Love Starts with Elle!

This week's CFBA pick is Love Starts with Elle by Rachel Hauck. This book, Rachel's second set in the lowcountry of South Carolina, follows Sweet Caroline. I love both these books, but I think Love Starts with Elle is Rachel's best book yet.

LSwE offers up a few surprises, and provides a very satisfying ending. One thing in particular that I noticed about this book were the names. As a writer, I spend extra time picking out just the right names for my characters, so all my books don't have the same Toms, Dicks, and Harrys each time. Because of that, I am very appreciative that Rachel apparently did the same. The names chosen for her characters reflect the time, the place, the mood, the character, the purpose of the book without being intrusive or distracting. The names she chose gave her book a realness that probably would not have been accomplished with others, and helped create memorable characters who live on in the reader's mind well after the book ends.

Overall - a great read, and well-worth the money spent to buy a copy.

(And it still makes me want to move to Beaufort!)

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Love Starts With Elle

(Thomas Nelson - July 8, 2008)

by

Rachel Hauck

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Rachel Hauck is a forty-something child of the '60's, '70's, '80's, '90's and '00's, who roller skated through the '70's into the '80's with Farrah Fawcet hair and a three-speed orange Camero. She graduated from Ohio State University (Go Buckeyes!) with a degree in Journalism.


After graduation, she hired on at Harris Publishing as a software trainer, destermined to see the world. But, she's traveled to Ireland, Spain, Venezuela, Mexico, Australia, Canada and the U.S. from California to Maine.


Rachel met Tony, her husband, in '87, at church, of all places. They married in '92. They don't have any children of their own, just lots of kids-in-the-Lord and they love them all. However, they do have two very spoiled dogs, and a very demanding cat.


With a little help from her friends, her first novel, Lambert's Pride - a romance - was published in ' 04. Her current release is Sweet Caroline from Thomas Nelson. Romantic Times Book Club gave both books their highest rank of 4.5 stars, with Love Starts With Elle being honored as Top Pick!

Visit Rachel on the Web.




ABOUT THE BOOK:



Elle's living the dream-but is it her dream or his?


Elle loves life in Beaufort, South Carolina-lazy summer days on the sand bar, coastal bonfires, and dinners with friends sharing a lifetime of memories. And she's found her niche as the owner of a successful art gallery too. Life is good.


Then the dynamic pastor of her small town church sweeps her off her feet. She's never known a man like Jeremiah-one who breathes in confidence and exhales all doubt. When he proposes in the setting sunlight, Elle hands him her heart on a silver platter.


But Jeremiah's just accepted a large pastorate in a different state. If she's serious about their relationship, Elle will take "the call," too, leaving behind the people and place she loves so dearly. Elle's friendship with her new tenant, widower Heath McCord, and his young daughter make things even more complicated.


Is love transferrable across the miles? And can you take it with you when you go?


Read the first chapter HERE.