Review | "The Secret of Pembrooke Park" by Julie Klassen

The Secret of Pembrooke Park by Julie Klassen
Inspirational Regency Romance published December 1, 2014
Published by Bethany House
Author's website  |  Goodreads  |  Buy the Book on Amazon

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Abigail Foster fears she will end up a spinster, especially as she has little dowry to improve her charms and the one man she thought might marry her--a longtime friend--has fallen for her younger, prettier sister. 

When financial problems force her family to sell their London home, a strange solicitor arrives with an astounding offer: the use of a distant manor house abandoned for eighteen years. The Fosters journey to imposing Pembrooke Park and are startled to find it entombed as it was abruptly left: tea cups encrusted with dry tea, moth-eaten clothes in wardrobes, a doll's house left mid-play . . . 

The handsome local curate welcomes them, but though he and his family seem to know something about the manor's past, the only information they offer Abigail is a warning: Beware trespassers who may be drawn by rumors that Pembrooke contains a secret room filled with treasure. 

Hoping to improve her family's financial situation, Abigail surreptitiously searches for the hidden room, but the arrival of anonymous letters addressed to her, with clues about the room and the past, bring discoveries even more startling. As secrets come to light, will Abigail find the treasure and love she seeks...or very real danger?

my thoughts...

This was my first book by Julie Klassen and I did enjoy it.  It's a fairly long book and it did take me longer to read it than I anticipated. This is a Regency Mystery and while it's classified as romance there was really very little focus on the romance.  This is also a Bethany House published book so there is some aspect of religion throughout the book.  It's not as in your face as some of the books they publish are.  This one is more subtle in that the main male character Will is a curate on the Pembrooke property.  This, for all intents and purposes, means that he's the pastor of the church.  His position is overseen by an elder pastor who travels so Will lives in the rectory and holds the weekly services.

Abigail finds herself in a bit of a quandary when, because of her advice on financial matters, her family finds themselves in trouble.  They can no longer afford to live in the way they have become accustomed so she needs to find them a place to live when they sell their London home.  She is the older sister who feels doomed to remain an "old maid" even though she is not yet 25.  This hits her especially hard when the man she thinks she's in love with, a man she grew up with, appears to be quite taken with her younger sister.  They seem to stumble upon the opportunity of a lifetime when they are offered a year lease on the Pembrooke property.  An offer that comes complete with household staff.  The caveat is, the house has been empty for nearly 20 years.

As Abigail begins to ready the house for the rest of her family, she learns that there is so much more about the house than what was revealed to her initially.  There is a secret in the house and she's not the only one searching for it.  Some say it's a treasure, but just what kind of treasure could there be in a house that was abandoned so suddenly?  Abigail becomes close with Will and his entire family as she uncovers the truth about what really happened all those years ago.

This is a great mystery story, it's full of twists and turns.  Some of them I saw coming, but others hit me out of the blue.  Like I said earlier, it's a long book, but the mystery of it kept me going right on to the end.  There is a little romance that's all very proper for the time in which the book is set.  If you like a nice clean read with a little romance and a lot of mystery then you will probably enjoy this book.  I know I did!

XOXO, Shelly

*Disclaimer: I was provided with a copy of this book courtesy of the publisher in exchange for my honest review.*

Review | "A Bride in Store" by Melissa Jagears

A Bride in Store by Melissa Jagears
Historical Romance/Christian Fiction published September 2, 2014
Bethany House Publishing
Author's website  |  Goodreads  |  Buy the Book on Amazon

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Mail-order bride Eliza Cantrell is on her way to meet her intended groom and help him grow his general store business when her train is held up by robbers and she loses her dowry. She's further thwarted upon arriving in Salt Flatts only to find Axel, her groom, away on business.  

Hoping a wife would push Axel to become a better business partner, William Stanton had encouraged him to seek a mail-order bride. With Axel gone, Will feels responsible for Eliza, so he finds her a place to stay and lets her help in the store. 

Working together isn't what they'd expected, and when Axel is further delayed, neither can ignore the sparks that fly. But Eliza is meant for Axel and is set on a future with the store, while Will is biding time until he can afford medical school. 

