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The Summer of You and Me–honesty in the family
The Summer of You and Me
by Denise Hunter
Maggie is a teacher in Fayetteville, North Carolina, but she and her adorable four year old daughter travel to Seabrook, North Carolina, “a sleepy seaside town poised between the more popular Outer Banks and Myrtle Beach” for the summer. They will be staying in the home of her in-laws who are traveling in Europe. This is a big emotional decision for Maggie whose military husband Ethan passed away five years ago in Pakistan.
The summer is full of positive interactions with Ethan’s brother, Josh, and his sister, Erin. They have all been good friends for a long time. In fact, Josh, two years younger than Maggie, fell in love with her as a young teenager, but she fell hard for Ethan. How could Josh compete with his older brother when he was clearly too young to date Maggie? They became the best of friends, and no one ever knew that Josh loved Maggie. But Josh was always there for Maggie.
One summer evening, Maggie spies Ethan at a carnival, only it couldn’t be Ethan! That evening catapults the pair into a search for the truth that takes some interesting side paths that bring Maggie and Josh together and then apart in an emotional roller coaster ride.
The Summer of You and Me explores the intricacies of family dynamics and how dysfunction in a family affects individuals. Even positive relationships can produce misunderstandings that change how a child views themselves, carrying unhealthy perspectives into adulthood. The characters in this story are interesting and are trying to do their best for everyone else, but things don’t always go the way they were intended. The impact of the fallout can be disastrous. The story holds a lot of surprises and tension as Maggie and Josh try to negotiate their changing relationship and solve the mystery of Ethan’s doppelgänger. I enjoyed the clean romance that combines mystery with relationships and psychology.
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, Romance, Women’s Fiction
Publication: April 22, 2025—Thomas Nelson
Memorable Lines:
As Josh entered, Mom greeted him in such a way as to maintain civility while still making him feel unwelcome. It was a special gift.
He didn’t feel like a friend. Friends didn’t make your heart wobble your chest. They didn’t make your knees go noodly or your skin vibrate with life.
God, help me. She winged the ancient plea heavenward. Hopefully He would forgive the ambiguous request. She couldn’t seem to formulate anything more meaningful.
Rosie’s Cowboy Christmas: Saving the Holidays Together
Rosie’s Cowboy Christmas
by Paige Murray
illustrated by Kristen Humphrey
When little cowgirl Oakley wishes for a white Christmas, she doesn’t understand what that might mean. She finds out when she wakes up on Christmas Eve to beautiful snow covering the ground and a power outage. The trucks can’t get through with Christmas trees and Grandma and Grandpa can’t get to the ranch on the icy roads. Oakley, with the help of her parents, learns to improvise and be happy with a Christmas in the barn with the animals and a wood-burning stove. Homemade ornaments decorate a substitute Christmas tree. Christmas is complete when Rosie the Clydesdale sneaks out of the barn to get the grandparents safely to the ranch.
This is a sweet story, with cute illustrations, that shows the importance of family at Christmas.
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: Childen’s Fiction, Picture Book
Notes: 1. Murray has written 3 books about Rosie the Clydesdale.
2. Recommended for ages 4-8.
Publication: September 15, 2026—Zonderkidz
Memorable Lines:
It was Rosie, heading toward the barn—with Grandma and Grandpa! Oakley hollered, “Now my heart feels like Christmas!”
This Promised Land–clean, inspirational novel
This Promised Land
By Cathy Gohlke
Although the roots of the story related in This Promised Land date back to 1940, most of the events occur in the early 1990’s. The setting is Wetherill Pickering’s Christmas Tree Farm in New Scrivelsby, Virginia, where the Pickering Family works hard to scrape a living from the land during the Depression. The protagonist is Ginny Dee, retiring from a job in a gardening center in 1992. She has worked hard to achieve an internship in an English garden park. As she prepares to go, she receives a letter from a lawyer, informing her of the death of her estranged brother and asking her to visit him to answer some questions about the land she grew up on.
