Christian Romance

Balm of Gilead by Adina Senft

Book Review

Balm of Gilead by Adina Senft was a good Amish fiction book to read.  This is the 3rd book in the series and I didn’t read the first two and I was able to figure out what was going on for the most part.  That being said you can read this one first but if it were me I would start from the start because there were parts of the story that I wished I knew the back story but I was still able to read this book and not get too lost.  I really enjoyed this book it was a little slow during certain parts but not so slow that I wanted to put the book down and not come back to it.  If you love Amish fiction than I would for sure recommend this book to you.

Balm of Gilead

About The Book

The third installment in the Healing Grace series finds young Amish widow Sarah Yoder facing her greatest challenge–herself. Sarah hasn’t seen Henry Byler since he became engaged to an Englisch woman, which is best for her peace of mind. She’s busy with her family: welcoming her son back from the ranch in Colorado, finding a husband for her sister-in-law, and making the teas and tinctures that heal the members of her church. Then Henry seeks her out, desperate for a balm for his hands before his success as a potter is jeopardized, and Sarah has to call on every ounce of strength to deny the cry of her heart. Yet there is someone who just might have a special cure in mind–a healing balm with the power to change everything. But with Henry’s wedding only days away, is it already too late?

About The Author

Adina Senft grew up in a plain house church, where she was often asked by outsiders if she was Amish (the answer was no), she made her own clothes, and she perfected the art of the French braid. She holds an M.F.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania, where she teaches as adjunct faculty.

Writing as Shelley Bates, she was the winner of RWA’s RITA Award for Best Inspirational Novel in 2005, a finalist for that award in 2006, and, writing as Shelley Adina, was a Christy Award finalist in 2009. Three of her books have shortlisted for the American Christian Fiction Writers’ Carol Award for book of the year. Of her fiction, publisher and industry blogger W. Terry Whalin has said, “Readers will be lost in the vivid world that [she] paints with incredible detail and masterful storytelling.”

A transplanted Canadian, Adina returns there annually to have her accent calibrated. Between books, she enjoys traveling with her husband, playing the piano and Celtic harp, and spoiling her flock of rescued chickens. These days, she makes period costumes and only puts up her hair for historical events and fun.

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Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2015 Margaret Margaret

A Heart’s Home by Colleen Coble

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

A Heart’s Home by Colleen Coble is the last book in the series.  I loved this book because I think the characters in this book are my favorite which is why I loved this book so much.  I was sad to see this series come to an end because I really did love everything about this  series.  I am going to have a post up in a couple of weeks where I will link all the reviews so you will be able to check them all out if you want to read any of them.  I felt so bad for Emmie because of the promise that she made to her friend because I can’t even imagine what it would feel like knowing that you may have to marry a man who you don’t love because of a promise you made before your friend died.  I love how everything worked and how everyone ended up happy.  If you love books by Colleen Coble than I would for sure check out this series of books.

A Hearts Home by Colleen Coble

About The Book

A Heart’s Home (Thomas Nelson, August 2015)

Emmie’s hope for a life with Isaac is overshadowed by a tragic loss at Fort Phil Kearny.

Isaac Liddle is keen to marry Emmie, and she knows she shouldn’t hide her pregnancy from him any longer. But before she can tell him her secret, a widower friend asks the impossible of Emmie: Will she honor her promise to his dead wife by marrying him to care for the orphaned baby?

With the Sioux Wars threatening outside the fort, Emmie’s solemn vow threatens her happiness from within. Will she honor a promise sure to break her heart—and Isaac’s? Or is there another way to find a home for her heart?

CCoble-110

About The Author

Colleen Coble has sold over 2 million novels worldwide.Seagrass Pier, the third installment in her acclaimed Hope Beach series, marks a new highpoint for emotion and complexity in Coble’s addictive brand of romantic suspense.

