Life, Love and Books

Woman of Sunlight by Mary Connealy It is always a delight to read another book by Mary Connealy, she writes stories that capture us and will not let us go . Her latest series Brides of Hope Mountain does not disappoint us. In the second installment to the series, we find Ilsa Nordegren getting stir crazy after a long recovery from an illness. The Warden family had blown into the sisters lives turning their quiet oasis into a uproar. But what the sisters never thought they would find was love. , Mitch returned home a rich man looking to reunite with his family, but he finds the family homestead abandoned. When he finally locates his family up in the mountains, to his surprise he finds they have found sanctuary with three sisters. The youngest sister black haired  Ilsa catches his eye and intrigues him.   When the danger follows Mitch up into the mountains, he has to face the truth that he needs to find whoever has a price on ...

The Runaway Bride By Jody Hedlund In the second installment to The Bride Ship series, we return to the colony of British Columbia. With the shortage of women to men, the bride ships brought over eligible women that would marry the men in the colony. We meet wealthy Arabella Lawrence, who has ran away on her wedding day from the man she does not love. Her hope is she will find a  gentleman in her social circles, who will provide for her and love her. But she does not want to rush into a marriage and make the same mistakes she did before. As the town baker, Peter Kelly has put his all into building his business, now he has his eyes set on finding a bride from the newly arrived bride ship. When he meets Arabella for the first time, he is taken by her inner beauty. Peter than resolves to pursue Arabella and woo her, but his pursuit for her is thwarted by the savvy Lieutenant Richard Drummond. When the Navy Lieutenant Richard Drummond starts sh...

Protecting Tanner Hollow By Lynette Eason Lynette Eason brings four suspense filled novellas in one book. From a old flame returning home, a witness to a murder, a mother on the run to protect her children and a forensic supervisor with a target on her back. Each of these stories interconnect thru out the book, bringing it to the end with the last story.  You do not feel as if you are left wanting to know where the other couples have went in life, they each have a cameo in the next novella till the end. This is something I loved about this book, Lynette gives you glimpses into the lives of the couples. This book will keep you turning the pages till the end of the book. "I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by the publisher. A favorable review was not required, all views expressed are my own." 

. Always Look Twice by Elizabeth Goddard In the second installment to the Uncommon Justice series, we return to the wilderness of Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  It opens with a bear, a camera and a eyewitness to a murder! Harper Reynolds is on a sabbatical from her job, when in the midst of getting a award worthy shot  movement catches her eye. Now she is running from the killer that she just witnessed shooting a unknown woman. Heath McCade is now a reserve sheriff deputy in his home county, but he did not expect to have a witness fall right into his path. While he is out with a wilderness group from his ranch retreat;  something catches his attention in the woods. His dear childhood friend, Harper; was back in his life as fast as she had disappeared years before. Harper is devastated to hear that all the evidence of  the crime that she has witnessed has  disappeared. Now she is determined to ...

                  Until The Mountains Fall (Cities of Refuge Book 3) by Connilyn Cossette In the third installment of the Cities of Refuge series we revisit Kedesh, where Malakhi is now faced with marrying the one woman he has loved since he was a child. The only thing is she had been  his older brothers wife, who was now a widow and being commanded by the law to marry the younger brother of her deceased husband. Rivkah has no interest in marrying her deceased beloveds  younger brother and makes a decision to flee the city of her childhood. With plans of using her talents as a scribe to provide for herself, she escapes what she thinks is going to be her worst nightmare. There is a price for leaving the protection of her father and the safety of the city of refuge, this price takes a toll on Rivkah. After the disappearance of the one woman he has ever loved, Malakhi throws himself into t...

               Cross My Heart By Robin Lee Hatcher In Cross My Heart, we meet Ashley, the owner of a horse rescue farm and Ben, who is starting up a equine therapy farm. When Ashley and Ben first  meet, they find they have several things in common. Having been both raised by single mom's and sharing a passion for helping those who are hurting. While Ashley and Ben work together to bring forth Ben's dream, they both feel drawn toward a deeper relationship. But there is a big issue that is standing in their road toward this. Being that they both have very broken pasts that have affected their choice's in life. Carrying these burden's  can also drive them apart instead of bringing healing to their lives if they do not face the truth. Will they choose to hand these burdens over to the one who can handle them or walk away from a beautiful thing in each of their lives? This is a beautifully written story about he...

