For Every Season by Cindy Woodsmall

For Every Season is book 3 of the Amish Vines and Orchards series.  In this book Leah is still struggling on whether or not she wants to leave the Amish.  She has a good friend in Landon and dates him some but he is not pressuring her one way or the other to leave or stay.  This is a good healthy friendship. 

Two brothers, Samuel and Jacob are interested in Rhoda romantically and this causes problems.  She has pledged her love from the beginning to Jacob but all along I was routing for Samuel.  Which one does she choose?  You will have to read to find out.  Jacob has some baggage in his life that he does not fully disclose to Rhoda.  He has different goals than Rhoda and is not always supportive of her desire to have a career in the orchards.  

This is only the third book in the series.  A new one is due out in 2014 and it's a good thing since there were a lot of things in this book that need to be explored more such as Leah's decision, a new character Iva, and the Cammile's search for a possible granddaughter.  I am looking forward to the next book so these loose ends will be tied up. 

My thanks to Librarything's Early Review Program and Waterbook for giving me a copy of this book to review.

The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks

The Longest Ride is the story of two couples worlds apart. We first get introduced to Ira, an elderly 91 year old widower. His beloved wife Ruth had died 9 years earlier. Ira should have given up driving years ago but being the stubborn man he is continues to do so. It's winter and he slides off into a ditch. Already dying with cancer he breaks several bones. Before he is rescued he has conversations with his dead wife. They recall their life together from the beginning until the day Ruth died.

The other story is of Sophia, an art major at Wake College. She had just broken up with her cheating boyfriend Brian when she meets Luke Collins, a farmer and a weekend rodeo rider. They develop a friendship that slowly turns into love but Luke is hiding a secret.

I kept wondering how in the world these two stories would converge. It was not until the last 50 pages that the stories converged and it was a doozy! Kept reading. You won't want to miss this last ride!

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. Some people don't like to read Nicholas Sparks novels because often his novels make you cry and have sad endings. Not so with this novel.  I give this novel  5 stars.

 

Eventide by Shelley Shepard Gray

Eventide by Shelley Shepard Gray is the third and last of the Days of Redemption series.  Ever since we were first introduced to Elsie in the first book I've been wanting to read her story.  In the first book we learn Elsie has a degenerative eye disease that will eventually take away her sight completely.  She faces this with courage but what the hardest part she has to deal with is her family smothering her to death.  They do not want her to be an independent woman.  When she meets the boy next door who takes an interest in Elsie her family tries to discourage the relationship fearing that Elsie could get hurt even more.

I felt the characters were well developed although I did get irritated with some of them at times.

Dark Justice by Brandilyn Collins

There is a reason that a Brandilyn Collins is known for seatbelt suspense. This book certainly lives up to that term. This book catches you in the first chapter and doesn't let go until the final chapter. Hannah Shire is a middle age widow taking care of her mother who has dementia. One day while traveling in the car with her mother they see a man on the side of the road. They dying man only gives his first name which is Morton and says some things to her that does not make sense. Later she discovers the dying put a computer flash drive in Hannah's pocket. Curiosity got the best of her so she plugs it into her computer and sees a film. She goes to the police and then FBI come to her house but then a series of events happen and she does not know who to trust. She does not know if she can trust the police or the FBI. Someone is trying to kill her and her senile mother and when Hannah's daughter gets involved her life is threatened too.