Litfuse Reviewer

The Brickmaker’s Bride by Judith Miller

Book Review

The Brickmaker’s Bride by Judith Miller was a fun read.  This is the first book by Judith Miller that I have read and I have to say that she is a great author.  I can’t wait to check out more books by her in the future.  In this book you follow along with Ewan as he tries to make money running a brick maker because that is what he did in Ireland.  Even as he works so hard trying to get the business up and running his uncle spends time gambling and almost ruining it all.  I love this book because it did have twists and turns but it also had parts that made me just laugh.  This is a well rounded novel that I would recommend to anyone who loves historical romance books.

The Brickmaker's BrideAbout The Book

Bestselling Author Judith Miller Debuts Historical Series Set in West Virginia

Yearning for a fresh start, Ewan McKay travels with his aunt and uncle from northern Scotland to West Virginia, promising to trade his skills in the clay business for financial assistance from his uncle Hugh. Hugh purchases a brickmaking operation from a Civil War widow and her daughter, but it’s Ewan who gets the business up and running again. Ewan seeks help from Laura, the former owner’s daughter, and he feels a connection with her, but she’s being courted by another man—a lawyer with far more social clout and money than Ewan. Besides, Ewan has resolved he’ll focus on making the brickmaking operation enough of a success that he can become a partner in the business and be able to afford to bring his sisters over from Scotland.

But when Hugh signs a bad business deal, all Ewan’s hard work may come to naught. As his plans begin to crumble, Laura reveals something surprising. She and her mother may have a way to save the brickworks, and in turn Ewan may have another shot at winning Laura’s heart.

Judith MillerAbout The Author

Judith Miller is an award-winning author whose avid research and love for history are reflected in her bestselling novels. When time permits, Judy enjoys traveling, visiting historical settings, and scrapbooking the photographs from her travel expeditions. She makes her home in Topeka, Kansas.

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Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

The Mason Jar by James Russell Lingerfelt

Book ReviewThe Mason Jar by James Russell Lingerfelt was a sweet book.  This is a book that I wasn’t sure how I was going to like it but I have to say it was a sweet story.  This one was different for me to read because it is basically told from the male point of view and that is a nice change from the books I usually read.  This author has an amazing way of writing.  I can’t put my finger on what I loved so much about it but I didn’t want to put the book down and I was sad when it was over.  There are very few books that I would read over again and this is one of them.  If you are looking for a sweet story make sure you check this one out.

The Mason JarAbout The Book

What if your old college roommate called, raving about a book someone sent her, calling it the most beautiful book she’s ever read? “But,” she said, “it’s about you.” The author is your college ex.

In The Mason Jar, Clayton Fincannon is a Tennessee farm boy raised at the feet of his grandfather. He and his grandfather leave letters for each other in a Mason jar on his grandfather’s desk—letters of counsel and affirmation. When Clayton attends college in Southern California, he meets and falls in love with a dark debutante from Colorado. However, when an unmentioned past resurrects in her life and she leaves, Clayton is left with unanswered questions.

Clayton goes on to serve as a missionary in Africa, while he and his grandfather continue their tradition of writing letters. When Clayton returns home five years later to bury his grandfather, he searches for answers pertaining to the loss of the young woman he once loved. Little does Clayton know, the answers await him in the broken Mason jar.

A story about a girl who vanished, a former love who wrote a book about her, and a reunion they never imagined.

Written for the bruised and broken, The Mason Jar is an inspirational romance that brings hope to people who have experienced disappointment in life due to separation from loved ones. With a redemptive ending that encourages us to love again and written in the fresh, romantic tones of Nicholas Sparks, The Mason Jar interweaves the imagery of Thoreau with the adventures and climatic family struggles common toDances with Wolves, A River Runs Through It, and Legends of the Fall.

James Russell LingerfeltAbout The Author

James Russell Lingerfelt is the author of The Mason Jar and writes articles for The Huffington Post. James connects with readers at his blog, Love Story from the Male Perspective, and divides his time between Southern California and his family’s ranch in Alabama.

