Wanda Brunstetter writes series-Indiana Cousins book #3 "A Cousin's Challenge"

A Cousin's Challenge by Wanda E. Brunstetter


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was the last of the Indiana Cousins series Book #3
"A Cousin's Challenge"

This story was mostly of Jolene Yoder who lost her hearing when the van accident happened and all the cousins were affected in one way or another.
Jolene was a teacher so this loss was devastating to her, losing the job she only ever wanted to do-she loved children and the task of teaching them about life was her one goal in life.
After the accident she went to an aunts in another state to learn how to sign and lip read...
Lonnie Hershberger had moved to Topeka Indiana while Jolene had been gone, expecting a girlfriend to follow later, but he had a horrific accident and lost his hearing and she decided not to come-He felt it was because she could not live with a man who could not hear. He decided then and there he would not get married...
When Jolene returns to Indiana to teach two children who are deaf also, she becomes involved in helping many in the community also to sign and read lips so all can communicate now that there are 4 deaf people in the community.
Lonnie works with her and a friendship soon follows.
Lonnie and Jolene have many challenges being deaf but they both work towards a better life and get past the anger and hurt...
this story also remembers Jake Beechy who had left Indiana and then returned when his father needs help and Ella Miller who felt she would always be at home and helping her mother raise her siblings after her father died.
Jake and Ella always seem to rub each other the wrong way and were constantly in a heated discussion, from little to big things they never seem to agree on anything so it was confusing to say the least when they find themselves attracted to one another.
You will enjoy reading this delightful story of the cousins and how each works through dissappointments and learns to live a fuller life with their faith. I like to read a book that has a happy ending and this one does....Will Jake stay this time and settle down? Can Ella find it in her heart to forgive and receive all that God has in store for her? Do you think Lonnie and Jolene will realize that deaf people can live rich full lives , marry and have children??
Read and enjoy...A Cousin's Challenge




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Wanda Brunstetter book #2 in Indiana Cousins series "A Cousin's Prayer"

A Cousin's Prayer by Wanda E. Brunstetter





Cousins and their life's journey...
this is the Indiana Cousins series by Wanda Brunstetter
book#2 "A Cousin's Prayer"

AS we continue the story this is about Katie who lost her boyfriend in the van accident and how she coped afterwards.
Katie had been swatting at a bee in the van when the driver looked backwards to see what was all the commotion and lost control and ran into a tree. She has much guilt feeling the accident was her fault for being panic stricken.
When she didn't seem to get better her parents sent her to florida to live with her grandparents and she was some better there.
She returns to her amish community a year later for a wedding of one of the cousins Lorraine. Katie has panic attacks but doesnt let anyone know about them and her family is worried because she is alone too much and very nervous about the simplest of things.
Freeman had moved to the area not long before Katie returned and he felt he could help Katie because he too had panic attacks when he was young boy so he befriends Katie.
The story has a young amish girl who constantly repeats things she has heard and becomes known as a gossip which is rare for the amish. Eunice had lost a boyfriend before because of this problem and it is looking like history is repeating itself "will she ever learn to curb her tongue"?
This is a great story of many young people who happen to be cousins living day to day lives and the problems that arise and how their faith helps them to live through thier perils...




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Series-The Cadence of Grace by Joanne Bischof book #1 "Be Still My Soul"

Be Still My Soul: A Novel by Joanne Bischof


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


this is series The Cadence of Grace by Joanne Bischof
book #1 "Be Still My Soul"

Pretty Lonnie Sawyer is a shy and innocent girl, though she is poor and her father an abusive man, she clings to a quite faith.
Then a handsome ladies man,Gideon O'Riley, steals a kiss when he walks her home one night-that one action seals their fate. Nothing will ever be the same for this young couple who barely know one another.

Lonnie's father along with Gideon's father make the two get married and they start off their union on the wrong foot, they live with his parents for awhile. Her distant groom cant seem to surrender his rage at the injustice of this forced union or give Lonnie any claim to his life.
They travel together towards another town to start their life together -find work and have a home. Many difficulties arise on this journey and thinking it would draw them closer together it seems to put them further away from one another. Walking many miles through bad weather and times of hunger Lonnie feels so defeated. Gid is cruel at times with the pace he makes for this trip.
When it seems they are at the worst in their journey they meet a man who takes them home with him and shares with them to help them get on their feet, Gid reluctantly stays for Lonnie to get better so they can travel on. Jebediah and his wife,Elsie, live alone and being elderly they can use some help around their place. Gideon is told to work for room and board til his wife is well enough to travel again.
He doesnt know it but this couple will be a blessing as he ponders what will happen to him and Lonnie now.
Gideon only ever cared about himself, now he has Lonnie -will he ever be worthy of her Heart?
Can this couple who are so different find some "comoness" and learn to be content with one another?

