Amy

The death of clan patriarch Macgregor Tulloch has thrown the tiny Shetland Islands community of Whales Reef into turmoil. Everyone assumed Tulloch’s heir to be his much-loved grandnephew David. But when no will is discovered, David’s calculating cousin Hardy submits his own claim to the inheritance, an estate that controls most of the island’s land. And Hardy knows a North Sea oil investor who will pay dearly for that control.

While the competing claims are investigated, the courts have frozen the estate’s assets, leaving many of the locals in dire financial straits. The future of the island–and its traditional way of life–hangs in the balance.

Meanwhile, Loni Ford enjoys a rising career in a large investment firm in Washington, D.C. Yet, in spite of outward success, she is privately plagued by questions of identity. Orphaned as a young child, she was raised by her grandparents, and while she loves them dearly, she feels completely detached from her roots. That is, until a mysterious letter arrives from a Scottish solicitor. . . .

Past and present collide in master storyteller Michael Phillips’ dramatic new saga of loss and discovery, of grasping and grace.

Do you ever get mad at authors.  I do, and right now, I’m really mad at Michael Phillips.

I’ve never read one of his books before, but I’m intrigued by the Scottish culture and was excited about this book.

It’s superbly written.  It’s a smart book – one with expertly crafted sentences, a well-planned plot, one that required much research and footnotes and multiple plot points that get woven together as the characters develop.

It’s not an action-packed story but a dramatic one, one that happens over decades of time and with rising emotions.  The characters are well developed and draw you in with each turn of the page.

That’s precisely why I’m irritated with Michael Phillips. 

It’s a hefty tome and took hours to read, even though I’m a fast reader.  I couldn’t put it down and spent the better part of a day investing in the Tulloch clan.  I felt pretty confident that I could accurately predict the major resolution points, but I never got the opportunity to find out.

The book just ended.

While the emotional drama was rising and characters were moving toward the ending I’d predicted, suddenly there were no pages left.

The story is far from over and the problem not yet resolved, but the words have run out.

I really hate that sort of ending, because who wants to stop in the middle of a book and wait for the ending?

Wait I will, of course, because this ending is well worth waiting for, but I’ll be waiting impatiently.  I love the character of David and can’t wait to find out how the story resolves.

I received a free copy of LitFuse Publicity in exchange for an honest review.

Mattie Diener can barely keep it together. A young Amish widow and mother of two young children, she faces the lingering heartbreak of lost love, her son’s mysterious illness, and a torrent of accusations that threaten to undo her.

Bo Lambright is a fast-rising social services investigator whose high-society mother won’t rest until she finds his Mrs. Right. Despite Bo’s worldly success, the raw ache of a shadowy past and a series of unsettling dreams have left him reeling.

When Mattie and Bo cross paths, all signs point to disaster. Yet as they face a crucible of trials and tragedies together, longings begin to stir that seem destined only to end in more heartbreak. Is a miracle possible—not only of healing but of forbidden love? What secrets lie in Bo’s dreams? And will Mattie find the courage to face her uncertain future . . . or will she simply run away?

Ruth Reid’s newest book will restore your faith in miracles.  A fantastic story of faith and restoration, I enjoyed the way the many plot twists made it possible for big fanfare finish – in a simple Amish way, of course. 

Throughout the story Bo and Mattie both face adversity of many kinds.  Reid expertly foreshadows some of it while keeping other events a surprise to the reader, but none of these things would be easy for most adults to handle.  The way that each of these characters face their problems differ, but I most enjoyed the way that Bo stood up for what he believed to be right despite the potential for problems in his own future.  His stance is particularly inspirational in this day and age of lawsuits and so-called ‘intolerance.’

The beginning of the story was not an easy read for me, but not because Reid’s writing was less than excellent.  Instead, she wrote so realistically that I grew quite angry on Mattie’s behalf and wasn’t sure I wanted to continue to read about the unfair injustice I could see coming her way.  Having grown up in the same county as one of the largest, most traditional Amish communities in the world, I could see the writing on the wall – and it wasn’t spelling out a pretty message.

That message was an important one to us all, though, maybe exactly because of our lawsuit-hungry society:  don’t judge on first impressions or appearances.  I don’t in any way mean for this to have anything to do with bathroom laws or who-makes-whose cake; but how often do we assume that the person over there is that kind of person based solely in a single word, look, or incident?  We may never know the damage we can do with that kind of  assumption, but Mattie’s story stands as a testament to it.

Fortunately for the reader, it doesn’t end there.  We also see the redemptive love that God has for us and the power that has to change relationships through the events that both Bo and Mattie live through.  We find in this story that not everyone is whom we were led to believe, and that second chances are important.  We learn that we can make a difference – whether it’s one word or one act or one person at a time.

Reid drew me in thoroughly to A Dream of Miracles in the very first chapter, and I couldn’t put it down.  Find a copy and pick it up – I’m sure you’d enjoy this Dream, too.

I received a free copy of this book from LitFuse Publicity in exchange for an honest review.