At Liberty to Love (Texas Romance #7) - Caryl McAdoo

This book is part of a series, and there's more after this one.

Rebecca is on her way to California to see some family and pick out more to bring back to Texas.  When she enters the stagecoach, she meets a man who knows her family and her deceased husband.  They hit it off, and Marcus is in her thoughts.

When they separate, Marcus can't stop thinking about Rebecca.  He hasn't felt this much emotion since his wife and daughter died.  The problem is that Rebecca is a believer, and Marcus is a heathen.  Marcus gives up everything to chase after her, but it's going to take more than just finding her for these two to have a happy ending.

I liked this one for the most part, but the part I liked the most was the beginning.  Once Marcus and Rebecca found each other in San Francisco, things progress, but then they separate for much of the second half of the book.  There's little snippets here and there, but mostly it's about Francy and setting up her story.  The problem with that is I got involved in Francy's story while the main characters, Marcus and Rebecca, are shoved so far to the side that you almost forget the story's supposed to be about them.

The other strange thing was the POV switches.  There are lots of them, sometimes in the middle of a conversation, not only breaking the flow but most of these switches didn't seem necessary.  I didn't like getting in the head of a character once or twice and that was it. This was the first book I've read from this author, and it was a decent story, but it didn't make me want to read more of the series.

House of Many Shadows (DTB) - Barbara Michaels

This book was my choice for the category "Read a book I loved, but haven't read for years." This particular choice has a bit of nostalgia wrapped around it.  I believe I was a teenager when my mom took me to the bookstore and gave me $100 to blow.  We went to the mall, and I remember taking a chance on this author.  I crouched on the floor of the bookstore, reading the backs of novels.  I'd never read anything by Michaels before, but my whole fun money went on her books.  Later, I found out her real name was Barbara Mertz.

In later years, I picked up all her books, both as Barbara Michaels, and as her other pseudonym, Elizabeth Peters.  There was only one of her books that I remember not liking, and it was called Other Worlds.  I still have my whole collection of paperbacks, but I watch for the price to drop on the Kindle versions.

Barbara Michaels wrote books that were on the spooky side.  When I was younger, I read a lot of that kind of thing, even though TV shows and movies would scare the living daylights out of me.  I read a lot of Lois Duncan back then as well.  When I started reading Michaels' books, she had a way of writing that drew me in.  I cared about the characters and what happened to them.  I wanted them to conquer the darkness that was threatening them, and sometimes it was supernatural in nature.  This is one of those books.

Meg is having hallucinations after an injury.  She hears strange noises and sees elephants in places they definitely shouldn't be.  She appeals to her relative, Sylvia, who offers to let her stay at a house she owns in Pennsylvania. 

Once she gets there, she learns that her childhood nemesis, Andy, is the caretaker of the place.  They get off to a rough start, but when Meg realizes that Andy can see the same things she does, they start to search for answers together.

This book shows its age.  It was originally published in 1974, and in some ways, you can tell. These days, it seems strange that Meg can't make a phone call without going into a certain room or that she has to travel to another town to unearth the history of the house.  In addition to that, I can see how some readers would consider this slow.  I remember trudging my way through Pride and Prejudice wondering how anyone could read it.  Now, my kids wonder the same thing when I give them one of the books I loved when I was their age.

For me, I was able to enjoy this book.  I liked how it was frightening, but not too scary.  I liked the little snippets of history that were sprinkled throughout the book as Meg and Andy did their research.  I liked reading about their adventure, and if I had to put the book down, I looked forward to getting back to it.

Would I have enjoyed it as much if this were my first read-through?  I'm not sure.  What I do know is that Michaels (Mertz) has a great writing style that I usually enjoy.  This book was no exception.  And even though I don't go the mall and hang out on the floor of the bookstore anymore, I carry around the memory of hunting for Barbara Michaels books in my heart.  Great Book!

(I purposely used the picture that's on my paperback for this review, because it's amazing and looks much better than the current Kindle cover.)