I was given this book by WaterBrook Multinoman Publishing grp to read and for an honest review, Thank you, I enjoyed reading this new author to me...





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Series Indiana Cousins -Book #1, "A Cousin's Promise" by Wanda Brunstetter

A Cousin's Promise by Wanda E. Brunstetter


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A Cousin's Promise by Wanda Brunstetter
Indiana Cousins series book #1

"Love ia a Promise for Better or Worse"

A group of eight cousins and friends choose to take a trip together never realizing it will change many lives for all time....

An accident because of one moment of carelessness by the driver leads to a collision with a semitruck and many are hurt.

mainly this book is about Wayne and his fiancee, Loraine. Wayne Lambright is permanently disabled in the accident and chooses to give up the life he had planned. He tells Loraine to find someone else that he cannot marry her now..

Loraine wants to be Wayne's wife for better or worse and she cannot accept his decision.

We will learn by reading this story of their struggle throught the next months after this accident.

Many lives were changed, Katie Timothy Ella Raymond Jolene Andrew Wayne and Loraine..

I liked reading this story of the Indiana Cousins and seeing the courage that it took to move forward after such a terrible accident and the faith that pulled them through it...




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Unending Devotion by Jody Hedlund

This is the story of sisters
just as God has put in motion
Between them is an
"Unending Devotion"....


Unending Devotion by Jody Hedlund


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Unending Devotion by Jody Hedlund

Lily Young longs to find her lost sister or will die trying...
Connell is determined to increase the fortune of his lumber baron father and figues as long as he is living an upright life that is all that matters...

Lily and Daisy were sisters who lived in an orphange until they grew too old for it then went out with two families to live with them and help..

Along the way young Daisy decided she wanted a better life and sent her sister a letter saying she was leaving and going north to make her fortune and then the two could live together again as a family.
Lily was the oldest and felt protective of her sister so she knew she had to go find her, knowing that prostitution was the only way you could make lots of money she traveled in the areas they were looking high and low for Daisy-in her travels she went to many lumber camps and it is here that she meets Connell and enlist his help to find her sister.
There is an attraction between Connell and Lily but they both dont want to pursue it knowing they are so different from one another and their lives wont mesh that well..Connell soon becomes one who watches over Lily making sure the "Shanty boys" dont get too close.
Lily is determined to find her sister and dangers dont enter into her picture, she has helped other young women get away from lives that sucked them in and took away their self respect and everything else. "She Must Find Daisy".
The Lumber era of the 1800's when the white pines were considered "Green Gold" in Michigan, history shows how the camps would come and turn the trees into logs moving them to mkt on the rivers and leaving behind them barren land. There were evil people of that time who profited also by having brothels and saloons to keep the "Shanty Boys" happy.. some even did it by enslaving the girls and not letting them leave.
Once again Jody Hedlund has taken some facts and added a little fiction and made a great story for us to read and also we can learn about history of this great USA...Thanks Jody.




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"Dying to Read" by Lorena McCourtney book 1 in Cate Kincaid Files

Dying to Read by Lorena McCourtney


My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Lorena McCourtney's Mystery "Dying to Read"

This is my first Mystery by Lorena read because my sister loves her series of the Ivy Malone Mystery....

This is the story of Cate Kinkaid a young woman out of a job looking for work who stumbles into this job with her uncle "just to have a paycheck" while she still looks for something better.
She has a simple job-to verify wherabouts of one woman named "Willow"and she stumbles into mayhem and murder and meets a wonderful little group of older women called the Whodunit bookclub, they were all on the porch of a large victorian house sitting high on a hill looking just a little bedraggled, when Cate goes to check out last address for Willow. The women were little put out as it was their day to meet and luncheon was to be had also ..so where was Amelia,owner of the victorian..she was not answering the door. all are shocked to find her outside laying at the foot of steps ..dead.
was thia a murder or accident???


Now Willow and cat is missing also when Cate first goes to the rambling old house but..
she meets the cat later when visiting a second time to see if there are clues as to where Willow could have gone. outside all rumpled and hungry missing her mistress..
Cate is a cat-lover so when neice shows up and seems to ignore plight of the cat and sees Cate's interest she lets her take it home with her so she wont have to be bothered with it...

