Monday Memes

Mailbox Monday is hosted this month by The Bluestocking Guide and is where book bloggers gather to share what showed up in their mailboxes this week, whether those mailboxes received email or snail mail.

Snail Mail: 
As the rest of the nation is embroiled in Civil War, the Amana Colonies remain peaceful. Amalie Wiesearrives in the newly built village of Amana in 1863only to find that her betrothed, Friedrich, has left to fight with the Union army. Amalie tries to overcomeher worries as she sets up a communal kitchen. Shehopes that working alongside Friedrich’s best friendwill provide some comfort, but Matthias is abruptand cold.Little does Amalie know that Matthias has been inlove with her since childhood but will not betray Friedrich by pursuing her friendship. When Matthias himself leaves for the battlefront to deliver suppliesto the soldiers, war wages in Amalie’s own heart. Willlove claim victory?

NetGalley downloads 

Only Yours (Hqn)

Montana Hendrix has found her calling—working with therapy dogs. With a career she loves in a hometown she adores, she’s finally ready to look for her own happily ever after. Could one of her dogs help her find Mr. Right… or maybe Dr. Right?

Surgeon Simon Bradley prefers the sterility of the hospital to the messiness of real life, especially when real life includes an accident-prone mutt and a woman whose kisses make him want what he knows he can’t have. Scarred since childhood, he avoids emotional entanglement by moving from place to place to heal children who need his skillful touch. Can his growing feelings for Montana lead him to find a home in Fool’s Gold, or will he walk away, taking her broken heart with him?

In this first book of a three-book series, author Vannetta Chapman brings a fresh twist to the popular Amish fiction genre. She blends the familiar components consumers love in Amish books---faith, community, simplicity, family---with an innovative who-done-it plot that keeps readers guessing right up to the last stitch in the quilt. When two women---one Amish, one English---each with different motives, join forces to organize a successful on-line quilt auction, neither expects nor wants a friendship. As different as night and day, Deborah and Callie are uneasy partners who simply want to make the best of a temporary situation. But a murder, a surprising prime suspect, a stubborn detective, and the town's reaction throw the two women together, and they form an unlikely alliance to solve a mystery and catch a killer. Set in the well-known Amish community of Shipshewana, Falling to Pieces will attract both devoted fans of the rapidly-growing Amish fiction genre, as well as those who are captivated by the Amish way of life.

After a barn raising accident, Judith Fischer's convinced she's met an angel. However, her attempts to convince others end up frustrating her Old-Order Amish community. Only Andrew Lapp believes her, but the rest, including Levi Plank, the man's she's waited to marry, demand she forget the nonsense. Meanwhile, her younger sister Martha has taken a fancy to Levi and sees her sister's controversy as a perfect distraction for turning Levi's head.

In a dream, the angel tells Judith she must choose her path. As her faith continues to grow, so do her feelings for Andrew. Will she continue to place her hope in the angel's message, even if it means losing all she knows and loves?

A wealthy businessman travels to Fairbanks, Alaska, to learn why his mother abandoned him when he was a child, and in the process learns that not everything is as it appears to be.

The Encounter, the unique new book from best-selling author and counselor Stephen Arterburn, is a moving parable involving Jonathan Rush, a wealthy and famous entrepreneur, who is tortured by bitterness toward his mother who abandoned him when he was four. He travels to Alaska to find her but instead meets an enigmatic old woman known only as Mercy. Mercy has the information he needs but is strangely reluctant to talk to him. Somehow Jonathan must find a way to persuade a frightened woman to unlock the secrets of his past.

The book includes an invitation to the readers to verify the facts of their own stories, to accept the reality of their existence, especially the most painful ones, and to live in forgiveness. The end result is a healthy new way to look at life with an ability to share hope with others for the future. Healing is possible but requires truth, acceptance, and forgiveness, including of oneself.

Ada Wentworth, a young Bostonian, journeys to Hickory Ridge, Tennessee, in the years following the Civil War. Alone and nearly penniless following a broken engagement, Ada accepts a position as a lady's companion to the elderly Lillian Willis, a pillar of the community and aunt to the local lumber mill owner, Wyatt Caldwell. Ada intends to use her millinery skills to establish a hat shop and secure her future.

Haunted by unanswered questions from her life in Boston, Ada is most drawn to two townsfolks: Wyatt, a Texan with big plans of his own, and Sophie, a mulatto girl who resides at the Hickory Ridge orphanage. Ada's friendship with Sophia attracts the attention of a group of locals seeking to displace the residents of Two Creeks, a "colored" settlement on the edge of town. As tensions rise, Ada is threatened but refuses to abandon her plan to help the girl.

When Lillian dies, Ada is left without employment or a place to call home. And since Wyatt's primary purpose for staying in Hickory Ridge was to watch over his aunt, he can now pursue his dream of owning Longhorns in his home state of Texas.  With their feelings for each other growing, Ada must decide whether she can trust God with her future and Wyatt with her heart.

