It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
Today's Wild Card author is:
and the book:
When a Man You Love Was Abused: A Woman's Guide to Helping Him Overcome Childhood Sexual Molestation
Kregel Publications (April 7, 2010)
***Special thanks to Danielle Douglas of Douglas Public Relations for sending me a review copy.***ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Cecil Murphey has written or coauthored more than one hundred books, including the bestselling book Gifted Hands which has sold more than three million copies, the autobiography of Franklin Graham, Rebel with a Cause and the New York Times bestseller 90 Minutes in Heaven. Murphey currently resides in Georgia.
Visit the author's website.
Visit the author's blog.
Product Details:
List Price: $13.99
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Kregel Publications (April 7, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0825433533
ISBN-13: 978-0825433535
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
—P r e f a c e —
A Word about the Names in This Book
When I write nonfiction books I like to provide the full name of the individuals involved. I believe it adds integrity to the material and shows they’re not made-up accounts or composites. In this book, however, I can’t do that. This material is much too sensitive and personal.
“If I gave my name,” one man said, “my family might find out, and they wouldn’t forgive me.” His stepfather had been the perpetrator.
Others who talked to me gave no specific reason other than to say, “I’m not ready to tell this publicly” or “I’d rather you don’t use my name.”
Out of respect for these individuals, I’ve disguised their identity. If you read only a first name, it’s for one of three reasons:
1. The person requested I not use his name.
2. Several of the groups in which I participated are like AA—and we use only our first names. I tell the story of a man named Red, for example, so called because that’s the only name by which I knew him.
3. I no longer have contact with the person and couldn’t get permission.
How to Use This Book
I’ve designed this book in two parts, and it doesn’t matter which you read first.
Part 1 focuses on male sexual assault and its effects. This part is basically informative, and its purpose is to help you understand the problems that male abuse victims face.
Part 2 is the practical section. The purpose is to show you—a woman in the life of a man who was molested as a child—what you can do to help him.
— I n t r o d u c t i o n —
If You’re an Important Woman in His Life
He was molested—or at least you suspect he was. That means he was victimized by someone older and more powerful than he was. The man you care for might be your boyfriend, husband, brother, father, or son. He is someone you care about deeply, and because he hurts, you hurt.
He hurts because he was victimized in childhood. Many therapists don’t like the word victim or victimized and prefer to speak of survivors. They also don’t like the word abused and usually opt for assaulted. The media tends to use the word molested. In this book, I use the terms interchangeably.
Regardless of the word used, something happened to him—something terrible and frightening—that will affect him for the rest of his life. Something happened to him that affects your life as well.
How Can You Help?
Because you care about him, you have also been victimized. Because of your love for him, you’ve been hurt, and you may have suffered for a long time. But the man you care for didn’t hurt you intentionally. He was trying to cope with his problem.
Perhaps years passed before you knew about his childhood pain. During that time, you may have sensed something was wrong. Statistics indicate that men tend to reveal themselves more readily to a woman, usually a wife or girlfriend.
But even if you knew about his experience, how could you have grasped how it would impact your relationship? Because he battled the problem that he couldn’t talk about, he did it privately and sometimes not too well. How could you not feel rejected or hurt when he shut you out?
Even if he faced his abuse, he may have excused the perpetrator. Although the man in your life was the victim, he may have felt guilty for the abuse. His undeserved guilt is real. And he hurts.
Because he hurts, you hurt too.
That’s part of your victimization. His reactions, attitudes, and behavior caused you to assume blame and guilt, and you’ve asked yourself, “How did I fail?” You may not have voiced those words, but you felt you were the flawed person in the relationship.
If this describes you, you may already have gone through a lengthy period of wondering what was wrong with you. You tormented yourself with questions:
• Why does he shut me out?
• Why can’t I help him?
• Why can’t I take away his pain?
• Why won’t he talk to me or allow me into his private world?
• How did I fail him?
• I love him and try to show him that, so why won’t he trust me?
If you’re reading this, it means you know, or seriously suspect, that an important male in your life was assaulted in childhood. You love him and want to relieve his pain, but you feel helpless. Or you’re sure there must be something you can do to fix him. If you could just figure out the hidden weapon, the magic pill, or the right words, he’d be all right.
It isn’t that simple. Besides, you can’t fix him.
In this book, though, I provide suggestions in part 2 to help you understand and accept him. As you accept his situation and his resulting problems, I hope you’ll feel better about yourself and accept that his problem is not your fault. You may often need to remind yourself of this fact: it is his battle. You can’t fight his inner demons, but you can stand with him when he fights them. He must work through it himself. You can assist him by being available to him, and I’ll suggest ways to do that. But it is his struggle and his journey into wholeness.
You may feel more at peace with your inability to heal him if you can think of him as a once-innocent child who was victimized by a predator. This isn’t to deny your pain, but you can help him and help yourself if you can start with understanding something from his past.
His experience and his response to it are complex. He has been wounded in several ways, the old wounds reopen in unpredictable ways, and you can’t do anything to make him into a whole person. You can stand with him as he seeks and discovers his own healing. As you accept his situation and his resulting problems and behavior, I hope you’ll feel better about yourself and accept the reality that his problem isn’t your fault. He must work through his own emotional issues—with your assistance of love and encouragement.
I want to make an important distinction here. When an adult sexually abuses a boy, many people think of that as a sexual act. That’s not correct. The perpetrator’s actions weren’t about sex, and they weren’t about love for the child. Those who molest have deep-seated problems that go far deeper than sexual exploitation of a child. For the perpetrator, sexual gratification at the expense of a child is a symptom of deeper problems that go beyond the scope of this book.
When adults are attracted to children—compulsively attracted—we call them pedophiles. Although there are variations in the definition of pedophiles, here’s a simple one: the term comes from two Greek words—paidos, children, and philia, a word for love. It refers to anyone—male or female—who is sexually attracted to prepubescent children. I’ll say it even stronger; they are compulsively attracted. Generally, that means the objects of their desire are children younger than thirteen. Therapists have recorded that some pedophiles visualize themselves as being at the same age as the children they molest. Other therapists would say that pedophiles are adults who are fixated at the prepubescent stage of life.
Just as all assaulted boys won’t become homosexuals, the male perpetrator may not be gay. Most of those convicted of molesting boys vehemently deny that they are homosexual and insist they are heterosexual.
Regardless, when an adult molests an innocent child, that’s sexual abuse. My intention is not that you try to understand the abuser, or that you feel sorry for that person. By the end of the journey, though, I hope you and the man in your life will be able to forgive and to feel sadness for such individuals.
The perpetrator—whether male or female—is a sexual abuser of children. That’s the one fact to bear in mind. Sometimes it makes no difference to the perpetrator whether the victims are male or female. This is an important concept for you, the woman in the victim’s life, to understand. The result of his abuse carries long-lasting effects, and he may not want to talk about the issues related to the abuse for fear of being labeled as homosexual. Or he may feel he is gay because it was a man who molested him. You may need to help him accept that child sexual abuse is not a heterosexual-homosexual issue. It’s a crime and a sin that was perpetrated against him.
He probably doesn’t understand all that. He may still feel conflicted about what happened to him—and about the theft of his innocence. For now, the once–abused child needs support and encouragement. He needs someone he can trust as he copes with his pain and his problems. He needs you.
A Word about the Names in This Book
When I write nonfiction books I like to provide the full name of the individuals involved. I believe it adds integrity to the material and shows they’re not made-up accounts or composites. In this book, however, I can’t do that. This material is much too sensitive and personal.
“If I gave my name,” one man said, “my family might find out, and they wouldn’t forgive me.” His stepfather had been the perpetrator.
Others who talked to me gave no specific reason other than to say, “I’m not ready to tell this publicly” or “I’d rather you don’t use my name.”
Out of respect for these individuals, I’ve disguised their identity. If you read only a first name, it’s for one of three reasons:
1. The person requested I not use his name.
2. Several of the groups in which I participated are like AA—and we use only our first names. I tell the story of a man named Red, for example, so called because that’s the only name by which I knew him.
3. I no longer have contact with the person and couldn’t get permission.
How to Use This Book
I’ve designed this book in two parts, and it doesn’t matter which you read first.
Part 1 focuses on male sexual assault and its effects. This part is basically informative, and its purpose is to help you understand the problems that male abuse victims face.
Part 2 is the practical section. The purpose is to show you—a woman in the life of a man who was molested as a child—what you can do to help him.
— I n t r o d u c t i o n —
If You’re an Important Woman in His Life
He was molested—or at least you suspect he was. That means he was victimized by someone older and more powerful than he was. The man you care for might be your boyfriend, husband, brother, father, or son. He is someone you care about deeply, and because he hurts, you hurt.
He hurts because he was victimized in childhood. Many therapists don’t like the word victim or victimized and prefer to speak of survivors. They also don’t like the word abused and usually opt for assaulted. The media tends to use the word molested. In this book, I use the terms interchangeably.
Regardless of the word used, something happened to him—something terrible and frightening—that will affect him for the rest of his life. Something happened to him that affects your life as well.
How Can You Help?
Because you care about him, you have also been victimized. Because of your love for him, you’ve been hurt, and you may have suffered for a long time. But the man you care for didn’t hurt you intentionally. He was trying to cope with his problem.
Perhaps years passed before you knew about his childhood pain. During that time, you may have sensed something was wrong. Statistics indicate that men tend to reveal themselves more readily to a woman, usually a wife or girlfriend.
But even if you knew about his experience, how could you have grasped how it would impact your relationship? Because he battled the problem that he couldn’t talk about, he did it privately and sometimes not too well. How could you not feel rejected or hurt when he shut you out?
