"A Home in Drayton Valley" by Kim Vogel Sawyer

A Home in Drayton Valley by Kim Vogel Sawyer


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Novel written by Kim Vogel Sawyer "A Home in Drayton Valley"

Fed up with the poor quality of life in 1880 New York, Tarsie Raines encourages her friends Joss and Mary Brubacher to move with their two children to Drayton Valley, Kansas, a booming town hailed in the guidebook as the land of opportunity. She offers to help with expenses and to care for Mary and the children as they travel west by wagon train. But when tragedy strikes on the trip across the prairie, Tarsie is thrown into an arrangement with Joss that leaves both of them questioning God and their dreams for the future. As their funds dwindle and nothing goes as planned, will Tarsie and Joss give up and go their separate ways, or will God use their time in Drayton Valley to turn their hearts toward him?

I enjoyed reading this story of Tarsie, she was so tired of living in a crowded dirty city and yearned for wide open spaces knowing it would be a better life. Tarsie met Mary Brubacher and her little family and fell in love with all but the husband Joss who was a gambler-a drinker-a mean tempered man who did not have a belief in God and barely tolerated his family.
Mary had been so sick and Tarsie had helped as much as she could with her herbs but when she found a booklet in the streets telling of Kansas and the lands available there she knew that Mary could get better were she to live in a place like that, so she planted a seed in Mary's heart to go on a wagon train and find a better life.
Soon Mary had talked Joss into the trip and they headed west taking Tarsie along to help with the children.
Along the way Mary's health worsened and knowing she would not live much longer she talked to Tarsie and asked her to take care of her family after she was gone-ALL her family Joss too-she asked that Tarsie love and care for them - Tarsie promised because she loved Mary so much...
Tarsie loves the Lord and prays that God will help her to love this man and his children after Mary is gone. Mary lived long enough to see the Kansas land and then died.
Do you think you could have done as Tarsie did and ask Joss to marry you so you could raise Mary's children and hope in time you would learn to love this rough tough man...this is a wonderful story telling of how a life can change so drastically when God is in the center of it. It told of the colored folks living in a vinyard near town and how predudice between blacks&whites was prevelent at the era this story was written. Joss family hated blacks and now Joss was seeing firsthand how they were just regular folks like himself trying to make a living and loving the same Lord that all did.
Will an agreement between Joss and Tarsie hurt or help them as they become closer after time spent together. Read and enjoy how a family comes together from trajedy.

I was given this book by Bethany House Publishing for an honest review, thank you....




View all my reviews

Series by Beverly Lewis Home to Hickory Hollow "The Bridesmaid"

Come Home to Hickory Hollow, Pa and meet new characters-new stories and new romance, all the ties that bind and draw the amish people together...

The Bridesmaid by Beverly Lewis


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Series Home to Hickory Hollow by Beverly Lewis "The Bridemaid"

This book tells the story of Joanna -seems she is always a Bridesmaid and never "The Bride" , getting older and feeling she will soon be an old maid. this story starts out at Virginia beach where the family has gathered for a wedding and once again Joanna is a Bridemaid.
As she sits on the sand near the ocean feeling the winds blowing and watching the waves crashing to the shore she spies an amish young man walking along the shore, he soon notices her sitting and looking so lonely that he stops to talk awhile. Her first time to meet him and soon they seem like old friends.
Eben Troyer is from Shipshewana, Indiana and though they like one another it seems nothing can come from this friendship or can it?

Joanna has a sister Cora Jane and they had always been close but now another seems to take her place and the sisters drift apart making Cora Jane angry and hurt... I have grown up with 5 sisters myself and I can see where this would hurt their relationship.

When Eban returns home he asked to be able to write Joanna and possibly think of his moving to her area in Hickory Hollow when he is able to-you see his brother left their community and is living English now and Eban prays for his brothers return to help their aging parents so he can leave himself.

Do you think a relationship can flourish when two young people live in different states but feel so drawn to one another? I had doubts about this as I read the pages but did so want Joanna to have the ever lasting love of a good man. Eban Troyer was a good man and felt the need to help his parents though he yearned to pursue his relationship with Joanna.

The story tells of a great aunt who had same name as Joanna and you will find a healing for the family in finding an old wedding ring quilt that had been languishing in an attic forgotton for many years that now will bring a peace to her descendents.  Joanna is not like your typical young amish woman she is compelled to write stories but must keep it a secret because this is not something the amish allow.  til the secret is found out and two sisters wonder if their lives can ever be the same again. I enjoyed reading this part of the story and feel you will too.