Their troubles are far from over when Axel returns to town, however, and soon both Will and Eliza must decide what they're willing to sacrifice to chase their dreams--or if God has a new dream in store for them both.

My Thoughts...

This was another win from Melissa Jagears and Bethany House.  I really enjoyed this book maybe even more than the first one in the series.  The male lead in this book was in the last book as well.  He is the oldest son of the family who were Everett's best friends.  We do get to see Everett and Julia a little bit in this story so that was nice.

Eliza in obviously the mail order bride here, she has decided to surprise her intended by showing up a week earlier than planned.  On the way, the train she is on in robbed and Eliza loses her entire inheritance.  She is also injured in the process and meets Will when he is called to help care for her injury.  Eliza and Will form a friendship while they work together in the store that Eliza will help her husband run if only he will return.  Will is working in the store with Axel for the time being, but he is meant for greater things.  He wants to be a doctor and actually does attend to a good many of the people in town.  They don't care that he doesn't have schooling, he cares for them and treats them in a much kinder way than the regular town doctor does.

The longer Will and Eliza work together the more he comes to care for her, and she for him, but she knows that once Axel returns she will have to marry him.  She made him a promise and she's not going to back out unless she has a very good reason.  She also has a dream of running her own store someday and this may be her only chance, plus there is the chance that she could learn to love Axel someday.  From the moment Axel return, things take an unexpected turn.  He's not the man he presented himself to be, in fact he's done things that even his business partner Will knows nothing about.  How will Eliza know which path to choose?  Will she and Will find their way to each other in the end?

I really did enjoy this story.  It is a religious story, but it's more subtle in this book than in the first one.  For me this one read more like historical fiction and less like religious fiction.  I felt like this definitely reflected the beliefs of the time it's set in so it's less "in your face" than some of the religious fiction I have read.

If you like a good historical romance, you like clean romance and you don't mind that is religious fiction then give this book a try!

XOXO, Shelly

*Disclaimer: I was provided with a copy of this book courtesy of the publisher in exchange for my honest review.*

Review | "Until I Found You" by Victoria Bylin

Until I Found You by Victoria Bylin
Christian Romance published May 6, 2014
Bethany House
Author's website  |  Goodreads  |  Buy the Book on Amazon

Synopsis from Goodreads

Contemporary Romance to Make You Laugh, Cry, and Fall in Love

When Kate Darby swerves off a mountain road to avoid hitting a California condor, she ends up trapped in her car, teetering on the edge of a cliff. Terrified, she breathes a prayer that changes her life: "God, if you're real, I want to know you."

It's Nick Sheridan who comes to Kate's rescue. Nick is handsome, confident, and seems to develop a habit of rescuing her, but Kate is in town only until her grandmother recuperates from a stroke. She's not planning to fall in love with one of the locals.

Nick Sheridan is a reformed veteran of life in the fast lane, a new Christian, and a travel writer. When he sees a car dangling on the edge of a cliff, the daredevil in him jumps into action. He doesn't expect to be swept off his feet by the car's occupant. He's made a vow: no dating for a year. And it's a vow he intends to keep in spite of his attraction to Kate Darby...

My Thoughts...

I have to say right off that I totally judged this book by it's cover!  I saw that cover and read the synopsis and I immediately wanted to read it.  As you know, if you are one of my regular readers, I don't typically read or review Christian Fiction.  I have made an exception for Bethany House, I have read a handful of books they have published in the last several years and I have enjoyed them all.  I like that they are religious without being too in your face, the messages are more subtle, but to the point.  That wasn't so much the case with this book. I felt like this one was more preachy and it took away from the story for me.  

Kate Darby is a young woman who loves her career and it's a good one, but she loves her Grandmother more.  When Leona has a stroke and needs care Kate takes a leave of absence from her job so that she can take care of her during her recovery.  She has an accident on her way there and this is where she meets Nick.  He is a new Christian who is determined that he isn't going to date for a year.  This is going to be hard for him once he meets Kate.

