Book Review Groups

An Amish Year by Beth Wiseman

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from 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.

Book Review Tur

An Amish Year by Beth Wiseman was an excellent book.  I love books like this because I love the shorter stories and the fact that I can read through one quickly and move on to a new thing.  I liked that they put definitions of some of the words that the Amish use so that if you haven’t read books in this genre before you will be able to understand and follow along with the stories.  I have read enough books that I don’t need the information, but if you are new, then I know you will love it.  Out of the four stories that are in this book, I think I liked the first story the most.  I felt like I could relate to Rosemary out of all the characters and her story was my favorite out of the four stories.  I would recommend this book to people who don’t have tons of time to read because since they are short stories you can just read one and then put it down and walk away from it for awhile without having to remember what happened before.

An Amish Year by Beth Wiseman

About The Book

Spend a year in Amish country with four sweet romances.

Rooted in Love (previously published in An Amish Garden )

Rosemary Lantz is doing her best to run her family’s household. She excels at all her tasks except one: gardening. Saul Petersheim has pursued Rosemary for years, but Rosemary keeps turning him down. What Saul doesn’t know is that she has good reason—something no one can know—especially not him.

A Love for Irma Rose

The year is 1957, and young Irma Rose has a choice to make. Date the man who is “right” for her? Or give Jonas a chance, the wild and reckless suitor who refuses to take no for an answer?  Irma Rose steps onto the path she believes God has planned for her, but when she loses her footing, she is forced to rethink her choice.

Patchwork Perfect

Eli Byler has been a widower for two years when he chooses to make a fresh start in Paradise, Pennsylvania. As Eli juggles the admiration of two women, he meets Miriam Fisher—the most unconventional Amish woman he’s ever met. She doesn’t fit the mold for what Eli is looking for, but it isn’t long before Eli realizes that Miriam is everything he wants. But Miriam has no plans to get married—ever.  Will Eli be able to change her mind?

When Christmas Comes Again (previously published in An Amish Second Christmas )

Katherine knows the first Christmas without Elias will be hard for her and the children. But when a mysterious Englischerappears with photographs of her late husband, Katherine begins to wonder what other blessings Christmas could have in store.

Beth Wiseman

About The Author

Beth Wiseman is the best-selling author of the Daughters of the Promise series and the Land of Canaan series. Having sold over 1.3 million books, her novels have held spots on multiple Bestseller lists. She was the recipient of the prestigious Carol Award in 2011 and 2013. In 2013 she took home the coveted Holt Medallion. Her first book in the Land of Canaan series–Seek Me With All Your Heart–was selected as the 2011 Women of Faith Book of the Year. Beth lives in Texas with her family.

 

Buy Your Own Copy

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Margaret Margaret

Kissed By A Cowboy by Debra Clopton

Book Review Graphic

Kissed By A Cowboy by Debra Clopton was an excellent book.  This is the third book in the series, and you can just read this one if it is the only one that interests you.  I do want to say that if you wish to read the entire series start at the beginning because this book will give things away if you start with it.  I think Jarrod is my favorite character from this series because he seemed like he was the most relatable to me and someone I could see myself getting along with in the real world.  I felt sorry for Cassidy and everything that she had gone through while growing up and even the things she went through as an adult.  I think this book is the most relatable and one that most people will love.  I can’t say enough great things about this series and this author writing.  I think that most people would enjoy this book and series.

Kissed By A Cowboy by Debra Clopton

About The Book

Cassidy was looking for a home and a place to belong . . . not for a cowboy to steal her heart.

Having lived through her parents’ endless string of “matrimonial bliss gone wrong,” Cassidy Starr knows when the odds are not in her favor. Divorced and humiliated, her faith on rocky ground, Cassidy is through with love. She’s been bucked off that horse far too many times. Instead, she returns to Wishing Springs, Texas, and the rundown farm she’s inherited from her great aunt Roxie. She’ll reopen the strawberry farm and a bed & breakfast and follow in her aunt’s footsteps, remaining forever-independent, happy . . . and single.

Rancher Jarrod Monahan’s hands are full running the ranch, looking after his ailing grandfather, and chasing down a group of rustlers on the loose. He’s pushed his longing for a family to the bottom of his list of priorities. Besides, he was in love once but ran scared and lost his shot at happiness. But suddenly, the biggest regret of his life has moved in next door with a wounded heart, determined to become a spinster . . . and that’s a challenge that Jarrod can’t pass up.

Jarrod sets his mind to breaking down the walls around Cassidy’s stubborn heart. How can he show her that a cowboy’s kiss lasts forever?  For the good folks of Wishing Springs, falling in love has never been so much fun to witness.

Debra Clopton

About The Author

Debra Clopton is a multi-award winning novelist and has written more than 22 novels. Along with writing, Debra helps her husband teach the youth at their local Cowboy Church. Debra’s goal is to shine a light toward God while she entertains readers with her words.

