I usually restrict my book reviews to Christian fiction but when I was offered Friendship Bread through the Amazon Vine program, it seemed to be an intriguing but safe choice. As it turned out, Friendship Bread was a thoroughly delightful story – well written with an interesting plot and a stellar cast of characters. Although it is not a faith based book, I found nothing in its pages that should offend the Christian reader. It is a wholesome tale centered around family, friends, and community with central themes of friendship, reconciliation and doing the right thing.
Friendship Bread has several primary characters whose lives intersect in one way or another. As it begins Julia Evarts, a young mother who has been isolated from friends and family since the death of her son, receives a plate of Amish Friendship Bread and a package of starter. Little can anyone imagine the events that one package of starter will set in motion and the lives that will be changed as a result.
Not only is Friendship Bread a warm and tender story but the author has included recipes for the starter, basic Friendship Bread, and several variations. If that is not enough for you, the companion website offers a wealth of recipes, hints, and ideas.
This book was provided for review by the Amazon Vine Program.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
An anonymous gift sends a woman on a journey she never could have anticipated.
One afternoon, Julia Evarts and her five-year-old daughter, Gracie, arrive home to find an unexpected gift on the front porch: a homemade loaf of Amish Friendship Bread and a simple note: I hope you enjoy it. Also included are a bag of starter, instructions on how to make the bread herself, and a request to share it with others.
Still reeling from a personal tragedy that left her estranged from the sister who was once her best friend, Julia remains at a loss as to how to move on with her life. She’d just as soon toss the anonymous gift, but to make Gracie happy, she agrees to bake the bread.
When Julia meets two newcomers to the small town of Avalon, Illinois, she sparks a connection by offering them her extra bread starter. Widow Madeline Davis is laboring to keep her tea salon afloat while Hannah Wang de Brisay, a famed concert cellist, is at a crossroads, her career and marriage having come to an abrupt end. In the warm kitchen of Madeline’s tea salon, the three women forge a friendship that will change their lives forever.
In no time, everyone in Avalon is baking Amish Friendship Bread. But even as the town unites for a benevolent cause and Julia becomes ever closer to her new friends, she realizes the profound necessity of confronting the painful past she shares with her sister.
About life and loss, friendship and community, food and family, Friendship Bread tells the uplifting story of what endures when even the unthinkable happens.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Darien Gee is an author, wife, and mother of three. She’s a Libra Monkey, a chocoholic, and of late, an Amish Friendship Bread addict. A former California resident, Darien served on the board of the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library and ZYZZYVA, an award-winning literary journal. She’s an alum of Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Her next Avalon novel, Memory Keeping, will be published in 2012 by Ballantine Books.
The Missions of Mercy series is just one more example of why Susan May Warren has become one of my favorite authors. I honestly believe the woman can write about anything and I love it all! Her books run the gamut from contemporary romance to historicals, to suspense thrillers. With settings all over the world, a varied cast of characters, and themes that can be lightly humorous or deadly intense, her novels have earned their place on my keeper bookshelf.
Published under the Love Inspired Suspense section of Harlequin Books, the three books of this series pack a serious punch for their small size. The three heroes are all retired special ops military men who own and/or work for a private security company in Europe. In each installment, one of the men is involved in a dangerous mission with a young woman and in the midst of their precarious exploits, love begins to bloom.
Although part of a series, each of these books can stand alone. Warren has done an excellent job providing well paced plots set against interesting backdrops with well rounded and realistic characters. Elements of faith are woven seamlessly and inconspicuously throughout the stories. Each novel has its share of nail biting moments and all end satisfactorily.
Don’t let the small size of these books fool you. There is a wealth of action and romance crammed between those covers. As always, I look forward to whatever Susan May Warren has up her sleeve for her next book.
Copies of these books were provided for review by LitFuse Publicity.
About The Missions of Mercy series:
Three heroes, all on missions of mercy, who discover that God not only saves us from evil, but from the darkness inside.
Point of No Return: An American boy and a warlord’s engaged daughter have disappeared-together-in an Eastern European border country. Only one man can find them in time to prevent an international meltdown-Chet Stryker. But Chet is taken aback when he realizes the boy is the nephew of Mae Lund, Chet’s former flame. When Mae insists on rescuing her relative herself, Chet knows he has to protect her from the enemy on their trail. Yet can he protect himself from falling for Mae again?
