"Setting Time Free" by Sarah Everest

Each installment in the Untouched serial series is more taut and exciting than the last!

Breaking Triviality was a fun adventure.  Sifting Through Chaos turned serious fast.  And Setting Time Free was so suspenseful that I read the second half of the book in one sitting!

In this third and final installment, modern-day teens Marit and Cas are still trying to help 1940s Dutch teen Anneliese and a few new friends survive in newly occupied Rotterdam.  The Nazis have overrun the city and are an ever-present menace.  Anneliese's new friend Bastiaan and his resistance buddies try to help Marit and Cas find the mysterious locket that could return them to their own time.  But there are enemies on all sides, more even than Marit and Cas really realize.

Even more so than Sifting Through Chaos, this book brought to life the heartbreak and horror of war.  There are on-page deaths and some realistic descriptions of the struggle to find food and remain humane in the midst of scrabbling for survival.

As a whole, this serialized trilogy is a thrilling, suspenseful adventure story for teens that I very much enjoyed.

This book releases on Tuesday, August 11. I was privileged to be selected to read an advance copy from the publisher, but I was not requested or required to review the book; all opinions are my own.

Particularly Good Bits:

It was as though someone had cut a hole in my stomach and pulled everything out, leaving me a hollow cocoon, my butterfly soul having flown off to chase the light of my handsome prince (Marit, chapter four).

It would have been easy to slip back into the fearful girl I had once been, but I was not that girl anymore.  I had walked through the fire and felt the devil nipping at my heels.  And despite all the evil we had witnessed, the words Betje had sent us off with rang true.  The Lord was with us, no matter how dark the night (Annelies, chapter eight).

He had stepped out of the pages of my life as quickly as he had entered them, leaving the story unfinished (Annelies, chapter seventeen).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for wartime violence, including on-page shootings and death.  No cussing or smut.

"Secrets of the Revolution" by Megan Soja

This second book in the Harbor of Spies series by Megan Soja did not disappoint!  It builds upon the first book, Spark of the Revolution, but could also be read as a stand-alone.  (But you do find out how the first book ends, if you care about spoilage.)

This book centers around William Abbott, older brother of the main female character of the first book.  His plans for the future entirely change with the receipt of a single letter, and he wholeheartedly embraces the Patriot cause as a result.  He stays in Boston and becomes a spy.

Along the way, he meets Hannah Pierce, who runs her aging father's apothecary shop.  Not only is she keeping her father's failing health and mind a secret, but she becomes involved in the growing Patriot spy ring as well.

And, of course, William and Hannah fall in love.

I especially enjoyed how many real historical people, places, and events Soja includes in this series.  And I appreciate how the Christian faith of both main characters grew and changed over the course of the book.  I liked book two even better than book one, and I'm glad I'm only halfway through the series, because that means I still have two books to look forward to!

Particularly Good Bits:

Silence hovered between them, begging to be filled (p. 29).

"Perhaps many memories hold a touch of the bittersweet, but I believe that makes them all the more precious.  They remind us of the experiences that shaped us.  And in recognizing how fleeting and fragile life is, they spur us on to fully live each day that God gives us" (p. 91).

It was not a failure to close one chapter of her life and begin another (p. 276).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for sweet romance including lightly described kisses, plus some descriptions of mild violence.  No cussing or smut.

This has been my 7th book read for my #RevolutionaryWarReads challenge!

"Sifting Through Chaos" by Sarah Everest

Book two in the Untouched series picks right up where book one (Breaking Triviality) left off.  That's a great thing about a serialized series -- you aren't left wondering what happened between books!  I appreciate that.

In Sifting Through Chaos, modern-day teens Marit and Cas have time-traveled back to 1940s Rotterdam right when the Nazis were overrunning the Netherlands.  They meet Annelies and her family (who were in the split-time first book too) and work together to escape the bombings and take shelter at the family's farm cottage outside the city.  But that cottage isn't meant for living in, and they must find another solution.  

Along the way, they've acquired an elderly woman and an orphaned toddler to care for as well.  That gives Sifting Through Chaos some found-family elements, which I always appreciate.  The bulk of the book is about figuring out how to keep these people safe while also searching for a way to get Marit and Cas back to their own time.

Marit has had a crush on Cas for years, and she finds her feelings growing deeper as she gets to know him.  Cas has a girlfriend back home in their own time, but they have been drifting apart for a long time, and he begins to wonder if he should break things off with her if/when they return to the present.  This is partly because he is developing feelings for Marit, but also because he realizes his girlfriend is not someone he wants to spend the rest of his life with.  Meanwhile, Annelies realizes she is falling for her knew Dutch soldier friend Bastiaan.  All of this is handled with believable teenage emotions and ways of thinking.

