Nickels

Niki Turner thought she had life all figured out. When God took her parents and her brother Jack, she felt that if she just didn't keep anyone close, she wouldn't lose anyone else or have to deal with the grief that has bound her personal life for the last 8 years.

She has vowed to just remain friends with her room mate Marcy and focus the remainder of her time at her job, Hamilton Production Solutions, as a software engineer. But Marcy had a goal this year, and that was to make sure that love found it's way into Niki's life. After all , all work and no play, makes for a very dull and boring life. She vowed to make it her New Year's resolution to find Niki a man who would love her, fall in love and live the proverbial "happily ever after" life!

However when a dream job at Heliotronics is offered to Niki, she sees this as a confirmation that she's been on the right track her whole life. However when Kyle Jacobs is assigned to work with her, she begins to question God's sense of humor after all. Kyle Jacobs, Marcy's older brother, has been the person she dreaded her entire four years of high school. He made it his mission to torture her no matter what opportunity presented itself and now here she was, stuck at her dream job with her worst enemy. But Kyle is a changed man, one both physically and spiritually, and now he has to find a way to prove to Niki that the past is really in the past.



In the newest novel from Karen Baney, Nickels, is her first contemporary fiction about second chances and seeing what God's plan is for us in life instead of what we perceive it's all about. I received this wonderful eBook compliments of Karen Baney and was more than delighted with this wonderfully, well-written story of dealing with the loss of loved ones and finally finding a way to move forward. The journey isn't an easy one but teahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifches us the value of God's unconditional love for us and the meaning of having friends along the way. I rate this book a full 5 out of 5 stars and am so excited to be able to share this review with my readers. This is one you won't want to miss out on. Well done again Karen!

For more information about this book, the author and where to purchase a copy of this book, please click on the links below:

Nickels by Karen Baney

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A Life Restored

Ever since Karen Baney wrote her first novel in the Prescott Pioneer series, I've been hooked. I mean these characters that she writes about feel like they are part of my distant relatives from the mid 1800's living in and around Prescott, Arizona when the west was just beginning to get settled.

There are stagecoach robberies, wanted men trying to find a way to enact revenge on those they feel deserve their wrath, people attempting to make a new start out west, cattle rustling, Indian attacks and those just trying to find love on the frontier. Through each consecutive novel that Karen has added to this series, we find out what our previous characters have been up to since the last book as she incorporates the lives of them along with new characters we can only hope to come to love and those we hope the swift hand of justice will rain down upon their heads.

In this novel, A Life Restored, the third book in the series, we find ourselves partnered with Caroline Larson, whose brother Adam and her best friend Julia left the family ranch to head to a new life in Prescott. Now struggling with trying to find love like that of her parents, Caroline finds that kissing the men who are interested in her may be the best way to see if she loves them. She believes if she feels a spark when they kiss, that may mean love is present. However when the two men find out about Caroline's plan, they are left broken-hearted and alone.

Caroline believes that being back with her brother Adam and Julia may help her get back on track and trusting her faith in God once again instead of trying to take control of her own life. The only problem is now on a stage coach trip to Prescott on her final leg of the trip, her coach is robbed, the men shot and she is left behind, tied up in the middle of no where far from any water or food.

The plot thickens when a stranger by the name of Robert Garrett, the mastermind behind the stagecoach robbery, finds out that Caroline is aboard the stage and in leaving her behind, he hopes to begin a blackmail scheme against the Larsons and Will Coulter that will fulfill his need for revenge and justice. Only problem is when he sends a man back to retrieve Caroline, she isn't there.

A renegade mail express rider,Thomas Anderson, that Caroline had an encounter with after almost being ran over by him in the street of Wickenburg will provide to be both a rescuer and a thorn in her side. Will she ever make it to Prescott? Will Robert Garrett find Thomas and Caroline before they make it into Prescott? Will Caroline ever find true love or find her faith in God again?

I received this ebook version of A Life Restored by Karen Baney compliments of the author herself. Not only did I become just as hooked as I did in the first two books in this series, I found even more characters to add to my new family in Prescott! You'll be rooting for your old favorites as well as meeting new ones along the way. If you love great western romance stories with a faith in God, then you'll love Karen Baney's Prescott Pioneers series! You can pick up any of them and fit right in or like me, start at the beginning and watch your family grow! This rates a 5 out of 5 stars and can't wait to see what other surprises Karen has in store for us in the future.

For more information about this book, the author or where to pick up this book, please click on the links below:

A Life Restored by Karen Baney

You can also find Karen on Facebook by clicking here.

A Heart Renewed - Prescott Pioneers # 2

"You cannot be serious, Reuben!" Julia Colter shouted, not caring that she might wake her niece and nephew from their afternoon nap. Pacing back and forth across the length of the kitchen, she stopped in front of her older brother, her temper flaring almost as hot as the stove.

"He is balding and fat and twice my age!"

"You will marry who I say!" Reuben thundered. "I expect you to treat Mr. Hiram Norton with the utmost respect this evening. He has shown great interest in you and the least you can do is be civil with the man."

"But, I could never love him!"

As Reuben shoved her violently up against the wall, Julia's breath left her lungs in a rush. Digging his fingers into her arms, she could feel the bruises starting to form. His brown eyes darkened with unrestrained anger as he glared down at her. She swallowed in fear, stunned by his abrupt action.

"Stop, you're hurting me," she said, trying to break free from his vice like grip.

He raised his hand as if he meant to strike her - something he had never done before. The action startled her to silence. Instead of hitting her across the face, as she thought he might, Reuben returned his hands to her upper arms squeezing even harder.

