A Beauty So Rare by Tamera Alexander Reviewed by Carrie Fancett Pagels

A Beauty So Rare by Tamera Alexander (Bethany House)

A Beauty So Rare, A Belmont Mansion Novel Book #2
(Bethany House Publishers)

5 stars *****
By Carrie Fancett Pagels

Another Belmont Hit!

What a wonderful read! A Beauty So Rare starts out a little bit slow but have no worries, Tamera Alexander soon takes off with a story wonderfully woven. I was tickled pink over heroine, Eleanor's reaction to certain colors of clothing, which I enjoy. Mr. Geoffries, a German archduke, and is a wonderful hero. Eleanor is strong and capable and learns to trust her heart, over the course of the story. Loved the secondary characters, with the widowed ladies and their children receiving help through the hero's and heroine's efforts. Some terrific antagonists, with great characterization.

This is the second book in the Belmont series and I can't wait to read the next book when it releases! The reader can settle in on A Beauty So Rare for a nice long read, though--as it comes in just under 500 pages!!!

SPOILER ALERT!!!
Bibliotherapy: Eleanor's father has Alzheimer's and must be placed in an institution. Tamera does a great job in showing how irascible and even dangerous someone can become with dementia. Having had several loved ones with this disorder I've seen how someone with Alzheimer's can turn on the very ones they love the most--the paranoia that sets in can be terrifying. Beautiful and tasteful showing of both the sweet and the awful moments of coping with a parent in these later stages of deterioration.

Also, although it isn't dwelt upon, Eleanor begins the story in a combat field hospital with a dying man. So we have a 26-year-old woman experiencing the horrors of war (I could have done without some of those scenes) and so the reader can assume she has some PTSD issues.  With Eleanor now 30, in the story, she is also struggling with singleness and being "an old maid." She feels abandoned by her father and it is her intense loneliness at Aunt Adelicia's home that helps cement her relationship with "the gardener" who isn't a gardener at all! Having been almost 30 when I married my husband, I know it is worth the wait, as it is for the heroine!

Superlatives: This book will be on my best of 2014 list here on the Overcoming With God. We OWG reviewers publish these "Best of" lists the end of December. The book will also be entered in the Bibliotherapy category as well.

Highly recommend--don't miss this!

Disclosure: I purchased this book as a paperback through Amazon but I also received a Kindle copy through NetGalley and am under no compulsion to post a positive review. The reviewers on the OWG blog love Tamera's books so much that we made sure everyone got a copy of this new release, in paperback, for the gorgeous cover, too. I also ordered the audio copy of the book. Unfortunately, the narrator on the book doesn't do the story justice--so I'd recommend that you read on Kindle, setting the font to large, if you have difficulty reading long books with your eyes, like I do.

Giveaways: We are giving away several items this week, including copies of the book and my surprise pink giveaway and a $10 Starbuck gift card.

Overcoming Loneliness for Christians

By Carrie Fancett Pagels

Doesn't the woman on the cover of The Lady of Bolton Hill look like she is lonely and seeking someone to take her to the next stage of her life?  Elizabeth discussed her feelings of loneliness in her interview on Monday.  I found a great link to an article about Christian singles overcoming loneliness.


As a single, we might ask. "What if I never marry?"  You can be lonely in a marriage, too.


Where you are for the season - sometimes just accepting that you are where God has put you and finding what happiness you can in the situation can make the difference between despair and peace. We only are given so many days for our journey.  Sometimes we are alone as far as a mate being alongside us but we are never without God's presence. For the Christian, whether married, single, widowed, divorced, regardless - making God the focus of your life gives the basis for your everyday living.  Getting into the Word, spending time in prayer, and participating in the church and reaching out to others, may even be easier to do as a single person. 


One of the things that happens with singles in churches, however, is that they are either swept to the side or are pitied.  I experienced this sensation after I was married and had a child but was living in Atlanta for a short time without my family.  I was never so aware of how we in the church overlook people without a spouse or family present with them in the church body.  Some of that is self-centeredness or pew-warming (people there as though church is a social event).  However, much may be people simply consumed with managing their own little families and not having much energy left after a long week.  And with today's busy families and many women working full-time outside of the home, there are precious little emotional resources left to extend to others.


In a good marriage there is the sensation of being able to sink into the other's strength and draw on that to get through the tough times. As a single, one has to draw on friends and families for that support.  And there is no denying that it is different than what an excellent relationship with a spouse gives.  On the other hand, rushing into a marriage that God has not sanctioned for you will only worsen your situation. Having not married either of my first two fiances, I am grateful I was spared from the heartache of divorces that surely would have resulted had I married either of them. A bad marriage is worse than singleness.  But that is a topic for another day's post! 


