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First Line Friday — Specters in The Glass House

Happy Friday! I reviewed Specters in The Glass House by Jaime Jo Wright last week, but failed to post the first line in a timely fashion. So here it is — the first line of an atmospheric dual timeline novel with all the spookiness you could love. It’s a great line of an equally great book!

Death had always been fashionable.

AN OMINOUS BUTTERFLY HOUSE. A SINISTER LEGACY. AN UNTRACEABLE KILLER.

In 1921, Marian Arnold, the heiress to a brewing baron’s empire, seeks solace in the glass butterfly house on her family’s Wisconsin estate as Prohibition and the deaths of her parents cast a long shadow over her shrinking world. When Marian’s sanctuary is invaded by nightmarish visions, she grapples with the line between hallucinations of things to come and malevolent forces at play in the present.

With dead butterflies as the killer’s ominous signature, murders unfold at a steady pace. Marian, fearful she might be next, enlists the help of her childhood friend Felix, a war veteran with his own haunted past.

In the present day, researcher Remy Shaw becomes entangled in an elderly biographer’s quest to uncover the truth behind Marian Arnold’s mysterious life and the unsolved murders linked to an infamous serial killer. Joined by Marian’s great-great-grandson, can Remy expose the evil that lurks beneath broken wings?

Or will the dark legacy surrounding the manor and its glass house destroy yet another generation?

Jaime Jo Wright, multi award-winning author–including the Christy and Daphne du Maurier awards–is a coffee-fueled and cat-fancier extraordinaire. She has entwined her life with the legendary Captain Hook, residing serenely in Wisconsin’s rural woodlands. Her literary vocation involves penning chilling Gothic tales, a baffling change from that of Austenites, with a strong preference to the master of dark, Edgar Allan Poe. Two mischievous urchins adorn their family, who keep their mother on her toes – providing an exhilarating amount chaos.

Visit her at: http://www.jaimewrightbooks.com and listen to her podcast MadLit Musings on your favorite podcast player or at http://www.madlitmusings.com.

Tags: dual timeline, Jaime Jo Wright, suspense fiction

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Categories First Line Friday

If You Liked . . . The Words We Lost

31 Oct

My book club absolutely loved The Words We Lost by Nicole Deese. This thought-provoking contemporary novel checked all our boxes — characters to love, a subtle, yet strong faith thread, and an ending we all approved of. 😉 If you liked it too, here are a few more books to read.

On Moonberry Lake by Holly Varni

Cora Matthews’s life is a mess. A broken engagement and the unexpected death of her mother have left her wondering if things will ever return to normal. Whatever “normal” is.

It certainly isn’t what she finds at Moonberry Lake. After she receives her family’s dilapidated lakefront lodge as an inheritance–with a surprising condition attached–Cora finds her life overrun by a parade of eccentric neighbors who all have something to say and something to teach her.

As Cora works to put her life back together, she must decide if she is willing to let go of the past, open her heart to love, and embrace the craziest version of family and home she could ever have imagined.

Roots of Wood And Stone by Amanda Wen

This historic home holds the keys to their destiny . . . and their hearts.

Abandoned at birth, her family roots a mystery, historical museum curator Sloane Kelley has dedicated her life to making sure others know theirs. When a donor drops off a dusty old satchel, she doesn’t expect much from the common artifact . . .until she finds real treasure inside: a nineteenth-century diary.Now she’s on the hunt to find out more.

Garrett Anderson just wanted to clean out his grandmother’s historic but tumbledown farmhouse before selling it to fund her medical care. With her advancing Alzheimer’s, he can’t afford to be sentimental about the family home. But his carefully ordered plan runs up against two formidable obstacles: Sloane, who’s fallen in love with both the diaries and the house, and his own heart, which is irresistibly drawn to Sloane.

When He Found Me by Victoria Bylin

An injured athlete with a chip on his shoulder. A single mom with a devastating secret. Will history haunt them, or can love set them free?

Once a strong Christian, third baseman Shane Riley lost his faith the night he injured his knee in a freak car accident. Determined to return to professional baseball and to find the sister he treated badly, Shane retreats to Refuge, Wyoming. There he meets Melissa June “MJ” Townsend, a single mom with an adorable son and a troubled heart.

