Joanne (Page 2)

In case you’ve ever wondered, when it comes to writing reviews, even authors can stare at a blank screen trying to find something to say. Sometimes, I know what I want to write about, but struggle to get the words on paper. Sometimes, I just sit here staring at the screen without a single, coherent idea in my head. So yes, we understand what it’s like to review a book and not know where to start or what to say! Right now, I’m falling halfway between those two. I know I enjoyed the book, but the words aren’t coming. So, as I often do inRead More →

I always enjoy the kinds of books where I pick the book up, start reading, and nothing in the following pages jars me out of the story. Valerie Comer’s books are like that for me. I don’t think I’ve read one yet that I didn’t like, and Marry Me for Real, Cowboy was no different. The writing was good. The characters were interesting and well developed. The storyline was realistic enough to make it believable (unlike, say, the billionaire jackaroo station owner idea, which ain’t gonna happen seeing as… but that’s a story for another day!). The story wasn’t too preachy, but there was aRead More →

Scrumptious Independence was a quick, fun book to read. The story flowed well, the characters held my interest and were relatable, although I never could figure out what Scott did for a living—he seemed to be all over the place in that regard.  I appreciated the fact that it’s a book about food, but the author didn’t try to sensualize the food aspect. Yes, I have crossed that path in my reading (a story for another day) and did not enjoy the experience. In this book though, I was glad to see that in her descriptions the author didn’t go beyond whetting my appetite forRead More →

A well-researched account of the lives of a pioneer family as they travel west to settle in the Michigan Territory, The Year the Stars Fell delves deep down into the nitty-gritties of daily life back then. The kinds of things most westerns or books about the early settlers gloss over. I appreciated that the author didn’t try to romanticize the hardships these people faced. She laid it all out for everyone to see, from the majesty of an untouched country to the ugliness and heartbreak of illness and destruction. I thoroughly enjoyed the setting and seeing what life could have been like in the earlyRead More →

Thought-provoking. A powerful story showing the battle between good and evil; a spiritual struggle of Light versus dark. Told from the perspective of a Methodist Episcopal missionary, Two Rivers is an interesting glimpse into the life of those seeking to reach the Native Americans with the gospel. I couldn’t help seeing similarities between what the main character was doing and the life of David Brainerd, and while the book was set in 1840, almost one hundred years after David Brainerd lived, it was easy to imagine that their lives must have been somewhat the same.  I’m not an expert on the settling of the westRead More →

Hey, folks! I just wanted to let you know that… the issue with my newsletter sign up has been fixed. I hope. I couldn’t figure out how to fix the issue, and it wasn’t showing up in any troubleshooting lists, so I switched providers. I’ve actually been wanting to do that for a long time, but none of the options I wanted were in my price range–until now. So when I found out this provider was available, I raced off to switch, and if you already signed up, you’re probably going to have to confirm you really want to hear from me. Again. Or somethingRead More →

…What interesting, unexpected thing do you do now that six months ago you never dreamed you’d ever do? And by calculating insulin, I mean I had to take a 22 day period, subtract the three highest amounts, add the rest together, and divide by 19. Then took another 22 day period, subtracted the three lowest, added the rest together, divided by 19, and compared the two numbers. What for? Well, Buddy’s insulin was running way too low by the end of each month, but to increase his prescription, we had to tell the nurse practitioner just how much insulin he was using/needing each day. We’dRead More →

I grew up on a diet of Christian historical fiction, westerns, classics, and just about anything else I could get my hands on. Particular favorites were Janette Oke, Lori Wick, Louis L’Amour, Alistair MacLean, Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, L.M. Montgomery, Francena H. Arnold, Mary Grant Bruce, and Grace Livingston Hill. As an older teen I branched out and read Linda Chaikin, Brock and Bodie Thoene, Hilda Stahl, and Francine Rivers. As as adult, I added in Georgette Heyer and Josephine Tey. There are probably more, but those are the ones I can recall off the top of my head. One thing they all have inRead More →

I was browsing through a group I follow on Facebook last night and came across a post that looked fun. It was a simple “vote for your favorite author” type thing. The trouble though, was that it started out with something like 25 options, but by the time other readers had finished adding their favorites, the list had grown to around 100. More readers wanted to add more authors, but they’d met the poll limit and were no longer able to add any more names. So they were listing names in the comments. It was fun to see which authors other readers liked, but alsoRead More →

I am here now to announce that… Your Heart For Mine, a novella set in the Taking Chances universe, will be releasing tomorrow, May 1st! I’m really excited about this one. Mostly because I love, love, love the cover. Isn’t it gorgeous? Josh went above and beyond my expectations, and I think I’m more excited about the cover than the story! I think—at least, I hope—you’ll enjoy the story as well, but the cover… 🥰 My aim is to make the ebook FREE on all platforms, but I’ve never done this before and I’m not exactly sure how soon that will happen. We set the processRead More →