A Love Transformed by Tracie Peterson

A Love Transformed by Tracie Peterson is the next installment in the Sapphire Brides series.  Clara Vesper has had all her monetary needs met by her husband, Adolph.  But this marriage was a loveless arranged marriage by her overbearing mother who insisted on a marriage which was going to increase her societal standing.  Clara has no interest in society but has learned to live with her life as it is.  Adolph is not mean to her, he just has no interest in family but only in the progress of his jewelry business which both Adolph and Clara work in.  When Adolph is shot during a robbery and dies suddenly  Clara now has to figure out how to manage on her own.  The surprises keep on arriving though when Adolph's brother states that Adolph has no financial holdings in the company due to his gambling.  Clara knowing that her mother will soon arrive and try to again take over her life decides to go to the only place where she has known unconditional love and that is on the Montana ranch that her aunt and uncle own.  Clara spent the summers there while she was a child and loved the ranch.  Clara quickly gathers up only the absolute needed clothing for her children and herself and telling only her most trusted servant heads for Montana.  When they arrive in Montana she finds that much has changed but all the important things are there: unconditional love, hard ranch work, and a Christian home to live in.

I love Ms. Peterson's writing that this is no exception.  The reader travels back in history to World War I life in the USA.  The family works hard and mostly lives off of what they can raise on their ranch.  Patriots and traitors live side by side and don't even know it but eventually the truth must come out and traitors are punished.  Sometimes the traitor is a trusted family member so the rest of the family must bear the brunt of the stigma also even if they had no knowledge it was happening.
I believe that most readers of Christian historical novels who love reading this one by Tracie Peterson.
I received this book from BethanyHouse for this review.

Just a Kiss by Denise Hunter

Just a Kiss by Denise Hunter is the next installment in the Summer Harbor series.  Riley is returning home from his stint in the marines in Afghanistan.  He returns with many things he didn't expect, new muscles, experiences in new places, and oh yes nightmares.  He also left behind his leg along with his self confidence.  He had planned to return home to win his best friend's love when he heard that she and his brother had broken up.  Now he is holed up in his best friend, Paige's, house and unable to tell her that he loves her.  How can he saddle her with a cripple?  How can he earn a living for himself let alone a family?  Then the kiss happened.  But he said that it was just a kiss, probably didn't mean anything.  He took a job helping Paige out at the animal shelter which she was trying to save from being closed.  But then he borrowed a vehicle from his brother on a rainy night which stalled and he couldn't get restarted and called his brother to come get him.  His brother's wife answered the phone and instead of telling his brother called Paige to come rescue him.  Paige ran to talk to him in the vehicle and when he scooted over the prosthesis didn't scoot as smoothly as the rest of him did and Paige got tangled and fell over it and him.  Then the real kiss happened.  Then a more deeper and meaningful kiss happened.  How will Paige and Riley live with this? Will Riley run like he usually does?
I loved this book.  It has many twists and turns as Riley learns to live with life after the war zone.  He doesn't just have the missing leg and the many problems of learning to live with the prosthesis he has to live with the nightmares, the memories of everything that happened that he has no one to talk about to.  Riley has not only the problems of his memories but the dreams he had of continuing in the family lobster business is now just a pipe dream.  Lobstering  is a tough business with two legs let alone one.  What if he got tangled up and lost a hand?  How would he live then?  Paige though is just as saddled with her past.  She grew up with a disinterested father and her mother never loved her though she kept trying to get her attention as she grew up.  Paige found out the reason why at the funeral though--she wasn't her real mother.  Paige's father had an affair and Paige was the result of that.  Paige's mother had to raise her but never loved her.  How can these 2 broken people learn to live with life as it is dealt out to them?  I would recommend this book for any one who loves Christian novels.
I received this book from Booksneeze for this review.

Answers to the Most Important Questions about the End Times by Dr John Hart

Answers to the Most Important Questions about the End Times by Dr John Hart is a book which helps explain what is to come according to the Bible.  Dr. Hart does a great job of referencing the Bible in various translations as to what not only the book of Revelations reveals but also throughout the Old and New Testaments.  It is said that the book of Revelations is the most difficult to understand of all the Bible but Dr. Hart explains Revelations in easy to understand language and format throughout the book.  Dr. Hart does not use scare tactics to force the reader into the same belief as he has but rather used easily defined and well referenced resources to allow the reader to draw their own conclusions.  He explains in simple language what the rapture and the tribulation are and then he explains certain controversial concepts such as is the rapture going to take place before or during the tribulation and why he believes as he does.  He never assumes the reader knows what he is talking about he explains the concept first.  He also doesn't try to make himself appear smarter than he is by making the concept difficult--if his belief is simply what the Bible says he says so.  If a concept is symbolic he says so and then explains why he believes that it is not exactly as printed in the Bible.  He approaches the Bible teachings as something that can be understood rather than the Bible can only be understood with Dr. Hart's help. 

I liked Dr. Hart's simple Bible study helps book.  He has made the study of Revelations and easy and fun read.  Dr. Hart must be a very popular professor at the Moody Institute.  It seems so many writers of prophecy must use scare tactics beyond what is already printed in order to foster belief.  I would recommend this reading especially for women who have never found an interest in prophesy--it seems that men always find this subject interesting!
I received this book from BethanyHouse for this review.

Home on the Range by Ruth Logan Herne

Home on the Range by Ruth Logan Herne is the second in the Double S Ranch series by this talented writer.  Nick Stafford is the last son to have stayed with his father to run the ranch.  His father raised his motherless children with a hard hand.  Nick had been all set to best his father in the husband and father category as well as do a good job running the ranch.  Well that is until his wife left him for a flashier rodeo cowboy with not nearly as much money.  Nick had spent all his married life doting on his wife and children then one day she just left.  She just left her home in town--the one that Nick as purchased for her because she hated the ranch.  She just left her husband--who had always deferred to all her wishes even if it caused conflicts with his family.  But what Nick couldn't understand at all was she just left her beautiful little girls just like Nick's mother had left him and his brother.  How could she do that?  None the less Nick was raising the children as best he could and it seemed good enough for his youngest, 6 year old Dakota, but older Cheyenne was a different story all together.  Cheyenne was mad, defiant, and had neglected her school work until the school was threatening to fail her.  The school had recommended that Nick take her to a counselor, Dr. Elsa Andreas.  Nick had been ignoring the recommendation for months but now that she was failing, he could ignore it no longer.  Nick and the girls drive out to the woodsy bungalow half hidden by the hill it was built into which is where the doctor lived with her dog and her free flying talking bird. Though at first the girls both thought the doctor odd they both learned to appreciate her and Cheyenne was making good healthy strides in both her school work and her attitude towards life.  That is until her mother breezed back into her life and started trying to make her believe that life could go back to the way it was.

I loved the twists and turns of this new Christian love story.  It has a real plot and one that the writer can't quite figure out until the end.  Though it is the 2nd of a series it is easily understood by readers who have not read the first one.  It brings out the loss that children experience in divorce especially divorce that is handled by attempting to bring the children into arguments that the adults are facing.  This story tells about a how Nick and his family learn to live with the twists and turns of life without his wife--its been 3 years so it was time-- and the girls to live without their mother and learn to trust again the adults in their family and become well adjusted girls.
I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.