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An Amish Christmas Star—three Amish Christmas stories
Buggies, Trains, and Automobiles
by Shelley Shepard Gray
Ellie Coblentz is called back from vacation to help her Grandmommi. John Miller receives a phone call that his father, from whom he has been estranged for almost fifteen years, is on his deathbed. John needs to travel quickly if he wants to get to the nursing home before his father passes, something he is not sure he wants to do. It is a few days before Christmas when the two meet at a bulletin board searching for ways to get from Pinecraft, Florida, to Holmes County, Ohio, in bad weather. As strangers, they make for unusual travel partners, but God has a way of bringing them together under the difficult travel circumstances as they find themselves stranded several times along the journey. In addition to some crazy hired drivers, they also encounter some very kind and helpful people who think helping others is a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas. This is a sweet Christmas story that I think I would enjoy rereading.
Star of Wonder
by Charlotte Hubbard
Lizzie Zehr is a young Mennonite woman with a flamboyant, creative flair. Raised by her two sisters, first one who passed with MS, and then the other who was a talented, but perfectionist baker, Lizzie has felt stifled by them. She finds freedom in a job in a new bulk store in Promise Lodge. A lot of the Old Order Amish have moved there to be away from a mean-spirited Bishop.
Raymond Overholt is another creative who travels from Coldstream to Promise Lodge. His goal, however, is to sell art he has created from barnboard wood decorated with Christmas messages and stars. He just doesn’t enjoy or fit in well in his family’s dairy farm. So when offered a seasonal temporary job at the store in Promise Lodge, he accepts.
If Lizzie and Raymond have a future together, there will be a lot of opposition to overcome arising from the Amish leaders in Coldstream and Raymond’s family. It will take a change of heart by the leadership there and perhaps a change of circumstances. It will take a Christmas miracle!
Starlight Everlasting
by Rosalind Lauer
Rachel and Luke Coblentz began courting when they were quite young. They kept putting off their wedding in hopes that Rachel’s mother would recover from cancer and be able to be a part of the ceremony. Unfortunately, she passed away, leaving the family with seven children and a mountain of medical bills. As young marrieds, they feel an obligation to pay off the debts, but Luke is unable to find a job in the town of Joyful River. He gets a low paying factory job in Maple Run, but that means he and Rachel must live apart 5 days out of the week. This becomes a crisis for the young couple when Luke is required to work on both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Meanwhile, Rachel has restored an abandoned Christmas store in Joyful River. It is doing quite well, and she is able to help with the care of her younger siblings, but she misses Luke so much! They reach out to God and rely on him to give them the wisdom and faith required to help them through this difficult season.
Truman is one of Rachel’s young siblings, and I came to love him as much as Rachel does. As Rachel describes him, he is “odd.” He doesn’t understand social signals, but he “has a good heart.” Although bullied, he doesn’t retaliate. He is very smart and memorizes things quickly.
I enjoyed all of these novellas. They were able to tell a whole story in less space than a novel, and I didn’t feel that anything was missing.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Christian, Religion, Romance
Notes: These novellas offer the reader the Christmas spirit relying on the story of Christ’s birth as well as the cultural decorations and themes that are celebrated by non-Amish.
Publication: September 30, 2025—Kensington
Memorable Lines from Buggies, Trains, and Automobiles:
When she looked back for Kramer, he was gone, and the truck was too. “I didn’t hear Kramer’s truck leave. Did you?” John stopped and stared. “It was like he vanished. That sure was strange, ain’t so?” “Usually I would agree, but I’m starting to think that he was our own guardian angel,” Ellie said.
Memorable Lines from Star of Wonder:
Best of all, though, she had a new circle of friends who shone as brightly as one of Raymond’s gold stars when the morning sunlight hit it. And for that, Lizzie felt extremely blessed.
Memorable Lines from Starlight Everlasting:
Gott had guided the wise men with a star. It seemed simple and yet profound. Gott was guiding all of his believers each and every day. And that was what had led Luke here tonight. Faith.
