I read in a variety of genres and enjoyed this story about Coop, a thirteen-year-old boy. After he lost his dad, he and his mom moved in with his grandfather. Gramps had raised his dad as a single parent and Coop adores him.
When a body is found at the playground, the skeleton is identified as Coop’s grandmother. She had left a note forty years ago and never returned to her husband and child. Now everyone knows why … she was murdered.
This story held my attention with its twists and turns that deepen the mystery. It’s told entirely from Coop’s point of view. This clean read is geared to middle-grade readers yet I’d also recommend it to anyone who loves a good mystery.
I love children’s stories that rhyme, especially when it builds and expands it with each new page. What I mean by that is that the phrase on the first page is included in following pages to tell the story.
This book is about the day that Jesus arose from the dead on that first Easter. I’ve read this to my children in my life who were captured by the story and the rhythm of the words.
Well-done! I love this book and its illustrations. Recommended for children from 2 – 7.
Four Stories of Love Come to Life from the Canvas of Classic Christmas Art
All four of these romances are feel-good stories set in historical snowy settings at Christmas.
In Lynn A. Coleman’s The Snow Storm, a widower needs to somehow push his grief for his wife aside and make Christmas special for his two sons. He rescues Angela, a young woman caught in a snow storm. Stranded at the cabin with her rescuer’s family, Angela cooks and cleans and prepares them for the holidays. She doesn’t expect to fall in love with her rescuer. The characters in this story captivated my heart, especially the two boys.
JoAnn A. Grote’s Image of Love is set in beautiful Minnesota in 1869. I loved this story about Mantie, a sister who shared responsibilities of raising her niece and nephew with her brother. With her brother and his new wife expecting a child, Mantie worries that they’ll want her to leave. Lane, a newcomer raising his little brother, captures her attention in this lighthearted romance. This story includes pearls of wisdom along the way.
Dreams and Secrets by DiAnn Mills is a story that has stayed with me, perhaps because the heroine, Emma Leigh, works so hard to help her ailing father provide for her large family. They are poverty-stricken and often go hungry. Thad, a man she’s known since childhood, wants to help them but her father is proud. Emma Leigh fears that her family needs her pay too much for the her to marry. I loved this touching story of love and sacrifice.
In Circle of Blessings by Deborah Raney, James has worked hard to make up for past mistakes. He needs to tell Stella about his past before their courtship gets too serious. Stella, a student at the college where he teaches, tries to make her overprotective father comfortable about her relationship with James. I loved the characters and the story. It was an added bonus to glimpse college life in 1871.
I enjoyed this collection of light-hearted, easy-to-read romances!
This is a fun children’s picture book about the boy who gave his lunch to Jesus.
The title is the first line of the book. As the story unfolds, each new line rhymes and builds on the previous pages so that the title is the last sentence on each page.
I read this book to my two-year-old granddaughter. The story is told in a repetitive, sing-song fashion and I read it rhythmically to her.
To my delight she got up and began to dance to the rhythm of the words! What a precious moment. As an author, I want her to love books, the written word. This book, read rhythmically, showed her the music written words can bring.
Tracy Campbell’s days are filled with shared ownership and the never-ending duties of running a struggling cranberry farm. She tries to supplement finances with accounting jobs yet it never seems to be enough. Time is in short supply for the widow, as she also works for the area’s charitable organization, Helping Hands.
Widower Michael Hunter spends a well-deserved leave from heading up a Chicago charitable organization on Hope Harbor. His wife had often vacationed here as a child. He’d promised her they’d come together. Now that opportunity was gone.
Guilt plagues both of them for past mistakes in this contemporary romance.
Miracles seem to happen in Hope Harbor, a place where I, as a reader, wanted to spend some time. Authentic characters with realistic struggles drew me into the story. Secondary plots strengthen the novel’s impact.
The story is told in multiple viewpoints. Many interesting characters are introduced along the way, hinting that they might have a bigger part to play in upcoming novels.
Looks like it will be a great series. I’m looking forward to reading more of Hannon’s books!
When the handsome bachelor Peter Maltby, a journeyman fuller, comes to town, no one believes Yarrow will capture his attention.
Both have secrets that plague them.
I loved this gentle historical romance! The struggles of the main characters tugged at my heart. Honest, with some unexpected twists. I also loved learning about a little-known law passed by the Crown in the colonies that placed great hardship on colonists.
This novella is a short, satisfying book that can be read in a few hours.
I’ve read other books by this author and will look for more!
Marianne Phillips is mortified by her wealthy father’s plan to force out those who had lived first in the Texas valley where he built his ranch. Her fear grows as she learns he will use weapons and his Virginia friends to remove the Mexicans from La Flor because his cattle need their land to graze.
Then Marianne is kidnapped in exchange for La Flor by members of the rebel band led by Armando Garcia, angering him. They acted without his knowledge. He insists on guarding Marianne himself, who is soon captivated by the man’s bravery. Yet there could be no future for these feelings for her father’s enemy, especially after he arranges for her to marry a man older than himself.
Innocent characters on both sides of the book’s conflict quickly snagged my sympathy. There is action and adventure throughout the novel with a love story that tugged at my heart.
This book was a page turner for me. I learned much about the struggles in the early history of Texas before it became a state. Recommended for historical romance readers.
The War Between the States has been over four years. Solomon Dykes, a former officer in the Union army, longs to move south to the beautiful country in Virginia he fell in love with as a soldier.
Jeb Mosby farms his Virginia land once again. The war took so much from him and his family but he doesn’t want to dwell on those painful losses. He is willing to give Dykes a chance as his new neighbor.
There are those in town who are not as forgiving.
I was transported to the difficult days following the Civil War by this story, when Carpetbaggers and soldiers were an unwelcome presence in the South. This story is mostly set in the beautiful Virginia valleys and I could see them again through the author’s descriptions.
Likeable, authentic characters tell a story of tough times, of wounds that fester. I loved learning more about the struggles beyond the war. The story caught and held my interest.
Recommended for those interested in American history and the American Civil War.
A boy discovers a sharp metal object buried in the snow that leads to the unearthing of a World War II plane crash, a plane that Alison Wiley’s missing grandfather had flown.
Alison, sorting through her recently-deceased mother’s files, discovers a telegram informing her grandmother that her husband was missing in action. The family mystery of what happened to him tugs at her. What happened to her grandfather?
I was pulled into the mystery along with the characters in this time-slip novel with the careful insertion of scenes from the war. At first these scenes feel unrelated yet are masterfully woven together in a way that grips a reader’s attention and builds suspense.
Readers will be shocked at the cruelty of some leaders and heartbroken by the tragedy others suffered at their hands. There is violence and language in this story.
This book is a page-turner from beginning to end. Highly recommend for readers of World War II historical novels.
Heather Flower’s captors tied her to a tree. She doesn’t want them to return. They had forced her to watch them kill her husband at their wedding feast and then kidnapped her and several other women.
Lieutenant Dirk Van Buren rescues Heather Flower for her family on Long Island. Aware she survived a terrible tragedy, he fights his attraction for the beautiful, brave woman.
Benjamin Horton is also a good man and an old friend. Heather Flower knows he loves her and wants to marry her.
Two good men care for her. Which should she choose? She can’t stop worrying about the women who were kidnapped with her. Are they alive?
This story, set in 1653, captivated me from the beginning. I fell in love with the characters. I love books where I learn some history as a natural part of reading the story. I enjoyed this book, a page-turner for me, and recommend it for historical romance readers.
Sandra Merville Hart 