About the Book

Book: The Traveling Prayer Shawl

Author: Jennifer Lynn Cary

Genre: Christian Women’s Fiction/Split-time

Release date: March 17, 2021

Her dream account just landed in her lap…

…So did the future of her family

And she’s got two months to save them both.

Cami Madison’s grandmother died, leaving her with a task she must complete or all the inheritance goes to charity. Plus her boss handed her the ad campaign that will win her the coveted vice presidency opening.

Both have the same time table.

When she realizes the projects are intertwined, things really start to unravel.

Kate Hanson raised her granddaughter after the child became an orphan in a car accident. But not all scars are on the outside.

Can Kate’s last request help Cami to heal?

Will Cami be able to step up to the job?

You will love this split-time women’s romance because when family is on the line, everyone knows the only way to survive is wrapped in prayer.

Click here to get your copy!

My Review

Jennifer Lynn Cary is known for writing touching, sweet stories with plenty of tame drama mixed in and she’s done it again in The Traveling Prayer Shawl.

I enjoyed this sweet, well-told story about a woman named Cami and her cousin, Morgan, and watching them work through grief after the loss of their grandmother, but also through their own hurt feelings toward each other.

Cami is working at an advertising agency when her grandmother passes away, while Morgan is raising her two children after her husband left her to take a job out of state.

Each character had their own dramas going on beside the loss of their grandmother, which made their efforts to find peace with each other a challenge.

I enjoyed how Cary wove in the past point of view of their grandmother, Kate, to give us an insight into when the girls were younger and what caused them to become estranged.

Cary even manages to weave in some romance in the midst of a story that involves a health concern for Morgan and work challenges for Cami.

The book is a touching reminder of the importance of family, the connections we take for granted, and the forgiveness we can extend because God first extended it to us.

About the Author

Historical Christian Romance author, Jennifer Lynn Cary, likes to say you can take the girl out of Indiana, but you can’t take the Hoosier out of the girl. Now transplanted to the Arizona desert, this direct descendant of Davy Crockett and her husband of forty years enjoy time with family where she shares tales of her small-town heritage and family legacies with their grandchildren. She is the author of The Crockett Chronicles series, The Relentless series, and The Weather Girls trilogy as well as the stand-alone novella Tales of the Hob Nob Annex Café and her split-time novel The Traveling Prayer Shawl.

More from Jennifer Lynn

The Traveling Prayer Shawl is actually a tribute to the wonderful women I’ve had the pleasure of making shawls with for the last ten plus years. We have a group that has remained faithful though some have had to leave, and new faces have joined. I thought this would be a book where there would be several points of view, sort of like how it is when we meet one Saturday per month. I even asked the girls when this idea began to churn if they could give me some character ideas.

Then one morning this scene came to me and wouldn’t leave. I wrote it out and sent it to my critique group. They thought I might be on to something.

Follow that with one of my prayer shawl girls asking if I was still interested in a character idea. Of course I said yes, and she handed me a fully fleshed out supporting character—Dericka.

I hadn’t planned on anything romantic but apparently my characters had other ideas. This story couldn’t get itself written fast enough.

The cherry on top was when another of my prayer shawl girls shared about a pattern her grandmother had designed that was published back in the 1960’s. With her permission, I include that pattern at the end of the book—an actual prayer shawl to crochet.

You will also see a prayer that is included with the shawl in the book. That is the same prayer that is given with each shawl from our Needles of Hope group. It was written by my dear friend, Pastor Lori Brown and used with her permission.

Crocheting is a relaxing craft for me and one I came to only a few years ago. My sweet grandmother tried to teach me to crochet, then gently suggested I stick with knitting. Ha! But my husband’s cousin came to visit and accepted the challenge, finally helping me to see what had been so elusive. Now I prefer it to knitting.

Though The Traveling Prayer Shawl is a stand-alone and not like my other books, I am currently working on another stand-alone split-time and have included the first chapter at the end of the book. Hope you will enjoy it and that you will try out my friend CeCe’s grandmother’s prayer shawl pattern.

Abundant blessings!

