review and Tour: The Christmas Lamp by Lori Copeland

The Christmas Lamp
by Lori Copeland
Zondervan (October 1, 2009) ~ 144 pages
Fiction / Christian Fiction / Christmas

Edition Reviewed: Hardback - Review copy received courtesy of the publisher, many thanks to author, the publisher and CFBA for coordinating this tour and for sending me a copy to review!

Perfect for : Personal Use, Book Club

My Thoughts: The Christmas Lamp was a very enjoyable Christmas read that really had me looking at our family holiday traditions more closely, especially after reading about the fictional town of Nativity, Missouri.

The town of Nativity needs help to pull out of an economic slump, and it takes an outsider to be objective and make suggestions that just might work if the townspeople can just rally together and embrace the changes and reasons behind them.

So many times we find ourselves caught up in doing things the same way because we've always done them that way, and the same goes for Roni and many of the townspeople... and when Jake comes to town, things become a little uncomfortable, as he tries to get them to undo some of those things in order to save the town.

This wonderful story is filled with a lot of holiday and a little bit of romance, but it is sure to be a story that will be read time and again.

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

The Christmas Lamp

Zondervan (October 1, 2009)

by

Lori Copeland
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lori Copeland has been writing for twenty-five years and has over three million copies of her books in print. She began her writing career in 1982, writing for the secular book market. In 1995, after many years of writing, Lori sensed that God was calling her to use her gift of writing to honor Him. It was at that time that she began writing for the Christian book market.

To date, she has more than 95 books published, including Now and Always, Simple Gifts, Unwrapping Christmas, and Monday Morning Faith, which was a finalist for the 2007 Christy Awards. Lori was inducted into the Springfield Writers Hall of Fame in 2000.

Lori lives in the beautiful Ozarks with her husband Lance. They have three sons, two daughter-in-laws, and five wonderful grandchildren. Lori and Lance are very involved in their church, and active in supporting mission work in Mali, West Africa.


ABOUT THE BOOK

Christmas trees, twinkling lights, skating in the park, and holiday displays are the hallmark elements for celebrating Jesus birth for the sentimental residents of Nativity, Missouri. Will fiscal responsibility replace Christmas their traditions when times are tough? Though their priorities and methods clash, Roni Elliot and Jake Brisco want the same thing, for the town to prosper. As the two get to know each other better, each begins to gain a new perspective on what the real wealth of Nativity and the season might be.

If you would like to read the first chapter of The Christmas Lamp, go HERE

Review and Tour: The Unfinished Gift by Dan Walsh (Excerpt Included)

The Unfinished Gift
by Dan Walsh
Revell (September 1, 2009) ~ 256 pages
Fiction / Christian Fiction / Christmas

Edition Reviewed: Hardback - Review copy received courtesy of the publisher, many thanks to both the author and the publisher for sending me a copy to review as part of the Revell Christmas Tour!

Perfect for : Personal Use, Book Club, Gift

My Thoughts: This book will take you back in time... Set a few days before Christmas in 1943, The Unfinished Gift explores faith and forgiveness in a way that will help readers to really feel for the characters and grow with them.

With his father off to war, Patrick is dropped off at his Grandfather's house when his mother dies in a car accident. His Grandfather is bitter and doesn't know what to do with the boy, especially when Patrick unintentionally stirs the embers of a rift between him and Patrick's father.

Patrick's child's faith is refreshing, and helps to remind us about aspects of our own faith and/or walk with God, and of the importance of forgiveness.

The story will make you thoughtful and reflective. It will also make you laugh... and cry. But most of all, it will provide you a refreshing holiday story full of faith and hope. I truly didn't want this one to end.

About the Book:

Amazon: Patrick Collins is seven years old, and on his Christmas list are only three items. He wants the army to find his father. He wants to leave his grandfather's house. And, for reasons even he doesn't understand, he wants the soldier that's tucked away in his grandfather's attic. Set at Christmastime in 1943, The Unfinished Gift tells in an engaging, simple style the story of a family, and reminds us of the surprising things that affect powerful change in our hearts--like a young boy's prayers, a shoebox full of love letters, and even an old wooden soldier, long forgotten. This nostalgic story of forgiveness will engage readers everywhere.

Excerpt:
The Unfinished Gift

About the Author:

From Amazon: Dan Walsh is the senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church in Daytona Beach, Florida, a church he helped found 23 years ago. Walsh lives with his family in the Daytona Beach area. This is his first novel.

Excerpt: Finding Christmas by James Schaap

Finding Christmas: Stories of Startling Joy and Perfect Peace
by James Schaap
Revell (September 1, 2009) ~ 160 pages
Fiction / Christian Fiction / Christmas

Edition Reviewed: NA

Perfect for : Personal Use, Book Club, Gift

About the Book:

From Amazon: A gift. The baby. The pageant. The parties. The worship. The afterglow. The story. These are the elements of almost every Christmas. In Finding Christmas, award-winning author James Calvin Schaap takes a look at each of these elements through seven stories that show how imperfect people can find joy and grace in an imperfect world. His eyes turn on an outgoing bus driver, a passionate mother, a daughter reluctant to return to church, and even his own assumed-mediocre performance at a Christmas pageant. Along the way, readers see how the amazing message of Christmas can be found in the oddest of places. This heartwarming read is both moving and magical and will help readers usher in a joyful Christmas season even amidst the howling winds of winter.

