Diamond Duo (Texas Fortunes #1) - Marcia Gruver

I actually have this as a trilogy on my Kindle, and it's been there for a long time.  I don't know why I can't find it in the Kindle store anymore, but it doesn't seem to be there.  The closest thing I saw was the stories listed individually with some of the creepiest covers I've ever seen, but nothing resembling what's currently on my Kindle. 

In this book, we're kind of keeping track of two women.  Sarah is struggling through her marriage to Henry, sometimes loving him and other times fed up.  The other woman is Bertha, a young woman who befriends a scandalous woman who's just shown up in town, Annie.  Bertha wants to figure out how to get the man she's sweet on, Thad, to notice her.  Unfortunately, Thad is getting ready to leave for college and is trying to find the right moment to tell her.

Bertha is sometimes selfish and other times sweet.  I don't know how I feel about the relationship between her and Thad.  It was strange, and I honestly would have been fine whether or not they ended up together.

Some of the characters in this story don't make sense.  They have these complete 180 degree changes to their personalities that aren't really explained in a believable way.  First is Darius, the crook.  He magically transforms for no reason.  The other one was Bertha's mother.  She also changes overnight, and the only reasoning given is that her husband "threw the Bible at her."  Meaning he pointed out the verses where wives were to submit, and husbands were to love their wives.  I don't doubt the power of the Scriptures, but people don't completely change that quick.

The other thing that bothered me was Annie.  The "resolution" of her story didn't involve any sense of justice or anything resembling the pursuit of justice.  "We all know what happened to her" doesn't give me a sense of closure.

This first story wasn't for me, and I'm not sure I'll read the other two.  The writing was fine, I just didn't feel any connection with the characters.  Anyway, I just wasn't fond of this one.

More Than Words Can Say (Patchwork Family #2) - Karen Witemeyer

The first book in the series was called More Than Meets the Eye.

Abigail is furious the town has decided she can’t own her own bakery.  She has to sell it or find a man to be on the deed.  Abby has no intention of giving control of her business to any man, so she comes up with her own plan: find a husband and enter into a business arrangement.

The town doesn’t have many choices, and her preferred choice initially turns her down.  Zach thinks the thing he wants most is freedom, but he won’t let Abby settle for someone who won’t be the protector her family needs.  They decide to lay everything out business-like, and that means he wants to make sure relations are addressed.  Abby isn’t completely on board with the idea, but she’s going to have to consider it if she wants the arrangement to work.

I loved Zach’s character in the last book, and he doesn’t disappoint.  There’s a bit of suspense around a woman harassing Abby about something that happened in the past, but the main “conflict” of the book is them trying to figure out if/when they’ll have relations.  It didn’t bother me much, but I did long for something more dangerous.

Even with that, I enjoyed this book.  I read it in two days because I wanted to see Zach happy.  There’s also a scene with Eva and Seth, so you get a glimpse of how they’re doing.  But you can read these separately without worrying about missing much.

Eva and Seth were taken care of in the first book and now Zach is happy.  So, unless there’s a third book that will be about Rosalind (Abby’s sister), I’m not sure this will be a three-book series.  Which ends up being a bit weird, because that’s what I’m used to these days.  Anyway, I’ve enjoyed these two.  Good Book!

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