A Promise of Grace (Seasons in Pinecraft #3) by Lynette Sowell

Rochelle Keim has lived in Pinecraft for almost twenty years among her Mennonite brethren and the Amish of Sarasota. Unlike the snowbirds who visit Pinecraft from the north, Rochelle is a year-round resident of the unique Plain community. She s quiet, content, and keenly adept at keeping her past firmly tucked away. Feeling unsettled as she nears her fortieth birthday, she decides to return to nursing school, a dream she gave up long ago during a painful time she dares not remember. Her past decides to make itself present when Silas Fry, Rochelle s former love, moves to Pinecraft. Silas spent the past two decades working as a missionary pilot, but that all changed with the sudden loss of his wife, Belinda Rochelle s childhood best friend. Now both Rochelle and Silas are on a collision course with their past, and the reunited couple must decide if they re trying to resurrect a dead romance, or if the two very different people whose paths have crossed can make a new life together."



About The Author



Lynette Sowell is an award-winning author with New England roots, but she makes her home on the doorstep of the Texas Hill Country with her husband and a herd of five cats. When she’s not writing, she edits medical reports and chases down stories for the local newspaper.





My Review

We are back in Pinecraft Florida living in the Mennonite/Amish Community and one of my favorite families that we have been following.
If you have been reading this series you traveled to Florida with Rochelle Keim, and now we are twenty years later. Silas Fry has now moved with his family here, after the death of his wife. He was Rochelle’s former boyfriend, and his wife, her best friend. Yes you see the triangle here, and although I rather guess what happened, it may come as a big surprise to you.
Funny how life works out, and one never knows what is around that next corner, which is for God to know, and we think mistakes are being made, but that is our human failing. Especially if we follow his Word and what He is asking us to do, how we have to find out how Rochelle is going to go on with her life.
This book ends this series, and I loved being here and reunited with all, and really never wanted an ending. Makes me wish I could move here and become part of the community!
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Abingdon Press, and was not required to give a positive review.

Gone Without a Trace (Logan Point, #3) by Patricia Bradley

It's been more than two years since homicide detective Livy Reynolds's cousin disappeared from Logan Point. Unlike most people in her hometown, Livy has never believed that Robyn left voluntarily. When Dallas private investigator Alex Jennings contacts Livy concerning a missing senator's daughter who was last seen in Logan Point, she notices eerie similarities between the two disappearances. But with self-doubt plaguing her and an almost instant dislike of Jennings, Livy is finding this investigation an uphill battle. With her future in law enforcement on the line, can she find a way to work with a man who is her polar opposite?


About The Author 

 
Patricia Bradley's manuscript for Shadows of the Past was a finalist for the 2012 Genesis Award, winner of a 2012 Daphne du Maurier award (1st place, Inspirational), and winner of a 2012 Touched by Love award (1st place, Contemporary). She is a published short story writer and is cofounder of Aiming for Healthy Families, Inc. When she's not writing or speaking, she can be found making beautiful clay pots and jewelry. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Romance Writers of America and makes her home in Mississippi.

Learn more at www.ptbradley.com.
  
Amazon


My Review

A read that is so hard to put down once you turn the first page, something is about to happen and does as you keep turning. If you like suspense and mystery this is for you, and you won’t be disappointed.
The author has woven a heart in your throat tale that keeps you riveted to the characters, and you begin to walk in their shoes. Yes, we are reunited with some old friends, but if you haven’t read the previous books, you quickly become friends also, but don’t deprive yourself enjoy the other two books.
This book has it all including a bit or romance, but it is subtle, and you will get it. We get a look at family relationships and the hurt that we can cause without even realizing it, but they are there for one another, especially when one is missing!
Could you change enough to be back in your family home, and they not know you? Good question, and you will find out the answer, because yes one hurt individual does just that. Think you would recognize your son or daughter no matter what? Interesting!
I received this book through Revell Reads Blogger Tour, and was not required to give a positive review.

Her Brother's Keeper (Amish Secrets, #1) by Beth Wiseman

Charlotte’s heart has been hardened by personal tragedy, but now she has the chance to find peace in a place she didn’t expect.

Charlotte Dolinsky arrives in Lancaster County with brand new Amish digs and a renewed purpose. It doesn’t take her long to fit into the close Amish community. She might not know how to cook, sew, tend a garden, or milk a cow, but she knows how to lie. And she is a woman on a mission—to wreak havoc on the Plain people and seek revenge for the death of her only brother. But a quiet stranger throws a kink in her plan not long after she arrives. As she delves deeper and deeper into what makes this handsome Amish man tick, she begins to wonder about her intentions and the direction her life is taking.

At twenty-four, Isaac Miller is still unmarried and doesn’t see his status changing anytime soon. The Lord has blessed him with above-average physical attributes, but his awkward shyness keeps him from pursuing a relationship with anyone. When Charlotte—or "Charlie" as she calls herself—arrives in Paradise, she steals his heart, and he longs to be a different man.