Her return to New Scrivelsby brings up memories, good and bad, and initiates many questions about her past. Her brother had been lying to her for all of her adult life about their parents and their rejection of her. Meanwhile, Ginny Dee, a childless widow, discovers she has family—two nephews, one with anger problems who is married to a sweet woman and the other an alcoholic with three adorable children who live with him in a truck and fear being returned to foster care. Everyone has an issue, but none of them are bad people. When Ginny Dee meets with the lawyer, she discovers that her overbearing brother had made some extremely bad business decisions and the family is likely to lose the tree farm.
Life becomes even more complicated when the oldest child, Arlo, wanders into a marijuana plot causing the pot growers to try to accelerate the tree farm’s decline in dangerous ways. There are a lot of twists and turns as the family, and later the community, try to save the farm. A stray dog, Bailey, performs a heroic act and quickly wins a place in the struggling family. This book is hard to put down as the reader wants the family to overcome the odds that are not in their favor—either in finances or relationships.
As the characters work through their various issues, they learn to deal with them by praying and trusting God. There is spiritual growth for both the main characters and others in the community who have their eyes opened to the difficulties of others. They learn to look beyond a person’s history and move past stereotypes.
I recommend this book for readers who want a clean, inspirational novel with action, interesting characters, and a touch of romance.
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, Fiction, Women’s Fiction
Publication: April 8, 2025—Tyndale House
Memorable Lines:
Ginny loved him, or she’d told herself she did, but sometimes she felt she’d loved the man who went away and not the one who came home. She’d tried to, but he was uncommunicative, broken inside and out, and while some of his body had mended, the healing inside his head had never come, so her healing inside had not come either.
“You see good even where others see trouble.” “It’s not about seeing the good right off. It’s about looking for the good, for the image of God in every person.”
“You need to forgive them,” Aunt Ginny Dee whispered. “They can’t change what they don’t see. God will work in them just like He’s working in each of us… in His time, His way—not ours.”
Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping on a Dead Man–humorous stereotype of Chinese grandmother
Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping on a Dead Man
by Jesse Q. Sutanto
narrated by Eunice Wong
When I began reading Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping on a Dead Man, I realized I was missing something. That something was supplied by an audio book: English spoken with a Chinese accent. Immediately the humor began to rise to the top and the feisty Chinese grandmother (wanna be) emerged. Formerly quite lonely, in Sutanto’s first book, the owner of “Vera Wong’s World-Famous Teahouse,” in the process of solving her first mystery, gathers an unlikely group of people under her wing and they become her family. In addition to her biological son Tilly, she discovers more people in need of “community.” Everyone, it seems, has a hard time saying “no” to Vera.
With Vera, one thing leads to another, and she befriends a distraught girl, Millie, outside the police station. In the process of trying to find Millie’s missing friend Thomas, Vera becomes an overnight sensation on “the Instagram” and “the TikTok.” She really is quite funny as a character, and is charming in her attempts to help others and to make sense out of social media. She unwittingly puts herself in danger much to the dismay of Tilly who is a lawyer and his girlfriend Selena, a detective. Tilly does his best to support his mother, and Selena tries to convince her to stay away from investigating, especially after her teashop is vandalized.
Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping on a Dead Man is a humorous mystery, but delves into dark crimes. I enjoyed it, but won’t be going back to read the first in the series or future books. For me, it is simply a matter of preference. I try not to choose books with inappropriate language. Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping on a Dead Man includes a lot of crude language and swearing that I consider unnecessary to tell a good story. I did not let my aversion to the author’s use of profanity affect my rating of this book, however, as I realize the wording may not offend some readers.
Eunice Wong, the narrator, made the Chinese characters come alive and was able to revert well to standard English as appropriate. I did a read/listen for most of the book, but I found that when I just read passages I could “hear” them with the narrator’s voice. That’s how good she is.
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, Women’s Fiction
Notes: 1. #2 in the Vera Wong series, but I had not read the first book in the series, and I found that this book held up well as a standalone.
