Category: book review

In Starving Hearts, Miss Annette Chetwynd has been plagued by nightmares and worries about an arranged marriage.

About Starving Hearts

She yearns to find her anonymous rescuer. Unfortunately, her health and intellect prevent it. Both repel suitors and cause Annette to doubt God’s existence, at least until He answers her prayers in an unusual way.

Mr. Peter Adsley is joining the clergy, and he desires a godly wife by his side. After a failed attempt to obtain one, he engages in a clandestine meeting with the bewitching young woman who keeps crossing his path. But she is so unsettling.

Destined for disappointments, Peter and Annette both endure disgraceful situations. Will Peter’s faith sustain him through overwhelming setbacks? Can Annette overcome her doubts? Or will their starving hearts yield to the machinations of a mad man?

My Thoughts

A fantastic novel with two main characters that you can’t help but love. Annette is a strong young woman who speaks her mind, is educated and well versed in a time where women were encouraged to not have opinions or speak their mind. While this has had some negative consequences on her (not being really accepted into society nor finding a match), I think it works to her advantage. She needs someone with a strong personality who can appreciate her brilliance. You can see that this would be Peter but Peter has a different idea for his life. He wants to become a clergyman and needs the “ideal” wife, something that Annette’s brilliant personality may not fit.

When Janine throws in a vile man who is trying to take revenge for the past that he truly does not understand and a family business that threatens to destroy a family, you have the makings of an excellent historic tale. You never really see what is coming next! This made me fall in love with the novel that much more, you just never want to put it down for fear of missing what is coming next. The ending was beyond spectacular and nothing that you could have ever imagined coming from the first page of the book.

Starving Hearts is a unique story of hope, faith and forgiveness. The characters move through dark moments in the story to find their own identify and faith. It is well written and paced. I couldn’t put this one down and couldn’t wait to re-read it again!

You can find more reviews on the Litfuse blog tour page. You can purchase a copy of the book here.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Janine Mendenhall teaches teens English, of all things! Sometimes she sleeps, but most nights she reads, writes, or watches movies like Pride and Prejudice and claims she’s researching her next book. Splickety Love and Splickety Prime have published her flash fiction. She and her husband, Tom, live in North Carolina where they and their two golden retrievers help gratify the needs of their five children and two cats.

Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

In The Things We Knew, a tragedy from the past resurfaces in this tale of family secrets and reignited love.

About The Things We Knew

After her mother’s death twelve years ago, Lynette Carlisle watched her close-knit family unravel. One by one, her four older siblings left their Nantucket home and never returned. All seem to harbor animosity toward their father, silently blaming him for their mother’s death. Nobody will talk about that dreadful day, and Lynette can’t remember a bit of it.

But when next-door neighbor Nicholas Cooper returns to Nantucket, he brings the past with him. Once her brother’s best friend and Lynette’s first crush, Nick seems to hiding things from her. Lynette wonders what he knows about the day her mother died and hopes he might help her remember the things she can’t.

But Nick has no intention of telling Lynette the truth. Besides the damage it might cause his own family, he doesn’t want to risk harming the fragile friendship between him and the woman he once thought of as a kid sister.

As their father’s failing health and financial concerns bring the Carlisle siblings home, secrets begin to surface—secrets that will either restore their shattered relationships or separate the siblings forever. But pulling up anchor on the past propels them into the perfect storm, powerful enough to make them question all they ever believed in.

My Thoughts

Wow! An intense novel from start to finish, that is full of hurt, pain, hope and love. I loved every single page of this excellent novel. Lynette’s parents have harboured a painful secret that only their neighbour’s son Nicholas has knowledge of. Their Mother’s death rips the family apart, with most of the siblings left with the feeling that their Father is the one to blame. You can feel the pain and mistrust the family has for their Father and how this has trickled into the relationships the siblings have with each other.

