Historical Fiction

Pursuing Gold by Cynthia L. Simmons

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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.

Pursuing Gold by Cynthia L. Simmons was a super interesting historical fiction book.  This book takes place during the civil war which has always been a time period that I have had a hard time getting into the stories but this book was different for me and I am not sure why that is.  I really enjoyed the characters in this book even though at times I would forget who was who so I would be super confused for a page or so and then I would remember who was who and it all made sense again.  There are a lot of characters which is why I kept getting confused I am sure but once I was into the book a good way I was able to keep them straight.  I really did enjoy this authors writing and I am going to add her to list of authors to read more books by them in the future.  If you love historical fiction books I would for sure recommend this book to you especially if you love civil war fiction.

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About The Book

With his father dead and his business partner incapacitated, Peter Chandler inherits the leadership of a bank in economic crisis.

>With only a newly-minted college degree and little experience, Peter joins his partner’s daughter, Mary Beth Roper, in a struggle to keep C&R Bank afloat while the Civil War rages around Chattanooga. Political pressure for unsecured loans of gold to the government stirs up trouble as tempers and prices rise. Their problems multiply when Mary Beth discovers counterfeit money with Peter’s forged signature. Can they find the forger before the bank fails? The two friends must pursue gold on behalf of their business, as they learn to pursue their heavenly Father to find hope and peace.

cynthia-l-simmons

About The Author

Cynthia L Simmons and her husband, Ray, have five children and reside in Atlanta. She has taught for over thirty years as a homeschool mother and Bible teacher. She’s a columnist for Leading Hearts Magazine and she directs Atlanta Christian Writing Conference. Cyndi has a heart for encouraging women in today’s crazy, upside-down world. She loves history and peppers her speaking and teaching with fascinating vignettes from the past. Her first book, Struggles and Triumphs, was nominated for 2008 Georgia Author of the Year. She co-founded Homeschool Answers and hosts Heart of the Matter Radio.

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Christian’s Hope by Ervin R. Stutzman

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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.

Christian’s Hope by Ervin R. Stutzman was a fantastic book.  This is the third book in the series, and I know that I will be going back and reading the first two books because I want to know the entire story from start to finish.  Even though this is the last book in the series, I still understood what was going on, so you don’t have to read the books in order or even read them all if the others don’t interest you.  I enjoyed this book because even though I have read tons of Amish fiction books, this book takes place in a different period.  It is also is one of the few books that I have read from this period in history as well, so I went in not knowing much of what happened during that period.  I have read other books where I didn’t know much about the period and I had a hard time getting into those books, but this book was one that I didn’t want to put down until the book was finished.  I loved this author’s style of writing and how he could make me understand what the characters were feeling and why they did the things that they did.  Once I was done with this book I went and bought digital copies of the first two books in this series because I want to know the whole story like I said before.   If you love historical and Amish fiction, I think you would enjoy this book and should check it out for yourself.  If you have read it, let me know what you think of it.

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About The Book

Christian’s Hope (Herald Press, October 2016)

When Christian Hochstetler returns to the Amish after seven years in captivity, he finds that many things have shifted.

Captured as a child during the French and Indian War, Christian has spent much of his life among Native Americans, who cared for him and taught him their ways. Now that Christian is home, his father wants him to settle back into their predictable Amish life of farming, and Christian’s budding friendship with Orpha Rupp beckons him to stay as well.

Yet Christian feels restless, and he misses his adoptive Native American family—who raised him as their own son. When faced with a life-altering decision, will Christian choose the Amish identity that his father desires for him? Or will he depart from his family and faith community yet again?

Christian’s Hope tells the story of the younger brother of Joseph and son of Jacob, whom readers have come to love in the first two books in the Return to Northkill series. Based on actual events and written by a descendant of the Hochstetler family, Christian’s Hope brings the sweeping epic of the Return to Northkill series to a soul-stirring end.

ervin-r-stutzman

About The Author

Ervin R. Stutzman is author of Jacob’s Choice,Joseph’s Dilemma, Tobias of the Amish, and Emma, A Widow Among the Amish. Born into an Amish home in Kalona, Iowa, Stutzman based the Return to Northkill series on the life of his ancestor, Jacob Hochstetler. He has been featured on TLC’s Who Do You Think You Are?

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23 Minutes Past 1 A.M. by Robert J. Dornan

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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.