Leaning so close the heat of his breath warmed her cheeks, he said, "You have no idea what hurt is Julia. You are an insolent little whelp. You will paste a smile on that tart little face of yours. And you will do your best to win his affections or, " his voice menacing, " you will suffer my wrath, the likes of which you have yet to see." (pg 1).

So opens the sequel from the Prescott Pioneers #2, A Heart Renewed by Karen Baney. It picks up with the continuing story of A Dream Unfolding, the first book in the series, with Julia Colter, the youngest sister of Reuben and Will. Will has begun a new life in the Arizona Territory of Granite Creek with Colter Ranch, now happily married to his wife Hannah.

Julia has been left in the care of his oldest brother Reuben, after her father's recent death. She finds that her brother's only regard to taking care of her is finding someone wealthy enough to take her off his hands and be willing to pay more than enough for her. Reuben has squandered his father's remaining financial holding in a series of gambling debts and if he can't find a way out, his own blood will be shed.

When her brother's abuse grows too much and he does the unspeakable to break her stubbornness, Julia flees to her only friend Caroline. After confessing the horrors of her brother's treatment to Julia, she finds the only way she'll be safe is if she leaves tonight with her brother Adam who is heading to Colter Ranch in Arizona to help Will begin raising horses.

What they will find along the long journey is that God will always find a way to reach out in forgiveness to restore hope and renew His promises that He will take care of those that call upon His name.

I received this eBook, A Renewed Heart by Karen Baney, compliments of Karen Baney for my honest review. After falling in love with the characters of Will and Hannah, I could not wait for the next book to come out to see what fate would befall Julia being left behind with her cruel brother Reuben. I can honestly say I was not disappointed.

If you haven't read any of Karen's books in this series, please pick these up. She creates such detail in the story that you can imagine life on the ranch with Will's family, comfort Julia as she cries in the arms of Betty at the boarding house, and even feel the restoration of Julia when she learns the lesson of forgiveness from those around her that love her. Once more she rates a 5 out of 5 stars! Can't wait til book 3 is released to continue the journey out west again!

For more information on this book, the author and where to purchase this next edition in the series, click on the link below:

A Heart Renewed by Karen Baney

A Dream Unfolding - eBook Giveaway and Review

Life on the frontier never claims to be an easy one. Yet lives will be turned over and shaken, and what becomes of them will change the people affected forever.

Hannah Anderson had the perfect life. Married to her sweetheart Drew, the town's second doctor, they stayed pretty busy in their clinic tending to the townspeople. However the one thing that Drew could never outrun was his perpetual drunk brother Thomas. More than once Drew had tried to help him get his life turned around, but when word gets back to the town of a failed bank robbery, their lives will change forever. The town turns against Drew and Hannah believing that they have helped Thomas one too many times. Without patients in his clinic, Drew knows that he can not provide for him and Hannah to start a family.

Hearing that the Arizona Territory out west is promising, he tells Hannah that he has decided to make the move and start over. That wasn't the words of encouragement that she had hoped to hear. Now both of them will need to start over beginning with learning how to manage a wagon team on the trail for months before reaching La Paz, Arizona from their home in Cincinnati, Ohio. Will they be able to master the change necessary to provide them with a new life and a new hope?

Will Colter's father's accidental death has changed him forever. Since attending his the funeral and reading of the will, he learns that his older brother Reuben retains the family home and land, but they will be splitting the herd, the stock and the remaining financial holdings between them. Since there is no love lost between Will and Reuben, since they have been fighting their whole lives. It doesn't shock Will to learn that Reuben is giving him two weeks to move off of his land.

Leaving behind his younger sister Julia, Will learns of a new prospect for ranching in the Arizona Territory of Granite Creek from letters his father had received. Knowing it will be a long haul to drive his cattle and horses that far, he enlists the aid of his best farm hand Ben who has been like a father to him. Along with a few more hired hands, Will begins the journey to the promise of a new life. What he will experience along the way will change him as well as the men he has hired, as the unknown lies ahead for many long and dusty miles. Will he be able to face the challenge or will the land claim him and his men?

I received the latest novel in a new series, Prescott Pioneers # 1, called A Dream Unfolding by Karen Baney for my honest review. Being a huge fan of Christian Historical Romance Fiction, I was captivated by the courage of Hannah in having to face unseen challenges in moving from a doctor's wife to managing a wagon train working its way along some of the most challenging terrain. She responds with the faith that God has provided along the way and she learns that trust in Him will help her endure whatever life offers.

This book easily rates a 5 out of 5 stars and I honestly felt every obstacle and challenge that these characters faced from not knowing when they would find water, the unexpected snow falls, to running out of wood. Karen Baney does a masterful job at weaving the story with characters we come to know and love in the book. I love the sneak peek at the second book coming out in April 2011 at the conclusion of this book. She definitely has me sold.

For more information about this book, the author and where to purchase a copy for yourself, click on the link below:

A Dream Unfolding by Karen Baney

You can also follow Karen Baney on Facebook by clicking here.

Thanks to Karen Baney, she is offering an eBook format of her book to one lucky reader of my blog. Here are your guidelines:

1. You must be a follower of my blog, Reviews From The Heart.

2. I must have a way to contact you if you are the lucky winner, so please be sure to include an email address along with your comment. You can use the words (at) and (dot) instead of the symbols.

3. Leave me a comment and let me know why you'd love to win a copy of A Dream Unfolding. The giveaway will end on April 13th and I will notify the winner at that time.