I feel like this story had so much potential, but the preachy aspect of it hindered it.  I liked Nick's character, but I didn't really connect with him.  I didn't connect with Kate at all for some reason.  She just seemed really detached and unsure of everything.  She loved her job, but didn't know if she wanted to keep it.  She loved Nick, but didn't want to admit it because she wasn't sure she believed in God the same way he did.  I didn't feel like her "conversion" was really completely honest.  I feel like it was just kind of glossed over especially after all the lead up.

The whole condor story line was what was connecting Kate to her Grandparents past and how Leona came to terms with her faith, etc... but it wasn't particularly interesting for me.  It's probably just me, but California Condors really aren't something I am interested in and now I know a whole lot about them.  I think more time could have been spent developing the relationship between the main characters instead of all the condor history.  

Overall, I did enjoy the story, but I felt like the whole thing was too rushed and I could have done with a more subtle religious theme.  If you like Christian Romance then this is probably a book that you will enjoy.

XOXO, Shelly

*Disclaimer: I was provided with a copy of this book courtesy of the publisher in exchange for my honest review.*

Review | "A Bride for Keeps" by Melissa Jagears

Bride For Keeps by Melissa Jagears
Historical Romance/Christian Fiction published October 3, 2013
Bethany House Publishing
Author's website  |  Goodreads  |  Buy the Book on Amazon

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Although Everett Cline can hardly keep up with the demands of his homestead, he won't humiliate himself by looking for a helpmate ever again--not after being jilted by three mail-order brides. When a well-meaning neighbor goes behind his back to bring yet another mail-order bride to town, he has good reason to doubt it will work, especially after getting a glimpse at the woman in question. She's the prettiest woman he's ever seen, and it's just not possible she's there to marry a simple homesteader like him. 

Julia Lockwood has never been anything more than a pretty pawn for her father or a business acquisition for her former fiance. Having finally worked up the courage to leave her life in Massachusetts, she's determined to find a place where people will value her for more than her looks. Having run out of all other options, Julia resorts to a mail-order marriage in far-away Kansas. 

Everett is skeptical a cultured woman like Julia could be happy in a life on the plains, while Julia, deeply wounded by a past relationship, is skittish at the idea of marriage at all. When, despite their hesitations, they agree to a marriage in name only, neither one is prepared for the feelings that soon arise to complicate their arrangement. Can two people accustomed to keeping their distance let the barricades around their hearts down long enough to fall in love?

My Thoughts...

As you know, if you follow the blog here, I don't read much Religious Fiction.  I will, however, occasionally accept a book from Bethany House for review and I have yet to read one that I have not enjoyed.  This book falls firmly in that category.  Actually, I think this is probably my favorite of the books I have received from them.  

This book is set in Kansas in 1876.  Everett is a farmer who has had a bit of bad luck when it comes to finding a wife.  The girl he loved when he was young left him for someone else.  He goes off to war and comes back to start working his land and decides that maybe a mail order bride might be the thing for him. After three disastrous attempts he comes to the conclusion that maybe it's not meant for him after all.  This is when a meddling, albeit well meaning friend decides to find him a bride on her own.  She starts communicating with Julia and when Julia tells her about certain situations in her life, Rachel invites her to Kansas to be Everett's mail order bride.  Unfortunately for Everett, he doesn't know anything about this until her train arrives on a day when he just happens to be in town picking up supplies.

So, without giving too much away Everett believes Julia to be too "high-class" to ever be satisfied being the wife of a simple homesteader.  He doesn't think she has what it takes to live the lifestyle that he and his wife will have to live to make a go of the farm.  Julia, on the other hand, is running from her past in a sense and so she's pretty well determined that she's going to do whatever it takes.  They take a little time to try to get to know one another before she agrees to marry him, but in name only.  She will be his wife and she will help him with the homestead and the like, but she has no intention of ever becoming intimate with him for reasons known only to her.  He agrees, partly because he's at a point where he doesn't think he will ever find anyone else, but partly because he does like her and he thinks that given time she will come to feel the same for him.

