Giveaway!

Congrats to Susan for winning The Stars Shine Bright. This week, I'm giving away The Bride Wore Blue.
To enter to win, leave a comment with your favorite color to wear.
To get a second entry, follow the blog. (Leave a second comment that you follow.)
Be sure to leave an email address.
I'll pick a winner next week.
I can only ship to the US.
Happy Reading!
 

Two Brides Too Many: A Review

When their father is sent to Paris for work, Nell and Kat are forced to become mail-order brides and move to Cripple Creek, Colorado.  What awaits them at the train station is not what they expect when neither groom meets the young women. Unsure what to do until a fire threatens the town as soon as they arrive, they quickly become a part of the frontier community. Will that be enough to survive on their own?

I read the second book in this series first, but I still enjoyed Nell and Kat’s stories. I liked that their stories were told together since their personalities balanced each other. Nell was eager to marry and convinced herself she was in love after exchanging letters with her mail-order groom while Kat is relieved when her groom-to-be doesn’t show as he turns out to be a gambling womanizer.  I liked their independence and determination despite the hard circumstances.

Although the romance aspect of the book is clear from the beginning, the best part of the book was young women figuring out their way. The way Kat storms into the brothel/bar to confront the man who promised to marry her is a great scene.  Also good is the setting. The author creates a fantastic little town in this book, and readers will hope she’ll continue writing about the quirky characters who make it unique.

The Rose of Winslow Street: A Review

Romanian widower Michael Dobrescu flees his home country to Colden, Massachusetts to claim his family's home, the home Libby Sawyer and her father have occupied for decades. Taking the battle to court, Libby finds herself drawn to the mysterious family who has overcome so much. Will she remain loyal to her family or will her heart be stolen just as her childhood home?

I became a fan of Elizabeth Camden after reading her debut novel, and her second book doesn't disappoint. I loved the characters. Libby's struggle to read and her strength to deal with her verbally abusive dad endear her to the reader. Likewise, Camden does a great job slowly revealing the Dobrescu family's past and making them one of the best families I've read in a long time.

I enjoy courtroom thrillers, and I found the legal battle interesting and reflective of the time period.
I also enjoyed the perfume aspect of the book. Both of these plots made the book a fast and enjoyable read.

Fans of Elizabeth Camden will enjoy her second novel.

Earn books from Tyndale!

Tonight I signed up to earn books from Tyndale. I've done book reviews for them for a while, and I was excited to see what the rewards program is all about. 
I found it easy to use and the points add up quickly.
Check it out for yourself!
http://tyndalerewards.com/

Giveaway!

Congrats to Liz for winning Nothing to Hide. This week I am giving away The Stars Shine Bright.
To enter to win, leave a comment about a place where you saw the stars or nature in a beautiful way. Living in the suburbs of Houston, I can see the stars somewhat but not enough. There are a few streets where I live that have just the most beautiful trees lining each side of the street. They give me peace, and sometimes I drive those streets just to relax.

I can only ship to the US, and I'll choose a winner next week.

(Stay tuned to my next blog entry about earning free books from Tyndale.)

The Stars Shine Bright: A Review

In the fourth book in the Raleigh Harmon series, readers find the impulsive Raleigh struggling to recover from her last adventure, the one that resulted in her mother being admitted to a mental institution, her fiancé begging her to leave the FBI and to marry him, and her career being investigated. When Raleigh is assigned an undercover gig to discover who is fixing the bets at a horse track, Raleigh knows it’s her last chance to keep her job. What should be an easy case turns deadly for both the horses and Raleigh herself.

I wish I had read the first three books in the series…not because this one can’t stand alone, but because I love the characters and would have liked to see them grow from book one to book four. What could have been just a suspense (and an interesting one at that) becomes much more as Raleigh discovers who she is (and isn’t). Despite trying to cover her feelings with a tough exterior, what lies beneath comes out in her dealings with the terrifically written Jack, Madame, and Raleigh’s own mother.  The characters are deep and flawed, which makes their gradual change a more compelling story than the mystery itself.

