Deception at Sable Hill by Shelley Gray

Deception on Sable Hill is book two in the Chicago World's Fair Mystery. We meet Eloisa Corstairs in the previous book where she was violated by Douglas Sloan. It is not necessary to read the previous book as the events that happened to Eloisa are summarized in the beginning of this book. She keep all this pain to herself. She felt she was ruined. I felt bad for the character that she was not able to share this pain with her mother. Her mother only seemed to care about Eloisa marrying the right person, a person of her same station in life, a person with as much prestige and wealth as the Corstairs. Her mother never caught on that her daughter has suffered greatly at the hands of Douglas. Even the servants sensed that she had gone through great pain. I particularly liked her personal maid Juliette who was more like a personal friend than a maid. I am hoping that her life will be explored should there be a third book in this series.

There was a police detective who knew what happened to Eloisa and he helped her overcome many of her fears. They grew to care a great deal for each other but can they overcome the social obstacles? Sean Ryan was from a poor Irish family with no money. Could he possibly have a future with the beautiful Eloisa Corstairs?

The mystery in the novel was the Slasher who seemed to be targeting young women of wealth and prestige. I felt that this storyline was not developed enough to hold avid readers of mystery and suspense. The slasher was revealed at the end of the book and was not the person that I suspected.

Thanks to Netgalley and Zondervan for providing me an e-copy of this book to review. This book is due to be released on April 7, 2015.

Deadly Echoes by Nancy Mehl

If I could give this book ten stars I would but I can only give five. I knew from the get go it would be packed full of suspense. You can just about always count on a book by Nancy Mehl to be. She is that talented in writing suspense.

Deadly Echoes  is book 2 in the Finding Sanctuary series. Sarah Miller grew up as an orphan most of her life. Both of her parents were murdered when she was but 6 years old. Both her and her sister's lives were spared because they hid in a closet while the parents were being murdered. Her sister was the prettier one and was adopted but Sarah was never adopted. She bounced from foster home to foster home but she eventually did find peace in a little town called Sanctuary. Eventually she was re-united with her sister but then tragedy struck and Sarah was left with the care of her ten-year old niece, Cecily.

Sarah wants to find out what happened to her parents and her sister Hannah. She thinks the two are related but has no proof. She starts asking questions but she may be talking to the wrong people stirring things up putting herself and her niece in danger. Who can she trust? Is she trusting the wrong people?

One thing that I like about the book was that I could never figure out who responsible for all these murders. I did not know until nearly the end. I like an author who writes where I cannot figure out who it is. So many of the authors that I read I can usually figure it out. Not with Nancy Mehl. There were twists and turns all along the way. I can't wait until the next book in the series is released.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bethany House Publishers for providing me an ebook of Deadly Echoes to review. This book is due to be released January 27, 2015.

Murder Served Simply by Isabella Alan (aka Amanda Flower)

This is a book three in Isalabella Allan's (aka Amanda Flower) Quilt Shop Mystery Series. It's a nice little cozy to read by the fire or in the summertime on the beach. It's the holiday season and Angie's parents are visiting her from Texas. They have brought with them an unwelcome guest who is Angie's ex boyfriend who broke her heart after courting her for seven years. He had realized his mistake and hopes to win her back despite the fact that Angie has moved on and is perfectly happy in her new quaint little town. There is a murder involved in this story. Of course, it's a cozy mystery as always Angie feels compelled to get involved to investigate on her own despite objects from the handsome law enforcer to get involved. As always she does not heed his advice and solves the mystery on her own. I thought the storyline was good but the person who did the killing and the motive was a bit lame.

I'm looking forward to reading the next story in the series which is "Murder, Plainly Read".

Die Again by Tess Gerritsen

The story starts six years earlier when a group of people are on a safari in Africa. The group consists of people of all ages from various parts of the continents. The jungle is full of dangerous animals that could kill their prey in a matter of seconds but the most dangerous animal could be the two-legged variety. One by one the people are killed off in a most gruesome manner. One person manages to escape and survives against all odds living in the jungle for two weeks.

