A Moonbow Night

Author: Laura Frantz
Genre: Christian / Historical Fiction
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group, 2017 
Pages: 384 
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: After fleeing Virginia, Temperance Tucker and her family established an inn along the Shawnee River. It's a welcome way station for settlers and frontiersmen traveling through the wild Cumberland region of Kentucke - men like Sion Morgan, a Virginia surveyor who arrives at the inn with his crew looking for an experienced guide. When his guide appears, Sion balks. He certainly didn't expect a woman. But it is not long before he must admit that Tempe's skill in the wilderness rivals his own. Still, the tenuous tie they are forming is put to the test as they encounter danger after danger and must rely on each other.

After fleeing Virginia, Temperance Tucker and her family established an inn along the Shawnee River. It's a welcome way station for settlers and frontiersmen traveling through the wild Cumberland region of Kentucke—men like Sion Morgan, a Virginia surveyor who arrives at the inn with his crew looking for an experienced guide. When his guide appears, Sion balks. He certainly didn't expect a woman. But it is not long before he must admit that Tempe's skill in the wilderness rivals his own. Still, the tenuous tie they are forming is put to the test as they encounter danger after danger and must rely on each other.

Review: Exactly what you’d expect from Laura Frantz. That said, I wanted more Sion and less James, so that the “new” relationship could have been more developed.

Laura Frantz novels are predictable and sweet. It's the journey, not the destination.

Other Laura Frantz Novels
A Bound Heart
A Moonbow Night
Courting Morrow Little 
The Colonel's Lady

The Frontiersman's Daughter
The Lacemaker
The Mistress of Tall Acre

The Ballantyne Legacy
Love's Reckoning
Love's Awakening 
Love's Fortune

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Author: J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Scholastic
Pages: 336
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Harry Potter has never been the star of a Quidditch team, scoring points while riding a broom far above the ground. He knows no spells, has never helped to catch a dragon, and has never worn a cloak of invisibility.

All he knows is a miserable life with the Dursley's, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley - a great big swollen spoiled bully. Harry's room is a tiny closet at the foot of the stairs, and he hasn't had a birthday party in eleven years.

But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an ivitation to an incredible place that Harry - and anoyone who reads about him - will find unforgettable.

For it's there that he find not only his friends, aerial sports, and magic in everything from classes to meals, but a great destiny that's been waiting for him. . .if Harry can survive the encounter.

Review: I may be the last person in the free world to read Harry Potter, but I told my oldest daughter, who's obsessed, that I would give it a try. I liked, didn't love. After reading Book 1, I don't get all the hype surrounding it, but I've heard the series improves with each book. It remains to be seen if I'll continue with it.

The Death of Mrs. Westaway

Author: Ruth Ware
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press, 2018
Pages: 384 
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: On a day that begins like another any other, Hal receives a mysterious letter bequeathing her a substantial inheritance. She realizes very quickly that the letter was sent to the wrong person - but also that the cold-reading skills she's honed as a tarot card reader might help her claim the money.

Soon, Hal finds herself at the funeral of the deceased. . .where it dawns on her that there is something very, very wrong about this strange situation and the inheritance that's at the center of it.

Full of spellbinding menace and told in Ruth Ware's signature suspenseful style, this is an unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.

Review: I was not a Ruth Ware fan going into this. I hadn't been impressed with The Woman in Cabin 10. However, someone from one of my book groups recommended the audio version. Imogen Church is the narrator, and she didn't just read this, she performed it.

Now, the story itself. I liked it, but WHY? WHY did I have to guess the twist? To be fair, I didn’t have it all figured out, but enough. The Death of Mrs. Westaway wasn’t enough to make me a Ruth Ware fan, but it was good enough.

Ruth Ware Novels

In a Dark, Dark Wood
One by One
One Perfect Couple
The It Girl
The Lying Game
The Turn of the Key
The Woman in Cabin 10
The Woman in Suite 11
Zero Days

The Blue Cotton Gown

Author: Patricia Harman
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Beacon Press, 2008
Pages: 296
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: As a nurse-midwife and the manager of a women's health clinic in West Virginia, Patricia "Patsy" Harman bears witness to the struggles and triumphs of every woman who walks through her exam room door. She sees Heather, a teenager pregnant with twins, through the loss of both babies and their father. She cares for Nila - a longtime patient who must try to make a new life without her abusive husband - and helps Kaz transition into a new body. The only thing more varied than these women's background are their stories, which they share with Patsy inside her small clinic, covered only a blue cotton gown.

