Forever Yours

I received a copy of Forever Yours by Andrea Boeshaar, Gina Fields, Joyce Livingston, Kim O'Brien and Kathleen Y'Barbo from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Enjoy the rollercoaster ride five modern couples take on the road that leads them back into a love that was meant to be. The ex-wife reads his work of fiction for an eye-opening revelation. The missing fiancée is returned to her home. A desperate wife gets one last Christmas with her husband before they divorce. The busy housewife wakes up to the drift occurring in her marriage. The low-key mom suddenly encounters her son's high-profile dad.

This was a good book of short stories.  I really liked how each woman was able to overcome and find her true self along with the love she so wanted.   It reminded me that love is hard work but also worth it in the end.

Someday Home

I received a copy of Someday Home by Laruaine Snelling from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The sprawling lake home Lynn Lundberg built with her husband has been an epicenter of joyful family life, from summer holidays spent around the water, to cookies baked in the kitchen with grandchildren in the fall. But since her husband's sudden passing two years ago, Lynn has been lost in the grief and solitude she feels without him at home. She doesn't want to sell the big family place, but she can't exist there on her own much longer.

After hearing of a new way of living--where single women share responsibilities as housemates--Lynn thinks she's found the answer to her prayers. Soon she meets two ladies with whom she could begin this journey. Angela Bishop, a successful real estate agent accustomed to the finer things in life, has just been jilted by her husband of twenty-five-years. Judith Rutherford, who has devoted her adulthood to caring for her ailing father, must leave the only home she's known now that he has passed.

These three women seek a place to grieve, to laugh, and to be renewed. But coming from such differing circumstances, will the new challenges they face undo their plans? Or will they begin a friendship to see them through the years to come in this SOMEDAY HOME?

This was a a really good book.  I liked how the three women dealt with their own issues and were still able to learn to live together.  They each had unrealized dreams that until they got together didn't know they could come true.  Living in the same house taught them each more about themselves than they ever thought.

In Your Embrace

I received a copy of In Your Embrace by Amy Miles from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
A man without hope. A woman with a grave diagnosis. A man weighed down by tremendous guilt. Each will learn that all things happen for a reason...even when it costs them everything. How would you find the faith to carry on? Life has not been kind to Timothy Lewis these past few years. With the sudden loss of his first love and a construction business barely staying afloat during the recession, Timothy will be the first to admit that faith isn’t exactly at the top of his priority list. When a direct hit from a hurricane rocks the Outer Banks, Timothy is forced to face not only the demons of his past but also a potential of a future that leaves him terrified. Hannah Green has a big heart and that tends to get her in trouble far more than she’d like to admit. After her aunt and uncle offer her free room and board for the summer at their fixer upper bed and breakfast on the beach, Hannah finds herself caught in the mother of all storms. The devastation left in the wake of the hurricane rocks her world, leaving her faith and health in the balance. Draven Young hates coming back home. There are too many bad memories, too little to do and far too many ex-girlfriends who would like to get their hands on him. When his father forces him to do some community service at the local hospital or risk losing his monthly allowance, Draven will discover that although terrible things happen to good people, there is a reason for everything.
Such a good book!  Three lost people looking for something..what they really don't know.  Hannah has been told what to do by her parents all her life.  When she has the chance to help her aunt and uncle with their fixer upper bed and breakfast she jumps on it.  Timothy has lost everything he loves.  When he meets Hannah and sees how she jumps to help everyone he's amazed.  Draven has been trying to drink away the guilt, but no matter how hard he tries it doesn't work.  Can God bring these three lost people together to help them each find what they're looking for?

The Cactus Creek Challenge

I received a copy of The Cactus Creek Challenge by Erica Vetsch from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Anything he can do, I can do better. At least that was what Cassie Bucknell thought before she pinned on Ben Wilder's badge and took to patrolling the streets of Cactus Creek, Texas. Cassie has been in love with Ben since primer school, but Ben treats her like a little sister. When they are picked to swap jobs for a month as part of the annual Cactus Creek Challenge in their Texas hometown, the schoolhouse is thrown into an uproar, the jail becomes a temporary bank vault, and Cassie and Ben square off in a battle of wills that becomes a battle for their hearts.

I normally don't like books set in the 1800's but this was a really good book.  I think it had a lot to do with the main men characters were very supportive of women changing places and proving themselves as able to do 'men's work'.  The Cactus Creek Challenge in the past has been about men switching jobs for a month and seeing who could do the job the best.  This year the challenge had been changed up a bit.  2 men and 2 women were chosen to switch places with each other.  Cassie Bucknell, the town teacher, and Ben Wilder, the town Sherif, trade places along with Carl Gustafson, the livery stable owner, and Jenny Hart the bakery owner.  Can the each make it through the month without making a fool of themselves?

