Amy

Mark Fisher has returned home to Hart County, determined to put the past behind him. Two years ago, after being wrongly accused of assault, he left the Amish community, though never forgot his home. When the one person who had helped him through his rough times asks for help, Mark returns. But it is pretty Waneta Cain who makes him want to stay…

Just when Mark starts to believe a new life is possible, a close friend of Neeta’s is attacked. Once again, everyone in the community seems to believe he is guilty. But what hurts most is Neeta’s sudden wariness around him. When another woman is hurt, a woman who is close to both Neeta and himself, Mark fears he knows the real culprit. And time is running out. Will Mark be able to find him before Neeta becomes his next victim?

 

Shelley Shepard Gray is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, a finalist for the American Christian Fiction Writers prestigious Carol Award, and a two-time HOLT Medallion winner. She lives in southern Ohio, where she writes full-time, bakes too much, and can often be found walking her dachshunds on her town’s bike trail.

   

Tenley Roth’s first book was a runaway bestseller. Now that her second book is due, she’s locked in fear. Can she repeat her earlier success or is she a fraud who has run out of inspiration?

With pressure mounting from her publisher, Tenley is weighted with writer’s block. But when her estranged mother calls asking Tenley to help her through chemotherapy, she packs up for Florida where she meets handsome furniture designer Jonas Sullivan and discovers the story her heart’s been missing.

A century earlier, another woman wrote at the same desk with hopes and fears of her own. Born during the Gilded Age, Birdie Shehorn is the daughter of the old money Knickerbockers. Under the strict control of her mother, her every move is decided ahead of time, even whom she’ll marry. But Birdie has dreams she doesn’t know how to realize. She wants to tell stories, write novels, make an impact on the world. When she discovers her mother has taken extreme measures to manipulate her future, she must choose between submission and security or forging a brand new way all on her own.

Tenley and Birdie are from two very different worlds, but fate has bound them together in a way time cannot erase.

Rachel Hauck is the master of creative, historic romance, and she’s penned another bestseller:  The Writing Desk.  She artfully compares contemporary romance with the arranged marriages of the wealthy during the 1920s while painting elements of spiritual lessons in every scene.

I love the way that Hauck ties Birdie’s story with Tenley’s.  Hauck connects them in myriads of ways, some superficially, some with a much deeper meaning.  These connections usually relate to spiritual lessons happening within the pages from which the reader can grow, as well. 

In some of Hauck’s books, these lessons are super deep, ones that totally shook me as I was reading.  The lessons in The Writing Desk are a bit different; they’re simple, basic tenants of the Christian faith, but ones that many of us struggle with.  Long-time Christians may not find these lessons earth-shattering, but I think that this is the perfect sort of book to give a person new to faith, or to someone who isn’t yet a believer.  Tenley’s situation and confusion resonates, and Hauck shares answers to that confusion gently and creatively.

These faith lessons are not diluting the romance.  For someone who’s supposed to be writing such a story, Tenley is living a sizzling one of her own.  Hauck spares no sidelong glance or warm, fuzzy feeling when penning The Writing Desk, and with Birdie involved in her own romantic relationship, this book is oozing love.

The Writing Desk is another winner, and I hope Hauck continues to be as prolific as Birdie.

I received a free copy of this book from the author.  All opinions are my own.

When a series of circumstances beyond her control leave Rosalyn Bernay alone and penniless in London, she chances upon a job backstage at a theater that is presenting the most popular show in London. A talented musician and singer, she feels immediately at home and soon becomes enthralled with the idea of pursuing a career on the stage.

A hand injury during a skirmish in India has forced Nate Moran out of the army until he recovers. Filling his time at a stable of horses for hire in London, he has also spent the past two months working nights as a stagehand, filling in for his injured brother. Although he’s glad he can help his family through a tough time, he is counting the days until he can rejoin his regiment. London holds bitter memories for him that he is anxious to escape. But then he meets the beautiful woman who has found a new lease on life in the very place Nate can’t wait to leave behind.

The Captain’s Daughter is the perfect story for fans of mysteries and musicals!  With an unusual combination of Gilbert and Sullivan, London theater life, and villains on every corner, this story is unexpectedly fun.

