Beloved Hope by Tracie Peterson - A Book Review

     

     This is the second book in Peterson’s Heart of the Frontier series. Book one, Treasured Grace focused on the eldest of the Flanigan sisters, while Beloved Hope focuses on the middle sister. Set in the area of Oregon City in the mid-1800s, this second installment largely revolves around the trial of five Cayuse men being tried for the atrocities of the Whitman Mission Massacre. Many townspeople and survivors of the massacre feared the men, including the one who repeatedly abused Hope Flanigan, would not be put to death in an effort to appease the local tribes and thus ward off future attacks. Hope was counting on their death to ease her fears, fears that had taken over her life, but would it?

     Hope, convinced her ordeal had ruined her for any decent man, had put aside any idea of falling and love and marrying. Lieutenant Lance Kenner, tasked with guarding the Cayuse waiting to stand trial, was fighting his own demons, filled with resentment toward the man he held responsible for both of his older brothers’ deaths. Now, ready to return from Oregon City to his plantation in New Orleans, he was not interested in forming any romantic alliances. Yet, Hope and Lance feel drawn to one another. Is there any chance for them, or will bitterness darken any hopes of happiness for either of them?

     I am anxiously awaiting the third book in this series, to learn of the important life decisions made by the youngest Flanigan sister as she considers a path just opening up to women, a college education, I highly recommend Beloved Hope, and Treasured Grace for fans of historical and romance fiction. Both readers of secular and Christian fiction will find this series appealing. While there is enough information provided to make this book comprehensible as a stand-alone read, much of the emotion will be lost by not reading the series in order.

     I thank Bethany House Publishers and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of Beloved Hope in exchange for my honest review. I received no monetary compensation for providing the review.   

Over Maya Dead Body by Sandra Orchard - A Book Review

     What cozy mystery would be without its eccentric, little old lady, amateur sleuth? The Serena Jones mystery series has its in the form of Aunt Martha, Serena’s aunt. While Serena is an FBI special agent in the art crimes division, her aunt becomes actively involved in all of her cases. Not only is she involved in solving crime, she is actively involved as Serena’s matchmaker as well. In this third installment of the Serena Jones series, Serena is once again torn between putting aside romantic ideas and her interest in both her partner, Tanner, and her apartment superintendent, Nate, who has many and varied talents. I must admit to mentally yelling at her about halfway through this book, “Just choose already!”

     Serena had thought that a short vacation at Martha’s Vineyard with her aunt and parents would be a relaxing time away. When no one showed up to pick them up from the Ferry’s dock, the family took a taxi to the home of Serena’s father’s best friend whose engagement party they had come to attend only to find that he had died in a suspicious fall. Was it an accident? Was it related to a call he had placed to the FBI over antiquities smuggling, or was it related to the changes he was making to his will? Serena dove into solving the mystery as a way of dealing with her grief. Through unexpected circumstances, both Tanner and Nate ended up joining Serena and her investigation, both vying for her attention when she most needed to focus on the case at hand, and then there is always the “helpful” Aunt Martha.

     If you are looking for a lighthearted summer read, you have found your book! Over Maya Dead Body is a great travel read. I finished it at home in two days. I thank NetGalley and Revell Publishing for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. I received no monetary compensation. 

My Heart Belongs on Mackinac Island by Carrie Fancett Pagels - A Book Review

 

     This is the first book I’ve read by Carrie Fancett Pagels, but it definitely will not be the last. I thoroughly enjoyed the story of Maude Welling and Friedrich König set on Mackinac Island in the late 1800s. I look forward to one day visiting the Grand Hotel, and I feel sure these characters will be with me as I explore the resort and the island. I respect both Maude’s and Friedrich’s integrity, and the drive to be both true to themselves and true to their Lord, not allowing the desires for success in their careers to sidetrack them, well at least not for long. This is a lesson that is timeless.

     Chivalry certainly lived in the character of Friedrich König, always putting the safety and best interest of others before his own, even risking exposure of his working under a pseudonym, exposure that could cost him his job.  Maude’s character exemplified grace born out of a relationship with her Savior and from her great ability to empathize, an ability that grew as she worked to prove herself while serving incognito at the Grand Hotel. Will these two strong people be able to get past their misunderstandings and find common ground that will make them a couple? Well, we all know how these kinds of stories work out, don’t we, but you will have to read for yourself to discover the path these two follow.

     As I read My Heart Belongs on Mackinac Island, the thought occurred to me several times that fans of Lorna Seilstad’s The Gregory Sisters series, would love this book as well. Each is a book with a strong female character that is at peace with her strengths and abilities, and who also understands that God’s role for women is not to be confused with keeping women in their place. I thank NetGalley and Barbour Publishing for providing this book for my honest opinion. I received no monetary compensation for this review.       