One Thursday Morning (Diamond Lake #1) - T.K. Chapin

I originally picked this book up when I thought I'd need a book set in my state for my 2017 challenge.  In the end, I didn't add that category, but I still wanted to read this book.  It's the first by this author that I've read, so I will get to put it in that category.

This is the first book in a series.  The series covers a whole week and they follow a distinct pattern.  They're all "One (insert day of the week)(insert time of day/noun)."

Serenah finds out she's pregnant and has a decision to make: does she stay with her abusive husband or find the courage to run?  The life of her child is too precious to her, so she flees to the other side of the country and tries to start a new life under an assumed name.  There's always the fear of discovery, and when a chance for love walks into her life, she isn't sure she's strong enough to pursue it.

This book was heavier than I normally read, so I can't say that it was an enjoyable read.  It's written in the first person, which is a point of view I can't usually get into.  But with those thing going against it, I have to say that I liked the book overall.  It wasn't because it was a happy, feel good story, but because the journey Serenah takes was written so well that I sympathized with her character.

This one's on the short side - Amazon has it listed as 285 pages, but it's only about 230 since there's a preview of the next book at the end.  I'm not sure I could have handled it being much longer.  There's some issues in this book that, while they're dealt with well, might turn some readers away.  There's physical and emotional abuse in there as well as stalking by Serenah's husband.  Add to that the pain of a miscarriage, and Serenah has a lot to deal with.

I'll give this a Good Book! review, but keep in mind that it's not a light read in the emotional department.  I wouldn't read books like this all the time, I read more for enjoyment, but reading through this character's journey and knowing there are many out there that deal with the same thing, I was glad I read it.

Love on Assignment (Ladies of Summerhill #2) - Cara Lynn James

I had been watching this book on eReaderIQ for a long time and was finally able to pick it up back in the fall. I read the first book in the series before I started this blog, so it's been a while. I was impressed that when I looked into the series to refresh my memory, I actually remembered the first book!  That's pretty impressive for me, especially lately, but it also spoke to the strength of the writing.  I was looking forward to reading more.

This is the second book in the series.  The first book is called Love on a Dime, and the third one is Love by the Book.

Charlotte is young and ambitious.  She works hard at a newspaper, but she wants to be a true journalist, not just a typist.  She's responsible for caring for her aunt and sister, so she isn't the only one who depends on her salary.  When her boss offers her a way to move up, she's wary of her task, but pushes her conscience aside and heads off to her new job: governess.

Daniel is in a big house, but he's trying to follow God's path in his life.  He feels led to use his newspaper article to point out the way some business owners are taking advantage of their employees.  He employs Charlotte to watch out for his children, since his mother's been sick. Little does he realize she's been planted in his home to unearth his darkest secrets.

The more Charlotte discovers, the less she likes her assignment.  Daniel is a good man, and Charlotte is trapped between wanting to find a way out and keeping her job so she can provide for her family.

I liked this book.  It was a little on the preachy side, but it was done in a way that made sense. Charlotte's faith grows throughout the book, so you're reading what she's learning, it's not just random sermonizing.  The characters from the first book, Jackson and Lilly, appear a few times, but you can read these out of order without feeling lost.  Good Book!

Beneath Copper Falls (Rock Harbor) - Colleen Coble

In this book, we’re back in Rock Harbor hanging out with Bree and a lot of the characters from the original series.  Even Emily from the young adult series shows up in this one.  Loved that detail!

Dana is trying to get away from her ex-boyfriend who will not leave her alone.  He’s really possessive and abusive, even to the point where he comes close to killing her.  She comes to Rock Harbor to live with her brother and try to start over.  Upon arriving, her brother is out of town, but she’s met by a grouchy man who seems to think all she’ll see arehis scars.

Boone has reason to be wary, his fiancé dumped him when he got injured, and he’s determined not to set himself up to deal with that again.  Boone’s sister was killed, and he’s helping his cousin, who seems to think his sister was the victim of a serial killer.  When things get even messier, Dana and Boone will have to work together to solve the case and come out alive.

