Before the Season Ends - Linore Rose Burkard

This was a freebie and looked to be right up my alley. 

Ariana has decided that she needs to wed the local pastor so that she can follow God's call for her life.  The man is her father's age, and her family isn't happy with the idea, so they send her to London to spend the season with her aunt. She is an outspoken girl who is unwilling to waver on her principles for anything.  A godly man is what she wants and that is what she intends to get, no matter what her aunt has in mind.

Phillip is a popular man who is constantly turning away any woman that he thinks has set her cap for him.  When he finds Ariana stuck up in a tree, it starts off a relationship that grows with time.  Phillip tries to deny his feelings as long as he can, but it's a lost cause.

When we finally get to the "engagement," Ariana declares that she will not have Phillip unless he has given himself to God.  It becomes a sore spot for the both of them and Ariana isn't sure what to do.  Add in the pious Mr. O'Brien who is sure that he can convince Ariana that she will be unequally yoked with Phillip so that he can try for her himself.

I am on the fence about how I feel about this one.  I liked that I got my happy ending (a must for me!) but there were little annoying things that bothered me as well.  I'm not sure why, but for some reason the aunt saying "my gel" all the time got on my nerves.  And Ariana got a little tiresome as well.  She was so willing to think the best of Phillip until a slight acquaintance accuses him of heinous acts.  Suddenly she is willing to break off the engagement without any explanations by Phillip.  And this is after he has been VERY obliging and compliant to all of Ariana's wishes.  It just bothered me.  I'm going to refrain from giving this one my high Good Book rating, but it really wasn't that bad overall.

Prairie Fire (A Town Called Hope #2) - Catherine Palmer

I went ahead and bought this one after finishing Prairie Rose.  It was only $3.99.  My limit (except in extreme circumstances) is $5.00.

Jack is basically the villian from the first book.  He is injured at the end of the first book and we find him seeking refuge in one of the nearby barns.  Here he meets Caitrin, who cannot ignore his pain and still call herself a Christian.  She helps him to heal and makes him realize he's missing something important in his life.  She tells him of the Father's love for him and also how, through Him, she can love him as well.

As their feelings grow, so does the disgust of the town.  Although they are no longer in England/Ireland, the old hurts from the old country force Caitrin to choose between her family and her heart.  Jack's father dies and he ends up bringing back to Hope his mother and sister.  His mother acts superior and his sister is a mentally troubled person.  The people of the town are just watching for a slip up to send Jack's family out of town.

I really enjoyed the plot of redeeming the villian from the first novel.  I can't remember reading a sequel like that and it really was not too far from being realistic.  As with the first book, it was a good read and I was glad to have picked it up.  I'm holding off buying the last of the series, Prairie Storm, as I made a few selfish purchases this weekend with the Black Friday deals (online of course).  The final installment seems to be about new people that were not in the first two books, a preacher and travelling healer.  I plan on getting it eventually though.  Good Book!

Prairie Rose (A Town Called Hope #1) - Catherine Palmer

This is my 4th book of Catherine Palmer's that I have read now (The Affectionate Adversary, The Courteous Cad and A Kiss of Adventure).  She is becoming one of my new favorite authors.  I hadn't read a Christian Historical Western Romance for a while and was glad to get back to my preferred genre.

Rosie is a foundling living in an orphanage.  When she witnesses an encounter between Seth Hunter and a man trying to take Seth's child, Rosie intervenes and earns her place on his farm helping out, but just until the fall.

Since the war between the states, Seth has been confronted with the loss of his wife and the knowledge that he has a son.  His wife's family never approved and has poisoned the boy's mind against that "Yankee."  Seth had a rocky childhood and isn't sure how to act around Chipper to make him feel more comfortable.  In comes Rosie, with her outspoken opinions, unceasing talking and seemingly endless joy.

Seth tries to push her away, but Rosie is not easily pushed back.  She has something he and his son need desperately and he learns that giving a little isn't the worst thing in the world.  Rosie has to learn to deal with her birth in a cruel way and learn that love is not about being comfortable.

This is set in the Kansas prairie and I got to learn a little about the grasses and animals that can live out there.  It wasn't a textbook and was integrated well.  There is also a scene in there about the grasshopper infestations and I was struck by how quickly lives could change out there.

Overall, I enjoyed this book.  It is part of a trilogy, Prairie Fire and Prairie Storm being the other 2.  I went ahead and bought Prairie Fire for $3.99, which focuses on the "kidnapper" and a friend of Rosie's.  There was also a loose tie in called Prairie Christmas which is 3 novellas but only 1 is written by Catherine Palmer.  As far as I can tell, it is also not available for the Kindle.  I'm in the process of reading Prairie Fire and am enjoying that one so far!  Prairie Rose - Good Book!

