Thief of Glory: A Novel by Sigmund Brouwer My rating: 5 of 5 stars “There (in a village on the island of Java, Dutch East Indies), a marble game beneath the branches was an event as seemingly inconsequential as a banyan seed taking root in the bark of an unsuspecting tree, but the tendrils of… Continue reading Thief of Glory (review)
Storm Siren by Mary Weber My rating: 2 of 5 stars “ ‘Fourteen circles for fourteen owners.’ I shade my eyes to block the sun’s reflection off the distant mountains currently doused in snow and smoke and flesh-eating birds” – Kindle Location 107. In this first snippet of the story already we see its bloody… Continue reading Storm Siren (review)
Through the Deep Waters: A Novel by Kim Vogel Sawyer My rating: 4 of 5 stars Dinah Hubley is starting to attract unwanted attention and pressure from the after-dark visitors to her home, a Chicago bawdy house called the Yellow Parrot run by Miss Flo. That pressure ramps up a hundred-fold when, on her 17th… Continue reading Through the Deep Waters (review)
Prelude for a Lord by Camille Elliot My rating: 5 of 5 stars Lady Alethea Sutherton, main character in Camille Elliot’s regency romance Prelude for a Lord, is a social misfit, not only because of her suitorless old maid status, but because of her musical interest in the violin which is thought entirely unladylike. For… Continue reading Prelude for a Lord (review)
Miracle in a Dry Season by Sarah Loudin Thomas My rating: 4 of 5 stars When Perla Long returns to Wise, West Virginia in 1954, the single 24-year-old has a five-year-old daughter Sadie in tow. Tongues are soon wagging and Perla wonders, will she ever find a place where questions about her past don’t run… Continue reading Miracle in a Dry Season (review)
Veil of Secrets by Shannon Ethridge My rating: 4 of 5 stars Take a large cast of characters including: Dave Dawson, senator; Will Connors his friend and backroom organizer; Melanie Connors, Will’s frigid wife; Sophie, their 16-year-old hungry-for-life daughter; Caroline Connors, Will’s sharp, attractive, single sister; Tucker Keyes, Carrie’s old drinking buddy from Princeton, now… Continue reading Veil of Tears (review)
Spirit Bridge by James L. Rubart My rating: 4 of 5 stars Spirit Bridge—the third and final book in the three-book Well Spring series by James Rubart—is a cat-and-mouse game of evil versus good. In it we follow members of the Warriors Riding Ministry—Reece, Doug, Brandon, Marcus, and Dana that readers have met in books… Continue reading Spirit Bridge – review
Appalachian Serenade by Sarah Loudin Thomas My rating: 4 of 5 stars When 33-year-old widow Delilah Morrissey comes back home to Wise, West Virginia to live with her sister Charlotte, husband Ed and daughter Perla, she’s not the happiest person. Her husband of 14 years has recently died but his disastrous handling of their money… Continue reading Appalachian Serenade (review)
Strange Faces by Linda Hall My rating: 5 of 5 stars The last time I enjoyed a book of short stores as much as I did Strange Faces by Linda Hall, it was authored by Alice Munro. Strange Faces has some similarities. Like the characters in Munro’s books, Hall’s are all ordinary people—housewives, mechanics, teachers.… Continue reading Strange Faces (review)
Daisies Are Forever by Liz Tolsma My rating: 4 of 5 stars The approaching Russian army forces people to flee from Heiligenbeil East Prussia in February 1945. Hurriedly packing belongings in a cart and hitching it to her bicycle, Gisela Cramer takes her three- and five-year-old nieces and joins Herr Holtzman and his elderly and… Continue reading Daisies Are Forever (review)
Violet Nesdoly 