Even if he faced his abuse, he may have excused the perpetrator. Although the man in your life was the victim, he may have felt guilty for the abuse. His undeserved guilt is real. And he hurts.
Because he hurts, you hurt too.
That’s part of your victimization. His reactions, attitudes, and behavior caused you to assume blame and guilt, and you’ve asked yourself, “How did I fail?” You may not have voiced those words, but you felt you were the flawed person in the relationship.
If this describes you, you may already have gone through a lengthy period of wondering what was wrong with you. You tormented yourself with questions:
• Why does he shut me out?
• Why can’t I help him?
• Why can’t I take away his pain?
• Why won’t he talk to me or allow me into his private world?
• How did I fail him?
• I love him and try to show him that, so why won’t he trust me?
If you’re reading this, it means you know, or seriously suspect, that an important male in your life was assaulted in childhood. You love him and want to relieve his pain, but you feel helpless. Or you’re sure there must be something you can do to fix him. If you could just figure out the hidden weapon, the magic pill, or the right words, he’d be all right.
It isn’t that simple. Besides, you can’t fix him.
In this book, though, I provide suggestions in part 2 to help you understand and accept him. As you accept his situation and his resulting problems, I hope you’ll feel better about yourself and accept that his problem is not your fault. You may often need to remind yourself of this fact: it is his battle. You can’t fight his inner demons, but you can stand with him when he fights them. He must work through it himself. You can assist him by being available to him, and I’ll suggest ways to do that. But it is his struggle and his journey into wholeness.
You may feel more at peace with your inability to heal him if you can think of him as a once-innocent child who was victimized by a predator. This isn’t to deny your pain, but you can help him and help yourself if you can start with understanding something from his past.
His experience and his response to it are complex. He has been wounded in several ways, the old wounds reopen in unpredictable ways, and you can’t do anything to make him into a whole person. You can stand with him as he seeks and discovers his own healing. As you accept his situation and his resulting problems and behavior, I hope you’ll feel better about yourself and accept the reality that his problem isn’t your fault. He must work through his own emotional issues—with your assistance of love and encouragement.
I want to make an important distinction here. When an adult sexually abuses a boy, many people think of that as a sexual act. That’s not correct. The perpetrator’s actions weren’t about sex, and they weren’t about love for the child. Those who molest have deep-seated problems that go far deeper than sexual exploitation of a child. For the perpetrator, sexual gratification at the expense of a child is a symptom of deeper problems that go beyond the scope of this book.
When adults are attracted to children—compulsively attracted—we call them pedophiles. Although there are variations in the definition of pedophiles, here’s a simple one: the term comes from two Greek words—paidos, children, and philia, a word for love. It refers to anyone—male or female—who is sexually attracted to prepubescent children. I’ll say it even stronger; they are compulsively attracted. Generally, that means the objects of their desire are children younger than thirteen. Therapists have recorded that some pedophiles visualize themselves as being at the same age as the children they molest. Other therapists would say that pedophiles are adults who are fixated at the prepubescent stage of life.
Just as all assaulted boys won’t become homosexuals, the male perpetrator may not be gay. Most of those convicted of molesting boys vehemently deny that they are homosexual and insist they are heterosexual.
Regardless, when an adult molests an innocent child, that’s sexual abuse. My intention is not that you try to understand the abuser, or that you feel sorry for that person. By the end of the journey, though, I hope you and the man in your life will be able to forgive and to feel sadness for such individuals.
The perpetrator—whether male or female—is a sexual abuser of children. That’s the one fact to bear in mind. Sometimes it makes no difference to the perpetrator whether the victims are male or female. This is an important concept for you, the woman in the victim’s life, to understand. The result of his abuse carries long-lasting effects, and he may not want to talk about the issues related to the abuse for fear of being labeled as homosexual. Or he may feel he is gay because it was a man who molested him. You may need to help him accept that child sexual abuse is not a heterosexual-homosexual issue. It’s a crime and a sin that was perpetrated against him.
He probably doesn’t understand all that. He may still feel conflicted about what happened to him—and about the theft of his innocence. For now, the once–abused child needs support and encouragement. He needs someone he can trust as he copes with his pain and his problems. He needs you.
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by Karen Young
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Howard Books; Original edition (June 15, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1416587497
ISBN-13: 978-1416587491
Description
It took precious seconds of 16-year-old Melanie's diverted attention at the Mardi Gras parade for someone to take baby Max from his stroller. Another hour for police to present Max's mom, Jane, with all the kidnapper left behind...one small shoe.
Six months later, the family is in a turmoil they cannot seem to escape. Max is out there somewhere - Jane is certain and she won't stop until she finds him - while Melanie takes a horrific step to make amends for those few seconds of attention lapse. Kyle doesn't know who to comfort first and, even if he could determine whether his wife or daughter needs him most, he can't put aside his own anguish over his missing infant son to chart a corrective course of action.
With their marriage on the rocks and a teenager taking matters into her own hands, can this family survive MISSING MAX?
Reading Group Guide
Read An Excerpt
Six months later, the family is in a turmoil they cannot seem to escape. Max is out there somewhere - Jane is certain and she won't stop until she finds him - while Melanie takes a horrific step to make amends for those few seconds of attention lapse. Kyle doesn't know who to comfort first and, even if he could determine whether his wife or daughter needs him most, he can't put aside his own anguish over his missing infant son to chart a corrective course of action.
With their marriage on the rocks and a teenager taking matters into her own hands, can this family survive MISSING MAX?
Reading Group Guide
Read An Excerpt
After a nomadic lifestyle involving 25 moves, Karen has settled in Texas and fallen in love with its culture. To learn more - including how you could win a Kindle! - visit www.KarenYoung.net.
Review
This book was such an exciting ride! While we also are along for the ride in the search for this little boy, we also get to see 'behind the scenes' into how something like this pulls and tears at the family involved. This book is an emotional rollercoaster from beginning to surprising end and will have you on the edge of your seat. Definitely pick this one up for some great summer reading!
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It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
Today's Wild Card author is:
and the book:
David C. Cook; New edition (June 1, 2010)
***Special thanks to Audra Jennings of The B&B Media Group for sending me a review copy.***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Marybeth Whalen is the general editor of For the Write Reason and The Reason We Speakas well as co-author of the book Learning to Live Financially Free. She serves as a speaker for the Proverbs 31 Ministry Team and directs a fiction book club, She Reads, through this same outreach. Most importantly, Marybeth is the wife of Curt Whalen and mother to their six children. She is passionate about sharing God with all the women God places in her path. She has been visiting the mailbox for years.
Visit the author's website.
Product Details:
List Price: $14.99
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: David C. Cook; New edition (June 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0781403693
ISBN-13: 978-0781403696
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
Sunset Beach, NC
Summer 1985
Campbell held back a teasing smile as he led Lindsey across the warm sand toward the mailbox. Leaning her head on Campbell’s shoulder, her steps slowed. She looked up at him, observing the mischievous curling at the corners of his mouth. “There really is no mailbox, is there?” she said, playfully offended. “If you wanted to get me alone on a deserted stretch of beach, all you had to do was ask.” She elbowed him in the side.
A grin spread across his flawless face. “You caught me.” He threw his hands up in the air in surrender.
“I gotta stop for a sec,” Lindsey said and bent at the waist, stretching the backs of her aching legs. She stood up and put her hands on her hips, narrowing her eyes at him. “So, have you actually been to the mailbox? Maybe the other kids at the pier were just pulling your leg.”
Campbell nodded his head. “I promise I’ve been there before. It’ll be worth it. You’ll see.” He pressed his forehead to hers and looked intently into her eyes before continuing down the beach.
“If you say so …” she said, following him. He slipped his arm around her bare tanned shoulder and squeezed it, pulling her closer to him. Lindsey looked ahead of them at the vast expanse of raw
coastline. She could make out a jetty of rocks in the distance that jutted into the ocean like a finish line.
As they walked, she looked down at the pairs of footprints they left in the sand. She knew that soon the tide would wash them away, and she realized that just like those footprints, the time she had left
with Campbell would soon vanish. A refrain ran through her mind: Enjoy the time you have left. She planned to remember every moment of this walk so she could replay it later, when she was back at home, without him. Memories would be her most precious commodity. How else would she feel him near her?
“I don’t know how we’re going to make this work,” she said as they walked. “I mean, how are we going to stay close when we’re so far away from each other?”
He pressed his lips into a line and ran a hand through his hair. “We just will,” he said. He exhaled loudly, a punctuation.
“But how?” she asked, wishing she didn’t sound so desperate.
He smiled. “We’ll write. And we’ll call. I’ll pay for the longdistance bills. My parents already said I could.” He paused. “And we’ll count the days until next summer. Your aunt and uncle already said you could come back and stay for most of the summer. And you know your mom will let you.”
“Yeah, she’ll be glad to get rid of me for sure.” She pushed images of home from her mind: the menthol odor of her mother’s cigarettes, their closet-sized apartment with parchment walls you could hear the neighbors through, her mom’s embarrassing “delicates” dangling from the shower rod in the tiny bathroom they shared. She wished that her aunt and uncle didn’t have to leave the beach house after
the summer was over and that she could just stay with them forever.
The beach house had become her favorite place in the world. At the beach house, she felt like a part of a real family with her aunt and uncle and cousins. This summer had been an escape from the reality of her life at home. And it had been a chance to discover true love. But tomorrow, her aunt and uncle would leave for their home and send her back to her mother.
“I don’t want to leave!” she suddenly yelled into the open air, causing a few startled birds to take flight.
Campbell didn’t flinch when she yelled. She bit her lip and closed her eyes as he pulled her to him and hugged her.
