The Loser’s Guide to Life and Love by A.E. Cannon


Title: The Loser’s Guide to Life and Love

Author: A.E. Canon

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release Date: June, 2008

ISBN: 978-0061128462

Size: 272 pages, hardcover

Genre: Young Adult

Ordinary, boring Ed works a loser summer job at Reel Life Movies, where he doesn’t even have his own name tag. He’s stuck with “Sergio.” Ed’s only consolations are his two best friends. Shelving DVDs isn’t so mind-numbingly dull with Scout cracking jokes, and after hours Ed hangs out with the superbrain, Quark. Life starts to look up when the girl of his dreams saunters into Reel Life. Ed knows he doesn’t stand a chance . . . but maybe, just maybe Sergio does. All he has to do is pretend to be a smoldering Brazilian stud for the rest of his life. Simple, right? But . . . Ed’s new dream girl has her own secrets, Scout wants to be more than Ed’s best friend, and his buddy Quark wants Scout for himself.

Star-crossed crushes make for hilarious misunderstandings as Ed guides his life toward disaster in this fresh, contemporary twist on Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream.

December 2008 Sponsors

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Isabelle Webb: Legend of the Jewel by N.C. Allen


Former Pinkerton spy Isabelle Webb needs a vacation. The broken leg she suffered while trying to warn President Lincoln of his impending assassination has mended a little, but her grief over his death has not. She and her young charge, Sally Rhodes, have an open itinerary when they board a steamer ship to Bombay. But upon meeting Utah blacksmith James Ashby, the two women opt to join the search for his younger brother Phillip, who’s traveling abroad with the ill-reputed Thaddeus Sparks in search of a mystical treasure. Upon arrival in India, other passengers are also interested in taking up the search. But the seeming good will of some soon turns dark on the streets of Bombay. As murder and kidnapping tears the group apart, James and Isabelle race to uncover the hidden motives and harrowing connections that threaten not only Phillip’s life, but also their own. First in N.C. Allen’s new series, this tale’s cunning characters and twisting plot will wrap you tightly in the action, intrigue, and romance surrounding the Jewel of Zeus.

Nancy Campbell Allen has a total of nine published novels, including her popular Faith of Our Fathers series. She has a degree in Elementary Ed and is the mother of three.


Miss Delacourt Speaks Her Mind by Heidi Ashworth


When the dowager duchess of Marcross insists he
accompany her niece, Ginny, into the country for the day to execute a special task, Sir Anthony is appalled, to say the least. Ginny, who thinks little of the fashionable Sir Anthony, is as eager to be done with the chore as he, but before they arrive at their destination they are stranded by highwaymen and launched into adventure.

Forced into each other’s company, Ginny begins to sense the passionate nature beneath Sir Anthony’s mask of ennui, while his exasperation with the forthright Ginny turns into admiration of her wit and charm. Then beautiful Lucinda Barrington and Lord Avery, a poet, come onto the scene, sparking Ginny’s imagination and revealing a way to unmask the true man behind Sir Anthony’s frivolous facade. Meanwhile, the dowager duchess has plans of her own for this pair, and her special task turns into a battle of words, wills, and wit.

Heidi Ashworth. I’m a SAHM (my husband thinks it means Still A Hot Mama) with three children. In spite of all the challenges life throws at us, we do our best to laugh at the bad and accentuate the good.

My first novel, Miss Delacourt Speaks Her Mind, a Jane Austen meets Wodehouse meets George Burns and Gracie Allen kind of romp, comes out December 24th through Avalon Books.

Abinadi by H.B. Moore

Raquel has a secret. As the daughter of one of King Noah’s priests, she enjoys a luxurious life and the admiration of powerful men. But her heart belongs to a commoner, a man with no earthly wealth but rich heavenly gifts. When King Noah demands that Raquel join his harem, she flees the only life she has known and marries her secret love. His name is Abinadi.

The couple finds abundant joy in their community of believers and in their firstborn son. But when the Lord calls Abinadi as His prophet, their faith is tested to the outermost limits. Abinadi’s commitment to the Lord requires them both to give their all—even unto death. Yet if Alma, the newest priest in King Noah’s court, chooses to overcome his troubled past and cleave unto the truth, their sacrifice may yield rich fruit.

With vivid detail and poignant emotion, this historical novel pulls readers into a fiery tale of love, courage, and faith that is difficult to put down and impossible to forget.


Heather Moore was born in Providence, Rhode Island, but spent most of her childhood in Orem, Utah. During these years, her family traveled back and forth between the Middle East and Utah. At the age of eight, while living in Egypt, she was baptized in the Red Sea. Heather attended the Anglican School of Jerusalem from 1987-88, and returned again to Jerusalem with her husband in 1994.

Heather graduated from Brigham Young University with a major in Fashion Merchandising and minor in Business Management. This has nothing to do with writing books, but at least she can color-coordinate her kids school clothes and balance a mean checkbook.

Heather is a member of the League of Utah Writers and LDStorymakers. She also manages the editing company, Precision Editing Group, LLC.