Blog Stops

An Author’s Take, May 24

Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, May 25

lakesidelivingsite, May 25

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, May 26

Texas Book-aholic, May 27

Boondock Ramblings, May 27

Inklings and notions, May 28

For Him and My Family, May 29

Miriam Jacob, May 29

deb’s Book Review, May 30

Abba’s Prayer Warrior Princess, May 31

Locks, Hooks and Books, May 31

Ashley’s Clean Book Reviews, June 1

Because I said so — and other adventures in Parenting, June 2

Mary Hake, June 2

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, June 3

Gina Holder, Author and Blogger, June 4 (Author Interview)

Vicarious Living , June 4

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, June 5

Blogging With Carol, June 6

Spoken from the Heart, June 6

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Jennifer is giving away the grand prize package of a $50 Amazon 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/1df1d/the-traveling-prayer-shawl-celebration-tour-giveaway

Whoo. need some sadness detox today and I bet a lot of you do too. I thought I’d share some of my favorite old time comedians or musicians today on the blog for those of us who need a distraction of something lighter.

I’ve also added in a couple of fun musical numbers.

Yes, that’s right. I look up all these fun things so you don’t have to. It’s a hard job going through all the entertaining clips of clean comedy on YouTube, but I am glad to do it. For you. Always…for….you, my beloved readers.

Thank you to Erin for this lovely review of Beauty From Ashes!

Summary: After becoming pregnant by her abusive ex-boyfriend, 27-year-old Liz Cranmer feels trapped in a prison of shame. Now a single mother she feels like the whole town, especially her church-going parents, view her as a trashy woman with no morals. That’s not how she used to think of herself but — could they all […]

Book Review: Beauty From Ashes by Lisa R. Howeler — Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs..

Welcome to Sunday Bookends where I ramble about what I’ve been reading, doing, watching, writing and listening to.

What’s Been Occurring

We finally got our warmer weather this week, but I think Pennsylvania forgot spring and ran right into summer. That’s okay, as long as the trees have some green on them and the lilacs and other flowers are blooming.

No, I don’t have any photos of the lilacs yet, but hopefully next week. They are blooming, but I didn’t find time this week to photograph them.

Thursday, Little Miss had some friends over and they played hard all day, including sliding on a slip-n-slide for about 15 minutes, after which they decided the wind was too cold. They wouldn’t have been too cold yesterday (Saturday) because it was close to 87 during the day.  It is supposed to be as hot today, but the rest of the week is supposed to be a little cooler.

On our way back from picking them up, we saw a porcupine in the middle of the road, which is maybe only the second time in my life I have seen a porcupine in real life. I thought it was a racoon at first.

It was crossing the road in a bad spot, and I couldn’t drive around it so I honked at it, which I knew was a bad idea because freaked out porcupines can lead to quills flying and maybe putting out one of my tires. Luckily, he simply waddled off the road and his quills came up only after he was out of our way. I don’t know if he ever shot them or not.

Last week was apparently the week for wildlife to be seen and heard. Early in the week Little Miss and I heard something screaming. I thought it might be a fox because I’ve heard people say they sound like they are screaming when they bark but the neighbors thought a rabbit had gotten caught and was killed. *Shiver*. 

On our way to gymnastics for Little Miss, we saw a box turtle crossing the road and five minutes later two deer crossed the road as well.

The saddest sight, though, was when we saw a dead bear along one of our major highways on Friday. We think it was a young bear because it wasn’t very large. I have to say it is the first time in my life I have seen a bear hit along the road. I would imagine the car that hit it wasn’t in very good shape afterward.

We saw the dead bear when we drove 45 minutes north to where we used to live to drop The Boy off at a friend’s house for a sleepover. We spent some time at the local playground, The Boy rode his bike around his old neighborhood, I stopped at the health food store for a favorite natural soda of mine (which tasted horrible thanks to the lingering effects of Covid), and another store for some milk from one of the local farmers who now have their own farm store. After we dropped The Boy off, Little Miss wanted to go to the playground again, which meant a longer day than I planned. She had a ton of fun, though, and it was nice to see children playing together again.

Saturday afternoon I had a little bit of free time when The Husband and Little Miss went to pick up The Boy from a sleepover he’d been at. While sitting in my very quiet living room I heard something or someone wheezing. For a minute, my health anxiety-riddled brain thought it was me. Then I remembered I haven’t actually wheezed in a long time and that there is one other family member who wheezes when she sleeps. I looked up and sure enough — Pixel (aka Fat Cat) was asleep in the dog bed by the TV. Yes, it is a dog bed, but more often than not, the dog sleeps on the ottoman and the cat curls up in the bed that was meant for the dog.

