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Men of Allegeny County book 4
I received this book as part of a gift basket from Seekerville.com. It was the large print edition, and the first thing that caught my attention was the lovely cover image. But what made me jump right in and read is the fact that it is set in upstate NY towns I have known well, such as Houghton, Wellsville, and Olean. Ms Herne's writing is a departure from my typical read of historical romance, and her style is straightforward and yet artful, easy and yet containing more depth than meets the eye.
When a stoic Iraqi war veteran and single mom meets the man who has taken over the development her father has lost to foreclosure, she promises her heart to keep a safe distance. The contractor, a young marine with a past that needs the same finishing work as the housing development he seeks to complete, has anything but love on his mind. When Matt Cavanaugh meets Callie Burdick, even his tough marine training hasn't prepared him for the siege she stages on his heart.
With themes of redemption, forgiveness, commitment, and determination, this sweet contemporary romance packs a big story in a small package. Besides a lovely glimpse at charming small town life in upstate NY, the Christmas story plays out in modern terms as mother and child find shelter under the covering of an adoptive father, and love conquers sin and debt.
Lovely on so many levels, this book makes me want to read more from this talented and insightful author.
I received this book as part of a gift basket from Seekerville.com. It was the large print edition, and the first thing that caught my attention was the lovely cover image. But what made me jump right in and read is the fact that it is set in upstate NY towns I have known well, such as Houghton, Wellsville, and Olean. Ms Herne's writing is a departure from my typical read of historical romance, and her style is straightforward and yet artful, easy and yet containing more depth than meets the eye. When a stoic Iraqi war veteran and single mom meets the man who has taken over the development her father has lost to foreclosure, she promises her heart to keep a safe distance. The contractor, a young marine with a past that needs the same finishing work as the housing development he seeks to complete, has anything but love on his mind. When Matt Cavanaugh meets Callie Burdick, even his tough marine training hasn't prepared him for the siege she stages on his heart.
With themes of redemption, forgiveness, commitment, and determination, this sweet contemporary romance packs a big story in a small package. Besides a lovely glimpse at charming small town life in upstate NY, the Christmas story plays out in modern terms as mother and child find shelter under the covering of an adoptive father, and love conquers sin and debt.
Lovely on so many levels, this book makes me want to read more from this talented and insightful author.
Ruth Logan Herne loves Charlie Brown Christmas trees, rooting for the underdog and people who go the distance while others see the path as too long or broken! She loves God, chocolate, writing, dogs and is blessed by a sprawling family, oodles of grandkids and a sweet old farmhouse in constant need of work. She's sure that clean rooms are over-rated, snakes and possums should mind their own business and buy their own farm and puppies and kittens and babies are about the cutest things on Earth. A "pull-up-your-big-girl-panties-and-move-on" kind of gal, she is blessed to be married to her high school sweetheart (although it wasn't as if THEY WERE KNOCKING DOWN THE DOOR to challenge him for her!!!), work with young families who allow her to exploit their sweet children on blogs, and rock babies on a regular basis. An author for Love Inspired Books and Summerside Press, she lives in upstate New York.
See yesterday's post for another chance to win one of Ruth's Christmas in Upstate NY books from the Men of Allegany County Series. Tune in tomorrow for another giveaway of a New York State Christmas story, It Really is a Wonderful Life by Linda Rondeau.
To enter, leave a comment about a prayer God answered for you in an unexpected way. For extra entries, tell me if you shared this post on Fb, twitter, google+ or pinterest, and if you follow this blog. Good luck!
I do LOVE that cover, too! It just *smiles* Christmas, you know?
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to think of a specific example of an unexpected answer to prayer, but the only one I can think of is the way my hubby and my desire for a child ended with us being more blessed than we could imagine through the amazing awesomeness of adoption.
Would love to read this book! Please toss my name in the hat.
-Emily
Emily_reynolds(at)Hotmail(dot)com
You are so right, Emily--lovely cover. And congratulations on adopting. God grafted our hearts with His when we became born again, and it is by that beautiful spirit of adoption that we can call Him Father.
DeleteHope my story isn't too long, but it's a true one. About 2 years ago I received tickets to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert featuring David Archuleta. My grandson was so excited and invited his friends. I gave the tickets to my daughter for her son and family members. 1 week before the concert she phoned and said she had lost all her tickets. I said, don't worry they will turn up. 2 nights before, they still had not sh"Pray about it". She thought that was not that great of an answer. So I did the praying. This was going to be a very special concert. That night I woke up and a thought came to me of where I had misplaced some papers from work. I got up and they were right there. I kind o
ReplyDeletef laughed and said if only the tickets could be found so easily. Right away, the answer came to me. I called my daughter and told her I felt that the tickets were in her Christmas decoration boxes. She said there were too many to go through. I told her son and he said, mom, please check! She grumbled but started looking in the boxes. On top of the 2nd box inside were the tickets. It was amazing to me, but the thing I thought was most important was that my grandson could see that someone does truly answer our prayers! A lesson in faith.
wow, Sonja! That was an amazing story. Thank you so much for sharing. I read it aloud to my mom and my son. What a testimony! He truly does instruct us in the ways we should go! Have you ever thought about submitting that to Guidepost magazine?
DeleteI just had an unusual answer to prayer Told somebody to check for keys around both front seat Car seats They had fallen down
ReplyDeleteAnd they were found God bless you Chris Granville
granvilleATfrontiernetDOTnet
wow, Chris! That is awesome. There is nothing more aggravating than having something as important as car keys go missing.
DeleteMy husband would not be alive today without the prayers of family and friends. He broke his neck three years ago. The hospital called him "the Miracle Man". Looking at him today you would not know that this happened.
