It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
***Special thanks to Julie Gwinn of B&H Publishing Group for sending me a review copy.***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Robin Caroll has authored eight previous books including Bayou Justice and Melody of Murder. She gives back to the writing community as conference director for the American Christian Fiction Writers organization. A proud southerner through and through, Robin lives with her husband and three daughters in Little Rock, Arkansas.
List Price: $14.99 Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: B&H Academic (February 1, 2010) Language: English ISBN-10: 0805449809 ISBN-13: 978-0805449808
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
Tuesday, 3:30 p.m. FBI Field Office Knoxville, Tennessee
Jonathan’s throat closed as he stared at the building from the parking lot. He gripped the package tight in his arthritic hands. Could he do this? Turn over evidence that would implicate him?
His heart raced and he froze. Not the best time for his atrial fibrillation to make an appearance. Despite being on the heart transplant list for eight months, it looked like his progressed heart disease would do him in. The most important reason he couldn’t go to prison—he’d never get a heart and would die. While Carmen wanted him to confess his crimes, she wouldn’t want him to die. The memory of saying good-bye to his beloved mere hours ago scorched his soul.
Her eyes fluttered open. Those blue orbs, which had once sparkled even in the absence of light, now blinked flat and lifeless.
He swallowed hard.
“Jonathan,” her voice croaked, “it’s time.”
Tears burned the backs of his eyes, and he rested his hand over her parchmentlike skin. “No, Carmen. Please, let me get the medicine.”
Her eyelids drooped and she gasped. Air wheezed in her lungs. “Sweetheart, the fight’s . . . gone from me.” She let out a hiss, faint and eerie. “The cancer’s . . . won.”
Jonathan laid his lips against her cheek, her skin cold and clammy, as if in preparation for the morgue. How could she continue to refuse the medicine? Even though she didn’t approve of his means of acquisition, the drugs had kept her alive for five years. Five years he cherished every minute of. He’d do anything to keep her alive and the pain at bay—the intense pain that had become her constant companion these last two weeks. It killed him to witness her agony.
She licked her bottom lip, but no moisture soaked into the cracked flesh. “You’ve done . . . your best by me, Jonathan. I know . . . you meant . . . no harm to . . . anyone.” Her eyes lit as they once had. “Oh, how I’ve enjoyed loving you.”
His insides turned to oatmeal. Stubborn woman—she’d allow herself to die, all because she discovered how he’d gotten the money.
“Promise me . . . you’ll . . . tell the . . . truth. Admit what . . . you’ve done.” Her breath rattled. “What you’ve . . . all done.”
Pulling himself from the wretched memory, Jonathan breathed through the heat tightening his chest. He’d secure himself the best deal possible—immunity—or he wouldn’t decipher the papers. And without him no one could make sense of the accounting system he’d created more than five years ago. Officials hadn’t a clue.
With a deep breath he headed to the guardhouse in front of the fenced FBI building. His legs threatened to rebel, stiffening with every step. He forced himself to keep moving, one foot in front of the other.
At the guardhouse, a man behind bulletproof glass looked up. “May I help you?”
“I need to . . . see someone.”
“About what, sir?”
“I have some information regarding a crime.” He waved the file he held.
“One moment, sir, and someone will be with you.”
Jonathan stared at the cloudy sky. He could still turn back, get away scot-free. His heartbeat sped. The world blurred. No, he couldn’t lose consciousness now, nor could he go back on his promise. He owed it to Carmen. No matter what happened, he’d honor Carmen’s dying wish.
“Sir?” A young man in a suit stood beside the fenced entry, hand resting on the butt of his gun. “May I help you?”
Jonathan lifted the file. “I have some evidence regarding an ongoing crime ring.”
The agent motioned him toward a metal-detector arch. “Come through this way, sir.”
Jonathan’s steps wavered. He dragged his feet toward the archway.
A car door creaked. Jonathan glanced over his shoulder just as two men in full tactical gear stormed toward them. He had a split second to recognize one of the men’s eyes, just before gunfire erupted.
