CFBA Blog Tour - Back to Life by Kristen Billerbeck

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Back To Life
Avon Inspire (September 16, 2008)
by
Kristin Billerbeck


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Kristin Billerbeck was born in Redwood City, California. She went to San Jose State University and gained a bachelor's degree in Advertising, then worked at the Fairmont Hotel in PR, a small ad agency as an account exec, and then, she was thrust into the exciting world of shopping mall marketing.

She got married, had four kids, and started writing romance novels until she found her passion: Chick Lit. She is a CBA bestselling author and two-time winner of the ACFW Book of the Year for What A Girl Wants in 2004, and again in 2006 for With this Ring. Featured in the New York Times, USA Today, World Magazine, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Kristin has appeared on the Today Show. She is credited with jump-starting the inspirational chick-lit phenomenon. Most recently she has been names as a finalist for the Christy Award in the Lits category for The Trophy Wives Club.

Her other recent books include: She's All That.


ABOUT THE BOOK


Lindsey realized when she married Ron, a man 17 years her senior, that the odds were he’d see heaven before her, but she never expected to be a widow at 35. There’s too much of life left for her to just sit around in mourning. But she can’t seem to kick start the rest of her life.

That is until she gets some help from Ron’s first wife, Jane, who shows up unexpectedly at her door one day as the executor of her husband’s estate. Jane is everything Lindsey’s not… independent, stubborn… and a lot older. Plus she has one surprise after another… including a son named Ron Jr. (she insists he’s not “really” Ron’s son). But an unlikely friendship develops as each woman begins to reevaluate what is really important, and owns up to the mistakes they’ve made in the past.

Told in the alternating voices of Jane and Lindsey, and with the return of many of the witty characters of The Trophy Wives Club, this book is a lighthearted, relatable read for when life goes in a direction you never planned. With faith and friends, there’s always light at the end of the tunnel.

If you would like to read an excerpt of chapter 1 of Back To Life, go HERE

Around the House - September

I am:

~finished with the Book of John (it only took me 8 months!). I'm glad I took it slowly...what goodness there was to be gleaned!

~starting in the Book of Isaiah, and looking ahead to a good Word!

~so happy that temps have fallen back into the 80s.

~grateful that CJ's primary teacher this year is a Christian (also a friend).

~proud of my girl for seeking out a classmate who was being left out. I've been praying that CJ will grab opportunities to minister to others this year...she's going to have plenty of them.

~wishing Chris Long was still a Cavalier.

~woefully behind in blog reading.

~rethinking how much blog reading I do.

~eagerly waiting to see how God's going to use me with the youth and in my Sunday School class.

~thankful to be getting back into a routine. Summer's freedom was nice, but I don't do well without a routine for very long. I like structure. Rising early, menu planning, and setting goals for the day all do my heart good.

~ecstatic that there is NOTHING. NADA. ZILCH. on our calendar for this weekend! I plan to fill it with giving the house a scrub down, board games, a DVD & popcorn, worship, rest, and good book. Heck, I might stay in my PJs all weekend, except when we go to church Sunday morning!

Happy Wednesday, friends!

Classics Bookclub #1 - Pride & Prejudice

If there were one woman in all of literature I could be, it would be Elizabeth Bennet. I simply adore her...her wit, her loyalty, her intelligence, and, most of all, her spunk. If I couldn't be her, I would certainly like to have a friend like her. I guess that's why I've lost track of the number I've times I've read Pride and Prejudice. It's my favorite. book. ever. In fact, when I was pregnant with CJ, I determined that if I had a boy, his name would be Bennet.

So, you can imagine that I was all a quiver when I learned that this book would be our first selection for the 5 Minutes for Books Classics Bookclub. As if I needed an excuse to read P&P again (well, actually I did, since I've got so many books waiting to be reviewed...but I was willing to sacrifice!)

My good friend Lisa agreed to host the first installment of the Bookclub, as P&P is also her favorite book. Like Lisa, I'm not one to ramble on about character development, subplot, irony and such. I just know a good read when I see one. (And, like Lisa, I admit that Mr. Darcy is reason alone to read P&P over and over, and over again!)

I started reading this time with a couple of Lisa's questions in mind:

Did anything strike you differently this time? Anything you hadn’t noticed in earlier readings?

As a matter of fact, yes. I paid more attention to Elizabeth's relationship with Lady Catherine, particularly the exchange concerning Elizabeth's rumored engagement to Mr. Darcy. I was delighted at the fortitude with which Lizzy, a mere gentleman's daughter of no fortune, responded to Lady Catherine, a real hoity-toity. Considering that class was such a defining measure of a person in that day and time, Elizabeth showed more nerve than common sense. In the end, it got her the man she loved.

Do you have any favorite lines of the novel?

Of course, the Darcy/Elizabeth sparring scenes are sentimental favorites. But I have others:

"You have no compassion on my poor nerves." (Mrs. Bennet)

"You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these twenty years at least." (Mr. Bennet)

Had Elizabeth's opinion been all drawn from her own family, she could not have formed a very pleasing picture of conjugal felicity or domestic comfort.

"Because honor, decorum, prudence, nay, interest, forbid it. Yes, Miss Bennet, interest; for do not expect to be noticed by his family or friends, if you wilfully act against the inclinations of all. You will be censured, slighted, and despised, by everyone connected with him. your alliance will be a disgrace; your name will never even be mentioned by any of us." (Lady Catherine)

"These are heavy misfortunes," replied Elizabeth. "But the wife of Mr. Darcy must have such extraordinary sources of happiness necessarily attached to her situation, that she could, upon the whole, have no cause to repine."

I could go on and on, but don't take my word for it. Click here to read what others are saying.