Autumn Skies

 

I write this with a headache from not enough sleep and too many tears, both because of this book, the final book in the Bluebell Inn series.  Autumn Skies continues the story of Molly, Levi, and Grace who together own and run the Bluebell Inn.  Molly met her husband, Adam, before the Inn even opened.  Levi met his fiancee, Mia, when she came for her honeymoon without a husband to share the suite.  Now, Molly is at the front desk when Wyatt Jennings shows up to check in.  

Wyatt has been put on administrative leave for a month from his job as a Secret Service agent.  His attention hasn't been on his job and that could be dangerous to the people he is detailed to protect as well as hazardous to himself.  

There is a bit of predictability to this book, from the beginning the reader understands that Wyatt and Grace will be romantic protagonists.  But there is a bit more that is given away before the denouement--Wyatt and Grace have more connections than just an attraction.  Wyatt is the son of the governor who once owned the Inn as a summer home, so both Grace and Wyatt spent some time growing up there.  There is another connection between them that brings them together in a way that they never saw coming.  

I truly loved the characters in this book.  Denise Hunter has tied up every loose end in the series, made the Inn and its surroundings come to life, and brought the individuals populating the pages of the book to life.  They are true to life beings with foibles and and faults, as well as traits befitting the term "good people."  The plot, while holding elements of predictability, has a constant pace and enough intrigue to keep the reader involved all the way to the end of the book.  This is not only a five star book with two thumbs up and a suite at the Inn, but it is also a read worth the time to read.  

Thomas Nelson and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are my own. 

His Accidental Amish Family

 

Levi is a physical therapist aide and Anna is his new patient.  She wants to learn to walk after having a life changing accident with her old boyfriend, Gabe.  He had asked her to marry him, but she wouldn't give him an answer until she could walk across the floor to give him the answer.  When Anna is finally able to make the trek to give Gabe his answer and sees that he's in love with another woman.  

Anna has had her fair share of adverse circumstances thrown her way.  After she sees that Gabe truly loves another, she becomes despondent for a while, but finds that she can have a new purpose in fostering children who need emergency placement.  Since she lives in close proximity to her aenti Miriam, who is already certified as a foster parent, Anna's certification comes easily, especially after she gets her CPR and water safety certifications.  

Levi and Anna both hold secret guilt that they are able to unburden to each other and both of them are able to admit their feelings for each other.  After Anna gets a placement of three refugee children, the mother asks that Anna adopt them, which brings Levi and Anna full circle to marriage. 

Rachel J Good has written a sweet book that will touch the hearts of all who read it.  There were many tears shed as I read this book.  The characters have real flaws and real determination to accomplish what they set out to do. This is a five star book with two thumbs up and a picnic lunch.  

Zebra Books and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are my own. 

The Amish Christmas Gift

 

I had a seriously hard time reading this book.  The characterizations of the protagonists were mere caricatures of the characters they could have been.  Elsie is portrayed as the constant clumsy oaf-ette, and Levi is the most absent-minded fiance ever.  Elsie's escapades could have been amusing, but they seemed to be window-dressing to make Elsie seem more incompetent. 

Levi is a gifted wood carver who makes toys in his spare time, while being a contractor for a day job. His great sin was leaving Elsie at a cousin's wedding in another state.  

I looked other reviews I've written on books by Laura V Hilton and found she's rather hit-or-miss in her writing. This is at best a two star book.  

Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are my own. 

The Amish Midwife's Hope

Rebecca is a widow and a midwife in her Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, community.  Samuel is a widower with a young daughter, who has recently moved to Lancaster from Indiana after inheriting a farm. Both have been widowed for about two years and are open to the thought of marrying again.  

 This is a pretty formulaic book where boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy dumps girl, boy gets girl back.  Samuel has a problem with Rebecca's vocation because his wife and son died in childbirth.  While it wasn't the midwife's fault his wife died, he still has a problem with midwives in general.  The problem is that his daughter, Lizzie, falls in love with Rebecca, and as he gets to know Rebecca more, he falls in love too.  But when his sister begins her labor in the midst of a snowstorm, he has incredible reservations about his sister's safety in Rebecca's hands. 

Barbara Cameron has written a sweet book, but the formula makes the story a bit trite.  It is a fast read, and the story lines are easy to follow.  Three and a half stars--rounded up to four. 

Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are my own. 

The Edge of Belonging

Once in a while, a great book comes along and leaves its readers breathless.  The Edge of Belonging did that for me.   I'll get this part out of the way now:  Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and a cape and goggles. 