A vise gripped Jonathan’s heart, and he slumped to the dirty tile floor, the squeezing of his heart demanding his paralysis.
Too late. I’m sorry, Carmen.
Two Weeks Later—Wednesday, 3:45 p.m. Golden Gloves Boxing of Knoxville
Ooof!
Brannon Callahan’s head jerked backward. She swiped her headgear with her glove.
“You aren’t concentrating on your form. You’re just trying to whale on me.” Steve Burroughs, her supervisor and sparring partner, bounced on the balls of his feet.
“Then why am I the one getting hit?” She threw a right jab that missed his jaw.
He brushed her off with his glove. “Don’t try to street fight me. Box.”
She clamped down on her mouthpiece and threw an uppercut with her left fist. It made contact, sending vibrations up her arm.
He wobbled backward, then got his balance. “Nice shot.”
It felt good to hit something. Hard. Sparring with Steve was the best form of venting. The energy had to be spent somehow—why not get a workout at the same time? She ducked a right cross, then followed through with a left-right combination. Both shots made full contact.
Steve spit out his mouthpiece and leaned against the ropes. “I think that’s enough for today, girl. I’m an old man, remember?”
She couldn’t fight the grin. Although only in his late forties, the chief ranger looked two decades older. With gray hair, hawk nose, and skin like tanned leather, Steve had already lived a lifetime.
She removed her mouthpiece, gloves, and headgear before sitting on the canvas. “Old? You’re still kickin’ me in the ring.”
He tossed her a towel and sat beside her. “So you wanna tell me what’s got you all hot and bothered this afternoon?”
She shrugged.
“Come on, spit it out. I know something’s gnawing at you, just like you were picking a fight with me in the ring. What’s up?”
How could she explain? “I’m not exactly keen that the district feels there’s a need for another pilot in the park.” She tightened the scrunchie keeping her hair out of her face.
“That’s a compliment—having you on staff has been so successful they want to expand.”
“But I have to train him. Did you notice his arrogance?” She ripped at the tape bound around her knuckles. “He’s nothing more than a young upstart with an ego bigger than the helicopter.” While only thirty-six, she often felt older than Steve looked.
“You’re so good, you can come across a bit intimidating at first, girl.” Steve grabbed the ropes and pulled to standing, then offered her a hand. “Give him a chance.”
She let Steve tug her up. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even if he had maturity, I still have to train him. With all the rescues we’ve been called out on of late . . . well, I really don’t have the time.” She exited the ring. “Like those kids yesterday.” She shook her head as she waited for Steve to join her on the gym floor. “Their stupidity almost cost them their lives.”
“They were young, Brannon.”
“Please. Any amateur with half a brain should know better than to try to climb Clingmans Dome in winter.” Didn’t people realize if something happened to them they’d leave behind devastated family and friends? Loved ones who would mourn them forever? She fought against the familiar pain every time she participated in a search and rescue. All because people hadn’t taken necessary precautions.
“They didn’t know any better.”
“It takes a special kind of stupid not to have researched your climb.” Most SARs could be avoided if people planned a little more. It ripped her apart that so many parents, grandparents, siblings . . . fiancées . . . survived to deal with such grief. She’d tasted the bitterness of grief—twice—and the aftertaste still lingered.
Steve paused outside the locker rooms and shifted his sparring gear to one hand. “I agree, but most people don’t see the dangers we do every day.” He tapped her shoulder. “Hit the showers, champ. You stink.”
She laughed as she headed into the ladies’ locker room. Maybe Steve was right and the new pilot just made a lousy first impression. Maybe he’d be easy to train.
Please, God, let it be so.
Friday, 2:15 p.m. US Marshals Office, Howard Baker Federal Courthouse Knoxville, Tennessee
“You want me to escort a heart?” Roark struggled to keep his voice calm. He tapped the butt of his Beretta, welcoming it back to its rightful place on his hip.