Sifting Through Chaos doesn't end on quite as much of a cliffhanger as Breaking Triviality did, but it definitely makes me eager to read book three, Setting Time Free, which will release in August.

This book releases next Tuesday, July 14. I was privileged to be selected to read an advance copy from the publisher, but I was not requested or required to review the book; all opinions are my own.

Particularly Good Bits:

So many crushed dreams were scattered around my feet (Cas, chapter nine).

...there was just no right way to tell a three-year-old phoenix she would rise from the ashes and become the best, warmest, most understanding grandma a girl could ever ask for (Marit, chapter twenty-one).

Tears of defeat threatened to overflow, but a surprising defiance welled up inside me.  I wouldn't give the enemy the pleasure of stealing my hope (Annelies, chapter twenty-eight).

My entire world had been shuffled into ruin and nightmares (Annelies, chapter thirty).

Minutes ticked by to the steady rhythm of our feet (Cas, chapter thirty-five).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for wartime violence and an incident where a German soldier attempts to haul away a teenage girl and rape her (the word 'rape' is not used, but his intentions are clear, as is her growing fear of what could happen).  No gore, no bad language, and no smut.  

"Honeysuckle Breeze" by B. R. Goodwin

Do you read multiple books at once?

If you do, does that ever cause you to finish two or three books about the same time?  And does that then cause you to develop a giant backlog of books you need to review, usually right when you have almost zero time to blog?

Or is it just me?

Anyway.  I swear it was still springtime at our house when I read Honeysuckle Breeze, the springtime book in the Sugartree Romance series by B. R. Goodwin.  It was May.  I finished this book a little over two weeks ago.  And two others at the same time, and two more right after that, and and and... I'm catching up at last, but yeah, it's kind of been a struggle.

About the book!  It's really cute and funny... but also drove me a little nuts in the middle because the main characters were avoiding talking to each other instead of just saying, "Hey, what is going on with you?  I am confused" like... well, I was going to say "like adults," but what I actually mean is "like I wanted them to."  However, I am particularly allergic to the miscommunication/non-communication trope, so that probably won't bother other people.

Honeysuckle Breeze picks up shortly after the end of Southern Snow, but focuses on a different Remillard sibling.  And a different Lovett sibling.  This time, it's Kindergarten teacher Caroline who is trying to figure out her complicated feelings for Griffin, who was her best-friend-with-flirting-benefits until they kissed each other at Christmas, and now he is ghosting her entirely... and then suddenly returning to her life and turning it upside down.  I do love second chance romances, so this book was overall a hit for me :-)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for discussions of single-parenting and the decisions that led to that, lots of flirty banter, lots of thinking about being attracted to another person, and some lightly described kisses.  No smut, no cussing, no violence.

"Of Pastries and Vengeance" by Amber Lambda and Lydia Mae

Another great addition to the Games of Greed and Ruin series!  Of Pastries and Vengeance focuses on one character from the first book, One Must Die, plus adds a new character, while also expanding the world in which the series is set.

If you read One Must Die, you probably remember Maple, the sweet baker whose peach scones gained her several friends, though they didn't convince quite everyone in the deadly Sky Manor game that she was a good person. As I recall, several people were sure she was not as pure and uncomplicated as she wanted to appear.

And they were right.  Maple has a big secret: she may bake delicious cinnamon rolls and peach scones and other bakery delights now, but she was once a notorious and feared member of the city's underground no-holds-barred prize fighting circles.  Not only that, but she believes her father was murdered during one of those illegal fights.

Maple meets Rory Evander, a brand-new law enforcement officer who is intent on capturing a killer.  No matter who that killer may be.  Rory and Maple team up, albeit with reluctance on both their parts, and begin hunting for clues.  And start to develop feelings for each other in the process, as you might expect.

Since I love a good murder mystery, I really enjoyed this.  There were enough surprises to keep me guessing and enough clues to keep me satisfied.  I look forward to seeing where these two characters end up in the next book.

Like the other books in this series, this is Christian fiction, though the Christian themes are maybe a bit less overt in this than in some of the books.

This book WILL make you hungry...

Particularly Good Bits:

I cringed.  This guy was going to stick out like a burnt tea biscuit (p. 31).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for scenes of hand-to-hand violence and non-gory descriptions of murder.  No smut and no cussing.

