Book Review Groups

Through The Shadows by Karen Barnett

 

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FTC: I received a free copy of this book from Litfuse in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

Through The Shadows by Karen Barnett was another great book in The Golden Gate Chronicles series.   This is the third book in the series, and I think it may be my favorite in the series. I loved these characters, and I felt like I could relate to them more than I could the other characters. I also loved the subject of this book because it reminded me of one of my favorite author’s and her books that take place in North and South Korea and even though that this book takes place in San Francisco it reminded me of those books and I know that made me fall even more in love with this book. I could see myself acting like Elizabeth and Charles because the things that they are fighting against are also things that I would be against and try to change. This is a fantastic historical fiction book that I know just about everyone will love just as much as I do.

Through The Shadows by Karen Barnett

About The Book

The devastating earthquake is just two years past, but the city of San Francisco is still trying to recover. Destruction of this magnitude is not so easy to overcome-and neither are the past regrets shadowing Elizabeth King’s hopeful future.
Hoping to right her wrongs, Elizabeth dedicates herself to helping girls rescued from slavery in Chinatown brothels, even if it means putting her own life at risk to sneak through the gloomy alleys and rooftops where dangers lurk.
Putting her life on the line for a worthy cause is admirable. But opening her heart is even more terrifying. So when Elizabeth meets attorney, Charles McKinley–a man who dreams of reforming San Francisco’s crooked politics–Elizabeth begins to doubt: Can she maintain her pretense and hide her past? Or will her secret jeopardize both their futures?

Karen Barnett

About The Author

Karen Barnett is the author of Beyond the Ashes, Out of the Ruins, andMistaken. Named the 2013 Writer of Promise by Oregon Christian Writers, Karen lives in Albany, Oregon, with her husband and two kids. When she’s not writing novels, she loves speaking at women’s events, libraries, and book clubs.

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Hunting Hope by Nika Maples

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FTC: I received a free copy of this book from Litfuse in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

Hunting Hope by Nika Maples was such a great book and one I was glad that I got to review.  When I first saw this book being offered to review, I didn’t sign up for it because I am not always a huge fan of books like this one.  After I got a second email asking to review the book I figured what the hell it won’t hurt me to read it.  In the end, I am so glad that I read the book because it gave me a new way to look at some of the hard things I have dealt with in my life.  This book is a smaller book but right from the first page it made me think and made me want to look at my life differently.  I also liked that this book was an easy read, and the author did a great job of making me understand what she was saying and things like that.  I think this is one book that everyone should read at some point because it can teach everyone something.

Hunting Hope by Nika Maples

About The Book

Hunting Hope: Dig Through the Darkness to Find the Light (April 2016, Worthy Inspired)

Hope is not an accident. Sometimes it has to be hunted, and hunting it takes courage.

Hope hunters know how to excavate hope from hardship. There is dirt underneath their fingernails and sweat on their shirts. They rake through the rubble of an unwanted situation, digging into difficult circumstances because they have come to expect that adversity will produce good. They believe that light always triumphs over darkness. They have learned to walk through winter with their eyes on spring.

Nika Maples became a hope hunter after suffering a massive brainstem stroke that left her quadriplegic in her twenties. Doctors warned that she had as little as 48 hours to live, and—if she lived at all—she would never walk or talk again. There was no hope on the horizon. So Nika started to hunt for it. Today, she not only walks, but she speaks to audiences everywhere about the power of hunting hope when a situation appears hopeless. She says hope remains camouflaged in the daily mundane. If we are not looking for it, we will miss it, though it is right before our eyes.

Whether you or someone you know is going through a situation that feels hopeless, you will find encouragement in Hunting Hope. Whether you are experiencing a medical trauma, a financial hardship, or a relational crisis, you will find empowerment in Hunting Hope. As you read, you will cling to 20 truths about God’s character and practice 5 daily disciplines that will develop your own character in crisis.

You will become a hope hunter.

Maybe it doesn’t matter what causes suffering in our lives as much as it matters what suffering causes in our lives. Maybe we were all meant to be hope hunters.

Nika Maples

About The Author

Nika Maples is the author of Twelve Clean Pages, the memoir of her survival of lupus and a stroke that left her quadriplegic at age 20. After learning to walk and talk again, she became a public school teacher, winning 2007 Texas Secondary Teacher of the Year. She holds an MA in English Education from Columbia University and currently is pursuing an MDIV from The King’s University. When she is not traveling to speak, she lives, writes, and laughs as much as possible in Fort Worth, Texas.

