Diana Brandmeyer's A Mind of Her Own

A Mind of Her Own

By Diana Lesire Brandmeyer

Tyndale House Publishing

© December 2012

ISBN 978-1-4143-8103-9 (Apple); ISBN 978-1-4143-8102-2 (ePub); ISBN 978-1-4143-8101-5 (Mobi)

e-Book $6.39

From the back:

Who knew making dinner could change your life? Louisa Copeland certainly didn’t. But when the George Foreman grill fell out of the pantry onto her head, resulting in a bump and a mighty case of amnesia, Louisa’s life takes a turn for the unexpected. Who was this Collin fellow, claiming she was his wife? And whose kids are those? Her name couldn’t be Louisa. Why, she was the renowned romance writer Jazz Sweet, not a Midwestern mom of three. Struggling to put the pieces together of the life she’s told she had, Louisa/Jazz may realize that some memories are better left alone.

 

My review:

Brandmeyer’s tale of a woman who’s spent her entire life hiding in plain sight from a decades-long secret she couldn’t make anyone understand. When a fortuitous bump on the head gives Louisa Copeland’s inner drama queen an opportunity to come and play, the whole Copeland family: overworked husband Collin, children Tim, Joey and Madison, along with Louisa, learn how precious the bonds of love and faith should be. 

Stay-at-home mom Louisa has another personality, Jazz Sweet, single romance writer, who’s been locked away. After her accident, Collin goes out of his way, not always graciously, to get his wife back, even when he finds Jazz a little more exciting than Louisa. Louisa, as Jazz, gets an opportunity to learn about her kids and husband, her life, from an objective point of view. She acts out the real hang-ups, pet peeves, and the child side of herself she never lets out to play, showing Collin that her life was not all perfect. When he finds and reads her journals, he finally understands what life has been like from his wife’s side. He becomes every wife’s dream husband, and when Louisa relives the trauma that set off her bout of amnesia, they work together to save their family.

Nicely done in the voices of Louisa, her alter-ego Jazz, and Collin, Brandmeyer never quite lets her characters get out of control, although you just know they’d like to. The children are typical big sister and little brothers annoying; Collins wants to make partner at the law firm, and Louisa is just lost, colorless, without intimate friends, virtually orphaned and completely without hope or faith at the start of the story. Jazz livens her up, and although she finds her faith she is still lost in her own life; a life that comes with a husband she doesn’t recall but is strangely attracted to, but a housewife’s role she has no interest in. 

The ending comes a bit too neatly and quickly, but the journey there was a pleasant and intriguing ride. What would Jazz do next? And how would the neighbors and her family react? That was great fun. Who wouldn’t want the chance to fall in love all over again?

When the Heart Heals

Sisters at Heart - #2

By Ann Shorey

978-0-8007-2073-5

$14.99

Paperback

352 pages

Pub Date: February 2013

 

 

Readers are invited to travel back to 1867, to the town of Noble Springs, Missouri, for an engrossing story of love's  tentative first steps and fragile future in the face of opposition. With tenderness and grace, Ann Shorey tells the story of Rosemary, a sympathetic but strong woman determined to thrive in a world that doesn't always understand. 

Courageous and unconventional, Rosemary Saxon served as a nurse during the Civil War, a service that has caused most women in town to regard her as unfeminine and downright vulgar. Although she would like to put her experiences as a nurse behind her, she must support herself. She takes a position with Dr. Elijah Stewart and a mutual attraction begins to develop. But when a sophisticated woman arrives in town claiming to be Elijah's fiancée, a heartbroken Rosemary decides to leave Noble Springs and start fresh. Can Elijah convince her of the mystery woman's deception before he loses her forever?

Ann Shorey is the author of Where Wildflowers Bloom, The Edge of Light, The Promise of Morning, and The Dawn of a Dream. She has also published selections in the Cup of Comfort series and in Chicken Soup for the Grandma's Soul. Ann and her husband make their home in southwestern Oregon.

My review:

A son and daughter born of a Southern mother return from serving with the Union Army during the Civil War, are shunned by their parents and must make their own way. They move a few hours from St. Louis, Missouri to Noble Springs. The second book of the Sisters at Heart series picks up after Rosemary Saxon’s brother Curt has married and moved to his wife’s home, leaving Rosemary alone in the small house. Rosemary may be on her way to spinsterhood, but she values her independence above all else. In an era where women are expected to work at home, or in gentle pursuits, perhaps with a family business, Rosemary can offer the only work she truly knows, that of nursing wounded soldiers, and preparing herbal remedies from her mother’s recipe files.

