Book Description:
In a quiet corner of northern Edwardian England, Margaret Lounsbury diligently works in her grandmother's millinery shop, making hats and caring for her young sister. Several years earlier, a terrible event shattered their idyllic family life and their future prospects. Maggie is resilient and will do what she must to protect her sister Violet. Still, the loss of her parents weighs heavily on her heart as she begins to wonder if what happened that day on the lake...might not have been an accident.
When wealthy inventor and industrialist William Harcourt dies, his son and Maggie's estranged childhood friend, Nathaniel, returns from his time in the Royal Navy and inherits his father's vast estate, Morningside Manor. He also assumes partial control of his father's engineering company and the duty of repaying an old debt to the Lounsbury family. But years of separation between Nate and Maggie have taken a toll, and Maggie struggles to trust her old friend.
Can Maggie let go of the resentment that keeps her from forgiving Nate--and reconciling with God? Will the search for the truth about her parents' death draw the two friends closer or leave them both with broken hearts?
My Thoughts:
Shine Like the Dawn is the latest book by Carrie Turansky and I absolutely loved it. I have read a few books by Carrie Turansky and have many in my TBR pile that I have definitely have to bring out to read. As a fan of Christian Historical Fiction, Carrie Turansky really covers my need to read. I loved the cover, a beautiful scene that stands out, catching your eye. Carrie Turansky writes with authority on Edwardian history, England and Europe during the early 1900's, the Royal Navy and the wars during that time, hierarchy, and millinery. I love historical fiction for many reasons but the biggest is because I love to learn more about different times in our history. This book is a work of fiction but there are many facts in there that had me going to Google to learn more. I found the characters in this book very complex and dealing with real life issues, showing that no matter what your status struggles happen for everyone. I really found a connection with Maggie Lounsbury. A strong woman who is raising her little sister after they lost the rest of their family. She is someone who takes care of those around her and protects herself in order to survive. Her renewal of faith is inspiring. As a side I did also enjoy Violet Lounsbury, Maggie's little sister, is such a cute character and she really helps make this story. From start this book grabbed a hold of me, making me want to read more until the end. I could not put this book down. I found myself laughing in many portions, holding my breath, and crying in the others. This book has a little bit of everything romance, suspense, heart break, and action. This book is a must read for anyone who enjoys Christian Historical Fiction, especially during the Edwardian times. I highly recommend this book and cannot wait to read more from Carrie Turansky. I give this book 5+ STARS. Please check out below to learn more about this fantastic author and her writing.
About the Book
Book: Shine Like the Dawn
Author: Carrie Turansky
Genre: Historical
In a quiet corner of northern Edwardian England, Margaret Lounsbury diligently works in her grandmother’s millinery shop, making hats and caring for her young sister. Several years earlier, a terrible tragedy reshaped their family, shattering an idyllic life and their future prospects. But Maggie is resilient and will do what she must to protect her sister Violet. Still, the loss of her parents weighs heavily on her heart and she begins to wonder if what happened that day on the lake…might not have been an accident.
When wealthy inventor and industrialist William Harcourt dies, his son Nathaniel, who is Maggie’s estranged childhood friend, returns from his time in the Royal Navy and inherits his father’s vast estate, Morningside Manor. He also assumes partial control of his father’s engineering company and the duty of repaying an old debt to the Lounsbury family. But years of separation between Nate and Maggie have taken a toll and Maggie struggles to trust her old friend.
Can Maggie let go of the resentment that keeps her from forgiving Nate—and reconciling with God? Will their search for the truth about her parents’ death draw them closer or will it leave them both with broken hearts?
About the Author
CARRIE TURANSKY is an award-winning author of more than a dozen novels and novellas. She has been the winner of the ACFW Carol Award, the Crystal Globe Award, and the International Digital Award, and a finalist for the Inspirational Readers Choice Award and the Maggie Award of Excellence. A prolific writer of contemporary and historical romance, women’s fiction, short stories, articles, and devotionals, Carrie lives in central New Jersey with her husband Scott. They have five adult children and four grandchildren.
Guest Post from Carrie Turansky
Hats, Glorious Hats!
