The Falcon and the Sparrow

The Falcon and the Sparrow by M.L. Tyndall
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Loved it! Mary Lu Tyndall writes books the way I like them. Darn near perfection in my mind. I read this book in a single day it was that good.

Again, cheesy book cover but she has no control over that one, so no fault there Mary Lu! Glad they are improving her covers these days.

View all my reviews

Forsaken Dreams (Escape to Paradise #1)

Forsaken Dreams by M.L. Tyndall
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really liked this book though it seemed a little different than her other books. I liked all of the characters, even down to the "bad guy" who was just straight CREEPY!

This book really was about escaping. These war-exhausted southerners are ready to leave their roots in the south after the civil war. They seek to start a new colony in Brazil where they can start fresh and away from the Union.

Ms. Tyndall is a talented author (my favorite) but this book really shows her growth I think. It's beautifully written, it was seamless to me.

As always, I love her journey into faith for the characters, though the journey for each of them was not quite as powerful as I have read in some of her other books. But that did not take away from it at all.

I am so very excited to read more in this series and see what lies ahead in Brazil!



View all my reviews

The Restitution

The Restitution by M.L. Tyndall
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I forgot to mark that I finished this book, I've been so busy I haven't picked up a book other than the Bible in a few weeks.

I don't remember all the detail of this book but I know I loved every second of this pirating adventure written by MaryLu Tyndall. I think there is only one book I have left of hers to read and then I can say I've read every one. By far, she is my favorite author.

Her amazing ability to combine real life emotions, battles, adventure, and Christianity into one fantastic book makes her undeniably talented. I look forward to keep reading her books as she publishes them!

View all my reviews

Highlander Most Wanted (The Montgomerys and Armstrongs #2)

Highlander Most Wanted by Maya Banks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked this one, but not as much as the first. It's a sad story of an abused woman who is rescued by a handsome Scot. It was sweet and intense like the first book, but didn't quite have "it", whatever "it" is. Good read though.

View all my reviews

Surrender the Dawn (Surrender to Destiny #3)

Surrender the Dawn by M.L. Tyndall
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I will never tire of reading her books. I cannot say enough how fun, adventurous, and romantic they are! The spirituality of these books make them that much better. Books you can totally feel good about reading.

This was the final book in this series and it wrapped up nicely. All of the books are loosely connected and this and the book preceding it are definitely tied together during a particular event.

This was so, so good. Can't wait to read every single book she publishes!



View all my reviews

Surrender the Night (Surrender to Destiny, #2)

Surrender the Night by M.L. Tyndall
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another fantastic book by MaryLu Tyndall. The very first book of hers I read was the first book in this series, Surrender the Heart. Unfortunately, The county library didn't have the rest of the series so I nearly forgot there was more. Yes, I could have bought the book but I contacted the library to see if they could purchase the final two books to complete the series and they did! Now other readers in the area can be blessed to read the complete Surrender to Destiny series.

Her books are fantastic. She sure knows how to write an excellent historic, faith based, romance. While this book was not a sea faring adventures like so many others, there was a strong connection to the water once again. I loved the quick interaction with Dolly Madison, the first lady at the time. Great stuff.

View all my reviews

Love's Reckoning (The Ballantyne Legacy #1)

Love's Reckoning by Laura Frantz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Honestly I struggled with this book a little bit in the beginning. I just couldn't connect with the language or the story, I have no idea why. However a quarter of the way through the book I was hooked except for one little thing...

I have a family member struggling with a past and when something heart breaking happened in this book that reminded me of this person, it hit me really hard and I had to let the book sit for a while. It disturbed me and made me so sad and ask, "why did this have to be in the book? Why does such evil have to happen to people?" I'm not sure I felt the book dealt with it well, but it was the late 1700's and those things were not discussed.

I am glad I picked the book back up and was able to finish reading what ended up being a gloriously happy ending.

View all my reviews

Never Seduce a Scot

Never Seduce a Scot by Maya Banks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Good and enjoyable read. Title doesn't match the book though. The title might lead one to believe its your typical cheesy romance, but it's not. I was pleasantly surprised by it's plot and look forward to reading more by this author.

View all my reviews

Blue Moon Promise

Blue Moon Promise by Colleen Coble
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sweet Christian romance read. Maybe more like 3.5 stars but it's a good, clean read so I'll give it 4 stars.

View all my reviews

To Whisper Her Name

To Whisper Her Name by Tamera Alexander
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really sweet, endearing Christian love story set in post civil-war Tennessee. I felt the first quarter of the book was boring but it picked up from there and was a very enjoyable read.

