A Love Surrendered by Julie Lessman, ©2012

 FINALE ~*~ FINALE ~*~ FINALE ~*~ FINALE ~*~ FINALE ~*~ FINALE ~*~ FINALE


Here it is! The last book in the Winds of Change series by Julie Lessman ~ but wait ~ she's not retiring from writing!! In fact, there is a prequel coming out in November in e-book you won't want to miss, either, about the founding family love, Patrick and his wife Marcy.

A Light in the Window: An Irish Christmas Love Story begins in 1895 following a decade of explosive industrial growth and immigration that Mark Twain called America’s “Gilded Age,” when the nation plummets into the worst economic depression at that time.
Marceline O’Connor and her best friend Julie O’Rourke have been selected to assist Sister Mary Frances with the Christmas play fundraiser for the St. Mary’s parish soup kitchen. The play is called A Light in the Window, based on the Irish custom of placing a candle in the window on Christmas Eve to welcome strangers as if welcoming the Holy Family.
Julie Lessman continues:

One of the reasons I am so passionate about this story is because of the poignant message behind this beautiful Irish custom, a message driven home by the play itself and Marcy's grandmother Mima when she arrives for Christmas. Mima cautions Marcy to guard her heart for the type of man who will respond to the "light in the window," meaning the message of Christ in her heart. Marcy soon discovers that although two men have professed their undying love for her, only one has responded to “the light in the window.” This is a message I learned myself as a young woman and a message I long to pass on.

WHERE AM I?? I am reviewing A Love Surrendered! I get so excited! Being half-Irish, my insides just light up with these stories of Julie Lessman's!
One more before I get started. I had this on my frig for my girls to be reminded of: Guard your heart for out of it comes the issues of life. [Proverbs 4:23 "Guard your heart more than anything else, because the source of your life flows from it."]

Steven O’Connor's story, A Love Surrendered is here! But it takes two, doesn't it! It is Annie's story too. But she doesn't know it yet. Whoa!!! Will he know it when he finds out she is Maggie's baby sister?? [Oh, come on, are you going to stop reading because I've given you a spoiler??] How could I keep that to myself that she is Maggie's sister. I guess if you haven't read the previous books you won't know who Maggie is. You are going to have to catch up!! But then, maybe you don't know who Steven is either ~ previously, before he finds out he is so attracted to these Kennedy girls!

Let's back up. Annie Kennedy is orphaned in Iowa and moves to Boston to stay with her auntie. Dared by a "friend" she waits until the house is quiet and sneaks out to go to the Ocean Pier to join the dancing and night lights at the pavilion. She is accosted along the way, stupidly taking a short cut she knows of during the daylight hours, and is rescued by off duty policeman, Steven O'Connor. Actually, he is a prohibition agent, but close enough. The inebriated guys take off and so does Annie. Later on as he goes to meet his old friends, he finds Miss Annie with them. Frowning on this mismatched company, he "rescues" her again and escorts her home. She thanks him with a kiss and he decides she certainly is naive. He is going to teach her a lesson but it backfires on him! Hmmm, why is he still thinking of her the next day, and the next? And Annie... who is snuggling with his jacket he has left with her to warm her...

Have we got all of these O'Connor's married off? Well, you will have to get a copy of A Love Surrendered and find out for yourself. You are definitely going to love Julie Lessman's books! No matter what she writes, they are filled with excitement, drama, and adventure.

Julie Lessman is the popular author of A Passion Most Pure, A Passion Redeemed, and A Passion Denied, as well as A Hope Undaunted, which was one of 2010's Booklist Top Ten Inspirational Fiction winners, and A Heart Revealed [http://lanehillhouse.blogspot.com/2012/01/heart-revealed-by-julie-lessman-c2011.html]. Lessman has garnered several writing awards, including fourteen Romance Writers of America awards, and was chosen as the #1 Romance Fiction Author of the Year in the Family Fiction magazine 2012 and 2011 Readers Choice Awards. She lives in Missouri. [So do I!] You can contact Julie through her website at www.julielessman.com.

Thank you to Revell Blog Tour Network Historical Fiction for the offer of this book in exchange for a review in my own words.