Waiting on Wednesday #14: Change of Fortune

Hosted by Breaking the Spine.

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event that spotlights upcoming releases that we're

eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

A Change of Fortune by Jen Turano

Bethany House - November 2012

About
Lady Eliza Sumner is on a mission. After losing her family, her fiancé, and her faith, the disappearance of her fortune is the last straw. Now, masquerading as Miss Eliza Sumner, governess-at-large, she's determined to find the man who ran off with her fortune, reclaim the money, and head straight back to London.

Much to Mr. Hamilton Beckett's chagrin, all the eyes of New York society--all the female ones, at least--are on him. Unfortunately for all the matchmaking mothers and eligible daughters, he has no plans to marry again, especially with his hands full keeping his business afloat and raising his two children alone.

When Eliza's hapless attempts to regain her fortune put her right in Hamilton's path, sparks instantly begin to fly. The discovery of a common nemesis causes them to join forces, but with all their plans falling by the wayside and their enemies getting the better of them, it will take a riot of complications for Hamilton and Eliza to realize that God just might have had a better plan in mind all along.

Why I want to read it

Governess in disguise stories are usually a lot of fun. Not only do you get the story of the young lady who is experiencing life from a new perspective but you also know that the family she is working for will also be changed forever by her actions. Plus the red and grey cover is very eye catching

Where you can find it

Amazon and ChristianBooks (as of 10/18 it's cheaper at ChristianBooks.com)

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Remember - Anytime you visit Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com or ChristianBooks.com use an affiliate link to get there. Any purchase you make from a link on my site generates a small kickback. You need not purchase the item I'm featuring, any purchase counts. It costs you nothing extra and is an easy way to support this site.

A Wreath of Snow by Liz Curtis Higgs

A Wreath of Snow: A Victorian Christmas Novella by Liz Curtis Higgs. WaterBrook Press, 2012. 224p. (9781400072170)

It’s fun but kind of strange to read a story where a snowstorm plays an important part when you’re in a country that doesn’t really have snow and when you won’t see snow for over a year or two.

Goodreads Summary:

Christmas Eve 1894

 All Margaret Campbell wants for Christmas is a safe journey home. When her plans for a festive holiday with her family in Stirling crumble beneath the weight of her brother’s bitterness, the young schoolteacher wants nothing more than to return to the students she loves and the town house she calls home.

 Then an unexpected detour places her in the path of Gordon Shaw, a handsome newspaperman from Glasgow, who struggles under a burden of remorse and shame.

 When the secret of their shared history is revealed, will it leave them tangled in a knot of regret? Or might their past hold the threads that will bind their future together?

 As warm as a woolen scarf on a cold winter’s eve, A Wreath of Snow is a tender story of love and forgiveness, wrapped in a celebration of all things Scottish, all things Victorian, and, especially, all things Christmas.

My review:

I enjoyed this novella. It didn’t strike me as being too short or as if something were missing, although 224 pages seems like a novel and not a novella to me. (I read an ebook version and didn’t know the length until just now.) I did think it odd that Margaret and Gordon would fall in love so quickly – a day or two, especially considering their history.

This wasn’t really a romance though; it was a story of forgiveness. A story that reminded you not to withhold forgiveness and harbor bitterness and anger. A reminder that it’s best to seek forgiveness even if it digs up past pain because healing can’t truly happen until forgiveness is given and received.

Liz Curtis Higgs has done a lot of research on Scotland and many of her books are set there. I particularly loved Here Burns My Candle and Mine is the Night. Check out her website about Scotland to learn more about the author and her love for that country.

In this book she does a great job describing the setting, scenery, traditions and general feel of Christmas in the 1890s. An interesting fact from the author’s note at the end is that the word wreath is “also the Scots word for ‘a bank or drift of snow.’”

Go read it! Find it at a library near you; Buy it from Amazon; Buy it from ChristianBook.com

Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher through the Blogging for Books book review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission.

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Remember - Anytime you visit Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com or ChristianBooks.com use an affiliate link to get there. Any purchase you make from a link on my site generates a small kickback. You need not purchase the item I'm featuring, any purchase counts. It costs you nothing extra and is an easy way to support this site.

Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede. Harcourt, 1991. 242p. (9780152045654) Series: Enchanted Forest Chronicles, #2.

A few weeks ago I read the first book, Dealing with Dragons, and this week the books I ordered for the library arrived and this was one of them. Between reading book one and the arrival of the books two kids asked me if we had this book. I was so happy that I could tell them it would be here soon.

