Into the Fire

Five of your preferences:

Cake, cookies, ice cream, or pie? (And what kind?)

Five of your favorite novels?

Jeans, Cargo pants, Sweats, or Slacks?

Tennis shoes/Sneakers, high heels, pumps, boots, or some kind of hiking shoe?

Contemporary, Historical, Speculative, Mystery, Thriller? (Name all that apply and add your own variations.)

Lord, you've given us such a rich world filled with amazing things to eat, wear, do, and love. We are a blessed people Thank you is never enough. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

(Originally posted on May 28th, 2014; "No peace . . . Until I Found You")

Presenting a good romance, the CFBA Tour offers Until I Found You by Victoria Bylin, published by Bethany House.

Kate Darby is a Los Angeles advertising/marketing designer who needs a leave of absence from the firm where she works to take care of her beloved grandmother Leona Darby who's recovering from a stroke. Leona is a widow living in the small town of Meadows and runs The Clarion, the local newspaper her husband started, but now must count on Kate to keep it operational while Leona heals.

Helping Leona with feature articles, author Nick Sheridan plans to offer more assistance until Leona is able to resume her duties. However, Nick doesn't realize the beautiful woman trapped in the BMW hanging by some shrubs on the mountain cliff will be his partner at the newspaper because she's Leona's granddaughter. Nick saves Kate's life and loses his heart as the two of them try not to get involved while keeping the paper going strong. 

Okay, it's a romance. And romances follow formulas. Right? So really the only things romance authors have going for them are interesting, unique, quirky, or attractive characters and something to make their stories rise above the typical "boy meets girl, boy and girl suffer conflict, boy and girl resolve conflict, boy and girl attempt to live happily ever after". Christian fiction adds the spiritual dimension to the attractions, conflicts, and resolutions, and here is where a Christian romance novel either shines or fails to arouse what I refer to as "the genuine factor".  

In many ways Until I Found You is the typical Christian fiction romance, but Victoria Bylin has managed to rise above the fray and give us a good story with a very good male co-protagonist in Nick, a confused and fearful female co-protagonist in Kate, who sparks all kinds of emotional reactions from compassion to disgust, with the unusual backdrop of the California condors as the parallel plot point.

Nick has many regrets from his life during the composition of his best known California adventure manual for "real men", but the book still sells well and people recognize his name, especially men who admired his quests and conquests. From those regrets he chose Jesus and his life changed dramatically in spite of the temptations occasionally still haunting him.

Kate struggles mightily with fear, unable to realize that no matter how much she thinks she has her life under control – or that it's even an option – she is usually out of control, confused, overwhelmed, and seeking safe solutions to all of her problems big and small in all the wrong places.

California Condor #53 plays a significant part in eventually leading her to a place where she must either choose the dominance of fear and perpetual chaos or the serenity of allowing personal chains she's carried since her childhood to be loosed.   

Until I Found You presents readers with the dilemmas of accepting faith in God for what it is – the unseen, often unknown in the visual and practical sense. Kate epitomizes the young career woman striving for control of her life and losing at every endeavor to do so even when she feels secure. Nick shows the struggles of a man who indulged most of what the world offered, turning away from the familiar to the holy, and finding it harder than he imagined, especially with the addition of Kate into his life.

Although Kate drove me nuts, I loved the underlying significance of the condors and the persistence and efforts of Nick to walk his talk in the Lord. Leona is a trooper and models a woman of faith who's survived a cruel world and triumphed in Jesus. Until I Found You by Victoria Bylin is a good romance with a dual meaning title and a fantastic cover. And who doesn't love a writer who dedicates her book to another author, listing one of that author's attributes as a "Lover of adjectives"? That set the mood for me. Enjoyed this novel.
 
 
Father, please watch over Victoria and give her lots of stories to tell. May she enjoy your abundance and continue to honor you in all she does. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

Some commercials just outshine the rest. This is one of them. Good for Oreo. 