The Memory of Old Jack–evocative language
The Memory of Old Jack
by Wendell Berry
Author Wendell Berry is loved and even revered by many of his readers. This is the third book I have read by him with my book club. He has written a series of novels describing the land and the people of the fictional Port William community in rural Kentucky from shortly after the Civil War to 1952. As a part of this series, The Memory of Old Jack’s timeline is a little jarring as it jumps repeatedly between Jack on a special September day and the memories he dredges up from a lifetime of experiences. A hard working farmer, he soaked in wisdom about farming and about life from an older neighbor.
My opinion of the character Jack also bounced around as I read about the various events of his life; sometimes I found him admirable and at other times an enigma. He is a rough man, tied to the land he loves so much. He has some regrets about his choices in life, but doesn’t seem to be able to make different choices or fix past mistakes and still stay true to himself.
Perhaps it is because of my own creeping age or the recent deaths of many loved ones, but I found the book very sad. Another member of my book club called it “grim,” and I must agree. It is not sprinkled with uplifting light spots, nothing to raise the heavy veil. There are some supporting characters that I liked, but they did not make up for the melancholy of this tale. Wendell Berry is a good writer in the sense that he effectively writes what I will call poetic prose. A few chapters into The Memory of Old Jack, I was struggling to want to finish this book. I made an attitude changing decision to do a read/listen and that made all the difference. The written language took on a beauty when it became oral.
There is no plot per se; the book moves along from anecdote (in this case memories) to anecdote. Although Berry tells his tale through the main characters, I never found them likable. To like this book, the reader would need to find the characters engaging. For me, it was more a matter of waiting for the next shoe to drop as the story moves to its inevitable conclusion.
The Memory of Old Jack is a vehicle for Berry’s expression of his philosophies about preserving the land and the customs and knowledge necessary for self-sufficiency. Berry was a farmer for forty years in addition to expressing his ideas through environmental activism. A poet, novelist, and essayist, he also worked as a professor. His use of story to promote socio-political thought is reminiscent of the writings of Sinclair Lewis.
This dichotomy of beautiful language in a novel that plods along makes reviewing and ranking it difficult. It deserves five stars, top in my rating system, for eloquent, descriptive language. For elements such as plot and character, I can only award it three stars as a book that I would never read again and am unable to recommend.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
Notes: 1. #3 in the Port William Series but all can be read as standalones.
2. Some profanity
3. Narrator Paul Michael of the audio version produced by Christian Audio is good with women’s voices as well as men’s.
Publication: October 8, 1999—Counterpoint
Memorable Lines:
That is what Old Jack has always given him—not help that he did not need but always exactly the help he has needed.
His vision, with the the finality of some physical change, has turned inward. More and more now the world as it is seems to him an apparition or a cloud that drifts, opening and closing, upon the clear, remembered lights and colors of the world as it was. The world as it is serves mostly to remind him, to turn him back along passages sometimes too well known into that other dead, mourned, unchangeable world that still lives in his mind.
…it is hard to keep his mind, ranging around the way it does, from crossing the track of his hard times.Though he would a lot rather let them lie still and be gone, once his mind strikes into his old troubles there is no stopping it; he is in his story then, watching, as he has helplessly done many times before, to see how one spell of trouble and sorrow led to another.
A Very Woodsy Murder–mountains vs. city
A Very Woodsy Murder
by Ellen Byron
This cozy mystery is full of quirky characters, some likable, some not so much. Very few are welcoming to Dee when she lands in tiny Foundgold describing her and her business partner as citiots (i.e. idiots from the city). Jeff and Dee were married quite young. The marriage didn’t last, but the friendship did. She is suffering the loss of her mother and a declining career as a sitcom writer. Who knew that was a job you could age out of? Jeff is in tech and can work from anywhere; he could use his skills with webpages, etc. to attract guests.
