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LitFuse Publicity Tours Presents:


"Baby, It's Cold Outside" by Susan May Warren

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Hope finds the hopeless when a storm hits.

It's Christmas weekend 1949, and despite the threat of a storm, the townspeople of Frost are determined to continue their holiday traditions, if only as a means to forget the war that they had all just suffered through. But the suffering hasn't ended for Dottie Morgan who lost her only son in the war. She's preparing to wallow in her isolation for the weekend, when Violet, nearly a spinster at age 29, dares to make a request that will force Dottie to publicly revive the memory of her dead son.

When a storm traps the two women at home with a strange young man who has an unbelievable confession and a neighbor with more to do with Violet's past than she would like, no one can predict how this Christmas will give them all a second chance.

Read an excerpt here and find out the story behind the novel.

My Take:

In “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”, Warren takes us to a small town, Frost, Minnesota, in 1949, shortly after the war where the wounds of war are not yet healed.  A Christmas blizzard snows in several people into Violets home, a Safe House where people can go for that very reason.  Even though Violet has in her mind all she is wishing for is that anyone who has been coming by her home earlier is to just go away.  She wants to be by herself.  Violet lost her son in the war, and she is not healed yet.  She has a long ways to work through it, and she is plain not ready when a blizzard hits and four other characters find there way to her home to weather out this blizzard through the  holiday season.

This is a very cozy read, and Warren makes us feel it, as she always does in every book she writes.  We can feel all the circumstances that bring all five of these characters together, their emotions, and the sense of the holiday.  The way she writes we can feel the snow falling and hitting our faces during this blizzard.  We can feel all the snow that hits us as it falls off the  branches of trees and then you walk into the a warm, cozy house, where the heat feels so good..  All of the characters that are snowed in at Violet’s Safe House over Christmas have all seem to have their own flaws, but this does not stop them from still enjoying each others’ company, getting to know each other better, and then enjoying the season itself.  I think out of all the characters and their flaws one of the hardest has to be Violet’s loss of her son during the war.  Even though a little time has passed, the hurt still feels like yesterday.

Get ready to enjoy a wonderful holiday book that is sure to stay with you through all the years of your holidays.  Each holiday you will remember this story.  

I cannot suggest to you more than to read this book when it's a cold day outside where all you want to do is snuggle inside and enjoy it for yourself.  You'll be able to feel what the characters feel, smell the scents of the season, and even envision it all..  You'll be experiencing all that Susan May Warren has written in this wonderful story between these five characters inside this Safe House.  Again, you will also find yourself picking this book up year after year to read reread it.  

Descriptive writing like this is truly a gift Susan May Warren has with her writing and not many authors can attain this.  You feel as if you are right there participating in whatever situation she is writing about.

This book, like all the books by Susan May Warren, held my attention so well I did not want to put it down.  When you don’t want to put a book down, and there are dishes in the sink and other household duties that need tending to, you find yourself ignoring these and continue reading her books.

I LOVED this book!  I should say I LOVE ALL of Susan May Warren’s books!  One thing about this author is every book she writes is definitely different.  She is NOT a cookie-cutter author at all like many who write a lot of books can be.  The variety of the books she writes astounds me!  She can write many genres and pull them off so well.  They are ALL their own, separate stories, which is why I enjoy this author so much.  I know I can pick up any one of her books and read an entirely new and different story than I’ve ever read by her before.  That says a LOT about an author!

I received this book for “FREE” from Summerside Press, through LitFuse Publicity, through their Book Reviewer’s Program in exchange to read and write a review about this book.  It is NOT required for my review I write to be either positive or negative, but, “of my own opinion.”  I was NOT provided with “ANY” monies to accept this book, “NOR” to read it, NOR were “ANY” monies given to me to write the review for this book.  All that was ‘expected’ of me was to enjoy the pure pleasure of reading it.  Again, the opinions expressed for and about this book are ‘of my own opinion’.  I am disclosing this information in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Susan May Warren is an award-winning, best-selling author of over twenty-five novels, many of which have won the Inspirational Readers Choice Award, the ACFW Book of the Year award, the Rita Award, and have been Christy finalists. After serving as a missionary for eight years in Russia, Susan returned home to a small town onMinnesota’s beautiful Lake Superior shore where she, her four children, and her husband are active in their local church.

Susan's larger than life characters and layered plots have won her acclaim with readers and reviewers alike. A seasoned women’s events and retreats speaker, she’s a popular writing teacher at conferences around the nation and the author of the beginning writer’s workbook: From the Inside-Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you!. She is also the founder ofwww.MyBookTherapy.com, a story-crafting service that helps authors discover their voice.

Susan makes her home in northern Minnesota, where she is busy cheering on her two sons in football, and her daughter in local theater productions (and desperately missing her college-age son!)

A full listing of her titles, reviews and awards can be found at:www.susanmaywarren.com.

WHERE TO BUY THE BOOK:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/1609362152/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=sprightly-20&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=1609362152&adid=1W6V46X88E4D79FGRNE1