THE BRIDESMAID BY BEVERLY LEWIS

This is the second book in the series " Home To Hickory Hollow". A young Amish girl named Joanna Kurtz is reaching the age where she is soon to be considered an "Old Maid" and has dangerously attended too many weddings as a bridesmaid. She starts to think that she will never know the joy of having a husband and children of her own. Discouraged, she travel to another wedding that takes place in Shipshewana, Indiana where she is attracted to a young man named Eben Troyer. They fall in love after a whirlwind romance where she pledges her heart to Eben and he promises to come to Hickory Hollow to court her and meet her family. Eben banks this future with Joanna on the chance his estranged brother who left the Amish order for the Englisher life will return and take his place beside their father on the family farm. When his brother returns and Eben realizes he has no plans to stay he makes a trip to Hickory Hollow to break the news to Joanna that their dreams of a life together are over. Eben returns home and both he and Joanna try very hard to look to the future by courting others but neither can remove from their hearts the deep bond they have for each other. When they finally realize that their hearts can never belong to another Joanna resigns herself to becoming a spinster and Eben to running his father’s farm. Then something, happens because of a special someone and an wedding ring quilt from long ago that turns everything upside down and brings the worlds of Shipshewana and Hickory Hollow back into balance once again.

ALL THINGS NEW BY LYNN AUSTIN

I received "All Things New" through the early release giveaway. Although I thought there was something missing at the start of the story I enjoyed the rest very much, I felt that I was thrust into the story and that there should have been a little bit that focused on the war coming to a close prior to being in the scene with Josephine and Mary. There were several strong characters in this story and I felt that each one of them were equally given a developing place. Each character showed a different view of surviving the horror of a nation that fought against itself. Eugenia portrayed the typical southern attitude, strong and unwilling to bend, pride and desperation to cling to their way of life. Josephine portrayed a mixture of the old south mixed with the knowledge that things have changed and something needs to give in order to be able to face the future. Harrison a soldier who was fortunate to be alive but unfortunate to be wounded and left with the fact that he will never be able to be a "whole" man again. Mary the meek and obedient daughter who does exactly as she is told with no thoughts of her own. The doctor, who once being part of the high society life is thrust into a lower standing due to his mother's marriage to a man beneath her station. Daniel, the angry man who left as a boy to fight in the war only to return home to find nothing is the same and he doesn't quite know how to fix it. Alexander, the freed-man's bureau representative who thinking he can ease the guilt he feels for his part of the war tries to help the people in the south, both black and white, to rebuild their country. Otis, a slave who is ecstatic about the new freedom he has and is grabbing onto it with every part of his being and then there is my favorite character, Lizzie. the wife of Otis, and mother of three children, she desperately fights to embrace the new found freedom she has been given but so terrified that it is all a bad dream and it will all change in the blink of an eye. she tries hard to continue her service to the Weatherly family and at the same time yearn for a new start where her family is really free. Roselle, Lizzie's oldest child becomes a main focus at the end of the book which shocks everyone involved and changes the thinking of all of them. The ending I thought was perfect which showed how humans if willing can allow God's grace to penetrate their lives and change it for the better. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in seeing the different was people dealt with the devastation of the Civil war and the blessings that can come from letting go of the bitter past and stepping forward into a new beginning where "All Things are New".

THE DEPOSIT SLIP BY TODD JOHNSON

At the risk of loosing everything he has, Jared Neaton, a young lawyer, on the verge of bankruptcy takes on a case in which the only evidence he has is a worn old deposit slip and  the feeling deep in his gut that something isn't right. A deposit slip for 10 million dollars that seemed to just vanish into thin air. Money that doesn't exist except if this were true someone is going to an awful lot of trouble to conceal the transaction ever took place. With the decision to take on the case comes a trip back in time for Jared to his home town and a revisitation of old wounds and a time in his life he'd much rather forget. Can Jared find the evidence in time to avoid loosing everything? Can he stay alive long enough to prove he has what it takes to beat his old colleages? Read this exciting new thriller from a new author and find out.

