Noela Nancarrow reviews THE TROUBLE WITH PATIENCE by Maggie Brendan

The Trouble with Patience (Virtues and Vices of the Old West, Book 1)

by Maggie Brendan

Revell (February 17, 2015)

Reviewed by Noela Nancarrow

5 Stars *****

The cocky, rough and tough sheriff Jedediah Jones can capture the lawless but can he capture the heart of a godly woman who loves to write devotionals?

Western justice and vigilantes once ruled the dusty main street and rugged territory of Montana. The most famous of them all, Vigilante X, now resides in the small frontier town of Nevada City as Sheriff Jedediah. Weighed down with guilt about his past, Jedediah aims to stay true to his badge and handle things the lawful way. However, his memories refuse to stay buried, and now it seems they just might just catch up in his life as well.

Patience Cavanaugh runs the neglected boarding-house ‘Creekside Inn’ that was inherited from her grandmother. She agrees to a mutually benefiting deal with the arrogant, albeit tall and rather ruggedly handsome sheriff, that has him promising to improve her run-down accommodation. When a mysterious man arrives in town and stays at the boarding-house, he begins helping Patience with the repairs himself, which doesn't impress Jedediah one bit. Who is this stranger and can he be trusted?

When cattle disappear, jewelry vanishes, and a rancher is murdered, Jedediah needs to figure out who are his friends and who are his enemies, while dealing with a past that’s returned and a woman that drives him to distraction!

This is a sweet western romance with wagon loads of charm, mystery, and smiles. Historical detail is dispersed throughout, and there is wonderful inspiration in the themes of our self worth, faith, forgiveness, and trust in God. Get comfortable in your saddle or wagon because you won’t be wanting to pull up until you reach the end of the trail, er rather, book! 

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* Thanks to Revell for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This novel may be purchased through Amazon, CBD, BAM, and Book Depository!

GIVEAWAY: Maggie Brendan is generously offering a paperback copy of 'The Trouble With Patience' to one blessed commenter! US entrants only on this particular giveaway.

Diana Reviews THE TROUBLE WITH PATIENCE By Maggie Brendan

 

The Trouble With Patience By Maggie Brendan

Revell, 2015

 

Reviewed By Diana Flowers
~5 stars*****

(No Spoilers!) 

 

Patience Is A Virtue! 

 

In The Trouble with Patience, author Maggie Brendan sweeps the reader away to a Montana gold rush boomtown; where cattle ranches, thieving rustlers, and handsome cowboys abound...and succulent fried chicken and biscuits are served up daily!

 

 

Patience Cavanaugh has lost her fiancé to death and her dreams along with him. Only desiring solitude and time away from her domineering, cold mother, she decides to restore a dilapidated boardinghouse. Thinking herself overweight and unattractive, she resigns herself to remaining single and supporting herself with the money she makes from boarders. Her plans, however, go somewhat awry as two eye-catching men begin to vie for her hand; Cody, a charming ranch hand, and the local marshal, Jedediah, who is too handsome for his own good! However, both men are shrouded in deadly secrets from the past and present, which could destroy their tenuous, budding relationships with Patience forever.

 

 

Maggie Brendan has written an engaging, heartwarming story with a little bit of something for everyone! Romance (including one involving an older couple -- which was delightful!), suspense, betrayal, and handsome cowpokes...all gathered together underneath a beautiful Montana sky! Patience was the epitome of graciousness and beauty, but went through a struggle many of us ladies wrestle with quite often. She compared herself with other women, and in spite of her many talents and inward beauty, her self image always came up lacking. I'm especially glad the author delved into this issue which is so prevalent in our society today. The romantic tension was so palatable one could cut it with a knife and the plot totally enthralling! I love historical fiction, but am not a great fan of westerns; however this one kept me coming back for more! Great job, Maggie Brendan!

 

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 Thanks to Revell for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

 

 This novel may be purchased through Amazon, CBD, and your local bookstores.

 

GIVEAWAY: Maggie Brendan is generously offering a paperback copy of The Trouble With Patience to one blessed commenter! US entrants only in this particular giveaway.







Maggie Brendan Week Winners

We enjoyed having Maggie with us all week and her friend Marian's review on Friday and Diana's review on Wednesday!