View all my reviews

Central Park Rendezvous

Central Park Rendezvous by Ronie Kendig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Easily the best four-author book I've ever read. The stories were of four generations of the Wolfe family, each written by an incredibly talented Christian fiction author. Each of the men and women were a part of a war, from the war in Afghanistan to the Civil War. All of the stories are tied together by a coin which is inscribed with "Love Never Fails". There is more meaning to the saying than just romance, it also speaks of God's love never failing too.

MaryLu Tyndall is the author for the Civil War story and she is one of my favorite authors, but this book has led me to discover the wonderful talent of the other authors as well. I'm looking forward to reading other works by these lovely ladies!

View all my reviews

Winter of the World (The Century Trilogy #2)

Winter of the World by Ken Follett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Not quite as gripping as the first in the series, but still amazing!

This book is primarily about the children of the characters from the first book. This book felt more scientific and historic and a little less dramatic and was primarily about WWII. I still learned a lot, though I do not rely on it to be perfectly accurate! It's enough to quench my thirst for history.

View all my reviews

Redeeming Love

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What an amazing book. It was sad, it was beautiful, it was haunting, it was lovely. It was powerful !

This brings love and forgiveness to a level that not many people would possibly consider these days. To be broken in so many ways, body and soul, unable to see that there is a higher power who can cleanse you entirely. To go through hell and think you cannot be loved and be told again and again that there is One who can cleanse you, love you, cherish you. Trying to find a purpose in life when all you have to do is believe. It may take time, it may be hard, but in the end, there will be peace.

There were times I would get a little irritated with the dialogue, but it was minor. The ending was moving and brought me to tears. I even loved the authors note at the end. I was very happy to read that finding Christ for her was not a mountain top experience, but a journey.

View all my reviews

All The Way Home

All the Way Home by Ann Tatlock
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Overall the story (stories) were decent. It felt like two books, almost like it could have been a series, but it was a two part book. The first half of the book took place with the two main characters as children living in southern California leading up to and during WWII. Sunny is a second generation Japanese American who has an incredibly loving and supportive family who feel they are as American as anyone else. Augie comes from a broken family and quickly comes to love Sunny's family when they quickly become best friends.

World War II erupts and Sunny's family is forced to leave their lives behind to live in Japanese internment camps. Augie is devastated as she had become so much a part of Sunny's family, she even thinks of herself as Japanese at heart.

Augie and Sunny's family lose contact and Auguie thinks they have abandoned her and is devastated by what she sees as betrayal.

Fast forward twenty something years and Sunny, now Helen, finds Augie and invites her to her home to write a magazine article about anti-civil rights Mississippi. Augie is shocked to learn that the invitation to Mississippi is from her childhood best friend; there is a weird twist there I won't spoil.

Augie is there to write a story about a school that prepares African Americans to register to vote. She meets a really great guy...blah blah blah, he turns out to be something completely different than she thought...blah, blah, blah...the KKK are everywhere, they are bad, horrible people. I do not mean to demean what happened there, it's disgusting, but the story dragged on too much for me to read every fine detail.

The second part started out good, but then I just lost interest. It could have been shortened substantially. I skimmed over many pages just trying to get to the end quickly.

Great basis for a story, just not as interesting as I think it could have been. And have I mentioned how much I HATE reading accents? It is one of the more annoying parts of this book.

View all my reviews

Short-Straw Bride

Short-Straw Bride by Karen Witemeyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cute and clean Christian romance set in the late 1800's Texas. Fun, sweet story with cowboys, love, and faith in the Almighty.

View all my reviews

Fall of Giants (Century Trilogy #1)

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Holy cow. By far the best book I have ever read and I hear it’s not his best!! I am hooked on this guys writing. It's a 985 page, hard back book...very heave to carry around.

The main characters are from Wales, Russia, Germany, and The United States of America. They come from different classes in life, from always hungry thieves to overindulgent earls. Most of their paths cross at some point or another, either before World War 1 starts or during the war itself. Each person is very passionate about the war whether for or against it. In common they all have a fear of what the war will bring them, or worse, take away from them.

The main characters are fictional but they interact with real historical figures, like Woodrow Wilson, Josef Lenin, and Winston Churchill to name a few. The author explains at the end of the book that the interaction may have been fictional, but what the real historical figures said was in fact something they actually did speak or write about.