With Curt gone and a new doctor in town, Rosemary puts on her courage and visits Elijah Stewart, a doctor she’d worked with only a few weeks in St. Louis before he’d been shipped out to the front. He doesn’t remember her at first, but is convinced having a nurse involved in his practice is wholly unnecessary. Until he thinks about it, and decides perhaps someone like Rosemary in the office, greeting patients, keeping records and tidying up the place would work in their favor, never mind the fact that they’re attracted to one another. When he learns Rosemary takes in stray people, and has been mixing up and dishing out herbal remedies, he is naturally on his guard and disapproving, again, until he thinks about it.

Several issues hamper this couple’s courtship, including potential love interests on both sides who wreak havoc with everyone’s emotions, along with a mysterious stalker and vandal who accuses Rosemary of awful things, and Elijah’s father who would rather have his son in Chicago.

Shorey’s characters are unconventional, certainly; Rosemary teeters on the likeable scale, even after we get to know her. The author reminds readers people are people, and not always sweet and even-tempered and romantic. Noble Springs feels like a cozy community, but peopled with fallible souls who are quick to listen to gossip. Love triangles that don’t  go anywhere, and a main character who is as quick to judge as the townspeople who hurt her don’t truly deflect from the story, which is, after all, about love and redemption. Rosemary learns forgiveness is a two-way street, and independence is good, but a soul mate to depend upon is better. Told from both Rosemary and Elijah’s viewpoints, the story is built across a number of entwining subplots of romance, mystery, and danger, the author leaves plenty of room to explore what’s sure to be another sequel.

“Available February 2013 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”

Book Review: Dreaming of a Father's Love by Sharon A. Lavy

Dreaming of a Father’s Love

By Sharon A Lavy

Story and Logic Media Group (December 26, 2012)

ISBN 978-0615724362

ASIN: B00ATTLBO6

Price e-format: 6.99

Print: 15.99

 

Enjoy the trailer:

Old Order Fiction

From the publisher: Sara Brubaker was two years old when a German Baptist couple adopted her. She has become a beautiful woman, and works as a secretary for Alexander's. Now she's torn between wanting to live in the normal world of fun and fashion, or joining the Dunkards to truly belong with her adoptive family. Birdie Alexander thinks if she works at the family business hard enough and long enough she will gain her father's love. Can she learn a thing or two from the German Baptist secretary? Irene West is Birdie's lifelong Sunday school friend. Irene misses having a father figure around, and is very boy crazy, which causes Birdie to struggle with the friendship and Irene to struggle with life. Will Birdie overcome her self-righteous nature before it's too late—for Irene?

 

Sharon Lavy’s debut novel is a trip back in time. I hate to admit it, but I knew all the Helen Reddy songs that Birdie sings.

Dreaming of a Father’s Love is a many-layered story of finding love, or realizing that it’s been there all along, for Lavy’s characters. Growing up in the crazy early 1970s when women were beginning to assert themselves was tough enough in the general population, but when you belong to a fairly strict mainline faith, it’s even harder. Birdie wants to make choices about her future for herself, but it’s difficult with a father she feels is over-critical and harsh when he really wants the best for her. During the summer after high school graduation all the dreadful events that happen to her family and friends could have sunk her, if not for the deep-seated faith which was her foundation. Dealing with a love triangle, figuring out how to help or deal with her friends, both old and new, and her family help her realize her place in the community in which she lives and wants to stay.

 

Lavy’s story is told in many and occasionally dizzying viewpoints, so readers will want to pay close attention to who belongs to whom. I enjoyed the snippets of life in that era, as well as getting to know a little more about the various faiths in their culture. It was sometimes hard to cheer for Birdie and her decade-older love interest, Dax who was searching for missing family, as their lives and romance seemed to move along pretty quickly from a standstill, but I adored the house and history behind (and inside) that Dax bought and restored. Hopefully future books from Story and Logic Media Group will take a bit more care with proofreading to avoid missing punctuation as I found, but didn’t mind too much, in the e-version supplied by the author.

 

Readers who enjoy a trip down memory lane to the tumultuous seventies and a really special house restoration layered with a search for one’s identity, will find Dreaming of a Father’s Love a fascinating read.

