The Virtuous Wife, seeks wool and flax, And willingly works with her hands: Proverbs 31:13
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." John 3:16-17
El Paso, Texas, August, 1886 as the story begins, Elizabeth Evans a widow and the daughter of a state senator and had come to help her brother with his newspaper. This part of Texas was so close to the border of Mexico that even then they were having trouble with this country. Some of the leaders in Mexico did not like what Lloyd wrote in his newspaper and killed him soon after the arrival of Elizabeth. Then she was taken with them and that is where the Texas Rangers came into the picture.
This book is so full of romance, suspense and history that I could hardly lay it down, I finished it in two sittings. I have read the first one in this series also and it was just as good. Yvonne Harris has a way to tell these historical stories.
Thanks so much to Bethany House for sending me this book at no cost to me and I chose to review it.
A very beautiful illustrated book about Gabby a little Angel is trailing. She is always talking and getting into trouble but when they look down on earth and see some children playing, and one of the little girls is always getting into trouble, the teacher "Parker" told Gabby that Sophie was going to be her job. The Lord had chosen Gabby to watch over Sophie and what a job that turned out to be.
The story plot is wonderful and the illustrations are out of this world. This hard back book is perfect to be read to a small child or for one that has just learned to read and they can read it themselves.
Thanks so much to BookSneeze for sending me this book for me to enjoy and read to my own great-grandchildren. It is my choice to do a review.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
A SOUND AMONG THE TREES
by
Susan Meissner
ISBN: 978-0-307-45885-8
Paperback, 352 pages
Waterbrook Press
Publisher's Description
A house shrouded in time.
A line of women with a heritage of loss.
As a young bride, Susannah Page was rumored to be a Civil War spy for the North, a traitor to her Virginian roots. Her great-granddaughter Adelaide, the current matriarch of Holly Oak, doesn’t believe that Susannah’s ghost haunts the antebellum mansion looking for a pardon, but rather the house itself bears a grudge toward its tragic past.
When Marielle Bishop marries into the family and is transplanted from the arid west to her husband’s home, it isn’t long before she is led to believe that the house she just settled into brings misfortune to the women who live there.
My Thoughts:
Susan Meissner has written a very interested tale about an old historical house located in Virginia. The matriarch of Holly Oak is the great-granddaughter Adelaide of Susannah Page.
When Adelaide's granddaughter Sara was brought to her by Adelaide's daughter when she was a baby and left for her to raise. Sara had been raised in this house and married and had two children but she and the baby died when she tried to have her third child, but her husband Carson and children continued to live there. When Carson decided to re-marry he brought his new bride Marielle to live there also, even though he really was not related to Adelaide anymore.
Everyone in the town though the old house was haunted by Susanne and Adelaide's friends she called "The old blue haired ladies" really didn't let it rest, they went as far as to bring in someone that could tell if there was a spirit located in the home.
I found this book so very interesting as Adelaide made Civil war uniforms for the rein-actors and I also did this for a few years so it was really interested to me. I related to all she talked about when she was sewing the garments, but the funny thing about this was that "The Real Uniforms" has also been made in the house during the Civil War. And a cannon ball still was en-bedded in the side of the house.
Thanks so much to Blogging for Books for sending me this advanced readers copy to read and review.
FOUR stories in one book! As these four ladies got together and compiled all these stories about the Quakers and I begin to read, I was so thrilled. Each story tells about a family that is related to the Quaker type of living.
As Lauralee Bliss begins the book with "A Crossroad to Love" near a crossroad near Wyanesville, Ohio in the year of 1846. Silas Jones was on his way to Independence and wanted to get there before the snow got too bad but his horse had other thoughts as his hoof was infected and Silas had to get off. Now he wondered where he was and how he was going to get to Independence when a man came alone that spoke like a Quaker and told him there was a house just up the way. That is when this story really begins.
