Category: Book Review

I didn’t say you look beautiful; I said you are beautiful.

Book Review | Uncharted Courage (Land Uncharted #10) by Keely Brooke Keith

Bailey Colburn is feeling unsettled, so takes a trip to the village of Good Springs to visit old friends and get advice from the village elder, John Colburn. She visits over spring equinox, the one time of year when a change in atmospheric conditions allows newcomers to enter the Land. And someone does … actually, two people.

Revel is enjoying his role as island courier now he’s had his father’s blessing to take the role and not take over the family inn. Now, if he can only get Bailey to see how he feels about her. But first he has to share the information the newcomer brought.

Both are fiercely independent and love their freedom, Bailey especially. Both have to learn that working alone doesn’t always yeild the best result. Sometimes, it’s better to work together …

Uncharted Courage is an enjoyable romance, and a relatively quick read.

It’s good to see Bailey again—she’s been one of my favourite characters throughout the series. I also enjoyed the underlying spiritual thread, and the way the Christian elements underpin the entire plot without being preachy.

Uncharted Courage is the tenth book in the Uncharted series, about a small community living on a hidden island while World War III rages in the outside world. Keith does an excellent job of reminding readers of the important points from the previous novels by weaving them into the present story in a way that feels natural.

While you could read Uncharted Courage as a standalone novel, it’s probably best to read through the series in order. Having said that, my favourite stories in the series are the stories like Uncharted Courage, where there is a crossover between the Land and the outside world.

Recommended for fans of historical Christian romance or speculative romance with a twist.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review.

About Keely Brooke Keith

Keely Keely Brooke KeithBrooke Keith writes inspirational frontier-style fiction with a slight Sci-Fi twist, including The Land Uncharted (Shelf Unbound Notable Romance 2015) and Aboard Providence (2017 INSPY Awards Longlist). Keely also creates resources for writers such as The Writer’s Book Launch Guide and The Writer’s Character Journal.

Born in St. Joseph, Missouri, Keely grew up in a family that frequently relocated. By graduation, she lived in 8 states and attended 14 schools.  When she isn’t writing, Keely enjoys playing bass guitar, preparing homeschool lessons, and collecting antique textbooks. Keely, her husband, and their daughter live on a hilltop south of Nashville, Tennessee.

Find Keely Brooke Keith online at:

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About Uncharted Courage

With the survival of the Land at stake and her heart on the line, Bailey must find the courage to love.

When Bailey accepts John Colburn’s offer for her to visit Good Springs, she leaves the Inn at Falls Creek expecting to spend the autumn relaxing in her favorite seaside village. Upon her arrival, Connor asks her to cover a shift of guard duty on the equinox, and her quiet vacation takes a shocking turn.

Revel Roberts works hard to keep his life commitment-free, making it easy to leave community decisions to men like Connor and John. But when the Land is threatened, Revel sees his chance to prove he is a man worthy of Bailey’s love. Amid the chaos in Good Springs, his unrequited feelings for her preoccupy him. One wrong choice could ruin everything.

As Bailey’s new life in the Land unravels and threats from the outside world loom, a yearning she can’t define surges within her. It distracts her from defending the hidden world she loves, and a tragedy reinforces her need for independence.

With the survival of the Land at stake and their hearts on the line, Bailey and Revel will need more courage than fighting ever required. They will need to find the courage to love.

You can find Uncharted Courage online at:

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I stare at my brain and wonder if God took a piece of it away every time I sinned.

Book Review | A Flicker of Light by Katie Powner

A Flicker of Light is set in the small Montana town of Moose Creek, population 756, and features three generations of the same family.

Juniper (June) Jensen is sixty-three, and showing signs of early-onset dementia. Not that she knows that, but her husband and son have certainly noticed.

Bea Michaels finds out she is pregnant just as her husband loses his job. The logical decision is to go back to Moose Creek and stay with her father— the last thing she and her young husband want to do.