In the harsh wilderness of colonial Massachusetts, Martha Allen works as a servant in her cousin's household, taking charge and locking wills with everyone. Thomas Carrier labors for the family and is known both for his immense strength and size and his mysterious past. The two begin a courtship that suits their independent natures, with Thomas slowly revealing the story of the role he played in the English Civil War. But in the rugged new world they inhabit, danger is ever present, whether it be from the assassins sent from London to kill the executioner of Charles I or the wolves-in many forms-who hunt for blood. At once a love story and a tale of courage, The Traitor's Wife confirms Kathleen Kent's ability to craft powerful stories from the dramatic background of America's earliest days. 

 From bestselling author Jane Kirkpatrick comes this relational story about a close-knit group of five women and their pursuit of life goals. You'll be encouraged and entertained! In the tradition of Neta Jackson's Yada Yada Prayer Group series, Kirkpatrick invites you into the lives of five women friends who promise to help each other achieve their life goals. Annie Shaw's goal is far from simple: become famous. But she's in trouble after quitting her day job to write full-time. Her second novel tanked, and her new editor wants her to re-write the ending of her latest work to ensure this one is more successful. In order to pursue fame and an elusive bestseller, Annie travels to Chicago, acquires a rambunctious dog, and participates in antics better suited to a television reality show than real life. Can Annie's best friends help her achieve her goals without destroying her future? Award-winning author Jane Kirkpatrick, known for her superb historical novels, writes this bold, fresh, contemporary story she always threatened she'd one day 'put down on paper to make people laugh and consider the true treasures of their hearts.'

Meredith Martin Delinn just lost everything: her friends, her homes, her social standing - because her husband Freddy cheated rich investors out of billions of dollars.

Desperate and facing homelessness, Meredith receives a call from her old best friend, Constance Flute. Connie's had recent worries of her own, and the two depart for a summer on Nantucket in an attempt to heal. But the island can't offer complete escape, and they're plagued by new and old troubles alike. When Connie's brother Toby - Meredith's high school boyfriend - arrives, Meredith must reconcile the differences between the life she is leading and the life she could have had. Set against the backdrop of a Nantucket summer, Elin Hilderbrand delivers a suspenseful story of the power of friendship, the pull of love, and the beauty of forgiveness.

A forty-something widower and a young divorcée decide to give love a second chance--but will their respective families and obligations keep them apart? When Louis, a seductive forty-something musician searching for true love, meets France, a young divorcée who immediately falls in love with him, everything seems simple. However, although Louis Neville is a widower, he still has to contend with his son Frédéric, a troubled adolescent, and his own twin sister Alix, who, not content with simply attempting to run her brother's career, also tries to meddle in his private life. What's more, France happens to be Frédéric's French professor and the mother of a boy he hates--inevitably, things quickly become problematic for Louis and France. It will take all of France's stubbornness and a little help from fate to allow her to finally win over the love of her life. With characteristic ease, Françoise Bourdin explores two very timely themes: the difficulties of starting over at age forty and the day-to-day worries that arise from joining two separate families.

Amazon Freebies (which I may actually read someday)

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It's Monday, What Are You Reading is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.  She asks what we read or reviewed this week and what we plan to read next week.

This week I finished:
 Well written romance.  To be reviewed soon



Travel to Plain City, Ohio, to witness the Mennonite and English culture clash. As Katy Yoder accepts a new job and struggles to define her place in the world, childhood friends and a past romance get in the way. Even when her friends try to help her change her judgmental attitude, Katy is certain that seeing things as black and white is the only way to please God. But as love softens her heart, slowly shades of gray seep into her world, and she discovers the right answer isn’t always the easiest one.


DNF:  Just didn't grab me and I have too many books in the tbr stack to stick with ones that don't grab me.  I think the heroine was kind of young for my tastes, more of a YA book than anything.


After her fiancé calls off their wedding, Brooke Clayton has nowhere to go but home.
If she can survive in the tiny Colorado town for a year, she'll fulfill the odd terms of her estranged grandfather's will. Turns out the wealthy businessman next door, handsome single father Gabe Wesson, needs a nanny for his sweet toddler—and Brooke needs a job. But Gabe sees Brooke as a reminder of the young wife he lost. Given their pasts, do they dare hope to fit together as a family…forever?


Basic Harlequin romance, the Christian version.  He's always praying and considering God's will.  They participate in stuff at church and he's glad to learn that she's a Christian.  A little over-the-top on the religious stuff and over all the writing and story is mediocre.  


 

For the genre, not a bad book.  Will be reviewed later.

 

A bit of a disappointment.  To be reviewed.

Duty is his world. And upon seeing Sadie Price with twin girls, marine Rick Pruitt realizes he has some proposing to do. He never would have left Royal, Texas, if he'd known Sadie was carrying his babies.

Yet the feisty single mom has no intention of agreeing to a loveless marriage. True, she and Rick share a bond, as well as undeniable passion. But Sadie believes vows should last a lifetime, not be declared out of obligation. Making it Rick's new mission to change her mind….

After reading the book I understood that these two were physically attracted to each other.  What I didn't understand is why (or even if) they loved each other.  There was no character development at all.  

Reviews published this week:

 My review.

 My review.

 My Review

 My review.

 My Review

 My review.