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Her One and Only by Becky Wade

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FTC: I received a free copy of this book from Litfuse in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

Her One and Only by Becky Wade was a sweet love story.  I have read all the other books in this series, but you don’t have to read the other books to understand what is going on in this book.  I love books like this one because you get caught up with the characters from the other books which I always enjoy.  I have to share one thing that bugged me because it is the only thing I didn’t like about this book, and that is the fact that I don’t like the two people they have on the cover because in my head they don’t look anything like what I think the characters would look like.  Even as I wrote that last statement, I had to laugh because that is the only thing that bugged me about the book.  I loved this book and this series, and I don’t think that that will ever change.

Her One and Only by Becky Wade

About The Book

Romance Fans Eagerly Anticipate Every New Release from Becky Wade
Gray Fowler, star NFL tight end, is being pursued by a stalker, so his team hires a protection agency to keep Gray under the watch of a bodyguard at all times. When Gray meets Dru Porter, an agent assigned to him, he’s indignant. How can an attractive young female half his size possibly protect him?
But Dru’s a former Marine, an expert markswoman, and a black belt. She’s also ferociously determined to uncover the identity of Gray’s stalker. And she’s just as determined to avoid any kind of romantic attachment between herself and the rugged football player with the mysterious past. But the closer they get to finding the stalker, the closer they grow to each other. As the danger rises, can Dru and Gray entrust their hearts–and their lives–to one another?

Becky Wade

About The Author

Becky Wade is a native of California who attended Baylor University, met and married a Texan, and moved to Dallas. She published historical romances for the general market, took time off to raise her children, then felt God nudging her to pursue contemporary Christian fiction. Becky’s work has been a finalist for both a RITA and an INSPY Award.

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Someone Like You by Victoria Bylin

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FTC: I received a free copy of this book from Litfuse in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

Someone Like You by Victoria Bylin was a fantastic book. I was able to figure out what was going to happen through most of the book, but that is pretty usual for me when it comes to romance novels. This is the first book I have read by this author, and I am so glad to have found another author to read. I also loved that I didn’t have to worry about what was going to happen in the book because it is a Christian novel and that always makes reading these books easy for me. I enjoyed all the characters in this book, but if I had to pick my favorite character, I would have to choose Zeke. He is one of my favorite characters that I have read about lately, and I hope that she will write others books and have him in so I can catch up with him later. If you love romance novels than I know, you will love this book as much as I did.

Someone Like You by Victoria Bylin

About The Book

Realistic Characters Shine in Bylin’s Latest Romance

Julia Dare is trying to run her own business, raise her young son, Max, and help her widowed mother. Her biggest worry, though, is keeping Max’s father from being a bad influence while still allowing the boy to spend time with his dad. When an account from her event-planning business sends her to Caliente Springs resort, she’s shocked to encounter Zeke Monroe, her college sweetheart.

Zeke is determined to keep Caliente Springs running despite financial trouble. When Julia walks back into his life, he’s surprised at the feelings she stirs up. As they work together on an important client’s wedding, the fate of the resort soon depends on their success. With Zeke and Julia both pushed to their limits, will their history put up walls between them or bring them together?

Victoria Bylin

About The Author

Known for her realistic, likable characters and vivid writing, Victoria Bylin writes both western and contemporary inspirational romance. Her next book, Until I Found You, hits the shelves in May 2014. Victoria’s books have finaled in the ACFW Carol Awards, the Rita Awards and RT Magazine’s Reviewers’ Choice Awards. She and her husband currently live in Lexington, Kentucky and have two grown sons.

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Kathryn Kelly: The Moll Behind “Machine Gun” Kelly by Barbara Casey

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FTC: I received a free copy of this book from iRead in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

Kathryn Kelly: The Moll Behind “Machine Gun” Kelly by Barbara Casey was a fascinating book. I enjoyed this book because they focused on the facts and didn’t spend time talking about things that didn’t matter. I how well this book flowed, and they only included events you had to know and left out all the other stuff that other authors include in their books sometime. I also loved that the author would tell you something and if it wasn’t 100% confirmed she would just say that it is what was said, but she couldn’t find out if it were a fact or not. This book was a super easy to read, and I loved that the font in this book was bigger than some others I have read lately. I can’t say enough great things about this book because I love reading books that teach me things and this book is one of those types of books. If you love crime novels or biography’s, then I would tell you to pick up this book and check it out.

Kathryn Kelly

About The Book

Kathryn Kelly: The Moll Behind “Machine Gun” Kelly is a biography of the woman who made a career of crime. With a lust for danger, she masterminded the crimes that took her and her husband, and others who included her own mother and stepfather, on a spree across Minnesota, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Texas. Starting with smaller crimes that included bootlegging, smuggling liquor onto an Oklahoma Indian reservation, and other petty crimes, she encouraged her husband, George Barnes aka George Kelly, toward a life of more serious criminal activity that eventually escalated into bank robberies, kidnapping and extortion.

