3 stars – Fiction Aficionado

Presumption and Partiality (Rebekah Jones) – Review

~ About the Book ~ Among the cotton fields and farmland of Gilbert, Arizona in the early years of the Great Depression, Mr. and Mrs. Bailey live a simple, but happy life with their five daughters on a cotton farm. When the wealthy Richard Buchanan moves to town, bringing his family, a friend, and a desire to learn about cotton, Matilda Bailey is convinced that he is the perfect candidate to marry her eldest daughter, Alice. Richard is cheerful, friendly, and likable. His friend Sidney Dennison doesn’t make such a good impression. Eloise Bailey decides he’s arrogant and self-conceited, but

1 May 2018

All Things Now Living (Rondi Bauer Olson) – Review

This review is posted as part of the Litfuse Blog Tour for All Things Now Living. ~ About the Book ~ Sixteen-year-old Amy doesn’t like anything to die, she won’t even eat the goats or chickens her mama has butchered every fall, but she can’t let herself pity the inhabitants of New Lithisle. In a few short months the dome they built to isolate themselves from the deadly pandemic is predicted to collapse, but her whole life Amy has been taught it’s God’s will they die. They traded their souls for immunity to the swine flu virus, brought God’s curse upon

4 December 2017

Finding Margo (Jen Turano) – Review

Publisher’s Description: International pop star Margo Hartman could use a night off. A grueling tour and overbearing entourage have sent her over the edge. It’s time for this diva to disappear. And who would think to look for the superstar in a small Dutch town in Ohio? Sheriff’s deputy Brock Moore is undercover as well. He knows Margo isn’t who she appears to be, but her uncanny resemblance to a local Amish woman is raising all sorts of questions… the kind that make her a target for a killer. Both are determined to find answers, but their mutual attraction stands in the way of either

21 November 2016

Slender Reeds: Jochebed’s Hope (Texie Susan Gregory) – Review

Publisher’s Description: Trapped beneath 400 years of Egypt’s injustices, the Hebrew people await deliverance from generations of Egyptian slavery. But while it is still dark, God is at work. Young Jochebed is unaware the Master Weaver is preparing her to mother three formidable leaders: Miriam, Aaron, and Moses. Shiphrah, the half-Egyptian midwife tasked to kill Hebrew male newborns, remembers childhood stories of a merciful God and cannot resist His call on her life. Two women, each following the dangerous path God has set before them—this is their story.

29 October 2016

My Sister’s Prayer (Mindy Starns Clark & Leslie Gould) – Review

Publisher’s Description Virginia, 1705 Celeste Talbot is usually such a sensible young woman—until she falls for an English soldier reassigned to the Colonies. Leaving her Huguenot family behind, she sets sail for America, only to realize that her younger sister Berta has been kidnapped and forced on board the very same ship. Whom can Celeste trust? The dashing soldier? Or the vigilant carpenter who remains by their side in the perilous New World? Virginia, present day Madeline “Maddee” Talbot has her hands full when she agrees to take in her younger sister Nicole following a serious car accident. The

31 August 2016

Tangled Lies (Connie Mann) – Review

Publisher’s Description Orphaned as a child in Russia, boat captain Sasha Petrov has spent most of her life adrift, anchored by only her loving foster family. So when they beg her to return to the family marina in Safe Harbor, Florida, for Mama Rosa’s sixtieth birthday, Sasha complies, hoping to put the past behind her. But Mama Rosa has other plans: she wants her three foster daughters to find Tony, the biological son who disappeared twenty years earlier. Sasha agrees to try, but that’s easier said than done when bad boy Jesse Claybourne shows up, reigniting an old attraction.

6 August 2016

A Haven on Orchard Lane (Lawana Blackwell) – Review

Publisher’s Description In difficult circumstances, Charlotte Ward, once a famed stage actress, tries to restart her career–only to experience disaster. Against her better judgment, her estranged daughter, Rosalind, comes to her mother’s rescue and moves her to a quiet English coastal village. Charlotte is grateful to get to know Rosalind after years apart. As one who has regrets about her own romantic past, it’s a joy for Charlotte to see love blossom for her daughter. For Rosalind, however, it’s time away from teaching–and now she must care for the mother who wasn’t there for her. And what could be

12 July 2016

Why God Allows Us To Suffer (Kevin Tewes) – Review

Publisher’s Description Why God Allows Us to Suffer provides a bold and wholly unique answer to the most vexing theological question facing Christianity. In contrast to most contemporary books on the problem of pain–which typically focus on the free will argument and other stale, hopelessly inadequate doctrines–Why God Allows Us to Suffer begins with the premise that the primary purpose of our existence is to know and experience love. It then examines the prerequisites of love in order to explain why God constructed the material universe in the manner he did, and why he acquiesced to the introduction of pain

8 July 2016

The power of fiction, the beauty of words, and the God who made us to wield them for His glory.