2010 INSPY Awards Announced

It was an honor to be one of the INSPY award judges this year.      I was asked to read five books in the romance/romantic suspense category.       At the appointed date, the five judges in this category met online to begin discussing the five books we had read.        It was a great week of dissecting these books.    We evaluated everything about them from literary content, faith content, and story line.   

At the end of much discussion, we all agreed that the book we believed should be chosen as the 2010 Romance/Romantic Suspence INSPY Award winner is Sons of Thunder by Susan May Warren.     With the amount of discussion that was generated by this book, I think this would make a great book club book.
 

Tonight the INSPY committee released the total list of winners.     Congratulations to all the authors for these excellent books!

The INSPY Award winners are:

Crossing Oceans by Gina Holmes, General and Literary Fiction (Tyndale House)
Evolving in Monkey Town by Rachel Held Evans, Creative Nonfiction (Zondervan)
She Walks in Beauty by Siri Mitchell, Historical Fiction (Bethany House)
The Knight by Steven James, Thriller/Suspense/Crime Fiction (Revell)
Green by Ted Dekker, Speculative Fiction (Thomas Nelson)
Plain Paradise by Beth Wiseman, Amish Fiction (Thomas Nelson)
Sons of Thunder by Susan May Warren, Romance/Romantic Suspense (Summerside)
Once Was Lost by Sara Zarr, Young Adult Fiction (Little, Brown)

The 2010 INSPY Awards cover books published from July 2009 through June 2010.

The INSPYS

Have you heard of the INSPYS?    They are the awards for excellence in faith-driven literature. What makes the INSPYs unique among award programs is that we invite nominations from both the Christian booksellers’ domain and the general marketplace. The INSPYs are not about conforming to expectations, they are about faith.

There are different categories:   general fiction, creative non-fiction, historical fiction, thriller/suspense/crime, speculative fiction, amish fiction, romance/romantic suspense, and young adult fiction.

Bloggers are chosen to be judges for each of these categories.     Last week the judges were announced for these categories and I was shocked and honored to be chosen as a judge for the romance/romantic suspense category.   You can see all the other judges in my category here.  

The book in my category which I will be judging are...

A Lady Like Sarah by Margaret Brownley, Thomas Nelson

Blood Ransom by Lisa Harris, Zondervan

Seaside Letters by Denise Hunter, Thomas Nelson

  

Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart by Beth Patillo, Guideposts

 

Sons of Thunder by Susan May Warren, Summerside Press

 If you would like to see a complete list of all the books nominated for the INSPYS you can see them here.   

All of the judges will be reading their book nominees and then going through the discussion and voting process through the month of December.     I am very excited about being a part of this year's INSPYS.     I can't wait to read these books and meet with the other judges.