In Tune With Love by Amy Matayo (Review)

In Tune With Love
by Amy Matayo
A Year of Weddings 2 series, Book 5
Christian Fiction / Contemporary / Romance
Available March 2015
Zondervan
120 pages

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About the Book

They've helped orchestrate the perfect day for countless couples. Now twelve new couples will find themselves in the wedding spotlight in the second Year of Weddings novella collection.

April is willing to do anything for her sister's wedding-until she comes face to face with a guy from her past.

April Quinn is thrilled to be her sister's maid of honor, until the wedding coordinator quits and the responsibilities get dumped on her. It's April's worst nightmare-especially since her sister has more objections and opinions than a lawyer presenting a high-profile court case. When the wedding singer walks out at the last-minute, her sister hires a replacement. When April finds out who the replacement is, she's ready to call it quits as well. Because there's only one person in April's past that she never wanted to see again, and her sister just handed him a front row seat to the wedding. Jack Vaughn finally has the career he's always wanted. After playing in bars and singing in weddings as a struggling musician for half a decade, he's just released his second album and sales are skyrocketing. But while visiting his parent's Nashville home the weekend before his first headline tour, he runs into an old friend. When she asks him for a last-minute favor, he can't bring himself to say no. Even though saying yes means he has to come face to face with April Quinn—the girl who hasn't spoken to him in years.

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My Thoughts

I'm a big fan of Amy Matayo, so I was super excited to find out that she was invited to be part of this year's A Year of Weddings series! The story itself is interesting and unique. I mean, the thought of someone making a huge career for himself by stealing another person's—and a friend's no less!—lyrics had me intrigued. Throw in reconnecting with said friend and a bridezilla and I'm totally interested. All of the drama around the wedding totally stressed me out, but it made for a good story.

I think the biggest challenge for me is the length of the story. Amy writes what many consider to be "edgier" stories, so they're full of snark and sarcasm and characters that aren't quite as easy to love as what you might normally find in a romance story. While this plays out nicely in a full-length story where readers have a chance to get to know the characters over a longer period of time and more fully understand their history (and therefore their snark), for me it didn't come off quite as well in such a short novella. I really felt like this was the beginning of a story that I wanted to read a lot more of. (Amy, if you happen to be reading this and ever decide to go back and revisit April and Jack, I'll definitely read that story!)

I'm thoroughly happy to have read In Tune With Love, but I want more! If you've read anything by Amy before, you'll definitely enjoy this story. And if you haven't, well, give it a shot. I'm sure glad I did! [3.5 stars]

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my fair and honest review.

About the Author

Amy Matayo has a degree in journalism from John Brown University. She worked for seven years as senior writer and editor at DaySpring Cards until the birth of her first child. Amy was a freelance writer for David C. Cook before pursuing writing full-time, and she focuses on edgy, contemporary books for women of all ages. She is the author of The Wedding Game, Love Gone Wild, and the upcoming Sway. She lives with her husband and four children in Arkansas.

Amy Matayo Online

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From Farm to Table: What Safe Food Means to One Child (Repost from Compassion International)

Today is World Health Day. I read this blog post on Compassion's blog yesterday and wanted to share it with all of you. What a wonderful story of how Compassion doesn't just help children, but impacts entire families and communities as well!

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World Health Day is April 7 and this year’s focus is food safety. More than 200 diseases are caused by unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, parasites, viruses and chemical substances.

Helping meet the physical needs of the children in our program, and of their communities, sometimes means having to find healthy food sources. Often, farm to table is the best solution possible.

This is where little Borisut comes in. He is a sponsored child in Thailand’s rural northern region. And we’d like you to hear his perspective on how farm-to-table living has benefited not only his family but also his entire community.

This is 7-year-old Borisut.

And this is his family’s beautiful garden.

His grandparents’ generation used to plant all their vegetables by themselves. But by the time Borisut was born, people from the city had built roads into his village and started hiring the villagers to work in their fields and factories.

