Chasing Sunsets by Karen Kingsbury

Mary Catherine love God more than anything and wants to live life to the fullest way possible. She finds herself being attracted to Marcus, the baseball pitcher but she cannot let herself get too involved in a relationship with him or anybody else for that matter. She has a threatening health problem, a bad heart. She may not have much time to live. Besides Marcus currently has a girlfriend, Shelly. Shelly is shallow and immature and the more he is around Mary Catherine the more he desire a girl like Mary Catherine. The friendship between Mary Catherine and Marcus grows as they work in the community with troubled youth. One girl, Lexi is very troubled. She is involved with gangs and her boyfriend is responsible for critically injuring a young child.

I liked this book. The characters and the story were well developed but I must say that I am a little disappointed that we will have to wait until the next book in this series to find out what happens with some of the characters. This is the reason for the four stars instead of five. At the end of this book Mary Catherine was headed to Africa for six months against the advice of her doctors. The relationship between Marcus and Mary Catherine was left hanging. What will become of them? Also, will Lexi be scared straight and stay out of trouble? Will she give her life to Christ? All of these questions were unanswered in this book. I am just hoping that the time will not be long before the next book is released.

Thanks to Netgalley and Howard books for allowing me to read and review this book. Chasing Sunsets is due for a publication date of April 7, 2015.

The Amish Clockmaker by Mindy Starns Clark and Susan Meissner

The Amish Clockmaker is book 3 in the Men of Lancaster series and is the one of the series that I think it the best.  It is the story of two different Amish men. The first story is told in first person during the present time and is the story of Matthew Zook. He wants to expand the business that his grandfather started about 60 years ago. His grandfather had purchased land that was formerly owned by Claburn Raber, an Amish clockmaker who was accused of murdering his wife. He was innocent but his family and the community never believed his story that his wife was mentally ill. He was ex-communicated and left town never returning to Lancaster. It is important that Matthew locate Claburn Raber since there is a problem with the deed of one acre. A resort wants to acquire that one acre.  The second part deals with Claburn Raber. He marries the troubled Marian Beiler.  He loves her even though she does not return his love. Of course we learn in the first part that Marian dies and Claburn leaves town. I felt bad that most of Claburn's family dies believing that he a murderer. 
I felt the storyline and characters were well developed. It kept me turning the pages to determine the outcome. I don't want to give too much of the story away to spoil it for the reader. You won't regret reading this one. It is better written than most Amish fiction.

I received this ebook compliments of Netgalley and Harvest House publishers.

The Promise of Palm Grove by Shelley Shepard Gray

The Promise of Palm Grove is the first of the Brides of Pinecraft series. Pinecraft is on the west coast of Florida near Sarasota and is a choice vacation spot for Amish and Mennonites. This is a sweet story about, Leona Weaver,  a engaged girl who is having second thoughts about marrying her controlling boyfriend. She decides to take a vacation with a couple of her best friends. One of the friends is the fiance's sister and the other is her cousin. Even her fiance's sister thinks her brother is controlling. I felt her friends and family were very supportive of the decisions she made.  While in Florida she meets Zack who is everything she wants in a man.  He is kind to animals and looks after his handicapped sister.  She has a growing affection for Zack but can she make the decision to break up with Edmund?  There is a secondary story in the book which will be continued in the series. This story revolves around Beverly, the owner of the Bread and Breakfast inn that she inherited.

This is a quick read and I look forward to reading The Proposal at Siesta Key which is due to be released in May and A Wedding at Orange Blossom Inn which will be released in September. 

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.