Many believe that it was Kathryn, after giving him a machine gun, who developed George’s feared persona and the name of Machine Gun Kelly. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was even convinced that the two were somehow connected in the Lindbergh kidnapping. Kathryn and Machine Gun Kelly were eventually captured after kidnapping Charles Urschel, a wealthy Oklahoma City oilman, and collecting a $200,000 ransom the largest ransom ever paid at that time.

Eventually, the two were captured in Memphis, where Kelly had grown up as a boy. During their trial in Oklahoma City, movie cameras were allowed into the courtroom for the first time as curious spectators across the nation watched. Kathryn, while claiming to be an innocent victim in a bad marriage, remained unrepentant, smiling and primping for the cameras, and writing threatening letters to the judge and attorneys assigned to the case as well as her victims.

Convicted in 1933, Kathryn served twenty-five years of her life sentence at FPC Alderson, West Virginia, when in 1958 she was finally released into obscurity. Although much has been written about Machine Gun Kelly, there is very little known about Kathryn.

Through narrative, FBI files, rare quotes from George Kelly’s son and other relatives and associates, extensive research, and several photographs, Kathryn Kelly ¬The Moll behind Machine Gun Kelly is the first book ever written about a woman who chose to follow a life of crime during the Prohibition era.

Barbara Casey 2

About The Author

Barbara Casey is a partner in Strategic Media Books, and president of the Barbara Casey Agency, representing authors throughout the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Japan. She is also a manuscript consultant and the author of numerous articles, poems, and short stories.

Her award-winning novels have received national recognition, including the Independent Publishers Book Award. Her novel, The House of Kane, was considered for a Pulitzer nomination, and The Gospel According to Prissy, also a contemporary adult novel received several awards including the prestigious IPPY Award for Best Regional Fiction. Her most recent young adult novel, The Cadence of Gypsies, received the Independent Publishers Living Now Award and was reviewed by the Smithsonian for its list of Best Books.

Ms. Casey makes her home on the top of a mountain in northwest Georgia with her husband and three dogs who adopted her: Benton, a hound-mix, Fitz, a miniature dachshund, and Gert, a Jack Russel terrier of sorts.

Connect with the author:   Website

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The Bluebonnet Bride by Pamela Tracy

 

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FTC: I received a free copy of this book from Serenade Books in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

The Bluebonnet Bride by Pamela Tracy was a super sweet short story. So far I have enjoyed every book I have gotten to review from Serenade Books, and this book was another great one. I think these characters might be my favorite because they seemed the most relatable to me. I loved that this was a shorter book, but I also wish that it had been longer because I enjoyed this characters and I would have loved to get to spend more time with them. I loved this author writing, and I hope that she writes more books because I would like to read more by her. If you love romance novels then I would for sure, recommend this book to you.

The Bluebonnet Bride by Pamela Tracy

About The Book

USA TODAY bestselling author Pamela Tracy introduces the Lone Star Brides series with a charming story of unexpected love…

Amy has never had a home. Will she find one in the arms of a cowboy?

This is Daniel Starr’s year. He’s moving up the rankings on the bull-riding circuit and is determined to catch his twin brother. Nothing is going to stop him. Well, almost nothing. When his beloved grandmother falls and needs a caretaker, Daniel finds himself on the road back to Pecan, Texas, rather than making the next rodeo. Why did this happen now? And why, when he’s jeopardizing his career to come home, does Miss Bossypants Amy Benjamin think he’s not doing enough?

Amy knows all about the swashbuckling Starr Brothers, but anyone who turns his back on her beloved Pecan–and on his own grandmother–doesn’t deserve admiration. If Amy had been lucky enough to have family like Grandma Starr, her life would have been so different! Well, she’s going to make sure Daniel does his duty. But the longer he stays in Pecan, the harder it’ll be to see him go…

Don’t miss books 2 & 3 in the Lone Star Brides series:
The Bull Rider’s Bride (May 2016)
The Butterfly Bride (June 2016)

Pamela Tracy

About The Author

Pamela Tracy is a USA Today award-winning author who lives with her husband (He claims to be the inspiration for most of her heroes) and son (He claims to be the interference for most of her writing time.) She was raised in Omaha, Nebraska, and started writing at a very young age (a series of romances, all with David Cassidy as the hero. Sometimes Bobby Sherman would interfere). Then, while earning a BA in Journalism at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, she picked up the pen again only this time, it was an electric typewriter on which she wrote a very bad science fiction novel.)
First published in 1999 , Pamela has since published more than twenty books. Her suspense novels have garnered her an American Christian Fiction Writer’s Carol award and a RITA finalist. You can find out more about Pamela by visiting her website:http://pamelatracy.com

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