His mom and dad worked hard in others’ fields, but their own gardens started to dry up because no one was taking care of them. Before long, no one in their village planted their own vegetables anymore. They had to buy all of their food from other people.

The produce they purchased always contained chemicals from pesticides that gave Borisut fevers and often made his younger brother break out in rashes.

Buying food also took a lot of money, so Borisut’s mom and dad had to work extra to keep them in school. Sometimes they didn’t make enough money to buy meat, so they would eat only rice and vegetables.

Then one day at his Compassion child development center, the teacher said they would learn something new: planting a garden. The center was going to teach the children’s parents how to grow their own food again, and the kids would get to join in. Borisut was excited to learn!

The center director taught them a new motto: “Plant what you eat, and eat what you plant.”

He planted a large garden at the Compassion center to show them how it’s done. Their teachers took them walking through the garden often, teaching them about all the fruits and vegetables.

Borisut learned all about the different plants he can eat, how vegetables don’t need chemicals to grow, and how to help his mom and dad in the garden.

His parents learned about gardening from the center director. At first the family’s gardens died as soon as the summer started. But as his parents learned about water conservation and storage, the gardens stayed green all year long!

Soon they were picking their own food from the trees and bushes around their house for their meals.

Borisut’s dad is a leader in their village, so now other families come to learn from him how they can have their own garden. The village is going to be swimming in pumpkins and bananas soon!

When they have more fruits and vegetables than they can eat, the center director helps the the families sell the surplus at a small market he set up for them. Every day the families take turns sitting at their booth selling the extra produce to people from other villages.

The other villages like to buy from them because Borisut’s village knows how to grow their gardens without using harmful chemicals.

Since they stopped buying the plants with chemicals, Borisut’s fevers have stopped and his little brother no longer has painful rashes.

Not only are they healthier, they’re also saving a lot of money! With the extra money they save and earn, they can now have more meat in their food, and also money for school supplies.

This week the center director told them that one of Borisut’s friends needed food. His father is dead, and his grandmother just died; there is no one in the house to work for money. All who have gardens are going to be giving him fruits, rice and vegetables that they grew themselves.

Borisut thanks God for blessing their gardens so they can bless those around them!

* Reblogged from Compassion International's blog. Original story and photos by Jonathan Suwaratana

Learn how you can help meet needs like this for other families like Borisut’s by visiting Compassion's Gift Catalog.

All Dressed Up in Love by Ruth Logan Herne (Review)

All Dressed Up in Love
by Ruth Logan Herne
A Year of Weddings 2 series, Book 4
Christian Fiction / Contemporary / Romance
Available February 2015
Zondervan
112 pages

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About the Book

They've helped orchestrate the perfect day for countless couples. Now twelve new couples will find themselves in the wedding spotlight in the second Year of Weddings novella collection.

Greg Elizondo hadn't bargained for this. Any of this.

Satin. Lace. Tulle. Pearl inlay, embroidered bodices, and Swarovski crystals.

The bridal shop business it took his mother three decades to build, the enterprise that covered his university and law degrees in full, was struggling because he might be part-genius when it came to contract law . . . But corset-style gowns with a mermaid flair? Shoot me now.

Tara Simonetti hated law school, but loved the community grant funding her presence at Temple University's esteemed school of law. She could not fail. Would not fail. But when a notice for bridal store help appeared on the community notice board, Tara applied for the job immediately. While grants and loans helped pave her way, money for food was scarce. Legal precedence, moot court, and judicial clerking all had their place, but they were nothing compared to Alcenon lace, tucked silk skirts, and a well-placed peplum.

Greg had grabbed her help as the act of a desperate man. Within weeks, he was desperate again, this time to win her heart. But after using community funds to get her degree, how can Tara turn her back on the people who helped finance her goal?

But if she leaves Philadelphia and Greg to return to her small-town in northern Pennsylvania, she'll be leaving her heart behind. A heart he won, fair and square by posting a help wanted notice on the coffee shop board . . . A heart that filled the missing niche in his mother's acclaimed bridal store. A heart Greg longed to cherish forevermore.

