Cynthia Ruchti's 'A Fragile Hope' Giveaway and Review

When your life's work revolves around repairing other people's marriages, what happens when your own marriage begins to fall apart? Find out what happens to Josiah Chamberlain in Cynthia Ruchti's new book, A Fragile Hope.

Feeling betrayed, confused, and ill-equipped for a crisis this crippling, he reexamines everything he knows about the fragility of hope and the strength of his faith and love. Love seems to have failed him. Will what's left of his faith fail him, too? Or will it be the one thing that holds him together and sears through the impenetrable wall that separates them?

Celebrate the release of A Fragile Hope by entering to win Cynthia's Sign of Hope Giveaway!

One grand prize winner will receive:

• A copy of A Fragile Hope
• A metal wall scripture hanging

Enter today by clicking the icon below, but hurry! The giveaway ends on May 3. The winner will be announced May 4 on the Litfuse blog.

My Review

One of my ‘rules’ for reading and reviewing is that I have to like the main character—it’s hard to like a book (especially a romance) if you can’t stand the hero.

A Fragile Hope is the exception to that rule.

Josiah Chamberlain is one of the most self-absorbed men you could ever hope to meet. He’s a Christian relationship counsellor who has given up counselling in favour of writing best-selling self-help books while his wife dabbles in some little hobby ‘business’, selling home-made greeting cards. But he’s forced to re-evaluate his life when Karin is involved in a fatal car accident, and ends up in ICU, unconscious. And she’s apparently pregnant … after they’ve been told Josiah can’t have children. This is the slightly frustrating cause of the Big Misundertanding, something that could have been sorted out early in the novel. But Josiah is the man who always has the right answer so it never occurs to him that he hasn’t.

I didn’t like Josiah, but I kept reading out of some kind of macabre fascination. Would Mr Intelligent get a clue? And when?

The other reason I kept reading was because of the writing. There were so much great writing, so many great lines. I appreciated the way the Christian themes were woven in, strong but not overwhelming or out of place. Overall, recommended for the outstanding writing, thought-provoking Christian themes, and a great character-driven story. Thanks to Abingdon Press and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can read more about Cynthia Ruchti at her website. Cynthia Ruchti's 'A Fragile Hope' Giveaway

Litfuse Tour + Reading Challenge - An Endless Christmas by Cynthia Ruchti

There's no getting out of Christmas now, despite Katie rejecting Micah's marriage proposal. Cozy up this holiday season with Cynthia Ruchti's new novella, An Endless Christmas. The Binder family celebrates every Christmas as if it were their last. Too many people, too much snow, and too little room should be a recipe for disaster. But sometimes too much is just enough. Especially when it’s Christmas.

Celebrate the holidays with Cynthia and An Endless Christmas by entering her $100 Target gift card giveaway!

 

One grand prize winner will receive:

• A copy of An Endless Christmas
• A $100 gift card to Target

Enter today by clicking the icon below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on November 30th. The winner will be announced December 1st on Cynthia's blog.

My Review

I enjoy reading Cynthia Ruchti’s online devotions, so was looking forward to reading this novel. While it had the same excellent writing and spiritual insight her devotions had, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped. To start with, I felt like I’d been dumped in the middle of something as Katie Vale doesn’t accept her boyfriend’s marriage proposal, made in front of his entire extended family on the first day of their week-long Christmas celebration (we then backtracked, which made me wonder why we didn’t start with the backtrack and move forward).

There was also Katie’s personal insecurities which led her to turn down Micah’s proposal, and her unwillingness to talk about them:

“It frustrates me when I read a novel about a conflict between people that goes on and on when all they need to do is sit down and talk to each other for a few minutes. And listen to each other.”

I agree. This bugs me as well. So why did it take until the halfway point in An Endless Christmas for Katie and Micah to have this conversation? The other thing that bugged me was the Binder family: there were so many of them it became difficult to keep them straight, and they were too perfect. Yes, I know they weren’t actually perfect, but even their imperfections seemed perfect, which meant it didn’t ring true for me.

However, there were things we can all learn from the Binders, even if they are a little too perfect. The importance of family. The importance of God in our lives. The importance of finding joy where we are, of finding delight, of being satisfied with what we have.

Thanks to Worthy Books, Litfuse Publicity and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

This book counts towards my 2015 Reading Challenge as a book set during Christmas.