The Apothecary's Daughter by Julie Klassen

 Blurb: 

Lillian Haswell, brilliant daughter of the local apothecary, yearns for more adventure and experience than life in her father's shop and their small village provides. She also longs to know the truth behind her mother's disappearance, which villagers whisper about but her father refuses to discuss. Opportunity comes when a distant aunt offers to educate her as a lady in London. Exposed to fashionable society and romance as well as clues about her mother Lilly is torn when she is summoned back to her ailing father's bedside. Women are forbidden to work as apothecaries, so to save the family legacy, Lilly will have to make it appear as if her father is still making all the diagnoses and decisions. But the suspicious eyes of a scholarly physician and a competing apothecary are upon her. As they vie for village prominence, three men also vie for Lilly's heart.

Donna's Review: 

First, it was obvious this book was well-researched. The historical details permeate the book, even impacting the character’s goals and lives. The idea of a book centered around the apothecary business in the early part of the 19^th century was unusual. I have not seen it done before, and it is excellently done in this book.

The love triangle kept me guessing until the very end. Klassen peels the layers of these men away, and while none is particularly bad, and all have qualities that could be heroic, there is only one in particular that you are rooting for by the end. I will say no more for fear of spoiling the ending, and this ride is just too delicious to do that to a reader. I will also say that Klassen’s ability to depict a near sensual feel between her main characters without ever having them kiss is something few authors can manage and more should try to emulate. (Another I have read that can do this kind of writing between her hero and heroine is Catherine Palmer.) The result is a steamy romance that is pure in heart, largely because it is built on the actions of the hero and his care for the heroine.  

The one thing that was off-putting, and it was not the author’s fault, was the number of mistakes (in the kindle edition). I was a bit disappointed in a major publishing house to be so careless. There were at least five instances when a space should have been placed between a shift in character viewpoints, and there were a number of other spelling errors or words that were left out. It jarred me, the reader, when I would not have been jarred otherwise. Shame on the publisher for such oversights.

Regardless, this was such a good book I was disappointed it was as its end, and I was finding myself thinking of it several days after it was over.

A must, must read for anyone who like Christian and/or historical fiction. An easy, peasy 5 roses, and I will be reading more of Klassen in the future! 

Thanks for visiting, Rose, Julie, Donna & Rochelle

Length: 416 pages

Prices: Print $12.15

             Digital $9.99

Buy Link:

http://www.amazon.com/Apothecarys-Daughter-Julie-Klassen/dp/0764204807/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429124547&sr=8-1&keywords=apothecary%27s+daughter

A Passion Most Pure by Julie Lessman

Blurb:

She's found the love of her life. Unfortunately, he loves her sister. As World War I rages across the Atlantic in 1916, a smaller war is brewing in Boston. Faith O'Connor finds herself drawn to an Irish rogue who is anything but right for her. Collin McGuire is brash, cocky, and from the wrong side of the tracks, not to mention forbidden by her father. And then there's the small matter that he is secretly courting her younger sister. But when Collin's affections shift, it threatens to tear her proper Boston family apart. Book 1 of the Daughters of Boston series, A Passion Most Pure will carry your heart from the sophisticated streets of Boston to the green hills of Ireland as men go off to war and women long for their return. Full of passion, romance, rivalry, and betrayal, it will captivate you from the first page.

Review by Donna Hechler Porter:

I can’t say enough about this book. Put simply, I loved it. The plot was strong and sucked me in from the beginning. It was gut wrenching to put down when I picked up it. In my younger years, I could have read all day and night to finish it!

The characters are drawn well, with real problems despite their faith in God, and I really felt like I got to know them. Even more important, I cared about them.  Faith O’Connor’s strong belief in God is admirable, and Colin McGuire’s  quest for peace, which he finally finds, is gut wrenching.

The only thing I could say that would have made it better would have been cutting the length of some sections of introspection after some disastrous events and perhaps a bit more historical details. But in saying that, I’m being extra picky, for neither one of those things mars the overall story. 

I will warn readers that these are very Christian books. The characters pray – a lot. However, the message is never preachy, and while there are no explicit sexual forays in the book, the hero is not a Christian, and these are not people who advocate a total hands off approach to relationships between men and women.   There is kissing. There are individuals who work hard to follow the Bible's guidelines, and God's, in their approach to not only courting, but marriage as well. This is a definite and easy 5 roses!

