Together Forever

Jody Hedlund writes quality fiction with incredible spiritual lessons and Together Forever is a prime example of what she can accomplish with her pen.  This is the second book in her orphan train series.

Marianne Neumann is looking for her younger sister and two babies who had been left in hers and her sisters care.  She takes a job as a placement agent on an orphan train taking children from New York to Illinois. 

Andrew "Drew" Brady is the other agent on this train and has taken the risk to bring three street children along to try to place them and give them a chance for a better life. 

Drew is instantly attracted to Marianne and uses his charms to try to woo her.

Some of the things I liked about the book were the vivid characterizations of the people populating the book, the great settings, and the interactions.  What I didn't like was the on again off again relationship between Marianne and Drew.  It is a compelling read with intrigue and suspense to keep the reader engaged.

It's a solid four star book and my thanks goes to Bethany House for allowing me to read and review this book.

Home on Huckleberry Hill

Jennifer Beckstrand has provided her readers with an irrepressible couple--Felty and Anna Helmuth--and their family.  Anna has a penchant for matchmaking her grandchildren and bringing them happiness--especially through her unusual recipes and her knitted potholders. BUT her attention changes directions to her married granddaughter, Mary Anne, and her husband, Jethro, who she believes are having troubles.

Mary Anne reaches her final breaking point when she fixes a beautifully prepared dinner and Jethro goes fishing.  While he is out, she moves out of the house into a tent in the woods of their property.

As soon as the family hears--especially Anna and Felty--they move out to the woods to show their solidarity with Mary Anne.

In this book, Jennifer opens up the stereotypes of the Amish culture, and points out the gaps between the Ordnung and the Bible, she rips the blinders off of the leadership so that they can see that marriage is more than the blind obedience of the wives to their husbands. Wives are more than servants to be at the beck and call of the husbands.

Home on Huckleberry Hill breaks down the Amish lifestyle to shine a bit of light and give all of us a lesson on how to treat each other. 

Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and a camp fire to sit and find healing.

My thanks to Kensington/Zebra for allowing me to read and review this book.

A Daring Venture

Rosalind Werner has been curious about micro-organisms killed her family when she was just a child, leaving only her and her brother to make it through life together.  They first go to their grandparents' home, but end up in Germany when their grandparents also died.

Rosalind was determined to find a way to obliterate water borne micro-organisms and save other families from what she had gone through.  After she got a doctorate in micro-biology from Heidelberg University in Germany, she came back to the states and started working with Dr. Leal on treating water with chlorine.   On the other side of this is Nick Drake who believed that filtration is enough.  There was an instant attraction between them and the more they were together, the more it grew. 

Elizabeth Camden used a common trope in writing this book--the romance formula:  Boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back and marries her.  In her use of this formula she characterizes Nick as a quick-tempered man who flies off the handle with little provocation.  While this may have been a norm during the early 1900s, this has become an unacceptable norm for life within families--spousal abuse is frowned upon in current society. 

Other than getting through the temper tantrums and the loads of unforgiveness demonstrated by the characters this book could be really good.  Rosalind's research and her findings are pretty interesting. 

Four Stars

Bethany House provided the galley for me to read through NetGalley.com to get an honest, opinionated review.  These are MY thoughts alone.

The Hidden Side

I had a hard time with this book.  One of the plot twists used is a school shooting by a boy who was being bullied by others in the school, and he shoots the worst of the tormentors.  I live thirty minutes from a school where a shooter killed a teacher and two students in 1996.  The young man was fourteen years old at the time and has been sentenced to 189
years. 

I appreciate that Heidi Chiavaroli is willing to take on the hard subjects and to give them the dignity they deserve and brings them into the story seamlessly.

 If I had to rate this book by how much I enjoyed it, I'd have to give it only two stars.  The story with Mercy Howard and Nathan Hale was magnificent. But the story of Natalie, her husband, Maelynn, and Chris leaves me cold. 

If I rate the book by the quality of writing, I'd give her five stars.  Her quality of writing is flawless.  On the whole, I'll give it four stars and call it good.


I received an advanced copy of this novel from the publisher. This review is my honest opinion.

Sons of Blackbird Mountain

Joanne Bischof has written one of the best books I've read this year. 

1. The characters are honest and are displayed with their flaws
2. The characters' struggles are NOT glossed over, but are given a compassionate handling. 
3. The ills of society are highlighted but not dwelt on, just enough to let the reader know they are there. 
4. The interactions of the characters move the plot quietly and at a good pace.  