Ivy Rose Lashley wants to know who she is.  She knows she's adopted, she just doesn't know how she came to the people who raised her, how she fits into the world, or how the people around her became her family.  Her Uncle Vee has always been there for her, but she doesn't know how he became her uncle, because he's not related to her parents, or to the woman she calls, "Grandma." 

When Grandma dies, she asks Ivy to clean the house and get it ready to give it back to the church.  Many of the things that Grandma has need to go to the people who can use them most.  Some of the things are going back to the original owners, some of them are going to the women's shelter, some of them go to Reese, her longtime best friend.  

 Amanda Cox is not shy about tackling hard issues including battered women, the flawed foster care system, infertility, abusive and narcissistic men, and men who love without reservation.  Her characters have been taken from real life, and her settings are believable to the point that they are familiar to almost every reader.  This is a great book, hopefully one that will win many awards.  It certainly has my seal of approval. 

Revell Publishing and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own. 

Miss Benson's Beetle

 

I thought this would be an interesting book to read, and it has its moments.  Miss Margery Benson is a teacher at a girl's academy and is the butt of every joke until one day a caricature snaps her last garter.  She steels the deputy's lacrosse boots and several other items as she makes her way out of the school and back to her flat.  

When Margery was a child, her father showed her a book of insects and animals that were presumed to have existed, but no one had even seen them before.  One insect caught her eye and she decided then that she would be the one to find it.  

On the day that Margery snapped, she put into motion the series of events that would take her to New Caledonia to find the golden beetle.  

Quite a few of the characters in this book are unhinged in one way or another.  Mr. Murdic had been a POW during World War II on the island of Burma.  His years in the POW camp left him a shell of his former self.  Enid Pretty is a woman with secrets and an over-the-top personality that grates on everyone's nerves.  These characters detract from the overall appeal of the book for me. 

This is the first book I read by Rachel Joyce, and it was definitely an interesting read, though outside my usual genre.  It's a four star book.

Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  The opinions expressed are my own. 

Until I Met You

 

This is actually two romances in one book:  Libby and Austin, and Olivia and Nathan.  Austin and Nathan are brothers and Olivia and Libby are friends.  Olivia has loved Nathan ever since she's known him, Libby and Austin have an instant love-hate relationship.  

The setting is Heritage, Michigan, where the downtown is being restored to its historic glory.  Austin has won the contract to landscape the town square in a last-ditch effort to save from bankruptcy the landscape business that's been in his family for three generations. In the midst of Austin's work, Nathan has volunteered to be Austin's assistant, but consistently fails to show up when he's needed to make things work out for the business. 

Libby has been hired as the new town librarian.  Her brother's wife set her up with the job and even a place to live--which is next door to Austin and two doors down from her brother's family. 

This is the second novel in the Restoring Heritage series by Tari Faris.  I was drawn in from the very beginning until I finished the book.  The two plot lines intersect and weave together like whole cloth.  The setting is charming and makes the reader want to live in Heritage.  

There major theme is forgiveness--of yourself and others.  Tari does a great job describing how hard forgiving yourself is, and how much of a difference it makes. 

I loved this book and I give it five stars, two thumbs up, and a one room school house turned library. 

Roseanna M White concludes her Codebreakers series with A Portrait of Loyalty.  In the midst of World War I, the Bolsheviks revolted against the Czar of Russia, creating even more havoc in the world.  Lily Blackwell is a photographer with the Intelligence Division of the Navy.  It is through this work that she meets Zivon Marin, a linguist and cryptographer refugee from Russia.  

Zivon works hard at the job he's been given and has shown nothing but loyalty to the British Crown as well as to the Czar.  His brother, Evgeny, is a Bolshevik through and through and he does everything he can to destroy his brother's reputation. Regardless of Evgeny's actions, Zivon loves him and doesn't want any harm to come to him. 

Worked into the plot of this book is the influenza pandemic of 1918.  Lily works at the hospital in the Vocational Aid Detachment and encounters the influenza up close and personally, when her sister dies from the disease.  

While Lily's and Zivon's relationship is foremost in the novel, the historical aspects of the book are well researched and delineated.  Roseanna has created characters that are both likable and believable.  The settings are incredibly descriptive and allow the readers to feel they are part of the book.  It is easy to get lost in the narrative and not come out until the book is finished.  This is a five-star book, with two thumbs up, and a garden party to help a friend.

