Running from Danger

Casey, an U.S. Marshal based in St. Louis, is charged to escort a news-reporter to D.C., because the reporter is vitally needed to testify in front of a grand jury. But before Casey and her partners  can begin the trip, her headquarters is bombed. Subsequently, they have to drop off the radar, but continue to D.C. Can she and her partners keep the reporter safe and alive? Will the other Marshals in St. Louis be able to figure out why they were bombed before it is too late? Blind Betrayal by Nancy Mehl details this journey to safety and justice.

This book was an overall well-written book. It has all the usual plot twists and surprises that suspense books contain. The situation is realistic. The only issue I had was it was too action-filled for being a romance suspense book. It was always go-go in the book and hardly any break for the reader. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good romantic suspense.

Thank you Bethany House for allowing me to review this book!

 

 

 

The journey to forgiveness

Mercy McClain was born with a defect, which became cause for her to be bullied as a child. Even now her brother finds her a burden and assumes she will never get married.  She just wants people to look past her defect. She now is happy working at the local orphanage. Aaron Firebrook as a child bullied Mercy and other children. He came to Christ, and is now seeking forgiveness. Will each of them find healing, when they come together again? The historical fiction A Chance at Forever by Melissa Jagears details the journey Mercy and Aaron takes to forgiveness and healing.

Aaron Firebrook applies for a teacher position in the town he grew up, but Mercy, remembering how he treated her and others in the past, is standing in his way. Aaron soon finds a job as a tutor at the orphanage she is working at. He hopes through this job to prove to Mercy children will be fine under his care and he turned from his old ways. In the meantime, he has to deal with a contrary orphan who seems to do everything to push other’s buttons. Will Mercy see him for who he now and forgive him?

This book was very well-written and had a great plot-line.  When I glanced ahead, I was not terribly excited how it ended, but after reading it through I thought it turned out okay. I would recommend this book to others.

Thank you Bethany House for a copy of this book to read and review!

Troubles with Love

I generally think of a collection of novellas as just a book to read. They are good, but do not get me excited. Hearts Entwined, a collection of 4 novellas by 4 less-known authors, was a pleasant surprise and far exceeded my expectations of the book. I became instantly excited because I noticed two of the novellas were connected to books I previously read by the authors who wrote them. After doing additionally research for the book review, I realized the first three novellas were connected to other books.

Hearts Entwined is a collection of novellas, which the main characters in the novella have to overcome some obstacle to be united together in love. In The Love Knot, Claire Nevin thought her former love left her for someone richer. Will she listen long enough to hear his explanation? In The Tangled Ties That Bind, Connor Kincaid left home for five years and has come home to hopefully win a girl’s heart. The girl has moved on and is working on become a doctor. Would they be able to work things out? In Bound and Determined, Bradley Willis was sent to move a herd of camels for a former cavalry officer. In the process, he falls in love with the officer’s daughter. But she does not want the camels to get to their new home. In the last novella Tied and True,  a rich young heiress falls in love with a man below her social status. Would her efforts show the man she does not care about his social status?

I highly recommend this book to other readers. Thank you Bethany House for allowing me to review this book!

Let us Go Back to the West

Holding the Fort by Regina Jennings is a historical fiction book with tons of misunderstandings and mishaps. This book follows the steps of Louisa Bell, a dance hall singer, who loses her job and goes West to help her younger brother.

Misunderstands regarding Louisa Bell start from the moment she steps into the fort, her brother is in. Because she brought a box of books with her for a teacher who could not come because of sickness, Louisa is figured to be the teacher the Major asked for. Then the Major assumes when she tries to communicate with her brother, that her brother is trying to court her. By the end, things are cleared up and misunderstandings are corrected.

Holding the Fort is a terrific book, and was a great read. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes historical romance. Thank you Bethany House for allowing me to review this book.

Last in the Series

Cherished Mercy by Tracie Peterson is the last book in the Heart of the Frontier series. This book describes Mercy Flanigan’s journey to love. When her oldest sister Grace’s friend needs help, Mercy goes in the midst of turmoil between the Indians and whites to help her. Will she be able to face the hardships that come upon her?? Would she be able to find love in this hostile area??

This book gives a better picture of Mercy, who was a side character in the first two books of the Heart of the Frontier series. What I liked about this book was it gave me a better picture of what Mercy went through after the Whitman Massacre and how she came to the point of caring about the Indians. The book tells how she was angry at the Indians, but she forgave them. She then in this book and the other two books truly lived up to her name and showed Mercy to the Indians, and had a longing to help them.

As I think about the Heart of the Frontier series, I came to the conclusion that Beloved Hope and Cherished Mercy were not needed to complete Treasured Grace. Treasured Grace was a great stand alone book, that gave one women’s (fictional) perspective on the Whitman Massacre. Beloved Hope and Cherished Mercy did though show how one family might all have different perspectives on the same event.

I will recommend this book to other ladies. Thank you Bethany House for allowing me to review this book and rest of the series.

Hope after Hard Times

Grace, Hope, and Mercy are back in Beloved Hope, the next installment in the Heart of Frontier series,which follows Grace’s sister Hope and her journey of healing after the Massacre. Beloved Hope is written by Tracie Peterson and stars Grace’s younger sister Hope and her struggles to regain hope after the massacre.

It is more than a year after the Massacre, and Hope feels that only way she would find peace is if the Indians who instigated the Massacre, especially the one who hurt her the most is hung. But when the hanging of the Indians does not give her the peace she desires, she does not know where to turn. She though receives the help of a gentleman named Lance, who assists her in finding peace and regaining hope in life.

