Dogwood Winter by Candace West

Book description from Amazon:

A Lukewarm Correspondence. A Tattered Reputation. Two hearts at Odds.

He is walking away while she is fighting to walk.

After a springtime swim, Ella Steen is stricken with a dire illness, leaving her without the use of her legs. Meanwhile, Dr. George Curtis, the man she secretly loves, faces ruin. For over a year, the crusty New York City bachelor and vivacious spinster have exchanged dozens of letters and formed a wary friendship.

Neither are willing to open their hearts completely. Until they face each other. The past looms between them, however. Does George still love another or is his heart completely free?

A trip to Valley Creek holds the answers. Instead, when George and Ella arrive, they encounter obstacles that force other truths to the surface. Is George brave enough to confront what he fled in New York? Can Ella confess why she hates dogwood winters? Will their hearts survive?

If only their pasts would keep out of the present.

My Review:

This is a beautiful story of Ella and George. I loved the way that the characters in this book are so real and respond to life’s challenges in ways that are very authentic. Themes like trust, vulnerability, heartache, and taking risks make this book really relatable. I enjoy stories that explore humanity and how real people might respond to particularly challenging events and grow through them. This book delivers that and more.

While this book is a standalone novel, I think I would have connected with the characters more quickly if I had read the first two books. It took me a few chapters to completely feel immersed in the characters and their lives. This feeling didn’t detract from the story, but I did feel a sense of trying to figure out the backstory of the characters, rather than enjoying what was happening in their lives now. As the story progressed and I got to know the characters, I wanted even more to know about the history of them.

If you love historical fiction, you will enjoy this book. It is inspiring, beautiful, and real. I enjoyed reading it very much!

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Freiheit! The White Rose Graphic Novel by Andrea Grosso Ciponte

Book Description (from Amazon):

The dramatic true story of a handful of students who resisted the Nazis and paid with their lives, now in a stunning graphic novel.

With an entire nation blindly following an evil leader, where did a handful of students find the courage to resist? The university students who formed the White Rose, an undercover resistance movement in Nazi Germany, knew that doing so could cost them their lives. But some things are worth dying for.

The White Rose printed and distributed leaflets to expose Nazi atrocities and wake up their fellow citizens. The Gestapo caught and executed them. Sophie Scholl was twenty-one; her brother Hans, twenty-four; Christoph Probst, twenty-three; Alexander Schmorell and Willi Graf, twenty-five.

But the White Rose was not silenced. Their heroism continues to inspire new generations of resisters. Now, for the first time, this story that has been celebrated in print and film can be experienced as a graphic novel. Italian artist Andrea Grosso Ciponte’s haunting imagery will resonate with today’s students and activists. The challenges they face may vary, but the need for young people to stand up against evil, whatever the cost, will remain.

My Review:

This is a beautiful book! It is a weighty hard cover with sturdy pages. I don’t typically write about the pages, but this book has a nice feel to the fingers while reading.

Andrea Grosso Ciponte does a great job exploring the people who were the White Rose movement members and their lives, both as part of the resistance movement and their personal lives. Reading about their families helps readers understand that they were real people who had people who loved them and risked everything for what they believed in.

At times, I felt like I had missed something or there was a gap in the storyline. However, I think that was due to the graphic novel nature of this book, rather than any shortfall of the author. What I enjoyed the most about the book was the illustrations. The muted colors and beautiful pictures really brought the story to life and helped readers to understand what was happening in history at that time.

This graphic novel is ideal for younger readers to learn about the White Rose movement. It isn’t a comprehensive text that overwhelms readers with details, but it does give a broad overview of what happened. It is a great way to engage younger readers in a medium that appeals to them.

