A Tree, A Book, and A Breeze

Greetings From the Flipside Rene Gutteridge and Cheryl McKay B&H Hope Landon has been rewriting other people's greeting cards since she was six years old -- there's always a funnier caption. She's all set to chase those creative dreams with her musician fiance in New York City until he leaves Hope at the altar, deciding he must not really love this girl if he can't write a song for her. That may give her something to write about . . . Hope disappears alone on what was supposed to be the couple's monthlong honeymoon. Upon returning she learns of her funeral -- everyone in her life concluded Hope must have killed herself after being jilted. Needing a fresh start more than ever, she heads for the Big Apple only to discover it's not that easy to rent a place when you've been declared dead. I got this book because it looked cute and funny, but it was NOTHING like I expected. At all. The book blurb is really misleading. It tells you, tech...

An Honest Heart Kaye Dacus B&H Set during the Industrial Revolution and the Great Exhibition of 1851,  An Honest Heart  is a "sitting-room romance" with the feel of a Regency-era novel but the fashions and technological advances of the mid-Victorian age. Featuring dual romance stories, the main plot involves seamstress Caddy Bainbridge and the choice she must make between two men: one from the aristocracy, the other from the working class. Award-nominated author Kaye Dacus pinpoints the theme of honesty—both men in this love triangle have deep secrets to hide, and Caddy’s choice will be based on which of them can be honest with her. Courtship . . . cunning . . . candor. Who possesses an honest heart? One thing that was interesting about this book isn’t that isn’t a sequel to the first book in this series; rather, An Honest Heart takes place during the events of Follow the Heart , just about some of the other characters. I really loved the heroine’s ...

The Duchess and the Dragon Jamie Carie B&H As Duke of Northumberland, Drake Weston is accustomed to a life of royalty---until a tragic mistake forces him to flee England by ship. Across the sea, humble Pennsylvania Quaker Serena ministers to sick travelers---and never expects to fall in love with one of her patients! Can these two unlikely soulmates find happiness?  I really wanted to like this book, but…I just couldn’t. I mentioned in my review of Love’s First Light that the main characters’ relationship advanced to the physical way to quickly, and the same happened here, although for whatever reason this book annoyed/offended me even more than the previous one- to tell the truth, I barely finished The Duchess and the Dragon , and I skimmed several parts of it, because I just could not read most of it. What bothered me was how the characters talked like Christians, but then didn’t act like ones in regard to romance ( and the heroine married the hero befo...

Love's First Light Jamie Carie B&H Christophé, the Count of St. Laurent, has lost his entire family to the blood-soaked French Revolution and must flee to an ancient castle along the southern border of France to survive. But the medieval city of Carcassonne proves more than a hiding place. Here Christophé meets the beautiful widow Scarlett, a complex and lionhearted woman suddenly taken by the undercover aristocrat’s passion for astronomy and its influence upon his faith. Although their acquaintance begins brightly enough, when the Count learns that Scarlett is related to the man who murdered his family, he turns from love and chooses revenge. Heaven only knows what it might take for Christophé to love again, to love his enemy, and to love unconditionally. There are not a lot of Christian fiction novels set during the French Revolution (something I plan on remedying myself sometime) so when I saw this one I decided to check it out. I felt really torn about this b...

Follow the Heart Kay Dacus B & H Set during the Industrial Revolution and the Great Exhibition of 1851, Follow the Heart is a "sitting-room romance" with the feel of a Regency-era novel but the fashions and technological advances of the mid-Victorian age. Kate and Christopher Dearing's lives turn upside down when their father loses everything in a railroad land speculation. The siblings are shipped off to their mother's brother in England with one edict: marry money. I’ve heard much about Kaye Dacus, but I’ve never had the chance to read any of her novels until now. Though it took a little while to get into, I really enjoyed Follow the Heart . It was slow-moving at first, but I thought it got better as the story went on. I wasn’t quite as interested in Kate’s story- I liked the plot between her brother Christopher and governess Nora much better. (Nora was definitely my favorite character, though Christopher came close). Though I didn’t disli...