They have a rough go of it, a lot of assumptions and misplaced anger.  Some of it is childish stuff, in fact most of it is, but thankfully for them they have Rachel and Dex to help them see things the way they really are.  They are even able to help some others along the way.  Everett has a very deep connection to God and believes that above all God will help him find the right path.  Because of this faith he is able to help Julia find her way to God.  He sets an example that she is not able to overlook.

This is a good clean romance and it does have a pretty strong religious undertone.  I don't normally like books that push this too much, but in the case of this book there is a nice balance and there were some parts that had me thinking awfully hard about how I felt.  I would not hesitate to pick up more books in this series, in fact I just saw on Goodreads that Dex and Rachel's story is told in a novella the proceeds this book and it's free on Amazon for Kindle so I picked that up this morning.

If you like a good historical romance, you like clean romance and you don't mind that is religious fiction then give this book a try!

XOXO, Shelly

*Disclaimer: I was provided with a copy of this book courtesy of the publisher in exchange for my honest review.*

Historical Romance Review "Dark Road Home" by Elizabeth Ludwig

Dark Road Home by Elizabeth Ludwig
Historical Romance released August 2013
Bethany House Publishing

Goodreads  |  Buy the Book on Amazon

Synopsis from Goodreads:
Ana Kavanagh’s only memories of home are of fire and pain. As a girl she was the only survivor of a terrible blaze, and years later she still struggles with her anger at God for letting it happen.

At a nearby parish she meets and finds a kindred spirit in Eoghan Hamilton, who is struggling with his own anger–his sister, Cara, betrayed him by falling in love with one of his enemies. Cast aside by everyone, Eoghan longs to rejoin the Fenians, a shadowy organization pushing for change back in Ireland. But gaining their trust requires doing some favors–all of which seem to lead back to Ana. Who is she and who is searching for her? As dark secrets from Ana’s past begin to come to light, Eoghan must choose which road to follow–and where to finally place his trust.

My Thoughts...

This is the second book in the Edge of Freedom series.  Originally, when I decided to review this book, I thought it was a continuation of Cara and Rourke's story.  It is not.  This is a new story that takes place just after the events in the first book.  The main characters in this book are Eoghan, Cara's twin brother, and Ana a young woman who lives in the boarding house that Cara lived in during the first book.  This book is a continuation of the the whole Fenians/The Celt story line, however.

Ana is a damaged young woman who has been in America for some time after being more or less "spirited away" as a young girl to save her from someone who would do her harm.  As a child she lost her mother and younger sister to a house fire.  She didn't escape unscathed, however.  She is physically and emotionally damaged and is trying very hard to work past all her anger, most of it directed at a God whom she believes abandoned her.

Eoghan has found himself in a situation where he is working in and living at the local church.  He basically turns up on the doorstep in a miserable state and is put to work in exchange for a place to sleep and eat.  He is bitter and angry with his sister for marrying someone he considers to be a traitor and an enemy.  He has kept his distance from her not even allowing her to have a chance to explain their side of the situation.  He is having some trouble working in the church because his faith is just as shaky as Ana's.

Ana finds herself, at first against her will, volunteering at the church.  She meets Eoghan and is drawn to him immediately, but keeps her distance at first when she learns that he is Cara's brother.  She doesn't like keeping things from her friends and she wants more than anything for them to reconcile.  There are extenuating circumstances that tie Eoghan and Ana together, events that are tied to her past and his dealings with the Fenains.  Even when they try to keep their distance there are things bringing them back together over and over again.

In order for them to be happy they each have things they have to reconcile.  Ana with her past, Eoghan with his family and both of them with their faith.  I didn't like this book as much as I did the first one.  I wasn't as connected to the characters in this one for some reason.  The religious aspect of this book was way more "in your face" than in the first book.  In this one each character was dealing with issues concerning their faith and that's the reason it's more prevalent.  I didn't dislike that, it was just different than the previous book.   I felt like this book was a little more predictable and at times cliche.  For me, it lacked the suspense and excitement of the first book.  