“Shhh,” he said. “I don’t want you to leave either.” He cupped her chin with his hand. “If I could reverse time for you, I would. And we would go back and do this whole summer over.”
She nodded and wished for the hundredth time that she could stand on the beach with Campbell forever, listening to the hypnotic sound of his voice, so much deeper and more mature than the boys at school. She thought about the pictures they had taken earlier that day, a last-ditch effort to have something of him to take with her. But it was a pitiful substitute, a cheap counterfeit for the real thing.
Campbell pointed ahead of them. “Come on,” he said and tugged on her hand. “I think I see it.” He grinned like a little boy. They crested the dune and there, without pomp or circumstance,
just as he had promised, stood an ordinary mailbox with gold letters spelling out “Kindred Spirit.”
“I told you it was here!” he said as they waded through the deep sand. “The mailbox has been here a couple of years,” he said, his tone changing to something close to reverence as he laid his hand on top
of it. “No one knows who started it or why, but word has traveled and now people come all the way out here to leave letters for the Kindred Spirit—the mystery person who reads them. People come from all over the world.”
“So does anybody know who gets the letters?” Lindsey asked. She ran her fingers over the gold, peeling letter decals. The bottom half of the n and e were missing.
“I don’t think so. But that’s part of what draws people here— they come here because this place is private, special.” He looked down at his bare feet, digging his toes into the sand. “So … I wanted to bring you here. So it could be our special place too.” He looked over at her out of the corner of his eye. “I hope you don’t think that’s lame.”
She put her arms around him and looked into his eyes. “Not lame at all,” she said.
As he kissed her, she willed her mind to record it all: the roar of the waves and the cry of the seagulls, the powdery softness of the warm sand under her feet, the briny smell of the ocean mixed with the scent of Campbell’s sun-kissed skin. Later, when she was back at home in Raleigh, North Carolina, she would come right back to this moment. Again and again. Especially when her mother sent her to her room with the paper-thin walls while she entertained her newest boyfriend.
Lindsey opened the mailbox, the hinges creaking as she did. She looked to him, almost for approval. “Look inside,” he invited her.
She saw some loose paper as well as spiral-bound notebooks, the kind she bought at the drugstore for school. The pages were crinkly from the sea air and water. There were pens in the mailbox too, some
with their caps missing.
Campbell pointed. “You should write a letter,” he said. “Take a pen and some paper and just sit down and write what you are feeling.” He shrugged. “It seemed like something you would really get into.”
How well he had come to know her in such a short time. “Okay,” she said. “I love it.” She reached inside and pulled out a purple notebook, flipping it open to read a random page. Someone had written about a wonderful family vacation spent at Sunset and the special time she had spent with her daughter.
She closed the notebook. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. She couldn’t imagine her own mother ever wanting to spend time with her, much less being so grateful about it. Reading the notebook made her feel worse, not better. She didn’t need reminding about what she didn’t have waiting for her back home.
Campbell moved in closer. “What is it?” he said, his body lining up perfectly with hers as he pulled her close.
She laid the notebook back inside the mailbox. “I just don’t want to go home,” she said. “I wish my uncle didn’t have to return to his stupid job. How can I go back to … her? She doesn’t want me there any more than I want to be there.” This time she didn’t fight the tears that had been threatening all day.
Campbell pulled her down to sit beside him in the sand and said nothing as she cried, rocking her slightly in his arms.
With her head buried in his shoulder, her words came out muffled. “You are so lucky you live here.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I guess I am.” He said nothing for a while.
“But you have to know that this place won’t be the same for me without you in it.”
She looked up at him, her eyes red from crying. “So you’re saying I’ve ruined it for you?”
He laughed, and she recorded the sound of his laugh in her memory too. “Well, if you want to put it that way, then, yes.”
“Well, that just makes me feel worse!” She laid her head on his shoulder and concentrated on the nearness of him, inhaled the sea scent of his skin and the smell of earth that clung to him from working
outside with his dad.
“Everywhere I go from now on I will have the memory of you with me. Of me and you together. The Island Market, the beach, the arcade, the deck on my house, the pier …” He raised his eyebrows as
he remembered the place where he first kissed her. “And now here. It will always remind me of you.”
“And I am going home to a place without a trace of you in it. I don’t know which is worse, constant reminders or no reminders at all.” She laced her narrow fingers through his.
“So are you glad we met?” She sounded pitiful, but she had to hear his answer.
“I would still have wanted to meet you,” he said. “Even though it’s going to break my heart to watch you go. What we have is worth it.” He kissed her, his hands reaching up to stroke her hair. She heard his words echoing in her mind: worth it, worth it, worth it. She knew that they were young, that they had their whole lives ahead of them, at least that’s what her aunt and uncle had told her. But she also knew
that what she had with Campbell was beyond age.
Campbell stood up and pulled her to her feet, attempting to keep kissing her as he did. She giggled as the pull of gravity parted them. He pointed her toward the mailbox. “Now, go write it all down for the Kindred Spirit. Write everything you feel about us and how unfair it is that we have to be apart.” He squinted his eyes at her. “And I promise not to read over your shoulder.”
She poked him. “You can read it if you want. I have no secrets from you.”
He shook his head. “No, no. This is your deal. Your private world—just between you and the Kindred Spirit. And next year,” he said, smiling down at her, “I promise to bring you back here, and you can write about the amazing summer we’re going to have.”
“And what about the summer after that?” she asked, teasing him.
“That summer too.” He kissed her. “And the next.” He kissed her again. “And the next.” He kissed her again, smiling down at her through his kisses. “Get the point?
“This will be our special place,” he said as they stood together in front of the mailbox.
“Always?” she asked.
“Always,” he said.
Summer 1985
Dear Kindred Spirit,
I have no clue who you are, and yet that doesn’t stop me from writing to you anyway. I hope one day I will discover your identity. I wonder if you are nearby even as I put pen to paper. It’s a little weird to think that I could have passed you on the street this summer and not know you would be reading my
deepest thoughts and feelings. Campbell won’t even read this, though I would let him if he asked me.
As I write, Campbell is down at the water’s edge, throwing shells. He is really good at making the shells skip across the water—I guess that’s proof that this place is his home.
Let me ask you, Kindred Spirit: Do you think it’s silly for me to assume that I have found my soul mate at the age of fifteen? My mom would laugh. She would tell me that the likelihood of anyone finding a soul mate—ever—is zero. She would tell me that I need to not go around giving my heart away like a hopeless romantic. She laughs when I read romance novels or see sappy movies that make me cry. She says that I will learn the truth about love someday.
But, honestly, I feel like I did learn the truth about love this summer. It’s like what they say: It can happen when you least expect it, and it can knock you flat on your back with its power. I didn’t come here expecting to fall in love. The truth is I didn’t want to come here at all. I came here feeling pushed aside and unwanted. I can still remember when my mom said that she had arranged for my aunt and uncle to bring me here, smiling at me like she was doing me some kind of favor when we both knew she just wanted me out of the picture so she could live her life without me cramping her style.
I tried to tell her that I didn’t want to come—who would want to spend their summer with bratty cousins? I was so mad, I didn’t speak to my mom for days. I begged, plotted, and even got my best friend Holly’s parents to say I could stay with them instead. But in the end, as always, my mother ruled, and I got packed off for a summer at the beach. On the car ride down, I sat squished in the backseat beside Bobby and Stephanie. Bobby elbowed me and stuck his tongue out at me the whole way to the beach. When his parents weren’t looking, of course. I stared out the window and pretended to be anywhere but in that car.
But now, I can’t believe how wonderful this summer has turned out. I made some new friends. I read a lot of books and even got to where I could tolerate my little cousins. They became like the younger siblings I never had. Most of all, I met Campbell.
I know what Holly will say. She will say that it was God’s plan. I am working on believing that there is a God and that he has a plan for my life like Holly says. But most of the time it feels like God is not aware I exist. If he was aware of me, you’d think he’d have given me a mom who actually cared about me.
Ugh—I can’t believe I have to leave tomorrow. Now that I have found Campbell, I don’t know what I will do without him. We have promised to write a lot of letters. And we have promised not to date other people.
A word about him asking me not to date other people: This was totally funny to me. Two nights ago we were walking on the beach and he stopped me, pulling me to him and looking at me really seriously. “Please,” he said, “I would really like it if you wouldn’t see other people. Is that crazy for me to ask that of you when we are going to be so far apart?”
I was like, “Are you kidding? No one asks me out. No one at my school even looks at me twice!” At school I am known for being quiet and studious—a brain, not a girl to call for a good time. Holly says that men will discover my beauty later in life. But until this summer I didn’t believe her. I couldn’t admit that no one notices me at school because, obviously, he believes I am sought after. And I knew enough to let him believe it. So I very coyly answered back, “Only if you promise me the same thing.”
And he smiled in that lazy way of his and said, “How could I even look at another girl when I’ve got the best one in the world?”
And so now you see why I just can’t bear the thought of leaving him. But the clock is ticking. When I get home, I swear I will cry myself to sleep every night and write letters to Campbell every day. The only thing I have to look forward to is hanging out with Holly again. Thank goodness for Holly, the one constant in my life. In math class we learned that a constant is something that has one value all the time and it never changes.
That’s what Holly is for me: my best friend, no matter what.
I wonder if Campbell will be a constant in my life. I guess it’s too soon to tell, but I do hope so. I’m already counting down the days until I can come back and be with Campbell. Because this summer—I don’t care how lame it sounds—I found my purpose. And that purpose is loving Campbell with all my
heart. Always.
