Why Julie Lessman Inspires Me

By Kelly Bridgewater

Here I am with my eleventh month of authors who inspire my writing. If you have missed any of them, go ahead and look back at my previous posts. I have written about C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, J. R. Tolkien, Arthur Conan Doyle, Alexandre Dumas, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Steven James, Robin Jones Gunn, Dee Henderson, and Susan May Warren.

Today, I’m going to talk about Julie Lessman.

From Amazon

Lessman writes romance, which is not what I typically read, but I read her book A Passion Most Pure because I downloaded it for Free for my Kindle. But I was surprised how much I loved Lessman’s writing.

She does not write a simple romance story with obstacles in their way. Lessman really understands the internal, physical, and emotion behind the love. The hero and the heroine have to fight against the demands of love.

The characters are written so well with great obstacles to overcome. Plus, the stories are historical romances, so the reader can learn something about the 1930 in Boston and San Francisco.

I’m glad that Lessman has written ten books to date. I have read almost all of them and loved reading about the O’Connors, which were featured in seven books. As a reader who enjoys returning to familiar characters as they are the heroine or hero in the book, then returning to them as they grow and make an appearance in a future book, I was glad to see Lessman created seven book, which start with the story of how the parents fell in love, then moves on to tell the trials and tribulations of their six children as they handle the waves of romance in their personal lives.

Lessman has taught me how to construct a romance that is realistic and grabs the reader’s attention. I have spend time reading her book that she wrote on writing romance titled Romance-ology 101: Writing Romantic Tension for the Inspirational and Sweet Markets. I have spent time studying and losing myself in the romance she sparks between her hero and heroines.  The Love is realistic and grips my heart with every story. Lessman has also shown me the love between a man and woman should also parallel the love that we have for God. It is passionate and demanding of our time, but the more time we invest in our significant other and God, the better return on our investment. What a great lesson from a great writer!

How many of Julie Lessman’s books have you read? What is your favorite aspect about her writing?

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Who's ready for a book GIVEAWAY!?! Do you like historical romance? Then this is the giveaway for you! 10 authors have teamed up to bring you a fun giveaway -- just in time for your spring reading. Enter to win one of the books pictured here -- there will be 10 winners in all, each winning 1 book. You may need to log into Facebook again. This contest is not endorsed, administered, or sponsored by Facebook. Open to US residents only. GOOD LUCK! 


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A Writer's Review of Julie Lessman's "A Love Surrendered" by member blogger Dawn Crandall

I hardly know what to write... where to start... except to say I am so in love with the words in this book. No, scratch that—I think I’m in love with all of the words in all of Julie Lessman’s books.

I spent a long time reading A Love Surrendered—longer than usual because, first of all, my preparing for the ACFW conference got in the way, then attending the conference took up about a week, and then I felt the need to go through my own 88,000 word manuscript (in three days) one last time before sending it off... but mostly, because I just plain didn’t want it to end!

Ah, yes—all the while I was thinking about Steven O’Connor and Annie Kennedy—trapped in the midst of their intense, angst-filled relationship. When will he see how double-minded he is? Why won’t he admit he’s in love with her? When would she tell her sister? And HOW ON EARTH ARE THESE TWO EVER TRULY GOING TO BE TOGETHER? 

Yes, well. You get the gist. 

And then there’s the whole entire rest of the 400+ page book filled with sub-plots involving the parents and the other five siblings (and their spouses) of the O’Connor clan... and oh, how they’re all still so intriguing!

At the end of Chapter 14... I’m pretty sure I was in love the most right there. It still gives me chills just thinking about it. I took a picture of the words on my kindle so I can see them anytime I want. These potent, soul-stirring words have nothing to do with the romance between the two star-crossed lovers, but between the God of the universe and one stubborn, hard-headed man—and that man’s heart being won over by the best Lover of all. 

Oh... and he was.

Thankfully there is still one more book—a prequel, actually—about the O’Connor clan that comes out next month in eBook form. A Light in the Window is the (ever-complicated, I’m sure) love story between the O’Connor parents, Patrick and Marcy... and I JUST downloaded it to my kindle in preps for a blog tour next month (Yippee!). You can just bet you know what book I’ll be reading next. It’s true, I wish I could have Julie’s words pumped into my veins. 

I received a complimentary and unedited (it hasn’t quite been through the complete editing process yet) eBook version of A Love Surrendered by Revell Books (through NetGalley.com) in order to give a review containing my complete and utterly honest opinion. 

I give Julie Lessman’s A Love Surrendered 5 GLOWING Stars.

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READ THESE BOOKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“The Daughter’s of Boston” Series

     

The “Winds of Change” Series
         
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And One Last Thing!
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Love At Any Cost, book one in Julie’s new series “The Heart of San Francisco” comes out in April!
 

 Fooled by a pretty boy once,

shame on him.

Fooled by a pretty boy twice,

shame on me.

Jilted by a fortune hunter, cowgirl Cassady McClare is a spunky Texas oil heiress without a fortune who would just as soon hogtie a man as look at him … until Jamie MacKenna, a handsome pauper looking to marry well lassos her heart. But when Jamie discovers the woman he loves is poorer than him, Cassie finds herself bucked by love a second time, sending her back to Texas to lick her wounds and heal her heart. In her absence, Jamie discovers money can’t buy love, but love built on faith can set a heart free, a truth he discovers a little too late … or is it?
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Dawn Crandall writes long inspirational historical romantic suspense from first person point of view and is represented by Joyce Hart of Hartline Literary Agency. She has written two books which are on submission as part of a series, and is working on the third. Soon after finishing her first book and becoming a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) in July 2011 she attended the ACFW national conference where she gained literary representation and soon-after became a 2012 ACFW Genesis Contest Semi-Finalist. She has a BA in Christian Education from Taylor University, writes full-time and lives in northeast Indiana with her ever-supportive engineer husband, Jonathan, and their two cats, Lilly and Pumpkin. Dawn co-hosts a book review blog called A Passion for Pages at apassionforpages.blogspot.com and tweets those reviews at @dawnwritesfirst. To find out more about her, visit her author webpage at dawncrandall.blogspot.com or her Facebook author page: facebook.com/DawnCrandallWritesFirst.