Out of the Blue Bouquet: Crossroads Collection 1
by Hallee Bridgeman, Alana Terry, Carol Moncado, Chautona Havig, Amanda Tru
Series: Out of the Blue Bouquet
Published by Inc.
Publication Date November 7, 2017
Genres: Christian Fiction, Clean Romance
Written for: Adult
Pages: 685
Synopsis:
Five of today’s Best-selling Christian Authors weave five unique yet connected stories together in this collection where misdirected floral deliveries lead to lives changed.
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I was intrigued by the introduction to this collection, written by Amanda Tru, one of the authors. She spoke about anthologies that she read as a girl that she and her sister called “potato chip” books because “once you started they were difficult to stop, but they didn’t really have any nutritional value, so to speak”. She went on to describe how this collection is different. The goal of the collection is to have each book be independent, yet part of a single universe with a point of intersection drawing everything together. With the reader not knowing what that link is until the last book. Each book in the collection is a brand-new, complete and independent story.
And thus this collection was born.
Overall, I have to say that I am impressed with the time spent in formatting the book. The headings are beautiful (even on my black-and-white Kindle screen), with a lovely graphic that is large enough to be seen and an attractive font. The first sentences start out with large caps and the first few words are bold, reminiscent of a book from long ago. Each book has discussion questions after the story for book clubs or personal reflection as well.
Here are my reviews of the individual stories:
Courting Calla
by Hallee Bridgeman
Publication Date November 7, 2107
Genres: Christian Fiction, Clean Romance
Setting: Atlanta Contemporary
Main Character Ages: 25-35
Written for: Adult
Synopsis:
Ian knows Calla is the woman God has chosen for him, but Calla is hiding something big. Can Calla trust Ian with her secret, or will she let it destroy any possible hope they may have for a future?
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Tags: Stepparent, Flowers, Construction, Chef, Betrayal, Orphan, Foreign Mission, Identity Theft, Orphanage
This story was a touching account of Callie, a girl who was struggling under an intense financial burden she never should have had to bear. Due to a mix-up, an invitation to dinner was delivered, not to her best friend, but the man she had been crushing on for years, Ian.
The characters were endearing. Though Callie should have handled her secret differently, her actions and her reasons were part of why she was such a great person, and the motivations made sense. Ian was a almost perfect, except he wasn’t. Which made him more perfect. 🙂
The message of the story was one of trust, leaning on others and forgiveness.
The first line of this story is:
Calla Vaughn felt the telltale shudder of the car through her seat just as she started to pull through the gate.
Now it is your turn! Grab the book you are currently reading, open to chapter one, and post the first sentence (or second sentence) in the comments below. Then head on over to Hoarding Books to see all of the FLF pages this week (just click on the FLF button below).
About Alana Terry
Pastor’s wife Alana Terry is a homeschooling mom, self-diagnosed chicken lady, and Christian suspense author. Her novels have won awards from Women of Faith, Book Club Network, Grace Awards, Readers’ Favorite, and more. Alana’s passion for social justice, human rights, and religious freedom shines through her writing, and her books are known for raising tough questions without preaching. She and her family live in rural Alaska where the northern lights in the winter and midnight sun in the summer make hauling water, surviving the annual mosquito apocalypse, and cleaning goat stalls in negative forty degrees worth every second.
About Amanda Tru
Amanda Tru loves to write page-turning books that inspire real-life Christianity while providing plenty of unexpected twists. She figures she loses so much sleep writing the things, it’s only fair she makes readers lose sleep with books they can’t put down!
Amanda’s current book list includes everything from historical, to action-packed suspense, to inspirational romance, to a Christian time travel/romance series. She is also the author and organizer behind the unique, multi-author Crossroads collection series.
Amanda is a former elementary school teacher who now spends her days being mommy to her four young children and her nights furiously writing. Amanda and her family live in a small Idaho town where the number of cows outnumbers the number of people.
About Carol Moncado
When she’s not writing about her imaginary friends, Carol Moncado is hanging out with her husband, four kids, and a dog who weighs less than most hard cover books. She prefers watching NCIS to just about anything, except maybe watching Castle, or Girl Meets World with her kids. She believes peanut butter M&Ms are the perfect food and Dr. Pepper should come in an IV. When not watching her kids – and the dog – race around her big backyard in Southwest Missouri, she’s teaching American Government at a local community college. She’s a founding member and President of MozArks ACFW, category coordinator for First Impressions, blogger at InspyRomance, and represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of The Steve Laube Agency.
About Chautona Havig
Chautona Havig lives in an oxymoron, escapes into imaginary worlds that look startlingly similar to ours and writes the stories that emerge. An irrepressible optimist, Chautona sees everything through a kaleidoscope of It’s a Wonderful Life sprinkled with fairy tales. Find her on the web and say howdy—if you can remember how to spell her name.
Happy Friday! I’m sharing the first line from A Love Like Ours by Becky Wade on my blog today, but I’ll share the first line from a book near the top of my TBR pile here. “Blizzard-like conditions are expected to last through the evening.” That line is from The Engagement Plot by Krista Phillips.
What a fun concept for these stories.
I’m sharing the first line from Susan Sleeman’s Cold Terror today on the blog, but I’m currently reading Welcome to Wishing Bridget by Ruth Logan Herne, so I’ll leave that first line here:
Don’t do it.
I have this book waiting to be read and can’t wait to start it when I finish what I’m reading now.
My first line (well, really first two lines because they are so good) is from Runaway Romance by Miralee Ferrell:
“Ann Stanway sat in her television producer’s office trying to still the butterflies doing battle in her belly. No, not butterflies, more like buzzards.”
Oh my! What a first line! Happy Friday!
My first line is from a book I’m going to be reading soon Hope Travels Through by Loni Kemper Moore…..
The first time Dad picked me up at the Evansville airport in his 1976 Corvette, I should have recruited a fairy godmother. Not that I believed in such things.
Have a great weekend!
What an intriguing idea for a book collection!
I’m currently reading The House on Foster Hill by Jamie Jo Wright, which looks like it’s going to be full of suspense. Here’s the first line:
Death had a way of creeping up on a soul, and Ivy Thorpe determined that when it visited her, she would not be surprised.
Happy Weekend!
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK
SEPTEMBER 1943
Esther’s father halted the lazy swaying of the porch swing. – While We’re Far Apart by Lynn Austin
Happy Friday!
I’m showcasing The Secret Life of Sarah Hollenbeck by Bethany Turner on my blog this week. So, here I will share a line from the book I’m currently reading, Deadly Proof by Rachel Dylan. I’m just starting chpt. 15, so that’s the line I’ll share:
“On Monday morning, Kate heard her email ping and saw the message was from the Northern District of Georgia. Her heartbeat sped up as she clicked to open it.”
My current read is An Inconvenient Beauty by Kristi Ann Hunter
Eton College, Berkshire, England, 1797
“The line between boy and man was never murkier than when a father died too soon, leaving his son to walk through the foibles of youth while shouldering the responsibilities of adulthood.”
Thank you for featuring our collection. My first line on Friday was from Taming the Troublemaker by Pepper Basham:
Loser ex-husbands and freezing January afternoons left a nasty chill.
That was a great story!