Warning!  Excitement Ahead!

Transitional-Woman is one of the thrilling stops on two book blog tours.

Friday, Sebastian from A.E. Howard's new book (which was released Today!) Flight of Blue will be stopping by for an interview.  It's a little tricky interviewing a dog, but stop back on Friday to see how we worked that out.

Want to win an autographed copy of Flight of Blue?  Stop by her blog today and enter to win a free copy.

While you're visiting her blog, be sure to visit the other stops on A.E. Howard's tour, which begins today, so you can learn more about this terrific book (my review here) and this lovely author.

And just because it's summertime and the fun keeps on happening, next Monday I'll be reviewing Kate Megill's new ebook, Cut It Out! How I Feed My Family of 10 for $500 Without Coupons and you can win a free copy!  Leave a comment on next Monday's post and you'll be entered into the drawing on August 2.  

As a special promotion Kate Megill will be offering her book for only $1.99 from July 30 though August 3, so if you don't win, you'll still be able to get a terrific book at a terrific price.  I don't know about you, but I want to know how she feeds that big family with such a small food budget!

Let's show these lovely transitional women and new authors our support by reading their books.

Submerged

Our mistakes have a way of coming back to haunt us even when we've changed.  Bailey Craig in Dani Pettrey's book Submerged discovered this the hard way.

Bailey was a wild child as a teen, sleeping with any boy who wanted her.  Abandoned by her mother, Bailey lived with her aunt in Alaska.  Despite her aunt's love and support, Bailey felt deeply wounded by her mother's abandonment and looked for love and acceptance anywhere she could find it.

She left wreckage in her wake.  Her first boyfriend, Cole, was one of those pieces of wreckage.

When Bailey's aunt dies, she has to return to Alaska to sell her aunt's business.  She dreads returning because she doesn't want to face Cole who was a good friend and she doesn't want to endure the knowing looks and unkind comments from others in the small Alaska town who knew the kind of girl she was.

The kind of girl she was.  Bailey's a new person now.  She became a believer in Jesus while she was in college and changed her lifestyle.  And now as a college professor and a Christian, she is respected by her friends and colleagues in Oregon.  Going back to Alaska to face her past is not something she ever envisioned doing.

After learning her aunt's death in a plane crash was not accidental, Bailey is compelled to stay in Alaska to unravel the clues her aunt left that can explain why she and several more people were killed.  The longer Bailey stays, she discovers that not only has God forgiven her for her past, but so has Cole.

Submerged is about transitions and forgiveness set against the backdrop of Alaska in the summertime.  Dani Pettrey weaves information about Alaska's Russian heritage into a contemporary story of murder, greed and power-seeking.  Not to mention skin-diving, treasure-hunting and the search for the last descendants of the Romanov dynasty.

Bailey is a complicated woman still filled with unhappiness and hurt. Although she knows she is loved and forgiven by God, she has difficulty accepting that love and forgiveness.  The character of Bailey is a person-type with whom many of us can identify.  Her struggle for wholeness is universal.
  
There are elements of predictable romance in the book, but by not brushing over Bailey's struggle with believing she is genuinely forgiven and a new woman in Christ and not providing easy solutions, Pettrey gives the book authenticity and weight.

Submerged is absorbing summer reading, not fluffy, and particularly interesting because of the focus on Russian Alaska history.  It is the first book in the Alaskan Courage series.  Pettrey introduces us to many other characters who I think will be the lead players in subsequent entries in the series.


Submerged by Dani Pettrey
Bethany House Publishers, 2012
Christian Fiction, 313 pages
Bethany House Publishers provided a free copy of Submerged for review. The opinions stated are my own.

Flight of Blue

I really, really don't like trilogies, whether they be books or movies.  The wait, the anticipation for the next installment kills me (I confess to sometimes reading the end of a book after the first few chapters), which is why I prefer to discover them after they're complete.

But, I've done it again.  I've read the first book of a trilogy while the second is still being written and I'm going to have to wait.  New author A.E. Howard has just published Flight of Blue (to be released July 24)  the first installment from the Keeper of the Keys Chronicles.

I "met" Anna during the A to Z Blog Challenge in April.  She had an excerpt from Flight of Blue on one of her blogs, I read it and was pulled in.  I enjoyed it so much, I asked her if I could review it here.