MJ wants nothing to do with the handsome athlete—no doubt a womanizer considering the stories in the news. But when a mistake results in Shane renting her garage apartment, they become friends. That friendship blossoms into something deep and pure, leaving MJ with a painful secret to tell. Even more complicated, MJ discovers an unexpected tie to Shane’s missing sister—a wounded woman facing a life-or-death decision of her own.

Tags: Amanda Wen, contemporary fiction, dual timeline, Holly Varni, romance fiction, Victoria Bylin, women's fiction

Categories If You Liked . . .

Spotlight on Split-Time Romance — Echoes of A Silent Song

29 Oct

Echoes of a Silent Song JustRead Takeover + Review Blitz

Welcome to the Takeover + Review Blitz for Echoes of a Silent Song by Amanda Wen, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

About The Book

Echoes of a Silent Song

Title: Echoes of a Silent Song
Series: Melodies and Memories #1
Author: Amanda Wen
Publisher: Kregel Publications
Release Date: October 21, 2025
Genre: Split-time Romance

A split-time romance from an award-winning author

When a choral composer and conductor falls victim to creative block, he resorts to his fallback plan of teaching high school choir. Callum Knight’s goal at Peterson High is simple: rediscover his muse, extract himself from teaching, and get back to Boston as quickly as possible.

As the long-suffering accompanist at the high school, Peterson-native Blair Emerson has watched the revolving door of choir directors and their negative impact on her choirs over the last few years. She is less than impressed when a disheveled Callum stumbles in on his first day.

But then they discover an unsigned, unfinished, and handwritten choral composition by a clear musical genius. Blair recalls rumors of Iris, a Peterson student from the 1970s who composed music but was found dead during her senior year. Blair and Callum work to determine if the piece is hers, and the truth they uncover shakes both of them to the core.

With rhythm and flair, Amanda Wen takes readers on an unexpected journey into the depths of a small town’s history in this riveting first book in the Melodies and Memories duology.

Excerpt

“I wasn’t her type. Not good enough for her. Or her parents.” His gaze shifted to something behind Callum, and he smiled and waved. “Sorry, Callum, I just spied some alumni I haven’t seen in a decade. If you’ll excuse me?” Without waiting for a reply, he clapped Callum on the back and strode away.

Callum watched him leave, the stadium lights reflecting off his satiny Peterson Patriots jacket. It was entirely plausible. The librarian could have interpreted events one way, while Vic’s version could be the real story.

But why would Vic have first claimed not to know Iris at all? Why not just come out with the truth? They’d dated briefly and ended things. That happened often enough in high school. And maybe Iris meant so little to him, maybe the relationship had been so brief, that Vic truly hadn’t remembered it. Not until something jogged his memory.

But what didn’t happen every day was someone’s high school significant other passing away while still in high school. Surely that would’ve been worth at least a little bit of brain space.

Blair was still up in the stands, clutching a Styrofoam cup of something and leaning over to talk to Joy. Her puffy coat and her adorable hat were the same shade of Peterson blue, and her fingertips were peeking out of a cute little pair of white gloves, and why did the words cute and adorable continually spring to mind when he saw her outside of work? It was bad enough Wednesday with the T- shirt and jeans, and now, with her all bundled up like a snow princess despite the fifty- degree temperature . . .

At least he didn’t find her cute at work yet. That would make things wicked awkward.

Well, cute or not, he needed to talk to her. Tell her what Vic said and get her read on it. She knew Vic far better than he did. And he wanted to believe Vic.

But right now, he wasn’t quite sure he did.

Also Available:

About The Author

Amanda Wen

Amanda Wen is a Carol– and Selah Award–winning and Parable best-selling author of inspirational romance and split-time women’s fiction, including Roots of Wood and Stone, The Songs That Could Have Been, and The Rhythm of Fractured Grace. She is also a professional musician. She lives in Wichita, Kansas, with her husband and three children.

Connect with Amanda by visiting amandawen.com to follow her on social media or subscribe to email newsletter updates.

Tour Giveaway

(1) winner will receive a signed copy of Echoes of a Silent Song and a $20 Amazon gift card!

Echoes of a Silent Song JustRead Giveaway

Be sure to check out each stop on the tour for more chances to win. Full tour schedule linked below. Giveaway began at midnight October 29, 2025 and lasts through 11:59 PM EST on November 5, 2025. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US/CAN only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.

Enter Giveaway

Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!