Back Cover:

Kidnap a dragon? How daring!

How stupid

Cimorene, the princess who refuses to be proper, is back – but where is Kazul the dragon? That’s what Cimorene is determined to find out.

Luckily – or perhaps not-so-luckily – she’s got help: Mendanbar, the not-very-kingly King of the Enchanted Forest, has joined her in her quest. So with the aid of a broken-down magic carpet, a leaky magical sword, and a few buckets of soapy lemon water, they set off across the Enchanted Forest to tackle the dragon-napping and save the King of the Dragons.

My Review:

This was another very fun book. The back cover gives you the idea it is more about Cimorene, when it’s really about Mendanbar and his quest to find out why there are large bare, almost burnt out patches of nothing in his forest. He is sent by a squirrel to see Morwen who tells him to visit Kazul. Only problem is Kazul is missing.

Thus Cimorene and Mendanbar set off together to find the Dragon King. Along the way they meet the usual giants, dwarfs, magicians and royalty. Except none of them are actually “usual” as you may suspect if you’ve read book one.

For example, the giant is fed up because “every three months, regular as clockwork, one of those boys shows up and there’s never been a Tom, Dick or Harry among ‘em. Just Jacks. The English have no imagination.” (p.101-102)

Similar to the first, this book has a dash of romance but in this tale it’s mainly friendship and mutual interests that then blossoms into love at the very end. There is also plenty of adventure, mystery and lots to chuckle about.

Go read it! Find it at a library near you; Buy it from Amazon

Disclosure: I borrowed this from the library. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

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Remember - Anytime you visit Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com or ChristianBooks.com use an affiliate link to get there. Any purchase you make from a link on my site generates a small kickback. You need not purchase the item I'm featuring, any purchase counts. It costs you nothing extra and is an easy way to support this site.

Waiting on Wednesday #13 - Starflower

Hosted by Breaking the Spine.

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event that spotlights upcoming releases that we're
eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Starflower by Anne Elisabeth Stengl
BethanyHouse - November 2012

About
The Black Dogs Are on the Hunt, But Who Is Their Prey?

When a cursed dragon-witch kidnaps fairest Lady Gleamdren, the Bard Eanrin sets boldly forth on a rescue mission... and a race against his rival for Gleamdren's favor. Intent upon his quest, the last thing the immortal Faerie needs is to become mixed up with the troubles of an insignificant mortal.

But when he stumbles upon a maiden trapped in an enchanted sleep, he cannot leave her alone in the dangerous Wood Between. One waking kiss later, Eanrin suddenly finds his story entangled with that of young Starflower. A strange link exists between this mortal girl and the dragon-witch. Will Starflower prove the key to Lady Gleamdren's rescue? Or will the dark power from which she flees destroy both her and her rescuer?

Why I want to read it

This is book four in a fabulous series that I absolutely love! I can't wait to read this! In this book we get to lean about some of Goldstone Wood's history! Make sure you read Heartless, Veiled Rose, and Moonblood first.

Where you can find it
Amazon and ChristianBooks

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Remember - Anytime you visit Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com or ChristianBooks.com use an affiliate link to get there. Any purchase you make from a link on my site generates a small kickback. You need not purchase the item I'm featuring, any purchase counts. It costs you nothing extra and is an easy way to support this site.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books to get in the "Halloween" Spirit

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This week's topic is Top Ten Books To Get In The Halloween Spirit. I'm not one to celebrate Halloween or to read scary stories. But there are ten suspenseful books, a few nonfiction books about the spirit world, and a few about Martin Luther in honor of All Saints Day

Top Ten Books to Get in the "Halloween Spirit"

1. The Messenger by Siri Mitchell

There is a creepy guy in there actually.

2. The Last Jihad series by Joel Rosenberg

A very intense fiction series written 2002-2008 about politics in the Middle East and the End times. The crazy thing is that Mr. Rosenberg started the first book in the spring of 2001 and began his novel with terrorists using an airplane to wreck havoc in America. It's amazing how many times events in his novels foreshadowed actual events in the Middle East.

These were intense stories and I could not read the series straight through without taking a break and reading something more lighthearted and less sobering.

3. Kitty, My Rib by E. Jane Mall
A wonderful biography of Katharina von Bora, Martin Luther's wife. If you have not read this you should!

