The Orphan's Wish - Melanie Dickerson

If you’re keeping track, this book has ties to the Hagenheim series of books.  I’ve been trying to keep track of all the tie-ins, and you can see my full post about it HERE.  The quick version is: Wilhelm and Rose (The Healer's Apprentice) are the parents of Valten (The Captive Bride), Gabe (The Fairest Beauty), Margaretha (The Princess Spy) and Kirstyn (The Orphan's Wish). Gerek (The Golden Braid) is a knight of Duke Wilhelm.

In this book, we’re following the story of Aladdin.  Taken from the streets, he’s given a chance to prove himself in Hagenheim.  He quickly makes friends with the Duke’s daughter, Kirstyn.  After he rescues her from a bear, they become closer.  This friendship grows as they get older.  Aladdin comes to realize that he’ll never be good enough to marry the duke’s daughter by working as a steward and decides to leave Hagenheim to find his riches in another city.

While he’s gone, Kirstyn is abducted and held for ransom.  When the kidnappers have a falling out, she’s held captive for a much longer period of time than she’d hoped.  Thoughts of how her family and Aladdin will never stop looking for her keep her going, and she tries more than once to get away.  Once she’s free, things aren’t quite the way she’s imagined, and she has a lot to sort out.

I liked this one.  I was a little bummed at the very beginning when the author was using Ala ad’din for the main character’s name.  I was just saying Aladdin in my head, but it was quickly changed.  I was happy when his name was Aladdin for the rest of the book.

Something I do want to mention: the characters spend a lot of time apart in this book.  Usually that’s a negative for me, but I think it was well done in this case.  The characters weren’t just thinking about each other, they were reliving memories of times they had together.  It made the distance seem not as far and helped me focus on how they felt about each other.

And here’s why I gave it four stars instead of five.  The sappiness at the end.  Don’t get me wrong, I love a good romance.  But the emotions flowed a bit too long for me at the end, and I ended up skimming a lot of it.  It’s still a good book.  If you’ve read any of this author’s retold fairy tales, I don’t think you’ll want to miss this one.  And if you’re considering this one and it’s your first one, go ahead and do it.  You won’t be lost since each of these tales can be read alone without feeling lost.  Good Book!

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley.  Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The Captain's Daughter (London Beginnings #1) - Jennifer Delamere

This is the first book in the series.  The second one is called The Heart's Appeal.  The series follows the lives of three sisters who are orphans.  Their mother died, and their father disappeared at sea.  Thus, The Captain's Daughter.  I suspect there will also be a third one to tell the story of the third sister, Cara.

Rosalyn is on the run.  Put in an impossible position by her employer, she rushes off and ends up in London.  She initially plans on heading to her sister's home, but a bad decision takes her position from bad to worse.  Eventually, she ends up on the doorstep of a theater and gets herself a job.

Nate is an army man, and he's only filling in at the theater until his brother's broken leg heals.  He's determined to put all thoughts of women far from his mind and focus on getting back to the army.  He feels guilty and plans to make up for his faults by going back to India.  His fascination with Rosalyn seems doomed to fail.  She's enamored with the bright lights of the stage, and he won't stray from his plan to head back to India.

This is the first book I've read by this author, and I was impressed with her characters and story.  I thought Rosalyn a little too innocent at times, considering what she went through when she first arrived in London, but overall, it was a light read that I enjoyed.  I look forward to reading about Julia, Rosalyn's sister, in the next book.  She appears in this one, but I think overall it's going to be safe to read them alone/out of order without too much trouble.  Good Book!

A Place in His Heart (Southold Chronicles #1) - Rebecca DeMarino

This is the first book in the series.  The other two are To Capture Her Heart and To Follow Her Heart.

Mary's getting pressure to agree to a marriage with someone she's known since childhood.  She resists and sees a way out when she becomes reacquainted with the baker, Barnabas.  He's lost his wife and has two small children to raise.  He needs a mother for them but feels like he'll never stop loving his dead wife.  Mary knows this but agrees to the marriage anyway.  She's fallen in love and hopes he'll love her eventually.

Barnabas plans to take his family to the colonies, a detail he fails to mention to his soon-to-be wife.  He is also critical of the way she does things and harasses her about getting pregnant.  He wants to start a legacy in the colonies, complete with an ornate headstone that he plans to ship over from England.

The book is full of descriptions about early life in the colonies.  At times, these can get long, but if you're interested in that subject, you'll probably enjoy it.  For me, it became a bit tedious.