The second story "Simple Gifts" by Ramona Cecil begins with Lucinda Hughes, pregnant and a widow was struggling to try to make it on her own, but she had some help with her late husband's friend Will Davis. He always stopped by from his work at the mill, where her husband had been killed. Lucinda was disappointed in her faith and God because of her young husband's death, so she had even stopped going to the "Friends Meetings". Will she get back into the Friends faith or will she just give up on God.
The third story "Pirate of My Heart" is written by Rachael Phillips and features Keturah Wilkes, she loves God but is questioning the Quaker Faith as their belief on celebrating Christmas. She loved to decorate but her family did not, so she slipped and made some Christmas items just for herself. She meets a young man named Henry Mangum that came from a family that didn't mind stealing from others and drinking and having a good time, but he had been to a meting that had opened his eyes to the wrong way of life. He had started going to the meetings where Keturah went but his handsome brother also noticed the pretty young woman, who will win her hand or will both of them lose to someone else?
The fourth story "Equally Yoked" by Claire Sanders features the "underground railroad" and finds Susanna Griffith alone with her young husband gone to help with another person with this project. She finds herself alone when a young pregnant run-away slave comes to her door so she takes her in to help her. How will Susanna handle this and what if she gets caught?
This book was sent to me by one of the authors Lauralee Bliss for me to read and I chose to review it.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
VIGILANTE
by
Robin Parrish
ISBN: 9780764206085
Paperback, 363 pages
Bethany House Publishers
Nolan Gray was being held with a gun to his head and he knew he was about to die, so what happened? I started to read this story and found it quite challenging. Nolan was dead and then he wasn't. He had been in the service and had been captured and in prison with the President of the United States when he was in the service. So upon the death of Nolan President Thornton Hastings knew what a brave man he was and what suffering he took for the other men that was captured nine years before, so he planned a great service for Nolan and wanted him buried at Arlington.
Meanwhile Nolan was listening to all that was being said and done for his passing while he was preparing for the greatest adventure of all. He hoped to save the US from the terrorist that was planning on destroying us.
This book would be really interesting to someone that likes to read about war and the mean things that are happening around us, but I didn't enjoy it.
Thanks to Bethany House for sending me this book to review.
This is my first time reading one of Gina Holmes' books and I know it will not be my last. A very good story that just kept me turning page after page.
As Eric and Kyra Yoshida has thought their marriage was over, Krya was in an accident that left some of her memory gone, as she didn't remember that they were separated. Their only son Benji had just left for the navy as this was what he had always wanted. He was more of a mama's boy than his dad's, so this had really turned Kyra's life around alone with the separation from her husband.
Eric worked as a car salesman and as this was not the job he wanted it made the most money so he had taken a job and moved his family from their home by the sea to this fancy neighborhood. where none of them was happy.
As the story continues it will tell things about a marriage that happens to almost everyone, but can they overcome this and do as they had promised God when they married that "Death do they part?"
This book was sent to me by Tyndale Publications for my review.
Cindy has written some good Amish books and I own all of them. But this one got me a little confused, it keep bouncing from one person to the other and was a little hard to keep up with. But after I got into the book a little further it became clearer.
Sylvia Fisher was not like most young Amish women, she didn't like to do housework but had rather be outside raising the herd of milking cows that her father owned. She could be up all night when there was trouble with a birth and she could manage the diary by herself. But when the man that wanted her to marry him and she had put off, come up engaged to her sister, she could not stay around and watch them get married. So she saw a notice where an older man needed someone to help him with his diary, she talked her dad into letting her apply for this job and she got it. She moved to the farm in another town but it was so run down and they were so in debt, she didn't know if she could save it or not. Then their son came home and everything changed as he hated the diary and farming but started to help his parents out but he was wanting them to sell the farm and to move into town with him.
Thanks to Waterbrook Press for sending me this book to review .