Delamere weaves threads of mystery and history throughout the story.  There’s more to Rosalyn’s background than we know, and I have a feeling that there’s more to the story that will be revealed in later books.  I love the way that her past was affecting her present, and I’ll be anxious to see what it does to her future.

The theater plays an enormous role in this book – a much bigger one than I expected.  That’s not really my thing, but I enjoyed the way that Delamere used the interactions off stage to add spiritual depth and lessons to the story.

The Captain’s Daughter is a great summer read.  With loads of British history, scoundrels, and lessons to learn, you should add it to your reading list.

Click here to read other reviews in this bloggy hop or here to purchase your own copy now.

  

I received a free copy of this book from LitFuse Publicity.  All opinions are my own.

Champion backcountry snowboarder Gage Watson has left the limelight behind after the death of one of his fans. After being sued for negligence and stripped of his sponsorships, he’s remade his life as a ski patrol in Montana’s rugged mountains, as well as serving on the PEAK Rescue team. But he can’t seem to find his footing–or forget the woman he loved, who betrayed him.

Senator and former attorney Ella Blair spends much of her time in the limelight as the second-youngest senator in the country. But she has a secret–one that cost Gage his career. More than anything, she wants to atone for her betrayal of him in the courtroom and find a way to help him put his career back on track.

When Ella’s brother goes missing on one of Glacier National Park’s most dangerous peaks, Gage and his team are called in for the rescue. But Gage isn’t so sure he wants to help the woman who destroyed his life. More, when she insists on joining the search, he’ll have to keep her safe while finding her reckless brother, a recipe for disaster when a snowstorm hits the mountain.

But old sparks relight as they search for the missing snowboarder–and suddenly, they are faced with emotions neither can deny. But when Ella’s secret is revealed, can they learn to trust each other–even when disaster happens again?

A Matter of Trust takes you on a downhill ride through danger, forgiveness, and love – and isn’t that the oddest combination?

Warren totally makes it work, though.  Gage’s skiing prowess makes him read like a superstar, which feels a bit unrealistic, and yet their humbleness makes them feel like the kids next door.  Ella’s skill and the way that the two are able to combat danger together makes it feel as if you’re right there with them.

It’s that pairing that I love about Warren’s writing, and she’s pulled it off in every book of hers (that I’ve read – which is a lot).  Her characters all have high-action, high danger careers, and Warren uses those jobs as vehicles for deep spiritual lessons. 

Ella and Gage both need to make peace with their pasts, and the stories of how they do so are complicated.  Warren weaves the book previous in the series with this one and seamlessly sets up the next book, as well.  I love how wide the cast of characters are, and how each character feels like a friend by the end of the book.

While I would never want to take on a huge mountain on skis personally, I thoroughly enjoy reading about it.  If you, too, like reading action-packed adventure stories, move A Matter of Trust to the top of your summer reading list.

I received a free copy of A Matter of Trust by Susan May Warren.  All opinions are my own.

Wilhelmina Brewster has been a college music professor for 41 years, devoting her life to her career and never marrying. Now, after her forced retirement at age 65, she is mourning her loss and searching for something to fill the empty hours. Widower Mike Dolan is a pilot and World War II veteran who has always lived life to the fullest. When medical tests confirm that his cancer has returned, he makes plans to take a final flight in his airplane rather than become a burden to his family. Wilhelmina accidentally learns of Mike’s final plans, and when she discovers that he isn’t a believer, she knows it’s her Christian duty to talk with him about her faith. But although she has been a lifelong Christian, she feels totally inadequate for the task of witnessing to an unbeliever.
Mike and Wilhelmina are two very different people—one figuring out how to live, the other how to die. Yet they will find themselves journeying together as they search for answers to life, loss and faith in God.

Fly Away is a poignant tale about the circle of life.  We spend most of our days spinning our wheels, caught up in ‘stuff’ that has no eternal significance, and most of us are too afraid to be real, even with our friends. 

