A Heart Most Worthy by Siri Mitchell

A Heart Most Worthy

by

Siri Mitchell

There are many stories of immigrants to the USA and how they survived and prospered. This is the story of three young ladies from Italy who live in Boston around 1918 and are working in a high end dress shop. Luciana, Julietta and Annamaria are three young seamstresses earning their way at Madame Fortier's dress shop. There are many obstacles to overcome, being poor, not speaking English, prejudice and sometimes their own families interfere in how each young woman wants to lead her own life. There is history, intrigue and romance in this story and it is all interwoven to hold your interest to the end.
I would recommend this book to everyone. It was a really enjoyable read from beginning to end. I've read other books by Siri Mitchell and love her style of writing and choice of settings. Although you can't judge a book by it's cover, I really do like looking at the woman and the beautiful dress that she is wearing. It really adds to the story to picture the type of clothes that women wore at that time in our history. I'm sure that poorer women would only wish to have such beautiful clothes as the women who were able to buy dresses made at Madame Fortier's dress shop.
I received this book to read and review from Bethany House Publishers.

Beside Still Waters by Tricia Goyer

Beside Still Waters by Tricia Goyer

Marianna Sommer was born and raised in Indiana within a strict Amish community. She expected to remain in Indiana and eventually marry Aaron Zook. Her older brother Levi had moved to Montana and that is where her family decides to move also. Marianna is not obliged to move with them, but chooses to do so to help her mother who is expecting. On the train and once the family arrives in Montana, they discover how nice so many people are. It also becomes apparent that the strict rules of the Indiana community are not the only right way to lead your life in God's way. The realization that a happy life devoted to God and family is possible outside of the strict rules comes as a bit of a shock to Marianna.

I enjoyed reading this book very much. I'm glad that Marianna was able to see a new side to her relationship with God and with her friends and family. The recipes at the end of the book are also an added feature that I'm sure many people will enjoy. This book was a step above the other Amish family stories that I have read. I think it presented a more real look into what it is like to be Amish in our modern times.

I received this book from Litfuse to read and review.

Here is a link to buy the book.

http://triciagoyer.com/contemporaryfiction.html#BesideStillWaters

Here is a link to a contest that the author is having and a picture of a really sweet salt and pepper set that is part of the contest prize.

http://triciagoyer.blogspot.com/2011/04/beside-still-waters-giveaway.html

 

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Here Burns My Candle by Liz Curtis Higgs

Lady Elisabeth Kerr is a highlander by birth and a lowlander by marriage. She has had to keep secrets from her husband and his family. She honors the nameless one and not the one true God.

Lord Donald Kerr, husband of Lady Elisabeth, has plenty of secrets of his own. Although he swears that he is true to his wife, he has many women that know the truth.

Lord Kerr's dowager mother, Lady Marjory has many secrets of her own. She loves being part of high society and spoiling her sons with too much of everything. She keeps her wealth in coins that are hidden beneath the floor boards in her room.

This story is set during the 1740's in Scotland during the time of bonny Prince Charlie's attempt to capture the crown. There is a lot of conflict between the lowlanders and the Jacobites. People's allegience to the crown and to whoever is occupying the town at the moment evenutally leads to fear and more secrets.

I really enjoyed reading this book and look forward to reading Liz Curtis Higgs' next book from the 18th century in Scotland.

This book was provided to me to read and review by WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

A Trail of Ink by Mel Starr

A Trail of Ink by Mel Starr

A Trail of Ink is the 3rd installment of the chronicles of Hugh de Singleton surgeon and baliff of Bampton Castle. Hugh is given some time off by Lord Gilbert Talbot to assist Master John Wyclif in the recovery of his stolen books. These books are worth more then the amount of money that it would take to replace them, so it is important to Master Wyclif to find them quickly. During the search for these books, crimes keep occuring around and to Hugh de Singleton. Several people are not happy to have him getting too close to their devious deeds. Hugh is also hoping to marry Kate, the daughter of one of the stationers in the town of Oxford. The pursuit of Kate also leads to scuffles with a knight who also wants her and all of the crimes surrounding the stolen books seem to intertwine with each other and lead to clues about the books.
I really enjoyed reading this book. Tales from medieval times and other long ago times in Europe have always interested me. As interesting as the story was, the frequent mention of pottage and maslin was a bit annoying at times. Sometimes it seemed like the crimes were not quite as important as getting more pottage and maslin. I mention this only because I found it a bit amusing for the most part. I do recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mysteries and stories about medieval England.

I received this book from Litfuse to read and review.

If God Why Evil by Norman L. Geisler

If God, Why Evil? is a question that many people have asked and would like an answer that is understandable. This book by Norman L. Geisler will address just about every aspect of this question. Points are laid out in a manner that will make it easy for anyone to read and to understand.

Although this book was written to explain what is a somewhat complicated question, I did not enjoy reading it. There were too many criticisms of other author's books who have their own explanation of why evil exists. I think the author would have been better off stating his own viewpoint of the subject matter and not denigrating what others believe. The critique of The Shack at the end of the book seemed totally out of place and just another work that the author enjoyed giving a negative critique about. I will recommend this book to anyone who wants to read about this subject and get Mr. Geisler's opinion on God and evil in the world.

This book was provided to me to read and review by Bethany House Publishers.

The Bridge of Peace by Cindy Woodsmall

The Bridge of Peace tells us the story of Lena Kauffman, an old order Amish school teacher. Lena has had to deal with the stares and hurtful comments about her appearance. She has a large noticeable birthmark on her cheek. In her class this term, she has a disruptive student who will not listen to her. Parents are complaining and questioning her ability to control her class and also the decisions she makes about the students. This book also tells us about other friends and neighbors in the community. Grey Graber and his wife Elsie are having their own problems, but are trying to keep others from learning about their private life. They have a son who may be in Lena's classroom in the next term, but even this is causing problems for Grey and Elsie. Tragedy strikes and things will change for these characters. There are also other people in this story, such as Cara and her daughter Lori who have moved from New York to join the Amish community, Ada who is a widow and along with Cara, is trying to get a business going to support herself and Cara and Lori too. The Blank family have a lot of influence with the school board and their sons Peter and Dwayne cause a lot of troubles for Lena. Dwayne in particular is real bad news.

If you have a sensitive nature and don't like cruelty toward animals or humans, then you should be cautioned about this book. Some of what occurs in this book is rather upsetting and not the usual stuff I read in Amish Christian type stories. Perhaps the author felt that such strong descriptions were necessary to make her point about how mentally ill some people can be, while those closest to them may not even notice or want any help for their family member. One other thing that I found to be irritatiing was finding the list of characters at the end of the book, rather then at the beginning. Since I hadn't read the first book in this series, it took awhile for me to figure out who everyone was and what motivated some of them. I'm sorry that I didn't look through the whole book first, before reading it. That may have helped me to understand some of the characters a little easier. Other then the criticisms that I offered, I did enjoy the book very much.

If you would like to read the first chapter, please follow this link.

http://www.multnomahemails.com/wbmlt/pdf/SneakPeek_TheBridgeofPeace.pdf

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review