Sally Bradley…discover more & a giveaway

sally-bradley-author

 

Discover more about

Sally Bradley 

and her contemporary romance

Kept

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A book character that sticks in my mind is… Elisa Murphy from Bodie Thoene’s Vienna Prelude. She was a talented, beautiful Jewish woman pretending to be non-Jewish in pre-WWII Germany. I read that series as a teen/college student, and the things she and the others in the series did to protect people amazed me. I’ve spent many hours reading—and rereading—Elisa’s story.

The last book that made me cry was… Dear Mr. Knightley. For those of you who’ve read it in paperback, page 279. Oh. My. I was so surprised and so loved the character that I just lost it at the events on that page. Absolutely awesome.

The last book that made me laugh out loud was… ironically, it’d have to be Ronie Kendig’s Hawk. It’s not a funny book, but she does work some humor in there. I wish I could remember what it was, but I remember chuckling a time or two.

I’m completely immersed in their storytelling, whenever I read a book by… Lori Benton. Love the rich details of her story worlds, her characters, everything.

The first person who encouraged me to pursue my writing was… my mom! I was writing a story as a nine-year-old, and she encouraged me to finish it. So I scribbled off some dumb ending, and it bugged me forever. Learned a lot there!

If I wasn’t a writer, I would be… my daughter likes to ask me this question, and it’s so difficult to answer because I have always wanted to write fiction. I guess I’d say an editor so I could keep reading books.

I write stories because… it’s how I think and learn. Stories move me, make me consider and re-evaluate. I do believe God wired me to write fiction, and I a much better person in every aspect when I’m writing.

KeptKept

Life has taught Miska Tomlinson that there are no honorable men. Her womanizing brothers, her absentee father, and Mark, the married baseball player who claims to love her—all have proven undependable. But Miska has life under control. She runs her editing business from her luxury condo, stays fit with daily jogs along Chicago’s lakefront, and in her free time blogs anonymously about life as a kept woman.

Enter new neighbor Dillan Foster. Between his unexpected friendship and her father’s sudden reappearance, Miska loses control of her orderly life. Her relationship with Mark deteriorates, and Miska can’t help comparing him to Dillan. His religious views are so foreign, yet the way he treats her is something she’s longed for. But Dillan discovers exactly who she is and what she has done. Too late she finds herself longing for a man who is determined to never look her way again.

When her blog receives unexpected national press, Miska realizes her anonymity was an illusion. Caught in a scandal about to break across the nation, Miska wonders if the God Dillan talks about would bother with a woman like her—a woman who’s gone too far and done too much.

My story can be described by these 5 adjectives… real, fast-paced, dramatic, page turner, and hopeful.

My main character is… an exotic beauty who doesn’t know the first thing about love but plenty about lust. I guess you could say she’s the tender-hearted fallen woman. She’s just like most of us—wanting real love but fighting for it on her own terms, messing up over and over, and overwhelmed with the fallout. Secretly she longs for a love she doesn’t even think is real.

My main character resembles…. my heroine resembles a more natural Kim Kardashian from a few years back.

My story’s spiritual theme is… whether God can truly love us after all the sin we’ve committed. Does there come a point where He’s just done with us?

Kept came about because… I was meeting more and more Christian women who’d come from promiscuous pasts. And guilt was crushing some of them.

I knew some Christian readers would struggle with the subject matter but I felt compelled to write this story because… there needed to be hope for those who hadn’t come from a lily-white past. And with how American society is changing, those people are becoming the majority. As Christians, we need to face what it’s like for someone like my heroine to become a Christian, be overwhelmed by their sin, and try to fit in with the “good” people at church—the ones who are only “good” at hiding their own sins.

I’ve received amazing feedback from readers, like… I’ve been so amazed, Rel! There’ve been comparisons to Redeeming Love. I’ve heard from someone who was challenged to find a church near them and start going. A number of Amazon reviewers said it made them examine how they viewed the unsaved around them and reminded them to offer God’s hope to everyone. That it’s funny, real, poignant, and unforgettable—all in one review! That the characters were honest, fresh, and compelling. And how could I forget the many—many!—who’ve said they lost hours of sleep and could not stop reading. Had no idea how happy that would make me!

My hope for this book is… that it gives hurting women freedom from guilt and renews their relationship with Christ.lakehouse

The most recent movie or tv show I loved was… I’m not a big TV or movie watcher, but I do love the movie The Lake House. It’s a time-travel romance, but they’re only two years apart. So you’re waiting for them to meet and finally get together.

The story I’m currently working on is… Called Shelf Life. It’s about a newly-saved woman who found Christ after the death of her premature daughter. So while her new faith provides hope and healing in that aspect of her life, it’s tearing her already fragile marriage apart. On top of that, her husband—an unexpectedly out-of-work major league baseball closer—has attracted death threats, and he doesn’t seem to care that his family is in danger. The tag line for the book is What’s the shelf life of a trophy wife?

