Book Review - Second Time Around

Melody Carlson opens her latest release with this declaration and backs it up by taking Mallory and the reader through a moving on process akin to shaking a snow globe and watching the delicate snowflakes settle into their perfect place. Sitting alone in her quiet house at the end of her daughter’s wedding day, Mallory realizes her children have moved on, her ex has long ago moved on, and she has been too busy to do the same. When an unexpected opportunity gives her the nudge she needs, Mallory embraces the chance to fulfill a dream and lands smack in the path of her very grown up childhood crush. Grayson Matthews never left Portside, Oregon and is determined to reignite the popularity of the sleepy tourist town. Working together for the sake of their town brings Mallory and Grayson together. Someone else is trying to keep them apart. But regardless of that outcome, it seems Mallory is finally moving on.

Melody Carlson writes the kind of fiction that is easy to read. While I enjoy rollicking action and adventure or the kind of historical piece that sends me off on my own research, there are also times I long for the comfort of a Melody novel. Second Time Around exquisitely balances the realism of everyday life with a feeling of remoteness from the same. It is, quite simply, the embodiment of romance.

Second Tome Around is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

Baker Book House            Christian Book        Barnes & Noble           Amazon

 

Thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me a copy to read and review. All opinions expressed here are my own and are completely genuine.

Book Review - Under Fire

Lynn H. Blackburn had already established her Defend and Protect series as action packed romantic suspense with a cast of characters who get right to your heart. The men and women of the Raleigh RAIC office of the U.S. Secret Service and their counterparts are fiercely loyal and staunch supporters of the people in their lives, and it is no challenge to feel like one of the team as you read. Under Fire picks up the story of our friends with Tessa Reed and Zane Thacker, coworkers who have the kind of friendship that is forged in the fire of addiction and recovery. As their fellow agents have found love, Tessa and Zane are nurturing a different kind of relationship and it is tried but not broken when Zane is moved to D.C. as part of the presidential protection detail. With the president scheduled to appear at an old friend’s home in Raleigh, Zane is back in town, and together they have to navigate the plethora of threats that emerge. The threat they were not prepared for is one specifically targeting Tessa. Now they have to reveal her greatest shame to the team in order to protect her life and neutralize the legitimate threats to both the president and one of their own.

This is a stellar addition to Blackburn’s catalogue.

Under Fire, Defend and Protect book 3, by Lynn H. Blackburn is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

Baker Book House           Christian Book          Barnes & Noble           Amazon 

Thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me a copy to read and review. All opinions expressed here are my own and are completely genuine.

Book Review - The Maid of Ballymacool

“So much death and pain, but mingled throughout a rich, lasting beauty. To try to remove one would destroy the other.“

There’s nothing more effective to sum up Jennifer Deibel’s most recent gift to us than this quote. Brianna Kelly toils perpetually under the relentless demands of the harsh headmistress of Ballymacool. An orphan, thankful for the roof over her head and never questioning her place in the world beyond the grueling demands heaped upon her, Brianna’s world is shaken by the arrival of Michael Wray. Michael’s ideas about a person’s value do not quite fit in with the attitudes of others in the ascendency class. What begins as simply doing the right thing and treating others with respect opens the door for him to see the beauty of Brianna’s character. But his convention-breaking ideals can’t change the fact that she is not of his class and is bound to live an untethered existence in the shadow of the great house.

Deibel’s exploration of identity extends far beyond the illogical romance between a man of means and a woman of none. Growing up without parents or any inkling where they came from and where they went has left Brianna wondering who she is for so long she no longer bothers. When she is brought face to face with the facts of her early life, and what it means for who she is and who she will become, the pain of knowing battles fiercely with the pain of not knowing. Only Brianna can decide what to do with that knowledge.

The Maid of Ballymacool by Jennifer Deibel is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

Baker Book House           Christian Book            Barnes & Noblle            Amazon

Thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me a copy to read and review. All opinions expressed here are my own and are completely genuine.

Book Review - Daughter of Eden

Daughter of Eden opens in a gloriously visceral manner, with the mists of the ground and the tickle of the river dancing upon the reader’s skin to transport us to that glorious garden and make it more real than I have ever experienced. Jill Eileen Smith writes to immerse us as completely as possible in the birthplace of God’s interaction with his creation. It is a gift to be savored sentence by sentence, sensation by sensation, and to really connect with the root of humanity. Smith slices into the Genesis we know and peels back a layer to reveal plausible insights into the lives and intentions of individuals I have never so thoroughly examined. The fall of man and inevitable change of relationships and personal perceptions are laid bare before the reader. I am sure it is possible to read Daughter of Eden as fiction and for enjoyment. However, I am not able to do that. Each section, sometimes just an individual sentence, needed to be mulled and savored before I could progress. It is worth every bit of the work of reading and rereading.

Daughter of Eden by Jill Eileen Smith is available now from your favorite local retailer or online:

Baker Book House        Christian Book            Barnes & Noble            Amazon

Thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me a copy to read and review. All opinions expressed here are my own and are completely genuine.