Mitch Jensen was none too happy when his daughter dropped out of college and got married. He’s even less happy to find the husband is now unemployed, living in his house, and not making any effort to find a real job. He’s also worried about his mother—something is wrong.

The story starts in June’s point of view, which is written in first person. I know some readers don’t like first person. If you’re one of those readers, I’d encourage you to keep reading, as the other two points of view (Bea and Mitch) are both written in the more common third person, and they are the main viewpoints.

A Flicker of Lights is a strong and thought-provoking family drama.

I once read that all great characters have a secret, and the characters in A Flicker of Lights certainly have secrets, and those secrets provide the basis for the novel.

It’s an easy read with no high angst (I don’t like angst for the sake of angst). But there are plenty of problems and plenty of emotion. There are real characters with  real problems – unemployment, unplanned pregnancy, death, dementia. But it’s through the problems that the characters grow emotionally and spiritually, reminding readers that there is always a way through the hard times, even if it doesn’t always look like what we’d expected.

A Flicker of Light doesn’t have the rose-coloured glasses of many novels set in small towns.

Bea especially is all too aware of the downsides of small-town living. But there are also moments of levity—a cat named Steve, the busybody neighbour, the small-town “moosevine”.

A Flicker of Light by @Katie_Powner is a Christian family saga that's realistic without being depressing, and ultimately uplifting. #ChristianFiction #BookReview Share on X

I think that’s what I liked about it. It was realistic without being depressing. In fact, it was ultimately uplifting—which is what I want in a novel.

Recommended for readers looking for a realistic yet uplifting Christian novel that’s not a romance.

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

About Katie Powner

Katie Powner

Katie Powner is a lover of red shoes, Jesus, and candy. Not necessarily in that order. Passionate about reading books and writing books and talking about books and posting about books … She is an award-winning author who writes contemporary fiction about redemption, relationships, and finding the dirt road home.

Katie lives in rural Montana where cows still outnumber people. She is a two-time OCW Cascade Award and ACFW First Impressions Award winner. Katie is a biological and adoptive mother of three and foster mother to many more. She and her husband have been in youth ministry for over a decade

Find Katie Powner online at:

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About A Flicker of Light

For generations, the Jensens have raised their families in the small Montana town of Moose Creek, where gossip spreads faster than the wind. Yet some secrets need to be told.

When twenty-one-year-old Bea discovers she’s pregnant on the heels of her husband losing his job, she’s forced to admit she needs help and asks her dad for a place to stay. But past resentments keep her from telling him all that’s going on.

Mitch Jensen is thrilled to have a full house again, though he’s unimpressed with Bea’s decisions: dropping out of college, marrying so young–and to an idealistic city kid, of all things. Mitch hopes to convince Bea to return to the path he’s always envisioned for her, but she’s changed since her mom died. And he refuses to admit how much he’s changed, too, especially now that he might be losing his mother as well.

Grandma June is good at spinning stories, but there’s one she’s never told. Now that her mind is starting to fade, her time to tell it is running out. But if she reveals the truth before her memories are gone forever, the Jensen family will never be the same.

You can find A Flicker of Light online at:

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I am who I am, and honestly, it’s not pretty anymore. Slick and shiny and striking perhaps, but not pretty.

Book Review | Straight Up by Lisa Samson

Straight Up is an older book, first published in 2006, which I picked up from a charity book sale last year. I bought it because it was cheap, and because the cover and book description intrigued me:

They are living lives they were never meant to live.

That’s a profound statement that didn’t seem relevant in the first part of the story but was key at the end (and while I loathe giving spoilers in a review, I don’t think commenting on the back cover constitutes a spoiler).

The way the author chose to show this was unusual, but it worked.

Did the author provide a solution to this problem? No, but that’s because the solution is going to look different for all of us. But it’s certainly an idea that got me thinking: Is this the life I was meant to live?

