HIS STEADFAST LOVE

by

Golden Keyes Parsons

ISBN: 978-1-59554-629-6

paperback, 331 pages

Thomas Nelson, Publisher

I love to read a good historical book and this is one of those. A love story back during the Civil War where Amanda Belle, a southern lady brought up with the strict upbringing of a Southern family and she is left to care for her younger brothers and sisters after the lost of her mother. She met an Union army officer Kent Littlefield just before the civil war started and they fell in love. But he soon had to leave her for the union army and having to leave the woman he loves back in the south.

Soon Amanda's brother Daniel joined the Confederate army, so now they would be fighting brother against brother, so sad. Will their love be enough to bring Kent back to Amanda or will she loose him.

As I am also a southern lady and lost my own great-grandfather in the civil war, I know a lot about the way the south was destroyed by the north. My own great-grandfather was last heard of near Charleston, SC never to return, my grandfather was born during this time never to know his own father. I love to read about this time, but I also hurt for my own people at what they had to undergo.

Thanks so much to Wynn-Wynn Media for providing a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

 

THE MULLIGANS
of Mt. Jefferson

by

Don Reid

ISBN: 9781434764942

paperback, 326 pages

David Cook, Publisher

Synopsis

In this compelling tale about three boyhood friends, a small-town murder mystery meets the power of a lifelong bond. Carl, Harlan, and Buddy grew up together and got into all the trouble they could find. After World War II tore them apart, they wondered if their childhood bond would ever be the same. But in 1959, when Harlan finds himself in the hospital with a gunshot wound, it's Buddy and Cal who are at his side, attempting to solve the mystery that put him there. Written by the award-winning songwriter and author Don Reid, The Mulligans of Mt. Jefferson brings readers back to the small Virginian town they loved in O Little Town and reminds them of the beauty of second chances.

Biography

Don Reid, a member of country music’s legendary Statler Brothers, has 3 Grammy awards, 9 CMA awards, 13 gold albums, and 8 platinum albums is a member of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and Country Music Hall of Fame and has also written several books including O Little Town and One Lane Bridge.Reid lives with his wife, Deborah, in Staunton, Virginia.

MY THOUGHTS:

I was so happy when I received this book from Wynn-Wynn Media that I could not wait to start reading it so I did.  Don Reid and his group of singers "The Statler Brothers" was one of my very favorite group and I find his writing is as good as his singing.

This story to me sounded so much like the guys that started the singing group that as I read I could just see each one as that boy.  The little town Mt. Jefferson, Virginia  was where everyone knew each other and Cal, Harlan and Buddy grew up as buddies and stayed that way even after they were married and had families.  One was a policeman, one a pastor, and one ran a jewelry store.

They were always getting into something and they always stood up for each other.  A man that ran a local restaurant everyone called Uncle Vic liked the boys and he started to call them "The Mulligans".

This is such a good story to me that you should pick up a copy and read for yourselves.  I was a teenager in the 1950s just as Don Reid was so it all came home to me.  I really loved the book and thanks so much to Jeane Wynn of Wynn-Wynn Media, LLC for sending me this copy and I really enjoyed reviewing it.

Tall, Dark, and Determined

by

Kelly Eileen Hake

ISBN: 9781602607613

Paperback, 318 pages

Barbour Publishing

 

Tall, Dark, and Determined, Husbands for Hire Series #2

Lacey Lyman needs a husband to help her set up and run a sawmill. But how can she snare the supposed hunter who seems to despise her complany? Chase Dunstan is determined to find out why the Hope Falls mine collapsed. Will he keep his cover or cave in to the chatterbox's charm?

 

My Thoughts:

 

I have not had the honor in reading the first book of this series, but I could read this one and follow alone with what is going on. 

 

As Lacey Lyman is trying to help rebuild their little town of Hope Falls.  It was a minning town but now that had fallen through so they are working on making the business a saw mill.  She presuaded her unmarried women friends to write ads for husbands as they needed men in the town to help run the saw mill.  Never did they think any would come reply in person as Chase Duncan did.  He had lost his brother-in-law in a minning accident and he wanted to find out what happened.  He never though he would fall for the chatter box by the name of Lacey.  He didn't want anyone to know why he was in the town but could he keep it a secret or with his silence ruin his chance with Lacey. 

 

This is a great read and I want to get the first book and reread this one after reading the first one.  Thanks so much to Barbour Publishing for sending me this book for free and I wanted to post a review for it.

ISBN: 9781595548023

Paperback, 298 pages

second book in series "The Big Sky Romance"

Thomas Nelson, publisher

My Review:

As Shay Brandenberger is trying to keep her head above water while she was raising her daughter

Olivia, and they were living in Moose Creek, Montana. She had agreed to play the bride in the Founder's day reenactment, but what she didn't know that she would she would really get married to Travis McCoy her old high school sweet heat. A trick had been played on her, and she didn't know what she was going to do. She wanted an annunlment but before she could do that, Travis came up with a way she could save her ranch. She didn't know if she agreed to stay married to him would be a good thing or would it be the worst thing she ever did.



