Showing posts with label Tessa Afshar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tessa Afshar. Show all posts

Tuesday, 21 February 2012

Coming soon from River North Fiction

I'm really enjoying seeing the offerings that River North Fiction are introducing.  A Moody Publishers imprint, River North are expanding their fiction as you can see from the varied books below.

I'm really keen to read Tessa's new book ~ I adored her debut novel Pearl in the Sand and we are also currently studying Nehemiah in our church.  

I love the cover of Alice's book ~ who would have thought an Amish book and not a bonnet in sight?!

How about you?



The prophet Nehemiah's cousin can speak numerous languages, keep complex accounts, write on rolls of parchment and tablets of clay, and solve great mysteries. There is only one slight problem: she is a woman. 

In her early childhood years, Sarah experienced the death of her mother and her father's subsequent emotional distance and she came to two conclusions: that God does not care about her, and that her accomplishments are the measure of her worth - the measure of her self. Sarah, the talented scribe, the cousin to Nehemiah, is catapulted into the center of the Persian court, working too many hours, rubbing elbows with royalty, and solving intrigues for the Queen. Ironically, it isn't failure but success that causes Sarah to be dismissed from her post. As a result she loses her only source of external validation in exchange for a barren marriage to the nephew of the Queen. 

Life becomes unbearable attached to a man she humiliated on their wedding day, a man who married her out of obligation, a man she believes cannot possibly ever want her as a wife. In the absence of her husband, Sarah discovers irregularities in the running of Darius's estates. As a result, she finds herself and the household staff in grave danger. Through her story Sarah learns that she has something of worth to offer beyond her ability with languages and sums. Her very being proves to be a blessing to others. 

May, 2012



Brooks Morgan left home 11 years earlier and is just too stubborn to return home. In 1896 he pulls into the town of Shoofly, and takes refuge from a storm where he befriends John Langston in the local cafe. One evening a high stakes poker game ends with Brooks holding the deed to Johnny's ranch - under one condition - Brooks must promise to take care of Keri. Brooks agrees assuming Keri is his horse.

Overcome by guilt Brooks returns with the intention of returning the deed to Raven Creek Ranch but finds John on the floor dead from an apparent suicide. After graduating finishing school, Keri Langston can think of nothing better than returning to her home, pulling on a pair of overalls, and riding the range of Raven Creek Ranch. She arrives at Shoofly to discover that the ranch she expected to inherit was lost in a card game by her uncle and that he committed suicide because of it. 

Brooks heads off to the ranch and is ambushed by three men. With a noose around his neck, hands tied behind his back he offers the first prayer up to God that he hasn't spoken to in a very long time. A stunning shot breaks the rope and he is freed by a bullet delivered from the rifle of a lady on horseback. Keri can't believe that she just saved the man she really wants to kill - the scoundrel who stole her uncle's ranch. They exchange words. Brooks says he isn't leaving the ranch. Keri says he can't stay, the property was intended for her.

Can they learn to work together to save the ranch or will they pull it apart out of selfish greed?

June, 2012





This is the first book in a series based on the real life stories of women who lived and worked during the Civil War. The author has done extensive research around the lives of military women during the Civil War for a nonfiction title and became inspired to share their stories in a fictionalized depiction based on her historical research.

Charlotte Waverly is a 28 year-old upper-class woman from New York and one of only 100 women chosen for nursing training. On the battlefields, she and the other nurses find themselves up against corruption, opposition and wounded men such as they have never seen before. Charlotte's life intersects with that of an Irish immigrant who turns to the unthinkable when faced with starvation after her husband leaves for war. 

These women find hope and gain restored lives as war wages all around.

July, 2012




 

It's been fourteen years since Gideon Miller ran away from his Amish community in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania as a boy of sixteen.  He is haunted by memories from his childhood, particularly by the event where his father locked a young boy up for a night in a shed for stealing apples from his orchard.  Desperate to bring order to his thoughts and life, Gideon incorporates structure and cleanliness into his daily life.  His motto is: There is a place for everything and everything has a place.  Gideon also spends his time helping other Amish boys and girls relocate to life in modern America. 

