When your life’s work revolves around repairing other people’s marriages, what happens when your own marriage begins to fall apart? Find out what happens to Josiah Chamberlain in Cynthia Ruchti’s new book, A Fragile Hope. Feeling betrayed, confused, and ill-equipped for a crisis this crippling, he reexamines everything he knows about the fragility of hope and the strength of his faith and love. Love seems to have failed him. Will what’s left of his faith fail him, too? Or will it be the one thing that holds him together and sears through the impenetrable wall that separates them?
Celebrate the release of A Fragile Hope by entering to win Cynthia’s Sign of Hope Giveaway!
Her Secret is a suspenseful tale of a young Amish woman who is forced to move to a new town to escape a threatening stalker.
About Her Secret
After a stalker went too far, Hannah Hilty and her family had no choice but to leave the bustling Amish community where she grew up. Now she’s getting a fresh start in Hart County, Kentucky…if only she wasn’t too scared to take it. Hannah has become afraid to trust anyone-even Isaac, the friendly Amish man who lives next door. She wonders if she’ll ever return to the trusting, easy-going woman she once was.
For Isaac Troyer, the beautiful girl he teasingly called “The Recluse” confuses him like no other. When he learns of her past, he knows he’s misjudged her. However, he also understands the importance of being grateful for God’s gifts, and wonders if they will ever have anything in common. But as Hannah and Isaac slowly grow closer, they realize that there’s always more to someone than meets the eye.
Just as Hannah is finally settling into her new life, and perhaps finding a new love, more secrets are revealed and tragedy strikes. Now Hannah must decide if she should run again or dare to fight for the future she has found in Hart County.
My Thoughts
An amazing tale spun by one of my favourite authors, Shelley Shepard Gray. In this book we have Hannah who was hurt emotionally and mentally by a stalker in her hometown. This forced her family to move to a smaller, more remote community. Hannah becomes scared of everything around her, of being with others, of enjoying life and being carefree. She bears the brunt of her siblings anger for the move.
When she meets Isaac, who accidentally hurt her feelings by referring to her as the Recluse, she realizes she needs to start living again. Very slowly she begins to open up to others again but at times she would withdraw. The story is full of so much emotion and pain, your heart can’t help but to go out to Hannah. She was the victim in this whole story but she is the one who carries the pain, hurt and anger from others. Just like her emergence from her self induced seclusion, her relationship with Isaac begins to grow. She begins to learn what trust and love is.
Our story takes a turn when both tragedy and the past catches up with the family. My heart broke for her. It is her relationship that she built with Isaac and her confidence in herself that helps get her through the worst of these moments.
A truly beautiful story about overcoming hardships, learning to love and trust others and yourself again. Hannah is a beautiful soul who needed to learn to trust herself and others again, you can’t help but fall in love with her character. I loved every moment of this well written emotionally packed novel and I know you definitely will too!
You can find more reviews on the Litfuse blog tour page. You can purchase a copy here.
Rating: 4.5/5
About the Author
Shelley Shepard Gray is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, a finalist for the American Christian Fiction Writers prestigious Carol Award, and a two-time HOLT Medallion winner. She lives in southern Ohio, where she writes full-time, bakes too much, and can often be found walking her dachshunds on her town’s bike trail.
Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
Link Whitman has settled into the role of bachelor without ever intending to. Now he’s stuck in a dead-end job and, as the next Whitman wedding fast approaches, he is the last one standing. The pressure from his sisters’ efforts to play matchmaker is getting hard to bear as Link pulls extra shifts at work, and helps his parents at the Chicory Inn.
All her life, Shayla Michaels has felt as if she straddled two worlds. Her mother’s white family labeled her African American father with names Shayla didn’t repeat in polite-well, in any company. Her father’s family disapproved as well, though they eventually embraced Shayla as their own. After the death of her mother, and her brother Jerry’s incarceration, life has left Shayla’s father bitter, her niece, Portia, an orphan, and Shayla responsible for them all. She knows God loves them all, but why couldn’t people accept each other for what was on the inside? For their hearts?
Everything changes one icy morning when a child runs into the street and Link nearly hits her with his pickup. Soon he is falling in love with the little girl’s aunt, Shayla, the beautiful woman who runs Coffee’s On, the bakery in Langhorne. Can Shayla and Link overcome society’s view of their differences and find true love? Is there hope of changing the sometimes-ugly world around them into something better for them all?
My Thoughts
Home at Last is by far my favourite book in this series following the Whitman family. We have Link, who loves his family (and their meddling ways) but who has yet to meet someone who can truly make his heart beat. Then we have Shayla, who has had a difficult life to say the least, with her Mother passing and having to raise her brother’s daughter. She has also had to deal with racism as some people couldn’t accept her mixed heritage.
A chance encounter changes everything for the two of them. They slowly begin to develop feelings for each other. While Link adores her, Shayla worries about how others will view and accept their relationship. Her past experiences have shown her that many people wont accept this relationship and as their relationship develops we see this happening again. All they want is to be together and be accepted but there are people in society that wont let this happen.
This book makes you sad, angry and hopeful all at the same time. You want them to find happiness but are worried for them with the ugly parts of society that don’t want this to happen. This is a truly beautiful and honest book that I fell in love with. The ending was perfect for the story and leaves you with hope. I would love to see a part two of their story.
Deborah Raney’s novels have won numerous awards including the RITA, National Readers’ Choice Award, HOLT Medallion, the Carol Award, and have three times been Christy Award finalists. She and her husband, Ken Raney have traded small-town life in Kansas-the setting of many of Deb’s novels-for life in the city of Wichita.
Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
In The Mark of the King, twenty-five-year-old midwife Julianne Chevalier trades her life sentence for exile to the fledgling 1720s French colony of Louisiana.
About The Mark of the King
After being imprisoned and branded for the death of her client, twenty-five-year-old midwife Julianne Chevalier trades her life sentence for exile to the fledgling 1720s French colony of Louisiana, where she hopes to be reunited with her brother, serving there as a soldier. To make the journey, though, women must be married, and Julianne is forced to wed a fellow convict.
When they arrive in New Orleans, there is no news of Benjamin, Julianne’s brother, and searching for answers proves dangerous. What is behind the mystery, and does military officer Marc-Paul Girard know more than he is letting on?
With her dreams of a new life shattered, Julianne must find her way in this dangerous, rugged land, despite never being able to escape the king’s mark on her shoulder that brands her a criminal beyond redemption.
My Thoughts
An incredible novel looking at the lives of those who lived during the eighteenth century both in France and New Orleans. France wanted to colonize it’s towns in North America – so instead of sending over willing individuals, they populated their colonies with convicts whether by choice or not. A practice that was actually quite frightening (not because of their criminal history or choices in life) but more so for the fear that these individuals must have gone through. They were sent with little choice into the unknowns and some were forced to wed in order to further populate the colonies. I can’t even begin to imagine the fear, uncertainty and anger they must have felt.
Julianne is one of these individuals but her criminal history almost blows your mind. She was imprisoned and branded over the death of her client! At a time when child birth was quite dangerous, it is hard to believe a midwife could be held responsible for the death of the Mother and further branded a criminal and imprisoned. Julianne felt her only way to escape the life that was now imposed on her was escape to New Orleans. I don’t think she could even imagine what she would have to deal with once she arrived.
There is little order, little rules and crime rules in this new world. Through Julianne, we uncover a harsh world, mysterious discrepancies and dangerous world. Marc-Paul is a man that she meets when arriving in New Orleans – after her marriage to another convict. Marc-Paul is there to provide support, guidance, care but also harbours his own secret that is tied to Julianne’s family.
The Mark of the King is well written and fabulous novel. I could not put it down in fear of missing what was going to happen next. I loved the rich history, culture and strong character development. This was one amazing novel that you will cherish over and over again.
You can purchase a copy of The Mark of the King here.
Rating: 5/5
About the Author
Jocelyn Green inspires faith and courage as the award-winning author of ten books to date, including Wedded to War, a Christy Award finalist in 2013; Widow of Gettysburg; Yankee in Atlanta; and The 5 Love Languages Military Edition, which she coauthored with bestselling author Dr. Gary Chapman. A former military wife herself, her passion for military families informs all of her writing as well as her numerous speaking opportunities. Jocelyn graduated from Taylor University with a BA in English and now lives with her husband and two children in Iowa.
“I felt torn between two worlds. Each with its own mystery. One more captivating than the other, but the other more real and breathing.”
About Of Stillness and Storm
It took Lauren and her husband ten years to achieve their dream—reaching primitive tribes in remote regions of Nepal. But while Sam treks into the Himalayas for weeks at a time, finding passion and purpose in his work among the needy, Lauren and Ryan stay behind, their daily reality more taxing than inspiring. For them, what started as a calling begins to feel like the family’s undoing.
At the peak of her isolation and disillusion, a friend from Lauren’s past enters her life again. But as her communication with Aidan intensifies, so does the tension of coping with the present while reengaging with the past. It’s thirteen-year-old Ryan who most keenly bears the brunt of her distraction.
Intimate and bold, Of Stillness and Storm weaves profound dilemmas into a tale of troubled love and honorable intentions gone awry.
My Thoughts
Of Stillness and Storm is a powerful and intimate look into the lives of a family that gave up all the modern comforts to travel to Nepal to share the word of God. Lauren made this change to her life with some concerns but Sam pushed through with his dream and dragged his wife and young son across the world. That is when the world they knew began to be torn apart.
Ryan becomes withdrawn and angry. Lauren feels isolated and alone while Sam heads off full of life into the isolated parts of Nepal to bring supplies and the word of God. You literally watch their family be torn apart and find yourself getting angry at times with Sam, who seems oblivious to what is going on with his son and wife. Ryan’s pain broke my heart both as a Mother and a person. He needed so much help but he did not know how to ask for help and no one knew quite what he needed. His Father felt he should just get used to the change – which many of us know is not the solution to mental health. He was taken from everything he loved and knew, without any say and entered a world he could not understand. This took such a great toll on his emotional and mental health. We see this unravel slowly throughout the novel.
Lauren is amazing and kind woman but my heart broke for her. She never truly spoke her mind to her husband and let him walk all over her with his decisions. It was satisfying to watch her change when an old friend enters her life online. She gains back some of her passion and take charge of her own needs and wants.
The ending was devastating and hopeful at the same time but is perfect for this novel. Of Stillness and Storm is powerful and moving. It gives us an intimate look into the lives of those who gave up everything to help others – the good, the bad and the ugly. We also see the effects these decisions have upon the most innocent individuals – the children of these families. A definite must read.
Born in France to a Canadian father and an American mother, Michèle Phoenix is a consultant, writer and speaker with a heart for Third Culture Kids. She taught for 20 years at Black Forest Academy (Germany) before launching her own advocacy venture under Global Outreach Mission. Michèle travels globally to consult and teach on topics related to this unique people group. She loves good conversations, mischievous students, Marvel movies and paths to healing.
Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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