This was a good clean historical romance.  If you like this kind of book then you may want to give this one a try.  I would recommend reading the first book though since that one give a lot of the history of the Fenians that isn't really re-covered in this book.  Also, the first book is pretty good!

*Disclaimer:  I was provided with a copy of this book courtesy of Bethany House Publishing in exchange for an honest review.*

Historical Romance Review "No Safe Harbor" by Elizabeth Ludwig

Title:  No Safe Harbor
Author: Elizabeth Ludwig
Publisher:  Bethany House
Publication Date: October 1, 2012

Genre:  Christian Historical Romantic Suspense 

Format:  Paperback 336 pages  |  Kindle 786 KB

Buy this book on Amazon:  Paperback  |  Kindle Edition

Synopsis from Goodreads: 

The Thrill of Romantic Suspense Meets the Romance of 1800s America.

Lured by a handful of scribbled words across a faded letter, Cara Hamilton sets off from 1896 Ireland on a quest to find the brother she'd thought dead. Her search lands her in America, amidst a houseful of strangers and one man who claims to be a friend--Rourke Walsh.

Despite her brother's warning, Cara decides to trust Rourke and reveals the truth about her purpose in America. But he is not who he claims to be, and as rumors begin to circulate about an underground group of dangerous revolutionaries, Cara's desperation grows. Her questions lead her ever closer to her brother, but they also bring her closer to destruction as Rourke's true intentions come to light.

My Thoughts...

I feel like I need to preface this review by saying that I had no idea that this was Christian Fiction.  I got this book directly from the publisher and while I do have in my Review Policy that I will not review Christian fiction, I will review books from Bethany House in the future.  I really did enjoy the story and it was a nice change of pace for me.

This is one of those books that I was able to read really quickly once I had a little time with no interruptions.  It captured my attention right off and kept me turning the pages until the very end. This isn't a book that I would even put in a strictly romance category, it's more of a suspense novel with a thread of romance in it.  The romance is definitely not the focus of the story, it's more of an inevitability of the mystery aspect, if that makes any sense!  

After two years of believing her brother Eoghan to be dead, Cara Hamilton receives a letter from him.  She sails from Ireland to America to find him.  On the crossing she is befriended by Mr. Healy who is able to send her to a friend who runs a boarding house for women.  She ends up in a houseful of strangers, most of whom are other women from Ireland.  She is able to find work in a candle shop and has met and become friends with a man named Rourke despite her brother's warning not to trust anyone.  She doesn't trust anyone enough to tell them that she has a brother and that she's looking for him.  She keeps hoping that Eoghan will come looking for her, but he's fallen into a bit of trouble himself.

I really liked Rourke even though there were times when I wondered if he would end up being the good guy that I believed him to be.  He was constantly struggling to do what he knew was the right thing.  It's clear that he's a good man who is in a situation that has gone beyond what he is comfortable with.  He is caught up with what he believes to be an obligation to his family, but he is clearly not vengeful like some members of his family.

Cara's character grows quite a bit throughout the story.  At the end of the story she is not that some naive girl that stepped of the boat onto Ellis Island.  She goes through some pretty intense situations that help to mold her into the woman she is by the end.  She struggles some with her faith and reaches a point where she just has to let go and trust that she is doing the right thing.  It did bother me that both Rourke and Cara lie to each other throughout the course of the book, though.

This book is really well written and is full of really wonderful descriptions of the life of Irish Immigrants in 1890's New York City.  I don't know much about Irish Immigrants or the Fenians, but I am fairly certain that the facts are historically accurate.  Ms. Ludwig is really a fantastic storyteller and I wouldn't hesitate to read another of her books.  She was able to weave a story full of twists and turns that leave you guessing at what will happen next.

If you like Historical Romance/Suspense then his may be a book you will enjoy, but keep in mind that it is a Christian novel.  It's not heavy on religious content, but it's clear that it's faith based.  I enjoyed it and like I said, I wouldn't hesitate to read another of Ms. Ludwig's books and I will definitely read more Bethany House books.

*Disclaimer:  I was provided with a copy of this book courtesy of Bethany House Publishing in exchange for an honest review.*