Until next summer,
Lindsey
©2010 Cook Communications Ministries. The Mailbox by Marybeth Whalen. Used with permission. May not be further reproduced. All rights reserved.
Summer 1985
Campbell held back a teasing smile as he led Lindsey across the warm sand toward the mailbox. Leaning her head on Campbell’s shoulder, her steps slowed. She looked up at him, observing the mischievous curling at the corners of his mouth. “There really is no mailbox, is there?” she said, playfully offended. “If you wanted to get me alone on a deserted stretch of beach, all you had to do was ask.” She elbowed him in the side.
A grin spread across his flawless face. “You caught me.” He threw his hands up in the air in surrender.
“I gotta stop for a sec,” Lindsey said and bent at the waist, stretching the backs of her aching legs. She stood up and put her hands on her hips, narrowing her eyes at him. “So, have you actually been to the mailbox? Maybe the other kids at the pier were just pulling your leg.”
Campbell nodded his head. “I promise I’ve been there before. It’ll be worth it. You’ll see.” He pressed his forehead to hers and looked intently into her eyes before continuing down the beach.
“If you say so …” she said, following him. He slipped his arm around her bare tanned shoulder and squeezed it, pulling her closer to him. Lindsey looked ahead of them at the vast expanse of raw
coastline. She could make out a jetty of rocks in the distance that jutted into the ocean like a finish line.
As they walked, she looked down at the pairs of footprints they left in the sand. She knew that soon the tide would wash them away, and she realized that just like those footprints, the time she had left
with Campbell would soon vanish. A refrain ran through her mind: Enjoy the time you have left. She planned to remember every moment of this walk so she could replay it later, when she was back at home, without him. Memories would be her most precious commodity. How else would she feel him near her?
“I don’t know how we’re going to make this work,” she said as they walked. “I mean, how are we going to stay close when we’re so far away from each other?”
He pressed his lips into a line and ran a hand through his hair. “We just will,” he said. He exhaled loudly, a punctuation.
“But how?” she asked, wishing she didn’t sound so desperate.
He smiled. “We’ll write. And we’ll call. I’ll pay for the longdistance bills. My parents already said I could.” He paused. “And we’ll count the days until next summer. Your aunt and uncle already said you could come back and stay for most of the summer. And you know your mom will let you.”
“Yeah, she’ll be glad to get rid of me for sure.” She pushed images of home from her mind: the menthol odor of her mother’s cigarettes, their closet-sized apartment with parchment walls you could hear the neighbors through, her mom’s embarrassing “delicates” dangling from the shower rod in the tiny bathroom they shared. She wished that her aunt and uncle didn’t have to leave the beach house after
the summer was over and that she could just stay with them forever.
The beach house had become her favorite place in the world. At the beach house, she felt like a part of a real family with her aunt and uncle and cousins. This summer had been an escape from the reality of her life at home. And it had been a chance to discover true love. But tomorrow, her aunt and uncle would leave for their home and send her back to her mother.
“I don’t want to leave!” she suddenly yelled into the open air, causing a few startled birds to take flight.
Campbell didn’t flinch when she yelled. She bit her lip and closed her eyes as he pulled her to him and hugged her.
“Shhh,” he said. “I don’t want you to leave either.” He cupped her chin with his hand. “If I could reverse time for you, I would. And we would go back and do this whole summer over.”
She nodded and wished for the hundredth time that she could stand on the beach with Campbell forever, listening to the hypnotic sound of his voice, so much deeper and more mature than the boys at school. She thought about the pictures they had taken earlier that day, a last-ditch effort to have something of him to take with her. But it was a pitiful substitute, a cheap counterfeit for the real thing.
Campbell pointed ahead of them. “Come on,” he said and tugged on her hand. “I think I see it.” He grinned like a little boy. They crested the dune and there, without pomp or circumstance,
just as he had promised, stood an ordinary mailbox with gold letters spelling out “Kindred Spirit.”
“I told you it was here!” he said as they waded through the deep sand. “The mailbox has been here a couple of years,” he said, his tone changing to something close to reverence as he laid his hand on top
of it. “No one knows who started it or why, but word has traveled and now people come all the way out here to leave letters for the Kindred Spirit—the mystery person who reads them. People come from all over the world.”
“So does anybody know who gets the letters?” Lindsey asked. She ran her fingers over the gold, peeling letter decals. The bottom half of the n and e were missing.
“I don’t think so. But that’s part of what draws people here— they come here because this place is private, special.” He looked down at his bare feet, digging his toes into the sand. “So … I wanted to bring you here. So it could be our special place too.” He looked over at her out of the corner of his eye. “I hope you don’t think that’s lame.”
She put her arms around him and looked into his eyes. “Not lame at all,” she said.
As he kissed her, she willed her mind to record it all: the roar of the waves and the cry of the seagulls, the powdery softness of the warm sand under her feet, the briny smell of the ocean mixed with the scent of Campbell’s sun-kissed skin. Later, when she was back at home in Raleigh, North Carolina, she would come right back to this moment. Again and again. Especially when her mother sent her to her room with the paper-thin walls while she entertained her newest boyfriend.
Lindsey opened the mailbox, the hinges creaking as she did. She looked to him, almost for approval. “Look inside,” he invited her.
She saw some loose paper as well as spiral-bound notebooks, the kind she bought at the drugstore for school. The pages were crinkly from the sea air and water. There were pens in the mailbox too, some
with their caps missing.
Campbell pointed. “You should write a letter,” he said. “Take a pen and some paper and just sit down and write what you are feeling.” He shrugged. “It seemed like something you would really get into.”
How well he had come to know her in such a short time. “Okay,” she said. “I love it.” She reached inside and pulled out a purple notebook, flipping it open to read a random page. Someone had written about a wonderful family vacation spent at Sunset and the special time she had spent with her daughter.
She closed the notebook. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. She couldn’t imagine her own mother ever wanting to spend time with her, much less being so grateful about it. Reading the notebook made her feel worse, not better. She didn’t need reminding about what she didn’t have waiting for her back home.
Campbell moved in closer. “What is it?” he said, his body lining up perfectly with hers as he pulled her close.
She laid the notebook back inside the mailbox. “I just don’t want to go home,” she said. “I wish my uncle didn’t have to return to his stupid job. How can I go back to … her? She doesn’t want me there any more than I want to be there.” This time she didn’t fight the tears that had been threatening all day.
Campbell pulled her down to sit beside him in the sand and said nothing as she cried, rocking her slightly in his arms.
With her head buried in his shoulder, her words came out muffled. “You are so lucky you live here.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I guess I am.” He said nothing for a while.
“But you have to know that this place won’t be the same for me without you in it.”
She looked up at him, her eyes red from crying. “So you’re saying I’ve ruined it for you?”
He laughed, and she recorded the sound of his laugh in her memory too. “Well, if you want to put it that way, then, yes.”
“Well, that just makes me feel worse!” She laid her head on his shoulder and concentrated on the nearness of him, inhaled the sea scent of his skin and the smell of earth that clung to him from working
outside with his dad.
“Everywhere I go from now on I will have the memory of you with me. Of me and you together. The Island Market, the beach, the arcade, the deck on my house, the pier …” He raised his eyebrows as
he remembered the place where he first kissed her. “And now here. It will always remind me of you.”
“And I am going home to a place without a trace of you in it. I don’t know which is worse, constant reminders or no reminders at all.” She laced her narrow fingers through his.
“So are you glad we met?” She sounded pitiful, but she had to hear his answer.
“I would still have wanted to meet you,” he said. “Even though it’s going to break my heart to watch you go. What we have is worth it.” He kissed her, his hands reaching up to stroke her hair. She heard his words echoing in her mind: worth it, worth it, worth it. She knew that they were young, that they had their whole lives ahead of them, at least that’s what her aunt and uncle had told her. But she also knew
that what she had with Campbell was beyond age.
Campbell stood up and pulled her to her feet, attempting to keep kissing her as he did. She giggled as the pull of gravity parted them. He pointed her toward the mailbox. “Now, go write it all down for the Kindred Spirit. Write everything you feel about us and how unfair it is that we have to be apart.” He squinted his eyes at her. “And I promise not to read over your shoulder.”
She poked him. “You can read it if you want. I have no secrets from you.”
He shook his head. “No, no. This is your deal. Your private world—just between you and the Kindred Spirit. And next year,” he said, smiling down at her, “I promise to bring you back here, and you can write about the amazing summer we’re going to have.”
“And what about the summer after that?” she asked, teasing him.
“That summer too.” He kissed her. “And the next.” He kissed her again. “And the next.” He kissed her again, smiling down at her through his kisses. “Get the point?
“This will be our special place,” he said as they stood together in front of the mailbox.
“Always?” she asked.
“Always,” he said.
Summer 1985
Dear Kindred Spirit,
I have no clue who you are, and yet that doesn’t stop me from writing to you anyway. I hope one day I will discover your identity. I wonder if you are nearby even as I put pen to paper. It’s a little weird to think that I could have passed you on the street this summer and not know you would be reading my
deepest thoughts and feelings. Campbell won’t even read this, though I would let him if he asked me.
As I write, Campbell is down at the water’s edge, throwing shells. He is really good at making the shells skip across the water—I guess that’s proof that this place is his home.
Let me ask you, Kindred Spirit: Do you think it’s silly for me to assume that I have found my soul mate at the age of fifteen? My mom would laugh. She would tell me that the likelihood of anyone finding a soul mate—ever—is zero. She would tell me that I need to not go around giving my heart away like a hopeless romantic. She laughs when I read romance novels or see sappy movies that make me cry. She says that I will learn the truth about love someday.
