The Indebted Earl by Erica Vetsch {book review}

Today's article is a bit lengthy. Hang in there with me, folks. There's loads of good stuff heading your way... starting now!

Recently, I had the great privilege of reading The Indebted Earl by Erica Vetsch. Just as I suspected, it helped me crack right through that silly reading slump I stumbled into a couple of weeks ago. Here are my thoughts on this pearl of a book.

{Book Review}

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book. These are my honest thoughts.

What a fantastic finale! I adored this entire series, and each book was better than the previous one. The series built beautifully and felt very connected, which I completely love about series books.

The plethora of naval, water, and sailing analogies helped me feel immersed in Captain Charles Wyvern’s world. They added richness and depth to the atmosphere. I liked that the story began in Portugal. That’s a country I don’t see featured much in Christian fiction, so it was a delight to spend a chapter or so there. The other setting of England really popped to life through the description throughout the book.

From beginning to end, this story was complex. It was twisty with loads of surprises along the way. I especially enjoyed the children’s personalities. They bumped against each other as they were all so different, yet there was a clear thread of love keeping them tethered to one another despite what their words declared at times. This little makeshift family was charming, and I was beyond happy to spend plenty of hours alongside them.

Happy sigh, y’all. This book was spectacular. It was a superb finale. I can hardly wait to see which series will be next up for Mrs. Erica Vetsch. I adore her writing and highly recommend it.

Anything Release Tour + My Publishing Debut!

Friends, I'm just going to jump right in with the best news.

I'm finally getting published!!!

The King's Daughters' Writing Camp (KDWC) is putting out a collection of short stories and poems, and one of my short stories -- which has not yet been posted here on Writing to Inspire -- is going to be in it.

The collection is called Anything, and here's why:

A couple of camp sessions ago, several of the ladies in camp were recommending "anything" by this author or that author, meaning any of their published books. Someone in the group (and I really don't remember who) suggested that we all write Anything stories -- stories called Anything.

So a baker's dozen of us did!

Anything will be published this month -- on April 26, 2021. It will be available on Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and in paperback.

I can hardly wait for you to meet Sarah Mae and her rambunctious kids in my story, entitled Any Thing. Yep, my title is slightly different than the other twelve, in that mine is two words instead of one. I can't share the reason without spoiling the story, but let's just say there's a very specific and whimsical reason for the two-word title.

Stay tuned here on Writing to Inspire for future updates -- including some quote graphics! -- on my Any Thing story.

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Now for the other news. I am pulling together a release tour for Anything, and you're invited! If you have a blog or social media accounts, the team and I would love to have you join us in celebration of KDWC's debut story collection. Just fill out the following form and let us know how you'll be able to help spread the word and get a buzz going for our debut release.

The Indebted Earl by Erica Vetsch {giveaway}

The Indebted Earl by Erica Vetsch is one of my most anticipated books of 2021. I feel terrible that I've been ill lately (sinus and ear infections) that have launched me into a huge reading slump right when I wanted to enjoy this little beauty.

I am determined to crack out of the slump, and The Indebted Earl is bound to be the book to do it. The first two books in the Serendipity & Secrets trilogy were spectacular and right up my alley, so I've got really high hopes for this story.

Be on the lookout for my review later this week, right here on Writing to Inspire.

I've got a jam-packed article for you today, and there's going to be some spill-over. I was given so many great tidbits for this blog tour! I just want to use it all. There's a neat Q&A that I'm going to post with my review later in the week. Be sure to come back for that. As for today's article, we've got a really great interview from author Erica Vetsch -- and it includes what's coming up next after The Indebted Earl.

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Our Good and Sovereign God Works in Mysterious Ways

Erica Vetsch offers readers a marriage-of-convenience story that is sure to delight.

Grand Rapids, MI — Erica Vetsch brings her much beloved Serendipity & Secrets series to a close with the highly anticipated release of The Indebted Earl (Kregel Publications/March 23, 2021/ISBN: 9780825446191/$15.99). This latest installment tells the story of Lady Sophia Haverly, the free-spirited and energetic younger sister of Marcus Haverly readers will remember from The Gentleman Spy, and Captain Charles Wyvern, a longtime naval officer trying to find his footing on dry land.