DRAWING: The winner for this week's book, one of Elizabeth Camden's novels, will be announced this afternoon.  The Rose of Winslow Street and Lady of Bolton Hill can be purchased through CBD, Amazon, and other booksellers. 

Leave a comment for a chance to win either book. Drawing is today.

Carrie Fancett Pagels Interviews Elizabeth Camden

Elizabeth Camden is the author of The Rose of Winslow Street and The Lady of Bolton Hill both published by Bethany House.  I met Elizabeth through Facebook, the place which seems to be spreading out to fill half of cyberspace!

Elizabeth, 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?

Thanks for asking me aboard!  Overall, I have been incredibly blessed, but something I’ve wrestled with for a good deal of my adulthood was simple loneliness.  I was a single woman until 35.  For a number of reasons, my career kept me moving every few years.  As a natural introvert, it gets hard to put down roots as I kept moving from one city to another.  I found that as you get older, if you don’t have children or a spouse, it can be hard to find in-roads into a new neighborhood community.  This can be true even in a church!  So I spent more holidays than I care to remember curled up at home.   This wasn’t a huge tragedy, but there is a sort of low-grade pain that comes from living year after year, decade after decade alone.
 

So this is where the Lord comes in.  Having faith means that even if you feel like the odd man out, you are confident that you have a role in this world and an important part to play.  Why hadn’t I found the man of my dreams at age 22 and commenced to produce beautiful children and become a wife and mother, which is what I had always assumed I should be?  My life didn’t unfold as I expected, but I trusted that God had a plan for me….I just needed to find it! 


(CFP: I didn't marry until almost thirty and that after two broken engagements. I feel the same way - God's plan is best!)

What is your favorite bible verse and why?

In the beginning there was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  John 1:1

This may be an odd quote for favorite, but it resonates with me like a mantra.  When I get stressed out over the minutia of daily life, that verse has a timeless quality that soothes me.  God and Jesus have always been there, they always will be.  My worries are a tiny blip in that long, unending relationship that is longer, deeper, and more profound than I can get my mind around.  The verse helps me keep things in perspective. 

Disability friendliness:

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

 I am thrilled to say that an audio version of The Rose of Winslow Street is on the way!  There is not a release date yet, but I expect it to hit the library shelves by mid-2012.  My first book, The Lady of Bolton Hill, is available in large text, and I am hoping The Rose of Winslow Street will be as well. 


Purchase Elizabeth Camden's books through Amazon. 
Buy Elizabeth Camden's books on CBD.

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

My knee-jerk reaction is to say that I want my readers to have a wonderful, exhilarating time as they watch a great, heroic man fall desperately in love, uncover a long-buried mystery, and undertake an adventure that will open doors for his entire family.   I hope my novels are hard to put down and sweep the reader away to another time and place.   They always feature a love story that is front and center, which is my favorite thing to write.

However….you asked what “the most important” thing is.  I have found great comfort in reading novels.  They give me examples of persevering through tragedy, overcoming the odds, learning to trust your instincts, and to never give up.  The Rose of Winslow Street has several characters who struggle to overcome lifetime challenges.  They do so through faith, perseverance, and common sense.  I believe these qualities can help inspire people as they wrestle with their own problems. 

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

The hero and his family come from Romania, so I needed to learn about Romanian culture and customs.  I wanted them to be as starkly different from the American heroine as possible, so I had them come from a rural village, but with aristocratic roots….then I transplanted them into small town America of 1879.  It was huge fun to learn about the customs of a different country and then set them into play here in America.
 

The hero and his family are starkly different from the New England villagers…..different dress, comportment, and manner of doing business, but at heart they are the same.  When the hero’s children are bullied because of their strange clothes and rural ways, it is a pain shared by the entire family.  So even though I had fun with all the differences between the Romanian family and the American heroine, at heart, we are all part of the same human family.  How we treat people who are different from us is a theme that arises over and over in the book.

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

One of the characters, Lady Mirela, is wrestling with a debilitating series of setbacks which completely derails her life.  As the novel opens,  she is suffering from profound depression to the point that she cannot function in daily life.  Through the course of the book she undergoes a remarkable transformation by coming to accept that the catastrophes that robbed her of the life she hoped lead could be turned toward something positive.  She learns that God never abandoned her, and that the tragedies actually set her on a life course far more profound and interesting than anything she could have ever envisioned.   I hope that others may be able to learn from that attitude of adapting to life’s curve-balls.  Lady Mirela is a secondary character, but by the end of the novel she emerges as one of the strongest, most courageous characters I’ve ever written.  I love that woman!

