Book Review: Tenderfoot by Amy Tupper

This story sets up for an intriguing series!
Tenderfoot 

by Amy Tupper

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 483 KB
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Amy Tupper (May 20, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0051XZQGY

     Genre:  Fantasy, YA
     My Rating:  4.5 of 5.0

Product Description
Jules is running. With the death of her mother behind her, she arrives at college in Chapel Hill ready to focus on friends, classes, and Andrew, the sweetest guy a girl could crush on. But Nick, the campus rock star, is always around, pressing every last one of her buttons. Things get strange when Nick plays his guitar, and even stranger when Jules discovers he wears a pendant identical to her dead mother’s. She wants answers. When her family’s secret is revealed, Jules must choose between running away from the one person she has opened up to or running with him toward an unknown future.

Review:  The fantasy in this takes this book beyond just a YA read.

Jules has recently turned 18 and is settling into college at Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  Jules was born in Sweden, raised in New York City and then in her early teens she lived, with an older sister and her parents, in Paris for several years.  As many midteens she wasn’t happy to move away to Stockholm.  Her mother was killed in a car accident three years before and, to deal with her grief, she ran and rebelled through those tumultuous high school years.

Now Jules is looking forward to a fresh start at a college far away from family.  The first night she goes out with friends and is helped by a handsome guy. The next day on campus she meets a mysterious and compelling guy, Nick, who mesmerizes her with his guitar music.  Soon Jules discovers that the handsome guy is Andrew and he is a champion fencer. They have much in common including being dedicated students and runners.

Suddenly Jules begins to experience heightened senses: seeing long distances, hearing voices all over the dorm and smelling individual scents.  She doesn’t know what to think until she realizes that there is some strange connection with Nick who wears the same pendant that she wears - a pendant that her mother gave to her shortly before she died. Nick is “hot” and confusing especially since he seems to purposefully provoke her.

Jules and Andrew begin a sweet friendship, although Nick is continually stepping in and interfering.  Jules and Andrew are clearly drawn to each other but when Jules discovers her legacy includes unusual gifts and training with Nick, as a mischievous guardian, she isn’t sure that subjecting Andrew to Nick is a good idea.  Andrew is a super guy that any girl would like to have as a boyfriend but how will he react if he learns of her gifts and her special connection to Nick?

Jules’ dorm friends each have their own characters and together they create a fun and supportive group. They add realism to the freshman college setting.  Towards the end of the book you learn some of the history of Jules’ legacy but the purpose of her gifts and training remains a mystery for another book in the series.

The story reads smoothly, although there are a few minor editing errors. I like how the title has a double meaning for the freshman college student and Jules as a new trainee in her gifts. Since I don’t read lots of YA it took a little (very little) bit to get me into the story.  However, I liked all of the characters and once the unusual experiences began I was well engaged throughout the rest of the story.  I will be interested to read more adventures for Jules.

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This EBook was provided by the author for an honest review.

Q&A Interview with Adina Senft, Author of The Wounded Heart: An Amish Quilt Novel

Please help me welcome Adina Senft author of  The Wounded Heart: An Amish Quilt Novel

 

I am looking forward to reading what looks like a beautiful story.

Adina:  I really hope you like it. And thank you for inviting me over to join you on the blog. Here, I’ve got an apple crumble pie that my heroine Amelia made this morning. Would you like ice cream on the side, or fresh cream overtop?

Oh yummy - I love ice cream with warm pie!

1Q.  When you started The Wounded Heart, did you plan to do a series and if so, did you have each book plotted out before you started or did the subsequent books flow from the first book?

Adina:  The Amish Quilt trilogy has always been three books. When I came up with the series idea, I knew the issues I wanted to explore with each central character’s struggle: The Wounded Heart would be chronic disease. The Hidden Life would be the perpetual spinster. The Tempted Soul would be emotional infidelity. But that was all I knew!

So for a month before I begin writing each book, I read everything I can get my hands on about those topics and about my Amish setting. Then I begin to do character work, and the plot grows out of that.  The fun part is weaving in hints about what will happen in the next books into the current one. It’s like planning a treasure hunt J

Ha- I never thought about it quite like that! I love treasure hunts and maybe that is why I really like series books. J

2Q.  What inspired you to write this genre?

