General Fiction

An Amish Family Christmas by Shelley Shepard Gray

 

unnamed

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.

An Amish Family Christmas by Shelley Shepard Gray was a great Christmas themed book. This is the fourth book in this series, and even though I did enjoy this book, I think I liked the third book more than this one. I had a hard time connecting with these characters which were something that caught me off guard. I did like the book, but it was harder for me to get through this book. I know that there always can be one book in a series that isn’t your favorite and this book was that for me. I liked Penny in this book, but I didn’t feel like I could connect with any of the other characters in this book. If you love Amish fiction, I would for sure check out this book but know that you may have a hard time getting into the book like I did. an-amish-family-christmas-by-shelley-shepard-gray

About The Book

In Shelley Shepard Gray’s fourth book in her Charmed Amish Life series, an unlikely Amish romance reveals that Christmas is a time for family, miracles—and love.

Ever since his father died in a tragic fire, Levi Kinsinger has felt adrift. Newly returned to Charm, Ohio, Levi is trying to fit into his old life, only to discover he seems to have outgrown it.

But when Julia, his young widowed neighbor, asks for his help with a Christmas project, Levi finds a sense of purpose for the first time in months. She and her daughter are new to Charm and could use a friend, a job Levi takes personally. Soon enough, friendship grows into attraction, but Levi can’t help having doubts. There’s something about Julia that doesn’t ring quite true…

Like Levi, Julia Kemps has survived her fair share of hardships—but only by hiding the truth of her past. Being an unmarried mother in an Amish community was unthinkable. Feeling hopeless, Julia did the only thing she could do: she moved to a new town and pretended to be a widow. But meeting Levi, she’s hopeful for the first time. Little by little, she begins to imagine telling him her darkest secret, and eventually…perhaps even sharing her life with him.

Christmas is a time for family, and as the holiday draws closer, Julia and Levi will have to face their pasts together…in order to find the healing, support and love they so desperately desire.

 Shelley Gray

About The Author

 Shelley Shepard Gray is a two-time New York Times bestseller, a two-time USA Today bestseller, a finalist for the American Christian Fiction Writers prestigious Carol Award, and a two-time Holt Medallion winner. She lives in Southern Ohio, where she writes full-time, bakes too much, and can often be found walking her dachshunds on her town’s bike trail.

Find Shelley online:website, Facebook, Twitter

Buy A Copy

Add-On Goodreads

Let’s Be Friends

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Margaret Margaret

A Sisters Wish by Shelley Shepard Gray

 

unnamed

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.

A Sisters Wish by Shelley Shepard Gray was a good book. This is the third book in the series, and I knew I would love it because I have loved all of the other books in this series. This author writes my favorite Amish fiction books, so I know once I find out she has a new book out that I will probably end up liking it. I think that these characters have to be one of my favorites in this series because I felt like I could relate to Amelia. I was able to get through this book pretty quickly which is something that I also love about this author. If you have never read Amish fiction before this would be a great series to start reading. This is the third book in the series, and even though they can be read as a stand-alone, I would recommend reading the whole series and reading them in order. If you love Amish fiction, I am sure will love this book as much as I did.

a-sisters-wish-by-shelley-shepard-gray

About The Book

New York Times Bestselling Author

In Shelley Shepard Gray’s third book in her Charmed Amish Life series, a respectable young woman finds herself falling for an Amish man from the wrong side of the tracks.

Amelia Kinsinger is the perfect Amish woman—at least according to her neighbors. And while Amelia takes pride in her role as homemaker, she’s also harboring a secret: She’s been in love with bad boy Simon Hochstetler for as long as she can remember. Too bad he’s about as far from “perfect” as an Amish man could get… but that’s exactly why she’s so drawn to him.

Life hasn’t been kind to Simon. He ran away from an abusive home at fifteen and things went downhill from there. Eventually, Simon landed in prison. But the experience changed him. Now back in Charm as a grown man, he’s determined to make a new life for himself and not think too much about his wild past…unless it pertains to Amelia.

He’s loved Amelia for years. To him, she represents everything good and kind in the world. When he realizes that she returns his affections, he starts calling on her in secret, even though her older brother Lukas—who just happens to be Simon’s best friend—has made it perfectly clear that Amelia deserves better. Simon disagrees and believes he’s the only one who can truly make her happy.

But when Amelia gets hurt, it sets off a chain of events that forces them to consider their future together—and face their past mistakes. There’s a chance for love… but only if Simon dares to trust Amelia with the secrets of his past.

Shelley Gray

About The Author

Shelley Shepard Gray is a two-time New York Times bestseller, a two-time USA Today bestseller, a finalist for the American Christian Fiction Writers prestigious Carol Award, and a two-time Holt Medallion winner. She lives in Southern Ohio, where she writes full-time, bakes too much, and can often be found walking her dachshunds on her town’s bike trail.