Length:  481 Pages

Prices:

Print:  $14.99

Digital:  $7.99 (List) Free (Special)

Buy Link:  http://www.amazon.com/Passion-Most-Pure-Daughters-Boston-ebook/dp/B009M6UKKI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417141422&sr=8-1&keywords=passion+most+pure

Thanks for visiting. Rose, Julie, Donna, & Rochelle

House of Mercy by Alicia Ruggieri

Blurb:

A story of justice, love, and mercy in post-Roman Arthurian Britain. 

When a hailstorm ruins her father's crops, Bethan goes as a kitchen servant to Oxfield. There, she intends to work off her family's debt to Lord Drustan before returning to marry the fervent son of a local priest. Yet, in her first days at the old Roman fortress, Bethan meets two men who are very different from the priest's son, friends who have dark histories... and shrouded futures. 

In his twenty years, Deoradhan has swallowed much of sorrow’s cup and found it bitter. Haunted by his father’s murder at the hands of one he trusted, distanced from the Roman God who betrayed him, burning to obtain his rightful throne in the rugged north, the young exile returns to Logress, where High King Arthur holds together a frail confederacy. 

There at Oxfield, Deoradhan's friend Calum seeks absolution for a deed he committed many years ago... a deed that ended in the death of one dearest to him and drove him from his home. 

Will Deoradhan stop at nothing to gain his rightful position? Is atonement possible for Calum after so many years? And what of those - including Bethan - whose lives have become interwoven with theirs? 

Christian alternative historical fiction, appropriate for young adult/adult readers.

Review by Donna Hechler Porter:

First, let me say, Alicia Ruggieri’s beautiful writing style is poetic and lyrical. I’ve not ready someone’s prose in a long time that quite matches hers.

As for the rest of the book, well, this one has been a hard one to rate.  It doesn't really fit into any niche as far as fiction is concerned. It is historical fiction, and there are “love stories” in the book, even romance of the highest kind as far as sacrificing oneself for love of another.  However, it’s not romance as typically defined in our society. It’s inspirational, but there are bad people who do bad things to good people in this book. The Christians certainly talk the Christian talk, but they have very real problems both internally and externally. And there are multiple viewpoints, not the typical “two” – the hero and the heroine - that publishing houses like to see.  All in all, this means that the book can’t necessarily be judged by the “typical” standards.  It’s just too different.

Dealing strictly with elements of fiction, the plotting didn’t grab my attention at first. It wasn’t boring, but I certainly had no problem putting it down and coming back later. Then, about 60% of the way through, I didn’t want to put it down. 

I was also never really clear on the goals of the characters except for Deoradhan. I think the plotting, at points, appeared thin simply because there were so many point of view characters, and I never really fell into deep point of view with any of them. However, the story elements do come together at the end.  

Now, I usually like suspense and “bite your nails” kind of plotting, which this book was not, but it is written in such a beautiful way, with such a beautiful message, that I came away thinking and rethinking on it for several days after I had finished it. For me, that’s the greatest impact of any book – that the characters are alive long after I have closed the last page.

Now, I will warn you, this is a very  Christian book, so if you don’t like the quoting of scripture, or characters that put God at the center of their lives, then don’t read it. I will say, that the characters’ faith is a natural outflow of their lives and the time they live in. I imagine Christians in the 6^th century speaking much like this, and none of it comes across as “preachy” which is often the case in Christian fiction.

All in all, fans of Christian fiction who like books that are not edgy or suspenseful, will enjoy this artful read.  Based on the artsy quality, and the beautiful prose and message, I am giving it four roses. 

Length:   279 Pages
Prices:
Print:  $7.49
Digital:  $.99
Buy Link:

 http://www.amazon.com/House-Mercy-Alicia-G-Ruggieri-ebook/dp/B00GNIJZM2/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-3&qid=1417139062
Thanks for visiting, Rose, Julie, Donna, & Rochelle

After the Rain by Leah Atwood

Blurb:

Welcome to Weatherton, Wyoming, where romance is always in the air!

Rand McCade made a promise to his dying wife to one day remarry. He couldn’t imagine ever loving someone again, but he’d do anything to give his wife peace in her final moments. Two and a half years later, he begins to fulfill his vow by contacting a mail-order agency in the east. He doesn’t want to remarry, but a promise is a promise.

Lettie Morgan needed to leave Baltimore. Widowed and pregnant, she was being pressured to marry a violent man. In order to protect herself and the baby, she seeks out an agency she’d heard of which finds brides for men in the west.

How can two hearts, broken and grieving, put their pasts aside and blend their lives into one?

A family-friendly historical romance novella with elements of faith, family and friendship.

