The 14th annual Christy Awards presentation highlighted the role of literary agents in the advancement of Christian fiction. Steve Laube of The Steve Laube Agency emceed the event, and Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary Agency presented the keynote address. Additionally, long-time literary agent Lee Hough was honored with the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Christy in a moving tribute.
The Christy Advisory Committee debuted the Christy Hall of Fame by inducting authors Lynn Austin, winner of eight Christy Awards, and Karen Hancock, winner of four Christy Awards.
The
event also premiered the Christy Book of the Year Award, showcasing the
novel that had the greatest impact when placed against a set of
criteria that includes literary quality, sales, and life impact. A jury
of three people read the year’s nine Christy Award winners and
identified "Into the Free" by Julie Cantrell (David C Cook) as best exemplifying those factors.
The Christy Advisory Board is happy to announce the 2013 Christy Award winners.
(Source: Wynn-Wynn Media Press Release)
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Lynn Austin
Julie Cantrell
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Karen Hancock
"Into the Free"
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Contemporary Romance
 The Breath of Dawn
WINNER:
The Breath of Dawn
by Kristen Heitzmann
(Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Publishing Group)
Morgan
Spencer has had just about all he can take of life. Following the
tragic death of his wife, Jill, he retreats to his brother's Rocky
Mountain ranch to heal and focus on the care of his infant daughter,
Olivia. Two years later, Morgan begins to make plans to return to his
home in Santa Barbara to pick up the pieces of his life and career.
Quinn
Riley has been avoiding her past for four years. Standing up for the
truth has forced her into a life of fear and isolation. After a "chance"
first meeting and a Thanksgiving snowstorm, Quinn is drawn into the
Spencer family's warm and loving world, and she begins to believe she
might find freedom in their friendship.
The man Quinn helped put
behind bars has recently been released, however, and she fears her past
will endanger the entire Spencer family. As the danger heightens, she
determines to leave town for the sake of the people who have come to
mean so much to her.
Fixing problems is what Morgan Spencer does
best, and he is not willing to let Quinn run away, possibly into the
clutches of a man bent on revenge. But Morgan's solution sends him and
Quinn on an unexpected path, with repercussions neither could have
anticipated.
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Lethal Legacy
Wildflowers from Winter
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Contemporary Series, Sequels & Novellas
Two Destinies
Waiting for Sunrise
|  You Don't Know Me
WINNER:
You Don't Know Me
by Susan May Warren
(Tyndale House Publishers)
To
everyone who knows her, Annalise Decker is a model wife and mother.
She’s a permanent member of the PTA, never misses her kids’ sporting
events, and is constantly campaigning for her husband’s mayoral race.
No
one knows that Annalise was once Deidre O’Reilly, a troubled young
woman whose testimony put a dangerous criminal behind bars. Relocated
through the Witness Security Program to the sleepy town of Deep Haven,
Deidre got a new identity and a fresh start, which began when she fell
in love with local real estate agent Nathan Decker. Twenty years later,
Annalise couldn’t be more unprepared for her past to catch up with her.
When Agent Frank Harrison arrives with news that the man she testified
against is out on bail and out for revenge, Annalise is forced to face
the consequences of her secrets. Will she run again, or will she
finally find the grace to trust those she loves most with both her past
and her future?
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Contemporary Standalone
 Not in the Heart
WINNER:
Not in the Heart
by Chris Fabry
(Tyndale House Publishers)
Truman
Wiley used to report news stories from around the world, but now the
most troubling headlines are his own. He's out of work, out of touch
with his family, out of his home. But nothing dogs him more than his
son's failing heart.
With mounting hospital bills and Truman's
penchant for gambling his savings, the situation seems hopeless . . .
until his estranged wife throws him a lifeline--the chance to write the
story of a death row inmate, a man convicted of murder who wants to
donate his heart to Truman's son.
As the execution clock ticks
down, Truman uncovers disturbing evidence that points to a different
killer. For his son to live, must an innocent man die? Truman's
investigation draws him down a path that will change his life, his
family, and the destinies of two men forever.
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The Air We Breathe
Borders of the Heart
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First Novel
Tangled Ashes
Wedded to War
|  Into the Free
WINNER:
(Also Winner of BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD)
Into the Free
by Julie Cantrell
(David C Cook)
Just a girl. The only one strong enough to break the cycle.
In
Depression-era Mississippi, Millie Reynolds longs to escape the
madness that marks her world. With an abusive father and a "nothing
mama," she struggles to find a place where she really belongs.
For
answers, Millie turns to the Gypsies who caravan through town each
spring. The travelers lead Millie to a key that unlocks generations of
shocking family secrets. When tragedy strikes, the mysterious contents
of the box give Millie the tools she needs to break her family's
longstanding cycle of madness and abuse.
Through it all, Millie
experiences the thrill of first love while fighting to trust the God
she believes has abandoned her. With the power of forgiveness, can
Millie finally make her way into the free?
Saturated in Southern ambiance and written in the vein of other Southern literary bestsellers like The Help by Kathryn Stockett and Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin, Julie Cantrell has created in Into the Free—now a New York Times Best Seller—a story that will sweep you away long after the novel ends.
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Historical
 Flame of Resistance
WINNER:
Flame of Resistance
by Tracy Groot
(Tyndale House Publishers)
Years
of Nazi occupation have stolen much from Brigitte Durand. Family.
