No Place for a Lady

I was very excited to start this book thanks to a recommendation by my very dear HCR friend, Candy!! Candy has great taste and we have very similar "likes" in books, so I knew I would enjoy this one--and I did!!

Overall, I'm a big Maggie Brendan fan. I've read several of her books, though not all. This particular novel was intriguing enough, but I picked up on a few writerly things that made the story less fabulous than it might have been otherwise . . .

Allow me to explain.

Book Rating: Somewhere between Up All Night'er and Here a little, there a little

Maybe being a writer taints me as a reader, I don't know. But when I started this book I noticed right away a few things that turned me away from the story no matter how engaging it was. I won't spend much time on those things, but let it suffice that I found the actual writing passive and telling a lot of the time which pulled me out of the story.

The basic plot--girl with no family goes to a Colorado ranch and ends up needing to run the place. Honestly, even though there are almost too many of these plots to count, I still like them! There's great conflict, and just so many fabulous opportunities for romance, don't you think? *grin* The premise and setting were intriguing enough to keep me interested, but honestly it was the characters that I found less so . . .

The heroine, Crystal, didn't really come alive to me. I didn't get to know her and "feel" her emotions and struggles as I would have liked, but I think that might have been due to the writing style. Again, this is just my opinion. As for the hero, it's hard not to fall for a cowboy--am I right?! In this case, Luke is pretty great. However, even though their relationship just didn't have to spark I was looking for. But again, that might have been due to the writing style--or maybe it's just an Amber thing.

There were some really great scenes that I don't think I've ever really seen in another book--won't say what they are cuz I don't want to give it away . . . but in that repsect, I found it a very enjoyable read.

Thank you, Cathy for this fabulous recommendation! And please, if any of you ever have a recommendation please let me know--I'm always excited to learn about new books!

Happy Reading!
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Twice Promised

This novel is very cute, but you wanna know what I liked the most? The title! (And as a side note, I very much dislike “faces” on the covers of books, but I really thought this girl looked like how they describe her in the story. Very pretty.)

Book Rating: Up All Night’er

I just really, really love the title of this book! TWICE PROMISED. Perfect!

This story comes right after DEEPLY DEVOTED and in that book you became acquainted with Greta Olsen, the lovely young sister of Catherine Olsen. (I have a feeling Anna’s story will be next, but I could be wrong. She’s the youngest sister by the way…*wink *)

Greta was madly in love with a man named Bryan in the previous story, but at the beginning of this book we find out that he died. Very sad. Greta saw how well the mail-order-bride thing worked out for her sister, so she gives it a try herself. Little does she know there is another woman who's come to Central City, Colorado to marry the same man! And, she knows even “littler” than that, that the man she came to marry is the brother of the man she just lost! Hooo! Crazy, huh?

I thought this story was just plain cute. I can’t think of any other word that describes it as well. You actually get to follow two couples as they fall in love—the more romance the better, right? That being said, I thought the actual romance was a bit slow at times and for some reason I had a hard time becoming very attached to the characters as adorable as they were.

Jess (the main leading man…Zach was the other one, but I won’t go into detail on him) just didn’t do it for me. I know that all leading men can’t be the same or these books would get real boring, real fast (or would they?…hmmm…Drew O’Connor…). Eh hem. I digress. There wasn’t much about him that I found appealing. I think Brendan wanted to describe how much he needed a woman’s influence in his life, but for me he came across as messy, forgetful and disorganized. So, that was a bit of a disappointment, but wasn't a complete turn-off.

Overall, very enjoyable read and I do recommend it.

Happy Reading!
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*Thank you to Revell for the free review copy*

Deeply Devoted

Yay! A Maggie Brendan book I can recommend!! (Not that I didn't really recommend JEWEL OF HIS HEART, but I just didn't care for it as much as I enjoyed this one.

Book Rating: Up All Night'er

This is the first book in a great new series--The Blue Willow Brides. Catharine and her two sisters are coming from Amsterdam because Catharine has answered a "mail-order-bride thing-a-ma-jig". Peter, the leading man, is a bit surprised that Catharine didn't mention in her letters that she was bringing her sisters and it makes him wonder if he's done the right thing marrying someone he's never met--if maybe she is hiding anything else...hmmmmmm....

Needless to say, there are some struggles between the two main characters, but it all works out very nicely in the end, of course. *teehee* I thought the romantic elements were first-rate, so I can't imagine you'll be disappointed in that way.

The sub plot...I couldn't like it. The mother/son relationship was just weird to me...I actually had to skim it all. But the rest of the book is really worth it and my faith in Brendan's books has been renewed thanks to DEEPLY DEVOTED, so you can look for a review of her next book TWICE PROMISED, sometime in Oct.

Let me know what you think of this book if you've read it and if you like Maggie's style.

Happy Reading!!
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Jewel of His Heart

High school drama.  That’s the only thing I can think of to really describe this book to you.

Book rating:  Here a little, there a little

I really had high hopes for this book.  It had all the right things for me—pretty girl on the cover (LOL) great setting and all of that, but I have to say I was unimpressed.  I felt like I was reading about a moody high school girl.  Ugh.  And the leading man did absolutely nothing for me at all.

That being said, you still may want to give it a try, and if you go into it with low expectations you may be pleasantly surprised.  It has a good Christian message in it, so it has that in it's favor.

Juliana is a young girl whose mother dies and leaves her alone in the world.  She has good friends and people to help her, thankfully, but she’s determined to take care of herself.  And she does so by working for the local newspaper.

Josh is building a sheep ranch when he makes a rare discovery on his property.  He thinks that maybe he can make it big and leave the ranch work behind him.

Their relationship is full of back and forth stuff—“I’m mad at you…no I’m not…I’m mad at you again…” etc.  I found this to be quite tedious.

If you are feeling daring, or think that this book can be your thing, give it a try.  If enough people totally love it, I may think about giving it another try myself…but…then again, I don’t know.  The reviews from readers on amazon.com were pretty high.  Maybe I am just missing something.

Happy Reading!

Buy it!