I was given this book by Bethany House Publishing for an honest review, thank you for letting me read this story...




View all my reviews

Election day 2012 one day past....

So sad today when I checked to see how the voting went and the big news is
                   "He is re-elected" 
My eyes misted with tears to think how much evil is in our world that the American people cannot see how much this man has hurt our way of life.
I am afraid we are headed towards socialism and this will take America down a road that I am reluctant to go....
Our country is losing its Moral fiber and too many people just ignore what is happening,  I feel like the next four years will be more of the same and there will be No Hope.....No change for the better......and the Forward appears to be down a path of distruction.

                                               "GOD HELP THE USA"

series Seven Brides for Seven Bachelors writtien by Tricia Goyer book #1 "The Memory Jar"

The Memory Jar by Tricia Goyer





A Series named Seven Brides for Seven Bachelors this alone would make me pick up this book to read but it gets better, written by Tricia Goyer, a wonderful young woman who writes including God and life messages that encourage in her books. the title of this first book in the series is "A Memory Jar".

Sarah Shelter and her family moved from Kentucky to a little town in Montana, West Kootenai ten years ago and almost from the beginning she met an unusual girl near the edge of the woods who became a friend like no other. where you saw Sarah you would see Patty, they became so close that when Patty died in a boat accident it devastaed Sarah and she seemed to put her life on hold, not wanting to love so she would not lose again.
Every year a lot of young amish men come to the community to live for 6 months so they can become a resident and hunt the beautiful mountains, many a young girl has been swept off her feet by one and married before their time was up to go home again.
Sarah wants to marry and have a family but she is now 24 and well past the marring age. she has closed off her heart until she meets a young shy amish man from Ohio. He is the youngest in his family and has needed to get away from his large family that have planned his life out for him, he wants to dream his own dreams but lacks the courage to step out and just do it.
Sarah works in a resutrant-bakery and she loves to make cupcakes and many say they are the best you could ever sink your teeth into...she has a dream to have a bakery one day and to make "fancy cupcakes".
Jathan Schrock's Mem has a bakery in Ohio that she works with her sister but it is just a plain old fashioned type one-nothing fancy there. Jathan has a knack for cooking and baking and his dream is to one day change the bakery-redecorating and expanding and adding more variety to it, he likes what he sees when he meets Sarah but does not feel he is worthy to court her...
can these two find a life together, once they let down their gaurds and let Love find its way into their hearts.
Five years- Love with a young man has passed Sarah by because she has closed her heart-afraid to love and lose. I wanted Sarah to enjoy life more and to open her heart to the possibilities all around her.
I liked the way Tricia told the story of Patty and Sarah,s close friendship although she dies soon after the beginning of the book. we see her character grow from a young child to a young adult through memories of Sarah. The girls have a memory jar and they put small momentos in them so they can look at a pine cone-a feather-a small rock later and the memory of that time will close around them almost as if they were there once again ejoying that close friendship.
Several young people plan to climb one of the mountains together and it is on this trip that Jathan and Sarah finally begin to see they can learn to care for one another, I know you will enjoy reading this book as much as I did and to see love and trust being reestablished in the lives of these two. Many changes will happen just as it does for us in our lives when we accept God's gentle nudging and open our hearts to him.
I am ready for the next book in this series and the next bachelors story...thanks Tricia


Disclosure I received a free copy of this book from Zondervan/Litfuse Group for review. ”






View all my reviews

LIH by Anna Schmidt "A Convenient Wife"

A Convenient Wife by Anna Schmidt


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Anna Schmidt "A Convenient Wife"

Widower Tyrone Justice is stunned when the Nantucket schoolmistress requests a wedding instead But really, what could be simpler than a marriage of convenience? Tyrone's children will have stability, Caroline will have security...and neither Tyrone nor Caroline will have to risk their hearts once more. Bruised by past loves and losses, neither is ready to take that chance again. Unless a potentially deadly disaster makes them see the truth. Happiness lies within reach--if they'll take a chance on the unplanned gift of love.