"Breaking Triviality" by Sarah Everest

Are you fascinated by abandoned places?  I know many people are, including me.  I love looking at photos of them online, and even have several coffee table books about specific kinds of abandoned places, such as Old West ghost towns.  But I've never had the temerity (or good opportunity) to explore inside abandoned places... except one.  Which I'll share photos of at the end of this post.

Three of the characters in Breaking Triviality by Sarah Everest are "urban explorers" -- they like to explore abandoned buildings.  While some people enter abandoned places because they want to hide a criminal activity, or because they want to deface someone else's property with spray paint or whatever, urban explorers are different.  They're usually motivated by curiosity about the past, or by the thrill of seeing places that are rarely entered by others, or simply by the desire to explore.  

Marit and Zander's parents encourage their teens to plan adventures.  For Marti's 17th birthday, their parents let her plan a trip to the Netherlands to meet a famous urban explorer called Cas so he can show them around some amazing ruins in Rotterdam.  Marit and Zander have Dutch heritage, so they are eager to learn more about the land of their forebears.  Plus, Marit has had a crush on Cas for a long time, thanks to his YouTube videos.

That's what half of the book is about, because this is a split-time novel.  The other half is about a Dutch teen named Annelies who lives in Rotterdam in 1940, right when the Nazis are first occupying the Netherlands.  We get to see her living in and visiting buildings that, in the present day, those urban explorers are wandering around as abandoned spaces.  Annelies's mother has died, her father is at a loss as to how to deal with the invasion, and her brother is angry about everything, but especially about not being allowed to join the Dutch military.  Some Dutch soldiers are quartered in their large home, and Annelies makes friends with one of them, bonding over a dangerous situation he helps her with.

And, at the very end of the book, time travel enters the picture.  I quite enjoy time travel stories, so I am excited to see what happens to these teens next, in both eras!  Sarah Everest draws realistic teens who are more than halfway to adulthood but still sometimes do heedless or immature things, like all the real teens I know.  The urge to show off for someone you have a crush on, the inner conflict between trying to find out if someone likes you and not wanting to know just in case you'll get rejected, the desire to be seen as capable and mature even when you're not sure if you're either one -- those all made these teens feel very real and likeable.

Also, I'm half Dutch, so I really loved all the Dutch words, food, and history woven into the book!

This is the first book in a trilogy of Christian YA novellas, and it releases next week, June 16.  I was privileged to be selected to read an advance copy from the publisher, but I was not requested or required to review the book; all opinions are my own.

Particularly Good Bits:

But for some reason -- only understood by every single girl who has ever met their semi-celebrity crush in person and been one hundred percent overwhelmed by how exactly he met every expectation -- I couldn't make my mouth form words. (Marit, chapter one)

A shiver zipped through my body, but it was the good type, like when a song is so entirely right on every level that the hairs on my arms stand on end. (Marit, chapter six)

For the life of me, I had no idea how, in one day's time, I'd gone from being a politely behaved young lady to sneaking out of my house without permission during a war, making friends with the neighborhood witch, aiding an enemy soldier, and flirting with a young man I barely knew.  (Annelies, chapter twelve)

Her cool palm reminded me of an old saying of my oma's about how cold hands represent a warm heart. (Annelies, chapter nineteen)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-10 for some scary wartime scenes, light descriptions of a wartime wound, and a tense chase scene.

Now, about that ruin I have explored!  It's called the Chapman-Beverley Mill, and it stands beside a highway at the edge of my county here in Virginia.  It was a grist mill built in 1742, and it ground grain to make flour for the US Army for every war from the American Revolution on through Desert Storm... and then some villainous villain set fire to it in 1998 and burnt the whole thing down.  Except its stone exterior.

The mill site is currently closed to visitors because they are doing some stabilization and restoration to the structure, but we have visited it a couple of times, years ago, when it was open and you could just wander around inside the mill, plus a couple of outbuildings.  (How long ago?  Well, the two little tykes you see in the above photo are now 14 and 16...)

It's so amazing to see this piece of history in person, even though knowing that it could still be operational and useful breaks my heart.  

I don't have lots of photos from this that don't show my kids' faces, but here's one -- I'm stepping in through that doorway where you can see my husband standing in the second photo, and he and two of our kiddos are already inside.  

Obviously, we weren't exactly doing "urban exploring" because this place was open for people to check out when we went there, with a parking lot and signs explaining the history of the mill, what different buildings and objects were used for, and so on.  But it's the closest I've come.