The novel is written in first person and present tense, from several points of view. The main character is Georgia Bishop, a talented jazz pianist, but it’s not just her story. It’s also the story of her cousin, interior designer Fairly Godfrey, their Uncle George, and a band of Christian misfits Fairly refers to as “the cult”.

Their intertwined stories form the basis of the novel, which is more about their individual character journeys than based on any kind of plot.

The other point of view character is Clarissa, who grows from a baby to a teenager over the period of the novel. It was never clear how she (or her mother, who got one or two scenes) fit into the novel and this subplot actually distracted me because I thought it was going to go in a completely different direction.

While the characters and story were interesting, they didn’t turn the cover from interesting into compelling until probably the last quarter of the novel. But the writing was compelling from the opening page, and that’s what kept me going even when I wasn’t exactly sure what was happening or how the characters were related.

I didn’t highlight any phrases because it was a paper book … and because if I started highlighting, there would be no way to stop. (Also, because a lot of the brilliant writing was brilliant in context. It doesn’t necessary translate to a simple quote meme).

The writing was literary and clever without being pretentious, and that’s a rare skill.

People see me as a birdbath.  I am a well.

As such, I think this is a great book for writers to read—not for the plotting, not for the characterisation, not even for the theme. But for the lyrical writing that pulls the reader through the words.

Straight Up by Lisa Samson is a good story for anyone who enjoys Christian women’s fiction featuring messy characters living messy lives. #BookReview #ChristianFiction Share on X

It’s also a good story for anyone who enjoys Christian women’s fiction featuring messy characters living messy lives. Recommended.

About Lisa Samson

Lisa Samson

The Christy-award winning author of nineteen books including the Women of Faith Novel of the Year Quaker Summer, Lisa Samson has been hailed by Publishers Weekly as “a talented novelist who isn’t afraid to take risks.” She lives in Kentucky with her husband and three kids.

Find Lisa Samson online at:

Website

About Straight Up

They are living lives they were never meant to live.

Georgia Bishop, a could-be jazz great, has thrown away her life, her marriage, and her talent for her drinking habit. Her cousin, Fairly Godfrey, is living the good life in New York but wonders if deeper meaning exists beyond the superficial world in which she finds herself.

It takes a Congo refugee, a soul food chef, a persistent husband, and one desperate night on the brink of freedom for Georgia and Fairly to realize how far they have come from their God-given purposes. When they face the most difficult choices of their lives, only the power of grace can bring them to true healing.

You can find Straight Up online at:

This was originally published in 2011, so you’re probably not going to be able to find a paper copy unless you’re in a second-hand bookstore or visiting a charity book sale (which is where I found my paper copy).

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People think I'm simple. But I think they just make things complicated that aren't.

Book Review | Tacos for Two by Betsy St. Amant

Rory Perez hates cilantro and can’t cook, but she’s inherited a food truck specialising Mexican food and she needs the income from the truck to keep her cousin in her care home. Jude Worthington works for his father’s law firm but doesn’t want to take the bar and be a lawyer. He wants to be a chef.

The two are messaging and falling for each other via an app, but they communicate using pseudonyms, so don’t know it. In real life, they are both competing to win the prize in the local food festival—Rory because she needs the money, and Jude because he wants to get out of law.

There were a few things I didn’t like about Tacos for Two. The first  was that I started reading, and I immediately wanted to eat tacos. This is a problem as I had to stop reading and work out if I actually had the ingredients for tacos (yes, I did. Fortunately).

There were a couple of other things I didn’t get. If Jude is twenty-nine years old and hasn’t yet sat the bar exam, what has he been doing since he graduated college? Who is Fiona Stone and why is she mentioned so often (I honestly thought Rory was going to turn out to be Fiona Stone in disguise. She didn’t).

The romance itself was a fun play on You’ve got Mail, a modernised version using an app called Love at First Chat.

It’s a fun romp with plenty of laughs as well as some deeper thoughts on life and faith. As such, it’s an easy read that hits all the right notes and has a satisfying ending.

