Learning

Learning by Karen Kingsbury

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The second book in the Bailey Flanigan series, Learning is an another inspirational read. Again, the series continues with the two main characters, Bailey and Cody, moving on and falling in love with others - but still thinking of what might have been. During the course of dancing on Broadway a tragic event happens and Bailey blames herself for not sharing her faith with a cast member. Cody continues the job of teaching his football team to be more of a family and they make great strides on the field. For Cody and Bailey, it is a season of learning.



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The Orchard

The Orchard by Jeffrey Stepakoff

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A sweet little story about a determined, workaholic woman and a lonely widower who grows the most aromatic apples. World traveler Grace, who lets nothing stop her from chasing down the finest ingredients in perfumes, falls in love with an apple. Into the mountains of Ellijay, Georgia, she follows her nose to an old fashion, chemical free apple orchard where she finds Dylan and persuades him to allow her to set up her instruments and recreate the wonderful apple flavor. Along the way, Dyland and Grace fall in love, but will they lose it when someone from the past appears?





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Burnt Mountain

Burnt Mountain by Anne Rivers Siddons

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Thayer, unlike her genteel Southern mother and older sister is a tomboy through and through, especially when she's in her old hut on the riverbank. She connects more with her beloved father, busy headmaster at a boys' school and her grandmother, the lovely matriarch of the family. Several tragedies occur as she grows from childhood into a beautiful young woman herself and Thayer is betrayed by her mother, especially after an event that changes her life forever. After entering college she falls in love with Aengus, a Irish professor, and they make their home back in Atlanta, near Burnt Mountain. But, as Aengus slips more into his Celtic mythology, Thayer feels she will lose him forever.



I usually love Siddons' way of writing. There are a few authors that can make you hear, smell, and taste the characters and settings. This novel, although I enjoyed most it, seemed to fray near the end and I wasn't quite sure how I felt when I closed the pages of the book. Maybe confused?



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Burnt Mountain

Burnt Mountain by Anne Rivers Siddons

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Thayer, unlike her genteel Southern mother and older sister is a tomboy through and through, especially when she's in her old hut on the riverbank. She connects more with her beloved father, busy headmaster at a boys' school and her grandmother, the lovely matriarch of the family. Several tragedies occur as she grows from childhood into a beautiful young woman herself and Thayer is betrayed by her mother, especially after an event that changes her life forever. After entering college she falls in love with Aengus, a Irish professor, and they make their home back in Atlanta, near Burnt Mountain. But, as Aengus slips more into his Celtic mythology, Thayer feels she will lose him forever.



I usually love Siddons' way of writing. There are a few authors that can make you hear, smell, and taste the characters and settings. This novel, although I enjoyed most it, seemed to fray near the end and I wasn't quite sure how I felt when I closed the pages of the book. Maybe confused?



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Leaving by Karen Kingsbury

Leaving by Karen Kingsbury

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have come to really enjoy Karen Kingsbury's way of making you step back and look at the time of life you are in at the moment, pause to really enjoy and hold the memories dear. We all go through stages in our lives and as the title indicates - this book is all about leaving. Bailey is leaving her childhood behind to audition for a Broadway show and if selected will move to New York City; Cody is leaving for a new job at a high school, farther away from Bailey; Landon is possibly leaving the fire department. Leaving can be a joyous occasion, tempered with fear and tension - or leaving can be devastating and heart-breaking.

The first in the new Bailey Flanigan series, the characters are all familiar, with maybe one or two Kingbury will flesh out in her next book. The only criticism I have is that the Bailey/Cody relationship has been dragged out way too long and needs wrapped up soon.



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Walter Dean Myers

Hearts Aglow & Hope Rekindled

Hearts Aglow by Tracie Peterson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


For book lovers of historical and inspirational romance…

I recently reviewed the first book in this series, Embers of Love, set in the 1880s. The story of the main character, Deborah Vandermark continues with a brutal attack on Sissy - once a slave and now friend of the Vandermark family - and her husband and son. Tension still run deep in this small logging Texan town, not so many years after the War Between the States. With that, hurricanes, arsonists, family responsibilities, and old adversaries threatening to ruin the Vandermarks, Deborah questions her once unwavering faith and her desire to become a physician and wife to Dr. Clayton.

Although the series drags in a few places, and you wonder if Deborah and the Dr. will ever be together, the descriptions of a “genteel” era amidst violence are well written.

Hearts Aglow, Book 2
Hope Rekindled, Book 3
Striking a Match series by Tracie Peterson





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