You may not know this about me, but I… have a screw inside me. Explains a lot, doesn’t it? 🙂

I might go all fan girl if I met… Francine Rivers! Love her.

If I could travel back in time, I’d go to… I think the eighteen hundreds in England. The older I get, the more British history fascinates me.

I get lost in the music when I listen to… I’m not a big music listener! This is tough. I don’t listen to music often because I can’t ever tune it out and get work done. My favorite song right now is O Great God. I think of it as a modern-day Amazing Grace, and the lyrics are so moving and fit incredibly well with Kept.

A long held dream of mine is… to have my fiction reach and affect millions of readers!

Thank you, Sally! Thank you, Rel!

Relz Reviewz Extras
Character spotlight on Miska & Dillan
Review of Kept
Visit Sally’s website and blog
Buy at Amazon: Kept

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20 Responses to Sally Bradley…discover more & a giveaway

  1. I would actually say infidelity and perhaps just a more realistic take on relationships in general and all of the complexities there. Kept is a book that I keep hearing more and more about! Definitely on my wishlist!

  2. i was super intrigued by this book and sally’s great writing. what i ESPECIALLY loved was that chicago became a character in its own right. it is one of my favourite US cities and i loved re-visiting it with Miska and Dillan

  3. I couldn’t put this book down, I was loaned a copy on Kindle and I didn’t get to finish it. But I loved it from Start to where I stopped. Miska reminded me so much about someone I know, her story was so similar to this person. Her finding her way through her mess reminded me that I needed to find my way through this mess. Dillan reminds of how we as Christians can be towards sinners. I would recommend that all Christians read this book, everyone should. The romance the mystery, the passion and the details. I still cry when I replay the story in my mind. I would a copy for my daughters to read, all we like sheep have gone astray. Thank you Sally!

  4. I MUST read this book. Like many of the readers here, I’ve been hearing a lot about it. I will say to answer the question that I would simply like more realistic Christian fiction. Thanks for the giveaway!

  5. Well, I absolutely loved Kept. It is one of my all time favorite books. Sally did an excellent job of keeping the book fast paced and delivered a wonderful message of God’s redeeming love. I am on pins and needles to read the next book by this amazing writer.

  6. I like it when author’s tackle real life issues that can be hard to face. Eating disorders and abortion are big ones I’d love to see addressed.

  7. I have to read this! I think we need a lot more stories about real life issues.

  8. Hmm, I have a hard time with books where one of the main characters, a Christian, lost a loved one and has decided never to love again due to the pain. And then the entire book is them resisting the new love interest. Or at least, I have an issue with it because they never seem to realize what a wrong attitude that is for a Christian to have. I can understand, especially with loosing a child, how difficult it can be and can see it shaking a person’s faith. But it’s something that needs to be prayed over and worked out. Instead I tend to see the wrong thinking slowly shoved aside as they can’t resist the new person and I don’t think they ever work out the core issue with the Lord so if they lose another person, the cycle may start all over.

  9. Kept sounds like a fantastic book. I like books that deal with difficult subjects that make us think and grow in our faith. As for a topic I’d like to see in a book, perhaps something to do with immigration. That seems to be such a divisive topic. What should our response be as Christians? I don’t see one clear-cut answer. Thanks for the chance to win Kept.

  10. I’m so looking forward to reading Kept. I keep hearing such amazing reviews and, in my book, if Rel says it’s a must-read then it is. Don’t put me in the drawing, as soon as I get some reading space I’ll be buying it 🙂

  11. This sounds like a wonderful read. God’s gift of grace covers all Sins and transgressions. Thanks for this giveaway.
    Connie
    cps1950@gmail.com

  12. i look forward to reading this book. 🙂

    • What new topic/issue would you like to see dealt with in a Christian novel? how to keep on keeping on when a son wants nothing to do with his family due to his wife’s wishes.

  13. Kept sounds like such an interesting book with a promising premise.

    What issue, I would like to read about. Hmm, abortion. I’ve just read an article, where a friend of mine arguments amazingly against abortion. I would love to see it dealt just as amazingly in a novel.

  14. I think there are a lot of though issues and every single one of them deserve to be talked about. Infidelity, abuse, alcoholism, drug use, rape, abortion, rejection, harassment… These are all hard to deal with and talk about, but we Christian are just as confronted with them as anyone else and books are a great way to bring those subjects up and discuss about them.

  15. I like the spiritual theme of this story. We all have things in our past which we would like to forget, and God’s mercy and grace are enough to wipe our sins away. His love for us is greater than we could ever imagine.

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