Aloha Rose: From the Quilts of Love Series

 

About the book: When Laney Carrigan's adoptive parents encourage her as an adult to seek out her birth family, her only clue is the Lokelani quilt in which she was found wrapped as an infant. Centering her search on the Big Island, she battles fears of rejection from a family that abandoned her once before while her faith struggles to embrace God's love.Along the path to her true heritage, she meets Hawaiian cowboy/helicopter pilot, Kai Barnes. Kai is determined to protect the people he's come to regard as family against a woman he suspects of being nothing more than a gold-digger, but he finds himself drawn to Laney in spite of his reservations. He's spent his entire life seeking forgiveness from past mistakes and longs for a second chance at happiness. Laney's painstaking journey to find restoration and a place to belong among the breathtaking allure of the Big Island will lead her closer to her past and maybe even something more.
Purchase a copy: http://ow.ly/qKmVW

Meet the author: Lisa Carter has been published in MomSense and Christian Parenting Today. Lisa is currently teaching music at a preschool and enjoying the enthusiasm and joy for life for which preschoolers are famous. She and David have two beautiful daughters.  Find out more at: http://www.quiltsoflovebooks.com

My Thoughts About The Book:  I loved the characters in this book.  My most favorite were Kai and Laney. Both of them had dark childhood issues and I found myself hoping the two would find peace with their pasts and learn to accept love. Carter is a master with character development and I found I was hooked from the very first chapter. This book is more than a love story, it is a story of hope, love, and finding keys to the past. 

Disclaimer:  I received a complimentary copy of this book from Litfuse Publishing Group  in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to give a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

To Know You

 

About The Book:  Julia Whittaker’s rocky past yielded two daughters, both given up for adoption as infants. Now she must find them to try to save her son.Julia and Matt Whittaker’s son has beaten the odds for thirteen years only to have the odds—and his liver—crash precipitously. The only hope for his survival is a “living liver” transplant, but the transplant list is long and Dillon’s time is short. His two older half-sisters, born eighteen months apart to two different fathers, offer his only hope for survival.  But can Julia ask a young woman—someone she surrendered to strangers long ago and has never spoken with—to make such a sacrifice to save a brother she’s never known? Can she muster the courage to journey back into a shame-filled season of her life, face her choices and their consequences, and find any hope of healing?  And what if she discovers in her own daughters’ lives that a history of foolish choices threatens to repeat itself? Julia knows she’s probably embarking on a fool’s errand—searching for the daughters she abandoned only now that she needs something from them. But love compels Julia to take this journey. Can grace and forgiveness compel her daughters to join her?  In To Know You, Shannon Ethridge and Kathryn Mackel explore how the past creates the present . . . and how even the most shattered lives can be redeemed.

About The Author:  *Shannon Ethridge* is a best-selling author, speaker, and certified life coach with a master’s degree in counseling/human relations from Liberty University. She has spoken to college students and adults since 1989 and is the author of 21 books, including the million-copy best-selling Every Woman's Battle series. She is a frequent guest on TV and radio programs and mentors aspiring writers and speakers through her BLAST Program (Building Leaders, Authors, Speakers & Teachers.) *Kathryn Mackel* is a best-selling author and acclaimed screenwriter for Disney and Fox. She was on the screenwriting team for Left Behind: The Movie, and Frank Peretti's Hangman's Curse. She is the acclaimed author of "The Surrogate", "The Departed", and "The Hidden" and resides in Boston, Massachusetts, with her husband.

My Thoughts On The Book:  This story touched a nerve with me.  My best friend tried to find her birth mom when my friend's son came down with a rare disease.  I felt a lot of emotions I experienced with her at that time.  This book is by far one of the best books I have read in a while.  It was absolutely wonderful, and in my opinion, had everything a good book needs. I didn't want to put it down!   Once I started reading this story I did not want to eat, sleep, or work.  I just wanted to dive into the story.  Everytime I thought I had it figured out I would be thrown for a loop and the ending was quite a surprise.  I would have never seen that one coming.  The book covers a multitude of topics but the biggest one is redemption as you are taken on a journey that keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout the whole story. The book may be fictional, but the realism in the story would catch your breath. This book is definitely a must read!

Statement of Disclosure: I received an paperback copy of this title from Litfuse Publishing Group as part of their Blogging for Books blogger review program . I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC 16 CFR, Part 255 'Guides concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising. I was not asked to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are entirely my own. Thanks guys for letting me read this and participate!

Love You More :The Divine Surprise of Adopting My Daughter

About The Book:  Following the invisible thread of connection between people who are seemingly intended to become family, journalist Jennifer Grant shares the deeply personal, often humorous story of adopting a fifteen-month-old girl from Guatemala when she was already the mother of three very young children.  Her family's journey is captured in stories that will encourage not only adoptive families but those who are curious about adoption or whose lives have been indirectly touched by it. Love You More explores universal themes such as parenthood, marriage, miscarriage, infertility, connection, destiny, true self, failure and stumbling, and redemption.  In Love You More, Jennifer describes the way she feels God has brought her family together and completed it with the adoption of her daughter.
About The Author:  Jennifer Grant is a journalist and freelance writer with particular interests in parenting, family life, and international health and development. She has been a columnist and currently freelances for the Chicago Tribune. Jennifer is a guest blogger for websites including Fullfill and Sojourners' God's Politics blog and a regular contributor to Christianity Today’s her.meneutics blog for women. Her work has been published on britannica.com and in magazines including Chicago Parent, Christianity Today, Draft, and Conscious Choice. For more than a decade, she wrote features, restaurant profiles, and columns for Sun-Times Media newspapers.  Her memoir, Love You More was published in summer 2011 by Thomas Nelson publishers. Her second book, Momumental Adventures... will be published in May 2012 by Worthy Publishers.  Jennifer Grant lives with her husband and four children outside of Chicago, Illinois.   Want to know more about her?  You can find  her on Twitter @jennifercgrant, @momumentalbook, and @loveyoumorebook and online at http://www.jennifergrant.com.
My Thoughts On The Book:  I was spellbound from the moment I began reading this precious story.  Ten years ago a good friend of mine adopted a child from Honduras and I translated a good bit over the phone for her with the attorney.  When Susie's adoption finally was a reality our whole church celebrated and I celebrated with the Grant family as Mia's adoption became a reality.  My daughter and her husband will be going to Moldova for the second time in June to work at orphanages there so the process, red tape and heart break of international/or even national adoption is near and dear to me.  Even if adoption has never crossed your mind this book is a must read so that you can understand what the loving act of adoption entails.  I was glad that Mrs. Grant included the ups and downs of being an adoptive family.  Many times when adoptions take place the adoptive family expect sunshine and rainbows and that is not always what happens.    I cannot urge my readers enough to get a copy of this book and settle in for a heart touching ride.
Disclaimer:  I was sent this book by Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their Blogging review program.  The opinions expressed here are 100% mine and I was not paid to give a positive review of this book.