Can Charlie get past the resentment she feels and open her heart? What happens when Isaac comes out of his shell, drawing attention from all the available women in the area? Will Charlie be able to hold onto him? And will he still want her when he learns the truth?




About The Author

Beth Wiseman is a Carol Award Winner, Inspirational Readers Choice Winner, INSPY Winner, and the best-selling author of the Daughters of the Promise series and the Land of Canaan series. All of her books have held spots on the ECPA (Evangelical Christian Publishers Association) bestseller list and the CBA (Christian Book Association) bestseller list. She grew up in Houston, Texas and now resides in a small town west of Houston with a population of around 300. She lives with her husband, two dogs, two cats, two pot bellied pigs, two chickens and a pygmy goat. Her two grown sons also live in Texas. Beth has been writing in some capacity for most of her life. She's a former award-winning journalist with eleven honors, including 'First Place News Writing' for The Texas Press Association. However, writing love stories with a spiritual message is where her heart is. When Beth isn't writing (which is seldom these days) she enjoys traveling, cooking, fishing, reading, or just settling in for a good movie. Her best times are spent with family and friends!

 BethWiseman.com

Amazon

My Review

An entirely different type of Amish story, and a real page-turner, one you won’t be able to put down, and a serious story, but I had several chuckles! I wondered from the first page how someone could pull off pretending to be Amish, and get away with it. The web of deceit is sure strong here, and do you think that they didn’t realize. Of course Charlotte/Mary seems to have an answer for everything, and yet the reason she is here is to find answers.
When her brother commits suicide Charlotte decides there has to be more to the story, and she wants to know who was responsible for driving him over the edge. She seems to have made up her mind that Hannah, his intended, was responsible. So she decided to do the impossible, and seems to pull it off, but put you in her shoes, and as I try it is rather funny, no way could I pull it off. I joined the faith late in my life, so I never learned Deutch? Yeah right!
Come along and watch Charlotte as she bumbles along, and how her walls come tumbling down, in more ways than one. She does find a bit of romance, but will she remain Amish? Will she find the answers she seeks? God sure seems to have his hands on her, and you will love how everyone desires to fix her astray prayer cap. Enjoy this delightful read!
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Thomas Nelson, and was not required to give a positive review.

Someday Home by Lauraine Snelling

A heartwarming story that celebrates how life-changing friendships can be found in all seasons of life.

The sprawling lake home Lynn Lundberg built with her husband has been an epicenter of joyful family life, from summer holidays spent around the water, to cookies baked in the kitchen with grandchildren in the fall. But since her husband's sudden passing two years ago, Lynn has been lost in the grief and solitude she feels without him at home. She doesn't want to sell the big family place, but she can't exist there on her own much longer.

After hearing of a new way of living--where single women share responsibilities as housemates--Lynn thinks she's found the answer to her prayers. Soon she meets two ladies with whom she could begin this journey. Angela Bishop, a successful real estate agent accustomed to the finer things in life, has just been jilted by her husband of twenty-five-years. Judith Rutherford, who has devoted her adulthood to caring for her ailing father, must leave the only home she's known now that he has passed.

These three women seek a place to grieve, to laugh, and to be renewed. But coming from such differing circumstances, will the new challenges they face undo their plans? Or will they begin a friendship to see them through the years to come in this SOMEDAY HOME?


About The Author

 

Lauraine Snelling is the award-winning author of over seventy books, with sales of more than 2 million copies.

She also writes for a wide range of magazines, and helps others reach their writing dreams by teaching at writers’ conferences across the country.

Lauraine and her husband, Wayne, have two grown sons, and live in the Tehachapi Mountains with a watchdog Basset named Winston.

They love to travel, most especially in their forty-foot motor coach, which they affectionately deem “a work in progress”.

http://www.laurainesnelling.com 

Amazon


My Review

Three women, each having their own life-changing event, end up living with each other. This book is about how such a happening could have come about, and the roads that led to it.
The story deals with each of these ladies journey to this very new way of life for all, beginning with the homeowner. When Lynn suddenly lost her husband, she floundered for a while, and finally two years later she has an awakening. Rather I felt that God began opening doors for her, and first she stumbles upon Judith. A woman with her childhood having been stolen, and now ready to begin living, but how? She has never even held a job.
The next person is Angela Bishop, devastated from being jilted by her husband of twenty-five years. Can she become Angela again, and not her husband’s Stepford Wife?
These injured souls are now entering the unknown and you have to wonder if three women can live together without one of them wanting to run the show? Come along for tears, and laughter, and some unforgettable events. Once you start you will not be able to put it down, I wanted to move in with them.
I received this book through the publisher Hatchette and was not required to give a positive review.