Book Review: Irene Hannon's Vanished

Vanished, by Irene Hannon

Book one of Private Justice

 

Revell Books

$14.99

January 2013

978-0-8007-2123-7

 

A bump in the night and eyes full of terror won’t let go of Moira Harrison. Was it her Pulitzer-prize nominated instincts, a bad memory, or guilty conscience that sent her to Phoenix, Inc, seeking justice. But for who?

 

Phoenix, Inc., the PI firm recommended by her colleague at the newspaper doesn’t exactly fit Moira’s idea of the office of private investigators, even though she’s never visited one before. The receptionist’s outlandish taste of dress almost offsets the soothing décor. And then Moira meets Cal Burke.

 

After hearing her crazy story of skidding in front of a woman and hitting her in the rain on a lonely road while Moira was reaching for her long-distance glasses, tincluding a man who said he’d help her but didn’t, and no evidence of anything but burned rubber, Cal Burke, ex-ATF agent and partner at Phoenix Inc., must be nuts to take her case. Pro-bono. Even the cops were hard-put to do anything but close the file.

 

Moira’s credentials as an investigative reporter help Cal believe, and when the math doesn’t start to add up, the hunt is on for a Samaritan whose kindness could put Moira in the afterlife before anyone’s ready. Certainly not Cal, whose five-year mourning period for his late wife is melting away, and Moira, who’s been burned by romance one too many times in the past.

 

Join this middle-thirties couple and their friends as they search for justice for a nameless victim.

 

I’ve been an Irene Hannon fan for a while, and enjoyed this story. It’s fast-paced and extremely well-detailed without crossing into the boring. A few little glitches, like adding some extraneous character point of view scenes for a situation that simply didn’t need more explanation felt like filler, but weren’t fatal to the pace. I liked the characters and their inevitable conclusion. I liked the investigative techniques, which might also make the details fall into place a little too coincidentally; but overall, Vanished is a great addition to Hannon’s repertoire. The next books in the series I’m sure will prove to be just as entertaining.

 

Available January 2013 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Book Review: The Big Red Chair by Brenda J Wood

The Big Red Chair: A story for Grieving Children

Including audio CD of the story narrated by the author inthe print version

By Brenda J Wood

ISBN: 9780986531385

c. 2011

Alloway’s Printing and Publishing

32-page photo picture book

$3.99 eBook

Print can be ordered from brendawoodauthor-at-yahoo.com

 

Wood’s charming story in rhyme features Grandfather Afi’s Big Red Chair. The chair is special for all family members, for hugs, naps, playtime; even laundry.

 

The tale begins with “We did not want a big red chair” until the time came Grandmother Ammi decides she would like the chair since Afi does. When Afi needs to be in the hospital, he misses his Big Red Chair. And when God calls Afi home, the rest of the family remember Afi’s love, especially when they use his chair.

 

More than a family tale, Wood’s book shares the love of a special grandfather who leaves fond memories in the everyday item they all enjoyed: his favorite chair. The pictures used to illustrate the book are a treasure and nearly any family can relate to them. A discussion guide meant to help young ones recall their friends or family members with love is included.

Forty Days of Encouragement, with Pauline Creeden

Found Adrift

By Pauline Creeden 

Forty days of Recovering Grace

Devotional

 

AltWit Press

C. 2012 

ISBN: 978-1480030725

$2.99 Kindle

$8.99 Paperback

Creeden’s dedication, “For those who, like me, find themselves in the middle of the lake of life without a paddle” says a lot about what to expect in this nifty little guide of forty days’ worth of lessons to change a habit of poor choices.

From the opening lesson of choosing to draw near to God through better prayer through cutting off “unfruitful” aspects of our lives, to doing what we are commanded to being teachable and seeking forgiveness and grace when we need it, each day opens with Scripture and ends with prayer – a habit in itself easy to seek.

This encouraging guide may be small but packs a huge impressive punch. You will certainly be uplifted and challenged as you read through these days and practice each lesson. Definitely a good gift to share with someone you love.

Book Review: Debut Action Thriller

The Diaries of Pontius Pilate

JosephMax Lewis

c. August 2012
Trestle Press
Genre: Contemporary Thriller
e-Book $4.99

 

Nook

 

Kindle

 

briefly:

 

The Diaries of Pontius Pilate opens with the murder of a member of an archeological team along the shores of the Dead Sea. We learn that the murderer and victim are both spies observing the expedition and grappling with the fact that the team has just discovered some controversial artifacts.

