The Friday 56: Christy

Hosted weekly by Freda's Voice.

  

Happy Friday! 

This week, I'm participating in the Friday 56 for the first time, and I'm choosing to share a snippet from Catherine Marshall's Christy.


"There was that strange fascination that people have with blood and accidents and death, like children shivering deliciously at a horror story."

  

A photo posted by @h.szott on Aug 19, 2016 at 6:39am PDT

Goodreads Synopsis:

In the year 1912, nineteen-year-old Christy Huddleston leaves home to teach school in the Smoky Mountains -- and comes to know and love the resilient people of the region, with their fierce pride, their dark superstitions, their terrible poverty, and their yearning for beauty and truth. But her faith will be severely challenged by trial and tragedy, by the needs and unique strengths of two remarkable young men, and by a heart torn between true love and unwavering devotion.

Have you read this book? Did you love it, like I did?

Waiting on Wednesday: The Domino Effect & This Road We Traveled

Hosted weekly by Breaking the Spine 
to spotlight eagerly-anticipated upcoming releases.

Goodreads | Amazon

Title: The Domino Effect

Author: Davis Bunn

Publisher: Bethany House

Expected Publication Date: 6 September 2016

A financial thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

Esther Larsen, a leading risk analyst at one of the country's largest banking institutions, is becoming more and more convinced that she has uncovered a ticking bomb with the potential to overshadow 2008's market crash. And as her own employer pursues "investment" strategies with ever-increasing levels of risk, she becomes convinced she must do something. Yet what can one person really do? 

The markets are edging closer to a tipping point--like the teetering first domino in a standing row that circles the globe. And when Esther does sound the alarm, she wonders if anyone will take her seriously. But as public support grows for her ideas, so does the desperation of those whose conspiracy of greed she seeks to expose. With global markets on the brink, and her own life in danger, Esther is locked in a race with the clock to avert a worldwide financial meltdown. 

This fast-paced suspense novel will make you wonder where the fiction ends and reality begins...

Goodreads | Amazon

Title: This Road We Traveled

Author: Jane Kirkpatrick

Publisher: Revell

Expected Publication Date: 6 September 2016

Drama, adventure, and family struggles abound as three generations head west on the Oregon Trail.

When Tabitha Brown's son makes the fateful decision to leave Missouri and strike out for Oregon, she refuses to be left behind. Despite her son's concerns, Tabitha hires her own wagon to join the party. Along with her reluctant daughter and her ever-hopeful granddaughter, the intrepid Tabitha has her misgivings. But family ties are stronger than fear. 

The trials they face along the way will severely test Tabitha's faith, courage, and ability to hope. With her family's survival on the line, she must make the ultimate sacrifice, plunging deeper into the wilderness to seek aid. What she couldn't know was how this frightening journey would impact how she understood her own life--and the greater part she had to play in history. 

With her signature attention to detail and epic style, New York Times bestselling author Jane Kirkpatrick invites readers to travel the deadly and enticing Oregon Trail. Based on actual events, This Road We Traveled will inspire the pioneer in all of us.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Set in Appalachia

Hosted weekly by The Broke and the Bookish.



I've read a couple books recently set in Appalachia, making me remember it's a setting I really enjoy (though I don't come across it too often). For this reason, this week I've decided to share a TTT list of the books I've read with this fascinating setting:

Appalachian Blessings by Sarah Loudin Thomas

(Miracle in a Dry Season, Until the Harvest & A Tapestry of Secrets)

Christy by Catherine Marshall

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Mercy's Rain by Cindy K. Sproles

The Mountain Midwife by Laurie Alice Eakes

The Curse of Crow Hollow by Billy Coffey

There Will Be Stars by Billy Coffey

When Mockingbirds Sing by Billy Coffey

So... what's a setting you've enjoyed recently?

A Tapestry of Secrets by Sarah Loudin Thomas

★★★★★
Goodreads | Amazon

Now in her eighties, Perla Phillips has carried a secret since she was eighteen years old. When she sees her granddaughter, Ella, struggling for perfection, she decides to share her secret to show that God can use even the biggest mistakes for good. But before she can reveal what happened during that summer sixty years ago, she has a debilitating stroke. 

Carrying a secret of her own, Ella arrives back in Wise, West Virgina, to help her aunt Sadie care for Perla. Both know the woman wanted to tell them something, but she's now locked in silence. Together they begin looking into the past, but they may learn more than they expected.

Will they have the courage to share their hearts? Or will the truth remain buried forever?

A Tapestry of Secrets excellently continues and concludes Sarah Loudin Thomas’s family saga, Appalachian Blessings, in Wise, West Virginia. Familiar yet aged characters remain a part of the story, while Ella, the next generation of the Phillips family, becomes the focus. It’s a story about secrets and family and faith, and Thomas writes it so well. A Tapestry of Secrets captivated me, as the previous novels of the series did, and I absolutely loved the feeling and experience of reading it. Any readers interested in a contemporary (but also a little bit historical) read should be sure to check out this latest novel from Sarah Loudin Thomas. (But start at the beginning of the series first—it’s worth reading all the books. They're a delight and a pleasure.)

Thanks to Bethany House, I received a copy of A Tapestry of Secrets and the opportunity to provide an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, and all the opinions I have expressed are my own.

Saffire by Sigmund Brouwer

★★★★★
Take a sneak peek into Saffire here.
Goodreads | Amazon

I reminded myself that once you start to defend someone, it’s difficult to find a place to stop. But I went ahead and took that first step anyway...

For President Teddy Roosevelt, controlling the east-west passage between two oceans mattered so much that he orchestrated a revolution to control it. His command was to ‘let the dirt fly’ and for years, the American Zone of the Panama Canal mesmerized the world, working in uneasy co-existence with the Panamanian aristocrats. 

It’s in this buffered Zone where, in 1909, James Holt takes that first step to protect a defenseless girl named Saffire, expecting a short and simple search for her mother. Instead it draws him away from safety, into a land haunted by a history of pirates, gold runners, and plantation owners, all leaving behind ghosts of their interwoven desires sins and ambitions, ghosts that create the web of deceit and intrigue of a new generation of revolutionary politics. It will also bring him together with a woman who will change his course—or bring an end to it.

A love story set within a historical mystery, Saffire brings to vibrant life the most impressive-and embattled- engineering achievement of the twentieth-century.

Sigmund Brouwer writes great historical fiction. A couple years ago, I loved reading Thief of Glory, and now, I can say I loved reading Saffire, too.

Saffire pulled me into a story of adventure, mystery, politics, and romance, set in a time and place I knew little about, and I couldn’t read it fast enough. The historical details intrigued me - I absolutely loved getting to experience the world surrounding the Panama Canal - and the plotline captivated me. It’s a novel that won’t disappoint fans of historical fiction; I highly recommend it.

Thanks to Blogging for Books, I received a copy of Saffire and the opportunity to provide an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, and all the opinions I have expressed are my own.