Excerpt:

Finding Christmas

About the Author: (from the publisher's site)

From Amazon: James Calvin Schaap, a professor of English at Dordt College and president of the Chrysostom Society, is the award-winning author of 22 books. His articles, essays, and short stories have appeared in more than 25 magazines and journals, including The Banner. He lives in Iowa.

Review and Tour: The Christmas Glass by Marci Alborghetti

The Christmas Glass: A Novel
by Marci Alborghetti
GuidepostsBooks (October 1, 2009) ~ 304 pages
Fiction / Christian Fiction / Christmas

Edition Reviewed: Hardback - Review copy received courtesy of the publisher, many thanks to both the author, the publisher and CFBA Blog Alliance for coordinating the tour and sending me a copy to review!

Perfect for : Personal Use, Book Club

My Thoughts: I found The Christmas Glass to be a very interesting and insightful look into a fictional family that is brought together because of 12 delicately blown glass nativity ornaments that were a cherished possession of Anna, an Italian widow running an orphanage that also houses Jewish children during the war in 1940. Out of fear that the ornaments will be destroyed, she sends them to a cousin who later moves to America. Over the years, the ornaments make their way to twelve different family members.

By 2000, Anna's cousin Filomena fears that the family has become too remote and that there isn't hope of getting everyone together, so she requests that each person who has one of the ornaments return it in person, which could have disastrous results within the dysfunctional family.

The beginning of the book takes a look at Anna's life, and the rest of the book is dedicated to exploring the relationships of the current possessors of the ornaments, one person and ornament per chapter.

I found it very interesting to watch as the lives and problems of different people were brought to the forefront and explored, finding that they are connected and I loved that this Christmas story is just as heart-warming as I had hoped.

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

The Christmas Glass

GuidepostsBooks (October 1, 2009)

by

Marci Alborghetti
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Marci Alborghetti has been writing only slightly longer than she's been reading. In seventh grade she received her first writing prize for a zany Halloween story. The prize? A five dollar gift certificate to a local bookstore. She was hooked. The Christmas Glass is her fourteenth book, and she is currently at work on a sequel as well as a non-fiction book about service. Some of her other books include: Prayer Power: How to Pray When You Think You Can’t, A Season in the South and Twelve Strong Women of God.

She and her husband, Charlie Duffy, live in New London, Connecticut and the San Francisco Bay area. While in New London she facilitates the Saint James Literary Club.

ABOUT THE BOOK

In the tradition of The Christmas Shoes and A Christmas on Jane Street, the heartwarming story of The Christmas Glass shows how, today as always, the Christmas miracle works its wonders in the human heart.

In the early days of World War II in Italy, Anna, a young widow who runs a small orphanage, carefully wraps her most cherished possessions -- a dozen hand-blown, German-made, Christmas ornaments, handed down by her mother -- and sends them to a cousin she hasn't seen in years.

Anna is distressed to part with her only tangible reminder of her mother, but she worries that the ornaments will be lost or destroyed in the war, especially now that her orphanage has begun to secretly shelter Jewish children. Anna's young cousin Filomena is married with two-year-old twins when she receives the box of precious Christmas glass.

After the war, Filomena emigrates to America, where the precious ornaments are passed down through the generations. After more than forty years, twelve people come to possess a piece of Christmas glass, some intimately connected by family bonds, some connected only through the history of the ornaments.

As Christmas Day approaches, readers join each character in a journey of laughter and tears, fractures and healings, as Filomena, now an eighty-four-year-old great-grandmother, brings them all to what will be either a wondrous reunion or a disaster that may shatter them all like the precious glass they cherish.

If you would like to read the first chapter of The Christmas Glass, go HERE

Tour, Review and Giveaway: Murder on the Cliffs by Joanna Challis

Murder on the Cliffs: A Daphne du Maurier Mystery (Daphne du Maurier Mysteries)
by Joanna Challis
Minotaur Books (November 24, 2009) ~ 304 pages
Fiction / Mystery / Historical Mystery

Edition Reviewed: Paperback - Review copy received courtesy of the publisher, many thanks to both the author and the publisher and Omnimystery for coordinating the tour and sending me a copy to review!

Perfect for : Personal Use, Book Club Read

My Thoughts: Murder on the Cliffs by Joanna Challis is a wonderfully engrossing historical mystery that would also fit into the Gothic mystery category. I was immediately interested in this book simply from the title. I've heard such wonderful things about Daphne du Maurier's books and have recently ordered a few... so to have the opportunity to read a historical mystery with her as a central character was fun.

