Vicious Cycle
March 25, 2011
This week,
the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
Zondervan (February 22, 2011)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Terri Blackstock is a New York Times best-seller, with over six million copies sold worldwide. She has had over twenty-five years of success as a novelist. She sold her first novel at the age of twenty-five, and has had a successful career ever since.
Besides entertaining her readers, Terri tackles issues that she hopes will change lives. Her recent book, Predator, was inspired by her experiences on Facebook and Twitter, and her concern that people posted too much personal information about themselves. The book deals with an online predator who uses social networks as his playground. She hopes the book will change readers’ online habits. Her New York Times best-seller, Intervention, was inspired by her own personal struggles with a daughter on drugs. In the book, a mother hires an interventionist for her drug-addicted daughter. But on the way to treatment, the interventionist is murdered, and the daughter disappears. Barbara, the mother, sets out to search for her daughter. Terri modeled Barbara after herself, and poured many of her own emotions and experiences into that character. As a result, many families experiencing drug addiction have written to thank her for telling their story and giving them hope. Vicious Cycle, Book Two of the Intervention Series, releases February 22, 2011. She’s currently working on Book Three.
Other recent books include a stand-alone novel called Double Minds, as well as Last Light, Night Light, True Light and Dawn’s Light (from her acclaimed Restoration Series). She is also known for her popular Newpointe 911 Series and Cape Refuge Series. Terri makes her home in Mississippi, where she and her husband Ken are enjoying their empty nest after raising three children.
Terri has appeared on national television programs such as “The 700 Club” and “Home Life,” and has been a guest on numerous radio programs across the country. The story of her personal journey appears in books such as Touched By the Savior by Mike Yorkey, True Stories of Answered Prayer by Mike Nappa, Faces of Faith by John Hanna, and I Saw Him In Your Eyes by Ace Collins.
ABOUT THE BOOK
When fifteen-year-old Lance Covington finds an abandoned baby in the backseat of a car, he knows she’s the newborn daughter of a meth addict he’s been trying to help. But when police arrest him for kidnapping, Lance is thrust into a criminal world of baby trafficking and drug abuse.
His mother, Barbara, looks for help from Kent Harlan—the man whom she secretly, reluctantly loves and who once helped rescue her daughter from a mess of her own. Kent flies to her aid and begins the impossible work of getting Lance out of trouble, protecting a baby who has no home, and finding help for a teenage mother hiding behind her lies.
In this latest novel of suspense and family loyalty, bestselling author Terri Blackstock offers a harrowing look at drug addiction, human trafficking, and the devastating choices that can change lives forever.
If you would like to read the first chapter of Vicious Cycle, go HERE.
Sally Says: Terri Blackstock has written another fabulous book in Vicious Cycle. I was a big fan of Intervention, but I think she’s even topped that with this latest book. Vicious Cycle opens up the hopeless world many people are born into–unloving callused parents who use their own children to fill their twisted desires. It’s too easy to roll our eyes at what others go through when we haven’t walked in their shoes, and Blackstock did an excellent job of showing how the “other half” lives.
The same characters from Intervention were back as well, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed catching up on where this family was now — where Emily was on her rehab, how Lance and Barbara had dealt with it, and how Kent and Barbara’s relationship had developed. I never would have expected a sequel to Intervention, but now that I’ve read Vicious Cycle I’m longing for a third book.
I highly recommend Vicious Cycle as a fast-paced, enjoyable book but also as a read that communicates real hope. Thanks, Terri, for a wonderful story and for pointing your readers, as always, to Christ.
A Heart Most Worthy
March 11, 2011
This week,
the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
Bethany House (March 1, 2011)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Siri Mitchell graduated from the University of Washington with a business degree and worked in various levels of government. As a military spouse, she has lived all over the world, including in Paris and Tokyo. Siri enjoys observing and learning from different cultures. She is fluent in French and loves sushi.
But she is also a member of a strange breed of people called novelists. When they’re listening to a sermon and taking notes, chances are, they’ve just had a great idea for a plot or a dialogue. If they nod in response to a really profound statement, they’re probably thinking, “Yes. Right. That’s exactly what my character needs to hear.” When they edit their manuscripts, they laugh at the funny parts. And cry at the sad parts. Sometimes they even talk to their characters.
Siri wrote 4 books and accumulated 153 rejections before signing with a publisher. In the process, she saw the bottoms of more pints of Ben & Jerry’s than she cares to admit. At various times she has vowed never to write another word again. Ever. She has gone on writing strikes and even stooped to threatening her manuscripts with the shredder.
Her ninth novel, A Heart Most Worthy, follows prior Bethany House releases: A Constant Heart (October 2008), Love’s Pursuit (June 2009), and She Walks in Beauty (Apr 2010). She Walks in Beauty won the inaugural INSPY Award for Historical Fiction in Dec 2010. Two of her novels, Chateau of Echoes and The Cubicle Next Door were Christy Award finalists. Love’s Pursuit was a finalist for the ACFW Carol Award.
Publishers Weekly proclaimed, “Mitchell delivers the historical goods.”
ABOUT THE BOOK
The elegance of Madame Forza’s gown shop is a far cry from the downtrodden North End of Boston. Yet each day Julietta, Annamaria, and Luciana enter the world of the upper class, working on finery for the elite in society. The three beauties each long to break free of their obligations and embrace the American dream–and their chance for love. But the ways of the heart are difficult to discern at times.
Julietta is drawn to the swarthy, mysterious Angelo. Annamaria has a star-crossed encounter with the grocer’s son, a man from the entirely wrong family. And through no intent of her own, Luciana catches the eye of Billy Quinn, the son of Madame Forza’s most important client.
Their destinies intertwined, each harboring a secret from their families and each other, will they be found worthy of the love they seek?
If you would like to read the first chapter of A Heart Most Worthy, go HERE.
Sally Says: I’d heard many moons ago that Siri had taken a different approach to writing this book — the “dreaded” omniscient point of view. Siri is a very talented writer, and so I had no doubt that she could be the one to pull it off. And overall I think she did.
The story follows three girls and their dreams for their futures, including dreams that really do seem out of reach for some of them. One is escaping a terrorist, one is chasing after her dream man, and the other is longing for a life of her own. Evidently the oldest daughter in an Italian family did not marry but took care of her parents and immediate family until the parents’ death. Can you imagine?
The characters were well developed, very unique, interesting people. I really enjoyed the immigrant setting outside of New York; that one’s been done to death. And I found my own knowledge of what happened near the end of World War I really helped to increase the suspense as I saw disaster coming that the people living in that time had no knowledge of.
I’m still up in the air about the use of omniscient POV, though. Like I said earlier, Siri did handle it fairly well. But we’re not used to a narrator who isn’t a character in the book pausing to tell us readers something, breaking the action of the story to whisper an aside to us. And there were two or three instances where I really didn’t like it, when the narrator went on to share a moral with us that the character hadn’t yet discovered. It made me feel like I was reading something for elementary kids.
But other than those two, maybe three, places, the book was a lot of fun due to Siri’s ability to create interesting people and a fascinating plot. I think readers of historical fiction will love A Heart Most Worthy.
And as always, I look forward to Siri’s next release.