The Longdale Legacy

I enjoy almost anything Carrie Turansky writes.  I got sucked into this book without warning and found it utterly captivating.  It is written in dual time with parallel love stories and parallel heart-breaks occurring one hundred years apart.  

1912--Charlotte Harper's father has died while speaking and in going through his things, Charlotte finds that he wasn't the father she thought he was and became quite distrustful of men in general.  When her mother has to sell the family home to settle her father's debts, Charlotte, her mother, and her  little sister, Alice, move to the Keswick district of England.  Charlotte's mother is hoping to reconcile with her father at Longdale Manor, but he all but closed the door in her face until he needed her help.  

2012--Gwen Morris has made a huge blunder in her grandfather's art and antiques appraisal business.  He sends her to Keswick to Longdale Manor to appraise and sort antiques and art that the owner wants to sell. During the time she spends at Longdale, the owner shares with her a journal she found that was written by Charlotte.  The more Gwen reads the more she wants to know about Charlotte.  At the same time, she wants to find out about her father and meet him, if possible. While hunting for her father, she comes across her grandmother who lives at the farm where Charlotte ended up, and she finds out that Charlotte is in her family tree.  

Both Charlotte and Gwen find love in unexpected places and when they both were not looking for it. Both of their stories are so satisfying in the end, in spite of the hardships they go through getting there. This is definitely a five star book, with two thumbs up, and a love story worth telling to your children. 

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

 

You Make It Feel Like Christmas

 

I have read several books by Toni Shiloh.  She writes about real characters with real world problems and brings reasonable solutions to the issues.  

In her newest offering, she has a plethora of characters who each fill a role in this story.  She has a self-centered narcissist, a victim of the sister's machinations, stalwart brothers who protect their sisters from the world at large; then there are the parents who push their children to fit into molds the children didn't choose for themselves.  

Angel is marrying Starr's ex-boyfriend.  The night he met Angel, he broke up with Starr and went directly to Angel's hotel room to ask her out.  

Starr is going home for Thanksgiving partially because she lost her job and partially because Angel wants her there to help with wedding preparations.  When their brother, Gabe, introduces Starr to his best friend, things begin to look up for Starr's holidays.  Starr helps Waylon revitalize his mother's Christmas shop so that it begins bringing in a profit.  Waylon's gentleness attracts Starr and she begins to realize that while she has helped Waylon with his dream, she hasn't been living her own dream.  

I love Toni Shiloh's books.  She has a way of putting her words together that draw the readers in and keeps them hooked until they finish the book.  Four Strong Stars

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

All's Fair in Love and Christmas

This book is a quick read, hard to put down, and thoroughly enjoyable.  Most of the characters are quite likable (except Frank, but every book needs a Frank for all the readers to "hate"), but the best ones in this book are the main girl and main dude, who happen to be rivals in their boss's competition for the yearly promotion.  

Jeremy wants the promotion and commensurate pay raise because his  teenage niblings are going to be needing cars, college funds, clothes, shoes, and groceries.  Mackenzie's mom is in a memory care center and the costs are going up.  Mackenzie needs the raise just as much as Jeremy does.  Since the competition revolves around Christmas, Jeremy begins by pulling out all his  stops and making pomander oranges for each member of the staff, but his next few efforts are less than stellar.  Mackenzie's efforts are a bit more understated and subtle, but shows she knows her coworkers well and does all she can to recreate some of their best memories.  

Sarah Monzon has written a completely entertaining book that will be a cozy read for the Christmas season, especially with a cup of hot cocoa in hand. The ending of the book is quite a surprise and quite satisfying. And I LOVE happy endings. Four Strong Stars. 

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

 

The Starlet Spy

This novel reads like a locomotive.  The characters load onto the train, the whistle blows, and the locomotive begins its travels down the track.  As the train gains speed and moves through the hills and valleys, and curves and straightaways, the reader is taken on a trip that is not always comfortable, and  never sleepy.  There are stops along the way to search for a hidden treasure and to refuel the engine for the next portion of the trip.  When it finally chugs into the destination depot, readers feel like they have been wrung out and tossed on the ground, hardly able to find their footings beneath them.  

Amelie Black is a Hollywood movie star most often cast into the role of a ditzy blonde with no brains behind her gorgeous blue eyes.  She is recruited by the   Office of Strategic Services to find a manuscript that was written by Niels Bohr before he fled Denmark to Sweden.  The manuscript holds secrets that could lead to the development of an atomic bomb, and should those secrets fall into the wrong hands, it could prove devastating to the rest of the world, at large.  Never knowing who  she can and cannot trust, she is largely on her own in finding this manuscript until Finn Ristofferson inserts himself into the search.  Even though she is beginning to find herself growing warm toward Finn, she is still not sure she can trust him, but he proves himself time and time again, both worthy of her trust, and worthy of her love. 

Rachel Scott McDaniel is the latest author recruited by Barbour Books to add to their Heroines of World War II series, and she doesn't disappoint.  Her characters are fully fleshed out, her settings are movie-worthy, her plot lines are unpredictable and quite readable, making this a wonderful book to cozy up to and learn something in the process.  

This is a five star book, with two thumbs up, and a missing manuscript hunt for good measure.  

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

 

The Letter Tree

This book seemed hard for me to read.  It was highly predictable and it took a while for it to grab my interest.  I kept threatening to flip to the back halfway through and read the ending before I finished it, but I persevered and plowed through.  That's a rather bleak description of a reading.  The basic premise of the book is a Hatfields-McCoys type feud between rival shoemakers.  And of course, their children fall in love with each other in spite of themselves.  

The book contains the requisite bad guy in the form of a con-man, a bad girl in the form of a socialite,  the heroine who desires nothing more than to get away from her father's bad moods, and the hero who wants to get to the bottom of the feud. 

This book could have been written in epistolary style and lost nothing, but gained a lot.  Frank, the elephant, would still have played a role in the plot, even if the style were changed.  I think Frank was my favorite character in this novel by Rachel Fordham.  I think I've read other novels by Rachel and enjoyed them, but this one was not my favorite.  Still I'll give it four stars because others may like it immensely and think I am a nut bag, but I am an opinionated nut bag 😂.  The only issue with the novel is that the plot moves too slowly and it is predictable. 

Thomas Nelson Fiction provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own.  

 

A Beautiful Disguise

Roseanna M White is generally a good author to read and very interesting, but I found I couldn't drum up the interest in this novel.  First of all, it's been done before.  Second there are so many characters populating the plot, it is hard to keep up with them all.  Last, there are so many tangents that are polluting what could be a charming book.  This is not to say the book has no redeeming values.  Her descriptions of the settings and the machinations of the Imposters are fun to behold.  

I've enjoyed other books by Roseanna, but not this one.  That is not to mean it is a bad book.  It means my head wasn't in the right space for this novel.  I'll give it four stars, because I know there are  people who will enjoy it immensely and not be daunted by the crowded populace of characters.  

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

 

Misled

 

I've encountered many of the lies included in this book, some personally, some vicariously and I appreciate the way that Allen Parr parses the truth from the Word of God and brings these false teachings to light.  I appreciate his teachings on YouTube and find that this book only adds to his position as a teacher of God's word.  

Allen does what few people try to do--expose lies, but at the same time, he exposes the truth behind the lies.  He's not afraid to name names on either side of the table.  What I got most from this book is how God must be grieved by our willingness to be deceived.  I feel bad for the poor fictional character who 

set up each chapter by going from pillar to post among the false teachers.  To hit all seven of them breaks all the odds.  

This book is not to be missed.  Five Stars

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