Saturday, September 10, 2011

FALL by Jennifer Hurst

by Cindy R. Williams
(*Note, Keep reading and find a contest --highlighted in green --offered by the author, Jennifer Hurst)

Back blurb of FALL:

Women and construction shouldn't mix. At least, that is what the client; Mr. Blackwell thinks when Twenty-one year old Julia D. Halstead is promoted to project manager to remodel a turn-of the century schoolhouse into a bed and breakfast. However, the schoolhouse contains a dark secret that has been hidden for nearly a hundred years. A secret that will unleash the furies of Hell and cause the Angels in Heaven to weep as ethereal brothers, Matthew and Nathan battle over Julia's very soul.

I married into  family of civil engineers. When I first met my husband, I thought engineers wore puffy blue and white striped hats, overalls and tooted horns on trains. Not so, civil engineers design streets, underground facilities, roads, bridges, parking lots and the ground levels for buildings, and housing developments, etc.  They do all the design before construction takes place. Living around engineers gives me insight into the lead character's career. The author nails it. Julia, or JD, is working in a traditional man's world. According to the author bio, Hurst, herself, retired from the construction industry. She knows her stuff.

Now, having given credibility to the technical aspects of the novel, let's move to the characters. JD is a good strong female lead, smart, hard working with a drive to prove herself, too naive, not the best choice in men, not the most logical female. Hurst gives her plenty of strengths and the flaws that make her human.

The setting is in more toward the southern end of Utah. Hurst paints nice word pictures of the red rock canyons and surrounding area.

Hurst weaves in the folk lore of Butch Cassidy aka Robert LeRoy Parker, who apparently helped the people in that area and was a real good guy other than his little side job of robbing stage coaches and trains.

Several times I actually got the chills from some pretty evil bad guys. I was glad I didn't read those parts on a dark and stormy night.

I don't want to give the story away, nor some of the surprise twists, but I will say  The books ending lends itself to a sequel.

Get your own copy of the book at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/71705 and visit Jennifer Hurst at  http://jenniferhurst.wordpress.com/

In conjunction with this blog tour, Jennifer is holding a contest.  It will involve any of the blogs that Jennifer visits or where her book is featured and will close on December 31st, 2011. The entrants have to answer three questions about the book they’ve read (bought, borrowed, or stolen - shame on you) and post a link to Jennifer's website on their Twitter, Facebook, or blog (need link for verification).

Then the names will be entered in a random name picker generator (
http://textmechanic.com/Random-Line-Picker.html) and announced on Jennifer's website (www.jenniferhurst.com) on January 31st, 2012. The winner will receive a gift certificate for a night’s stay at the actual bed and breakfast where the story takes place.

Other prizes include an autographed copy of FALL, and she will randomly select 3 contestants’ names to use in the sequel to FALL. Plus, they will receive a free copy of that book when it is published.

Each blog that Jennifer Hurst visits will have a different set of questions people can answer, and they may enter as many times as they want - but they can enter once per blog site that they visit. So the more sites you visit, the more you can enter your name, thus increasing your chances of winning the gift certificate, a copy of the book FALL, and your name in the sequel.


 Get the book, read the book, and then read over the questions below.  Once you have your answers, e-mail them to Jennifer.   fall.jenniferhurst@gmail.com

 Your privacy is respected and your email address will NOT be used for anything but the contest.   Once the contest is over - your email address will be deleted from the database.

Here are the questions for you to answer:


Is Quabin a Male or a Female?

What is JD's favorite animal?
What was Drogo's supernatural gift to JD?

Also, come on a fun journey and see what other bloggers have to say about FALL by Jennifer Hurst. 

August 29th Mandi Slack   http://heyyouslackers.blogspot.com 
August 30th Heather Gardner http://fireandicephoto.blogspot.com 
August 30th Kris Chen  http://imaginaryreads.blogspot.com 
September 1st Michelle Jeffries   http://cmichellejefferies.blogspot.com/
September 2nd Aislynn Thompson   http://knitpurlstitch.blogspot.com
September 6th Tonya Christensen    http://whatallthekidsarereading.blogspot.com
September 10th Cindy R. Williams http://www.writersmirror.blogspot.com/
September 12th Tamara Hart Heiner  http://tamarahartheiner.blogspot.com/ 
September 15th Debbie Davis  http://debbiesinkspectations.blogspot.com/
September 15th Jennifer Debenham  www.writebycandlelight.blogspot.com
September 16th Rachel Shaw  http://www.crackaspinebookreviews.blogspot.com/ 
September 19th Danyelle Ferguson http://www.queenoftheclan.blogspot.com/
September 17th Cathy Witbeck http://cathywitbeck-storypainter.blogspot.com/  
September 20th Kaylynn England  www.bookreviewsandmore.com
September 23rd Gaynell Parker  http://www.ldspaz.blogspot.com 

September 26th Jewel Allen  http://pink-ink-pink.blogspot.com/
September 27th Heidi Durant http://ldwmagazine.com/ 
September 29th Kaylee Baldwin  http://www.kayleebaldwin.com/ 
October 1st Autumn Weber http://www.queenofchaosandjoy.blogspot.com/
October 2rd Theresa Small Sneed Bestbooksread.blogspot.com
October 3rd Carolyn Frank http://franklycreative.blogspot.com/
October 5th Jason Morgan http://www.jlloydmorgan.blogspot.com
October 7th Heather Justesen  http://www.heatherjustesen.blogspot.com
Cami Checketts http://camicheckettsbooks.blogspot.com 
Karen Pellett http://FabulousReads.com
Valerie Ipson http://valerieipson.blogspot.com/  
Nichole Giles http://starcrossedbookreviews.blogspot.com/ 
Keith N Fisher http://knfisher.blogspot.com/