Naomi Dawn Musch

     Deb Kinnard's new book releases today, October 1st, 2009 from Desert Breeze Publishing.

Overview:

     Diane Marshall knows loads -- live loads, dynamic loads, dead loads, all part of life as a construction manager. She's used to carrying hers, as a woman in a man's career. After her boyfriend fell hard for someone else, can her private load get any heavier?

     In DeBrett, Paul Cameron funds the church renovation, so he's assigned to co-manage. Diane is stuck with adjusting to small town life and dealing with a widower who apparently wants a memorial to his lost wife. Paul is stuck working with a person who attracts him -- the last thing he wants.

     Somehow this project will teach them to trust God in a whole new way. Now if they can only figure out how.

Looking Closer:

     I won a copy of Deb's book, and I have to say, first, how thrilled I was not only to win, but to be offered my choice of Deb's books. Of course I chose her newest offering partly because I wanted to be one of the first to read it, and partly because I hadn't yet read anything published by Desert Breeze. I was in investigation mode.

     Angel With a Back Hoe turned out to be a delight to read. Romance is a very defined genre. Romance publishers have very, very specific guidelines which delineate it from other genres, and Deb is a first rate romance author. But, not only did Angel With a Back Hoe fulfill the requirements of the romance genre, it is superbly-crafted in the sense that it is a story layered with character depth and theme. I say this because, unfortunately, there's just enough modern romance out there which lacks these qualities to make us (especially those of us who study craft while we read it) sometimes venture into new territory with a hint of skepticism. We brace ourselves to be disappointed. I suppose the same could be said of any genre, actually; but for some reason romance takes some pretty hard hits this way.

     But Deb's Angel With a Back Hoe isn't lacking in any way. It presents very real characters coming face to face with their own deep insecurities, and she doesn't hold back in research. Deb bit off a pretty big task when she launched her heroine into the man's world of building construction, and she handled it deftly. I felt that Deb knew her way around tools, blueprints and equipment as well as any hard-hatter I might meet on a construction site.

     But what I liked best about the story was the way in which the author wove in the very real truth of how we each have to face our own fears, and misgivings; and how difficult it sometimes is to recognize the good things God has for us when we don't get too headstrong about going in our own direction.

     I must admit that I have a strong penchant for historical fiction, so while reading a modern romance isn't something I do very often, I found reading Angel With a Back Hoe to be an adventurous study in writing for this genre.

     Thanks for the pleasureable read, Deb! I'm so glad I won the book!

     If you'd like to learn more about this new release, Paul and Diane are making special character appearances on The Secret Lives of Characters. Stop by and see what these characters have to say about their lives outside the book and what it was like sharing their story with Deb. http://www.nmusch.blogspot.com .