There is a lot to be done to renovate the Golden Motel and the closest town is the tourist town of Goldsgone where there is an unofficial dress code of the Old West. The residents even speak like they are from another place and time, and it isn’t long before Dee and Jeff are saying things like “hankerin’ for a sarsaparilla.”
The motel is in bad shape and needs a lot of renovation. They plan on fixing up a few rooms at a time to financially support future renovations. Their first guest oddly is Dee’s nemesis from L.A. Things go from bad to worse with this guest. Dee and Jeff become murder suspects and must investigate on the side to clear themselves by finding out who actually committed the crime. Unfortunately, there are more crimes, and Dee is hurt several times. In the process she discovers friends among the locals and has her first run-in with Stoney, a large black bear with a nose for food.
I had a great time with this crazy cozy mystery and I’m looking forward to reading more in the series as they are published.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: 1. #1 in the Golden Motel Mystery Series
2. 2 recipes included
3. Dee also adopts the previous (deceased) owner’s dog, Nugget. He should have a place in the character list.
Publication: 2024—Kensington
Memorable Lines:
“I drove in the north end of the park, but I drove out the south end. I rounded the bend and there it was. The For Sale sign was like a sign to me.” She tapped her chest. “It’s the one-eighty career change I’ve been looking for.”
What was bucolic in daylight now seemed ominous and threatening. “I didn’t know how dark it can get out here in the country. It’s, like, really, really dark.”
Elmira might be the world’s worst baker, but the woman knew her way around side dishes. If cooking was an art, while baking was chemistry, the All-in-One proprietor was an artist, but no chemist.
Summer Nights at the Starfish Café–romance, parenting, and relationships
Summer Nights at the Starfish Café
by Jessica Redland
When I started reading Summer Nights at the Starfish Café, I almost did an about face to stop reading this fictional account of a summer in the lives of the residents of the “popular North Yorkshire seaside town of Whitsborough Bay.” Author Redland began with a list with descriptive notes about the main and some minor characters. It seemed like too much to keep up with, but I persisted and I’m so glad I did. Although I referred back to the list several times, I found that Redland reintroduces the characters with more information about them as they initially appear in the book. I had no trouble keeping up after that.
Redland tells the story by focusing on two main characters. Hollie owns the Starfish Café, and Kerry, a single mother of four, works part time for Hollie during the school term. Each one tells her part of the story written from her point of view. Their lives overlap, even in the summer, because they have many of the same friends.
With a delicate hand, Redland draws a picture of the difficult situations both women find themselves in the middle of through no fault of their own. Both are sympathetic characters who work hard at their jobs, in their relationships, and in support of those they love. Even the minor characters and characters that are unlikable are shown to be worthy of the reader’s attention and maybe even empathy. Romance is in the air in Whitsborough Bay for several characters with dates, weddings and pregnancy forming a central focus, but friendship, children, and pets are important also. Many of the characters are crew members of the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution). There is a strong family feeling among them, and many of them are descendants of multiple generations of crew members.
Bitter estrangement between Hollie’s husband Jake and his sister Larissa bubbles over into violence. Kerry’s ex-husband, Cameron, after a six year absence with no explanation, decides he wants to renew his role as a father to his four children. Kerry wants it to happen slowly and in a way that won’t hurt her children. She sets boundaries and makes it clear that Cameron needs to put the kids’ needs above his own.
I enjoyed this novel. It has dramatic twists that keep the reader engaged. Kerry’s children play important roles as does Pickles, Hollie’s dog. I recommend this book for a fun read with depth of character and plot situation.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Women’s Fiction, Romance
Notes: #3 and the final book in the Starfish Café Series. It can be read as a standalone.
Publication: April 6 2023—Boldwood Books
Memorable Lines:
I pictured Larissa’s pinched face, the scowl on her forehead, the stiffness in her body. It must be exhausting to carry that much hate and anger with you all the time. I hoped she didn’t take it out on her husband and son.
People are too quick to pass the blame onto something from their past as though that justifies everything, but it doesn’t. They make their own choices. They’re responsible for their own behaviour.