Tacos for Two by Betsy St. Amant is a fun romp with plenty of laughs as well as some deeper thoughts on life and faith. #BookReview #ChristianRomance Share on X

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

About Betsey St. Amant

Betsy St. Amant Haddox is the author of over fifteen inspirational romance novels and novellas. She resides in north Louisiana with her hero of a hubby, two total-opposite young daughters, a vast collection of coffee mugs, and an impressive stash of Pickle chips. Betsy has a B.A. in Communications and a deep-rooted passion for seeing women restored in Christ. When she’s not composing her next book or trying to prove unicorns are real, Betsy can usually be found somewhere in the vicinity of a white-chocolate mocha–no whip.

Find Betsy St. Amant online at:

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About Tacos for Two

Rory Perez, a food truck owner who can’t cook, is struggling to keep the business she inherited from her aunt out of the red–and an upcoming contest during Modest’s annual food truck festival seems the best way to do it. The prize money could finally give her a solid financial footing and keep her cousin with special needs paid up at her beloved assisted living home. Then maybe Rory will have enough time to meet the man she’s been talking to via an anonymous online dating site.

Jude Strong is tired of being a puppet at his manipulative father’s law firm, and the food truck festival seems like the perfect opportunity to dive into his passion for cooking and finally call his life his own. But if he loses the contest, he’s back at the law firm for good. Failure is not an option.

Complications arise when Rory’s chef gets mono and she realizes she has to cook after all. Then Jude discovers that his stiffest competition is the same woman he’s been falling for online the past month.

Will these unlikely chefs sacrifice it all for the sake of love? Or will there only ever be tacos for one?

You can find Tacos for Two online at:

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This entire building is filled with people to trained to appear genuine. It's our job.

Book Review | Lights Out (The SNAP Agency #1) by Natalie Walters

CIA operative Brynn Taylor has almost completed her latest mission— running an international inter-agency program teaching agents from seven countries how to locate and identify domestic terrorists—when one of her students disappears.

Was she really supposed to rely on a bomb expert, a giant techie, a young woman dressed like she'd spent all night at a club, and an ex-boyfriend.

Jack Hudson left the CIA and joined SNAP, the Strategic Neutralization and Protection Agency, a private security firm employing a band of talented misfits that reminded me of CSI characters. Jack is also Brynn’s ex-boyfriend from eight years earlier.

So Lights Out is a second-chance romance.

One of the problems with this kind of plot is that it can be hard to come up with a convincing reason the couple broke up in the first place that still allows room for them to get back together. Often it comes down to a simple misunderstanding that could have been resolved with a single adult conversation, and I thought that was the case with Lights Out.

We realise early in the story that something happened when Brynn and Jack were going through CIA training, but we’re not sure what. When I finally found out, I didn’t think it was convincing. In fact, it gave me the impression Jack didn’t understand one of the key training objectives … which leaves me wondering about his professional competence.

Lights Out by Natalie Walters is a strong suspense story with all the chases and bangs readers want interspersed plenty of banter and a second-chance romance. #ChristianFiction #BookReview Share on X

But that was the only thing that annoyed me. The main plot was a strong suspense story set in and around Washington DC, with all the chases and bangs readers want … interspersed with the comic relief of the banter between the members of SNAP, and the will-they-won’t-they Brynn/Jack relationship.

Recommended for fans of DiAnn Mills and Irene Hannon.

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

About Natalie Walters

Natalie WaltersNatalie Walters is a military wife who currently resides in Hawaii with her soldier husband and their three kids. She writes full-time and has been published in Proverbs 31 magazine and has blogged for Guideposts online. Natalie comes from a long line of military and law enforcement veterans and is passionate about supporting them through volunteer work, races, and writing stories that affirm no one is defined by their past.

Find Natalie Walters online at:

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About Lights Out

CIA analyst Brynn Taylor developed a new program to combat terrorism, and she invited members of foreign intelligence agencies to America to foster cooperation between countries. Now one of them, Egyptian spy Remon Riad, is missing.