Senior US Marshal Gerald Demott glared. “Look, I know you think this is a slight, but it’s important. And for your first assignment back on the job . . .”
“IA cleared me of all wrongdoing. I’m seeing the shrink and everything.” He gritted his teeth and exhaled. “I’ve been released to return to active duty.”
“This is active. It’s a field assignment, and it’s important. Here’s the case information.” Demott passed him a folder, then glanced at his watch. “You’d better hurry or you’ll miss your flight.”
Roark grabbed the file and turned to go.
“Holland.”
He looked back at his boss. “Yeah?”
Demott held out Roark’s badge. “You might want to take this with you, too.”
Roark accepted the metal emblem, then clipped it to his belt before marching out of Demott’s office. A heart. His job was to escort a human heart from North Carolina to Knoxville. Any rookie could handle that. But no, they still didn’t trust him enough to handle a real assignment.
He’d done everything they asked—took a medical leave of absence while Internal Affairs went over every painful minute of his failed mission, saw the shrink they demanded he speak to every week since Mindy’s death, answered their relentless questions. The shrink reiterated he’d been forgiven for acting on his own.
Maybe one day he’d forgive himself. How many innocent lives would he have to save for his conscience to leave him be?
Roark slipped into the car, then headed to the airport. But to be assigned a heart transport? Not only was it wrong, it was downright insulting. After almost fifteen years as a marshal, he’d earned the benefit of the doubt from his supervisors. Especially Demott. His boss should know him better, know he’d only disregard orders if it was a matter of life and death.
But Mindy Pugsley died. They’d all died.
He pushed the nagging voice from his mind. Even Dr. Martin had advised him not to dwell on the past. On what had gone wrong. On disobeying a direct order.
If only Mindy didn’t haunt his dreams.
Roark touched the angry scar that ran along his right cheekbone to his chin. A constant reminder that he’d failed, that he’d made a mistake that took someone’s life. He’d have to live with the pain for the rest of his life.
He skidded the car into the airport’s short-term parking lot. After securing the car and gathering the case folder, Roark grabbed his coat. Snowflakes pelted downward, swirling on the bursts of wind and settling on the concrete. The purple hues of the setting sun streaked across the mountain peaks beyond the runways, making the January snow grab the last hope of light.
Yes, he’d handle this mundane assignment, then tell Demott he wanted back on real active duty. Making a difference would be the best thing for him. Would make him feel whole again.
Thanks to Julie Gwinn of B&H Publishing Group I have a good list of books to giveaway! Keep checking back in the days to come for more titles. Today, up for grabs is one copy of Snow Angel by Jamie Carie.
When Noah Wesley heard the faint sound outside the door of his remote Alaskan mountain cabin during a violent nighttime blizzard, it was no less than the voice of God that urged him to take a closer look, soon to discover his snow angel.
Unconscious and more than half frozen to death, her name, as Noah would later learn after boldly saving her life, was Elizabeth, a beautiful young woman, fragile yet fierce, and intent on discovering gold like so many others in that region during the late 1800s.
But why Elizabeth was so drawn to the gold, and why she would chase it even through a pounding storm that no man would dare face, was a secret to be shared with no one else, not even at the inviation of Noah's deep blue trusting eyes.
First time novelist Jamie Carie pens a can't-put-down debut in Snow Angel, a masterfully romantic story wherein cold and lonely hearts risk everything to be forever warmed.
Go to www.PureEnjoyment.com and watch a trailer then tell me what you would love to read and why.
Good luck all! And for the fun of it, after your MANDATORY entry above, any of the following will get you additional entries...
Tweet this giveaway - your tweet must include the following elements: @cherryblossommj @jamiecarie @BHpub and #giveaway (come back and leave your status link - find this by clicking on your time of tweet - can tweet for extra entry once daily)
Comment on non-giveaway posts (up to 5 additional entries) and here telling me where
Blog about this giveaway then link back to that post in a comment
Grab my button and link to my blog (left sidebar) and tell me where I can find it
Vote for Creative Madness by clicking these buttons for a chance at 3 extra entries and comment
This giveaway is open to international winners and is open until January 14th. The winners will be drawn via random.org and will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.
