Lauraine Snelling

Dear Readers,

Lauraine Snelling writes wonderful historical fiction.  She has many loyal followers that can't wait for her next book to come out.  She intersperses her historical with delightful contempary tales.  On Hummingbird Wings by Lauraine is her lastest in the contemporary genre. 

On Hummingbird Wings is a story of family and how dynamics can change over the years.  Gillian has lived her adult life in New York City and has loved every minute of it and can't think of a reason to ever leave.  Home is not calling her, in fact she hasn't been to visit in over 5 years.  So when her sister calls and tells her that her mother is dying and she needs to come help, Gillian surprises herself and her family when she grabs a plane and heads off to California. 

Gillian finds things even worse than she expected, but she doesn't believe her mother is dying.  She believes she is tired and depressed because of a small stroke she had, but dying?  No. Can Gillian afford to stay, or does she need to go back to New York to try to save her job?  Why does she suddenly not feel like leaving?

This is a nice gentle story that is not a hard read.  I think the only complaint I have is that Lauraine leaves many questions unanswered.  I was going to list them for you here, but I don't want to ruin the story for you.   But I do have a few I would like to ask of the characters/Lauraine.  Over all this is one of those stories that you can easily read over a weekend.

Happy Reading

New Releases April 18-23

Dear Readers,

As I type this it is snowing outside.  Yes snow and it is acummalating.  So much for spring fever.   Yuck.  So instead we will stay inside were it is warm and someone will serve us hot tea and a cookie. (ok that will be self service)  But at least we have new titles to enjoy this week.

Happy Reading

Priest Graveyard - Ted Dekker
Hidden Affections - Delia Parr
A Heart Divided - Kathleen Morgan
Nick of Time - Tim Downs - part of the Nick the Bug Guy series. 
Beyond all Measure - Dorothy Love  - #1 A Hickory Ridge Romance
40 - Travis Thrasher

Ted Dekker

Dear Readers,

The Priest's Graveyard by Ted Dekker is a book that easily kept my attention.  It was still as intense as most of his other books, but not a gruesome as some of them have been.  If you are worried don't be, it still has a seriel killer in it, but one with a different agenda. 

Danny was just a young man when his mother and sisters were killed in Bosnia during the time the ethnic cleansings were going on.  He joined the under ground and learn many ways to kill a person without leaving any evidence behind.

Renee is a prisoner in the prison of drugs and prostitution.  She is rescued by Lamont and broken of her drug problem.  When Lamont disappears Renee and Danny are suddenly working for the same side.  Their own revenge against the evil in the world.

Danny has sworn to rid the world of all he has deemed worthy of death.  They are low-lifes that have treated their fellow mankind with contempt and evil.  He has set himself up as Judge against these people and carries out his mission with precision and in such a way that no one can figure out what happened to the person.

Renee has sworn to find her husband's killer and bring him to justice.  She has no training and is even a bit naive about the world.  She is just planning on tracking down the persons responsible and she doesn't care whether she lives or dies.

I am not going to go into any more details as I want to you read and enjoy this book on your own.  I think every reader comes away from a book with their own little lessons.  I know what I was getting out of this book besides a good suspense story, but it might not be the same for you.  I refuse to judge that.

Happy Reading

New Releases April 11-16

Dear Readers,

This past weekend it reach 80 degrees here in West Michigan.  Now to some of you that won't sound so good, but here it actually means that spring is on the way.  Yes they did say the horrible four letter word snow again, maybe, hopefully not, this coming weekend.  But there is hope that winter is slowly loosing it's grip.

I am excited about several of these titles and can't wait to get a chance to read them. 

