The Convenient Groom by Denise Hunter

 Description

She wrote the book--literally--on finding the right mate. But does she really understand what love's about?
Five hours before her Nantucket beach wedding--and on the eve of her big book launch--celebrity marriage counselor Kate Lawrence has everything in place.
Everything, that is, but the groom. She might not have a career, either, when her nationwide audience finds out their marriage guru has been left at the altar.
Enter Lucas Wright, who offers to stand in for the missing husband-to-be and marry her. Kate's desperate enough to agree--although she's sure this Mr. Wright is completely wrong for her. But can they pull it off? And why would Lucas marry her in the first place?
Could it be that "Dr. Kate" doesn't know the first thing about love?
An inspiring tale of enduring love set in romantic Nantucket.

My Review

The Convenient Groom (Nantucket, #2)
byDenise Hunter

Dr. Kate, expert on marriage and famous author and couselor, is about to get married. But at the last minute, her soon to be husband backs out and leaves her standing at the alar about a few hours before the wedding itself. Lucus (who has loved her for a while unbeknowst to Kate), stands in as a "convenient groom" to help save her career. Of course, through any good romance book, Dr. Kate begins to fall in love with Lucus. Then the unexpected happens, and there is the threat of this marriage of convience ending.

So, I have now read this book twice, and it is agood book to come back to every once in a while. I really like how Denise Hunter adds little snippets of Dr. Kate's "book", because it always makes the chapter funny when you see neither main character using the advice. Then of course the best part for me is when Lucas moves Kate into his home (since they have to make it look like they are in love, and that it isn't a marriage of convience). I can imagine the face she makes as she realizes she, the neat freak on the verge of OCD, has married a messy bachelor with a large, hairy dog. Yep, makes me laugh just thinking about it!
The description of Nantucket is beautiful, makes you really want to go there.

Highly recommend the book, and it definitely a re-read.      

Cana

Thief by Linda Windsor

 Description

Exiled in shame and wounded in battle, Caden O’Byrne accepts a mission of penance—to search for his healer’s long-lost daughter. At worst, he’ll finally get his death wish. At best, this could be God’s second chance. But the lovely minstrel Sorcha wants no part in him, his newfound God, or the rescue. In fact, she’s robbed him blind—to help finance her work of buying young captives and returning them to their families. She’s also gone into debt and promised to marry a man she doesn’t love—all for the chidlren’s sake. But before she and Caden can sort out the situation, a treacherous murder forces them to run for their lives…together. While Caden’s rekindled faith is tested, Sorcha wonders if his God is real. If so, can a thief like her dare hope for His mercy? And do the two of them have a chance of reaching home—Sorcha’s real home—alive?

My Review

Thief: A Novel by Linda Windsor

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Caden,outcasted and punished for crimes against his family, is given an opportunity to change his life by bringing home a lost child (though now an adult) to her widowed mother. Sorcha, kidnapped as a child, now recues children brought in to be sold as slaves and return them to their families. Together they must prove their innocence and learn to rely on God and each other to survive through the dangers they must face.

In this second book in the Brides of Alba series, Linda Windsor has done it again. By using her gift of writing, she opens up her readers about a time in history where Christians lived and experienced God in ways that we may never have thought of. In every way, she does her best to follow the best historical information and does a wonderful job of giving her sources so if you want to further your own study of a time most Christians don't even realize exists.

Highly recommend this book, and I am looking forward to the last one come summer 2012!

Cana

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Healer by Linda Windsor

Description

Sixth-century Scotland—in the time of Arthur….

“The Gowrys’ seed shall divide your mighty house and bring a peace beyond the ken of your wicked soul.”

Her mother’s dying prophecy to the chieftain Tarlach O’Byrne sentenced Brenna of Gowrys to twenty years of hiding. Twenty years of being hunted—by the O’Byrnes, who fear the prophecy, and by her kinsmen, who expect her to lead them against their oppressors. But Brenna is a trained and gifted healer, not a warrior queen. So she lives alone in the wilderness with only her pet wolf for company. When she rescues a man badly wounded from an ambush, she believes he may be the answer to her deep loneliness. Healing him comes as easy as loving him. But can their love overcome years of bitterness and greed…and bring peace and renewed faith to the shattered kingdom?

My Review

 Healer: A Novel
byLinda Windsor

In the first of the Brides of Alba Series, Brenna is an orphan that is living the life of an outcast because of a prediction that her mother gave.  As a gifted healer, she cannot leave the injured man lying by the lake, even though today is the annual hunt for her.  As it turns out, Ronan, the heir and enemy, is the injured man that Brenna helps.  As they learn to love each other and to break the feud created so many years ago, they must also fight for their lives as there are those who want both dead. 
Let me say that I love Linda Windsor's books, and this one is added to my list of favorites.  Her characters are well-rounded and there are points that you just want to crawl inside the book and have a wonderfully long conversation with them (granted sometimes that is because you are yelling at the book, "What are you thinking? That is NEVER going to work!!!!").  I love that there is a bit of mystery on who is friend and who is foe, but even your enemy can become a great ally when faced with darkness. 
As with her other novels, it is well researched and full of well thought revelations that help us as modern Christians see and think as those who were Christians hundreds and thousands of years ago.  I especially love her bibliography and her glossary, both of which are big help if you are unfamilar with 6th century Scottish. 
Highly recommend this book, and I have plans on re-reading it.

