PASSIONATE ABOUT SCHOOL LIBRARIES
A Fragile Enchantment
– Allison Saft –
Wednesday Books
Published 2 January 2024
♥♥♥♥♥
A Fragile Enchantment is a fantastic mix of Regency era fashion, balls and matchmaking and fantasy political intrigue. Spies, secrets, scandals, alliances, and forbidden romances, it is addictive and delightful.
Faling For the Cowgirl
– Jody Hedlund –
Colorado Cowboys #4
Bethany House Publishers
Published 10 October 2022
♥♥♥♥♥
Falling For The Cowgirl is the fourth book in the Colorado Cowboys series and the long awaited story of Ivy McQuaid.
Sister to the four McQuaid brothers, Ivy more than knows how to stand her ground and hold her own on a horse and cattle ranch. But it’s her dream to have her own spread. She’s been entering cowboy competitions, disguised as a man, to raise the funds she needs to buy the land. But when Jericho Bliss rides back into town, everything is thrown into chaos. Of course, he immediately sees through Ivy’s disguise and threatens to tell her brothers if she doesn’t stop with the dangerous competitions. And then there are the feelings she’s long carried for Jericho. And he’s never done anything but treat her like a sister. What Jericho can’t tell Ivy is that he is now a Pinkerton Agent, hunting down a dangerous killer, and following his feelings for Ivy could get her hurt. It’s something he’s vowed never to do, but it is hard to ignore the deep friendship between them and the blazing attraction they share.
Inventions of the Heart
– Mary Connealy –
The Lumber Baron’s Daughter’s #2
Bethany House Publishers
Published 1 July 2022
♥♥♥♥
Inventions of the Heart is the second book in the Lumber Baron’s Daughters series and it continues on right where book one finished, so I’d recommend this historical novel to those who have already started to read this series.
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Where The Road Bends
– Rachel Fordham –
Revell
Published 1 June 2022
♥♥♥♥♥
Where the Road Bends is a heartwarming story about second chances and overcoming the worst of situations life can throw at you.
Where The Road Bends didn’t unfold in the way I expected and the story was all the richer for it. While the characters are faced with horrible circumstances and trials, it makes them finding the good in life all the sweeter.
In Honor’s Defense
– Karen Witemeyer –
Hanger’s Horsemen #3
Bethany House Publishers
Published 7 June 2022
♥♥♥♥
Aside from my Australian dictionary not much liking this book’s title, there was a lot I liked about In Honor’s Defense. It is apparently the third and, sadly, final, book of the Hanger’s Horsemen series. What a series it has been. Full of adventure, danger and romance.
When The Meadow Blooms
– Ann H Gabhart –
Revell
Published 3 May 2022
♥♥♥♥
Ann Gabhart has crafted a heartwarming story of overcoming loss and grief and finding a place to truly live and love in When The Meadow Blooms.
Calla and her younger sister have been living in the Home for Girls for two years while their mother recovers from Tuberculosis in an sanitarium. For two years they have endured abuse, waiting for the day they can go home. Scared they will be separated, Calla is lead to reach out to her uncle, rumoured to live in isolation on the family farm, Meadowland. When Dirk receives a letter from his niece asking for rescue, he throws caution away and hurries to retrieve the two girls and their mother. Taking them back to Meadowland requires a change in his habits, it might even mean opening his heart to the women, big and small, who have entered his world. But secrets from the past bring up grief and hurt he’s never let go. If he can’t heal, will he risk losing his new family?
A Time To Bloom
– Lauraine Snelling –
Leah’s Garden #2
Bethany House Publishers
Published 7 June 2022
♥♥♥♥
A Time To Bloom is the delightful second book in the Leah’s Garden series. It picks up where book one left off, with the story of the Nielsen sisters. Forsythia and Dr Adam are now married and living in town while Lark, Del and Lilac continue to work to build their homestead and dreams of a garden, farm and boardinghouse. Del is also teaching school for the town.
By gosh, these are busy women. I don’t know how they do it. Thankfully, they have gathered around them a wonderful community. Forsythia, Adam, his nephew Jesse, their three children, and now Del’s school children and their families. The sisters’ brother Anders also comes to visit, bringing his friend RJ. There are also new challenges for the sisters and their growing family to face. Plagues of grasshoppers, families damaged by violence, and a schoolhouse destroyed by a twister. With the amount of work to do, especially with the harvest and wanting to start on their boardinghouse, the Nielsen sisters need all the help they can get, but they also know that if they want to achieve their dreams it’s up to them to make it a reality.
