Category: Book Review

15 August 2022

Book Review | The Last Way Home by Liz Johnson

Not long ago, Eli Ross was a famous ice hockey player living the high life. Now he’s back in his hometown on Prince Edward Island, hoping his mother will give him a free place to stay after he walked out a decade ago. He also has to deal with his brothers who are not as forgiving as his mother.

Violet Donaghy ran away from home as a teenager and found her second home with the Ross family, working with Eli’s mother at Mama Potts’s Red Clay Shoppe. Mama Potts took her in when she had nothing, so now she’s fiercely protective of her new family and doesn’t want Eli’s return to mess that up.

I have to admit that I struggled through the first quarter of this novel.

The problem wasn’t the heroine hiding a secret (secrets usually entice me to keep reading ) or the bad-boy ice hockey player (even if I think Carolyn Miller did the bad boy plot better in her Original Six series). It was that they both seemed to have done stupid things and kept doing less-than-sensible things.

I also didn’t see where the romance was going to come from. It was obvious the couple was Violet and Eli, but I didn’t like Eli, and nor did Violet.

But the novel started to really grab me at around the one-quarter mark.

I got hooked when Eli agrees to coach the local high school ice hockey team because he needs the money (and boy, I was surprised at how much the parents were prepared to pay!). The coaching doesn’t go well at first, but as Eli settles into his new role, I found myself liking him more and more.

It wasn’t long before I realised that at least one of my earlier assumptions wasn’t accurate (but I’m not going to say which one because #spoilers). Let’s say that while there were still some stupid actions, there was an honourable motive.

There were also some great lines, and I’m always a sucker for great writing.

Best of all, there was a a strong message of family, faith, and forgiveness. Yes, it took me a while to get into The Last Way Home, but it was worth it.

The Last Way Home is the second book in Liz Johnson’s Prince Edward Island Shores series. I haven’t read the first, but that didn’t affect my enjoyment or my understanding.

Recommended for fans of contemporary Christian romance, especially those with a soft spot for bad boys, ice hockey players, and Prince Edward Island.

Thanks to Baker Publishing and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Liz Johnson

By day Liz Johnson works in marketing. She finds time to write late at night and is a Christy Award finalist and a two-time ACFW Carol Award finalist. Liz makes her home in Phoenix, Arizona where she enjoys theater, exploring local history, and doting on her nieces and nephews. She loves stories of true love with happy endings.

Find Liz Johnson online at:

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About The Last Way Home

When Eli Ross left Prince Edward Island to join the NHL, he left a broken family behind. More than a decade later, he’s broke and headed home to an uncertain welcome. He wants to make things right with the family he wronged, but his mom’s business partner isn’t making it easy. To top it off, the coaching job he’s accepted turns out to be far more difficult than he anticipated.

For years, Violet Donaghy has put everything she had into making Eli’s mom’s ceramics shop a success, and she’s not eager to forgive the man who hurt the family that’s taken her in as one of their own. But when the kiln at the shop starts a fire that nearly destroys the studio, she’ll need all the help she can get to save the business and their summer income.

Can these two strong-willed people come together to mend the broken pieces of the Ross family? Or will the ghosts of the past continue to haunt them?

Find The Last Way Home online at:

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Read the introduction to The Last Way Home below:

11 August 2022

Book Review | When Stone Wings Fly by Karen Barnett

When Stone Wings Fly is a dual-timeline novel set in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in the present, and in the 1930s when the park is still being established. One of the first Christian novels I read was Christy by Catherine Marshall, which was set in the Great Smokies before it became a National Park (and I also enjoyed watching the TV series in the 1990s).

So I was keen to read another Christian romance in the same setting.

The historic story is about Rosie McCauley who doesn’t want to sell her family land, the land where she and her sister were born, and where her parents and grandparents are buried. She meets Benton Fuller, who is studying birdlife in the mountains. They form a friendship.

In the present, Kieran Lucas is trying to make ends meet while working two jobs and taking care of her grandmother in her spare time. After growing up in care, she wants to learn more about her family while there is still time. After Granny Mac tells Kieran about her early years in the Smokies, Kieran tries to find her grandmother’s childhood home with the aid of National Park Service guide Zach Jensen.

I’ve read a few of Karen Barnett’s earlier historical novels, although I haven’t read any of her previous books about America’s National Parks. I enjoyed the historic aspect of When Stone Wings Fly, particularly setting up the National Park. I was interested in how the park was set up—by buying the land from the legal residents, using money donated from everyone from schoolchildren to the Rockefeller family.

I liked the romances—both of them—and I thought the novel dealt with the problems of age and dementia in a sensitive and appropriate manner.

There were a couple of plot points that I didn’t think were necessary. Sure, they needed to happen to set up the novel’s climax, but I didn’t think events had to happen the way they happened. I don’t want to say so much because that would be a #spoiler but it’s like baking. It’s not great if you take the cake out of the over before it’s cooked, but you can always put it back in the oven to finish cooking. Don’t leave it sitting on the the table then complain it’s not cooked.