The most difficult part to read was the end where there were drawings of the arrest photographs and execution reports, as well as the information that families were billed for the execution of their loved ones.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

365 Days Alone by Nancy Isaak

Book Description:

For fans of “The Hunger Games”, “The Maze Runner”, and “Lord of the Flies”–a gripping dystopian page-turner from the pen of Gemini-nominated writer, Nancy Isaak.
Like most American teenage girls, Kaylee and Jay have lived surrounded by technology, each moment of their lives recorded and shared across vast social networks. Their lives are relatively easy, with food in their fridges, clothes in their closets, and entertainment a mere remote control click away.Until one day, they wake up to find it all gone!

Overnight, their world has stopped working–cars, planes, electricity…even batteries. No more technology, no more social media, no more instant gratification.
And the worst thing…everyone has disappeared!
Parents, friends, schoolmates–all gone.
Now, it’s just two frightened teenage girls seemingly all alone–useless smartphones clutched in their hands–confused, scared, and completely unprepared to survive this strange new world.
Until–they arrive.
The girls with guns.

My Review:

I discovered this book at the beginning of summer and ended up purchasing the rest of the series. For me, this is an exceedingly rare thing. I love to read so much that I simply can not afford to buy every book that strikes my fancy. I read a lot of books from the library or promotional Kindle books, always searching for that one book that is so great that I simply HAVE to read the rest of the series. This book delivered! In fact I just started reading it again.

I appreciated the author’s desire to release all of the books in the series in a short amount of time, even though that didn’t really impact me because they were all available by the time I read them. What is most interesting is that the first two books can be read simultaneously or interchangeably. I thought it was a very clever way to structure the series. It doesn’t happen very often where the characters and the plot are equally compelling, but it happens in this book. The characters are introduced slowly and thoughtfully enough that readers are able to love (or hate) them. Kaylee and Jay’s new world is revealed in such an intentional way that readers don’t get bored with the plot and are invested in their story.

As noted in the Amazon description, fans of The Hunger Games or Lord of the Flies will enjoy this book. Although it is probably geared more for younger readers, I enjoyed it thoroughly and recommended it to my children to read. It is such a great story!

Dappled by Lisa Brown

Book Description:

Some people leave you forever changed. And maybe some wounds are just too big to heal. But Jane is coming to realise that confronting her past is the only hope she has of saving herself.

Jane has a skin condition, vitiligo, which makes her look a little different. But at least she’s become pretty skilled in the art of camouflage.

On the surface of things, Jane leads a good life. She’s a health professional with an active social life, who meets lots of handsome, successful men… they just tend to be all the wrong ones.

Perhaps it’s also because no one she meets will ever quite compare to who she once had.

Jane finds her mind frequently travels back to her younger years, back to when she lived in the coastal tree-lined town of Denmark in a timber cottage on stilts with her artistic mother, Colleen, who was beautiful, vibrant, larger than life – and deeply troubled.

She remembers the broken glass, mysterious cuts, and their isolation.

The storm cloud days.

But most vivid in Jane’s recollections is that kind and goofy, crinkle-beamed boy who made her feel warm inside, who somehow made it all better. Try as she might, he’ll always have a piece of her heart.

My Review:

This is one of the best books I’ve read so far this summer. I love the way that the author builds the story and characters a bit at a time so that readers are drawn into Jane’s world. Sometimes when there are so many different elements involved in a book, they are treated superficially, mentioned briefly, and not really developed. In this book, Brown gives us young love, physical disabilities, learning disabilities, mental illness, childhood trauma, self-love, unconditional love, family responsibility, and so much more, yet treats each theme with sensitivity and understanding.

I have to admit that I stayed up way too late to finish this book. I closed it up and tried to go to sleep at 2 in the morning, but couldn’t go to sleep because I kept worrying about Jane. I eventually realized that I wouldn’t be able to sleep, opened it back up, and read until I finished it at 4!

I personally enjoy books that are based in real life, rather than operating under the pressure to guarantee everyone a happy ending. I enjoy books that hurt your heart a little bit and this one delivers some heartache. I don’t want to say too much and spoil anything for anyone else, but be warned. You will probably laugh and cry, but that is good!

