Finders Keepers by Sarah Monzon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Two books for the price of one!. Actually it is two storylines, one from the 1699 and one modern day. I enjoyed each one. I can't say which one I enjoyed more. I liked how the author was able to tie the two storylines together at the end. The first storyline involves Isabella. She is wanting to escape her evil stepfather and the only way to do that is to disguise herself as a male and board a ship for the new world. Her life was in danger many times and I was on edge hoping she would survive. The modern storyline involves Summer, a struggling photographer trying to get her big break. Summer does not know who her biological father is and this troubles her not to have the normal loving father that most people do. She meets Trent Carrington. Trent is from a loving Christian family but he himself has rejected Christ. I didn't like Trent at first. He was a womanizer and wanted Summer to be the next notch on his belt of conquests. I loved reading this story on how Summer and Trent came to know their heavenly Father.

I highly recommend this story. I look forward to reading other stories in the Carrington family series.




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Driftwood Lane by Denise Hunter

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Driftwood Lane is part of the Nantucket series but in actuality is a stand alone book. With most series you have some connection between the books. A character that is introduced in the previous book is featured in the next book. Not so with this series. The only thing they had in common was they lived in Nantucket. Nobody knew each other from the previous books. Of the four books this one had to be my favorite. Meridith Ward is put in charge of her three half-siblings that she has never met after the parents die in a boating accident. She also is left the run down bread and breakfast inn. There is an uncle, her step mother's brother but he is no where to find. He's a free spirit that travels the country on a motorcycle. She plans to turn the kids over to the uncle if he ever shows up but he does but he tells the children not to let Meridith know he is around. He thinks she is bi-polar and sticks around managing to secure a job as a contract to do the needed repairs on the bread and breakfast. I thought the kids were disrespectful to her particularly the oldest, a girl but it was understandable since the pain of losing their parents was fresh. I liked it that Meridith was patient with the kids. She sacrificed a lot for those kids giving up a well-paying job to care for them. The first 65 to 70 percent of the book I did not like Jake. I thought it was wrong of him to get the kids to lie and I thought he came off as arrogant but I grew to love him and was rooting for him and Meridith to get together.

This was an enjoyable read. You won't regret reading this one.



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The Seaside Letters by Denise Hunter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


He loved her she loved him. They communicated via email. She knew who he was and he knew who she was but she did not know that he knew who she was. She was sweetpea in the email messages. She was a completely different person in her job as a waitress. She was reserved, shy and very standoffish. She wanted to be with him but she had a deep, deep secret that she was not sure he could forgive. When I found out the secret later in the book I was wondering too how he could forgive her past, this terrible sin that she had done.



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The Convenient Groom by Denise Hunter




I really didn't care for the first book in the Nantucket series but I loved this one. This one is going to be made into a Hallmark movie showing in June and I can't wait to see the movie. Dr. Kate was hard to like at first but she grew on me. I loved Lucus from the get-go.



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The Loyal Heart by Shelley Shepard Gray

I have enjoyed just about every book that Shelley Shepard Gray has written but I did not enjoy this one as much as some of her other works. For me I thought the story dragged a little too much and I thought the chemistry was lacking between the widow Miranda Markham and Robert Traux. I did enjoy the friendship that the soldiers had between each other and their willingness to help each other out after the war. I am hoping that future books in this series will hold my interest better. This one just feel short of the mark. I do like the author so I will read future books in this series.

Thanks to Netgalley and Zondervan books for providing me an e-copy of this book to review. This book is due to be released July 12, 2016.

No Other Will Do byl Karen Witemeyer

This was an enjoyable read that kept me flipping pages and kept me up late at night. I loved the character of Malachi Shaw ever since Emma Chandler found him in his aunt's barn. I loved the compassion she and the aunts showed him. He even stayed with her family for a couple of years until he was forced to leave town and be on his own but he never forgot Emma and she never forgot him. I knew that they were destined to be together even though their lives took different paths, she as a banker managing a women's colony and he as an explosive expert in a different state. Even though many years had passed she knew she could call on him when trouble arose surrounding her colony.

The suspense storyline was well-written with colorful characters. I hope the author will continue with Harper Station because there are more stories to be told.  Since there is a colony of women there are more love stories to be told and more adventures. At least I hope the author does a Christmas novela because I want to visit Harpers Station again! This story is well deserving of a five star-rating.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bethany House Publishers for providing me an digital copy of this book to be reviewed. This book will be released on June 7, 2016.