"A Name to Remember" by Hannah Hood Lucero

This is my first Hannah Hood Lucero book, but it definitely will not be my last!  Wow.  I get the hype now, fam.

Compelling and befriend-able characters?

Check.

Alluring North Carolina small town setting?

Check.

Horses?

Check.

High, yet believable, stakes?

Check.

Suspenseful climax?

Check.

Made me cry multiple times for happy and poignant reasons both?

Check.

Made me laugh aloud?

Check.

Yup, I'm a fan :-D

(I've actually met Hannah, and she is a whimsically maniacal delight to hang out with, so I was already a fan of her as a person before this, but now I am a fan of her writing as well...)

High school senior Isobel Lee gets recognized everywhere she goes, but not for a happy or fun reason: her Army medic dad recently died in combat overseas, and strangers and acquaintances alike all want to either thank her for her family's sacrifice or tell her all the reasons they disagree with American military operations like the one that killed her dad.

Isobel and her mom move in with her grandmother in a small North Carolina town.  Gran owns horses and is a sass-master extraordinaire, but also sweet and kind and warm and everything a grandma should be.  

Her first day at her new high school, Isobel makes friends with Hank Olsen, though she doesn't realize who he is when she befriends him.

Hank Olsen is also famous in their small town, but not for good reasons either.  His dad went to prison for murder and his mom is a druggie, and Hank is considered to be trailer trash just like his parents.  But that's not what Isobel doesn't realize about him -- she doesn't realize at first that he is the sweet boy she got an instant crush on five years earlier, when she and her parents were visiting Gran one summer.

Isobel and Hank both feel sparkage toward each other, but they first build a solid friendship before moving on to holding hands and kissing and inviting all the warm fuzzies of young love into their lives.  They both have some emotional issues to grapple with, and some real-world problems as well.

This small NC town is plagued with fires every winter, and the fires all seem linked to Hank somehow.  Most of the town suspects he's a firebug, and when new fires break out, soon there are people calling for his arrest or banishment or both.

Man, this book was so good!  I inhaled it in just a few days, and now I want to read Lucero's book Cathey's Creek Road, which is also YA and also set in the same basic area.  In fact, I ordered a copy as soon as I finished A Name to Remember, so it should be hitting my doorstep pretty soon!

One quick theological note: there's definitely some decision-based theology in this book, which some of my readers will want to be aware of.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for violence, portrayal of mental illness in teens (including self-harm and violence toward others), mentions of military violence and PTSD, and romantic yearning between teens that acknowledges temptation/desire to do more than kiss.  No cussing; no smut; no gory violence.

"Spark of the Revolution" by Megan Soja

What a lovely book!

Spark of the Revolution follows a young British woman named Patience who arrives in Colonial Boston in 1773, escorted by her brother William.  Their mother has died, and Patience is eager to be reunited with her father, who has been living in Boston ever since an injury meant he was unable to continue making his livelihood at sea.

Patience is shocked to discover that her father has remarried already, and now she has a stepsister as well as a stepmother.  She struggles especially much because she was hoping that she and her father could grow closer as they grieved for her mother and adjusted to their new life together, but now he has already moved on and seems to not be interested in getting to know her better.

Will finds work at a Boston printing office and makes friends with some young men who are secretly part of the Sons of Liberty organization leading the boycott of Britain's taxes on tea and so on.  One of his new friends is Josiah, a blacksmith who catches Patience's eye as well.  Josiah is struggling with his Christian faith and with loneliness.  Will and Patience bring friendship and eventually love into his life, and Josiah grows and changes the most of anyone over the course of the book.

While there is a romance central to this book, the themes of sibling friendship and family love are basically just as strong as the romance, and I loved that.  The historical details of pre-Revolutionary Boston are fantastic, and "seeing" the Boston Tea Party happen made me bounce with joy.  The writing is fluid and enjoyable, and the characters are delightfully believable and real-feeling.  I'm so glad there are two more books out in this series already, and a fourth coming before the end of the year!

Particularly Good Bits:

But it had been a decade since she'd spent more than a handful of months at a time in her father's company, and nearly three years since she had seen him at all.  Not enough time to plant any new memories in the garden of her heart (p. 22).

The whole of Boston seemed poised and tense, like a barn cat crouching low and steady, barely twitching her tail before she pounced on her prey (p. 138).

"Each day is one the Lord has made, a gift from Him that we give back by living in obedience and trust.  To know tomorrow is His place, not ours" (p. 185).

