ALONG WOODED PATHS

by 

Tricia Goyer

A Big Sky Novel

Second in Series

ISBN: 9781433668692

Releases October 1, 2011

BH Publishing Group

My Thoughts:

As I began to read this book, I remembered I had the first in the series "Beside Still Water"  I didn't think this one was as good but it is an unedited edition and had a lot of mistakes.  But that is fine as I received the book from B and H Publishing for sending it to me to read and review.

As Marianna Sommer and her family was trying to get used to the move from Indiana to Montana.  She had left her love behind but as she started to return she decided she was not ready and turned around on the way and came back to her family.  She had meet some Englishers there that she really was interested in and really liked Ben, so she was torned between Ben and the Amish man Aaron she left behind.

She worked in a restaurant that was run by the English and she begin to notice the different in their beliefs in God and the Bible.  She could not understand why the English could pray out loud and do the things they did and she had to be so limited in the Amish faith.  If God loved the English in the same way then why would they not love the Amish in the same way.  So she begin to slip around and read an English Bible and to ask questions. 

A very good book as this is the first one that I have read where an Amish questioned the difference between the faiths as this family does.  Be sure to pre-order this one or pick it up as soon as you see it on the shelves.

 

THE FIRST GARDENER

by

Denise Hildreth Jones

Paperback: 432 pages

ISBN: 9781414335582
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, 

Releases August 2011

MY THOUGHTS:

This book is so interesting I hated to put it down.  It covers the loss of a child in a car accident and the miscarriage of 5 more children,  The Governor of Tennessee and his wife were having a time of trying to have a baby and then when at last they had a little girl she was the light of their lives and all the people that worked in the Governor's mansion, but Maddie their little daughter had just started school and been going for about three days when the accident happened that took her young life.  It had taken them ten years to get Maddie so she was so special as a child can only be.

Denise really brought everything to life in this book, there was the old gardener Jeremiah that had worked for a number of governors  as their gardener and he really liked this family.  Then Mackenzie the "First Lady" had her mother "Eugenia trying to tell everyone what to do alone with her old friends Dimples, Berlyn, and Sandra.  Now this was a group of older ladies that will make you laugh.

After Maddie was killed Eugenia and Gray London (the Governor) found themselves pregnant again but will she be able to carry this baby to full term?   She lost this one also when she was six months alone and it put her in such a state of depression she just wanted to die.  Everyone did everything they could to try to pull her out of it.  It is time for Gray to announce if he was going to run for another term as Governor but was they mentally able after this past year.

This book was really good and I will give it a 5 and I read a lot.  I just had to finish this one as I had it started before I had a cataract taken off my eye, it only stopped me from reading one night and then the other nights I could not read as long.

Thanks so much for Tyndale Publishing for sending me this book to enjoy and review.

RESTLESS IN CAROLINA

by

Tamara Leigh

ISBN: 9781601421685

Paperback, 342 pages

Multnomah Publishing

Bridget Pickwick-Buchanan runs a nursery and loves the outdoors.  She has been a widow for four years but just can't let her husband go, she still wears her wedding band.

But as the family estate is going to have to be sold as her uncle Obe is now the full owner of the Pickwick mansion and the lands around it.  But he has the early stages of dementia and wants to get the property sold and dived up to his neices before he can't remember at all anymore.  This property sits just outside Ashville, N.C. so she is really a tom boy from the south instead of a belle.

Bridget alone with Piper and her other cousins are in control of getting this done and the best price for the property.  Then alone comes two guys that both are interesting in buying it, there is the rich J.C. Dirk and Caleb Merriman.

Now there is the challenge of picking the person that will keep the property experimental safe, as the family is really into saving the planet.

I really enjoyed this book as Bridget is really a funny person but also I live in SC and have been to Ashville a number of times and also to the famous Biltmore House.

Thanks so much to Blogging for Books for sending me this copy of the  book to review.