Thanks to Julie Gwinn of B&H Publishing Group I have a good list of books to giveaway! Keep checking back in the days to come for more titles. Today, up for grabs are two copies of Wind Dancer by Jamie Carie.
Raised in a British-held frontier town during the American Revolution, Isabelle Renoir is not like other women around her. A free spirit, she dances in the moonlight as a praise offering to God and is more at home fearlessly taking her long rifle and knife into the woods for adventure and inspiration.
But Isabelle’s latest journey may be more than even her strength can handle when a huge storm throws the raven-haired beauty off course and into the path of rugged American spy Samuel Holt. After matching wits and denying their passion for each other, they are attacked by Indians, held prisoner, and forced to watch the horrific killing of Isabelle’s brother. Now together but in captivity, they must fight spiritual forces that no knife or rifle could ever conquer in order to be free.
Go to www.PureEnjoyment.com and watch a trailer then tell me what you would love to read and why.
Good luck all! And for the fun of it, after your MANDATORY entry above, any of the following will get you additional entries...
Tweet this giveaway - your tweet must include the following elements: @cherryblossommj @jamiecarie @BHpub and #giveaway (come back and leave your status link - find this by clicking on your time of tweet - can tweet for extra entry once daily)
Comment on non-giveaway posts (up to 5 additional entries) and here telling me where
Blog about this giveaway then link back to that post in a comment
Grab my button and link to my blog (left sidebar) and tell me where I can find it
Vote for Creative Madness by clicking these buttons for a chance at 3 extra entries and comment
This giveaway is open to international winners and is open until January 15th. The winners will be drawn via random.org and will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.
New from Jamie Carie, today’s most awarded new Christian romance writer. Christophé, the Count of St. Laurent, has lost his entire family to the blood-soaked French Revolution and must flee to an ancient castle along the southern border of France to survive. But the medieval city of Carcassonne proves more than a hiding place. Here Christophé meets the beautiful widow Scarlett, a complex and lionhearted woman suddenly taken by the undercover aristocrat’s passion for astronomy and its influence upon his faith. Although their acquaintance begins brightly enough, when the Count learns that Scarlett is related to the man who murdered his family, he turns from love and chooses revenge. Heaven only knows what it might take for Christophé to love again, to love his enemy, and to love unconditionally.
Go to www.PureEnjoyment.com and watch a trailer then tell me what you would love to read and why.
Good luck all! And for the fun of it, after your MANDATORY entry above, any of the following will get you additional entries...
Tweet this giveaway - your tweet must include the following elements: @cherryblossommj @jamiecarie @BHpub and #giveaway (come back and leave your status link - find this by clicking on your time of tweet - can tweet for extra entry once daily)
Comment on non-giveaway posts (up to 5 additional entries) and here telling me where
Blog about this giveaway then link back to that post in a comment
Grab my button and link to my blog (left sidebar) and tell me where I can find it
Vote for Creative Madness by clicking these buttons for a chance at 3 extra entries and comment
This giveaway is open to international winners and is open until January 13th. The winners will be drawn via random.org and will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.
Rising romance novelist Jamie Carie’s second book, The Duchess and the Dragon, tells the epic story of two unlikely soulmates who live worlds apart but soon meet and turn each other’s world upside down.
Drake Weston, Duke of Northumberland, is accustomed to a life of royalty until a tragic mistake followed by murderous rage results in his darkening character and sudden flee from England. With a hoarde of money on which to survive, Drake hops a ship of indentured servants to America but is duly robbed and taken ill by the merciless sea voyage.
