Quilted by Christmas by Jodie Bailey

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Quilted by Christmas Abingdon Press (October 21, 2014) by Jodie Bailey

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A note from the Author: Well, I’m a regular ol’ person. Who just happens to write. A lot. Probably more than I should. I firmly believe that God created me to be a writer. From the time I learned how to string letters together into words I’ve been making up stories. Believe me… I have a very rich imagination. I used to think I was weird; now I know God just put me together that way. I can’t even watch commercials without expanding them into stories in my head. I am humbled and honored all at the same time that God looked down from heaven on me and said, “Jodie, do what you love.” Wow… how awesome is that?


I have always loved to write. I have stories that I wrote when I was in first grade. I used to sit at my grandmother’s yellow electric typewriter for hours, banging out my own little stories. When I was eleven, she bought me a typewriter of my own (It was 1984, okay?) and I would write and write on it. I wrote stories out by hand, and they ran to hundreds of pages. I got my first computer when I was eighteen, and the first thing I did was write a story on it. I wrote for school. I wrote for fun. I wrote for my friends. I’d get them on the phone and make up stories for them. (I earned the nickname “Dreamweaver” for that one. Nobody calls me that anymore, but it still stands as the coolest nickname I ever had.)

My Thoughts on This Book:

WOW! Another fantastic Quilts of Love story.. Each one gets better and better. I just love how each author implements the use of a quilt. Pulling the story together one thread at a time. This story takes us to a small town in the mountains of North Carolina, just before Christmas. Taryn, a high school history teacher, is living life the way she feels was meant to be. Alone. After making a mess of her relationship with Justin, her high school sweet heart 12 years earlier, she feels her life is doomed to be lived alone. 

All she has is her wonderful grandmother, Jemma. After Jemma takes a tumble and lands in the hospital, Taryn has to pick up the pieces where her grandmother left off to put together a quilt for her cousin before she ties the knot with her fiance'. As the quilt pieces are put together, Taryn's life feels like it's coming unwound as her ex-boyfriend comes home and turns her life upside down.

Can Justin and Taryn, mend their relationship and put their pasts behind them to have a future together? You will want to know once you pick up the book. I couldn't put it down until the last page. Read it in one day it was that good! Can't wait to see what the next book is about in this Quilts of Love series...

ABOUT THE BOOK

Taryn McKenna believes she’s easy to forget. Abandoned by her parents and left behind when her high school sweetheart joined the army, she vows to never love again and throws herself into her love for the outdoors and the pursuit of a college degree—something no one else in her family has ever accomplished. Her goal, as a young teacher in the hills of North Carolina, is to leave a legacy in the lives of the middle-schoolers she teaches. When Taryn’s grandmother Jemma, the only other person who ever held her close, has a heart attack that reveals a fatal medical condition, Taryn is corralled into helping Grandma work on a final project—an Irish chain quilt that tells the story of her history and the love Jemma knows is out there for Taryn. As the pieces of the quilt come together, Taryn begins to see her value. Can she learn to believe that God will never leave her behind even though others have?


If you would like to read the first chapter of Quilted by Christmas, go HERE.

I have received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given.