A Home for Christmas - Deborah Grace Staley

I have seen this author pop up once or twice on the freebies and was interested to see how I would like her.  I have to admit that I dug into a Christmas book before Thanksgiving, which I normally try not to do, but it's done now!

Janice is a big city doctor that has come to her grandparent's hometown to connect with her great uncle.  When she drives by her grandparent's old home, she meets Blake who promptly falls off his ladder and gets some free medical attention.  Upon visiting her uncle, she gets an offer to take over his small town practice.  As she helps out around the town, Blake has some issues with her having to leave at odd times and, for what he feels, are not necessary departures.  Janice is on to his disapproval and tries to warn him off.

Blake has a nasty temper he has to deal with.  After Janice leaves one night, he gets angry and punches a hole in some sheetrock, causing his knuckles to bleed.  After a misunderstanding, he follows his brother to his house and proceeds to beat the snot out of him, breaking his jaw and a few ribs.  He thought that his brother was trying to steal Janice away.

There were no sex scenes in this book, but I was expecting one.  They had "chemistry" from the beginning and kept sticking their tongues down each other's throats.  I almost quit reading the book because of the ever so frequent mentioning of the tongues.  They kissed - okay.  I don't need details on what their tongues are doing...

I made it to the end of this one but I have to say that I was disturbed at the end.  I normally don't like to add too many details about a book, but with this one, the reason I disliked the book was mainly the end.  Janice is made aware of Blake's temper, she witnesses his brother's beating, but at the end of the book, she is more upset that he didn't trust her than she is that he has the capability to beat the crap out of his own brother.  Broken jaw/ribs?  Not mentioned.  "I can't believe you didn't trust me!"  Really!? 

I wouldn't want to share this book due to the fact that abuse is a very touchy subject.  I thought about my daughters and how I would feel if I knew they were dating someone that was capable of this type of violence and was ultimately disappointed with the book.  I understand that it is fiction but abuse is real and something I don't want to contemplate when I read.  Wish I had passed.

When the Devil Whistles - Rick Acker

This book has been on my Kindle for some time and I decided to give it a shot.  My TBR fiction section was larger than my Romance so I wanted to try and get a fiction book out of the way.  I got to about 25% and realized I was totally uninterested. 

Allie takes temp jobs at companies and then hacks into their computers to find evidence of fraud to the government.  She then passes her findings on to Connor, a lawyer who then goes after the companies.  I got through the part where they finish a case and then Allie is looking for another company to infiltrate.  She uses her friend to place her in these jobs and is deceiving her.  Her boyfriend is also a cheeseball.

The new job puts her in more danger but I'm not sure why.  I didn't make it that far.  Something about underwater exploration.  The company is on to her as a whistleblower and basically sics her on their rival under threat of exposure.

Just not my kind of book.  Allie and Connor like each other but pretend that they don't because it would ruin their business relationship.  I also didn't like that she was lying to her "best" friend.  I'm sure that this was a well written book, there was nothing in it that was boring, the subject matter was just not up my alley.

Beguiled - Deeanne Gist & J. Mark Bertrand

I really like Deeanne Gist, which is what prompted me to spend the $2.99 this month and give this one a shot.  Most all of her novels that I have read have been historical, which is what I really enjoy reading.  This, however, was more of a contemporary novel.

This one was a little reminiscent of Love Finds You in Victory Heights, Washington due to the fact that the hero in this one was a reporter again.  Rylee is a dog walker in a posh part of Charleston.  She walks in on the "Robin Hood" burglar, a man who takes specific items from the rich and donates them to places around town.  Logan is a reporter working on a book about various criminals in the history of the city.  They come together when Rylee, well mostly the dog, corners Logan on a monument when she's walking a dog at night.

Rylee becomes involved whether she likes it or not.  The police start to suspect that she is either behind the robberies or working with the thief himself.  It becomes increasingly more difficult to profess her innocence when it seems like all her clients are the targets of the robberies.  She has the schedules of the occupants of the houses and even has keys!

Logan doesn't believe in her guilt, even though most of the people around him are trying to caution him otherwise.  I like that he sticks to his gut on this one, defending her to the end.  As the story moves along, we find out that Rylee is more involved than she thought, though not in the way you would think.  We also find out that not everyone is what they seem.

Once I got used to the idea that this was a modern novel, I was okay with it.  Deeanne delivered again and I was not at all disappointed that I had spent a few bucks on it.  Good book!

Love Finds You in Victory Heights, Washington - Tricia Goyer & Ocieanna Fleiss

After reading some of Love Finds You in Homestead, Iowa, I was a little wary to devote time to another one.  I read the blurb on it and it has a totally different story and totally different authors.  Also, being a resident of Washington made me want to read it.  I seem to appreciate stories more when I can relate to things like location.

