Book Review - The Secret to Happiness

Suzanne Woods Fisher’s follow up to The Sweet Life brings the Dixon ladies back together, as the Main Street Creamery struggles to get through the winter off-season, Dawn and Kevin struggle to move forward with their wedding, and Dawn’s cousin Callie struggles with the weight of the world and the death of her dream career. Fisher also brings back my absolute favorite character, Cowboy Leo, whose spunk and zest for both ice cream and life inspire me (and Callie!) The Secret to Happiness wrestles with some big issues, like the value of relentlessly pursuing your goals versus taking time to find and embrace the good things in each day, the despair of losing your life’s work and therefore struggling to find identity outside of that role, and gut wrenching anxiety of fear over chronic disease. But the beauty is in finding identity when all else has been stripped away and finding the small but mighty holy moments.

 

Fisher has a talent for artfully tugging at the heartstrings, and The Secret to Happiness is another shining example of her skill. Even in places where the plot went just where I hoped it would go, the writing took it yet another level deeper. Sitting in my hammock on a warm spring day, wishing for one of those delightful fancy pops, and reading this delightful addition to the Cape Cod Creamery series, left me wishing I had thought to bring a tissue for those beautiful a-ha moments. And the teaser at the back for yet another addition to the series had me just a wee bit teary eyed for joy!

The Secret to Happiness, Cape Cod Creamery book 2, by Suzanne Woods Fisher 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 - Blind Trust

As the third book in the SNAP Agency series by Natalie Walters, Blind Trust deals with characters we already know and care for from previous novels. Lyla Fox and Nicolás Garcia are no strangers to us or to each other, after years of working together through intense situations. The SNAP Agency team works together elegantly, almost seamlessly, except that Lyla takes risks with her life Nic would rather not take. Apparently he values her more than she values herself. When a case puts Lyla in the crosshairs, the hardest part of keeping her alive just might be getting her to accept that her life is worth more than the truth. And she means more to the team than she realizes.

Walters has a way with conspiracy. And intrigue. And danger and romance. Blind Trust is a showcase of that talent. This book goes fast and would be a quick and easy read if it didn’t require some serious mental sorting through the murky waters of money laundering and secret government arms deals. I love the way she writes the relationship between Lyla and Nic, too. It moves at a believable pace, with the kind of interactions that show the depth of their connection. As with the rest of the SNAP Agency series, Walters delivers a novel worth cozying up and enjoying.

Blind Trust, SNAP Agency series book 3, by Natalie Walters 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 - After The Shadows

After leaving her family and friends behind to begin life at Mrs. Leland, Emily returns home to Sweetwater Crossing and finds it is too late to say goodbye to her dear mother. Furthermore, her sister Louisa’s demeanor is puzzling; they were once such good friends, but Louisa’s attitude now borders on hostility. As pieces begin falling into place, Emily realizes her husband’s abuse extended even beyond what she received directly, and she must now work to repair the relationships that are left. One thing marriage to George Leland taught her is that men lie to conceal their true intentions, and now that she has been released from that bondage by his death, she will never allow herself to be in that position again. When Emily’s father, Reverend Vaughn, is found hanging in the barn, Emily knows appearances are not always what they seem. There is no way her father committed suicide and she cannot rest until his killer is found.

Emily is a Vaughn through and through, and the way she cares for her neighbors reflects the values her parents modeled as she grew up in Sweetwater Crossing. Upon seeing the need of neighbors in distress, Emily opens the now empty family home to boarders, one of whom is the handsome new schoolmaster. A handsome new schoolmaster with an adorable little boy and the emotional scars that come from losing his beloved wife in a tragic accident. But working alongside Emily opens doors Craig never imagined his grief would allow opened, and there just might be a future for them after all.

I love good historical fiction with a well balanced romance element and a bit of intrigue. What After The Shadows delivers that I particularly enjoyed was the emphasis on the value of friendships. The four widows of Sweetwater Crossing treasure their friendship and encourage Emily to cultivate those relationships. After The Shadows is a well rounded read, the sequel to which I eagerly anticipate.

After The Shadows, Sweetwater Crossing #1, by Amanda Cabot 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 - 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.