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.