Book Reviews, Fiction

Hidden Secrets (review)

Hidden Secrets by Janet Sketchley My rating: 5 of 5 stars With batches of fragrant muffins and mugs of herbal tea, served up in an idyllic seaside setting, Janet Sketchley lures us into discovering the deadly secrets of the Green Dory Inn. Hidden Secrets is Book 2 in the Green Dory Inn Mystery series. Thoroughly… Continue reading Hidden Secrets (review)

Book Reviews, Fiction, Young Adult

The Lord of the Rings (review)

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien My rating: 4 of 5 stars I recently finished reading The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien—all six books, a Kindle edition purchased May 9th, finished reading around August 14th. Here are some of the things that impressed me about book(s). The contrast between… Continue reading The Lord of the Rings (review)

Book Reviews, Christian fiction, Fiction

Unknown Enemy (Review)

Unknown Enemy by Janet Sketchley My rating: 5 of 5 stars When Landon Smith gets a call to help Anna, the woman who was an anchor to her in her troubled past, she leaves her college dorm in Toronto for a weekend in Nova Scotia with hardly a second thought. Once there she is immediately… Continue reading Unknown Enemy (Review)

Book Reviews, Christian fiction, Fiction, Personal

In a Foreign Land (review)

In a Foreign Land by Janice L. Dick My rating: 5 of 5 stars Daniel and Luise Martens have built up a successful farm in northern China. The year is 1945 and fifteen years have passed since the Mennonite villagers from Slavgorod Colony of Western Siberia have escaped their Russian oppressors (story told in The… Continue reading In a Foreign Land (review)

Book Reviews, Fiction, Historical fiction

Anna Karenina (review)

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy My rating: 4 of 5 stars I’ve just finished reading Anna Karenina—that 140-year-old tome by Leo Tolstoy. I read it on the recommendation of another old book—If You Want to Write (first published in 1938) by Barbara Ueland. (By the way, Ueland’s book is one of the most inspirational books… Continue reading Anna Karenina (review)

Book Reviews, Christian fiction, Fiction

Glimpses of Paradise (review)

Glimpses of Paradise: A Novel of the 1920s by James Scott Bell My rating: 5 of 5 stars We first meet the main characters in Glimpses of Paradise, 17 year-old Doyle Lawrence (athlete and poet) and 16 year-old Zenobia (Zee) Miller (want-to-be movie star), in the spring of 1916 in Zenith, Nebraska. Doyle, fascinated by… Continue reading Glimpses of Paradise (review)

Book Reviews, Christian fiction, Fiction, Historical fiction

The Antioch Testament (review)

The Antioch Testament by Donald Joiner My rating: 3 of 5 stars When a wounded Syrian Christian refugee entrusts Chaplain Charles Monroe with a heavy and ancient-looking manuscript, Monroe is sure he's in possession of something precious. Sending it to his brother Ken in the States for its preservation proves wise. Monks in a U.S.… Continue reading The Antioch Testament (review)

Book Reviews, Christian fiction, Fiction

Without Proof (review)

Without Proof by Janet Sketchley My rating: 5 of 5 stars Two years after her fiancé Gilles died beside her in the cockpit of the plane he crash-landed on a Nova Scotia highway, Amy Silver is getting back on her feet emotionally and physically. She has even taken off the gold chain that held Gilles’… Continue reading Without Proof (review)

Book Reviews, Fiction, Historical fiction

The Silver Locket (review)

The Silver Locket by Sophia Bar-Lev My rating: 5 of 5 stars “ ‘I think that there’s something special happening here—a kind of “hashgacha pratis” like the Rabbi talks about. ... Oh, that’s Hebrew for “an intervention of divine providence” ’ ” – The Silver Locket, p. 23. The “something special” Rosalie Lapkin refers to… Continue reading The Silver Locket (review)

Book Reviews, Christian fiction, Fiction

Courting Cate (review)

Courting Cate by Leslie Gould My rating: 5 of 5 stars At 23, Cate Miller is considered practically on the shelf by the Amish community of Paradise, Pennsylvania. A serious bookworm of a girl, tall, with dark hair, she lacks everything her small, blonde, happy sister Betsy has at 17, including a boyfriend. That’s something… Continue reading Courting Cate (review)