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Chautona Havig

Chautona Havig

Using story to connect YOU to the Master Storyteller

Some Books Grip Your Heart So Hard You Can’t Escape (and don’t want to)

by Chautona Havig · Leave a Comment

The Words Between Us will draw you in, hold you fast, and dazzle you with the truths and lies between the pages of books... and of our lives. via @chautonahavig

Have you ever seen a book, fallen in love with the cover or the synopsis, bought it, and let it slowly get buried until you forgot about it? This book is why you go find those gems and read them. Today. In fact, if this is one of them, you should ignore this review and just go grab that book and get started. You won’t regret it.

The Words Between Us

Note: links may be affiliate links that provide me with a small commission at no extra expense to you

Some Books Grip Your Heart So Hard You Can’t Escape (and don’t want to).

Heartbreaking, inspiring, infuriating, unexpected–where do the descriptive words for this gripping novel end? They don’t, I suppose. A cautionary tale of the power of perception over truth and truth over lies, in some ways, I feel like this book is a coming of age story in which the heroine comes of age in her mid-thirties. And, really… isn’t that more like reality?

Bartles brilliantly uses poetry, genre, classic plots, and pulp fiction as subtext in a way that makes me want to reread some sections to unpack more of what I probably missed the first time. Additionally, the dual timeline works to deepen the themes buried beneath the surface of the story.

As if that weren’t wonderful enough, the characters are lovable, flawed, inspiring, infuriating. Between these pages, you’ll meet the bird who won’t shut up, encounter the lies that imprison more than criminals, and experience unlikely friendships that form and leave indelible marks on the characters’ souls. The people (and animal) you encounter are just like the ones you might meet at your local bookstore, in your high school hallway, along a hiking trail when you don’t know where you’re going. They’ll encourage you and fail you. You’ll find truth and lies on their lips–both deliberate and accidental.

And when you walk away from The Words Between Us, you’ll have experienced “The Word” between you and the story within these words.

In fact, this book gets a permanent place on my bookshelf.

The Words Between UsThe Words Between Us by Erin Bartels

Robin Windsor spent most of her life under an assumed name, running from her family’s ignominious past. She thought she’d finally found sanctuary in her rather unremarkable used bookstore just up the street from the marina in River City, Michigan. But the store is struggling and the past is hot on her heels.

When she receives an eerily familiar book in the mail on the morning of her father’s scheduled execution, Robin is thrown back to the long-lost summer she met Peter Flynt, the perfect boy who ruined everything. That book–a first edition Catcher in the Rye–is soon followed by the other books she shared with Peter nearly twenty years ago, with one arriving in the mail each day. But why would Peter be making contact after all these years? And why does she have a sinking feeling that she’s about to be exposed all over again?

With evocative prose that recalls the classic novels we love, Erin Bartels pens a story that shows that words–the ones we say, the ones we read, and the ones we write–have more power than we imagine.

To learn more about Erin and her books, check out Episode 56 of the Because Fiction Podcast!

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The Because Fiction Podcast

The Because Fiction Podcast
The Because Fiction Podcast

Taking the pulse of Christian fiction

Episode 265: A Chat with Karen Witemeyer
byChautona Havig

Nothing says fairy tale like a sweet western romance by an author like Karen Witemeyer… unless it’s a fairytale retelling set in Texas in the late 19th century, right?  Fairest of Heart takes the familiar “Snow White” and turns it on its head with retired cowboys, a self-absorbed actress, a Texas Ranger, and a sweet girl who knows the true Source of her beauty.  Listen in to see all the genius Easter eggs Witemeyer planted in this book.

Note: links may be affiliate links that provide me with a small commission at no extra expense to you.

Sometimes All a Girl Needs Is a True Change of Heart

I fell in love with the cover of Karen Witemeyer’s Head Over Heels a few years back (only to learn it’s much older than that, even), and meant to read that book.  I didn’t.  #BecauseIdiot. Well, that’ll be rectified just as soon as I’m done listening to her first book in a trilogy of fairytale retellings. I loaded it up on my Audible app tonight and wheeeeeeee. Here I go! So much for no new books until October. HA! 

Karen talks about her heart for young women today and how they’re taught by every bit of media blasting at them that they need to use their bodies to get what they need or want when the Lord has a better plan. And I can’t guarantee it, but I strongly suspect she does it without preaching. SQUEE!

Fairest of Heart by Karen Witemeyer

Once upon a time in Texas . . .

Beauty has been nothing but a curse to Penelope Snow. When she becomes a personal maid for a famous actress whose troupe is leaving Chicago to tour the West, she hides her figure beneath shapeless dresses and keeps her head down. But she still manages to attract the wrong attention, leaving her prospects in tatters–and her jealous mistress plotting her demise.

After his brother lost his life over a woman, Texas Ranger Titus Kingsley has learned to expect the worst from women and is rarely disappointed. So when a young lady found in suspicious circumstances takes up residence with the seven old drovers living at his grandfather’s ranch, Titus is determined to keep a close eye on her.

With a promotion hanging in the balance, Titus is assigned to investigate a robbery case tied to Penelope’s acting troupe, and all evidence points to Penelope’s guilt. But Titus might just be convinced that the fairest woman of all has a heart as pure as her last name . . . if only he can prove it.

You can learn more about Karen Witemeyer and her books on her WEBSITE. Don’t forget the book is 30% off on BakerBookHouse.com.  

Follow Karen on BookBub and GoodReads.

And don’t forget her Posse Group on Facebook.

Like to listen on the go? You can find Because Fiction Podcast at:

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Episode 265: A Chat with Karen Witemeyer
Episode 265: A Chat with Karen Witemeyer
September 29, 2023
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Episode 261: Chatting with Christian Youth Fiction Author, Candice Yamnitz
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Episode 259: A Chat with Debut Author, Laura Conaway
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