New Release - Carolina Gold - Dorothy Love

Dear Readers,

Civil war era books have been popular since Gone with the Wind hit the silver screens.  With the anniversary of the war happening this genre is even more popular.

Carolina Gold by Dorothy Love is set as the war ends and Charlotte Fraser has to decide what to do to make sure the family plantation, Fairhaven, stay afloat.  With no males to help her make decisions and the war has changed everything.  She decides to continue to cultivate their new strain of rice called Carolina Gold. 

She also takes over tutoring of her neighbor's young daughters.  Nicholas is recently widowed and is struggling to find his way.  When things look like more than a friendship might develop, Nicholas files a claim that he might be the rightful owner of Fairhaven.   What shameful secrets are hidden in her family's past?

Dorothy is known for her strong characters.  While reading her books you feel like you could be friends with the heroines and of course their enemies become your enemies.  Which makes for fantastic reading.

Happy Reading,

New Release - Merry Humbug Christmas - Sandra D. Bricker

Dear Readers,

Most of us look forward to Christmas all year round, usually for various reasons.  There are a few people out there that do not look forward to Christmas, also for various reasons.  Sometimes it is fun to look at what great lengths people will go to avoid a holiday they find annoying, to busy, or to painful to celebrate.

Merry Humbug Christmas by Sandra D. Bricker has two stories between the covers about different people trying to avoid the holidays (sort of).  With humor and fun Sandra reminds us all that the holidays are not always brightness and happiness for everyone, but also they are not all about us either. 

In the first story "Once Upon a Jingle Bells" Joss snow heads on a Bah! Humbug  Riviera cruise to avoid any sense of Christmas.  The problems arise when she is booked on the wrong cruise, a 12 days of Christmas extravaganza.  What is she going to do?  Until she meets a kindred soul and then the games begin.

Story #2 is "It Came Upon a Midnight Deer."  Reese feels guilty for abandoning Joss on their annual anti-Christmas cruise, but her engagement has trumped everything else.  Reese is going to meet her fiancé's family which is nerve racking enough, but when the hit a deer close to the cabin everything seems to go down hill.

So whether you are a fan of Christmas or not, these two delightful stories will quickly put you into that warm and cozy holiday feeling we all long for.  Even if we don't know it.

Happy Reading

New Releases Christmas books - 2013 - Part 2

Dear Readers,

I am not sure if this is a good thing or a problem.  More Christmas book titles which required a second list.  So many titles to try to read before the season is over.  Of course reading a Christmas book in January is aloud and it helps continue the feeling of the season into the new year.

Happy Reading

Twice Loved - Wanda Brunstetter - Christmas 1945 - Can two lonely and hurting people help each other find love again.  Bev is a new widow with a young daughter and finds a job at Dan's used toy shop.  He has vowed to never love again after his wife passes away.

A Pioneer Christmas - Lauraine Snelling, Margaret Brownley, Kathleen Fuller and more - 9 stories in one.  Each one is set in a different state or territory of America.  From the Mountains of North Carolina, the woods of Michigan, the plains of Oklahoma and the deserts of Arizona,  Christmas wasn't always about presents, but home, family and love.

Silver Bells - Deborah Raney - Rob and Michelle feel an attraction to each other, but office policy forbids them from dating.  Until a small Christmas miracle changes everything.

Mistletoe Memories - Jennifer Allee, Carla Olson Gade, Lisa Karon Richardson and Gina Welborn - 4 in 1 -Stephan Yost is a carpenter who vows to give Annaliese a home for Christmas, Marianne is thankful she never had children, until Ezekiel begs her to give an orphan a home for the holidays.  Olympia's only home was the orphanage and Theodore has plans to tear it down.  Joy is determined to keep the home for foster kids open, but that means asking modern day Scrooge, Evan, for help.

Plantation Christmas - Sylvia Barney, Lorraine Beatty, Cynthia Leavelle, Virginia Vaughan - 4 in 1 -Marilyn's world is completely reversed when she meets her daughter's future father-in-law.  Meredith is seeking inspiration for her writing and peace from her past, but finds help from the local history buff instead.  Devon and Sandra's twins are sure their parents are still in love and just need a special present to show them the way.  Wreath is a wedding planner even though she has given up on romance and love. 

Songs of Christmas -  Katherine Spencer - Thomas Kinkade's Cape Light - Lillian's beloved Ezra's health is failing and it taking Lillian's holiday spirit with it.  Will a storm change that all?  Amanda is at loose ends, but will a music director job lead to answers?

New Release - An Amish Miracle - Beth Wisemen, Ruth Reid, and Mary Ellis

Dear Readers,

An Amish Miracle is 3 in 1 book.  3 well know Amish authors got together and wrote a lovely story.  Beth Wiseman, Ruth Reid and Mary Ellis put together a book that can be used to pass those long cold dark winter nights.  It is 3 stories that will warm your heart with the hope.

Beth's story, Always Beautiful, tells us the story of Becky who struggles with self image.  She feels she is over weight and therefore unattractive and can't find a husband.  When God grants her greatest wish, the results may not be what she expects.

In Always His Providence we enter the story of Rosa who will need to learn the tough lesson of pride and how harmful it can be to us. Is she going to loose her house because she is to stubborn to ask for help?

Mary Ellis has us walk along side Hope as she longs to meet the child she gave up when she was a teenager in Always in My Heart.  When her husband wishes for a son, Hope struggles with the sorrow she carries for a child no one knows she carried.

