A Choice Considered

 I generally enjoy Tracie Peterson's books, but this one left me wanting a bit more.  Melody McGregor lives in the railroad tent village in Cheyenne, Wyoming.  Her Da, Clancy McGregor, has been off work because of a back injury.  What she doesn't know is that her father has been hiding a more grave illness.  She knows the railroad will soon be moving to the next stop but she wants to settle down.  Her father says he will allow this as long as she chooses a husband before the railroad moves.  What he really wants is for her to find a husband before he dies.  He decides to set her up on a series of blind dates that were disastrous from the very outset.  The man he really wants her to marry is someone else entirely.  

I enjoyed reading A Choice Considered for the most part, but it fell a little flat--it was overly sweet, predictable, with not a lot of activity in the plot.  It is clear from the beginning who Melody's husband will be, who the bad guy is, and while the bad guy is easily discerned before he shows his true colors, his actions are tame compared to other books I've read. Even though I didn't care for this book as much as others, I will continue to read Tracie's books.  She is usually a good author.  This one was just a miss for me.   

Three Stars

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

Love on a Whim

I first became acquainted with Suzanne Woods Fisher through her Amish fiction, but I have come to love her contemporary fiction possibly even more than her Amish books. The Cape Cod Creamery series is fun to read and takes the reader on a whirlwind of emotions. 

Brynn, a civil engineer, was at a conference in Las Vegas when she meets TD, who is attending the same conference.  He talks her into skipping the rest of the day's meetings and really seeing some of the sights within driving distance.  They spent the day talking and getting to know each other, and then on a whim, get married before going back to the hotel.  The next morning, Brynn panics and leaves TD asleep while she flies back home.  She calls her friend, Dawn, who convinces her to come to Cape Cod to figure things out.  Dawn is a fixer and she loves nothing more than fixing people's lives, but she can't jump in and fix Brynn because a wedding is due to happen in a week and she needs to get the ice cream prepared. At the last minute, the baker opts out making the wedding cake, the bride's mother wants individual mini cakes for each guest at the wedding. Brynn volunteers to bake the cakes, but every time she turns around, the bride's mother wants to change something else.  

In Love on a Whim, Suzanne hits on hurts of various kinds, healing, forgiveness, generosity, and people who aren't afraid to take advantage of others just for the sake of it.  Even though it is a rather light read, it has its depth that brings the readers into contemplation of their own lives.  

Four Strong Stars

Revell publishing provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own.  

 

Into the Starlight

 Into the Starlight is the third and final book in the Sweetwater Crossing series.  Joanna has come back home after being in Europe for a year.  She is heartbroken in more than one sense: she's been widowed, she has returned home after both of her parents died, and she has lost her capacity to play the piano for long periods of time.  To top it all off, she's pregnant.  The day she arrives back home, Burke Finley and his "aunt" Della have come to Sweetwater Crossing to get some answers.  Della was supposed to marry Burke's uncle, Clive Finley, and he disappeared without a trace.  

There is a fairly large cast of characters roaming through this novel, making up the warp and woof of the town.  It is not hard to keep track of the characters because they have shown up in other books in this series.  

There is a bit of mystery and a couple of romances brewing in this final offering from Sweetwater Crossing. The mystery surrounds Clive's disappearance and who the last people were who saw him.  The pastor finds a fondness for Della and Burke quickly finds himself falling for Joanna.  The love of the three sisters is something I could only wish for my own children. 

Amanda Cabot has a realism in her characters that evoke feelings of comradery and friendship.  Even though her characters live in a bygone era, they are real in the sense of having faults and foibles as well as qualities of genuineness.  I would love to have those sisters as friends.

The only thing that I didn't like in the book is that some of the issues were tied up too neatly as a vehicle to pull the series together.  

A Strong Four Star Book.  

Revell Publishing provided the copy I read for this review.