Yes, we really should buy an extra bed so they can both have one.

What I/We’ve Been Reading

I’m almost finished with Walking in Tall Weeds by Robin W. Pearson and I’m really enjoying it. I wrote a little bit about the book in last week’s Sunday Bookends. It releases July 19.

I will probably finish it today or tomorrow because I can’t put it down.

I’m hoping to jump into another Miss Julia book by Ann B. Ross later this week and possibly balance that with either another CJ Box (Joe Pickett) or Craig Johnson (Longmire) book. I like to have two books to switch back and forth in case one gets too “heavy” for me.

The Boy is still reading Smoke and Mirrors.

Little Miss and I are finishing Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder. For the last two weeks of school, we will be reading The Years of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill as well.

The Husband is reading Shots Fired by CJ Box.

What We watched/are Watching

Last night we watched The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance with John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart.

It is streaming on Paramount. It was very good. Much better than I expected.

Earlier in the week, The Husband and I watched more of The Larkins. I have already watched the first (and only so far) season but am enjoying rewatching it. I’m catching things I didn’t before.

I also started a documentary series about Scotland. It was interesting but the man hosting it kept using the weirdest voice when he quoted women, which was very unnerving.

What I’m Writing

I found a bit of time this week to work on Mercy’s Shore, the fourth book in The Spencer Valley Chronicles and came up with several ideas for it, as well as a few scenes. I’m not totally sure, but I might be able to write this book a little faster than past books. I shared chapter 3 from it Friday here on the blog.

I also shared a Randomly Thinking post yesterday.

What I’m Listening To

This week I listened to CeCe Winans, Matthew West, and The Shires.

Your turn

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

Thank you to Kat at The Lily Cafe for interviewing me about Beauty From Ashes for her blog today!

The Lily Cafe is thrilled to welcome author and blogger Lisa R. Howeler, here to talk a bit about her Christian romance novel Beauty From Ashes. Lisa blogs at and shares early drafts of her novels on Boondock Ramblings. Even though I don’t identify as Christian, I love her novels as they’re clean, sweet romances […]

Author Interview: Lisa R. Howeler, author of Beauty From Ashes — The Lily Cafe

The ebook for Beauty From Ashes, the third book in The Spencer Valley Chronicles, is out today on Amazon and will be available on other sites at the end of the week.

The book is 99 cents through the end of the week and even better? The first two books in the series are also 99 cents. Whoot!

Here is a description of the book for those not familiar with it:

27-year-old Liz is a bit lost, trapped in a prison of shame after becoming pregnant by her abusive boyfriend. Well, technically ex-boyfriend. Now she is a single mother who feels like the whole town, or at least her church-going parents, view her as a trashy woman with no morals. That’s not what she used to think of herself as but — could they all be right? And if they all think that, what about God?

53-year-old Ginny Jeffries has hit a snag of her own in life. She hit the snag a couple of years ago, in fact, and now she’s still stuck on that snag, with no sign of moving forward. Her husband, Stan, hasn’t noticed her in at least a year, maybe longer, her job as the town’s library director has become mundane and stagnant, and her youngest daughter is having some kind of identity crisis. Pile on the return of her ex-boyfriend from high school to town and she’s about to collapse under the weight of it all.
Can the two women figure out their chaotic, confusing lives together?

Links to buy the books:

The Farmer’s Daughter: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TVHHL4B

Harvesting Hope: https://www.amazon.com/Harvesting-Hope-Spencer-Valley-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B094M615GK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Beauty From Ashes: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09T2P69XV

If you enjoy the book and would like to review it, you can do so at the following places:

Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09T2P69XV

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60599967-beauty-from-ashes?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=fb1J5HBdtW&rank=1

Bookbub:https://www.bookbub.com/books/beauty-from-ashes-the-spencer-valley-chronicles-by-lisa-r-howeler

Or you can share a review on your blog or social media as well.

If you would like to use any of my graphics and would like me to email them to you, let me know and I can do so. As always, thanks to all my blog readers who have supported my writing either by reading the chapters on the blog and commenting or purchasing the books and recommending them to others.

Paperbacks of the book will be available within the week.