THE CAPTIVE HEART (DALE CRAMER)

Story Description: 

Ravaged by disease, preyed upon by ruthless bandits, the Bender family’s second year in Mexico has taken a grievous turn.  Faced with impossible choices, the expatriate Amish discover, more than ever before, what it means to live by faith and not by sight. 

But it’s Miriam who must make the hardest choice as her heart takes her on a new and dangerous course.  Domingo. “He is gentle,” his sister said, “until someone he loves is threatened.”  Is Miriam that someone? 

“Cualnezqui,” he often calls her – the Nahuatl word for Beautiful one.  The chiseled native has proven himself a man of principle, grace, and power.  Yet is he the pearl of great price for whom Miriam would sacrifice everything, or is he merely a friend?  Tormented by conflicting emotions, she’s haunted by vivid dreams: Dressed in the coarse cotton pants and shirt of a peasant, she stands on the precipice of a sun-washed ridge searching desperately for Domingo.  Domingo the fierce.  Domingo the protector.  Domingo the forbidden. 

This epic story was inspired by actual events! 

My Review: 

I stayed up all night and read this in one sitting I was totally riveted to the story of the Amish Bender family who were spending their second year in Mexico.  Fighting off bandits and disease they sacrificed, hoped, stayed steadfast and prayed.  Their biggest challenge was learning to live by faith.  

Miriam, one of their daughters was in love with Domingo, a strikingly handsome native who was not Amish and if Miriam ever married him she would be shunned by her family.  Domingo was a gentle man until someone he loved was threatened and when that very thing happens he goes to all lengths to save the one he too secretly loves. 

The vividness of the imagery in the novel made me feel as though I was there, stomping through the dusty ground, feeling the grit in my nose and eyes.  I could see the mountains, the crops, the buildings and felt as if I were right there. 

One particular attack by bandits left Miriam’s sister Rachel kidnapped, her brother Aaron stabbed and left for dead, and simple-minded Ada was left to care for the baby.  Ada was like a baby herself even though she was a grown woman.  What she went through to find her way home toting a 30 pound child was truly engrossing, I couldn’t read fast enough.  Staggering in the pitch dark, not knowing where she might fall off the edge of a cliff she walked, crawled and felt her way along the open expanse.  Once surrounded by a pack of coyotes her only weapon was a harmonica the child had in his pocket.  Blowing loud notes only scared them off for so long. 

This is one of the best novels I’ve read this year and would highly recommend it to everyone! 

"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.

Available at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group". 

THE MAID OF FAIRBOURNE HALL (JULIE KLASSEN)

Story Description: 

To escape a scheme to marry her off to a dishonorable man, Margret Macy flees London disguised as a housemaid.  If she can remain unwed until her next birthday, she will receive an inheritance, and with it, sweet independence.  But she never planned on actually working as a servant.  And certainly not in the home of Nathaniel and Lewis Upchurch – both former suitors. 

As she fumbles through the first real work of her life, Margaret struggles to keep her identity secret when suspicions arise and prying eyes visit Fairbourne Hall.  Can she avoid a trap meant to force her from hiding? 

Brimming with romance and danger, The Maid of Fairbourne Hall takes readers inside the fascinating belowstairs world of a 19^th-century English manor, where appearances can be deceiving. 

My Review: 

This was a wonderful story of a well-to-do young woman who disguises herself as a servant and takes up a job in another rich household to hide out from the man she is supposed to marry.  Margaret cannot stand her suitor and refuses to marry him but needs to keep herself hidden until her 21^st birthday when she is set to inherit a large sum of money from her aunt.  She does not want her husband-in-waiting to get this money so becomes a servant in the same household of the man she truly does love and wants to marry. 

Margaret changes her name to Nora and bides her time as a housemaid until her birthday when she’ll receive her inheritance and finally have independence.  However, some of the residents of the household think she looks familiar and one recognizes her despite her disguises but chooses to say nothing until near the end of the book. 

The book was so interesting, the characters were well developed and all the information about housemaids and servants was quite interesting.  Not a job I should like for sure.  I would definitely recommend this book to all my friends.  Very well done and extremely enjoyable!

THE KEEPER (SUZANNE WOODS FISHER)

Story Description: 

Life on Windmill Farm hasn’t been the same since Julia Lapp’s father has had trouble with his heart.  But that doesn’t stop Julia from hoping for a bright future.  She has planned on marrying Paul fisher since she was a girl.  Now twenty-one, she looks forward to their wedding with giddy anticipation.  But when Paul tells her he wants to postpone the wedding – again – she is determined to change his mind.  She knows who is to blame for Paul’s sudden reluctance to wed: the Bee Man. 