Jack Hudson has been working for the Strategic Neutralization and Protection Agency (SNAP) for almost nine years and takes the lead in hunting down the missing spy. But he isn’t at all pleased to find out Brynn is involved. It’s hard to trust a woman who’s already betrayed you.

Every lead they follow draws them dangerously deeper into an international plot. Kidnapping, murder, explosions, poisoning–the terrorists will do anything to accomplish their goal of causing a digital blackout that will blind a strategic US military communications center and throw the world into chaos.Can Brynn surrender control to a man who doesn’t trust her? And can Jack ever get over what she did to him? The fate of the world–and their hearts–hangs in the balance.

Find Lights Out online at:

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Do you pay attention to the publisher name or brand of books you buy?

Bookish Question #200 | Do you pay attention to the publisher name or brand of books you buy?

Do you pay attention to the publisher name or brand of books you buy? I used to.

Back when I bought paper books or supplemented my book buying with visits to the library or second-hand bookshop, I did pay attention to the publisher. I wanted to read Christian fiction, and the Christian publishing industry is fairly small. It didn’t take long to work out which publishers consistently produced the kinds of books I was interested in buying, and to learn to recognise their logos on library or bookstore shelves.

(Of course, Christian bookshops make it even easier by only stocking Christian books).

But many of those old favourite publishers have changed direction or stopped publishing fiction altogether, and the rise of the ebook means those gaps are now being filled by self-published authors.

That’s not a bad thing, because it means many more authors are getting the opportunity to get their work in front of readers.

But it can make it harder for readers to find new authors.

The market has also fragmented in terms of the kinds of fiction being published. Mainstream traditional publishers tend to keep to a narrow niche of what they know will sell. That makes sense: some of them are ministries, so it’s important that they are good stewards of their funds and don’t spend money publishing books that are unlikely to sell. Others are subsidiaries of major multinational corporations, and they’ll be closed if they don’t return an appropriate profit.

All this means that while there were once maybe one or two dozen publishers of quality Christian fiction, now there are thousands.

The result is that I now tend to buy more based on the author’s name than the publisher’s name.

What about you? Do you pay attention to the publisher name or brand of the books you buy?

I am Kerr Flick, Elite Apprentice. But I also used to be a small girl called Cadence.

Book Review | Elite (Collective Underground #2) by Kristen Young

If you are interested in Elite but haven’t read Apprentice, the first book in Kristen Young’s Love Collective series, then please stop reading now and read Apprentice first.

Why? Because Elite starts almost exactly where Apprentice ends, so it’s impossible to write this review without including some information that’s going to be a spoiler for Apprentice.

Click here to read my review of Apprentice.

Still here? Then I’m going to assume you’ve read Apprentice.

As I said, Elite starts where Apprentice ends: with Kerr Flick aka Cadence about to have her memories of her first five years restored. She discovers she didn’t fail her Watcher exam, and has been accepted as a Watcher.

Now she has to navigate endless training under the direct supervision of a senior official, balance that against her newfound knowledge about the Love Collective, the Haters and Lyric, and work out what her new dorm-mate is thinking … Who can she trust?

Sometimes the truth gets hidden when the powerful want to tell a different story.

It’s a fast-paced and compelling story set in a dystopian future that pretends it’s utopian, and keeps the masses quiet with an endless diet of apps and entertainment (bread and circuses, anyone?). As with Apprentice, the story has clear parallels with our own world, and the ending is both an end and a beginning. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.

Elite by Australian author Kristen Young is the second book in the Collective Underground series, a fast-paced and compelling story set in a dystopian future that pretends it’s utopian. #ChristianFiction #BookReview Share on X

Thanks to Enclave Publishing for providing a free ebook for review.

