Sunday, June 6, 2021

Celebrate Lit Blog Tour: Written Off by Barbara Cornthwaite

Book: Written Off

Author: Barbara Cornthwaite

Genre: Christian Cozy Mystery

Release date: May 2021

”Break a leg?” They’ll be lucky if they don’t all break their necks!

After years of waiting, Katrina finally has her happily ever after. All is right with her world . . . until hate crimes begin happening in the charming college town of Wilkester. Even more disturbing is the fact that the perpetrator seems to be connected with the writing class Katrina teaches. How can she prevent her rosy visions of the future from turning into broken dreams?

Find out in this third book of the Wilkester Mysteries.

Click here to get your copy!

I have been anxiously awaiting the release of the 3rd book in the Wilkester Mysteries series. Written Off by Barbara Cornthwaite is here and I recently read the book!

Katrina, who is in her 40's, is busy planning her long awaited Wedding as a first time Bride. She is also a Writing Teacher. The town of Wilkester is a happy little town, until Hate Crimes begin happening. Wilkester is a town where this type of crime never happens. The shocking part for Katrina is that it seems the crimes could be the acts of one of her students. Will the Hate Crimes damage the town and the townspeople? Will the town find the person who is doing these acts of hate? Will Katrina have her Happy Wedding without incident?

WOW, what a fantastic storyline. I really appreciate how the author focuses the story not on a murder, but something that is happening in today's world and times. Hate Crimes are unfortunately too common in the past few years and something that needs to be stopped. I also like the 2 main characters, Katrina and Todd. Katrina has a bubbly personality and Todd is so sweet. They make a GREAT couple and so excited for their wedding.

I have read the previous 2 books in this series and Book 3 was just as GREAT as the first 2. Having read the first 2 makes the 3rd book easy to read and understand, but I also feel that it would be a good read for those who didn't read the first 2. GREAT BOOK!

Barbara Cornthwaite lives in the middle of Ireland with her husband and children. She taught college English before “retiring” to do something she loves far more; her days are now filled with homeschooling her six children, trying to keep the house tidy (a losing battle), and trying to stay warm in the damp Irish climate (also a losing battle). She is surrounded by medieval castles, picturesque flocks of sheep, and ancient stone monuments. These things are unappreciated by her children, who are more impressed by traffic jams, skyscrapers, and hot weather.

More from Barbara

What Kind of Lessons Could a Mystery Possibly Teach Me?

It’s been a couple decades since I taught a college English class, and writing the Wilkester Mysteries with Professor Katrina Peters as the main character brought back happy memories of teaching. Not enough to want to go back to it—homeschooling my own kids is much more rewarding—but enough that I had to stop myself from writing much longer lectures into the stories! These are my first contemporary novels, and it was nice to write a story without the hours and hours of historical research I usually have to do. But whatever time period stories are set in, people feel the same emotions and have to learn the same spiritual lessons.

Katrina loves literature and can’t help seeing her own life as a story. The only problem is that she keeps thinking she knows what the Author is doing, and she has definite ideas about what the plot should be. She is not unlike myself: over and over I’ve thought I knew what God was doing in my life. And if He was short on ideas, I had quite a few that He was free to use! But He has rarely been doing what I thought He was, and for some reason He never seems to use my ideas about what could happen in my story. Both Katrina and I need to learn the lesson that God’s wisdom is beyond ours, His storytelling is much deeper and richer than ours, and His plots are never predictable!