Book Review - What in the World?!

If you are not yet familiar with Leanne Morgan, scurry your precious little thumbs over to any social media platform and watch her. But definitely do it on a thoroughly empty bladder and take off your mascara, because it will be streaking across your darling little face, anyway. Also, I recommend watching in the privacy of your own home, because people tend to look at you askance when you snort laugh in public. Or do it in public because you are middle aged and have figured out God and your husband are the only ones whose judgement matters. That is just how I roll.

Now, I could have suggested you go straight into the book, but I cannot even imagine tackling it without having her Appalachian drawl in my head the whole time. I have read this book cover to cover and, so help me, I will snatch up the audiobook like a deviant possum if she narrates it. (The deviant possum is a real story from my own life. You can ask my momma.) I have no love for memoirs, but Leanne tells her life story with her signature wit, from growing up with her loving and hardworking family in small town East Tennessee to the less than stellar decisions of young adulthood. We tromp alongside as she says yes to Chuck, bless him, and raises their three children while trying to find herself. And giving God the glory. Plan ahead and bring the tissues, because I snort laughed and ugly cried all the way from cover to cover. I personally recommend reading this one with your book club. That way you can snort laugh and ugly cry all over again when you discuss it with your people.

What in the World?! by Leanne Morgan releases September 24, but go ahead and preorder it now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

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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 - Just for the Summer

There are some authors I trust to deliver exactly what I expect when I pick up their books. For example, let’s say I am seeking a novel with a character who is at a crossroads in life, experiences an unexpected event that offers self exploration and understanding, meets a man who challenges and encourages her, and we have a happy ending. That’s when I pick up Melody Carlson. It is the kind of predicability I can rely on when the real world begs an escape, but don’t think that makes her predictable. The craftsmanship that delivers this comfort while creating completely different novels every time is worthy of great respect. On that note, I offer you my take on her latest, Just for the Summer.

Ginny Masters has worked her way up from the bottom to become manager of a posh boutique hotel in Seattle, but her life is not the glitz and glam it seems on the surface. Jaqueline Potter longs for glitz and glam, but instead manages her grandfather’s Idaho fishing lodge. Seeking a change of pace, both sign up to participate in a job swap. Just for the summer. But with the job swap comes a bit of a life swap. Jaqueline finds that the posh hotel daytime only scratches the surface of reality, and Ginny finds that the simple life just might be the life for her. At a crossroads, each has to make a serious decision about what happens in their lives at the end of the swap. With her trademark skill, Carlson delivers relatable characters and a satisfying storyline that will keep you reading.

Just for the Summer by Melody Carlson is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

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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 Lady with the Dark Hair

Art and family history come together in The Lady with the Dark Hair, an exploration of the her-story of said lady and its impact on a modern day art history major with a passion for a specific painter. Esther Markstrom is a descendant of Francisco Vella, curator of the museum which houses a collection of his paintings, and caretaker of her mentally ill mother. All of these components of her identity also carry the heavy burden of responsibility. The most prized Vella painting does not reside in the museum, however, but in her family home. Never seen by anyone other than Esther and her mother, never questioned beyond her mild curiosity about the identity of The Lady with the Dark Hair, never challenged. Then Esther invites her former professor to visit La Dama del Cabello Oscuro, kicking off a chain of events she could not have predicted for her mundane life. Events that not only shake up everything anyone knows about Francisco Vella, but also everything Esther has ever known about herself.

Told in dual time fashion, The Lady with the Dark Hair delivers the stories of Esther and La Dama. Their own relationships with Vella are brought to light, as history opens itself to explore the struggles and expectations of women in the late 19th century and its parallels with those Esther faces in her own experiences. Characters in both eras leap from the page as the author has painted her story so vividly that its pull is inescapable.

The Lady with the Dark Hair by Erin Bartels is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

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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 - Never Fall Again

If you have not fallen in love with Lynn H. Blackburn’s novels yet, this is your invitation to pick up Never Fall Again and get swept into Gossamer Falls. Landry Hutton has done everything to protect her daughter, Eliza. Tucked safely into The Haven, Landry is artist in residence for the luxury resort and only has to interact with the guests who also revel in gated seclusion. Now that she has saved enough money and has a secure location on which to do it, Landry is ready to work with contractor Callum Shaw to build a home of her own. That is, until things start happening to shake the illusion of safety.

Blackburn’s town of Gossamer Falls and the people who live there will have you feeling like a resident in no time. The tight knit Shaws and Quinns will have you pulling up a chair at family dinner, rooting for your new friends, and mentally petting Maisy’s beautiful golden head when the tension is astronomical. But hold on to your hard hat, because Blackburn does not skimp on the action!