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Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

Where Treetops Glisten

Book ReviewWhere Treetops Glisten was an amazing book.   This book was the best of two types of  books that I love to read.  It takes place during WWII & it is also is a collection of 3 short stories written by 3 different authors.  It also helps that I love all three of the authors in this book so reading it was great.  I am not going to get into the stories  but this such a sweet book and perfect for the holiday season.  This book will leave you smiling and wanting more.  I do wish that the stories would have been a whole book because I did love each of them and wanted to read more about them.  If you are looking for a heart warming story to read during the holidays than this is the book for you!

Where Treetops GlistenAbout The Book

The crunch of newly fallen snow, the weight of wartime

Siblings forging new paths and finding love in three stories, filled with the wonder of Christmas

Turn back the clock to a different time, listen to Bing Crosby sing of sleigh bells in the snow, as the realities of America’s involvement in the Second World War change the lives of the Turner family in Lafayette, Indiana.

In Cara Putman’s White Christmas, Abigail Turner is holding down the Home Front as a college student and a part-time employee at a one-of-a-kind candy shop. Loss of a beau to the war has Abigail skittish about romantic entanglements—until a hard-working young man with a serious problem needs her help.

Abigail’s brother Pete is a fighter pilot hero returned from the European Theater in Sarah Sundin’s I’ll Be Home for Christmas,trying to recapture the hope and peace his time at war has eroded. But when he encounters a precocious little girl in need of Pete’s friendship, can he convince her widowed mother that he’s no longer the bully she once knew?

In Tricia Goyer’s Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Meredith Turner, “Merry” to those who know her best, is using her skills as a combat nurse on the frontline in the Netherlands. Halfway around the world from home, Merry never expects to face her deepest betrayal head on, but that’s precisely what God has in mind to redeem her broken heart.

The Turner family believes in God’s providence during such a tumultuous time. Can they absorb the miracle of Christ’s birth and His plan for a future?

unnamedAbout The Authors

TRICIA GOYER is a prolific author of nearly forty books, including Chasing Mona Lisa, and a speaker and blogger.

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CARA PUTMAN is the author of twenty books includingShadowed by Grace. She is the winner of the 2008 Carol Award for historical fiction.

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SARAH SUNDIN is the critically-acclaimed author of the Wings of the Nightingale series, the Wings of Glory series, and the forthcoming Waves of Freedom novels.

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Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

The Sea House by Elisabeth Gifford

Book ReviewThe Sea House by Elisabeth Gifford was a fun book to read.  I am going to say right up front that some people had problems with some language in this book but I personally didn’t see a problem with it.  This book was so different from anything that I have read in awhile that I truly enjoyed all of it.  There were parts that I thought drug on a little longer than they needed to but the overall message of this book made reading through those part so worth it.  I recommend this book to everyone and I hope that you will stick through the slow parts because it is an amazing book.

The Sea HouseAbout the Book

Scotland, 1860

Reverend Alexander Ferguson, naive and newly-ordained, takes up his new parish, a poor, isolated patch on the Hebridean island of Harris. His time on the island will irrevocably change the course of his life, but the white house on the edge of the dunes keeps its silence long after Alexander departs. It will be more than a century before the Sea House reluctantly gives up its secrets. Ruth and Michael buy the grand but dilapidated building and begin to turn it into a home for the family they hope to have. Their dreams are marred by a shocking discovery. The tiny bones of a baby are buried beneath the house; the child’s fragile legs are fused together — a mermaid child. Who buried the bones? And why? Ruth needs to solve the mystery of her new home — but the answers to her questions may lie in her own past.

Based on a real nineteenth-century letter to The Times in which a Scottish clergyman claimed to have seen a mermaid, The Sea House is an epic, sweeping tale of loss and love, hope and redemption, and how we heal ourselves with the stories we tell.

Elisabeth GiffordAbout The Author

Elisabeth Gifford grew up in a vicarage in the industrial Midlands. She studied French literature and world religions at Leeds University. She is the author of The House of Hope: A Story of God’s Love and Provision for the Abandoned Orphans of Chinaand has written articles for The Times and the Independent and has a Diploma in Creative Writing from Oxford OUDCE and an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway College. She is married with three children. They live in Kingston on Thames but spend as much time as possible in the Hebrides.