But that’s a small issue overall. I liked all the characters – they were intelligent, hardworking, and willing to fight for what they wanted. The writing was excellent, and I was left feeling as though I knew the characters and had visited the Smokies, and seen the good and the bad.

Thanks to Kregel Publications and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Karen Barnett

Fueled by a passion for research and learning, and a secret desire to travel in time, author Karen Barnett creates historical romances that draw readers deep into a story. She’s fascinated that even though human history is constantly changing, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). The point where those two facts collide forms the basis for her writing–finding those moments when an ordinary person brushes up against the eternal.

A graduate of Valparaiso University and Oregon State University, Barnett’s debut novel, Mistaken, was released in 2013 and earned her the Oregon Christian Writers “Writer of Promise” award and a Cascade Award for best historical fiction. She also won the coveted “Writer of the Year” title from the prestigious Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference in 2016. The Road to Paradise was a finalist for the American Christian Fiction Writer’s Carol Awards in 2018.

Karen spent several years working in outdoor education as a park ranger and naturalist for Mount Rainier National Park and Oregon’s Silver Falls State Park before becoming a stay-at-home mom and professional writer. She spends her free time hiking, taking photographs, and decorating crazy birthday cakes.

Karen and her husband live in western Oregon and are trying to adjust to the empty nest life now that both kids are in college. Well, their home isn’t entirely empty––they still have three mischievous dachshunds underfoot.

Find Karen Barnett online:

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About When Stone Wings Fly

Kieran Lucas’s grandmother is slipping into dementia, and when her memory is gone, Kieran’s last tie to the family she barely knows will be lost forever. Worse, flashbacks of her mother’s death torment Granny Mac and there’s precious little Kieran can do to help.

In 1931, the creation of the new Great Smoky Mountains National Park threatens Rosie McCauley’s home. Rosie vows the only way the commission will get her land is if they haul her off in a pine box. When a compromise offers her and her disabled sister the opportunity to stay for Rosie’s lifetime, her acceptance sets her apart from the other mountain folk. And the bond she’s forming with ornithologist and outsider Benton Fuller only broadens the rift.

Eighty-five years later, Kieran heads back to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to find answers to her great-grandmother’s mysterious death and bring peace to Granny Mac before it’s too late. Park Historian Zach Jensen may be the key to locating both the answers. But what Kieran needs clashes with the government regulations Zach is sworn to uphold. Can she trust God for a solution to heal this generations-old wound?

Find When Stone Wings Fly online at:

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Read the introduction to When Stone Wings Fly below:

1 August 2022

Book Review | The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs Kip by Sara Brunsvold

Aidyn Kelley is an ambitious junior journalist in Kansas, but when her ambition gets her in trouble, she finds herself relegated to writing obituaries. Her editor sends her to a local hospice to interview the somewhat eccentric Mrs Kip.

Clara Kip is seventy-nine years old, and an unexpected cancer diagnosis has left her not in hospital but in a hospice. Still, she is determined to die as she has lived – with Jesus.

Clara is immediately likeable as a character. She’s bubbly, bright, and determined to see the best in everything and everyone. Aidyn? Not so much. She’s self-absorbed and thinks she’s above the rules. That’s probably not too different to many other bright young graduates in their mid-twenties, but it didn’t help me like her.

Not liking Aidyn meant I found the first quarter of the book a bit of a struggle. I actually set the book aside for a couple of weeks. What got me reading it again were a few of the comments I saw online, readers praising the book as brilliant and heartrending.

So I picked the book up again, determined to give it another chance. But it wasn’t until Aidyn and Clara met for the second time that I found myself really being drawn into the story. And once I was drawn in, it was impossible to put it down.

I don’t want to say too much about the plot in case I give spoilers. But I can explain why I changed my mind.

The story flips between the present (well, the book is set in 2016) and Clara’s past. At first, the past stories seemed like random anecdotes, with no particular purpose. But as I kept reading, it became apparent that the past stories were tied up with the present, in that they were the stories Mrs Kip was telling Aidyn, the stories that show how ordinary can become extraordinary when walking with God.

The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs Kip is Christian fiction of the best kind.

Mrs Kip has been a Christian for decades, and she’s the kind of Christian we should all aspire to being: one who loves God and loves those people He puts in her path and loves them well.

The whole story took place over less than ten days in book time, but the changes Mrs Kip inspires in Aidyn made it feel like a much longer timeframe. I guess that’s because of the lesson of Mrs Kip’s extraordinary death—and life—which is one we can hear and adopt ourselves.

I always let the Lord guide me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. (Psalm 16:8)

Recommended for fans of authors such as Cynthia Ruchti, Sharon Garlough Brown, Elizabeth Musser, and Christine Dillon.

