Month: December 2013

There are a lot of awesome books coming out in 2014 and I’m so excited to read them! However, there are a couple of books that I will be counting down the months for. Here is my list:

1. Becky Wade’s Meant to Be Mine.

2. Karen Witemeyer’s Full Steam Ahead.

3. Dani Pettrey’s Silenced.

4. Deeanne Gist’s Fair Play.

5. Julie Lessman’s Dare to Love Again

6. Elizabeth Camden’s With Every Breath.

7. Jody Hedlund’s Captured By Love

8. Ronie Kendig’s Raptor 6

9. Lisa T. Bergren’s Remnants

10. Jill Williamson’s Outcasts

 

What books are you looking forward to?

About

In the small town of Dry Gulch, Texas, a good-hearted busybody just can’t keep herself from surreptitiously trying to match up women in dire straits with men of good character she hopes can help them. How is she to know she’s also giving each couple a little nudge toward love?

A Cowboy Unmatched
Neill isn’t sure who hired him to repair Clara’s roof–he only knows Clara desperately needs his help. Can he convince this stubborn widow to let down her guard and take another chance on love?

An Unforeseen Match
Hoping to earn an honest wage on his way to the land rush, Clayton ends up on Grace’s doorstep, lured by a classified ad. He may have signed on for more than he expected though–and he may have found the one woman who can keep him from moving on.

No Match for Love
Andrew can’t fathom how refined Lucy ended up as the caretaker to his dotty aunt, and somehow her arrival has prompted even more bizarre occurrences around the ranch. When they join forces to unearth the truth, will the attraction between Andrew and Lucy develop into more?

Meeting Her Match
When the tables are turned and a tenderhearted meddler becomes the beneficiary of a matchmaking scheme, her world is turned upside down. As her entire life changes, will she finally be able to tell the banker’s son how much she cares for him?

Review

Novellas are not my favorite, usually because I want more. And while I still wanted more, I really did enjoy the short stories in this collection. Some were better than others, but some also made me take a second look at authors who I hadn’t read in a while. First off, I really liked the overarching theme of a mysterious matchmaker. Because they are novellas written by different authors, it’s a bit difficult to try to guess who the matchmaker is, but I still enjoyed the big reveal in the end.

With Karen Witemeyer’s, it was great to see Neill Archer and then later, the rest of the Archer clan. If you’ve read her last two novels, you will not want to miss out on this one!

With Regina Jennings novel, the story presented a heroine with a unique problem that I’ve only read about once before. I loved her take on it.

Carol Cox issues her trademark mystery that is creative and will have you thinking.

Mary Conneally’s novella has her usual humor and rounds up the collection in a lovely way.

Spiritually, all the women and men learn to trust God with their future when their past hasn’t gone the way they expected.

Again, the only thing I didn’t like was that I wanted more!

Romantic Scale (it was a bit hard with these, so I asked myself, which story makes the most sense in regards to falling in love fast):

Witemeyer: 8

Jennings: 8.5

Cox: 7

Conneally: 9

**I received this novel from Netgalley. My opinion was not affected in anyway.**

About

When a Warning Siren Screams in the Desert Night, 
the Worst Has Happened

After turning out plutonium for the Cold War, the shuttered Hanford Nuclear Facility’s poisoned buildings may be a bigger risk than ever. The men who guard the facility from sabotage or monitor its buildings are told the dangers are under control. But then the worst happens–a thunderous explosion in the dead of night.

Kieran Mullaney survived the blast, but when threats and silence meet his attempts to discover what really happened, he reconnects with an old friend–inexperienced lawyer Emily Hart. Convinced Hanford is hiding something, they also realize their case is sunk without more help. 

Emily’s estranged father, Ryan, has the courtroom experience they need, but he’s grown jaded and weary of the profession. Still, it’s a chance to rebuild ties to Emily, and the deeper he digs, the stranger–and more dangerous–the case gets.

Review

Let me just start off first by saying that this isn’t the kind of novel that I usually read. But I liked it. Crictical Reaction is kind of like the film A Civil Action. You’ve got this town Hanford where you just know something shady is going on, but proving it is almost impossible. With odds like these, I was very much excited to see how it would all go down. 

First off, there was definite suspense. I will admit to being lost in some of the details of nuclear physics, but I got the points. It’s not quite a mystery because you know who the bad guys are, but watching Emily, Poppy, Kieran, and Ryan unravel it still keeps you on the edge of your seat. 

I really liked the father-daughter angle of the novel. To see Ryan’s love and protectiveness of Emily and to watch her get to know her father again really worked well in this book. I’m generally a romance only reader, but I liked seeing the growth in their relationship and I found it to be something that kept the pages turning.

The best part of the novel? the trial. Though it helps that I’m a lawyer, I think people just love a good legal novel with motions being filed, objections raised, and interesting witnesses. This one really delivers. I really honed in on that trial and it was probably the best part of the book for me.

I will say that there were a lot of characters and at times, some were more interesting then others, but overall a this book was a very enjoyable read, exceeding my expectations. 

Romantic Scale: 4

**I received this novel from BethanyHouse. My opinion was not affected in any way.**