Book Review - Heart of the Glen

Heart of the Glen will capture your heart and sweep you away to Donegal, where the sheep  graze contentedly under the watch of their shepherd and give wool to make the stellar tweed only Owen McCready can weave. The struggles facing the McCready family seem to stack like peat for the fire, stoking frustration in Owen as he endeavors to carry the load on his own, until the situation becomes one where he must swallow his pride and allow help from outside. Saoirse Fagan knows about needing help; it is the reason she is in the McCready barn. And she knows about carrying the load, as she has been doing that on her own for a good long time now, but it just might be that Saoirse can help Owen carry his while while lightening her own for a bit.

Jennifer Deibel uses the Old Testament story of Gideon to remind us that God is in the details, even when we cannot see Him. Her descriptions of the place and the people draw the reader in, making it all feel so very real and leading us to friendship with the characters and investing us in their health and well-being. Saoirse, Owen, and Aileen quickly become family to us, so that we weep with them in their trials and cheer for them in their joys. Grab a cuppa and a cozy blanket, bonus points if it is tartan, and sweep yourself off to the heart of the glen!

Heart of the Glen by Jennifer Deibel is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

Baker Book House    Christian Book    Amazon    Barnes & Noble    Walmart

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:

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 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 - A Dance in Donegal

A Dance in Donegal caught my eye as soon as it was released and I knew I wanted to read it. Somehow, it hadn’t surfaced on my TBR until after I read Jennifer Deibel’s second release, The Lady of Galway Manor. All of a sudden, my TBR adjusted to bring A Dance in Donegal to the top!

Feeling lost after her mother’s death, Moira Doherty must decide if she will proceed with her plan to cross the ocean and become teacher for the schoolchildren of the Irish village her mother loved and left for America. When urgent dreams of her mother calling for help begin to plague her sleep, Moira finally decides she must take on this task that seems too big for her. With no knowledge of the Gaelic language predominant in Donegal or the way of life in Ballymann, she ventures forward to meet an interesting cast of characters who pull us into their lives and others determined to push her out of theirs. Deibel pens a novel of trials and triumphs that speaks to heart in A Dance in Donegal.

A Dance in Donegal by Jennifer Deibel is available from your favorite local bookseller or online:

Baker Bookhouse        Christian Book        Barnes & Noble        Amazon

Thank you to my husband, who doesn’t roll his eyes when I order yet another book or when book mail arrives and I squeal like a giddy schoolgirl! All opinions expressed here are my own (I’m full of them) and are completely genuine (because that’s how I roll.)

Book Review - The Lady of Galway Manor

“Hate is fueled by ignorance, son. The first step toward peace is the genuine desire to understand your so-called enemy.”

Seamus Jennings has lived long enough and endured enough to either harden his heart completely or teach him to see beneath the surface of things. Thankfully, he is the latter: an auld man with a keen eye for beauty, a mind that seeks truth beyond what is immediately noticeable, and a heart of gold even more pure than what he and his son use to craft the beloved Claddagh rings of their ancestors. It is Seamus who sees the wisdom of allowing the new landlord’s daughter to apprentice in the jewelry shop he shares with his son. It Seamus who sees that opening Annabeth’s eyes to the beauty beyond the poverty and hard edges of Galway’s residents will help her see their humanity, pride, and great worth. And dear Seamus also sees that Annabeth, though the very embodiment of their perceived enemy, has the opportunity to open and help heal his son Stephen’s wounded soul.

Stephen’s heart has endured more than enough sorrow to harden his heart toward the entire myth of love and the British people who represent the barrier to Ireland’s independence, as well as the murderers of his beloved brother. His pain has festered to bitterness with his situation in the family jewelry shop and the added fact that his father has allowed the British landlord’s daughter to apprentice with them. The face of all things wrong in his world, Lady Annabeth De Lacey is the cross he must bear in order to set things neatly for his intended path into a new future.

Anna does not mind her family’s relocation to Galway or the removal from court life that comes with it. Ireland is beautiful and the opportunity to find her creative expression in the Jennings family’s jewelry shop is a thrill she had not expected. And if she has to cast aside her heavy beaded dresses and intricate skirts in favor of pants for the sake of that art, then so be it. She has much to learn about the process of making the beautiful pieces that stock the shop, and more to learn about the people of Ireland, their culture, and their struggles. Seamus knows that Anna has an opportunity to bridge the gap between the two sides wrapped up in the bitterness of Ireland’s struggle to be free from Britain. It just may be that she also has an opportunity to chase away the fog of bitterness that has held Stephen for years.

Y’all, I cannot get enough of this book! I devoured the NetGalley and promptly threw down my money to purchase a physical copy. Jennifer Deibel has written an excellent story filled with culture and characters that got into my heart and quotes that made me stop frequently to ponder their weight. It would be easy to read The Lady of Galway Manor as a light read, but it would be a mistake to overlook the deeper beauty of this novel.

The Lady of Galway Manor by Jennifer Deibel 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.