Austin calls us on it.  Mike doesn’t want to waste a moment of his life, but Wilhemina doesn’t know how to do anything else.  Austin explores this dichotomy while probing Wilhemina’s fears.  I admire Mike’s strengths and the way that they complement each other.  They made a uniquely suited couple, if only for a few months.

So death and eternal life are deep topics, and that’s exactly what Austin writes – a book with the spiritual depth of the Mariana Trench.  There are life lessons and spiritual lessons to be learned here, and yet it’s not a depressing book.  I found myself cheering on both main characters, and while I was sad for Mike, Austin keeps the mood from becoming completely glum.  Instead, it’s quite provocative as the reader will identify with both Mike and Wilhemina in turn.

Fly Away isn’t a fluffy beach read – but it is an enjoyable one, and one you’ll be very glad to read.

I received a free copy of this book from the author.  All opinions are my own.

An ideal sanctuary and a dream come true–that’s what Margaret Lane feels as she takes in God’s gorgeous handiwork in Mount Rainier National Park. It’s 1927 and the National Park Service is in its youth when Margie, an avid naturalist, lands a coveted position alongside the park rangers living and working in the unrivaled splendor of Mount Rainier’s long shadow.
 
But Chief Ranger Ford Brayden is still haunted by his father’s death on the mountain, and the ranger takes his work managing the park and its crowd of visitors seriously. The job of watching over an idealistic senator’s daughter with few practical survival skills seems a waste of resources.
 
When Margie’s former fiancé sets his mind on developing the Paradise Inn and its surroundings into a tourist playground, the plans might put more than the park’s pristine beauty in danger. What will Margie and Ford sacrifice to preserve the splendor and simplicity of the wilderness they both love?
 
Karen Barnett’s vintage national parks novels bring to vivid life President Theodore Roosevelt’s vision for protected lands, when he wrote in Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter: “There can be nothing in the world more beautiful than the Yosemite, the groves of the giant sequoias and redwoods, the Canyon of the Colorado, the Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Three Tetons; and our people should see to it that they are preserved for their children and their children’s children forever, with their majestic beauty all unmarred.”

Karen Barnett has written a fantastic tale of nature conservation, spiritual lessons, and mystery!  I love the way that she has combined all of these to make a rollicking, adventure story.

One of the things that stands out to me most about The Road to Paradise is the way that Margie appreciates the plants and animals found around Mt. Rainier.  She often quotes the Bible, poetry, or famous writers as inspiration strikes, and while she comes off as a bit quirky at first, her sincerity shines through, as does Barnett’s love for God’s creation.  I absolutely love that aspect of this book, and I’ve shared it with several people already.  (In fact, I can’t wait to use this as a book club pick when my girls are a bit older!)

Margie also makes a great female lead.  She’s brave, gutsy, and she knows what’s important.  She’s not afraid to follow her dreams, and she’s willing to chase them, even when it takes her into unpopular territory.  I love the way that Barnett portrays her – as a strong woman who can be romantic and love science, too. 

Margie isn’t always wise in the ways of the world, but she does try to be smart in love.  Maybe she doesn’t always make the best choices, but if she did, what would Barnett write about?  Instead, she keeps attempting to make her next choice better than the one before it, and I love that about her.

The setting of this book caught me off guard.  I expected to read about cozy cabins and beautiful scenery, but instead Barnett really makes Mt. Rainier National Park come alive.  She wrote in park dangers, conservancy efforts, flora and fauna, as well as unique park details, making them major parts of the story.  The mountain wasn’t just there in the background, but it was almost like another character, and I enjoyed this aspect very much.

Barnett uses foreshadowing throughout the book, but it’s so subtle and well-written that I rarely picked up on it until the later event was revealed.  I admire the skill with which she placed those clues throughout the story!

The Road to Paradise is a fantastic summer read.  It’s lighthearted enough to be fun poolside and involves enough nature to make you want to go exploring.  There’s more than enough spiritual depth to keep you pondering Margie’s lessons long after you turn the last page, and you won’t want to leave Margie and Nate when the book finally ends.  Be sure to find a copy ASAP – you won’t want to miss The Road to Paradise.

I received a free copy of The Road to Paradise from Karen Barnett.  All opinions are my own.