Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt Stop #22

Welcome to the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt! If you’ve just discovered the hunt, be sure to start at Stop #1, and collect the clues through all the stops, in order, so you can enter to win one of our top 5 grand prizes!

  • The hunt BEGINS on 3/14 at noon MST with Stop #1 at LisaTawnBergren.com.
  • Hunt through our loop using Chrome or Firefox as your browser (not Explorer).
  • There is NO RUSH to complete the hunt—you have all weekend (until Sunday, 3/17 at midnight MST)! So take your time, reading the unique posts along the way; our hope is that you discover new authors/new books and learn new things about them.
  • Submit you entry for the grand prizes by collecting the CLUE on each author’s scavenger hunt post and submitting your answer in the Rafflecopter form at the final stop, back on Lisa’s site. Many authors are offering additional prizes along the way!

Hi, I’m Jennifer Deibel, but my friends call me Jen. I’m a middle school ELA teacher by day, wife and mom all the time, and writer by any other time. LOL I write Christian historical romance set in Ireland. My stories aim to whisk you away to rolling green hills, lilting music, and more while encouraging and challenging you in your faith journey, no matter where you are along that path. Oh, and there’s always some swoony kisses along the way. 😉 I hang out online mostly on Instagram, but also on Facebook. I hope to see you there!

My newest release is another dreamy historical romance, The Irish Matchmaker. Here’s what it’s about:

Catriona Daly is no stranger to the business of love–even though personally she has yet to find it. Eager for a match of her own and a fresh start away from her sleepy village, she makes grand plans for the annual Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival. She never expects a shy, widowed sheep farmer to distract her from her goal.

 

A matchmaking tale set in Ireland? Did you know that there’s a real life matchmaking festival that takes place every September in the wee village of Lisdoonvarna, even to this day??

Third generation matchmaker, Willie Daly, keeps the tradition alive that started way back in the late 1800’s!

It all started when a local doctor discovered the mineral spa wells scattered all around the area of this small village located in the heart of County Clare! I’d like to show you some of the real-life places that inspired this story!

  1. The Lisdoonvarna Spa Wells Heritage Center

© The John Hinde Archive / Mary Evans Picture Library

© The John Hinde Archive / Mary Evans Picture Library

Once the good doctor discovered the wells and their medicinal qualities, he started advertising it to the wealthy in the area. They started coming to take the waters, and used it as an opportunity to make suitable matches for their children, as it was one fo the few times they were able to mingle with others of their own station.

Fun fact, this image makes up part of the cover of The Irish Matchmaker, and is an actual painted glass negative of a photo from the area at the time the story is set!

 

 

 

 

2. The Matchmaker Bar/Pub

Photo Credit: http://www.sheilahaycoxphotography.com/ireland.html

This wee pub in the heart of Lisdoonvarna is the inspiration for The Imperial Pub our heroine and her father live over. Catríona Daly and her father, Jimmy, are a nod to the generations of matchmakers that have helped people find their true love over the centuries. According to my research, this was originally named The Imperial Bar and was changed to The Matchmaker Bar later when the festival really gained traction and popularity.

 

 

 

3.  This Lisdoonvarna Town Square

Photo found on Booking.com

Situated right in the heart of Lisdoonvarna, the town square serves as gathering place, picnic spot, and more for the locals. And the perfect place for a midday dance to celebrate the midpoint of the festival–which is what happens in The Irish Matchmaker. They’ve even erected sculptures of dancing couples of musicians. One of the most pivotal moments of the story takes place right on this exact spot.

 

 

 

Here’s the Stop #22 Basics:

If you’re interested, you can order The Irish Matchmaker on Baker Book House, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or at your local bookstore!

Clue to write down: a big TBR

Link to Stop #23, the next stop on the Loop: Tracie Peterson’s Site!

But, wait, there’s more!

I’m offering a special giveaway to anyone who stops by my post! You can win a signed bookplate for The Irish Matchmaker, a set of Irish-themed earrings, and a handmade version of Pete the Cow from the story!

