Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

inspirational fiction

Solid series start: Review of Home to Chicory Lane by Deborah Raney

It has taken me a decade to pick up a book by Deborah Raney, despite glowing recommendations from trusted friends.  Ten years ago, I attended a writers’ conference where she was on faculty and in my ignorance of the industry back then, I’d never heard of her or her books. Times have changed for the better, and even though I follow her on Facebook, I still hadn’t read anything by her until now.

Home-to-Chicory-Lane-PKWhen an author has been writing books for a long time, I often don’t know where to start. Should I read their early works so I get feel for their style or just start with something new? I took the plunge on Raney’s latest, Home to Chicory Lane, when it was offered for review by Litfuse Publicity Group. (I received a free copy of the book.)

And it’s just as delightful as I might have expected. Raney has an approachable charm to her Facebook posts and I find her writing to be the same. Home to Chicory Lane is the first in a new series focusing on the Whitman family. In this one, we meet the cast of characters, led by parents Audrey and Grant who have recently turned their family home into a bed-and-breakfast. On the opening weekend of the inn, their newly wed youngest daughter shows up unexpectedly, without her husband, and her parents suspect trouble.

The book is equally balanced between the two storylines: Landyn and Chase, the newlyweds, and Audrey and Grant, the new business owners. Other family members make appearances and it will be fun to find out what further antics are in store for this family.

I’m more and more fond of these family saga type of stories and the focus on individual characters in separate books. In this one, particularly, I enjoyed the banter between siblings and the real-life emotions that surface in families during times of stress and trial. This is not a picture-perfect family that makes you want to puke. The Whitmans are pursuing dreams and struggling financially and facing hardships, and though their love for each other is apparent, there is no shortage of angry outbursts or words spoken in stress.

This was just a realistic family that drew me in to their lives. (And the Midwestern setting didn’t hurt. I’m a bit homesick for the Midwest these days.)

So, don’t be like me: Don’t wait 10 years to read a book by Deborah Raney! You’ll be missing out on some enjoyable fiction.

Also not to miss: this $200 B&B giveaway as part of the book’s launch. Read on for the details about how you can win!

The first book in Deborah Raney‘s new Chicory Inn series, Home to Chicory Lane, introduces us to Audrey Whitman, a mother who has launched all her children into life and now looks forward to fulfilling some of her own dreams during her empty-nest years. However, not all of her children are ready to stay out of the nest quite yet.

Deborah is celebrating the release of her new series with a $200 B&B Weekend Getaway and a Facebook author chat party.

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One winner will receive:

  • A B&B Weekend Getaway (via a $200 Visa cash card)
  • Home to Chicory Lane by Deborah Raney

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on September 9th. Winner will be announced at the Home to Chicory Lane Author Chat Party on 9/9. Deborah will be hosting a heartfelt book chat, giving away prizes, and answering questions from readers. She will also share an exclusive sneak peek at the next book in the Chicory Inn series!

So grab your copy of Home to Chicory Lane and join Deborah on the evening of September 9th for a chance to connect and make some new friends. (If you haven’t read the book, don’t let that stop you from coming!)

Don’t miss a moment of the fun; RSVP today. Tell your friends via FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning. Hope to see you on the 9th!

 

 

When the happily ever after may not be forever: Review of When I Fall in Love by Susan May Warren

Have you met the Christiansen family yet? I’m totally in like with this family created by talented storyteller Susan May Warren. This flawed family of faithful and forgiving people fills my heart. They’re so real. You can call me crazy, but I am love, love, loving these kinds of sibling series that focus in on one sibling’s story in a large family. When I Fall in Love is the third in this family’s story, and so far, it’s my favorite. (Disclaimer: I received a free ecopy of the book from the Tyndale Blog Network in exchange for my review.)

when i fall in loveIn it, we meet Grace Christiansen whose life is all about playing it safe. She’s reluctant to leave her family and the community of Deep Haven for anything resembling adventure. But when her family gifts her with a culinary vacation to Hawaii, she finds herself unable to avoid a life beyond what she’s known, thanks in part to Maxwell Sharpe. Max is a Minnesota hockey player with ties to the Christiansen family. His former teammate Jace is marrying Grace’s older sister Eden, and he was a teammate of the bad boy Christianson brother, Owen. He’s headed to Hawaii, too, for his third culinary vacation: his time to relax and put away his fears for tomorrow. They meet on the plane and Max sets out to show Grace the beauty and wonder of Hawaii while trying to keep emotional distance because of the fate he knows awaits him in life.

Call this book Food Network meets The Fault in Our Stars. Grace and Max bond over cooking and enter a cooking competition as a team. At times, I couldn’t decide if I wanted to keep reading or get myself into the kitchen and cook something myself. It was the best of both worlds for me: reading and cooking. And I appreciated the hard questions Warren tackles in this relationship. Max knows his days on earth are limited, and because of that, he shuts himself off from the possibility of a relationship. He doesn’t think he deserves to fall in love or dream because nothing is guaranteed to last.

And Grace. Oh, how I could relate to her need to live a safe life. Her reluctance to step out in faith and try something new or big or great. There were times in the story when I read the words she was speaking about herself and her abilities and they could have been my words, too.

It’s an age-old question: Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? And Warren answers it beautifully.

You can catch up with the Christiansens in books 1 and 2: Take A Chance on Me and It Had to Be You. And I, for one, will be following this family to the end of the series.