Roman Troyer, the Bee Man, travels through the Amish communities of Ohio and Pennsylvania with his hives full of bees, renting them out to farmers in need of pollinators.  A mysterious man who relishes his nomadic life, Roman especially enjoys bringing his bees to Stoney Ridge each year.  But with Julia seriously at odds with him, Windmill Farm is looking decidedly less appealing. 

Can Julia secure the future she’s always dreamed of?  Or does God have something else in mind?

My Review: 

I loved this story and fell in love with Julia, Roman and M.K. especially.  M.K. was quite a little curious imp who wasn’t backward at coming forward and always had her nose poked in somewhere.  Roman was somewhat of a nomad but had a kind heart but had been terribly hurt and was literally holding himself hostage through his grief.  Julia was an immensely strong young woman, she just didn’t realize it yet. 

The really lovely thing about this particular novel is that not only is it a great story but it deals with two very important issues.  One of which is organ donation and I encourage everyone to seriously think about this and if you’re ever in the position to help out in this way, I sincerely hope you’ll consider saving some other lives.  I highly recommend this book for everyone!

"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group". 

TOMORROW'S SUN (BECKY MELBY)

Story Description:

Emily Foster won’t allow herself to move on until she earns enough money to make restitution for the accident that stole a young girl’s dreams. Flipping houses sounds like the fast track to her goal, but when her first project turns out to be a stop on the Underground Railroad, Emily finds herself drawn to, but at odds with, the contractor she hires. Jake Braden needs to focus on gaining guardianship of his late sister’s twins, but the story of lost love uncovered in Emily’s house sets the stage for what might become his own lost love. 

My Review: 

Nice story but I found it a little bit slow getting into it.  However, I did fall in love with the Emily’s character and found the information regarding the Underground Railroad interesting.

NEXT OF KIN (SHARON SALA)

Story Description: 

Beth Venable has seen too much. Witness to a major mob hit, she's placed in protective custody until the trial. But after her third safe house is riddled with bullets, she goes off-grid to save herself. What the FBI can't do, her kinfolk will.

The beautiful but forbidding Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky welcome Beth back, dirt roads and rustic shacks a world apart from L.A.  But her homecoming, even her blissful reuion with strong, silent Ryal Walker is made bittersweet by the fight she's brought to the clan's doorstep.  Hidden in a remote cabin with the man she's always wanted, Beth begins to dreaam of a new life: her old one.  But after so long, with such dangers stalking her, is it impossible. 

But love can distill life down to its essence: an elixir of pure hope, nerve and the will to survive.  

My Review: 

Beth Venable, 27,  is staying overnight in the apartment of her good friend Sarah Steinman as there had been a gas leak in Beth’s Los Angeles apartment and everyone was being evacuated for a 24-hour period.  That one evening spent at a friend’s home was about to change Beth’s life forever!  Spying a telescope in the corner of the living room, Beth innocently peered through the lens at the stars in the sky then began scanning around looking at other things.  The scope lands on the apartment across the way from Sarah’s and the window is wide open and lit up, not darkened like hers.  From the expression on their faces it looked as though the couple in that apartment were having an argument and before Beth had the chance to feel guilty and look away for spying the action went from arguing to violence in a heartbeat.  The man abruptly shoved the woman against the back of the couch and she reacted with a hard slap to his jaw.  Beth saw instant rage fly across the man’s face and then all of a sudden there was a knife in his hand.  He slit the woman’s throat from ear to ear so fast, had it not been for “..the arterial blood spray that splashed across the windows, Beth would have thought she’d imagined it.”  Beth started jumping up and down and screaming: “Oh my God, Oh my God, Sarah, help, help! He killed her!”  Just as Beth was explaining to Sarah what happened, the man turned toward the window almost as if he could see Beth.  Although her apartment was shrouded in darkness, she ducked out of the way anyway.  Sarah called 911 for her and they waited for the police to arrive. 

After going to the station and giving a statement to the police about the circumstances surrounding that entire evening, including why Beth was at Sarah’s apartment in the first place and not at her own, she was dropped back off at Sarah’s apartment.  Once Beth was inside she noticed Sarah’s bedroom door had been left a bit ajar and walked in slowly calling out: “Sarah? “Sar-ah?”  She could hear the t.v. in Sarah’s bedroom and as she pushed open the door all the way she found her best friend sitting up in bed with a bullet hole through her forehead!!  Obviously the killer had come back and mistakenly thought it was Sarah who had witnessed the murder and killed her in error.