This book was very well written and I will recommend this book to any one who is interested in historical fiction. It taught me that even after hard times you have to turn to God and allow him to bring healing to your soul.

Thank you Bethany House for allowing me to review this book!

Suspense

Kate O’Brien is the single witness to her sister’s death by a serial killer. She thought the serial killer was in prison, but now evidence has come up that the man in jail might not actually be the killer, so he is released.  Will they find real man behind her sister’s death???

Tony DeLuca, a U.S. Marshal, protected Kate, while she was on the witness stand for the killing of her sister. When he finds out the investigation is reopening because of lack of evidence, he rushes to Kate to once again provide protection for her until the killer is found. Will he be able to keep her safe until the killer is found???

Nancy Mehl in Dark Deception gives the answers to both of these suspenseful questions. When I first started reading this book, I thought I would not be able to finish it because of the slightly descriptive beginning. I kept reading and enjoyed the story. At one point, I thought I figured out who was the killer, but then I realized as I kept reading I was wrong. I was a little disappointed that my guess was wrong, but I also loved that fact because that meant Nancy Mehl knew how to keep up the suspense to the end.

I will recommend this book to others,because it is the perfect balance of romance and suspense. Even someone who is not big about romance would enjoy the book.

Thank you Bethany House for the opportunity to review this book!

God’s Plan for Your Life

About mid-March, I was given a list of books to choose to review for a publishing company, I chose The Ebb Tide by Beverly Lewis. With the busyness of my schedule, I forgot what book I asked for. A week or so later as my sister and I drove, we saw a sign advertising Beverly Lewis coming to Liberty campus for  sign The Ebb Tide. I told my sister I would go to the book signing if she was handing out free books. Well that did not happen, but then a few weeks later I got a package with the book and was elated!!

The Ebb Tide tells the story of Sallie, a young Amish women, whose family wants her to join the Amish church, but she wants to travel and is not ready to be confined by the Amish church. After getting a  summer job offer by an English family and accepting it, she makes a promise to her parents that She will join the church after the summer. While working as a nanny, she meets a guy who she grows to love, the only problem is he is not Amish. Would she go back on her promise to her parents or live life always longing for something else?? You would just have to read the book to find out!!

I liked this book, because I read this book at a point in my life that I was trying to figure out God’s will for my life, so I totally related with Sallie’s conflict. I totally will recommend this book to anyone who likes a good Amish fiction.

Forgiveness – A Book Review

The Whitman Massacre was a horrific event that was a culmination point of a conflict between the Cayuse Indians and Marcus Whitman and his mission in Oregon. This conflict originated because Whitman refused to pay for the land the mission was on, and was worsened when the measles took numerous Cayuse lives. It was also worsened by the misassumption that Whitman was trying to poison the Indians. This incident began the Cayuse War.

“Treasured Grace” by Tracie Peterson is a historical fiction book, that is set around the Whitman’s Mission preceding, coming to, and after the Whitman Massacre. Grace, a widow, and her two younger sisters  came to the Oregon Territory to find their uncle after their parents died. Since their uncle did not get back to them yet about whether they could stay with him, they stop for the winter at Whitman’s Mission. Soon after coming to the mission, a measles epidemic breaks out among the Indian and the white alike. This epidemic brings about the death of some of the Indians. Because of these deaths, the Cayuse decide to kill Whitman because they think he is poisoning them and they generally kill a healer if one of their own die. Though the other Indian tribes get the Cayuse to agree not kill Whitman. In the meantime, Grace leaves her sisters to go help a sick friend. Despite this agreement, the Cayuse come and kill Whitman, his wife, and the majority of the men at the mission, and take the women and children hostage, including Grace’s sisters. When Grace hears of the massacre and that her sisters are still alive, she wants to rush back to the mission and rescue her sisters, but a trapper and his Indian friend convince her to wait. After the hostages were released, the time of healing comes. Can Grace and her sisters forgive the Indians for what they have done?

This book was really well written and gave a picture of the what might have happened that fateful day and after. I will recommend this book to others who like this type of book. Thank you Bethany House for allowing me to review this book!!!

Where Calls the Heart

As a young girl, I read the Canadian West series and found the series delightful. Over the years, I have reread and skimmed the series a couple more times. When I heard about the TV  series When Calls the Heart, which is based on the Canadian West series, I was excited and wanted to watch it. The TV series to my dismay did not follow the original book series, but  I still enjoy watching it. Recently, I got my hands on the third book Where Hope Prevails of the Return to the Canadian West series, which the companion series to the TV series.

 When I got Where Hope Prevails, I was expecting it to be closer to the TV series, kind of like a book version of what was on TV. I was slightly disappointed to find out it was not. The TV series and the book had a couple of similarities. Both of them had the same main characters — Elizabeth Thatcher and Jack Thornton. Both the book series and the TV series are set in Coal Valley, where there was a recent coal accident, but in the TV series the name soon is changed to Hope Valley. Some of the differences are Jack Thornton still had his father in the book, and  Abigail Stanton was not the woman Elizabeth went to when she had problems, instead it was Molly Russo in the book. Putting behind my expectations, Where Hope Prevails was really well written and very engaging.

The Return to the West series tells the story of the original Elizabeth Thatcher’s niece. This did not really come out much in Where Hope Prevails, but in one place which mentions how Jack Thornton arranges their honeymoon at the same place where her aunt honeymooned . I would recommend this series to others, and am hoping to read the first two books to the series sometime. Thank you Bethany House Publishers for allowing me to review this book.