Keep dancing in the rain. There is always, ALWAYS someone having a tougher time than you. Smile. Sparkle. You’ve got this!
Claret and Present Danger–bookish pub
Claret and Present Danger
by Sarah Fox
Sadie stars in Claret and Present Danger which is a solid cozy mystery. The series combines specialty cocktails created by Sadie with the same bookish theme present throughout Inkwell, her pub, in decor and special events. This novel cleverly brings a Renaissance Faire to the little town of Shady Creek, Vermont, during their summer tourist season. The plot has a combination of the special event, some shocking murders, small town gossip and friendships, and budding romance with brewery owner Grayson. A highlight for me is the Shakespeare Trivia Night at the pub where informal teams compete to answer questions with gift certificates as the prizes.
Sadie feels compelled to investigate the first murder when her bartender Damien is jailed for the crime. Others have just as strong motivations, but Damien has no alibi and was seen in conflict with the victim shortly before the murder. Sadie develops a suspect list which is thrown into chaos when her top suspect is also found murdered. Sadie finds an anonymous note threatening her if she doesn’t abandon her sleuthing, but she determinedly continues her main technique which is interviewing. Her efforts are hampered when the police close down the Renaissance Faire, but she gets help from Grayson who used to be a private detective. He supports her informal detective work as he knows she will continue with or without his help, and he wants to keep her safe.
The threads are complex and the resolution is a surprise. There is a little too much time spent on the details of who eats what, when, and where, but some of that was to put Sadie in locations where she could discuss or overhear conversations that provide essential clues. Overall, I enjoyed this cozy mystery with its strong Renaissance Faire vibe and look forward to reading the next in the series. There are hints that trouble may be on the horizon as Sadie’s mother might come to visit and wants to meet Sadie’s new boyfriend.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: 1. #4 in the Literary Pub Mystery Series, but could be read as a standalone as the author provides lots of background information succinctly at the beginning of the book.
2. Drink recipes included are: The Secret Life of Daiquiris (with a mocktail version) and A Midsummer Night’s Cream Mocktail which could easily be called a dessert. There is also a recipe for Apple Fritters (complicated, but probably delicious).
Publication: November 30, 2021—Kensington
Memorable Lines:
After getting hurt by my last boyfriend, I wanted to tread carefully when it came to giving away a piece of my heart. The problem was that my heart wasn’t always on the same page as my head.
“Sadie, I don’t want you getting into any kind of trouble for my sake.” “I don’t plan to get into trouble.” I knew full well that most of the trouble I did get into was’t planned, but I wasn’t going to bring that up.
“I wouldn’t be worried about decorum either if I had such a fine man kissing me.”
Christmas in the Scottish Highlands–feel good Christmas romance
Christmas in the Scottish Highlands
by Donna Ashcroft
Join Belle Albany as she tries to fulfill the elderly, lonely Edina’s Christmas wishes. Edina has separated herself from people and life in Evergreen Castle. It takes an accident to show her what she has been missing. Not only has she distanced herself from the townspeople, but she also needs to finally meet an adult grandson Jack and see her daughter Tara more often. Christmas in the Scottish Highlands is character generated and propelled. The stories that motivate the main characters are key, but the supporting characters are vital to the plot too. A surprising and important character is Bob, a delightful donkey that lives at Evergreen Castle.
Christmas is critical to the plot, not just a backdrop. You can anticipate lots of Christmas traditions. Belle’s students at Christmas Village Primary School put on the annual Nativity program. A lot of effort is devoted to reviving the tradition of a huge Christmas party at the castle—enough that you might coin a new saying: “it takes a village to celebrate Christmas properly.”
Front and center next to the frivolity are deep and sometimes painful relationship issues: abandonment, estrangement, and communication. There are also three romantic threads and one other disclosed third hand as Jack is a divorce lawyer, better at splitting assets than at mending relationships. Several characters need to learn that there are often two sides to a story and author Donna Ashcroft does an excellent job of helping her readers understand that.
