Honeysuckle Dreams by Denise Hunter

I love the romance stories where the main characters start out as best friends and Hope and Brady are. She is between jobs and helps Brady out by taking care of his son. Brady's ex wife has recently died in a tragic accident. The deceased ex-wife parents want to claim custody of Brady's child. They claim he is not the biological daddy and has no rights to the baby. Hope would do anything to help her friend. I loved the chemistry of Brady and Hope and how they grew in love. There were more than one obstacle in their relationship and loved how they eventually worked those things out. Another thing I enjoyed about this story was getting to know some of the other characters in the town who will be in future stories. I have a feeling the good looking preacher will be the next one.

Thanks to the Thomas Nelson books and Netgalley for providing me a digital copy of this book to read and review. This book will be released on May 1, 2018.

Hearts Entwined: A Historical Romance Novella Collection by Karen Witemeyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hearts Entwined is a collection of four novellas. I enjoyed some better than others. My review of the four as follows:
The Love Knot by Karen Witemeyer - I loved returning to the Women's Colony Harper Station and catch up on some of my favorite characters. We met Claire in a previous book. She barely escaped being a mail order bride to the horrible Mr. Fisher. We find out in this book why the spunky Claire let the town she was raised in. We learn about her background and the man she was interested in. He comes to the town with a surprise package and a vow to win her love back.

The Tangled Ties that Bind by Mary Connealy - I haven't read any of the Kincaid books so I was a little lost on who was who. The main female character got on my nerves. I loved the male lead. It was a tangled web that they were sort of cousins but not by blood or anything. I think I would have enjoyed the novel better had I read any of the other books in the Kincaid series.

Bound and Determined by Regina Jennings - The book was quite humerous in parts. I felt the romance between the two main characters could have been developed a little better. I think this book would have worked better in a full length novel instead of a novella. Not enough time to develop plot and the characters.

Tied and True by Melissa Jagears - This one was my favorite of the four. It was just different. Usually it is a poor girl who falls in love with a rich boy but this one was the opposite. I think the plot moved smoothly and the characters were well developed. In this book from the first page we learn that Marianne is head over heels in love with Calvin. Problem is that Calvin thinks that it would never work out between the two of them because of her wealth and station in life. She would do anything to prove to him that monetary things do not matter to her.


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If I Live by Terri Blackstock

If I Live is book 3 in the If I Run Series. If you have not read the first two I would advise you to read those before reading this one. It will add to your enjoyment of this book as you get to know the characters thoroughly. This story is told in the first person from the viewpoint of three characters. There is Casey Cox who is on the run from being accused of a murder she did not commit. There is Dylan Roberts, the man hired by the family of Brent Pace to find Casey. After getting to know Casey he is one of the few people who believe in her innocence. He has also fallen in love with her. The third character is the dirty cop Keegan. He is one evil character. He is a sociopath and does not think twice about killing anyone who gets in his way. He's a rather cocky fellow who thinks he is smarter than anyone alive. He does not think Casey and Dylan can outsmart him. I had an image in my mind of what Keegan looked like and I kept seeing him look like that man who escaped from prison a couple of years ago and evaded the police for a while.

In this book and in the entire series you start out knowing who the main villains were. What you don't know is that they corruption goes beyond just these two cops. Casey and Dylan do not know who to trust. I will say no more because I don't want to reveal too much so to spoil the plot for you. What I can say is that Casey comes to a saving faith in the Lord and knows no matter what she can trust what the Lord has in store for her. Dylan gets closer to the Lord also.

This story kept me in suspense. It was hard to put down. Terri Blackstock is one of my favorite suspense writers and I look forward to reading her books in the future. 

Thanks to Netgalley and Zondervan for providing me a digital copy to read and review. This book will be released on March 6, 2018.

What a Christmas by Jenn Faulk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The main characters Caleb and Amelia Miller expected to have a quiet Christmas alone. She is in her 36th week of pregnancy so it was not wise for her to travel in her condition. They did plan on Caleb getting the flu or her wack relatives showing up unannounced. His folks showed up too. This book kept me laughing particularly the antics of Amelia's ditsy mother Charity Connor Pearson.

As always I enjoyed reading Jenn Faulk's book and look forward to reading some more of her books.


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Flowers and Foul Play by Amanda Flower

Flowers and Foul Play is the first in the Magic Garden Series by Amanda Flower. It is a nice cozy little mystery that will keep you guessing. When Ian McAllister dies he leaves his cottage and magical garden to his goddaughter Fiona Knox, an American. She had grown close to her godfather since the family made frequent trips to Scotland. After a broken engagement and the failure of her business Fiona goes to Scotland to claim her inheritance. The day she arrives she discovers a body in the garden who turns out to be the lawyer handling the estate. Immediately the law is called and she becomes a suspect along with her godfather's caretaker Hamish. She has an alibi but a shadow still hangs over Hamish. Very quickly over the next few days the suspects grow as she decides to do some investigating much to the chagrin of the local law officer. 

The murderer could have been a number of people since nobody really liked the lawyer. A lot of people had the motive but who did it? It kept me guessing until the very end. The story got really suspenseful when she figured out who it was and with her life in danger.

Thanks to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing me a digital copy of this book to read and review. Flowers and Foul Play is due to be released on May 8, 2018. I look forward to reading more cozies in this series

Oath of Honor by Lynette Eason

I think I am really going to enjoy Lynette Eason's new Blue Justice series. Wow! I knew this book would be a good one when I requested it and and was not wrong. I think I will even enjoy it more than the last series since this series is focused just on one family, the St. Johns. The first one is Izzie, one of six siblings most of who are in some kind of police service. Her mother is the chief of police and her father is a lawyer. I'm not giving anything away. This is on the back of the book. Anyway her partner, Kevin Marshall is killed at a warehouse. Izzie teams up with Kevin's brother Ryan to find who the killer is. Izze has been friends with Kevin's family since they are kids. This book kept me engaged. Very thrilling with lots of twists. Just when you think everyone is safe you find out differently! I can't wait until the next book. Thanks to LibraryThing and the Revell company for providing me a copy of this book to read and review. If you are a lover of suspense you don't want to miss this book. Oath of Honor will be released on January 2, 2018 with the sequel coming out in the summer 2018.

The View from Rainshadow Bay by Colleen Coble

The View from Rainshadow Bay is the first book in the Lavender Fields series. You can count on a Colleen Coble romantic suspense novel to grab you from the get go and this one did not disappoint. In the first few chapters there are several murders. I had to keep turning the pages to see who was responsible.

Shauna McDade is a widow raising a five-year old son. She blames Nate Bannister for the death of her husband but she must learn to trust Nate in order to keep her and her precious son safe. Someone has already murdered a few people in their community and she could very well be the next target.

This book kept me guessing. I think I may have read every single novel that Collen Coble has written and I have been able to figure out who the villain was in many of her books but this one had me stumped. I never did figure out who it was until the characters figured it out. Maybe I re-read this book and see if I missed any clues!  There is a mystery that was not resolved in this book and I suspect it will be resolved in a sequel. I look forward to reading the rest of the books in this series.

Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas Nelson for providing me a digital copy of this book to read and review. The View from Rainshadow Bay is due to be released on January 23, 2018.