Thomas Nelson’s late 2018/early 2019 novels are arriving closer than we think as we bear down on the middle of this year! Is it just me that is finding the months rush past at a great clip?! For a Christian publisher, Thomas Nelson have shown a willingness to be innovative with their covers over the past few years and have branched out from traditionally styled covers which has been wonderful.  However, for the most part, this particular set of books are of the ‘well designed but nothing new’ variety. That is not intended to be disrespectful in any way to the designers or authors of these books. We all know cover art is very subjective and what I don’t particularly fancy will be the design that caught another reader’s eye. The ones that appeal to me most are Denise’s (that gorgeous Magnolia tree!), Kelly’s (simple, clean lines that reflect the genre), and Robin’s (love the script title font).

As far as stories go, I’m more than intrigued by the story of Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis’ friendship and romance, looking forward to Terri Blackstock’s return to romance, and am particularly partial to the completion of Cara and Denise’s respective series (I believe!) and the exciting new series from Tamera and Robin! Great to see a debut author in Abigail Wilson, although I do wish they had done more with her cover. It isn’t as eye-catching as I hoped for and feels a little incomplete to me, but the story sounds terrific 🙂

Kelly Irvin is returning to her first love – romantic suspense – after 16 Amish romance novels and novellas, so I’m keen to read Tell Her No Lies.

Please share with me which of these stories will be hitting your wishlists!

*****

Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan

In a most improbable friendship, she found love. In a world where women were silenced, she found her voice.

From New York Times bestselling author Patti Callahan comes an exquisite novel of Joy Davidman, the woman C. S. Lewis called “my whole world.” When poet and writer Joy Davidman began writing letters to C. S. Lewis—known as Jack—she was looking for spiritual answers, not love. Love, after all, wasn’t holding together her crumbling marriage. Everything about New Yorker Joy seemed ill-matched for an Oxford don and the beloved writer of Narnia, yet their minds bonded over their letters. Embarking on the adventure of her life, Joy traveled from America to England and back again, facing heartbreak and poverty, discovering friendship and faith, and against all odds, finding a love that even the threat of death couldn’t destroy.

In this masterful exploration of one of the greatest love stories of modern times, we meet a brilliant writer, a fiercely independent mother, and a passionate woman who changed the life of this respected author and inspired books that still enchant us and change us. Joy lived at a time when women weren’t meant to have a voice—and yet her love for Jack gave them both voices they didn’t know they had.

At once a fascinating historical novel and a glimpse into a writer’s life, Becoming Mrs. Lewis is above all a love story—a love of literature and ideas and a love between a husband and wife that, in the end, was not impossible at all.

October, 2018

Catching Christmas by Terri Blackstock

This Year, Christmas Comes Just in Time

As a first-year law associate, Sydney Batson knows she will be updating her resume by New Year’s if she loses her current court case. So when her grandmother gets inexplicably ill while she’s in court, Sydney arranges for a cab to get her to the clinic.

The last thing cab driver Finn Parrish wants is to be saddled with a wheelchair-bound old lady with dementia. But because Miss Callie reminds him of his own mother, whom he failed miserably in her last days, he can’t say no when she keeps calling him for rides. Once a successful gourmet chef, Finn’s biggest concern now is making his rent, but half the time Callie doesn’t remember to pay him. And as she starts to feel better, she leads him on wild goose chases to find a Christmas date for her granddaughter.

When Finn meets Sydney, he’s quite sure that she’s never needed help finding a date. Does Miss Callie have an ulterior motive, or is this just a mission driven by delusions? He’s willing to do whatever he can to help fulfill Callie’s Christmas wish. He just never expected to be a vital part of it.

October, 2018

Delayed Justice by Cara Putman

Hidden Justice #3

She had long given up the desire to be loved. Now she only needed to be heard.

Jaime Nichols went to law school to find the voice she never had as a child, and her determination to protect girls and women in the path of harm drives her in ways both spoken and unspoken. As Jamie, now a criminal defense attorney, prepares to press charges against someone who wronged her long ago, she must face not only her demons but also the unimaginable forces that protect the powerful man who tore her childhood apart.

Chandler Bolton, a retired veteran, is tasked with helping a young victim who must testify in court—and along with his therapy dog, Aslan, he’s up for the task. When he first meets Jaime, all brains, beauty, and brashness, he can’t help but be intrigued. As Chandler works to break through the wall Jaime has built around herself, the two of them discover that they may have more to offer one another than they ever could have guessed—and that together, they may be able to help this endangered child.

This thrilling installment of the Hidden Justice series explores the healing power of resolution and the weight of words given voice. And as Jaime pursues delayed justice of her own, she unearths eternal truths that will change the course of her life.