Thanks to BookSneeze for sending me this book and I chose to review it.

THE MIRROR OF N'de

by

L. K. Malone

ISBN: 9780825426674

Paperback, 327 pages

Kregel Publishing

L.K. Malone

 

Short Biography: L. K. Malone is an insatiable reader who devours nearly a book a day when she isn’t writing. Favorite genres include political thrillers, historical fiction, romance, and fantasy. Some of her favorite reads include the Hunger Games series and the Harry Potter books, which inspired her to try her hand at fantasy with a Judeo-Christian twist. Malone is a Colorado native with a large extended family, which includes two lovely young women who graciously let her mentor them through the Denver Kids program, and a handsome menagerie of pets.


My Thoughts:

A great book for a young teen age girl. The story is about Hadlay and her family and all the people of "the Ramash". She was thirteen and was scorned and abused by the unloving Emperor. The Ramash people of very poor and as the children gather in secret so they can hear what the trickster Lelyeh and the msytical mirror was saying and doing.

Hadlat loved to think about how she could save her people from the rich and cruel governance of the overlords. She watched a friend die she is forsed to choose sides with childish pranks.

I have two young teen age granddaughter and am wondering which one will enjoy this book the most. Thanks so much to Kregel Publishing for sending me the book for me to review.

The Loom

by

Shella Gillus

ISBN: 9780824948160

Paperback, 234 pages

Thanks to Summerside Press for sending me this advanced copy of "The Loom".  In the South as I know very well as I am from SC, born and raised here, before the civil war the rich plantation owner has slaves to run the farms for them.  Some was good to them and as always some had to show who the boss was.  But when the slaves got too old to work in the fields the owners would send them to the mills to work with the looms that make the cotton fabric. 
Lydia was a light skined house slave and was overlooked somtime, and she had fallen in love with one of the field slaves and even trid to run off but was always found and brought back.  She wanted her freedom so bad that she agreed to marry a white plantation owner. 

Now in the south we see the whites and blacks married and think that this should not be, but God does not look at the color of our skin but the way we see Him in our hearts.

A good book written by Shella Gillus, so pick up a copy should have been out by the first of Dec. and read this interesting story.

Deliver Me From Evil

by

Kathi Macias

ISBN: 1596693061
Paperback, 318 pages

New Hope Publishing

Series: Freedom

My Thoughts:

In the USA we are so worried about drug trafficking, and I know we should be, but when have we stopped and thought about all that is happening to the young children and girls, boys also that go missing and there is never a trace found.  In this book Kathi tells about all of this, as a young girl in Thailand, Mara was treated very bad at home and she loved for her uncle to come see them, and when her parents sold her to the uncle everything changed for the worse.  He was not the good man she always though him to be, but had a house for young girls, very young, and he sold them for a night or day of enjoyment to whom ever wanted them for the price.  One night as a young man was delivering pizzas at a motel when a little girl ran out screaming and another teen was at the door and they got her back inside.  He could never get this off his mind and the more he saw on TV and the Internet he though this might be what was happening to these young girls.  After he finished this year of high school he was planning on going to a Bible college, but sometimes he was not sure if there was a God and this scene that he had seen really opened his eyes.

This book really opened my eyes and saw what they really went through, even some died from abuse.  But no one cared as there was always another somewhere to take their place. Thanks so much to the author Kathi Macias for sending me this book for my review.

Product Description

Deliver Me From Evil introduces readers to Mara, an eighteen-year-old girl who has been enslaved for nearly ten years, having been sold by her parents in Mexico and then smuggled across the border into San Diego where she was forced into sexual slavery. Readers will also meet 18-year-old Jonathan and his 16-year-old sister, Leah, whose paths cross Mara's and who become involved in her dramatic rescue. Interwoven between the stories of Mara, Jonathan, and Leah is the heartbreaking story of another young woman in captivity in the Golden Triangle of Thailand, whose past life mysteriously connects to the young people in San Diego..

 

Series: Freedom

 

A Great Book for Christmas

The Christmas Singing

by Cindy Woodsmall

Pick up a copy at your favorite book store

ISBN: 978-0-307-44654-1

Hardback, 189 pages

WaterBrook Press

 

Read the first chapter here: 

Save 30% off and free shipping on The Christmas Singing (and any other title) when your readers use promo code CHRISTMAS11 at checkout on WaterBrookMultnomah.com. The coupon code expires on December 20th, 2011

 

Naomi's Gift

by

Amy Clipson

 ISBN: 9780310327356

Hardback, 184

Zondervan Publishers

Book Description

Naomi's Gift re-introduces twenty-four-year-old Naomi King, who has been burned twice by love and has all but given up on marriage and children. As Christmas approaches-a time of family, faith, and hope for many others-Naomi is more certain than ever her life will be spent as an old maid, helping with the family's quilting business and taking care of her eight siblings. Then she meets Caleb, a young widower with a 7-year-old daughter, and her world is once again turned upside-down.

