Tea With Emma (The Teacup Novellas - Book One)

 From the Publisher:

Fresh from a Jane Austen tour in England, Maddie Cooper returns home to Texas, determined to bring a touch of "Austen to Austin." She dreams of opening an authentic English tea room and, like Austen's Emma, put into practice her self-proclaimed gift as a matchmaker. But an airport mishap with a cranky Englishman gets her off on the wrong foot (quite literally), especially when he moves into the university guest house across the street. Can Maddie find a love for her unapproachable new neighbor, or has she finally met her match?

My Review:

Sweet book, not really stellar. I am currently reading Sense and Sensibility so it was interesting to read quotes from Sense and Sensibility while reading Tea with Emma. The book gave me a few smiles and inner chuckles, but no real LOL moments. I liked the characters and the story.

Long Time Coming

Author: Edie Claire
Pages: 300

From the publisher:

Originally published in 2003 by Warner Books (Warner Forever).

Years and distance kept the memories at bay. But back at home, the past is ready and waiting to haunt her...

Eighteen years have passed since Joy's childhood best friend, Jenny, met her death in a tragic car accident just a few days after their senior prom. A broken Joy left their small Kentucky hometown shortly after--determined never to come back. But when her father's illness forces her to return, she realizes that neither time nor distance have truly healed her troubled soul.

Plagued with nightmares of the accident and crippled by a vague fear whose source she can't identify, Joy realizes that in order to move on she must face the truth behind several disturbing gaps in her memory of that fateful spring. But the only person who can help her is a man she despises--Jenny's erstwhile boyfriend Jeff, now a respected doctor, whose carelessness as a teenager was the cause of Jenny's horrendous death--and Joy's own emotional destruction. Can she ever forgive? She may have no choice but to try. Because both the danger she sensed--and the childhood friendship she treasured--now suddenly seem very much alive...

My Review:

I really liked this book. It was a good, clean romance with light suspense. The characters were interesting, the storyline was good, and I didn't want to put it down.

As much as I enjoyed the book there were a few things I didn't like. Jenny supposedly was haunting her old house (now Joy's home). This is weird and creepy. The Bible tells us that the dead know nothing and that they are asleep in the grave until Jesus comes. So this part of the book was in contradiction to Biblical truth and kind of ruined it for me.

The person who was the culprit behind some bad things happening... I feel like part of her story, the relationship with Joy's parents, etc could have been highlighted a little more. She needed to play a larger role in the book.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it if you can look past the ghost thing.

The kindle version is free at Amazon.com right now.

Love by the Letter (An Unexpected Brides Novella)

Author: Melissa Jagears

Pages: 125

From the publisher:

 Dex Stanton has never had much time for book learning. He's been too busy helping to provide for his family. Now that he's heading west, Dex is hoping to start a family of his own. However, his attempt to acquire a mail-order bride fails miserably when the lady writes back ridiculing his terrible spelling. Rachel Oliver may be the last person he wants to know what a dunce he is, but she's also the smartest woman in town--and it's clear he needs her help.

As their time together runs short, can two of the most stubborn people in town set aside their pride long enough to find love?

Love by the Letter is a companion Christian romance novella to A Bride for Keeps, Melissa Jagears's full-length debut novel available fall 2013. Includes an extended sneak peek at A Bride for Keeps.

 

My Review:

I liked this book. I wouldn’t say that it’s one of the best I’ve ever read, but it was good, light reading for my Christmas vacation. It had the typical misunderstandings that arise from a lack of communication and making assumptions, which caused some drama. The characters were ok but not unique enough for me to keep any of the supporting characters separate. That wasn’t so important for this book; however, the extended sneak peek at A Bride for Keeps made me long for more individual, unique characters since the two books shared characters. I had just finished reading Love by the Letter and had to keep skipping back during the sneak peek to remember who people were.

Good book. I recommend it since it’s free on Amazon right now. I got the kindle version for free and I am writing this review under no obligation from the publisher.

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Forever Friday

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Author: Timothy Lewis

Pages: 288

I received this book for free from Waterbrook Multnomah publisher in exchange for an honest review.

From the back cover:

Every Friday, a postcard.
Every Friday, a love poem.
Every Friday for sixty years.

Adam Colby is just doing his job, sorting through the unsold Alexander belongings after the estate sale. He is unprepared for what he finds in an old photo album, overlooked by the bargain hounds and treasure hunters—six decades of postcards and poems from Gabe Alexander to his wife, Pearl. The mystery of the Alexanders’ love entices Adam, a man unhinged by divorce and puzzled by the depth of commitment that he finds in the unabashedly romantic cards.

Forever Friday invites you to travel back in time to the early twentieth century Texas Coastal Bend where a young couple—Gabe and Pearl Alexander—are swept up in a miraculous love. As the heartwarming, pulse-quickening story of their relationship develops through Gabe’s poems, the Alexanders reveal a new way to consider what it means to be truly devoted to each other. Could the secrets of their love affair, laid to rest twenty years ago, hold the key to one man’s future?

Review:

The story was written in two different settings. One was when Gabe and Pearl’s relationship and their story set both in the past and in the present as Pearl (aka “Huck”) was in a nursing home and dying. The other was Adam’s story as he discovered the postcards and sought to learn the story behind them. I really liked that the story jumped back and forth because rather than a passive voice of Yvette telling their Gabe and Huck’s story, it allowed you to experience their love story with them.

I loved the romance in the story and the way that Gabe was so intentional about keeping romance alive. He seemed to always be doing something sweet for Huck... He was very invested in their marriage. For a successful relationship both people have to be truly invested and "two hearts commanding love" like Gabe and Huck rather than “two hearts demanding love” like Adam and his ex-wife. They actively loved each other than were very intentional about it.

