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...

    The Prince and The Prodigal by Jill Eileen Smith   This is a retelling of the biblical story of Joseph alongside the story of his eldest brother Judah.  We find Joseph being trained to take over as the heir to his fathers flocks. Which causes much strife between Joseph and his elder brothers  to the point of causing grief for their elderly father. Joseph finds himself in a very foreign land as an servant to powerful man. While back with his family, eldest brother Judah is struggling with the guilt that came with selling his younger brother to slave traders. Weighed down with seeing his father grieving for his beloved son, Judah chooses to move away and settle in a different land. Each of the brothers are taken on very much different journeys that leads them down a path that intersect later in life. Jill Eileen Smith takes a well known bible story and gives us a deeper insight to it. She helps us to see deeper into the relationship between Joseph and his elde...

Sunrise By Susan May Warren We return to Alaska in the newest series by Susan May Warren;  where we meet one of the three  Kingston brothers, Dodge.  His fathers recent accident has brought Dodge back home to give his dad a hand with the family business. His return back to Sky King Ranch brings back many memories, good and bad. Echo Yazzie is a true Alaskan, raised by a father who made sure she knew how to live off the land. The love of her life walked out of her life several years ago, so Echo chose to  dedicate her life to being a research guide.  Coming back home has not t been easy for Dodge, the memories from his past are still fresh in his mind. When he sees Echo for the first time, his feelings for her return full force. Dodge does not fully approve of Echo's choice of work. But when  one of Echo's fellow researchers goes missing, Echo is   determined to find her. Dodge longs to protect Echo from the dangers that are in the Alaskan wildern...

Never Leave Me By Jody Hedlund We return to the Waters of Times series and find Harrison Burlington caring for the dying Ellen Creighton. While Ellen has accepted that she is dying, she is still struggling with the deaths of her sister and father who have been taken by the quest for the healing waters. Harrison has kept hidden his true feelings for Ellen; so he desperately continues the search for the Holy Water to save his one true love. . But when he finds 2 more vials, Ellen is still not convinced that they actually contain the Holy Water. Harrison makes a decision to demonstrate his everlasting love by drinking one of the vials. When she witnesses the healing properties of the Holy Water, Ellen is unable to  deny the truth in front of her.  But there some dangerous criminals that will do anything to get their hands on a vial of Holy Water. Harrison and Ellen soon learn they will do anything, even sending Ellen back to the past to get more of the Holy Water for them.  ...

Standoff By Patricia Bradley In the newest book by Patricia Bradley, she takes us to the Natchez Trace and we meet the Park Rangers that serve that area. Brooke Danvers is getting ready to change positions and join her father as a Park Ranger. Before she can be sworn in her father is found dead and his death is ruled a suicide.  Determined to find out who killed her father, Brooke starts investigating on her own with the assistance of her childhood friend Luke Fereday. Luke has been working as an undercover park ranger, trying to infiltrate a drug origination to stop the flow of drugs into the area. When he gets a phone call from Brookes dad informing him of a drug drop. But he arrives on the scene to late to help his old friend, determined to figure out who killed Brooke's dad.  When Luke realizes that Brooke has now became the target of the person who killed her father, he has to do the r...

                  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...

Thief of Corinth by Tessa Afshar In the newest novel about the Biblical time period by Tessa Afshar that is based in the city of Corinth. We are introduced to a young woman Ariadne who chooses to run away,  when she finds out she is going to be forced to marry a very mean man.  She finds safety in the home of her estranged father in the bustling rich trade  city of Corinth. Longing for a close relationship with Galenos, she stumbles on a very dark secret that had destroyed her father's marriage. Galenos is a Greek of high birth but he is also the infamous thief who has been robbing from the corrupt of the city.  When her fathers life is in danger,  Ariadne chooses to risk everything she has longed for to become Galenos apprentice. Blessed with a very unusual talent of athletic ability, she uses this to continue her fathers exploits leading her deeper into dangerous territ...

Bread of Angels  by Tessa Afshar There is a brief passage in the Bible about Lydia the seller of purple, so I jumped at the chance to review this book. Also, I have read another book by Tessa Afshar and I loved it. She does a wonderful job of writing about biblical stories and brings them to life in her books. Her newest novel takes place during the time of Paul's travels through Roman empire. We find Lydia learning the trade of making purple dye from her father.  Her life is filled with spending her days with her father making the dye that provides for their needs. One  day her father has an accident causing him to be unable to perform his job, Lydia takes over the everyday duties of making the dye. The young man that rescued her dad makes an offer to both of them seems too good to be true. As time passes by,  Lydia's life is overturned by false accusations against her father, Running from the disgrace, she finds a home in Phillippi. Doing t...

Home on the Range by Ruth Logan Herne The second book in the Double S Ranch series brings us back to Gray's Glen, Washington. We find the town still trying to rebuild after the disaster that has struck them. At the same time the Stafford brother Nick, has put his whole focus on working his family ranch and is now struggling to raise his daughters on his own. Ruth has done it again and written a story that pulls you in to the book. The little girls struggling with the issue of not having a mother in the picture, then all of sudden she reappears in their life. This story deals with a issue that is not touched very often in fiction. The struggle of a doting father trying to make the right decisions for his daughters without causing them more pain in the long run. Also the pain of having a parent that leaves and then chooses to reinsert themselves in their child lives for alternative reasons. I loved the way she created her characters to each have their own uniqueness a...

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...

A Powerful Secret by Dr Kevin Leman and Jeff Nesbit As the middle child Sean Worthington has fought to find favor in his father's eyes all of his life. When his older brother su suddenly abandons the Senate race without a warning, Sean is faced with alot of questions with no answers to them. When things seem to be bad it turns worse for Sean, a powerful secret is revealed bringing everything crashing down around him. Not knowing where to turn, Sean does the only thing familiar to him; he goes off the grid.  When the Worthington family can not get a hold of Sean for a few days, they start getting concerned. As news comes to light that a man has jumped off  of a local bridge and the description matches Sean. As the days pass the family is filled with sorrow at the loss of a family member, until hope comes in the form of a pair of sneakers.  Will Sean find his way back into the fold and will the family be able to find closure for the pain in their ...