Bethany House and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are my own. 

 

The Christmas Swap

 

Melody Carlson has been writing Christian Romance for a number of years.  Her style of writing is captivating and engaging and generally leaves the reader with a totally satisfied feeling when the final pages have been read.  

The Christmas Swap makes me believe that Melody has been reading reddit entries about entitled parents and entitled children.  Emma has often been the guest of the Landers family for Christmas since she met Gillian in college.  The Landers family is well-to-do and has decided that they would participate in a house-swap with a family in Colorado, who will come to Arizona to spend the holidays in their house.  Mr. Landers has paid for Emma to come along with them to Breckenridge, Colorado.  Emma is excited for the trip because she's never seen snow. 

Mrs. Landers can find nothing worthwhile about the swap:  the house is too rustic, the master suite is on the third floor, the blankets are not good enough, the pillows are too hard, there are no complimentary toiletries, and the Christmas decor leaves much to be desired for her.  Gillian is made in her mother's image but has a devious side to her, to boot.  

The home the Landers family and guests have landed in belongs to TW Prescott, a well-known song-writer.  He was supposed to go to the Landers' home in Arizona, but he forgot a folder of music and had to turn back.  He couldn't get out of Colorado, so he decided to stay in his studio and "act" as care-taker of the property.  When he meets Emma, he feels an instant attraction that is reciprocated. Teaching her how to ski and spending more time with her outside of skiing cements the feelings even more. 

I am not enamored of this novel.  It is a quick read, which makes it not quite as bad.  The attitudes of the Landers family were hard to swallow, especially Gillian's and her mother's.  This is a three star book at best.  

Revell Publishing and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  The opinions expressed are my own. 

The Kissing Tree

 Oak Springs, Texas is home to a huge oak tree with initials of couples who have fallen in love and marked the occasion on the tree.  Beginning in the post-Civil War era and moving forward to modern days, each novella details the love story of a special couple in Oak Springs.  

My favorite novella is the one by Amanda Dykes, in the World War II era and tells the story of Hannah and Luke.  Hannah's brother was killed in Europe and asked Luke to continue writing to his sister before he died.  Luke also sent sketches of buildings that had been damaged in the bombings.  When he arrives in Oak Springs to bring one more thing to Hannah, he finds that she has taken his drawings and combined them into one cottage.  He finds himself so intrigued with Hannah that he spends much of his time in Oak Springs helping her build the cottage.

These novellas are fun to read and to while away an afternoon or so.  I didn't find this compilation as compelling as others I've read, but it is a good time filler.  Four Stars. 

Bethany House and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review. All opinions expressed are my own. 

A Haven for Her Heart

 

Olivia's fiance has gone to war, and she's pregnant from one night of passion before he was deployed.  Her father has her arrested, her baby is taken away from her and after she's released from the reformatory, she finds herself ill with no place to go, and in need of a friend.   Ruth Bennett finds Olivia sitting in the back of the church and takes her home.  After Olivia is given time to recover from her illness, she seeks to help others who are in a similar situation.  Ruth has been seeking a purpose for her life and with Olivia's idea of a maternity home, Ruth feels she's found her niche.  

Darius Reed works for a developer who wants the Bennett house to build a skyscraper and rent out office spaces.  Darius has been set with the task of convincing Ruth to sell.  When he is unsuccessful, his boss is not above fighting dirty.  During Darius' visits to the home, he becomes attracted to Olivia, in spite of himself.  He is almost affianced to the daughter of a client and knows he should not really spend so much time in her company. 

Susan Anne Mason has written a heart-warming, heart-wrenching, and completely stirring novel that is engaging and compelling from the opening lines to the very end.  This is a five star book, with two thumbs up, and total redemption. 

Bethany House and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are my own. 

Her Secret Song

 Today, on Facebook in a group I belong to, someone asked for people to post the location of the last book you read to see if people could guess the book.  It's not hard to miss Bucksnort, Colorado, for a location.  If anyone has read any part of the series Brides of Hope Mountain by Mary Connealy, that person will know about Bucksnort.  Her Secret Song is the final book in this series, and the story of Ursula's finding a husband.  Ursula, Jo, and Ilsa all have their back-woods talents:  Ursula is deadly with an axe, Jo can shoot with her bow and arrow with uncanny accuracy, and Ilsa is more than proficient with a knife.  All three of them can walk through the woods in utter silence and notice things before most other people could.  The three girls have lived all of their lives on Hope Mountain, never going down the mountain into town because of the fear their grandmother held about the diseases others would bring to their mountain.  Ursula is the last to overcome her fear and after a winter alone decides to go down the mountain only to have her trek interrupted by finding the wounded body of Wax Mosby.  She carries him back to her cabin to nurse his wounds.  

