Wednesday Book Giveaway & Guest Blogger Julie Arduini

Wednesdays are special days because here on my blog we have a book giveaway and a guest blogger. This week my guest is Julie Arduini. 

Welcome, Julie.

Julie Arduini loves to encourage readers to find freedom in Christ through surrender. She’s the author of the Amazon bestseller, Entrusted and co-author of the international bestseller The Love Boat Bachelor. She also shared her story in the Amazon bestseller infertility devotional, A Walk in the Valley. She’s the fiction contributing editor for the digital magazine, Imaginate, and blogs every other Wednesday for Christians Read.

She resides in Ohio with her husband and two children. Learn more by visiting her at http://juliearduini.com.








You can also find Julie and her books at:

Facebook: http://facebook.com/JulieArduini
Twitter: http://twitter.com/JulieArduini
G+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+JulieArduini/posts
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/JulieArduini
Instagram: http://instagram.com/JulieArduini
Goodreads: http://goodreads.com/JulieArduini
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Julie-Arduini/e/B00PBKDRSQ/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1427852247&sr=8-1

Entrusted’s Trip Over the Border

My first adventure to the Adirondack Mountains was after college graduation at the invitation of a dear friend from school. The moment I stepped out of my beat-up car and inhaled the mountain air, I knew there was something special about the area.
I’ve been blessed to travel back to Speculator, New York, and refresh in the place I refer to as “my peace.” From that very first visit I started picturing the characters who would be in what is now available as Entrusted. When I walked by King of the Frosties I envisioned Ben and Jenna inside trading barbs as they met over milkshakes. The log cabin I stayed in was the inspiration for where Jenna rents and realizes her small car is no match for the harsh Adirondack winters. As my writing matured, I was able to return again and again and keep working on the story.
When I reached the place where Entrusted was nearly finished and ready to query my husband wanted to give me a birthday trip where I could be alone and edit without the normal disruptions I faced at home. At the time his oldest son worked for a hotel corporation that offered deep discounts to family. My husband looked it up and realized nothing was available in the area. However, he informed me there was a place over the border in Vermont. I was taken with the idea of having time to myself to finish the manuscript, so I didn’t pay attention. I made plans to visit my mom and sister first, then travel the next day. I routed it so I’d visit Speculator again on the way, the sights and sounds would be fresh in my mind. I decided for all the routes, I’d take the one that kept me in the Adirondacks the longest.
It was during the first hour past Speculator on my way to Burlington that I realized this hotel wasn’t close by. Over the border was going to be nearly three hours away. I was in a new-to-me part of the mountains that was so remote not only were there no gas stations, there were no people. No homes. And no telephone poles. Because the ferry wasn’t open yet, I was definitely going out of the way. And as beautiful as it was, I tried not to think about the consequences if I had any kind of car trouble.
Once I arrived in Burlington and the Green Mountains, I was able to settle in and enjoy complete solitude. The mountain backdrop was similar enough to the Adirondacks that I quickly adapted and edited 100 pages and wrote the ending. When it was time to return back home I researched a new way that was a little less remote but would still give me the Adirondack views as I left. Once again I pictured the senior center and the seniors. Carla at work driving around Route 30. But as I left the Adirondack region and transitioned to the Albany area, and then the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes, it was an eight hour drive to get to my mom’s. Although my dad had been gone for almost ten years, I could hear him asking, “What are you doing driving through the mountains all alone?”
The praise is through all those miles, and our geography naivety, I loved everything about the trip. I came away refreshed, I saw new and different lands, and most of all, finished a work that now readers are able to enjoy. Entrusted is the Adirondack romance where readers are commenting that they are transported to a village and area they wish they could visit and maybe live in. And that makes all that driving, even “over the border” to Vermont, worth it.


Julie, how fun it is to get a way and write.

A city girl moves to the mountains and produces a lot 

of change for the local grocer.

Jenna Anderson, sassy city-girl from Youngstown, Ohio, plows–literally–into Adirondack village, Speculator Falls, with a busted GPS. She gets a warning from the sheriff but has ideas for the senior center to prove she belongs in town as their director. Town councilman Ben Regan is as broken as the flower box Jenna demolished. He’s grieving and wants to shut down the center before there’s too much change and heartbreak. They work on community projects and build a slow relationship, but the council needs to vote on the senior center’s future. Can Jenna show Ben both her and the center are worth trusting?

- See more at: http://juliearduini.com/books/entrusted-adirondack-surrender-1/

Purchase Links:
Amazon     (If that doesn’t work, this is the link below)
http://www.amazon.com/Entrusted-Adirondack-Surrender-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00PB097VC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418309633&sr=8-1&keywords=entrusted+julie+arduini
CBD.com
http://www.christianbook.com/entrusted-julie-arduini/9781938092732/pd/092732?product_redirect=1&Ntt=092732&item_code=&Ntk=keywords&event=ESRCP
Barnes and Noble
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/entrusted-julie-arduini/1120704358?ean=9781938092732


For a chance to win a copy of Entrusted, all you have to do is leave a comment. Make sure to include your email address so Julie can contact you.

Last week's winner of Jo Huddleston's book, Wait For Me,  signed in as anonymous and didn't leave a name, but we have your email address. Congratulations!

Grace and peace to you from God,

Bonnie