The Girl From The Train by Irma Joubert

December 8, 2015

The Girl From The Train by Irma Joubert was a book I knew I was going to like because it takes place during WWII and I love almost all books that take place during that time period. I loved this book because I really loved Gretl from the start of the book. I was amazed at how she was able to go through what she did and still keep going. I don’t think I could do the same if I were in her shoes. I also enjoyed Jakob because of how he treated Gretl and how he was willing to take care of her when he could have just as easily ignored her and let her figure it out on her own. I can’t say enough good things about this book and I know if you love historical fiction books then you will love this book like I do.

About The Book

A sweeping international love story that celebrates the triumph of the human spirit over the inhumanities of war and prejudice.

Six-year-old Gretl and her sister jump from a train bound for Auschwitz, her mother and grandmother unable to squeeze between the bars covering the windows. The daughter of a German soldier, Gretl understands very little about how her grandmother’s Jewishness brought her first to the ghetto, then to the train, and now, to the Polish countryside where she wanders, searching for food and water for her dying sister.

Soon, Gretl finds refuge with Jakob, a Polish freedom fighter, and his family, where she is sheltered until the end of the war. Gretl is then sent away to a new life, a new name, and a new faith in Apartheid-era South Africa. As she comes of age in this strange place, she confronts its prejudices as she hides the truth of her past from her new family.

When Jakob makes his way to South Africa many years later, Gretl and Jakob are reunited in a love story that transcends time and distance and survives the ravages of hatred and war.

About The Author

International bestselling author Irma Joubert was a history teacher for 35 years before she began writing. Her stories are known for their deep insight into personal relationships and rich historical detail. She’s the author of eight novels and a regular fixture on bestseller lists in The Netherlands and in her native South Africa. She is the winner of the 2010 ATKV Prize for Romance Novels. Facebook: irmajoubertpage

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Crimson Path Of Honor by M.B. Tosi

November 19, 2015

Crimson Path Of Honor by M.B. Tosi was so different from anything that I have read before. I have read a ton of historical fiction books but none that dealt with Native Americans like this book does. This is the third book in “The Indian Path Series” but you don’t have to read the other two books to know what is going on in this book. It is the third book but all books can stand alone because they all focus on a different Indian tribe. I love watching and Luci turn into Morning Star after she is captured and taken with them instead of being killed when the other people in her party were killed. This was an amazing book and I am so glad that I chose to review. I can’t wait to read the other books in this series in the future.

About The Book

Each of the three books in The Indian Path Series focuses on a different Native American tribe during the Indian Wars in the late 1800s, and the lives of fictional characters are woven into the true events. The books can be read in any order as each book stands alone with different characters, tribes, settings, and events in the Indian Wars.

In the newest book, The Crimson Path of Honor (Book Three), the Civil War is over, and a violent period known as the Indian Wars is erupting. Ignoring the danger, a feisty young woman from Boston rebels against her tyrannical father’s plans to marry her off to a family friend, and she seizes an opportunity to go west to teach. On the way to the Oregon Territory, her stagecoach is attacked, and she is captured by a marauding band of Lakota (Sioux) Indians who call the Rocky Mountains home.

Accepting her perilous situation, the young woman courageously confronts the daily hardships inherent in early Native American life. At first treated like an outcast, she eventually adapts to her circumstances and comes to respect the camaraderie of the Indians, even falling in love with her captor. Over time, she begins to challenge her abductor’s traditional views on bloodletting and violence as the path of honor. Torn by her inability to justify her growing feelings for her captor in a culture of violence,she continually wonders why God has abandoned her in such a desolate place.

The theme of The Indian Path Series is how to find life’s purpose and a path of peace, love, courage, and faith in times of trouble. As American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.”

Other books in The Indian Path Series include The Sacred Path of Tears (Book One) and The Secret Path of Destiny (Book Two). In The Sacred Path of Tears, a young Cheyenne woman in Kansas is torn between two worlds at war and the two men she loves after the Sand Creek Massacre. The Secret Path of Destiny is about the Comanche in Texas and a young German-American girl who seeks refuge with the Comanche when her wicked stepfather pursues her.

About The Author

M.B. TOSI is the bestselling author of The Indian Path Series, which includes Book One The Sacred Path of Tears, Book Two The Secret Path of Destiny, Book Three The Crimson Path of Honor. Book Four, The Thundering Path of Spirit, and Book Five, The Solitary Path of Courage. She also has been an editor of non-fiction books and a weekly newspaper. She teaches piano and has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s degree in education. Born in Pierre, South Dakota, she has lived in Alexandria, Virginia; Bucks County, Pennsylvania; and Toledo, Ohio. She has three children and five grandchildren.