Aven Norgaard has been asked by Dorothe, the aunt of her late husband, to come to America and help take care of three brothers on the farm.  Dorothe misrepresented the ages of the brothers by just a few years. Jorgan, Thor, and Haakon were all adults, not children. 

The boys run a cidery and use the apples in their orchard to make the cider, and Thor is the one who has the touch to make the cider so sought after.  

Aven works hard to fit into the household and to help the brothers out.  The challenges Aven faces are hard to overcome, especially since Thor is deaf.  Aven takes on the task of learning to communicate with Thor and really hear what he has to say,...

This is a five star book, with two thumbs up, and a cookbook of apple cider recipes to help you make yummy stuff. 

My thanks to Thomas Nelson publishing for allowing me to read and review this book. 

Return to Whispering Pines

This is book two of a series by Scarlett Dunn, telling the story of Addie Langtry and Sheriff Jack Roper and a trio of orphans.

The first moment when the stage stopped in Whispering Pines, the youngest orphan jumped into the sheriff's hands and called him "Papa."  That dropped the first clue on how the book would end.  There are a lot of highs and lows in between the beginning and the end of the book.  It has a degree of predictability, but just when the readers think they have a grasp on how the story is going, it takes a left turn and causes the reader to back up and regroup.

In an ongoing theme from the first book is Addie's and her sister, Rose's, brother, Frank--the token outlaw.  Frank's story parallels Addie's and Jack's story.  Frank outwits the law and still roams free after kidnapping Rose. 

This is truly a five star book, two thumbs up, and a trio of orphans to keep you busy.

My thanks to Zebra Publishing for allowing me to read and review this book.

More Than Meets the Eye

I have loved EVERYTHING I've read by Karen Witemeyer--she writes historical romance with a touch of humor.  She begins her newest book with an orphan train trip trying to place the last four orphans on the train.  When the train derails, and Evangeline's brother dies in the accident protecting her from injury.  There were two other boys on the train who were not chosen and Hamilton makes them promise to take care of Evangeline.  They all decide to take Hamilton's name as their family name.

Fast forward a few years, Evangeline, Seth, and Zach, and they are living in a nice house with a good sized farm.  Logan Fowler buys the plot of land next to their farm with the hope of getting the Hamilton's home back.  It was the home Logan grew up in. 

Evangeline meets Logan when she is out on a jaunt and sees a man throwing a burlap wrapped bundle into the river.  She and Logan rescue the bundle and find Christy, a deaf woman who knows too much.

Karen has wrapped this family's life into a mystery that isn't so mysterious, but she works in the healing between the two families and brings such a satisfying conclusion to the book.  I love the way she writes, it always captures my attention and keeps me involved in the book to the very end.  In fact, this book is More Than Meets the Eye.  I loved Evangeline from the very beginning because of her eye color.  My son's eyes are not the same color and while his eyes don't vary as much as Evangeline's, it is noticeable when he wears certain colors.

Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and eye catching eyes. 

Bethany House provided the galley I read through NetGalley with no obligation on my part except to share my honest opinions.  I appreciate it.

Accidental Guardian

There are times that predictable books do not bother me, and I will read books I like over and over again. But there are times that predictability is annoying. 

Deb and Gwen along with two very young children are the only survivors of an attack on a wagon train.  Before they can collect their thoughts, Trace Riley finds them and makes a plan to take them to his cabin and safety. The relationship begins on a predictable trajectory.  The bad guys in the book take the predictable route of using Deb to get to Trace. 

I can give this book three stars. It is enjoyable, but it is entirely put-down-able.  Mary Connealy writes "Western Romance" and usually with a healthy dose of humor.  I wish this had been up to Mary's norm.

My thanks to Bethany House for allowing me to read and review this book. 

The Fashion Designer

I can't say how much I enjoyed this book.  Partially because of the pattern designing and the sewing, and partially because it was like meeting up with some old friends.  This book continues the story started in the Pattern Maker.  Annie has hit on a beautiful idea to make fashions for the ordinary woman and affordable for the ordinary woman. 

Annie's sponsor wants her to make clothing for her own set, sure that they will be buying Annie's clothes hand over fist.  But her first fashion show with her sponsor's friends is a bomb.  So Annie goes back to her drawing board, and makes twelve designs in twelve different sizes.  With her friends backing her up and standing beside her, she works her fanny off to make her business a go.

Nancy Moser has made The Fashion Designer a true delight to read--it is so easy to envision the women in a room making the dresses, and then getting a storefront to sell them from.  After getting the storefront, Annie goes to the other vendors to show some of their wares with her designs. 

Five Stars, Two Thumbs, and a new dress designed just for you.

My thanks to Barbour Publishing for allowing me to read and review this book.