Breaking the Power of Negative Words by Mary C. Busha Growing up I have always heard the old adage " Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but words will not ever hurt me". In my experience words have been very harming to me and the ones I love.  Other times words have been used to encourage me or have been brought together to entertain us. This book helps us to turn around the negative words that have been spoken over our lives and find healing in positive words.  Mary C. Busha gives us steps toward finding healing from the barrage of negative words that have built up in our lives. She also gives us accounts of other people who have struggled and overcome the negativity in their own lives. At the end of each chapter, there is questions to answer that help you apply the concepts to your life.  I would recommend this book to anyone dealing with the negative words that have harmed us from childhood to present. Healing is obtainable, we...

A Rebel Heart(Daughtry House series) Beth White In the new series by Beth White, we are introduced to the time period after the Civil War. A time when our country was still healing from the devastation that had been left behind.  She introduces the Daughtry sisters; three young women raised in the deep south that is trying to salvage what is left of their beloved home. The eldest sister Selah meets Levi, a northerner; who offers her a solution to their money struggle. Selah's family has been hurt by the Yankees, so she has to keep her guard up around this one. But she never thought she would ever fall in love with one.  This is the third book I have read that was written by Beth White and each time she has written a story that draws the reader in to it. This is what I love about her books, they touch the readers and we learn about the time period of struggles and healing.   I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by Revell. ...

Deep Extraction: An FBI Task Force Novel by Diann Mills  Deep Extraction brings another thrilling read that dives into the deep world of oil drilling. The story follows an FBI agent and US Marshall who are investigating the mysterious death of a businessman and friend. When an oil and gas magnate Nathan Moore is found dead by his wife, she becomes the main suspect in the murder case.  Special Agent Tori  Templeton is torn between choosing to stand by her dear friend Sally's side or focus totally on finding the person who has killed Sally's husband. Joining Tori and her partner is recently reinstated Deputy US Marshall Cole Jeffers, who has just come back from a time away.   As more clues are unearthed that reveal a secret lifestyle that was unknown by victim's family it gets to be more difficult for those investigating the case. The more the team sift thru the clues it seems they are finding that the case may be more of a maze of bad new...

Grace and the Preacher by Kim Vogel Sawyer The newest book from Kim Vogel Sawyer was very much one of the most interesting ones I have read. She pulled a storyline together and was able to share the message of standing up for what was right in the face of wrong. I love that there were two romances in the storyline, an older couple and the younger couple.  Grace gave up on finding her true love and had settled in her position as the postmistress for the town of Fairland. But when her beloved uncle chooses to step down from the pulpit and let a younger preacher take over his congregation. When the responsibility of corresponding to the new preacher was handed over to Grace, she took it on like all of her other duties. As time passed the letters increased, Grace grew eager to meet the new preacher. Theophil made a choice and now his past is trying to catch up with him. Ten years ago his cousins planned a train robbery and convinced Theo to help them. B...

Shine like the Dawn by Carrie Turansky Carrie Turansky brings us a very beautiful story that is set in time of  Edwardian Northern  England, Margaret Lounsbury life was uprooted four years ago when tragedy struck in the form of a boating accident taking the lives of her parents and older sister. Her grandmother took in Margaret and her younger sister providing them with a roof over their head and food on the table. Their days are spent with Margaret working in her grandmothers Millinery Shop, while she helps to raise her younger sister. Even though she is willing to do anything to protect her sister, her heart still weighs heavy with the loss of her parents and sister.  When Nathaniel Harcourt receives news from his stepmother telling him of his father's illness. He returns  back home to Morningside Manor in time to say his last goodbyes to his father. Now he is the heir to the partial control of his father's engineering company and the duty of repaying ...

Fraying at the Edge by Cindy Woodsmall With the second installment of The Amish of Summer Grove, we return to find the lives of Ariana Brenneman and Skylar Nash turned all upside down. Both girls have found out that they had been switched at birth and now are to spend a whole year living with their birth families. With only one link to there old lives, each of these girls have to take another look at the world around them. Each from very different worlds now having to take another look at their lives and decide what is the next step to take.   Cindy Woodsmall has brought us another very heartwarming series, that reaches out to each one of us and pulls us in. The story line is about two babies switched at birth, that both come from two very different backgrounds. It is not easy to be uprooted from all you ever known and be placed in a total opposite lifestyle. The way Cindy takes each of the families and intertwine each of their stories, while keeping us turning each ...

