Thursday, April 27, 2017

Plain Missing (Amish Mystery, #4)Plain Missing by Emma  Miller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Although Rachel Mast is no longer Amish she is not fully English either. She still has her roots in the Amish faith and still loves the Amish people. She would do anything for her family she loves. She takes care of a mother going through chemo treatment even though her mother treats her like an outsider making her sit at a separate table to eat. None of her other family treat her this way. Like in the previous three novels she becomes involved in a mystery. This time it involves someone close to home. A young woman and her boyfriend turn up missing after an Amish social. The girl never made it home. What happened to her. To disappear is so unlike her. I love how Rachel and her still Amish younger cousin Mary Aaron work together to solve the mystery but will they endanger their own lives in the process?

I love how the author develops her characters. After already reading four books the characters begin to feel like old friend. They become real. I loved the suspense in the story. It kept me guessing. I did not know who the evil characters were until the end. There were a couple of loose end that were not finished up in this book such as her younger sister's interest in a local boy and Mary Aaron's future. I hope that there will be more books by this author in the future.


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Saturday, April 1, 2017

True to You by BeckyWade

True to you is book one in the Bradford Sisters. They are are close knit group of sisters who lovingly always get in each other's business. Willow is the oldest and the pretty one, Nora is the middle and the smart one and Brit is the youngest and considered the creative one. This book focuses on Nora, the smart one. This book had a good balance of humor and things that are considered serious matters. Nora was the librarian and ran a museum. I felt like I could identify with her. She like books as I do and she even managed to update her Goodreads progress daily like I try to do. She is immediately attracted to John. But one of the problems is that John has a very sweet girlfriend.Since she knows a little about genealogy she helps John in the search for his birth mother. He has reasons to search for the mother but does not reveal to her quite yet. The more time they spent together the closer they got.

I loved all the characters in the book and am looking forward to reading the other two sister's stories. This book is due to be released on May 2, 2017. Thanks to Netgalley and Bethany House for providing me a digital copy of the book to read and review.

Haven of Swans by Colleen Coble

When I requested to review this book I did not realize that I had read it before because it was under a different title. The previous title was Abomination, book four in the Rock Harbor series. I still enjoyed reading it because it had been 10 years and I had forgotten much of the plot. I only remembered bits and pieces and did not even know the outcome.

A young woman and a small child is found on the side of the road by Bree Matthews. The woman has lost all of her memory. She doesn't even know her name. All she knows is that she is in danger. She does not know if it is an angry ex-husband or a stalker. All she knows is that someone is after her.

A killer is on the loose waiting for his next prey. This book is not for the faint of heart. I highly suspect that the author is a fan of Stephen King fiction.  This story kept me engaged and I stayed up late. I grew weary so I finished it the first thing the next morning.  The book under this new title is due to be released on May 2, 2017. Thanks to Thomas Nelson and Netgalley for providing me an e-copy of this book to read and review.

Monday, March 13, 2017

Love Story by Karen Kingsbury

Love Story is the 26th book Karen Kingsbury has written about the Baxter family. There are five in the Redemption series, five in First Born series, four in Sunrise, four in the Bailyey Flanigan series, and then there is Coming Home and A Baxter Family Christmas. You don't have to worry about getting lost and not knowing what is going on. Karen does an excellent job at the beginning of the book reviewing what has happened with all her characters. She names all the children, their spouses and all their children. She reviews events that has happened. So really you don't have to read all the previous 25 books unless you have plenty of time. Knowing more details about the history of the characters just would help you get inside their minds more easily.

In this book John Baxter's grandson Cole is doing a school project on family history. He wants to write about John Baxter and his first wife Elizabeth who is the mother of all John's children. Sadly she had died ten years earlier from cancer.  As John remembered back on his and Elizabeth's love story I knew there was sadness there. After all I had read the previous 25 books! I thought I was prepared but I still had wet eyes at one point in the story.

There is also a second story in the book which is about the on again and off again romance of Andi Elison and Cody. Some people reading these books were not happy that Bailey and Cody did not work out. Several books in the series were pointing toward they having their happy ever after ending but that didn't happen. She fell in love with an up and coming actor.  Reading Andi and Cody's story may make some people feel a little better about the  union that maybe they were meant to be together after all.

So all and all I liked this book but there is one thing that is bothering me that is inconsistent with the previous book.  In the previous book it was mentioned at the beginning of the book that John Baxter was 60 years old.  In this book he meets Elizabeth in 1967. She is 19 and John is five years older which would make him 24 years old.  If he was 24 years old in 1967 then he should be about 74-75 now. Also, when Ashley was talking with Cole about her mother she told Cole that her mother was barely in her 60s when she died of cancer 10 years ago.  John would have been 65 then and 10 years later would be 74 and not 60 in the last book, A Baxter Family Christmas. I guess some people don't notice details like this but I do.

Thanks Howard Books and Netgalley for providing me a digital copy of this book to review. This book is due to be released on June 6,  2017.

Monday, March 6, 2017

What the Bishop Saw by Vannetta Chapman

Henry Lapp is a widower in his mid 60s and the bishop in his close-knit Colorado Amish community. He is loved by his congregation and he is well-respected by the law. Henry has a God given skill that he has had since a child. He can re-create detailed drawings of things he has seen, things that are in his sub-conscious mind. When an unlikable person in the Amish community dies he decides to help the law to clear this man's name and then continues to help the law find the real culprit.

This book kept me guessing. I had no idea who it was until the suspect revealed himself. I loved all the characters and can't wait to visit with them again in more of the Bishop Mystery books. There was a touch of romance in this book but not a great deal. I saw on Amazon that the second one in the series, When the Bishop Needs an Alibi will be released on August 29, 2017.

What the Bishop Saw will be released on April 25, 2018. Thanks to Netgalley and Harvest House Publishers for providing me an digital copy of this book to review.

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Moving Target by Lynette Eason


Moving Target is book 3 in the Elite Guardians series and focuses on Maddie McKay and Quinn Holcombe. We first learned of Maddie in the first book when she was critically injured in an attack. At that time her life was hanging on a thread but she survived. She has an on again and off again relationship with Quinn. Maddie and Quinn are kidnapped by someone evil wanting to involve them in a cat
and mouse type of game. He traps them and then sets them free on an island but can they survive. Did Maddie survive being critically injured to die so soon? I loved how the story unfolded. It kept me in suspense. I wound up staying up late to finish reading it. I read some other reviews that compared it to be like a combination of Hunger Games and Survivor. I kept trying to guess who the villain or villains were but this book took me totally by surprise. I look forward to reading the next book in the series which is Chasing Secrets that is due out Summer 2017. I am sure that it will be as suspenseful as this one.

Thanks to Netgalley and Revell for providing me a digital copy of the book to review.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

A Note Yet Unsung (Belmont Mansion, #3)A Note Yet Unsung by Tamera Alexander
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Note Yet Unsung is the third book in the Belmont Mansion series and I think it was my favorite. I loved the plot, the characters and how the story flowed. I fell in love with Tate and Rebekah as a couple about halfway into the book when Rebekah met Tate's family. I absolutely loved his family. They were the kind of people you love to be around. On the last few pages there was a twist that I was not expecting. I'm not even going to give you a clue. You will have to read all 400+ pages to find out! This book was really good. I am hoping this is not the last book in the series. I would love to find out what happens with Tat's illness.


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