Mama would forever be a part of her, woven tightly into the fabric of Patience's life, and as time passed and the sharpness of the pain dulled, the joy of those memories grew and flourished (p. 295).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for some discussions of violence, though it is pretty well kept off-page.  No cussing; no smut.

This has been my third book read from my #RevolutionaryWarReads list!

"Hours We Regret" by Chelsea Michelle

This was a fun mystery novella :-)  It's kind of a prequel to the Watson Twins mystery series, and I haven't read any other books in this Christian fiction series yet, so I can tell you it works great as an introduction, too.  You don't need to know the characters already.

Twins Chelsea and Michelle Watson live together in a small town.  Michelle is obsessed with trying to find a pattern in a string of recent serial killings not too far from where they live.  Chelsea thinks this is unhealthy.  

When Michelle breaks up with her boyfriend, she takes off into the Appalachians to find some peace and quiet.  When Chelsea can't reach Michelle by phone, she panics.  Has Michelle fallen victim to the serial killer?  Or, has she gone searching for the serial killer?

This is never super-suspenseful, but it does get pretty tense for a few chapters.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for scary situations involving memory loss, disorientation, and possible abduction.  No cuss words, no smut, no gory violence.

Top Ten Tuesday: Coming Attractions

The Top Ten Tuesday prompt this week from That Artsy Reader Girl is "Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2026."  Here are ten fifteen books I know are coming between January and June that I am interested in!  

Some of them are from traditional publishers, some are from small presses, and some are indie.  Some have release dates, and some don't.  Some are from authors I have read many things by, and some are new to me.  Also, some I can find cover art for, and some I can't.  For the books that have Amazon pages already, I've linked the titles to those.

Scars of the Revolution by Megan Soja (January 6) -- Christian historical fiction, American Revolution, book 3 in a series

Calculated Risk by Tara Grace Ericson (January 12) -- Christian romantic suspense, contemporary, book 5 in a series

Forged in Shadows by Kendra Warden (January 12) -- Christian romantic suspense, contemporary, book 4 in a series

Assassins Rise by Candice Pedraza Yamnitz (January 13) -- young adult, Christian fantasy, three-book omnibus

The Candy Touch by Donna Marie Tyree (January 13) -- early chapter book, Christian junior fiction, fantasy, book 1 in a series

On Living Stone by Heather Kaufman (January 20) -- Christian historical fiction, biblical fiction, book 3 in a series

Braving Fiery Waters by Sarah Hanks (January 21) -- Christian time travel fiction, dual timeline, book 2 in a series

Head over Wheels by B. R. Goodwin (February 2) -- Christian romance, contemporary, book 2 in a series

Even if We Last by Molly Barlowe (February 17) -- Christian romance, contemporary, book 3 in a series

The Songbird by Carrie Cotten (March 3) -- Christian historical fiction, medieval setting, book 5 in a series

Ashes to Ashes by Hannah Hood Lucero (Spring) -- Christian suspense

Miley's Guide to Being Popular by Alyssa Casanova (Spring) -- Christian middle grade fiction

Skeletons We Find by Chelsea Michelle [A. M. Heath, and Amanda Tero] (Spring) -- Christian cozy mystery, part of a series

More than Fine by Kim Griffin (June) -- Christian romantic fiction

Sani: The German Medic by Aubrey Reiss Taylor (June) -- Christian historical fiction

I am finishing this very late at night, so probably won't get to other people's TTT lists until tomorrow.  If you do happen to see this -- are any of these books on your list?  Have you read other books by these authors?

"Southern Snow" by B. R. Goodwin

This is a really enjoyable Christian romcom.  Georgia is a capable and believable modern woman, trying to juggle caring for her aging parents with running the family business and being a good older sister to her siblings, but with little time for her own growth.  Enter Lakeland, the bad boy she almost dated in high school, who may or may not have become a good guy.  Sparks of all sorts fly, of course.

I am not always a fan of dual timeline stories, but that writing device worked very well here.  I liked that we got to see how everything built up and then fell apart between Georgia and Lakeland, but in little pieces here and there, not all info-dumped at once.  

I look forward to reading the other books in the Sugartree series by B. R. Goodwin -- and I'll probably try to read them during the seasons when they take place, like I did with this Christmastime book.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for discussions of drug use, lots of thinking about being attracted to a guy, and some lightly described kisses.

"Hear the Falling Snow" by Storm Shultz

I read Hear the Falling Snow by Storm Shultz in tiny little nibbles over the course of three weeks.  The plot involves a lot of delicious Christmas baking, and the book as a whole felt like some kind of rich and comforting and nourishing food -- like homemade chicken soup or something.