I can see how this book could anger some people. I don't know whether the book was biased in any way, I will admit I am not as well informed about worldly topics such as World War 1. But the author seemed to have a stereotype for each of the character's home country. Like Russians as alcoholics, thieves, and communists. Germans as hard headed louts, English as pompous aristocrats, and Americans as self ascribed domineering world police. I think there is a bit of truth to each of the descriptions, but there are truly a lot of well intentioned people in the book too.

I learned so much from this book. What I mean is that I found myself putting the book down and looking up more information on my iPad about World War 1. I had no idea what started WW1. I had no idea that Germany and Austria-Hungary were diminished to mere blips on the map after the peace treaty. I feel a bit ashamed that I knew so little about it, but I do know a lot more now. The very basics at least.

His next book, Winter of the World, takes place with the children of the main characters of this book. It sounds like the lead up to World War II. I really look forward to reading it but I need a light reading break in between. It's a huge book; my little wrists need a break!


View all my reviews

Veil of Pearls

Veil of Pearls by M.L. Tyndall
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have been wanting to read this for so long and it was worth the wait. This was an excellent book! Taking place in 1800's Charleston, SC, it had a lot to do with slavery. A hard subject to tackle but Ms. Tyndall handled and delivered it with grace.

As with most, if not all, of her books, many lessons were learned and souls were changed by accepting the Lord as their savior. Of course there was an incredibly sweet romance plot that I think may be one of my favorites. It was a hard one to read, thinking about how the southern culture existed before slavery was abolished, but like I said, she did a great job with this book!

View all my reviews

The Doctor's Lady

The Doctor's Lady by Jody Hedlund
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed the story and was tickled to read this book was loosely based on the travels of the the Whitman's, a married missionary couple heading west in 1836. The route they took would later become the Oregon Trail. The historical portrayal was very interesting but the authors fictional spin was great!

My first Jody Hedlund book...but not the last.

View all my reviews

The Secret Keeper

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Awesome.

How can I describe this book?? There was so much to it. I was gripped by every word from start to finish. I took my time reading it so I wouldn't miss anything, no skimming whatsoever! I had to flit around in the book and reread parts as the story, the history, the characters, as all the puzzle pieces started to come together. There were a lot of oooohhh! and ah-ha! moments.

Kate Morton is a master story-teller. It's a maze of events spanning from 1928 Australia to 2011 England. It's how friends, children, lovers, and acquaintances lives are affected from the horror of the World War II blitz on England. There is tragedy, there is love, there is confusion, betrayal, and mystery. And of course, secrets that were never meant to be told.

I had the puzzle pieces more or less put together before the big revelation but still, it was in no less of a great and pleasing surprise. It was funny, as I realized what might have happened, I had to put the book down...I had goosebumps! Soooo good!



View all my reviews

The Reliance

The Reliance by M.L. Tyndall
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh, just another fantastic MaryLu Tyndall read! Her books are so exciting and deal with Christ in such a realistic way. This book points out that even as Christians, we can fall from our ways but we can always be forgiven when we repent and truly mean it. God is wonderful and will forgive us our transgressions. Amazing.

Captain Edmund Merrick and his wife, Charlisse are quickly separated in this book when the town they are visiting is raided by pirates. Edmund thinks his wife has died in an explosion and is completely devastated. He blames God and turns from Him and starts to turn to his old sinful ways from before he accepted Christ. But God isn't so easily willing to let Edmund turn Him away.

Meanwhile, Charlisse must face that fact that her husband may never find her since he believes her dead. She is in fact imprisoned on a pirate ship along with Lady Isabel Ashton. The two become quick friends in their struggles and make a plan to escape the evil clutches of Captain Carlton. Captain Carlton is infatuated with Isabel and provides her many comforts but he cannot seem to win her affections.

When Charlisse and Isabel are able to escape, they face a reality that life may not be the same as when they were first kidnapped. Charlisse dresses up as a pirate to head into town where she thinks her husband may be. She see's what she thinks is her husband’s deviant new ways and tells herself she no longer needs him. While she is witnessing this in town and bears the heart break, Isabel is once again kidnapped by Captain Carlton. After discovering her friend is missing, Charlisse takes command of her husband’s ship with the help of some of her husband’s loyal friends, who are disappointed to see him turn away from his good ways, and embarks on a mission to rescue her new friend again.

Once Edmund discovers his ship missing, he is determined to find his so-called loyal friends and try to figure out how and why a tiny new pirate could take over his ship. It isn't until he comes upon the ship that he discovers who this new pirate is and why this pirate gives him such a steely look of hatred that makes his stomach do flips. Could it be.......

I'll leave it at that. Very good book!!

View all my reviews