This is the book that pulls all the loose threads in the other two and binds them up in a nice, neat package. It was such a satisfying conclusion to the series.  In many ways, this book reminded me of the movie, "The Cowboys," with John Wayne.  In the movie, the boys set out to take the cattle back from the rustlers who killed their leader.  They use sneakiness and ingenuity to overcome their enemies.  The girls and their husbands, or boyfriend in Ursula's case, work together to overcome a common enemy and his minions and to restore the Circle Dash Ranch back to the Wardens.  All of the minions of Canton, the land-grabber, are wanted men and have prices on their heads.  That makes the mission of capturing them all the more important.  Definitely a Five Star Book, with two thumbs up, and a reclaimed ranch. 

Bethany House Publishing and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are my own. 

What You Said to Me

 I am rather disappointed with Olivia Newport's final book in her Tree of Life Series.  There were too many loose branches that were left hanging.  I think she needs to write one more book to let us know if Tisha's father ever decided to meet her, whether Drew and Jill get married, and if Tisha finds Morclavia's twin. 

The book itself is engaging from the very beginning to the end.  The plot moves at a fair clip, and the history of Tisha's family intrigues the reader. Olivia's writing style is appealing to me and her romantic inclusions are not smarmy, but well thought-out and realistic.  This really is a good book, but the loose ends made it a bit disappointing for me.  Four Solid Stars. 

Barbour Publishing and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are my own. 

Softly Blows the Bugle

Jan Drexler writes historical Amish fiction, which puts her in a class by herself.  She has done her research well for her third book in this series The Amish of Weaver's Creek.  The time era is post Civil War, when the men are coming home and life should be returning to normal--as much as it can. 

When Katie sees her fiance, Jonas, coming home, she runs to greet him.  He's brought with him a friend he met while being a medic at a prisoner of war hospital.  Aaron Zook has lost his leg and doesn't know where he wants to go from Weaver's Creek because all of his family is gone.  

Jonas has a sister, Elizabeth, who is widowed and really not looking to marry again.  Aaron is not looking for a relationship, but somehow,  . . . 

Jan has included some suspense, some impostors, and some tenderness in this book and has really engaged the reader from beginning to end.  It's worthy of five stars, two thumbs up, and a farm ready to plow. 

Revell and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are my own. 

Nothing Short of Wondrous

Regina Scott is releasing her second book in her American Wonders Collection.  What is nice about this collection is that each one stands alone, but the connections to America's greatest treasures make them worth reading, in any order.  

Nothing Short of Wondrous takes place in Yellowstone National Park, soon after the National Park system was enacted into law.  Kate Tremaine runs the Gateway Inn, within the park.  She provides rooms, meals, and some tours for people coming to enjoy the Park's particular beauty.  She also protects her area of the park as well as the people who come to her Inn. 

The Army is providing protection for the wildlife and the people, as well as rounding up poachers.  However, the Army is not provided with guides to help them navigate the dangers of the park.  Lt. William Prescott prevails upon Kate to help him get to know the landscape and the areas of the park she knows best.  In return, he and some of his men will provide some much needed repairs to her Inn.  

This book offers intrigue, romance, and incredible descriptions of natural beauty--something for nearly every reader.  Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and a personal guide through the wonders of Yellowstone. 

Revell Publishing and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review. All opinions expressed are my own. 

The Love Note

I found The Love Note by Joanna Davidson Politano to be a fascinating book.  Willa Duvall wants a career in medicine, but her father wants her married off.  While sitting at a secretary desk in her home, she finds a love note hidden in a crevice. Willa remembers where the secretary came from and decides to make a bargain with her father to be a long term nurse and if she's successful, she will be able to pursue medicine.  She goes to Crestwicke Manor to nurse the dowager there.  One of the maids finds the note and believes it was written to her.  How this note found its way around the Manor into various hands, each reader believing that the note was written to her.  But the note was written to the dowager of the estate, and with caring and patience, Willa hears the story behind the note and all the history that went along with it.  

Like I said, this is a fascinating read that keeps the reader engaged from beginning to end.  It is definitely a five star book, with two thumbs up, and a most definite love requited. 

Revell Publishing and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are my own.