The main character, Adeline, is grieving for her mother.  Her sisters pay for her to go to a month-long Christmas baking seminar-and-retreat at a fancy mansion.  The baking classes are taught by a celebrity chef.  There's an assortment of quirky and lovely side characters also taking the classes.  And there's a handsome, sweet, single groundskeeper named Luke who seems like a perfect match for Adeline.

If only he wasn't planning to move to Turkey to become a missionary.  In January.

But if there weren't any problems to overcome, there'd be no plot, right?

One of the things that made this a perfect book for me to read this particular year is that Adeline is a ballet dancer.  She performed professionally for years, and now she teaches ballet.  There are references all through the book too The Nutcracker... and my teenage ballerina was in her own first production of The Nutcracker this year!  So that felt especially timely.

Also, I love to bake.  There are recipes at the end of the book, and I am totally going to try some of them!

Also, both Adeline and Luke genuinely enjoyed snow, and I love snow myself, so that made me like them both a lot.

I love how Storm Shultz always writes characters that feel like I could meet them myself somewhere, like they're real people living in the real world.  They're not just relatable, they're realistic in their ordinariness.  Their problems feel normal and real and understandable.  

Finally, since I am still grieving my dad's death a little over a year ago, Adeline's storyline held extra poignancy for me.

Particularly Good Bits:

This is the worst part about grieving.  Grief hits you smack in the face anytime, anywhere.  It doesn't matter if you're eating heavenly bread or if you're driving down the road.  Grief does not care.

Why are you flirting?  You just had an existential crisis in the bathroom!  Stop flirting!

Here I am at forty-one, still needing Dad for advice and guidance.  Then again, any good dad will always be needed -- no matter the age of his children.

"Oh, and what did Mom always say?"
"Wash your nose and stay away from raccoons?"
"No, the other thing."  Lissy snickers.

I smile because I know exactly what she's talking about.  "God is good.  No matter what."

I don't want to be the person who sits around and misses the life she could have had.  I want to be the person who gives a toast about how she sees hope for the future, loves her present, and doesn't regret the past.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  G.  Good, clean, wholesome.  No smut, only semi-described kisses.  No violence, no gore, no cussing.

"The Silent Night" by Sarah Beran

This is EXACTLY the level of romanceyness that I like in a book.  We did not spend several sentences every chapter or two rhapsodizing over what it might be like to kiss the love interest.  No one stared at the other person's lips.  No one daydreamed about touching their love interest's velvety skin or running a hand through their hair.  The main characters fell in love via letters.  Theirs was absolutely a slow-burn, friends-to-more story, and I am HERE FOR IT.

The Silent Night is a Sleeping Beauty retelling, plus a Santa Claus origin story, and you had better believe I am also very much here for a romance between Sleeping Beauty and Santa Claus.  Though they're named Princess Holly and Dominic Klause here, and Dominic has sled dogs instead of a sleigh with reindeer.  Every chapter has a snippet of "The Night Before Christmas" as a header, and I loved how those got worked into the story.

Particularly Good Bits:

Take a look around you and see what there is that you can do in small ways... Can you offer encouragement or a kind smile?  Find the ways that you can serve, and do them.  You may not be able to change the financial and economic state of the kingdom, but you can do something even more powerful: You can bring hope and love (p. 74).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G.  It's clean, it's bright, it's lovely.  No smut, gore, violence, cussing, or anything else objectionable.

"Of Masquerades and Fame" by Candice Pedraza Yamnitz and Claire Kohler

Book three in the Games of Greed and Ruin series does not disappoint!

Of Masquerades and Fame picks up the story of two contestants from One Must Die, Camilla and Rupert.  After surviving the deathly games of the first book, Camilla has vowed to change her ways.  She no longer makes and sells poisons, but has a legitimate (if boring) job.  She and Rupert are tentatively heading toward getting engaged, but Camilla is worried that Rupert will feel ashamed for not being able to support a wife, and she thinks he might do something desperate to change his fortunes.  So she does something desperate instead:  she accepts an invitation to a masquerade ball from a man she knows is evil and wants to manipulate her into poisoning someone.

Meanwhile, Rupert has a big and important secret that he is hesitant to share with Camilla.  He worries that if she finds out he's not actually poor anymore, she'll only agree to marry him to get at his money.  He has to learn to trust her before he can propose -- and he is so far from trusting her, he's having her followed and all her activity reported on.

