What a Charming Bridge

Carly is the kind of girl whose nickname should be Calamity Jane. Wherever she goes on her pink bicycle, disaster follows--not on purpose--NEVER on purpose. She's just full of ideas and energy. She works at Sweet Life--a Mennonite home for the elderly, especially those with some kind of dementia. She loves the residents and wants to help them all feel less lonely. Her friend, Adam, volunteers in the woodworking shop, helping the residents make things. He's been friends with Carly and her brother, Jimmy, since before Carly dated his cousin Dale, and he's in love with Carly.

That sets things up for this story to move forward. One of the residents, Martha, remembers an early love named James, that she met near a covered bridge when she was just a young girl. Carly goes looking for the bridge but gets mixed up with which bridge it is. She wants to find out what happened to James for Martha's upcoming birthday.

Dianne Christner has written a sweet novel about the bumps in the road to a love that conquers everything. Her characters are real and believable, and her settings are a delightful addition to the story. Her plot is not overly slow, but it does lag a time or two. That still does not detract from the overall story and the book is hard to put down for most of the tale. You get to know the residents of Sweet Life so well, they become friends.

This is a five-star, two thumbs up, and a pink bicycle for your travels.

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

Thread Your Needle

Delphinia's father made an arrangement where a man is allowed to purchase her services as a housekeeper and cook so that he could go to the gold fields. The man, Jonathan Wilshire, gets on Delphinia's last nerve by refusing to call her Delphinia, but only calling her Phiney. He has hired her to take care of his brother's five children--Tessie, Josh, Jacob (?), Nettie and Nate--the twins, and to cook and clean the cabins where they all live. His brother's mother-in-law is taking care of the children while Jonathan brings Phiney home and is a steadfast companion to Phiney, especially in overcoming Tessie's resistance to Phiney's presence. It takes an act of supreme bravery for Tessie to come around, but the change is complete and the two are forever friends. One of the things that brings Tessie around is the quilt that Phiney puts on her bed, a quilt made with her mother that holds all the memories Phiney has of her. Tessie has part of a quilt her mother started and allows Phiney to help her finish it.

While a lot of Threads of Love revolves around Phiney and the children, there is a significant portion that includes the relationship growing and budding between Phiney and Jonathan. When Phiney's father asks for her presence in Denver, Jon tells Phiney that he will be asking for her hand in marriage when she comes back.

As a bonus, the story Woven Threads is included in the review copy I received. Tessie has grown up, gone to college, and become a doctor when she applies for a job with the Santa Fe railroad. She is stationed in Florence, Kansas, and the man who has hired her, Charlie Bannion takes every opportunity to be in Florence and to see Tessie. While Tessie is on the train to Florence, she meets two sisters--Lydia and Addie (who is deaf), and her heart wants to reach out to both of them. Lydia has come to Florence to be a Harvey Girl, but has no one to take care of Addie. Charlie gets Addie a job in the Harvey House as a dishwasher while Lydia works waiting tables. Lydia is a bitter girl who can't see beyond the end of her nose. When she gets herself pregnant, she dumps Addie on Tessie and leaves with her boyfriend.

The road to true love is a rather bumpy one for Tessie and Charlie, especially when an Englishman breaks his leg and becomes Tessie's patient. She visits him daily and while he's rather forward with her, she becomes a bit star-struck in his presence. All of this adds to a long, hard row to hoe for love to find its home with Tessie and Charlie.

Judith McCoy Miller is a seasoned author, one whose books I thoroughly enjoy. Her characters have depth and substance, her settings are utilized well within the story she writes, and her plots are incredible.

Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and a quilt of love to keep you warm.

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

Lassoed by Love

The Cowboy's Bride is a collection of nine novellas, each with a cowboy and/or cowgirl and assorted other characters--sometimes a child and sometimes a cranky father, but always a horse or two. Each of these stories makes for an entertaining afternoon or evening read. Actually, they are all entertaining no matter what time you wish to read them.

The authors of the stories are all seasoned writers who know their craft and ply it well. While no one story sticks out in my mind right now, I loved each and every one of them. I tried, for the most part, to read each story in one sitting and it was totally worth it. The last story in the book--The Cowgirl's Lasso has CJ employed as Jonah's ranch foreman (forewoman?), but he won't let her do her job without undermining her at every turn. It takes an old cowboy named Charlie to bring them together as a working team and as a partnership in marriage. Both had pride issues to overcome, and both had to really take hard looks at themselves to see how they could become a team and really make the ranch work.

This is a five star collection, with two thumbs up, and a cow-pony to do the hard work.

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

Visits with Old Friends

I finished reading the Love is Patient Romance Collection today and it was like a visit with several old friends. Three of the novellas were in the Spinster Brides of Cactus Corners. With a cup of tea and a comfortable chair, I felt I had had a chat with some very dear friends. That was what reading this collection was like. I had not read all of the stories before, but they were all just as comfortable as if I had. All of the novellas take place in the late ninteenth century when horses and buggies were the primary mode of transportation, telegraphs were the major communication between towns, and sometimes bankers were poisonous like snakes--ready to take advantage of helpless widows.