But, honestly, I feel like I did learn the truth about love this summer. It’s like what they say: It can happen when you least expect it, and it can knock you flat on your back with its power. I didn’t come here expecting to fall in love. The truth is I didn’t want to come here at all. I came here feeling pushed aside and unwanted. I can still remember when my mom said that she had arranged for my aunt and uncle to bring me here, smiling at me like she was doing me some kind of favor when we both knew she just wanted me out of the picture so she could live her life without me cramping her style.
I tried to tell her that I didn’t want to come—who would want to spend their summer with bratty cousins? I was so mad, I didn’t speak to my mom for days. I begged, plotted, and even got my best friend Holly’s parents to say I could stay with them instead. But in the end, as always, my mother ruled, and I got packed off for a summer at the beach. On the car ride down, I sat squished in the backseat beside Bobby and Stephanie. Bobby elbowed me and stuck his tongue out at me the whole way to the beach. When his parents weren’t looking, of course. I stared out the window and pretended to be anywhere but in that car.
But now, I can’t believe how wonderful this summer has turned out. I made some new friends. I read a lot of books and even got to where I could tolerate my little cousins. They became like the younger siblings I never had. Most of all, I met Campbell.
I know what Holly will say. She will say that it was God’s plan. I am working on believing that there is a God and that he has a plan for my life like Holly says. But most of the time it feels like God is not aware I exist. If he was aware of me, you’d think he’d have given me a mom who actually cared about me.
Ugh—I can’t believe I have to leave tomorrow. Now that I have found Campbell, I don’t know what I will do without him. We have promised to write a lot of letters. And we have promised not to date other people.
A word about him asking me not to date other people: This was totally funny to me. Two nights ago we were walking on the beach and he stopped me, pulling me to him and looking at me really seriously. “Please,” he said, “I would really like it if you wouldn’t see other people. Is that crazy for me to ask that of you when we are going to be so far apart?”
I was like, “Are you kidding? No one asks me out. No one at my school even looks at me twice!” At school I am known for being quiet and studious—a brain, not a girl to call for a good time. Holly says that men will discover my beauty later in life. But until this summer I didn’t believe her. I couldn’t admit that no one notices me at school because, obviously, he believes I am sought after. And I knew enough to let him believe it. So I very coyly answered back, “Only if you promise me the same thing.”
And he smiled in that lazy way of his and said, “How could I even look at another girl when I’ve got the best one in the world?”
And so now you see why I just can’t bear the thought of leaving him. But the clock is ticking. When I get home, I swear I will cry myself to sleep every night and write letters to Campbell every day. The only thing I have to look forward to is hanging out with Holly again. Thank goodness for Holly, the one constant in my life. In math class we learned that a constant is something that has one value all the time and it never changes.
That’s what Holly is for me: my best friend, no matter what.
I wonder if Campbell will be a constant in my life. I guess it’s too soon to tell, but I do hope so. I’m already counting down the days until I can come back and be with Campbell. Because this summer—I don’t care how lame it sounds—I found my purpose. And that purpose is loving Campbell with all my
heart. Always.
Until next summer,
Lindsey
©2010 Cook Communications Ministries. The Mailbox by Marybeth Whalen. Used with permission. May not be further reproduced. All rights reserved.
My Thoughts...
This was a very intriguing use of a real landmark. When I read the plot I thought this would be really hokey (is that a word?:) I was pleasantly surprised to find that the plot really worked into a very touching story about past loves, lost loves and reconnecting. This is definitely worth your time to pick up. So many of us have people in our past that we wonder what would happen if we met up with them again, so I think this story will really resonate with a lot of readers. Wonderful story!
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Damaged by Pamela Callow
Mass Market Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: Mira (June 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0778327507
ISBN-13: 978-0778327509
Description (Author Website)
How far are you willing to go to forget your past?
Haunted by the death of her sister, and wounded by her ex-fiance's accusations, Kate Lange throws herself into her new career at a high-powered law firm.When the grandmother of a lonely private school student seeks her counsel, Kate thinks it's just another custody case. Until the teen is brutally murdered. And it isn't only Kate who wonders if her legal advice led to the girl's death.
How far are you willing to go to redeem yourself?
Put on notice by Randall Barrett, the firm's charismatic managing partner, Kate must fight for her career, for her reputation -- and for redemption.Unwilling to live with the damage she has caused, Kate pursues the case on her own and unearths some chilling facts.
Facts that lead straight to the heart of a legal conspiracy.
Facts that lead Kate directly into the surgically-skilled hands of the Body Butcher.
About The Author
international consulting firm. She is a member of the Nova Scotia Bar and has a
Master’s degree in Public Administration. She lives in Nova Scotia, with her husband,
two children and a pug.
Author Website
My Thoughts
This was a wonderfully exciting page-turner! The subject was different...not your everyday psychopath. I thought this was a great fun read. Perfect for the beach or that lazy summer afternoon. You'll be hooked from beginning to end!
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Publisher: Bethany House; Original edition (April 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0764204335
ISBN-13: 978-0764204333
Description (Publisher Website)
During New York City's Gilded Age...
The game is played amid banquets and balls.
The game is played amid banquets and balls.
The prize is a lifetime of wealth and privilege.
The rules will test friendships and
the desires of a young woman's heart.
Clara Carter is the social season's brightest star...
but at what cost?
For a young society woman seeking a favorable marriage, so much depends on her social season debut. Clara Carter has been given one goal: secure the affections of the city's most eligible bachelor. Debuting means plenty of work--there are corsets to be fitted, dances to master, manners to perfect. Her training soon pays off, however, as celebrity's spotlight turns Clara into a society-page darling.
Yet Clara soon wonders if this is the life she really wants. Especially when she learns her best friend has also set her sights on Franklin De Vries. When a man appears who seems to love her simply for who she is and gossip backlash turns ugly, Clara realizes it's not just her marriage at stake--the future of her family depends on how she plays the game.
About The Author (Publisher Website)
 |
| Photo courtesy of Ginger Murray Photography |
Siri Mitchell is the author of nearly a dozen novels, among them the critically acclaimed Christy Award finalists Chateau of Echoes and The Cubicle Next Door. A graduate of the University of Washington with a degree in business, she has worked in many different levels of government. As military spouse, she has lived in places as varied as Tokyo and Paris. Siri currently lives in the DC-metro area. Visit www.sirimitchell.com
1. This book takes place over 100 years ago in late-Victorian America. What is the
relevance for today’s reader?
The more I learned about late-Victorian culture, the more their problems seemed to
mirror ours: a burgeoning celebrity culture, use of distortion in advertising, commitment to a single standard of beauty. Women still go to dangerous lengths to“fix” the way they look. And media and advertising still perpetuate such unreasonable standards of beauty that some women are driven to anorexia-inducing behaviors. And, like the Victorians, we also still grapple with our attitudes toward the poor.
2. What surprised you most about the time period?
The contradictions! I had to try and understand a society that sent such contradictory
messages to its young women. “No, let’s not talk about sex but we’ll make sure we
emphasize your curves to every advantage. We’ll equip you with every artifice known to
catch a man, but let’s not discuss what happens in the bedroom or the nursery. We’ll all
go to church on Sunday, but please don’t tax your mind in thinking about the sermons.
Your role in life, the only way to achieve true happiness, is to be a wife and mother, and
no, it doesn’t really matter whether you like the groom.” That was a difficult mindset to
comprehend.
3. Your heroine is put through a training regimen to prepare for her debut into
society. Did that really happen?
Yes, it really did, though the education generally spanned a period of years rather than
weeks. It was very important for a girl to understand the role she was expected to play
in society. Social education was both formal and informal, including etiquette as well as
religion, voice training, playing an instrument, dancing, handiwork, and household
management.
4. In the same vein, your heroine is quite overwhelmed by the abundant variety of
silverware and serving ware that she’s expected to memorize. You can’t tell us there were really lemon forks and marrow shovels. Surely you took some artistic license in inventing them.
There were, and I didn’t! The Victorians also had vase-like celery servers and comb-like
cake breakers. Appearances were very important to Victorians in general and to the
upper levels of society in particular. This was the period of time in which old money
was being challenged by new money. As high society ways were observed and then
copied by the lower classes, new rules had to be established to preserve the old
boundaries. The Victorians did everything they could think of to differentiate between
those who had class and those who did not. They were also reluctant to be placed in the
indelicate situation of having to actually touch their food. Thus, dining was meant to
set a trap into which the unsuspecting and uneducated could easily fall. So much emphasis was placed on manners and etiquette that the result was a truly astonishing array of arcane implements like lemon forks and cake breakers.
5. What advice could a Victorian debutante offer to contemporary society?
At its foundation, etiquette and good manners are all about making people feel welcome and placing them at ease. I’m not sure we do such a good job of this today. In some corners of our culture rudeness is applauded and biting, sarcastic comments seem to have replaced more thoughtful and witty humor. Victorian women could teach us quite a bit about focusing our attention on others’ needs. Perhaps they did that to the extent that they gave up more of
themselves than they ought to have, but I think we could all stand to lean a little bit more in that direction.
6. Your heroine’s father, a doctor, appears to be a bit of a quack. Toward the end of the book, you include a recipe for his tonic. Could you enlighten us as to Victorian medicine?
Frankly, I don’t think it ought to be called medicine! It had more in common with medieval rather than modern practices. The Victorians made remarkable advancements in technology and education, but their medical establishment still based much of its “knowledge” on superstition and folk remedies. Tonics like Dr. Carter’s were very popular and common ingredients included massive amounts of alcohol, cocaine, ether, chloroform, opium,
belladonna, and digitalis.
7. What ideas are you exploring in this book? What is the take-away message you want readers to receive after reading your book?