Adina:  It was one of those things where the universe closes a door in your face, but you feel a breeze on the back of your neck from the window that opened behind you. I grew up in a plain house church (I wasn’t Amish, but was often asked if I was), but it never occurred to me to write from that viewpoint until my editor gave me an elbow in the ribs and suggested it. It was a real “aha!” moment mixed with a whole lot of “duh!”

I love when you get that nice breeze on the back of your neck. Your editor sounds like she encouraged you to look at writing from “what you know” even if it wasn’t exactly.

3Q.  Where did you get the idea for this story/series?

Adina:  I have a friend who suffered for nearly a decade, wasting away and losing control of various bodily parts. She almost died before she went to the dentist and he realized that she was suffering from mercury poisoning from the fillings in her teeth, not fibromyalgia or M.S. After he got all those out of her mouth, she entered a chelation program to cleanse her blood of heavy metals. Her story triggered the idea for The Wounded Heart … and the way the Amish care for each other’s health without help from government formed a nice avenue of conflict that I could use as my heroine pursued treatment.

 Oh my goodness. I am so glad your friend got a proper diagnosis before it was too late. That makes for a good plotline.

4Q.  Could you please share one surprising thing about your research or experience writing this book?

Adina:  There is so much to learn and enjoy about the Amish and the research curve is so steep that nearly everything was surprising to me, LOL! But the biggest thing I learned is how mistaken were my own preconceptions about their culture. There is a reason why they do the things they do and look the way they look. For instance, each piece of a woman’s clothes means something historically and says something about her service to God. The white organdy prayer covering (called a Kapp in Pennsylvania Dutch) is pinned to the hair with three straight pins. But where you pin it says something about how willing you are to submit to the Ordnung. If you wear it far back on your head so that your ears are exposed, maybe you’re having a hard time submitting to the community’s expectations. And if you leave your strings free and not tied, you’re really walking the edge J because the Amish feel the next step after that is to remove the Kapp altogether, and then your principle indicator of submission is gone. You’ll notice in the other Amish communities outside the Old Order, the Kapp is smaller, covers less, and some have no strings at all.

So the art department and I worked together closely when it came to the portrayal of my heroine, Amelia Beiler, on the cover of The Wounded Heart. In the first versions her Kapp was pushed back on her hair, and the strings hung loose in front. But we worked together, and through the marvels of Photoshop, she now looks exactly as she should.

 Thanks for sharing this tidbit - something I never knew.

5Q.  Did your family support you in becoming a writer?

Adina:  Oh, yes. My husband is my biggest fan. He doesn’t go anywhere without a bunch of postcards in the side pocket of the door of the truck, and there are always bookmarks for my latest release in his pocket. He talks to the people in the doctor’s office, in the checkout line, and recently, on his annual hunting trip, he gave one of my excerpt booklets to a fellow hunter miles from anywhere out in the bush!

How great to have supportive family.

6Q.  What kind of books do you enjoy?

Adina:  I’m an eclectic reader. I have healthy collections of women’s fiction by Kristin Hannah, as many of Donna Leon’s Venice-set mysteries and C.S. Harris’s historical mysteries as I can get my hands on, science fiction by Connie Willis, urban fantasy by Jim Butcher, romance by Jennifer Skully and Bella Andre, children’s books by Troon Harrison . . . you name it. At the moment I’m immersed in George R.R. Martin’s “Song of Ice and Fire” books. Thank you, HBO. I read lots of Amish fiction, too, but not usually during the actual writing. I have a huge fear of being derivative and echoing someone’s book without being aware of it.

Now I have to go check the Martin books. Good thinking to keep your own voice and not echo someone even accidentally.

7Q.  What are some of the best tips you’ve received on writing?

Adina:  Jenny Cruise was the guest speaker when I was in the M.F.A. in Writing Popular Fiction program at Seton Hill University, and she said something about plotting I’ve never forgotten. Besides “Start where the trouble starts,” she said, “Two people are arguing about a coffee table. Remember that the table isn’t what they’re fighting about. It’s what’s under the table.” In other words, in important scenes, dialogue should have two levels of meaning—what’s on the surface and what is really bugging the characters down deep that they’re unwilling to come right out and say. I’ve never forgotten it. Of course, it took me the rest of my time in graduate school to figure out how to actually do that on the page.

Very good tip…that depth could make a big difference in how the dialogue and characters.

8Q.  What do you hope your readers get out of your books?