Lord, help us see your beauty even if we have to look for it. You've displayed your grandeur everywhere. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

Another great song from this group The Youngbloods. Apparently, this was the B side of the hit single, but one DJ loved it so much he played it all the time until it outshined the other song.

Father, you knew the messages of this era of music long before a single note was ever played or a lyric ever written. You knew the hearts of those who played the songs and sang the words. Hopefully, they were able to hear your voice amidst the chaos of the times. Please, Lord, keep reaching people. We're all desperate for you. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

In Dani Pettrey's Book Three of the Chesapeake Valor Series, Blind Spot, the handsome FBI Agent Declan Grey and the lovely Tanner Shaw unite to investigate what exactly "The wrath is coming" means and when and where it's supposed to be arriving in the USA. Their mutual attraction almost complicates their searching but for the most part it allows them to reveal who they really are beneath all their FBI and refugee counselor titles. Blind Spot puts into play all the characters from this series and shocks them all with a familiar face.

A friend of Tanner's is the only one who can identify a particular person of interest to help the FBI nail a terrorist, but Tanner insists her refugee friend will be intimidated by Declan and will need to speak with Tanner. Meanwhile, when the murder of an old friend at a yearly retreat, which Declan and Tanner are unable to attend, adds more complications to their multiple agendas of investigations, there's one more surprise to add to the milieu forcing a secret Declan doesn't want to keep.

The coming wrath requires urgency and it seems like the answers are slow to gather while time slips away. When the danger hits Declan and Tanner full on, although they know who's behind it, they can't reveal who rescues them. Shrouded in secrecy and confusion, they must stop an attack steeped in guesswork.

The romance between Declan and Tanner runs interference with the case, but the two professionals manage to keep their heads in the game. It might be a bit overdone at times. Their faith is prominent and mutually appreciated, but it too might have been a bit over-explained in parts of the story. Both likeable strong characters, their distractions with their relationship might have seemed a bit out of character under the threatening circumstances.

With series novels, different authors elect to end each book with stand alone efficiency or choose the minor or major cliffhanger method to entice the reader to anticipate the next story. With Blind Spot, the group is celebrating the last minute success of their efforts when their surprising reveal lets them know they're not even close to the final "wrath". End of story. I didn't like this choice. Too abrupt. Too leading. It's not the fact of it being a cliffhanger, it's the sudden end at an unexpected time. To a writer it seems like the word count hit the stop line and that was that.

Father, please continue to bless Dani with ideas and inspiration and keep her writing the stories you have just for her to tell. Encourage her when she needs it most and give her what she needs to do what you desire for her. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

     By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. 

Hebrews 11:3 (NIV)

Five choices:

Favorite season: summer, winter, spring, fall

Places to go: ocean, mountains, forest, lake(s), desert  

Places to visit: Hawaii, New Orleans, Australia, Europe, Japan

Sports to watch: football, baseball, tennis, basketball, horse racing

Means of travel: automobile, airplane, train, motorcycle, bus

Father, you make a way for us to go where we need to go and do what we need to do. Apart from you, we can do nothing. Thank you for all that we have. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

                           
(Originally posted on 11/03/2012; "Inhaling . . . The Breath of Dawn".)

The first novel this week in the CFBA Tour is The Breath of Dawn by Kristen Heitzmann published by Bethany House. The Breath of Dawn reunites readers with Morgan Spencer, his brother Rick and wife Noelle and their young son Liam, making this book the third, many years later, following A Rush of Wings and The Still of Night. It might not be quite as long as the two previous novels, but it's definitely longer than the average romantic suspense in CBA – which is a good thing.

When a Kristen Heitzmann contemporary novel releases, I'm all over it. Few CBA authors can do romance with her depth, her skills at subtle dialogue that smolders, and her ability to capture the essence of real attraction that leads unequivocally to romance. Never silly but occasionally humorous because of the foolishness we can experience in the midst of attraction, the insecurity, and all the intensity of inner struggles which accommodate establishing mutual feelings, Kristen Heitzmann is a master at creating all the romantic tension two people can endure before relationship results.

