"

"BUD" "Pauline"

                                                             

                                                              ~January 20,2016~

A Brother and sister 

with same birthday

He really should gift-her

what do you say.....

A Sister and  brother

with same birthday

she should accept his offer

Don't you think thats OK....

Love between siblings

with same birthday

you can feel the Zing

No one has to pay

a virtual party coming your way

Cakes-pies-cookies and drinks

Music, you just have to sway

Today there will be no pranks

Have fun and remember me....

The Calling of Ella McFarland by Linda Brooks Davis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Calling of Ella McFarland written by Linda Brooks Davis

Linda is a first prize winner of the Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild Operation First Novel Contest..
A first but I am sure not the last of this authors books.

A calling,This is what the Bible tells us of this:Romans 8:28

~And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.~

Ella has a strong dream and has worked toward the purpose of being a teacher,she feels this is what she should do with her life and works hard toward this goal. The Worthington School for Girls is the elite place for the girls that are well off. She has always felt this is where she should teach so when they do not accept her, she is devastated. The only good thing about her visits there with the board is that she met the newest member , Andrew.
Andrew wanted to court Ella but she was sure she should have a school and teach young girls so she started with one Lily that worked in the fields. Lily was the young abused daughter of a sharecropper. She brought Lily to her home -bathed and fed her-then started helping in anyway that she could to better the girls life. This caused her fathers abuse to be even worse not wanting charity from others.
Frank was a childhood friend that she had known many years but He proved false in his doings as an adult and hurt her in many ways...unbeknownst to her -he went after her sister secretly and caused so much heartache for the family and also the community.
The early 1900's brought Hope of Oklahoma statehood and the women's suffrage debate is raging, Ella meets women working in this and feels led to make her voice heard as she speaks for those that can't. Education is her heart's desire but there is also another desire that she cannot deny , Andrew pursues her and lets her know he is willing to let her do and be whatever she feels she has to do.
God's will is so important to Ella...She is a strong determined woman that will not let personal life deter her helping those that need her.
Her sister that she loves so strongly seems to always be doing things that hurts her. She flaunts her caring for Frank and he for her in front of the family. Viola thinks only of herself and is always shirking responsibility when it comes to helping at home, leaving Ella to help so her mother won't have to do so much.
Ella is determined to teach-to work towards women's rights yet she wonders can she have more..Andrew is such a warm caring loving person that she knows they can help one another in this journey called life. Finally she accepts his courtship and blossoms in the days to come.

I challenge you to read this story ,learn more about Ella McFarland ,the character named for the authors Grandmother and her journey in life, I loved the fiction and facts blending into a fictional story that gives us a bit of history from an earlier time. I will be looking for other books to come and am sure you will to from Linda.


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Paula-O Osborne's Reviews > The Calling of Ella McFarland

Until The Dawn by Elizabeth Camden
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Until The Dawn by Elizabeth Camden

I know when I pick up a book by this author it will be a great story and this one is special,I fell in love with the brash Quentin and Sophie is just fantastic with her loving caring heart that will not look at evil or believe that it exist.
Quentin's family has owned a huge estate called Dierenpark that sits on a river that is secluded and believed to be Cursed...His father wants him to tear it to the grounds and burned, so there is only ashes and back to the bare earth.
Sophie had situated a weather station that she does volunteer work and loves this old estate with all her heart. No one in the family has been around for several decades so she felt like she was not hurting anything by moving it to the rooftop and getting her data. But.....
Now the family has came back and with dire explamations about the place.
Pieter is the young son of Quentin and was once kidnapped and now has many days when he is scared of everything, Sophie's heart wants to help him forget and live a full life, Quentin , his father has many days of pain and distress from his leg not healing properly years ago but he loves this son and wants to be closer to him since they have been seperated a lot in his few years. Pieter even fears his own father because of his brash ways..Will Sophie help bridge the gap and bring this father and son closer? Can Dierenpark be saved? Can Sophie ever have her hearts desire and man a weather station in her little community?
So many secrets abound, you will love to read this story and find the answers that Elizabeth has for us.

I received this copy from Bethany House Publishing Group to read and review,thank you so much for the opportunity of meeting these wonderful characters...


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She Sells Priceless Antiques.
He Sells Livestock by the Pound.
Is He Really the Man to Make a Bid for Her Heart?

After helping her grandfather at their Boston auction house, Miranda Wimplegate discovers she’s accidentally sold a powerful family’s prized portrait to an anonymous bidder. Desperate to appease the people who could ruin them forever, they track it to the Missouri Ozarks and make an outlandish offer to buy the local auction house and all its holdings before the painting can move again.