Mission: Out of Control: Brody “Wick” Wickham is a former Green Beret turned security agent-with a 100 percent mission success rate. No way is his new assignment changing that. Even if it’s protecting a diva American rock star while she’s on tour in Europe. Except Veronica “Vonya” Wagner isn’t just a beautiful celebrity used to having her way-she’s the daughter of a U.S. Senator. And she’s hiding a dangerous secret. When Wick discovers what’s at stake, how far over the line will he go to keep them both alive?
Undercover Pursuit: The only way to get security agent Luke Dekker to a wedding? An undercover mission as groomsman. He’ll bust the groom, a drug cartel heir, before anyone can say “I do.” Then Luke can escape all this love and romance nonsense-and the too pretty bridesmaid/agent assigned as his “fiancée” for the weekend. Until Luke discovers that sweet, vulnerable Scarlett Hanson isn’t his contact. Isn’t an agent. Isn’t trained for the high-stakes mission now trapping them both. And worse, Luke’s falling for her-which is not part of the assignment.
Susan May Warren is the RITA award-winning author of thirty novels with Tyndale, Barbour, Steeple Hill and Summerside Press. A four-time Christy award finalist, a two-time RITA Finalist, she’s also a multi-winner of the Inspirational Readers Choice award, and the ACFW Carol Award. A seasoned women’s events speaker, she’s a popular writing teacher at conferences around the nation and the author of the beginning writer’s workbook: From the Inside-Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you! She is also the founder of www.MyBookTherapy.com, a story-crafting service that helps authors discover their voice.
Martha Ockley is the pen-name of Rebecca Jenkins. She read history at Oxford University, and spent several years working alongside her father, the Rt. Revd. David Jenkins (Bishop of Durham 1984-94) during the turbulence of the 1980s. She lives in Teesdale in the North East of England where the landscape and history provide the inspiration for her Regency detective, F R Jarrett. Since September 2009 she has been Royal Literary Fund Fellow and Writer in Residence at York St John University. She is a full-time author, writing both fiction and non-fiction. (She should not be confused with a Canadian actor and singer, also called Rebecca Jenkins.)
ABOUT THE BOOK:
The Reluctant Detective sees Faith Morgan arriving back in the region of her birth – Winchester in Hampshire. Recently ordained, she had been working as a curate in an Anglican inner-city church. Within an hour of her arrival at Little Worthy, she witnesses the sudden shocking death of a fellow priest during a communion service at St James’s. He had been poisoned with a pesticide mixed with the communion wine. The senior police officer who arrives at the scene turns out to be Detective Inspector Ben Shorter, Faith’s ex long-term boyfriend.
She is urged by the Bishop to stay on to look after the parish of Little Worthy. As she meets her parishioners she learns some surprising facts about her apparently well loved predecessor, and starts to suspect a motive for his death. And it is she who finally identifies the murderer.
The story gets off to a dramatic start with the previous vicar collapsing as soon as he drank the communion cup, and it holds the interest throughout. There is some romantic interest too. Inspector Ben Shorter starts by sneeringly telling his sergeant, “Ms Morgan is a vicar. One of the ordained,” Ben emphasized the word. “She’s a card-carrying professional at the touchy-feely stuff.” But he soon starts to feel differently about her again, although she is well aware that he “didn’t understand the reality she experienced through her faith. He didn’t even recognize its existence. That was the gulf between them.” Her own beliefs and doubts are convincingly described, for even she can’t help wondering, “What if there is no truth to it?” But for her, as for Pascal before her, it was a gamble worth taking.
It took me awhile to get into The Reluctant Detective but my persistence rewarded me with a pretty good mystery that did not have a blatantly obvious suspect. The story itself was a bit different than I am used to but I imagine that the setting and customs of a small English village had a lot to do with it.
I also did not feel that I got to know the characters very well. I could tell that Faith was quite torn between her current position as a newly ordained priest of the Church of England and her former life as a policewoman. She showed the compassion and mercy befitting her position but couldn’t manage to stay out of the murder investigation.
For the most part The Reluctant Detective was a satisfying story and I was glad I read it in its entirety. There were a couple of things that might be offensive to some Christians so be warned. I felt that the subjects of alcohol and extramarital affairs were treated in an offhand manner as if they were acceptable Christian behavior. If you can overlook this and enjoy clerical mysteries, you would probably enjoy The Reluctant Detective.