Fast forward six years with Maura and Jane investigating a murder and then another. It takes a while for them to connect what happened in Africa six years ago to the present time.

I started this book on New Years Eve. I stayed up to 11:59 finishing this book. It had that much suspense! I love Tess Gerriten's characters Maura Isles and Jane Rizzio. The characters have so much depth to them then what you see in the tv series. The only criticism I would have would be the occasional expletives in the book but it is not too bad.  I cannot wait until the next Rizzoli & Isles book is released which will be at least another year.

Twisted Innocence by Terri Blackstock

Twisted Innocence is the book 3 in the Moonlighters series. We first meet the troubled Holly Cramer in the first book.  In the first book she has pink hair, tattoos and has an out of wedlock pregnancy. Her two sisters and brother do not know the identity of the baby's father. In this book we learn the identity of Holly's baby.  Holly's baby is the result of a one-night drunken stand with Creed Crenshaw who is very much like Holly with his broken life. Creed also a good Christian upbringing but somewhere along the line he decided to do it his way instead of God's way and got involved with drugs.

When Creed first came on the scene I did not like his character but as the story came along I grew to like him more and more and really loved him at the end when he was willing to sacrifice his life for his child.
This is probably the last book in this series since some storylines were wrapped up such as an evil one from book one.  I highly recommend that these books be read in sequence.

This book is due to be released in March. Thanks to Netgalley and Zondervan for allowing me to read this suspenseful book and write a review.

A Beauty so Rare by Tamara Alexander

This book was a little lengthy but it needed to be to develop all the characters. This book is second in the Belmont series. Eleanor Braddock was a nurse in the Civil War. She stays with a dying soldier and hears his last words. He gives her a hankerchief. She would like to find his widow and tell the widow about her husband's last moments but this is not the major theme in the book. Nothing much of this is mentioned until the end but I won't give that away to spoil it for the reader. Eleanor has seen much tragedy. . Her father was once a prominent lawyer but his mind is quickly fading and she must put him in the care of the asylum. She must sell the home estate to take care of his father so this depletes her financial resources. She must go to live with her cousin Adelicia Acklen, one of the wealthiest women in the USA at the time. Eleanor is considered plain but has inner beauty. Her cousin tries to set her up with somebody worthy of her station in life. Meanwhile she is attracted to the gardener and develops a deep friendship with him but he is not free and he is not really a humble gardener. He has royal roots. Although there is attraction between the both of them he may not be free to pursue the friendship. I feel I have given too much of the plot away but may I have given enough to whet a reader's interest.

One of the reason I enjoyed this book was that it takes place in Nashville, Tennessee which was where I was born and raised. I am familiar with many of the locations mentioned in the book.

Hopeful (Return to Sugarcreek, Book 1) by Shelley Shepard Gray

Miriam was head over heels in love with Junior Bielor.  She was downright smitten with him and he knew it.  Knowing she was smitten with him did not stop him from asking a favor of her.  He wanted to date the beautiful school teacher Mary Kate who was Miriam's best friend.  I did not like Junior too much.   Miriam was not the most beautiful gal in Sugarcreek.  She was a little on the chunky side.  I thought Junior was shallow since he only saw that Mary Kate was pretty and did not look in the beginning at the deeper beauty of Miriam.  Junior was good looking and he knew it.  He was shallow, egotistical and did not want to listen to Mary Kate when she said she was not interested in dating anybody at the time.   I did admire Junior for taking care of his younger siblings after both parents died but other than that I don't think there was much to Junior.  Maybe he'll grow on me in future books but right now I'm not too fond of him. 

This was an enjoyable book to read.  It was fun to catch up on the previous residents of Sugarcreek.  Also, one of the main characters in the previous books, Judith Graber Knox has a storyline going that I think will be played out in future books.  I'm looking forward to seeing how that will take place.