Adina:  If they can spend a couple of hours in my imaginary town of Whinburg, Pennsylvania, becoming friends with my characters and getting so involved in their lives that they forget the troubles and cares of their own, then I’m happy. That’s all I want. Company in my world. The coffee is on!

Oh yes… Sometimes I miss the quiet country of Pennsylvania where I grew up.  Next time maybe we could have Shoo Fly Pie.

Thank you for sharing with me and my blog readers.

Martha

Adina:  And thank you so much for the opportunity to visit. Have another slice of pie. I know I want one!

Adina

Book Review: The Wounded Heart by Adina Senft

Delightful read - I was captured and engaged from the beginning to the end by this book.

The Wounded Heart: An Amish Quilt Novel 

by Adina Senft

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: FaithWords (September 27, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892968540
• ISBN-13: 978-0892968541

     Genre: Inspirational
     My Rating: 5.0 of 5.0

Product Description
When a business offer turns into something more personal, Amelia is torn between what logic tells her is right, and the desire of her heart.

A widow with two small children, Amelia Beiler is struggling to make ends meet. She is running her late husband's business, but it's not what she was raised to do, which is run a home. When she gets an offer for the business from Eli Fischer, she's only too relieved to consider it-especially when it looks like Eli's interest might include more than just the shop. But when she begins to experience strange physical symptoms and is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, it's difficult not to question God's will. If she pursues the treatment she believes in, she risks going under the bann. But how can she allow Eli to court her when she can't promise him a future?

Review: This story is absolutely wonderful with charming writing, characters to love and a real to life story.

Amelia is an Amish widow with two small sons and her late husband’s business to manage.  She knows it is awkward in her community to have a woman running a business but the circumstances placed her in that capacity, not her own wishes or actions.  Yes, she may have learned to be a bit more independent having to make decisions as the head of her household and business.

She is surprised when an Englisch man offers to buy the pallet business. Then another Amish man, Eli, shows interest not only in the business but in her personally. However Amelia has just been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She faces being on medicine, which may only delay the deterioration of her muscle control, for the rest of her life, or she could raise the significant amount necessary to try some experimental treatment in Mexico. But it appears that the church elders do not approve of the experimental treatment nor do they approve of her selling her business to an outsider.

Amelia shares a quilting group with two wonderful friends, Emma and Carrie, who have their own issues. They try to give her sound advise while she also receives advise from her mother and father.  Amelia struggles with finding God’s Will and balancing her choices within the dictates of the elders of her church family.

The phrasing and writing is charming and smoothly reflects the Amish community. There are all the elements one might expect in an Amish story including a dedicated faith, community order, simple - if hard - living, close families and real friendships. There are also the struggles of balancing the worldly input and practices with the Amish life-style. Amelia’s thought dilemmas are so natural. The story is not in any way preachy as it is instead portrays a daily, living faith.

I will be eagerly looking forward to reading the stories for Emma and Carrie as the trilogy continues! The book includes the instructions for the quilt the ladies are working on. There is also a group discussion guide.

Here are two short quotes of many that I liked:
(Amelia responded to the laughter of her sons)
She needed to follow their innocent example and find joy in the little things. P 206

(Eli approaching Amelia again after learning the updated status of her illness.)
But the driver had turned sideways in his seat and was gazing at her with all the hope of harvest in his face. P282

I will be recommending this to my book club as I know everyone would enjoy it. Also I am going to let my daughter read it before I add my copy to the giveaway box. :-)

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Thank you to Hachette Center Street for this book to review and for offering a copy for Giveaway!

TO ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY for the book copy:
1. Visit the author's website and tell me something of interest you found there. This is required for entry.

2.  For two extra entries comment on the Author interview.

3.  For an extra entry, become a follower or tell me if you are already a follower.

4. For two entries, blog, facebook, tweet (any of those networks!) about this giveaway and tell me where you did.

It isn't necessary to use separate entries unless you want them in different chronological order.
(Six total entries possible.)

* Open to the US & Canada only.

* No PO boxes, please.

* This contest will close 10 PM (Central) on October 14, 2011. (This month's book giveaways will all end on the 30th except for Friday Picks, SBB or other special posts.)
The winner will be randomly selected from all entries.
The WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED on October 15. 
Winners will have 72 hours to respond by email or the winners form linked in the announcement.

Book Review: A Christmas Gift by Diane Craver

A charming Christmas and all year long read.