Facing the Dawn by Cynthia Ruchti {book review}

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book. These are my honest thoughts.

This book was good, perhaps great, but it wasn’t a good fit for me.

The first half was so stuffed with sarcasm that I really struggled to feel connected with it at all. I had difficulty feeling bad for Mara when things went completely sideways on her, simply because she wasn’t a very likable or relatable character to me through the entire first half. (I did learn to like her better as things progressed into the second half, thankfully.)

Then, here trots the second half, and I’m completely blown away.

That’s what I expect from a Ruchti novel: to be emotionally moved and completely blown away. She succeeded once again, in the second half of the story.

Ashlee and Sol were amazing from beginning to end, and they were the ones who kept me interested when the Jacobs family didn’t. I did like the growth each of the Jacobses showed in the second half of the story. That was really well done and gave me great hope for their next chapter after the finale of this particular glimpse into their lives.

Spring Cleaning + Camp Prep {a personal invitation}

It may not yet be spring, and I may not typically do spring cleaning, but this year feels like I am. In February, my water pipes froze and then burst in the sub-zero temperatures north Texas experienced. I ended up having to use a ton of blankets, comforters, and towels to sop up the water that spilled into my house before my dad got the water turned off. Since I didn't have working water for almost two weeks, I fell behind on washing dishes and other water-related chores.

Now that my pipes have been fixed (thanks, Daddy!), my spring cleaning this year is catching up on laundry and washing dishes.

There's a bit more cleaning going on around here, and some reorganizing too, but the water-based chores are definitely top priorities this season.

In other news, I'm also getting prepared for writing camp. The next session of King's Daughters' Writing Camp (KDWC) -- a writing camp for Christian ladies -- takes place in April. This month I'm outlining, doing a bit of preliminary research, and dipping my toes into several different stories I've got in the works. Since I'm dealing with post-Wuhan Virus short-term memory loss, my creativity is struggling more than I'd like. So I'm trying to figure out how to beat that even as memory issues plague me at the moment. The good news is that I've found pockets of inspiration in the last week or so. The writing sessions of 150; 300; and 500 words (averages) have added up to over 5,000 words already this month. I'm shocked by that number, because it's felt like such a huge fight to get each sentence onto the page. While that number is super low for my normal monthly pace, it's a huge milestone for me with my current memory situation.

I'm celebrating with ice cream tonight, because fighting my way to this milestone has felt like climbing Mount Everest.

Would you like to join me in writing camp next month?

At Her Fingertips by Kellyn Roth {Cover Reveal}

It's my pleasure to share with you the cover of a book I will be editing in late spring.

Author Kellyn Roth has been a client of mine for a while now (and a friend several years longer), and working with her is a complete joy. So when she opened up an opportunity to participate on her cover reveal team, I couldn't resist.

Before we get to the big reveal, there are a few other things you need to know.

Title: At Her Fingertips

Author: Kellyn Roth

Series: The Chronicles of Alice and Ivy, Book #3

Release Date: July 17th, 2021

Pre-Order At Her Fingertips

One easy thing that will help Miss Roth is to add the book to your Goodreads want-to-read shelf as well as any appropriate Listopia lists (such as "Most-Anticipated Christian Fiction 2021" or "Best Historical Christian Fiction"). Here's the book's page on Goodreads, if you're of a mind to do either of the above. Before you decide...

When Twilight Breaks by Sarah Sundin {book review}

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book. These are my honest thoughts.

This book would have been guzzled in a scant number of days if I hadn’t had broken water pipes to deal with in my house.

What a zinger! I adored this story overall. Once again, Mrs. Sarah Sundin melded history with fiction in a seamless way that brought the past to life for me. Her treatment of a female reporter when men ruled the newspaper business was superb. It touched on women’s rights issues yet respected the men in the book at the same time. That’s a delicate touch on a tough subject, if you ask me.

Evelyn Brand was a heroine I could root for. She was spunky and brave, but she had flaws and fears that sometimes got in her way. As a reporter, she knew her stuff and dared to be different. She was courage on display.