Monday, February 27, 2017

Review ~ Shine Like the Dawn Celebration Tour + Giveaway

First off, I want to apologize to Celebrate Lit and the author for my tardiness in posting on my date during the tour. Due to an emergency, I was out of town all last week and just couldn't get my review posted. Thank you for your understanding and showing me grace during this difficult time.



 
Click here to purchase your copy.

About the Book

Book: Shine Like the Dawn  

Author: Carrie Turansky  

Genre: Historical

In a quiet corner of northern Edwardian England, Margaret Lounsbury diligently works in her grandmother’s millinery shop, making hats and caring for her young sister. Several years earlier, a terrible tragedy reshaped their family, shattering an idyllic life and their future prospects. But Maggie is resilient and will do what she must to protect her sister Violet. Still, the loss of her parents weighs heavily on her heart and she begins to wonder if what happened that day on the lake…might not have been an accident.

When wealthy inventor and industrialist William Harcourt dies, his son Nathaniel, who is Maggie’s estranged childhood friend, returns from his time in the Royal Navy and inherits his father’s vast estate, Morningside Manor. He also assumes partial control of his father’s engineering company and the duty of repaying an old debt to the Lounsbury family. But years of separation between Nate and Maggie have taken a toll and Maggie struggles to trust her old friend.

Can Maggie let go of the resentment that keeps her from forgiving Nate—and reconciling with God? Will their search for the truth about her parents’ death draw them closer or will it leave them both with broken hearts?

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My Thoughts

Shine Like the Dawn is a beautiful depiction of faith and family and love, radiating a sunburst of emotions that swept this reader deep into the story, making it difficult to come up for air. At first, I wasn’t sure if Maggie and Nate were going to overcome the past but they did and ended up having a lovely romance entwined with a more than satisfying mystery. There are elements of a couple of classic novels woven into this story and I was pleased to recognize some of the labor tensions from North & South (Gaskell). In my opinion, Turansky is an author not to be missed. Her ability to bring the Edwardian Era to life on the printed page is amazing! I thoroughly enjoyed this story.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from CelebrateLit and the author for participating in this blog tour. No compensation has been received and all opinions stated are my own.
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About the Author




CARRIE TURANSKY is an award-winning author of more than a dozen novels and novellas. She has been the winner of the ACFW Carol Award, the Crystal Globe Award, and the International Digital Award, and a finalist for the Inspirational Readers Choice Award and the Maggie Award of Excellence. A prolific writer of contemporary and historical romance, women’s fiction, short stories, articles, and devotionals, Carrie lives in central New Jersey with her husband Scott. They have five adult children and four grandchildren.

 

Guest Post from Carrie Turansky

Hats, Glorious Hats!

By Carrie Turansky

One fun part of my research for Shine Like the Dawn was learning about hat making in the early customers request, so that creates some humorous conflict in the story.
1900s. My heroine, Maggie Lounsbury is a milliner who designs women’s hats. She learned this skill from her grandmother who owns a small shop in the village of Heatherton. Maggie has an artistic eye and she enjoys making stylish hats, but she doesn’t like the overdone designs some of their

Hats in the Edwardian era were large and often covered with feathers, flowers, lace, netting, berries and bows. The “bird nests,” as Coco Chanel called them, were held on with large hat pins stuck through piles of hair on the crown. These hats were called Gainsborough or Picture hats because of the way they framed a lady’s face. They often featured huge dried flower arrangements and sometimes included real leaves and twigs! No doubt the Garden hat was a fitting name. 1907 The Merry Window hat became very popular after the leading lady in the play by that same name wore a hat that was even taller and wider than usual. Some people complained these hats were too big and obtrusive in public places like the theater or picture shows. But English women loved them and wore them to all kinds of events.

The popularity of using large feathers and stuffed birds on hats caused concern for the welfare of birds. Many protective laws took effect and milliners had to use more ribbon and tulle and only large ostrich feathers to decorate hats. Those ostrich feathers came from birds that were raised on farms and their feathers were collected as they fell out naturally. The movement toward smaller hats began around 1913 when hats still had high crowns but smaller brims. Straw boaters, small top hats, and mini versions of picture hats were very common.

Motion pictures had the greatest influence on Edwardian hat fashion. After the release of The Three Musketeers many ladies wanted to wear tricorne and bicorne shaped hats. They were still very large but now had shapes other than just round. Hat brims were folded up on the side, at an angle, or all around to create drama. Veils disappeared in the early 1900s only to come back again as a long scarf that wrapped over the hat and under the chin for the new sport called motoring.

I’ve had fun dressing Edwardian style for book launch tea parties and other book events. It made me feel very special to wear these lovely hats. What do you think of Edwardian Hats? Would you like to wear one?