About Sara Brunsvold

Sara Brunsvold creates stories that speak hope, truth, and life. Influenced by humble women of God who find His fingerprints in the everyday, she does the same in her life and her storytelling. Sara’s recognitions include the 2020 ACFW Genesis Award for Contemporary Fiction. She lives with her family in Kansas City, where she can often be spotted writing at a park or library.

Find Sara Brunsvold online at

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About The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs Kip

Aidyn Kelley is talented, ambitious, and ready for a more serious assignment than the fluff pieces she’s been getting as a cub reporter for the Kansas City Star. In her eagerness, she pushes too hard, earning herself the menial task of writing an obituary for an unremarkable woman who’s just entered hospice care.

But there’s more to Clara Kip than meets the eye. The spirited septuagenarian may be dying, but she’s not quite ready to cash it in yet. Never one to shy away from an assignment herself, she can see that God brought the young reporter into her life for a reason. And if it’s a story Aidyn Kelley wants, that’s just what Mrs. Kip will give her–but she’s going to have to work for it.

Debut author Sara Brunsvold delights with this emotional multigenerational story that shows that the very best life is made up of thousands of little deaths to self. You’ll want to be just like Mrs. Kip when you grow up!

You can find The Extraordinary Lives of Mrs Kip online at:

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25 July 2022

Book Review | Love and the Dream Come True by Tammy L Gray

Cameron Lee isn’t living the music star dream.

Sure, he has two albums and an award-winning single, but now he’s contractually obliged to provide the label with a third album, but he’s lost his desire to write or even sing. First, he has to go home and attend his baby sister’s wedding … and hopefully not face up to the mistakes of his past.

Lexie Walters is the twenty-nine-year-old guardian/mother to Morgan, who is thirteen-going-on-forty. Despite being orphaned and having to drop out of college to raise her niece before the age of twenty, Lexi is the eternal optimist who doesn’t let things list clocks and lists get int he way of enjoying life. (To be honest, that annoyed me at first but she did grow on me). She’s an interior designer who has just bought a house with her contractor cousin that they plan to renovate and flip. And she’s had a crush on her best friend’s older brother since she was thirteen.

He’s a singer … Cameron Lee.

So yes, we know where this story is going.

I will say I found the beginning a little confusing. I’ve been watching old episodes of House, and so it took me a few pages to work out that Cameron was the hero, not the heroine. However, it was immediately obvious that Morgan was female, not male 🙂

It also took me a couple of chapters to realise the book is written in first person from both points of view—Cameron’s and Lexie’s—so it was important for me to read the chapter titles so I knew which character I was reading. Yes, I usually ignore chapter titles (because I find too many give spoilers).

The story picked up in pace and interest once Cameron and Lexie meet at the wedding.

They then discover Cameron is staying in town, renting a house two doors down from the house Lexie is renovating. That gives lots of opportunities to bring the two together and allow their relationship to develop.

It’s obvious from early on that Lexie has a strong Christian faith.

Cameron is a believer, but has struggling with faith for several years, since he left home to chase his music dream. His journey back to faith isn’t explicit, but it’s also obvious that it’s tied up with his journey back to music, and that is clearly shown. So while the novel isn’t all rah-rah-Jesus, it is definitely a Christian story … but one that a non Christian might also be interested in reading.

Love and the Dream Come True is the third book in Tammy L Gray’s State of Grace series, following Love and a Little White Lie and Love and the Silver Lining. I’ve read the whole series but have to admit that I can’t remember anything about the previous books except that I really enjoyed them (which is why I requested a review copy of this one).

Love and the Dream Come True by Tammy L Gray is a fun contemporary Christian romance featuring a music star and an interior designer. #ChristianRomance Share on X

However, I never felt as though I’d missed anything in not remembering. To me, that’s the market of a well-written novel, when I don’t feel like I’m missing anything from not having read (or remembered) the earlier books in the series. I have since re-read my reviews and can now remember how much I did enjoy the stories. What is most interesting is how much time has passed in novel-world since the first story was released—five or six years. I’m glad I didn’t have to wait that long.

Recommended for contemporary romance fans, especially those who enjoy rock star romance or similar.

Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About the Author

Tammy L. Gray lives in the Dallas area with her family, and they love all things Texas, even the erratic weather patterns. She writes modern Christian romance with true-to-life characters and culturally-relevant plot lines. She believes hope and healing can be found through high quality fiction that inspires and provokes change.

Tammy is often lauded for her unique writing style within the inspirational genre, preferring to use analogies verses heavy-handed spiritual content. Her characters are real, relatable and deep, earning her a 2017 RITA award nomination in the Romance with Religious and Spiritual Elements category.

When not chasing after her three amazing kids, Tammy can be spotted with her head in a book. Writing has given her a platform to combine her passion with her ministry.

Tammy L. Gray has lots of projects going on.

You can find Tammy Gray online at:

About Love and the Dream Come True

Their faith will face its toughest test yet.

Four years after getting the biggest break of his life, Cameron Lee’s music career has taken a nosedive, leaving him two options: become a sellout or give up on his lifelong dream. He reluctantly returns home for his sister’s wedding, hoping to avoid his past and find his love for music again.