Find Debra online:website, Facebook, Twitter

Buy Your Own Copy

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Margaret Margaret

Beyond The Silence by Tracie Peterson and Kimberley Woodhouse

Book Review Tur

Beyond The Silence by Tracie Peterson and Kimberley Woodhouse was an excellent book. The one bad thing I can say about this book is the fact that I did find a typo which bugged me. I am used to finding them from time to time because I do read a bunch or ARC or “advanced reader copies” where you see them because they haven’t been edited yet when we get those types. I shocked with this on because as far as I know it is the final copy that will be sold. It wasn’t a huge mistake it just made me read the sentence a few times to make sure that I wasn’t just reading it wrong.

Anyway, let’s get on with the review of this book. I liked Lillian from the first page right through the end of the book, but I was an even bigger fan of Woody because I felt so sorry for him and his son Jimmy. I saw a lot of the town I grew up in Angels Camp so I felt like I really could understand how hard it had to be on Woody to live in a town where people hate you for something you didn’t do or even who they assume you are. You can learn so much from this book while you are reading that I would recommend it to everyone. Not only did I learn things I actually enjoyed the story. This book was an excellent escape from real like for me.

Beyond The Silence by Tracie Peterson and Kimberley Woodhouse

About The Book

Lillian Porter has always wanted to fulfill her mother’s dream of going west, so when she hears about a nanny position in Angels Camp, California, she defies her grandfather and takes a chance on a new future. But she quickly wonders if she made the right choice. There are rumors in town that her new employer, Woodward Colton, caused the death of his wife. This accusation doesn’t match the man Lillian comes to know–and Mrs. Goodman, Woody’s long-time housekeeper, is decisively on Woody’s side–but many in town stay far away from Lillian because of her association with the Colton family.

Lillian’s six-year-old charge, Jimmy, was there when his mother died, and he hasn’t spoken a word since. Gently, Lillian tries to coax him out of his shell, hoping he’ll one day feel safe enough to tell her the truth about what happened. But the Colton olive farm is no longer a safe place. Lillian encounters suspicious characters on their land and mysterious damage done to the farm. Will Mrs. Goodman and Jimmy be able to speak what they know in time to save Lillian from tragedy?

unnamed

About The Authors

Tracie Peterson is the bestselling, award-winning author of more than 100 novels. Tracie also teaches writing workshops at a variety of conferences on subjects such as inspirational romance and historical research. She and her family live in Montana.

Kimberley Woodhouse is a multipublished author of fiction and nonfiction. A popular speaker/teacher, she’s shared her theme of Joy Through Trials with over 150,000 people at more than a thousand venues across the country. She lives, writes, and homeschools with her husband of twenty-plus years and their two awesome teens live in Colorado.

 

Buy Your Own Copy

Tur FTC

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Margaret Margaret

A Son’s Vow by Shelley Shepard Gray

Book Review Tur

A Sons Vow by Shelley Shepard Gray was another great book.  I love all of the books about the Amish that Shelley has written, but if I am honest, this book has to be one of my favorites.  I like Darla from the start and even though I didn’t like some of the things that Aaron did I had a soft spot for him because felt he was more relatable than some other characters.  I am a huge fan of these books because I love that I don’t have to worry about what will be in the books, and they always are such sweet stories.  I would recommend this genre to anyone who is looking for a change in what they are reading because I don’t think that anyone would hate these books.  They are always easy reading and great stories.  I love that I always feel good after I finish one of the books, and I know you will probably love it as well.

A Sons Vow by Shelley Shepard Gray

About The Book

Shelley Shepard Gray’s first book in her Charmed Amish Life series is set in the quaint Amish village of Charm, Ohio, and tells the stories of the Kinsinger siblings who are each struggling to find both forgiveness and love in the face of tragedy.

Three months ago, everything changed for Darla Kurtz and her family. Darla’s father was responsible for a terrible fire at Charm’s lumber mill which killed five Amish men. And though he, too, lost his life, the town of Charm hasn’t looked at her family the same since. Even Lukas Kinsinger—with whom Darla used to have a close friendship.

Now her brother’s anger at the town is spilling over onto Darla, and she has the bruises to prove it. The accident already cost five lives, but if something doesn’t change soon, Darla fears it will cost her—and her family—even more.

Lukas Kinsinger wants to mourn the loss of his father, but he can hardly find the time to breathe. Suddenly the head of his father’s lumber mill and responsible for taking care of his three siblings, he’s feeling the pressure. He has also never felt more alone—especially with the new tension between he and Darla. But when he learns of her troubles at home, Lukas knows he can’t simply stand by and watch. Someone has to help her before another tragedy occurs.

As Lukas and Darla attempt to repair their families, they discover something deeper than friendship growing between them. But will Lukas and Darla’s love be accepted after so much loss? Or will the pain of the past overcome any chance of future happiness?