Thursday, August 18, 2011
BELONGING
by
Robin Lee Hatcher
Paperback, 277 pages
Zondervan Publisher
My Thoughts:
Boise, Idaho, 1897 as Felicia Brennan Kristoffrsen had traveled from Wyoming to Idaho for a teaching position. She had lost her adopted parents a few day apart. Then she found out that she had never been adopted so everything that she thought she would inherit was lost to a cousin and not a nice one at that. So she did the best thing she felt was right for her was to go to another part of the country and start over. She had never taught school but had the training for it, as she entered into Frenchman's Bluff, Idaho. She had no money and no where to go but she found that the town had a little house for her and she begin to teach and to love the town and her students.
She did wonder what had happened over the years of her brother and sister after they were sent west on the Orphan train. The first little girl she meet was Charity, the man that owned her home's daughter. He ran the general store and he and his little girl lived in the back of the store as she had built the little house for his wife but she died and they had never lived in it. Felicia really begin to love Charity, but one of the school board members did not want a single woman there as the teacher as she had her daughter-in-law and her three children living in her home. She didn't want another single woman living that close to Colin the store keeper, she wanted him for her daughter-in-law. A very bossy woman was Mrs Summerville.
Will Felicia be able to withstand the gossip and talk that Mrs Summerville starts about her. She has no other place to go.
I want to thank Zondervan Publishing for sending me this book to read and review.
Sleeveless printed lounger...so easy-to-wear with a scoop neckline, shirred front and back yoke and patch pockets. We offer the best price and fit in plus size loungers.
full-sweep hem; 44" long
washable cotton/polyester woven poplin; USA or imported<...
Pros: Summer, Comfortable, Cool, Nice Design, Wore 4 years, Confortable, Well Made, Soft, Washes Well
Cons: None
Best Uses: At home
Describe Yourself: Casual Dresser
Was this a gift?: No
I have been wearing these dresses for years, as I don't like to wear shorts and pants are just too hot for me to wear in the house every day I wear these dresses. They hold up well washing after washing, and I still have some that I have worn for years.
great product, just wish they were made in America!
Kelli London once dreamed of being a songwriter. As crazy as it seemed, she hoped that God would use the lyrics that came to her while she slept. She dreamed about Brian too, that the love that they shared would be a forever kind of love. But choices she'll forever regret upended her hope and turned her dreams to dust. When those dreams come knocking once more, she's forced to deal with the pain of the past.Heather Anderson's life has spun out of control--first an affair with a married man, then a one-night stand with a drummer of a popular Christian band that left her devastated. Broken and alone, she cried out to the only One who can save her. And He did, but that's just the beginning, because now she must leave behind the only life she has ever known.
Two women with shame-filled pasts form an unlikely friendship. What does God's forgiveness look like for them? Will they ever believe that He loves them...and can still offer them a life where they are cherished?
My Review:
Kelli London was playing the piano and singing a song that she had wrote at one of her brother's weddings. She wished she didn't have to sing this song as she had wrote it about a love that she had and lost, so the song just didn't sit well with her. She longed to become a song writer but some of the choices she has made in the past still comes back to haunt her.
Then the book also features Heather Anderson and she was wanting to become a recording artist, and she had meet Ace Vincent when she had been in St Louis in a club and he was a drummer and song writer in a Christian Rock Band. She had really liked him and now she was about to meet him again in Indianapolis.
Will these two young women get "Cherished" as they have always dreamed by a loving man? You will need to buy the book to find out.
Thanks to BookSneeze for sending me a copy of this book to review.
A True Story of Family, Tragedy, and Choices At thirteen years old, Lynda’s life comes to a disastrous halt when her mother and two younger sisters are killed in a plane crash. Her father, overcome by despair, simply continues to exist, in a state devoid of hope. After burying a wife and two young children at the age of 44, the overwhelming responsibility of raising a daughter alone completely immobilizes him.
Teetering on that tender brink between childhood and adolescence, Lynda faces the responsibility of a father in a complete state of shock, a house to take care of and hundreds of decisions about how to proceed with their shattered lives.