TOUCHING THE SKY BY TRACIE PETERSON

Laura Marquardt's first encounter with the handsome Captain Brandon Reid left little to be desired. Despite the insults hurled at her by the brave Captain Laura finds herself drawn to this new man in town. Laura and Brandon find themselves both eager to support and educate the colored people that have come into their town. With the people of the South finding themselves licking their wounds from the loss of the war the harmony of the town she lives in doesn't share her passion. Laura's sister Carrisa, marries a Confederate soldier who uses her as a dirversion for  his true motives. After overhearing a disturbing conversation from Carrisa's beau  Laura fears for her sister's life and that of her own. Can she trust Brandon to protect her and Carrisa from this treacherous man?

PRIZE OF MY HEART BY LISA NORATO

I received the book, "Prize of My Heart",  through Bethany House Publishers in exchange for a review. i will have to say that the surprise factor was not just a one time thing in Lisa Norato's book. This story is about two people with secrets they are willing to fight to keep hidden, secrets that when made known turns everything upside down for one and into everything  wished for the other. All due to the presence of a small boy who's lost his family. There is one mystery after another that is revealed throughout this book making it a fulfilling story from beginning to end. i really enjoyed it.

THE BRIDE WORE BLUE BY MONA HODGSON

I received "The Bride Wore Blue," by Mona Hodgson from the "Early Giveaway" program on Librarything.com. I didn’t read the first book in the Sinclair Sister Trilogy so I wasn’t able to get the beginning of Vivian’s story but I did read "Too Rich for A Bride" about when her sisters came to Cripple Creek. Having siblings who so effortlessly seem to make all the right choices even though she didn’t, made me only want her to succeed on her own even more. The lives of Kate, Ida, and Nell were interesting but dulled in comparison to Vivian’s. After being humiliated by her beau and having her request to travel to Paris to be with her father rejected, Vivian carried with her a sense of low self worth. Coming to Colorado was not her idea of success. Vivian had to be able to show her sisters she was not coming to Cripple Creek to be "babysat" but to prove she was grown up. Vivian, being strong willed, wanted so much to prove herself capable and independent it just so happened that the way she achieved that got her into a lot of trouble. Her pride pushed her to refuse her sister's help in finding employment since this would only show she was indeed still the baby and needed looking after. By making the decision to hide her insecurities Vivian continued to move further and further away from the bond that her sisters wished to share with her. Hiding what she did from her sisters and even from the woman at the boarding house became easier with each lie. I totally enjoyed Vivian's story of struggles and adventures because I saw some of myself in her in my younger days of making fool hearty choices. She was Feisty, proud and stubborn and yet so venerable. I do wish that Vivian and Carter’s relationship would have developed slower allowing me to experience some happier moments for her. All in all I gave the book four stars out of five because I really did like the difference of the rebellious independent sister who brought excitement to Cripple Creek, turning everyone's life upside down. I think in the end they all realized that they didn’t know Vivian as well as they thought they did which taught them to pay a bit closer attention to what lies between the lines.

THE FIDDLER BY BEVERLY LEWIS

I received this copy of "The Fiddler" by Beverly Lewis, from the Early Release giveaway and enjoyed it very much. The author did an excellent job of making the characters in the book one's you could relate to. It leaves you with the age-old question of "When two people who just meet, fall in love is that an  accident or is it fate"? Is it just pure accident when a wrong turn leads Amelia Devries down the very road where a young Amish man by the name of Michael Hostetler lives?  Or could it be fate? Amelia a young Englisher whose career as a concert violinist holds more promise than she could ever dream, begins searching for something different. In secret she starts playing a fiddle in out of the way places known only as Amy. After one of her shows during a heavy rainstorm she looses her way and winds up in front of Michael's house where that something different starts to take a deep hold on her very being. Michael, who has left the Order but still keeps some of the Amish traditions falls hard for Amelia. The differences in the way they live makes a possible relationship not something within their grasp or so it seems. The way that the author pulls the souls of each character into a common place makes love between two people who couldn't be more different become a love that welds so beautifully into one.