Fatal Mistake by Susan Sleeman - A Book Review

      

     As always, Susan Sleeman keeps her readers in the palm of her hand as she moves them along through a story line filled with suspense. In Fatal Mistake we learn right away who is behind the terror plot; it is the motivation that is slowly revealed. As both main and secondary characters find themselves in extreme danger, readers may find themselves tensing up and holding their breath as tension mounts. There is a bit of romance in the book, but it definitely plays second to the suspense.

     The overarching theme of this book deals with taking on responsibility and guilt for things that are out of one’s control. Doing so not only robs one of joy, but will likely have a negative impact on the choices one makes. Readers see this play out in the lives of Tara Parrish and Cal Riggins. Tara accidentally stumbles upon the identity of a terrorist bomber, quickly becoming his target. For a while she alludes both him and her would-be protectors, a special FBI unit known as the White Knights. She does not want to be responsible for more lost lives. Cal, a member of the White Knights, is driven by his need to make things right by compensating for lives lost with more lives saved, hoping to quench the guilt that hounds him. As readers will anticipate it is between these two that the romantic tension exists, but will this tension lead to a fatal mistake?

     I thank NetGalley and Faith Words for providing a copy of Fatal Mistake in exchange for my honest review. I received no monetary compensation for providing this review. 

Freedom's Price by Christine Johnson - A Book Review

     I carried my Kindle around with me, room to room, in the car, almost everywhere I went, reading every spare minute, compelled to find out what was going to happen to Catherine Haynes as she traveled from England to Louisiana to meet the family who had disowned her mother following her marriage to an Englishman. An adult, but orphaned nonetheless, Miss Haynes seeks to reconnect with her mother’s family, only to find that her mother’s beloved plantation, Chêne Noir, has been left in the hands of an unscrupulous property manager. Will she have the strength of mind and body to reclaim her place within the family and her rights to her share of the plantation, or will she fall prey to the villainous DeMornay? The answer seems to lie within her budding relationship with a Key West sailor, Tom Worthington, but things are not always what they seem.

     The title of this book holds the key to its theme. I read this book following Memorial Day when our nation focuses on the price of freedom, and the heroes who pay that price. John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends,” tells us the price of freedom. Readers of Freedom’s Price will witness someone willing to pay that price. Who will it be?

    I recommend Freedom’s Price; it is even better than the previous books in this series, and I had given them quite positive reviews. I thank Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing a copy of Freedom’s Price in exchange for my honest opinion. I received no monetary compensation for writing this review.  

The Return by Suzanne Woods Fisher - A Book Review

   

     I first met Anna in Anna’s Crossing, a story of one of the first groups of Amish to leave Germany to settle in the New World. The Return is largely the story of Anna’s daughter, Tessa, although many others play major roles in the story’s development. The story is one of finding one’s self and one’s place in the world. Some discoveries are made quite by surprise, some grow out of tragedy, and some are slowly revealed. Not all those seeking to know themselves and the direction of their future are as young as you might anticipate.

     While this book, in my opinion, got off to a slow start, by the end of the book, I was lost in the story, unable to put it down. Fisher develops the characters in a way that causes her readers to care about what happens to them, both those they have a strong compassion for, and those they find a bit irritating. The scenario they find themselves in during the last third of the book compels the reader to read on to find out how things work out. For some the ending is tragic, while others discover possibilities that didn’t exist before.

     I would encourage readers of The Return to hang in there if they too feel like the book is a little slow at the beginning. It is well worth reading to the end. There is enjoyment to be had and lessons to be learned. I thank Revell publishing and the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance for providing this book in exchange for my honest opinion. I received no monetary compensation for providing a review of this book. 

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate - A Book Review

      

     No work of fiction has touched my heart as deeply as Before We Were Yours, not even The Memory Keeper’s Daughter or The Secret Life of Bees. I would definitely put this book in the league with those titles and To Kill A Mockingbird. That is high praise indeed in my book.

     About halfway through Before We Were Yours, I felt compelled to do a little online research of The Tennessee Children’s Home Society and Georgia Tann. How I had not heard of Tann and the Memphis branch of this society that operated from the 1920s through the 1950s, I cannot imagine. Tann arranged thousands of questionable adoptions. She and her network of informants tricked uneducated parents, poor parents, and single parents into surrendering their children, others were simply stolen off porches, on their way to school, and other places children might be found without adult supervision. In addition to the thousands that were adopted out, often to the crème of society, hundreds did not survive the life they were forced to live within the wall of homes run by Tann and the society. Most biological parents never knew what had happened to their children.

     While the sons and daughters of Queenie and Briny Foss were fictional characters. Their experience with the Tennessee Children’s Home Society mirrored those of real life victims. Wingate tells their story in such a way that the reader is fully engrossed and completely overwhelmed with the raw emotion evoked by the tale. I found myself praying for those real-life children and families who were victimized in this decades-long tragedy. While this book is no fluffy beach read, I would suggest that if you don’t read any other book this summer, read this one.

     I thank Ballantine Books a division of Random House and NetGalley for making this book available in exchange for my honest review. I received no monetary compensation for providing this review.