Positive Grace by Deb Haggerty

Deb’s Dozen: Destitute widow craves acceptance; Successful rancher craves her love. Will romance win?

I love Loree Lough books! I know when I start to read the book there will be a happy ending, but there will be twists and turns along the way to that ending. Currency of the Heart: Secrets on Sterling Street, is such a story.

Shaina Sterling has been left destitute by a philandering and gambling husband, who has been killed. Before his death, Shaina was part of society—apparently rich and well-to-do. Now she has been forced to sell off her precious belongings and let her help go to keep up even the slightest pretense and to preserve the legacy of her late husband’s name.

Sloan Remington is a successful rancher and entrepreneur, who seems to know everything there is to know about Shaina and loves her from a distance. He keeps a close eye on her status because of a promise to her husband as he was dying to always watch out for her.

One snowy, bitterly cold night, Sloan sees Shaina struggling to get back home. He aids her but convinces her to have dinner with him first. He is aware she has no money and little food. When they leave, the weather is even worse than before; he is glad he’s insisted on walking her home. They arrive at Sterling Hall only to find …. a disaster of epic proportions.

What will happen to Shaina? Will she humble her pride enough to accept help? Can Sloan convince Shaina to accept his help and yet stay his distance. You’ll want to read Currency of the Heart to find out.

Loree has once again created complex, believable characters who captivate and charm the reader. Both Shaina and Sloan as well as the secondary characters you can imagine living just down the street (if you lived in the 1800s). They’re all people you would like as friends. Thanks for another few hours of pleasurable reading, Loree! Four Stars!

Loree Lough is a prolific writer who has nearly five million of her books in print. In March 2014, she added her one-hundredth book to her shelf. Congrats, Loree! She shares her hard-earned wisdom about writing and the business of writing at conferences all over the country. She splits her time between their tiny home outside Baltimore and their even tinier cabin in the Allegheny Mountains. She shares her life with her real-life hero, Larry, who silently puts up with the folderol of a writer’s life with few complaints. Visit Loree at www.LoreeLough.com.

My thanks to Whittaker House for providing me a copy of Currency of the Heart in exchange for my unbiased review. (Okay, slightly biased because I love Loree’s writing!)

Deb’s Dozen: The hunter becomes the hunted—the game is ultimately life or death

Hearing a loud explosion, Sheriff Tom tells his wife and son to stay put and heads to town to investigate. His discovery is deadly.

Four friends are dropped into the far north woods to set up camp. They hope the respite from their everyday lives will provide both healing and camaraderie. David, Terry, Phil, and Hutch each bear their own torments and burdens, but as life-long friends hope this trip will bring them closer again and ease the pain of their normal lives.

Early one morning, Hutch is up and out to track and kill an elk with bow and arrow. For him, the tracking and thrill of the hunt, the endless beauty of the environment, are as pleasurable as a successful hunt. He discovers a large, magnificent elk and begins the chase. Strategy and stealth are equally important. His chase is successful, and he notches the arrow to his bowstring, aims, and just at the moment of release … the elk disintegrates before his eyes, his arrow landing in a pile of rubble and elk debris. Stunned, Hutch looks around and sees a Hummer approach and disgorge a group of people. One spies the arrow, looks down the apparent flight path and sees Hutch—eye to eye. Hutch turns to flee—in that one instant the hunter is turned from the one hunting to the one being hunted.

So begins Deadfall, a dark and fascinating tale by Robert Liparulo. The ultimate matchup of good and evil, of strategy and strength versus desire and death. Of courage and conviction against a sense of privilege and power. Bob leads us on the chase by presenting first one side and then the other of what is a very deadly game. With excellent writing and a keen sense of suspense, Bob sets up a terror-filled saga that had me turning the pages despite myself. The fiction is dark and filled with action. For some, the story will be too dark, but for those who love twists and turns and suspense, this book fills the bill. I rate Deadfall: A John Hutchinson Novel five stars.

Bob Liparulo is a very giving guy—I say that because he recently served as faculty at the Writer to Writer Conference in Hershey, PA, and spent three hours letting authors ask him questions about writing and technique and how he got started and why he writes the types of books he does. Someone asked stating the books are dark and violent, so how could he call them Christian books? Bob answered simply, “I’m a Christian. I would never go against my Lord and Savior in anything I do. Therefore, my books are Christian books. Bob is a very prolific writer of magazine articles and books. He and his wife live in Colorado.