Freedom. Hope for a future, especially for a woman with a past like
hers. But that changes the day American fighter pilot Tom Jaeger is shot
down over occupied France.
Picked up by the Resistance, Tom
becomes the linchpin in their plan to infiltrate a Germans-only brothel
and get critical intel out through Brigitte, a prostitute rumored to be
sympathetic to the Allied cause.
D-day looms and everyone knows
that invasion is imminent. But so is treachery, and the life of one
American pilot unexpectedly jeopardizes everything. He becomes more
important than the mission to a man who cannot bear to lose another
agent and to a woman who is more than just a prostitute, who finally
realizes that her actions could change the course of history.
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Wedded to War
A Wreath of Snow
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Historical Romance
Be Still My Soul
Love's Reckoning
|  Against the Tide
WINNER:
Against the Tide
by Elizabeth Camden
(Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Publishing Group)
As
a child, Lydia Pallas became all too familiar with uncertainty when it
came to the future. Now, she's finally carved out a perfect life for
herself--a life of stability and order with no changes, surprises, or
chaos of any kind. She adores her apartment overlooking the bustling
Boston Harbor, and her skill with languages has landed her a secure
position as a translator for the U.S. Navy.
However, it is
her talent for translation that brings her into contact with Alexander
Banebridge, or "Bane," a man who equally attracts and aggravates her.
When Bane hires Lydia to translate a seemingly innocuous collection of
European documents, she hesitantly agrees, only to discover she is in
over her head.
Just as Bane's charm begins to win her over, Lydia
learns he is driven by a secret campaign against some of the most
dangerous criminals on the East Coast, compelled by his faith and his
past. Bane forbids any involvement on Lydia's part, but when the
criminals gain the upper hand, it is Lydia on whom he must depend.
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Suspense
 Rare Earth
WINNER:
Rare Earth
by Davis Bunn
(Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Publishing Group)
Marc
Royce stares down from the helicopter on the Rift Valley slashing
across Africa like a scar. Tribal feuds, drought, and dislocation have
left their devastation. And he sees a new wound--a once-dormant volcano
oozing molten lava across the dry landscape--and clouds of ash obscure
his vision. His undercover assignment is similarly obscured. Supposedly
dispatched to audit a relief organization's accounts, Marc finds
himself amid the squalor and chaos of Kenyan refugee camps caught in a
stranglehold of corruption and ruthlessness.
But his true task
relates to the area's reserves of once-obscure metals
now indispensable to high-tech industry. The value of this rare earth
inflames tensions on the world's stage as well as among warring tribes.
When an Israeli medical administrator, Kitra, seeks Marc's help with
her humanitarian efforts, they forge an unexpected link between
impoverished African villages and another Silicon Valley rising in the
Israeli desert. Precious metals and inventive minds promise new
opportunities for prosperity, secure futures, and protection of valuable
commodities from terrorists. As Marc prepares to report back to
Washington, he seizes a chance to restore justice to this troubled land.
This time, he may have gone too far.
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Downfall
The Last Plea Bargain
Submerged
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Visionary
Daughter of Light
Starflower
|  Soul's Gate
WINNER:
Soul's Gate
by James L. Rubart
(Thomas Nelson, a division of HarperCollins Christian Publishing)
“Every
now and then we get a break from reality. A glimpse into the other
world that is more real than the reality we live in 99 percent of our
days. The Bible is about a world of demons and angels and great evil and
even greater glory.”
What if you could travel inside
another person’s soul? To battle for them. To be part of Jesus healing
their deepest wounds. To help set them free to step boldly into their
divinely designed future.
Thirty years ago that’s exactly what Reece Roth did. Until tragedy shattered his life and ripped away his future.
Now
God has drawn Reece out of the shadows to fulfill a prophecy spoken
over him three decades ago. A prophecy about four warriors with the
potential to change the world . . . if Reece will face his deepest
regret and teach them what he has learned.
They gather at a
secluded and mysterious ranch deep in the mountains of Colorado, where
they will learn to see the spiritual world around them with stunning
clarity—and how to step into the supernatural.
Their training is
only the beginning. The four have a destiny to pursue a freedom even
Reece doesn’t fully fathom. But they have an enemy hell-bent on
destroying them and he’ll stop at nothing to keep them from their quest
for true freedom and the coming battle of souls.
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Young Adult
 Child of the Mountains
WINNER:
Child of the Mountains
by Marilyn Sue Shank
(Delacorte Press, a division of Random House)
It's about keeping the faith.
Growing
up poor in 1953 in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia doesn't
bother Lydia Hawkins. She treasures her tight-knit family. There's her
loving mama, now widowed; her whip-smart younger brother, BJ, who has
cystic fibrosis; and wise old Gran. But everything falls apart after
Gran and BJ die and mama is jailed unjustly. Suddenly Lydia has lost all
those dearest to her.
Moving to a coal camp to live with her uncle
William and aunt Ethel Mae only makes Lydia feel more alone. She is
ridiculed at her new school for her outgrown homemade clothes and the
way she talks, and for what the kids believe her mama did. And to make
matters worse, she discovers that her uncle has been keeping a family
secret—about her.
If only Lydia, with her resilient spirit and determination, could find a way to clear her mother's name. . . .
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Failstate
Interrupted: A Life Beyond Words
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