I enjoyed my visit to the Scottish Highlands in this book with its snow, castle, small village feel, and Christmas Cairn. Ashcroft sprinkles the text with just enough Scottish dialect (nae, dinnae, wee, lass/lassie, lad/laddie) that as I read dialogue I heard a Scottish brogue.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Romance
Notes: There is one scene in the book where the sex could have been implied. It was not terribly graphic, but I prefer romances with closed bedroom doors.
Publication: October 11, 2021—Bookouture
Memorable Lines:
Belle said his name slowly, layering it with a dollop of irritation. Kenzy quirked an eyebrow. “Is Pollyanna having an off day? I know you weren’t that sure about him, but I thought your mantra was “there’s good in everyone”. Not that I’m complaining. You could do with toughening up—the world’s filled with sharks, it’s good to have your harpoon sharpened when you meet them.”
“Ah, lass, it’s been a lot of years since anyone’s said anything so nice. The last compliment I got was from my dentist—and she just admired that I still had my own teeth.” Edina’s face lit with mirth and Kenzy snorted. The older woman had a wicked sense of humour and often had Belle belly laughing.
He’d had a quiet few days in Evergreen Castle, feeling slightly more popular than an axe murderer, but less welcome than someone with a really contagious cold.
Fatal Family Ties–genealogy mystery
Fatal Family Ties
by S.C. Perkins
Lucy is a genealogist with her own business in Austin. She is tracked down at lunch by Camilla Braithwaite, one of her “three least-favorite former coworkers” at a job she held four years prior at Howland University Library in Houston. She wants Lucy to disprove an article written in Chronology magazine about her ancestor Charles Edward Braithwaite who is accused of being “a coward, a deserter, and a charlatan.”
This project turns out to be a complicated task because records from the Civil War, especially from the Confederate army, are scarce, incomplete, and often inaccurate. Lucy’s expertise is just what this job requires. It is complicated further by a mysterious triptych and the sudden death of Camilla’s Uncle Charlie who was like a grandfather to her. He and Camilla each own a panel from the art set and no one seems to know who inherited the third panel.
Fortunately, as things get dangerous, Lucy’s boyfriend, Special Agent Ben Turner of the FBI, has most of a week off. His concealed carry license, law enforcement connections, and special training help keep Lucy safe. Her associations with the art restoration world through her college friend Helen help Lucy solve the murder and the triptych mystery.
I liked all the positive characters and enjoyed watching Lucy solve this puzzling case. The “mean girls” were clearly not going to give anyone warm fuzzies, but the author did not portray them in black and white terms. There was room for growth and self-realization for two of them. Suspicion landed on various characters and the ending was a surprise. My favorite minor character was Lucy’s mom. I particularly enjoyed the way she interacted with an elderly neighbor known for her grumpiness.
Genealogy is a field that has always confused me with phrases like “second cousin twice removed on your mother’s side.” Fatal Family Ties is dependent on those relationships, but I could follow the reasoning. Lucy even explains that the term “great aunt” instead of “grandaunt” is, in fact, confusing as it does not follow the established language pattern. That made me feel better! You can learn about genealogy and its importance through this book, but it is never pedantic.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #3 in the Ancestry Detective Series, but can be read as a standalone. There is not a lot of personal character backstory to catch up on. The current mystery is the focus.
Publication: July 20, 2021—St. Martin’s Press (Minotaur)
Memorable Lines:
I certainly understood Camilla’s stress, and I had immense sympathy, but I didn’t need the attitude. If I was going to be snapped at, I deserved carbs.
“Wonders will never cease,” Mom said, and I smiled at her. I always loved how she said it as a statement she was stubbornly sure of rather than posing it as the traditional sarcastically surprised question.
“Though one thing you don’t need to change, Lucy, is your willingness to give people second chances. Too few people are open like that these days. Don’t give it up, okay?”