Cana

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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

 Description

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. And a strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children who once lived here—one of whom was his own grandfather—were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a desolate island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.
A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

My Review

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Jacob is a teen who grew up on his grandfather's tales of magic on an island just off of Wales, UK. Jacob as a child believed it, but as a teenager didn't. After the loss of his grandfather, he decides to venture to this island and find out the truth of the stories that he had heard all his life. There he learns the truth not only of his grandfather's childhood, but also truths about himself.

So under a suggestion of a friend, I put this on my reading list, and I am SO glad that I did. This is a beautiful, magical story that I will be proud to say I will re-read it. Ransom Riggs did a wonderful job creating an "adult" fairytale that could actually happen. Set in two different time periods, it leaves the question are there peculiars out there? There are twists to the plot, one thing that majorly caught me off guard but made the story so much better. The characters grew on you (I really liked Olive and Emma, both wonderfully delightful in their knowledge, powers, and in personallity), though I should warn you, that some characters are more likeable than others.

I think the ending was the best part. There was resolution, but still a slight space to where if Mr. Riggs decides to continue the story,there is room to grow.

Another perk: It is also the only "grown-up" book I've read in a long time that had pictures! I loved reading the story and getting to look at pictures! I could actually believe that these were the peculiar children from Miss Peregrine's home. But they also left just a bit of creepiness that I will honestly admit, some of those pictures I'll never look at in the dark!

Highly Recommend this book!

Cana

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The Lost Enchantress by Patricia Coughlin

 Description

Long ago Eve Lockhart discovered that the ancient magic that was her birthright could cost her everything. So she vowed to create a normal life and was convinced she'd succeeded-until a long-lost family talisman resurfaces. A prize beyond price, the hourglass pendant ignites the fevered interest of mysterious forces who'll risk anything to possess it-forces that include one very seductive man...

The priceless pendant isn't the only thing Gabriel Hazard wants from Eve. For nearly two centuries he's searched for the hidden magic that can break a spell and grant him the one thing he craves. But he isn't alone in wanting the pendant-or Eve's magic.

Now Eve has no choice but to break her long-ago vow and claim her power, her dream of everlasting love-and her destiny.

My Review

The Lost Enchantress by Patricia Coughlin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Eve was raised as an enchantress (not a witch... Obviously there is a difference, as the prologe of the book will inform you!), but has turned her back on her family's "gifts" because she wants to be normal. Enters Mr. Tall-Dark-Handsome, who just happens to be cursed in the weirdest way. If at first you think he is a vampire: try, try again. Together they have to fight an evil that has been having a good nap.

It was nice that she didn't make this another vampire book, instead found an interesting way to work the curse. I can't let on too much, because it would be a spoiler, and I do try to avoid spoilers. I think the roles of aunt, grandma and niece/great-granddaughter were fleshed out well, and all the characters were very easy to like.  It just would have been better if there was more substance to the story and less fluff.

As a whole it was a decent book. I will say it was not a "deep read", no having to really think while reading. There are a few cliches: staring across a crowded room for an "enchanted evening"; only taking 2 or 3 days before they both desperately have to have sex; happily-ever-after.

If you are looking for a light read for the summer, this would be a good book to give it a try.

Cana

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Cascade by Lisa T. Bergren

 Description

Gabi knows she’s left her heart in the fourteenth century and she persuades Lia to help her to return, even though they know doing so will risk their very lives. When they arrive, weeks have passed and all of Siena longs to celebrate the heroines who turned the tide in the battle against Florence—while the Florentines will go to great lengths to see them dead.

But Marcello patiently awaits, and Gabi must decide if she’s willing to leave her family behind for good in order to give her heart to him forever.

My Review

Cascade by Lisa Tawn Bergren

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Gabi and Lia are at it again. This time, they take their mother with them (I can't say I would want to take my mother with me if I wanted to be with my "prince charming", but it does add some interesting situations for this story). Marcello has waited several months (his time) for Gabi and Lia to return. When they do, there is celebration, but people are still after them. The City of Florence and their leaders want Gabi and Lia's heads, while Siena celebrate their victories. But there is more. More battles, more betrayls, an introduction of the plague. There is little down time in this novel, and the adventure and tension of war keeps the pages turning.

I'm looking forward to the last book, though I think I shall also mourn the loss of more from Gabi and Lia. Highly recommend, definitely worth the read.

Cana

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Waterfall by Lisa T. Bergren

 Description

In Waterfall, American teenager Gabi Betarrini accidently finds herself in Fourteenth-Century Italy . . . Knights. Swords. Horses. Armor. And Italian hotties. Most American teens want an Italian vacation, but the Betarrini sisters have spent every summer of their lives there with their archaeologist parents. Stuck on yet another hot, dusty dig, they are bored out of their minds... until they place their hands atop handprints in an ancient tomb and find themselves catapulted into the Fourteenth Century and in the middle of a fierce battle between knights bent on killing one another.

My Review

Waterfall by Lisa Tawn Bergren

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a knight in shining armour? To live in a time where there was only a chamberpot and women were not meant to lead, but follow their father or husband's every wish and decree? Well, Lisa T. Bergren does a wonderful job in portraying what it would be like to go back in time as a modern woman into Medieval Italy. I loved Gabi, her whole personality was tremendously strong and amazingly complex. Who wouldn't want to have a knight, but would we really be willing to sit back and let him protect us? Historically, there are some differences, but Bergren does a wonderful job to make it all blend away to where you cannot see the difference between historical information and author's perogative.

If you are looking for a good read, where there is adventure, romance, and sword fights, this would be a definitely good book to read. Only downside is this is 1 of 3, so once she publishes the last book (come on November) this will be it for this very interesting trilogy.

Highly Recommend!

Cana

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