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 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 - He Should Have Told The Bees

Love and identity are timeless themes, expressed in every story in some way or another, it seems. Amanda Cox breaks these down in a tale of two women in He Should Have Told The Bees. Beckett Walsh’s father made a comfortable world for his beloved daughter on the farm they shared alone after her mother left them. She was his apprentice and was happy to carry on in his shadow until his death ripped away the security she relied on even more than she had known. Callie Peterson had no such stability in a world without a father and with a mother whose addictions stole any illusion of security. She should have been through living with the weight of her mother’s continued rejection and chaos, but the boundaries she so carefully constructed are torn down again by her mother’s pleas for help. There is no reason why Beckett or Callie should know about the other’s existence, until George Walsh’s trust divides his estate in half between them. Where each woman has struggled for a lifetime to understand who they are and why they weren’t enough for their parents to stay, this pivotal point begins a new search for understanding neither ever expected.

He Should Have Told The Bees is both heart wrenching and soul stirring, as Cox explores issues we all wrestle with, and does it in a manner that has the reader invested from the first appearance of a spunky alien waif in the Walsh Farms apiary. I have to confess that I was listening to an audiobook in which a spunky alien waif pops up in the path of an unsuspecting young woman, so I had to put He Should Have Told The Bees down for a time in order to keep the storylines from getting jumbled together. I was a bit trepidatious, then, when I resumed this book and hoped it wouldn’t be just another iteration of a storyline I had so recently explored. I worried this one might not hold its own against such a similar cast of characters. There was absolutely no cause for concern. He Should Have Told The Bees is its own story, with its own characters, and there is no confusing the two once those relationships between reader and subjects have been forged. And frankly, Katya Amadeus Cimmaron of the Vesper Galaxy is the kind of lovable, spunky alien waif you just want to scoop up and feed cupcakes. With galaxy frosting. And star sprinkles.

Without a doubt, Amanda Cox’s latest release, He Should Have Told The Bees, is a bit of a tear jerker, a bit of an emotional struggle, and a triumph.

He Should Have Told The Bees by Amanda Cox 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.