Brandilyn Collins is an award-winning and best-selling novelist known for her trademark Seatbelt Suspense®. These harrowing crime thrillers have earned her the tagline “Don’t forget to b r e a t h e…”® Brandilyn’s first book, A Question of Innocence, was a true crime published by Avon in 1995. Its promotion landed her on local and national TV and radio, including the Phil Donahue and Leeza talk shows. Brandilyn is also known for her distinctive book on fiction-writing techniques, Getting Into Character: Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn From Actors (John Wiley & Sons). She is now working on her 20th book.
In addition, Brandilyn’s other latest release is Final Touch, third in The Rayne Tour series—young adult suspense co-written with her daughter, Amberly. The Rayne Tour series features Shaley O’Connor, daughter of a rock star, who just may have it all—until murder crashes her world.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Torn from the front lines of medical debate and the author’s own experience with Lyme Disease, Over the Edge is riveting fiction, full of twists and turns—and powerful truths about today’s medical field.
Janessa McNeil’s husband, Dr. Brock McNeil, a researcher and professor at Stanford University’s Department of Medicine, specializes in tick-borne diseases—especially Lyme. For years he has insisted that Chronic Lyme Disease doesn’t exist. Even as patients across the country are getting sicker, the committee Brock chairs is about to announce its latest findings—which will further seal the door shut for Lyme treatment.
One embittered man sets out to prove Dr. McNeil wrong by giving him a close-up view of the very disease he denies. The man infects Janessa with Lyme, then states his demand: convince her husband to publicly reverse his stand on Lyme—or their young daughter will be next.
But Janessa’s marriage is already rocky. She’s so sick she can hardly move or think. And her husband denies she has Lyme at all.
Welcome to the Lyme wars, Janessa.
“A taut, heartbreaking thriller. Collins is a fine writer who knows how to both horrify readers and keep them turning pages.”
–Publishers Weekly
“Tense and dramatic. Holds its tension while following the protagonist in a withering battle.” –NY Journal of Books
“A frightening and all-too-real scenario. Very timely and meaningful book.” –RT Reviews
“If you know someone who suffers from Lyme, you need to read this compelling novel.” –Lydia Niederwerfer, founder of Lyme-Aware
Over the Edge is somewhat different than the other books I’ve read by Brandilyn Collins (and I think I’ve read them all). Using her fertile imagination, Collins has taken her very real life experience with Lyme disease and turned it into another one of her trademark Seatbelt Suspense novels. In many ways, Over the Edge may be more frightening than any of her other books simply because it details a nightmare that could strike any one of us at any time. And the medical system that most of us trust to have our best interests at heart may just let us down.
When I learned that this book was to be different from her others, I was afraid I might not like it. That fear was put to rest before I finished the first chapter. Brandilyn has what it takes to hold my interest no matter what she writes. The book description and book trailer above give sufficient information so I won’t elaborate and take a chance on being a spoiler. Just take my word when I say that Over the Edge is a must read book. It might even be one to share with your doctor.
Despite the fact that A Place of Peace is very similar to many of the other popular Amish themed books on the market, it was easy to read and had a fairly good plot. Most of the story centered on Miriam, a young woman who had left the Amish after she was blamed for the death of a baby and subsequently learned that her fiance Timothy was seeing another woman behind her back. After learning of her mother’s death, Miriam returned to her hometown for the funeral, hoping to renew her relationship with her family. Naturally, she encountered Timothy frequently.
This story made several twists and turns as secrets of the past were revealed. Eventually both Miriam and Timothy learned that each had been told lies about the other. Unfortunately that did not stop either of them from continuing to make poor decisions. At times I grew frustrated with just how stubborn and silly they both were acting. I also wondered how anyone could make such drastic decisions based on what they were told by one person.
As in most books of this genre, the prodigal Amish character finally decides that Amish life is the only life for them. I can understand somewhat the feeling of being a part of two very different worlds but not really fitting in either. I suppose the place of our roots may have the strongest call on us which would explain the decision to return to the Amish life. I just wish the authors wouldn’t imply that the Amish way of life is superior.
There are frequent scenes with vivid descriptions of food that are very tempting. Fortunately, the author has included a number of recipes for the dishes mentioned in the book; however none of them are appropriate for my current diet.
