Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Stray Affections review and giveaway


Some people talk about being a victim of circumstance. We all have met them. Every bad thing in their life is the fault of someone else or some past experience. They have allowed that experience to shape their person. But sometimes, we meet a person that has overcome their circumstances. Someone who understands that circumstances aren't everything and often, aren't even what they completely appear to be.

OR we meet someone who has in the past allowed these things to shape their life and then there is a single moment that changes them.

Cassandra Higgins is that person. A bad relationship with her mother, a busy life with four children and Cassandra has a moment that changes her life. She gains perspective and relationship.

Cassandra becomes infatuated with a one-of-a kind snowglobe containing figures of three dogs and a little girl with hair the color of her own. The globe sparks long-dormant memories for Cassie, of her beloved Grandpa Wonky, the stray she rescued as a child, and the painful roots of her combative relationship with her mother, “Bad Betty” Kamrowski. Life in Wanonishaw, Minnesota is never dull, though, and Cassie keeps the recollections at bay, busy balancing her boys, her home daycare operation, and being a good friend to best pal Margret. But after a strange–flurrious, as Cassie deems it–moment happens with the remarkable snowglobe, Cassie and the people she loves are swirled into a tumultuous, yet grace-filled, and life-changing journey.
With the quirky, close-knit Midwestern small-town feel that made Charlene Ann Baumbich’s acclaimed Dearest Dorothy novels so popular, Stray Affections invites you to experience the laughter and the healing of second chances.
“As a believer, I know the power of forgiveness and new beginnings, and of a God, and family and friends, who love me the way I am,” Charlene Ann Baumbich says. “The heartbeat of change flows through those wonderful gifts.”


Charlene Ann Baumbich is a popular author and speaker and an award-winning journalist. In addition to her Dearest Dorothy series of novels, she has written seven nonfiction books of humor and inspiration. A bungee-jumping, once motorcycle-owning grandma and unabashed dog lover, Charlene lives with her husband and rescued dog Kornflake in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She loves telling stories, laughing whenever possible, and considers herself a Wild Child of God.

Charlene introduces you to her book here -


Buy it here. OR
You can leave a comment here for a chance to win a copy. Please comment by Wednesday, September 16!

3 comments:

S said...

Did you say Minnesota? ;-)
You are a talented reviewer, Gwyn!!

Heather said...

Sounds like a great book!

Charlene Ann Baumbich said...

Howdy and THANK YOU! Somehow I missed your wonderful blog review of my book Stray Affections--until just today.

I love the way you flush out Cassandra. Very clever and accurate.

Divine Appointments, the 2nd book in the Snowglobe Connections series, is due to release 9/21 of this year. Hope you get the chance to describe Josie Brooks (remember her from Stray Affections?) with just as much uniqueness. Nice job.

Again, THANK YOU!

Peace and grins,
Charlene Ann Baumbich