Happy Reading

A Killer Among Us - Lynette Eason
To Win Her Heart - Karen Witemeyer
An Unlikely Suitor - Nancy Moser
A Great Catch - Lorna Seilstad
Snitch - Booker T. Mattison
Love Finds you in Marth's Vineyard, MS - Melody Carlson
Love Finds you in Prince Edward Island, Canada - Susan Page Davis
Fairer than Morning - Rosslyn Elliot

Beth Pattillo

Dear Readers,

Once I get to book #3 in a series it sometimes gets hard to write something new.  The Dashwood Sisters Tell All is number 3 in Beth Pattillo's series titled A Modern Day Novel of Jane Austen.  Jane Austen Ruined My Life and Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart are the other two.  Each highlights a different Jane Austen book and are a complete joy to read.

 

The Dashwood sisters are the main characters in the book Sense and Sensibility.  Many historians that study Jane and her books believe that the two sisters in the book are based on Jane's relationship with her sister Cassandra.  In fact that belief is what most of the book is based on.

Ellen and Mimi were sent to England by their mother's dying wish.  Which is that they both take a walking tour of Hampshire England. Hampshire is home to mom's beloved Jane Austen.  Neither sister wishes to go, but to honor mom and to get their inheritance released, they go. 

Their relationship is strained, to say the least.  Their personalities clash and they each have their own baggage to carry.  They are both sure that mom sent them on this trip only to help repair that relationship and neither one is all that interested in doing that.  That thinking changes when they open a mysterious package from mom and discover what is inside. 

Besides this being such an enjoyable read, it made me want to go to England sooner rather than later.  It made me want to go with my sister who thankfully I have a great relationship with.  We enjoy the same sense of humor which makes it very difficult for our husbands to understand us, but I believe they have come to terms with it now.  Or at least they love us enough to let us just be that silly together. :-)

I really have enjoyed all of Beth's books that I have read.  She has a way of writing characters I want to meet and settings that make me want to visit.  So England is on my bucket list and I may have to take a walking tour of Hampshire to meet this Jane Austen so many are in love with.

Happy Reading

New Releases April 4 - 9

Dear Readers,

Spring Fever has hit West Michigan hard.  We are all ready for shirt sleeves and shorts.  We are sick of winter coats and mittens.  I think Mother Nature should be co-operating with us and granting our every wish.  Of course she is not, fickle female that she is, and it has been gray, cloudy and cold.  Yuck. 

So what do you do when the weather won't let you outside, but that is the place to be?  Well shocking to you all I know I read.  There are a couple of new titles to hopefully help you through those last few days of old man winter.

Happy Reading

The Judgment - Beverly Lewis
The Journey - Wanda Brunstetter - #1 in the Kentucky Brothers
Ella's Wish - Jerry S. Eicher - #2 in the Little Valley Series
The Wedding Promise - Thomas Kinkade & Katherine Spencer  - An Angel Island Novel
Heart of Ice - Lisa Wiehl & April Henry - Triple Threat Novel
The Daughter's Walk - Jane Kirkpatrick
Lilies in Moonlight - Allison Pittman
The Corruptible - Mark Mynheir
Miles to Go - Richard Paul Evans - Second Journal of the Walk series
Living in  the Pink - Sharon Tubbs

Colleen Coble

Dear Readers,

The Lightkeeper's Ball is the 3rd in a series set in Mercy Falls, California.  Colleen Coble has taken us on an interesting journey through early 1900's American history.  It is an interesting look at how things were different then and how some things never change.  This book is set during a time when Halley's Comet is going to pass by the earth and shows the citizens' reaction to it.  The was lots of panic that everything living on the earth was going to be wiped out by the gases that were in the tail of the comet.  There were actually pills being sold to keep for being harmed by it.  While it sounds funny and silly, does anyone own a generator that was bought right around the turn of the century?  

 

Olivia learns her sister has died in very unusual circumstances.  She knows that Eleanor was murdered and she sets out to find out who wanted her sister dead.  Her first night in town proves to her that she is right when someone throws her overboard from the ship she arrives on.  When she finds out that the person that saves her is the man Olivia is sure killed her sister, she is confused as to what and who to believe.   No one seems to be who they say they are, including Olivia herself.

