The Amish Widower

I've read several of Virginia Smith's Amish fiction works and thoroughly enjoyed every single one of them.  I was pleased when The Amish Widower came up on my list because I knew it would be a good read.

Seth Hostetler has been widowed twice and plans to never marry again, first because he has suffered too much pain, and second, because he can't see that God would give him another chance. He lives on his father's farm with his parents, grandmother, and two brothers and all the assorted family members.  He felt a bit out of place and taking up too much room.  The farming work is fine but it doesn't hold the excitement for him that he wishes he could have from his work.

When his sisters-in-law want him to drive them to town, they take him to a pottery shop on the far side of town and the owner of the shop gives him a lesson in throwing pottery and captures his imagination.

When a girl from his district runs away because her boyfriend started dating someone else, Seth is called in to try to bring this girl back to the district. When she does return, she thinks Seth has feelings for her that he doesn't really have.  As the pressures mount for him to take another wife, he decides to move closer to the pottery works where he's been apprenticed to the potter.

At the prologue of the book and at the very end, my eyes flowed with unrelenting tears.  My nose got stuffed up, the whole works. Virginia truly writes believable Amish fiction and puts the warts on the Amish instead of writing perfect characters who never step out of line.  This is a five-star book, with two thumbs up and a beautiful, one-of-a-kind piece of pottery.

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

Abiding Mercy

This is the third Ruth Reid book I've read.  When I went back to read the reviews of her books I'd previously read, I was surprised to see this review.  What surprised me in rereading that review was that I felt I would never read another book by her again.

I've gone through cycles where I will read Amish fiction, or cycles where I won't read any Amish at all.  I'm in a cycle where I'm picky about the Amish fiction I'll read, but I do enjoy reading it. This book is  a bit similar to an Amish fiction book I've read before, but it does come with a twist.

Roslyn and Brandon's toddler daughter was kidnapped and for the last fifteen years Roslyn has been obsessed with finding Adriana.  She has created a foundation to reunite kidnapped children with their parents, and she has made it her life's work to find Adriana.

Faith has been working at her maam's restaurant ever since she finished school in the eighth grade.  She loves cooking and she loves baking the bread in the restaurant. She also loves Gideon, but he's her sister's boyfriend.

These lives are on a collision course without any of them knowing it.  And it caused no small amount of tears for me as I read it.

After I read that one Ruth Reid book, I kind of forgot about it, so I picked up another one.  I am certainly glad I did.  This book broke my heart and it gave me such hope at the same time.  I give it five stars, two thumbs up, and a freshly baked loaf of bread.

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

To the Farthest Shores

To the Farthest Shores is an historical novel that covers a portion of history I've not paid too much attention to.  Starting just after the Spanish-American War and moving up to the early years of the 1900s.  Elizabeth Camden has pulled together several people, places, and events to make an incredible novel surrounding the Presidio military base and soldiers returning from war with all kinds of injuries and needing rehabilitation. Jenny is the nurse all the soldiers love because of her sweet attitude and care for all of their needs.  It's in this capacity that Jenny met Ryan and fell in love.  Then suddenly he was gone.  After four years, she gets a letter telling her to forget him.

Elizabeth has depicted the establishment of the now CIA, and the advent of covert spying by the US.  Through her descriptions, she has formulated a character whose very being is protected by his need to keep secrets. Those secrets spill over into his outside life, and become an obstacle to what he really wants.

To the Farthest Shores is a well-crafted novel full of surprises at every turn.  Elizabeth has not left out a single detail or a single thought within the pages of this book.  The characters are so well developed, they feel like friends to the readers.  The settings are so well described that they are almost tangible. Hospitals, pawn shops, and pearl farms make the world of this novel, but that world is so full and so meaningful, it was incredibly hard to finish the book and walk away.

Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and a productive Pearl Farm.

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

Shine Like the Dawn

Maggie and her family are on an outing to celebrate her older sister's birthday when the boat sprang a leak.  When it became apparent that they were not going to be able to get back to shore, Maggie's father told her to swim to shore with her baby sister, Violet, who was only two years old.  Maggie's mother and older sister were not able to swim, but Maggie saved herself and Violet.  Four years later, Maggie and Violet are living with their grandmother making hats in her millinery shop when Violet is involved in an accident when she is hit by a motor car and breaks her leg. Even with Violet's accident, there is nothing Maggie wants more than to find out what happened when her family drowned.  A face from Maggie's past shows up to help.  Nate Harcourt has come home because his father is ill and Nate needs to take over his father's responsibilities.