Each of these books features all the sisters, but while Lark and Forsythia took more of the focus in book one, Del takes the spotlight in this second book. She is starting the school year without a school house. Worse the towns people, even her sisters, don’t seem to realise how important it is to her. New in town, RJ battles both memories and pain from the war. The injury that cost him his eye continues to bring him debilitating pain, causing him to offend Del right from the start. As Del continues to strive hard for her students and their families, she finds an unexpected ally in RJ and her own work helps to bring him peace and a place in of belonging in this little town he finds himself in. Their romance is slow to develop and we only really get anything more than friendship right at the very end of the book, but I enjoyed the friendship they build, as well as all the details of the lives of these busy sisters and their community.
I’m looking forward to continuing the story of these incredible sisters and the people they bring together around them.
The publishers provided an advanced readers copy of this book for reviewing purposes. All opinions are my own.
Category: Adult fiction.
Genre: Christian historical
Themes: Romance, teaching, homesteading, farming, sisters, family.
Advisory: References to domestic violence.
Published: 7 June 2022 by Bethany House Publishers
Format: Paperback, ebook. 352 pages.
ISBN: 9780764235726
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To Tame a Cowboy
– Jody Hedlund –
Colorado Cowboys #3
Bethany House Publishers
Published 3 May 2022
♥♥♥♥♥
I’ve enjoyed four historical romance novels this week and To Tame A Cowboy is by far my favourite. The romance is off the charts!! My goodness, it is as sexy and swoony as a Christian novel would dare. A story of new hope and lives rekindled. Horses, freedom and romance (have I mentioned the romance yet?)
Savannah’s future is set – marry a man who will bring fortunes to her father and allow her grieving parents the lives they want. On the eve of her wedding, Savannah decides she needs more time to face her future and she flees. She finds work at the Healing Springs ranch as their veterinarian. She spends most of her time with Brody as he works to tame the wild mustangs that roam the area. The two are drawn to each other, but Savannah is conflicted about her future and Brody is haunted by his memories of his time in the war. With a fiancé awaiting her return, Savannah must decide between her duty to her family and her growing feelings for Brody.
The Element of Love
– Mary Connealy –
The Lumber Baron’s Daughters #1
Bethany House Publishers
Published 1 March 2022
♥♥♥♥
Need a historical romance featuring heroines with a difference? The Element of Love begins a new series from author Mary Connealy.
The Lumber Baron’s Daughters series features the three Stiles sisters. They have been raised to take over their father’s company and each have been highly educated. They are headstrong and fiercely intelligent, each with a different passion – from chemicals and explosions to engineering and building. But since their father’s death and their mother’s remarriage, their idyllic lives has been shattered. Their stepfather is abusive, their company falling apart under their stepfather’s mismanagement and they have each been promised to horrid men in business deals. Their only plan is escape.
The Whaler’s Daughter – Jerry Mikorenda – Fitzroy Books – Published 24 July 2021
♥♥♥♥
In 1910, twelve-year-old Savannah lives with her widowed father on a whaling station in New South Wales, Australia. For generations, the Dawson family has carried on a very unusual way of life there. They use orcas to help them hunt whales. But Savannah believes the orcas hunted something else—her older brothers, who died mysteriously while fishing. Haunted by their deaths, Savannah wants to become a whaler to prove to her father that she’s good enough to carry on the family legacy and avenge her slain brothers. Meeting an aboriginal boy, Figgie, changes that. Figgie helps Savannah to hone her whaling skills and teaches her about the Law of the Bay. When she is finally able to join the crew, Savannah learns just how dangerous the whole business is. A whale destroys her boat and Savannah sinks into the shark-infested waters. That’s when the mysterious spirit orca Jungay returns to rescue her, and she vows to protect the creatures. That vow tests her mettle when the rapacious owner of a fishing fleet captures the orca pod and plans to slaughter them
The Whaler’s Daughter caught my attention, despite the dull cover, as I knew it was similar to true historical events and I wanted to see how the author would combine history with fiction.
A message of environmental protection, the author does a great job of conveying the historic events and perspectives from an approach that it is relevant for modern readers.
Few might know the story of Eden and the orca’s that worked with whalers in Australia. This story, I hope, will bring that story into the light. While much of the story in The Whaler’s Daughter differs from what is recounted of the events in Eden, there is enough to align the stories.
Along with themes of protecting the environment, caring for and working with animals, The Whaler’s Daughter also raises themes around the roles of women. Savannah is a strong and headstrong character. She knows exactly what she wants and that is to ride in the whaling boats along with her father’s crew. As she fights for her place, she has more encounters with the orcas. She initially fears and hates them, holding them accountable for the death of her family members. But as she gets to know them more, learns of the plans of the nearby towns leaders and gets her first encounter on a whaling boat, Sav must change everything she thought she knew.
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