To Joey, With Love Review and GIVEAWAY!

Keep your tissue handy when you watch To Joey, With Love.  I finished my Christmas cards last night while watching it with tears streaming down my face.  To Joey, With Love is a beautiful movie filmed by Joey’s husband Rory.

Joey and Rory live on a farm in Tennessee and take a year off to work the farm and spend time with their newborn baby.  The film starts right before the birth of their baby and continues into the birth and aftermath of having a new child.  Everything seems fine at first during the natural birth at home with a midwife, but Joey is soon rushed to the hospital from complications.   After emergency surgery, she is okay, but they found out their new baby daughter has Down’s syndrome.  They name her Indiana and she is Joey’s pride and joy.  Shortly thereafter, they find out that Joey has cancer.  This movie takes a look into Joey’s battle with cancer, her role as a new Mother, and her ability to live each day to its fullest.  

To Joey, With Love is a love letter to Joey.  Rory had started filming footage to celebrate the birth of their child and it turned into so much more.  He has edited it into a beautiful movie celebrating what a wonderful woman Joey was.  I didn’t realize who the two of them were at the start of the movie, but about 30 minutes into the movie, Rory gave the background that the two of them were a Country music duo with multiple CDs out and a Grammy award.  It was a risk taking a year off at this point in their career, but they were excited about the birth of their child.  The movie had their music playing throughout and it was beautiful.  I love how Joey would sing all of the time to Indiana

The movie was both joyous and sad.  The raw footage that was taken showed the pure love that Joey had for her daughter and that Joey and Rory had for each other.  It also showed the pure faith that Joey had including when she was “ready to go home” at the end.  I admired how she got everything read for the future that Rory would have as a single father raising Indiana by himself.  

This movie hits some hard subjects, but it was appropriate to watch with your entire family.  My kids were doing other things while I was watching it, but kept being drawn to it, especially at the end.  My middle son Daniel seemed especially accepting of the fact that she was “going home” to heaven.  They also liked the music.  Penelope my six year old, loved baby Indiana as she grew up.

Overall To Joey With Love is a beautiful homage from a husband to his late wife, but it is also real life.  The movie was beautifully crafted from home video footage to show the trials of life when facing cancer and a wonderful child born with Down’s syndrome.  I have been thinking about this movie all day and have already purchased an album to listen to of their music from Amazon.  I was touched by their story.

Movie Source:  I received a link to review this movie from Icon Media Group.  This movie will be released on December 20^th.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/YmkEfRRJ02E

Film's website: http://tojoeywithlove.com
Rory's blog: http://www.thislifeilive.com

Giveaway

One lucky winner will receive a DVD copy of To Joey, with Love courtesy of Icon Media Group. If you would like to win any of these three great novels, please leave a comment on what interests you about this movie.

As part of your comment, you must include an email address. If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner.

For an additional entry, blog about this giveaway or post it on your sidebar. Provide a link to this post in your comment.

I will be using random.org (or a Monte Carlo simulation in excel) to pick the winners from the comments.

This contest is only open to addresses in the United States and Canada.

The deadline for entry is midnight on Friday December 30th!

Please make sure to check the week of January 1st to see if you are a winner. I send emails to the winner, but lately I've been put in their "junk mail" folder instead of their inbox.

Good luck!

Christmas Kisses: An Echo Ridge Anthology by Lucy McConnell, Cami Checketts, Rachelle J. Christensen, Connie E. Sokol, and Heather Tullis

Title: Christmas Kisses:  An Echo Ridge Anthology
Author: Lucy McConnell, Cami Checketts, Rachelle J. Christensen, Connie E. Sokol, and Heather Tullis

Read by: Tanya Eby & Kate Rudd

Publisher: Blackstone Audio

Length: Approximately 18 hours and 14 minutes (I only had 4 hours and 37 minutes)
Source: Blackstone Audio Digital Review Copy through Audiobook Jukebox – Thank-you!

