Review of Fudge-Laced Felonies
by Cynthia Hickey
http://cynthiahickey.blogspot.com/
Reviewed by Barbara J. Robinson
*Don't miss the cover art in the pictures to the side. Click on book cover to go to author's site.
From the lead, “I marched into church on Sunday – not to search for God, but to find a killer,” spunky heroine Summer Meadows captures your heart with humor even in the darkest situations, as you journey with her to solve a diamond mystery. A light, easy read, this page turner takes you into the Ozark foothills. Set in a small town, Summer owns a candy store and is up to her wrists in chocolate, when she’s not knee deep in trouble playing detective.
Hooked from the lead, I was riveted in the mystery and completed the novel in several readings. When interrupted, I couldn’t wait to return to Summer’s world of chocolate, diamonds, and mystery.
Rich with fresh similes and metaphors, readers savor a taste of Southern grit as two handsome men compete for Summer’s attention, but only one of them truly loves her. She must decide between Man of God, Ethan, with rough, working hands, or smooth-talking Nate with hands softer than her own. Nate says all the right things while Ethan teases like a childhood friend, leading Summer to believe that he thinks of her as a sister. Then there’s beautiful Terri Sue who once dated Ethan and attempts to pick up where she left off. Summer knows her natural beauty can’t complete with her store-bought façade.
Summer is down-to-earth, but feisty. Used to being in control, she has to learn to let God guide her steps and relinquish control to the One who can make an eternal difference in her life. She’s a Christian who attends church every Sunday, but grows in her faith through her struggles and learns to depend on God to see her through.
Have you ever treasured your flower garden and thought it worth gold? Summer’s rose garden is worth a small fortune in cash and diamonds, and she must solve the mystery of who killed her prized rose bush before she ends up a dead summer flower.
Candy-Coated Secrets is the second book in the Fudge-Laced Felonies series – Heartsong Presents. If you love humor and mystery entwined, snag both books for great summer reads. See http://cynthiahickey.blogspot.com/ for more information. ISBN-978-1-60260-181-9, $6.95 paperback, 244 pages, 22 chapters of love and mystery.
If you need bookmarks, check out Cindy's site! For fun cozy mysteries and riveting romantic suspense, check out her Summer Meadows mysteries.
Deep reads that Touch the Heart. Characters come alive on the page.
Amazon Best-selling Historical Romance
Escape to a romantic period where love endured, grew, and flourished despite a Civil War.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Mom-Poem Published in Who's Who in Poetry 1994
Mom
Mom, I just want you to know,
That my reading and writing ability,
To you, I owe.
For, you read to me before you ever sent me off to school.
You gave me an early start.
I grew up on Cinderella and fairy tales,
And reading, I never ever failed!
And now, at writing, I excel!
I was first published at a third grader in The Enterprise, the oldest newspaper in my hometown. My teacher submitted my story about my dog. My first college essay titled "April Flood" was published in another local newspaper. It was about the 1983 flood residents of our parish endured. In 1992, another poem titled "Someone Special" was published in the Southern Poetry Association, a poem about my father, who died when I was four years old on Christmas Day.
In 1988, my short story "The Lord Had Something Better in Mind," won Southeastern Louisiana University's fiction-writing competition and was published in their literary magazine, GAMBIT, Volume 18. The story was reprinted in Pebble Lake Review in Summer 2004, Vol. 1, Issue 3. It's listed in the side column with a picture of the magazine cover.
Though Mom raised me on fairy tales, she also raised me on Bible verses in such a way that they became part of my life, leading to my faith in God. One thing Mom failed to tell me was, God is not a fairy tale. I always said I'd never raise my girls on fairy tales, because they'd be disappointed when they met toads instead of Prince Charming. I remember one fairy tale where the princess kissed the toad and turned him into a prince, "The Frog Prince". If only it were so easy. I've met my share of toads, but Jesus is my Prince and my best friend.
Barb
Mom, I just want you to know,
That my reading and writing ability,
To you, I owe.
For, you read to me before you ever sent me off to school.
You gave me an early start.
I grew up on Cinderella and fairy tales,
And reading, I never ever failed!
And now, at writing, I excel!