Upon crossing the country, however, Miranda and her grandfather discover their new auction house doesn’t deal in fine antiques, but in livestock. And its frustratingly handsome manager, Wyatt Ballentine, is annoyed to discover his fussy new bosses don’t know a thing about the business he’s single-handedly kept afloat. Faced with more heads of cattle than they can count–but no mysterious painting–Miranda and Wyatt form an unlikely but charged partnership to try and prevent a bad situation from getting worse.

At Love’s Bidding

What a delightful book! The relationship between Wyatt and Miranda develops naturally and comically. Their banter serves to ratchet up the romantic tension and propels the match forward in a captivating way. Great romance, sprinkled with a bit of mystery, and some laugh-out-loud humor, this tale is entertaining from start to finish. – 4 Stars, Romantic Times Reviews

The Christmas Ranch by RaeAnne Thayne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Special Edition of two stories by RaeAnne Thayne,The Christmas Ranch and A Cold Creek Holiday...

The Christmas Ranch is a part of ranch that was set aside for all things for Christmas,decorations with lights, raindeer, a magical wonderland. Hope Nichols had traveled far afield for many years and is now coming home..BUT she finds out that this part of the ranch has been temporarily closed after her sisters husband died a few months before. Hope is determined to open it again even though Christmas is fast approaching.
She meets someone from her past and at the beginning does not remember him, he offers his help to get the place open and she accepts. working together so closely she soon finds she is losing her heart to this former navy seal,Rafe Santiago. Sparks fly when she realizes who he is and that he has not mentioned to her they had a past...One that left her with nightmares for awhile.
Come read a wonderful holiday book where you get two for one. thanks RaeAnne.

The second story , Emory needs to get away and chooses a Bed and Breakfast far away during the holidays to be alone and get some work done. She does not count on meeting a hunk of a man who is gaurdian to some adorable kids that want to be friends. They are drawn to her as a mother figure -now missing their Mom that had died. Holidays is not one to be alone and she is soon in the midst of helping the kids have a memorable Christmas and finding she is being drawn closer to the "The Hunk" more and more. This is a couple of stories you must read for the season.


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If I were Betty sitting in the garden looking quite complete, would you listen?

Gardens are special places that we fix flowers and items to view sometimes whimsical....
                                   at least I do...do you?

Steps made of stone or brick making a pathway to walk and view, makes me think of the mazes some choose to make and a couple getting lost -finding the middle with a bench where they sit,talk a bit and maybe even spoon....a little kiss or maybe two.  Then emerging once again to face life as it is.

A Birdbath where the robins play sometimes drinking and sometimes bathe, but always with a merry tune for all to hear making the world a little sweeter that day.

A cat comes sneaking along the walk ...looking for someone or just taking a stroll down the pathway.

Dreams in the garden are always a little more sincere when we sit on a pretty bench and view the trees overhead swaying with the breeze, listening to the little small voice that wants to be heard and in our busy world we have no time to listen.  Now we do....

Sunshine cast its spell and warmth as we sit a spell ..in the silence do you hear it, that magical moment when time stands still and no worries abound, just peace and quite making Hope spring into our souls and "just knowing" all is right with the world.

Streams of Mercy by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series "Song of Blessing",book #3 Streams of Mercy written by Lauraine Snelling

I love returning to North Dakota and the little town of Blessing and all the characters that I have read several books about. The character that stands out the most to me is Ingeborg who is now a widow again, Haakan has been gone almost two years and the pain of it, is a little more bearable as the days go by.
But..this story is about Anji Baard Moen who to is recently widowed while in Norway and she returns with her children to the town of Blessing. She is a teacher and writes articles for the newspaper in town.
Thomas Devlin is a minister without a post and came into town looking for work as a carpenter to support himself until a church calls him to preach.
His work on the house of Anji helps to form a friendship that is fast becoming a relationship that both will be happier for. If...they can let themselves.
Within this story is the devastating tale of a circus train coming to town with some sick folks that soon leaves Blessing quarantined and diphtheria is found to be the culprit. Many are so sick and then dying ones everyday. The doctors at the hospital that was filled to capacity were exhausted. Trainees were added to help. An antitoxin was found and sent by train but many died before it arrived.
The little town of Blessing opened its hospital and homes reluctantly helping those that needed help.
Many cities before them would not let the little train stop in their cities. The animals were starving on the circus and the townspeople even helped with that.
If you are a fan of this author and her red river series,you won't want to miss this story and how it ends for the good people of Blessing.

I was given this book by Bethany House publishing to read and review,thanks.


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