday.
Okay, probably tonight.
I’ve said before that as a rule I’m not a fan of historical fiction, but Higgs’ latest book has that epic feel that I love. With the perfect touch of historical detail and events and flawed but lovable characters, Here Burns My Candle will keep you saying, “Just one more chapter.”
Dead Reckoning
March 16, 2010
This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Dead Reckoning
Abingdon Press (March 1, 2010)
by
Ronie Kendig
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Ronie has been married since 1990 to a man who can easily be defined in classic terms as a hero. She has four beautiful children. Her eldest daughter is 16 this year, her second daughter will be 13, and her twin boys are 10. After having four children, she finally finished her degree in December 2006. She now has a B.S. in Psychology through Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. Getting her degree is a huge triumph for both her and her family–they survived!
This degree has also given her a fabulous perspective on her characters
and how to not only make them deeper, stronger, but to make them realistic and know how they’ll respond to each situation. Her debut novel, Dead Reckoning released March 2010 from Abingdon Press. And her Discarded Heroes series begins in July from Barbour with the first book entitled Nightshade.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Underwater archeologist Shiloh Blake is consumed with passion for the water and inflamed at the injustices of life. When her first large-scale dig traps her in the middle of an international nuclear arms clash, she flees for her life.
When she spots a man trailing her, the questions are, Who is he? And how is he always one step ahead? Is the man trailing her an enemy or a protector sent by her CIA father?
Reece Jaxon is a former Navy SEAL and now serves his country as a spy. His life is entangled by the beguiling Shiloh Blake as he hunts down the sources to a nuclear dead drop in the Arabian Sea near Mumbai, India. The only way to end this nightmare and prevent a nuclear meltdown is to join forces with Reece. Will Shiloh violate her vow to never become involved in her father’s web of intrigue and mystery? Will she reconcile with her past and with him? Will she allow God to help her throught this ordeal of danger, mistrust and uncertainty?
If you would like to read the first chapter of Dead Reckoning, go HERE.
Sally Says: Can I just say how glad I am that I asked for this book? I’m glad I asked for this book. Really.
From the very beginning, the action was non-stop. Dead Reckoning has to be one of the best page-turners I’ve read in quite a while. There was always something going on that I had to find out, another question raised before the previous one was answered. The story just didn’t stop.
I like that in a book.
There were a couple things that did create some confusion. There were a handful of times where we’d be with one character and then in the very next scene, we’d hear immediately that something bad had happened to the character we’d just been with. That was confusing, because, well, I’d just been with them! I think making it clear that time had elapsed might have helped.
And I still haven’t quite gotten why our heroine Shiloh was being chased in the beginning. She found something early in the book but was never able, as far as I could tell, to get it back. So I was confused as to why everyone was after her when I didn’t think she had anything to be after. But that may be something I missed in reading. I’ll give that disclaimer.
Other than that, Ronie Kendig’s first book is a very entertaining adventure. I’m no spy so I can’t tell you how true-to-life the book was, but whether you read plot-driven stories or character-driven dramas, you’ll find plenty to enjoy in Dead Reckoning.