Life, Love and Books

Anything But Plain by Suzanne Woods Fisher In Anything But Plain, Suzanne Woods Fisher takes the reader back to our dearly loved Stony Ridge. We meet the bishops daughter Lydie Stolzfus; a delightful young lady who has struggled with understanding where she belongs. She does not feel like she fits in with the other Amish girls and secretly plans to leave. When Lydie is given an opportunity to work for the local doctor for  few months, she sees it as chance to form her goodbye to a dear friend. Nathan Yoder has been more than just an next door  neighbor to  Lydie; their friendship has grown over the years until recently. Nathan is confused by Lydies actions and has started to believe that his childhood friend is in love with his brother. After spending time with her niece, Dok has come to a realization that Lydie may have a rare disorder. Will her brother allow her to take the steps to help Lydie or will he reject her assistance. Will Lydie come to see that her home is wit...

Critical Alliance By Elizabeth Goddard When she receives an cryptic message from her past warning her of trouble for her family's tech company, Mackenzie Hanson heads home for the first time in many years. But it seems that trouble has arrived before her when her brother is found dead. Also her sister is refusing to speak her about what is going on. Mackenzie has to figure out another way to investigate what is going on in her families company.  Returning to Montana, Alex Knight is looking forward to some time of decompressing from his last mission. But when he starts to relax,  Alex is drawn into a mystery full of threats, suspicious deaths and hints of espionage. All of them have one thing in common, the beautiful Mackenzie who is trying to figure out things on her own. When things turn deadly, can Alex and Mackenzie piece the clues together; before danger catches them off guard?   The third book in the Rocky Mountain Courage series is as nail biting as the first two bo...

Judah's Wife: The Silent Years #2 By Angela Hunt In the second installment of "The Silent Years" series we meet a young Leah on the eve of the time for a choice to be made of who is to be her husband. To her surprise the man who had rescued her and her friend from a young group of Hellene's. This man that her father has chosen for her to marry, is her way out of the home of strife and contempt. But then the peace that Leah has longed for is interrupted by Judah's Father's plan resist the King's decree. This resistance leads to a war that costs her father in laws life and put Judah, in charge of the resistance.  The one thing Leah has longed for is a home that is full of peace is being taken from her by her husbands choice to fulfill his fathers dying wish. She can not understand why her new family has chosen to stand for the One True God. Also, Leah does not understand what kind of God would destroy her chance at peace.  This story is told th...

Peace in the Valley  by Ruth Logan Herne Ruth Logan Herne has brought another heartwarming cowboy story to us. The Stafford Family is made of three brothers with all different lifes, that is connected by their rancher father and the town. Trey the youngest brother is the famous musical singer, Lucy is the distrustful neighbor that has suffered from the greed of his adopted father. Each of these characters are very well developed that they draw us each into their story. It is a story that touches the heart and makes us fall in love with Ruth Logan Herne's writings. The third novel in the Double S Ranch series, brings back home to the ranch the youngest of the Stafford sons. Knowing he owes his life to the legendary rancher Sam Stafford, Trey Walker Stafford returns to save Sam's life. Having left the ranch to pursue a musical career against the advice of his adopted father. Now Trey returns home with fame and success on his heels, still struggling to get over the tra...

The One True Love of Alice Ann  by Eva Marie Everson This is the first book I have read by Eva Marie Everson, the thing that drew me to the book was the story line based during WWII. When I picked up the book and started to read it, I was drawn in to the story about a young girl during a time that was in a upheaval. I went thru a time period where like Alice Ann, I had a crush on a guy who had no interest in me. As the story progresses Alice Ann corresponds with her elder brothers friend Mack, that has been shipped overseas to fight the war. Letter writing was one of the ways to share news from home to the guys on the war front during that time period. Which compared to now days we have email, social media, cell phones, where we can just share news at the drop of a hat. The boys on the war front loved getting mail and packages from back home. In this story the letters that passed between Alice Ann and these two young men shared so much news of life on the front and at home...

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 ...

The Magnolia Duchess by Beth White     Beth White brings us the the third installment to the Gulf Coast Chronicles with the sequel to The Creole Princess. Returning to Mobile Point in the summer of 1814 we find the British preparing to invade the colonies. We are introduced to a new heroine Fiona Lanier who is the daughter of Simon and Daisy Lanier. Being the only girl in her family of boys, she has been able to do whatever she wanted in life. When one day on a ride along the beach she finds a British soldier that has been washed up on the sand. Upon recognizing the soldier as a young man she had met years before in England. Taking a big risk Fiona brings the young man back to her home and nurses him back to health. After losing his memory in a shipwreck, Charlie Kincaid woke up to see the face of an angel caring for his wounds.  During his time of healing, Charlie falls more in love with Fiona and gets to know her family as the time passes...

A Sweet Misfortune  by Maggie Brendan The second book in the Virtues and Vices of the Old West takes a step into the world of dancehall girls. Rachael Matthews is homeless and alone, with no where to go she turns to the world of dancehalls to support herself. When he brother finds out she has become a dancehall girl, he sends a concerned letter to his best friend with a plea for his best friend to rescue his sister from the life she has turned too.  Cattle Baron John McIntyre is focused on acquiring as much land as he can to build his ranch as the best in Montana. The las thing on his mind is dealing with his best friends kid sister who has turned to the profession of  being a dancehall girl. But his devotion to his best friend urges him to go and play the prince on horseback.  Stubborn Racheal sees John as someone who is trying to stop her from earning a living, until he tells her that he holds  the deed to her parents land. Determined to get t...