The setting is World War 2 near Seattle.  This is the story of Rosalie who is a riveter in the Boeing plant helping make B-17s for the war.  A chance meeting on the anniversary of her fiance's death brings her Kenny, a reporter.  After beating the national record for most rivets in a shift, Kenny wants to make her a spotlight of patriotism.  Her father was a reporter, and she is very bitter about reporters, so she tries pushing him away.  Kenny has his own guilt by honoring his promise to his father that he would stay home from the war and write instead.

I was actually pleasantly surprised by this book.  I learned a lot about the area during the war and some things about the war itself that I didn't know.  I appreciate the facts that were in the story but didn't read like a history lesson.  Rosalie and Kenny are great characters and I'm glad that I picked this one up.  Good book!

Belonging (Where the Heart Lives #1) - Robin Lee Hatcher

This book was listed in the back as part of the "Where the Heart Lives" series.  However, upon further research it appears that the other books listed as part of that series have nothing to do with Belonging and some of the titles are even part of another series.

That being said, this was a nice little book about Felicia who ends up in Frenchman's Bluff, Idaho as a schoolteacher.  When her mother died, Felicia and her brother and sister boarded an orphan train from Chicago headed west.  The children were split up and Felicia misses her siblings and ends up with a family that doesn't abuse her but doesn't show her love either.

When her "parents" die, Felicia takes up position as a teacher.  Her landlord, Colin, who is a widower, was against her taking the position since she is a single female and they had lost 2 teachers to husbands in the past.  Colin's daughter, Charity, quickly becomes attached to the teacher and Colin starts to admit that he is starting to have feelings for her.

Unfortunately, the hoity toity matron of the town has Colin picked out for her daughter in law, who is also a widower with 2 children.  She starts to do everything she can to make sure that Colin and Felicia are not together regardless of the feelings of her daughter in law.

I did like this book.  I was a little disappointed at the end when Felicia had a letter regarding a lead to her sister and was never told what happened with that.  And then in the epilogue, she has a letter regarding her brother who apparently ended up back with their drunken absent father.  The reason I looked into the "series" was to see if I recognized any of the names as connected to this book, but I couldn't see any.  The letters from her former home reminding her that she should return and marry one of the family out of obligation was also a little weird.  One letter would have been ok, but two just made it weird.  Wasn't a deal-breaker.  Overall I'll give it my "Good Book!" ending.

Candle in the Darkness (Refiner's Fire #1) - Lynn Austin

This one was a freebie quite a while ago.  I've tried to read it twice and I just can't get into it.  I have come to the point where I can admit defeat.  I've read 1 or 2 other books by this author so I wanted to like this one.

The story is about a privileged young lady who comes to see the injustices of slavery around the time of the Civil War.  I didn't get very far into it.  When I quit, she was getting ready to go to school.  I don't think her books move fast enough for me.

Of the books that I have read by Lynn Austin, it seems to be a sort of gamble.  I haven't really loved any of her books, but I have thought them interesting enough.  I think I'll avoid her in the future.  She's just not my style.

The Courteous Cad (Miss Pickworth #3) - Catherine Palmer

I had picked up the first book in this series, The Affectionate Adversary, quite a while back for free and put the other 2 on my watch list, this one and The Bachelor's Bargain.  The price dropped on this one to $3.99 and I picked it up.  Usually I wait for the books I'm watching to go below $5.00 before I'll consider purchasing it.

This book reminded me a little of one of my favorite movies, North & South.  Not the Civil War version with Patrick Swayze, but the BBC one based on the Elizabeth Gaskell novel about the cotton mills in northern England.  Great movie by the way. 

Prudence is pick pocketed by a poor boy who works in a nearby worsted mill making wool.  After seeing the miseries that the poor go through and discovering that her former fiance is working there, Prudence decides that God is sending her to better the lives of these people.

William is a former naval officer whose past haunts him.  Convinced that he must never involve his heart or let anyone else's heart be involved with him, he lives with his brother in a secluded country manor and plans on paying his debts by way of his mill.  Prudence is more than he bargained for and ends up being the undoing of all his plans.

I thought this was a nice story of redemption and love.  I got a smidge annoyed at Prudence for keeping her secret for so long, but then again, I am not a big fan of the whole secrets thing.  William has his own secrets, but he tries to bring them to light and is open about his being a cad even though he is ever reforming himself.  We even discover the identity of the mysterious Miss Pickworth, even though I wondered about the naming of this series as the Miss Pickworth areas of the book are small and not entirely important to the plot.  Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading this book and hope that the second one drops in price sometime soon.  Good book!