Review: Love Finds You in Revenge, Ohio

by Lisa Harris

She’s been jilted twice, and Catherine Morgan has no intention of letting it happen again. Every man in her life has failed her – including her father, whose abandonment left her responsible for her three younger sisters and her mother. She’s vowed off of love and marriage and devoted herself to running the family’s general store and keeping her sisters safe and happy until they find good husbands to take over the job.

Things are handled. Everything’s going smoothly.

Then Sheriff Corbin Hunter shows up in the small town of Revenge, Ohio and turns Catherine’s world on end. He left her once, and now she must decide whether she can trust him again – this time, with her sister’s heart. Corbin’s evidence points to Audrey’s fiancé as the head of an infamous criminal gang. In her efforts to prove otherwise and save her sister from heartbreak, Catherine finds her own heart responding once again to the man who jilted her seven years ago.

As if Corbin’s reappearance isn’t upheaval enough, news of their father’s death arrives to further upset the Morgan sisters. Though Catherine has no love left for Isaiah Morgan, who couldn’t be bothered to be a husband and father, she must deal with her sisters’ grief and her own lingering resentment.

Corbin Hunter wants the man who killed his father, and he’ll let nothing and no one—certainly not the girl who broke his heart seven years ago—stand in his way. His desire for revenge could cost him the love of his life.

Love Finds You in Revenge Ohio is packed with the essentials of good reading: fun, faith, mystery, romance, bad bad guys and a heroic hero. Well written, with lots of plot twists to keep those pages turning, details authentic to the time period, likeable (and some not-so-likeable) characters, and the kind of ending that makes for loyal readers. Good stuff!

I Have Cover Art!

I have cover art for my novel, Yesterday's Promise, which will be released soon in electronic format through The Wild Rose Press. I do not yet have a release date, but when I do, you'll find out about it here on The Melody Within. Pretty, huh?

(Originally published in 2006 under the title Almost Like a Song.)

Review: Love's Rescue

by Tammy Barley





It’s 1863. To escape the ravages of war, Jessica Hale’s family leaves their beloved home in Kentucky for a new life in the Nevada Territory. Jessica’s brother, Ambrose, is determined to help defend their southern homestead. Against his father’s wishes, the young man joins ranks with the Kentucky militia and returns to the south. When Ambrose goes missing in the midst of the War Between the States, Jessica’s attempts to find him set off a chain of events that will change her life forever.

In the wake of a close encounter with political fanatics, Jessica loses everything that matters and then finds herself spirited away to a remote ranch in the Sierra Nevada wilderness. There, Jessica’s every effort to escape is thwarted by handsome rancher Jake Bennett and his loyal cattlemen. Jake knows what it’s like to lose everything. He’s determined to protect Jessica through her time of loss. There are those who would harm the young woman for nothing more than being a Southerner, and Jake and his men have no intention of allowing that to happen. Still, how can he help Jessica’s wounded heart to heal when she so deeply resents him for what she perceives as his failure to save her family? He can’t make her see the truth, but he can protect her, and he can pray while her eyes are opened and her broken heart mends.

Tammy Barley’s action-packed debut novel is wonderfully rich in historical detail. It’s a tightly woven, riveting tale of love and loss, faith under fire, and wild hearts on the run. As the author unfolds this spellbinding story, a vivid picture of life in the Old West is revealed with stunning clarity and depth. Love’s Rescue provides everything a reader expects from this era: cowboys and Indians, damsels in distress, good guys and bad hombres, gunfights and moonlit nights. The last page leaves the reader longing for more of Jess and Jake. It’s an absolute must-read for the lover of historical romance.

A masterpiece of storytelling intricately woven with spiritual wisdom and insight, and threaded throughout with the good, the bad, and the ugly of love, life, and humanity.

Bravo, Ms. Barley!

Love's Rescue

I usually post reviews on - surprise, surprise! - my Reviews & Interviews blog, My Book Bag. However, due to computer difficulties I won't go into right now, I don't currently have access to that site.

What I do have is a review for an absolutely wonderful book by my friend Tammy Barley, and I want to get it posted so my readers can rush right out and find this rare fictional treat! If you like inspirational romance ... if you enjoy westerns ... if you love historical fiction, then Love's Rescue is the book you need to look for next. I promise you, you're gonna love it!

Here's my review:


Love's Rescue

by Tammy Barley


It’s 1863. To escape the ravages of war, Jessica Hale’s family leaves their beloved home in Kentucky for a new life in the Nevada Territory.

Jessica’s brother, Ambrose, is determined to help defend their southern homestead. Against his father’s wishes, the young man joins ranks with the Kentucky militia and returns to the south. When Ambrose goes missing in the midst of the War Between the States, Jessica’s attempts to find him set off a chain of events that will change her life forever.

In the wake of a close encounter with political fanatics, Jessica loses everything that matters and then finds herself spirited away to a remote ranch in the Sierra Nevada wilderness. There, Jessica’s every effort to escape is thwarted by handsome rancher Jake Bennett and his loyal cattlemen.