A tragedy forces Gideon to return to the town of his youth and face the community he ran away from years ago. Will Gideon be able to give his anger over to God and forgive his father? 

August, 2012







In the 1890 thriving coastal town of Holliston, Maine, the leading lumber baron's son, Warren Brentwood, III, returns from his years away at college and traveling to take up his position as heir apparent to his father's business empire.

Esperanza Estrada, daughter of a Portuguese immigrant fisherman and a local woman, Espy lives on the wrong side of the tracks, surrounded by a brood of brothers and sisters and a careworn mother. She is unable to pretend she is anything but "one of those Estradas." When she overhears of a position to clean house at a local high school teacher's home on Elm Street, she jumps at the opportunity-to be able to run into Warren Brentwood now and again, but also to imbibe of the culture and intellectual atmosphere of the Stocktons.

When rumors about Espy and a respected, married gentleman of the community begin to circulate, the entire church congregation and then the community pronounce judgment on her behavior.  The man Espy is in love with, Warren, believes the lie and his loss of faith in her causes Espy to give up without a fight. She leaves her family and hometown for the nearest city with little money and no acquaintances and is forced to spend the night on the street.  A man who heads a mission for the homeless finds Espy and offers her shelter. Espy finds the true love of God while working at the mission. Will she be able to forgive the townspeople and return home?

August, 2012

Wednesday, 3 August 2011

News & Notes


Tessa Afshar, author of the exceptional Pearl in the Sand, has a marvelous contest running at the moment put together by the fabulous folk at PulsePoint Design.  Here's what is included:


• An ornate, hand-painted, gold-encrusted jewelry box from Israel (pictured above)
• A keepsake bottle of multi-colored sand from the Negev desert
• A freshwater pearl necklace from the Middle East
• A set of three perfume bottles from Israel, containing Spikenard, Frankincense, and Myrrh
• An exquisite red silk hand-embroidered women’s prayer scarf, created by Israeli designer Yair Emanuel

Click here and follow the prompts to enter and tell a friend!

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This month there are some fabulous books free to your Kindle or Kindle for PC and other ereaders.  As I own a Kindle, I'm just posting the Kindle links for you :)  Check these out!


Lisa T Bergren's Waterfall
Yvonne Harris' The Vigilante's Bride
Richard Mabry's Code Blue
Erynn Mangum's Miss Match
Kaye Dacus' Ransome's Honor
& more......

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I'm not always going to highlight free Christian Kindle books but I know a fabulous website that does!  Be sure to add the lovely Keiki Hendrix's Vessel Project to your reader or subscribe to email and you will never miss a thing on Kindle or Nook.

Keiki has a lot of great series on her site so be sure to check them out as well:

& more........
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Thomas Nelson are running an I Love Christian Fiction sweepstakes with a prize of $10,000!

Answer a short survey and you are in the draw :)

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Saturday, 16 October 2010

Tessa Afshar ~ FamilyFiction Plus


As the Historical Fiction correspondent for the new FamilyFiction digital magazine, I recently highlighted Tessa Afshar's debut novel, Pearl in the Sand in my historical news column.

As you know authors love words so I often receive a lengthier response to my interview questions than space allows in the magazine. When that happens, I'll be sharing the extended interviews with my readers :)


So here is Tessa's full response to my interview question.

Rel:~ What was it about Rahab that captivated you enough to write her story?

Tessa:~ Rahab lived in the bowels of a wall; her house was built into the defensive walls of the city of Jericho. When I read about this detail in the book of Joshua, I was hooked. What was it like living in a wall?

Then during a visit to Florence, I noticed that Ponte Vecchio—the famed
bridge straddling the Arno River for almost seven hundred years—had tiny shops built right into its walls. They bulged out of the sides of the bridge like odd-shaped barnacles sticking out of the hull of a ship. Before my eyes, a little bit of Rahab’s life materialized.

