REVIEW WEDNESDAY

 Good morning, readers.

I have a treat for you today.

I had the pleasure of visiting with the author, Amy Lillard, in June at the Between The Pages conference. Sweet gal and it shows in her writing.

I read one of her most recent Amish romance books, One More Time For Joy. 

AMAZON

BLURB:

In this uplifting inspirational romance series, award-winning author Amy Lillard unites a “Widows Club” of women who share solace, friendship, faith—and mouthwatering Whoopie Pies—in the Amish community of Paradise Valley, Missouri. Will appeal to fans of Charlotte Hubbard, Molly Jebber, Susan Lantz Simpson, and Kelly Long.

At the heart of a Missouri Amish community, a circle of caring friends—the Widows’ Club of Paradise Valley—sees each other through life’s storms, in this uplifting series from award-winning author Amy Lillard . . .

Joy Lehman has pressed on faithfully since losing her husband, raising their children and running a thriving bakery alone. Even caring for her oldest son, Johnny—seriously injured after a fall—has not shaken her fierce independence. Johnny will walk again, she’s sure. Until then, a meeting of the Widows’ Club at her home makes it clear that Joy must consider some costly renovations. Her brother-in-law, Uriah, is happy to provide the lumber and the labor—if Joy will accept his help.

Uriah understands family challenges—he’s a widower himself, and father to four daughters. Yet he can see that Joy’s struggle lies deeper than house repairs, in learning to accept an altered future for her son. As Uriah’s daughters begin helping in the bakery, and Joy and Uriah’s bond grows deeper, a new possibility glows bright—the unexpected happiness that lies in embracing one strong, united family, filled with support and love . . .

There are three things that drew me to this book, specifically:

* I live in the area where there are several Amish families. Their simple life always intrigues me. I'm not sure I could live that simplistically, and if you know me at all then you know their religion and mine differ - a lot. 

* I love Amish romance books, in general. You can't get much more clean than an Amish love story.

* Second chances at love have my heart and what I write.

With those things in mind, One More Time For Joy was a must read for me. I loved the concept of the Widows Club; a group of women who'd all known loss of a spouse. One even four times! I can't imagine losing Bob. At my age, I wouldn't start over but in other stories you find that some of these women do just that. Such strength. 

Joy thought her strength was in her ability to make a new life for herself and her children, including Johnny B. She's told he'll never walk again. Whether it truly is her faith or something just doesn't want to acknowledge, she is determined to believe he will walk again. 

Between running a bakery from her basement, caring for Johnny B and her other three children while trying to be everything to everyone, she is flat wore out! But she keeps putting one foot forward every day, beginning at 4 a.m. She has to. She doesn't have anyone.

Her brother-in-law, Uriah starts out helping her with things his brother might have done, to be a help-mate for her. Widower with four  girls of his own, he knows how hard being a single parent is. I loved that these two came together. How Uriah slowly blends them together and becomes the man Johnny B and Christopher need in their life. 

There is a lot to this story that just makes me smile. The only issue I had was late in the book when Joy comes home and hears voices from Johnny B's dawdihaus (basically an efficiency apartment) and the door is closed. From what I understand of the Amish, mixed couples wouldn't be 'behind closed doors' alone. I think the opportunity was missed for Joy to tap on the door and make sure the door was kept open in mixed company. 

For that little piece, I'm giving One More Time For Joy...

.8

You'll find more of Amy's books and about her by following the links below.

WEBSITE   INSTAGRAM   YOUTUBE   GOOD READS  

PINTEREST   COZYMYSTERY   BOOK BUB

AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE

All my best!

~ Angela

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT - Amy Lillard

 Good morning, readers!

I met today's author at the Between the Pages conference in Springfield MO back in June. What a delightful woman and an excellent speaker. She spoke on getting back to the basics of romance, as well as how Christian and Clean are all the rage in romance as well as the ins and outs of book award programs and professional reviews. A TON of great information. 

Let me introduce you to Amy Lillard:

Amy loves nothing more than a good book. Except for her family...and maybe homemade tacos...and nail polish. But reading and writing are definitely high on the list.

Born and bred in Mississippi, Amy is a transplanted Southern Belle who now lives in Oklahoma with her deputy husband, their genius son, two spoiled cats, and one very lazy beagle. Oh, and don't forget the stray kitty that has taken up residence on her front porch. ^..^ 

When she's not creating quirky characters and happy endings, she's chauffeuring her prodigy to guitar lessons, orchestra concerts and baseball practice. She has a variety of hobbies, but her favorite is whatever gets her out of housework. She is also a big Chiefs fan.

Amy also writes contemporary romances under the pen name Amie Louellen.

An award winning author, Amy is a member of RWA and ACFW. She loves to hear from readers. You can find her on Instagram, Goodreads, and Pinterest. For links to the various sites, check the links below.