Simply comment on this post with the favorite place you’ve traveled to via book! I’ll choose a winner at random once the contest closes!

Comments 271

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    2. I’ve traveled to SO many places via book, but (if I’m forced to pick just one favorite), I’d have to say Narnia. Imagine meeting Aslan!

    1. I have traveled to sooo many places via book; I don’t know which one place to pick! For now, I will go with England as I have loved many books set in various parts of England.

  1. My favorite international place I’ve visited in a book is probably Ireland, and my favorite US place is the Appalachia region.

  2. The cow is adorable Jennifer. My favorite place to visit was Richmond VA during the Civil War.
    Thanks for the opportunity to win these wonderful prizes

  3. My favorite place to travel to in a book is Scotland, Ireland, and Cornwall. It can be historical, contemporary, time travel, or fantasy.

  4. How does one choose one favorite place traveled through a book?!! I love medieval times, as well as Scotland, Ireland, and Alaska.

  5. I’ve been to Japan, Canada and Moldova/Romania in real life but my favorite literary travel is the British Isles!

  6. I love traveling to Ireland and Scotland in novels! Someday I’ll hopefully actually be able to go and see these places.

  7. I’ve traveled all over this world, as well as worlds of the imagination. I love books that take me back in time to the WWII Era and the old west. What ever book I’m reading,is my favorite place.

  8. A castle library! I love it more when there is a secret door. I have a track on Amazon music app of castle library sounds to really absorb the scenes.

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  9. My favorite place I have traveled in a book was Scotland. Oh my goodness, the cow is adorable, it is so cute!! Both my daughter and my grandaughter Love, love cows!! Thank you so much for the chance of this Awesome and so generous giveaway! Your book sounds like a great read! Have a great day and a great rest of the week.

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  10. I mean to mention but forgot to say that my son’s name is Peter and a couple of my family members call him Pete. 🙂

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  11. I don’t know if I have a favorite. I just love books that immerse you into the setting. Whether it’s in England, Texas, or the middle of the ocean. I simply love traveling by book.📚😁

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  12. Ooooh that’s so hard, I love traveling anywhere with a book! Since I have to pick I’d have to say either England or the American/Canadian frontiers, but I could go on a whole other tangent with fictional lands 🙂

  13. Ireland is my favorite place to visit in a book. I recently read your Irish Matchmaker book and loved it. I’m ready for the next one anytime you are.

  14. Oh, goodness! My favorite place I have ever visited in a book is not a real place. I love the make believe places. And that cow makes me wish I was crafty!

  15. I’m a farm wife so I’ve never been anywhere besides the Might Mackinac Bridge in my own state of Michigan.

  16. Idk why I like WWII fiction so much, since I certainly don’t want to travel to any of those locations lol! So Im choose the fictional kingdom in Toni Shiloh’s (To Win a) Prince books!

  17. I can’t really name a favorite because I fall in love with each area in every book. That said, I REALLY want to visit Israel!

  18. My favorite place I’ve traveled in a book is the planet Drosero in Ronie Kendig’s space opera series the Droseran Saga.

  19. I love Ireland; the history is fascinating and the country is beautiful. I would love to travel there someday, but in the meantime, I satisfy myself by learning about the Irish people and the Faith throughout the years. I would love to win this raffle!

  20. I’m not sure I can pick a favorite place to visit via book. I might say Ireland because I’ve also been able to visit in person and it’s so amazing to walk through the places I’ve read about. However, I also love ‘visiting’ ancient Israel!

  21. I don’t know that I have a favorite fictional reading location but I would definitely enjoy Paris. The crow is so cute! Kudos to you Mom for making him!

  22. Pete the cow is so sweet! I love sewing people make crocheted crafts. My great-grandma always loved crocheting and crafting, and now I’m trying my hand at it again! 😊

  23. Favorite completely fictional travels: Narnia and Middle Earth.
    Real places: Ireland and Germany (during multiple historical eras).
    Also the cow is adorable, I love crocheted animals! And I might like the earrings even more…

  24. There are so many places but Jerusalem has to be the number one place. Any time period. I would love to see it with my own eyes someday.