Whether you are looking for a gift for someone on your Christmas list or just need a gentle story to curl up with during this busy holiday season, An Amish Miracle fits that bill very nicely

Happy Reading

Judy Christie

Dear Readers,

 

Sweet Olive by Judy Christie is the sweet story of Camille Gardner.  She is trying to work her way into the corporate offices of her uncle's oil company.   She has been his "landman" for years and she wants to set down roots, big roots somewhere and work at an art gallery. 

 

Uncle Scott promises this is the last time she will need to go out and sign land owners to the leases of their mineral rights.  After that he tells Camille she will be able to come work in Houston and never have to travel again.  The problem is, the last job is in Sweet Olive, Louisiana, the place where she had spent the worse month of her life. 

 

Camille plans on getting in, getting the signatures she needs and getting out.  Of course she is not planning on falling in love with the community of Sweet Olive and a wonderful, quirky artist who lives there. 

 

This is very much a story of slowing down, breathing once and while and following your dreams.  There is a bit of the 'evil' corporate giant in the storyline, but it is not aimed at everyone.  Of course when you are talking mineral rights and drilling you have to have a bad guy.  What better bad guy than a huge gas company that is looking to endanger the local water and to get the mineral rights as cheaply as possible.

 

I had to stop this book twice because of deadlines I had on a couple other books, but I kept going back to it, because it was the kind of story that made me want to finish it.  I loved the story line, but it was mostly the wonderful characters that Judy created that made me want to move to Sweet Olive and take up art of some sort or another.

 

Happy Reading

New Release - The Painted Table - Suzanne Field

Dear Readers,

The Painted Table by Suzanne Field takes on a topic not many people like to talk about or read about.  One of the characters of the novel suffers from mental illness and when you bring up the subject, people right away cringe and then stubble over themselves because they seldom know what to say or do.  Suzanne wants to encourage families that have suffered through mental illness and to offer them hope.

Saffee watched her mother slide into mental illness.  An century old table became part of her slide as she obsessively paints and repaints the table.  Fearing the same future, Saffee must confront her mother's illness and the story behind the table.

The Painted Table gives a small glimpse into what it was like living with someone who is slipping closer and closer to insanity.  It is a life that is never stable, you are always guessing what is right or wrong and sometime what was right one minute is not right the next.  Saffee's character reveals the effects of that home life has on a child as they grow up. 

This will not be an easy read, but it will be informative.

Happy Reading

New Releases - Christmas Books - 2013

Dear Readers,

The official start of the holiday shopping has hit.  We have been getting Christmas shoppers in for a few weeks now, but even those wait until Thanksgiving to even think about starting are out and about in the stores. 

It can be a frantic time of year and to take the time to relax and refresh with a wonderful Christmas story is such a blessing.  I have included below the new titles that are available at the store.

Happy Reading

Merry Humbug - Sandra Bricker - 2 in 1 -Once upon a Jingle Bell - Joss is avoiding Christmas at all cost, so she books a cruise.  The problem is the cruise is the 12 days of Christmas holiday extravaganza. It Came upon a Midnight Deer - Reese' abandons her best friend to meet her new fiance's family.  After hitting a deer on the way to the reunion, everything continues down hill.

The Dawn of Christmas - Cindy Woodsmall - Sadie finds Levi in a field badly hurt.  They seem to be kindred heart in avoid marring as their families want them to.  But things begin to change as the weather moves towards winter.

Christmas at Harmony - Ann. H. Gabhart - Heather needs a place of refuge.  Stories she has heard of the Shaker village makes her know she will be taken care of, but she can't believe they will take her baby away.

A Simple Christmas Wish - Melody Carlson -Melody's Christmas novellas are looked forward to every year.  A young girl who needs a home. A woman searches for a home for her heart.  One Christmas that is all seems possible.

Love Finds you in Frost Minnesota - Judy Baer - Jack Frost is determined to reclaim his family's land, even if the town residence of Frost live there. Merry Noel Blake is just as determined to turn her new home town into a Christmas destination spot.

The Christmas Gift for Rose - Tricia Goyer - Inspired by a true story - Rose leave the man she loves because he sided with the Englisch during the war only to discover she is an Elglischer herself.

Love Finds you in the City at Christmas - Roth Logan Herne/Anna Schmidt - 2 holiday romances in one - Red Kettle Christmas- 1947 Mike and Karen's paths cross at the Macy's day parade. Manhattan Miracle - Max, newly returned from the Middle East has come home to spend the holidays with his family.

The Christmas Visitor - Linda Byler - After the sudden loose of her husband, Ruth isn't sure how they will survive.  Then boxes of food and gifts begin to arrive.  Who is behind all the generosity.

An Amish Family Christmas - Murray Pura -  Micah goes against the Ordung and becomes a medic in the war in Afghanistan.  When he returns he is shunned. Will other tragedies unity the community or tear them farther apart?

Annie's Christmas Wish - Barbara Cameron - Quilts of Lancaster County - Will the draw of the excitement and glamor of New York draw Annie away from the man she loves?

The Christmas Quilt - Vannetta Chapman - Quilts of Love - Annie is determined to finish her crib quilt for her friend Leah before the baby is born.  But as she works on each piece she finds out some times a quilt holds an far greater meaning.

Peace - Shelley Shepard Gray -  A Crittenden County Christmas Novel - Beth knows a relationship with DEA agent Chris will never work.  Amish women do not marry Englischer men.  But they can't deny the attraction they feel for each other.