Musings by Erin: March 2020

Monday, March 30, 2020

Book Recommendation - Silent Shadows

One of my go-to authors for romantic suspense novels is Natalie Walters. She is currently releasing into the world book 3 of her Harbored Secrets series, which brings the series to a close. Fans of the series will be glad to be back in the small town of Walton, GA and will get to see some familiar faces. Fans of romantic suspense who think this one looks fabulous and haven't read the others yet, no worries - other than a couple of minor spots, you won't be missing any information. This one is fine to read on its own!This had all the fine qualities I've come to expect from Ms. Walters, including great characters, twists and turns, some serious suspense, a swoony romance, a solid faith thread, and of course, Marvel movie references (don't worry - you won't be lost if you haven't seen those either). This book follows Pecca Gallegos, a nurse at Home for Heroes and Captain Colton Crawford, who has been discharged from the army due to a diagnosis of PMD (which I'd never heard of prior to this book). There's a good bit about overcoming obstacles and looking past people's handicaps.

As part of the launch team for this book, I had the pleasure of being able to ask the author some questions and here's how she responded:

1. Did you have a favorite character in this book? Who and why? Gosh, this is such a hard question because I have been waiting to write this book for a while and dreaming of the characters. If I had to absolutely choose it’d probably be Pecca. And now I’m second-guessing myself and thinking, Colton. Okay, I’ll stick with Pecca. I love her because she’s faced some adversity in her life, loves to see the best in everyone, has made some mistakes in her life that she’s learned from, and she’s feisty!! 2. Who was your favorite in the series? Now this is really not fair!! I can’t choose. I love each of them for different reasons and to pick one out of them all…I just can’t. Sorry! 3. Where did you get Pecca's name from (I love the explanation of its meaning!) I was a member of MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) in El Paso, Texas about twenty years ago and had a friend named Pecca. She explained how she got it and I fell in love with the story behind it and for some reason never forgot. Pecca is named after her and the explanation is how it happened.  4. PMD (the disorder Colton has) is not something I've heard of before. How did you decide to use that and what type of research did that entail? PMD is something my family became intimately aware of when my daughter began having tremors in her arm. After numerous appointments with specialists and every test in the world, they were throwing every possible explanation at us and one was Psychogenic Movement Disorder (PMD), which can happen when the body experiences extreme trauma. The doctors eventually ruled this out for my daughter but the idea that our body would respond in such a dramatic and debilitating manner stuck with me. There’s not a lot of information out there about movement disorders but they are crippling to the person experiencing them, I wanted to write this story to share the struggle. 5. Did anything in the story change or surprise you as you were writing? I had begun dreaming about this story while I was writing my second book so I had a lot of the story line ready (in my head) but I’d say the new secondary characters who kept showing up in scenes were a delightful surprise. 6. What was your inspiration for the story line? Colton’s medical condition. Experiencing my daughter’s struggle as her body failed her was heart-breaking for a mom but for her…it was devastating. I wanted this story to represent how God can use our setbacks (whatever they might be) to bring us right where we need to be and that it might be better than we could’ve ever hoped for. 7. What do you hope readers will glean from this book? I feel like this story has a couple of great messages. I hope readers finish this book believing that their pasts do not define them and that our setbacks can be beautiful and promising if we trust them to the Lord. 8. What's coming next and when? Can you tell us a little bit about it? Oh, I am SO excited about what’s coming next!! I have the privilege of writing another 3-book series for Revell about a private agency based in Washington, D.C. The Strategic Neutralization and Protection Agency ensures America that what they don’t know, won’t hurt them. This series has a great team of specialists that I think readers will enjoy getting to know and the suspense will be on a more national and global scale, which I think is going to be a lot of fun!!