Murder Freshly Baked by Vannetta Chapman

When delicious baked goods become lethal, it's time to find a killer. Kindness is a virtue Meanness is a sin Better watch your bakery pies For poison I've slipped in

The Amish Artisan Village in Middlebury, Indiana, has been decorated with every color of balloon and flower for the Race for a Cure. As manager of the Village, Amber Bowman is thrilled to see the turnout--and relieved to have something to distract her from the "Poison Poet"--an individual who has been sending notes containing bad poetry to warn of poisoned baked goods.

Then Ryan Duvall crosses the finish line of the race--and falls down dead, murdered in broad daylight. But who did it? And why? The police suspect Preston Johnston, but Amber refuses to believe her employee could do such a thing.

Amber once again looks to her young Amish friend Hannah Troyer to help her find the killer--and to determine if it's the same person leaving the cryptic poems and pies. Can they help the police before the Poison Poet strikes again? Both Amber and Hannah will need to draw on their faith as they fight to preserve the peaceful community they've built at the Amish Artisan Village.


About The Author 

Vannetta Chapman writes inspirational fiction full of grace. She has published over one hundred articles in Christian family magazines, receiving more than two dozen awards from Romance Writers of America chapter groups. She discovered her love for the Amish while researching her grandfather’s birthplace of Albion, Pennsylvania.

Her novel, Falling to Pieces, was a 2012 ACFW Carol Award winner for best mystery. All of her books have been Christian Book Distributor bestsellers. She currently writes Amish fiction for Abingdon Press, Zondervan, and Harvest House. Chapman lives in the Texas hill country with her husband.

For more information, visit her at www.VannettaChapman.com or blog with her at http://vannettachapman.wordpress.com/. 

She can also be found at http://www.facebook.com/VannettaChapman


My Review 

We are back at the Artisan Village in Middlebury, Indiana, and the unthinkable happens as you turn the first few pages, yes another murder. This is the third one that I have experienced along with Amber, and no one would expect all of these in this picturesque Amish setting.
We are back with old and new friends, and become reacquainted with those we have come to know in the past books. Loved one of the new characters, Mocha, yes sounds like a drink? Nope!
While we witness the murder right up front, we back up and come forward as to why and run the gamut as to who is the culprit. There are a bakers dozen on the list as it gets whittled down. There is the murder and then there are the threats of poisoning, why? Answers are going to really surprise you and I didn’t guess whom the culprit was. Good luck!

I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Zondervan, and was not required to give a positive review. 



 

Just Couldn't Put It Down July Giveaway Up to $15 Book of Choice

We all have those books that hold us captive right to the end, and beyond. They linger in our minds, and we can't wait for a sequel, so...... I'm giving a book of your choice up to $15 from Amazon. Just fill out the rafflecoper and tell me of that awesome book, and the one you are craving, we can preorder!!

Good Luck! a Rafflecopter giveaway

To Capture Her Heart (The Southold Chronicles #2) by Rebecca DeMarino

It is 1653 and Heather Flower, a princess of the Montauk tribe, is enjoying her wedding feast when her groom is killed and she is kidnapped by a rival tribe and held for ransom. Though her ransom is paid by an Englishman, she is nonetheless left to die in a Connecticut forest--until she finds herself rescued by handsome Dutch Lieutenant Dirk Van Buren. Torn between her affection for Dirk and her long friendship with family friend Benjamin Horton, Heather Flower must make a difficult choice--stay true to her friend or follow her heart.


About The Author 




When Rebecca DeMarino traveled to Horton Point, Long Island, with her mother, Helen Jean Horton Worley, in 1999, passions collided: her love of faith, family, travel, history, and writing. Rebecca's debut novel, A PLACE IN HIS HEART, is a historical romance based on Mary and Barnabas Horton, Rebecca's ninth great-grandparents. Set in 1600's Southold, Long Island, book one of The Southold Chronicles will be released by Revell in June, 2014. She lives in the Pacific Northwest and when not writing, she enjoys family and genealogy, travel, reading, running, baking and gardening. Rebecca is represented by Greg Johnson of WordServe Literary Agency.

http://www.rebeccademarino.com/ 

Amazon

My Review

While I enjoyed catching up with characters in this book, I learned to love them in the first book. I had a hard time getting into this one, but as the pace picked up, I had to find out what happens
The story takes place on Long Island, and we travel easily between the Indian and English communities. We also have the threat of the Dutch, and other Indian Tribes, particularly the Narragansett from Rhode Island. We begin the story with the rescue of Heather Flower by Dirk Van Buren, a Dutchman, and her falling in love with him. There is another love interest involved and that is Benjamin Horton, and I found myself rooting for him.
This story is set in the very beginning of our Country, and life is not easy, I marvel at all that accomplished by the people in their every day lives. We sure have become soft, and would probably starve to death.
I see there is another book in this series to come and I am looking forward to it, and I peeked at the preview and learned more about the end of this book. Come and enjoy the visit with old friends, you won’t be disappointed.
I received this book through Revell Reads, and was not required to give a positive review.