Dating, Dining, Desperation, and Melody Carlson

My review follows the CFBA info.

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Dating, Dining, and Desperation B&H Books (March 1, 2014) by Melody Carlson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Over the years, Melody Carlson has worn many hats, from pre-school teacher to youth counselor to political activist to senior editor. But most of all, she loves to write! Currently she freelances from her home. In the past eight years, she has published over ninety books for children, teens, and adults--with sales totaling more than two million and many titles appearing on the ECPA Bestsellers List. Several of her books have been finalists for, and winners of, various writing awards.

She has two grown sons and lives in Central Oregon with her husband and chocolate lab retriever. They enjoy skiing, hiking, gardening, camping and biking in the beautiful Cascade Mountains.


ABOUT THE BOOK

Daphne Ballinger has learned to accept her deceased, eccentric aunt’s strange request that she marry in order to inherit her estate, along with taking over her aunt’s hometown paper’s advice column. But knowing and accepting that God’s will be done becomes harder when a new neighbor, a divorced socialite, learns of Daphne’s predicament and takes on the task of finding her the perfect man, even if it includes speed dating. When God does open Daphne’s heart, it is instead to take in a young girl left parentless and in the care of her dying grandmother. It may be a temporary arrangement until the girl’s uncle returns from the Marines, but God uses Daphne to speak His heavenly love and protection into the life of the child -- whom Daphne soon discovers has a very handsome and single uncle.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Dating, Dining, and Desperation, go HERE.


Pattie's Review:

I read the first book in this series, Lock, Stock, and Over a Barrel, for CFBA last spring. I enjoyed it for the most part. This second book has some great story elements in it that make it a feel-good story, not so much a romance as the first book was, but a continuation of the original conflict of Daphne vs. The Will.


According to a note by the author at the end, the third and fourth book releases will be ebooks, so I look forward to seeing how the story plays out and how Daphne ends up solving the problems presented in books 1 and 2.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and I like Daphne. However, one detail: the misspelling of "y'all" (spelled "ya'll" throughout the book) really irritated me. With a Southern character who says it often, you can see why it set my teeth on edge.

I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher as a participant in this blog tour.