Tags: Amanda Wen, contemporary romance fiction, dual timeline, historical romance fiction

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Categories What's New

Top 10 Tuesday — Fall TBR

23 Sep

Happy Tuesday! I’m finally back with another TTT post. It has been crazy the last few months, and I haven’t had the mental bandwidth to come up with lists that I think anyone would want to read. 😉 I have a few days to breathe and this week’s topic, Fall TBR, should be a no-brainer, so here is my list. I don’t have a lot of mandatory reading so this list is fairly loose — books that have caught my eye and I hope to read them in the coming weeks. Let me know which ones you have enjoyed.

For more Fall Reading Lists, please visit That Artsy Reader Girl.

Top 10 Books on My Fall TBR List

Between The Sound And Sea by Amanda Cox

Canyon of Deceit by DiAnn Mills

Echoes of A Silent Song by Amanda Wen

Final Approach by Lynette Eason

From The Valley We Rise by Elizabeth Musser

The Heart of Bennett Hollow by Joanne Bischof DeWitt

Over The Edge by Irene Hannon

Perilous Tides by Elizabeth Goddard

The Stories We Carry by Robin Pearson

The Words We Lost by Nicole Deese

Tags: Amanda Cox, Amanda Wen, DiAnn Mills, dual timeline, Elizabeth Goddard, Elizabeth Musser, historical fiction, historical romance fiction, Irene Hannon, Joanne Bischof DeWitt, Lynette Eason, Nicole Deese, Robin Pearson, romantic suspense fiction, women's fiction

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Categories Top 10 Tuesday

First Line Friday — Every Hour Until Then

1 Aug

I love the Timeless series by Gabrielle Meyer. Each book in this historical time-traveling series is fascinating and unputdownable! I have books 4 and 5 to read before book 6 releases in November. It’s a daunting task, but someone has to do it! Today I am featuring book 5, Every Hour Until Then.

Here’s the first line:

October 31, 1887

London, England

A cold wind rattled the window frame in my bedroom at 11 Wilton Crescent as the edges of a tree branch scraped across the glass.

Gifted with the ability to time-cross between Victorian-era London and World War II Washington, DC, Kathryn faces two lives fraught with danger. In 1938 amid the looming shadow of war, Kathryn is invited to the London Museum as a guest curator to create a groundbreaking exhibit on Jack the Ripper and his reign of terror. As she delves into her grim research, she uncovers a chilling truth: Her own sister is destined to become the Ripper’s final victim decades earlier.

In 1888, in a race against fate, Kathryn is assisted by her handsome childhood friend in hunting down history’s most elusive killer. As they unravel the threads of mystery woven through time, Kathryn must decide if she’ll unmask the murderer history has chosen to hide, forfeiting a life with the man she loves to save her sister.

Gabrielle Meyer lives in central Minnesota on the banks of the upper Mississippi River with her husband and four children. As an employee of the Minnesota Historical Society, she fell in love with the rich history of her state and enjoys writing fictional stories inspired by real people, places, and events. You can learn more about Gabrielle and her books at http://www.gabriellemeyer.com.

Tags: dual timeline, Gabrielle Meyer, historical fiction, time travel

Categories First Line Friday

If You Liked . . . The Light on Horn Island

31 Jul

The Light on Horn Island by Valerie Fraser Luesse was a big hit with my book club. We all loved it! If you are looking for multi-generational women’s fiction with some mystery and history, then this book is for you! If you have already read it and would like more books like it, here are a few reading recommendations.

On Moonberry Lake by Holly Varni

Cora Matthews’s life is a mess. A broken engagement and the unexpected death of her mother have left her wondering if things will ever return to normal. Whatever “normal” is.

It certainly isn’t what she finds at Moonberry Lake. After she receives her family’s dilapidated lakefront lodge as an inheritance–with a surprising condition attached–Cora finds her life overrun by a parade of eccentric neighbors who all have something to say and something to teach her.

As Cora works to put her life back together, she must decide if she is willing to let go of the past, open her heart to love, and embrace the craziest version of family and home she could ever have imagined.

A Place to Land by Lauren K. Denton

Violet Figg and her sister Trudy have lived a quiet life in Sugar Bend, Alabama, since a night forty years ago that stole Trudy’s voice and cemented Violet’s role as her sister’s fierce and loyal protector. Now Trudy spends her days making sculptures from found objects and speaking through notes written on scraps of paper, while Violet runs their art shop, monitors bird activity up and down the water, and tries not to think of the one great love she gave up to keep her sister safe.

Eighteen-year-old Maya knows where everyone else belongs, but she’s been searching for her own place since her grandmother died seven years ago. Moving in and out of strangers’ houses has left her exhausted. After seeing a flyer on a gas station window for a place called Sugar Bend, Maya chooses to follow the strange pull she feels and finds herself on the doorstep of an art shop called Two Sisters.

When a boat rises to the surface of Little River in the middle of the night, the present and no-longer-buried past collide, and the future becomes uncertain for Maya, Violet, and Trudy. As history creeps continuously closer to the present and old secrets come to light, the sisters must decide to face the truth of what happened that night forty years ago, or risk losing each other and those they’ve come to love.

The Songs That Could Have Been by Amanda Wen

After a tailspin in her late teens, Lauren Anderson’s life is finally back on track. Her battle with bulimia is under control, her career is taking off, and she’s surrounded by a loving family. Then a chance meeting with Carter Douglas, her first love and the man who broke her heart, leads to old feelings returning with new strength. And suddenly her well-balanced world is thrown off kilter.

Now a TV meteorologist, Carter is determined to make amends with Lauren. After all, she still owns his heart. But the reasons they broke up aren’t lost–and those old demons are forcing him toward the same decision he faced in the past. He isn’t sure he’s courageous enough to make a different choice this time around.

When Lauren’s elderly grandmother, Rosie, begins having nightmares about a man named Ephraim–a name her family has never heard before–a fascinating and forbidden past love comes to light. As Lauren and Carter work to uncover the untold stories of Rosie’s past in 1950s Wichita, they embark on a journey of forgiveness and second chances that will change their lives–and Rosie’s–forever. Along the way they’ll learn that God wastes nothing, his timing is perfect, and nothing is beyond his grace and redemption.

Tags: Amanda Wen, dual timeline, Holly Varni, Lauren K. Denton, women's fiction

Categories If You Liked . . .

Top 10 Tuesday — What I Read (And Loved) in July 2015

1 Jul

Happy Tuesday! Today is a Freebie Day with a bit of a throwback vibe. I am listing the books I read and loved in July 2015. This was an easy post to compile since I keep a list of all the books I read by month and year. Plus it was fun to lock back on the great books that I have read in the past. If you haven’t read some on my list, I hope you find one to love.

For more great bloggers’ lists, please visit That Artsy Reader Girl.

First Line Friday — For A Lifetime

20 Jun

Happy Friday! Have you read any of the books in Gabrielle Meyer‘s Timeless series? I am hopelessly behind, but am determined to get caught up. I am currently listening to the audiobook of For A Lifetime, but I do have it downloaded on my Kindle too, so I am hoping to get this book finished quickly. It is a dual timeline/time travel novel featuring twins who live in 1692 and 1912. Whew! It sounds really complicated, and it is, but it is also a riveting story of two women choosing their paths in settings rich in historical detail. I love it and cannot wait to find out how it is all going to end for Grace and Hope. If you have read it, I would love to know your thoughts.

Here’s the first line:

It was a strange reality to be on the precipice of tragedy and not be able to stop it.

Grace and Hope are identical twin sisters born with the ability to time-cross together between 1692 Salem, Massachusetts, and 1912 New York City. As their twenty-fifth birthday approaches, they will have to choose one life to keep and one to leave behind forever–no matter the cost.

In 1692, they live and work in their father’s tavern, where they must watch helplessly as the witch trials unfold in their village, threatening everyone. With the help of a handsome childhood friend, they search for the truth behind their mother’s mysterious death, risking everything to expose a secret that could save their lives–or be their undoing.

In 1912, Hope dreams of becoming one of the first female pilots in America, and Grace works as an investigative journalist, uncovering corruption and injustice. After their parents’ orphanage is threatened by an adversary, they enter a contest to complete a perilous cross-country flight under the guidance of a daring French aviator.

The sisters have already decided which timeline they will choose, but an unthinkable tragedy complicates the future they planned for themselves. As their birthday looms, how will they determine the lives–and loves–that are best for both of them?

Find Gabrielle on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/AuthorGabrielleMeyer, Pinterest at http://www.Pinterest.com/gabriellemeyer/, Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MeyerGabrielle, Goodreads, and her Website at http://www.gabriellemeyer.com.

Tags: dual timeline, Gabrielle Meyer, historical fiction, historical romance fiction, time travel

Comments 1 Comment
Categories First Line Friday