Review:

Having come off reading ALL of Suzan Tisdale’s book, and having just finished Frederick’s Queen (you can read the review here), I am in a desperate search for a book I can’t put down. Sad to say, I have downloaded about ten books, but for various reasons I can’t seem to get into them. Some of that is me, some of it is the authors.

I finally picked up a charming little Christian romance novel by Leah Atwood titled After the Rain. This is book one of her Brides of Weatherton Series. Alas, I finished it, but I was not overwhelmed. Let me say, though, that that is probably more me than Atwood.

I like angst in my stories. As many of you know from my previous reviews, I don’t like heroes or heroines who are perfect. I want them to have a temper, to say the wrong thing, to do something ugly occasionally, if for no other reason than they are afraid and it makes for interesting conflict. None of this happened, of course, in After the Rain.

Rand and Lettie are too perfect for my tastes. When they say something catty to each other, they turn right around in the next scene and apologize. Honestly, one of the only reasons I kept reading was because I kept thinking that the former suitor would eventually turn up. At the end, however, we find out he likely committed suicide. On top of that, near the end of the book, Lettie’s mother shows up at the McCade ranch and asks for forgiveness. She has simply realized she was wrong to treat her daughter the way she did all those years. Needless to say, expecting fireworks from both ends and not getting either, I was a bit disappointed.

While I sometimes appreciate these sorts of sweet stories, especially if the romance is well-done even if too chaste, this one fell flat. I can believe two young people, inexperienced in matters of marriage and love, might not have a longing or a hunger for a physical relationship. (Actually I don’t, but I think lack of experience can make them reticent at least.) I find it harder to believe two people who were as happily married as Rand and Lettie aren’t fighting the normal natural desire of a physical relationship. Yes, they were Christians. Yes, a Christian, even one seeking a second marriage, needs to work hard at being chaste. But it should be work if you are falling in love. It should not be easy to turn off that part of themselves.

I did give After the Rain 3 roses. Atwood's writing is good. The story does flow. Not only is the writing itself (sentence structure) tight, but the plot passes along at a reasonable pace. However, there is no great soul searching for either Rand or Lettie. Neither do they experience any real character growth beyond their ability to tell the other “I Love You.”

If you like sweet Christian romance with little to no angst and no hint of a physical relationship, then you will enjoy After the Rain. If you want something grittier and more real, then you might want to keep looking along the bookshelf. As for me, I’m still on that all elusive quest for a book I can’t put down.

Length:  130 pages

Digital Price:  $0.99

Buy Link:  http://www.amazon.com/After-Rain-Brides-Weatherton-Book-ebook/dp/B00N2AHDHI/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1415023639&sr=8-2-fkmr2&keywords=atherton+after+the+rain

Thanks for visiting. Rose, Julie Donna & Rochelle

The Little Red Book of Wisdom By Mark DeMoss

 

Blurb:

The Little Red Book of Wisdom takes the reader on a journey so often sidestepped in favor of the newer, quicker, easier. If you're seeking simplicity in a complicated world, Mark DeMoss's insights will illuminate your path to a wiser and more deliberate way of living. By illuminating the notions of integrity, humility, and self-restraint, DeMoss demonstrates what is possible when we value listening and thinking over talking and doing.

• Learn why a postage stamp is worth much more than 44 cents, and what time of day wisdom flourishes.
• Find out the wisest decision anyone can make, and the value of eating lunch alone.
• Rethink the advantages of technology, and learn how to safeguard yourself against any shadow of deathbed regret.

Step out of the incessant business of your daily life, and spend a few moments learning timeless and foolproof truths that you can apply right away. Wisdom is not just for past generations; it calls to us today. We need only respond.

Review by Rose Thornton:

The Little Red Book of Wisdom, by Mark DeMoss, is basically a values-based “how-to” book for good practical living and success. It combines common sense and good judgment with recommendations on how to apply it to all areas of one’s personal life, including family, business, and social circles. Key components involve techniques for managing time and focus, and helpful suggestions such as “under promise, over deliver” for guarding integrity and gaining respect. I found this book to be insightful thought-provoking. It’s full of guidance that the reader can use to affect his own life directly, or to reaffirm his principles and resolutions. The wise will appreciate DeMoss’ sensible advice and his discerning method of providing it.

Thanks for visiting, Rose, Julie & Rochelle

Length: 208 Pages

Prices:

Print: $16.99

Digital: $10.99 Kindle

Buy Link:

http://www.thomasnelson.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=the+little+red+book+of+wisdom