  25. Books have taken me so many places it is hard to pick just one! Some of my favorites are Ireland (your books 🙂), England (Jane Austen), and Hawaii (Sara Ackerman).
    Pete is adorable, and I love the earrings! Perfect for St. Patrick’s Day!

  26. Australia! Koalas are my favorite animal. However, my 1st kitchen theme as a new bride back in ’97 was Cows! 🐮 Thanks for the opportunity to participate in your fun giveaway! 😁

  27. Reading takes me to so many lovely places it’s hard to decide, if I had to choose just one I’d have to say Scotland since I haven’t yet read much set in Ireland and I enjoy learning about where my ancestors came from.

  28. Love historical novels to escape to faraway lands. My favorite has been to Egypt in Wilbur Smith historical novels.

  29. That is too hard of a question to answer with just one place. When I fell in love as a preteen with Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth it would have been China. As a college student, I read lots of spy books and it would have been many different European countries. When I read regency romances, it would have been England, Scotland and maybe Ireland. I also like what another person posted. Back in time.

  30. I ❤️ the cow! Books have taken me so many places that I will probably never see in person. It is hard to choose a favorite, but I would say within the US- Alaska and international- Ireland.

  31. The cow is so cute! Definitely want to read this book. Books have taken me many places ….love old English countryside and the Netherlands

  32. Via book? Scotland, Ireland, England, Belgium, Russia, South Korea, Japan… So Many Places!

    I’m *finally* finishing The Maid of Ballymacool this month. Edit jobs and life got in the way of my savoring the finale until now. Totally looking forward to reading Matchmaker too!

  33. My favorite place to visit (so far) through a book has been medieval Germany (thank you, Melanie Dickerson!).
    I LOVE the sound of your book and can’t wait to read it!

    1. I think my favorite place has been Athera in Christopher Hopper’s Lion Chronicles. But almost every good series is one I would love to find myself in. I’m funny that way.

  34. I have traveled via books to Ireland, the U.K., Scotland, Spain, Italy, and the U.S. I mostly read historical and am now writing historical and contemporary. The Irish Matchmaker seems like a great story and I can’t wait to read it. Your story reminds me of the movie, “Leap Year” starring Amy Adams. It is a comedy, romance, and set in Ireland. I signed up for your newsletter. 🙂

  35. Carmel-by-the-Sea! Not only my favorite place in real life but it was also a setting for the novel I enjoyed reading!

  36. One of the most interesting places I’ve traveled is Prague in the Czech Republic. I went to work at an English camp in the mountains three different summers, but we used Prague as our headquarters as we landed and before we left to fly home. The city is beautiful and is full of history and interesting places. We’ve come to know many delightful Czech people as well!

  37. Books take me to so many places…hard to choose a favorite…..I guess it would be the castles and countryside of Europe. Switzerland and Austria from Sound of Music and Heidi.

  38. I went down and looked at my book collection (my daughter says library) and I just couldn’t choose just one place! Some are real places and some are made up but so many are special to me.

  39. Gee Whiz! That’s not easy. I have read many books set in Wales, Cornwall, Ireland, Scotland and England. I have many ancestors who hail from those places as well. So, I would just have to kinda cheat and say my favorite place would be the United Kingdom.

    BTW, I agree the cow is adorable, but I’m a sucker for those earrings.

  40. Some of my favorite places I’ve visited through books include European countries – Italy, England, Ireland, Spain, and France, and Africa, and Asia as well. I love traveling through books!

  41. I think my favorite place that I traveled by book was London. 🇬🇧
    Books I loved that were set in London:
    “Embers In The London Sky”
    Sarah Sundin
    “The Thief Of Blackfriars Lane”
    Michelle Griep
    “The Blue Diamond”
    Leonard Goldberg

  42. How can I pick just one! I love the historical settings and the fantastical settings. I love the beach settings the exotic and the familiar! Give me them all!