 

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Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2015 Margaret Margaret

Through Waters Deep by Sarah Sundin

Book Review

Through Waters Deep by Sarah Sundin was another great book.  I have read another series by this author so this book had big shoes to fill and it lived up to everything that I hoped it would.  I also love this book because it is my favorite type of historical fiction to read.  I love pretty much everything that takes place during WWII.  Anyway let’s get back to the review of this book.  Loved following along as Mary tries to figure out who is behind all the crazy things that are going on and I also loved following along as Mary & Jim spend so much time together and start to fall in love.  I can’t say enough good things about this  book and this author.  She does an amazing job writing these stories and making you feel like you are there with the characters.  If you love historical fiction than make sure you don’t miss this story.

Through Waters Deep by Sarah Sundin

About The Book

Through Waters Deep (Revell, August 2015)

It is 1941 and America teeters on the brink of war.

Outgoing naval officer Ensign Jim Avery escorts British convoys across the North Atlantic in a brand-new destroyer, the USS Atwood. Back on shore, Boston Navy Yard secretary Mary Stirling does her work quietly and efficiently, happy to be out of the limelight. Yet, despite her reserved nature, she never could back down from a challenge. When evidence of sabotage on the Atwood is found, Jim and Mary must work together to uncover the culprit. A bewildering maze of suspects emerges, and Mary is dismayed to find that even someone close to her is under suspicion. With the increasing pressure, Jim and Mary find that many new challenges—and dangers—await them.

Sarah Sundin takes readers to the tense months before the US entered WWII. Readers will encounter German U-boats and torpedoes, along with the explosive power of true love, in this hopeful and romantic story.

Sarah Sundin

About The Author

Sarah Sundin is the author of With Every Letter, On Distant Shores, In Perfect Time, and the Wings of Glory series. In 2014,On Distant Shores was a finalist for the Golden Scroll Awards from both AWSA and the Christian Authors Network. In 2011, Sarah received the Writer of the Year Award at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. A graduate of UC San Francisco School of Pharmacy, she works on call as a hospital pharmacist. During WWII, her grandfather served as a pharmacist’s mate (medic) in the Navy and her great-uncle flew with the US Eighth Air Force in England. Sarah lives in California with her husband and three children.

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Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2015-2016 Margaret Margaret

Journeys of the Heart: An Anthology by Camille Elliot, Winnie Griggs, and Erica Vetsch

Book Review

Journeys of the Heart was another great book filled with 3 short stories.  I did a review on a book similar to this one a week or so ago so if you missed that review you can click here to  check it out.  Like I said in that review that I love books like this because I can read one of the stories in one sitting and then walk away and pick it up later and not have to remember what happened because the stories don’t have to go in order.  Unlike the other one there is no way that I could pick which story that I liked the most out of this book. I loved all the stories and I can’t wait until I have the time to read books by each of these authors.  If you love historical fiction that I would sure recommend this book for you.

Journeys of The Heart

About The Book

From merry old England to the wilds of Texas, take a delightful journey into adventure and romance alongside a feisty spinster, an English lord, a trail boss, a determined widow, and an unusual train companion—a parrot!

The Gentleman’s Quest by USA Today bestselling author Camille Elliot
When a man’s body is found in the stables of Heathcliffe Manor, all evidence points to Christopher Creager as the culprit. The only one who can help him is the woman he hasn’t let himself go near: Honoria Dunbar. But when he enlists her help he discovers Honoria is facing a life-sentence of her own…

The Road Home by Winnie Griggs
Anisha’s life is just beginning, and Wyatt feels like his is over. How can a displaced, exotic beauty and former surgeon help two grieving orphans find a forever home?

The Trail Boss’s Bride by NY Times bestselling author Erica Vetsch
Trail boss Steve Ketchum hates river crossings, but before he can get his cattle started across he’s got to move an abandoned wagon out of the ford. He goes to haul it away–and discovers the last thing he ever expected. The wagon contains a newly-minted widow—and she’s expecting, too.