The policeman who had walked Beth to the door heard her scream and was back inside the apartment within a matter of minutes.  Beth was scared to death thinking the killer may still be inside the apartment.

The FBI gets involved and has to move Beth to THREE different locations because the killer kept finding her.  After the third move, Sarah ran away and decided to take matters into her own hands and contacted some of her family members whom she hadn’t seen in years.  What follows is an unbelievable display of what it means to have “family” in the true sense of the word where it doesn’t matter what has happened in the past or is currently happening, if a family member is in trouble then everyone rallies around and does what they can to help. 

The best part for Beth is once again seeing Ryal Walker, her first and only love whom she last saw when she was 17-years-old.  He is 8 years older than Beth but with the two of them, age seems to have no limits.

This book was 330 pages long and I literally sat and read it in one sitting .  It was so well written and so powerful that I just couldn’t tear myself away from the book at all.  This is one book that you simply cannot miss!!

DINNER WITH LISA (R. L. PRENDERGAST)

My Review: 

Joseph Gaston and his four children are seated on two seats of the train rushing through Ontario toward its destination of Philibuster, Alberta.  Joseph is a widower and nearly 40-years-old.  His children: Clare, 6-months; Nolan 11; Cole 7; and Sarah 4 are the light of his life.  Poor little Sarah had succumbed to vomiting due to motion sickness and thus sat alone holding a bowl in her wee lap.  Joseph knew that if his wife, Helen, were still alive, she would know how to help Sarah immediately.  Joseph and his family are heading west toward a new life filled with hope and prosperity. 

The train was grinding to a halt in Philibuster, a small town to stay with Joseph’s brother, Henri, and his sister-in-law, Tilda.  It’s the 1930’s and the country is in the grip of the Great Depression but hope abounds for Joseph and his family, or so he thinks.  Joseph is filled with optimisim about his new job until he finds out the job no longer exists.  What is he going to do now with four children to feed and no income?  He begins to worry and the burden and sense of responsibility he feels towards his family is almost crushing, but with the help of his brother Henri, Joseph may be able to survive but not before enduring more problems than one man deserves.  

The character development is magnificent in this novel as are the descriptions of the town, its people and surroundings.  I felt as though I’d been pulled into the book and could almost walk alongside Joseph seeing the sights and smelling the odours of the town around him.  Joseph never lost his sense of belonging and he always had hope.  He was forced to fight many battles one which included his sister-in-law wanting to take his children for her own feeling that she could do a much better job of raising them. 

To me, this was a story of one man overcoming great adversity through hope.  As long as you have hope, you have a horizon in the distance, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel and that is just where Joseph heads.  I read this novel is one sitting, I was glued from beginning to end and would highly recommend it to everyone!  Well done.

A PERFECT SQUARE (VANNETTA CHAPMAN)

Story Description: 

There's more to the quaint northern Indiana town of Shipshewana than handcrafted quilts, Amish-made furniture, immaculate farms, and close-knit families. When a dead girl is found floating in a local pond, murder is also afoot. And Reuben Fisher is in jail as the suspect!

Reuben refuses to divulge any information, even to clear himself of a crime Deborah is certain he didn't commit. So, with her English friend Callie-fellow sleuth and owner of Daisy's Quilt Shop-Deborah sets out to uncover the truth. But the mystery deepens when an elderly man seeks Callie's help in finding his long-lost daughter, missing since the days of the 1965 Palm Sunday Tornadoes.

An old man who has lost his past. A young man who may lose his future. Once again Deborah and Callie find themselves trying to piece together a crazy quilt of lives and events-one that can bring unexpected touches of God's grace and resolve to the tragedy that has shaken this quiet Amish community. 

My Review: 

Deborah, Esther and Callie are piecing together a different type of quilt in this saga.  They’re piecing together a the pieces to a murder after finding a young girl drowned in a pond after stopping to pick wildflowers at the side of the road.  Not being right friendly with the local police, Officer Taylor, the girls try to gather their own information and piece together who, why and how this beautiful young woman was killed.  I couldn’t help but cry when they approached Mr. Lapp with the crime scene photos.  Excellent novel and I would highly recommend it to everyone!