Ahh, sigh. Started reading Christmas books and decided to knock this one off my Paperwhite list. I was hoping it was going to be better than the last book --- and indeed it was --- but there were still lots of problems with it. (I guess I'm just still reveling in my last good book and nothing is coming up to par.) It was billed to be an eccentric compliation of a crazy funny family and their adventures, and I suppose it was to an extent. It just seemed to me that the author was trying too hard. Some parts of the book they were crazy family, some parts they were just normal, and you just never know which way it was going to go. I will say, though, that Aunt Bert, was consistently my favorite!
I will confess, though, that this is the first in a series and it may be that even though I did not care for the book I may find myself reading the others simply to see what happens to these folks. Ready to move on ...
Three sisters who only come home for Christmas have always been the talk
of their small southern town but this Christmas they are going to start
talking back and what they have to say may just change lives,
especially their own.
It's beginning to look at lot like Romance in
this charming story of an unlikely minister, the woman he loved but left
behind, a special child and a town that might finally bring them all
home. (picture and description from amazon)
Happy Reading!
O:)
Melissa
I shall wait until I confer with my Book Club cohorts before I share my opinion. I may have missed something altogether here. It sounded good, but ......
Sometimes everything you ever learned about yourself is wrong
Fashion
is a fickle industry, a frightening fact for twenty-four year old model
Ivy Clark. Ten years in and she’s learned a sacred truth—appearance is
everything. Nobody cares about her broken past as long as she looks
beautiful for the camera. This is the only life Ivy knows—so when it
starts to unravel, she’ll do anything to hold on. Even if that means
moving to the quaint island town of Greenbrier, South Carolina, to be
the new face of her stepmother’s bridal wear line—an irony too rich for
words, since Ivy is far from the pure bride in white.
If only
her tenuous future didn’t rest in the hands of Davis Knight, her
mysterious new photographer. Not only did he walk away from the kind of
success Ivy longs for to work maintenance at a local church, he treats
her differently than any man ever has. Somehow, Davis sees through the
façade she works so hard to maintain. He, along with a cast of other
characters, challenges everything Ivy has come to believe about beauty
and worth. Is it possible that God sees her—a woman stained and broken
by the world—yet wants her still? (picture and description at amazon)
Ready to move on to Christmas books!
Happy Reading!
O:)
Melissa
Finally, my friends, a book I can really sink my teeth into!! I mean, any book that starts out like, "March 1816 'We are going to die!' Rachel Gordon's young maid cried out."
Rachel and her maid, Maddy, are headed towards their new home in South Carolina. Rachel, now estranged from her family in England over her marriage to Tom, who was actually a really bad guy but she didn't know it when she married him, but Tom actually fell overboard the ship on the way over (in a drunken stupor) so now Rachel is alone, and did I mention 8 months pregnant? Rachel and Maddy are headed toward their glorious new plantation in the middle of this thunderstorm. All they have to do is make it to the house and it will be warm and cozy, with their servants waiting to attend to their every need. NOT!!!
But on the way the horses end up freaking out in the storm, breaking free of the wagon and sending Rachel and Maddy flying while the wagon goes tumbling. Luckily (as can only happen these books I read!) who should come by but a doctor (Nathan) -- a single man resolved to live the single hermit life because of his trauma and terrors in his earlier life -- and luckily he lives close to get the girls, take them to his cabin, and deliver the baby.
And that is just part of Chapter One!! I mean, who does not get fired up about a book like that?!? Throw in Nathan's grandfather, who practically raised him, who vehemently hates the English for killing his one and only son (Remember the Revolutionary War?) and kicks Nathan and Rachel off his land; George Butler the neighbor who nearly scared the beegeebees out of Rachel but ends up falling in love with Maddy; and, oh yeah, that grand mansion Rachel was going to? Just a run down farm with most of its land swampy bog ... and comes with a dead body for free!!
Needless to say, I highly recommend this!!
Penniless, pregnant, and newly widowed immigrant Rachel Gordon doesn’t
believe her situation could get any worse… until she meets her new
neighbors. Shortly after the War of 1812, Rachel and her husband set out
from England for a plantation in South Carolina, which he had purchased
sight unseen. However, while en route, Tom Gordon fell overboard and
drowned, leaving Rachel, frightened and alone, to make a home for her
and her newborn. Can a battle-scarred American physician who comes to
her rescue also heal her wounded heart? (picture and description from amazon)
Happy Reading!!
O:)
Melissa
