Review of The Last Bride by Beverly Lewis

The Last Bride is book 5 in the Home to Hickory Hollow series.  It's a familiar place with some new characters and some old friends.

Tessie Miller has seen her sisters marry and has been secretly courting Marcus King.  Secretly, because her father has forbade them to court for reasons unknown to anyone and has picked a different man for Tessie to marry.  It appears that her father did the same thing to Tessie's sister.

Tessie and Marcus go behind her father's back, to the English world, to elope.  They come back to the Amish to live separately and sneak to be with each other.  Then tragedy strikes and Tessie has hard choices to make.  

I loved this book.  I liked that it wasn't the usual Amish book.  It was more than two Amish people courting.  It was about the genetics of an almost closed Amish culture and how secrets can hurt people and relationships.  It was as always an excellent book from Beverly Lewis.

I received a complimentary copy from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for my honest review.

Review of A Shining Light by Judith Miller

Synopsis of A Shining Light by Judith Miller:

Andrea Wilson is a young wife and mother living in Baltimore.  She lives in a small apartment with her young son and husband, when he's not at sea.  The book begins with Andrea receiving the news that her husband has been lost at sea, although no body has been found.  With the little "pension" she receives she decides to move with her son to her father's farm in Iowa.

Once there she discovers that he perished in a fire that also burned the house down.  To make matters even more desperate she learns that her father had sold his farm to the Amana Colonies before his death but she is unable to locate the money he received from the sale.  Because her father didn't believe in banks she believes the money perished in the fire with him. 

With no money and no place to go, the people at the Amana Colonies invite her to live with them until she is able to make a decision about her future.  She is put to work in one of the kitchens and lives above it with the kitchen boss.  Her son makes friends with the tinsmith, Dirk Knefler, and soon a romance develops between Andrea and Dirk.

Then the unthinkable happens that turns Andrea's world upside down. 

Review:  I loved this book.  I am a fan of books about the Amana Colonies and books by Judith Miller.  The characters are well-developed and the plot is full of twists and turns.  I like that the two main characters acknowledge their interest in each other early on and don't have miscommunications about it. 

One thing I didn't care for was it was written in first person and broken up into different characters' viewpoints.  I got confused a few times about who was writing even though the sections are labeled.  I just get into a book and it's hard to reframe my thinking when somethings different.

I received a complimentary copy of A Shining Light by Judith Miller from Bethany House.  All opinions are my own.

Review: Where Courage Calls by Janette Oke and Laurel Oke Logan

Where Courage Calls is a novel written by mother/daughter team Janette Oke and Laurel Oke Logan. 

Beth Thatcher has spent her life so far living in wealth.  She decides to follow in her namesake Aunt's footsteps and move west to be a teacher.  When she arrives in the mining town of Coal Valley she is shocked to discover poverty beyond belief.  Coal Valley recently experienced the death of many miners after an explosion leaving widows and children struggling to survive on the meager pension given out by the mining company.  How Beth handles the hardships she finds is the heart of the story.  Even though Beth comes as a seemingly spoiled rich girl she learns quickly how to befriend and help the people in Coal Valley. 

I love all books by Janette Oke and this one did not disappoint me.  I like that the main character (Beth) was able to quickly make decisions about how to help the people or if she just needed to live with the way things are.  There is romance and suspense.  The book kind of resolved things in the end but left some hanging.  I hope there's a sequel.

I was given a complimentary copy to review by Bethany House Publishers.  I was not required to write a positive review.  My opinion is my own.