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Meadow Falls–trusting again
Meadow Falls
by Carolyn Brown
Angela Marie Duncan inherits the largest peanut farm in Texas from her father. That might be overwhelming to some, but Angela Marie has been working the peanut farm since she was a child so she knows everything there is to know from planting to harvesting to accounting.
Meadow Falls recounts Angela Marie’s blossoming after her indifferent father passes away. She depends on Mandy her 95 year old nanny and Mandy’s granddaughter Celeste for support as makes choices to shed her old life and rebuild. Celeste has been Angela Marie’s close friend from childhood. Celeste is reeling from a divorce, and Angela Marie has learned that men can be attracted to her for her money. Both have understandable trusts issues with men. Devon enters her life at just the time she needs someone to handle the many mechanical issues that arise on a peanut farm. He brings along his cousin Jesse who is an excellent carpenter who is hired to remake much of the large home. Tongues are wagging in the little town with a big gossip mill. Angela Marie and Devon encourage the rumors to keep unwanted attention away from her. This fake boyfriend trope works, but boundaries can blur.
I enjoyed the characters, plot twists, and romance in this clean novel. Mandy and her friend Polly add a welcome multigenerational vibe. If I had one criticism of this book, it would be that the characters “giggle” and “chuckle” too much. Laughing is great, but let’s pull out the thesaurus and vary the words a little! Otherwise, it was a good read, and includes a mystery of sorts—possible relationships that are suspected based on timeline and photos. It takes DNA samples to suss out the truth.
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: Women’s Fiction, Romance
Publication: January 9, 2024—Montlake
Memorable Lines:
My thoughts kept running around and around in my head like young squirrels chasing each other around and around the tree.
“You don’t forgive to make the other person feel better. You do it to get that hard spot out of your heart. Hate and love cannot abide together. Hate is darkness, and love is light. Love produces peace. Hate eats away at you until there’s nothing left but a dark hole inside your chest that nothing will cure.”
I sat down on the top step and savored every flirty moment and every nuance. I held onto the vibes between us like I would a Fourth of July sparkler and loved every minute.
Helpless–one step ahead
Helpless
by Annette Dashofy
Are you up for a solid mystery with lots of action? It’s not quite a police procedural, but close. Zoe, a former paramedic and current county coroner, is married to Pete Adams, police chief in Vance Township. As you read, you will meet a lot of characters and have no trouble keeping track of them. Most of them are people who will put their own lives on the line to insure the safety of others. Some do it as part of their official duties, others because they are good people and good neighbors.
The plot centers around a wife murdered, a husband left for dead under gruesome circumstances, and a child kidnaped. The setting which plays heavily into the plot is Hurricane Iona. Sleuthing and life saving work by the EMS is drastically hampered by pelting rains, destructive winds, flooding and road blockages. Car accidents impede roadways and increase the load on emergency personnel; electrical and cell phone outages cause panics.
As bodies accumulate in the morgue, Zoe is caught between her official duties as coroner and her inner need to support the husband as a former EMS worker and as a friend. She is also called to the death scenes to process the bodies and desperately wants to help her husband find the missing child.
This is a well written book and series. The plot is devised in such a way that the reader wants to keep the story going to hopefully arrive at a happily ever after for the characters. This is not a Hallmark book, however, so don’t expect that level of predictability. I was a little teary eyed at the end, but I admired the author’s fine touch with the conclusion.
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: Mystery, General Fiction, Women’s Fiction
Notes: 1. #12 in the Zoe Chambers Mystery Series but can be read as a standalone
2. Contains some swearing, but is otherwise clean.
Publication: May 9, 2023—Level Best Books
Memorable Lines:
“What if he asks?” “He won’t. I think he suspects the worse. But as long as no one confirms it, he can go on hoping. My medical training and decades of practice tell me it comes down to that. Hope.
Zoe couldn’t bear merely sitting in her car, staring out the rain-blurred windows. The scene outside looked like an impressionistic painting. The thoughts inside her brain were equally smeared and unclear.
Deception–things are not as they seem
Deception
by Patricia Bradley
Action and tension are abundant in Patricia Bradley’s Deception, the fourth book in the Natchez Trace Park Rangers Series. Madison, the protagonist, is a special agent with the Investigative Services Branch. After the bust of a human trafficking ring in Big Bend in which Madison’s partner is killed, she decides to switch gears and work in a white collar crimes division. She is good at both jobs.
In Mississippi she goes to visit her beloved grandfather, a retired judge, and things turn ugly and violent. A woman who could be Madison’s doppelgänger is attacked. Who is she and which one of the two was actually targeted? There is also a missing girl who was being rescued from her pimp. Could she have been the target? Madison is convinced that a suicide being investigated is in fact a homicide. This novel borders on being a police procedural as there are so many agencies involved.
The book has some romance as Madison is helped by Clayton, a former childhood friend, who is now a ranger in charge of a district in the Natchez Trace. Another interesting character is Nadine, the judge’s longtime housekeeper. She is in her eighties. She doesn’t say a lot, but she is a very careful observer and has great hearing.
