Monday, September 19, 2011

THE COLONEL'S LADY, by Laura Frantz


Laura Frantz has done it again. The Colonel’s Lady is a wonderful novel that sweeps the reader back in time to 1779 on the Kentucky frontier.
When Roxanna Rowan arrives at Fort Endeavor in the Kentucke (as it used to be spelled) wilderness, she expects to reunite with her father. Once there, she learns her father has been killed. Penniless, she has no choice but to stay in the crowded fort until she can find a way to travel back to her former home in Virginia. The fort’s commander, Colonel Cassius McLinn, is a fiery-tempered Irishman with a past shrouded in mystery.
Against the backdrop of Redcoat and Indian danger, Roxanna and Colonel McLinn are also in danger of losing their hearts to one another. With skillful storytelling, Frantz keeps the reader guessing as to the outcome until the last pages.
The Colonel’s Lady is a novel for both history and romance lovers to savor. I give it two thumbs up!

Monday, September 12, 2011

REMEMBERING CHRISTMAS, by Dan Walsh




         In Remembering Christmas, Dan Walsh has written a story that’s sure to be a holiday classic. The story opens when Rick Denton, a successful (and self-centered) individual, receives a phone call from his mother asking for his help in the bookstore she and her husband own. Rick’s stepfather, Art, has suffered a brain aneurysm and is hovering between life and death.
            Grudgingly , Rick travels to the small town of Sea Breeze, Florida, grumbling all the while about giving up his ski vacation. He avoids the quirky customers in the store as much as possible, preferring to let the intriguing young woman assistant deal with their questions.
            But there must be something in the air at the Book Nook. Rick finds himself questioning his past memories as well as his present attitudes. As the story moved from one surprise to another, I found myself stealing free moments to read when I should have been doing other things.
            Although Remembering Christmas would make an ideal gift, don’t wait for Christmas to read the book. This wonderful story will resonate with you no matter what the season.

My thanks to Revell for providing my review copy.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN, by Kate Morton


The Forgotten Garden is a combination of many things: part fairy tale, part family saga, and part mystery, stirred together with a dash of Dickens and a sprinkling of Frances Hodgson Burnett. The finished product is a thoroughly absorbing novel.
The story begins in 1913, with a four-year-old girl who is hidden aboard a ship sailing from London to Australia. She's told to wait in her hiding place until the woman who put her there comes back. The woman never returns.
When the child is discovered at the end of the voyage, the dock master and his wife take her in and raise her as their own. On her twenty-first birthday, "Nell" learns the circumstances of her life in Australia and sets out to discover who she really is. The Forgotten Garden moves between Australia, London, and the Cornish coast, but not until Nell dies and her granddaughter continues the search are all the pieces of Nell's life assembled.
Australian author Morton does an impeccable job of holding the reader in thrall. The Forgotten Garden is one of the best novels I've read in a long time. This book will go on my 'keeper' shelf.

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