"Poor Mary."  That was my thought while reading this.  She spends the entire book trying to please Barnabas while he spends the entire book taking her for granted, comparing her to his dead wife and asking her if she's pregnant.  Sure, he takes care of her basic needs, but it's clear that Mary longs for his love.  Even though she knew what she was getting into, it was still heartbreaking to see what she had to put up with just to get what she wanted at the very end.  I disliked 'Barney' a LOT, so the end wasn't satisfying for me.

From the descriptions, I didn't recognize any of the characters from the second book, but the third one has Patience Terry and Barney's brother, Jeremy.  While Jeremy was hands-down my favorite character, I'm not enthusiastic about continuing the series.

Mind Over Magic (Psych #2)- William Rabkin

It's been a while since I read the first book in this series, A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Read.  I enjoyed that one.  I felt it captured the characters and it was like "reading" an episode of Psych.  It's one of our favorite shows.

Shawn is sent to deliver a present at the Fortress of Magic.  Instead, he witnesses a murder during a controversial magician's act.  The man is supposed to disappear from a tank of water and reappear somewhere else.  Instead, the magician disappears, and a dead man appears in the tank.

Since they're dealing with magicians who don't like to give up their secrets, the case is harder than normal.  The government's even involved. 

I didn't really like this one, and I ended up slogging through it.  The characters didn't seem to be acting as they normally do, and the story didn't interest me.  It took me a long time to finish this one.

It wasn't just me - my daughter read this as well.  She loves Psych as much as I do, and she didn't like it either.  Something about the way the characters were portrayed seemed "off."  Some TV shows can pull off these novels, and Rabkin has showed that he can do it.  This time, it just didn't meet my expectations, and I ended up being disappointed.

A Daring Venture (Empire State #2) - Elizabeth Camden

This is the second book in the series.  The first one was called A Dangerous Legacy.

Rosalind had a rough past.  After dealing with her parents’ death from cholera, moving to Germany and then having to leave in disgrace, she wants nothing more than to conduct her research in peace.  She believes putting a small amount of chlorine in the city’s water supply could help prevent people from dying of waterborne diseases, but not everyone agrees.  A lawsuit puts her in a place where she has to choose between her life’s work and her newfound attraction for a witness on the other side: Nicholas Drake.

When Nick meets Rosalind, he wishes they were on the same side.  She’s pretty as a moonbeam, but he believes she wants to poison everyone with chlorine.  She offers him research to back up what she says, but he’s skeptical and just wants the court case over with so he can court her in earnest.  He’s also dealing with feelings of regret about a part of the family and wants to mend fences with someone who has hated him in the past.

I didn’t like the first book in this series, but Nick was my favorite character, so I was more than willing to read this one.  I ended up liking this one SO much better.  Both Nick and Rosalind were likable characters, and I could appreciate the struggles they faced.  I also liked the little historical note at the end.  Those always seem to appeal to me.

I’m wondering if the next book will be about Eloise, Nick and Lucy’s cousin, but I’ll have to wait and see.  As is it, I enjoyed this book and devoured it in just a few days.  Good Book!

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

More Than Meets the Eye (Patchwork Family #1) - Karen Witemeyer

I grew up in the 80s, so this title makes the Transformers cartoon theme to get stuck in my head, but don’t worry, there’s no transforming robots in this book.  It’s the start of a new series by Karen Witemeyer!  She’s one of my favorite authors, so I was excited to read this book.

It starts out pretty sad, so have a hanky ready.  Four children on an orphan train.  One rebel, a sickly boy and two siblings.  Evangeline has two different color eyes, and that makes everyone reject her.  Her brother loves her, so he refuses to let them be split up.  A train crash is what separates the siblings, but the rebel and the other boy become her new family.

Years later, Evangeline feels like she can only be herself when she’s home.  People are still suspicious of her unusual eyes.  One day, she meets a man who sparks an attraction in her.  He’s something of a mystery, and she’s determined to find out more about him.

Logan has come for one purpose: to regain the land that was cheated from his father.  He initially uses Evangeline as a way to get information about her brother, the one who stole everything from him.  As time passes, he sees her as more than a mine of information.  He also finds out that her brother isn’t as fiendish as he’d imagined.  But he can’t turn back now, can he?

I liked this book a lot and read it in two days.  I love the way Witemeyer writes her characters.  I think my favorite was Evangeline with her quirky attitude and soft heart.  After that, it has to be her brother, Zach.  He’s her opposite with a gruff manner and the walls around his heart.  I look forward to hearing more about this family.  Good Book!

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