From Amazon--
      It isn’t within man to guide his own steps—or a woman.  
     Caught between a wagon train and the deep blue sea, Agnes Remington Dalrumple--Remi for short--chooses the overland journey west over crossing the Atlantic with her mother and step-father. Though she’s never been on her own, she decides to go to California and try to find the father she’s never known. Thwarted at every turn, almost every effort is dashed until a widower’s thirteen-year-old daughter intervenes on her behalf. How can the headstrong woman place herself under the responsibility of the young girl’s father, a perfect stranger? But if she doesn’t, her journey ends right there in Saint Joseph, Missouri. On the Oregon/California Trail, will her pride and independence deter her from the destiny God has prepared?
     Asher Adams, a widower with two daughters and a desire to start anew has sold everything he owns and is headed to California with his recently wed sister and her husband. She and his girls conspire every step of the way, hoping he will find someone to be a companion and friend. Remi fits the bill as far as all the women in his life are concerned, but is it too soon? 
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​My thoughts--
     One thing Remi does know for sure, she gets horribly seasick. That fact deters her from sailing the Atlantic in order to tour Europe with her mother and fourth husband, Donovan. Having seen her mother’s many infatuations quickly sour, she’s not about to join her mother’s latest fling. Instead, she decides to take a cross country journey to find her birth father who supposedly resides in California. The trouble is, although she’s received a couple of letters from him, she’s never met the man. Also, money is a problem, that is, until Donovan and her mother generously support her endeavor.
     Since no self-respecting female dares to travel alone, Remi engages a bondwoman named Edwina Blaine as a servant and traveling companion. Together the women set out by rail to St. Joseph, Missouri where the plan is to join a wagon train. The difficulty with that is the Wagon Train master has a firm rule, no single women allowed. All women must be married, related to, or under the supervision of a man who is responsible for them. Remi and Edwina have no one until the daughter of a man who signed onto the train volunteers her father, Asher Adams.
     Asher’s two daughters take to Remi right away. Patricia Annabelle Adams, aka Patty Cake, 7, takes to Remi right away. She wants her to be her mother. Samantha Edith Adams, aka Sam, turns 13 years old two days before leaving for the Oregon/California trail. She’s lovelorn and pining for a fellow who she knew for only two days named Silas Mercier. Throughout the story, she has a fantasy romance with him via letters and journal. Will he ever write as many letters to her as she has written to him? Does he love her or not?
     As for Remi, she falls quickly in love with both girls, but she holds her heart aloof from Asher, even though he carefully and thoughtfully romances her. Remi finds him nice enough, but her mother’s experience with relationships makes her delay involving her heart with anyone until after she’s found her birth father in California. The great question is, will she be able to keep her heart from loving him? 
What an interesting and great read this was! This reviewer totally enjoyed this book. In fact, this book is in the running for my all time favorite book written by Caryl McAdoo! 

From Amazon--
Could life get any better? 
With a husband, four beautiful, adopted teenage daughters, and a forever home, Rozene Carson felt her life was finally complete. With their second daughter well on her way to a music career, and the youngest recovering from a car accident that crushed her ankle, everything’s coming together. 

But when another teen girl comes to her for help, Rozene quickly learns how life can throw a monkey-wrench into the works. Can she handle this new situation? Only time–and the grace of God–would tell.

My Comments--
​The Sweetwater River series defines the sweet novella category. With a nearly "perfect" family, clearly adored kids, open hearted acceptance, and totally supportive parents, this short book makes a good pick-me-up read when the blues hit...or anytime at all. What's even better is the very affordable price! If you're looking for a gentle, sweet story, this book should  just  fill the bill.

From Amazon~ ​Steel sharpens steel, but will its sparks ignite unfailing love?

Instead of living a pampered life on the civilized east coast with a new husband, rejection compels Christina Adams westward with her widowed brother and his two daughters. Harboring ulterior motives, Ethan Cord, the man her brother hires to accompany the family, is more a match for her. He appears almost perfect, but how could she possibly trust her instincts about him when she’d been so wrong about her previous fiancé? Will her past ruin her future? ​

My Thoughts~
The opening scene alone from Uniquely Common by Caryl McAdoo warrants buying this book! This compelling story starts with Christina Adams announcing her heartbreak’s depth with “…one rather lone high-pitched wail….” Subsequently, she joins her brother Asher Adams, her nieces Samantha and Patricia and their hired man, Ethan Cord, on the long trek across the wide Midwestern prairies in a covered “schooner” wagon. From this point, the pace barrels forward into a wonderful tale of a journey into love accompanied by a liberal dose of mid-nineteenth century adventure.
What a good read for rainy weather…or any kind of weather for that matter! So well done and well written, this reader is certain others will love this book, too. Although under no obligation to provide a good review, this reviewer found no other option because Uniquely Common by Caryl McAdoo is so good. 