2. Is much more enjoyable as an audiobook.
3. Contains a lot of unnecessary swearing and crude language.
Publication: book: April 1, 2025—Berkley
audiobook: April 1, 2025—Penguin Audio
Memorable Lines:
She serves Winifred her tea, then leans back and takes a bite of the Korean-French abomination. Of course, as luck would have it, the croissant actually tastes amazing. Quite possibly the best pastry Vera has ever had. The richness of the cheese is perfectly cut through by the sour, spicy kimchi, and all of it wrapped up in buttery, flaky layers.
Last night, Vera has learned that young people are very, very good at faking it. Maybe it has something to do with social media.
“It’s not,” Vera says. I know my rights.” She doesn’t. But she’s hoping she looks like she does. Sometimes, looking like you know things is more important than actually knowing things.
The Fisherman’s Lady–Scottish classic
The Fisherman’s Lady
by George MacDonald
edited by Michael Phillips
First published in 1875, entitled Malcolm, with a sequel arriving in 1877, The Fisherman’s Lady is a challenging read and a classical romance by a prolific writer of many genres. C.S. Lewis claimed MacDonald as his favorite writer saying, “I never wrote a book in which I did not quote George MacDonald.” The language is, of course, of an older age and reflects MacDonald’s background: Scottish minister, and author of fiction and nonfiction, including poetry. Contemporaries include Lewis Carroll, G.K. Chesterton, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain.
Much of the dialogue in The Fisherman’s Lady is written with a Scottish brogue adding to the difficulty for the modern reader. Initially, I purchased a Kindle version that included both Malcolm and The Marquis of Lossie. Next, I located a printed version of The Fisherman’s Lady edited by Michael Phillips. He simplified the original by omitting some of the passages, but he also left some of the Scottish dialect for an authentic flavor.
Some readers categorize this novel as having a “gothic style.” It does contain some gothic elements from that Victorian period—a castle; dark, locked rooms; potential hauntings; crumbling stairways; the past affecting the present; twisted family ties; missing people; unusual sounds; and dreams.
The plot starts with sudden impact as it focuses on a corpse. Then, it proceeds slowly as characters are introduced. There are a lot of important figures in the book, and the editor lists them and a note about most of them, along with an area map. The story gains momentum and interest for the reader with lots of hooks leading into the following chapters. The protagonist is Malcolm, a fisherman who lives with his adopted father Duncan, an elderly, blind piper. Malcolm is a happy young man, honest, and a hard worker. He is devoted to the man who raised him whose only fault appears to be a quick temper over an old feud with another family. On the other side of the social strata is the Marquis of Lossie and his daughter, the beautiful Lady Florimel (Flory). Questions hang throughout the book concerning Malcolm’s parentage and that of the “Mad Lair,” a hunchbacked dwarf who has been badly mistreated by his mother.
Malcolm and Flory become friends, but they do not develop a romantic relationship because they both realize that social boundaries make any such bond between them unrealistic. Malcolm, however, would do anything for Flory, desiring to serve her long-term.
There are a few really evil women in this book. The way the upper class treats servants, laborers, the poor, and the disabled is upsetting, but a reflection of the times.
I enjoyed most of the book as far as it went, but I was disappointed in the sudden cut-off of the tale with no satisfactory conclusion for the characters. Most modern tales with sequels tie up the main threads in the first book but provide a motivation to encourage the reader to continue on to find out what happens to the characters in the next stage of their lives. This book contains a major event and then just ends with little attention to the aftershocks. The editor does include a brief paragraph to assure the reader on certain key points, but that statement was not part of the original text.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Historical Romance, Classic
Notes: 1. The first part of a two part set of books about Malcolm.
2. Includes Christian themes and shows characters trying to come to grips with their faith.
3. Clean
4. Includes preface by the editor and three appendices providing historical notes.
5. I have not yet decided if I will read the sequel, The Marquis of Lossie, or not.
Publication: Original in 1875—Henry S. King Publishers in Great Britain, and George Routledge & Sons in New York, and J.B. Lippincott in Philadelphia
This version edited by Michael Phillips in 1982—Bethany House Publishers
Memorable Lines:
Whatever may have been the projected attitude of the marquis, the moment he stood on the piper’s floor, the gentleman in him got the upper hand and his behavior to the old man was not only polite but respectful. At no period in the last twenty years had he been so nigh the kingdom of heaven as he was now when making his peace with the blind piper.