ReplyDeleteJanet, that is amazing. Praise God! My daughter is a miracle, too. She was born very sick--the amniotic fluid was infected, and the doctors and nurses came in to my room on the fourth day to prepare us for her death. My friend and fellow church goer came in that day to pray for our Katie and I told her that the strict rules of the Neonatal ICU wouldn't allow her to go in. She straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin and said I'm going in and you can either come with me or stay here. LOL I followed, and they let us in with out any problem. She prayed a mighty prayer of faith and THAT NIGHT Katie rallied. She pulled her own ventilator tube out as an infant! She breathed on her own and from there on in, she got stronger and stronger. She is a miracle.
DeleteJanet E.
ReplyDeletevon1janet(at)gmail(dot)com
This past September, I began having some pains in my chest but not normal for your heart. My doctor sent me to a cardiologist and they did two tests. One test showed an enlargement and the other test showed I had a blockage in the top of my heart. The test showed over 70% blockage, but everyone starting praying. The day of my heart cath, when he put in the medicine I could feel it rush through. There was no blockage or enlargement. It showed everything was fine. I know it was the Lord, because I had seen it and the reports days before the heart cath. God's so good to me. Thank you for the chance to win this giveaway and please enter my name.
ReplyDeleteBarbara Thompson
barbmaci61(at)yahoo(dot)com
So it was healed even before the medicine. Praise the Lord! May you walk in health and goodness for many more years, Barbara. Thank you for sharing!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI shared on Twitter and I'm a follower of this blog.
ReplyDeleteBarbara Thompson
barbmaci61(at)yahoo(dot)com
Hi Kathleen.GOD has answered so many prayers for Miracles in our large Lloyd. Two of my nieces were in a car with their turn signals on to go left and a big rig just passed as they turned. It crunched that car so bad, only GOD could have saved those girls.They were both injured bad, but the older one who was 16, had injured her brain. They said the brain scan looked like that of a newborn. Said she would never get back to normal. Of course all of us and our different churches were praying for her. She was like that for a couple of weeks, then finally woke up. Her brain was fine. No forgetting anything. And, no incapacity of any of her movies either. Also just a few years ago, my older brother went in the hospital for his problem he has with COPD. Well they decided he had pneumonia and he went in a coma. Finally his daughter had him moved to a great hosp. in Houston,Tx. They checked and started all over with him. He was in a coma for several months and the doctors told the family that if he made it he would never be the same. Said he would probably need lots of therapy for learning to talk and walk again. Well once when I went to visit, I told him while holding his hand that he'd better open his eyes for I knew he knew my loud voice.(something I had been fussed about all of my life.) well he opened his eyes and turned his head to me. He would write notes to his wife for he had that tube in his throat. When they removed it he could talk and new every word. Also, when they got him up, he could walk. A miracle from GOD. Was a happy day. I would love to win this book. Maxie mac262(at)me(dot)com
ReplyDeleteThese are such beautiful stories of our great God and his awesome power. Thank you for sharing with us, Maxie. I am choked up by your faith and by His awesome power.
DeleteThat is a very lovely cover - puts me in the Christmas mood! I know God has put "answers to prayers" in my life many times and I don't remember any big spectacular one. I remember all the little ones. A great memory is we went camping two hours away and when we got there we couldn't find the camper keys - but we knew they were around since we had them half way thru the trip to check something. We searched everywhere and it was getting dark. I finally said to the kids "Pray hard and pray with me!". When we were done I went around the van to get a kid back out and something made me reach into the pocket of a seat and there they were. Still makes us smile!
ReplyDeletelattebooks at hotmail dot com
Susan, it is those moments in our everyday life when He shows up in little miraculous ways that just make us certain he really does abide with us. That is a great story. Thank you!
DeleteGod recently answered a prayer for help in homeschooling with the children and my own reviewing and entering to become part of the Schoolhouse review crew answered that prayer and God is so good. We will have free online lessons with others teaching the children some of there lessons, I needed a break for the last 5 years and never got one, now I can still homeschool, get the kids free things and review them and get free lessons and such on top of it...Praise Jesus
ReplyDeleteLinda Finn
faithfulacresbooks@gmail.com
That is so encouraging, Linda. Praise God! He used the cruse of oil that you had in your own home--your reviewing skills--to provide your miracle like the widow and the prophet Elijah. Stay blessed!
DeleteHey Kathleen, The Lord has answered every prayer, maybe not in the manner I would like, but He has never left me hanging. The one that came to mind as soon as I read the question was really a miracle answer. Back in the late 80s my doctor found a mass in my abdomen. My husband immediately called our families and asked them to pray. They put it on the prayer chain at church and when I went for the second ultrasound test before surgery it was gone :)
ReplyDeleteI love to read Christmas stories! Thanks for the giveaway opportunity. Blessings, sweet friend!
Wow, Anne. This gave me Holy Spirit goosebumps. I have a feeling this testimony has blessed many people and given them faith for their own miracle. Glory!
DeleteYULETIDE HEARTS certainly does have a beautiful cover and it sounds like a wonderful book!
ReplyDeleteRecently, my husband and I prayed continually about a decision we were trying to make; asking God to please guide us in the way we should go. Sure of the decision we finally made, we were told what we were seeking was no longer an option. We were very upset at first, but then found peace in the fact that God had answered our prayers with the answer He knew best!
I am a blog follower.
texaggs2000 at gmail dot com
That's beautiful, Britney. May He open a door for you now that he has closed one.
DeleteJust got done drawing names through random.org, and I would like to thank everyone for coming by this week! you all have made my Christmas in NY giveaway week very special. The winner for Yuletide Hearts is Susan P Congratulations, Susan! I will be contacting your via email shortly.
ReplyDelete