All of these authors have the ability to weave a tale that holds the reader's attention while surrounding the readers with a comfortable blanket and a cup of tea. Nine stories will fill some afternoons with pleasant distraction when the weather won't allow other activities.

Definitely five stars, two thumbs up, and a cup of tea with a friend.

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

Do You? I Do

I never thought I'd see the day when I'd find a writer of historical romance that I would like better than Karen Witemeyer, but I have found one story I like better than Karen's. With This Ring is a collection of four romance novellas in the wild, wild west by such authors as Karen Witemeyer, Mary Connealy, Regina Jennings, and Melissa Jagears. As I read each of the tales, I fell in love with each one more than the one before--which, if you follow the logic, means I liked the last one best of all.

Harrison Gray is extremely myopic and depends on his glasses to get him from place to place, and to be able to correct the papers of his students. Charlie Andrews is a tomboy who outshoots, outrides, outranches anyone around; and she doesn't mind humiliating anyone who wants to try to compete with her. When Harrison's glasses are broken on Charlie's ranch, she feels obligated to help him out in his classroom until his new ones come in. What she doesn't realize is how intimidating she is to other men and that is why no one has dated her. The only thing she is not good at is kissing, but Harrison is more than willing to help her improve her skills with more practice. When she asks the brother of the school bully she grew up with to marry her, Harrison has to stop her and make her realize what true love is. This would be my jacket blurb for Melissa Jagear's "Engaging the Competition."

All four of the tales are fun, quick, and entertaining reads. They will fill an afternoon of bad weather, bad mood, or bad hair day, and allow the reader to escape to simpler times and tougher lifestyles. This is a five star, two thumbs up book, with a kissing competition thrown in for good measure.

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

Until the Dawn

Elizabeth Camden has written several books wrapped around and in various mansions in different locations throughout the United States. Until the Dawn resides in the Dierenpark Mansion owned by the Vandermark family in New Holland, New York. The Vandermarks have been absent from the mansion for nearly sixty years. There is a fabled curse on the mansion that has been talked about for generations and often is the subject of tours for vacationers. When Sophi Van Riijn finds out that the family is returning, she knows she has work to do getting the house ready for the family. She is not prepared for Quentin, Pieter, and Nicholaas, nor the upheaval they will bring to the area.

Quentin is very rabidly anti-God, anti-myth, anti-anything that cannot be touched, seen, tasted, smelled, or heard. When he arrives at his mansion, he dismisses every staff member that remained at the house. Sophie couldn't be fired because she was never employed, but she did need access to the house because she was a volunteer for the national weather service and had a station on the roof. Because she appealed to Quentin's scientific mind, he allowed her to continue her weather research. Because she had a kind heart with her scientific mind, he wanted her to tutor his son, Pieter. Because she could cook like a dream, he hired her to do the cooking for the household.

When Grandfather Nicholaas moves in and brings in a number of professors in biology and anthropology to find out if the curse is true, Sophie has to move in to be able to feed the new guests at the mansion. Due to Sophie's proximity, Quentin begins noticing her and enjoying her company. Pieter has blossomed under her tutelage and Quentin could hardly resist her for loving his son. The only fly in the ointment is Quentin's lack of faith and Sophie's total dependence on God.

Elizabeth researches her subject well and uses her research to tell a compelling, page-turning story that won't let the reader rest until it is finished. Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and Sophie's Blueberry Muffins.

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

It May Not Be Bug Tussle, But It's Home

My favorite contemporary fiction author is Sally John. She writes with compassion and understanding to the issues women face. I may have to change my mind about this. Deborah Raney has a series of books that take the reader to the Chicory Inn near Cape Girardeau, Missouri. In Another Way Home, Danae Brooks has been going through fertility treatments for nearly four years at great expense and disappointment when they do not work. Her husband, Dallas, is supportive, but tired too. He wants Danae to find something to get her attention off whether or not she's pregnant and when she's going to have her own baby. When there is an announcement at church about the local women's shelter needing new volunteers, Danae feels this is something she can put her attention to. Now Dallas is a bit apprehensive about Danae's working at the center, who knows what kind of crazies will show up there? God has this all under control and every step is ordained by Him.

Deborah has worked gratitude, faith, and providential provision into a novel that on the surface is filled with angst. One of the residents of the center has a little boy that she asks Danae to keep for the Thanksgiving weekend while she goes to visit her family. Only she knows she won't be coming back. This opens the door for Dallas and Danae to become parents, but it is a long row to hoe. Also the mother is pregnant with another child and because of her circumstances, she wants Dallas and Danae to take this child too.

Because this is a continuation of a series of books, the characters get more complex and more real. The settings are the same as the others in the books and the plot works so well. While each book centers on one of the children of Audrey and Grant, all of the children are present throughout the book, modeling the life of an extended family filled with love--especially on the Tuesday dinners. I wish I could do six or seven stars, but since five is all I can give, I will give it the full five stars, two thumbs up, and a family dinner once a week.

My thanks to Abingdon Press for allowing me to read and review this book.