  43. My favorite place I’ve traveled via book would be Ireland (because that is #1 place on my bucket list) and Scotland. Thank you for being a part of the Scavenger Hunt and offering this fun giveaway.

  44. Wow! A favourite place I’ve traveled… via book… That’s hard! Ancient Israel? Or… perhaps Ancient Greece?

    (By the by, the cow’s so cute!)

  45. Oh, what a fun question! I have been to the Dakota Territories via Little House books! I have never visited the in person.

  46. I’m re-reading Narnia right now, and it’s probably my favorite book destination! I also love visiting Hawaii and California with Christy Miller.

  47. My favorite place to travel by book is Prince Edward Island, beginning with the Anne of Green Gables books when I was a child. Since then, I’ve travelled to many wonderful places when reading.

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  48. I am currently reading A Dance at Donegal, and Ireland is my new favorite place to book travel! I would love to see the rolling green hills and rugged coast

  49. Every time I read a book I think it’s my new desired location (if written well). Having grown up in Europe I have been to most places. However, there are three that elude me: Ireland, Scotland, and Japan.

  50. My favorite place I have traveled in a book is back in time. I love reading historicals, especially England Regency.

  51. Every time I read a book with Ireland in it, I want to go there even more! I’m adding you to my TBR list!

  52. I don’t know if I can answer that question. So many books, so many destinations…but I love the earrings so much! My husband and I are big fans of Celtic things.

  53. One of my favorite book travels was to The Secret Garden. Who doesn’t want to watch a garden come back to life? <3

  54. I just finished a series of books about Serendipity, Texas by Debra Kastner. Whatever books I am reading happen to be my favorite travel destination.

  55. I too long to visit Scotland after traveling there through books yet not yet having the chance to be there in person. Although my ancestors were found mostly in Edinburgh and Glasgow, it is the Highlands which calls my to heart. Perhaps someday…

  56. This book looks so delightful, I’ll have to add it to my goodreads list! A place I have traveled via book as got to be Gabrielle Myers’s “When the Day comes”

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  57. There are so many places I’ve really loved, but I think I would have to go with Ellesmera from the Inheritance Cycle.

  58. My favorite place I have traveled to in books is the UK (England, Scotland, Wales) and Ireland. I would love to visit there someday in person!

  59. This questions was very hard to answer. I have traveled so many places that I would love to visit. I am going to go with Europe. (England, France, Ireland, Sweden ect.)

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  60. My favorite place I have traveled to via book is historic England, probably either in medieval times or in the Regency era. It is such a different world, so much so that it almost seems like a made up place!

  61. Oh goodness! Probably Paris or Italy. Both of which are on my real life bucket list. But I love that I have traveled there already in books!

  62. My favorite place to visit via book in the United States is the Grand Canyon. My favorite place outside the United States would be England.

  63. One of the favorite places I’ve traveled via books is Australia! After that, definitely Ireland through yours!

  64. LOVE the cow! I grew up on a dairy farm – it’s adorable!

    Favorite bookish place? So hard! As a kid I read the books my grandmother gave me over and over, and I loved Heidi. I was fascinated with her life in the Alps, so I’d say that. I love the mountains.

  65. I love visiting Ireland through your stories! Love love love! If I could go anywhere in the world it would be Ireland. I’ve always been fascinated by China as well, so I also LOVE the book “All the Tea in China” by Jane Orcutt. Soooo good!

  66. I’ve read every single one of your books Jennifer and my favorite place to “visit” through a book is Ireland because of you! 🙂 I love all the details in your novel of all the places you write about, I always feel like I’m right there.

    Thank you for the extra giveaway, the fun pictures of the places in your latest book “The Irish Matchmaker” and participating in the scavenger hunt!

  67. Your book sounds like so much fun! It’s hard to pick a favorite place I’ve traveled by book, but I really love things set in the Wild West.