If you like to read mysteries you will like this one as so many characters show up and meander through Cate's life as she learns a little about being a P I ...This routine job is turning out to be anything but.




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Book #1 in McKenna's Daughters series by Lena Nelson Dooley "Maggie's Journey"

Maggie's Journey by Lena Nelson Dooley


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


"Maggie's Journey" by Lena Nelson Dooley

This author is a talanted writer and winner of the Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western Fiction...

The story starts of a couple on a wagon train going west ...the trip is long and "dusty" to say the least.
Florence is a woman that has waited a long time hoping to have a baby and when she sees others with little ones it causes her much heartache.
But..this trip is going to be one she will never forget-she is becoming very despondent when another couple on the train has a big problem. The mother dies giving birth to triplet girls and Florence tells God he should let her have one of these babies.
The father is overwhelmed with death of his beloved wife and doesnt know how to take care of 1 let alone 3 babies-he makes the decision to give Florence one little girl and another family one and he will raise one himself.
This story is of Margaret Lenora who Florence raised as her own and never tells her she is adopted.
Margaret always feels as if she is missing something as she grows up and she and her mother grow apart as she matures. Margaret(Maggie) has dreams of being a fashion designer and seems to have a talant for it. she feels her mother does not want her to pursue a career though and this causes conflict.
Just before her 18th birthday she finds out she has been adopted and her heart is broken to think she has been lied to all these years.
She plans a trip to see her grandmother and an older aunt and a young man she has grown up with go with her. Maggie feels that Charles is someone she wants to get to know better in a different way as she is older now, but she sees he has eyes for her aunt which is disconcerting to say the least.
Can Maggie and Charles ever get beyond childhood feelings and move forward? What do you think about a child being adopted and not told about it, should they be told or not?
I enjoyed reading Maggies story and look forward to the next books in the series of the other two girls.





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Almost Amish by Kathryn Cushman

Almost Amish by Kathryn Cushman


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Almost Amish by Kathryn Cushman

I have never watched the reality shows on TV but have read many amish stories and this book must have been quite a task for Kathryn as she wrote these pages.

Julie is a busy as a bee type young woman with a husband and two children and she is constantly busy making sure everything gets done. She feels overwhelmed and when the chance comes to help her sister-in-law with a project that involves living the "simple life" for the summer she grabs it thinking she needs the rest....

Susan is one of the type people that strives to do everything and to do it "well". She is hoping to better her life after a divorce has made things harder for her. When the reality show wants her and another family to give them the summer and become "almost amish" she jumps at the chance.

Susan has a daughter and Julie has a son and daughter who are not so happy about leaving their homes for the summer to do this amish living but they want to support Susan so they give it their best-shot.

You will love seeing how these modern folks take to learning all the things involved in living the "simple life", it seems everything about it is harder....a lot of work...giving up many things taken for granted in their normal lives.

Thanks Kathryn for showing us a look into these two women and their children as they all get much more from this experiment then they ever dreamed possible...

Thank you Bethany House for this book given to read and review...




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Short-Straw Bride bye Karen Witemeyer

Short-Straw Bride by Karen Witemeyer


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Short-Straw Bride by Karen Witemeyer

Four brothers...four straws...one bride

Now how has it come to this, you will love reading this wonderful romance that starts when Meredith is a child in school, well starts for her anyway. She is the little girl the boys pick on and they grabbed her lunchpail and threw it onto Archer land and dared her to go get it...boys should never dare a girl. She went and met one of the big bad Archer men, only he was just a kid himself a little older then her, he carried her home when she met a trap that had been set on property too that day and injured her ankle. Mere dreams of this young man as she matures into a young woman.

And...years later she again dares to step on Archer land when she feels the need to warn them.. "Someone wants to burn their barn so they will sell their property", can she help as he had helped her long ago. She feels she must take that chance.

Travis Archer and his brothers didnt leave their land-a promise made long ago to his father to take care of his brothers and never leave the land. Now He must figure out why this girl has came and if she is telling the truth, She wants to help them and gets hurt when a stubborn mule kicks out when she gets too close and she is injured,making a stay on Archer land imperative....her family doesn't feel the same way.

There is adventure and romance in this story and you will enjoy reading about the brothers that "all" wanted to marry the girl who had come on Archer land..thus...drawing of straws.

....Thanks to Bethany House giving me this book to review....




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