The tiny glimpse we are given of Rahab in the Hebrew Bible reveals an uncommon woman; she was
n’t afraid to bargain with the enemy to save her life. Clearly she loved her family as she fought to spare them from destruction. The only thing that outstripped her courage was her astonishing faith in a God about whom she could not have known very much. I found these qualities fascinating, but I also felt there must be more. She was a harlot after all. What did that life do to the heart of such a woman?

The more I read about Rahab, the more amazed I became at her destiny. This Canaanite harlot married one of Israel’s leading men, a man as clo
se to a Jewish aristocrat as you can get in a country without kings and princes. Wait a minute! How was that possible? Who would conceive of such a marriage? Well, except God.

Pearl in the Sand recounts the tale of a woman whose world was a mess, whose life was a mess, whose heart was a mess, but in encountering God, she found to her shock that her life was salvageable. More than that—it was valuable. She found that she was lovable. And Salmone found out these same truths right alongside her.


God started the most significant part of Rahab’s life by literally pulling down the walls of her home around her. As traumatic as that moment must have been for Rahab, she could not have moved on to the future God had planned for her without it. In a parallel pursuit of healing for her broken soul, Pearl in the Sand portrays a God who just as determinedly set out to ruin the walls surrounding Rahab’s heart. I think women today need to know God as the wooer and pursuer of their hearts. They need to know that sometimes the most glorious breakthroughs of life come through a vector of God-ordained pain.

More than anything I wrote this story because I hope the reader of this story will come away with a deeper glimpse into her own soul, and a more profound understanding of God the Father. Rahab learned to cling to God in the midst of her sorrows, to believe in Him more than she believed in fear. For me, that is one of the most crucial components of faith: becoming a person who gives God full access to every part of one’s soul, even if that access sometimes hurts because it involves the demolition of one’s defensive walls.


Relz Reviewz Extras

Review of Pearl in the Sand

Visit Tessa's website and blog

Buy Tessa's book from Amazon or Koorong

Read FamilyFiction's premiere issue

Wednesday, 15 September 2010

Pearl in the Sand by Tessa Afshar with US giveaway

Synopsis:~

Can a Canaanite harlot who has made her livelihood by looking desirable to men make a fitting wife for one of the leaders of Israel? Shockingly, the Bible’s answer is yes. At the age of fifteen Rahab is forced into prostitution by her beloved father. In her years as a courtesan, she learns to mistrust men and hate herself. Into the emotional turmoil of her world walks Salmone, a respected leader of Judah. Through the tribulations of a stormy relationship, Rahab and Salmone learn the true source of one another’s worth in God and find healing from fear and rejection.


My take:~

Writing a book is daunting enough, choosing to write about a Biblical character
ups the stakes even more. Debut novelist Tessa Afshar is more than up to the challenge in her beautifully rendered story of Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute named in the lineage of Jesus. Tessa acknowledges there is little known about Rahab and Salome, highlighting the Biblical references and encouraging readers to examine them, acknowledging her story is extrapolation. Her vivid storytelling brings the fall of Jericho into sharp focus, the fear of the Canaanites palpable as God's unusual plan unfolds as the Israelites march around the impenetrable walls. Rahab and Salome's love story is evocative and compelling while Rahab's journey from an idolatrous harlot to a believer in the one true God, is heartrending and inspiring. The spiritual threads are woven effortlessly throughout, from the consequences of Rahab's past and Salome's pride to the healing power of God's forgiveness and the hard reality of His justice. Pearl in the Sand is reminiscent of Tosca Lee's Havah and Francine River's Redeeming Love and I don't make such comparisons lightly. I trust this is just the beginning of many more books from such a talented author.

With thanks to Wynn~Wynn Media for my review copy

Relz Reviewz Extras

Visit Tessa's website and blog

Buy Tessa's book from Amazon or Koorong



Thursday, 10 June 2010

Book Trailer for Tessa Afshar's Pearl in the Sand

Pearl in the Sand captured my attention from when I first saw the cover. Can't wait to discover how Tessa Afshar tells this story.

Tracy ~ another Biblical story for us! It might make a good 2011 RBC Book Club selection :)


Please share ~ do you enjoy retellings of Biblical stories? What have been your favourites?

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