I really enjoyed reading this book.  Not only for the interesting mystery that kept me guessing, but also for the different things that were happening in America's history at that time.  Motor cars are just coming onto the scene.  Airplanes are something that no one trusts except those few daredevils that enjoy the new thrill of flying.  Telephones are still rare, but are quickly becoming something that people are using more and more. I also found a quick little tidbit about national income tax amusing.  Two gentleman were discussing how it was or wasn't a good idea, because how else was the government going to pay for all the new roads and keep them safe and without potholes. 

I have said over and over how much I have enjoyed Colleen's books and this one is no exception.  This series in and of itself was so much fun to read because of the historical setting.  Colleen is known for her good mysteries and when she sets it in an interesting time in history, all the better.  If you don't get a chance to read the books at least take the time to notice the covers, they are absolutely beautiful. 

Happy Reading

New Releases March 28- April 2

Dear Readers,

Around here most schools have spring break starting this Friday.  Being an empty nester I don't pay that much attention to that as I use to.  But I remember thinking that I would have a whole week vacation coming and I was going to get to read.  My week here at the store will reflect that and I am always glad I can show people the new books that have just released. 

Of course in Michigan that does not mean that spring weather is just around the corner.  We are barely out of the 20's today. 

Happy Reading

The Dead Saint - Marilyn Brown Oden
People of the Book - Kathi Macias - #4 int he Extreme Devotion series.
Heart of Memory - Alison Strobel
The Lightkeeper's Ball - Colleen Coble - #3 in the Mercy Falls series
Rest in Peace - Frances DeVine
Finally a Bride - Vickie McDonough

Rob Stennett

Dear Readers,

I am a great big chicken.  There I have admitted it for the world to know. I don't read Horror books, as I am sure Stephen King has noticed in the loss of sales of his books.  I don't watch horror movies, Zombieland scared me enough and that was suppose to be a comedy.  As a kid I hated when people would tell ghost stories around the campfire and there was a girl's house I wouldn't go back to because she always wanted to scare everyone at sleepovers.  So don't let everything I say about the following book color whether you read it or not.

Homemade Haunting by Rob Stennett is a very different book.  I love the snarkyness (is that a word?) of it.  I enjoy the perspective on the occult that it presented also.  It made it something that is not to be taken lightly.  It is a very real thing and not something we can control.

Charlie Walker wants to write a book.  He gets his wife to agree to him taking a year off from working as a teacher so he can concentrate on writing.  He just knows he has a best seller idea.  He just needs to do a bit of research.  Little does he know what he is in for.

For Charlie it starts with something as innocent as a Ouija Board, as it does for many.  Charlie doesn't believe in God so there can't be a heaven or a hell or even demons or Angels.  So he isn't setting out to prove anything he just needs ideas for his book.  What Charlie doesn't understand is that they all do exist and none can be controlled by mortal man.

Ok, here is where you don't have to do what I did with this book.  I only read it during the day.  I tried reading it at night, but I couldn't do it because I knew I would never be able to sleep.  I finally just read it on lunches here at work and when the sun was shining.  I don't know if it is actually that scary or if it's just me.  Frank Peretti's books scared me also, but I was able to read them at night, so go figure.

No matter what you decide about the book it is a good message about how easy it is to fall for the innocent look of the occult before you really understand what you are getting into.  For Charlie and his family it happens very quickly. I think for most it is a gradual slide and hopefully this book will help someone understand what can happen and maybe help themselves or someone they know get back out of the trap.

As I mentioned before, but I wanted to mention again, I did enjoy this book.  It is a well written and, believe it or not, funny book.  Rob takes a very serious subject and makes it something that is easier to understand and maybe even a bit less intimitating for most people.

He doesn't want you to think he takes demons lightly, but he did want to approach the subject in a way that would make people aware of what is going on in the world around us, seen and unseen.

Happy Reading