I had an audiobook tragedy last week.  I had been listening to an anthology, Christmas Kisses, and was riveted listening to a story when it suddenly stopped.  I thought something had happened to my phone only to discover that it said the book had ended.  NOOOO!!!  I had troubles downloading this audio file and apparently didn’t have all of the pieces of it.  I will have to find the rest of the audiobook somehow to finish my listening experience, but I can at least review what I have listened to thus far.

Christmas Kisses is an enjoyable anthology with clean, light romance stories set in the town of Echo Ridge.  The stories have different characters, but are all interrelated.  Below is a review of the two stories I listened to.

The Candy Counter Heiress by Lucy McConnell

Reese Gates is the heiress of the old fashioned candy counter at Kenworth’s department store.  In her mid-twenties, Reese longs to make a different herself and be given more responsibility in the family business.  She works with her Grandmother and Mother at making chocolates within their home and then selling them at the store candy counter.  As her Grandmother is starting to fade from dementia, Reese feels she can help the business by expanding it to an online presence.  There have also been rumors that the manager of Kenworth’s wants to get rid of the family owned candy counter. She enlists her friend and secret crush, Andy Edwards, to set up a webpage.  They work together and sparks fly.  Unfortunately keeping the webpage a secret makes it so that Reese has problems with both her family and Andy.  Will she be able to save the candy counter and find love?

I really enjoyed this audiobook story.  It had a wonderful narrator was very engaging to listen to on my daily commute.  I really identified with this story as I worked in an old dime store during my teenage years that had a candy counter . . . although the candy was Brach’s and not hand dipped.  I loved it!  The story was so sweet and a good clean story.  It had a great Christmas spirit.

Christmas Makeover by Cami Checketts

Chelsea Jamison is a high school gym teacher that loves Drew.  Drew and Chelsea were best pals back in high school as they shared a love of sports.  Unfortunately for Chelsea, Drew has always considered her one of the guys.  Now almost ten years later, Chelsea is still in their hometown of Echo Ridge enjoying life as a gym teacher and her laid back fashion choices of spandex and a t-shirt. Drew has become a successful businessman and has returned to town to visit.  Sparks begin to fly between the two, but Chelsea also has a new teacher interested in her. Chelsea also has her self-doubts about what happens when Drew leaves.  What will happen between the two?  I’m not sure as my audiobook stopped before the end of this story!  The narration of this story was fantastic and I was enjoying it immensely.

Overall, Christmas Kisses is a good, clean set of romance stories that are interlinked.  The characters and stories were enjoyable and the narration was excellent.  It is a perfect audiobook to enjoy during the winter, especially in the hectic time before Christmas.

The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill by Julie Klassen Blog Tour and Giveaway!

What can a widow do in Regency England when she is suddenly left with an Inn to upkeep and no practical experience to do it?  Jane Bell was raised a lady, but after a disappointment in love, marries innkeeper John Bell.  After John’s untimely death, Jane has been left with his Inn and basically lives in denial for a year after his death.  When it becomes clear that the inn will soon be doomed without action, Jane rises to the occasion.  There to help her is her mother-in-law, gruff but effectively Thora, and her brother-in-law, Patrick.  The inn is the center of their small village, Ivy Hill, as Jane soon learns, the rise and fall of the Inn will affect the livelihoods of many beyond the immediate Bell family.  Will Jane be able to save the Inn?

I love that The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill is a novel about an entire village with many intriguing characters and storylines.  With the story starting after John’s death, there are many small mysteries to figure out.  Why are Jane and Rachel no longer friends and what does it have to do with Sir Timothy?  Why did John take out a large loan endangering the Inn with no trail on where the money actually went?  Why was John gone the day of his death?  Who is Gabriel Locke and why did he appear after John’s death willing to work for such a small salary?  I found the characters compelling and multi-layered.  For example, when Thora comes back to town and is critical to Jane, the reader would think that she is going to be a one-dimensional evil mother-in-law.  In fact, she is a compelling multi-dimensional character.  Thora has lost her beloved son and also the rights to the Inn.  The Inn was her family inn that went to her husband upon marriage, to her son upon her husband’s death, and now to her son’s widow at his death.  She has no rights to it or its future, but she loves it.  Although she is 51, Thora has more than one man trying to woe her and I LOVED it.

