Showing posts with label Sarah Loudin Thomas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sarah Loudin Thomas. Show all posts

Saturday, December 1, 2018

Review: The Christmas Heirloom by Karen Witemeyer, Kristi Ann Hunter, Sarah Loudin Thomas, Becky Wade



My rating: 5 stars / It was amazing

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Synopsis

In Kristi Ann Hunter's "Legacy of Love," Sarah Gooding never suspected returning a brooch to an elderly woman would lead to a job . . . and introduce her to the woman's grandson, a man far above her station.

In Karen Witemeyer's "Gift of the Heart," widow Ruth Albright uses the family brooch as collateral for a loan from the local banker. But the more she comes to know the man behind the stern businessman, the more she hopes for a second chance at love.

In Sarah Loudin Thomas's "A Shot at Love," Fleeta Brady's rough-and-tumble childhood means she prefers hunting to more feminine activities. She never expected her family's brooch might be how a fellow hunter turns her attention from competition to romance.

In Becky Wade's "Because of You," Maddie Winslow has spent years in love with a man whose heart was already spoken for. When a church Christmas project brings them together and she stumbles upon an old family brooch, might it finally be her turn for love?


My Review

I enjoyed each of the stories in this collection by four of Bethany House's strong authors! It was neat that they took place in different eras, connected by the heirloom brooch that is passed down the maternal line. With each story I was immersed in the setting and characters, and a full story arc was achieved in the space of a novella. The romances were sweet and full of chemistry between the lead characters, making the stories come to life. This is a collection that I plan to read again in the future! It would also make a lovely Christmas gift for readers and fans of wholesome romance.

(I received a complimentary copy of the book; all opinions in this review are my own)


Saturday, July 25, 2015

Review: Until the Harvest by Sarah Loudin Thomas


Heidi Reads... Until the Harvest by Sarah Loudin Thomas

My rating: 4 stars / I really liked it

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Synopsis

When a family tragedy derails Henry Phillips's college studies, he's left unmoored and feeling abandoned. Although Henry tries to find escape in bad company, the only things that can tamp down his anger and grief are the family farm, his fiddle, and sweet but unusual pre-teen Mayfair Hoffman.
Unfortunately, Mayfair's older sister, Margaret, with the freckles and cute, turned-up nose, has the opposite effect. Worse, she's his grandmother's housekeeper and helper, so she's always around and ready to push his buttons. At first he thinks she doesn't care about his loss, before beginning to understand she's facing her own struggles. Mayfair's health and unique gift sit at the heart of those worries, and Henry and Margaret soon find themselves relying on each other as both Henry's future and Mayfair's life are put at risk.


My Review

I enjoyed revisiting characters from the first book in this series (Miracle in a Dry Season), but I have to say, Casewell's son Henry is so clueless! He allows his grief and the varying emotions that accompany it derail him from his planned future, and he comes to regret his poor choices- some he's actually embarrassed about, and others he just considers a close call. I felt like his grandmother and mother, Emily and Perla, as I shook my head over him. Margaret is a little lost as well, but since she's the most responsible caretaker of her little sister, she focuses on hard work and serving others as she discovers God's will for her life. There are also themes similar to the ones found in Miracle in a Dry Season such as the sweetness and love of a child transforming a hard and bitter man, grief over the loss of loved ones, uncertainty over one's future, and hesitancy at the opportunity for love.

(Thank you to Bethany House Publishing for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review)

Review: Miracle in a Dry Season by Sarah Loudin Thomas


 Heidi Reads... Miracle in a Dry Season by Sarah Loudin Thomas

My rating: 4 stars / I really liked it

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Synopsis

It's 1954 and Perla Long's arrival in the sleepy town of Wise, West Virginia, was supposed to go unnoticed. She just wants a quiet, safe place for her and her daughter, Sadie, where the mistakes of her past can stay hidden. But then drought comes to Wise, and Perla is pulled into the turmoil of a town desperately in need of a miracle.

Casewell Phillips has resigned himself to life as a bachelor...until he meets Perla. She's everything he's sought in a woman, but he can't get past the sense that she's hiding something. As the drought worsens, Perla's unique gift divides the town in two, bringing both gratitude and condemnation, and placing the pair in the middle of a storm of anger and forgiveness, fear and faith.


My Review

Deep and thoughtful writing depicts a simpler time, but with timeless conflicts faced by the community and the individuals in it. There is a heavy focus on themes of judging and the need for forgiveness- of others and self. Casewell has a genuine heart that is seeking for truth as his perceptions shift and he allows his heart to open. Perla is bravely trying to start over and provide for her daughter. There is a sense of desperation that increases with the drought and the division of loyalties, but in the situations where Christ-like love is given and shared, peace prevails until the miracle everyone is praying for comes to pass. A somewhat leisurely pace throughout the whole book, but the insights and reflections call for it.

(Thank you to Bethany House Publishing for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review)

Sunday, July 19, 2015

High Summer Read-a-thon

High Summer Read-a-thon


I'm excited to be participating in the High Summer Read-a-thon this week! Here are the books I'm planning on reading...

 




Monday, September 29, 2014

Clash of the Titles!




Clash of the Titles presents four brand new inspirational novels. One’s set in a Bible camp for tweens or the tweens in your lives. Hopes and dreams are threatened in another. In the third, a town’s in need of a miracle. Two people work to cure a deadly disease in the fourth. Which one will you read first? Browse the books, then, using the voting box below, let us know the title you’ll put at the top of your to-be-read list.


SPEAK NO EVIL by Mary Hamilton
Having his younger sister at summer camp will be a pain, but Taylor Dixon, 15, never expects the pain to go so deep. When she falls for his snobbish cabin mate, a war of words and pranks escalates, threatening to land him in jail and destroying his dreams for the future—until a lesson learned from an old engine sets him free from the prison he built himself.






THE HESITANT HEIRESS by Dawn Crandall
With the rare ability to play the piano by ear, Amaryllis Brigham wants nothing more than to someday found a music school. However, someone keeps undermining her hopes and dreams, and
she's sure it's Bram Everstone--the father of the one man she's ever come close to falling for.






MIRACLE IN A DRY SEASON by Sarah Loudin Thomas
Perla Long wants a quiet, safe place for her and her daughter where her past can stay hidden, but she ends up in a town in desperate need of a miracle. Bachelor Casewell Phillips sees everything he wants in a woman in her, but can’t get past the sense she’s hiding something.






  
WITH EVERY BREATH by Elizabeth Camden
In the shadow of the nation's capital, Kate Livingston's respectable life as a statistician is disrupted by an encounter with the insufferable Trevor McDonough, the one man she'd hoped never to see again. A Harvard-trained physician, Trevor never showed the tiniest flicker of interest in Kate, and the only reason he seeks her out now is because of the one thing they share in common: the competitive drive to cure the world’s deadliest disease.




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