Single mom Lexie Walters has suffered her fair share of tragedies and setbacks, but she has finally scraped together the money to achieve her dream of going into business with her cousin as an interior designer. When Lexie’s life is at an all-time high, she runs into her teenage crush, Cameron Lee.

Lost in the emotional turmoil of failure, Cameron is immediately drawn to Lexie and her infectious smile and optimistic spirit. Moreover, he adores her mouthy, no-holds-barred daughter. But fantasies only last so long, and soon Lexie and Cameron must face the real world, the one fraught with heartbreak, disappointment, and questions that sometimes can only be answered by a leap of faith.

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

18 July 2022

Book Review | Into the Flood (Seasons of Faith #1) by Milla Holt

Sonia Krogstad’s perfect life collapses when the investment she has been recommending to all her friends and clients turns out to be an elaborate fraud. When she loses her job, her reputation, and her life savings, she accepts a job in her old hometown as a stopgap until she can get her career going again.

Alex Vikhammer has been thrust into the role of solo father after his ex-wife dies and reveals he is the father of her child. When he discovers the Arts Centre – the only activity Karla enjoys – is closing, he buys it. But the charity leaks cash. He needs a fundraiser, and fast, so hires Sonia.

Alex and Karla were very relatable characters.

Karla is the thirteen-year-old girl who has lost her mother, home, and friends and who now lives in a small town with the geeky father she barely knows. Alex is a good father despite his own doubts. He wants the best for his daughter and keeps reaching out to her, even when she’s the stubborn, silent type. All things considered, her reactions were entirely normal.

Sonia was perhaps harder to like.

She only returned to Berghaven because she had to, and while she does her best for the Arts Centre, she does make a couple of decisions I thought were questionable in that they were consistent with her character, but I didn’t think they were the right decisions. It was a strange relief to find they were bad decisions, and they did come back to bite her … and she did eventually realise her errors. While Sonia’s actions were sometimes frustrating, they were also a strength of the novel because they felt realistic in the context.

It’s also refreshing to read a romance featuring older characters.

Both Sonia and Alex are in their mid-forties or thereabouts. Their relationship therefore has a different vibe than it might have had if they were younger. They are both competent professionals, established in their careers (even if Sonia’s has just fallen apart), which is a nice change from romances with younger characters who are still discovering who they are.

The other thing I liked was the setting: Norway.

Reading stories set in other countries and cultures reminds us that people are the same all over the world. We all have similar stresses and worries, and we all like a good Chinese takeaway.

Into the Flood is Christian romance, although the faith elements are relatively low-key. Still, there is an important message about faith – the importance of coming to faith and staying in the faith when times are bad … or good.

Overall, Into the Flood is a strong Christian romance, recommended for those who like older couples or foreign settings (or both), and those wanting to read more fiction with BIPOC characters.

About Milla Holt

I write inspirational romance with an international twist, with stories that uplift and encourage. Heroes with honor and integrity and strong, can-do heroines are my thing. And the good guys always get their happy ending. My fiction reflects my Christian faith.

I’m not a fan of writing about myself, but here goes. I used to be a lot of things: a journalist, a communications manager for a health activist group, and a freelance copywriter.

Before all that, I was a diplomatic brat, trailing along as my mother’s job took us to various diverse locations around the world.

Now, I’m homeschooling my children in the east of England and devoting every spare moment to writing.

Find Milla Holt online at:

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About Into the Flood

She took this small-town job as a temporary last resort. Falling for her reserved boss was not part of the plan.

One mistake imploded Sonia Krogstad’s PR career, leaving her with a stack of debt and no job prospects. Out of options, she returns to her tiny hometown in the northern wilds of Norway, planning only to stay long enough to get back on her feet and prepare for her big-city comeback.

Reclusive tech genius Axel Vikhammer bought a non-profit community arts center that’s fast becoming a money pit. Closing it down is not an option, especially since it’s a refuge for the teenage daughter he only recently learned he has. With her PR background, Sonia seems the perfect hire for the job as his center’s fundraising manager.

Yet as feelings develop between the two, Axel wonders how he can trust Sonia with his business—or his heart—when her dreams don’t include his small town or him.

With her head and her heart pulling her in different directions, Sonia needs to take a leap of faith. But every time she’s done that in the past, she’s fallen flat on her face. Why should it be different now?

Into the Flood is Book 1 in Milla Holt’s Seasons of Faith Christian romance series. Five friends were in the same wedding in a small Norwegian town over twenty years ago. Four bridesmaids, one bride. Now, two decades on, each woman learns that God’s timing is perfect as they find forever love later in life.

You can find Into the Flood online at:

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27 June 2022

Book Review | The Crimson Thread by Kate Forsyth

I requested a copy of The Crimson Thread for review as soon as I realised it was about the Battle of Crete. My grandfather was in the British Army in World War II, and was on Crete when the German paratroopers arrive. He never talked about his war experiences – I only discovered he was on Crete because I found a map he’d drawn of the British defences.