I was first published at a third grader in The Enterprise, the oldest newspaper in my hometown. My teacher submitted my story about my dog. My first college essay titled "April Flood" was published in another local newspaper. It was about the 1983 flood residents of our parish endured. In 1992, another poem titled "Someone Special" was published in the Southern Poetry Association, a poem about my father, who died when I was four years old on Christmas Day.
In 1988, my short story "The Lord Had Something Better in Mind," won Southeastern Louisiana University's fiction-writing competition and was published in their literary magazine, GAMBIT, Volume 18. The story was reprinted in Pebble Lake Review in Summer 2004, Vol. 1, Issue 3. It's listed in the side column with a picture of the magazine cover.
Though Mom raised me on fairy tales, she also raised me on Bible verses in such a way that they became part of my life, leading to my faith in God. One thing Mom failed to tell me was, God is not a fairy tale. I always said I'd never raise my girls on fairy tales, because they'd be disappointed when they met toads instead of Prince Charming. I remember one fairy tale where the princess kissed the toad and turned him into a prince, "The Frog Prince". If only it were so easy. I've met my share of toads, but Jesus is my Prince and my best friend.
Barb
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
I've been working on my novel again. A short synopsis follows:
When Faith Russell catches her fiancé having an affair, she breaks her engagement, hides her heart deeply in Christ, and vows she doesn’t need a man, until she discovers a hidden-treasure helpmate sent from God. But her ex-fiance seeks to avenge her loss, and God’s plan fully emerges. Hidden Treasures offers hope and illustrates how Jesus delivers us from a temporary life of conflict to an eternal haven when Faith collides with Matt Allen at fictitious St. Cloud World Peace Church. As berries slowly ripen on the vine, Faith and Matt’s love buds, blooms, and blossoms in small-town St. Cloud, Florida, where love finds Faith when she returns home to nurse her broken heart, write, and farm strawberries. This action-packed, suspense-filled novel turns the pages of Faith’s heart and allows readers to journey with her from St. Cloud, Florida, as the suspense mounts to climax in the busy streets of Key West, Florida.
Faith Russell suffers a broken relationship with her fiancé, hides her heart deeply in Christ, and vows she doesn’t need a man, until she discovers a hidden-treasure helpmate sent from God.
That’s the premise for my Inspirational Suspense novel HIDDEN TREASURES, a 55,000-60,000 romance that takes readers from a small strawberry farm in St. Cloud, Florida, to a Key-West, Florida, honeymoon.
I have a personal knowledge of strawberries from working in them. My educational background includes a bachelor’s in secondary education/office administration/business education, with a minor in English, journalism classes, creative-writing classes in college, student in the Christian Writers Guild, graduate of Long Ridge Writers Group, member of Southeastern Louisiana Writing Project, member of American Christian Fiction Writers, and a master’s in education. I won a creative-writing short story contest in college and was published in the university’s literary magazine, Gambit.
I've added a picture of me with my grandchildren, if you scroll down the pictures on the side. You'll also find my Florida sunshine there. I have ten grandkids, but Hunter was not available when we toured Rosedown plantation Sunday, June 29. Out of the pictures we made, my daughter has a blurry one made in the Red Room, and my husband has a blurry one taken in the upstairs foyer. Both have objects in them that were not present when we took the pictures without using a flash. I toured Rosedown in the 70's and was not allowed to take pictures. This time, we were allowed to take them without using a flash, and out of the many taken, only two were blurred and contain interesting objects. My husband's digital camera is brand new and takes nearly perfect pictures, but out of all the pictures he snapped, one looks as though it has a presence from the past, a woman lying on one of the empty benches in the upstairs foyer. My daughter's picture had a little girl looking at us behind the rope, a roped-off area in the Red Room, the only room that has roped-off areas.
I truly enjoyed getting together with my large family and many grandkids. It was a fun day. I don't get to visit them often with life's responsibilities, so I like to spend some quality time with them doing something special when we can get together.
We shot fireworks at my daughter's house and enjoyed an early Fourth. We dined at my youngest son's home. He grilled burgers, hot dogs, and chicken, and his wife made a delicious homemade potato salad. Her sister made brownies with white chocolate Hershey kisses, and they were the best brownies I've ever eaten, other than my husband's homemade ones with nuts.
