Litfuse Group: "Hidden in the Heart" by Catherine West Book Review (and an upcoming giveaway)

Catherine West is celebrating with the Hidden in the Heart Kindle Fire Giveaway! Enter today.

One winner will receive:

• A brand new Kindle Fire
• A copy of Hidden in the Heart and Yesterday's Tomorrow by Catherine West

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on April 21st. Winner will be announced on 4/23/13 at Catherine's blog.

Tell your friends via FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning.

Everything Claire wants seems to be beyond her reach…

After losing her mother to cancer and suffering a miscarriage soon after, Claire Ferguson numbs the pain with alcohol and pills, and wonders if her own life is worth living.

Adopted at birth, Claire is convinced she has some unknown genetic flaw that may have been the cause of her miscarriage. She must find a way to deal with the guilt she harbors. But exoneration will come with a price. With her marriage in trouble and her father refusing to answer any questions about her adoption, Claire begins the search for her birth mother. For the first time in her life, she really wants to know where she came from. But what if the woman who gave her life doesn’t want to be found?

Hidden in the Heart has been nominated for a 2013 Grace Award and is on the long list for an INSPY award.

Purchase a copy here.

Catherine West is an award-winning author who writes stories of hope and healing from her island home in Bermuda. Her first novel, "Yesterday’s Tomorrow", won the INSPY for Romance, a Silver Medal in the Reader’s Favorite Awards, and was a finalist in the Grace Awards. Catherine’s second novel, "Hidden in the Heart", was also a finalist for a Grace Award. When she’s not at the computer working on her next story, you can find her taking her Border Collie for long walks or tending to her roses and orchids. She and her husband have two college-aged children.

Follow the entire tour.

Hidden in the Heart - A Novel by Catherine West
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I liked this book almost from the beginning, and I loved it even more as I continued to read.  I was intrigued to see that the author herself was adopted which made the message of the book even more impacting.  This is a Christian book with a strong, underlying message that never comes across as being "preachy."  There is no profanity nor sex scenes in it (yes, that should be standard for Christian books, but it is not always).

One thing the author was able to do that really stood out was the fact that this was not a happy-go-lucky Christian book that followed a formula.  I get really tired of "sappy" books like that.  I was glad to see bad things happening (because it made it more realistic--I am not a masochist.), and I appreciated the fact that not all characters readily came to faith.  In addition to that, not all wee on the same spiritual plane.  All the characters seemed "real," and it made it so much easier to connect with the story.

I have a confession.  Claire was an incredible source of irritation to me throughout most of the book.  I found myself just wanting her to go away.  I had a hard time feeling any sympathy for her.  This makes her journey even more fascinating because I also found myself shedding tears over her later on in the book.  While there was never any real doubt about the end of the book, this book is filled with complexity of emotions and story.  It should easily keep your attention until the end.

I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.  I was not financially compensated, and all opinions are 100 percent mine.

View all my reviews

"Open Adoption, Open Heart" by Russell Elkins Blog Tour (ends 12/23) WW

Tour Schedule

Open Adoption, Open Heart

The world of adoption has changed dramatically over the past twenty years. No longer do biological parents have to say goodbye to their child forever. They now have more options when deciding the type of adoption to pursue, such as open adoption. Open adoption creates the opportunity for a special relationship between biological parents, the adoptive parents, and the child.

 Open Adoption, Open Heart is an inspiring and true story, which takes the reader deeper into the feelings and emotions experienced by adoptive parents. As you read this incredible story, you will experience the joys, difficulties, and amazing victories facing adoptive couples. Russell and his wife, Jammie, invite you to share in their inspiring and heartwarming journey.

Purchase

Amazon * Author's Website
 Amazon Kindle * Barnes & Noble

Book Trailer:




From the Author: While my book's primary audience was thought to be those hoping to adopt, close to half of the books I've sold are simply people who want to read about our story and how adoption is different now than it used to be- and they have not adopted nor do they plan to adopt.

About the Author:

Russell Elkins was born on Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C., in the fall of 1977. Along with his five siblings, he and his military family moved around a lot, living in eight different houses by the time he left for college at age 17. Although his family movedaway from Fallon, Nevada, just a few months after he moved out, he still considers that little oasis in the desert to be his childhood hometown. He and his family now live in the Boise, Idaho area.

Russell has always been a family man at heart, looking forward to the day when he could be a husband and a father. It took him a little while, but eventually his eyes locked onto a beautiful blonde, and he has never looked away. Russell and Jammie were married in 2004. Years of struggling with infertility left Russell and Jammie with a decision to make and their lives changed dramatically when they decided to adopt.

Russell and Jammie have adopted two beautiful children, Ira and Hazel, and have embraced their role as parents through open adoption. Both are actively engaged in the adoption community by communicating through social media, taking part in discussion panels, and writing songs about adoption. Russell also writes a weekly post for Adoption.com and contributes regularly to Adoption Voices Magazine.

Links

Website * Facebook

Excerpt

The relationship between birth parents and adoptive parents is not a natural one. It’s not instilled inside us as human beings to naturally want to share parenthood with someone else. What felt natural was to tell ourselves we were going to be this child’s parents, not someone else, even if someone else was going to be the one giving birth. It was natural for us to feel a little bit of competition for parenthood.

We had a lot of emotional and difficult times coming our way, and getting to know the biological mother on such a personal level over those she stayed in our home really helped us to see her as the beautiful girl she was rather than as competition. She was someone we truly came to love, and not just because she was giving us the child she had been carrying for so many months, but because we knew her as a person and we loved her as our own. The pull for us to compete for that role of parenthood was always overshadowed by our love for her, and we will always be grateful for that.

Top 10 Lists from the Author

Top 10 foods to eat

10 Reeses Peaunut Butter Cups

9 Popcorn

8 A hot dog at the ballpark

7 Salmon and potatoes

6 My wife makes the best taco soup

5 Pupusas- from El Salvador, cheese or other things fried inside a thick corn tortilla

4 Lasagne

3 Horchata (a Mexican rice drink)

2 Who doesn't love a great pizza

1 Guatemalan Tamales (every Hispanic culture has their own type of tamale)

Top 10 favorite childhood books

10 Russell the Sheep

9 The Hardy Boys

8 Where the Sidewalk Ends

7 If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

6 One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

5 Freaky Friday

4 Green Eggs and Ham

3 The Bernstain Bears (all of them)

2 Encyclopedia Brown (kid who used to help his detective dad solve crime)

1 Where the Wild Things Are

Top 10 favorite vacation spots

10 Anywhere I have never been before

9 Lake Tahoe (ice cold swimming there, though)

8 Cabin in the Sierra Nevada Mountains

7 Mexico (real Mexico, not tourist places)

6 Spain (haven't been, but that's where I most want to go)

5 Fallon, Nevada (little town where I grew up)

4 Philadelphia (visiting my brother)

3 Washington DC (love the museums there)

2 Oakland (to see the Oakland A's play)

1 Guatemala. Definitely Guatemala #1

Tour Giveaway:
$25 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash from Author Russell Elkins
Ends 12/23/12
Open to anyone who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent's permission. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Blog Tour Schedule: http://iamareadernotawriter.blogspot.com/2012/10/open-heart-open-adoption-blog-tour.html