Giveaway/Review of Mary's Blessing (McKenna's Daughters series #2) by Lena Nelson Dooley

About Book

Mary's Blessing

By Lena Nelson Dooley

Series: McKenna’s Daughters Series, Book 2

ISBN: 978-1-61638-617-7

Realms/Charisma House
May 2012

When her mother dies, Mary Lenora must grow up quickly to take care of her brothers and sisters. Can love help her to shoulder the burden?

Mary Lenora Murray knows she is adopted. As she was growing up, her mother called her “God’s blessing.” But now that she’s gone, Mary no longer feels like any kind of blessing. Her father, in his grief, has cut himself off from the family, leaving the running of the home entirely in Mary’s hands.

As she nears her eighteenth birthday, Mary can’t see anything in her future but drudgery. Then her childhood friend Daniel begins to court her, promising her a life of riches and ease. But her fairy-tale dreams turn to dust when her family becomes too much for Daniel, and he abandons her in her time of deepest need.

Will Daniel come to grips with God’s plan for him? And if he does return, can Mary trust that this time he will really follow through?

Where to buy:  KOBO, Amazon & Kindle, Barnes&Noble & Nook, Sony Reader Store, IndieBound

About Lena

Age: 68

Gender: Female
Industry: Publishing
Occupation: Author
Location: Hurst : Texas : United States

Award-winning author, Lena Nelson Dooley, has more than 675,000 books in print. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers http://www.acfw.com/ and president of the local chapter, DFW Ready Writers. She’s also a member of Christian Authors Network, CROWN Fiction Marketing, and GatewayChurch in Southlake, Texas.

Lena loves James, her children, grandchildren, and great grandson. She loves chocolate, cherries, chocolate-covered cherries, and spending time with friends. Travel is always on her horizon. Cruising, Galveston, the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas,Mexico. One day it will be Hawaii and Australia, but probably not the same year. Helping other authors become published really floats her boat, with fifteen signing their first book contract after her mentoring. Three of her books have been awarded the Carol Award silver pins from American Christian Fiction Writers and she has received the ACFW Mentor of the Year award at their national conference. The high point of her day is receiving feedback from her readers, especially people whose lives have been changed by her books. And she loves chocolate, especially dark chocolate. 

Her latest release is Love Finds You in Golden, New Mexico, from Summerside Press which recently won the Will Rogers Medallion Award for excellence in publishing westernfiction. Lena is currently under two 3-book contracts with Charisma House/Realms. 

In addition to her writing, Lena is a frequent speaker at women’s groups, writers groups, and at both regional and national conferences. She has spoken in six states and internationally.

 Lena has an active web presence on Shoutlife, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and with her internationally connected blog where she interviews other authors and promotes their books. You can check out her books and find out more about her on her blog by clicking the tabs across the top.

Her interests include:

Reading, knitting, crochet, travel, spending time with family.
She has ecclectic tastes in music: contemporary Christian, jazz, some classical, some pop, some country.

She reads a lot. Some of my favorite authors are Brandilyn Collins, Pamela Griffin, Lisa Harris, Andrea Boeshaar, Martha Rogers, Colleen Coble, Gail Sattler, Tracey Bateman, Susan May Warren, Kathleen Y'Barbo, Janice Hanna Thompson, Tracie Peterson, Cathy Marie Hake, Deeanne Gist, Margaret Daley, Mary Connealy, James Scott Bell, and many, many more. My list could go on for a long time.

To learn even more about Lena on her website go here.

I loved book one, Maggie's Journey

and book two did not disappoint me.

I am looking forward to book three,

Catherine's Pursuit coming in 2013.

My Thoughts

Ever since Mary Lenora Murray was eleven years old she has been sister, stand-in-mother and care taker of her younger sister and  two young brothers. This was after her mother and two older sisters died.  She has not just been the caretaker of the children but of all the household chores that had been taken care by of her  mother's and older sisters.  

Mary's father has disconnected himself from his family as if he no longer was a father other than the care of the farm and she was at least thankful for that.  But it would nice to have someone to confide in and lean on when it came to the children and the house.  

Mary has always none she was adopted but did not know the circumstances of the adoption or her birth parents.  She knew her adoptive parents loved her deeply.  Although her father grieved  much over the death of his wife and two daughters Mary knew he loved her and her young siblings.  She just would like to here some encouraging words from him.  

When would she ever be able to have a life of her own with all she had in her present life?  Her childhood friendship with Daniel seems to be turning into more than friends.  She just did not know how to meld the two lives together. That of a future with Daniel and the life she had now.

Daniel knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Mary and give her all the things she deserved.  He would prove to her he would be a responsible husband and provider.  He would move her away from the farm and hire someone to care for the beautiful house he planned to buy in town.  

This is how the story goes, this is not a fairy tale this is real life.  The author writes a beautiful yet heart wrenching story of tragedy, responsibility, love and faith in God.  God always has a plan and it is not always what we expect.   Sometimes a tragedy can pull us away from God and sometimes it brings us closer.  Life is not a bowl of cherries.  If it were it would get mighty boring.  This book is definitely not boring.  I had to make myself put the book down so I could do what I needed to do.  

Lena did not disappoint me with book two of Mckenna's Daughters. 

I loved book one, Maggie's Journey, book two was just as good.  

Can't wait to read book three, Catherine's Pursuit coming in 2013.

I highly recommend this book/series.

I rated this book a 5 out of 5.

Disclosure
I purchased this book for my personal reading pleasure.  I was in no way compensated for this review.  It is my own opinion.

If you found this review Helpful Vote yes or no here.

 Now for the giveaway 

 one copy of Mary's Blessings

is provided by 

Giveaway will be from 9/6 until 9/13.

USA entry - print copy
International entry - ebook format 

 1+. All you need to do is leave a comment 

about why you would like to win this book.  
Be sure to leave your email address in the comment

 so I can contact you if you are the winner. 

example of email:  johndoe(at)yahoo(dot)com

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this is not mandatory for giveaway. 

 The winner will be announced on 
Friday, September 14. 

 GOOD LUCK!