Both Camilla and Rupert have a lot of growing up to do over the course of this short book.  The bulk of the book takes place all in a single night, during the masquerade ball.  The story has lots of disguises and masks and secrets, a dangerous hedge maze, and a very stunning conclusion that left me eager for the next book in the series.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-10 for some violent deaths (lightly described), lots of danger, and a scary hedge maze sequence.

"Comets Fade with Summer" by Amber Lambda

I didn't know quite what to expect from this book.  A teenage girl is falling in love with her imaginary best friend?  What?  I got it as a gift from a friend who was confident I would like it, and they were right!  I did.

Halley has to move to California right before she starts the next year of high school.  She'd worked so hard to fit in with the coolest girls in her old high school, and now she has to start all over... but how?  She's not actually cool herself, she's just really good at blending in and pretending she likes all the things the cool kids do.

Someone unexpected greets Halley when she gets to her new home: West, her childhood imaginary friend.  He's sixteen now too, and a compelling mixture of sweet, kind, supportive, and hot.  How is Halley supposed to resist West?  Too bad he only exists in her imagination, even if he seems extremely real to her.

This whole book reminded me a lot of a line from the 1995 movie Sabrina:  "Illusions are dangerous people.  They have no flaws."  West is everything Halley wants... because she made him up.  His only flaw is that he doesn't really exist, and he'll slowly fade when Halley makes some real friends.

The message in this book is really good: don't hide who you are in order to attract friends or significant others.  The middle section of it started to drag for me after a while, as Halley made unfortunate choice after unfortunate choice, but the pacing picked back up again at the end.

The last two chapters had me crying so much, I went through several Kleenex.  I had some very dear imaginary friends when I was a kid and a teen, and I brought a couple of them with me into adulthood.  (But I never fell in love with any of them, whew.)  The thought of having no choice about whether or not I could keep them was pretty devastating, so probably a lot of readers wouldn't be bawling like I was.

Particularly Good Bits: 

"Isn't it better to stick to the people and the things that make you shine brighter?  You don't have to fade away to find a place to fit in, Halley" (p. 29).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for scenes with teenage boys making girls feel uncomfortable, lightly described kissing, mention of teen make-out sessions, and a LOT of physical attraction to the opposite sex.  It is maybe a little more romantic than I would let my teen daughters read just yet, and they are 13 and 15.

"Shadows of the Valley" by Britt Howard

I have been looking forward to this book for months and months!  I very much enjoyed the first McCade Family Novel, Song of the Valley, when I read that a couple of years ago, but I liked Shadows of the Valley even more!

This is a suspenseful story with a modern western setting and a slow-burn romance. Kasey Carter is a retired military veteran who has suffered severe wounds, both physical, emotional, and spiritual.  When her younger half-sister begs Kasey to hide and protect her children for a while, Kasey agrees, but reluctantly.  She ends up guarding them in a remote cabin in the Montana mountains near the small town of Cascade Valley.  There, she encounters Dean McCade, a local rancher who senses she's guarding more than a few secrets and tries repeatedly to help her. 

This book is a lot more serious than the first book in Britt Howard's McCade Family series, but it features the same beautiful scenery, courageous and compassionate McCade family members, and a message that real answers and truth can be found only in Christ Jesus.  

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for mentions of spousal abuse, memories of military violence and trauma, small children being put in danger, and some violence on-page.  No cussing, no smut, and no gore.

"Of Clockworks and Daggers" by Sarah Everest

This is the second book in the Games of Greed and Ruin series -- the first was One Must Die, which Sarah Everest co-wrote with five other authors.

Of Clockworks and Daggers follows the adventures of Zenith, a young assassin-for-hire whose beliefs about his entire existence are challenged when he meets a mysterious fellow assassin who has a dangerous offer for him.  Zenith has been trying to live an honest life ever since the events at the mysterious sky mansion in One Must Die.  He's also been trying to help support the orphanage run the Jessie, the young woman he is falling in love with.  But he gets sucked back into his old life, and more is jeopardized than just his relationship with Jessie. 

This book ponders some pretty deep issues, like being the adult child of abusive parents, how to deal with the wrong in your past when you want to change for the better, and personal sacrifices big and small. It starts a little slowly, but builds to a really thrilling climax.

I really like the steampunk world of this series, a sort of Dickens-meets-H.G. Wells vibe with some fantasy twists here and there.  I'm looking forward to more of this series, including the next book, which drops in October!  

