July 25, 2008
A Christian Writer’s World Interview
Here’s something fun! I’m one of the featured authors this week and next on Lena Nelson Dooley’s blog, A Christian Writer’s World. Come on over and sit a spell…I’ll be watching for you! 
July 16, 2008
Calico Canyon
Okay, folks…it’s been a little while since I posted a review. I’ve been busy doing everything except reading and writing. When I finally did pick up a book, mostly because it had been sent to me for review, I simply could not put it down. Calico Canyon, by Mary Connealy, is such a fun, warm, wonderful historical romance! If you’re going to buy one book this summer, buy this one. You won’t regret it…
Here’s my take on Mary’s beautiful novel – the second of nine the author has contracted with Barbour Publishing:
Grace Calhoun has not had a good day. In addition to a heart-pounding encounter with a snake, she has sat on a tack, had a face-off with a precocious child, and publicly lost her skirt—twice! She can attribute all of her woes to five rambunctious students and their hard-headed widower father, Daniel Reeves, who manages before the awful day is finished to get her fired from a teaching job she needs worse than anyone knows.
Just when she’s convinced things can’t go any further downhill, 17-year-old Grace’s past shows up in the form of her adoptive father—the last person she wants to see. On the run from this cruel, sadistic man, Grace finds herself stowed away in Daniel’s wagon and carried off to his home on the mountain…and his five little terrors.
Circumstances converge to force Grace and Daniel into a marriage neither of them want. To their surprise, they soon find themselves drawn to one another, and Grace even falls in love with Daniel’s undisciplined rapscallions. But her husband seems determined to keep her at arm’s length—for her own safety. What can she do to convince him she’s not made of china?
When Grace’s nemesis eventually finds her in her new home, Daniel and the boys discover just how much they’ve come to love the prudish schoolteacher—who has shown them a wonderful, warm, loving “other” side to her personality. With the Reeves clan willing to go to any lengths to protect their new “Ma,” her cruel father discovers it won’t be an easy task to deal out his special brand of punishment to this wayward child.
The author weaves a mesmerizing tale with a good number of laugh-out-loud moments—and just as many that twist the heart and turn on the tears. A generous spattering of godly wisdom and divine inspiration is expertly woven into the storyline. Their purpose is well served without once becoming preachy or pious.
A good book with a gripping storyline. Calico Canyon is a whole cave full of family fun!