In fact, archaeologists Kevin Elliot Jill Gates have unearthed twenty mysterious copper scrolls. They manage to open one scroll far enough to take a series of digital photographs of the writings and email them to a Professor of Ancient Latin for translation. Unaware of the content, Kevin and Jill are unprepared when they’re caught between an ancient conspiracy of global power that’s determined to destroy the scrolls along with everyone connected to them and a small interfaith group of former military volunteers, the only force on earth that stands between the truth and certain death.

 

My review:

Joseph Max Lewis, former Green Beret, debuts with a page-turning thriller. Although the author asked for a review and sent a review copy, I did purchase the e-book.

 

Diaries is part conspiracy theory, part archaeology, part special ops and technological suspense with some torture and a little romance.

The reader is sent between international and inter-denominational power groups, but it’s not clear at first who are the good guys and which are the bad, which only ramps the tension. Moving through Israel, the US, academia, and anonymous torture chambers where evil reigns, readers gradually learn along with archaeologists Kevin and Jill exactly the importance of the long-held secret they unearthed. Never published, documented, or even more than faintly rumored, the existence of Pontius Pilate’s, one-time Roman ruler of Palestine at the time of Christ,  investigation into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus could affect the faith of the world. Pilate hid the diaries perhaps too well, for they lay silent for two thousand years, along with other artifacts from that horrible time.

 

Running from those who want to destroy evidence of the diaries and anyone who knows about them, Kevin and Jill must figure out who to trust as they are forced into close quarters on a ship. They wonder if they can even trust each other. Over the course of time, they examine their feelings as well as matters of faith while trying to keep the scrolls safe.

Diaries is not for the faint of heart, as scenes of massacre and torture are somewhat graphic. Intriguing details of military operations are detailed, as one would expect given the author’s background. Little formatting glitches and occasional other errors don’t stop the action much; I occasionally buzzed through extra-long passages of technology which others would probably enjoy. The romantic relationship was a little rough and spastic, but the story was not meant to be built around a romance, and those elements will only get better in future work, I suspect. I look forward to more from this author.

Book Review: A Bride Opens Shop... by Keli Gwyn

A Bride Opens Shop in El Dorado, California

By Keli Gwyn

Barbour Books

c. 2012

$12.99 pbook and $9.99 ebook - Barbour-really? Try $4.99

ISBN: 9781616265830

Christian Romance

 

Gwyn’s charming story takes a delightful path to a wedding.

 

I do remember volunteering to read and review. But I thought I’d had enough of prairie romances for awhile, and honestly let Keli’s heroine look at me for a couple of weeks after I received the book, while I tended to other business.

 

Romances work because they’re formulaic. The reader knows what’s going to happen; the pleasure is how the couple gets there. Gwyn’s story had a lot of fun elements, including the age of the characters: thirties; the fact that both were widowed and had a child; and the hero’s mom was a stitch.

 

Gwyn’s heroine, Mrs. Watkins, isn’t always likeable. She’s feisty to the point of illogic sometimes, competitive to a fault, but teachable. Her daughter, Tildy, is a delight and creates for some hysterical moments, especially when she’s wondering out loud when she can call our hero, Mr. Rutledge, “papa.” Mr. Rutledge is a self-admitted dandy, but generous to a fault, if not always kind. I found these characters refreshing, nicely different from the same-old damsel in distress and the perfect hero riding in to rescue her.

 

Mrs. Watkins has been offered a junior partnership in a mercantile business. Taking her nine-year-old daughter away from a difficult family situation and starting over in California seems like a good idea. Until she meets her partner, Mr. Rutledge, who’s been misinformed by his mother about the gender of his new partner, and the deal is off. She sets up shop across the street from him, and the battle is enjoined. The elderly Mrs. Rutledge and Tildy work both sides of the street with delight and excitement.

Told from both points of view with period-excellent details, readers of historical romance will find much to enjoy in this adorable romance. That is, if you don’t mind a little blood, heat exhaustion, and snakes.

Book Review: The Reunion by Dan Walsh

The Reunion, By Dan Walsh

Revell Books

Romantic Fiction
ISBN:  978-0-8007-2121-3
$14.99
September 2012

 

Putting the puzzle pieces of life together is necessary work, one that is joyful for some and a challenge for others, full of heartache and despair and discovery about the choices and events that created the current situation. In his latest novel, The Reunion, Walsh explores these challenges from the perspective of a man who’s learned to appreciate a second chance at life.