Rachel Ashford was once Jane’s friend.  She was disappointed in love and takes care of her ailing father.  He has lost his fortune and his estate is entailed away to a distant cousin.  Upon his death, Rachel is left in a quandary.  What does a single youngish gentlewoman do when she is thrust alone amongst the world?  Luckily she has her friend Mercy who runs has faced a similar predicament and runs a gentile school to survive.  Mercy has gathered together a group of the working women of Ivy Hill in a knitting club where they can talk about problems they face as women trying to run a business.  Jane Bell realizes from the club that she needs to support other women and that there is support for her across the village.

The theme of women trying to make it in a man’s world is prevalent throughout the novel.  I thought it was very intriguing and it really made me think about how hard it was to make it if you were without a husband or father figure in your life. I loved all of the characters in the village and the storyline was very engaging.  I also loved that there was a map of the village at the start so you could visualize where various locations were around town.

I loved the following quote as it echoed Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice:

“I realize I possess not those happy manners to ensure my making friends easily.”

The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill is the first in a planned series.  I can’t wait to read more in this series. There is much more to this story and I want to spend more time with these characters.

Overall, The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill is a wonderfully engaging novel full of intriguing characters and storylines.  I highly recommend it and can’t wait for more in the series!

Book Source:  Review Copy from Bethany House.  Thank-you!

Book Description
The lifeblood of the village of Ivy Hill is its coaching inn, The Bell. When the innkeeper dies suddenly, his genteel wife, Jane Bell, becomes the reluctant landlady. Jane has no idea how to manage a business, but with the town's livelihood at stake and a large loan due, she must quickly find a way to save the inn.

Despite their strained relationship, Jane turns to her resentful mother-in-law, Thora, for help. Formerly mistress of The Bell, Thora is struggling to overcome her losses and find purpose for the future. As she works with Jane, two men from her past vie for her attention, but Thora has promised herself never to marry again. Will one of them convince her to embrace a second chance at love?

As pressure mounts from the bank, Jane employs new methods, and puzzles over the intentions of several men who seem to have a vested interest in the place, including a mysterious newcomer with secret plans of his own. With the help of friends old and new, can Jane restore life to the inn, and to her empty heart as well?

Visit talesfromivyhill.com to find a map of the village, character profiles, a book giveaway, and more!

Author Bio


JULIE KLASSEN loves all things Jane--Jane Eyre and Jane Austen. A graduate of the University of Illinois, Julie worked in publishing for sixteen years and now writes full-time. Her books have been honored with the Christy Award for Historical Romance, the Minnesota Book Award, and the Midwest Book Award, among others. Julie and her husband have two sons and live in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota. For more information, visit www.julieklassen.com.

The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill Blog Tour Schedule

December 5: Author Q&A on Pemberley to Milton
December 6: Excerpt on My Love for Jane Austen
December 8: Review on Laura's Reviews
December 9: Book Spotlight on More Agreeably Engaged
December 10: Review on A Bookish Way of Life
December 11: Review and Excerpt on Delighted Reader Book Reviews
December 12: British Show Inspiration Guest Post on Living Read Girl
December 13: Historical Background Guest Post on English Historical Fiction Authors
December 14: Review on Calico Critic
December 15: Excerpt on So Little Time
December 16: Review and Author Q&A on My Jane Austen Book Club
December 17: Review on Just Jane 1813
December 18: Excerpt on Babblings of a Book Worm
December 19: Review on Austenesque Reviews
December 20: Guest Post on Jane Austen in Vermont
December 21: Review on Luxury Reading

Giveaway
Be sure to enter the giveaway before you leave—the winner will receive a $20 Teavana gift card and a package of four inspirational British romances from four different eras (The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill by Julie Klassen, A Haven on Orchard Lane by Lawana Blackwell, The Lost Heiress by Roseanna M. White, Not by Sight by Kate Breslin). The winner will be notified on December 22.

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