In Repairing Rainbows she candidly describes the agonizing memories, deafening silence and endless hardships that are the fallout of incredible loss. As we follow her through marriage, motherhood and her own spiritual journey, Lynda reveals her complex feelings of hope, anger, pity and determination. Most importantly, she learns the crucial difference between “truly living” and the existence that is so often mistaken for being alive.
A true story, written by a woman whose normal and abundant life hides a terrible past, Repairing Rainbows is loaded with important lessons to help others overcome struggles and obstacles, and fulfill their lives. It is a powerful, captivating, riveting and easy-to-read story that will undoubtedly touch the hearts of its readers.
Lynda Fishman's Bio:
Barry has spent his entire career working in the health care and pharmaceutical industry. He is PresidIn 1970, when she was thirteen years old, Lynda’s life came to a disastrous halt when her mother and two younger sisters were killed in an Air Canada plane crash.
As a young teen, Lynda made a conscious decision to become happy and to lead a fulfilled life. Lynda chose to live. She was committed to learning, growing and making a difference. Determined to find meaning and purpose in her life, she managed to muster up the courage and strength to dream big, to be idealistic, to strive for more, and to live a meaningful life where she could make a difference in the lives of others.
Lynda Fishman is a trained clinical social worker who has spent over twenty years as a camp director. In the early 90s, Lynda was one of the first camp directors in the Toronto area to incorporate children with special needs into mainstream camp life. Lynda has devoted a lifetime to organized camping and is passionate about the positive role of camping in a person’s life. She is the owner and director of Adventure Valley Day Camp.
Lynda is a motivational and inspirational speaker and facilitator. She has published articles and training manuals on leadership, teamwork, bullying, trust, childhood health and wellness, communication and customer service.
Lynda’s husband, Barry Fishman, has his own amazing story to share, having been orphaned at age 17 and left alone to care for his brother with special needs. Lynda and Barry met as teenagers and have been together since then. They have three grown children, and the whole family is heavily involved in supporting children dealing with tragedy, cancer or other life-threatening diseases, fund-raising and charity events.ent and CEO of the Canadian operations for the world’s largest generic pharmaceutical company, Teva Pharmaceuticals. Barry serves on the Board of Directors of the Childhood Cancer Foundation.
Lynda is a woman of action. She has incredible enthusiasm for life. She is persistent, focused and faithful to her dreams and goals. She is willing to work for everything with patience, optimism and determination. She finds ways to be grateful and positive. Lynda goes out there and does what she has to do with a CAN DO attitude of gratitude, positivity, compassion, and honesty.
MY THOUGHT:
At thirteen years of age Lynda alone with her grandparents, parents and two younger sisters were preparing for a trip by plane. The father had to wait a week before he could go and she went first with her grandparents to get the apartment ready for the family to vacation in. Her mother and two younger sisters Carla and Wendy were coming the next day.
After they had arrived and had the apartment cleaned a phone call came and they were told that the plane Lynda's Mother and sisters were on had crashed. They later learned that they all were dead. What a sad time for them all, had to believed as they could not even do a funeral until some part of the remains were found and identified. Soon the youngest little girl was identified and then the very sad thing of the Jewish funeral for precious little Wendy. They when the mother and Carla were identified another round of a Jewish funeral. This would stay with Lynda all her life.
Her father was never the same and years later he remarried but as the storybooks say, Lynda had a bad step-mom. She was rich but had to have everything her way and Lynda's father just went alone as he was still so broken and not his self.
This story was so touching and so sad to me, I just wanted to cry alone with Lynda. I can relate to her in some ways as my dad died when I was eight but my Mother didn't re-marry but we had a hard life. There were ten of us but I am the youngest and now have had to watch eight of them and my Mother die.
Thanks so much to Tribute Books for sending me this book to read and review.