I was therefore keen to read a fictional account of the battle and the aftermath. As it happened, the Allies famed retreat was over by about a quarter of the way through the book. By then I was so captivated by the characters that I couldn’t stop reading.

Alenka is a translator and guide at the archaeological dig at Knossos (the palace where the legendary minotaur lived), but war has changed that. Her younger half-brother looks like his German father, something he has been bullied for his entire life. So it’s no surprise when he tries to ingratiate himself with the invaders.

Teddy Lloyd and Jack Hawke are officers in the Australian Army. Teddy is the outgoing, popular one, and Jack is loyal sidekick who suffers from a stutter. Both, unsurprisingly, fall for Alenka, although she’s not interested in either of them.

The story takes us all the way through the long German occupation of Crete, and the dangers faced by the locals, and the soldiers who were left behind which the Cretans hid and protected. The story covers years, so it isn’t exactly fast-paced, but it does have plenty of tension. The worst of the tension is relieved by the fact we do know who won the war … but that doesn’t tell us if the characters will survive.

Overall, The Crimson Thread is an excellent World War II novel with a thread of romance. There was one part at the end that I didn’t enjoy because it felt out of character. In hindsight, the scene may have been a nod to the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, so might not surprise or bother those who are more familiar with the story than I am.

Regular readers: please note that The Crimson Thread is not Christian fiction and is not published by a CBA publisher. Having said that, the only scene that didn’t meet the normal standards of Christian fiction was the one at the end that I didn’t think was necessary. #TriggerWarning

Thanks to Blackstone Publishing and Net Galley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Kate Forsyth

Dr Kate Forsyth wrote her first novel aged seven & has now sold more than a million books worldwide. Recently voted one of Australia’s Favourite Novelists, Kate Forsyth has been called ‘one of the finest writers of this generation’. She has written more than 40 books, for all age groups and across many genres, published in 20 countries.

Kate’s doctoral exegesis ‘The Rebirth of Rapunzel: A Mythic History of the Maiden in the Tower’ won the Aurealis Convenors’ Award for Excellence in 2016 and the William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism in 2017. She was recently awarded the prestigious Nancy Keesing Fellowship by the State Library of NSW.

Named one of Australia’s Favourite 15 Novelists, Kate has a BA in literature, a MA in creative writing and a Doctorate of Creative Arts in fairy tale studies, and is also an accredited master storyteller with the Australian Guild of Storytellers.

She also runs a literary & writing retreat in the Cotswolds every year, as well as retreats on writing True Life Stories and a Mythic Creativity retreat.

Find Kate Forsyth online at:

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About The Crimson Thread

In Crete during World War II, Alenka, a young woman who fights with the resistance against the brutal Nazi occupation, finds herself caught between her traitor of a brother and the man she loves, an undercover agent working for the Allies.

May 1941. German paratroopers launch a blitzkrieg from the air against Crete. They are met with fierce defiance, the Greeks fighting back with daggers, pitchforks, and kitchen knives. During the bloody eleven-day battle, Alenka, a young Greek woman, saves the lives of two Australian soldiers.

Jack and Teddy are childhood friends who joined up together to see the world. Both men fall in love with Alenka. They are forced to retreat with the tattered remains of the Allied forces over the towering White Mountains. Both are among the seven thousand Allied soldiers left behind in the desperate evacuation from Crete’s storm-lashed southern coast. Alenka hides Jack and Teddy at great risk to herself. Her brother Axel is a Nazi sympathiser and collaborator and spies on her movements.

As Crete suffers under the Nazi jackboot, Alenka is drawn into an intense triangle of conflicting emotions with Jack and Teddy. Their friendship suffers under the strain of months of hiding and their rivalry for her love. Together, they join the resistance and fight to free the island, but all three will find themselves tested to their limits. Alenka must choose whom to trust and whom to love and, in the end, whom to save.

I should add that there are two covers for this book, and I probably would have ignored the book if I’d seen the pink cover rather than the one above.

Find The Crimson Thread online at:

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6 June 2022

Book Review | Sunburst (Sky King Ranch #2) by Susan May Warren

It’s been a while since I’ve read one of Susan May Warren’s romantic suspense novels, even though it’s how I first discovered her writing. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy them,

A good portion of the novel takes place in Nigeria.

I enjoyed the opportunity to experience the country and the culture through the eyes of Noemi Sutton. Noemi is the only daughter of a Nigerian princess and a US Navy SEAL who teaches English as a second language. She is working in Nigeria when she and her companions are kidnapped and held prisoner.

Ranger Kingston, a navy SEAL from Alaska, first meets Noemi in Key West where he’s training and she’s on holiday. They meet again after Noemi is one of a group kidnapped in Nigeria. One of the other captives is Colt, Ranger’s brother, who was providing security as they travelled.