Find Shelley online:website, Facebook, Twitter

Buy A Copy

Add-On Goodreads

Let’s Be Friends!

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Margaret Margaret

Save The Last Dance by Eric Johnson and Eva Ungar Grudin

save-the-last-dance-banner

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from Pump Up Your Book 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.

Save The Last Dance by Eric Johnson and Eva Ungar Grudin was such a different book from what I usually read.  I have read one other book that was written similar to this one and if you want to check it out you can click here to read that review.  I loved this book because it felt like you were reading personal emails from actual people.  I know part of the reason I loved this book is because I love being nosy and know what is going on with strangers.  I did at times get frustrated because I wanted to know what the characters were thinking and what not.  I also felt frustrated when the book ended because you have no idea what ended up happening with the characters.  Even with all that being said I still really enjoyed this book and it is one that I will keep in my personal collection of books.

save-the-last-dance

About The Book

A tale of the power and peril of first love rediscovered.

Adam Wolf and Sarah Ross were teenage sweethearts who grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio in the late 50’s and early 60’s. They set a wedding date when they turned fifteen. The day came and went. For most of their lives the two were out of contact.

 

With their 50th high school reunion approaching, Adam and Sarah reconnect. Email exchanges – after the first tentative “hi”, then a deluge- five, ten- by the end of the week twenty emails a day. Soon Sarah admits, “All my life I’ve been looking for someone who loves me as much as you did”.
Written entirely in email and texts, Save the Last Dance allows the reader to eavesdrop on Sarah and Adam’s correspondence as their love reignites. It also permits the reader to witness the reactions of significant others, whose hum-drum lives are abruptly jolted by the sudden intrusion of long-dormant passion. Can Sarah and Adam’s rekindled love withstand the pummeling they’re in for?

eric-johnson-eva-ungar

About The Authors

Eric Joseph and Eva Ungar (Grudin) were teenage sweethearts in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, who set a wedding date when they turned 15. The last time they saw each other they were 21 years old. Three years ago they reunited, around the time of the 50th high school reunion. Although their book is a work of fiction, it’s about a couple like them, who fall in love again, almost instantly, via email.

Eric is in public health, a consultant/educator at hospitals and clinics, concentrating his career on Native American health services across the country. Eva is an art historian who taught at Williams College in Massachusetts for 40+ years. She specialized in African and African-American art; the history of European painting: also Holocaust Studies – memorials and museums; In addition, she has performed in and written Sounding to A, a multi-media work about inheriting the Holocaust. It premiered at the Ko Festival of Performance in 2004.

Learn more about Eva and Eric and their history together by visiting hargrovepress.com – At the website you’ll find memories about their time together in the late 50s, early 60s, as well as interviews from today.
Their latest book is the literary fiction, Save The Last Dance.

For More Information

Visit the authors’ website.

Connect with authors on Facebook and Twitter.

Find out more about the authors at Goodreads.

Buy A Copy

 

Save The Last Dance is available at Amazon.

Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.

Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.

Add-On Goodreads

Let’s Be Friends

Excerpt

(more…)

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Margaret Margaret

Just Fine With Caroline by Annie England Noblin

Book Review Graphic

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

Just Fine with Caroline by Annie England Noblin was a good book. This is the first book I have read by this author, and I can’t wait to check out other books because I enjoyed her style of writing and her characters. At of all of the characters in this book my favorite had to be Yara because I have a soft for animals that do crazy things in books. This book a super easy read and one that I was able to get through pretty quickly which I always enjoy because it means I get to move on to a new book sooner. I also liked this book because everything was kept pretty light and I loved that because it is always nice to read a book that keeps things light every once in a while. If you are looking for a light-hearted chick lit book, I would recommend this one to you.

just-fine-with-caroline-by-annie-england-noblin

About The Book

From the author of Sit! Stay! Speak! Comes a tender, terrific novel complete with long-buried secrets, a three-legged pot belly pig, and an irresistible dog—an unforgettable story about love, friendship, and community. Perfect for fans of Mary Kay Andrews and Mary Alice Monroe.

Caroline O’Connor never dreamed she’d be back home in Cold River, Missouri, the Ozark Mountain town where everyone is ‘up your business.’…they mean well as they drive you crazy. She thought she’d left town for good, but now she’s back, helping to care for her New York born mother—struck with Alzheimer’s, and prone to saying and doing anything—and her father, the beloved local doctor, frustrated he can’t cure his own wife.

As for Caroline, she’s doing ‘just fine’ coping with her parents, her brazen cousin Ava Dawn’s marital disasters, her mostly-deaf dog…and with Noah Cranwell, far-flung relative of a local family mostly infamous for running moonshine, an ex-veteran who’s come to Cold River with troubles of his own.