Friday, August 5, 2011
RACE AGAINST TIME
by
Kimberley and Kayla R. Woodhouse
Paperback, 352 pages
ISBN:1433671174
November 1, 2011
B abd H Publishers
Product Description
Anesia Naltsiine has made mistakes that have cost her-and her 13-year old daughter, Zoya-dearly. But no more. She will prove her worth as a mother and as a breeder of champion sprint racing dogs. Her kennel is so successful that buyers come from all over the world. So why does she still feel so worthless?
Zoya misses the dad she never knew. All she wants is to follow in his footsteps as a champion sprint dog racer. But when she witnesses a murder in their town of North Pole, Alaska, she finds herself thrown into dangers and emotions she can’t begin to understand.
Enter Sean Connelly, a new employee at the kennel with demons of his own. When he discovers macrochips bearing military secrets implanted in the Naltsiine's dogs, a puzzle tracing back to the murder unfolds. Then strange "accidents" start happening; clearly someone wants Zoya silenced. Anesia tells her daughter it's not safe to race, but Zoya, angry with the world- and God-takes off across dangerous Alaskan terrain alone. Anesia and Sean must race against time to save the girl-and themselves.
Kimberley Woodhouse is a wife, mother, author, and musician with a quick wit and positive outlook despite difficult circumstances. A popular speaker, she's shared at more than 600 venues across the country. Kimberley and her family's story have garnered national media attention for many years, but most recently her family was chosen for ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, The Montel Williams Show, and Discovery Health channel's Mystery ER. Welcome Home: Our Family's Journey to Extreme Joy, releases from Tyndale House Publishers September first. In addition to her non-fiction, she also writes romantic suspense and children's books. Kimberley lives, writes, and homeschools in Colorado with her husband and two children in their truly "extreme" home. kimberleywoodhouse.com
Find Kim on twitter and facebook: twitter.com/kimwoodhouse
author fan page Kimberley Woodhouse
Kayla has a rare medical disorder Hereditary Sensory Autonomic that keeps her body from feeling pain as we do and her cooling function doesn't kick in until her body reaches a lethal high temperature. To learn more about this disorder go here.
My Thoughts:
This book starts with a bang and keeps you on your toes all the way through. Anesia Naltsiine lives in North Pole Alaska with her thirteen year old daughter Zoya. They run a dog kennel and race through the Alaskan snow. Zoya's dad died before she was born so she was very jealous of her best friend that has had two dads. Zoya wants to follow in her dad's footsteps as a champion racer, she feels that this will make her dad proud. But on a trail run she witnessed a murder of a homeless man or so everyone thought. Then thing begin to happen that just was not right in their world.
She and her mother was in danger and Anesia felt like she needed a man to live on the property in a cabin behind their house to help her and to keep watch over them and the very pricey dogs. So in come Sean Connelly a newcomer to North Pole. But after Anesia's friends checked him out there was nothing on him that would harm them, so he was hired and moved in.
This book will keep you turning page after page, you will not want to put it down. This is the second book in this series as the first one is "Safe Haven". This can be read alone but I think that if the two books were read back to back you would understand the story more.
Thanks so much to B and H Publishing for sending me this advanced copy of this book to review.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Still More Stories from Grandma’s Attic
and
Treasures from Grandma’s Attic by Arleta Richardson
David C Cook/August 2011
160 pages/paperback/$6.99
ISBN: 978-0-7814-0381-8 and 978-0-7814-0382-5
About the Author: The late Arleta Richardson grew up an only child in Chicago, living in a hotel on the shores of Lake Michigan. Under the care of her maternal grandmother, she listened for hours to stories from her grandmother’s childhood. With unusual recall, Arleta began to write these stories for an audience that now numbers over two million. “My grandmother would be amazed to know her stories have gone around the world,” Arleta said.
