Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Dining with Joy by Rachel Hauck

Dining with Joy
Book Description from Rachel Hauck. Advanced reader copy received from the author. All thoughts about this book come from my own head! 


Joy Ballard has a secret: she's a cooking show host who can't really cook.


When her South Carolina-based cooking show, Dining With Joy, is picked up by a major network, Joy Ballard's world heats up like a low country boil.


Joy needs help. Then she meets chef Luke Davis who moved to Beaufort after losing his Manhattan restaurant. A cook at the Frogmore Cafe, he's paying debts and longing to regain his reputation in the elite foodie world.


Luke and Joy mix like oil and water...until Joy is exposed on national television. With her career and his reputation both under fire, they'll have to work together to fix the mess. Is it possible that they can learn to feast on God's love and dine with joy?


My Thoughts:


Dining With Joy is the third in Rachel's Low Country series. The first two being, Sweet Caroline and Love Starts With Elle. First of all, I have to comment on the covers of all three of these books. They are very attractive and creative! I love them! I have older cover versions of the first two and may have to go get the newer versions just so I have all three matching books, :-) 


Ok, enough about the cover, you want to know about the insides! It's kinda like a Boston Creme Donut...yummy looking on the outside and totally delicious on the inside. 


The blurb "cooking show host who can't cook" should draw anybody to want to read this book. Who doesn't love a great dilemma like that?! Imagine if Rachel Ray didn't actually know how to cook but nobody knew her little secret??? Man, that would be intense and hilarious!


And then there is the dynamic relationship between Joy and Luke. It's kinda like watching a cat and mouse game. Except the cat and mouse have to try and work together because they are both stuck in the maze together.


And then as we all know, secrets always come out some way, some how. And Joy's secret is exposed! What will she do??? Does she throw in the towel? Pick up a copy of Dining With Joy and find out!!! Dining with Joy (A Lowcountry Romance)


GIVEAWAY:
I will be giving a new, autographed copy of Dining With Joy to one lucky winner who leaves a comment on this post. Don't forget to leave an email addy so I can contact you if you win! The giveaway ends November 19. I would love to have this book mailed out to the winner just in time for Thanksgiving. What a great way to relax Thanksgiving weekend but to have a great book to read! And I assure you, this is a great book! 


Rachel just posted a video promo for her book on her facebook fan page. Check out Rachel's story behind her next best-selling book here!

Book Review: Lonestar Secrets by Colleen Coble

Book Description from the back of the book:
Five years ago, Shannon Astor left the beautiful high-mountain country of West Texas as a single mother. she was desperate for a fresh start...and a way to keep the secrets of her past buried. It almost worked.

Until a chance to make a better life for her daughter leads her right back home. To the very place of the past betrayals.

But it also leads Shannon to horse-trainer Jack MacGowan -- her handsome high-school nemesis, now a widowed father. His daughter looks so startlingly like her own that shannon can't help but question the circumstances surrounding her daughter's birth. Wary of each other's intentions, Shannon and Jack reluctantly join forces to untangle a deep mystery that swirls around Shannon's parents, a lost Spanish treasure, and a legendary black stallion.

If Shannon can learn to entrust her secrets to the man falling in love with her, the truth just might set her free.

My Thoughts:
Colleen Coble writes intrigue and mystery into the genre of Christian Romance Fiction that makes her books stand out from many of the rest. I actually read this book in one sitting on a lazy Saturday evening. This means that it kept my interest from start to finish. That is always a good sign in a book. I did feel, however, that some of the developments in the characters relationships and storyline were slightly unbelievable, but all-in-all, it was a good mystery and story. This book is the second in the series and I enjoyed reading the main characters from the first book as secondary characters in this one. Sometimes when a book ends, you want to keep reading about the lives of the characters and its a bit sad when a good story ends. I enjoyed seeing how Rick and Allie from the first book, Lonestar Sanctuary, were now living their lives. You can pick up a copy of Colleen's book here. Make sure and read the whole series!

I also just finished reading Dining with Joy by Rachel Hauck and will be posting my review of another great read by Rachel soon! It's about a cooking show host who can't cook!!! Imagine the dilemma! Look for it! 







I am getting ready to start reading, Drift, by Sharon Carter Rogers. This is a mystery, suspense novel. I'm looking forward to changing it up in my reading with this book.

A Currier and Ives Christmas

A few days ago, I was hunting around my mother's house looking for a book to read. I was in a specific reading mood and nothing I found satisfied my "taste buds." I made my way out into the garage where my mother had a plastic bin of books she had taken off her bookshelf when they moved into the house.

Digging through the books, I came across A Currier and Ives Christmas: Four Stories of Love Come to Life from the Canvas of Classic Christmas Art. Since its the Christmas season, I thought I would go ahead and read it.

The compilation of short stories are written by Lynn A Coleman, JoAnn A Grote, DiAnn Mills, and Deborah Raney.

Later that night, I got in bed and opened the book to the first page of the first story. I discovered it was autographed by the author, Lynn A Coleman and addressed to my grandmother, Carolyn. Before beginning to read, I lay in bed remembering my grandmother. She passed away last summer unexpectedly. I was unable to see her before she died. Christmas just won't ever be the same without her. For as long as I can remember, she has spent a few weeks with us every Christmas. She and I baked Christmas cookies, went shopping and had lots of laughs. The memories painted themselves in my mind just like the lithographic prints produced by Currier and Ives in the 1800s.

Here's my Grandmom...
Carolyn Cornelia-Cole Evans Stebbins

Rachel Hauck's Facebook Birthday Party...

Tonight, award-winning, best-selling author, Rachel Hauck hosted a Facebook birthday party for her birthday on her Fan Page. Attendees posted comments on the wall and "chatted" about their best and worst birthday party memories, favorite Christmas movie and song, answered trivia questions about Rachel and won prizes. Rachel gave away copies of her books, gift cards, CDs by Sara Evans, country music recording artist and co-author with Rachel on her upcoming book, The Sweet by and By. It was a really cool and innovative idea!


All of Rachel Hauck's books are a must-read. She writes the everyday life of her characters and mirrors so well life's ups and downs that we all face each day. At times you want to laugh and cry with each character in their circumstance. And even in the character's chaos, Rachel hits home with just the right truth about life that makes you realize that the ups AND the downs are all worth living.

I have read all her books multiple times and am torn as to which one is my all-time favorite. I really like Georgia on her Mind and Love Starts with Elle, a RITA award finalist.


Oh, and did i mention I know Rachel personally! She is one of my biggest heroes in life! ;-)


For more information on Rachel Hauck visit her webpage at www.rachelhauck.com