Caroline believes she knows everything about Cold River and the people who live in its hills and hollers … but sometimes life’s greatest surprises happen closest to home.

annie-england-noblin

About The Author

Writer. Mother. Wife. Bulldog enthusiast. Curly hair afternoon.

Buy A Copy

Add-On Goodreads

Let’s Be Friends

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Margaret Margaret

Home On The Range by Ruth Logan Herne

Book Review Graphic

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

Home On The Range by Ruth Logan Herne was a great book. This is the second book in the series, but you don’t need to read the first book if you don’t want to. You can click here to check out my review on the first book if you are interested in that book. I enjoyed that I got to check in with the characters from the first book and I also got to know the characters in this book. I think Cheyenne is my favorite character in this series because I feel like I can relate to her the most. I also had a rough childhood, so I understood how she felt and why she did some of the things that she did throughout the book. I enjoyed this book more than the first book because I felt like I could relate to these characters better than the characters in the first book. If you love chick lit books that I am sure will love this book.

home-on-the-range-by-ruth-logan-herne

About The Book

A cowboy romance with a heart of gold, in Home on the Range author Ruth Logan Herne, returns readers to the Double S Ranch where God and family are first, but love is certain to follow the Stafford menfolk. Nick made all the wrong choices for all the wrong reasons. His father had failed at marriage and fatherhood. Nick was determined to show him up. He’d be a better husband, better father, and a better ranch manager than Sam Stafford ever hoped to be. But Nick’s wife Whitney hated the ranch, and she walked out on Nick and their two beautiful daughters three years ago. For a long time Nick pretended everything was fine and when his stubborn nature is finally challenged by trouble with his young girls, he’s faced with the changes he should have made long ago. Psychologist, Dr. Elsa Andreas had a thriving family therapy practice, a school commission, a good life, but tragedy pushes Elsa to walk away from her life. Three years later, she’s tucked herself in the backwoods of Gray’s Glen. When her sister encourages her to help Nick Stafford’s daughters, Elsa takes a chance. But Nick’s ex-wife comes back to town, threatening the girls’ newfound stability. Can Nick find the forgiveness and Else the courage to build their “Home on the Range”?

3149557

About The Author

Ruth Logan Herne has more than half a million books in print, including fifteen Love Inspired contemporary novels. Back in the Saddle is the first book in her new western romance series. Ruth is a founding member ofSeekerville, a popular writing collective blog. A country girl who loves the big city, Ruth and her husband live on a farm in upstate New York.

Buy A Copy

Add-On Goodreads

Let’s Be Friends

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Margaret Margaret

Driving On The Left by Gail Olmsted

Book Review Graphic

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

Driving On The Left by Gail Olmsted was a good book. I did read the other book in this series and if you want to check out what I thought of that book you can click here to read that review. I enjoyed the characters in the book, but I knew I would because I liked them in the first book. I love when you get to check in with other characters that you meet in the prior books, and this one was like that. I also enjoyed getting to know Jackie’s daughter Becca.   I also enjoyed following along with Becca as she learns about herself and the world.   This was a great chic lit book, and I can’t wait to read more books from this author in the future.

driving-on-the-left-by-gail-olmsted

About The Book

Like Mother, Like Daughter?

A summer fling changed the entire course of Jackie Sullivan’s life. Back then, she trusted her instincts and took a chance on love. Now she’s at a crossroads and has a big decision to make. How much is she willing to sacrifice for the man she loves?

Her daughter Becca’s got her own problem- a secret that could threaten her carefully planned-out future. Romance is the last thing on her mind this summer.

Jackie and Becca planned to explore the beautiful Irish countryside during a relaxing vacation, but when Becca falls for tour guide Sean, she wants to explore much more. Will Becca resist temptation or follow in her mother’s footsteps? Sean may be just too good to pass up.

This book is for anyone who believes in the power of love and its ability to make you all sorts of crazy. Written as a sequel to JEEP TOUR, it can be enjoyed as a standalone read as well.

Gail

About The Author

I am hard at work on my third novel. ‘Driving on the Left’ is a sequel to JEEP TOUR, set in Ireland and will be published by Booktrope this summer.

Like JEEP TOUR’s main character Jackie Sullivan, I am a professor of marketing. I have taught at the college level for eighteen years. I am a recipient of the Deliso Endowed Chair Award and was recently recognized by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as one of “29 Who Shine”. A hopeless romantic, I am married to the love of my life. I am mom to two young adults and three cats and enjoy reading, music and travel.

Buy A Copy

Add-On Goodreads

Let’s Be Friends

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Margaret Margaret