Wild Montana Skies by Susan May Warren I was blessed with the opportunity to meet Susan May Warren in person, recently at our local community library. She had chosen our library as one of her stops on her book tour for Wild Montana Skies. Her visit to our little local reading spot was a bright spot for several of our regular patrons. Susan spent some of her time with us telling us about her newest series and giving us some tips on becoming an author. In her newest series called Montana Rescue, Susan introduces us to a new group of unsung heroes. A SAR  (Search and Rescue) team that has been put together by a very wealthy benefactor in the town of Mercy Falls, Montana. In Montana Rescue we meet a former military search and rescue pilot Kacey Fairing who has returned home on a leave. During her time home she has accepted an offer to fly for the local SAR team, with the hopes of reconnecting with her teenage daughter. At the same time Ben King has placed his dreams and c...

Hope Prevails: Insights from a Doctors Personal Journey through Depression by Dr Michelle Bengtson As a board-certified neuropyschologist, Dr Michelle Bengtson has seen the devastation that depression causes to people. In her practice she prescribed the most effective  treatments for her patients. When one day the tables turned and she was now the patient suffering from depression; struggling just to get thru one day at a time. Using the same treatments that she prescribed for her patients, she felt worse than before. Seeking to find the hope she needed to overcome depression she turned to the one book that showed her grace, The Bible. Taking from her experience, Dr Bengston writes the words that most people struggling with depression will recognize. Taking her training and blending it with a vital missing piece, she shows us that we can pull thru even if it does not feel like we are going to make it. If you are someone who is struggling with depression or you know someon...

Honor Redeemed by Christine Johnson  In the second book in the Keys of the Promise series, we meet Prosperity Jones. Two years ago she stood waving farewell to her beloved David as he headed to the faraway Key West. Now faced with no family to care for her, Prosperity travels to find the one person that can provide for her. When she arrives in Key West, only to find out that her dear fiance has married another woman. With her heart broken in many pieces, Prosperity chooses to push forward and find another way to provide for herself. When she gain the interest of a older Doctor, Prosperity starts to finally feel like she is going to be able to find hope in her life. David's choices in life have had consequences, ones that have caused heartache not just to himself and the one love of his life. Being the man he is, he chose to make things right and now life has another twist for him.  Christine Johnson has written a fast moving love story that will...

The Quieting by Suzanne Woods Fisher  In the second book in  "The Bishops Family" series we meet Abgail the niece of the bishop who has come with her sister to help her uncle out in their time of need. Her second goal is to finish her father's genealogical project for a client that lives in Stony Ridge. Unbeknownst to Abgail, her grandmother has other plans for her elusive granddaughter. She has set her sights on finding a husband for Abgail and plans on finding the right one there in Stony Ridge. Stony Ridge is not overrun with eligible bachelors, except for one who is not right for Abgail in many ways. Bearing the last name Glick and a relative to the church bishop that is at odds with Abgails's uncle. Dane Glick has his sights set on marrying Abgail, but she does not have her sights set on marriage. Her goal is to help her father break out of his mood of melancholy that he is stuck in. As the conflict grows between the two families, relationships...

Coming into my marriage, I truly thought is was going to be the most beautiful thing in my life. I would be swept off my feet by this prince charming and carried off to live happily after. We would spend our honeymoon making wondrous and beautiful love just like the couples in the harlequin books  that I read when I was a teenager. Yeah Right!!! Reality  struck on our first day of our honeymoon, the man I thought I had married was not who I thought he was. He was flawed, he was not the prince charming or the amazing lover I had dreamed of. Our first big fight happened on our honeymoon, I was devastated  my dream of a beautiful time together was ruined. The months passed by and things justed seemed to get worse for us. I was working away from home and when I came home all I wanted to do was spend time with my dear hubby. His thoughts was he wanted to spend time with his family and friends, not this woman who was being very demanding with him. This is not what I thought...

One of my struggles in my marriage is not having control over things, I let myself get angry over things that I should let go of. It has taken me a long time to get to a place where I know take a deep breath and think before I speak. I did not realize I had done this till the other day my dear hubby told me he had taken money out of the account without telling me. This has been a issue that would usually have gotten me very upset and very angry. This time I had taken a moment to breathe and we was able to talk about the issue without a huge fight. The reward out of this was my dear hubby more willing to listen to how I was feeling about the issue.  I have learned in this past year I can not control everything in my life. Things are going to happen in our lives that we can not control, like a car accident, health problems, infertility, marriage problems. Our marriage has not been like a fairy tale, we have faced  many struggles in the years we have been married. Some of those...