Shelley Gray

About The Author

Shelley Gray is the author of The Heart of a Hero series. Her Amish novel (written as Shelley Shepard Gray), The Protector, recently made the New York Times best seller list. A native of Texas, she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Colorado and taught school for ten years. She and her husband have two children and live in Southern Ohio.

 

Buy A Copy

Tur FTC

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Margaret Margaret

The Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger

Book Review Tur

The Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger was such a strange book for me.  It was an interesting book but it was strange in the fact that it was all just emails, memo’s and things like that back and forth between all the characters in the book.  I have never before read a book like this before but it was interesting after I was about 20 pages into the book.  It did take awhile for me to get into it but once I was I didn’t want to put it down.  There are parts that I don’t know if they were meant to be funny but they did make me laugh because I could see things like this really being said.  It is a book that I would tell you to give a chance because it is a great book it just takes time to get going.  I liked that there aren’t any really chapters in this book so I could just read a page or two and be able to stop.  I think anyone would like this book and I would recommend this one to everyone.

The Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger

About The Book

Witty and wonderful, sparkling and sophisticated, this debut romantic comedy brilliantly tells the story of one very messy, very high-profile divorce, and the endearingly cynical young lawyer dragooned into handling it.


Twenty-nine-year-old Sophie Diehl is happy toiling away as a criminal law associate at an old line New England firm where she very much appreciates that most of her clients are behind bars. Everyone at Traynor, Hand knows she abhors face-to-face contact, but one weekend, with all the big partners away, Sophie must handle the intake interview for the daughter of the firm’s most important client. After eighteen years of marriage, Mayflower descendant Mia Meiklejohn Durkheim has just been served divorce papers in a humiliating scene at the popular local restaurant, Golightly’s. She is locked and loaded to fight her eminent and ambitious husband, Dr. Daniel Durkheim, Chief of the Department of Pediatric Oncology, for custody of their ten-year-old daughter Jane–and she also burns to take him down a peg. Sophie warns Mia that she’s never handled a divorce case before, but Mia can’t be put off. As she so disarmingly puts it: It’s her first divorce, too.


Debut novelist Susan Rieger doesn’t leave a word out of place in this hilarious and expertly crafted debut that shines with the power and pleasure of storytelling. Told through personal correspondence, office memos, emails, articles, and legal papers, this playful reinvention of the epistolary form races along with humor and heartache, exploring the complicated family dynamic that results when marriage fails. For Sophie, the whole affair sparks a hard look at her own relationships–not only with her parents, but with colleagues, friends, lovers, and most importantly, herself. Much like “Where’d You Go, Bernadette,” “The Divorce Papers “will have you laughing aloud and thanking the literature gods for this incredible, fresh new voice in fiction.

About The Author

Susan Rieger is a graduate of Columbia University Law School. She is also a former Associate Provost for Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action at Columbia University.The Divorce Papers is her debut novel.

Buy Your Own Copy

Tur FTC

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Margaret Margaret

If I Run by Terri Blackstock

Book Review 1-2016

If I Run by  Terri Blackstock was another great suspense/thriller novel.   This is the 4th book I have read by this author, and I am starting to think that she can’t write a bad book.  I always get sucked into the books from the first chapter right up through the end of the book.  Once the book ends I find that I am usually sad because I have fallen in love with the characters and hate that the book has ended, and this book was no different.  I wasn’t sure if I liked Casey throughout most of the book but in the end, I did enjoy her.  I had a soft spot for Dylan because of the things he went through and for being a veteran.  I love this book because I wasn’t able to figure it out super early on which means that I love it.  If you love suspense/thriller books, I know you will love this book as much as I do.

If I Run by Terri Blackstock

About The Book

Casey knows the truth.

But it won’t set her free.

Casey Cox’s DNA is all over the crime scene. There’s no use talking to police; they have failed her abysmally before. She has to flee before she’s arrested . . . or worse. The truth doesn’t matter anymore.

But what is the truth? That’s the question haunting Dylan Roberts, the war-weary veteran hired to find Casey. PTSD has marked him damaged goods, but bringing Casey back can redeem him. Though the crime scene seems to tell the whole story, details of the murder aren’t adding up. Casey Cox doesn’t fit the profile of a killer. But are Dylan’s skewed perceptions keeping him from being objective? If she isn’t guilty, why did she run?

Unraveling her past and the evidence that condemns her will take more time than he has, but as Dylan’s damaged soul intersects with hers, he is faced with two choices. The girl who occupies his every thought is a psychopathic killer . . . or a selfless hero. And the truth could be the most deadly weapon yet.

Terri Blackstock

About The Author

Terri Blackstock has sold over six million books worldwide and is a New York Times bestselling author. She is the award-winning author of “Intervention,” “Vicious Cycle,” and “Downfall,” as well as such series as Cape Refuge, Newpointe 911, the SunCoast Chronicles, Restoration, and Moonlighters.

Buy Your Copy

Winter FTC

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Margaret Margaret