That society will tell you who you are and how to be until you decide for yourself who you are and how you want to be.
8. Any last word to your readers?
God loves you just the way you are. So many problems, so much heartache comes when we fail to understand that, when we try to evade it or convince God that he really shouldn’t. The best thing you can do is just confront that idea and deal with it. God loves you. Let that knowledge change your life!
My Thoughts
relevance for today’s reader?
The more I learned about late-Victorian culture, the more their problems seemed to
mirror ours: a burgeoning celebrity culture, use of distortion in advertising, commitment to a single standard of beauty. Women still go to dangerous lengths to“fix” the way they look. And media and advertising still perpetuate such unreasonable standards of beauty that some women are driven to anorexia-inducing behaviors. And, like the Victorians, we also still grapple with our attitudes toward the poor.
2. What surprised you most about the time period?
The contradictions! I had to try and understand a society that sent such contradictory
messages to its young women. “No, let’s not talk about sex but we’ll make sure we
emphasize your curves to every advantage. We’ll equip you with every artifice known to
catch a man, but let’s not discuss what happens in the bedroom or the nursery. We’ll all
go to church on Sunday, but please don’t tax your mind in thinking about the sermons.
Your role in life, the only way to achieve true happiness, is to be a wife and mother, and
no, it doesn’t really matter whether you like the groom.” That was a difficult mindset to
comprehend.
3. Your heroine is put through a training regimen to prepare for her debut into
society. Did that really happen?
Yes, it really did, though the education generally spanned a period of years rather than
weeks. It was very important for a girl to understand the role she was expected to play
in society. Social education was both formal and informal, including etiquette as well as
religion, voice training, playing an instrument, dancing, handiwork, and household
management.
4. In the same vein, your heroine is quite overwhelmed by the abundant variety of
silverware and serving ware that she’s expected to memorize. You can’t tell us there were really lemon forks and marrow shovels. Surely you took some artistic license in inventing them.
There were, and I didn’t! The Victorians also had vase-like celery servers and comb-like
cake breakers. Appearances were very important to Victorians in general and to the
upper levels of society in particular. This was the period of time in which old money
was being challenged by new money. As high society ways were observed and then
copied by the lower classes, new rules had to be established to preserve the old
boundaries. The Victorians did everything they could think of to differentiate between
those who had class and those who did not. They were also reluctant to be placed in the
indelicate situation of having to actually touch their food. Thus, dining was meant to
set a trap into which the unsuspecting and uneducated could easily fall. So much emphasis was placed on manners and etiquette that the result was a truly astonishing array of arcane implements like lemon forks and cake breakers.
5. What advice could a Victorian debutante offer to contemporary society?
At its foundation, etiquette and good manners are all about making people feel welcome and placing them at ease. I’m not sure we do such a good job of this today. In some corners of our culture rudeness is applauded and biting, sarcastic comments seem to have replaced more thoughtful and witty humor. Victorian women could teach us quite a bit about focusing our attention on others’ needs. Perhaps they did that to the extent that they gave up more of
themselves than they ought to have, but I think we could all stand to lean a little bit more in that direction.
6. Your heroine’s father, a doctor, appears to be a bit of a quack. Toward the end of the book, you include a recipe for his tonic. Could you enlighten us as to Victorian medicine?
Frankly, I don’t think it ought to be called medicine! It had more in common with medieval rather than modern practices. The Victorians made remarkable advancements in technology and education, but their medical establishment still based much of its “knowledge” on superstition and folk remedies. Tonics like Dr. Carter’s were very popular and common ingredients included massive amounts of alcohol, cocaine, ether, chloroform, opium,
belladonna, and digitalis.
7. What ideas are you exploring in this book? What is the take-away message you want readers to receive after reading your book?
That society will tell you who you are and how to be until you decide for yourself who you are and how you want to be.
8. Any last word to your readers?
God loves you just the way you are. So many problems, so much heartache comes when we fail to understand that, when we try to evade it or convince God that he really shouldn’t. The best thing you can do is just confront that idea and deal with it. God loves you. Let that knowledge change your life!
As always, Siri Mitchell has written a gorgeous book! I couldn't put it down, as is usually the case when I'm reading one of her books. The story is rich and well told, the characters will instantly win you over, and her attention to historic detail is excellent. If you're a fan of historical fiction, then Siri Mitchell is an author you don't want to miss.
Paperback: 352 pagesPublisher: Multnomah Books; 1 edition (June 15, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1601420250
ISBN-13: 978-1601420251
Description (Publisher Website)
Marnie didn’t know much about miracles.
Mistakes maybe. Accidents. And monstrous mess-ups. She knew a lot about those.
But miracles? Those were for other people.
Marnie Wittier has life just where she wants it. Quiet. Peaceful. No drama. A long way away from her past. In the privacy of her home, she fills a box with slips of paper, scribbled with her regrets, sins, and sorrows. But that’s nobody else’s business. Her bookstore/coffee shop patrons, her employees, her friends from church—they all think she’s the very model of compassion and kindness.
Then Marnie’s past creeps into her present when her estranged sister dies and makes Marnie guardian of her fifteen-year-old son—a boy Marnie never knew existed. And when Emmit arrives, she discovers he has Down syndrome—and that she’s woefully unprepared to care for him. What’s worse, she has to deal with Taylor Cole, her sister’s attorney, a man Marnie once loved—and abandoned.
As Emmit (and Taylor) work their way into her heart, Marnie begins to heal. But when pieces of her dismal past surface again, she must at last face the scripts of paper in her box, all the regrets and sorrows. Can she do it? Or will she run again?
At the Books & Brew Cafe in Shades of Morning, Book 3 of Marlo Schalesky’s Love Stories with a Twist! series, Marnie serves up perfect cuppas to friends and strangers alike.
Now, to celebrate the release of Shades of Morning, the author is offering one Grand Prize winner the chance to have the perfect cuppa delivered right to their door!
Click on the banner to the left to go to the contest entry site!
The Winner of our Books & Brew Cuppa Contest will receive a huge Starbucks prize package, including:
Starbucks Breakfast Blend
Starbucks Caffe Verona
Starbucks House Blend
Starbucks Sumatra Blend
Brown & Haley Cashew Roca
Brown & Haley Almond Roca
Brown & Haley Almond Roca Buttercrunch
White Chocolate & Raspberry Cookies
Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate
Marshmallow Hot Chocolate
Tazo Tea Deluxe Assortment
And four Starbucks Mugs
Author's Website
An Interview With Marlo
(Note: This is not an interview that I did. It was provided to me by a publicist for her publisher)
We’re here with author and mother of five, Marlo Schalesky. Marlo has written a terrific new novel about a young woman whose world is turned upside down when she finds she needs to take care of a teenager with Down syndrome.
1. Marlo, your newest novel, Shades of Morning, features a 15-year-old boy with Down syndrome. What inspired you to choose that particular disability?
Andy did. And he did it one ordinary Sunday morning at church. I went not expecting to see anything different, or special, or extraordinary. But God had other plans. And so did Andy.
In the middle of the third song, a noise came from the far side of the church. A loud noise. Strange, awkward, and off-key. Then, it grew louder. I furrowed my brow. Was that someone singing . . . badly?
I stood on tiptoes and peeked toward the sound. And there was Andy. His arms were raised, his eyes closed. And he was singing to his God for all he was worth. Andy, in his middle teens, with blond hair, thick glasses, and small ears. Andy, with Down syndrome and a grin on his face big enough for the angels to see. Andy, shout-singing with all his might through that radiant smile.
That moment changed me. It showed me that beauty is found in unexpected places, and that God’s gifts in our lives are often wrapped in awkward, off-key packages. I witnessed something beautiful, something wondrous that day, and it made me see that so often the hard things in life, the things we want to hide away, to forget, to cover up, can be transformed into things of beauty in the hands of God.
And that’s how Shades of Morning was born – in those moments while Andy worshipped and I was left breathless by the wonder of it.
2. The main character, Marnie, keeps a box full of pieces of paper where she records her regrets. Why do so many believers struggle to let go of their regrets?
I think there are two reasons. First, as believers, we are keenly aware of the cost of our sins and mistakes to the One we love. Jesus suffered and died on the cross for us. So we wish we could have done better, chosen better, lived in a way that would always bring honor to God. But of course, we haven’t and we didn’t and we won’t. Not always.
And that’s when the little whispers of fear set in – whispers that tell us that we missed God’s best for us. That if only we’d done better, chosen better, lived right, then we would be the people God wanted and be living the life He wanted too. But now, the whispers say, it’s too late. Our mistakes are too great. Now we can never live God’s dream for us.
Hogwash! There’s a reason that our enemy is called “the accuser of the brethren” – it’s because those whispers are not from One who loves us, calls us, transforms us. They are lies from the one who accuses. They are meant to paralyze us and keep us from following Paul’s example in Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV), “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
We are called to press on.
3. How can we find forgiveness and healing from those past regrets?
This is the important thing: God calls us to repent, not to regret. And that’s what we need to do. All of us have made mistakes, have chosen poorly, missed opportunities, done things we wish we’d never done. But we don’t need to dwell in regret. Instead, simply confess, repent. move on. It’s like riding a horse. If you keep looking behind you, the horse stalls, wavers, gets confused. You have to keep your eye on where you want to go. Repentance keeps you looking forward. Regret causes you to keep looking back.
And worse, a bigger problem with regret is that it denies the primary power of God – the power to transform anything in our lives to His glory. It says, “This is too much for God.”