In the interest of a balanced review, I would like to add something negative about the book. I did not know until the end that there would be a second book coming out in late 2020. When I saw that, I immediately went to Amazon to see if “All Her Colours” was out yet and it wasn’t! I was hoping and praying that the end of June might be “late” 2020, although I knew it probably wasn’t. Now I’m so disappointed that I have to wait to read the sequel.

This is a very beautifully written book that delivers a little bit of everything. I highly recommend it!

The Separatists by Lis Wiehl

Book description:

After getting the green light from her network to launch an investigative news show, Erica flies to Bismarck, North Dakota, to investigate Take Back Our Homeland, the largest secessionist group. What she finds is profoundly disturbing – a growing threat to the future of our union.

Back home, her husband Greg is drinking more and talking less—and taking an unusual interest in the glamorous author Leslie Burke Wilson. Erica’s teenage daughter has also begun acting out in troubling ways.

Then she discovers a potential informant murdered in her Bismarck hotel. Take Back Our Homelandmight be even more dangerous than she had thought—and she’s unwittingly become one of the key players in the story. Her fear and anxiety escalate – for her marriage, her daughter, and her own life.

Bestselling novelist and former legal analyst for Fox News Lis Wiehl takes us behind the anchor’s desk in this gripping look at high-stakes reporting in a country torn apart.

My review:

It is very rare when I begin a book and do not finish it. Even if I have to put a book down and read another one, I always come back to the first book and give it the college try to read it. Sometimes it really pays off and the book ends up being really, really great! However, I just could not finish this book.

In the previous books in The Newsmakers series, it was clear to me that they were written with a liberal slant, but there was just too much bias within the first 50 or so pages for me to continue. I think authors have opinions about current events and topics that sometimes creep into their writing.  However, referring to “Trump Derangement Syndrome”, promoting a Michelle Obama book, and injecting her views on gun control was just too much.

I was rather disappointed because reading the description of this book struck me as the most interesting of all the Newsmakers books. I just couldn’t get past the political slant. However, I appreciate Wiehl taking on the topic of secessionists due to the fact that there are murmurings throughout various states about putting it on the ballot to leave the Union.

If you share the author’s political views or are able to overlook the references to liberal social views, you will probably enjoy this book. However, if you are looking for a story written with an impartial plot, this might not be the best choice.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Candidate by Lis Wiehl

Book description:

Mike Ortiz is a dynamic war hero favored to win the White House. Standing by his side is his glamorous and adoring wife, Celeste. But something about this seemingly perfect couple troubles Erica. Is Celeste really who she seems? And most importantly, what really happened in that squalid Al-Qaeda prison where Mike Ortiz spent nine months?

But more than the nation’s future is at stake. Erica’s relentless search for the truth puts the life of her preteen daughter Jenny in danger, even as Erica’s own dark past threatens to overtake her.

In her latest Newsmakers thriller, New York Times bestselling author and Fox News legal analyst Lis Wiehl weaves a taut and chilling story. The Candidate is packed with political intrigue and media manipulation as the lust for power turns deadly indeed.

My review:

I had read the first book in the Newsmakers series by Wiehl, so I was already familiar with her writing style. They are not books that readers can race through, but need to read for details and understanding. It took me awhile to get through The Newsmakers, so I anticipated that it would take me a bit of time to read this one.

There are clear similarities between this story and The Manchurian Candidate. It was pretty easy to understand the nuances in the relationship between Mike and Celeste early on. There were a couple of surprises toward the end of the book, that I thought made the ending go a bit more quickly, but overall this was not one of my favorite books.

If you are looking for a quick and easy read, this is not the book for you. However, if you enjoy a detailed read with a lot of nuances and connections to current events and politics, you will probably enjoy this book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Sweetbriar Cottage by Denise Hunter

Book description:

When Noah and Josephine discover their divorce was never actually finalized, their lives are turned upside down.