Deception has lots of twists to the plot, and the characters not only have secrets, but many really do actively deceive. Madison turns to Clayton to try to understand forgiveness. He explains how he has forgiven others who have hurt him: “Because God forgave me for all the ways I’ve hurt others.” “I didn’t [do the forgiving]. God did it in me. But I had to give up my right to be angry and resentful.”
A huge part of the plot involves adoptions and family history, but all of these seemingly disparate threads tie together quite dramatically when the mysteries are resolved. Deception is my first exposure to this author. I definitely plan on reading more by her. It was an exciting book, and I like the way she gently wove Christian beliefs into a suspenseful tale.
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: Suspense, Christian, Romance
Notes: #4 in the Natchez Trace Park Rangers Series. It is enjoyable as a standalone, but I wish I had read the first ones. The first chapter dives into a previous time frame that sets up Madison’s reason for turning to white collar crime investigation and is easily understood. Then as the plot turns to current events, a lot of characters are introduced (or maybe reintroduced?). I pushed through that and because the plot is the focus, it all sorted itself out. I’m glad I persevered for a few chapters.
Publication: August 2, 2022—Revell
Memorable Lines:
“He was this important businessman, and Mom always told me not to bother him. When he was at home it was like tiptoeing on eggshells, but at least he wasn’t home much.”
Sister. She loved the way the word wrapped around her heart. It sounded as though neither of their lives had been rosy, but perhaps this could be a new start for both of them.
He got the impression Madison didn’t trust many men. And after meeting her father, he could understand why. And then there was a the FBI agent who tried to ill her.
Pianos and Flowers–stories birthed from photos
Pianos and Flowers
by Alexander McCall Smith
It is not uncommon for teachers to present students with a photograph and ask them to write about it. The result is usually nonfiction and descriptive of what is seen in the picture. The Sunday Times asked Alexander McCall Smith, the Scottish writer famous for his No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series set in Botswana, to select photographs from their archives of everyday people in everyday settings. He then created short stories, one for each picture, which fictionalized what was happening to the people in the picture as well as their background. The result is a collection of unrelated stories that bring these people to life. Naturally some appealed to me more than others. “Sphinx” is a gentle romance set in the 1930’s. “Pianos and Flowers” is about Brits working and living in China and how it affected their families. “Architect” had interesting observations about family relationships and culminated in a surprise ending. “Urchins” contained sad stories about the plight of the pictured street urchins and what the future held for them. I smile as I recall “St. John’s Wort,” the story of a retired man who was worried about everything. A friend of the wife gave her some timely advice. As you can see, each story in Pianos and Flowers is unique. There was only one story of the fourteen that I actually noted as not liking.
I read these at the rate of one or two stories a night at bedtime. They were a nice way to end the day on a calm and gentle note.
I would like to extend my thanks to NetGalley and to Knopf Doubleday (Pantheon) for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Short Stories
Publication: January 19, 2021— Knopf Doubleday (Pantheon)
Notes: The subtitle is Brief Encounters of the Romantic Kind, but I found that to be a misnomer. The stories are fictionalized snippets of life so there is some romance, but not very much.
Memorable Lines:
Parents are inexplicably embarrassing to sixteen-year-olds—they always have been.
We belittle the things we secretly want ourselves.
“A metaphor must be strange—it must make us sit up and take notice in a way in which a literal expression does not.”
How to Stop Time–historical fiction with a science fiction twist
How to Stop Time
by Matt Haig
The typical work of historical fiction takes a character from a specific time and place and imagines, hopefully based on some research, what life would have been like for that person. How to Stop Time is not a “typical work of historical fiction.” Author Matt Haig dares to explore what would happen if certain people were naturally genetically designed to age slowly, to live hundreds of years. What would life be like for that person? What would the response of others be to them? How do you form a relationship with someone who will certainly age at a different rate? What if one of these “albatrosses” becomes powerful enough to use various means to control the others?
How to Stop Time follows Tom Hazard as he negotiates life in the twenty-first century and reflects on events in his past spanning multiple centuries, locations, careers and aliases. He is musically inclined and along the way discovers an aptitude for teaching history.
Tom is a likable character whose situation is in some ways different from the circumstances of “normal” human beings. In many aspects, however, his struggles are the same as he tries to fit in, decides how open to be with those he meets, and battles with opening his heart. We all on occasion want to stop time to savor the moment, to revisit past decisions, and to look ahead into the future.
How to Stop Time is an excellent work of fiction, well-written and interesting. It introduces historical characters such as Shakespeare and Captain Cook, but there are equally fascinating fictional characters who convincingly embody the everyday men and women of past generations. With its fast-moving storyline, this book is one I recommend you add to your To Be Read list.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to the Penguin Group (Viking) for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Historical Fiction
Publication: February 6, 2018—Penguin Group (Viking)
Memorable Lines:
I had no idea I had been looking for her, but now I had found her, I had no idea what would happen. I felt like I was spinning fast and out of control, like the seed of a sycamore, traveling on a changing wind.
I kept going cross the desert and over dry hills and mountains and past a large quarry that seemed to my delirious mind like the blackness of death itself calling me towards it like the River Styx.
I can’t right now think of a better purpose in life than to be a teacher. To teach feels like you are a guardian of time itself, protecting the future happiness of the world via the minds that are yet to shape it.
education pathways 