October, 2018

An Amish Christmas Gift by Amy Clipston, Ruth Reid, and Kelly Irvin

Naomi’s Gift by Amy Clipston

Naomi has begun to believe that she isn’t meant to find love, but she might receive more than she has ever hoped for this Christmas.

Twenty-four-year-old Naomi King has all but given up on marriage and children. As Christmas approaches, Naomi is certain that her life will be spent as an old maid, helping with the family’s quilting business and taking care of her eight siblings. Then she meets Caleb, a young widower with a seven-year-old daughter, and her world is once again turned upside down.

An Unexpected Joy by Ruth Reid

Abigail has driven other suitors away, but can Micah find a way to show her he cares?

Being a caregiver for Micah Zook’s grandmother is the answer to Abigail’s prayers. In fact, the elderly lady keeps finding ways to set Abigail up with her grandson. Despite Abigail’s constant chatter, Micah realizes he’s beginning to care for her—until he makes a decision that leaves her feeling betrayed. With Christmas in their midst, can Micah find a way to reconcile with Abigail and to reveal the true feelings of his heart?

A Christmas Visitor by Kelly Irvin

Frannie Mast returns to Bee County for Christmas, but her heart stays back in Missouri with an Englisch farm boy.

Frannie knows her parents have the best of intentions when they send her back to Bee County, Texas, to live with her aunt and her aunt’s new husband, Mordecai. After all, Frannie knows nothing can come of a relationship with Rocky, the handsome Englisch farm boy back in Missouri. But all bets are off when Rocky follows Frannie to Texas to plead his case. Could he be the Christmas gift to end all gifts?

October, 2018

On Magnolia Lane by Denise Hunter

Blue Ridge Romance #3

Pastor Jack McReady has secretly carried a torch for Daisy for two long years. She’s a member of his congregation, after all, and she’ll never see him as more than a trusted counselor. Jack’s best friend Noah has taken every opportunity to encourage his lovesick friend, but when Noah catches wind that Daisy has joined an online dating site, he takes matters into his own hands and orchestrates a meet-cute of the most unconventional kind.

Owner of the local flower shop, Daisy Pendleton is content with her small-town life, but she’d sure like someone to share it with. After several disastrous first dates, she’s about to give up—and then she finds a seemingly wonderful man online. Daisy gets to know TJ through a series of messages but finds herself spending more time with Pastor Jack outside of the church at the same time. What she doesn’t know is that her online prospect and Jack are one and the same.

Just as Daisy’s love life starts to look promising, a mysterious woman appears in town. Daisy is faced with a revelation about her family that turns her world upside down, and she looks to both TJ and Jack for help.

Jack must find a way to reveal himself as her online suitor without breaking her heart and losing her trust. As Daisy faces Jack’s betrayal, she’ll have to learn to extend grace to herself, her family, and the man she’s grown to love.

November, 2018

Tell Her No Lies by Kelly Irvin

As children, Nina Fischer and her sister were plucked from foster care in Florida and brought to Texas by a wealthy uncle they’d never met after their mother went to prison for selling drugs. Now, as an adult, Nina loves her adopted father and wants to please him, but she’s chosen her own career path as a photographer and poet—choices state district court judge Geoffrey Fischer can’t appreciate. When she finds him murdered in his study on a night they’re home alone, she’s the prime suspect and has to prove her innocence or face her own prison term. Is she her mother’s daughter, after all?

The two men in her life want to help, each for their own reasons. Can she trust her on-again, off-again boyfriend, attorney Rick Zavala, whose political aspirations seem more important than Nina’s tragic loss? Can she trust her friend, photographer Aaron McClure, or will he use their friendship to break the biggest news story of his career?

While cleaning out her father’s things, Nina discovers a box of old letters and photos, revealing the secrets her father had been concealing for so long. When her biological mother makes an appearance at Geoffrey Fischer’s funeral and asks to be welcomed back into her daughters’ lives, Nina is even more determined to find the truth about her past. Following the evidence leads her on a journey of discovery about her father’s shocking masquerade as a law-abiding, family-loving Christian. Unlocking these secrets could prove deadly, but it’s the only way Nina will ever be able to trust love again.

November, 2018

Leaving Lavender Tides by Colleen Coble

A Lavender Tides Novella

Shauna and Zach’s dream honeymoon—turned nightmare.

Having narrowly avoided tragedy in their hometown of Lavender Tides, Washington, Shauna and Zach Bannister are finally on a honeymoon cruise through the Hawaiian islands. Lost in the glow of their newfound love, they eagerly anticipate basking in the warmth of the lush tropics.

But soon the newlyweds begin receiving mysterious threats. After Zach survives two attempts on his life – staged as freak accidents – Shauna ominously receives flowers from a stranger.

The lovers become unwitting detectives in an urgent pursuit to discover the identity of their murderous stalker.