About The Authors

Camille Elliot

From merry old England to the wilds of Texas, take a delightful journey into adventure and romance alongside a feisty spinster, an English lord, a trail boss, a determined widow, and an unusual train companion—a parrot!

The Gentleman’s Quest by USA Today bestselling author Camille Elliot
When a man’s body is found in the stables of Heathcliffe Manor, all evidence points to Christopher Creager as the culprit. The only one who can help him is the woman he hasn’t let himself go near: Honoria Dunbar. But when he enlists her help he discovers Honoria is facing a life-sentence of her own…

The Road Home by Winnie Griggs
Anisha’s life is just beginning, and Wyatt feels like his is over. How can a displaced, exotic beauty and former surgeon help two grieving orphans find a forever home?

The Trail Boss’s Bride by NY Times bestselling author Erica Vetsch
Trail boss Steve Ketchum hates river crossings, but before he can get his cattle started across he’s got to move an abandoned wagon out of the ford. He goes to haul it away–and discovers the last thing he ever expected. The wagon contains a newly-minted widow—and she’s expecting, too.

Winnie Griggs

Winnie Griggs grew up in south Louisiana in an undeveloped area her friends thought of as the very back of beyond. With her two younger siblings and another family of two siblings for playmates, she spent many an hour exploring the overgrown land around her home, cutting jungle trails, building forts and frontier camps, and looking for pirate ships on the nearby bayou.

Once she ‘grew up’ she found other outlets for dealing with all those wonderful, adventurous imaginary friends by filling notebooks with their stories. And somewhere along the way, those scribblings gave way to full length stories.

Eventually she found her own Prince Charming, a rancher whose white steed takes the form of a tractor and whose kingdom is situated in a small rural community that she loves to call home, and together they’ve built their own storybook happily-ever-after. Their lives together expanded to include four now grown children who share Winnie’s vivid imagination and her husband’s steadier influences and are now out in the world pursuing their own adventures.

Winnie shares her stories with readers through her writings for Love Inspired and Love Inspired Historical books. You can learn more about Winnie at http://www.winniegriggs.com

Erica Vetsch

Even though Erica Vetsch has set aside her career teaching history to high school students in order to homeschool her own children, but her love of history hasn’t faded. Erica’s favorite books are historical novels and history books, and one of her greatest thrills is stumbling across some obscure historical factoid that makes her imagination leap. She’s continually amazed at how God has allowed her to use her passion for history, romance, and daydreaming to craft historical romances that entertain readers and glorify Him. Whenever she’s not following flights of fancy in her fictional world, Erica is the company bookkeeper for her family’s lumber business, a mother of two terrific teens, wife to a man who is her total opposite and yet her soul mate, and an avid museum patron.

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Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2015 Margaret Margaret

Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Beth K. Vogt

Book Review

Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Beth K. Vogt was a fun book to read.  The one thing that stuck with me throughout the entire book is how much didn’t like Ted.  There wasn’t any point in this book where I liked him and how he acted.  At first I wasn’t a huge fan of Vanessa because of how she let Ted talk her into something that she didn’t want but after I was a few chapters in I really did start to like her.  The one character that I loved from the first time he showed up was Logan and to be honest is the reason I kept reading in the beginning.  I do love this authors style of writing and I have read a couple of other books by her and she has never let me down.  I loved how this book end and I can’t wait to read more books in this series.

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

About The Book

Crazy Little Thing Called Love: A Destination Wedding Novel(Howard, June 2015)

Wedding bells and storm clouds collide in the first engaging novel in a brand-new series about destination weddings, the power of love, and the possible mishaps and missteps that happen on a couple’s journey down the aisle to “I do.”

Paramedic Vanessa Hollister has put her adolescence behind her, including the unwanted label of being the new kid in town over and over again, thanks to her father’s military career. She’s overcome what her mother called “the biggest mistake of her life” and is planning an elegant destination wedding in Destin, Florida with her new fiancé. But will the reappearance of her first husband from her what-were-you-thinking teenage elopement disrupt her dream of an idyllic beach wedding?