The novel opens at the gravesite of Morgan Spencer's wife Jill, killed instantly in a car crash, leaving him with their precious two year old daughter "Livie". The grief is palpable and the pain is searing, perfectly done.

Time marches on and as Morgan and Livie stay in a cabin at his brother Rick's guest ranch in the high country of Colorado, his fame as the "success guru" gained from righting businesses and turning them into money-making enterprises seems like another lifetime. He hasn't been back to his mansion in Santa Barbara since Jill's death, and he contemplates buying a small local home not too far from Rick's ranch to ease Livie into life without Rick, Noelle, and Liam so he can eventually return to his former life. The owner of the unusual house has died, her daughter RaeAnn is visiting from her home in Texas to make arrangements for getting it ready to sell. She hires a woman named Quinn Reilly to take care of her mom's near-hoarded belongings and forms an instant friendship with Quinn.

In the process of learning what RaeAnn intends to keep and what Quinn is free to sell for her business on Ebay, Quinn meets all of the Spencers and experiences both attraction and conflict with Morgan. She recognizes his pain instantly but doesn't appreciate his occasional jabs and curt treatment that seem to follow his kindness and humor. Without the knowledge of his having lost his wife, she attempts to keep things all business, but her spunk won't always let him get away with being a sometimes jerk. Morgan finds himself in the odd position of finding this petite package rather attractive and loads himself down with guilt over it causing the rudeness he knows is wrong. Livie makes no bones about her rapport with Quinn which surprises and unsettles Morgan in an eventually positive way.

Quinn Erin Reilly is on the run. She's found her tiny chalet in the Colorado mountains hoping she can hide there from the man who seeks revenge for her testimony against his con job on her father's cultish church which put the man in prison for four years. When she gets a terrifying phone call from her older sister who's always resented her and has been manipulated by the con man, Quinn's hope that she can stay tucked away there disintegrates.

When she's invited to Thanksgiving dinner at the Spencer ranch and offers to cook the meal since Noelle is both sick and a terrible cook, a snowstorm keeps her there overnight, and a definite "something" begins with Morgan.

The complexities and fears in Quinn's life slowly reveal themselves to Morgan who offers an extreme solution to her request for help. Motivated by fear, Quinn accepts Morgan's plan which leads to far more than either of them expected.

Told from multiple points of view, the development of the relationship between Quinn, who must revert to using her middle name Erin, and Morgan, we get detailed pictures of different individuals in this story. Capturing personal pain with a magnifying glass, Quinn and Morgan's different situations cause us to empathize with each of them along with our frustrations in their mutual stubbornness. Kristen Heitzmann writes well, takes her time to develop new characters and flesh in the "old" familiar ones while adding peripheral people who contribute directly to the history past and present of her main characters. It's a good story even though we know the outcome. The telling of it presents a treat for fans of this author. I loved the story.

If you enjoy non-typical romantic suspense that gives romance a dose of reality and injects faith in God to a prominent but subtle place, designs a dashing hero, a strong but vulnerable heroine, a pathetic sister, and a vengeful villain, you won't be disappointed in The Breath of Dawn by Kristen Heitzmann. The only complaint I have – which is incidental and totally my opinion – is the cover. I don't like it even a little bit and don't picture Quinn Erin Reilly as the girl on the cover.  

Father, I pray you would continue to fill Kristen with stories, to bless all she does to honor you, and encourage her in every area of her life as you direct her steps. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

Isn't this the perfect humorous depiction of our culture? Kind of a toss up between laughing and scoffing . . . 

Father, there's no substitute for real communication. Especially between you and your people. We're desperate for you and connection with you. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

Most people know the stunning voice of Stevie Nicks from Fleetwood Mac. Steeped in witchcraft, this song depicts some of the darkness of these times enclosed in beautiful music. It's often that "angel of light" appearance of evil that infiltrated many of the great songs and musicians/singers of that era. We were then and still are desperate for the One and Only Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Thank you for Redemption, Lord. Desperate for you. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.