​mazon Product Description

Readers often think of Job sitting on the ash heap, his life in shambles. But how did he get there? What was Job's life like before tragedy struck? What did he think as his world came crashing down around him? And what was life like after God restored his wealth, health, and family?

Through painstaking research and a writer's creative mind, Mesu Andrews weaves an emotional and stirring account of this well-known story told through the eyes of the women who loved him. Drawing together the account of Job with those of Esau's tribe and Jacob's daughter Dinah, Love Amid the Ashes breathes life, romance, and passion into the classic biblical story of suffering and steadfast faith.

My Comments
​Wow! What a great read Love Amid the Ashes is! This Biblically based novel presents a very plausible retelling of the era of the Patriarchs by breathing vibrant life into sparsely told Biblical accounts. Only important, significant women are mentioned in the recounting of these early Biblical days. Dinah was one such woman. This novel uses her to weave several early Biblical stories together with what is currently understood about life in those ancient times. Having been a student of Old Testament times for many years, this reader found Love Amid the Ashes by Mesu Andrews to be a riveting, historically, and Biblically believed tale. It's extremely well researched and written! Loved it!

Review of Hannah Claire’s Wilderness 
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By the time I finished reading "Hannah Claire's Wilderness" by Caryl McAdoo, my heart did a jig. I so loved the ending...but then you'll have to read this very good book to discover that for yourself. 
 
Eighteen year old Hannah is desperately in love with David, a man whose only passion is to gladly serve the Lord and save souls. The story opens in the USA, but quickly shifts to colonial Africa. In spite of experiencing miracles, Hannah is none too happy about her husband David answering God’s call. Although she calls her obsession love, she is also equally homesick for her family. When he leaves her behind to travel to a dangerous part of Nigeria, she lets her imagination run away with itself. At this point the story delves deeply into her psyche as we follow her every thought, action and motive until she reaches a life changing moment.
 
 If three words could sum up this book, they would be "trust and obey". It's the lesson every Christian must learn sooner or later.
 
You'll need to beg, borrow or buy a copy of this very good book when it is released to find out more, but you won't regret wading through the murk of deepest darkness with Hannah until you reach the very satisfactory end of the story. 
 
This reviewer thoroughly enjoyed reading a complimentary pre-release copy of this Christian/Pentecostal book.

Catherine Duval remembers better days when Gabriel Duval didn’t drown himself in cups of wine. A chronic alcoholic, he’s still a caring father when sober, but when he’s drinking, he mixes her up in his mind with the native wife who divorced him. At those times, he takes out his anger and resentment on Catherine. For her part, she focuses on the good times and walks on eggshells in the bad, but the turmoil at home heightens her longing for peace, something she finds hard to acquire.
 
France and England fight over control of New France and New England impacting the area’s economy. Her Lachine fur trading business, on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, gains no exception. Situated across from Montreal, she finds herself in the midst of conflicting forces tugging at her desire to remain neutral. She must balance upon a tightrope. In order to keep her business thriving, she must trade between two powerful nations battling for dominance. Still she manages well until her former British fiancé returns as a servant courtesy of her father’s indolence and avarice.
 
When Gabriel Duval acquires prisoner Samuel Crane, Catherine’s heart does a double take. She thought she was over him after he had abandoned her to find his brother, but now she must decide if she’ll help him carry important military information to the English, to General Wolfe, in order to shorten the war and bring peace to the region. To do so would be no small feat which would require her to paddle with Samuel along the St. Lawrence between opposing forces. Any misstep could end both their lives. If caught by the French, she would be branded a traitor and execution would be her fate, but when she arrived among the English, they might suspect her motives. Being half-Mohawk and half French, she might be imprisoned or executed. Catherine must decide if she should take the risk and assist her former fiancé. If she does, will she be killed or survive? Will her heart endure constant contact with her former love? Will her endeavor aide the cause of peace?
 
Jocelyn Green’s writing sparkles like sunshine glistening upon rippling water. Her high prose rises to poetic in places while her plot compels the reader to flip pages and see what happens next. Like an incoming tide, urgency carries the reader along seeking to know how the story will end. Even if one is a history buff and knows how native and colonial history ended, this author makes the era surge with life. Although constrained by historic events, Jocelyn Green weaves a tapestry of intricate design bursting with vibrant color. This is a book to be cherished and read and reread. It’s that good.
 
Having said as much, the reader will simply have to buy the book when it is released in February to find out what happens to Catherine and Samuel as they run the gauntlet through French territory to bring crucial intelligence to the English.
 