Tomorrow, I'll be reviewing One More Time For Joy - Book 3 in the Paradise Valley series.

In the mean time, please click on any of the links below to learn more about Amy Lillard.

WEBSITE   INSTAGRAM   YOUTUBE   GOOD READS  

PINTEREST   COZYMYSTERY   BOOK BUB

AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE

All my best!

~ Angela

CONFERENCES - Between The Pages Conference Recap

 Good morning, friends!

I'm in the office and back to work after an amazing six days in Springfield, Missouri; primarily for the BetweenThePages Writer's Conference.

Since diving hard back in to Book 2 of my series I decided to take a couple extra days on either side of the conference while at my favorite hotel in Springfield (Comfort Inn South) to work on the book. 

I packed up and headed in on Wednesday, checking in around two p.m. and just spent the rest of the day settling in, getting the writing area and coffee bar set up then kicking back with lasagna and garlic biscuit I'd brought from home. 

BACK HATCH

folding table for coffee bar behind the bags

L to R - extra cooler, computer bag, story bag, coffee bag, cold items, 2 cases of water

BACK SEAT

From Front to back - personals bag on bottom, iPad, desk decor on top

Far back - suitcase on floorboard, dry food bag tote on seat

TIP: Save yourself money by bringing leftovers or quick foods that can be heated in the microwave. I also packed my Copper Chef 5-minute cooker. HOWEVER -  Check to make sure your hotel HAS A MICROWAVE. I'd thought about staying at the conference hotel next year but they don't have microwaves in the rooms and the refrigerators are half the size of the one at Comfort Suites. Unless you want to spend money eating all of your meals out, do your research. 

Registration opened up on Friday afternoon. We also had a speaker, who was excellent!

COLIN CONWAY

Colin Conway is the author of the Cozy Up series and is the creator of the 509 Crime Series

He covered a total of three sessions on Indie Publishing including developing the mind set of an indie author as well as running an Indie business and marketing. Lots of great information. Once I heard him speak, I traded off a couple of breakout sessions to hear everything he had to say. The other two breakout sessions were, Running An Author-Indie Business and Marketing Your Books.One important thing he brough up was to make sure YOU BENEFICIARY has access to your business. 

JENIFFER THOMPSON

Jeniffer Thompson was our keynote to kick things off on Saturday. She is one of my favorite people. I've learned so much from just hearing her speak. She is an absolute beautiful person. She likes to help and is patient with your questions. This is the second year I've had the pleasure of listening to her. She also offers assistance in many forms of author branding through her Monkey C Media, The Premise Podcast, and the San Diego Writers Festival Podcast. You'll find Jeniffer by clicking on any of the links included in this paragraph.

SHERRY ROBERTS

Sherry Roberts was the session I chose in the first round of break-out sessions. An award-winning children's book author, she spoke about the responsibilities we have once our book is available. One of the most valuable pieces of information I received from her presentation was how to get into B & N! 

XAVIER POE KANE

Xavier Kane was the speaker I was most interested in hearing, then didn't LOL. Xavier spoke on the difference between writing general characters and Veterans. Since An Ozarks Homecoming features a Veteran Army officer, I wanted to hear how his take. See if I was honoring our heroes correctly. However, he was dropped into the same session as Colin Conway and after reading his topic I realized he was talking more about current Veterans and not deceased. Understanding, Xavier was kind enough to do a one-on-one with me to help me see if I am on the right track. According to him, I appear to be doing everything right. 

Those were my picks for the conference. We also were able to do a Q & A with a panel discussion with all of the speakers including the following:

BEN S. REEDER

Topic: Owning Your Creativity

His covers are GORGEOUS! Be sure to check them out on AMAZON

Paul McSorley

He is an audio book performer

Topic: Took the first 5 submissions and make them into an audio file so you can see what your work will sound like as an audio book.

AMY LILLARD

Topic:  Back to the Basics of Romance 

Christian & Clean Are All The Rage In Romance.

NOTE: I will be spotlighting Amy in an upcoming post as well as reviewing her latest Amish Romance release so stay tuned!

Jeanne Devlin from Roadrunner Press also took pitches. Check out her publishing house by clicking on her name.

NANCY ALLEN

Miss Nancy closed out our session Sunday morning and this home-town girl BROUGHT IT! She was entertaining as she talked about her journey from being an attorney to co-writing with James. (that would be THE James Patterson but they're on Book 5 together so she can call him by his first name... she said so. LOL) If you get the opportunity to hear her speak, RUN to the first row and enjoy the ride!

That's going to do it for me today. I managed to pop a couple of ribs this morning as I washed up the conference laundry so I might be out of commission for a day or two but I'm not going far.

All my best!

~Angela