Peering Through Life's Window

HAPPY SUMMER!    Whether enjoying a lemonade and a snack while reading a good book, having tea with a friend or hosting a bridal shower, strawberries make the occasion special. See recipes below. Summer Reading and Recipes There are over two-dozen recipes in the back of Cooking up a Mystery, each one named for a character in the book. They were donated by members of Mission Love Seeds, a charitable group created to help children throughout the world and to respond locally after disasters to demonstrate God's love. Learn more at Mission Love Seeds About Cooking up a Mystery Laney Eskridge worked to put her husband through dental school. Then he left with another woman. She's on edge from the emotional scars and her parents' deaths. Then she hears unexplained noises in her new tea house, and her anxiety is tripled. Add a budding romance with Eric—a guy with a fear of commitment—and it's all too much to handle. She cuts ties with Eric and plunges into making her business...

  A Warm Welcome to Karen Malley Karen will give away an eBook of Moonlight and Mystery .  To enter to win leave a comment and email address below and enter the Rafflecopter contest. She also gives away a free short story each week for a newsletter sign-up. See below for her Website address. Hi Gail, thanks so much for having me on the blog today. It's my pleasure.  I’m happy to share with you a Bible verse and a recipe, and tell you about my newest book! One of my favorite Bible verses is Romans 10:9.  “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” I love this verse because it distills down the message of Christianity to its simplest elements. So often people add to the gospel, but it really all comes down to our belief in Jesus’ saving work on the cross. This verse tends to make its way into my writing. It’s in my latest novel, Moonlight and Mystery, when the heroine, Beth attends a...

More in-depth descriptions of these books can be found on the ACFW Fiction Finder website Contemporary Romance: 12 Days of Mandy Reno by Regina Rudd Merrick -- Law student Amanda Reno is stuck in her tiny hometown in Kentucky for Christmas and work part-time at the Clementville Café. Her parents are stuck in Brazil, leaving Mandy to celebrate Christmas without them. Young Sheriff Clay Lacey takes matters into his own hands, devising a plan to take Mandy’s mind off her crushed expectations. She is no longer his classmate’s tagalong kid sister, but a young woman he is increasingly attracted to. How will Mandy react when she finds out Clay is the one working to make sure she has a memorable Christmas? Will she be pleased? Or will she cringe as she thanks the man who may be falling in love with her? (Contemporary Romance from Scrivenings Press)   A Family for the Orphans by Heidi Main -- Three little hearts have been broken. Now they must find a way to heal them…Tragedy tur...

This month’s chocked full of $1.99 deals on Amazon, including novels by many Pelican Book Group authors.  I’m honored to have Cooking up a Mystery among them. (See below for a list of other authors to look for.) About Cooking up a Mystery Cooking up a Mystery combines a mystery with a touch of romance, humor, faith and forgiveness.  In the story, Laney Eskridge is on edge from emotional scars from her parents’ deaths and her husband’s infidelity and abandonment. Then she hears unexplained noises in her new tea house, and her anxiety is tripled. Add a budding romance with Eric—a guy with a fear of commitment—and it's all too much to handle. She cuts ties with Eric and works to make her business pay off, but he discovers she’s in danger and wants to help. Little could they know they would overhear a threat that could cause a national turmoil. Even though I come from a long line of Southern gourmet cooks, I didn’t think of writing a culinary book until I met a newspaper faith ed...

                                  More in-depth descriptions of these books can be found on the ACFW Fiction Finder website Contemporary Romance: Operation Find a Guy by Amy R. Anguish -- Skye Jones has one goal for the summer—keep her father from taking away her convertible. That’s the only reason she agrees to work at her sister’s bridal shop in Boulder, Colorado, while she searches for a non-boring job. Why else would she have anything to do with weddings when she has no interest in marriage? Benjamin Smith somehow ended up as a groomsman in two weddings over the summer, so he’s spending a lot of time at Happily Ever After events. Falling for a blonde with no dreams of settling down wasn’t in his five-year plan, yet the more he sees Skye, the more he wants to figure her out. But all she sees him as is a boring attorney−her complete opposite. Besides, romance is supposed to be for Skye’s f...

  Image by Inspired Images on Pixabay                 So, Who Was St. Patrick? St. Patrick, patron saint and apostle of Ireland, born in the late 4th Century, started his life in Britain as part of a wealthy Romanized family. He grew more passionate about his faith after Irish raiders snatched him from his father’s villa at age sixteen and kept him in captivity as a herdsman. Known for dreams that spoke to him, after six bleak years he dreamed a ship waited to take him home to Britain, and it did. However, he nearly starved and endured another brief confinement before he found his family.   Later while still in Britain, he had another dream. In this one he received a letter headed, “The Voice of the Irish.” Reading it convinced him a group in Ireland beseeched him to join them once more. Because he lacked what he believed was the proper education, he waited to respond. Once he did, doubts plagued him as he embarked. Howeve...

More in-depth descriptions of these books can be found on the ACFW Fiction Finder website Contemporary Romance: A Heart to Redeem by Judith McNees -- Chris Morgan is the black sheep of the family. He’s leaned into the title, finding as many ways as he can to distance himself from his perfect parents and siblings. When he receives shocking news that rocks his perception of his sinful lifestyle, he needs help. Fast. Brandi Blakely knows exactly what kind of person Chris is. When he comes to her begging for help, she agrees to marry him with one caveat. The marriage will have an expiration date. As the two work together to get custody of the little girl he has just learned about, lines blur, and hearts become involved. Brandi refuses to let Chris in and shatter her fragile heart. When tragedy strikes, can Chris hold onto the tenuous changes he’s made, and can Brandi let go of the ugly scars from her past to see herself as a new creation in Christ? (Contemporary Romance, Independe...