Posts Tagged: covenant

Southern Charmed Blog Tour and $25 Giveaway

16 Sep, 2016 by in Uncategorized 1 comment

Southern Charmed

by Melanie Jacobson
Published by Covenant on September 1, 2016
Genres: Adult, LDS, Romance
Pages: 232
Format: Paperback
Source: Covenant
Buy the Book •
Lila Mae Guidry is a Southern girl through and through. As a fourth-generation Latter-day Saint in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, she's proud of her heritage as both a Southerner and a Saint—and she doesn't take kindly to people who disparage either. Ten years ago, Max Archer was just that kind of jerk. As the mission president's son, Max spent his entire three years mocking the South . . . and teenage Lila. After Max's family moved away, Lila forgot about her sworn enemy. Almost.

When a new job brings a grown-up Max back to Baton Rouge, Lila is less than thrilled with his reappearance, especially since everyone seems intent on throwing her together with this old adversary. Yet fight as she may, Lila soon realizes resistance is futile—their connection is undeniable. Max embodies everything she wants in a man—except perhaps the most important thing her life is rooted in the city she loves, but his dreams are bigger than Baton Rouge. With such mismatched visions of the future, Max and Lila are faced with a life-altering decision: jeopardize their aspirations or risk losing love.

 

Southern Charmed will take you right into the bayou with its home cooked food, barefoot walks by the dock, Cajun restaurants and society pages. Melanie Jacobson does a wonderful job of pulling the readers into a world where debutantes have been raised to answer “yes ma’am and sir, where family roots run deep. Lila Mae is beginning to get pressure from her mom to get married and raise grandbabies. Already established in a teaching career at a high school with low income teens, Lila lives at home. Her love for Louisiana runs in her veins, as does her desire to take care of her mother, who is recovering from the loss of her husband. Along comes Max, Lila’s childhood crush to mix things up.

There is a side plot with a student Kiana who has a rough home life. She’s got talent, but with a mom on drugs in and out of the home, she lacks the resources to go to college or make a better life for herself. One girl who wants to launch but may not be able to and her teacher who has opportunity to leave, but wants to stay rooted. I absolutely loved the first half of the book, the world building and the banter between Max and Lila. The drag for me was the inner conflict within Lila. It felt a bit drawn out. I saw hints things would work out on their own, but one character was forced to compromise. This book is reminiscent of Melanie’s other works with strong lead women characters, and some non-profit and political undertones. My favorite element of her writing is the clean romance.

You will want to visit the South after reading this book just to sample the food!

About the AuthorMelanie Jacobson

Melanie Bennett Jacobson is an avid reader, amateur cook, and champion shopper. She lives in Southern California with her husband and children and a series of doomed houseplants, and is currently pursuing a Masters degree in writing for children and young adults.

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Book Review- Friends & Foes

16 Jan, 2012 by in regency, sarah m edeb 3 comments

Friends and Foes

by Sarah M. Eden
Paperback: 269 pages
Published by Covenant Communications Inc.
January 3, 2012
ISBN-10: 1608613763
Book Source: bought
4 stars

Book description from Amazon: After five years of tracking and capturing spies on English soil, Philip Jonquil, Earl of Lampton, is in pursuit of his last quarry. But at a traveler’s inn, he encounters an unexpected and far more maddening foe: Sorrel Kendrick, a young lady who is strikingly pretty, shockingly outspoken, and entirely unimpressed with him. Indeed, Sorrel cannot believe the nerve of this gentleman, who rudely accuses her of theft and insults her feminine dignity. Doubly annoyed when they both end up at a party hosted by mutual friends, Philip and Sorrel privately declare war on one another. But Philip’s tactics, which range from flirting to indifference, soon backfire as he finds himself reluctantly enjoying Sorrel’s company; and, much to her dismay, Sorrel finds Philip’s odd manner to be increasingly endearing. In the midst of this waning war and growing attraction, Philip catches wind of the French spy he’s been tracking, and Sorrel inadvertently stumbles upon a crucial piece of the puzzle, making her indispensable to the mission. But can two proud hearts negotiate a ceasefire when cooperation matters most?
This is the fourth book I’ve read by Sarah M . Eden and I can say she is one of my favorite writers of clean Regency romance. It had been a while since I’d read Kiss of A Stranger and I had already forgotten many of the characters. I wish I would have re-read it before picking up Friends and Foes. Sarah integrates the people from her last books into each of the new ones so it’s fun to have them fresh in your mind. Philip Jonquil is back and is the focus of Friends and Foes instead of a secondary character. This time he’s acting as a “Dandy” ,a well-dressed self-assured gentleman who on the side is acting as a spy for the English war effort. He’s in the midst of trying to catch a Frenchman when he stumbles upon a woman in his room at the inn who he accuses of stealing his walking stick.