When Lynette becomes frustrated enough with the stress of caring for her elderly Father, the siblings are re-united under difficult circumstances and are forced to work through their own issues, the secret their Mother kept and their Father’s aging health. What a mess this is! They fight, they leave and come back, all in the hopes of trying to keep their family together and work through the mess that is in place. When you throw in the devastating secret that Nicholas has kept hidden but threatens to emerge from Lynette’s repressed memories, you have the setting of a potential disaster. Which you are constantly on the verge of being a part of but the family constantly tries to fight back in order to stay together.

A well written story of family, lies, hope and love. I loved every moment of this story and felt as though I had become a part of the story. You are drawn so deeply into the characters, their lives and their pain. There are moments of love, despair and hope that are beautiful and touching. You will truly love every turn of the page in this novel.

You can find more reviews on the Litfuse blog tour page. You can purchase a copy of the book here.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Catherine West writes stories of hope and healing from her island home in Bermuda. When she’s not at the computer working on her next story, you can find her taking her Border collie for long walks on the beach or tending to her roses and orchids. She and her husband have two grown children.

Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

In Fetching Sweetness, standing between Stephanie and her dream is one hundred pounds of lovable trouble.

About Fetching Sweetness

It should have been so simple for Stephanie Pink: Meet up with Agnes Wharton in a small town in California, retrieve the reclusive author’s valuable new manuscript, and be promoted to a full-fledged literary agent.

But Agnes’s canine companion, Sweetness, decides to make a break for it before Stephanie can claim her prize. Until Agnes has Sweetness safely back at home in Eagle Cliff, Washington, Stephanie will never set eyes on the manuscript she needs to make her dreams come true.

When Stephanie tracks the runaway mutt to a campground, she meets Rhett Hastings—a man also on the run from a different life and a costly mistake. Rhett agrees to help Stephanie search for the missing dog thus launching a surprising string of adventures and misadventures.

Once Sweetness gets added to the mix, it’s a recipe for love and loss, merriment and mayhem, fun and faith in the backwoods of the Pacific Northwest.

My Thoughts

A funny romantic story with such a deeper meaning. We have our two main characters both of whom are suffering from a loss (each from different reasons) who are forced together by a very unsuspecting character, Sweetness (a furry friend who constantly manages to make and find trouble).

Stephanie is living the life she always dreamed of with her brother (well not quite) – a literary agent. She is tasked with retrieving a manuscript from an author, whose first book changed her life as a child. She is in awe and can’t wait to meet the woman, even though she is quite eccentric! But Agnes refuses to give her the manuscript unless she can bring her Sweetness home. Now Stephanie must go on quite the adventure in order to rescue the furry animal (and one she has never laid eyes upon!) all before her nemesis arrives to try to steal the manuscript before she gets her hands on it!

This is when she meets Rhett, a very rich and famous young man who has turned his back on it all. He has hurt others and been hurt in turn and wants to make amends for what he has done. You can see how much he is trying and your heart goes out to him. You want him to learn to trust again but you can see the internal struggle he is facing.

Both of our characters are slightly flawed which makes them that much more loveable. They are honest, real and moving. They are struggling like many of us have in life and together with Sweetness they learn many life lessons. You will laugh, cry and be happy throughout this well written novel. You watch as they grow and learn that what they thought they wanted out of life was a dream that may not have been their own to begin with. A definite must read!

You can find more reviews on the Litfuse Blog tour page. You can purchase a copy of the book here.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Dana Mentink lives in California, where the weather is golden and the cheese is divine. Dana is an American Christian Fiction Writers Book of the Year finalist for romantic suspense and an award winner in the Pacific Northwest Writers Literary Contest. Her suspense novel, Betrayal in the Badlands, earned a Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award. Besides writing, she busies herself teaching third and fourth grade. Mostly, she loves to be home with her husband, two daughters, a dog with social anxiety problems, a chubby box turtle, and a feisty parakeet.

Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.