Click here for details on sponsoring this LDSP blog.

November 2008 Comment Contest Winners

Here are the winners of the November Comment Contest, randomly selected from comments made during the month of November.

Thanks again to our sponsors. Please take a moment to read their bio info here.

Reunion

by Allyson Braithwaite Condie

Winner: Jedi Mormon
Commenting on “Why Bother”


Loyalty’s Web

by Joyce DiPastena

Winner: Stephanie Black
Commenting on “Whitney Awards Benefit Auction”

Three Angels for Christmas

by Lori Nawyn

Winner: Kent Larsen
Commenting on “Royalties & Negotiations Revisited

To claim your prize, you must e-mail your mailing address to me by Friday, December 12, 2008.

(Unclaimed prizes will be up for grabs on Monday, December 15th.)

Click here to learn how you can win a copy of one of our sponsoring books.

Pretty Like Us by Carol Lynch Williams


Title: Pretty Like Us

Author: Carol Lynch Williams

Publisher: Peachtree Publishers

Release Date: October 1, 2008

ISBN: 978-1561454440

Size: 224 pages, hardcover

Genre: Middle Grade

For Beauty McElwrath, the first day of sixth grade in small-town Green River, Florida, proves to be exactly the catastrophe she expected. Beauty is acutely shy, and she s sure she s doomed to be a social outcast for yet another school year. It doesn t help that her mother is dating her teacher!

But then she meets Alane Shriver, a new student who suffers from progeria, a rare, rapid aging disorder. At first Beauty is frightened by her fellow outsider s wrinkled skin, shriveled hands, thick glasses, and tiny, frail body. But fear gives way to curiosity, and Beauty discovers that, on the inside, Alane is just like any other twelve-year-old girl. When a life-threatening event puts the two of them in harm s way, Beauty unexpectedly finds the confidence and inner strength to save Alane.

The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck


Title: The Christmas Sweater

Author: Glenn Beck

Publisher: Threshold Editions

Release Date: November 11, 2008

ISBN: 978-1416594857

Size: 284 pages, 5×7″, hardback

Genre: Christmas

When Eddie was twelve years old, all he wanted for Christmas was a bike. Although his life had gotten harder —and money tighter—since his father died and the family bakery closed…Eddie dreamed that somehow his mother would find a way to have his dream bike gleaming beside their modest Christmas tree that magical morning.

What he got from her instead was a sweater. “A stupid, handmade, ugly sweater” that young Eddie left in a crumpled ball in the corner of his room.

Scarred deeply by the realization that kids don’t always get what they want, and too young to understand that he already owned life’s most valuable treasures, that Christmas morning was the beginning of Eddie’s dark and painful journey on the road to manhood. It will take wrestling with himself, his faith, and his family—and the guidance of a mysterious neighbor named Russell—to help Eddie find his path through the storm clouds of life and finally see the real significance of that simple gift his mother had crafted by hand with love in her heart.

Based on a deeply personal true story, The Christmas Sweater is a warm and poignant tale of family, faith and forgiveness that offers us a glimpse of our own lives—while also making us question if we really know what’s most important in them.

A Christmas Grace by Anne Perry


Title: A Christmas Grace

Author: Anne Perry

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Release Date: October 28, 2008

ISBN: 978-0345502032

Size: 224 pages, 5×7″, hardback

Genre: Christmas

A few weeks before Christmas, 1895, Emily Radley, the sister of Charlotte Pitt (last seen with husband, Thomas Pitt, in Buckingham Palace Gardens), answers a summons from Father Tyndale, spiritual leader of a small Western Ireland community. The Catholic priest is concerned about Emily’s dying aunt, Susannah Ross, who’s been estranged from her family since marrying outside their Protestant faith. Once in Ireland, Emily finds her aunt’s entire village in the grip of fear, haunted by a secret. A shipwreck during a ferocious storm, the rescue of a young man from the sea’s clutches and another young man’s mysterious murder complicate Emily’s mission. Perry effortlessly evokes the region’s insularity and isolation while imbuing religious themes into a whodunit without being preachy.

Jenny’s Dream by Linda Weaver Clarke

Title: Jenny’s Dream

Author: Linda Weaver Clarke

Publisher: American Book Publishing

Release Date: December 1, 2008

ISBN: 978-1589824461

Size: 280 pages, softcover

Genre: Historical Romance

When Jenny Roberts arrives home from college in the summer of 1908, she yearns to escape her small hometown of Paris, Idaho, and accomplish something remarkable in the world. She develops a promising friendship with Will Jones, a young farmer who is new to the area and has secretly fallen in love with her. Meanwhile, her father, Gilbert, attempts to catch a legendary giant grizzly bear that has devastated the community with its haunting elusiveness and slaughter of the local sheep.

In the third installment of A Family Saga in Bear Lake Valley series, Jenny finds herself in the middle of drama, adventure, and romance as she struggles to gain the power of forgiveness and the ability to face new possibilities.