About Kristen Young

Kristen YoungKristen Young was born (and spent a memorable first few months of her life) in the UK, grew up in Sydney, but now lives in the Central West of NSW with her husband, three children, and slightly neurotic dog. She has been involved in church-based ministry for over 20 years, and loves helping people of any age to see how awesome Jesus is.

Kristen has had a number of books published, beginning with The Survival Guide series of devotions for teens. What if? Dealing with Doubt is a book for anyone from high school age onward, and aims to help anyone struggling with doubts about God, Jesus, or faith. In more recent years she has been writing fiction. Apprentice is her first published novel.

Find Kristen Young online at:

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About Elite

Where do you find safety when your world is falling apart?

Apprentice Flick thought the Elite Academy was the answer to all her problems. But the revelation of her past turned everything upside down. Now, she is caught between two worlds set on a collision course.

Will she embrace the chaotic memories that flood her every waking moment? Or will she run to the security of her Elite training?

Discovering her parents’ identities takes her to a secret underground bunker where she finds new friends, opportunities, and maybe even love. But Flick must decide where her allegiances lie soon, or the Triumph of Love festival might bring about her demise.

Find Elite online at:

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Book Review - Labyrinth of Lies by Irene Hannon

Book Review | Labyrinth of Lies (Triple Threat #2) by Irene Hannon

It’s been a while since I read any of Irene Hannon’s romantic suspense novels. They were what first got me hooked on her as an author, but I found they started to get a bit of a “samey” feel and stopped reading them. Instead, I started reading more of her excellent women’s fiction/romances.

But Labyrinth of Lies looked interesting, so I requested a review copy. The idea of a woman in her thirties going undercover as a high school student in an exclusive boarding school appealed to me (you can thank Johnny Depp and 21 Jump Street, and Drew Barrymore in Never Been Kissed). I was doubly hooked when I realised her lost love was also undercover in the same school, but working a different case for a different agency.

I very much enjoyed the interactions between Cate and Zeke.

What I enjoyed less was the additional characters: the school counsellor, the janitor, and the security guard, and the evildoer themselves (who I won’t identify because #spoilers but I did roll my eyes at the big reveal). I guess the point of having Will and Eduardo as major characters was to show how one “minor” bad decision can lead to a whole lot of trouble. But I just found it distracted from the Zane plot because knowing what the evildoers thought and were planning destroyed much of the tension.

It also puzzled me that the students smoked (it seems very last century—I’m told students in New Zealand have switched to vaping because it’s cheaper and tastes better), the students didn’t wear school uniform, even in a posh boarding school (and didn’t even seem to have a dress code—or is that normal for all American schools?), and the school didn’t provide housing for staff. They made a point of saying the school was in a fairly remote setting (although still within easy driving distance of a larger town).

Yes, the Christian message was excellent, but I thought the message was delivered at the expense of the plot and the development of the main characters.

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

About Irene Hannon

Author Photo: Irene Hannon

Irene Hannon is the best-selling author of more than 35 novels. Her books have been honored with the coveted RITA Award from Romance Writers of America, the HOLT Medallion, the Reviewer’s Choice Award from Romantic Times BOOKreviews magazine and the Daphne du Maurier Award for mystery/suspense. Irene and her husband make their home in Missouri, USA.

Find Irene Hannon online at:

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About Labyrinth of Lies

When the daughter of a high-profile businessman disappears from an exclusive girls’ boarding school, police detective Cate Reilly is tapped for an undercover assignment. It doesn’t take her long to realize that beneath the veneer of polish and wealth, things are not as they seem at Ivy Hill Academy. But the biggest surprise of all? The only man she ever loved is also working at the school.

Zeke Sloan has never forgotten Cate, but now isn’t the best time for their paths to cross again. When their two seemingly disparate agendas begin to intertwine–and startling connections emerge among the players–the danger escalates significantly. But who is the mastermind behind the elaborate ruse? And how far will they go to protect their house of cards?

Queen of romantic suspense Irene Hannon invites you to scale the heights of human folly and plumb the depths of the human heart in this second gripping book in the Triple Threat series.

