This Freedom Journey (2018) — A Celebrate Lit Tour: A Guest Post, My Thoughts, and a Giveaway

About the Book

Title: This Freedom Journey

Author: Misty M. Beller

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release Date: May 4, 2018

Adrien Lockman is through with the political unrest and bloodshed in his home country of France, so he sets off to the Canadian territory’s mountain frontier, in search of a place where a man can live his own life in peace. The last thing he expects to find is a woman, half-starved and half-frozen in a shack nestled among the towering peaks of the great Rocky Mountains.

Mary Standish thought she’d finally found a place where she was accepted, trapping with her husband for the Hudson Bay Company. But when he dies after a gruesome grizzly fight, she determines to carry on their work. After all, life in these remote mountains is better than enduring the scorn and snubs of “civilized” folk. When she’s forced to face a winter harder than any she’s endured yet, her stubbornness may just be the death of her. Until a stranger appears at her ramshackle door.

Adrien had planned to explore the mountain country all winter before he settles down to build a farm in the spring, but he can’t leave this woman to die in the elements. Even though she seems desperate for him to go. As Mary regains strength, she’s torn between wanting to save her dignity, and craving the respect of this man who’s slipped past her defenses. As the winter worsens, the truth becomes all too real—the only way they’ll survive is together.

Click here to purchase your copy!

About the Author

Misty M. Beller writes romantic mountain stories, set on the 1800s frontier and woven with the truth of God’s love.

She was raised on a farm in South Carolina, so her Southern roots run deep. Growing up, her family was close, and they continue to keep that priority today. Her husband and daughters now add another dimension to her life, keeping her both grounded and crazy.

God has placed a desire in Misty’s heart to combine her love for Christian fiction and the simpler ranch life, writing historical novels that display God’s abundant love through the twists and turns in the lives of her characters.

Guest Post from Misty Beller

A Inside Look at the Cover for This Freedom Journey

My book covers are one of my favorite parts of the creative process! With most of my books, I have the cover done early, usually as I’m first brainstorming the story. I love to have the heroine on my cover, and I work hard to make sure the woman on the front matches the heroine I’m envisioning for the story. That way I can describe her in the novel the way she looks on the cover. Sometimes I even work in the outfit she’s wearing on the cover!

This Freedom Journey is a novella in my Heart of the Mountains series, so I wanted the cover to be similar in layout and style to the other books in that series. The setting is winter in the Canadian Rockies, so I knew Mary (the heroine) had to be bundled warmly! Funny story: Mary is mentioned in the other two books, although they’re set later in her life. When I first described her in the other books, I imagined her with amber brown eyes. When I chose the final cover for This Freedom Journey, I had to go back and change the amber brown eyes in those other manuscripts to the riveting blue on the cover. 😊

My Thoughts

This Freedom Journey is a highly enjoyable, fast-paced novella filled with non-stop action that had me holding my breath a couple of times. There is definitely no room to get bored with this one!

Mary is one tough cookie, let me tell you! She is struggling to survive an excruciatingly hard winter in the Canadian Rockies when Adrien happens upon her half starved, three months pregnant, and totally all alone. None of this stops Mary from doing all she can to keep doing all she must. Mary works SO hard and is SO stubborn it’s exhausting. She’s been on her own for a while and cannot trust that Adrien won’t be taken from her too. Out of a sense of self-preservation, Mary refuses to rely on anyone or anything including God. I like Mary’s character, and I appreciate message the reader can learn through her.

To me, Mary represents us humans when we go at life on our own — when we rely on our own selves, when we do all the work on our own without anyone’s help, when we figure the answers out to our problems with no help from anyone. When Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30 (ESV), “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” He is thinking about all of us who have enslaved ourselves to the yokes of our own making. Yokes of our own making provide nothing but pain, suffering, and weariness. But Jesus … His yoke brings peace, rest, and provision. Mary eventually learns this lesson, but not before some serious heartache and loneliness.

This Freedom Journey is a lovely novella that I very much enjoyed reading. I do highly recommend this story. It is well written and engaging, and the characters are very realistic. If you are looking for a quick, adventurous, sweet story then This Freedom Journey is definitely the book for you!

I received a review copy of this novel in eBook form from the author via Celebrate Lit. In no way has this influenced my review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

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GIVEAWAY

To celebrate her tour, Misty is giving away a $50 Amazon gift card!!

Click below to enter.

Be sure to comment on this post before you enter to claim 9 extra entries!

https://promosimple.com/ps/d13f/this-freedom-journey-celebration-tour-giveaway

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