23 Minutes Past 1 A.M. by Robert J. Dornan was an interesting book, to say the least. I have always been a huge fan of books like this that take a part of history and tell a story about something that could have happened during the period. This one-time frame that comes to mind would be how much I love the WWII period, and I love the books that are fiction but could have happened, and this book was like that for me. I don’t know much about this event so I am not sure how accurate this book would be but I did love this book. I felt like I knew a little bit more about this period than I did when I started the book. I did find at times that I would bog down in some of the details in the book so I would just put the book down and come back to later when I was able to focus more. I felt like I got to know the characters and understand what and why they were thinking and doing the things that they did. It was also a pretty easy book to read, so I also enjoyed that about this book. I believe that if you love thriller books then this book will be a great fit for you. If you have read this book what, did you think of it?

23 Minutes Past 1 A.M. by Robert J. Dornan

About The Book

In the early morning of her sister’s wedding day, Mila Kharmalov stared in stunned silence at the coloured sparks streaming from Reactor Four of the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant.  At that very moment, her life and the lives of everyone she knew changed forever.

Years later and on another continent, Adam Byrd was writing biographies for everyday people looking to leave their legacy in book form. When the woman he loved phoned from Kiev offering him the chance to write the story of a lifetime, he jumped at the opportunity not realizing that his voyage would be a bumpy ride through a nations dark underbelly. With the help of his friend’s quirky cousin, Adam is nudged into a fascinating adventure of love, greed, power and psychotic revenge, culminating with a shocking finale.
23 Minutes Past 1 A.M. is a work of fiction based on factual events from Chernobyl and villages throughout Ukraine.

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About The Author

Robert J Dornan is someone who wishes to leave a better world to his children. He realizes that the odds are slim but he will do whatever he can to increase the probability of success.  He is always open to discuss new and innovative ideas and hopes someday to see the building of a functional solar city as well as a fair and community-driven compensation system.

Robert’s latest book is the historical fiction, 23 Minutes Past 1 A.M.

For More Information

  • Visit Robert J. Dorman’s website.

Connect with Robert on Facebook and Twitter.

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Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Margaret Margaret

Everlasting Lies by Barbara Warren

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

Everlasting Lies by Barbara Warren wasn’t my favorite book that I have read lately.  I had such a hard time with it because of the lying that goes on.  When I saw this book I thought for sure, it would be something that I would enjoy reading but in the end, it just bugged me.  It was well written, and I enjoyed the author writing.   I kept thinking of my parents who lie all the time, and I just wasn’t able to get past that while I was reading this story.  I  am going to hold on to this book because I am sure I would like it, so I am going to pull it out in the future and give it another chance.  Like I said this book is well written, and I know that most people would enjoy this book, and I want to try and read it again in the future to see if my thoughts change.

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About The Book

Edina Paxton is kissed at twelve, seduced at fourteen and married with child at fifteen. She immediately regrets her marriage to Charles Vernon and is relieved when he leaves to fight in the trenches during WW1. She soon finds love, comfort and sexual satisfaction with Bill, another soldier and the boy who first kissed her.

Charles is invalided out of the army and is sent to India on a hospital ship. There, he becomes a manager of a coalmine in Britain’s Indian Empire, with all the privileges that his position rewards, including sexual favours from female employees. At the end of his army service in 1920 he returns to England to collect his family and return to India, only to be greeted with the news that while he was away Edina was at play. She is pregnant.

Reluctantly, Edina and her three children sail for India with Charles and Edina gives birth to her fourth child while sailing south on the Red Sea. On reaching India, Charles finds his Indian mistress is pregnant, and Edina finds Charles’s Indian boss to be very attractive. It’s a mutual attraction. Neither Edina nor Charles is a saint.

Piecing together fragments of her grandmother’s remarkable and tragic story, Everlasting Lies is Barbara’s loving tale of the early life of Edina, her grandmother, and Charles, Edina’s husband. They both experience the horrors of WW1 and, in hopes of renewing their marriage, start new lives as members of the upper class in Imperial India.

barbara-warren

About The Author

Barbara Warren always has the pedal to the metal. Born in England and educated at a convent, she left school at sixteen and was selling encyclopedias in the roughest part of London at eighteen. She married and emigrated to Canada when she was twenty-three, had three charming daughters, went to university when she was thirty-six and retired from teaching in her mid fifties.

Then she pursued her passion for the arts and travel. She and her husband rode camels in India, elephants in Nepal and horses in Montana. They hitchhiked in Norway, cycled across Denmark and snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef. Barbara’s paintings grace homes in Canada, USA, and Mexico and she designs her clothes. She spends the winters in Mexico and the summers in the bible belt of southern Alberta.