My Thoughts:
I have read the first two books about Grandma's Attic and these two are just as charming. As I am a grandma I know how these stories can get told to those little ears that does not believe you were ever small. I love to see the look in their eyes when I tell them something in my past just as Arleta Richardson does about her Grandma. She makes each chapter a different story and they are so interesting. In book three I loved the way Grandma and her best friend Sarah Jane could come up with something all the time to get them in trouble. I guess the best one from these two books was the story where Arleta had ordered something free from a catalog and it was some anti wrinkle cream. She and Sarah read in an aunt's magazine where you could mix honey, wax and lemons together and when it cooled you put it on your face and it was take the wrinkles off and also freckles. They didn't have wrinkles but Arleta had freckles, so they slipped and mixed all of this up and carried it upstairs and put it on their faces. They didn't know how lone to wait but when they though they had waited long enough they tried to get it off and there was no way they could get the hard stuff from their faces. So they had to tell the Ma and when it came off it tool skin and freckles. They decided then that was something they would never try again.
Both of the books have chapter after chapter with stories as this. It is great for an old great-grandma as myself to read and also to read to your children and grandchildren. So good!!
Thanks to B and B Media Group for sending me these two books to review.
WAGERED HEART
by
Robin Lee Hatcher
ISBN: 0310259266
Paperback
Zondervan Publisher
Synopsis:
Bethany Silverton can’t resist the challenge of charming a rough cowboy. But when she makes an innocent wager, unexpected results could turn a little flirtation into a lifetime of love. A sheltered preacher’s daughter stakes her heart on love in this action-filled romance in the wild west of 1880s Montana.
My Thoughts:
As Bethany Siverton and her parents has left Philadelphia to come to Montana so that her father could begin a church. He was a preacher and Bethany didn't want to leave the large city when all the parties were held. But she found out that she really liked Montana when she met Hawk Chandler who is one fourth Indian but was looked down on by the people he met, He owned a ranch that had a lot of water and another rancher Vince Richards wanted so that he could control all the ranches in the area. But Hank was not selling so all kind of things begin to happen to his cattle and he was even beat up.
But nothing would change Bethany's heart that she really cared for him. Her friend Ingrid who they had taken on with them when her parents died on the trip to Montana. She lived with the Silvertons as their own daughter. She met Rand when they first came to town and fell in love with him.
This book has romance and also so suspense woven throughout, making it an interesting read.
Thanks to Zondervan Publisher for sending me this book to review.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
GLASS ROAD'S BLOG TOUR
of RIVER'S SONG
by Melody Carlson
Following her mother’s funeral, and on the verge of her own midlife crisis, widow Anna Larson returns to the home of her youth to sort out her parents’ belongings, as well as her own turbulent life. Her relationship with her daughter is in shambles, and the tension between Anna and her vicious mother-in-law escalates daily.
Anna's unique family home sits on a picturesque coastal tributary and is filled with years of memories. For the first time since childhood, Anna embraces her native heritage and river roots. But Anna soon learns that more than just her past resides along the banks of the Siuslaw River.
By transforming her old family home into The Inn at Shining Waters, Anna hopes to create a place of healing—a place where guests experience peace, grace, and new beginnings.
Starting with her own family . . .
As Anna Larson returns to her old home after her mother's death on Orgon's Siuslaw River she left behind her nineteen year old daughter and her mother-in-law whom thinks she is their slave. She had lost her husband and her mother-in-law is a very controling woman so she told Anna that the only choice she had was to move into her large house. So not knowing any better Anna moved herself and little daughter in with the woman and found that she was expected to be the cook, be the laundry lady and the house keeper as her mother-in-law taught her daughter that this was how Anna was to repaid for living in this house.
But after Anna got back to the river and saw her Mother's home that she had grown up in she just decided to stay and try to make it on her own. She wanted her daughter to come live with her but she is not certain if she will.
As she found her place on the river as she was half Indian and soon found out that her mother-in-law had been holding out on her as far as her money was concerned. Anna's husband had been in the service and died after coming home but something that happened while he was serving out country. He was also was running the mill that his father had started, but Anna was not supposed to know all of this.
This was a very good book and showed how women can be used and denied things that are really hers. I read this in two settings I just didn't want to put it down.
Thanks to Leann Hamby and Glass Roads for sending me this book to review and do the tour.
Posts