A Christmas Gift by Diane Craver

• Paperback: 88 pages
• Publisher: Whimsical Publications, LLC (November 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1936167360
• ISBN-13: 978-1936167364

Genre: Fiction/ Inspirational
My Rating: 4.5 of 5.0

Product Description
Justin Reeves is a man who has it all: a good job, a loving wife and children who are the center of his universe. Justin also has a secret he's hidden from everyone his entire life-or so he thought. Quite innocently his small daughter, Debby, stumbles upon his secret and is shocked by what she finds. She confronts her father with the awful truth, and together they embark upon a journey which takes her father from the darkness of shame into the light of victory.

Drawing from true events in her own childhood, author Diane Craver captivates the reader from page one to a stunning climax which will touch your heart and impact your life forever in this must-read story of love's triumph over adversity.

Review: This is a heart touching "old feel' story.

This sweet story is told by a 60 year old woman but related from her memories as a seven year old child. Debra is the youngest child of an older mother and father. She has two older sisters, 25 year old Gail and 14 year old Kathy who was stricken with polio when she was 7. Debra also has an older, 21 year old, brother who is away in the army.  The year is 1957 and little Debby discovers that her beloved father has a secret.  She prays about it and shares it with her siblings, then her mother and finally her father.  Her prayer is answered allowing her father to fulfill a life-long dream.  His courage encourages her mother to learn a new skill too.

The skill that Debby’s father learns allows him to give a very special gift to each of the children that Christmas. It is something they can cherish all their lives and it brought tears to my eyes.

Once or twice I thought...this writing seems so simple. Then I reminded myself that it was being told from the perspective of a child and that was the proper tone.  The Epilogue is a wrap up of the grown life of the narrator.  The story is well written - really hitting the nature emotions of the child.  The characters are real-to-life people in a real-to-life setting. Even the epilogue had me thinking that Debra was the author of the story instead of a fictional character.

This is warm and lovely - a quick read that may be a Christmas story but could be read anytime you want to warm you heart and find courage to try new things even as you “mature” in age.  I recommend this as a real to life, uplifting story.

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This ebook was provided by the Author for an honest review.

It's Monday! What are you Reading September 26, 2011?

This meme starts at Book Journey!

What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

I'm still busy with DH on the cruise. Now this week will be lots of time at sea.  I finished three books.  I posted three reviews, one guest post and two with Giveaways.  As usual, I posted the regular Friday Pick Giveaway; Saturday Sharing Beyond Books, and Sunday posts. I can't seem to get images loading with the internet on board now so some of these don't haveimages.

Again I didn't get to visit because of limited internet service and the cost of the service.  These were last week's posts plus Winner posts not listed.

•  It's Monday What are You Reading? September 19, 2011.

• Book Review The Lonely Mile by Allan Leverone. Thriller; my rating 4.5.

• Book Review and ARC Giveaway: Life is Not a Stage by Florence Henderson. Memoir; my rating 4.25.  Ends 10/7.

• Book Review and Two Copies Giveaway No Proper Lady by Isabel Cooper. Paranormal Romance; my rating 4.0. Ends 10/7.

• Guest Post by author Isabel Cooper.

•  Martha's Bookshelf***Friday Pick Giveaway September 23, 2011.  Open Worldwide. Ends 9/29.

• Sharing Beyond Books #15 Comment Giveaway.  Open Worldwide. Ends 9/30.

•  Sunday Words of Encouragement September 25, 2011. 

Finished Reading:

Print/Kindle:

No Proper Lady

by Isabel Cooper 

Review with Giveaway and 
Author Guest Post linked above.

Kindle: 

A Christmas Gift

by Diane Craver

This is a very sweet story.

I will post a review this week.

Read for the Author.

Print:
The Wounded Heart: An Amish Quilt Novel 

by Adina Senft

This is very beautiful! 

The Review and Giveaway to be posted 9/28.

Read for Faithwords (Hachette).

Line Edits/Releases: 
We will be releasing the full Anthology of Prom Night as soon as I can get it uploaded or emailed to my assistant to upload.

Currently reading:

Kindle:

Tenderfoot

by Amy Tupper

I am about 40% in this - 

mysterious and I am well engaged.

This will be the third review to post this week.

Reading for the Author.