In her memoir, Patsy juxtaposes these heartbreaking and uplifting tales with her own story of keeping a small medical practice solvent. She recounts conversations with her patients over the course of a year and a quarter - a time when her own life seems on the brink of collapse due to financial troubles, malpractice threats, serious medical problems, and marital strife.

Review: Not the best  memoir I’ve ever read, but I liked how it was structured. I read this in a few hours, so it wasn’t a huge commitment. I was expecting more midwifery, but this was more nurse practitioner. This also has a Hillbilly Elegy vibe. I liked it, but not enough to read the follow-up, Arms Wide Open.

Good choice for upping your book/page count, if you track that sort of thing.

River Bodies

Author: Karen Katchur
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Amazon Publishing, 2018
Pages: 302
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: A body just turned up in the small town of Portland, Pennsylvania. The crime is eerily similar to a twenty-year-old cold case: another victim, brutally murdered found in the Delaware River. Lead detective Parker Reed is intent on connecting the two murders, but the locals are on lockdown, revealing nothing.

The past meets the present when Becca Kingsley, who returns to Portland to be with her estranged by dying father, runs into Parker, her childhood love. As the daughter of the former police chief, Becca's quickly drawn into the case. Coming home has brought something ominous to the surface - memories long buried, secrets best kept hidden. Becca starts questioning all her past relationships, including one with a man who's watched over her for years. For the time, she wonders if he's more predator than protector.

In a small town where darkness hides in plain sight, the truth could change Becca's life - or end it.

Review: Page 1 opens with the murder scene, reminiscent of Melinda Leigh's Say You're Sorry. That novel was off and running at that point, this novel was not. I decided to read up to page 50, and then decide if I was going to keep reading, or not.

I thought around page 35 the book had some potential, but eventually that fizzled too. I just didn’t care about any of it...the characters, or what happened to them. Just a big ol’ snooze fest.

Side note, having grown up in Pennsylvania, I first wondered if Portland is an actual town here. It is.

Kate: A Biography

Author: Marcia Moody
Genre: Biography
Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books, 2013
Pages: 256
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Following the royal wedding, the Diamond Jubilee and the imminent birth of Kate and William's first baby, popular sentiment towards the royal family has rarely been higher. At the centre of this surge in affection is a woman who has captured the heart of a nation and who, at the side of her husband, Prince William, is ushering a new dawn for the United Kingdom's reigning family. For, due to planned amendments to the rules of accession to the British Crown, their first child, regardless of gender, will succeed William to the throne. This biography explores the life of the woman who has done so much to revitalize the public image of the royal family, covering her early years, her family, her time at St. Andrews University, and her meeting with Prince William, their early relationship and its trials, the wedding and her new official role, her style, and of course, her pregnancy. Besides being the perfect book for admirers of this remarkable young woman, Kate: A Biography, marks a crucial moment in the history of the royal line.

Review: Five years after publication, Kate and William are now the parents of three children, and settled into their roles as the stable, but still fashionable, married couple. Kate is my favorite royal, especially for her style, but also as a mom.

This wasn't the most exciting, best written biography, but I enjoyed it anyway. I'd like to read something published more recently about Kate.

All the Ever Afters

Author: Danielle Teller
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 2018
Pages: 384
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: We all know the story of Cinderella. Or do we?

As rumors about the cruel upbringing of the beautiful newlywed Princess Cinderella roil the kingdom, her stepmother, Agnes, who knows all too well about hardship, privately records the true story.

A peasant born into serfdom, Agnes is separated from her family and forced into servitude as a laundress's apprentice when she is only ten years old. Using her wits and ingenuity, she escapes her tyrannical matron and makes her way toward a hopeful future. When teenaged Agnes is seduced by an older man and becomes pregnant, she is transformed by love for her child. Once again left penniless, Agnes has no choice but to return to servitude as the manor she thought she had left behind. Her position is nursemaid to Ella, an otherworldly infant. She struggles to love the child who in time becomes her stepdaughter and, eventually, the celebrated princess who embodies everyone's unattainable fantasies. The story of their relationship reveals nothing is what it seems, that beauty is not always desirable, and that love can take on my guises.

Lyrically told, emotionally evocative, and brilliantly perceived, All the Ever Afters explores the hidden complexities that lie beneath classic tales of good and evil, all the while showing us that how we confront adversity reveals a more profound, and ultimately more important, truth than the idea of "happily ever after."

Review: It took me a chapter or two to go into the language and writing style, and I wondered if I was even going to like this book. I was rewarded for my tenacity. So enjoyable.