But Lady Florine had never studied anything yet, had never even perceived that anything wanted studying—that is, demanded to be understood. What appeared to her most odd, most inconsistent, was his delight in what she regarded only as the menial and dirty occupation of cleaning lamps and candlesticks; the poetic side of it, rendered tenfold poetic by his blindness, she never saw.
“No, no; never run from a lie. And never say, neither that you didn’t do the things except it be laid straight to your face. Let a lie lay in the dirt. If you pick it up, the dirt’ll stick to you, even if you fling the lie over the dike at the end of the world. No, no! Let a lie lay as you would the devil’s tail!”
The Lion Women of Tehran–power of friendship
The Lion Women of Tehran
By Marjan Kamali
No one can summarize the fascinating story told in The Lion Women of Tehran better than Marjan Kamali who says in her Author’s Note: “I follow the friendship between two girls who come from very different families and stations in life but who forge an indestructible bond when they are seven. Together they share the joys of childhood, the ups and downs of adolescence, the fractures of betrayal when they are young women, and the relief of redemption as their fate takes them across oceans and borders. All along, one of them, Homa, fights tirelessly for Iranian women to be free.”
The Lion Women of Tehran tells the story of multiple regime changes in Iran along with the hope for a better life and the disappointment when each new ruling class results in more hardship for the citizens than the one before. The novel’s setting is a powerful backdrop to this tale of the repression of women. Minor, even accidental, infractions such as a hair that escapes a hijab could result in imprisonment and torture. Men were not immune to jailing by the security police, either, with political prisoners receiving long, harsh jail sentences.
Ellie and Homa meet as children and despite difficulties over the years, they remain friends. These two characters capture the interest of the reader immediately and hold it as the novelist spins out a tale with many twists and turns. A chapter will end with a poignant line that lets you know that something important will happen in the next chapter or with a hook that grabs and won’t let go. I read this page turner quickly because I had to keep reading in hopes of discovering resolution to the various problems. The main final action occurs in 1982, but the author jumps ahead in time to 2022 to a concluding chapter and an epilogue. That technique seems rather abrupt, but it answers many questions satisfactorily without drawing the novel out needlessly with details that would detract from the main themes of the book—friendships that last and the strength of women in the face of adversity.
The chapters are well labeled to show whether the point of view is Homa’s or Ellie’s. Perhaps more importantly, the year and sometimes the month are noted. This notation is significant because there are gaps in the timeline and events are not always sequential in the storytelling.
The Lion Women of Tehran is a powerful work of fiction that deserves a top place in literary discussions. The prose is well-written and the plot is well-crafted. Marjan Kamali brings Iranian culture to life and presents an Iran that is not shared in news reports.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Historical Fiction
Publication: July 2, 2024—Gallery Books
Memorable Lines:
In the middle of the schoolyard with everyone watching, with the lunch break ticking away and stomachs grumbling, with the leaves on the ground fragile and breakable beneath our feet, my old friend wrapped her arms around me. She hugged me as though seven years had not passed…it was she Homa. The girl who was always her full self without apology, without explanation, without shame.
I walk in a city now littered with burning cars and trash cans ablaze, a city boiling in fury, a country desperate for change and freedom. My heart is heavy. I am once again cloaked in grief. As I walk, the voice in my head whispers again. And I cannot help but be chilled from head to toe: If the revolution succeeds, what if what follows is worse?
We are tired. Tired of the many ways we are continually told to shut up and obey. Tired of being worried about constant arrest because a strand or two of our hair might peek out. Because a patch of our skin might show. Tired above all—above all in God’s almighty planet—of being bombed. Night after night after night.
The League of Tribes—Publication Day!
I am delighted to announce the publication of my husband’s first novel. It is available on Amazon as a paperback or in a Kindle version. Visit his website drjohnhiggins.com to learn more about the book and the author and see some of the illustrations included in the book.
