Book Review: A Borrowed Dream by Amanda Cabot

4.5 stars
Finished reading 8/17/18

Synopsis:
Catherine Whitfield is sure that she will never again be able to trust anyone in the medical profession after the town doctor's excessive bleeding treatments killed her mother. Despite her loneliness and her broken heart, she carries bravely on as Cimarron Creek's dutiful schoolteacher, resigned to a life without love or family, a life where dreams rarely come true.

Austin Goddard is a newcomer to Cimarron Creek. Posing as a rancher, he fled to Texas to protect his daughter from a dangerous criminal. He's managed to keep his past as a surgeon a secret. But when Catherine Whitfield captures his heart, he wonders how long he will be able to keep up the charade.

With a deft hand, Amanda Cabot teases out the strands of love, deception, and redemption in this charming tale of dreams deferred and hopes becoming reality.

My review:
This is the second book in Cabot's Cimarron Creek series, set in Victorian-era Texas.  The first book, A Stolen Heart, featured Catherine quite a bit as she befriended the new-in-town Lydia Crawford, the heroine of book one.  From that book we saw her lose her mother and lose her trust in a man she had loved.

This story picks up with Catherine still teaching at the local school as she was in the first book.  She is living alone and trying not to be lonely, so when an abused boy catches her eye it's easy for her to dream of rescuing him and taking him in.  But his abuser is his drunken father, who's not about to give up his boy, and her efforts to convince the man that the boy is worth sending to school are sure to meet with some decided resistance.

Austin, the hero, is new in town.  He has more secrets than any man ought to have, and a little girl who's sure to steal everyone's heart.  He seems to know quite a bit about health and wounds for a normal rancher, but he brushes it off and goes on with hardly an explanation, which of course makes the heroine and the readers instantly wonder what he means by the knowledge and how he came to know it.

Before long Catherine finds herself acting mother to both the abused boy and to Austin's lonely little girl, and these are some of my favorite parts from the story.  I really, really enjoy such stories!  And then we also have more of the continued mystery from the first book, which I won't specify because of spoilers, other than to say how much I enjoyed getting to know Grace through this story.

We just get comfortable with the town and characters, though, when danger arrives in town, and it's time to keep those pages flying to the very end.  Wow...I didn't see some of the stuff at the ending coming!

In all, an enjoyable and suspenseful read!

Thanks to the publisher for a free reading copy.  A favorable review was not required.

Book review: The Sea Before Us by Sarah Sundin

I must say, I have read every Sarah Sundin book to date and was eagerly awaiting this release.  The only downside?  Now I have to wait until next year for Adler's story!  Here's the glowing five-star review I posted on Goodreads.

Oh, what a delightful read!  I won't deny that I didn't wish to slap Dorothy a few times for her naïve attitude toward the guy who had too many women in his life, but even then the character roused some caring attitude in me.  She believed his words because she wanted to believe them, and she didn't want to believe the opposite.  And, given that she had staked every hope in her battered life on what he said was true, I can even forgive her the willful blindness.  Not saying it was right to accept his kisses when she knew she wasn't the only girl getting them, though!

I did love her work and found it very interesting.  The whole idea of making a map for the invasion based on pictures was something I wasn't aware of and was fascinating.  

Wyatt was a neat hero.  His good humor and his strong faith put me on his side right away, and it was a delight to watch him encourage all the best qualities in Dorothy.  He's determined to be a man of honor, and when Dorothy challenges him on things like his decision not to contact family, he's humble about it.  

The plot...oh, my!  There were a couple of epic twists that had me on the edge of my seat.  Who knew a little poking after an embezzler could lead to such a discovery?  Whew!  

Highly recommended, especially to lovers of WW2.

Thanks to Revell for a free review copy.  A positive review was not required.