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My Thoughts

Ruth Logan Herne knows how to tell a story! All Dressed Up in Love introduces readers to Greg, a lawyer and the new owner of his mother's bridal shop, and Tara, a law student looking for a part-time job until she finishes school. Thankfully, they just happen to be what the other one needs during a difficult time.

The story centers primarily around the happenings of the bridal shop. We get to read about brides coming in to find their perfect wedding dress, other characters who work at the shop, and plans to revitalize and save the shop. Of course, there are sparks between the two main characters, and a bit of romance and mixed feelings help propel that aspect of the story along. While the story did conclude a little abruptly, I was satisfied with the ending and enjoyed every minute spent with Greg and Tara in All Dressed Up in Love. This is definitely one of my favorites of this year's A Year of Weddings series so far! [4 stars]

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my fair and honest review.

About the Author

Award-winning author Ruth Logan Herne is the author of over a dozen novels for Love Inspired and Summerside Press. The mother of seven children, she loves kids and pets. She is married to a very patient man who is seemingly unthreatened by the casts of characters living in her head.

Ruth Logan Herne Online

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Serving Up a Sweetheart by Cheryl Wyatt (Review)

Serving Up a Sweetheart
by Cheryl Wyatt
A Year of Weddings 2 series, Book 3
Christian Fiction / Romance / Contemporary
Available January 2015
Zondervan
96 pages

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About the Book

They’ve helped orchestrate the perfect day for countless couples. Now twelve new couples will find themselves in the wedding spotlight in the second Year of Weddings novella collection.

Meadow knows how to serve delicious food to match any wedding theme. But can she accept love when it's served up on a silver platter?

During one of the biggest weeks of her catering career, Meadow Larson’s kitchen roof caves in after an unrelenting blizzard. She has to accept help from the last person on earth she wants to see: Colin McGrath. The tormentor from her past is now a contractor, her new neighbor—and the only person available to take on a project of this size.

Colin is aware God has given him a second chance to make things right with Meadow after bullying her in high school. After years of regret and guilt, Colin is determined to earn her respect and forgiveness, no matter what it takes.

It’ll take an extreme kitchen renovation, several cooking lessons, a little lace, and a lot of grace, but God is using this renovation project not only to restore Meadow’s heart, but also to restore Colin’s integrity in her eyes. Will Meadow learn to trust the new Colin even as their relationship grows from a business exchange to something more meaningful?

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My Thoughts

As I've come to expect from this series, Serving Up a Sweetheart is a quick read. The story is cute, and I enjoyed reading about characters who reconnected after many years—and a painful past. It was also cute to see them bond over Meadow's catering business.

This story wasn't a total homerun for me, though. I had a few hangups with how the plot played out, and it got a bit "preachy" at times. And while I understood where Meadow was coming from on her past hurts, she drove me crazy with her wishy-washy attitude.

Overall, though, the story was sweet and I enjoyed this quick read. If you enjoy contemporary romance, you should check this one out.  [3 stars]

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my fair and honest review.

About the Author

Cheryl Wyatt writes romance with virtue. She’s earned RT Top Picks, spots #1 and #4 on her debut publisher’s Top 10 Most-Blogged-About-Books list, Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award, Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence final, and other awards.

Cheryl Wyatt Online

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Both of Me by Jonathan Friesen (Review)

Both of Me
by Jonathan Friesen
YA / Christian Fiction / Contemporary
Available December 2014
Zondervan
272 pages

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About the Book

From award winning author, Jonathan Friesen, a contemporary story dealing with mental illness and an unexpected friendship.

Elias Phinn copes with his painful reality by slipping into the imaginary realm of Warilia, a world that colors his every waking moment and feels more real than the actual one around him. When his carry-on luggage is switched with that of the beautiful and mysterious Clara, Elias becomes convinced that she is a Warilian diplomat’s daughter. But as the two become friends and their carefully constructed worlds begin to crack, Elias must save them both before everything falls apart.

