Quickie review: A Stolen Heart by Amanda Cabot

A Stolen Heart by Amanda Cabot

The synopsis:

From afar, Cimarron Creek seems like an idyllic town tucked in the Texas Hill Country. But when former schoolteacher Lydia Crawford steps onto its dusty streets in 1880, she finds a town with a deep-seated resentment of Northerners--like her. Lydia won't let that get her down, though. All will be well when she's reunited with her fiancé. But when she discovers he has disappeared--and that he left behind a pregnant wife--Lydia is at a loss about what to do next. The handsome sheriff urges her to trust him, but can she trust anyone in this town where secrets are as prevalent as bluebonnets in spring?
Bestselling author Amanda Cabot invites readers back into Texas's storied past to experience love and adventure against a backdrop of tension and mystery in this first book in a brand-new series.

My review:
5 stars
5/27/17

I really enjoyed this story, set in 1860s Texas!  It reads smoothly and is interesting from start to finish.  I loved Lydia's sweets shop and her relationship to Aunt Bertha.  Travis is a nice, manly sheriff, and their romance is sweet and realistic.  It was a nice surprise for me to find a strong mystery thread in the story, with a mysterious person attacking people, stealing items, and engaging in other criminal mischief.  

I loved that the romance wasn't all touchy-feely sensual, but was about two mature adults coming to care for each other in a way that wasn't merely physical lust.  I also was glad to find no profanity or crude speech as well.  

The one thing that bugged me was that someone forgot that measles patients were always subject to quarantine.  :)

Thanks to NetGalley for a review copy.

Book review: Far Side of the Sea by Kate Breslin

Far Side of the Sea, Kate Breslin: 5 stars

Finished reading 2/10/19
Synopsis:
In spring 1918, Lieutenant Colin Mabry, a British soldier working with MI8 after suffering injuries on the front, receives a message by carrier pigeon. It is from Jewel Reyer, the woman he once loved and who saved his life--a woman he believed to be dead. Traveling to France to answer her urgent summons, he desperately hopes this mission will ease his guilt and restore the courage he lost on the battlefield.

Colin is stunned, however, to discover the message came from Jewel's half sister, Johanna. Johanna, who works at a dovecote for French Army Intelligence, found Jewel's diary and believes her sister is alive in the custody of a German agent. With spies everywhere, Colin is skeptical of Johanna, but as they travel across France and Spain, a tentative trust begins to grow between them.

When their pursuit leads them straight into the midst of a treacherous plot, danger and deception turn their search for answers into a battle for their lives.

I devour Kate Breslin books like potato chips, so no surprise that I loved this one!  Here's my review:

What a treat to read another Kate Breslin book!  I've really struggled this year to read any ebooks, but this one was a quick and absorbing read and kept me flipping pages despite that difficulty.  While there isn't a lot about faith, it's clear they are steadied by their belief in God.

The twists and turns in the plot left me reeling.  We met Colin in Not By Sight very briefly, but this book stands alone.  I loved seeing more of Marcus in this one!  Colin is an interesting young man from the very beginning, and I found it easy to care about him and Johanna from the very beginning.  I guessed one plot facet at 53% and thought "there--I got it--that's the big reveal!" only to have it told to me at 62% and have plenty of book left to read.  :)  So the plotting was extremely well done and very absorbing.

I do love a good spy story and this one is one I'd easily recommend. 

Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for a free copy.  A favorable review was not required.

Quickie Review: The Laird O' Borrans by Harold Bindloss

The Laird O' Borrans: 4 stars

Harold Bindloss has been a favorite author of mine for awhile.  He wrote about 40 novels between 1902-1945 and I have about twenty of them to date.

Here's my review:
2/17/19

3.5 stars

I have to say, this is the very slowest and calmest spy story ever written!  It's one of Bindloss's last novels and set in the Border area of Scotland during WW2.  As a picture of the home front it was fascinating, with just a mild spice of danger from the intermittent spy activity and related murders in the area.  There were lots and lots of characters to keep up with, but eventually I got used to them.

If you're interested in home front Scotland in WW2, grab a copy.  If you're looking for your next spy thriller, though, this isn't a thriller!

Quickie Reviews

Introducing...Quickie reviews!

Since February 2013, I have been reviewing nearly every book I read on Goodreads.  That total is a nice chunk of reviews, and I've made a lot of close friends through my time there.  It has come to my attention, though, that because of some major changes in Goodreads over the past few years, my bookshelves may not remain accessible in the way I want them to be, as they work toward getting rid of traditional desktop view.

So, why not use my space as a blogger?

As I get used to adding my reviews here, I'll warn of several things: there are going to be A TON of them at first.  I have years of reviews (six years!) that I hope to transfer over here.  There may be many posts a day on days I have time to work on it.  I apologize in advance to what I will be doing to your inboxes.

Longer reviews will be given a regular post of their own in the style I've previously posted in.

When I can, I'll include links to free ebooks when applicable for older novels and classics.

I'll be using tags to help with finding books, such as:

Author

Genres or subjects

Star rating 

and so on.

My star ratings explained: (two negative and three positive classes)

1: Dislike or despise.  A book I don't want to ever read again and don't recommend.

2: It was okay.  Others might like it, but I'm underimpressed.

3: Good.  This is an enjoyable read, a story I may read again, and one that will stay on my shelf and might get recommended.  This is my default rating for enjoyable books, the equivalent of a B in a college class.

4: Very good.  Books from favorite authors generally fall into this category, and my most common rating generally ends up closer to four because I keep trying to look for five star reads. Grade A.

5: Excellent and/or favorite.  Books that sweep me away, that make me think, that haunt me for months afterward.  Books that make me love them so much that I forgive every single flaw they might contain.  A+ rated books.

Half stars: for when I can't decide between the above.

Emotional ratings: for when I love or hate the story so much that I forget everything else.  These are generally one or five star books.  😉

Questions and comments: 

I'd love to get lots of these!  Please bear with me, though, as I don't always have access to a computer with a browser that Google approves of, and thus may be unable to comment back quickly.