  68. It seems that my favorite place is wherever the people are in the current book I am reading. Whether in the old west or in England. I like the earrings.

  69. My favorite place would be home (MD, most lately Laurel, where my parents lived in a senior apartment complex before they died) and I’d like to travel to the fictitious planet Perelandra (2nd book in the space trilogy created for adults by C.S. Lewis).

  70. It’s so hard to choose just one place that I have traveled to in a book! It woulsld definitely be a European country. Since today is St. Patrick’s Day, and I just finished a book set in Ireland, I am going say that Ireland is currently my favorite place to book travel! I am excited to check out your books!

  71. Thank you for this wonderful giveaway. Pete would fit right in with the cattle on the farm. Your mom did a great job.
    Your question is hard but fun to consider. There are many places I have traveled to by book. I guess my favorite (at the moment) would have to be the Tennessee publishing house in Meet Me in the Margins. I just finished it and I would love to grab a ton of ARCs to read and slip into the secret room to read. (I’ve also traveled to a multitude of countries and one year read a book set in each of the 50 states plus Washington, DC so it’s hard to choose that is why I went with a place I know has lots of books.)

  72. I love traveling the USA either for real or in books. Appalachia region is a good one and anywhere around the beach.

  73. I think I have most enjoyed stories set in the British Isles and Scandinavian areas as they are places I have ever been and they are quite different from my midwestern life.

  74. I have traveled in Europe. So I would love to go to the Scotland of my clan’s roots. I would really love to see Ireland someday, too!

  75. That’s a tough question to answer. Probably Ireland because I’ve always wanted to travel there, but also the Smoky Mountains. Having been to the Smoky Mountains, I enjoy reading about things I recognize, or it spurs me to look up the places I don’t, so I can plan my next visit.

  76. I’m going with Ireland.
    I’m wee bit Irish – Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to all 🍀
    Have a cow themed kitchen and love me some signed real books!
    Great prizes!

  77. How can I choose a favorite place I’ve traveled while reading? I’ve been reading daily for over 60 years. I was the most ecstatic student when I learned to read with the famous basal readers of the sixties! Since then, I have suffered dramatically from abibliophilia, and I have done my best to correct this issue as can be seen by the 1000s of books on my Kindle as well as 1000 of books in my home. One of the main things I love about reading is that it can take me to places I may never be able to travel. Books have also taken me on great adventures where I can dine at fabulous restaurants and meet wonderful new people who have become like friends. Books have allowed me to escape pain, sorrow, illness, and boredom and be entertained, educated, and inspired. I could never choose one favorite place because many books have met my various needs.

  78. Every new book I read becomes my new favorite place! I enjoy all the different places that books take me. I especially like it when a book takes me somewhere that I makes me want to research it and go check out on my own.

  79. My favorite place I’ve traveled reading is the Highlands of Scotland. It’s on my bucket list to go in person soon!

  80. I enjoy the behind the scenes of the Biltmore Mansion in North Carolina via Maid to Match by Deanne Gist but I agree with others, I have read so many books and enjoyed so many places I have been through them that I cannot remember them all. Thanks to all you authors for such a treat.

  81. My favorite place I’ve traveled via book is Ireland…I hope I get the opportunity to travel there for real some day ❤️

  82. I just have to say, I absolutely love that cow. If I win I would be giving it to my cow-obsessed 15 year old daughter.
    Anyway, favorite place I’ve traveled via book. . . this is hard as I’ve traveled so many places. I really did enjoy traveling to Ireland in The Irish Matchmaker. It was a new place for me, as so many of the other books that I read that are overseas are to England. Which isn’t a bad place, I have family there. But I’d love to head to Ireland one of these days.

  83. I have had the great privilege of visiting Ireland in real life on a choir tour in 2019. I hope I can go back someday. One of my favorite places I traveled in a book was India in the Silk series by Linda Chaikin.

  84. I would have to say, my favorite places visited by book are either Ireland or Italy. Hopefully one day I will be able to see both of them in person.

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