Thanks to friends at the Vintage Dancer website for some of this information.

Stop by Carrie’s Facebook author page and view her live videos February 21 – 25, 3:00 pm Eastern. She’ll be talking about the story behind Shine Like the Dawn and giving away a fun prize each day to one person who leaves a comment. Even if you can’t catch the live video you can still enter for 24 hours after it’s posted. She is also hosting a book launch celebration and giveaway on her blog February 25 – March 6.

Like to my Facebook Author page: https://www.facebook.com/authorcarrieturansky/
Link to my Book Launch Blog Post: http://carrieturansky.com/index.php/blog/

Blog Stops


February 21: New Horizon Reviews
February 21: Bookworm Mama
February 22: Book by Book
February 23: Bibliophile Reviews
February 23: Smiling Book Reviews
February 23: A Readers Brain
February 23: Faithfully Bookish
February 23: Lane Hill House
February 24: Back Porch Reads
February 24: The Scribbler
February 24: I Hope You Dance
February 25: Stuff & Nonsense
February 25: The Power of Words
February 25: A Greater Yes
February 26: cherylbbookblog
February 26: Moments Dipped in Ink
February 26: Splashes of Joy
February 27: Genesis 5020
February 27: inklings and notions
February 27: D’S QUILTS & BOOKS
February 28: Karen Sue Hadley
February 28: Neverending Stories
March 3: Pause for Tales
March 3: Mary Hake
March 4: Radiant Light
March 6: Baker Kella

Giveaway



To celebrate her tour, Carrie is giving away all 4 books: Shine Like the Dawn, The Governess of Highland Hall, The Daughter of Highland Hall, and A Refuge at Highland Hall.! Click below to enter. Be sure to comment on this post before you enter to claim 9 extra entries! https://promosimple.com/ps/b0fb

18 comments:

  1. Anne, you do review the nicest books! Anything to do with the Edwardian era is so enjoyable to read....and hats too!

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    1. Hey Barbara! You can't go wrong with one written by Carrie Turansky!!! I absolutely wait in agonizing anticipation for her books to be released. :)
      I don't wear hats but can appreciate their beauty. If only I looked good in them...

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  2. Hi Anne, thank you for reading and reviewing Shine Like the Dawn. I always enjoy your blog posts, and it's a real treat to be featured here. That was fun to see you noted the elements similar to North and South. I enjoyed showing the village like and adding a mystery to this story. I'm so glad I have have brainstorming partners and an excellent editor to help me with that part! Blessings to you, Carrie

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    1. Hey Carrie, North & South (Gaskell) is one of my favorites books. Crazy that I don't own a copy! Your writing is so beautiful. I appreciate the romance element but I do connect with the spiritual so much more. Thanks for a lovely reading time! I've passed it on to a friend of mine at Bible study. Can't wait to see what she thinks. She's read your other books that I've loaned her and loved them. :)

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  3. I sure have been wanting to read these books! This is a great giveaway! Thanks so much! I hope to win!
    grandmama_brenda(at)yahoo(dot)com

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    1. Hi Brenda, It's a great series! You will enjoy it.

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  4. Thanks for the review. Love the stories about the hats me personally I cant wear hats but they did wear some interesting ones. Thanks for the giveaway maybe I'll get lucky and win all four.

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    1. Hi Elma, Hats are fascinating but I don't wear them either. I hope you get an opportunity to read the series if you don't win. It's excellent!

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  5. Don't you just love Carrie's books! Thank you for sharing her guest post.

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  6. So interesting! I have never worn hats, but I remember my grandmother wearing them and my mother even wore some when I was a little girl. Her hat boxes on the closet shelf were a item of curiosity for me. It would be nice to see them come back in style.

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    1. Hey Rebecca, I loved trying on my granny's hats! She always wore them when she went to town. My mom had hats too. Us girls even debated on wearing one of them we each got married but we didn't. Now I wish one of us had done that. I like to look at the pictures of the royals and all their stylish hats.

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  7. What a great giveaway. Great books from a wonderful author.

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    1. Hi Cari, I can't wait to see who wins the set of books! It's a fabulous series!!!

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  8. Can I just say that I love that women were influenced by the Three Musketeers' hats? They obviously didn't care that those were originally a men's style, lol. It just goes to show that style inspiration can come from anywhere, I suppose!

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    1. Hi Karen, Who knew the history of hats could be so educational?! I'm sure it's a lot of fun researching those kinds things.

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I am so delighted that you've taken time to come by and comment. Blessings for a joy-filled day!

1 Corinthians 1:3 ~ Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.