 

THE MUIR HOUSE

by

Mary DeMuth

ISBN: 9780310330332

Paperback, 325 pages

Zondervan Publisher

My Thoughts:

Willa was going back home after quite a few years to help get the old funeral home that her Dad and Mom used to run into a bed and breakfast.  It belongs to her but she did not have a happy childhood growing up there.  It seemed to her as her Mom never loved her but she was a Daddy's girl.  There was part of her memory that she could not place so she though maybe by going back she could remember her four year old year.

She took a leave from her job and her current boyfriend that has just given her a ring and went back home.  Her Mom was in a nursing home and she had not seem her since the day she left when her Mom told her to leave and to never come back.  She had been back once when her Dad died.  The place was left in the care of Genie a friend of the family.  Genie was the one that was going to run the bed and breakfast and lived in a little studio apartment on the property.

As the story took form I already could read between the lines what her young life had been.  

The first part of the book was a good read and I really enjoyed it but the last half to me was a little liking,   So I really skipped some of it and got to the end but it didn't happen as I thought it was going too, so Mary DeMuth really had me fooled.  It really is a good read and to find out what Willa was wanting to know will surprise you as well.

Thanks to Zondervan Publishing for sending me this book to read and to review.

 

TREASURING EMMA

by

Kathleen Fuller

 ISBN: 9781595547750

Paperback, 310 pages

releases August 1, 2011

Thomas Nelson Publisher

 

Emma has put everyone else first in her life. Now at nearly 25, has she missed her chance at marriage?
Emma was Adam's first love but circumstances made them both choose different paths in life. Emma's heart breaks all over again when Adam returns to the Amish community of Middlefield, Ohio, years later.
For the past ten years, Emma has been raising her siblings after their parents' untimely death. She's put their needs above her own and now, with them grown, she can focus on herself and her dream of opening a yarn store in the vacant cider house on her land.
With Adam's return come feelings Emma's long buried. They're older and life hasn't turned out the way they thought it would. Adam's feelings for Emma are stronger than ever, but will he be able to convince her to put others aside and give their love a chance?


My Thoughts:

Emma had just buried her mother whom had died from cancer.  She had been there to take care of her and also her grandmother.  her sister Clair had a family of her own but never once tried to help out so it had really been hard for Emma to care for her loved ones and to take care of the animals and the farm and home.  She just could not keep up with all of it so she did what she could and let the rest go.

Adam an old sweetheart of hers lived in Michigan but when he received a letter telling him his mother was not well, he packed his bags and headed to Ohio.  He was born and raised Amish but as he saw how the English lived he just could not take it anymore, so he had been sunned.  As Adam was Emma's old love how will they take meeting each other again as he had left her with a broken heart.

As always Kathleen Fuller spins a great tale and this one is no exception.  She has even added some suspense into this story and I though that it made the book more interesting.

Thanks to Book Sneeze for providing me this copy to read and review.

 

THE COLONEL'S LADY

by 

Laur Frantz

Coming August 1, 2011

Pre-Order

 Paperback, 408 pages

ISBN: 9780800733414

Revell Publicaton

I was so glad to receive this book had been waiting on it a year.  Laura know how to write the prefect historical fiction story.  She always puts in some real things and then she make up some of the things so you really have to read her Author's notes in order to know the deference.

This story begins November 1779 in Kentucke Territory and finds the main character Roxanna Rowan in a cave with four ladies of the night and a little girl names Abby.  They were on their way up the river and she was on her way to a remote fort in Kentucke where her father was stationed.  She had lost her mother and the debtors had taken everything else so she had no where else to go.  She did not intend to be on the same boat as the other ladies but some people had gotten off and they got on so she had no choice.  The boat was attacked and one of the men had taken all the women and the little girl and made a run for it, he got them to the cave but he lay dead with an arrow in his back in the cave with the women.  When it got day light they all decided to make a run for it and to see if they could make it to the fort.

