"Spring's Renewal" by Shelley Shepard Gray

Spring’s Renewal by Shelley Shepard Gray is a happy Christian romance story of how Cara, an Amish school teacher who is badly scarred from a fire sees her dreams come true.  When Tim meets Cara, he realizes he does not love his hometown sweetheart as much as he thought he did, but falls for Cara.  Although there are some obstacles to a life together, they find a way to work things out.  This is a light, heartwarming read involving balancing one’s responsibilities with the pursuit of happiness.  The main theme is “that it’s not right to judge a person by only outward looks.  Sometimes when you do that, you miss out on a lot.” It has some funny parts as well as some suspense in it.  I enjoyed it!
(Karen's review)

Read Meet Amish Romance Novelist Shelley Shepard Gray to learn about the author.

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"Love You More" by Lisa Gardner

Love You More by Lisa Gardner is impressive.  It is a mystery about a mother, Tess, charged with murdering her husband and possibly her 6-yr-old daughter, Sophie, as well.  Tess was a real “mother” bear!  The Boston police arrest Tess, a state trooper who doesn’t have much faith in cops because of her past experience.  Tess lies to the police and devises a plan to find her daughter’s kidnapper on her own and rescue her daughter against all odds no matter what.  She had to outfox the police and the bad guys.  Her plan is genius!  “Love You More” shows there is good and bad in everyone.  It’s about betrayal, friendship, crime investigation, murder, gambling, love, and sacrifice.    

I was a bit confused in the beginning because it was a little hard to tell which lady cop was talking, Tess the state trooper or the pregnant D.D. Warner of the Boston P.D.  Once I got that cleared up, the book got really interesting.  I enjoyed how the State Trooper and the police investigator kept trying to figure out each other and how Tess was able to stay one step ahead.  This was interesting because of the good cops and bad cops involved which made it stand out from other murder mysteries.  I recommend this to anyone who likes mysteries.  I am definitely going to read another of Lisa Gardner’s books.

(Karen's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? You can help our charity of the month just by leaving a comment on any of our blogs! We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.

Meet Amish Romance Novelist Shelley Shepard Gray

I first heard about Shelley Shepard Gray from Christian Fiction Blog Alliance promoting The Caregiver.  She sounded like someone I would like to know so was thrilled to see she was coming to our library for a "Meet The Author" night.

 

Shelley shared how her imagination developed as a child because her father was an alcoholic and her mother had problems so often she would be by herself and just daydream about how life could be better.  As a 6^th grade teacher, on breaks she would write little romances and then go back to teaching again.  When she took a year off from teaching, she found house cleaning was not her thing and began writing. 

 

She wanted to write western romance novels but couldn’t find a publisher.  Her first book was a 400 pg. western romance that got rejected.  She was told there were too many western romances around and she should  write Amish romances instead because there were less books in that genre.  Shelley liked visiting the Amish stores but really did not want to write about them at first.   

 

Not wanting to disappoint her wonderful agent, she gave it a try thinking she would submit something off the wall, it wouldn’t be any good and that would be it for that.  It turned out that they liked Hidden even though the main character was not Amish.  When researching her book, three things that impressed her about the Amish were:

 

1.  Their faith is real, it’s who they are.  They live out their faith every day, not just attend services once a week. 

 

2.  Family and community is all-encompassing.  Parents teach their children the same skills they learned from their parents such as canning, sewing, quilting, cooking.  They actually know their neighbors and speak face-to-face with them.  Families spend time doing things together.  She also discovered they are not all farmers.

 

3.  The Amish enjoy the moment and live in the present.  Each season has specific things to do and enjoy.  Instead of complaining about the bad weather, they look for things to do inside and enjoy the inside time.  when the weather is nice, they actually take time to sit outside and watch the birds.

 

Shelley never thought she’d be a writer and still can’t believe people actually pay to read the stories she loves to write.  Getting published as a writer was definitely a “God thing.”  Since her first failure, she has had 30 books published--some romance under her maiden name of Galloway with Harlequin and 11 Amish romance novels with Harper Collins.

 

Shelly was very humble and amusing as she shared about some of her characters in her books and her time with her Amish friends, questioning them while hoping she wouldn’t offend them.  She shared that she always begins a book thinking of her characters first and then the plot.  She discusses her characters with her husband as she writes. 

I’ve only read two of her books so far:  Hidden and Wanted but look forward to reading some more, especially finishing the Sisters of the Heart series.  I am currently reading Spring's Renewal, the second book of her Seasons of Sugarcreek series.  The other two in the series are Winter's Awakening and Autumn's Promise.  She wanted to do a summer one since there are four seasons and she wanted to write some more with these characters; however,  her publisher told her that series of just three work best. 

I plan on attending more of these Library “Meet The Author” programs!  Have you read any of her books?  What did you think of them?  Have you met any authors?  Does your library have programs like this too?  What author would you like to meet?

 

Visit her website at http://www.shelleyshepardgray.com

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? You can help our charity of the month just by leaving a comment on any of our blogs! We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.

"Dogs Don't Lie" by Clea Simon (UPDATED 4/23/11)

Visit the author's cat's blog at www.conscious.cat.net

Dogs Don’t Lie by Clea Simon is a good, quick mystery in a small town. A man is found dead at his home and all signs point to his dog, a pit bull named Lilly.  But did the dog really do it? The best parts of the book for me are that Pru Marlow could understand what her cat, Wallis, was saying and the Dog, Lilly, becomes a hero at the end! The plot was a bit confusing, but it’s still a good read!
(Gerard's Review)

Karen's review posted 4/23/11:
Dogs Don't Lie by Clea Simon is a cozy mystery with a cute, entertaining twist--Pru Marlowe is an animal behaviorist and also discovers she has a gift of being able to hear what animals think and feel.  With the help of three cats, two dogs, and a ferret, Pru solves the murder of one of her clients whose pit bull she trained.  She questioned some humans too though.  At first the dog was blamed for it's owner's death but then Pru set out to save the dog and eventually figured out who the real killer was. 

If you like animals and a cozy mystery, this one is for you!  It starts off a bit slow but stick with it!  I was surprised to find out who the real murderer was.  Well done, Clea!

Stop by and visit the author's Conscious Cat blog and find out Challenges Of Living With Mystery Writer Clea Simon.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? You can help our charity of the month just by leaving a comment on any of our blogs! We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.

Tuesday Teasers: "Love You More" and "Dogs Don't Lie"

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should  Be Reading. Anyone can play along, so I thought  I  would play for fun! Just do the following

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on  that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away!   You don’t  want  to  ruin the  book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can  add the book to their TBR  Lists  if they  like your teaser. 

Karen's:

"I feared for my life," I whisper. "I felt my sidearm. He charged...I feared for my life."
"Trooper Leoni, what happened?"
"I shot my husband."
"Trooper Leoni--"
I meet his gaze one last time. "Then I went looking for my daughter."

From page 35 of Love You More by Lisa Gardner.

Gerard's:

"Did you think I was asleep all those nights when you were watching Law and Order?"
I burst out laughing. The idea of my cat learning to investigate crime from a TV show, it was all too much.

From page 38 of Dogs Don't Lie by Clea Simon.  See our review of Dogs Don't Lie.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? You can help our charity of the month just by leaving a comment on any of our blogs! We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.