A Tree, A Book, and A Breeze

  A Midnight Dance Joanna Davidson Politano Revell   All theater romances are tragedies. Ella Blythe knows this. Still, she cannot help but hope her own story may turn out different than most--and certainly different than the tragic story of the Ghost of Craven Street Theater. Yet as she struggles to maintain her tenuous place in the ever-shrinking ballet company, win the attentions of principal dancer Philippe, and avoid company flirt Jack, Ella cannot deny the uncanny feeling that her life is mirroring that of the dead ballerina. Is she dancing ever closer to the edge of her own tragic end? Or will the secrets that are about to come to light offer release from the past? Full of twists and turns, A Midnight Dance is centered by a compelling mystery, complicated characters, and an evocative setting. It's not a short novel, but it's an easy one to get sucked into. In reading this book, though, I've realized that I'm actually not a fan of ballet stories- there...

  The Barrister and the Letter of Marque Todd M. Johnson Bethany House   As a barrister in 1818 London, William Snopes has witnessed firsthand the danger of only the wealthy having their voices heard, and he's a strong advocate who defends the poorer classes against the powerful. That changes the day a struggling heiress, Lady Madeleine Jameson, arrives at his door. In a last-ditch effort to save her faltering estate, Lady Jameson invested in a merchant brig, the Padget. The ship was granted a rare privilege by the king's regent: a Letter of Marque authorizing the captain to seize the cargo of French traders operating illegally in the Indian Sea. Yet when the Padget returns to London, her crew is met by soldiers ready to take possession of their goods and arrest the captain for piracy. And the Letter--the sole proof his actions were legal--has mysteriously vanished. Moved by the lady's distress, intrigued by the Letter, and goaded by an opposing solicitor, Snop...

   The Nature of a Lady Roseanna M. White Bethany House Publishers   1906 Lady Elizabeth "Libby" Sinclair, with her love of microscopes and nature, isn't favored in society. She flees to the beautiful Isles of Scilly for the summer and stumbles into the dangerous secrets left behind by her holiday cottage's former occupant, also named Elizabeth, who mysteriously vanished. Oliver Tremayne--gentleman and clergyman--is determined to discover what happened to his sister, and he's happy to accept the help of the girl now living in what should have been Beth's summer cottage . . . especially when he realizes it's the curious young lady he met briefly two years ago, who shares his love of botany and biology. But the hunt for his sister involves far more than nature walks, and he can't quite believe all the secrets Beth had been keeping from him. As Libby and Oliver work together, they find ancient legends, pirate wrecks, betrayal, and the most my...

When Twilight Breaks Sarah Sundin Revell Munich, 1938. Evelyn Brand is an American foreign correspondent as determined to prove her worth in a male-dominated profession as she is to expose the growing tyranny in Nazi Germany. To do so, she must walk a thin line. If she offends the government, she could be expelled from the country--or worse. If she fails to truthfully report on major stories, she'll never be able to give a voice to the oppressed--and wake up the folks back home. In another part of the city, American graduate student Peter Lang is working on his PhD in German. Disillusioned with the chaos in the world due to the Great Depression, he is impressed with the prosperity and order of German society. But when the brutality of the regime hits close, he discovers a far better way to use his contacts within the Nazi party--to feed information to the shrewd reporter he can't get off his mind. This electric standalone novel from fan-favorite Sarah Sundin puts you right at t...

Tidewater Bride Laura Franz Bethany House Publishers Virginia Colony's most eligible woman is busy matchmaking for a ship of brides, though she has no interest in finding her own mate. Will she reconsider when new revelations about the colony's most eligible landowner come to light?  Selah Hopewell seems to be the only woman in the Virginia colony who has no wish to marry. True, Jamestown has a shortage of potential wives---but Selah has her hands full assisting in her family's shop. Xander Renick is the most eligible tobacco lord in the settlement. But can he convince Selah to become his Tidewater Bride?  While this isn't a genre I read too much anymore, there is something very nostalgic for me in coming back to Christian historical fiction. This one wasn't quite as much of a romance as I was expecting, but I enjoyed it more than the last book I read by this author ( A Bound Heart , if you're wondering). This novel's backstory is highly influenced by Pocaho...

The Dress Shop on King Street Ashley Clark Bethany House Publishers So I may or may not have a bit of a compulsion to read books that are set in Charleston- even just South Carolina in general. There aren’t a lot of books set here (unless you’re counting Southern Fiction, which isn’t usually my preferred genre) so whenever I see one, I tend to pick it up. Ashley Clark is a new author to me, and novels with dual timelines can be tricky, so I came into this one curious but skeptical.  True to form, I definitely found one storyline much more compelling than the other- something I find that tends to be a hazard of the time slip genre. Really, I only found Harper’s story interesting in so much as it connected to Millie’s (which, now that I think about it, is a little ironic, since most of those scenes are the ones not set in Charleston!) Millie’s story was bittersweet and left me with a bit of an ache; I may have also been more drawn to that one because at heart I’ll always be a his...

  The Love Note Joanna Davidson Politano Revell Focused on a career in medicine and not on romance, Willa Duvall is thrown slightly off course during the summer of 1865 when she discovers a never-opened love letter in a crack of her old writing desk. Compelled to find the passionate soul who penned it and the person who never received it, she takes a job as a nurse at the seaside estate of Crestwicke Manor. Everyone at Crestwicke has feelings--mostly negative ones--about the man who wrote the letter, but he seems to have disappeared. With plenty of enticing clues but few answers, Willa's search becomes even more complicated when she misplaces the letter and it passes from person to person in the house, each finding a thrilling or disheartening message in its words. Laced with mysteries large and small, this romantic Victorian-era tale of love lost, love deferred, and love found is sure to delight. I feel a little like the odd man out with this review, as it has a score of five-star...