But the God who transformed an implement of execution, the cross, into a symbol of salvation has proven that He can transform anything – past, present, or future – into something that points to His glory. Think about that. Before Jesus, the cross was a symbol of horror and disgrace and misery. It was the most horrific way to die a criminal’s death. But after Jesus, it became a symbol of redemption and wonder and love. If God could so change the meaning of the cross, He can also transform those ugly things in our lives for His glory.
So, we need to take off the band-aid and expose our regrets, repent of them, and simply leave them in the hands of God, looking forward in expectation of His transforming power, even when that transformation seems impossible.
We have to stop locking away these parts of our lives from God’s touch, and instead allow Him to take them and transform them.
4. Regret often keeps us from going deeper in our relationship with God. How does Marnie’s relationship with God change during the course of the book?
Regrets will shape you if you give them the power, if they become what you treasure in your heart. And that’s exactly what happens to Marnie. She hides from her regrets by locking them away. She doesn’t think they can touch her there. But instead of being free from them, she’s really just carrying them with her.
That’s how it is with us. When we lock away these parts of our lives from God and ourselves, we are really just hiding them in our hearts, making them our treasure.
Marnie learns that she has to face her regrets, confess them to those she hurt and to her friends, and only then can she be healed of them. And with healing, she finds that can see God’s presence in her life and how He’s been working in beautiful and wondrous ways to transform those regrets into something new and good in her life. But as long as she hides her regrets in her heart, she simply can’t draw close to God and experience the power of his healing touch.
For her, and for us, it’s about trusting God enough to face regret and let it go, to believe that God can take anything and make it beautiful. To believe that God truly does forgive our sins and forget them. And that He can take our mistakes and remake them. That’s what the cross is all about. That’s what life in Christ is about too.
5. Marnie had her life neatly planned out, and all of her plans were turned upside-down when she becomes the guardian of her 15-year-old nephew. As believers, how should we react when life doesn’t go according to our plans?
It’s a running joke in my household that my plans exist solely for God’s amusement … so He’ll have something to chuckle about as He leads my life in ways I never dreamed. I gave my life to Christ when I was in college, and apparently He thought I really meant it, because as it turned out, that was the end of me making life plans and having them work out like I wanted. And the one thing I’ve learned from it all is to wait and to watch, because I know that when life doesn’t go according to plan, that’s when God is working with power.
I’m reminded of the story of Mary, Jesus’ mother. Talk about plans going awry from the moment the angel showed up. She had a nice, quiet life planned. But then she’s pregnant out of wedlock, she has to take a long donkey ride and deliver the baby in a barn, the only story we know about him growing up is that he about gave his parents a heart attack by staying in Jerusalem without their permission, and then of course. Then he starts his ministry and becomes homeless and hated by the elite. And as if that isn’t bad enough, Mary has to watch her son die on a Roman cross – the worst death known to those people at that time.
And yet, it’s in that horrific moment, in that moment that encapsulates the very epitome of what it means for plans and hopes to go awry, to die – in that moment we find the most incredible, wondrous, breathtaking act of God of all time. It is the moment of redemption, of glory, of splendor, of the answer to all the prayers and hopes from the beginning of time until now. It is at that moment that we find the salvation of all mankind.
There, at the precise moment when all Mary’s hopes died. When all her plans came to nothing. That was the moment of answer. It was the moment of glory.
I think it may always be that way. That there, at the very place where our dreams don’t come true, where our expectations are shattered – that is where God is standing in the greatest power. Those are the moments, the places that change the world, where we find a depth and wonder deeper than we ever dared to dream.
Because, this I know for certain: the life God gives you is not the life you dreamed. It is the Kingdom of Heaven lived through you. It is wondrous. It is incredible. It is unexpected. And it is found at the foot of the cross.
6. As Marnie discovers, beauty is found in unexpected places, and God’s gifts to us are often wrapped in unexpected, and maybe even awkward, packages. Can you share an example of this from your own life?
The biggest unwanted, unexpected package in my life has been a 20-year journey through infertility and miscarriage. When I got married, I planned to have the number of children I wanted to have, when I wanted to have them. I had plans! But you know how my plans turn out … yep, God was shaking His head saying, “I don’t think so.”
And so began a journey that has been fraught with questions, doubts, pain, and some amazing miracles.
Now, as I look back, I see that just about every deep and meaningful thing I’ve learned about God, I can point to my journey through infertility and say, “Yeah, infertility taught me that.” It taught me that I’m not the god of my life. God is. It taught me there are things I can’t control, can’t achieve, no matter how hard I try. And sometimes I must choose to live the life God has given me, with love and hope, (and joy!) even when it’s not the life I dreamed.
Infertility taught me that God calls me not to the pursuit of my dreams, but to love. “Love one another,” Jesus says. “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
So, those are just a few of the things that God taught me through the journey of my own unwanted package of infertility and miscarriage. My hope is that Shades of Morning will reveal the same truths and more to others as well.
7. Another theme found in the book deals with the regret and fear tied to miscarriage, something you’re familiar with. How did you get through those painful experiences, and how can we reach out to women who have lost a baby?
Yes, miscarriage has certainly been one of those awkward, painful packages for me. I’ve had six miscarriages, and they’re devastating. I mostly got through them the ugly way – by struggling, wrestling, crying out to God, and by sitting at my computer and playing solitaire while the tears streamed down my face. But for me, that’s what it took to face the pain and disappointment and go through it, so I could come out in a new, different place. A place where I could see God more clearly.
As I mentioned before, I think that’s the key – not to hide from the pain or bury it, but to lay it at God’s feet and go through it, struggling, wrestling, crying – whatever is needed to get through to a new place of understanding about God, yourself, and what your life is really about.
As for others, I think the most helpful thing people have done is to simply mourn with me, to let me know they’re sharing my sorrow and disappointment, so that I wasn’t standing alone. Then, they found out if I needed to do any procedures, because for some of my miscarriages I had to go into the surgery center. Then, friends brought meals, volunteered to look after my other kids so my husband could come in with me, etc. Afterward, those same friends invited me out to a fun chick-flick movie and coffee afterward. They didn’t act awkward or try to avoid mentioning the baby. They were just there for me, like always, being a friend.
On the other hand, the less helpful people focused on trying to make me feel better by coming up with excuses for why God may have allowed this miscarriage, or giving me reasons why the miscarriage wasn’t as bad as it may seem. “You’ll get pregnant again soon,” they’d say. Or, “It’s good that it happened earlier in the pregnancy.” Or, “This baby just wasn’t right.” Then, they followed it up with stories of others who had gone through miscarriage later, or got pregnant right away again. But this approach, while meaning well, really only serves to convince people they shouldn’t really be feeling as bad as they are. It tells the woman she should skirt the pain, deny it. It’s really not that bad.
My real friends have shared my sorrows. They haven’t tried to diminish them.
8. Your books always feature a surprising twist at the end. Without giving the ending away, what can readers expect when they turn the last page?
My hope is that readers will catch their breath in wonder and say, “Ooo, that’s cool. That changes everything!” Personally, I love stories with surprise twists that tie into the overall theme of the book. So, for my books, my goal is to have a twist that reveals a deeper meaning in the story. I want to surprise and delight readers not just with something they didn’t see coming, but with something that allows them to see and experience the characters’ journeys in deep ways.
In the end, my real prayer is that when readers catch their breath at the ending, they’ll also catch their breath in wonder at the mystery and beauty of our vivid God. I hope the vision of Him will take their breath away. At its heart, that’s what the surprise twist is all about. That’s what Shades of Morning is all about.
9. Where can readers learn more about you, Shades of Morning, and your other books?
I hope readers will visit my website at www.marloschalesky.com (or www.VividGod.com) and check out the excerpt for Shades of Morning, various audio and TV interviews, resources, and other helpful information there. And, I’d love for people to sign up for my e-newsletter, which I put out a few times a year (or whenever there’s exciting news like a book release!). You can sign up on the front page, right hand column of my website.
I also invite readers to visit my blog at www.marloschalesky.blogspot.
I’m also on Twitter and Facebook. On my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/
About the Author (Publisher Website)Marlo Schalesky is the author of several acclaimed novels, including Christy Award winner Beyond the Night. A graduate of Stanford University, Marlo also has a masters of theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. She’s a regular columnist for Power for Living and lives with her husband, Bryan, and five children in California.
My Review
This book was so very touching that I found myself crying through many parts of it. I think that this beautiful story touches on one of the things that most all of us feel at one time or another - that our past lives are just too much for God to forgive. I think this is why the book is so touching. It drives home the point that we have to let go of the past and forgive ourselves, as God has forgiven us. There are so many levels to this story that it's impossible to do it justice in a short review. It's a love story of so many kinds.This is just one that you're going to have to pick up, curl up on the couch and read yourself! This is a beautiful story that everyone should read. Once again Schalesky has written a book that really touches the heart. I'd highly recommend this to everyone.
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Join Becky Due, author of the suspense novel , Returning Injury: A Suspense Celebrating Women’s Strength, as she virtually tours the blogosphere in May & June 2010 on her first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book!
Becky Due, like the main characters of her novels, spent many years running from herself, looking for love, crying a little and laughing a lot along the journey of finding herself. Through writing, Due found her passion. She is the author of several books and is currently working on her next novel.
Happily married she and Scott live in Colorado, Florida and Alberta, Canada with their two “kids” Buddy the Cat and Shorty the Pug.
Becky has been a guest on national radio programs and has been the subject of numerous newspaper and national magazine articles for empowering women through her novels. She has served as a guest speaker at Women’s Resource Centers, Shelters, Colleges and High Schools within the United States. Becky has had extensive training at Victim Services, worked the 24-Hour Sexual Assault Crisis-Line and was a Victim’s Advocate where she offered one-on-one assistance and support to rape victims. In 2007, Becky started, Women Going Forward, the first national women’s telephone support group, which ran for almost two years. After receiving much recognition for her novels, Becky’s focus turned back to her writing and empowering women through her novels.