Sadly, I have been unable to locate BeeMama's email address and since she did not leave an addy perhaps did not mean to enter for the drawing.  

So using the random generator number but working backward, the winner would be Jen.  Congrats Jennifer Whitney!

Our second winner is, drumroll, Janice Smith!  Congrats!  


Come by next week for Marcia Gruver week!  Interview and reviews!  And giveaway time, too!

Friend on Friday - Review of Deeply Devoted by Maggie Brendan

Picture from Miriam of her copy of Deeply Devoted!!! Isn't this pretty?

Maggie Brendan sent us her friend's review to post for our Friend on Friday.  

Welcome Miriam Davis! 

Review:

Before there was online dating, there were mail-order brides. This way of developing relationships into lasting marriages was risky business for both men and women.

The novel opens with mail-order bride, Catharine Olsen, her two younger sisters, and her mother's Blue Willow china leaving Holland and her painful past to make a new life with wheat farmer, Peter Andersen, in Wyoming.

Newlywed life seems normal as both Catharine and Peter make adjustments to each other. Peter's patient teaching of farm life encourages Catharine and her desire to work hard at learning how to be a farmer's wife.

Peter's mother is not happy with her son's choice for a wife and begins an investigation into Catharine Olsen's past. Will revealed secrets of Catharine's past harvest hearts of distrust and reap unmeasurable trials for Catharine and Peter?

Maggie Brendan's Deeply Devoted shows how her writing vividly expresses new depths of relationships dealing with forgiveness, honesty, and trust. The heights this novel reaches sets the stage for the next novel in The Blue Willow Brides Series to come. I have no doubt that The Blue Willow Brides Series will fast become treasured in the hearts of Maggie Brendan readers and those who are new to her novels. I highly recommend it and look forward to her next ones in this series.


Bio - Miriam Davis: Jesus loves me! He is my Savior and LORD! Happily married woman to a godly, loving man, blessed mom. Praying daily for them. Writing, painting, and photography are treasures that are being pulled off the shelves to be a part of my life again.

 http://treasuresfromagratefulheart.blogspot.com/ 

Thanks for sharing with us, Miriam!


Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of a Maggie Brendan book this week!  

Diana's Corner - Book Review of Deeply Devoted by Maggie Brendan

Deeply Devoted by Maggie Brendan

5 stars~ *****

Deeply Delightful!

Review by Diana Flowers
Maggie Brendan takes us on a delightful, but painstaking journey of one mail-order bride's quest to find love and trust in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in the late 1800s. Catharine Olsen leaves Holland with her two sisters to marry a man who she has only met through letters. As Catharine arrives in Wyoming with only her mother's Blue Willow tea set and a tragic past, she has high hopes that she can make a new start in life and find security, if not love, with the kind man with whom she has been corresponding, Peter Andersen.

Peter Andersen, a Wyoming wheat farmer, is quite taken with his lovely new bride, but is quite chagrined as well, to see that she has brought along her two sisters, Anna and Greta. Catharine knows nothing about domestic skills, but does her best, in spite of being fought on every hand by Peter's mother, Clara, who had her heart set on her only child marrying the woman of her choice. Soon troubles abound as Greta starts sneaking out to see a young soldier, whom she fancies herself in love with...and Clara unearths a terrible secret concerning Catharine; one that threatens to loosen every bond of trust and love that she and Peter have worked so hard to build between them. 

Clara has been a lonely widow for years, but will she finally find love in the private investigator who she hired to find out about Catherine, or will he betray her trust, as Catharine has betrayed Peter's? Will Catharine ever find forgiveness with Peter, and what important role does the beautiful Blue Willow China play in the restoration of this family?

I simply loved this story! Maggie Brendan knows how to tell a story that will keep you saying, "I'm gonna read one more chapter...just one more chapter." Her characters are easy to fall in love with and I miss them already...even Clara, who is simply a victim of loneliness and boredom.  A story of love, betrayal, and forgiveness, that is guaranteed to leave your eyes filled with tears at the satisfying conclusion! Maggie Brendan's best yet...can't wait 'til the second book in The Blue Willow Brides Series!