But all the trouble they found out once Roxie got there, she didn't know if they should have just died at the hand of the Indians or the British,  Just a say stay the fort was in but Colonel Cassius McLinn was doing the best he could with his men and there was only one other woman at the fort before these came and she was a wife of Hank and also the cook and everything else that was needing to be done so she really was happy to see all the women show up.

I will stop here before I give the plot away but this is really a great Historical story about when the Colonies, the Indians and the Red Coats were in battle for the land.

Thanks so much Laura Frantz for having the copy of this book sent to me by Revell Publication so that I could read and enjoy the book and also give my review.

 

BLOG TOUR

for  

IN TRANSIT

by

Kathleen Gerard

ISBN: 9781591419665

Hardcover, 284 pages

PG rated

Five Star Publishing

Book Description:
Can a rookie cop survive the men who cross her path in the NYPD?

When a psychic in a shopping mall tells Rita Del Vecchio that she is "destined for greatness," and she will "marry a man in uniform," the restless, wet-behind-the-ears, 22 year-old decides to finally take control of her life. Rita sets out on a quest to become a New York City Police Officer. But can a spry, feisty, single woman thrive in the gritty world of New York's Finest?

Leaving behind the suburbs of New Jersey and a job as an under-tipped waitress, Rita Del Vecchio hangs up her apron and ballet slippers for a bullet-proof vest. But will she wear it? And if she does, will it protect her on the mean streets of Manhattan? Can it also protect her from Cupid’s arrows if they should land amiss?

Rita is assigned to the New York City Transit Police Squad and gets more than she bargained for. Riding the Lexington Avenue Subway Line, Rita winds up meeting not one man in uniform, but many. Whom will she love?

In Transit is a woman-in-jeopardy story that delves into the ordinary lives of NYPD career cops and how their fates are often determined by people who hold secrets as dark and as labyrinth-like as the New York City Subway System.

READ Chapter one here!

Kathleen Gerard's Bio:Kathleen Gerard writes across genres. Her fiction has been awarded The Perillo Prize, The Eric Hoffer Prose Award and was nominated for Best New American Voices, all national prizes in literature. Her prose and poetry have been widely published in magazines, literary journals, anthologies and broadcast on National Public Radio (NPR). Several of her plays have been staged and performed regionally and off-Broadway.

My Review:

 Rita Del Vecchio lives in  New Jersey and works as a waitress and does not make enough money for her to live comfortable on.  When she was in a mall she meet a psychic and the tell Rita that she was destined for great things but she would have to leave what she is used too.  She decides to take a change and applies for a job as a policeman in New York City.  As she goes through the training she really has a hard time and her instructor makes fun of her and she takes dancing lessons also.  She can not finish the last course to be able to graduate but he feels sorry for her and passes her anyway.

She gets caught up in the middle of an Internal Affairs investigation to try and find out who the bad cops are on the force of the NYCP and she finds out who her secret admirer is.

If you are into police stories with all their plots and scams on how to catch the bad guy or girls then you will really enjoy this book.

I received this Advanced Reader's Copy from Tribute books for me to do this tour and review.

 

LOOK TO THE EAST

by

Maureen Lang

 ISBN: 9781414338958

Paperback 357 pages

Tyndale Publications

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Avillage under siege. A love under fire.
France, 1914
At the dawn of the First World War, the small village of Briecourt is isolated from the early battles while a century-old feud between the Toussaints and the de Colvilles still rages in the streets. But when the German army sweeps in to occupy the town, families on both sides of the feud are forced to work together to hide stragglers caught behind enemy lines.
Juliette Toussaint may have been adopted from a faraway island, but she feels the scorn of the de Colvilles as much as anyone born a Toussaint. So when she falls in love with one of the men in hiding—a wealthy and handsome Belgian entrepreneur—she knows she’s flirting with danger.
Charles Lassone has been waiting in the church cellar, safe from the Germans for the moment. But if he’s discovered, it will threaten the entire village—including Julitte—and could cost Charles his life.