Product Description
Jules is running. With the death of her mother behind her, she arrives at college in Chapel Hill ready to focus on friends, classes, and Andrew, the sweetest guy a girl could crush on. But Nick, the campus rock star, is always around, pressing every last one of her buttons. Things get strange when Nick plays his guitar, and even stranger when Jules discovers he wears a pendant identical to her dead mother’s. She wants answers. When her family’s secret is revealed, Jules must choose between running away from the one person she has opened up to or running with him toward an unknown future.

Print/Kindle:

Forbidden (The Books of Mortals) 

by Ted Dekker, Tosca Lee

I will start this next.

Reading for Center Street (Hachette.)

Product Description:
New York Times bestselling author Ted Dekker teams with Tosca Lee to create this gripping thriller set in a desolate future.

Many years have passed since civilization's brush with apocalypse. The world's greatest threats have all been silenced. There is no anger, no hatred, no war. There is only perfect peace... and fear. But a terrible secret has been closely guarded for centuries: Every single soul walking the earth, though in appearance totally normal, is actually dead, long ago genetically stripped of true humanity.

Fleeing pursuit, with only moments to live, a young man named Rom stumbles into possession of a vial of blood and a piece of cryptic writing. When consumed, the blood will bring him back to life. When decoded, the message will lead him on a perilous journey that will require him to abandon everything he has ever known and awaken humanity to the transforming power of true life and love.

But the blood will also resurrect hatred, ambition, and greed.

Set in a terrifying, medieval future, where grim pageantry masks death, this tale of dark desires and staggering stakes peels back the layers of the heart for all who dare to take the ride.

Audible/Audio 

TailSpin: FBI Thriller #12

• UNABRIDGED
• by Catherine Coulter
• Narrated by Joyce Bean, Paul Costanzo

This is a fav author of mine.

I have just started this from my TBR audios.

Product Description:
FBI Special Agent Jackson Crowne is flying his Cessna over the Appalachians with a very important passenger: renowned psychiatrist Dr. Timothy MacLean. Their destination is Washington, D.C. Upon their arrival, the FBI will protect the doctor - and ascertain just who wants him dead.But they don't make it.
In San Francisco, married FBI Special Agents Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock take an early-morning phone call from their supervisor, Jimmy Maitland. Maitland received a Mayday from Jack in the mountains near Parlow, Kentucky, and sends Savich and Sherlock to see what's happened.
Agent Crowne is able to bring his plane down in a narrow valley and haul the unconscious Dr. MacLean from the burning wreckage before it explodes. Their crash is witnessed by Rachael Abbott, a young woman on the run after the mysterious death of her father. When Savich and Sherlock arrive on the scene, they find Jack and Rachael in the Parlow clinic and Dr. MacLean comatose in the local hospital, prognosis unknown.
What they do know frightens them: Dr. MacLean was recently diagnosed with frontal lobe dementia, and in the months prior to the crash, his behavior had become erratic and alarmingly uninhibited, his ability to maintain doctor-patient confidentiality badly compromised. With a patient list made up of Washington movers and shakers, MacLean's role as a keeper of secrets is jeopardized as well.
Is there someone out there so desperate that they'd kill the doctor for what he knows? It is up to Jack, Savich, and Sherlock to find out - no matter the cost.

I am also listening to The Listener's Bible NIV read by Max McLean. I completed Job; I am at Isaiah 58 and Ephesians 5.

Line Edits: Working on Dark Bride series for October.  Will be setting up print releases when I return to the US.

September Review Books - 13 or so - that should keep me busy. :-)

Scheduled:
9/28  The Wounded Heart: An Amish Quilt Novel by Adina Senft (FaithWords)

Center Street
Forbidden (The Books of Mortals) by Ted Dekker, Tosca Lee


Author Selections:
Karen Weisner - Love Is Blind and It Don't Pay the Bills Either (Denim Blues Mysteries, Book 2) (read)

and Souls on (B)oring Street [Denim Blues Mysteries Book 3]
Anne Patrick Renegade Hearts
Nibi Soto - The Chronicles of Quant
Nathan Patrick Hardt - The Second Sonata
Caedem Marquez - The Path Home



[To be posted:
These were read and ready for reviews for Authors. I am sending out interviews for these. I hope to post them all in September.
Quest for Magic by Jean Hart Stewart - Read; review to be posted with interview.
Seeing for the First Time (What You See is What You Get) and 

To See (What You See is What You Get) by Nicole Zoltack - Both Read; setting up author interview with reviews.

Steamrolled by Pauline Baird Jone. Read; review to be posted with author interview.]