Giveaway: We are giving away two of Maggie's books this week, your choice of format (paperback/Kindle) and book!  

Interview with Maggie Brendan

Interview by Carrie Fancett Pagels


Maggie Brendan is the author of Deeply Devoted of The Blue Willow Brides series. Maggie’s first series was Heart of the West, which included No Place for a Lady, The Jewel of His Heart and A Love of Her Own.

I recently met Maggie at the ACFW conference and had the privilege of talking with her while traveling back.

Maggie, welcome to Overcoming Through Time.  Would you share either the most difficult thing in your life you have had to overcome, with God’s help, or the most tragic situation or circumstance one of your character’s has had to get past?

My heroine in Deeply Devoted has a tragic past, but I’d be giving away the best part of the book here so instead I’ll tell share my own difficult times. My brother was my writing mentor, with seven westerns under his belt. He died suddenly and without warning from the Hantavirus contracted most likely at Glacier National Park where he was Deputy Superintendent. I felt like my world was caving in because he was not only my friend, but the father figure for most of my life which had been thrust upon him while he was still in high school. A year before his death, almost to the day, another brother died suddenly from cancer. Four years earlier, my sister died of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma—a rare type. I didn’t think it could get much worse, but my mother died three years after my sister. Then during the deadline of Deeply Devoted, my oldest brother died of congestive heart failure. I couldn’t have walked through any of this without my faith in God and the knowledge that I know for a fact, I will see them again. Praise God! He gave me strength to face each day and surrounded me with His love by supplying me with the love of a few close friends and of course, my family. The more deposits you get in Heaven, the more appealing it becomes. I look forward to it someday. Other very sad things happened during my deadline, but that will have to be shared in the future. Let’s just say God is continually working in my life, stripping away all the layers of self to get to my heart.

What is your favorite bible verse and why?

Oh goodness! I have several but I usually sign this scripture on my book: Psalm 27:1a (NASB) The Lord is my light and my salvation: Whom shall I fear?

Disability friendliness:

My previous books are in large print and available on Kindle and if your guests reading this didn’t know, Kindle can read to you. J Deeply Devoted will soon be in large print later on. That usually happens after it has been in print for a few months.

Is this latest release available in audio format or do you have any other works available on audio? 

What has been the most important thing you hope your readers will get from your books and why?

I like my readers to know that man may plan his life but God directs his steps. I’d say that our entire life and future is dependent on our faith in God and if we allow His direction, instead of trying to handle things on our own we can have abundant life. In Deeply Devoted, I used what is broken, cracked and even lost can be ransomed and redeemed by God’s eternal love. I relate this to the Blue Willow china in that just as china must be fired to become a durable piece in order to have a delicate pattern, we, too, are also tested by fire to refine our character that can result in becoming purified as God’s works in us to be in a more resilient follower of Christ. He who is deeply devoted to us is the ultimate author of love and romance…The Living God.

As you researched your books, did you learn anything that particularly touched your heart?

The one thing that always comes to my mind while researching is the resilience of the people who settled the great West. Today, we wimp out when a thunderstorm takes out our electricity for a few hours or days instead of using that time for reflection or reading and just enjoying the quiet. That’s when we can hear God’s voice…in the quiet stillness. Our world seems so full of constant “noise”. We all need a respite from this crazy techno world we are experiencing at this stage in history. I doubt most of us  would’ve lasted one week if we’d had to endure what the settlers of the West dealt with day in and day out.

In this latest work, do you have any topics useful for bibliotherapy, or therapeutic influence through reading about a disorder or situation?

As mentioned, restoration, through God's grace, is a theme in this book.

Comments from Carrie:

Maggie’s answers really gave me pause.  She has certainly had her share of grieving. Having lost my own mother a little over a year ago (and she loved the Blue Willow pattern!).I feel like I am just coming out of that shock of having no parents. But as Maggie says, one day we will see our loved ones again, in heaven. And what about those people who don’t have that reassurance?  We need to reach out to them today.

Do you know someone who is grieving the loss of a loved one? Are you?  What can you do or what has been done for you to ease pain?

GIVEAWAY:  We will be giving away a Kindle version and a paperback version of one of Maggie’s books, any of your choice.  Leave your email address with your comment to enter.