Poignant, heartrending, and powerfully real, Both of Me is the latest young adult novel from award-winning author Jonathon Friesen. As it explores themes of friendship, mental illness, and self-discovery, this gripping novel will catch—and keep—the attention of teen readers.

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My Thoughts

I cannot tell you how much I wanted to like this book. The plot is totally unique, which is a little rare these days to find something that no other author (that you're aware of!) has attempted or sort of done or whatever. A story about a teen with multiple personalities? Never read anything even close to that before. When I started reading the book, though, it was hard for me to connect with the storyteller (Clara) or the other main character (Elias Phinn). And when we started getting into his problems and his alternate world, I just got confused and couldn't really sort through everything. Unfortunately, after picking up and putting down this book over the past couple of months, I just can't get into it (30% done). [DNF]

I will say that I'm in the minority on this book. If the plot intrigues you, check out this review from Sara Ella, who raves about "stellar writing, an engaging story, and a well done ending." Her review caused me to pick the book up at least twice more in my quest to finish it. :)

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my fair and honest review.

About the Author

Jonathan Friesen is an author, speaker, and youth writing coach from Mora, Minnesota. His first young adult novel, Jerk, California, received the ALA Schneider Award. When he’s not writing, speaking at schools, or teaching, Jonathan loves to travel and hang out with his wife and three kids.

For Your Listening Pleasure

I always get a new stash of music for Christmas and then promptly wear them out. Sometimes I stick with a particular CD for several months, sometimes a song gets put on "repeat" for a while, and sometimes I rotate between several before moving on to something new. This is what I've been listening to lately. Can you tell I have eclectic tastes where music is concerned?

Greatest Hits by Journey (2006) 

iTunes  |  Amazon

You Amaze Us by Selah (2014)

iTunes  |  Amazon 

The Music of Nashville: Season 2, Volume 1 (2013)

iTunes  |  Amazon

30: Three Decades of Songs for the Church by Sovereign Grace Music (2014)

iTunes  |  Amazon

Here's to the Ones by Rhett Walker Band (2014)

iTunes  |  Amazon 

I'm always looking for new music . . .
What are you listening to these days?

Cover Reveal | Katia's Promise by Catherine Lanigan

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Welcome to the Cover Reveal for:

Katia's Promise

By Catherine Lanigan

(Shores of Indian Lake #4)
Adult Contemporary Romance

Coming May 1st from Harlequin Heartwarming!

Katia Stanislaus is a top insurance agent in Chicago, but her company is about to fold if she can't pull off a miracle. She convinces her boss to relocate to Indian Lake where she lived as a child and broke the heart of the one man whose account would be enough to save her job and her company. The only problem is that Austin McCreary has been a near recluse since the day Katia left him. Austin won't take her calls and appears set on revenge for the pain Katia has caused him. Just seeing Austin, catapults Katia back to the time when she was 16 and so very much in love. But it was just a teenage crush, wasn't it?

Pre-order from:

Amazon - Barnes & Noble - Harlequin

Other Books in the Series

Love Shadows

(Shores of Indian Lake #1)
by Catherine Lanigan

Adult Contemporary Romance

April 1st 2014 by Harlequin Heartwarming

Catherine Lanigan is the famous author with over 40 books published including "Romancing the Stone" and "Jewel of the Nile". This is the first in a series of at least five books about the romantic and electric world of Indian Lakes. 

One of the first characters we meet in the Indian Lakes series is Luke Bosworth. There are five stages of grief, and Luke Bosworth is stuck on anger. Unable to move on after his wife's death, he's struggling to make ends meet and be a good father to his children—a fight he's afraid he's losing. But then Sarah Jensen crashes into his life. 

Dealing with the loss of her mother, Sarah is a kindred spirit in grief. And even though he doesn't always agree with her actions, she renews hope for Luke and his kids. Suddenly he's making plans for the future again. But can he take the risk of falling in love a second time?