Never Fall Again by Lynn H. Blackburn, the first novel in her new Gossamer Falls series, is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

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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 Ark and the Dove

We know a bit about Noah and the flood. Not a lot, but this is clearly a story God wants His children to know. That is why He inspired man to include it in the Bible. Jill Eileen Smith takes this bit of knowledge and combines it with thorough research to give us this fictional account of what life may have been like for Noah and his family as they prepared for, endured, and thrived after life on the ark. We see the experience through the eyes of Emzara, wife of Noah. Zara must find wives for her sons and guide these young women as they support their husbands through the years of ridicule from neighbors, tense months of caring for the animals as they are all penned in on the ark, and the process of repopulating the earth once the waters have receded. These are all elements we rarely stop to consider, and yet they are worth pondering. Smith has developed each character carefully in line with the narrative of the Bible, even following through to the dispersal of the sons through the Tower of Babel and on through history. The Ark and the Dove spans a great era of biblical history with great insight and attention to detail.

The Ark and the Dove by Jill Eileen Smith is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

Baker Book House           Christian Book           Amazon           Walmart           Barnes & Noble

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 - Darkness Calls The Tiger

Darkness calls the tiger. The Sharaw stalks his enemies from the jungle, trapped in the role of man-tiger for the sake of his home. Nobody would believe the formidable foe of the Japanese army in their conquest of Burma comes in the form of a boy, malnourished and fueled by vengeance. Certainly, nobody would believe that boy is actually an American missionary’s daughter. What the invaders would do to Sharaw upon capture pales in comparison to what they would do to Kailyn Moran if she is caught. But the battle raging through the only home Kai knows is nothing compared to the one within her: how can one trust in the supreme God when He allows such horrible things to happen?

And how can one love when the result is pain?

Janyre Tromp wrestles with these very difficult topics in her latest release, Darkness Calls The Tiger. While many of us are unfamiliar with the China-Burma-India theater of WW2, she brings us into the fray with great care and skill, introducing us to characters who represent the natives and those who ministered to them. With careful crafting, we are absorbed into the jungle with Kai and Ryan, the hunters and the hunted battling the elements as much as their human foe. It is the strife within that shreds our hearts and struggles to reassemble them, and Tromp handles this with the dignity and respect it deserves.

Darkness Calls The Tiger by Janyre Tromp will be released May 14, 20204 and is currently available for preorder from your favorite local bookseller or online:

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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 Irish Matchmaker

An unmatched matchmaker and a farmer who does not want a match create quite the pair as the Lisdoonvarna matchmaking festival turns the Irish town and its residents on their ears. Catriona Daly and her father come from a long line of Irish matchmakers and it seems as though Caty is going to have her hands full making another match for a certain gentleman after the last one made for him did not stick. Caty would not mind being his match, but she also has a job to do. What Caty does not want is to be stuck in Lisdoonvarna for the rest of her life, and certainly not married to a farmer. Donal Bunratty has been married, but raising wee Sara and managing the farm since his wife passed has not left him inspired to seek another partner.

In her new release, Jennifer Deibel drops us right into the heart of the merriment. Her settings are lively and full of character. Her characters draw us in and bring us alongside them in the daily routines of life on the farm and in the town. We are partnered with them as residents and visitors alike search for a partner in life and, possibly, in love. Caty may be the matchmaker, but is she prepared for the match that finds her?

The Irish Matchmaker by Jennifer Deibel is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

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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 - Embers in the London Sky

The latest release from Sarah Sundin is a gift to this generation of readers, as if the embers of the Second Great Fire of London singed onto the pages an homage to the refugees who flocked to her and those who toiled to care for them. We who are now generations removed from that war only know of the everyday greatness of these people by way of the stories left behind and the works of fiction taken from those stories, wrapped in a tidy bow, and offered up to us by authors who strive to honor them. Sundin takes the plight of the refugee and entwines it with the struggle of news correspondents who must find a way to report on reality without giving information to the enemy or damaging the morale of the citizens. Together those storylines converge to give us Embers in the London Sky.

Sundin is a thoroughly immersive storyteller. In a way that does not beleaguer the storyline, the setting comes alive around the reader. Engaging characters beckon the reader to bond, and it feels as though one is sitting around the table at the Hart and Swan with Aleida, Hugh, Lou, Jouveau, and a host of other corespondents from various countries. It does not take much to become enmeshed in Aleida’s search for her missing son and Hugh’s for his uncle’s murderer, or in the flame of attraction between the two. Embers in the London Sky is a full novel with fully developed players and storylines, but it will be a quick read when you realize you simply cannot walk away until the thoroughly satisfying conclusion.