This reviewer received a pre-publication copy from NetGalley.com courtesy of the author Jocelyn Green in order to provide an honest, unbiased review of this book. This reviewer is under no obligation to provide a positive review, just an honest one.  

​Mary Connealy has done it again! She's written a nailbiter of a novel that can't be put down. This reader and reviewer has almost no nails left! What a heart pounding read this was!​ That said, Mary Connealy's sense of humor has the reader hooting at the most unexpected times. Thankfully, this peppering of humor throughout keeps the reader sane as we wade through blood, gore and guts... figuratively speaking, that is.

An assassin takes a shot to kill two people with one bullet. His bullet hits his targets but he's seriously underestimated their resilience. Natalie Brewster, a deep undercover agent for a group that doesn’t officially exist, saw the gunman reflected in the glass. She knew that he definitely waited, lined up the shot, but just as he squeezed the trigger, she thrust the man in front of her toward the Metro stairs in front of her. The Assassin tried to kill both of them...with one shot! Nat and Case Garrison hit the ground bleeding, but they both come up shooting.

That just makes the killer, Prometheus, livid. He never misses.

Now Case and Nat, who have never before met, must figure out what they have in common to make them a killer's target. Not to mention, they have to do it while running for their lives. Despite the two of them being highly skilled at keeping a low profile, the killer keeps finding them. Contrary to their knee jerk reaction to stand and fight, they run at break-neck speed, hiding with all the skill of long-time undercover agents while falling in love with a passion that might be one reason why dodging the killer has become so hard...their focus isn't as sharp as they need it to be when the person they are running beside is so doggone attractive.

Clues to their dilemma keep surfacing, but their panicky cross country flight, not to mention that doggone attraction,  keeps them from connecting the dots.

This reviewer found this novel nearly impossible to put down. It kept me reading far, far past bedtime. What an incredible novel. By it, rent it, borrow it...but be prepared to lose a whole lot of sleep!

by Tricia Goyer  (Author), Cara Putman (Author), Sarah Sundin  (Author)
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*****
Product Description from Amazon
Siblings forge new paths and find love in three stories filled with the wonder of Christmas. 

Turn back the clock to a different time, listen to Bing Crosby sing of sleigh bells in the snow, as the realities of America’s involvement in the Second World War change the lives of the Turner family in Lafayette, Indiana. 

In Cara Putman’s White Christmas, Abigail Turner is holding down the Home Front as a college student and a part-time employee at a one-of-a-kind candy shop. Loss of a beau to the war has Abigail skittish about romantic entanglements—until a hard-working young man with a serious problem needs her help. 

Abigail’s brother Pete is a fighter pilot hero returned from the European Theater in Sarah Sundin’s I’ll Be Home for Christmas, trying to recapture the hope and peace his time at war has eroded. But when he encounters a precocious little girl in need of Pete’s friendship, can he convince her widowed mother that he’s no longer the bully she once knew?

In Tricia Goyer’s Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Meredith Turner, “Merry” to those who know her best, is using her skills as a combat nurse on the frontline in the Netherlands. Halfway around the world from home, Merry never expects to face her deepest betrayal head on, but that’s precisely what God has in mind to redeem her broken heart. 

The Turner family believes in God’s providence during such a tumultuous time. Can they absorb the miracle of Christ’s birth and His plan for a future?
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My Review

Love, love, loved this collection of interwoven stories, written by some of my favorite authors, centered on one extended family's experiences during WWII. Set in the USA and in Europe this novel deposited me squarely in my early childhood memories of that disruptive era. I heard the songs in my mind, pictured the people, smelled the chestnuts roasting and turkey baking. Tasted the sugar cookies and savored the peppermint candy canes. And felt the ever present fear of looming war. Can't say this book was totally nostalgic, but it did bring back so many memories. Well written stories seamlessly tied together, yet each one with its own unique style and flavor, "Where Treetops Glisten" was a very good read.
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​Texas My Texas is an authentic, true to the pre-civil war era story of life in what would become the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas area. Depicting rugged folk who settled the frontier, it never soft pedals the dangers they faced from wildlife, highwaymen, and harsh weather. Indeed this book is no goody-two-shoes, glossed over account of area settlers. The characters are rugged, hard-nosed, out-spoken, and sometimes frayed around the edges. The hero, Thomas, is such a likable, long-suffering man, but when we meet the heroine, she’s an immature, self-centered, love sick girl who fantasizes way too much about her former boyfriend. Seeing how these two grow and mature keeps the reader engaged. Likewise, an atheistic character, Monroe refuses to believe in a good God and in Christ Jesus and thus acts as a foil to Corbin’s and Thomas’ faith—a faith that is presented with sensitivity and honesty. All things considered, Texas My Texas is a full length novel that’s not for the faint of heart, but it is one that is well worth savoring as it is read.