Amazon - Barnes & Noble - Harlequin

Heart's Desire

(Shores of Indian Lake #2)
by Catherine Lanigan

Adult Contemporary Romance

August 1st 2014 by Harlequin Heartwarming

His homecoming is bittersweet ... for both of them 

Cafe owner Maddie Strong is finally ready to take her burgeoning cupcake business to the next level. With the help of handsome businessman Alex Perkins, her future's all mapped out. Until her first love comes home. 

At seventeen, Maddie adored Nate Barzonni with her whole heart and soul. But when he asked her to elope, she'd said no—she couldn't let him throw away his dream of becoming a doctor. Then he vanished from her life for eleven years. Now the cardiac surgeon has returned to Indian Lake asking for a second chance, and Maddie has to choose between her new life ... and the man she never stopped loving.

Amazon - Barnes & Noble - Harlequin

A Fine Year for Love

(Shores of Indian Lake #3)
by Catherine Lanigan

Adult Contemporary Romance

January 1st 2015 by Harlequin Heartwarming

Her grandfather told her never to trust a Barzonni 

Nothing gives Liz Crenshaw more delight than walking the hills of her family's winery and tending her precious vines. And nothing frustrates her more than Gabe Barzonni, the handsome, successful and utterly aggravating son of Indian Lake's most prominent farmers. All her instincts scream "avoid," especially when she finds out he's going into the wine business himself. But Liz can't seem to shake him. One minute, he's nosing around her property, the next he's arranging to escort her to her best friend's wedding. Well, too bad. Whatever he has designs on—her or her land—Gabe is out of luck. Now, to get him out of her mind ...

Amazon - Barnes & Noble - Harlequin

Catherine Lanigan is the bestselling author of over forty published titles in both fiction and non-fiction, including the novelizations of Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile, as well as over half a dozen anthologies, including "Chicken Soup for the Soul: Living your Dream", "Chicken Soup for the Writer's Soul", "Chocolate for a Woman's Heart", "Chocolate for a Woman's Spirit". Ms. Lanigan's novels have been translated into over a twenty-four languages including German, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Chinese, and Japanese. Ms. Lanigan's novels are also available in E-books on Amazon.com and BN.com. Several of her titles have been chosen for The Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Clubs. Her Vietnam war-based novel, The Christmas Star, won the Gold Medal Award Top Pick from Romantic Times Magazine and also won Book of the Year Romance Gold Award from ForeWord Magazine as well as Book of the Year Romance from Reader's Preference. Cedar Fort, Inc. published the third book of angelic interventions, Angel Tales. Angel Watch and Divine Nudges, the first two books in Lanigan's Angel Watch series of books about divine intervention in human life, were published by HCI. Allworth Press released Lanigan's "how-to" book on writing: Writing the Great American Romance Novel. Ms. Lanigan's first Young Adult Adventure novel, The Adventures of Lillie and Zane: The Golden Flute was published by Cedar Fort. Lanigan was tasked by the NotMYkid foundation to pen a collection of compelling and informative true stories of teen addicts.

April, 2014 will see Lanigan's new clean romance series HARLEQUIN HEARTWARMING'S publication of LOVE SHADOWS, the first in Lanigan's "Shores of Indian Lake Series". HEART'S DESIRE will also be published in 2014. A FINE YEAR FOR LOVE January, 2015. KATIA'S PROMISE May, 2015. Lanigan is working on the next three novels in her Indian Lake series for HARLEQUIN HEARTWARMING.

Ms. Lanigan is a frequent speaker at literary functions and book conventions as well as inspiring audiences with her real stories of angelic intervention from her Angel Tales series of books. She is an outspoken advocate for domestic violence and abuse and was honored by The National Domestic Violence Hotline in Washington, D.C. She has been a guest on numerous radio programs including "Coast to Coast" and on television interview and talk show programs as well as blogs, podcasts and online radio interview programs.

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