Embers in the London Sky by Sarah Sundin is available from your favorite local bookseller or online:

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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 - Fatal Witness

Well, I don’t know how I missed the inaugural release of the latest series from Patricia Bradley, but somehow Counter Attack got right by me. This means I started her Pearl River series with Fatal Witness, which just released. It was written so that I do not feel like I missed anything by starting with the second book, but also so I am inspired to read Counter Attack next!

Artist Dani Collins remembers nothing about the early years of her life. She does not remember the parents who died when she was young, only growing up with Uncle Keith and always staying under the radar. But Dani has a grandmother who has not given up trying to find her, and a photo that was not supposed to be published is just the thing Mae Richmond needs to put her on the right track. Unfortunately, it is also the clue the killer needs to find Dani and Uncle Keith. Coming home means walking right into the line of fire and the protection of Mae’s neighbor, Russell County K-9 officer Mark Lassiter. Together, Dani and Mark race to unveil her memories and unravel the mystery before it is too late.

Bradley combines her trademark procedural precision with a hefty dose of romantic tension and an undeniable faith thread to bring this story of artist Dani Collins to life. The frustration of not being quite able to tickle the identity of the man who murdered her parents from her repressed memories, and of barely staying one step ahead of him as he seeks to silence her, keeps the reader engaged from the first word to the last. With a beautiful setting and well crafted support characters, Bradley had given us the gift of binge-worthy romantic suspense.

Fatal Witness, the second book in the Pearl River series by Patricia Bradley, is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

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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 Divine Proverb of Streusel

Sara Brunsvold comes off a glorious debut and delivers complex layers of family, friends and self discovery. The Divine Proverb of Streusel brings us Nikki Werner, still reeling from her dad’s departure from the family and in a tailspin from recent events. Seeking solace, Nikki finds herself on her uncle’s doorstep, hoping a message from her past will give clarity for her future. Through the process of renovating the family’s farmhouse with her uncle, Nikki begins to understand the family she had little opportunity to know. Community members share stories as they share meals made from long lost family recipes, revealing parts of her family history and encouraging her to face what she thought she knew about her relationships.

Brunsvold pulls from her own family’s story to bring characters that feel like your neighbors and a community that feels like home. The journal written by Nikki’s great-grandmother includes wisdom as well as recipes lost in time. Recipes that warm the heart and stir the spirit, bringing family and friends together, opening Nikki’s heart along with her hands.

The Divine Proverb of Streusel by Sara Brunsvold is available now from your favorite local bookseller

or online:

Baker Book House        Christian Book        Amazon        Walmart            Barnes & Noble

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 Seamstress of Acadie

For those who revel in Longfellow’s Evangeline, Laura Frantz has delivered a sumptuous novel length romance set in the time of Le Grand Derangement and the turmoil of that event through the eyes of a young Acadian woman and a New England Ranger caught up in the madness of this mass deportation. With beautifully written prose, Frantz creates ties to the Galant home and surrounding lands which bonds the reader to Acadie and incites the proper heartache as Sophie’s family is rounded up among thousands of other Neutrals amidst the troubles between the French and British who covet their land. This is a book that will keep you flipping to the internet to refresh your history in a new light, personalizing the struggles that continued beyond being crammed into the dank, dark, unsanitary holds of ships with uncertain destinations and arriving to the consternation of locals who distrust and despise them based on their language. The character of William is crafted with great care, balancing the determination of a man set to avenge the brutal massacre of his family with that of one who is awakened and determined to make progress for the Acadians. Even the background characters, people and places alike, develop as driving forces in this deeply moving historical tale of home lost and found.

The Seamstress of Acadie by Laura Frantz is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

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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 - Double Take

Lynette Eason kicks off her Lake City Heroes series with the tense and twisty Double Take, which released January 9 from Revell. Lainie’s fiancé died the night she had to defend herself against his attempt to murder her. After a year and a half of working through the physical and mental fallout, she’s doing pretty well. At least, she was doing alright until the dead man made another attempt on her life. When James, brother of her good friend and also her secret childhood crush, lands in her hospital for care after getting shot on the job, Lainie has to admit it wouldn’t hurt to have him on her side as someone who looks just like her dead fiancé is targeting her. Together, Lainie and James work to unravel the mysterious stalker’s plan and to help mend the damaged relationships in James’s family. Eason writes all of this with great skill, drawing the reader in for the duration and creating characters you’re sure to respond to strongly, for better or for worse.

Double Take, book 1 of the Lake City Heroes series by Lynette Eason, is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

Baker Book House     Christian Book     Amazon            Walmart            Barnes & Noble

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.