Thank you Elizabeth, for agreeing to answer these questions.  Have a blessed day and keep on writing!!

GIVEAWAY:  Leave a comment and your email to be entered in this week’s contest.  Drawing will be late Saturday.  Your choice of this author’s books, choice of format.

Review of Falling to Pieces by Vannetta Chapman

Falling to Pieces A Shipshewanna Amish Mystery Series
by Vannetta Chapman
Zondervan (2011)


Five Stars *****

Review by Carrie Fancett Pagels

Callie is a young widow who comes to Shippshewanna after her beloved aunt dies. Auntie owned a quilt shop and several Amish women are reliant upon her to sell their quilts. One of the women has a significant need for the funds as she has a child with a rare illness.  Callie is a spunky woman from a big city in Texas suddenly in small town Indiana. A real fish out of water.  But as the story progresses one senses she was a goldfish swimming in the ocean who needed to be in a tank, required the cozy closeness that provided. Lovely job of dropping that into the story over time.  The Amish quilters are lovely women, each with distinct voices that are also unlike most other Amish stories I have heard.

Callie hasn’t gotten over the loss of her husband, in fact doesn’t even share this with her new friends until very late in the book.  She is an endearing character despite her prickly behavior, which furthers the story line, especially when she becomes the prime suspect in a murder. This is not a romance but there are a couple of romantic possibilities. By the end of the story we have a real possibility for a boyfriend in the next book, which I am looking forward to reading/listening to!

This was a great Christmas season listen because it a) has an easy tempo b) has an excellent narrator (amazingly she sounds almost exactly like the real Vannetta Chapman!) c) it’s like having a girlfriend in your room with you telling you the story d) while it is a suspense/mystery it has a cozy feel and is not knuckle whitening – I mean who needs that this time of year? It has a soothing quality to it despite the suspense and the murder mystery. It may be one of the first women’s fiction reads I’ve read in a long time, but Vannetta’s book almost defies genres.

I plan to listen to this book again sometime as I really liked it and it has the qualities of a repeat listen - great voice, characterization, and pleasing story line.

Bibliotherapy: Loneliness, estrangement, grieving, child with a rare disease, and friendships.

Formats: I listened through http://audible.com and it is available in paperback, ebook (e.g., Kindle), and audio.

Giveaway: Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of one of Vannetta’s books this week.

Interview with Vannetta Chapman

Interview by Carrie Fancett Pagels

Vannetta Chapman of Texas is the author of Falling toPieces (Zondervan) and 

A SimpleAmish Christmas (Abingdon Press).

I met Vannetta through ACFW and have enjoyed the time I have spent talking with her at conferences, particularly this year’s meeting in St. Louis, Missouri. Vannetta is represented by Mary Sue Seymour. 

Vannetta, welcome to Overcoming Through Time – With God’s Help!

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? 

Callie Harper finds herself completely alone when she inherits her aunt's shop in Shipshewana, Indiana. Like many young women today, Callie is successful professionally, but her circle of friends (and family) has grown smaller each year. So her difficulty lies in her isolation.

I've certainly experienced this isolation before, and it's a hard thing to go through, but God puts people in our lives for just such times. And God puts Callie in Shipshewana where she meets three women—three  AMISH women--who become her friends. They are friends that she is going to need because it won't be long before she becomes the prime suspect in a murder.

What is your favorite bible verse and why?

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you ..."

This verse has always encouraged me. It assures me that no matter how dark or depressing the present looks, no matter how much I've managed to bungle things up, God is in control, and HIS plans for me are good.

Disability friendliness:

Yes, it is in audio format (download) and it will be released in January (I believe) in large print as well.

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

Hope and grace. Life can be difficult and hard at time, and we all need to be reminded of the message of God's hope and his grace for us. You know, this isn't just something the preacher tells us on Sunday and then we go back to struggling on Monday ... it's as real as the bread in the breadbox, and there have been times when I had very little of that. But God's hope for us is unlimited and his grace never ends. It's sufficient.

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

Yes. I learned that the Amish folk are common, friendly people and that they live out their faith and their belief in Jesus to the best of their ability. It was very encouraging for me.

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

There is a handicapped child you will come to know in this story ... and although his disease is somewhat rare, especially in our culture, I think it's the way we deal with disability that is important. The Amish very much embrace disabilities and illness and God's will and not as something to be mourned or questioned. Their faith is quite childlike and I am learning a lot from them.

Thank you Vannetta for agreeing to answer these questions.  Have a blessed day and keep on writing!!

Thank you!

GIVEAWAY:  We have this interview and two reviews up this week and will be doing a giveaway of a book on Saturday. Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of one of Vannetta’s books in your choice of format (and an email address so we can reach you!)