Find Labyrinth of Lies online at:

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She felt something for him. Something that was inappropriate when she was dating his brother.

Book Review | Riverbend Gap (Riverbend Romance #1) by Denise Hunter

I’ve been reading Denise Hunter novels for a long time. A couple of her early novels were a little shaky, but then she found her groove as a writer and has produced consistently readable contemporary Christian romance with consistently likeable characters falling in love. Unfortunately, I didn’t think Riverbend Gap met the standards of her more recent novels.

That’s mostly because it’s an “other man” plot (not my favourite).

Katelyn (also called Katie and Kate) is dating one man (Gavin, a recent divorcee), but accidentally falls for his brother after he saves her life. Oops. To add to the complication, Katelyn is BFFs with their younger sister, Avery, who is also her boss.

Katelyn has moved to the small town of Riverbend Gap and taken the job as nurse in Avery’s medical practice because she wants to reconnect with the mother who abandoned her and her little brother when they were small children. The town is based on the Appalachian Trail, and a lot of townspeople rely on the tourist trade for their livelihoods.

So there is a lot of angst when news comes out that the trail has to be moved for six months to repair a bridge. In true Hallmark movie style, the townspeople decide to host a festival to bring people to the town and hopefully make up for some of the lost income. (As much as I thought this was a cliche, I wish the plot had included more about the festival – it ended up being such a minor plot point that it might have been better without it).

The story has a great opening.

Katelyn is spooked by a deer on the road and has an accident, and Connor saves her life. But it soon turns when it becomes clear that Connor is interested in Katelyn, but finds she’s dating his brother.

Honestly, this was the biggest sticking point for me. I know Katelyn was a foster child who has recently lost her younger brother (another reason she’s come to Riverbend Gap: to scatter his ashes). She longs for connection to a family. But dating Brother #1 while you’re secretly attracted to Brother #2? There is nothing good about that. There is no good way to present it, and the excellent writing and deep questions weren’t enough to change my mind.

And Katelyn keeps dating Gavin for months, long after she should have ended their relationship for both their sakes. Yes, it’s a romance so everything ends nicely, but the ending came too fast (meaning, not enough time between the inevitable awkward reveal and the final chapter for the characters to process all that had gone on), and I can’t say I find that emotionally satisfying as a reader.

Don’t get me wrong: I liked Katelyn. But I didn’t like what she was doing. I especially didn’t like the fact she wasn’t prepared to own up internally to what she was doing, much less do the right thing and stop dating Gavin.

But that’s me, because I don’t like the Other Woman/Other Man plot, because a perfectly nice person inevitably gets hurt. You may think differently.

This is the first book in a new series, and Connor is one of three siblings, so I suppose the next two stories will be Gavin and Avery getting their happy-ever-after endings. I don’t know if I care. There were too many cliches in this book, I didn’t like the way the characters behaved, and it ended on more of a yawn than a bang.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Denise Hunter

Denise HunterDenise Hunter is the internationally published bestselling author of more than 30 books, including “The Convenient Groom” and “A December Bride” which have been made into Hallmark movies. She has appeared on the The 700 club and won awards such as The Holt Medallion Award, The Carol Award, The Reader’s Choice Award, The Foreword Book of the Year Award, and is a RITA finalist.

Denise writes heartwarming, small-town love stories. Her readers enjoy the vicarious thrill of falling in love and the promise of a happily-ever-after sigh as they savor the final pages of her books.

In 1996, inspired by the death of her grandfather, Denise began her first book, writing while her children napped. Two years later it was published, and she’s been writing ever since. Her husband says he inspires all her romantic stories, but Denise insists a good imagination helps too!

When Denise isn’t orchestrating love lives on the written page, she enjoys traveling with her family, drinking good coffee, and playing drums. Denise makes her home in Indiana where she and her husband raised three boys and are currently enjoying an empty nest.