Suppose you were by accident of time-space transported 13,000 years into the past of a wilderness area you have been visiting with your son. For a time, your survival depends largely on a small band of Ojibwe natives. In this book, the protagonist, Dr. Jackson, is an advanced engineering professional. At its core the book reimagines the purpose of civilization in a way that seeks to improve the lives of those it encompasses. Realizing ultimately that he can never return home, he gradually adopts his new culture and new family relationships. His final fifteen years are invested in seeding two important changes to help his adopted people in the future. He introduces domestication of the horse, avoiding premature extinction and securing the horse an early and permanent place in the native culture. He travels widely and then develops a durable school to prepare for the eventual arrival of Europeans: their avarice, disease, and advanced technology as well as their more positive characteristics. Can such a small seed in time amount to much effect?
A Sky Full of Stars–family secrets
A Sky Full of Stars
By Fay Keenan
When Dr. Charlotte James, a historical astronomical archivist at the University of North West Wessex, said goodbye to the last of the departing undergraduate students she supervised in dormitory housing, she moved for five weeks to Brambleton. With incredible timing, because she had just broken up with a boyfriend who returned to the U.S., Charlotte was offered a temporary job archiving the remaining documents at the Lower Brambleton Observatory, which was being decommissioned. A housing development is scheduled to replace the observatory when archiving and demolition of the structure are complete.
Although the site is remote, Charlotte is provided nice housing in an annexe to Lorelai Ashcombe’s cottage. It is within walking distance of the observatory with a nice area for her cocker spaniel, Comet, to play. Lorelai raised twins Tristan and Thea (her grandchildren) when their parents, both astronomers, died in a car accident. Mystery shrouds the observatory as well as the Ashcombe family. Many years later, they are still trying to recover from the trauma of the unexpected deaths. Charlotte’s discovery of an important document may change the way certain family members are perceived.
Tristan and Charlotte have a rocky start as he is very protective of his grandmother and fearful of her taking in strangers. It doesn’t help that their first accidental meeting occurred when Comet decided to explore the observatory site fenced off in preparation for demolition. The enemy to lover trope appears early in the book, and Tristan and Charlotte’s initial, bristly response to each other is fairly quickly resolved. Then the story branches out to Charlotte’s finds at the site’s records room and her interaction with various family members. A resident and aficionado of Bristol, she finds she also enjoys the quiet and beauty of Brambleton and the new friends she makes in the area. The denouement of the novel showcases a lot of breath-holding action followed by a satisfying 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: 4/5
Category: Romance, Women’s Fiction
Notes: 1. #1 in the Brambleton Series
2. Contains one steamy scene, but nothing graphic. There is some swearing, but not a lot and mainly during a crisis scene.
3. In the U.S., we call an addition to a building an “annex.” In Great Britain, it is called an “annexe.” Likewise, “realize” becomes “realise.”
Publication: March 18, 2025—Boldwood Books
Memorable Lines:
“Some things deserve to be torn down,” Lorelai replied, and this time there was no mistaking the dark edge to her tone, more pronounced than it had been last night when they’d first discussed the development. “It’ll be for the best when that place is gone. And then, maybe everyone can at last move on.”
Charlotte was more than used to encountering rogue pieces of information; documents that implied one thing but on further investigation revealed another; suggested truths that became elegantly constructed falsehoods after further investigation and research.
She hadn’t realised how accustomed she’d got to the quiet until she was back in the noise of the city.
Theo of Golden–showing kindness
Theo of Golden
by Allen Levi
A common question: “What is Theo of Golden about?” I can answer that two ways. In summary, it is about a humble, Portuguese man in his 80’s, Theo, who comes to live in the town of Golden, Georgia. He visits a coffee shop with a wall decor of 92 framed portraits and is inspired to connect each pencil drawing with the person represented. He buys a picture, invites the subject of the drawing to a park bench, gifts the depiction, and encourages that person to talk about themselves. That description is accurate, but falls short. Theo of Golden is about kindness, about looking into a person’s eyes to see their soul, about listening to their story, and about walking alongside them in times of pain and of joy. Yes, Theo of Golden is about kindness. Not random acts of kindness, but intentional, well-planned, respectful acts of kindness that are born of love.
