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Showing posts from January, 2014

The Soul of The Rose

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The Soul of the Rose Ruth Trippy Abingdon Press After the tragic death of her closest friend, 20-year-old Celia Thatcher is sent to work in the bookstore of family friends. Hoping the new surroundings in Massachusetts will help her regain a happy outlook on life, Celia catches the eye of not one, but two men: the elite, but unkempt Bostonian-turned-hermit, Edward Lyons, who is clearly trying to run from his past and from God, and Charles Harrod, a charming Harvard law student who promotes a religious belief Celia has never before considered. With both men vying for her attention, Celia s world is again turned upside down when one of her beaus is accused of murder. Suddenly realizing where her heart lies, Celia is now challenged with a choice bigger than man: should she follow her heart or her God? If you're looking for action, adventure, and mysterious plot twists, then The Soul of the Rose probably won't be what you're looking for. A fairly simple, straightfo

Butterfly Palace

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Butterfly Palace Colleen Coble Thomas Nelson Lilly secures a job as lady's maid in a grand manor in Austin, Texas. But even far from home, her past lurks around every corner. When Lilly Donnelly arrives at the Cutlers' famed Butterfly Mansion in 1899, the massive house and unfamiliar duties threaten to overwhelm her. Victorian Austin is lavish, highly political, and intimidating, but with the help of the other servants, Lilly resolves to prove herself to her new employers. Then, while serving at an elegant dinner party, Lilly recognizes one distinguished guest as Andrew, the love of her life, who abandoned her without a word back home. He seems to have assumed a new identity and refuses to acknowledge her, leaving her confused and reeling. Before Lilly can absorb this unwelcome news, she's attacked. Could it be the sinister Servant Girl Killer who has been terrorizing Austin? Or is it someone after something more personal--someone from her past? Does she dare tru

South Carolina Brides

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South Carolina Brides Vickie McDonough Barbour Books After tackling quite a few classics, I was ready for a light read, so a set of novellas sounded good to me. Though the last novella collection I read was a disappointment, this collection is a set of books previously published by Heartsong Presents, which I enjoyed a lot when I was just beginning to read Christian fiction. And since these were all set in my home state, I thought it would be a nice change. Out of the three stories, the last was probably my favorite. All the same, I didn’t find any of them particularly memorable.  As I read South Carolina Brides , I think I discovered the main problem I have with romance novellas is that they try to fit all the elements of a full-length romance into a short amount of pages; it just very rarely works. Halfway through the novella the characters will be declaring their love and I’m just like, “Guys, you literally met the day before- this isn’t a Disney movie, all rig

The Headmistress of Rosemere (Guest Post By Emily)

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The Headmistress of Rosemere Whispers on the Moors, Book 2 Sarah E. Ladd Thomas Nelson Patience Creighton has devoted her life to running her father's boarding school. But when the enigmatic master of the estate appears at her door, battered and unconscious, the young headmistress suddenly finds her livelihood- and her heart- in the hands of one dangerously hansom gentleman. At twenty-five, Patience Creighton is already a spinster. The busy headmistress of Rosemere always expected a dashing man to sweep her off her feet and take her away... but that man never came. And since her father's death, keeping the school running and her mother happy has been plenty to keep her occupied. William Sterling dallied her way into financial trouble and mortal danger. When he is assaulted by his creditors' henchmen on the road home from a tavern, he guides his horse to the doorstep of his tenant, the Rosemere School for Young Ladies. After being tendedto by Patience,

Cinder

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Cinder The Lunar Chronicles, Book 1 Marissa Meyer MacTeen Books Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.  Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future I’ve seen this book around a lot lately, but I doubt I would have picked it up had it not been for the fact that my last library trip was a bit of a bust and I only got one book; being a little desperate for more than that I pick

Luminary

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Luminary Krista McGee Thomas Nelson Thalli thought escaping to the surface would mean freedom. But is she any less of an anomaly aboveground? After escaping an underground annihilation chamber, Thalli, Berk, Rhen, and John find themselves fleeing across the former United States, aboveground for the first time. As the defectors cross the forgotten landscape, the three youths see things they had only read about on screens: horses, rain, real books—and a colony of unsanctioned survivors living the ancient way in a town called New Hope. When these survivors reveal the truth of what happened years ago, Thalli is left unsettled and skeptical of everything she’s ever been told. Can she trust anything from the State, including her own feelings for Berk? When she volunteers for a peace mission to New Hope’s violent neighbor, Athens, her confusion mounts when the supposedly ruthless Prince Alex turns out to be kind and charming. Although everyone in New Hope warned her not to, she