MY REVIEW: 

As always Maureen Lang came through again in this novel in "The Great War Series".  In 1914 Briecourl, Northern France the country was at war with Germany and a lot of the towns people had left as the Germans were headed that way.  There was a fued between the de Colvilles and the Toussanints and it had been going on for a hundred years and so no really knew what it was about.

Julitte Toussaint had been adopted as a child and she is right in the middle of it.  She tried to endure all the talk and folklore about her heritage.

As the Germans came closer a few men were trapped in the woods trying to leave Briecourl when the great army came through so they had no where to go.  They came back to town and they were hid with different families and one in the church basement. But could they be trusted and what about all the Germans taking over homes and places of business?  Will the feud ever end?

I love history so this was a really great book for me so I want to thank Tyndale Publishers for sending me this free copy for me to enjoy and review.

 

Pirate of My Heart

by

Jamie Carie

 

 Paperback 

ISBN: 9780805448153

B and H Publishing

Released September 2011

My Thoughts:

Lady Kendra Townsend was an only child as he mother died giving birth to her, as she and her father lived in England.  Her father had a twin brother but he was not nice at all and he gambled everything he could get his hands on and always came to his brother Edward to bail him out.  But this time it took everything Edward had to bail him out so he and Kendra had to live being very poor.  Edward died and Andrew the twin took over the title and came to the castle and also was going to make Kendra marry an old man just so he could get the inheritance that was left to her from her grandmother once she married.  She refused to marry the old man so her uncle shipped her off to America to her mother's sister that Kendra had never met.

On the ship that she traveled on she was the only passenger as it was a cargo ship only but she was treated kind and was watched to be sure none of the sailors bothered her.  The captain of the ship is Dorian Colburg and he really liked her but was determined never to marry again as he was married once before and his wife died.

What will Kendra find when she gets to America and to her aunt and uncle's place?

This is really a good book if you love romance, and adventure, Jamie Carie writes very good books as I have read a lot of her books.
Thanks to B and H for sending me this advanced readers edition of this book to read and review.

Summer Dream

by Martha Rogers

9781616383602

A Heart in Need of Redemption. An Unlikely Love. And a God Who Can Bring Them Together.
As the daughter of a small-town minister in Connecticut, Rachel Winston fears that the only way she’ll ever find a husband is to visit her aunt in Boston for the social season. But when Nathan Reed arrives in town, she can’t help but wonder if he could be the one.
Although attracted to Rachel, Nathan has no desire to become involved with a Christian after experiences with his own family. What’s more, until he resolves his anger with God and his family, he has no chance of courting her.

When Nathan is caught in a devastating blizzard and lies near death in the Winston home, Rachel and her mother give him a lesson in love and forgiveness that leads him back to his home in the South. Will he make peace with his family and return before Rachel chooses a path that takes her away from him?

MY THOUGHTS:

A small town minister's daughter Rachel Winston is so afraid that she will never find a husband but she does have a very good friend Daniel Monroe who is the brother of her best friend and she grew up with.  She really cared for Daniel but not as a future husband but as a friend.  He had gone to college and had come home to be a lawyer and his room mate at school had come to visit, Nathan Reed was not a Christian but would not tell why he didn't believe.  He grew up in the North Carolina but didn't want to tell anyone why he didn't want to go back home.

Rachel's aunt wanted her to come visit her in Boston but it was winter and very cold.  She did go in the spring months and carried her best friend Abigale with her.  So they went but she could not forget Nathan, but he had some issues he had to fix with his family and he may never come back to visit his friend Daniel.

Will Rachel find a love in Boston or will she come back home to see how things go with Daniel or will she wait and see if Nathan makes peach with God and his family?

This book was sent to be by Charisma Media for me to read and review.