I've had my Kindle edition copy a couple of weeks, it only took me this long to read it because as usual I've been chasing my tail and running behind (apologies for the mixed metaphor).  My slowness in completion is no reflection on Flight of Blue. 


The title of Chapter 1 is The Last Normal Friday.  Now you know after reading that, you're in for some action and adventure and that is exactly what happens.  Our protagonist is a regular 12-year-old boy living a somewhat regular life, except that his family moves around a lot and you'll find out why.  Only Kai's not so regular and neither are his parents.


Kai is abruptly thrown into circumstances he could never have imagined. He has to transition from being a kid who is moving through life in the usual middle school way into a young man who has to lead a band of friends, accept new responsibilities and make snap decisions not only to survive himself but to save his friends.


Flight of Blue is a book about the value of friendship - with friends old and new, choosing whether or not to accept a strange and uncertain future, facing frightening and confusing situations which defy understanding and trusting strangers to teach and guide you.


I don't know what the genre is, middle grade fantasy maybe?  But I found it great adult reading in the tradition of Madeleine L'Engle and her A Wrinkle in Time series and Austin Family Chronicles.

Want a little sneak peak?


But what I need to know is, Anna, what comes next?!?!?   And how long do I have to wait?


Be sure to stop by on July 27 when A.E. Howard visits Transitional-Woman as one of the stops on her blog tour.

Flight of Blue by A.E. Howard
Elder Tree Books, 2012
Fantasy, Kindle edition

The author proved a Kindle edition at no charge for my review.  All views and opinions expressed are my own.

Getting Unstuck

When Bethany House Publishers sent me Unstuck: Your Life. God's Design. Real Change to review, I felt pretty excited and couldn't wait to dig into it. The back-of-the-book blurb states, "Does your relationship with God seem broken?  Full of silence and distance?  Do you ever want more than just an 'okay' walk with Christ?" Absolutely.

I've never known a Christian who hasn't had the experience of being stuck in their relationship with God, sometimes over and over again.  That is exactly why the premise of Unstuck piqued my interest.  I've felt distance between the Lord and me, I've felt a wall of silence and separation sometimes, and I've felt stuck in a place of vague discontent with where we are together as Father and child.

I hoped to find answers to the questions they proposed and opened the book with anticipation.  Unstuck is like a diamond mine, you know there are sparkling jewels of great beauty in there, but you have to dig to find them.  Basically, the authors explain that if you feel a lack of closeness and intimacy in your relationship with God you need to "engage" the Bible.  I found the concept of engaging the Bible confusing.  What exactly is that?  I eventually unearthed the definition of Bible engagement, but not until I was halfway through the book.

Words such as "notional," "relatable," and "relational" are used extensively.  I find them vague and unspecific and frequently found myself asking, "What are the authors really trying to say?"
  
The use of real-life examples of people in "stuck" spiritual situations was a helpful device because their struggles are familiar and I was eager to discover how they became "unstuck."  There were also a few "Ah ha" moments when I encountered one of the diamond thoughts worth holding onto and treasuring.


Additionally, the book can be used as a 45-day study.  There are questions with scripture references at the end of each chapter, as well as statistical information the authors gathered after surveying thousands of Christians while acquiring data for Unstuck.  An online resource can be accessed that provides additional information on growing your relationship with God.


Would I recommend Unstuck?  Conditionally.  It had beneficial guidance for developing a deep and meaningful relationship with God, but it is not a book that requires close reading.  Skimming the book, with occasional pauses for slow, close reading when you discover a diamond, would suffice.


Unstuck: Your Life. God's Design. Real Change by Arnie Cole and Michael Ross
Bethany House Publishers, 2012
Christian Life, 265 pages


Bethany House Publishers provided a free copy of Unstuck for review. The opinions stated are my own.

The Number - A Review

What starts as a colorful and joyous harvest celebration ends many weeks later in blood and vengeance.  The Number, Book Two of the Zincian Legend Trilogy, continues Kaia Ketoki's search for the charms which began in The Chosen.

Five years have passed since The Chosen.  Kaia and Catrina, her friend and companion, are in hiding fearing for their lives for different reasons.  Catrina is now one of The Number, a designation given to a child of a god and a mortal.  She is hunted because she refused to be branded as a demigod and is considered subversive.   Kaia is in hiding because other people want the charms she has collected and because there are forces which want to control her for reasons she still does not understand.

