Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

Christian fiction

A warm story for a cold night: a review of Unending Devotion by Jody Hedlund

It’s no secret: Jody Hedlund is one of my new favorite authors. She is skilled at taking historical people and events, wrapping them in a compelling plot, and writing can’t-put-them-down novels. Her two previous releases The Preacher’s Bride and The Doctor’s Lady are fun AND informative. Hedlund does her research.

And as much as I enjoyed those books, I LOVED her latest, Unending Devotion, even more. I was looking forward to the release so much that I bought an ebook copy before I’d heard that I’d be given a copy from the publisher to review. (So, lucky you, I’m going to give my copy away! Read on to find out how to win.)

Unending Devotion is the story of a passionate woman driven to make things right. Lily Young travels through Central Michigan logging towns in search of her sister, whom she fears is living in forced prostitution. Along the way, she rescues other women caught in the bondage of an overlooked slavery. In one such town, she meets Connell McCormick (who is just as enchanting on the page as his name sounds!), whom she doesn’t realize is the son of a lumber baron.

Sparks fly between the two, who don’t see eye-to-eye when it comes to the lumber business and the houses of ill repute that some think are necessary for a logging camp to thrive. Lily is reckless when it comes to tracking down her sister. Connell is cautious and eager to please his father. Both are in search of truth and freedom, and it’s a journey I couldn’t turn away from.

I don’t often read a work of fiction twice, but I would read this book again.

Lily is an inspiring heroine, even if she is sometimes blinded to danger by her love for her sister. And Connell is a conflicted hero who wants to do right by everybody but finds himself needing to choose whom he’s going to please and whether the consequences of that choice will be worth it.

This is a beautiful story of calling, purpose, freedom, redemption and love. And while the characters themselves are fictional, the circumstances about which Hedlund writes are historical. I’ve learned a lot lately about the current tragedy of human sex trafficking but never considered that sexual slavery is not a new problem, and even in the 19th century in the United States, it was a problem.

I would 100 percent recommend this book. Total winner.

If you still aren’t convinced, then check out the book trailer below. You won’t be sorry about reading this book.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OssvMSaSeQ4&feature=g-upl]

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In exchange for my review, I received a free copy of Unending Devotion from Bethany House Publishers.

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AND NOW … the moment you’ve all been waiting for! I have ONE copy of Unending Devotion to give away. So, how can you win?

1. Leave a comment below telling me your favorite setting (time period and/or geographical location) for a historical novel. That’ll get you ONE entry.

2. Check out Jody Hedlund’s Facebook page and “like” her. Come back here and leave a comment that you’ve done that. (Or if you already “like” her, tell me that, too.) That’s another entry.

3. Share this giveaway! Post it to Facebook, tweet about it (tag me @lmbartelt and Jody @jodyhedlund in your message) or e-mail it to a friend. Comment telling me what you did. You’ll get one entry for however you share about the giveaway.

Overall, that’s THREE chances to win.

I’ll pick a winner via Random.org and post the name on Monday, December 3. Good luck to all!

An inspiring holiday read: Review of Unexpected Christmas Hero by Kathi Macias

Holidays are not “happy” for everyone, and this is something I too easily forget.

Kathi Macias tackles a realistic aspect of holidays–homelessness–in her latest Christmas novel Unexpected Christmas Hero. This is not a feel-good Christmas story, at least not to start. I found it hard to read at first. The main character, Josie, is a mom with two young children who finds herself unexpectedly homeless because of some poor financial decisions her late husband made before his death. In a year’s time, she went from living the “American dream” and enjoying a robust Thanksgiving to scrounging for a warm, dry place to sleep for a night and eating a Thanksgiving meal in a shelter. Her struggles, fears and survival tactics are so realistic, I was stressed reading about her journey. I was also convicted about how little I think of others on those holidays and humbled by how casually I’ve treated the blessings in my life.