Theo of Golden can be viewed as a book with Christian themes—or not. Its perspective is that of a man who wants to make the world a better place. I don’t think the author set out to write a “Christian book”; but, as a Christian, he did create a character who lives out the example set by Jesus. Kindness is held to be a positive value, something one should ascribe to, whether viewed as part of the Christian faith or not.
Most of the book is a slow and careful revelation of Theo. He is initially an enigma to the townspeople, but soon they accept him, appreciating casual interactions on a daily basis or a deep friendship with him that develops for some of them. Along the way to learning more about Theo, we meet many of his new friends—a night janitor whose daughter is hospitalized after an accident, a talented graduate student with a passion for the cello, and a homeless lady with mental issues. Tony, the owner of the Verbivore, a bookstore, is perpetually “a week away from closing his doors.” Asher is the prolific artist who created the portraits. Theo, with his quiet, calm, and kind ways, makes a difference in all of their lives and in that of so many of Golden’s residents.
Theo of Golden is a book that deserves a re-read as so many details will take on more depth of meaning when the reader has the benefit of a type of omniscience in regards to the characters and the plot. This novel will enchant and inspire; it will bring chuckles and tears. In the end, it will leave no reader unmoved.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Literary Fiction
Notes: Theo of Golden is Levi’s first novel, but it has taken the book world by storm. It is at the top of the New York Times bestseller list, with currently over a million copies sold since its publication by Atria. Before that, as a self-published book, 175,000 copies had been sold.
Publication: October 3, 2025—Atria
Memorable Lines:
“…for anything to be good, truly good, there must be love in it.”
“I confess that at first I did it hoping to make someone else happy. Now I fear that my reasons are almost entirely selfish. I do it because it brings such happiness to me.”
The little girl savors the warmth and expressiveness of the old man’s voice. It is not merely a sound. It is a place. A color. A haven.
“There is no virtue in advertising one’s sadness. But there is no wisdom in denying it either. And there is the beautiful possibility that great love can grow out of sadness if it is well-tended. Sadness can make us bitter or wise. We get to choose.”
“Baby, they’s justice and they’s mercy. If you not sure what to do and you gotta choose one or the other, I say always go the mercy way. If you make a mistake, make it for mercy. Bad mercy don’t hurt nearly like bad justice, and always remember, the eye of God can see.”
The Pretender–Amish mystery
The Pretender
by Wanda E. Brunstetter
The Mifflin County Mystery Series a successful blend of cozy mystery and Amish romance. In Belleville, Pennsylvania, there is an Amish community that is rocked by the disappearance of Rosa, a young Amish woman. Always in the background of the first two books in the series is concern for Rosa. Is she dead? Did she run off so she wouldn’t be pressured to join the Amish church? If so, why didn’t she contact someone, anyone, to let her family know she is alive? Her boyfriend Ephraim, her best friend Ada, or her oldest brother Norman who desperately looked for her?
As anticipated, the author shares Rosa’s story in The Pretender. It has been two years since she disappeared. Everyone has moved on as best they can. Ephraim and Ada have a relationship. Rosa’s sister, Susan, has taken over her room and tried to replace her in a close bond with their mom.
I don’t want to spoil The Pretender by sharing details. I do encourage you to read the whole series. There are lots of twists and turns as various characters grapple with what is morally appropriate to do in certain situations and what will cause the least pain to the fewest number of people. One of the main characters is English which, romantically speaking, is the basis of trouble in the Amish world.
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: Christian, Religion, Romance, Mystery
Notes: This is the third book in the Mifflin County Mystery series and I would recommend reading them in order. I read #2 first, then #1, and finally #3. While I understood the second book as a standalone, I wished I had read them in order.
Publication: August 1, 2025—Barbour Publishing
Memorable Lines:
“…life doesn’t always give us what we want or think we need. I guess the good days help to prepare us for the not-so-good times and teach us to appreciate those times when things are going well for us.”
One thing was for sure: It would be a cold day in the hottest part of Arizona before Anthony would ask his folks if he could move in with them. Nope, that would never work out.
These negative thoughts don’t come from You, do they, Lord? Isn’t that just like the enemy to sidetrack a person when they are praying, while trying to trust and seek God’s will?
education pathways 