The Brickmaker's Bride - Judith Miller

Laura Woodfield and her mother are looking to sell her late father's brickyard to someone who will make it a  success and carry on the legacy of her father's work ethic.  Ewan McKay and his Uncle Hugh are looking to buy a brickyard and establish a new life in America.  Ewan has his sisters in Ireland to think of, and his own personal faith and commitment to making fair deals and working honestly, but his uncle has different ideas of success.  Can there be any common ground between such disparate goals?

This book was a mixed bag for me; I liked Laura and her commitment to not giving in to a bad deal.  I liked that she stood her ground against people trying to take advantage of her or her mother.  I liked Ewan and his commitment to helping his sisters and to honesty, even when it angered the people who held the key to getting his sisters to America.  But beyond those two, most of the characters in the book just angered me.  And not the "every book needs an antagonist" kind of way.  Truly annoyed me.  The lying, the dishonest dealings, the using people for political gain, the dissatisfaction with anything less than perfect, the need for social rules and status - it was too much for me.  There were too many characters I didn't like, and they overshadowed the parts I did enjoy.

I give this book 2.5 stars.  Books don't need to be all happy, all the time for me to enjoy, but I don't like feeling so angry at the characters within a book for so much of it.

You can find The Brickmaker's Bride (Refined by Love #1) HERE.
You can find the author's website HERE.

I received a copy of this book from Bethany House publishing, in exchange for my honest review.

Bluebonnet Bride - Colleen Coble

Elli Korpela has come from Finland to America to find a husband, and to escape the man most benefits from her being gone.  When she arrives, she finds her husband, Nathan White, to be more than she anticipated and hopes that the marriage may become one of more than just convenience for both of them.  However, before they can settle into any kind of married life, they need to find out who's behind the attacks on Elli at their new house.  Is it her past tracking her across the ocean, or is it someone angry at Nathan's new position of foreman?

I am not typically a fan of novellas, and this book is a good demonstration of my reasons.  Even though I liked the characters and was excited for the chance for both Elli and Nathan to find more than they'd hoped for in this mail-order marriage, there was just not enough time for the story to develop.  There was not enough time for their romance to develop at a natural pace, and there was not enough time to develop depth to the mystery and its solution.  This short book did intrigue me enough that I intend to read the full Butterfly Palace novel, and hope for more insight into the characters who only made brief appearances in this novella.

I give this novella 2.5 stars, rounded to 3.  While the short story/novella format does not appeal to me, the characters and writing were still decently enjoyable.  Perhaps, once the series is rounded out, it will make a nice bridge between books 1 and 2.

You can find Bluebonnet Bride HERE.
You can find the author's website HERE.
You can follow her on Twitter HERE.

I received a copy of this e-book from the Booklook Bloggers program, in exchange for my honest review.

Taken for English - by Olivia Newport

Taken for English is the third installment in the Valley of Choice series.  Annie has committed to the Amish faith through baptism, and is patiently awaiting Rufus' proposal.  Her future sister-in-law, Ruth, who has foregone the Amish baptism in order to pursue a career in nursing is living with Annie while she serves an internship in the town.  Meanwhile, their paths cross with several people new to the town who will cause upheaval in their lives.  How will their encounters affect their life choices?

While I did read the first book in this series, Accidentally Amish, I missed reading the second book, In Plain View.  I can't say that I noticed a gap in the series, but perhaps the characters would have felt more fleshed out in this novel if I had read the series to completion.  The first novel was intriguing for me, to watch Annie's transition from a technology-driven life, to the simple life of the Amish.  This book did not have the same driving interest.  Annie has fully settled into her Amish lifestyle, and does not seem to miss her old life; maybe the second novel was where she experienced doubts as she transitions.  Additionally, the inclusion of the ancestral history seemed almost superfluous to the contemporary story.  I kept wanting the chapters of Joseph and Maura to be over so that I could get back to Annie and Rufus.  Other than the obvious connection of the color of Rufus' eyes, there was no real tie-in or lessons passed down to connect teh stories.

I give this book 2.5 stars; I finished reading it because I felt invested in Annie and Rufus' story from the first book, but I did not feel that there was any growth or developments in this installment to make me love it.

You can find a copy of Taken for English HERE.
You can find the author's website HERE.

I received a copy of this e-book from Barbour Publishing, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

Abducted - by Janice Cantore

Carly Edwards and Joe King are police partners, on the graveyards patrol shift, when they get the call that Joe's wife and infant son have been admitted to the hospital.  While the doctors are still figuring out what's wrong with his wife, his son is Abducted directly from the pediatric wing of the hospital.  Even as Carly tries to solve the kidnapping, she's also dealing with her ex-husband and their relationship that was looking towards reconciliation, while another man in her life begins to show interest in her.  Additionally, her roommate seems to be distancing herself from Carly, and becomes agitated at Carly's new found Christianity.  How will Carly deal with all of these relationship issues while trying to help her partner get his family back together and to solve a crime that's bigger than any of them imagined?

Abducted is the second book in the Pacific Coast Justice series, written by Janice Cantore, a retired Long Beach police officer.  While this book can certainly stand alone as a novel, there were numerous references to incidents in Carly's past, as well as several other characters, that I can only imagine were detailed in the previous book.  This book would have flowed as a story, for me anyway, without so many of those references.  Most of the past crimes referenced didn't have a bearing on this story and only served as distractions instead of helping the story along.

The deepest part of the story was that of Carly and Nick's path of forgiveness and new beginnings.  It was refreshing to read a book where, even though hurtful mistakes had been made and forgiveness wasn't easy, or even understandable by most of the people who knew them, they worked at their relationship and prayed for renewal.

Other than the forgiveness storyline, I found the book just okay.  I give it 2.5 stars, rounded down to 2 stars.

You can find more from the author HERE.

I received a copy of this book for free from Tyndale publishers, in exchange for my honest review.

The Deposit Slip - by Todd M. Johnson

Erin Larson left her father's farm and the town of Ashley when she was in high school; now she's back to mourn her father's death and to sort out his estate.  When she finds The Deposit Slip for $10,000,000 in his safety deposit box, she is determined to find out where it came from and where the money is now.  Only, the bank denies that the deposit exists, and no lawyer will see the case through, until Jared comes along.  Jarod has ties to the town of Ashley, and he needs a big case worth a lot of money, but can he make it through this case without going broke or endangering the lives of those involved?  Will Erin find out where her father might have come across 10 million dollars?

The premise of this story was intriguing, and I enjoyed the suspense of finding out if the money existed, where it came from, and where could it be now.  I liked Jarod and wanted Erin to find closure.  However, there were so many characters in this story, and so many of them seemed to have secrets, that it was hard to get invested in more than that.  Too many characters had hints of backgrounds that the author wanted to tease out, and there just wasn't room in the story to fully flesh them all out.  He did do a good job of tying everything up at the end, though, and it didn't feel like there were loose ends.

If I hadn't just read a really good suspense book before this one, my review might have been more favorable.  As it is, I enjoyed the plotline and the story, but can only give this book 2.5 stars.  I did see that this was a debut novel by Mr. Johnson, so I would enjoy watching him develop as an author.  If his writing style tightens up a bit, I think that his story-telling is enjoyable enough to produce some great books.

I received a copy of this book for free from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for my honest review.