They are rescued by a team which includes Ranger, but Ranger and Noemi are separated from the rest of the rescue party while trying to locate Blessing, a young girl who was captured with them. Ranger is injured during their escape, so Noemi does the only thing she can thing of—she takes him to her uncle’s compound in the south of the country. Unfortunately, the only way to get there alive is to pretend that she and Ranger are married.

I’ve always enjoyed a good marriage of convenience story.

I’ve read a lot of good historical novels with this plotline (mail order brides spring to mind), but rarely come across a compelling setup for a contemporary.

Sunburst does this, and does it well. Noemi’s uncle insists on hosting a traditional Nigerian wedding, and it was fun to read about all the traditions and preparation. The seamless introduction of different aspects of Nigerian culture elevated Sunburst above most other romantic suspense novels.

The humour in their situation also helped balance the suspense.

And there was plenty of suspense. While Noemi is attracted to Ranger—and he seems to be attracted to her—she’s convinced their relationship won’t last. She’s also convinced that the events leading up to her kidnapping could put Ranger and his family in danger, so she’ll have to leave for both their sakes …

Sunburst by Susan May Warren is a solid Christian romantic suspense whose Nigerian location and heroine elevate the novel above the ordinary @SusanMayWarren #ChristianFiction Share on X

Overall, Sunburst is a solid Christian romantic suspense novel with a Nigerian location and heroine that elevates the novel above others in the genre. Recommended for fans of romantic suspense, especially those who like different settings.

Sunburst is the second book in the Sky King Ranch series, following Sunrise. The third book, Sundown, is due out later this year. Sunburst did a good job of setting up the final story, so I’ll look forward to reading it.

Thanks to Revell and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Sunburst

When former Navy SEAL and lifelong bachelor Ranger Kingston is called upon to take part in a rescue mission to save his brother Colt, who has been kidnapped by terrorists in Nigeria, he is shocked to find among the hostages a woman he knows and could never forget.

Noemi Sutton was attempting to return a young girl to her family in Boko Haram territory when she and the girl found themselves taken hostage, along with several others.

And while Ranger Kingston may be able to get the hostages away from their captors, he’ll need Noemi’s help if he ever hopes to get out of Nigeria alive.

Her solution? Pose as husband and wife. But when her uncle discovers the union, he insists on a traditional Nigerian wedding–binding Noemi to a man destined to break her heart. Worse, she’s discovered the real reason she was kidnapped, and anyone around her is bound to be caught in the cross fire. Including her so-called new husband.

She’ll need to figure out a way to leave the man she loves if she wants to save his life.

Find Sunburst online at:

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About Susan May Warren

Susan May Warren is the USA Today bestselling author of nearly 90 novels with more than 1.5 million books sold, including the Global Search and Rescue and the Montana Rescue series, as well as Sunrise and Sunburst. Winner of a RITA Award and multiple Christy and Carol Awards, as well as the HOLT Medallion and numerous Readers’ Choice Awards, Susan makes her home in Minnesota.

Find Susan May Warren online at:

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30 May 2022

Book Review | When Stars Rain Down by Angela Jackson-Brown

It’s 1936 Georgia, and seventeen-year-old Opal Pruitt works alongside her Granny Birdie as cook and housekeeper for Miss Peggy and her family—her daughter, Mss Corinne, and her college-age grandson, Jimmy Earl. She even has a crush on Jimmy Earl, but he is white and lives in Parsons while she is colored and lives three miles away, in Colored Town.

Jimmy warns Granny Birdie that the Ku Klux Klan will be “visiting” Colored Town. Some think the best response is to stay inside, while others believe they should fight. As When Stars Rain Down shows, both answers have merit … and both answers have issues.

Yes, When Stars Rain Down is a novel about racists and racism.

The author has a strong voice that brings out the difference between the characters in a way that feels natural yet is still easy to read, despite the difficult subject matter. We need more novels like this to be published and read. In particular, we need more novels from own voices or BIPOC authors … authors who have lived these experiences and can share their own feelings and reactions. As Opal says:

I didn’t want to hear another voice of another white person try to tell me my feelings weren’t mine to feel.

It’s not always an easy read, but it’s also not easy to stop reading. It’s a compelling read that shows some of the difficulties of being born Colored in the South in a when the Ku Klux Klan were openly active, when everyone knew who hid under the masks but no one did anything. Mostly.

It would be nice to think these kind of activities have been relegated to victory, but as I write this review, a white teenager has just livestreamed himself opening fire in a supermarket and killing ten Black people. The Ku Klux Klan may not exist in the same way as they did in 1930s Georgia, but the attitudes haven’t changed and the violence has only become worse.

But the novel is also uplifting, particularly as Opal, her grandmother, and many other residents of Colored Town show and life their Christian faith. Recommended.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing an ebook for review.