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Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

Tried & True by Mary Connealy

Book ReviewTried & True by Mary Connealy was a great book to read.  I have to say that I wasn’t sure I was going to like this book when I started reading it but I was surprised and once I got a few chapters in I didn’t want to stop reading because I had to know what was going to happen.  I fell in love with the characters and the plot.  This was a great spin on the typical story line and think that is what drew me in.   There were parts where I laughed and parts where I got sad because of what was going on.  I can’t wait to read the other books in this series because I am sure they will be just as good as this one.

Tried and TrueAbout The Book

Saddle up for a wildly fun ride with the Wilde sisters!

Kylie Wilde is the youngest sister—and the most civilized. Her older sisters might be happy dressing in trousers and posing as men, but Kylie has grown her hair long and wears skirts every chance she gets. It’s a risk—they are homesteading using the special exemptions they earned serving in the Civil War as “boys”—but Kylie plans to make the most of the years before she can sell her property and return to the luxuries of life back East.

Local land agent Aaron Masterson is fascinated with Kylie from the moment her long hair falls from her cap. But now that he knows her secret, can he in good conscience defraud the U.S. government? And when someone tries to force Kylie off her land, does he have any hope of convincing her that marrying him and settling on the frontier is the better option for her future?

Mary ConnealyAbout The Author

Mary Connealy writes fun and lively “romantic comedy with cowboys” for the inspirational market. She is the author of the successful Kincaid Brides, Lassoed in Texas, Montana Marriages, and Sophie’s Daughters series, and she has been a finalist for a Rita and Christy Award and a two time winner of the Carol Award. She lives on a ranch in eastern Nebraska with her husband, Ivan, and has four grown daughters.

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Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

Christmas at Rose Hill Farm by Suzanne Woods Fisher

Book ReviewChristmas at Rose Hill Farm by Suzanne Woods Fisher was a sweet Christmas story.  I am not usually one for stories based around Christmas but I loved this one and I was so glad to have read it.  I loved the story and all the characters in the book.  It was kind of predictable to me but I still enjoyed it and fell in love with the characters.  I was sad that this book was so short because I really did love these characters so I wish the book was longer or  that it was a series of books.  If you love Amish fiction I know you will love this book.

Christmas at Rose Hill FarmAbout The Book

Bess Riehl is preparing Rose Hill Farm for her Christmas wedding, but her groom isn’t who she thought it would be. Billy Lapp is far away from his Amish roots working as a rose rustler for Penn State and wants nothing to do with Stoney Ridge, his family, or Bess. And that suits Bess just fine. Why should she think twice about a man who left without a word, without any explanation? It’s time she moved on with her life, and that meant saying yes to Amos Lapp, Billy’s cousin and best friend. But as Bess and Amos’s wedding day draws near, her emotions tangle into a tight knot. She loves Amos. Yet she can’t forget Billy.

When a “lost” rose is discovered at Rose Hill Farm, Billy is sent to track down its origins. Get in, identify the rose, and get out. That’s his plan. The only catch is that he’s having a hard time narrowing down the identity of the lost rose, and he can’t get those tropical blue eyes of Bess Riehl out of his mind.

As the history of the lost rose is pieced together, it reminds Bess and Billy—and Amos, too—that Christmas truly is the season of miracles.

“Filled with heart-twisting moments amid the sweet anticipation of love, this story will charm readers into the holiday spirit.”

Suzanne Woods FisherAbout The Author

Suzanne Woods Fisher is the bestselling author of the Inn at Eagle Hill series, Lancaster County Secrets series, and the Stoney Ridge Seasons series, as well as nonfiction books about the Amish, including Amish Peace. She is also the coauthor of a new Amish children’s series, The Adventures of Lily Lapp. Her interest in the Anabaptist cultures can be directly traced to her grandfather, who was raised in the Old Order German Baptist Brethren Church in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Suzanne is a Carol Award winner and a Christy Award finalist. She is a columnist for Christian Post and Cooking & Such magazines. She lives in California.

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Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret