A new favorite author...

Not long ago, I posted about discovering Hallee Bridgeman at this year's Arizona Dreamin', a Readers' Event.

I'm a planner in many things, though writing isn't one of them. In writing, I'm a pantster. Sorry, sidetracked. Yes, I'm also easily sidetracked. Where was I?

Conference. I knew I'd have the opportunity to choose to meet several authors, so I looked over the names. Many of the authors I already knew or they wrote romance novels I wasn't particularly interested in reading. I'm not a huge fan of first person, except in the case of an autobiography. I know, not typical, but I've never claimed to be typical.

The authors I didn't know I investigated. I checked their websites and looked up their books on Amazon. If they had a free download of a short story, I accepted the opportunity.

I read Hallee's novella Greater than Rubies, a follow up to her novel Sapphire Ice. I loved it. I wrote about the wonderful experience in a previous post.

http://laurelhawkes.blogspot.com/2014/06/hallee-bridgeman.html

I bought her paperback book The Jewel Anthology in the bookstore provided at the conference. It includes all three of her Jewel novels and the novella. It also includes the study guides and recipes accompanying each book. It made to the top of my To-Be-Read pile this past month. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. It was a delight to have all the stories together. The heroes and heroines are unique and yet share common threads of faith, either well developed faith or stepping onto the path.

They're Christian romances with real characters. People who have made mistakes. Horrible things have happened in their lives. They question their faith and struggle. In each story, I searched my own heart, my own faith, my own journey. I finished feeling uplifted and inspired.

These stories are the kind of romances I like to read. I've added her suspense books to my wish list.