Carrie Turansky writes incredible novels with intriguing plot lines that make her novels hard to put down.  In Shine Like the Dawn, Carrie has not only given us a novel with an interesting plot, but she's also given us a peek into the daily life of England near the turn of the twentieth century.  She's also shown us the very real human foibles we all have, but entertained us while doing so.  The romance in this novel is not over the top, but more understated--almost taking a back seat to the characters and plot lines.  Her plots move seamlessly through several character points of view and bring a cohesive story to the reader.

This is a five star book, with two thumbs up, and the clues to solve a serious mystery.

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

My Heart Belongs

When I began to read this novel, I was almost prepared to dismiss it as a formulaic romance.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that this novel takes a few detours along the formula line. While it does have a bit of a slow start, the pace of the plot picks up quite quickly.  In a comedy of mistaken identities and a rush to the altar before everything is understood, Tad and Rebecca find themselves married, when Rebecca was supposed to marry Tad's cousin, Theodore.  The animosity between Tad and Theodore adds to the comedy of errors.

Suzanne Dietze has contributed to several of Barbour Publishing's novella collections and I always find her writing entertaining and worth the time to read. This novel is no different.  My Heart Belongs in Ruby City, Idaho, has all kinds of adventure, angst, and growth. Some of the characters have to overcome a prejudice and find the kindness within themselves.  For that reason alone, the book is worth reading.

Five stars, two thumbs up, and a marriage to the right man.

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

Behind the Scenes

Imagine, opening your mail and find that you have been invited to a masquerade ball at Alva Vanderbilt's home, the creme de la creme of society.  You are a women's page writer for the New York Sun and this invitation allows you access to the inner workings of her home and to see all of the Knickerbockers while also allowing you to gain tasty tidbits of society gossip for your column.

Such was the case for Miss Permilia Griswold, who wrote under the pen name of Miss Quill.  Her writing allowed those not at the party to feel as if they'd been there and seen the people.  Permilia talked about the gowns the ladies wore, the escorts they had, the dances they danced, but left out salacious details of the evening.

Leaving out the salacious details is what got Miss Quill fired from her job at the New York Sun, but that was secondary to the murder plot Permilia accidently overheard.  Jen Turano writes novels that exude humor and delight and that entertain the reader from page one to the last page.  Behind the Scenes is one such novel.  Permilia has been handicapped by her step-mother and her step-sister who live for drama, making the right impressions and being seen in the right company always.

I didn't realize that Jen had chosen "Permilia" as her heroine's name, I'd only heard of this name one other time--in researching my family tree, one of the great-great-grandmother's had this name, and her mother was Parmilia.  I adore Jen Turano's writings because of her humor and settings.  Her characters are more than just the fluffy, air-headed society debutantes.  This is a five-star book, two thumbs up, and a dress that doesn't look like a chicken molted all over it.

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

The Chapel Car Bride

Judith McCoy Miller writes amazing novels with charming characters and incredible settings.  Her research is impeccable and informative. I learn something nearly every time I read one of her books.

The Chapel Car Bride taught me that there was at one time in history train cars where preachers traveled on the railroad teaching about Christ.  I'd never heard of this before, but it's not outside the realms of credulity.

This takes place soon after the turn of the century of 1900s.  Prohibition was about to come into play, but in West Virginia, it was already being enacted, county by county.  Where prohibition exists, moonshining and bootlegging exists alongside.  Moonshining is part of my family's history--a cousin and a great uncle on my mom's side of the family were the still owners, and my grandfather on my dad's side was their customer.  Cousin Wesley was the grand joke of the family.  If something was mentioned about illegal booze, Cousin Wesley's name was not far behind.  He spent time in and out of the federal penintentiary, and often listed his occupation as "sugar delivery for Weyerhaueser." I know this world, not well, but I know it.

Another significant part of the plot is the location--the back hills of West Virginia.  Hill people are hill people, no matter where they are, and Judith has written a true portrayal of the hill people in this book.  They are closed off, wary of strangers, slow to trust outsiders, and definitely mistrustful of people from the government.  I've lived in a community like that.  Some of them believe they are a law unto themselves, and can tell stories about that, but that's for another day.

The relationships Judith has put into the plot are charming and insightful.  I LOVED this book.  I couldn't wait to finish it, but I wanted it to go longer.  It's five stars, two thumbs up, and NO moonshine!

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