I won’t say much about the plot itself, I don’t want to spoil any of the wonderful twists and turns in there.  All I will say is that I’ve been really impressed with these last few books of Coble’s, notably Because You’re Mine and the other Rock Harbor novel, Haven of Swans.  I’ve always been a fan, but I feel like these are the best ones I’ve read.  Good Book!

*I received a copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hidden Things (Faded Photographs #2) - Andrea Boeshaar

I'm back after a two and a half week road trip.  It was fun, but I didn't get a lot of reading done. In fact, I only finished one book - quite unusual for me!

I picked Hidden Things up, because I'd seen it up for free more than once, and I was intrigued by the cover and the description.  I'm a genealogy nut, and one of the things I truly enjoy is going through old photographs.  I saw potential with this new author and started reading.

This is an older series, but there are three books.  The first is called Broken Things, then there's this one, and the series wraps up with Precious Things.  The weird thing is, you can't even read Precious Things at this time.  The other two titles were converted for Kindle in April 2016, but for some reason, the last one got left out.  I found that odd and annoying at the same time.

Kylie has had it rough lately.  Her mother has passed away, and her fiance has cheated on her with her best friend.  Add a mysterious photograph to the mix, and Kylie begins to question everything about her life.  She finds out she's adopted and goes on a personal quest to discover the truth.

I guess the main character is Kylie, but we're reading a lot of different POVs in this book. There's a friend of Kylie's deceased mother, a woman who has come though a horrific accident and is struggling, Kylie's grandmother, and TJ, the man who is friends with Kylie's grandparents.  There might be one or two more, I can't remember.

One thing that really bothered me: these books are connected.  I was reading along, the hint of an actual discovery about Kylie's past was on the horizon, and then I looked to see where I was in the book.  There were only a few pages left!  Where's the resolution to Kylie's quest to find out who she is?  From the description, it sounds like the answers are in book 3...

If I had known this was one of those cliffhanger, nothing gets resolved series, I wouldn't have picked this one up to begin with.  Especially since I can't even really finish the series (I guess technically I could order a DTB, but I'm not going to).  Add to that the amount of sermonizing, and I was over it.  I don't mind Christian books having a lot of spiritual references in them, but this one was a bit over the top in my opinion.  The writing itself wasn't bad, but I didn't like the way the book ended without a satisfying resolution.  It's a pass for me.

A Matter of Trust (Montana Rescue #3) - Susan May Warren

This is the third book in the series.  There’s a prequel, If Ever I Would Leave You, followed by the first two books, Wild Montana Skies and Rescue Me.

The main characters in this one are Gage and Ella.  Gage used to be a professional on the slopes until a tragic accident.  Ella was responsible for destroying his life.  Now she’s back and ends up asking Gage to find her brother, who decided to attempt a dangerous descent of his own.

We’re also following Ty and Brette, Ella’s friend.  Brette is a journalist who claims to be looking for a story about a hero, but she looks for the dirt on everyone she meets.  Ty draws her attention, but there seems to be something about him that he’s hiding, and she wants to find out what it is.  To a lesser degree, we’re also reading about Jess and Pete.

I had issues with this one.  First, all the descriptions of skiing and snowboarding weren’t my cup of tea, so after reading numerous scenes about it, I ended up skimming a lot.  Also, we’re still not getting any resolution to the Ian/Sierra story line.  It was barely mentioned, but it still bothered me since it’s the reason I keep reading these books.  It sounds like there’s more to come, seeing as the end of this one is a cliffhanger involving Jess.

Personally, I’m done with the series.  The prequel got me invested in Ian and Sierra, and yet there’s never any resolution or progression to their story.  I feel like I’m getting strung along.  Also, the way this one ended, I have a feeling the next one might be about Ty/Brette and Jess/Pete.  And since I REALLY didn’t like Brette’s character, I’m out.  The series started out well, but I’m done.

*I received a copy of this book from Revell through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.