Married 'til Monday

I received a copy of Married 'til Monday by Denise Hunter from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

With a big anniversary party in the works for her parents, Ryan will pretend to be Abby's husband for just one last weekend.

Ryan McKinley has tried to move on from his ex-wife, Abby. He’s sulked, he’s gotten angry, and ultimately he bought her dream house. Big mistake. Living alone in the massive 2-story has only made him miss her more. When her parents call him out of the blue about their anniversary party in Summer Harbor, Maine, Ryan believes God has dropped a golden opportunity straight in his lap.

Abby McKinley never exactly told her parents about the divorce. A strained relationship with her dad has culminated in a distant relationship with her parents, but she’s finally succumbed to her mom’s pressure to make the drive for their 35th-anniversary party.

Then Ryan shows up on her doorstep, looking as devastatingly handsome as ever. When he insists he’s going to Seabrook, with or without her, Abby knows she can’t say no. Her parents still think they’re married and now Ryan knows it too. Besides, he only wants to check in with his best friend from college—her cousin Beau, who just lost his dad. It’s just a one-week road-trip with the man who broke her heart. What could possibly go wrong?

This was a great book.  I was disappointed to find out this is the 4th book in the Chapel Springs Romance series and I haven't read the first two books.  Denise Hunter does a great job of telling the story from both Ryan and Abby's point of view.  How could two people love each other so much but not be able to make their marriage work?  I was really glad to find out that Abby finally was able to let other people know about her past and get help to work through her pain.

Jaded

I just finished Jaded by Verina Denman the first book it the Mended Heart Series.

As a child, Ruthie was shunned by the local congregation. Thirteen years later, Ruthie’s heart begins to stir when an attractive single preacher arrives. But their relationship is bitterly opposed—unearthing a string of secrets which threaten to turn the church, the town, and her world upside-down.

Jaded is the rare novel that is both love story between a woman and man ... and God and His church. Plunging deep into the waters of shame, forgiveness and restoration, it will resonate with every woman who’s experienced a loss of heart ... and a thirst for hope.

This is a really good book.  Ruthie is born and raised in Trapp a small town in West Texas.  Like all small towns news travels fast.  When the town's new minister, Dodd Cummingham, moves to town everyone starts talking.  Not only is he younger and expected he moves in with his mom and younger brother.  Ruthie catches is eye from the beginning and the more she sees him the less she wants to.  Ruthie's family has been shunned from the church and most everyone in the town.  She's been ignored and talked about behind her back so much she has a negative attitude about everything.  Dodd befriends Ruthie's cousin JohnScott and soon has him baptized.  This puts a huge strain on Ruthie and JohnScott's relationship.  Will exposing the town's secrets bring the town together or break it more apart?

Murder Freshly Baked

I received a copy of Murder Freshly Baked by Vannetta Chapman from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When delicious baked goods become lethal, a trail of poetry leads to sweet-toothed killer.


Don’t taste it
Don’t share it
Just throw it away
If you try my bakery pie
You won’t live to see another day

The Amish Artisan Village of Middlebury, Indiana, might be the last place you would ever expect to find a murderer, but Amber has been managing the Village for decades, and there’s nothing she hasn’t seen. Or so she thought.

When poetic notes begin appearing around the bakery, warning that some of the pies have been poisoned, Amber is as confused as she is concerned. Who poisons pies? And more to the point, who leaves poems of warning after they’ve done it? When Amber decides to help the police track down the sweet-toothed saboteur, she enlists the young Hannah Troyer for another round of Amish-style detective work.

Meanwhile, an attractive, older Englischer is preying on the single women of the Village, dating several of them at a time and generally alarming everyone who cares about the Amish girls’ hearts. It’s going to be a long summer in Middlebury.

Can Amber and Hannah help the police before the Poison Poet strikes a target? Both women will need to draw on their faith to preserve the peaceful community they’ve built in Middlebury . . . and protect the hearts and health of the girls who work in the Amish Artisan Village.

This is the 3rd book in An Amish Village Mystery series.  Amber is once again pulled into a mystery at the Amish village that she manages.  This time a murder isn't what starts out the strange happenings.  Bad poetry and tainted pies are what are being found in the village shops.  Amber gets emails, from the 'pastry poet' as he/she becomes known, and is told to humble herself in front of the village.  Can Amber and her partners in solving crimes, Hannah, Pam and Tate help to find the guilty party before someone gets hurt?