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this book as I love Christmas stories and also to read about the Amish.  Twenty-four year old Naomi King who lived in Bird-In-Hand, Pennsylvania had lost in love twice already and she though that she would never find a man to love her.  She was working in a quilt shop at the farmer's market when a little girl ran up and wanted to just feel the quilts.  She is eight years old and has lost her mother in an accident but she can't remember. She and her dad was coming to see his sister and all his family for Christmas.  Caleb Schmucker had lost his wife Barbara in an accident and was living in Middlefield and ran a buggy shop.  When he found his daughter who had ran off in the farmer;s market, he say Naomi and could not get her out of his mind.

As all the family came together all of Caleb's family wanted him to move his buggy business and move himself and his little daughter back to his home town.  Will he find a new Mama for Susie in Bird-In-Hand? 

Thanks so much to Zondervan Publishing for sending me this lovely book to read and I choose to review it.

 

A Christmas Journey Home

by

Kathi Macias

 ISBN: 1596693282

Paperback, 238 pages

New Hope
Publishsers

Product Description

During Isabella Alcantara's seventh month of pregnancy, her parents and siblings are murdered in gang and drug related violence, simply because their home was targeted by mistake. Isablla knows she was spared only because she now lives in a different location, but she knows too that the same thing could easily happen to her and herhusband, Francisco. When her grandfather offers to hire her a "coyote" to bring then across the border to America, she agrees. But Francisco and Isabella are abandoned by the coyote and left to die. Francisco then valiantly sacrifices himself to get Isabella to safety. Homeless, nearly penniless, pregnant, and alone, Isabella determines to find a way to honor her promise to her beloved husband.Living on one of the smaller spreads along the Arizona border, Miriam Nelson becomes furious with God and turns from her faith when her border patrol agent husband, David, is killed in a skirmish with drug smugglers. Though her mother and young son do their best to woo her back from the anger and bitterness that have overtaken her, they make little headway.
Two widows-one driven by fear and a promise, the other by bitterness and revenge-must make their journeys along different pathways, but with the same destination: a barn full of animals that stands waiting for them on Christmas Eve. Forced to face their personal demons, Isabella and Miriam soon discover a common yearning that will bind them together in a most miraculous way.

My Thoughts:

I have read almost everyone of Kathi's book and I have to say I think this is the best one. This is really two stories in one combined.   I love Christmas stories and this one is about Isabella Alcantara and her young husband Francisco.  After her parents and siblings were gunned down for no reason by the "Coyote" in Mexico, her grandfather gave up his life's savings to get her and her husband and their unborn child out of the country.  They had paid all the money they had to a "coyote" to see them safety across the border into the USA and to a safe house, but he robbed them of all they had and left them to die in the desert.

The safe house that they finally found was nothing but a slave and prostitute  house for the helpless.  They stole away and found themselves in the desert again where Francisco was gunned down by some drug smugglers.  Now alone and ready to have her baby she wondered  in the desert until she found a farm of another young woman and her son.  She hid in the barn until the little boy found her and that is where she had her baby.  Just as Jesus was born so long ago in a stable with the animals around.

I want to thank the author Kathi Macias for sending me this copy to read and review.  I love the book and I am sure you will too.

 

 TO LOVE AND TO CHERISH

by

Kelly Irvin

 ISBN: 0736943714

Trade Paper, 304 pages

publication date Feb. 2012

Harvest House Publishers

Emma Shirack is a young Amish woman who is twenty-one and still not married. 
Her long time boyfriend Carl had left her and the Amish faith, which really hurt her as she always though they would be married.  She helps out at home and loves to take care of her little twin sisters.  There was a terrible accident and both her parents were killed by a truck hitting their buggy, now how were they going to manage the farm and the children?

She alone with her siblings that was left at home had jobs that they needed the money to help them survive, so none of them could care for the smaller children and take care of the farm and animals also.  Then in came the brother that was married and he decided that he and his wife would take the smaller twins, so that the others could work.  But Emma and her sister-in-law did not care for each other that much so how was this going to work?

A neighbor told them he would harvest the fields as he had large tractors but being Amish they didn't think this was proper.  Along came another neighbor Tomas that was Amish man that had lost his wife and he was trying to raise two small children of his own.  But he really liked Emma but she though he was too old for her.  I really hope this little bit of information really makes you want to buy the book, or just go ahead and pre-order it .  Good reading as you live the life of the Amish and see their hurts and the fun times too.

Thanks so much to Wynn-Wynn Media for sending me this reviewer copy of this book and the review is my own.