4. The Healer's Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson

Perhaps an odd choice for this list, but I'm including it because it's one of the few novels I've read that actually acknowledge (and include) that there is a spirit world and that demons or demonic forces can affect our lives.

5. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Hard to mention demons without including this classic.

6. Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
Plenty of suspense. Especially in The Hound of Baskerville - there's a creepy story for you.

7. What would you add?

Sorry I couldn't come up with ten, although there are five books in the Last Jihad series if you want to count that.

Remember - Anytime you visit Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com or ChristianBooks.com use an affiliate link to get there. Any purchase you make from a link on my site generates a small kickback. You need not purchase the item I'm featuring, any purchase counts. It costs you nothing extra and is an easy way to support this site.

The Bridge by Karen Kingsbury

The Bridge by Karen Kingsbury. Howard Books, 2012. 258p. (9781451647013)

This is the first Karen Kingsbury book I’ve read. And I loved it. It is very likely that I’ll be reading more of books in the near future. For some reason I thought her novels tended to have a lot of romance but this one didn’t, it had a very sweet love story.

Back cover:

Number one New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury delivers an instant classic with this heartwarming Christmas story about a hundred-year flood, lost love, and the beauty of enduring friendships.

Molly Allen lives alone in Portland, but she left her heart back in Tennessee with a man she walked away from five years ago. They had a rare sort of love she hasn’t found since.

Ryan Kelly lives in Nashville after a broken engagement and several years on the road touring with a country music duo. He can still hear Molly’s voice encouraging him to follow his dreams; Molly, whose memory stays with him. At least he can visit The Bridge—the oldest bookstore in historic downtown Franklin—and remember the hours he and Molly once spent there.

For thirty years, Charlie and Donna Barton have run The Bridge, providing the people of middle Tennessee with coffee, conversation, and shelves of good books—even through dismal book sales and the rise of digital books. Then in May, the hundred-year flood swept through Franklin and destroyed nearly every book in the store.

Now the bank is pulling the lease on The Bridge. Despondent and without answers, Charlie considers the unthinkable. Then tragedy strikes, and suddenly, everything changes. In the face of desperate brokenness and lost opportunities, could the miracle of a second chance actually unfold?

The Bridge is a love story set against the struggle of the American bookstore, a love story you will never forget.

My review:

I loved the setting, not just because it revolved around a bookstore, but because the author did such a great job describing the scenes and letting the reader feel the joy and contentment, the sorrow and the helplessness right alongside the characters.

The romance was sweet and it was very easy to understand Molly’s thoughts and actions. The reader also gets to know the other side of the story as well and feels Ryan’s pain and frustration. Neither party is innocent yet neither party is completely guilty either. It’s a good reminder that our impressions and thoughts can deceive us.

This isn’t just the story of the young couple though, more so it is the story of Charlie Barton and his love for his wife, Donna, and his desire for the book store to succeed and be a blessing.

It’s a fun read, great for Christmas and chances are I’ll curl up with it again in December.

Go read it! Find it at a library near you; Buy it from Amazon.com; Buy it from ChristianBooks.com

Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher through NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission.

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Remember - Anytime you visit Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com or ChristianBooks.com use an affiliate link to get there. Any purchase you make from a link on my site generates a small kickback. You need not purchase the item I'm featuring, any purchase counts. It costs you nothing extra and is an easy way to support this site.

Waiting on Wednesday #12 - Tangled Ashes

Hosted by Breaking the Spine.

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event that spotlights upcoming releases that we're
eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Tangled Ashes by Michelle Phoenix
Tyndale - October 2012

About
When Marshall Becker arrives in Lamorlaye, France, to begin the massive renovation of a Renaissance-era castle, he unearths a dark World War II history few in the village remember. The project that was meant to provide an escape for Becker instead becomes a gripping glimpse into the human drama that unfolded during the Nazi occupation and seems to live on in midnight disturbances and bizarre acts of vandalism.

Why I want to read it

I have greatly enjoyed Michelle's blog about MKs (missionary kids). Her insights are thought provoking and she's a good writer. I didn't know she was also a published author; this is her fourth novel. This story sounds quite interesting and since the author has lived in France and Germany I'm sure she captures the setting very well.

Where you can find it

Amazon and ChristianBooks

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Remember - Anytime you visit Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com or ChristianBooks.com use an affiliate link to get there. Any purchase you make from a link on my site generates a small kickback. You need not purchase the item I'm featuring, any purchase counts. It costs you nothing extra and is an easy way to support this site.