Particularly Good Bits:

Something about the pretentiousness of lawyers who live a life bending the law to fit the needs of their benefactors makes them believe they're untouchable.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for some violence, memories of child abuse, thieving, and a scary sequence involving fire.

"The Grump's Bodyguard" by Latisha Sexton

You know how I like plot-driven romances, but I'm not a fan of romance-driven plots?  This is definitely one of the former.  

Clover's parents are famous movie-makers, and she moved to Colorado to get away from their glitzy, hectic Hollywood life.  She's a book editor, she battles anxiety, and she just wants to be left alone.  But when someone from her parents' life has a mental break and comes after Clover, the quiet and safe life she's built for herself is shattered.  She agrees to let her parents hire a bodyguarding service to protect her until the danger is past.  

Enter Thor, ex-military bodyguard built like a movie star and scarred inside and out from his past.  Obviously, Thor and Clover are going to fall in love.  I think the thing I liked best about the whole book was how staunchly they refused to act on their growing feelings while Thor is her bodyguard, since a romantic relationship would be completely inappropriate at that time.  

This is a clean and sweet Christian romance.  You can't even call it "closed door" because Clover and Thor don't seek a sexual relationship with each other, but instead choose to date chastely while considering marriage.  There's a lot of yearning and desire expressed on-page, but never in a steamy way that could lead a reader astray.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for danger, lots of noticing physical attractiveness, and one night accidentally spent together (in which it is very clear that the couple never even made out, much less made love).  Probably fine for older teens.

"Forget Me Knot" by B. R. Goodwin

Sometimes, when I have a very busy and stressful week or so, I want to read something short, bright, and perky.  This past week was overstuffed, and so I read Forget Me Knot because I knew it would make me smile and keep me interested, but not stress me out by being really suspenseful or anything.  It delivered everything I wanted: nice characters I'd like to be friends with, a cute little town I'd like to live in, and a sweet-but-not-sappy romance.  

There aren't a lot of authors that can get me really invested in a book that has a romance-driven plot, simply because I prefer plot-driven romances, on a whole.  B. R. Goodwin pulls it off handily, and I totally trust her to strike the right balance between romantic and realistic.

Forget Me Knot is about a young woman named Dinah who moves to a small Georgia town to be closer to her widowed sister and niece.  Dinah opens a pretzel shop and starts to fall for Jack, the guy who owns and operates a flower shop next door.  But Jack has a very complicated life because he has (SPOILER ALERT!!!) a split personality thanks to a traumatic head injury.  B. R. Goodwin doesn't offer any simplistic or unrealistic solutions to the inherent difficulties that presents, and I really appreciated her balanced and open-eyed look at that.

Particularly Good Bits:

Sometimes, when someone grieves, just allowing them to talk about their loved ones in their own time is the best offering (p. 61).

"No, Dinah, it sucks.  It's okay to say it sucks.  Grief isn't measured with time.  There aren't rules for how long you're permitted to miss someone, and pretending that you don't will only hurt more in the end" (p. 170).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-16 for a LOT of gushing about how attractive a man is, women talking about their ovaries reacting to a man, some kissing and caressing, and just generally being more romantic than a younger teen is going to enjoy anyway.  Nothing smutty -- you can't even call it "closed-door" because Dinah and Jacks are both committed to waiting for marriage before having sex.  But I also wouldn't hand this to my young teen daughters.

"Crack the Stone" by Emily Golus

Prepare yourself for something very shocking.

I like this retelling of Les Miserables better than the original book by Victor Hugo.

Don't get me wrong -- I LOVE the story of Jean Valjean.  But, you may recall, Hugo's book wearied me when I reread it a couple years ago.  The endless digressions, specifically.  

So I loved how Emily Golus kept her book's focus on the main character in this retelling.  Valshara was a condemned goblin who makes a miraculous escape from her captors and ends up caring for a human child and learning what love, kindness, sacrifice, and truth mean during her ensuing adventures.  And we don't wander off to make sarcastic jokes about famous rich people no one knows about, or rhapsodize on the true meaning of loyalty, etc. 

And I loved the giant elephant.  Very much.

Particularly Good Bits:

For the first time since I could remember, I could rest.  But I didn't remember how (p. 14).

Such is the power of love.  It's that small, trivial thing that the powerful sneer at and the selfish keep at bay.  But allowed its course it will topple evil, transform cities, melt stone hearts, and bring the dead -- like me -- back to life.  No water can quench love, and no river can sweep it away.  For does not the universe itself run on Love? (p. 229).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for violence, scenes of peril, and child abandonment.