 

Told from several viewpoints, the novel slowly pulls together a mosaic of lives affected by the Vietnam War era. Aaron Miller, a decorated vet who hit rock bottom before realizing he needed a bigger Influence to help piece his life together, works at a Florida residence campground, performing maintenance not only on the physical trailers and sites, but subtly on the people who come and go. Through his faith-filled eyes, he is able to see the challenges others face, and uses his practical experience to not only listen, offer advice where warranted, but also to subtly repair breeches in their lives. Now if only he could find the last pieces of the picture of his own life, the children he left so long ago, he could receive the forgiveness he longs for.

 

Miller’s life picture is filled in through his encounters with a teenager in need of help, another Nam vet ready to check out of life, his children who don’t know him, and a man who needs to find him. Dave Russo, the reporter-turned writer who is struggling as a single parent with a dream, is challenged to find the hero who saved the lives of his fellow platoon survivors so he can be thanked properly. Russo has only a name as a lead: Aaron Miller.

 

The Reunion reads a bit like a plate of spaghetti, many noodles combining to create a satisfying dish. Walsh peels away at his story line and characters through the thoughts of others. While sometimes I felt the story was watered down by leaping into another character, I appreciated each challenge and the amount of research Walsh did to develop a lovely novel of happily ever after.

 

“Available September 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”

Review of Laura Frantz's Love's Reckoning

Love’s Reckoning

By Laura Frantz

978-0-8007-2041-4

$14.99

Historical Romance

Revell Books

I loved Laura Frantz’s earlier historical sagas about the American frontier; fans will not be disappointed by this new story set shortly after the Revolutionary War on the western edge of Pnnsylvania—and the edge of known civilization.

Genre readers know what to expect when we pick our familiar favorites. There’s an expected outcome, a methodology to the tale, characters who meet and fall in love and must overcome obstacles. It’s the journey to the expected outcome that offers excitement. As a voracious reader, I appreciate being part of Frantz’s world without the need to stop and look up details, or verify historical issues that feel out of place. I’m a historian first, reader, second, and author, third, so I appreciate the level of research Frantz does to create a world that is both natural and satisfying to the historical fiction lover, full of daily chores, everyday dangers and people of both light and dark hearts—sometimes in one person.

An apprentice must finish his duty to obtain the coveted level of master blacksmith. Silas Ballantyne remembers the Scotland of his youth but refuses to allow the past to interfere with his dreams of becoming master of his own fate. A man of faith, it is only God who has allowed him to maintain his dignity through the terror, degradation and defeat that has taken his youth and young adulthood. Eden Lee’s life is one huge secret—some of which she authored, but many of which even she is ignorant. The daughter of the blacksmith, a depraved reprobate, will she allow those secrets to ruin her dreams of serving others? When Silas, Lee’s latest apprentice, and Eden, a daughter who dreams of escape, meet in this shadowed homestead of Leige Lee, it seems a simple enough plan for them to help each other. Love is only the gift that ties the bow on what should be a perfect package.

Sometimes, doing what’s best for another, no matter how noble the circumstances, ends up creating a disaster. Or does it?

Laura Frantz’s lovingly crafted tale of faith and redemption, desire and dreams will keep the reader turning pages and wishing for more after the last one.

 

Available September 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group

 

Also available at Barnes and Noble

Review of Diane Graham's I Am Ocilla

I Am Ocilla by Diane M. Graham

ISBN: 9781927154199

Splashdown Books, March 1, 2012

$14.99 pBook

$4.99 eBook

 From the publisher: Somehow, I must live. I must find my purpose. There are friends to love and battles to fight. I know my name. Perhaps that is enough.

I am Ocilla.

This is my story.

Buy on Amazon

If John Bunyan and AA Milne set out on a journey and met up with Madeleine L’Engle, no doubt they would have told each other stories around the campfire much like this one.

I Am Ocilla is a questing story filled with all the things fantasy lovers like best pairing them off and mixing them up like so many creatures from the City of Destruction and the Hundred Acre Wood, progressing through a Wrinkle in Time, falling back and starting all over again. Spun throughout is mercy after our sins leave heartache and broken souls. Free will is the bottom line of faith, and Diane pulls out the deepest Scriptures to prove that God’s love never fails.

