by Roseanna White | May 11, 2010 | Books
Giveaway here – Deb Raney’s Almost Forever
Giveaway of A Stray Drop of Blood – a special Mother’s Day contest at Sunnybank Meandering includes my book and many other awesome prizes. Also, there’s a really awesome interview and giveaway to correspond with the ACFW book club this month, by the book club coordinator Nora St. Laurent. Check it out at Finding Hope Through Fiction!
~*~
A while back I talked about a novel I was still in the process of reading, Finding Jeena by Miralee Ferrell. Today, now that the book is released, I’m giving y’all the full review. =)
Finding Jeena
by Miralee Ferrell
Jeena Gregory had it all–the job she’d always dreamed of, a new townhouse in the right part of town, a car to make people drool, the finest clothes a fashionista businesswoman could want . . . she was heading exactly where she wanted to go. Until she wasn’t.
In a series of hard hits, some beyond her control and some her own doing, Jeena’s life spirals out of control. Everything she had worked so hard for is in jeopardy, and everything she thought she knew she has to doubt.
Jeena isn’t a character you necessarily like right away–but she’s one that you know is going to grow and whose promised dynamics keep you turning those pages. She pulls emotions out of you. Frustration, frantic hopes, sorrow, and finally a Joy from deep within when you get to glimpse with her the light at the end of her tunnel.
This isn’t a light, easy read, but for lovers of women’s fiction who value a journey from mountain to valley, this is the book for you. A story of growth, realization, and learning lessons the hard way, Finding Jeena is a deep look into the heart of one woman who knows exactly what she wants . . . until it betrays her. Miralee Ferrell delivers a beautifully written book that will invite you to gaze long into your own soul to see if there’s a bit of Jeena inside you.
by Roseanna White | Sep 25, 2009 | Books
During my first writers conference back in ’07, I was standing around waiting for class to start one day and struck up a conversation with a mother/daughter writing team in front of me–
Christina Berry and Sherry Ashcroft. Though I met a lot of people there, these ladies stuck in my mind. I was pregnant, and
Christina shared her pregnancy stories too, so maybe that’s why I remembered her face and name. Or maybe it’s because her joy in the Lord practically radiates from her.
For whatever reason, I’ve kept Christina in my htoughts and prayers over the years, so I was eager to help when she announced her debut novel, The Familiar Stranger, was coming out from Moody Press in September of 2009. Go, Christina! She was the second place winner with this story in the Genesis contest, a testament to the attention the contest can bring you. And when I started reading her book, I didn’t have to wonder why she did so well.
I didn’t get to start The Familiar Stranger until conference this year. I opened the first page, made a few observations. The first word? His. Chapter heading sort of thing to tell you whose point of view you’re in. Naturally, the other option is Hers. I loved this from the get-go. Then I read the first page and said something like, “Wooooowwwww.” She totally captured the male mindset, right down to the sarcasm. I could totally hear it, totally put myself into the mind of her hero. And as I turned the page . . .
My roommate came in. LOL. Stephanie looked at what I was reading and said, “Oo, I can’t wait to read that. Is it good?”
I often hate it when people ask that question when I’ve been reading for all of thirty seconds, but this time I didn’t mind at all. “The first page is awesome!” I told her.
It wasn’t until later that night that I got to read more, but my exclamation after the first chapter was pretty amazed too. “Oh my gosh!” I announced to Stephanie. “I think this guy’s going to try to fake his own death!”
Kept reading . . . got to the stuff on the back cover. Craig (hero) is in a debilitating car accident that leaves him seriously injured and with retrograde amnesia. His wife, who has been wondering if their marriage is in serious danger, rushes to his side and prays that somehow this will draw them closer. And it does–except for all those unanswered questions. Obviously there are lies between them. But can they overcome them?
You don’t think I’m going to tell you, do you? Ha! No, you’re just going to have to open up this awesome book yourself and see. I promise you won’t regret it. Christina is a talented writer, and she confesses that she pulled a lot of the feeling from her own life–a marriage on the rocks that got better only to end without warning.
Yet still Christina radiates the Joy of the Lord, and it’s so clear from a minute of talking to her that this is one woman excited about what God might have in store for her. Her tagline, Live Transparently–Forgive Extravagently sums it up rather well, doesn’t it? I was so glad to get to talk to her and hug her again in Denver, and it’s my prayer that this book takes off and establishes a reputation she totally deserves as a writer and a person.
by Roseanna White | Jul 28, 2009 | Books, What We're Reading
When Claudia Mair Burney’s new book out from Cook arrived on my in-pile, I thought something along the lines of “Sigh.” I’d only read one book by this author before, and while I enjoyed most of it, I didn’t care for the ending. I was kinda afraid this would have the same kick-me-while-I’m-down thing going, but I dutifully picked it up anyway. And fell in love.
Zora & Nicky is a look into the lives of the title characters that will redefine your entire way of thinking. Zora is a young, wealthy black woman whose father is an influential minister in the Prosperity movement. Nicky is the down-on-his-luck son of a white Southern Baptist preacher who’d run for the senate not long ago. To the world, these two couldn’t look more different. But after they both walk out of their respective churches one Sunday, fed up with the rhetorics of their fathers, they meet at an informal Bible study–and are never the same again.
This is such a timely, relevant book right now. It’s unafraid to look deep into some popular denominations, it’s unafraid to deal with race issues head one. And Burney arrives at a place where the reader, no matter his/her color, is touched by the honesty of the character’s hearts.
I was raised in a community with next to no minorities, and with the belief that everyone was made equal. When a minority did come into our area, I can honestly say I barely even noted the difference in their skin color. Growing up like that, at once sheltered and well-taught, watching the news could be weird. First of all, what was with all the prejudice? And why did the black community always assume prejudice?
Those two questions are at the heart of this book–Zora sees everything Nicky does as racist, and Nicky has to figure out how to get around that by looking at things through her eyes. He isn’t racist, not in his heart. But before he can convince her of that, he has to understand that she was indeed raised to think that everything’s different for a black person.
This is a story of profound sensitivity and yet hard-hitting facts. It pulls no punches, whether they be concerning the lustful thoughts of the hero or the sad reality of the world as we know it. But it leaves you not only with hope, but with understanding. I couldn’t put this book down, and long after I turned the last page, it’s still with me.
As I watch the latest “race issue” debacle on the news, I shake my head and think, “EVERYONE ought to read Zora & Nicky!” The world might just get a little brighter if they did.
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.