This book was provided for review by the Amazon Vine Program.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Take a trip to Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, where you’ll meet the women of the Kauffman Amish Bakery in Lancaster County. As each woman’s story unfolds, you will share in her heartaches, trials, joys, dreams … and secrets. You’ll discover how the simplicity of the Amish lifestyle can clash with the ‘English’ way of life—and the decisions and consequences that follow. Most importantly, you will be encouraged by the hope and faith of these women, and the importance they place on their families. Miriam Lapp, who left the Amish community of Bird-in-Hand three years ago, is heartbroken when her sister calls to reveal that her mother has died suddenly. Traveling home to Pennsylvania, she is forced to face the heartache from her past, including her rift from her family and the breakup of her engagement with Timothy Kauffman. Her past emotional wounds are reopened when her family rejects her once again and she finds out that Timothy is in a relationship with someone else. Miriam discovers that the rumors that broke them up three years ago were all lies. However, when Timothy proposes to his girlfriend and Miriam’s father disowns her, Miriam returns to Indiana with her heart in shambles. When Miriam’s father has a stroke, Miriam returns to Pennsylvania, where her world continues to fall apart, leaving her to question her place in the Amish community and her faith in God.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Amy Clipston is the author of the bestselling Kauffman Amish Bakery novels. She has a degree in communications from Virginia Wesleyan College and currently works for the city of Charlotte, North Carolina. Amy lives with her husband, two sons, and four spoiled-rotten cats. Visit her on the web at www.amyclipston.com.
When Ada Wentworth accepted a position as a lady’s companion in Hickory Ridge, Tennessee, she planned for it to be a stepping stone toward her dream of owning her own hat shop. To her surprise, not only was the climate much different than her Boston home, but anti-Yankee sentiments were still prevalent in the area well after the end of the Civil War. And elderly Miss Lillian – well she was what they called a real pistol and expected far more from her than Ada had anticipated. And then there was Miss Lillian’s nephew Wyatt. If Ada hadn’t already been burned once, she might be just a little bit attracted to the man.
A well paced and compelling plot, realistic and appealing characters, and a charming setting kept me turning the pages of Beyond All Measure. The historical background added extra dimension to the narrative, especially the suspenseful elements generated by Klan activity. This story has it all – plenty of drama, action, conflict, mystery and danger tempered with a good measure of humor, friendships, faith, and romance. I thoroughly enjoyed Beyond All Measure and look forward to future installments to the Hickory Ridge Romance series.
A digital copy of this book was provided for review by BookSneeze.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Unless she can trust God’s love to cast out her fears, Ada may lose the heart of a good man.
Ada Wentworth, a young Bostonian, journeys to Hickory Ridge, Tennessee, in the years following the Civil War. Alone and nearly penniless following a broken engagement, Ada accepts a position as a lady’s companion to the elderly Lillian Willis, a pillar of the community and aunt to the local lumber mill owner, Wyatt Caldwell. Ada intends to use her millinery skills to establish a hat shop and secure her future.
Haunted by unanswered questions from her life in Boston, Ada is most drawn to two townsfolks: Wyatt, a Texan with big plans of his own, and Sophie, a mulatto girl who resides at the Hickory Ridge orphanage. Ada’s friendship with Sophia attracts the attention of a group of locals seeking to displace the residents of Two Creeks, a “colored” settlement on the edge of town. As tensions rise, Ada is threatened but refuses to abandon her plan to help the girl.
When Lillian dies, Ada is left without employment or a place to call home. And since Wyatt’s primary purpose for staying in Hickory Ridge was to watch over his aunt, he can now pursue his dream of owning Longhorns in his home state of Texas.
With their feelings for each other growing, Ada must decide whether she can trust God with her future and Wyatt with her heart.
Before returning to her writing roots in historical fiction, Dorothy Love published twelve novels for young adults. Her work has garnered numerous honors from the American Library Association, the Friends of American Writers, the International Reading Association, the New York Public Library, and many others. The Hickory Ridge Novels mark her Christian fiction debut.
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An anonymous gift sends a woman on a journey she never could have anticipated.
Darien Gee is an author, wife, and mother of three. She’s a Libra Monkey, a chocoholic, and of late, an Amish Friendship Bread addict. A former California resident, Darien served on the board of the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library and ZYZZYVA, an award-winning literary journal. She’s an alum of Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Her next Avalon novel, Memory Keeping, will be published in 2012 by Ballantine Books.