To Love a Stranger by Colleen Coble

To Love a Stranger is fourth in the Wyoming series by Collen Coble. Of all the for books Jasper was my favorite of the male characters. He has been corresponding with Bessie Randall but it was actually Lenore, Bessie's sister. Lenore wrote the letters and used Bessie's name. Lenore is a spoiled little brat very similar in character to the way Jessica used to be. Anyway Lenore informs her sister of what she had been doing and that now Bessie and Jasper are married by proxy. Thinking her sister would get into trouble she goes ahead with the marriage. Jasper was quite shocked to see plain Bessie instead of the beautiful Lenore. He was very kind to her but he was not sure he wanted to stay in the marriage. I loved how they grew to love each other and how they took in a motherless native American baby to love as their own. There was some action in the book that kept me turning the pages. You didn't know who was going to come out alive.

This was a sweet book which was a quick read. Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas Nelson for providing me an e-copy of this book to review.

The Heart Answers by Colleen Coble

The Heart Answers is Book 3 in Colleen Coble's Wyoming series. We first meet the spoiled Jessica Dubois in the first two books. I extremely disliked her in those first two books. She was really a despicable character, always wanting her own way and very very vain. When I read that she was going to have her own story I was wondering how the character was going to be redeemed but God works miracles even with the most depraved person. At the beginning of the books she her mother has remarried to her husband's brother in order not to be homeless and to be a mother to her new husband's children. Jessica is still self-centered not wanting to do her share of the work. She still thinks highly of her looks. She knows her beauty can turn men's heads and uses this to her advantage. However, we slowly see a softening in her character. She forms an unlikely friendship with newly widowed Ellen who has a young little girl, Franny. In order to make ends meet Ellen has to take on the lowly job of a washerwoman. Jessica loves the child and often takes care of the child when Ellen is working. Spending time with the child changes her heart since she has to think of someone besides herself.

There is a mutual attraction between a certain Rev. Clay Cole and Jessica but Clay Cole does not trust a beautiful face. I did not like Clay very much. For a preacher I thought he was too judgemental and self-righteous. Not matter how much Jessica changed nothing was good enough for him. He even gave up on praying for her salvation! Good thing God did not give up on Jessica. I thought she deserved a better man than Reverend Clay Cole.

Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas Nelson for providing me a digital copy of this book to review.
 

The Trouble with Cowboys by Denise Hunter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Annie Wilkerson thinks cowboys are big trouble. They will just love you, leave you and break your heart. There is chemistry between her and Dylan Taylor but she does not want a romance with him. She would rather stick with safe boring John Oakley. John Oakley with the stilted smile and stilted conversation. We meet John Oakley in the second book. He was the banker who gave Shay a lot of trouble. I didn't like him when he first came on the scene and my opinion of him stayed the same in this book. We meet Dylan Taylor in the first book and he came off as a ladies man but if you look deeper than the surface you will find a different man.

I liked this book. It's hard to decide whether I liked book 2 or book 3 better. I didn't really care for book 3. I'm so glad I stuck it out with this series. I have grown fond of the characters, especially the eccentric Miss Lucy who talks to her dolls.




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The Accidental Bride by Denise Hunter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Accidental Bride is second in the A Big Sky Romance series. We meet Shay and her daughter in the book 1. Shay didn't trust men very much. Travis was her first love but he jilted her at the courthouse steps. Her deceased ex-husband left her and her young daughter to fend for themselves on the family farm trying to meet expenses.

I liked this book better than the first one. I thought the two man characters Shay and Travis had immediate chemistry unlike the first book. He was patient with her even though she was testy with him most of the time. He loved her and regretted his decision of abandoning her like he did 14 years previously.

This book is more edgy than the previous book. There is a tumble in the hay scene but the characters are legally married.

I recommend this novel for anyone who likes modern western romance novels.




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A Cowboy's Touch by Denise Hunter

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I liked the story a lot at the beginning. Abigail goes to a small town in Montana on doctor's orders (her sister) and her mother to ease health problems. She stays were her eccentric great aunt Lucy. While there she befriends a motherless little girl who does not get much attention from her father. She helps Maddie, the little girl with things a mommy should do and eventually becomes the little girl's nanny for the summer. The love interest Wade who is the girl's father was not even introduced until way into the book and then I didn't feel the chemistry was there. His character was rather flat. I lost respect for Abigail when she was willing with pressure from her own mother to betray Wade with an article about his past.

The romance could have been developed more by introducing Wade earlier. I did not give up on this series and went on to read the next two in the series which were way better.




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Married 'til Monday by Denise Hunter

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The last book in the Chapel Hill series. Of the four McKinley siblings Ryan McKinley is my favorite. Divorced from his wife Abby for over three years he was still in love with her. Abby had never informed her parents that she was divorced. Her parents had an anniversary weekend plan so Ryan and Abby had to pretend they were married for a couple of days. I loved how Ryan took this as an opportunity to win back her affections. This task was not an easy one as there was childhood baggage he was not aware of and many layers to unravel. This was Denise Hunter's first reconciliation story and I have a feeling it won't be the last.

In this novel were were introduced the Callahans, three brothers who will the next series by the author. The name of the next series is Summer Harbor.



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