There are many mysteries entwined around Kaia: her ancestry, her powers and abilities, and her role as a savior of her people.  She is older, stronger and wiser than she was in The Chosen, but still very vulnerable because she doesn't understand the power or desires of those who oppose her mission and her very existence.

Kaia continues to struggle with trust.  Who is trustworthy?  Can she trust the gods?  Can she trust her friends?  Betrayal hides around every bend in the road and behind every door.  She continues to be haunted by the burning of her village and death of her mother five years ago.  She is also haunted by the voice in her head that she's still not sure she can trust.

But Kaia has gained a greater sense of mission and purpose throughout her years hiding in plain sight as a bar tender.  Now the time is right to reconnect with her friends and guardian to continue the search for the mysterious items, which may not be genuine or even items at all.

I enjoyed The Number even more than The Chosen.  The author has gained skill and maturity as a writer.  The dialogue flows more naturally and Kaia and Catrina appear more believable as we see their struggles and vulnerabilities.

I'm still confused about the purpose and abilities of the gods and why they send Kaia to retrieve the items.  And Kaia's guardian Reeze, what is going on in his head?  He is not a fully fleshed-out character despite his importance to the story.

However, the mysteries continue and the danger mounts.  Kaia's alliance with Queen Ewelina appears to be a mistake and another loved one is lost in the escalating conflict.  Will Kaia and her companions gather all of the items?  Will they even survive?


The Number by Sheenah Freitas
Paper Crane Books, 2012
Young Adult Fantasy


The author provided a free Kindle edition of The Number for review.  The opinions stated are my own.

The Messenger - A Transitional Woman

What do you do when your entire world has turned upside down and what you used to believe no longer seems right?

Hannah Sunderland in The Messenger is a Quaker living in British-occupied Philadelphia during the American Revolution.  Quakers do not fight in wars or take sides.  Her twin brother took sides and is now sick and starving in prison.

Hannah struggles with a life that is in transition: disobeying her parents and church, reconciling her views of slavery while living in a slave-owner's home, becoming enmeshed in a growing web of deceptions and much more.

In the midst of the confusion is Jeremiah, damaged in body and spirit, consumed by long-held hatred and revenge who becomes her partner in a dangerous undertaking of spying and lies.  Lies that Hannah refuses to tell and Jeremiah feels are her only recourse to avoid being hanged.

The book is written in an alternating chapter style with Hannah narrating one chapter and Jeremiah narrating the next, each sharing their thoughts, fears and experiences.  We see their internal battle to discover the truth about themselves and what they value and believe.

I was pulled into the story immediately.  The main characters are three dimensional and complex.  There are no easy answers to some of the dilemmas in which they find themselves and the author does not provide simple solutions or even resolve all of the situations.  This made the story real, believable and thought provoking.

Although the main characters are fictional, others are taken from the pages of history and some of the events that Hannah and Jeremiah are a part of are also part of the historical record.  It is people who make history.  What they do and why they do it is endlessly fascinating.

If you would like to read The Messenger, it is available as a free Kindle download on Monday, May 14.


The Messenger by Siri Mitchell
Bethany House Publishers, 2012
Historical fiction, 374 pages

Bethany House Publishers provided a free copy of The Messenger for review.  The opinions stated are my own.

Reading and Reviewing

Ever since I was a little girl, my dream job has been to read for a living.  After graduating from college I could have tried to get a job with a publishing company, but I never pursued it and my life moved in other directions.

I still think this would be a wonderful job (although I'd also really love to be a lighthouse keeper, but I don't think that job exists anymore).  However, I still don't live in an area where there are publishing companies and I can't just pull up stakes and move as easily as when I was single.

But I am excited to announce a new transition for the Transitional-Woman!

My dream is sort of coming true, that is, although I'm not being paid for it (except in free books - who's complaining?), I have been given the opportunity to read and review three books on this blog in the near future.  My chance to review two of these came about because of the Blogging A to Z Challenge.  How cool is that?

The books are from genres I don't usually read, but I find myself eager to read something different for a change.  Two of the books had online excerpts that sounded great, which is why I approached the authors asking if I could review them.  One of the author's generously sent a copy of the first book in her series so I can read it first before reading book two for review.

Because I've had the chance to read hundreds of different blogs during the Challenge, I've discovered so many hard-working authors laboring over their books trying to get them published.  I respect their efforts and wish these transitional men and women great success.


Today's letter is R in the Blogging A to Z Challenge 


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