Swept Away

I first read Mary Connealy books last month.  I got her book, Out of Control, free on Kindle loved it and bought the other two in the series. I found her new book, Swept Away on Netgalley and decided I had to read it, so I signed up to review it.  The interesting thing was that the main character from Swept Away, Luke Stone, is the brother of Callie who is Seth Kincaid's wife in the third book of the Kincaid Brother's series.  So, since I loved that book, I had to read this one.

Swept Away starts out introducing us to Ruthy who lost her parents and was taken in by her neighbors.  They make her do lots of work and hit her a lot.  She also has to deal with their son who tries to take advantage of her. The family is on a wagon train when the wagon is carried away by a flooded river.  Ruthy is swept away and later found by Luke as he is trying to get back to his home that someone killed his father and has pretended to own the land with a fake document.  When he gets home he finds friends and they make a plan to take over the ranch.  If you like shootouts in stories this is definitely your book as there is a really good one in the story.

 I really loved this story.  I could not put the book down.  I love the author's detail to the historical aspects of the story.  I also enjoyed the romance that seemed to blossom with Ruthy and Luke.  I never knew how much I liked historical westerns until I read Mary Connealy's books.  I really cannot wait to read the rest of the Trouble in Texas series.  There was definitely trouble in this book and I loved every minute of it!

This e-book was provided through Netgalley and Bethany House publishers, I was not required to give a positive review.

The Rancher's Secret Wife

The Rancher’s Secret Wife is the first book I have read by Brenda Minton.  The book starts out in Las Vegas when Cheyenne, a waitress, is really upset because the father of her baby tried to get her to have an abortion.  She wants to keep the baby but does not know how she can make it.  Along comes Reece, a cowboy, who is getting ready to go fight in the war.  He decides to help her out by marring her.  While he is gone she will get insurance and some money.  After the baby is born they will dissolve the marriage.  Their plans go bad when Cheyenne gets a visit and is told her husband was hurt in the war.  Cheyenne decides to go visit his parents to see how he is doing.  She finds out that he went blind from his accident.  She decides to stay around and with the help of Reece’s grandmother opens a beauty parlor.  Reece and Cheyenne seem to have feelings for each other, but both have reasons that they feel they cannot act on those feelings.  Will they stay together or go their separate ways after the baby is born.

I really enjoyed this story.  I feel in love with the characters.  The author really seems to bring them to life.  I liked how the author added blindness as a problem in the story.  We get to see what a person who goes blind really goes through to start living their life again. It seemed to me that God played a big part in both of their lives by putting them together before Reece lost his sight.  I enjoyed seeing them learn to love each other.

I only had one problem with the story and that might be because I have had experience with preeclamsia.  I wondered why after the doctor’s told Cheyenne she had high blood pressure she was still working as a hair stylist.  She talked about getting shoes that would fit and she continues to cut hair.  In one scene she even cuts Reece’s hair and gives him a shave.  I do not think many doctor’s would let her continue working in a job that she is on her feet most of the time while suffering from this.  Other than that I really loved the story.

There are more books in the series and I plan to check them out after reading this one.

I was given an advanced copy of the book through Net Galley and Love Inspired Books was not required to give a positive review

Holiday Hideout

This is the third Lynette Eason book I have read this year. I have loved all of them! So when I saw this book coming out this holiday season, I decided to give it a try. I was not disappointed!

Abby Sullivan is running from her life. A few months before, she tried to deliever her sister's baby at home. They both died. Her brother-in-law Reece decides to blame Abby and probmises revenge. Abby gets scared of him and decides to run. While on the run she gets sick with what she thinks is strep and the flu. Deputy Cal McIvers catches Abby as she faints from the sickness. He decides to take her back to Rose Mountain to get her well and figure out what she means by the words she spoke before passing out, that someone was after her. The story has lots of twist and turns and the pages turn easliy!

Some positives: I fell in love with the characters! The author really brought them to life. This is a great story to read during a snow stom or the winter. Eason really keeps the reader on the edge of their seat as they try to figure out who did it. This was just a fun read! This story reminded me some of her book Zero Visability and even had snow mobiles in this on too. This is a really quick read. I was trying to read in the middle of getting ready for Christmas or it would have gone a lot faster for me. I probably could have read it in a day or so.

Some negatives: The only negative was that this book was that the autor tried to get the reader to believe the person after Abby was one person. I got really tired of hearing all the bad stuff about this person. I have found almost always in suspence novels that the one they are trying to pin it on is never the who did it person. So I knew all along that it was not that person, but trying to figure out who it was did not come until we meet some new characters later on in the book. Other than that I really did not find much wrong with the story.

I found this to be a fun read during the holidays! I will have to check out Eason's other two books about the Rose Mountain area soon. Check out Holiday Hideout on Amazon for Kindle.