The two start a spew of conversational banter which keeps up through the whole novel. They declare “war” on one another when they learn they have mutual friends and are not just strangers, but rather are forced to spend the entire Christmas holiday with their perspective families at Crispin’s estate. Main heroine Sorrel is headstrong and has suffered greatly as a result of a crippling incident so she doesn’t feel she is material for romance. Instead she and Phillip jab at each other with cutting and sarcastic insults.

This is such a fun, clean read!  Overall I was highly entertained. My only little peeve was the overuse of the word “lud” by Phillip and the fact that the book is very main character driven. The reader doesn’t get a deep sense of any of the side characters or resolution of sub plots that are previously explored. The issue of Sorrel’s leg, her relationship with her mother and father plus a side romance going on between her sister Margie and Phillip’s brother are left up in the air.  I’m hoping they are resolved in the next book Sarah puts out.
 Friends and Foes is currently number 4 on the Deseret Book bestsellers list- you go Sarah! Readers who liked Josette by Danielle Thorne or Jane Austen’s works will enjoy Sarah’s latest installment. Find out more on Goodreads .

About the Author: Sarah M. Eden read her first Jane Austen novel in elementary school and has been an Austen addict ever since. Fascinated by the Regency era in English history, Eden became a regular in the Regency section of the reference department at her local library, painstakingly researching this extraordinary chapter in history. Eden is an award-winning author of short stories and has been a Whitney Award Finalist for her novels Seeking Persephone (2008) and Courting Miss Lancaster (2010).

Review- Blink Of An Eye by Gregg Luke

15 Oct, 2010 by in new fiction, psychological thriler, utah authors 8 comments

Paperback: 293 pages
Publisher: Covenant Communications

July 1, 2010
ISBN-10: 1608610268
4.5 stars
Childhood was a happy, carefree time for Joseph Ramirez. At least that’s how he remembered it. But after a near-fatal traffic accident leaves him with a crushed skull, he’s not so sure. Along with physical pain, Joseph now suffers recurring nightmares. And each night the heart-wrenching dreams grow increasingly vivid and graphic—to the point that he often cries out in anguish and remorse, revealing horrifying secrets kept hidden for twenty years. To complicate matters, a ruthless lawyer is challenging Joseph’s innocence in the traffic accident.

When defense attorney Michelle Haas comes to his aid, they discover they knew each other as children, and soon another forgotten experience comes into play—one that goes deeper than simple friendship. Together they struggle to answer Joseph’s unanswerable questions. Are Joseph’s night terrors actually repressed memories? Can his psychiatrist unravel the mystery behind his nightmares—including his hospital roommate’s claim that Joseph has confessed to murder? As the clock ticks down, Joseph realizes there’s only one way to uncover the truth about his family and himself—reliving a past he has unknowingly worked all his life to forget.

This is the first novel I have ever read by Gregg Luke and I have to admit I was impressed. Blink of an Eye is a medical/ psychological thriller that looks at the impact of traumatic brain injury on one man’s life. Joseph Ramirez leads an ordinary quiet life as a school teacher when he is involved in a car accident that alters his memory forever. Soon bits and pieces of his childhood begin into come back dreams and he learns that it was anything but ideal.

Gregg Luke unravels the page turning plot little by little in short well written chapters that leave you wanting to know more. The detail is incredible and I found the methods used by the psychologist sound and accurate. A lot of research and hard work went into describing the process of hypnotherapy and regression used by the psychiatrist working on Joseph’s case. Blink of An Eye is not for the faint of heart as it describes the abuse Joseph and his family were forced to endure. It tells a gripping story that could very well be many people’s reality who deal with domestic violence and child abuse daily in their homes. This is a hard one to put down once you have started. You’ll want to know exactly what did or did not happen to Joseph and what secrets lay in his past.

It’s one I likely will never forget since it brings to light many of the issues I worked with as a child protective service worker and domestic violence victim’s advocate. It’s a book that leaves an impression. To learn more about the author visit his website at http://greggluke.com/2201.html

Special thanks to author Gregg Luke for sending us a signed copy of Blink of An Eye for giveaway. To enter to win simply leave a comment below. Contest ends November 14, 2010 and is open to US residents age 16 and older.