About Angela Jackson-Brown

Angela Jackson-Brown is an award-winning writer, poet, and playwright who is a member of the graduate faculty of the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. In the fall semester of 2022, she will be joining the creative writing program at Indiana University Bloomington as an associate professor. Angela is a graduate of Troy University, Auburn University, and the Spalding low-residency MFA program in creative writing. She has published her short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry in journals like the Louisville Courier Journal and Appalachian Review.

She is the author of Drinking from a Bitter Cup, House Repairs, When Stars Rain Down, and the upcoming novel The Light Always Breaks. When Stars Rain Down is a highly acclaimed novel that received a starred review from Library Journal and glowing reviews from Alabama Public Library, Buzzfeed, Parade magazine, and Woman’s Weekly. It was also a finalist for the David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American historical fiction.

Find Angela Jackson-Brown online at:

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About When Stars Rain Down

The summer of 1936 in Parsons, Georgia, is unseasonably hot, and Opal Pruitt senses a nameless storm brewing. She hopes this foreboding feeling won’t overshadow her upcoming 18th birthday or the annual Founder’s Day celebration in just a few weeks. She and her Grandma Birdie work as housekeepers for the white widow Miss Peggy, and Opal desperately wants some time to be young and carefree with her cousins and friends.

But when the Ku Klux Klan descends on Opal’s neighborhood, the tight-knit community is shaken in every way possible. Parsons’s residents—both Black and white—are forced to acknowledge the unspoken codes of conduct in their post-Reconstruction era town. To complicate matters, Opal finds herself torn between two unexpected romantic interests—the son of her pastor, Cedric Perkins, and the white grandson of the woman she works for, Jimmy Earl Ketchums. Both young men awaken emotions Opal has never felt before.

Faced with love, loss, and a harsh awakening to an ugly world, Opal holds tight to her family and faith—and the hope for change.

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23 May 2022

Book Review | The Sweet Life by Suzanne Woods Fisher

I downloaded this book for review based solely on the cover and the title. My mistake. I must have read the description—I always do—but I can tell in hindsight that I didn’t read it properly.

The title and cover gave me the impression The Sweet Life was a romance.

The last line of the book description would have confirmed that. As such, I was expecting this to be Dawn’s story of recovery from her broken engagement, then reconnecting with her ex through her mother’s impulse buy—a dilapidated ice cream store.

It started with a cast of characters … not a great sign in a contemporary novel. I can deal with the cast of characters in historical fiction, where it can be important for the reader to know which characters are real historical figures and which are imaginary. But in contemporary fiction? A good writer should be able to introduce the characters in such a way that the reader knows them all and never gets confused (which, to her credit, Suzanne Woods Fisher achieved). But starting with the cast of characters feels like a weakness, as though readers aren’t going to be able to work out these vital details.

Anyway, onto the story.

I was expecting this to be mostly Dawn’s story. It wasn’t.

It was probably an equal split between Marnie (the mother) and Dawn (the daughter). They are complete opposites, which was interesting but did occasionally veer into caricature. Both were obsessive to the point of ridiculous at times and felt like the author was trying to make a point rather than being true to the characters.

My favourite characters were Lincoln, a sixty-something ex-pastor who volunteers a lot of helping the ice cream parlour, and five-year-old Leo the Cowboy, who loves ice cream (although I did wonder where his parents were, and why he seemed to have the run of the town all day, every day).

My least favourite characters, unfortunately, were Marnie and Dawn.

I lost all respect for Dawn —the accountant who is trying to make partner in her firm—when she suggested paying Lincoln under the table. Maybe the author or publisher doesn’t know that that term means. If so, can I recommend asking Aunty Google? The internet says Dawn could face 57 years in prison if she’s caught … surely that’s a career-limiting move for an accountant who wants to make partner.

(Here’s a tip for employees: it’s illegal for your employer to pay you under the table and can result in severe penalties for your employer and for you).

The other thing that bugged me was the lack of communication between mother and daughter.

Dawn gets testy when she discovers her mother has spent money that’s not in Dawn’s detailed budget, but Dawn also doesn’t ask the obvious questions (like where the money is coming from). Yes, there were a couple of duh! moments when Dawn finally worked out the obvious.

In Marnie’s defence, she’s recently lost her husband and gone through breast cancer treatment. Now she wants to rebuild her life, and her relationship with her daughter. So she buys an ice cream shop, because her husband and daughter used to make ice cream together.

If you’re looking for a fun rom-com (as suggested by the cover), The Sweet Life is not the book for you.

But if you’re looking for women’s fiction that explores some deeper mother-daughter issues, it could be.

The Sweet Life appears to be the first book in the Cape Cod Creamery series. Even knowing it’s more women’s fiction than rom-com, I don’t know if I’m invested enough to want to read future books in the series.

The location had potential, but the characterisation writing just weren’t strong enough to grab me.

I had a similar issue with the last Suzanne Woods Fisher title I reviewed, The Moonlight School. I wrote:

My reactions to this book show the importance of setting expectations as an author, then delivering on them. The book was excellent. But it wasn’t the book the title or book description promised.