A five-hundred-year curse has pitted the four Kingdoms in a battle to a final death if the Chosen One fails yet again to lift it. Only she has the answer; the power to rebuke an evil spirit whose vengeance over thwarted devotion results in mass destruction if the Princess refuses him one more time. Join giants, ogres, fairies, dwarves, trees, and their animal friends red wolf, tiger, panda, and owl as they battle evil with their faithfulness, patience, love and wisdom.

You will be refreshed in your faith walk, encouraged in your daily witness and strengthened in love when you journey with Ocilla and her friends in a quest to fulfill their purpose.

Review: Annette Irby's Husband Material

Husband Material

By Annette M. Irby

c. 2011

eBook, White Rose Publishing  $.99

Pelican Book Group

Romance Novella

This sweet little read from Annette Irby will satisfy that need for time-constrained readers who long for a whole story in a short byte.

Restaurant-owner Lara meets recent widower Wyatt at the grocery store. From the moment she empathizes with Wyatt in front of the Valentine’s Day display she prays for him without knowing the reason for his sadness. Later, he eats alone at her restaurant and we understand that this year is different. Wyatt’s two-year-old grief has morphed into loneliness.

The mutual attraction and concern for each other sparks early.

Irby does a good job setting her characters and scenes, using the senses to tickle with reader and draw him or her into the conversation as these two people get to know each other.

Wyatt, the businessman, appreciates what Lara, a businesswoman in her own right, goes through to earn a living. He’s ready to move on and Lara feels like a natural fit. They’re both in their early thirties, unattached, but Lara is recovering from a broken relationship and, besides, could use his help. She doesn’t mix business and pleasure, even if the business embodies the perfect husband material.

When Wyatt trades food for his consulting fees, Lara accepts reluctantly, sticking to her pride and principles, even when she knows he’s interested in more than that from her. It doesn’t take long for Wyatt to come up with a plan to get past her principles, but can he get past the hurt in her life?

Irby’s great characters, honest dialogue, and rounded settings will make this novella a favorite romantic read.

Book Review: Fingerprints

Fingerprints

By Chantal Obasare

c. 2010

Xlibris Publishing

ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4535-5316-9

Softcover 978-1-4535-5315-2

$15.99

Ebook 978-1-4535-5317-6

$7.69

Chantal Obasare shares lovingly crafted poetry that reads like a cry from her heart on an intimate walk of faith with Christ. From the closing refrain of the opening song, “The Grand Climax,” “Then no other will I see, But my Jesus Christ,” to the poignant black and white photographic illustrations reflecting a number of the poems, the reader will share a piece of the author’s soul.

Obasare uses short phrases and rhyming or wrenched rhyming lines in her quatrains.

The simple beauty of worship in her poem “Beyond the Veil” reminds us that the things of this world are changeable pictures while God is real.

You gave me breath

You gave me life

And endless hope

Amidst trying times

I enjoyed Obasare’s word pictures like “Where ‘parents’ is not a fraction” in “Somewhere” and “When my eyes refuse to stop flooding” in “It’s not you…it’s me.”

The poetry showcases her passion for love and family as well. “I Was Made For You” is lovely marriage talk.

Obasare changes pace a bit with “Jamaica: Land We Love.” Octets describe the pain of crime and hurt in a land of beauty and the need for faith to remember God’s blessing.  “Missing” could be anyone, anywhere, as the poetess decries today’s lack of morals. “Where was God?” is a question most of us ask at some point in our lives. Obasare replies in the voice of Job.

“Lovely” reads like an undulating ocean wave, each line a declaration of “I love you” followed by no matter what. Obasare’s end piece, “Pieces of Me,” is like sitting down to a cup of tea with a friend.

Nicely done! Readers of spiritual folksy poetry will enjoy this book—Fingerprints will leave its mark.

Book Review: The Blessed by Ann Gabhart

The Blessed

By Ann Gabhart

Revell, a division of Baker

c. 2011

ISBN 9780800734541

Historical Romance

From the publisher:

“Let the child go, Lacey. Right now! We’ve come into this community to leave things of the world behind and do as they say” said Preacher Palmer. “But she needs me.” She spoke barely above a whisper. “She needs discipline. And so do you...” he said.