Set against the spectacular Hawaiian landscape, Colleen Coble’s lightning-paced novella is a haunting journey into a world as remote and hidden as it is beautiful, as spellbinding as it is wondrous.

November, 2018

Who I Am With You by Robin Lee Hatcher

Two broken hearts find God’s healing in the first novel of Robin Lee Hatcher’s new Legacy of Faith series.

Jessica was pregnant and facing divorce when her husband and daughter were killed in a car accident months ago. Left to endure the tragedy and her pregnancy alone, she pulls away from her friends and community instead of leaning on them for care and support. She feels far away from God, lost and floating without an anchor. Then at her grandmother’s funeral, Jessica receives a gift—her great-grandfather’s Bible—which she relegates to a shelf in her house to gather dust alongside the other remnants of her faith.

Ridley has suffered loss too. Disgraced in his job, his career seems to be over for good. He is both bitter and shamed. Adding insult to injury, his girlfriend of more than a year leaves at the first sign of trouble. Ridley retreats to a vacation property owned by his parents to lick his wounds and hide from the press. When he first arrives, he meets Jessica, his closest neighbor in this mountain community. But the last thing he wants is to become involved with her or anyone else in Hope Springs. All he wants is to be left alone.

But God doesn’t intend to let Ridley and Jessica go on hiding from life, even at its most difficult. Thumbing through the Bible later, seeing notes in both pencil and ink, Jessica begins a journey back to faith and wholeness. And the broken roads they have followed bring Jessica and Ridley to each other as well.

December, 2018

With This Pledge by Tamera Alexander

The Carnton Series #1

On the night of November 30, 1864, a brutal battle in Franklin, Tennessee, all but decimates the Confederacy and nearly kills Captain Roland Ward Jones. A decorated Mississippi sharpshooter, Jones has a vision on the battlefield and, despite the severity of his wounds, believes his life will be spared. But a life without his leg, he can’t abide. He compels Elizabeth “Lizzie” Clouston—governess to the McGavock family at the Carnton mansion—to intervene should the surgeon decide to amputate. True to her word, Lizzie speaks on his behalf and saves not only the captain’s leg but also his life.

When a fourteen-year-old soldier dies in Lizzie’s arms that night, the boy’s final words, whispered with urgency, demand that Lizzie deliver them to their intended recipient. But all she has is the boy’s first name. And, as she soon discovers, there’s no record of him ever having enlisted. How can she set out alone across a land so divided by war and hatred to honor her pledge? Even more, does she dare accept Captain Jones’s offer to accompany her? As he coalesces at Carnton, romance has blossomed between him and Lizzie—a woman already betrothed to a man she does not love.

From the pages of history and the personal accounts of those who endured the Battle of Franklin, Tamera Alexander weaves the real-life love letters between Captain Roland Ward Jones and Elizabeth Clouston into a story of unlikely romance first kindled amid the shadows of war.

January, 2019

In the Shadow of Croft Towers by Abigail Wilson

Orphaned Sybil Delafield jumps at the opportunity for a position at the mysterious Croft Towers. She believes she was hired to act as companion to a dying woman, but a highway robbery and a hostile welcome from the Chalcroft family cause her to wonder if she was actually hired to help someone spy for France.

An unsolved murder adds intrigue to this already secretive family, and Sybil recognizes Mrs. Chalcroft’s handsome grandson as one of the infamous highwaymen who robbed her. Sybil must determine if this man’s charming smile and earnest eyes speak the truth or if he is simply using her like others in the house. Everyone seems to have something to hide, and Sybil must decide who to trust while also coming to terms with the truth about her own past.

January, 2019

Secrets at Cedar Cabin by Colleen Coble

Lavender Tides #3

Six months after her wedding, Bailey Fleming discovers she wasn’t really married to Kyle Bearcroft. He’s already married to another woman and seems to be involved in a shadowy underworld. Kyle tries to pay her off by putting a cabin located in Lavender Tides, Washington, in her name. She doesn’t plan to accept his bribe but ends up fleeing there after her mother is found murdered and an attempt is made on her life too. Bailey was hoping for a quiet place to figure out who is after her, but she finds the cabin filled with secrets and even more danger.

FBI agent Joe Phoenix has been watching Cedar Cabin in hopes of bringing down a trafficking ring, one he believes has taken his younger sister. He doesn’t know what to make of Bailey’s sudden appearance. Is she part of the trafficking ring or someone he needs to protect? When the danger at Cedar Cabin increases, they have to join forces to save Bailey from the man who would do anything to keep a past murder buried, and to expose a trafficking ring that has enslaved young women, including Joe’s sister.

The investigation is further complicated when Bailey discovers nothing in her life is as it seems—not even her own identity. Everything points back to an earthquake on the day she was born, but why? With lies coming at her from every direction, can she trust anyone, even Joe?

January, 2019