No Greater Love (2019) — A Celebrate Lit Tour: A Guest Post, My Thoughts, and A Giveaway

About the Book

Book: No Greater Love

Author: Gina Holder

Genre: Christian Romantic Suspense

Release date: April 30, 2019

He said he’d never risk leaving a widow. She said she’d never love a man in uniform.

Paige McDonald collects antique literature and works at the largest bookstore in Portland, Oregon. When her grandfather, a firefighter, was killed, she vowed never to fall in love with a first responder. An old Bible leads to an unexpected discovery and disrupts everything she knows about herself, her family, and God. Her desire to know the truth sends her to the town of Whitman directly into the radar of Patrol Officer Hamilton Bryant.

After the loss of his best friend and fellow officer, Hamilton vowed never to marry. He won’t risk leaving a widow. Instead, he reserves his passion for serving his family and the town he’s sworn to protect. When a series of robberies and threats against the mayor correspond with Paige’s sudden appearance in Whitman, their paths intersect.

Click HERE to purchase your copy!

About the Author

Gina Holder completed the Long Ridge Writer’s Group “Breaking into Print” course and graduated from Faith Bible Institute. In August 2017, she published her first novel, Whither Shall I Go. She is active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads. Her Website and Blog is found at http://storiesbygina.wordpress.com.

She lives in Colorado with her husband and daughter. When she’s not working on her next novel, she enjoys reading, watching movies, singing, and playing the piano and organ.

More from Gina

Fun Facts about No Greater Love (Don’t worry, spoilers weren’t invited to this party.)

1. I love the smell of coffee, but I don’t like the taste. I asked my coffee-loving friends on social media for their favorite coffee drinks to use in the story.
2. Tyler, Tony, and Timothy Thorne were modeled after three brothers I saw playing on a beach in Hurgadah, Egypt.
3. R. Electronics was based on an actual store my husband and I saw in a mall.
4. When Paige and Hamilton meet, he is looking for a runaway goat. This happened to my husband and me. We were out admiring large mansions when a police officer pulled up behind us. We thought we were in trouble for loitering. Instead, he asked if we’d seen a goat running around the neighborhood.
5. Hamilton’s deceased best friend is named after my childhood friend, William Donnelly. Will was a U.S. Marine killed in battle in Afghanistan. Like the character in the story, he got married only two months before his death and was killed on Thanksgiving Day. No Greater Love is dedicated in his memory.
6. The character Jessie Faye is named after an elderly woman my husband knew while living in Fossil, Oregon.
7. The diners in the food court scene were written from personal observations at a food court in Colorado Springs.
8. While Whitman is a fictional town, it is modeled after the real town of Enterprise, Oregon, at the foot of the Wallowa Mountains.
9. Several locations in the book are real establishments in Enterprise, including Heavenly’s Restaurant, the Espresso and Car Wash, El Bajios, and the Bowlby stone courthouse.
10. There are several beloved pets in No Greater Love, including a parrot named Gerald, a Persian cat named Delilah, and a labradoodle named Bruce. All the pets have names except for Aunt Hattie’s Dalmatians.
11. Paige McDonald works at Powell’s City of Books in Portland, Oregon when the story opens. Powell’s lays claim to the status of the “largest independent used and new bookstore in the world.”
12. Portland is the fifth city in America with the most coffee shops per capita.
13. The statistics for the Whitman school—100% graduation rate and a 1:13 student-teacher ratio is not fictional. They are the actual statistics of Enterprise High School.
14. Behind the cash registers at Powell’s, there is a fake dictionary definition—“Smell bound: held as if under the spell by the scent of books.” This is the inspiration behind the opening scene of No Greater Love. The word bibliosmia means the smell of old books.

My Thoughts

Are you a fan of really good romantic suspense? Do you voraciously read novels by authors like Cara Putman and Rachel Dylan? If so, then I highly recommend you check out No Greater Love by Gina Holder. This story has it all: mystery, suspense, thievery, politics, family drama, and romance. No Greater Love gave me papercuts on my fingers I was turning pages so quickly, and I have dark circles under my eyes because I read well past my bedtime.

There is so much to like about this book, I’m not sure where to even start. I love the characters, they’re so unique and endearing and realistic. And I appreciate the various conflicts throughout the story. They’re what kept me turning pages until one in the morning because I just had to know what was going to happen next. I think, however, my favorite aspect of this book is how it made me turn inward and analyze my actual faith and trust level in God.

The hero of No Greater Love is Hamilton Bryant, and he is a cop. A pretty good cop at that. Hamilton is all a girl could want in a hero. He’s strong, intelligent, handsome, heroic, and he loves Jesus. But Hamilton has taken himself off the market romantically speaking. One of his best friends had died in the line of duty, and Hamilton cannot bear the thought of dying and leaving behind a wife and child(ren). He doesn’t want to be the cause of that kind of pain so he has decided he will remain a bachelor for the rest of his days. I’m not going to lie, this bugged me SO badly. I got on my high horse and had some judgemental words to say to Hamilton! Something along the lines of, “Who do you think you are, Hamilton? God!? You don’t determine your steps, Mr. Hot Officer. God does!!!” After my tirade with a fictional man, I heard a very soft Voice say, “Pot calling the kettle black.” I sheepishly apologized to God and then sat down to humbly write this review.

You see, I am Hamilton. I want so badly to never hurt others or cause sadness that I sometimes become the bossy-boss of my own story and force my steps on my own “safe” path. After almost 40 years on this earth, I have learned that when I force my path — even with good intentions — everything gets messed up. I have to really give my life over to God and trust His path for me. Then, and only then, will I ever truly have a genuine trust and faith in God. I won’t spoil anything and tell you if Hamilton learns his lesson or not, but I will tell you that this reader is eternally grateful for this reminder. I had a few things to talk to God about after reading this book.

No Greater Love is a fantastic novel I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend. If you are looking for a very well-written, highly engaging, thought-provoking Christian Romantic Suspense then No Greater Love is the novel for you!

I received a review copy of this novel in eBook form and in paperback 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, Gina is giving away a grand prize of a signed paperback copy of No Greater Love and Whither Shall I Go plus a $50 Amazon gift card!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway!

Click the link below to enter. 

https://promosimple.com/ps/e54f/no-greater-love-celebration-tour-giveaway

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Blog Stops

Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, July 16

The Becca Files, July 17

Just Your Average reviews, July 18

For Him and My Family, July 19

A Good Book and Cup of Tea, July 19

The Christian Fiction Girl, July 20

Godly Book Reviews, July 20

Library Lady Kid’s Lit, July 21

Moments, July 22

Books, Life, and Christ, July 22

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, July 23

Retrospective Spines, July 23

Vicky Sluiter, July 24

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, July 25

Pause for Tales, July 25

Texas Book-aholic, July 26

janicesbookreviews, July 27

Inklings and notions, July 28

Mary Hake, July 28

A Reader’s Brain, July 29