The Bones Will Speak

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing The Bones Will Speak Thomas Nelson (August 11, 2015) by Carrie Stuart Parks

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Carrie Stuart Parks is an award-winning fine artist and internationally known forensic artist. Along with her husband, Rick, she travels across the US and Canada teaching courses in forensic art to law enforcement as well as civilian participants. She has won numerous awards for career excellence. Carrie is a popular platform speaker, presenting a variety of topics from crime to creativity.

Animals have always been a large part of her life. Her parents, Ned and Evelyn Stuart, started Skeel Kennel Great Pyrenees in 1960. Carrie inherited the kennel and continues with her beloved dogs as both an AKC judge and former president of the Great Pyrenees Club of America. She lives on the same ranch she grew up on in Northern Idaho.

ABOUT THE BOOK

A killer with a penchant for torture has taken notice of forensic expert Gwen Marcey . . . and her daughter.
When Gwen Marcey’s dog comes home with a human skull and then leads her to a cabin in the woods near her Montana home, she realizes there’s a serial killer in her community. And when she finds a tortured young girl clinging to life on the cabin floor, she knows this killer is a lunatic.

Yet what unsettles Gwen most is that the victim looks uncannily like her daughter. The search for the torturer leads back in time to a neo-Nazi bombing in Washington state—a bombing with only one connection to Montana: Gwen. The group has a race-not-grace model of salvation . . . and they’ve marked Gwen as a race traitor. When it becomes clear that the killer has a score to settle, Gwen finds herself in a battle against time. She will have to use all of her forensic skills to find the killer before he can carry out his threat to destroy her—and the only family she has left.

If you would like to read the first chapter of The Bones Will Speak, go HERE.

My Thoughts:
Carrie Stuart Parks is a new author for me but has earned a place on my keeper shelf with The Bones Will Speak.  Life is very busy for me right now and I do most of my reading before bedtime.  I read this book in just one sitting because I was absolutely glued to the story and characters from the prologue to the last page!
I love Gwen Marcy!  She's quirky, funny, smart, brave and genuine.  The Bones Will Speak is full of twists and turns and just when you think you have things figured out...Parks offers up even more twists and turns.  At one point I almost got out a legal pad and started to take notes like a detective!  If you like a mystery/suspense that you won't be able to decipher with characters that feel like family and friends by the end...you will LOVE The Bones Will Speak!
*I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

Happy Reading Ya'll,
Jennifer

Last Chance Hero

Cathleen Armstrong is the author of Welcome to Last Chance winner of the ACFW Genesis Award for Women's Fiction in 2009 and the first volume in the series "A Place To Call Home". She lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband, Ed, and their corgi, but her roots remain deep in New Mexico where she grew up and where much of her family still lives.

Ways to connect with Cathleen:
Reader Inquiries:  Cathleen@cathleenarmstrong.com
Social Media links:
Goodreads
Facebook 
Twitter

What happens when your heart is intercepted before you even know it's in play?

The folks in Last Chance, New Mexico, could not be more pleased. Dr. Jessica MacLeod has opened an office right on Main Street, and Andy Ryan, the best athlete the little town ever produced, has come home from the NFL to coach the high school football team. Unfortunately, Dr. Jess immediately gets off on the wrong foot with this football-obsessed town when she admits that she's never seen a football game, isn't really interested in doing so, and in fact doesn't know a first down from a goalpost.

Despite having little in common, Jess and Andy find themselves drawn to each other.  But when a disagreement over the future of an injured player puts them both on the defensive, it begins to look like this game is over...


My Thoughts:
Last Chance Hero is the fourth book in Armstrong's A Place to Call Home series.  The book is also my first to read from Armstrong.  The book can be read as a stand-alone but reading the series as a whole would be recommended as Armstrong builds on and includes previous characters in each book. The previous books in the series are Welcome to Last Chance, One More Last Chance and At Home In Last Chance.
Armstrong's characters come from complex backgrounds but find a place to belong in the small town of Last Chance.  Armstrong captures small town life with characters that drive a story full of faith and love.  I really appreciated the effort Armstrong made to infuse her story with a strong message of faith so fluently throughout the dialogue between the characters.  Consider this passage as an example:

"Do you think your results came back the way they did because God likes you better than he might like someone else, maybe because you go to church more or something?"

"No, of course not. I have no idea why I got the results I did.  It certainly wasn't because I deserved it.  It was just part of the plan God has for my life.  And if the results had come back the way I was afraid they might, well, that would have been part of God's plan for my life too.  Not as punishment, or judgment, but as a natural consequence of my actions.  And he would have had a olan for my life that included that too.  And you know what? It would have been a good plan." 

You will enjoy this easy read and might just find yourself in Last Chance along with Jess, Andy, Kaitlyn, Lainie, Juanita, Chris, Ray and my personal favorite, Elizabeth.

*I received a complimentary copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.  A positive review was not expected and all opinions are my own.

Happy Reading Ya'll,
Jennifer

Bonding with Your Child through Boundaries

One of the world's leading biblical counselors, June Hunt is also an author, speaker, singer, and the founder of Hope for the Heart, a worldwide biblical counseling ministry.  June hosts an award-winning radio broadcast, Hope for the Heart, heard daily across America.  Hope for the Night is June's live two-hour call-in counseling program that helps people untangle their problems with biblical hope.

Early family pain was the catalyst that shaped June's compassionate heart and her work with young people and their parents led June to a life commitment of providing God's Truth for Today's Problems.

After years of teaching and research, June began developing spiritually based counseling tools called Biblical Counseling Keys.  The Counseling Keys have become the foundation for Hope for Hearts' Biblical Counseling Institute, initiated by The Criswell College in 2002.

June's books have sold more than a million copies.  Through her life-transforming approach, she readily shares the truth that "a changed mind produces a changed heart...and a changed heart produces a changed life."

June's newest book is Bonding with Your Child through Boundaries which she wrote in conjunction with Peggysue Wells.

In Bonding with Your Child through Boundaries Hunt helps parents understand why boundaries are essential in parenting, sharing bibllically based principles for implementing boundaries, answering frequently asked questions about boundaries such as, "Will boundaries limit my child's creativity?" and "How do I lay a foundation for boundaries to work?"

"External boundaries are designed to develop internal character," says Hunt.  "Kids with character do the right things - not to impress the world but because they've been transformed by a powerful process described in Romans 12:2.  Ultimately, parents who let their kids keep getting away with wrong are training them to do wrong."

After laying the foundation for the necessity of boundaries, Hunt offers 36 practical, parent-tested "how to" steps for making boundaries work in your family offering insights on everything from anger and aggression, back talk, bullying, cell phone struggles, cheating, chores, disrespectfulness, gossip and tattling, media mania, lying and whining.

Hunt approaches each topic with a relatable story, motivations behind the issue, practical boundaries, tips on what to say to your child and most importantly what the Bible has to say about it.

"When children are secure in who they are - and whose they are - they are better equipped to make good decisions," says Hunt.  The Bible says, "Discipline your children, and they will give you peace of mind and will make your heart glad" (Proverbs 29:17 NLT).

I appreciate immensely how Hunt ties her approaches to the Scriptures and I can't recommend this book enough.  Rather than another "how to" formulaic parenting book, Hunt offers parents an invaluable tool in shaping minds and hearts of their children for the glory of God.

Get this book now!

*I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for providing my honest thoughts and review.

Blessings,
Jennifer