It is a time of spiritual revival in the mid-1840s when the Shakers worship services received many spiritual messages from Mother Ann and other Shaker leaders. Harmony Hill was a place offering a different way of life from the world. This village was a place where the people were dedicated to community, hard work, practicing their worship, and engaging in long hours of worship each week.

My review:

The Blessed adds to the author’s collection of novels dealing heavily with a Shaker theme. This is the first novel I’ve read by Gabhart, and the first that features Shaker characters.

I appreciated the author’s brief history of the society before reading the book. The Blessed takes place in the mid nineteenth century in a small rural community at the home of the local Baptist preacher and his ailing wife. As a teenager, Lacey Bishop was sent to be the hired girl for Miss Mona. During this time, a newborn baby is left on the preacher’s doorstep, taken in and raised by Miss Mona and Lacey. When Miss Mona passes on, Lacey is forced into a marriage of convenience on her part, but not the pastor’s, in order to maintain propriety and stay in the preacher’s house and continue to care for the growing child. After a visit from two gentlemen from the nearby Shaker community who come proselytizing, the pastor leaves his church and moves his household to join with the Shakers. Once there, Lacey is oddly attracted to a young man, Brother Isaac. But Isaac is another refugee from the outside world, who has been in mourning and rejected after the death of his wife, a prominent judge’s daughter. Isaac was befriended by a Shaker brother who’d come to town on business, and decided to accompany the brother to his home, where he eventually meets Lacey.

The style of writing is introspective, mournful, dour, yet ribboned with snatches of joy and hope as Lacey attempts to keep memories of her happy childhood alive for her young charge. Brother Amos, the man who befriends Isaac, is a delight. But in all honesty, Isaac’s story of guilt and widowhood was a tough start to the book, and I was confused about the preacher’s household setup. The marriage of convenience took place so early in the book that I wondered what would happen to free Lacey even while she met her true love interest. Life in the Shaker community reminded me a lot of other nonfiction books I’ve read about closed societies. People are people no matter how they worship or how they live, and this early Shaker society held little attraction for me.

Gabhart’s fans will surely enjoy this story as an addition to the collection. I'm not sure the story exactly fits in the “romance” category, category, however, so if you expect any sparks to fly or relationship ups and downs between the protagonists throughout the book, you won’t find that with The Blessed.

“Available July 2011 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”

Review of Bound by Guilt

Bound by Guilt

By CJ Darlington

2011 March Tyndale Fiction

ISBN: 978-1-4143-4012-8

$12.99

General Christian fiction

From the publisher: Roxy Gold is a throwaway, shuttled from one foster home to another. She longs for a family and will do anything to fit in.

My review:

CJ Darlington's sophomore novel avoids the slump. Completely. In fact, I liked Bound by Guilt much better than Thicker than Blood. Bound by Guilt has a more-rounded feel, a better linear story line and complete characters who participate fully in the narration.

Readers plunge into the seamy world of tramp life looking to take advantage of others right from the opening paragraphs. How could two teenagers become so lost and so troubled by their actions? One has been taken from a negligent mother and passed around like a hot potato; the other raised by a single doting mother. Related by blood only, Bound by Guilt is a very smooth transition from Thicker than Blood, using peripheral characters to create a sense of familiarity while devising a whole new story. Roxy is a sixteen-year-old girl who, contrasted with police office Abby Dawson's same-aged daughter, has nothing and no one to lean on or love, except for her second cousin Diego and his mother, Irene. The Tonelli's live by white collar crime, claiming not to really hurt anyone. When those conditions change, Roxy's conscience takes her on a God-directed journey toward all her heart's desires. That same guilt, however, must have closure and eventually her secret is discovered.

Abby Dawson has reason to hunt down Irene and Diego and Roxy. Although suspended on an unrelated incident, Abby uses her cop influence to sift through clues that lead her to her brother's killer. Things are not what they seem, however, when Abby catches up to Roxy. Bitterness, hardness of heart and guilt all come to a head as no one gets what she or he expects.

I can smell the dust and ancient ink, hear the crackle of pages and creak of bindings as CJ skillfully unrolls her story. Heartache, tissues, anger, relief, and remorse will be your constant companions as you read Bound by Guilt. CJ's style has definitely matured and I look forward to more from this talented young woman.

Catch an interview with CJ at The Barn Door on March 23.

Bound by Guilt is in stock! Buy it at Amazon, Christianbook.com and Barnes & Noble today!