Jake knows what it’s like to lose everything. He’s determined to protect Jessica through her time of loss. There are those who would harm the young woman for nothing more than being a Southerner, and Jake and his men have no intention of allowing that to happen. Still, how can he help Jessica’s wounded heart to heal when she so deeply resents him for what she perceives as his failure to save her family? He can’t make her see the truth, but he can protect her, and he can pray while her eyes are opened and her broken heart mends.

Tammy Barley’s action-packed debut novel is wonderfully rich in historical detail. It’s a tightly woven, riveting tale of love and loss, faith under fire, and wild hearts on the run. As the author unfolds this spellbinding story, a vivid picture of life in the Old West is revealed with stunning clarity and depth. Love’s Rescue provides everything a reader expects from this era: cowboys and Indians, damsels in distress, good guys and bad hombres, gunfights and moonlit nights. The last page leaves the reader longing for more of Jess and Jake. It’s an absolute must-read for the lover of historical romance.

A masterpiece of storytelling intricately woven with spiritual wisdom and insight, and threaded throughout with the good, the bad, and the ugly of love, life, and humanity.

Bravo, Ms. Barley!

Farm Town Futility

Any Facebook Farm Towners out there?

As much as you love the game, you have to agree it's the biggest time waster in the entire world. Little avatars with big heads and tiny bodies, plowing up virtual fields and planting cyber crops; harvesting, plowing and selling produce in an online marketplace. Begging for jobs to earn coins, which make it possible to have bigger farms, more crops, better surroundings.

Sounds like life, doesn't it? As Ecclesiastes so eloquently put is: Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.

We do it in life and it carries over to cyberspace. We expend all our energies to have more, and the more we have, the more we want. The more we want, the less time we spend on the things that really matter: family, friends, sharing laughter and tears, touching hearts and holding hands.

It's a vicious circle, but if we really want to, we can break free of it. And when we do, I think it'll be like waking from a disturbing dream ... all the hurry and chaos and rushing and climbing and striving for more becomes just a distant memory - suddenly exposed as so trivial, of such little consequence in comparison to seeing the joy in a child's eyes, feeling the touch of a loved one's hand, hearing the voice of someone dear. Living. Loving. Being human, being real, being who we are - no longer expending all our efforts on trying to be like somebody else. Not worrying about "keeping up with the Joneses."

Wouldn't it be nice? Want to try it? Come on ... just for a day. Take time to tuck your little ones in, hold them close, look into their eyes - and take your time doing it. Hug your wife or husband, kiss them like you mean it - and take your time doing it. Visit your Mom and Dad, if you still have them. Take time to listen to their memories, the stories you've tuned out for too long. Trust me, someday you'll wish you'd heard them, every one. Pet an animal, even if (like me) you're not really an animal person. Take a walk. Linger over coffee after dinner and actually talk to your companion.

Sunday? Will that work for you? I'm in!

Renewing the Melody

I've missed all of you! I've had my break, and now I'm ready to blog again.

Let's see ... what's new, for starters?

My daughter and her children are visiting from California. They've been here three weeks and we'll have them two more. It's so much fun! I'm already dreading them leaving, and having to say good-bye.

On the writing side of things, I've signed a contract with The Wild Rose Press for Yesterday's Promise. For those of you who might not know, this book printed originally as Almost Like a Song. I reclaimed my rights from that publisher, and let me tell you - finding a new one to do a reprint is not easy! I'm pleased and thankful that TWRP liked the story, and it will now be available in electronic format. Yeah, I'm a bit disappointed not to get it back into an actual printed format, but since it's a second-time around kind of thing, I'm just grateful to have it out there and available again.

I don't have any details as far as release date yet - I only just signed the contract, and it's sitting on the shelf waiting to be mailed on Monday. When I get all the information, and new cover art, I'll post it here so you'll know. If you've read the book already, I hope you'll recommend it to your friends. If you haven't read it, do ... you won't be sorry!

Here's the back cover text:

A whirlwind romance amidst the natural splendor of Yosemite National Park. A spur-of-the-moment wedding. A young bride who awakens the morning after to find her new husband gone with the mountain wind.

Songbird Hannah Johns supports the child born of that ill-fated union by singing in a dinner lounge. Her dream of someday owning the elite establishment and turning it into a venue more suited to her Christian values is shattered when an unexpected transaction places it in the hands of Brock Ellis, the handsome biker who abandoned her in their honeymoon suite.
Ensuing sparks fly high, revealing buried secrets and forgotten pasts. Seeking to find peace with her painful past, Hannah returns to Yosemite, only to have Brock show up hard on her heels. Back where it all began, she finds herself in danger of losing her heart yet again to the man who shattered it the first time around.

I'm still trying to find an agent. Help me pray about that ... I want a good, honest agent, one who likes my work, believes in me, and will help get it into the hands of reputable publishers. In the meantime, I'm working on a couple of other projects.

If you're a writer, I have a new article up on Tracy Culleton's Fiction Writer's Mentor. I hope you'll take time to read it, and that you'll find some helpful little nugget in there. Let me know what you think. :)

Since I've taken this little hiatus from blogging, I hope all my faithful readers find me again. Spread the word when you do.

I'm baaaack!