All Things Hidden

All Things Hidden by Tracie Peterson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gwyn and her strong, steadfast father, a doctor, are the only medical personnel in their small, remote Alaskan valley and beyond. They were summoned to help with the colonization of 200 families in the Matanuska Valley which would bring relief to the American people and settlement to Alaska. The decision had been made by President Roosevelt on January 15 and the families would arrive by May. Gwyn feared change, due to her mother walking out on the family while she was still small, and had trouble trusting that God would meet her every need because of this. Her misgivings had a ring of truth to it - how could 200 families be sent to Alaska and enough food and shelter be in place within several months - before the long, grueling Alaskan winters hit?

Although many of the characters and happenings in the novel are fiction there are facts and historical details included. A wonderful book about trust, faith, loss, and the strength of pioneering families.

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Harbor of the Heart

Harbor of the Heart by Katherine Spencer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

5th in the Angel Island series, Harbor of the Heart continues the storyline between inn owner Liza Martin and carpenter/EMT Daniel Merritt. With summer approaching Daniel is considering taking his board exams over to return to the medical field but it means a season away from Liza and the inn. Plus, it means facing and overcoming his old fears. Meanwhile as he and Liza consider the cost to their relationship, a small white sailboat flounders off the shore near the inn and the sailor is thrown into the churning water, nearly drowning - if not for Daniel's quick reactions, with Liza and Claire's help. Who is this sailor that reportedly has no family except for a huge friend named Edison?

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Fired Up

Fired Up by Mary Connealy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book two in the Trouble in Texas series starts off fast. Glynna and her two children are smack dab in the middle of moving from the ranch that her ex-husband had stolen from Luke Stone. As she and Luke's Regulator friends travel through the narrow cut, boulders avalanche down from the hill, narrowly missing them but Doc Dare Riker suffers from a deep gash to his back. When they finally arrive in town, Glynna decides to open a diner in one of the empty storefronts and surprising does an amazing business, even if she can't cook and burns everything she makes. Dare in the meantime has healed from the rockslide incident but encounters more things that threaten his life - his home is torched while he's sleeping and Dare is leery of Glynna's cooking although it sends many men with upset stomachs to his doctoring business. The tension is strong between Glynna and Dare, as she and her children do not want another man in their life that could possibly hurt them again but she can't help being drawn to the honest, heroic doctor.

Themes are forgiveness, faith in what God has called you to do, honesty, and loyalty. You'll giggle at some of the antics including Glynna's cooking skills. The third book in the series will involve Regulator/lawyer, Vince Yates and new-to-town Tina Cahill, Jonas's sister.

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The Touch

The Touch by Randall Wallace

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Jones has an amazing gift - he has the touch - hands for surgery and saving people. He also has fallen in love with Faith, a woman who lives up to her name and who inspires Jones. When both are involved in a tragic accident on the way to their clinic in the mountains - Jones hangs up his own personal surgical instruments and teaches his fellow doctors to use their hands instead. At the same time a young woman named Lara Blair, who owns a biomedical engineering company, has been searching for a surgeon to operate the special tool she has designed to save lives. Jones, when discovered by Lara's team, wants nothing to do with surgery again and instead shows Lara the clinic in the Blue Ridge Mountains and the people who desperately need doctoring. When Jones also tells of Faith's anonymous acts of love, Lara begins to understand and believe in the selflessness and freedom of such an action.

An amazing novel of faith, belief, and the inner goodness of men. This author/producer/director is also the screenwriter of Braveheart and We Were Soldiers.



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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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Embers of Love

Embers of Love by Tracie Peterson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The book begins with Deborah Vandermark helping her best friend, Lizzie, ditch her betrothed at the altar in Philadelphia, hop a train and flee to the Vandermark home in the backwoods of Texas. Back home, she begins to help with the family logging business by cleaning up the bookwork and assisting the new doctor in town. When Lizzie's suffragette mother and ex-fiance appear out of the blue to take her home, Deborah's entire family, especially her brother, G.W, work together to keep Lizzie in Texas. Deborah finds out that bookkeeping isn't as interesting as doctoring.


Book 1 in the Striking a Match series.
Historical fiction mixed with romance and inspiration.



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