The Pink Bonnet: True Colors: Historical Stories of American Crime by Liz Tolsma

     I requested to read and review The Pink Bonnet by Liz Tolsma through Netgalley and Barbour Books. I had read the first in the series and was interested in reading more. This is a series of historical crimes in America. Each book, so far, is a different author. I have never read anything by Liz Tolsma, but I enjoyed the story. I give the book a 5 star out of a 5-star review.
     The book is classified as historical fiction. It is based on a true story or event. In my opinion, it is loosely Christian. It is a nice, clean book. The main character does pray and at the end, it was more evident it was a Christian book. It is not preachy in any way. Even if you don't want Christian and like historical, you will enjoy this book.
     The book is well written and the editing was well done. It was an advanced reader copy and the conversion to Kindle was a bit off, but I think this will be addressed. The characters are well developed and you get a feeling of what it would be like to meet them. The story flowed well and in some areas, the suspense was built up nicely.
     The ending was not what I expected but had to be that way to stay true to history. I recommend this book.

The Heart of a King by Jill Eileen Smith

I received this book as part of the Revell Reads blog tour. I chose to be a part of this and my review is my own opinion.

I truly enjoyed this book. Jill Eileen Smith does research into the Bible and history and it shows. This is a fictional book based on her research and opinion of what King Solomon might have been like and what his life may have been like as an adult.

The characters are very believable and the background of the story is well written. You feel like you could be reading an autobiography, it is that realistic in my opinion.

The story flowed well and it was very well edited. The grammar and punctuation were done well and it did not detract from the book at all. That is a very important element, in my opinion on my enjoyment of a book.

I give this book 5 stars out of 5. I would recommend it to my friends.

No Ocean Too Wide by Carrie Turansky

No Ocean Too Wide by Carrie Turansky is a very interesting book. I requested to read and review this book through Netgalley.com. I give it 4 stars out of 5. The reason I only give it 4 stars is I felt it could have ended better, even though it is the first book in a new series.  Another reason for a missing star is that at times it got too rambling and things were repeated especially towards the end of the book.

Overall, I did enjoy the book. It is a Christan, historical fiction book. It is not a preachy book, but it does show people using their beliefs in a nice way. I was drawn to this book as my great grandfather was put in an orphanage in England by his father in the late 1800s after the death of his mother.

This book looks at how orphanages worked in the late 1800s until the early 1900s. It is not a preachy kind of book and it is not condemning nor praising how the system worked.

The main characters were fairly well developed and believable. The story was also believable. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Even though this was an advanced reader copy, the editing was very well done. I appreciate that in a book.

I would recommend this book to my friends.

Summer by the Tides by Denise Hunter

I asked to read and review this book through Netgalley.com and Thomas Nelson publishing. I liked the book and give it 4 out of 5 stars.

I give it 4 and not 5 stars because the storyline is not very different and that the characters were fairly well developed but not great. The characters were believable though, which helped. The editing was pretty good but it's hard to tell with an advanced reader copy how it will end up.

I have not read books by Denise Hunter before but I will probably read more. The storyline was a typical boy-next-door romance and that part was pretty average. The family dynamics was a bit unique and kept my interest. This is a Christian book and you could see the faith of the main character, Maddy, growing throughout the story. The story was not a heavy read and I read the book in a fairly short amount of time. It would be a good book for a vacation or a day at the beach or such.

Wooing Cadie McCaffery

I received this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers. I was very pleased to read and review this book. I usually read historical fiction and this was a nice change for me. The book is a light-hearted Christian romance. It is not preachy at all, in fact, the main characters show human weakness in the book and how they deal with sin is discussed but not preachy. It shows you can/do sin and God forgives.

The book was written going back and forth between Cadie and Will. Sometimes Cadie was speaking and sometimes it was about Will. This did not distract me from the story. It flowed well and the characters were well written and defined. The secondary characters were also believable.

Sometimes the story was almost funny, but sometimes you felt bad for them also. But mostly, it was light-hearted.

Since I had an advanced reader copy, I will only say I hope they do another editing before they send it to press. It's not terrible, but there were a few errors that need to be corrected. Overall, I give this 5 stars out of 5.

Surrender The Sea by MaryLu Tyndall

Surrender The Sea by MaryLu Tyndall is the book I received in the Bookfun.org February giveaway. I was very thankful to receive this book and really enjoyed reading it. It is a Christian book, but not preachy. It shows the importance of having faith.

The book was well written and the main characters were well developed and easy to understand. The book kept me interested throughout. It was a little bit of adventure, a little romance and a whole lot exciting. But, the one thing I did not like was the ending. I will not spoil the book, but I will say I felt it did not do a good job of wrapping things up.

As far as the readability/editing is concerned, it was a good job but left a little to be desired. It was not perfect but did not detract much from my enjoyment of the book.


I would rate this book a 4 out of 5. I didn't give it a 5 because of the combination of imperfect editing and not wrapping up the full story. I would recommend this book to my friends.

The Artful Match by Jennifer Delamere

The Artful Match by Jennifer Delamere, from Bethany House Publishing, is a book I requested through NetGalley to read and review. The book was an advanced reader's copy and because of this I will not deduct for poor editing but I will mention that the editing in the book I read was in need of better editing.

The book is the third in a series and I read one book previously. Reading the previous book was not necessary to understand this book. In fact, at first, I thought I was re-reading a book, but that was very short lived. I enjoyed the previous book and I enjoyed this one just as much. It is a historical fiction set in England in the late 1800s. It is also a Christian book, clean and not offensive, but not pushy.

The characters are well developed and mostly believable. The story flowed well. The ending tied up the three books well. The story was somewhat believable but since it is fiction and a fun book to read not totally believable.

I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more books by Jennifer Delamere. I would recommend this book to my friends. I give it 5 out of 5 stars. I did receive a free, advanced reader's copy and the review was not required and is my own opinion. I do not give a synopsis of the book as you can find that when you purchase the book, I just give you my opinion and state if I would recommend it or not.