I hope you find as many hidden treasures in your family as I find in mine.
Blessings,
Barb
When Faith Russell catches her fiancé having an affair, she breaks her engagement, hides her heart deeply in Christ, and vows she doesn’t need a man, until she discovers a hidden-treasure helpmate sent from God. But her ex-fiance seeks to avenge her loss, and God’s plan fully emerges. Hidden Treasures offers hope and illustrates how Jesus delivers us from a temporary life of conflict to an eternal haven when Faith collides with Matt Allen at fictitious St. Cloud World Peace Church. As berries slowly ripen on the vine, Faith and Matt’s love buds, blooms, and blossoms in small-town St. Cloud, Florida, where love finds Faith when she returns home to nurse her broken heart, write, and farm strawberries. This action-packed, suspense-filled novel turns the pages of Faith’s heart and allows readers to journey with her from St. Cloud, Florida, as the suspense mounts to climax in the busy streets of Key West, Florida.
Faith Russell suffers a broken relationship with her fiancé, hides her heart deeply in Christ, and vows she doesn’t need a man, until she discovers a hidden-treasure helpmate sent from God.
That’s the premise for my Inspirational Suspense novel HIDDEN TREASURES, a 55,000-60,000 romance that takes readers from a small strawberry farm in St. Cloud, Florida, to a Key-West, Florida, honeymoon.
I have a personal knowledge of strawberries from working in them. My educational background includes a bachelor’s in secondary education/office administration/business education, with a minor in English, journalism classes, creative-writing classes in college, student in the Christian Writers Guild, graduate of Long Ridge Writers Group, member of Southeastern Louisiana Writing Project, member of American Christian Fiction Writers, and a master’s in education. I won a creative-writing short story contest in college and was published in the university’s literary magazine, Gambit.
I've added a picture of me with my grandchildren, if you scroll down the pictures on the side. You'll also find my Florida sunshine there. I have ten grandkids, but Hunter was not available when we toured Rosedown plantation Sunday, June 29. Out of the pictures we made, my daughter has a blurry one made in the Red Room, and my husband has a blurry one taken in the upstairs foyer. Both have objects in them that were not present when we took the pictures without using a flash. I toured Rosedown in the 70's and was not allowed to take pictures. This time, we were allowed to take them without using a flash, and out of the many taken, only two were blurred and contain interesting objects. My husband's digital camera is brand new and takes nearly perfect pictures, but out of all the pictures he snapped, one looks as though it has a presence from the past, a woman lying on one of the empty benches in the upstairs foyer. My daughter's picture had a little girl looking at us behind the rope, a roped-off area in the Red Room, the only room that has roped-off areas.
I truly enjoyed getting together with my large family and many grandkids. It was a fun day. I don't get to visit them often with life's responsibilities, so I like to spend some quality time with them doing something special when we can get together.
We shot fireworks at my daughter's house and enjoyed an early Fourth. We dined at my youngest son's home. He grilled burgers, hot dogs, and chicken, and his wife made a delicious homemade potato salad. Her sister made brownies with white chocolate Hershey kisses, and they were the best brownies I've ever eaten, other than my husband's homemade ones with nuts.
I hope you find as many hidden treasures in your family as I find in mine.
Blessings,
Barb
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Thank God for Time with Family and Friends
This is my first day back from vacation. We visited my family and toured Rosedown. Then, my husband and I went with his mother to Key West for July 4. I thank God for this quality time we were able to spend with our families.
In Key West, a man followed us for three blocks, but God kept us safe. We watched fireworks, and the boats lined up across the water, as great balls of multicolored fire blared in our faces coming from the pier.
We had a flat one night and had to sit on the side of the Interstate for two hours, but God kept us safe. Thank God for the safe trip and quality time with my loved ones. Praise and thank God in all things.
May your family enjoy quality time together. Blessings,
Barb
In Key West, a man followed us for three blocks, but God kept us safe. We watched fireworks, and the boats lined up across the water, as great balls of multicolored fire blared in our faces coming from the pier.
We had a flat one night and had to sit on the side of the Interstate for two hours, but God kept us safe. Thank God for the safe trip and quality time with my loved ones. Praise and thank God in all things.
May your family enjoy quality time together. Blessings,
Barb
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