As a professional storm chaser, Logan Hollister is used to taking risks. However, a reckless decision during the last tornado season has him questioning the future of his team, the Stormmeisters. Coming face to face with his ex-wife eight years after their divorce compels him to confront his greatest regret: losing Vanessa. Does their past give him the right to interfere with her future?

A fast-moving, powerful hurricane throws Vanessa and Logan together as they evacuate to a storm shelter along with other residents of the Florida Gulf Coast. Forced to spend time together, the pair battles unexpected renewed feelings for each other.

Vanessa and Logan are faced with a choice: Should they accept, once and for all, their teenage marital mistake? Or is God offering them a second chance at happily ever after?

Beth K. Vogt

About The Author

Beth K. Vogt believes God’s best often waits behind the doors marked “Never.” A 2015 RITA® Finalist and a 2014 Carol Award finalist, Beth is a contemporary romance novelist with Howard Books. Her 2014 novel, Somebody Like You, was one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Best Books of 2014. In 2015 she introduced her destination wedding series with both an e-novella, Can’t Buy Me Love, (May) and a novel, Crazy Little Thing Called Love(June).

 

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Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2015 Margaret Margaret

Among the Fair Magnolias

Book Review

Among the Fair Magnolias was a fun story to read.  This is another  book where there are 4 different stories in the same book and each story is written by a different author.  I love all the stories in this book but if I had to pick one that was my favorite it would have to be the first story.  I think it is because I related most to the characters in the first story more and any of the other characters.  I also love that all the stories are short because I don’t feel bad if I read one of the stories and then put the book down for awhile.  This stories all take place during the years of the civil war so it was nice to get a glimpse of what like was life for people who had money.  If you are looking for an easy read than I would for sure check out this book.

Among the Fair Magnolias

About The Book

Among the Fair Magnolias (Thomas Nelson, July 2015)

In the most turbulent decade of our nation’s history, four Southern women—destinies forged by birth, hearts steeled by war—face near impossible choices on their journeys in life . . . and in love.

To Mend a Dream by Tamera Alexander
Savannah Darby would do almost anything to revisit her family home. So when new owner, Aidan Bedford, a Boston attorney and former Union soldier, seeks to redecorate the house for his fiancée, Savannah jumps at the opportunity. But the clock is ticking. Can she find the box her father supposedly hid there during the war before her assignment is completed? And before she sees yet another battle lost on the home front. This time, one of the heart.

An Outlaw’s Heart by Shelley Gray
When Russell Stark returns to Fort Worth, he’s determined to begin a new life. But when he arrives at his mother’s homestead, he discovers she’s very ill, and the woman he loved is still as beautiful and sweet as he remembered. With time running out, Russell must come to terms with both his future and his past.

A Heart So True by Dorothy Love
Abigail knows all too well what is expected of her: to marry her distant cousin Charles and take her place in society. But her heart belongs to another. A terrible incident forces Abby to choose between love and duty.

Love Beyond Limits by Elizabeth Musser
Emily has a secret: She’s in love with one of the freedmen on her family’s plantation. Meanwhile, another man declares his love for her. Emily realizes some things are not as they seem and secrets must be kept in order to keep those she loves safe.

Authors

About The Authors

Tamera Alexander is the best-selling author of numerous books including A Lasting Impressionand The Inheritance. Tamera is a two-time Christy Award winner, two-time RITA winner, and a recipient of the prestigious Library Journal Award. A native of west Tennessee.
Dorothy Love makes her home in the Texas hill country with her husband and their golden retriever. An award-winning author of numerous young adult novels, Dorothy made her adult debut with the Hickory Ridge novels.

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.

Elizabeth Musser, a native of Atlanta, Georgia now living in France, is a novelist who writes what she calls ‘entertainment with a soul.’ For over 25 years, Elizabeth and her husband, Paul, have been involved in mission work with International Teams.

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Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2015 Margaret Margaret