Happy Wednesday! Continuing through Saturday (culminating with a list of winners), I have the privilege of sharing mini interviews with nearly all of the 2019 ACFW Carol Award Finalists! Today I’m covering the mystery/suspense/thriller & romantic suspense categories, including Jaime Jo Wright and her Carol Award nominated book The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond! You can check out a list of all the finalists HERE.
FYI – There will be several posts per day, and a week-long giveaway, so make sure you catch them all!
Daphne du Maurier and Christy Award Winning author Jaime Jo Wright, pens romantic suspense stained with history’s secrets. Coffee drinker by day, and coffee drinker by night. Visit her at http://www.jaimewrightbooks.com
THE RECKONING AT GOSSAMER POND
GENRE: Inspirational Suspense
PUBLISHER: Bethany House Publishers
RELEASE DATE: July 3, 2018
PAGES: 352
For over a century, the town of Gossamer Grove has thrived on its charm and midwestern values, but Annalise Forsythe knows painful secrets, including her own, hover just beneath the pleasant façade. When a man is found dead in his run-down trailer home, Annalise inherits the trailer, along with the pictures, vintage obituaries, and old revival posters covering its walls. As she sorts through the collection, she’s wholly unprepared for the ramifications of the dark and deadly secrets she’ll uncover.
A century earlier, Gossamer Grove has been stirred into chaos by the arrival of controversial and charismatic twin revivalists. The chaos takes a murderous turn when Libby Sheffield, working at her father’s newspaper, receives an obituary for a reputable church deacon hours before his death. As she works with the deacon’s son to unravel the mystery behind the crime, it becomes undeniably clear that a reckoning has come to town–but it isn’t until another obituary arrives that they realize the true depths of the danger they’ve waded into.
Two women, separated by a hundred years, must uncover the secrets within the borders of their own town before it’s too late and they lose their future–or their very souls.
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Hi, dear Jaime Jo! Welcome back to the blog!
Q: Why do you write fiction? And, why specifically Christian fiction?
Jaime Jo: I write fiction because stories live inside of me and swirl in my brain and demand that they must come out! Specifically, I like to write Christian fiction because it takes the reader to a deeper level than merely simple entertainment. Hopefully, readers will discover something that encourages or challenges their faith-walk.
Carrie: I’m so glad that you have swirling stories in your brain that demand your attention because then we all benefit!
Q: Other than the Bible, what are a couple of your most cherished books and why?
Jaime Jo: I cherish my copy of Heidi mostly because it was the first big classic my Dad and I read together as a kid, and many people don’t realize the original text was written from a Christian perspective! I also totally dig my Colleen Coble collection. I mean, that’s technically more than 1, but it’s a collection which indicates a singular package of many. Right? I can stretch this a bit, can’t I?
Carrie: Welllll….since it’s Colleen Coble, I’ll allow it 😉
Q: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever Googled while researching a book?
Jaime Jo: How long can a person survive in a coffin buried underground and blood spatter patterns if struck repeatedly from behind.
Carrie: Gulp.
Q: Which of your main characters (either in The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond or over all you’ve written) is most like you?
Jaime Jo: In The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond, I would have to say I’m probably most like Jacobus. I tend to answer emotional issues clinically and theologically, while internally, I’m a boiling package of emotions.
Carrie: I would say my husband is like that too – I just let it all boil out LOL
Q: What is something God taught you while you wrote The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond?
Jaime Jo: Grace. To have grace. To avoid the very popular pitfall of Christian discrimination that comes from being so concerned with doing what honors the Lord that we eliminate grace and forgiveness for fear we are justifying sin.
Carrie: I can’t even put into words how much I love this answer! Yes.
Q: What is one of your favorite quotes from The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond?
Jaime Jo:
Carrie: Oh wow, that’s so profound!
I am offering one reader any TWO books (print copies) that finaled in the 2019 Carol Awards! (open internationally as long as Book Depository ships to your address) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.
What about you? What interests you most from Jaime Jo Wright’s Q&A or the mystery/suspense/thriller Carol Award finalist The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond?
Love when it’s 2 different people telling there version of a story in two different time periods.
me too!! It adds to the suspense 🙂
Congratulations Jaime ?! This sounds like such a fascinating mystery!
I enjoy split-time novels–the past and present colliding and interweaving. I haven’t read any of Jaime Jo Wright’s books yet, but now I’ll be sure to order them from the library!
yes, please do! They are wonderful!
Suspense is my favorite genre!
Jaime Jo Wright is a favorite of mine for her time split novels. I did not know that she was a Colleen Coble fan (not sure how I missed that), she’s also one of my favorites.
She and Colleen are great friends too!
I like stories set in different time periods. Sometimes I get confused, lol, but it’s so interesting.
LOL!
Lp ove the cover. I like reading dual timeline stories. Sounds like a fascinating story.
I have read all of Jaimie’s books and she is a superb writer! Suspense and dual time stories are among my most favorite.
absolutely!
I LOVE Jaime Jo Wright’s books!! They’re fantastic! What a lot of great suspense/mystery finalists!
Thanks for the wonderful interview!
yesssss! there’s no way i could choose between these 6 books in those two categories.
Hello Carrie and Jaime!! Jaime’s books are SPECTACULAR! Time-slip suspense is fabulous!
absolutely! It’s the best of all worlds! 😀
Great interview!!
thanks!
Love Jamie Jo’s books and Reccomend them ever chance I get .
definitely!
This book was so good! Just loved it! Love reading all of Jamie’s books. She is one of my favorite authors.
Yes!! mine too!
I love Jaime’s books! They are all fantastic, interesting, and a little creepy!!
agreed!
Obituaries arriving before the actual death, creepy!
right?!?! I can’t wait to read it lol
Jaime’s books are ones I’ve read a lot about but are stuck, so far, on my “want to read” list. The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond sounds really good.
so many books, so little time – the struggle is real!
I love Jaime’s books even when they creep me out a little! I love how her books are not predictable and the plot usually goes in a direction that I am not expecting.
haha yes!!! she’s so good!
Lots of interesting and exciting elements in this book: story written by two women from 2 different time periods, mystery, and suspense/ creepiness with the obits arriving before the deaths!
This is a new author to me, but hopefully I will be reading one of her books soon!
Jaime’s books are so good. I loved this one.
I’ve only read The Curse of Misty Wayfarer and am totally hooked on her writing. Time to go back and read the first two novels… but she has another coming out soon…..oh, my first world problems (as my children would say).
Jamie Jo Wright has quickly joined my list of favorite Christian romantic suspense authors! What a great interview, to get to know her better! She articulates her faith insights so well!
I know that God’s grace and forgiveness can cover any sin but that does not justify the sin. I surely am no better or worse than anyone else. We’re all are sinners condemned to death in need of a saviour who has sacrificed himself for us. Praise God for His grace and redemption!
I’ve always loved the book Heidi! It was interesting to read the sequels.
So here’s the deal… I was actually scared to pick this book up b/c it looked to me like it would be ghost-creepy and go into uncomfortable genre elements. I won a copy and was told to give it a try and let me tell you! Wow! I’ve now read all of her books and am impatiently waiting for Echoes Among the Stones.
What an interesting story of suspense and murder separated buy 100 years.
I love Christian Fiction especially for that reason, it’s beyond just mere entertainment. The research, wit, and eclectic relationships are all just a bonus to the stories of grace, forgiveness, and redemption that are shared. Thanks for sharing the interview!
Amen!
Sounds like a great book love suspense boos keep you flipping the page to find out more in the story!
Definitely!
books
Ah, yes, I love Christian suspense!!! I’l definitely have to check this one out!!!