A Hope Springs Christmas by Patricia Davids

I always enjoy the Brides of Amish County series books from Love Inspired. This time, A Hope Springs Christmas, introduces us to Sarah Wyse. She is a widow who has lost her job during the Christmas Season. She seems to always have losses during the holiday season. She lost her husband, parents and sister. Sarah believes because she loved them they were taken from her and she refuses to marry again for that reason. Levi lives close to her and has ran her husband's carriage shop since his death. Levi promises her husband he would look after Sarah until she found a husband. Levi's daughter, Grace is Sarah's best friend. She runs to Sarah when she wants to marry her beau but she feels she can't leave Levi (her brother) and their twin brothers who they have cared for since the death of their parents. Sarah tells Grace to go to her grandmother’s house for a visit and she would take care of her brother's while she was gone. Grace asked Sarah to play matchmaker for Levi while she is gone so when she gets back she will be able to leave Levi and the twins so she can get married. Will spending more time help Levi and Sarah to overcome their fears and realize that they love each other? You'll have to read A Hope Springs Christmas to find out.
I really enjoyed this book. Two people getting over their fears to trust God enough to find true love. I also loved the twins in this story. They are quit a mischievous bunch of kids. There was a little bit of a mention of Christmas in the book, but I really did not feel Christmas when reading this book. It could have been anytime during the winter season, except for the fact that we know Sarah has lots of losses during the Christmas season. I also enjoyed briefly meeting old characters in the story. At the end of the book, Patricia Davids gives hints as to who she might write about next in the series. I will be waiting for that next book as her reads always uplift me.
I recieved a copy of this Galley through Net Galley and Harlequin and was not required to give a positve review.

The Little Amish Matchmaker Review

I've never read anything by this author, but thought I'd give this book, A Little Amish Matchmaker, a try since it is Amish and Christmas. This book is about a boy who goes to a one room Amish school.  This boy notices his brother's interest in his school teach, Teacher Catherine. The young boy tries to play matchmaker, but his brother will not let him.  We learn a lot about the young boy as he gets ready with his class for the Christmas program thoughout the book.  Will he ever be able to get his brother and Teacher Catherine together?  Read The Little Amish Matchmaker to find out.
The things I liked best about this book were that the book was short and moved fast. I enjoyed the Christmas theme and snow in the book, it made me feel like I was in the middle of a snow storm. I also thought the ending was really sweet.
There were several things I did not like about this book.  First, the first half of the book took me forever to get into.  I felt like the author kept skipping from one thought to the next and sometimes it was hard to see where she was going.  This might have had to happen since the book was so short. I also wondered what kind of Amish this book was referring to because I thought most Amish women wore dull colored dresses and did not wear red.  In this story we see Teacher Catherine wearing red for the Christmas program.  Maybe it was a dull red but this just stood out and made me wonder. 
I thought this book was okay.  The ending was sweet and it was a quick read.  I really just met the characters and the story was over. 
I was given this advance copy through Netgalley and was not required to give a positive review, only an honest one.

Almost Amish by Kathryn Cushman

Almost Amish is a book that takes family, in this case a cookbook writer and her sister-in-law and their teen aged children, and follows their experience on a reality show.  The reality show takes the faced paced family to a rural setting and sees how they can live almost like the Amish for a summer.  The kids seem to have a hard time dealing with the changes especially no cell phones, computers, etc.  The family seems to get used to it and each learns a little something new about themselves.  The character of Susan really seemed to get on my nerves.  Susan was the perfect mom and she killed herself trying to do it.  Her sister in law Julie seemed to be someone I could more identify with in the book.  Julie was trying to find her talent in life.  I love how the book tried to teach that everyone has a talent. 
Overall I really liked this book.  I also enjoyed the romances within the story. 

Zero Visibility by Sharon Dunn

This is my first book by Sharon Dunn and I must say I was really impressed!  This is also my second Love Inspired Suspense and I have to say both were wonderful!  I will definitely be on the lookout for more by this author and more Love Inspired Suspense. 

 

In Zero Visibility, Merci Carlson wants to go visit her aunt over her college spring break and decides to accept a ride with Lorelei, a girl she knew from a class she took.  Merci thought she was nice to offer her a ride home.  As they are on their way, they decide to take a short cut.  On the mountain a bad winter storm has made the roads icy.  The car goes off the road and they cannot start it.  Two men come to help them.  But Merci learns they are really robbing them.  Nathan has come back to take care of some things after his parents' deaths.  He is out on his snowmobile when he sees the girls in trouble.  He rescues them and takes them back to his parents’ cabin. The robbers come back and take Lorelei hostage.  Nathan and Merci decide to go after her.  They go out the old camp that Nathan’s parents ran.  They continue to fight the robbers and try to get off the mountain for help.  There are lots of twists and turns in the book and a lot happens in a couple of days.  Can you fall in love with someone that you have only known a couple of days?  Can you fall in love with someone that you have gone though a frightening event with?   Read to find out if Merci and Nathan can find love.

 

At first I thought the title had something to do with the weather, but after reading, I so learned that it had a deeper meaning.  I think it meant more about how we see other people.  Sometimes our impressions of someone are so different than who they are.  I really think that you have to rely on the spirit to help you know how people really are.  There were several instances in the book where characters got the feeling this person or that was so different than they thought.  Sometimes the characters listened to the spirit but a lot of times they did not. 

This is a fast paced story.  A lot happens in a couple of days and you really get drawn into the story.  I thought at times that the author made you feel like you were right there and you could really image where the characters were.  The setting for the story was really interesting too. 

I really think this book would have been a fun read on a snow day.  It is interesting to me that it comes out in July when it is so hot.  Really enjoyed this book!

 

This book was provided by Netgalley and Harlequin.  I was given a galley of the book for review but was not required to give a positive review.