The point was made a few times in the book that part of the secret for a happy marriage was Gabe and Huck’s mutual faith in God and their constant hope for the future. This should have been the entire point of the book and while I think Timothy Lewis might have understood that this was the secret to a happy marriage, he got caught up in the romance of the story like so many of us tend to do in our own stories and our own lives. You can keep the romance alive; however, big romantic gestures are not the secret to a happy marriage. The secret to a happy marriage is a deep abiding faith in God that takes you through the hard times and a hope that a better day is coming. That faith and hope, sprinkled with big (or sometimes the small ones are best) romantic gestures keep true love alive.

I really enjoyed this book and enjoyed this story. I just think that Timothy Lewis failed to support with his story the whole point that he was trying to make. Regardless, I would read another book by this author and I would still recommend this book. 

Distant Dreams

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Distant Dreams (Ribbons of Steel, book 1)

Author:  Judith Pella and Tracie Peterson

419 pages

A lot of the books that I review I do in cooperation with a book review program administered by the book publisher. This book I downloaded to my Kindle and it is currently offered for free on Amazon.com. I am under no obligation to review this book and this is my honest review.

From the back cover:

The year is 1835 and Carolina Adams finds herself enchanted by an unlikely suitor...the railroad. Frustrated by society's expectations upon her gender, she longs to study more masculine subjects and is thrilled when her father grants her a tutor.

James Baldwin arrives to serve as Carolina's teacher, but of more importance, he is to court Carolina's beautiful older sister, Virginia. Will expectations--and Virginia's southern charm--elicit the hoped-for proposal? Or will James and Carolina dare to acknowledge the mutual interests and feelings growing between them?

My Review:

I really disliked this book. I will usually read a novel to completion, but I seriously considered closing this book before I reached the conclusion and never re-opening it. I stopped this book part was through and read two other books before coming back to this one and then I only completed it out of stubbornness.

First, I will discuss the positive aspects of the book. I enjoyed the characters. I felt like they were well-developed and each had their own individual personality. I did, obviously, enjoy some characters more than others, but considering that I relate better to some people than others this is to be expected. Each character got the reaction from me that was intended – I didn’t like Virginia, I loved Carolina, Margaret I found difficult to connect with until she became personable, James was kind and caring and I fell in love with him myself, Joseph was kind and fatherly, etc. Great care was taken to give each character a personality unique to them.

I enjoyed the historical parts of the book. I feel like I learned a lot about the railroad and politics of the time. A lot of information was given regarding these things.

Now for the negatives…

This book was boring, boring, boring. It took WAY TOO LONG to get interesting and when it finally did, it still wasn’t gripping. At any point in time I could have walked away from this book never caring what happened to the characters. I suppose that could be considered a positive since nothing in the book ever resolved. I realize that this is the first in a series; however, the book ended without really tying up any loose ends, but it also ended in such a way that it left me with no desire to read it’s sequels. A good book, especially one with a sequel must end in such a way that you feel that your time spent reading it was worth it and are satisfied and yet there are just enough loose ends to make you really really curious about what happened next. A book should leave you longing for more because it’s just that good, not longing for more just so the story will have had a point.

I’ve heard wonderful things about Judith Pella and Tracie Peterson and I think I have read books by both of them previously. In fact, in the middle of reading this book I read one co-authored by Tracie Peterson and loved it. I was very disappointed that this book turned out better. If the sequel is ever offered for free on Amazon I’ll probably download and at least start reading it, but I wouldn’t pay a dime for it.

All Things Hidden

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Title: All Things Hidden

Author(s): Tracie Peterson and Kimberley Woodhouse

352 pages

*I received a free copy of this book from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for an honest review.*

From the back cover:

Tracie Peterson and Kimberley Woodhouse Team Up to Deliver a Stunning Depression-Era Drama

Gwyn Hillerman loves being a nurse at her father's clinic on the beautiful Alaskan frontier. But family life has been rough ever since her mother left them, disdaining the uncivilized country and taking Gwyn's younger sister with her.

In Chicago, Dr. Jeremiah Vaughan finds his life suddenly turned upside down when his medical license is stripped away after an affluent patient dies. In a snowball effect, his fiance breaks their engagement. In an attempt to bury the past, Jeremiah accepts Dr. Hillerman's invitation to join his growing practice in the isolated Alaska Territory.

Gwyn and Jeremiah soon recognize a growing attraction to each other. But when rumors of Jeremiah's past begin to surface, they'll need more than love to face the threat of an uncertain future.

My Review

I really enjoyed reading this book. The characters were realistic and relatable. Gwyn struggled with feelings of abandonment and worry and fear of change and the future. Jeremiah had some baggage and the guilt that came with it that followed him to Alaska. The romance that unfolded between them wasn’t overly sentimental or superficial, but instead I found it to be fairly realistic.

The book was a historical fiction. The historical aspects of it were interesting and the characters really aided in carrying the historical part of the story along without the history being lost in the romance. There was also an element of suspense in the story that kept you on your toes a little.

All Things Hidden addressed the issue of worry and putting your faith in God to provide for all of your needs.

I struggled at first to figure out where one part of the story ended and another began; however, my ebook version had a few other issues and I feel quite certain that this had more to do with that than the writing itself. For some reason words that had f’s in the middle of them (different, sufficient, office, etc) were printed without the f’s and often without a following “i”, making it necessary to decipher some of the words. For example: Different became “dierent” and office was always “oce”. It seemed like there may have been headers introducing a setting change/ story change due to a few capital letters here and there which could have been for that purpose, but I am assuming this was an actual phrase or sentence and not just a letter or two. Like I said, I think the problem was more with the ebook edition and some problems there than with the writing itself.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story. I highly recommend it. You can pre-order the Kindle Edition at Amazon. It will be released on January 7, 2014.