Find Denise Hunter online at:

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About Riverbend Gap

She came in search of the family she’d always wanted—and found the kind of love she’d never dared imagine.

When Katelyn Loveland’s car veered off a winding Appalachian Mountain road, she thought she was done for. That is until Cooper Robinson, local sheriff’s deputy, came to her rescue. And though Katie narrowly escaped her brush with death, she still fell. Hard.

She wasn’t the only one. But soon Cooper learns that the woman he’s more attracted to than any he’s ever met is his brother’s new girlfriend—and therefore unquestionably off limits. Yet, despite their best efforts, Cooper and Katie can’t seem to avoid running into each other. Or ignore the undeniable chemistry between them.

As they grow closer, Katie shares secrets from her past and the real reason she moved to their small North Carolina town. She also wins over Cooper’s welcoming and bighearted family. But they don’t know that her feelings for Cooper keep growing—all while she’s dating his brother. Soon the stakes of their emotional connection become higher than either could have imagined.

Katie stands to lose the first family she’s ever had, and a scandal could doom Cooper’s campaign for sheriff. Suddenly they find themselves on the edge of another precipice—and they’re forced to make a decision that could change their lives forever.

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We have jobs to do. We just do them. After the war, we'll have time to think about our experiences.

Book Review | A Picture of Hope by Liz Tolsma

Nellie Wilkerson is an American reporter based in London who wants to be able to cover the 1944 D-Day landings in Normandy. When her boss refuses, saying only male reporters can go, Nellie heads to Southampton, talks her way onto a hospital ship where she helps tend the multitude of wounded. She sneaks into France with her camera to find her story, and finds herself trapped behind enemy lines. She teams up with Jean-Paul, a member of the local resistance, to try and get back to Allied territory.

Jean-Paul’s father was German, a brute of a man, so Jean-Paul chose to stay in France with his (now dead) mother when his parents divorced. But he speaks the language well enough to pose as German when necessary. That’s something that comes in handy.

The two witness the Nazis burn a church, murdering all the townsfolk inside, and find a sole survivor – a girl with Down syndrome. The story therefore becomes their story of travelling across France towards Switzerland to escape the Nazis, in a kind of Sound of Music way.

The story was fast-paced, with plenty of action. The writing was good, but I didn’t find the plot as compelling as I have with some other fiction set around this time and place. It all seemed a bit contrived.

The research was excellent, and many of the most dramatic scenes were straight out of history.

But that was the problem: it felt as if the characters had been created and thrown into the plot simply to show these parts of history. I would have preferred more focus on the characters.

Overall, this was a solid novel, but not one I’d reread.

This novel is part of the Heroines of World War II series, in which each book is written by a different author and with a different setting. The only common factor is World War II, which means each story can be read as a standalone novel.

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

About Liz Tolsma

Liz TolsmaPassionate might best describe Liz Tolsma. She loves writing, research, and editing. Her passion shone through in her first novel which was a double award finalist. On any given day, you might find her pulling weeds in her perennial garden, walking her hyperactive dog, or curled up with a good book. Nothing means more to her than her family. She’s married her high-school sweetheart twenty-eight years ago. Get her talking about international adoption, and you might never get her to stop. She and her husband adopted three children, including a son who is a U.S. Marine, and two daughters.

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About A Picture of Hope

A Photojournalist Risks Her Life to Save a Very Special Child

Journalist Nellie Wilkerson has spent the bulk of the war in London, photographing mothers standing in milk lines—and she’s bored. She jumps at the chance to go to France, where the Allied forces recently landed. There she enlists Jean-Paul Breslau of the French underground to take her to the frontlines. On the journey, they stumble upon a great tragedy, leaving a girl with special needs being orphaned.

Can Nellie and Jean-Paul see the child to a safe haven while being pursued by the Nazis, who are pressed by the advancing Allies and determined to destroy all they can before they flee?

Full of intrigue, adventure, and romance, this series celebrates the unsung heroes—the heroines of WWII.

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