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The Bishop’s Son By Kelly Irvin

October 13, 2015

The Bishop’s Son By Kelly Irvin was a good book to read. I have lots of Amish fiction books than this book was one of the better ones that I have read. I have always loved to read these book so when I saw this book on BookLook I knew I had to requested and check it out. I am so glad that I did because this is an amazing author who was able to make me feel like I was there with the characters and I also was able to understand why they made the choices that they did. I enjoyed everything about this book and I can’t wait to check out the others books in this series as well as the other books that she has read. If you love Amish fiction I would for sure recommend this book to you. If you have read it what did you think about the story?

About The Book

Two men offer Leila two very different futures. Will she choose with her heart or with her faith?

Leila Lantz has been in love with Jesse Glick from the day she first saw him at his father’s store, but she can’t make sense of his intentions. One day he wants to come courting, the next he seems to be putting distance between them.

Jesse may be the bishop’s son, but his faith has been wavering of late. If he is so unsure, is it fair to give Leila false hope for a future he doubts he can provide?

Then there’s Will, Jesse’s cousin. He has been trying to keep his feelings for Leila a secret, but he also knows Jesse is wrestling with his faith. Would declaring his feelings for Leila be in her best interest or simply serving his own selfish desires?

Leila knows she can choose Will and be secure in her own future. But when her heart speaks, it’s Jesse’s name she hears. When will God make His will known to her? Could leaving everything she knows—even her own faith—be a part of God’s plan?

About The Author

Kelly Irvin’s latest book in the New Hope Amish series, A Plain Love Song, releases in July 2014. She is the author of the Bliss Creek Amish series and the New Amish Amish series. The first series includes To Love and To Cherish, A Heart Made New, and Love’s Journey Home, published by Harvest House. Love Still Stands, the first book in her spin-off series New Hope Amish, released in September 2013, followed by Love Redeemed in March 2014.

Kelly is now working on a three-book series for Zondervan set in Bee County, Texas. The first book in The Amish of Bee County series, The Beekeeper’s Son, is set to release in January 2015.

Kelly has also penned two romantic suspense novels, A Deadly Wilderness and No Child of Mine, published by Five Star Gale in 2010 and 2011.

The Kansas native is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Sisters in Crime. She also serves as secretary of the ACFW San Antonio local chapter Alamo City Christian Fiction Writers.

A graduate of the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism, Kelly has been writing nonfiction professionally for thirty years. She studied for three semesters at the University of Costa Rica, learning the Spanish language. As a journalist, she worked six years in the border towns of Laredo and El Paso.

She has worked in public relations for the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department for 19 years.Kelly has been married to photographer Tim Irvin for twenty-six years, and they have two young adult children. They recently became grandparents for the first time. In her spare time, she likes to write short stories, read books by her favorite authors, and play with her new granddaughter.

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Never Said by Carol Lynch Williams

September 2, 2015

Never Said by Carol Lynch Williams was a very interesting book. I really enjoyed this book and it was a super quick read because it is a YA fiction. This was a great break from the books I have read. I loved that the author didn’t shy away from topics that kids really have to deal with in today’s society. I love when authors take on hard to talk about subjects because it opens the door for people to talk about them. I loved seeing how Sarah & Annie interacted and how much they changed from the start of the book right up until the end of the book. I felt like I could relate to Sarah the most because we have very similar personalities. If you love YA fiction or you have a teenager in your life you need to read this book.

About The Book

From bestselling author Carol Lynch Williams (The Chosen One), a contemporary YA novel about a family that has been caught up in what doesn’t matter and how two sisters realize that their relationship—no matter how different the two of them are—is most important.

In this contemporary YA novel by bestselling author Carol Lynch Williams (The Chosen One), fifteen-year-old fraternal twins Annie and Sarah are sisters, but that is where their interaction ends. Then Annie begins to withdraw from the family, forcing Sarah to investigate why-and the secret she uncovers changes their relationship forever.

Never Said explores not only the effects of abuse but also our world’s reliance on self, beauty, and other people’s perceptions. With themes of forgiveness, love, sacrifice, and hope woven throughout the story, teens and other fans of young adult fiction will be drawn to this story of two sisters who must find a way to come together and find the healing they both need.

About The Author

About the Author: Carol Lynch Williams, a two-time winner of the Utah Original Writing Competition, is the author of several books for children, including two novels about the Orton family of New Smyrna, Florida: Kelly and Me and Adeline Street. A starred School Library Journal review of The True Colors of Caitlynne Jacksonpraises Williams as she “again demonstrates her facility at mood and character development… Truer colors are hard to come by.”

Her most recent novel, If I Forget, You Remember, is a moving intergenerational story that stresses the bonds that hold families together through difficult times–a help since over 19 million Americans have a family member with Alzheimer’s disease.