Following his divorce, Noah gave up his dream job and settled at a remote horse ranch in the Blue Ridge Mountains of northern Georgia, putting much-needed distance between himself and the former love of his life. But then Noah gets a letter from the IRS claiming he and Josephine are still married. When he confronts Josephine, they discover that she missed the final step in filing the paperwork and they are, in fact, still married.

Josephine is no happier about the news than Noah. Maybe the failed marriage—and botched divorce—was her fault, but her heart was shattered right alongside his, more than he would ever believe. The sooner they put this marriage behind them, the better for both of their sakes.

But when Josephine delivers the final paperwork to his ranch, the two become stranded in his cottage during the worst spring snowstorm in a decade. Being trapped with Josephine is a test of Noah’s endurance. He wrestles with resentment and an unmistakable pull to his wife—still beautiful, still brave, and still more intriguing than any woman he’s ever known.

As they find themselves confronted with each other and their shared past, old wounds surface and tempers flare. But when they are forced out into the storm, they must rely on each other in a way they never have before. Josephine finally opens up about her tragic past, and Noah realizes she’s never been loved unconditionally by anyone—including him. Will Noah accept the challenge to pursue Josephine’s heart? And can she finally find the courage to trust Noah?

My review:

This was a different take on the typical romance story. Noah and Josephine were married once and then thought they were divorced, even though they both still had feelings for one another. I enjoyed reading it because it was different than other stories I have read.

The biggest lesson in this book is that there is always hope for relationships. It was a little frustrating to read at parts because if Noah and Josephine had been honest with one another in the past, their relationship might not have deteriorated to the extent that it did. However, there is a lesson in that as well.

This was a super-quick read, as so many of Hunter’s books are. The characters are engaging and relatable, the setting is beautifully described, and the story keeps moving along at a perfect pace.

This story is perfect for an afternoon relaxing at home and enjoying a good book!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

You’ll Think of Me by Robin Lee Hatcher

Book description:

In a small town in Idaho’s idyllic wine country where the past looms large, can two people realize their individual dreams for the future . . . together?

Abandoned once too often, Brooklyn Meyers never intended to return to Thunder Creek, Idaho. Her hometown holds too many memories of heartache and rejection. But when her estranged husband Chad Hallston dies and leaves his family home and acreage to her and their ten-year-old daughter Alycia, it’s an opportunity to change their lives for the better—a chance Brooklyn can’t pass up, for Alycia’s sake if not her own.

Derek Johnson, Chad’s best friend since boyhood, isn’t keen on the return of Brooklyn Meyers to Thunder Creek. He still blames her for leading his friend astray. And now she has ruined his chance to buy the neighboring ten acres that would have allowed him to expand his organic farm. To add insult to injury, Chad’s dying request was that Derek become the father to Alycia that Chad never was. How can he keep that promise without also spending time with the girl’s mother?

Brought together by unexpected circumstances, Derek and Brooklyn must both confront challenges to their dreams and expectations. He must overcome long held misconceptions about Brooklyn, while she must learn to trust someone other than herself. And if they can do it, they just might discover that God has something better in mind than either of them ever imagined.

My review:

The thing about romance novels is that it is pretty clear very early on which characters are going to end up together. Due to the fact that the couple is pretty obvious, I always judge romance stories by the process by which the characters end up together.

I thought this was a nice take on the quintessential romance story. Brooklyn and Chad offer interesting characters with interesting conflicts. I thought the addition of Chad wanting to buy some of her property and her having specific plans for said property offered a bit of question and wondering how it would be resolved.

This story offered a nice lesson that people can make mistakes and redeem them, even from the grave at times. It is a quick read that would be perfect for an afternoon at the pool, on the beach, or in front of the fireplace.

If you enjoy light-hearted romances, this is an endearing choice.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Christmas at Carnton by Tamera Alexander

Book description:

Amid war and the fading dream of the Confederacy, a wounded soldier and a destitute widow discover the true meaning of Christmas – and of sacrificial love.