The Moonlight School and The Sweet Life are both from mainstream publishers. They are not self-published. As such, the issues with the book title, cover, and book description are the responsibility of the publisher, not the author. I hope they do better for the author next time.

Thanks to Revell Books and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Suzanne Woods Fisher

Suzanne Woods Fisher is an award-winning, bestselling author of more than 30 books, including On a Summer Tide and On a Coastal Breeze, as well as the Nantucket Legacy, Amish Beginnings, The Bishop’s Family, The Deacon’s Family, and The Inn at Eagle Hill series, among other novels. She is also the author of several nonfiction books about the Amish, including Amish Peace and Amish Proverbs.

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About The Sweet Life

Dawn Dixon can hardly believe she’s on a groomless honeymoon on beautiful Cape Cod . . . with her mother. Sure, Marnie Dixon is good company, but Dawn was supposed to be here with Kevin, the love of her life (or so she thought).

Marnie Dixon needs some time away from the absolute realness of life as much as her jilted daughter does, and she’s not about to let her only child suffer alone–even if Marnie herself had been doing precisely that for the past month.

Given the circumstances, maybe it was inevitable that Marnie would do something as rash as buy a run-down ice-cream shop in the town’s tightly regulated historic district. After all, everything’s better with ice cream.

Her exasperated daughter knows that she’s the one who will have to clean up this mess. Even when her mother’s impulsive real estate purchase brings Kevin back into her life, Dawn doesn’t get her hopes up. Everyone knows that broken romances stay broken . . . don’t they?

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16 May 2022

Book Review | Written on the Wind (Blackstone Legacy #2) by Elizabeth Camden

Twenty-eight-year-old Natalia Blackstone is an unusual woman for her time.

She is a banker in her father’s bank, responsible for financing the building of the Trans-Siberian Railway in Russia. Her main contact is Count Dimitri Sokolov, but he hasn’t responded to her last telegram.

When Dimitri reports witnessing an illegal massacre, he is stripped of his title and estates and sentenced to seven years in a Siberian prison. He realises he has to escape and find his way to the USA, where Natalia can help him make the truth about the massacre known. That’s obviously a tragedy, but I didn’t understand enough of the politics to see why this was so important to the Americans.

As a result, I didn’t find Written on the Wind as compelling as some of Elizabeth Camden’s other novels, despite the backdrop of the Trans-Siberians Railroad and the Russian setting. That’s a shame, because I’d been looking forward to Natalia’s story and to meeting Count Dimitri.

I think part of the problem was the friends-to-more plot.

Natalia and Dimitri had been corresponding for three years before they met, and their relationship had progressed from business to personal. It therefore seemed natural that they’d like each other when they finally met in person, but the whole thing seemed too easy.

That’s not typical for novels by Elizabeth Camden, who usually manages to write stories with unique with original settings and issues. That uniqueness is one of the strengths of her stories. The building of the railroad and the Boxer Rebellion was unique, but that was the backdrop, the device to get Dimitri to the USA, not the central story.

However, I did enjoy the banter between Natalia and Dimitri, especially their different views on matters of culture and literature. The dialogue between them was a definite strength.

The other strength was one common to all Elizabeth Camden novels: the nuggets of truth hidden in the narrative and dialogue, particularly regarding the differences between Russia and the USA. These differences were often amusingly shown through Natalia and Dimitri’s views on literature:

(I think this basically explains why I didn’t enjoy Tolstoy.)

Written on the Wind is the second book in The Blackstone Legacy series but can easily be read as a standalone novel.

Thanks to Baker Publishing and NetGalley for providing a free ebook review.

About Elizabeth Camden

Elizabeth Camden is a research librarian at a small college in central Florida. Her novels have won the coveted RITA and Christy Awards. She has published several articles for academic publications and is the author of four nonfiction history books. Her ongoing fascination with history and love of literature have led her to write inspirational fiction. Elizabeth lives with her husband near Orlando, Florida.

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About Written on the Wind

He carries a dangerous secret, but can he survive long enough to expose it?

Count Dimitri Sokolov has been charged with overseeing construction of the legendary Trans-Siberian Railway, but during this work, he witnesses an appalling crime, the truth of which threatens the Russian monarchy. In an effort to silence him, the czar has stripped Dimitri of his title, his lands, and his freedom . . . but Dimitri has one asset the czar knows nothing about: his deep and abiding friendship with Natalia Blackstone.

Natalia is the lead analyst for her father’s New York banking empire and manages their investment in the Trans-Siberian Railway. Her bond with Dimitri has flourished despite the miles between them, but when Dimitri goes unexpectedly missing, she sets the wheels in motion to find him. Once they join forces, they embark on a dangerous quest in which one wrong move could destroy them both.

From the steppes of Russia to the corridors of power in Washington, Dimitri and Natalia will fight against all odds to save the railroad while exposing the truth. Can their newfound love survive the ordeal?

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