Becky’s latest book is a supsense novel titled Returning Injury: A Suspense Celebrating Women’s Strength. You can visit her website at www.beckydue.com.
Rebecca’s life just keeps getting better. With Jack away on business, she’s looking forward to four days alone to work on her new client’s PR campaign to help women take back their lives. But her past intrudes. Roy, the man who stalked and assaulted her years before, has been released from prison. Home alone in her big, beautiful house out in the country, Rebecca has to learn to take back her own life while facing her fears and regaining her strength. But will she be strong enough when she faces the ultimate test?
My Review
This was a very suspenseful novel that tells a very realistic tale of women overcoming danger. This book celebrates strong women and conquering all. I really enjoyed this book. It was a very entertaining, edge-of-your-seat type of read. I would NOT recommend this book be read on a dark, stormy evening when you're in the house by yourself! :)
Returning Injury Tour Schedule
Monday, May 3
Interviewed at Blogcritics
Tuesday, May 4
Book spotlighted at Examiner
Wednesday, May 5
Interviewed at Beyond the Books
Thursday, May 6
Interviewed at The Writer’s Life
Friday, May 7
Interviewed at Review From Here
Monday, May 10
Book spotlighted l Book Giveaway at Literarily Speaking’s Book Club Selection – Day 1
Tuesday, May 11
Book spotlighted l Book Giveaway at Literarily Speaking’s Book Club Selection – Day 2
Wednesday, May 12
Book spotlighted l Book Giveaway at Literarily Speaking’s Book Club Selection – Day 3
Thursday, May 13
Book reviewed at You Have How Many Kids?
Friday, May 14
Guest blogging at The Dark Phantom
Monday, May 17
Book reviewed at Reading at the Beach
Tuesday, May 18
Book giveaway at Readaholic
Wednesday, May 19
Book reviewed at A Mom After God’s Own Heart
Thursday, May 20
Book reviewed at Broken Teepee
Friday, May 21
Book reviewed at Blog O’ the Irish
Monday, May 24
Book reviewed at Rundpinne
Tuesday, May 25
Book reviewed at One Person’s Journey Through a World of Books
Wednesday, May 26
Interviewed at As the Pages Turn
Thursday, May 27
Guest blogging at The Writer’s Life
Friday, May 28
Book spotlighted at A Book Blogger’s Diary
Tuesday, June 1
Interviewed at Examiner
Wednesday, June 2
Guest blogging at The Book Connection
Thursday, June 3
Guest blogging at Blogging Authors
Friday, June 4
Interviewed at Book Marketing Buzz
Monday, June 7
Book reviewed at Chaotic Book Obsession
Tuesday, June 8
Book reviewed at A Musing Mother
Wednesday, June 9
Guest blogging at The Story Behind the Book
Thursday, June 10
Interviewed at Divine Caroline
Friday, June 11
Interviewed at Working Writers
Monday, June 14
Book reviewed at Books R Us
Tuesday, June 15
Guest blogging l Book Giveaway at Suspense Insider
Wednesday, June 16
Book reviewed at My Favorite Things
Thursday, June 17
Book spotlighted at Book Tours and More
Friday, June 18
Interviewed at The Hot Author Report
Monday, June 21
Interviewed at American Chronicle
Tuesday, June 22
Book reviewed at CMash Loves to Read
Wednesday, June 23
Book reviewed at Writing Daze
Friday, June 25
Book reviewed at Marta’s Meanderings
Guest blogging at The Story Behind the Book
About Becky Due
Becky Due, like the main characters of her novels, spent many years running from herself, looking for love, crying a little and laughing a lot along the journey of finding herself. Through writing, Due found her passion. She is the author of several books and is currently working on her next novel.Happily married she and Scott live in Colorado, Florida and Alberta, Canada with their two “kids” Buddy the Cat and Shorty the Pug.
Becky has been a guest on national radio programs and has been the subject of numerous newspaper and national magazine articles for empowering women through her novels. She has served as a guest speaker at Women’s Resource Centers, Shelters, Colleges and High Schools within the United States. Becky has had extensive training at Victim Services, worked the 24-Hour Sexual Assault Crisis-Line and was a Victim’s Advocate where she offered one-on-one assistance and support to rape victims. In 2007, Becky started, Women Going Forward, the first national women’s telephone support group, which ran for almost two years. After receiving much recognition for her novels, Becky’s focus turned back to her writing and empowering women through her novels.
Becky’s latest book is a supsense novel titled Returning Injury: A Suspense Celebrating Women’s Strength. You can visit her website at www.beckydue.com.
Returning Injury by Becky Due (click on cover to purchase)
About Returning Injury: A Suspense Celebrating Women’s Strength
Rebecca’s life just keeps getting better. With Jack away on business, she’s looking forward to four days alone to work on her new client’s PR campaign to help women take back their lives. But her past intrudes. Roy, the man who stalked and assaulted her years before, has been released from prison. Home alone in her big, beautiful house out in the country, Rebecca has to learn to take back her own life while facing her fears and regaining her strength. But will she be strong enough when she faces the ultimate test?My Review
This was a very suspenseful novel that tells a very realistic tale of women overcoming danger. This book celebrates strong women and conquering all. I really enjoyed this book. It was a very entertaining, edge-of-your-seat type of read. I would NOT recommend this book be read on a dark, stormy evening when you're in the house by yourself! :)
Here’s what other Pump Up Your Book reviewers have to say about Returning Injury: A Suspense Celebrating Women’s Strength
Shonda at The Knowlton Nest says:
“This book held me on the edge of my seat…I would recommend this book to women who need to know they can overcome danger in frightening situations…”
Allison at You Have How Many Kids? says:
“Overall, I think this is a good book that is very successful in portraying women in a strong, positive light…”
Vickie at Reading at the Beach says:
“This is a book every woman should read. It may be hard for some, but I think all women could benefit from it in one way or another. It will make you want to get out there and do something you always wanted to do, but didn’t because of self doubt. This is the first time I’ve read this author, but I hope to read more from her in the future…”
Shirley at A Mom After God’s Own Heart says:
“If you want a great suspense book that will keep you on the edge of your seat right up until the end of the book, then Returning Injury is the book for you! It is full of suspense, emotion, highs and lows!..”
Julie at A Broken Teepee says:
“…is a very suspenseful novel. It builds slowly and very realistically to a satisfying conclusion. Rebecca doesn’t want to feel she needs her husband to protect her. She wants to be able to be a strong, confident woman in spite of her past. Will she be able to do that? I’m not going to tell! But the book is a good read that keeps you looking over your shoulder.”
Kathleen at Blog O’ the Irish says:
“This is a compassionate story about how a woman overcomes her fears from her abuser and learns to live her life without fear. I enjoyed this story and I think that all women should read this book. It is a combination of suspense, love, violence and self help…”
Watch the Trailer!
Returning Injury Tour Schedule
Monday, May 3
Interviewed at Blogcritics
Tuesday, May 4
Book spotlighted at Examiner
Wednesday, May 5
Interviewed at Beyond the Books
Thursday, May 6
Interviewed at The Writer’s Life
Friday, May 7
Interviewed at Review From Here
Monday, May 10
Book spotlighted l Book Giveaway at Literarily Speaking’s Book Club Selection – Day 1
Tuesday, May 11
Book spotlighted l Book Giveaway at Literarily Speaking’s Book Club Selection – Day 2
Wednesday, May 12
Book spotlighted l Book Giveaway at Literarily Speaking’s Book Club Selection – Day 3
Thursday, May 13
Book reviewed at You Have How Many Kids?
Friday, May 14
Guest blogging at The Dark Phantom
Monday, May 17
Book reviewed at Reading at the Beach
Tuesday, May 18
Book giveaway at Readaholic
Wednesday, May 19
Book reviewed at A Mom After God’s Own Heart
Thursday, May 20
Book reviewed at Broken Teepee
Friday, May 21
Book reviewed at Blog O’ the Irish
Monday, May 24
Book reviewed at Rundpinne
Tuesday, May 25
Book reviewed at One Person’s Journey Through a World of Books
Wednesday, May 26
Interviewed at As the Pages Turn
Thursday, May 27
Guest blogging at The Writer’s Life
Friday, May 28
Book spotlighted at A Book Blogger’s Diary
Tuesday, June 1
Interviewed at Examiner
Wednesday, June 2
Guest blogging at The Book Connection
Thursday, June 3
Guest blogging at Blogging Authors
Friday, June 4
Interviewed at Book Marketing Buzz
Monday, June 7
Book reviewed at Chaotic Book Obsession
Tuesday, June 8
Book reviewed at A Musing Mother
Wednesday, June 9
Guest blogging at The Story Behind the Book
Thursday, June 10
Interviewed at Divine Caroline
Friday, June 11
Interviewed at Working Writers
Monday, June 14
Book reviewed at Books R Us
Tuesday, June 15
Guest blogging l Book Giveaway at Suspense Insider
Wednesday, June 16
Book reviewed at My Favorite Things
Thursday, June 17
Book spotlighted at Book Tours and More
Friday, June 18
Interviewed at The Hot Author Report
Monday, June 21
Interviewed at American Chronicle
Tuesday, June 22
Book reviewed at CMash Loves to Read
Wednesday, June 23
Book reviewed at Writing Daze
Friday, June 25
Book reviewed at Marta’s Meanderings
Guest blogging at The Story Behind the Book
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