Recently widowed, Aletta Prescott struggles to hold life together for herself and her six-year old son. With the bank threatening to evict, she discovers an advertisement for the Women’s Relief Society auction and applies for a position – only to discover it’s been filled. Then a chance meeting with a wounded soldier offers another opportunity – and friendship. But can Aletta trust this man?

Captain Jake Winston, a revered Confederate sharpshooter, suffered a head wound at the Battle of Chickamauga. When doctors deliver their diagnosis, Jake fears losing not only his greatest skill but his very identity. As he heals, Jake is ordered to assist with a local Women’s Relief Society auction. He respectfully objects. Kowtowing to a bunch of “crinolines” isn’t his idea of soldiering. But orders are orders, and he soon discovers this group of ladies – one, in particular – is far more than he bargained for.

My review:

I love to read historical fiction because it is a great way to experience history in a way that connects us to the way that people of the time might have lived or the emotions they might have felt. There is also an educational component of historical fiction that gives readers the names and dates or battles or important locations in history.

It has been awhile since I have read a Civil War story, but as I read this one I was reminded of an important fact of the Civil War that Americans frequently seem to be unaware of. Most people identify the cause of the Civil War as divided opinions about slavery. While slavery was an important issue, the Civil War was ultimately fought over state’s rights. I appreciated the way that Alexander reminded readers of that fact while also reminding us of the hard lives of slaves.

I wish this book had been longer. Due to the fact that there was an excerpt of another novel and recipes at the end of the book, it felt like there was a lot more to read when all of a sudden, I was reading the epilogue. It was a nice ending and a complete story, but I thought that there could have been more to the story to how Jake and Aletta reached the epilogue.

I’m excited to try the recipes from the story. It is always nice when an author offers recipes that are featured in the story. It adds another dimension to experiencing the story that I always appreciate.

If you enjoy reading historical fiction from the Civil War period, this is a solid choice.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Crooked Path by Irma Joubert

Book description:

Lettie has always felt different from and overshadowed by the women around her– this friend is richer, that friend is more beautiful, those friends are closer. Still, she doesn’t let this hold her back. She works hard to apply her mind, trying to compensate for her perceived lack of beauty with diligent academic work and a successful career as a doctor. She learns to treasure her friendships, but she still wonders if any man will ever return her interest.

Marco’s experience in the second world war have robbed him of love and health. When winters in his native Italy prove dangerous to his health even after the war has ended, he moves to South Africa to be with his brother, husband to one of Lettie’s best friends. Marco is Lettie’s first patient, and their relationship grows as she aids him on the road back to restored health.

In the company of beloved characters from The Child of the River, Marco and Lettie find a happiness that neither of them thought possible. With that joy comes pain and loss, but Lettie learns that life—while perhaps a crooked path—is always a journey worth taking.

My review:

I didn’t realize that this book would incorporate characters from another Joubert book I had previously read, so it was a very pleasant surprise to visit with old friends. I was excited to read more about post-WWII South Africa and learn more about the people. While The Child of the River dealt more with legal issues and segregation in South Africa, this one included medical care. We take polio vaccine for granted, so it was so interesting to imagine a time in which polio was a terrifying disease.

I don’t always enjoy books in which the scene shifts from character to character because readers do not always get a complete picture of each character and it ends up being disappointing when reading about a different character after becoming acquainted with the first one. However, Joubert does a magnificent job of fully developing all of her characters. Perhaps it is because she was a teacher, but I always feel like I learn something from her books.

There were many unexpected twists and turns in this book. I love it when a book makes me say out loud, “Oh no” while I am reading it because something happens out of the blue that I don’t see coming.

I would love to read a novel where readers can learn more about Annabel and why she made some of the choices she did; it would be interesting to read about the role of women jounalists at that time.

I can’t wait to read the next book by Joubert; she is such an amazing storyteller. If you are looking for a quick read with intriguing characters, you will love this book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.