By Carrie Turansky
One fun part of my research for Shine Like the Dawn was learning about hat making in the early 1900s. My heroine, Maggie Lounsbury is a milliner who designs women’s hats. She learned this skill from her grandmother who owns a small shop in the village of Heatherton. Maggie has an artistic eye and she enjoys making stylish hats, but she doesn’t like the overdone designs some of their customers request, so that creates some humorous conflict in the story.
Hats in the Edwardian era were large and often covered with feathers, flowers, lace, netting, berries and bows. The “bird nests,” as Coco Chanel called them, were held on with large hat pins stuck through piles of hair on the crown. These hats were called Gainsborough or Picture hats because of the way they framed a lady’s face. They often featured huge dried flower arrangements and sometimes included real leaves and twigs! No doubt the Garden hat was a fitting name. 1907 The Merry Window hat became very popular after the leading lady in the play by that same name wore a hat that was even taller and wider than usual. Some people complained these hats were too big and obtrusive in public places like the theater or picture shows. But English women loved them and wore them to all kinds of events.
The popularity of using large feathers and stuffed birds on hats caused concern for the welfare of birds. Many protective laws took effect and milliners had to use more ribbon and tulle and only large ostrich feathers to decorate hats. Those ostrich feathers came from birds that were raised on farms and their feathers were collected as they fell out naturally. The movement toward smaller hats began around 1913 when hats still had high crowns but smaller brims. Straw boaters, small top hats, and mini versions of picture hats were very common.
Motion pictures had the greatest influence on Edwardian hat fashion. After the release of The Three Musketeers many ladies wanted to wear tricorne and bicorne shaped hats. They were still very large but now had shapes other than just round. Hat brims were folded up on the side, at an angle, or all around to create drama. Veils disappeared in the early 1900s only to come back again as a long scarf that wrapped over the hat and under the chin for the new sport called motoring.
I’ve had fun dressing Edwardian style for book launch tea parties and other book events. It made me feel very special to wear these lovely hats. What do you think of Edwardian Hats? Would you like to wear one?
Thanks to friends at the Vintage Dancer website for some of this information.
Stop by Carrie’s Facebook author page and view her live videos February 21 – 25, 3:00 pm Eastern. She’ll be talking about the story behind Shine Like the Dawn and giving away a fun prize each day to one person who leaves a comment. Even if you can’t catch the live video you can still enter for 24 hours after it’s posted. She is also hosting a book launch celebration and giveaway on her blog February 25 – March 6.
Like to my Facebook Author page: https://www.facebook.com/
Link to my Book Launch Blog Post: http://carrieturansky.com/
Blog Stops
February 21: New Horizon Reviews
February 21: Bookworm Mama
February 21: Book Bites, Bee Stings, & Butterfly Kisses
February 22: Tell Tale Book Reviews
February 22: Book by Book
February 22: History, Mystery and Faith
February 23: Bibliophile Reviews
February 23: Smiling Book Reviews
February 23: A Readers Brain
February 23: Faithfully Bookish
February 23: Lane Hill House
February 24: Back Porch Reads
February 24: The Scribbler
February 24: I Hope You Dance
February 25: Stuff & Nonsense
February 25: The Power of Words
February 25: A Greater Yes
February 26: cherylbbookblog
February 26: Moments Dipped in Ink
February 26: Splashes of Joy
February 27: Genesis 5020
February 27: inklings and notions
February 27: D’S QUILTS & BOOKS
February 28: Karen Sue Hadley
February 28: A Simple Life, really?!
February 28: Neverending Stories
March 1: Daysong Reflections
March 1: Connie’s History Classroom
March 1: Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations
March 2: These Splendid Sentences
March 2: Singing Librarian Books
March 2: Blossoms and Blessings
March 3: Pause for Tales
March 3: blogging With Carol
March 3: Mary Hake
March 4: Radiant Light
March 4: For The Love of Books
March 5: Christian Bookaholic
March 5: Rachel Scott McDaniel
March 6: Baker Kella
Giveaway
To celebrate her tour, Carrie is giving away all 4 books: Shine Like the Dawn, The Governess of Highland Hall, The Daughter of Highland Hall, and A Refuge at Highland Hall.! Click below to enter. Be sure to comment on this post before you enter to claim 9 extra entries!
https://promosimple.com/ps/b0fb
https://promosimple.com/ps/b0fb
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