The young family meets Rick, a homeless veteran, who crosses their path many times and helps them when he can. The supporting characters in Unexpected Christmas Hero do the sorts of things I would hope every caring person would think of: taking people into their homes, sharing meals, offering rides, volunteering at homeless shelters.

Macias’s stories almost always leave me feeling uncomfortable in a good way and challenged in my beliefs and actions.

Watch the book trailer below, then read on as Kathi talks with Christian Speakers Services about the book and the “story behind the story” about the man pictured on the book’s front cover.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/VCHDr4wMqT4]

Homelessness is a tough topic for Christmas. What inspired you to use that as the basis for your annual Christmas novel?
I’ve been involved in homeless ministries, to one degree or another, for decades, so I’m not new to this area of ministry. But I’ll admit that I had never considered writing a novel about it until someone in my family, who had personally experienced homelessness at one time in his life, suggested it. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed the perfect theme for a Christmas novel. After all, at Christmas we celebrate the birth of our Savior, who was pretty much homeless at that particular point in time and was born in a stable because there was no room for them at the Bethlehem Motel 6.
Despite having previous ministry and even personal experience with the homeless, were there still some difficult times for you as you researched and wrote this novel?
Absolutely! I always try to climb inside the skin of my characters, and when I thought of myself as the young mother Josie, attempting to care for and protect her two small children while living on the streets, I wept. There were times when my own children were little that we didn’t have a lot of material things and almost never had enough money at the end of the month, but we always had a roof over our heads and never wondered where we would find our next meal. When I consider that approximately 25 percent of the homeless in America are families (either single or dual-parent) with small children, it breaks my heart.
Can you give us a brief synopsis of Unexpected Christmas Hero?
This is a story about a young family—husband, wife, two small children—who seem to be living the American dream. But when the husband dies unexpectedly, the wife (Josie) not only has to deal with that loss but quickly discovers that they are destitute. Her husband had lost his job some months earlier but didn’t want to worry her, so he hid it from her, hoping to find another position. He didn’t, and eventually ran up all their credit cards, took out a second mortgage on the house, emptied their savings, and even cashed in his life insurance policy. It doesn’t take long until Josie and her children lose their home and find themselves living on the streets, depending on the charity of others to survive. Then they meet Rick, a homeless Vietnam vet who takes them under his wing and, in a most surprising and sacrificial way, becomes their unexpected Christmas hero.
Tell us about the “story behind the story,” which involves the man on the front cover.
When the publisher sent the designer out to find someone to pose as Rick, the homeless vet in the book, he spotted a man on the street who looked amazingly like him. He asked the man—whose name is Willard Parker—if he would pose for the book cover. The man readily agreed and then explained that he truly was homeless and hoped having his picture on the cover would somehow help him find his family, particularly his grown daughter. We are doing our best to stay in touch with Mr. Parker and also to spread his story across the Internet and on radio/TV in hopes of fulfilling his dream to be reunited with his family. If anyone looks at the picture on the cover and/or recognizes the man’s name (Willard Parker) and knows the whereabouts of any of his family, we would truly appreciate it if they would contact me at ezyrtr@ca.rr.com so we can take the necessary steps to try and make this reunion happen.
Where can people find your book?
It’s available on any of the main online venues (Amazon, ChristianBooks.com, Barnes & Noble, etc.) and many stores nationwide.
Can you give us your website info?
Sure! You can find me at www.kathimacias.com or www.boldfiction.com. I’d love it if people would stop by there and check out all my books, as well as the video trailers that go with them. They can also sign up to receive my weekly devotional, or check out where I’ll be speaking in the near future. Above all, click on “contact” and send me an email. I’d love to hear from them, and I promise to answer.
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I was given a complimentary copy of this book from the author in  exchange for posting the author’s interview and/or book review on my  blog. CSS Virtual Book Tours are managed by Christian Speakers Services (http://ChristianSpeakersServices.com).