For more information, here are some good links:
Natalie Walters' website: www.nataliewalterswriter.com
Natalie Walters' Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Natalie-Walters-Writer-147854518601519/
Silent Shadows Pintrest page: https://www.pinterest.com/nakeliwalters/silent-shadows-harbored-secrets-book-3/?fbclid=IwAR21eZi5edCISeU_59HvH3XD3XUHiny8xbuofcLJoWNljcoEvpKcoow_83Q
My full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2865298234?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

Friday, March 27, 2020

Book Recommendation - Before I Called You Mine

One of the things I love about authors that I follow and help is that they lead me to other fantastic authors. Such was the case with my discovery of Nicole Deese. Another author that I follow and was helping with a launch put out a plea for fans of hers to help launch Nicole's latest, Before I Called You Mine. I read the cover blurb, saw it was about adoption (which is so close to my heart) and knew I wanted to read this one! So, I signed up for the launch team, and the rest is history. I SO totally loved this book. It is easily one of my favorites for 2020. There was a lot of laughter and more than a few tears. Those are the proofs of a good book!

Here's the synopsis:

Lauren Bailey may be a romantic at heart, but after a decade of matchmaking schemes gone wrong, there’s only one match she’s committed to now—the one that will make her a mother. Lauren is a dedicated first grade teacher in Idaho, and her love for children has led her to the path of international adoption. To satisfy her adoption agency’s requirements, she gladly agreed to remain single for the foreseeable future; however, just as her long wait comes to an end, Lauren is blindsided by a complication she never saw coming: Joshua Avery.

Joshua may be a substitute teacher by day, but Lauren finds his passion for creating educational technology as fascinating as his antics in the classroom. Though she does her best to downplay the undeniable connection between them, his relentless pursuit of her heart puts her commitment to stay unattached to the test and causes her once-firm conviction to waver.

With an impossible decision looming, Lauren might very well find herself choosing between the two deepest desires of her heart . . . even if saying yes to one means letting go of the other.

Being part of the launch team, I was made aware of the "story behind the story":
In the summer of 2017, my little family of four - my husband of 16 years and our two pre-teen sons - became a family of five when we adopted a six-and-a-half-year-old girl from an orphanage in Beijing, China. Our lives, and our daughter's life, was forever changed that day. Over the next year, as I took time off from writing deadlines and publishing contracts to bond with our daughter, Lucy Mei, God began to weave a new storyline in my writer's heart.

While we'd been in China, I met several single mothers who'd made the incredible trek overseas to adopt their son or daughter during the same time we adopted our Lucy Mei. Their journeys were not only courageous, but their obedience to pursue a life-altering call despite the cost, stigma, and sacrifice, left me teary-eyed and inspired. The rules are clear - you can either adopt as a woman who has been married for two years or longer, or as a single, unattached woman. No exceptions. Basically, if you start the process to adopt as a single woman, get matched with your future child, and then accidentally meet and fall in love with Mr. Right during that same timeline.... you are going to have some hard decisions to make.

It was this rule that began a series of "what if" questions in my writer brain: What if there's a single woman in her thirties who loves children and feels called to adopt an orphan overseas? What if that same woman is "matched" to a child with a real face and a real history? What if only a short while after she's matched with her future child, she meets the man she's prayed for all her life? And what if she's forced to make an impossible decision between the two deepest desires of her heart, even when walking through one door will mean closing the other?

"Before I Called You Mine" is a contemporary romance that colors outside the lines of a traditional romantic fairytale but highlights the undeniable connection of two hearts meant to beat as one. While there are many playful interactions and humorous scenes throughout Lauren and Joshua's story, there are also raw and vulnerable moments that I pray will stir your soul and paint a lasting, more vibrant picture of all that love can be with the turn of every page.

Since Nicole is new to my blog, here's a little bit more about her:

Nicole Deese’s eight humorous, heartfelt, and hope-filled novels include the 2017 Carol Award Winning A Season to Love. Her 2018 release, A New Shade of Summer, was a finalist in the RITA Awards, Carol Awards, and Inspy Awards. Both these books are from her best-selling Love in Lenox Series. Her newest contemporary romance, Before I Called You Mine, from Bethany House Publishers has recently received a starred review from Booklist.

When Nicole’s not sorting out characters and plots of her own, she can usually be found reading near a window overlooking the inspiring beauty of the Pacific Northwest (most often while sipping on a sparkling water). She lives in small-town, Idaho with her happily-ever-after hubby, two towering-over-her teen sons, and her princess daughter with the heart of a warrior.