For me, the book started off quickly, with Daphne happening upon a young girl looking at a body on the beach. The body ends up being the fiance of the young girl's brother, David, a titled member of the Hartley family. While the death of Victoria was ruled an accident, Daphne finds out that she was poisoned, and that the family was against the marriage between David and the ex-house maid.

Daphne begins her own investigation into Victoria's death, starting with the members of the Hartley family.

Joanna Challis has written a wonderfully descriptive book and balanced it with well-developed characters. I really enjoyed this book and the change of pace it gave me!

About the Book: (From the Tour)

The first book in the Daphne du Maurier series.

The storm led me to Padthaway.

I could never resist the allure of dark swirling clouds, windswept leaves sweeping down cobbled lanes or a view of the sea stirring up its defiant nature. The sea possessed a power all of its own and this part of Cornwall, an isolated stretch of rocky cliff tops and unexplored beaches both enchanted and terrified me.

It is not a lie to say I felt drawn out that day, led to a certain destiny ...

So begins this new mystery series featuring young Daphne du Maurier, headstrong, adventurous, and standing at the cusp of greatness.

Walking on the cliffs in Cornwall, she stumbles upon the drowned body of a beautiful woman, dressed only in a nightgown, her hair strewn along the rocks, her eyes gazing up to the heavens. Daphne soon learns that the mysterious woman was engaged to marry Lord Hartley of Padthaway, an Elizabethan mansion full of intriguing secrets.

As the daughter of the famous Sir Gerald du Maurier, Daphne is welcomed into the Hartley home, but when the drowning turns out to be murder, Daphne determines to get to the bottom of the mysteries of Padthaway—in part to find fresh inspiration for her writing, and in part because she cannot resist the allure of grand houses and long buried secrets.

About the Author: (from the tour)

Joanna Challis lives and writes in a colonial house with wrap-around verandahs and an English garden Queensland, Australia, surrounded by family, old paintings, and anything fleur-de-lys. She is the author of several romantic suspense novels; Murder on the Cliffs is her first series mystery. Author's website: http://www.joanna-challis.com/.

Giveaway: Hosted at the main Tour website
Joanna Challis is giving away a signed copy of her book, Murder on the Cliffs, to one lucky tour visitor. Go to her book tour page, http://joanna-challis.omnimystery.com/, enter your name, e-mail address, and this PIN, 1386, for your chance to win. Entries from Wendi's Book Corner will be accepted until 12:00 Noon (PT) tomorrow. No purchase is required to enter or to win. The winner (first name only) will be announced on their book tour page next week.

Review and Tour: The Christmas Dog by

The Christmas Dog
by Melody Carlson
Revell (September 1, 2009) ~ 176 pages
Fiction / Contemporary / Christian Fiction / Christmas

Edition Reviewed: Hardback - Review copy received courtesy of the publisher, many thanks to both the author and the publisher for sending me a copy to review for this Revell Christmas Tour!

Perfect for : Personal Use, Book Club

My Thoughts: This is one of my favorite times of the year... with holiday decorations, get-togethers with family and friends, and wonderful holiday stories that are heart-warming! ... and The Christmas Dog is simply another book to add to my small shelf of holiday favorites! Not only does Melody Carlson write in a way that readers can relate to different aspects of the story, but she makes you feel immersed in the characters and they feel like real people.

I really loved the ups and downs explored in this book... the assumptions (don't we all come to the wrong assumption on occasion??) and clarifications, the twists and turns within the family, and the overall outcome of the story. Add in an adorable little brown dog who manages to touch everyone's lives, and you've got a fun and easy holiday read that you will come back to year after year.

This is another great holiday book that explores relationships of differing types and degrees: a new neighbor, a runaway grand-daughter, a mother and daughter who are at odds, a dog, etc.

I found this book to be very heart-warming, endearing and inspiring. I realize that after living in our current neighborhood for 5+ years, I feel like I know the neighboring family on one side well, and I am comfortable enough to speak on casual terms with a few others, but I want to get to know my neighbors, and the holidays might be the perfect time to extend some holiday cheer.

About the Book:

From Amazon: Betty Kowalski isn't looking forward to the holidays. She just can't seem to find Christmas in her heart. There's church, of course. But who can she bake for these days? And who would care whether or not she pulled out the Christmas decorations? Her new neighbor just adds to the problem. He's doing home improvements that don't appear to be improving much of anything. These days when Betty looks out the window, she sees a beat-up truck, a pile of junk, lots of blue tarps, and--horror of horrors--an old pink toilet. But when a mangy dog appears at her doorstep, the stage is set for Betty to learn a very important lesson about what Christmas is all about. This contemporary Christmas story is a timely yet gentle reminder that God can work miracles through something as seemingly insignificant as a little brown dog.

Excerpt:
The Christmas Dog

About the Author:

From Amazon: Melody Carlson is the prolific author of more than 200 books, including The Christmas Bus and All I Have to Give. She recently was nominated for a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award in the inspirational market for her books. She lives with her husband in Oregon.