Full of twists told at a steady pace, the suspense of finding out who was behind the “horsenapping” and other crimes wasn’t my favorite part of the book. It was entertaining but often boggled down with science talk that slowed down the action. When the final twist was revealed, it seemed a little rushed. Although these two things would have normally bothered me enough to give up on a book/series, the excellent writing and amazing characters left me wanting more.

I received this book in exchange for my review. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

Giveaway!

Congrats, Dawn, for winning Abducted! 

This week I am giving away Nothing to Hide by J. Mark Bertrand. To enter to win, leave a comment telling me about a book you've read that was set in your city. Nothing to Hide (and the others in the Roland March series) is set in Houston, which makes me smile as I read about streets, suburbs, and restaurants.

Get a second entry by leaving a comment telling me you follow the blog.

Be sure to leave an email address.

I'll pick a winner next Tuesday.

I can only ship to the US.

The Bridge: A Review

 

Karen Kingsbury delivers a heartfelt Christmas story about second chances in The Bridge. Charlie and Donna have run The Bridge in Franklin, Tennessee, for decades, treating each patron as family and creating a safe haven for readers. After a 100 year flood, the bookstore is destroyed, and Charlie and Donna are on the brink of closing the store. When Ryan Kelly hears of the bookstore’s fate, he starts a campaign to save The Bridge, where he fell in love for the first and only time. Will giving The Bridge a second change also give him a second chance with the Molly, the girl who got away?

The Bridge reminds me of Kingsbury’s Red Glove series:  a heartwarming love story featuring a young couple torn apart by family expectations, an older couple bound together by trials, and the love of Jesus that gives never gives up.

Told from all four main characters’ points of view, I felt the character development was lacking, especially at the beginning where the characters were just reminiscing about the past and kept repeating the same feelings over and over. Having a little more action and the past told throughout the story would have made me love the characters from the beginning. However, once the entire background story is told, the pace picks up, and through their actions, the characters become just as endearing as I pictured their bookstore to be. I love Charlie and Donna. Their love for one another and for the readers in their town was beautiful, and I wish there had been a book about their love story and how they built their business.  Ryan and Molly are likeable characters as well and provide a nice balance to Donna and Charlie’s story.

Living in a huge city like Houston, I’ve never had a bookstore that was more than just a place to buy a book. This book made me long to visit a small town and see if a place like this really exists. The librarian in me hopes it does. Karen did such a great writing about the actual store that it almost felt like a fifth character and probably my favorite one of all.

I know a lot of Karen’s readers were disappointed with her last couple of books (me included). I hope they’ll give this book a chance because it seems like a return to the style/topic that fans have come to expect from Karen’s books.

I received this book in exchange for my review. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

Nothing to Hide: A Review

When a body is found without a head and the hands de-gloved, Houston Detective March is called into work undercover to help track the arms sales from the Mexican Cartel. What he finds is more twisted than he could imagine with the corruption reaching the FBI and the cover-up going back to the first crime that pulled March into detective work.

Switching back and forth time periods, this book requires your  full attention to keep up with the characters, crimes, and adventures. However, it is worth the effort. While complex, the plot moves along quickly and will keep you guessing. I was just as surprised as March when the final twist was revealed.

Readers of the first two books will enjoy the most complex development of March to date with the insight into why he does what he does. There are a lot of great murder mysteries out there, but this one has better character development than most that I've read.

Bertrand definitely saved the best for last. This epilogue is amazing and demonstrates the growth of March as a character and Bertrand as a writer. I can't explain what exactly what makes it so special other than it resonated with me more than I expect from a mystery novel.

Fans of suspense will love this book. It's labeled Christian fiction, but it's light on the preaching and heavy on the action, which is how I like my mysteries.

I was given this book in exchange for my review. My thoughts and opinions are my own.
 

Giveaway!

It was great to hear you girls are not speeders like me. :) I've only gotten two or three tickets, so I don't think that's too bad for 16 years of driving.
Congrats to Melanie for winning Accused.
Today I'm giving away Abducted, which is the sequel to Accused.

To enter to win, leave a comment about your favorite baby names. (I'm trying to think of a happy topic about a book where a baby is abducted.) I love babynames.com. My former co-workers used to make fun of me for playing around on that website for fun.

Leave a second comment letting me know you follow the blog.

Leave your email address.
I'll pick a winner next Tuesday. I can only ship to the US.