The Michigan Journal


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I Don't Know Who I Am Anymore


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No stranger to heartache, Carole Holiday artfully braids together her story of overwhelming loss with biblical insights and delicious recipes from the little cottage on the lane--the cooking school she once owned. Carole's journey offers hope that after the ravages of grief and despair, God can bring good back to life through faith, food, and fellowship. How do you survive when everything that gave meaning to your life suddenly disappears? Grief can spark the question, God, when will you see me? Carole Holiday has weathered heartbreaking loss and the despair that whispers, "I don't know who I am anymore." Through her trials, including divorce, job loss, and heart surgery, she has learned that deep grief carves space for a deeper ability to love. Readers who have been shredded by suffering, who have lost hope in God or in life being good again will unpack what it means to be made in God's image; learn how to redirect doubts and despair toward a God-filled identity and purpose; understand that loss offers an enormous capacity to feel more deeply; discover that even though rejected by those they most loved, they still matter to God; and be reminded of the truth that sadness and faith are not mutually exclusive. In her unique, lyrical writing style, Carole shares her story of grief and explores biblical teaching that offers a God-given purpose after pain. As an extra dose of comfort, she seasons her story with savory recipes from a cooking school she once owned, where she learned firsthand the healing that takes place around the table. Carole's humor and warm encouragement gently remind readers that God has good for them--even in a season of severe loss.




Love Me Always


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The final two stories in The Great Wedding Giveaway! When a few of Marietta’s long standing bachelors start walking down the aisle they vowed to avoid, the town’s residents are speculating there must be something magical in the water. Be our wedding guest during The Great Wedding Giveaway as these chiseled, brooding cowboys, sexy business owners, and local bad boys return to town to prove a point and say “I do” to the women of their dreams. Books included: Last Year's Bride It’s for the ranch. It’s your duty. A man does his duty, always. His father Sam’s words were carved into Cole McCullough’s brain. His responsibilities lay with Rafter M Arrow, which had been in their family for over a hundred years. Even though they were fighting a losing battle to keep the place going. The ranch always came first, over personal comfort, sometimes reason and definitely women. Sam had seen both his wives walk away, dismissing them as hot-house city girls who couldn’t survive the wilds of rural Montana. So how had Cole ended up making a spur-of-the-moment marriage last year in Reno to TV director Nell, who was as city as they came? Nell was prepared to give it all up to be with Cole. But he knew how it would end: as it had always ended before. It was time to stop living a pipe dream and sue for divorce. But then Nell came back to Marietta with The Compatibility Game, a reality program, in which couples discovered what they were willing to do for love by living and working at Rafter M, and Cole found himself taking part too… Make-Believe Wedding Everyone in Marietta, Montana, is in love and getting married - at least that’s the way it feels to Andie Bennett the night of the Valentine’s Ball. As she watches the man she’s loved from afar for half her life dance with another woman, Andie allows herself a moment of sheer fantasy as she fills out a stray entry form for the Great Wedding Giveaway. Andie channels years of fantasy and yearning for Heath McGregor onto the page, but she never intends to actually enter the Giveaway. Only a crazy woman would do that. But fate has other ideas…. When Heath learns he and Andie are last minute finalists in the Great Wedding Giveaway, he’s completely baffled. How on earth could anyone make such a ridiculous mistake? When it becomes clear that Andie will be humiliated if the slip-up becomes public, Heath does what any good friend would - he suggests they pretend the engagement is real until the Giveaway is over and then quietly “break up” when no one is paying any attention. It’s the perfect solution, except Heath very quickly realises that pretending Andie is his is no hardship at all. In fact, it may just be the best thing that’s ever happened to him…




Chance, Her Dog


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Sarah is my best friend. I have never known a better person, a more wonderful woman, a more courageous individual. I am grateful that she gave me a chance to be a part of her life, a chance to know her, and I promise to be as loyal as her dog, Chance.




Just Checking Scores


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Marisa Burke is a top-rated, local anchorwoman at one of the most respected local ABC affiliates in the country. She enjoys celebrity status, six-figure salaries, a gorgeous home, and beautiful family. But rather than reporting the news, Marisa suddenly becomes the subject of it when her husband, an admired educator, the father of her two young girls, and the man she truly believed was her loving soulmate, was arrested for unlawful sexual relationships with underage boys. What was even more excruciating, Marisa was forced to endure the shame and embarrassment of anchoring the same newscasts in which the personally gut-wrenching news stories about her husband's charges were reported. Marisa Burke's shocking memoir, Just Checking Scores reveals what happens when a person at the top is brought down by public humiliation into a world of deep despair and what Burke did to channel her suffering and anguish into defiance and strength.




The World of Illusion


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Welcome to The World of Illusion-This is the world that many people, including the characters in this collection of short stories, think is real, when it is actually a world they create themselves. In "Summer Jobs, The Agony and the Ecstasy," a boy who believes the summer is traditionally for fun realizes the hard way that sometimes this assumption is not necessarily true. Steve believes the world-the restricting world he has created for himself-will come to an end after he delivers a mediocre oral report in "Freedom." Sammy is a 9-year old boy in "Cotton Candy Circus" who is just beginning to learn an illusion he will later create for himself when he is older. Sammy, now a high school student, in "The Bet $$$$," lives in a world where he is popular when in reality, he is actually offensive. In "Shake-Speared," Freddie the football player thinks he will lose his reputation and whatever chance he has of gaining friends if he is cast in a Shakespearian play. Freddie again faces the thought of losing everything in "The Mistake" when he fumbles the ball in a football game. Throughout The World of Illusion, author J. F. Mattaino explores the consequences of the shortsightedness and shortcomings of these very ordinary characters.




Private Eye


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The Monroe Brothers (Books 4-6)


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Trusting Forever: Sebastian and I have been best friends forever. He knows everything about me, except that I’ve secretly crushed on him for years. When Sebastian finds himself without a nanny over the holidays, he makes me an offer I can’t refuse. Move into his cabin on the family’s Christmas tree farm and be a nanny to his little girl. Endless Hope: Signing up for the fund-raising bachelorette auction seemed like the right thing to do. I never thought my high school sweetheart—my first love, my first everything—would bid on me. But he did. Talon is grumpy. Borderline antisocial. Far too sexy for my peace of mind. And he wants more than just one date. I probably should’ve refused. But I couldn’t. Forbidden Flame: Daphne Calloway is off limits. Our families have been bitter rivals for years. I shouldn’t want her. But I do. Which is why I bid on her at the bachelorette auction. Letting some other guy get his hands on her was…unthinkable.




The Mirror


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The House of Corelli


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