In Pennsylvania, Serena Winter is a humble, devoted Quaker on a mission of mercy, ready to tend the sick people aboard a ship that has just arrived from England. Taken by Drake’s air of dark mystery after he begins to serve as an apprentice to her silversmith father, Serena falls in love and is excommunicated by her fellow believers when she accepts a non-Quaker’s marriage proposal.
Not knowing Drake’s history, Serena is later shocked to discover her new status as a duchess. What follows are hard truths and softening hearts, romance triangles, webs of deceit, and ultimately, the power of grace, love, and passion.
Go to www.PureEnjoyment.com and watch a trailer then tell me what you would love to read and why.
Good luck all! And for the fun of it, after your MANDATORY entry above, any of the following will get you additional entries...
Tweet this giveaway - your tweet must include the following elements: @cherryblossommj @jamiecarie @BHpub and #giveaway (come back and leave your status link - find this by clicking on your time of tweet - can tweet for extra entry once daily)
Comment on non-giveaway posts (up to 5 additional entries) and here telling me where
Blog about this giveaway then link back to that post in a comment
Grab my button and link to my blog (left sidebar) and tell me where I can find it
Vote for Creative Madness by clicking these buttons for a chance at 3 extra entries and comment
This giveaway is open to international winners and is open until January 12th. The winners will be drawn via random.org and will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.
Thanks to Julie Gwinn of B&H Publishing Group I have a good list of books to giveaway! Keep checking back in the days to come for more titles. Today, up for grabs are two copies of Angel's Den: a Novel by Jamie Carie that will be published in February 2010.
In 1808, when Emma meets and marries Eric Montclaire (the famed “most handsome man west of the Appalachians”), this young daughter of prominent St. Louis citizens believes a fairy tale has just begun. Instead, her husband’s angelic looks quickly prove only to mask a monstrous soul all too capable of possessive emotions and physical abuse. Praying for mercy, she is devastated when Eric insists on her joining his yearlong group expedition to the Pacific Ocean, following the trail Lewis and Clark blazed just a few years earlier. By the time cartographer Luke Bowen realizes Emma’s plight, it’s too late to easily untangle what has become an epic web of lies, theft, murder, courtroom drama, and a deep longing for love. Only God can show them the way out.
Go to www.PureEnjoyment.com and watch a trailer then tell me what you would love to read and why.
Good luck all! And for the fun of it, after your MANDATORY entry above, any of the following will get you additional entries...
Tweet this giveaway - your tweet must include @cherryblossommj @jamiecarie @BHpub and #giveaway (come back and leave your status link - find this by clicking on your time of tweet - can tweet for extra entry once daily)
Comment on non-giveaway posts (up to 5 additional entries) and here telling me where
Blog about this giveaway then link back to that post in a comment
Grab my button and link to my blog (left sidebar) and tell me where I can find it
Vote for Creative Madness by clicking these buttons for a chance at 3 extra entries and comment
This giveaway is open to international winners and is open until January 11th. The winners will be drawn via random.org and will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.
(Bethany House - First published 1997 - Ribbons of Steel, #2 - Sequel to Distant Dreams)
(Bethany House - Acts of Faith Series, #2 - Sequel to The Centurion's Wife)
(B&H - Sequel to Shade)
(Barbour - The Ladies Shooting Club, #1)
The first two are on my wishlist, and the second two I have acquired and plan to read soon. Click on the cover to go to Amazon to buy them or find out more.
All pictures and information on this blog are the possession of cherryblossommj, the authors of the various novels, or the blog tour spaces that she participates in. Please respect that. Most often purple text is the own of cherryblossommj, while other colors may be a quote and direct text from a tour or other.
♥ Wanna know more about me and my family? Click on the picture above or head on over to my "About Me" page. *grin*
Welcome to my Creative Madness! I'm Margaret, head-over-hills in love with my Enginerd and a new SAHM as of August 2009. Here abouts you will find my thoughts on life raising a baby girl, quilting, book reviews galore, and product reviews of fabulous things you just must acquire!
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
by Jamie Carie.
that will be published in February 2010.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