Read a Book, Help a Cowboy: Support the Justin Cowboy Crisis Fund with Shanna Hatfield #RABHAC #JCCF #rodeoromance @ShannaHatfield
Ever wonder what happens to a rodeo cowboy who is injured? It’s not like he has a boss and goes on disability for a work related injury. Author Shanna Hatfield did some research and discovered that Justin Boots in partnership with some professional rodeo associations created a fund to help. This post gives you a way to help while reading! What could be better? Between October 1 until December 24, she will donate 10% of her sales to the fund. If you are a social media fan, you can read this post to learn more about a special online event, but it is not necessary to participate in that. My thanks to Carla at carlalovestoread.wordpress.com for sharing the word!
Fast Forward To F.A.S.T.
Unfortunately, this author is not trying to be humorous. What has “education” come to?
You know it’s time to retire when you cannot keep up with the acronyms. Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (actually a decent name that gives away the longstanding pretense that the reading test is testing reading) is an easy one for Grumpy Old Teacher (GOT) to puzzle out, but he admits B.E.S.T. keeps him googling for the B: Benchmarks for Excellence in Student Thinking.
And that tips us off that while Ringling Brothers retired the elephants and the pungent smell of elephant dung departed from the Big Top, well, that Florida smell of standardized testing remains no matter what we call it.
And yes, GOT has an attitude and is proud of it.
The first problem with F.A.S.T. is that Florida is moving too fast; it is implementing a new test before they are ready. For those…
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Welcome to the First School by the Sea–boarding school in Cornwall
Welcome to the First School by the Sea
by Jenny Colgan
Whether or not you are a fan of British boarding school books aimed at girls, you will enjoy this series written for adults who loved that genre in their younger days. The series will contain six books as it follows students and teachers through six grades at Downey House in Cornwall beginning with this book, Welcome to the First School by the Sea.
Maggie, a young English teacher from Glasgow, has been teaching in a fairly rough school in London and is ready for a change. She lands a job at the posh boarding school which looks like a beautiful castle. Her long-time, scruffy boyfriend Stan stays behind, and they try to work through the problems of a long distance relationship. The girls and some of the staff are introduced gradually as the plot progresses. Some are likable, some intentionally not. I really enjoyed meeting the various characters from the hardworking, bullied scholarship student Simone whose family hails from Romania to the sophisticated and daring French teacher Claire Crozier.
Maggie wants to do well by her students and is committed to being successful in her new job. She find herself in the middle of situations that develop and even puts herself physically at risk to help a distraught student. The Headteacher, Dr. Veronica Deveral, is a formidable but also amiable institution at the school. There is a potential romantic interest in Maggie’s counterpart at the boys’ school nearby. His dog Stephen Daedalus plays a prominent role in the story.
The normal tension from girls going through puberty, angst over grades, sports and distant family, and unpleasant bullying is ratcheted up when some valuable personal items go missing at the school. The identity of the thief is quite a surprise. Other dramatic twists are included, but not totally resolved leaving the reader anxious to rejoin the staff and students of Downey House after their summer break.
I would like to extend my thanks to NetGalley and to HarperCollins (William Morrow) for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 4/5
Category: General Fiction (Adult), Women’s Fiction
Notes: 1. #1 in The School by the Sea series.
2. Be sure to read “A Word from Jenny” about the origin of the series. It is very interesting as is the original “Introduction” by the author under her pen name.
3. Some swearing.
Publication: March 29, 2022—HarperCollins (William Morrow)
Memorable Lines:
Once she’d dreamed of filling young hearts and minds with wonderful books and poetry; inspiring them, like Robin Williams, to think beyond their small communities and into the big world. Now she just dreamed of crowd control, and keeping them quiet for ten bloody minutes without someone whacking somebody else or answering their hidden mobiles.
Pat and Liz had been delighted to take the young teacher under their wing and give her the benefit of their wisdom, acquired through about two years in the classroom and twenty in administration, as far as Maggie could work out.
Remembering her family’s love provided a small candle of warmth inside her.
education pathways 