I enjoyed this story of a Convenient wife, Tyrone has lost so much and his heart is bruised when it comes to trust and feeling he might be someone that is lovable.
His children want to attend the school where Caroline Hudson has a few youngsters of the elite parents on the island, Tyrone lost his wife to a fire several years ago and has been having rough time raising his three children Jerome-Eliza and Hannah. Caroline has a tender heart and wants to help the children have a better life so she takes them on as students letting them do chores and their father has said he will help with repairs around the school. Before long though circumstances change and the little family is to be evicted from the small place they have lived in near the wharfs.
Tyrome and Caroline come to an agreement that she will watch after his children while he goes off to work on a ship, soon though more problems arise for this young man as the ship does not sail and his job is lost once again putting him homeless and jobless. He feels he has no choice but to work the docks doing any and everything to make monies to send back to Caroline and does not let her know right away that he did not sail.
There is much confusion when Caroline finds the father of children she is watching right on the docks close-by. can she trust this man after he has not kept her informed, can she continue to watch his children, even though they are becoming more important to her as each day goes by. You will want to read this wonderful story of a man with empty faith and a heart that needs mending after losing so much.
Caroline is a lonely woman living in a huge house that she has renovated into a school to be able to support herself after her husband leaves her and after some time she finds out he has died when they return his possessions to her. Can this woman and this man find a way to help one another, can they even find Love along the way? I enjoyed reading the story of this man and his children learn to accept help from Caroline and in the giving of help she too receives a reason to live each day more happily.




View all my reviews

Love Inspired Texas Twins series by Jillian Hart "Reunited for the Holidays"

Reunited for the Holidays by Jillian Hart


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Love Inspired Texas Twins series by Jillian Hart "Reunited for the Holidays"

this is the second book I have read recently of this series and it by another author yet the story moves along with the folks I have met in Arlene James book continuing their story.. questions in that book are answered in this one, thanks Arlene and Jillian for a wonderful story of this family...


Twenty five years ago Brian Wallace and Belle Colby had been married, just young kids having kids and have them they did -two sets of twins. two little boys-two little girls, then the family was torn apart and each took a boy and a girl -going their seperate ways-never to see one another again. This had been the plan.

Brian became a medical dr and gave his services to others, after one mission he returns to find his family reunited, He has always loved Bell though he had remarried and had a son with her. She had been a wonderful mother to his children and life had been good. He lost her several years before he returned and found that the twins had found one another and his Belle had been in a coma for 6 months now going through rehabilitation.
Jillian gives answers to why the family broke up and what happens as this family is reunited once again. Happiness reigns when the girls meet men they want to marry and Jack fell in love with the girl that had no memory -which by the way did return. His brother (Identical twin brother) and he were learning about one another. Grayson has a finace when he comes to meet Jack. Two girls and two boys now all grown up with mates chosen for their lives, now "Hope" there will be a way for their Mom and Dad to reunite after all this time has passed and each has made their own way in life.
Brian is a well to do doctor and Belle is the head of a ranch that is well known. Can these two find their way back to the young love they once knew after so much time apart.
I am so thankful that I received this second book from Jillian just as I finished reading the first one by Arlene, it was not planned-just happened.
Come and read and enjoy this series "Texas Twins", talk about double your pleasure-double your fun, we have here double-double.




View all my reviews

Love Inspired Texas Twins series by Arlene James "Carbon Copy Cowboy"

Carbon Copy Cowboy by Arlene James


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Love inspired Texas Twins series by Arlene James "Carbon Copy Cowboy"

Jack Colby is riding his ranch deep in thought because he has learned recently that he has a twin brother (an identical one) that he never knew existed. this news was on top of his sister meeting a young woman who they now knew was her twin sister. So many changes and so many questions with no answers...
It is at this moment he sees a little red car driving so fast towards a bad curve in the road and he prays for the person inside, please slow down you will never make that curve in the road-he then races his horse over the land towards the highway hoping he can get there in time to help. He finds a young woman inside wearing jeans and a wedding veil. When she comes to she does not know who she is or why she is in the car driving so fast or where she is going. She is so beautiful and Jack seems to feel deep down he must help her.
She is rushed to the hospital and even after a stay of a few weeks and getting better in the physical sense , she still doesnt have a memory of her life and at the time to leave the hospital Jack brings her home to his ranch hoping she will get her memory with rest and relaxation. Jack thinks his sisters will be helpful also, or at least this is what he tells himself, as he just has a "gut feeling" that he needs to be around this beautiful young woman.
He is also working through a part of his life with anger at himself thinking he caused his Mom to have a fall from her horse because they had words shortly before she took a fall that resulted in a head injury that put her in a coma where she lay for 6 months. He had been so angry that she couldn't or wouldn't answer his questions about an absent father...
You will love to read this story by Arlene and find out some answers as Jack meets his twin and learns to love the sister that has shown up who is his sisters twin also..two sets of twins...an absent father and Mom in a coma not able to shed any light.




View all my reviews