Her first novel, Everlasting Lies, tells the story of her grandparents’ love affairs with each other and with others. They struggle to survive in the last years of Victorian England and the horrors of WW1 and then start a new life with four children in Imperial India.

Connect with the author:  Website  ~  Facebook

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Starving Hearts by Janine Mendenhall

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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.

Starving Hearts by Janine Mendenhall was a great book. I usually am not the biggest fan of historical fiction books but I loved this authors writing. She was able to make me feel like I was there with the characters and I understood everything that was going on. I am not sure how she was able to do that and not bog down the book with details but she did and I loved that. I would have to say that I think this is my favorite author who writes historical fiction.   You could tell when you are reading this book that the author really loves what she writes about. I can’t wait to read the next book in this series because I am hoping it will be just as good as this one is. If you like historical fiction, then you need to pick this one up because I am confident that you will love it as much as I did.

 

Starving Hearts by Janine Mendenhall

About The Book

Since her assault, Miss Annette Chetwynd has been plagued by nightmares and worries about an arranged marriage. But she yearns to find her anonymous rescuer. Unfortunately, her health and intellect prevent it. Both repel suitors and cause Annette to doubt God’s existence, at least until He answers her prayers in an unusual way …

Mr. Peter Adsley is joining the clergy, and he desires a godly wife by his side. After his failed attempt to obtain one, he engages in a clandestine meeting with the bewitching young woman who keeps crossing his path. But she is so unsettling.

Destined for disappointments, Peter and Annette endure disgraceful situations. Will Peter’s faith sustain him through overwhelming setbacks? Can Annette overcome her doubts? Or will their starving hearts yield to the machinations of a mad man?

Janine Mendenhall

About The Author

My interest in reading and historical ball gowns grew into a magnificent obsession with beauty and the Ultimate happily ever after.

I lose myself somewhere in time using: Downton Abbey, Pride and Prejudice or a number of other classics like Jane Eyre and Redeeming Love. I also cry over nearly everything Nicholas Sparks (because it ends sadly) and Amazing Grace, both the movie and the hymn, because they point to the Ultimate happily ever after.
(The crying could also stem from being lost in Austen one too many times, or because I’m a high school English teacher and the end of the school year is coming so quickly.)

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Northern Light by Annette O’Hare

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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.

Northern Light by Annette O’Hare was an interesting book. This book was an easy book to read but at times it seemed rushed, and I wished that they would have taken more time explaining certain things. Even with that being said I still really enjoyed this story. I was always laughing at some of the antics that June with pull. I spent a good part of the book just laughing about things she said. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Margaret, and I am not sure why. She annoyed me right from the start of the book, but it wasn’t so bad that I didn’t want to read the book. I like Thomas, but I am usually a big fan of characters that are from Ireland. All in all, this was an excellent book, and if you like historical fiction, I would say check this one out and see what you think of it.

Northern Light by Annette O'Hare

About The Book

Civil War has robbed Margaret Logan of all she holds dear, including her beloved New Orleans home and her fiancé. When her family moves to the desolate Bolivar Peninsula to manage a lighthouse that is no longer there, all her hopes for a normal future are dashed. Her world is rocked once again when a wounded Yankee soldier washes ashore needing her help. Despite her contempt for the North, Margaret falls in love with Thomas Murphy. As their love blooms, Margaret’s sister is overcome with neurosis, and her mind slowly slips away. Bitterness, psychosis and depression yield a decision fueled by contempt. Will one fatal choice cause Margaret to lose the man she loves and condemn Thomas to death?

Annette O'Hare

About The Author

Growing up in Houston, Texas in the 1970’s, Annette loved the stories about ghosts haunting the Spaghetti Warehouse and the mysterious “blue light” cemetery. But it was “Devil’s Island,” the magical woods across from home where her imagination blossomed. She created fantastic scenarios to act out with her brother and the neighborhood kids where worlds were conquered and dragons were slain. Annette is still making up stories, and is looking forward to the release of her first historical romance with Pelican Book Group. Her love for the history and heritage of her home state of Texas shines through in her writing and she’s made it the backdrop for her book series. Annette is a longtime member of American Christian Fiction Writers and her local chapter, ACFW-Writers on the Storm. She lives north of Houston with her husband, Dan of 30 years. Dan and Annette are the proud parents of two Texas A&M graduates, one exceedingly imaginative high schooler, and two rambunctious, loveable rescue dogs.
http://www.annetteohare.com

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