Ways to Win Books To Read / Reviews of Books I've Won!: Lessons In Loving by Peter McAra - Great read!

Ways to Win Books To Read / Reviews of Books I've Won!: Lessons In Loving by Peter McAra - Great read!: Brenda Rupp's Reviews  > Lessons in Loving Lessons in Loving   by   Peter McAra   Brenda Rupp 's review  Apr 26, 16  ...

Lessons In Loving by Peter McAra - Great read!

Brenda Rupp's Reviews > Lessons in Loving

Lessons in Loving 
by Peter McAra 

Brenda Rupp's review 

Apr 26, 16  ·  edit

it was amazing

bookshelves: to-read

Read in December, 2015

I think I am not the first to note that this was a man writing historical fiction! I read so many books written by women. This book was about Kate, who had finished getting her teaching degree and she has been to hear the suffragettes speeches on how women should be treated in the work place, not just at home having babies. It is 1902 and Kate sees an advertisement for a governess to teach in Australia in a back woods sheep farm. She decides to write and ask for the position.

She does get the position money to travel there and told of places to stay until she arrives. She does arrive at the station finally to find that not only is she not to teach a child but she is there to teach the man who owns the farm. His upbringing really ended at age eight. His Mother died when he was eight years old she used to teach him at home and his Father died not too soon afterward. He learned all that he knows from servants really. He isn't close to a local town, so the way he talks, his knowledge of things is rather crude.

Kate finds herself living in his home having meals with him, teaching him, and she finds that she is attracted to him. Her job though is to teach him to speak in a more refined manner to help him with his manners, his reading, diction, etc. His Mothers wish for him was to marry a proper English woman and he has one he wants to marry but he must get himself up to snuff as it were so that he may even feel as if he would be considered. Laetitia really just put up with him because her father said she should. She was never considering him as someone she should marryf!

When next she sees him he speak differently, his manners are different his awareness of the world around him is totally different. She finds that she thinks him very changed and not quite so out of her league as she thought him at first. The ending of the story of course is pretty much as you might expect. Although the book was enjoyable, I did like the bits of history and info about sheep farming etc., that was included in the story here and there. It was a good story a fast read.

I believe I received this book through net gallery in exchange for an honest review. I would give this story four stars.

Here is the description as found here on Good Reads: Wanted: Governess. Properly qualified in English, to instruct male pupil in rural location.

Sydney, 1902. Desperate for a job, Kate Courtney travels to the faraway New England Ranges to interview for a governess position. She is greeted by wealthy landowner, ruggedly handsome Tom Fortescue, and is shocked to find that her new charge isn’t a small boy—but the grown man.

It was Tom’s mother’s dying wish that he find a refined, elegant, English bride to marry. But a country man with country manners can never win a lady fair. Tom needs Kate to smooth away his rough edges, make him desirable to the English rose he wants to marry.

But the more time Kate and Tom spend together, the closer they become, and Tom has to decide between the dreams of his childhood, and the reality that is right in front of him.

The Atonement by Beverly Lewis - Four Stars

Brenda Rupp's Reviews > The Atonement

The Atonement 
by Beverly Lewis 

Brenda Rupp's review 

Apr 25, 16  ·  edit

really liked it

Read from April 12 to 17, 2016

I'm a fan of books about the Amish as I see them so often in the area where my Grandmother lives. I've learned a lot about their culture through the books that I've read and Beverly Lewis is an author that I've read several times. This is more of a series book. You start off reading about Lucy Flaud a twenty-five year old woman who has a secret in her past. She can't get past that, she fills her days with donating her time for the plain and fancy in the neighborhood surrounding her family's farm. She is beyond the age of someone looking for a husband, and she doesn't take part in any of the singings, or other activities aimed to help the young people to get to know each other so that they may find a mate to marry.
Lucy has her days so full of helping others, that there is no time left for herself. She has a hole in her heart and she is trying to fill it so that she doesn't have time to think about her past, she hasn't forgiven her Father, she hasn't forgiven the young man that she was involved with and she hasn't found forgiveness from God. She finds ways to avoid being at church on the days that they take communion because her heart isn't ready for that.
I gave the book a four as it drags a bit, it just doesn't move along giving you the missing information from the first book, and it doesn't give you the information on Lucy's past. The book was hard to keep reading and it seemed after I got to a certain point in the book things started to pick up. The who family is concerned about Lucy and her Father starts attending a grief group out in the community, it isn't a part of the plain people's group. Lucy does attend with her Father after he asks her to attend but she just can't figure out why he is going, and she dosn't know that she can keep attending she isn't ready to discuss her problematic past. Her Father brings a young man from the group home so he can see how they set up their home and chicken coop up, he wants to start living off the grid. The young man does get involved with Lucy in helping a young woman in the community. Many in the community see this young man coming to their home as a mistake, they are judging Lucy and her Father, without all of the information. All is revealed eventually, the book is good although I believe I would have enjoyed it more had I read book one.
I do believe I received the book from Bethany House in exchange for an honest review.

Here is the information as found here on Good Reads: A Must-Have Novel from the #1 Name in Amish Fiction

The mistakes of the past haunt Lucy Flaud, who years ago stopped attending the activities for courting-age young people in her hometown of Bird-in-Hand. Now twenty-five and solidly past the age of Amish courtship, Lucy has given up any hope of marriage, instead focusing her efforts on volunteering in both the Plain and fancy communities of Lancaster County. Yet no matter how hard Lucy strives, she feels uncertain that she'll ever find redemption.

Dale Wyeth has a deep mistrust of modern-day "advances" and the dependency they create. The young Englisher's interest in living off the grid is fueled further when he meets Christian Flaud, Lucy's father. Dale appreciates the self-sufficient ways of the Old Order Amish, and Christian invites him to learn more about them by staying at the family farm.

As Christian and Dale grow closer, developing a father-son rapport, Lucy begins to question what Dale's being there might mean for her. Could God be testing her? Or is it possible that even the most unworthy heart--and two people from very different walks of life--can somehow find a new beginning?

The Wedding Sisters by Jamie Brenner - A really fun fast read!

Brenda Rupp's Reviews > The Wedding Sisters

The Wedding Sisters 
by Jamie Brenner (Goodreads Author) 

Brenda Rupp's review 

Apr 25, 16  ·  edit

it was amazing

bookshelves: to-read

Read from April 22 to 24, 2016

What a great read! I picked the book up and couldn't put it down. Meryl and Hugh have three daughters Meg Amy and Jo. All three girls end up getting engaged and want to get married in the same year. Unbeknownst to them, dad Hugh has lost his job at the University. His wife is trying to handle everything, she doesn't want a wedding planner tells the Mother of Meg's fiance, who is very very rich and wants to control everything, Meryl won't have it.

After her second daughter shows up with a ring on her hand she starts to worry how will they pull these weddings off in one year with Hugh not working and the apartment they have lived in for years will no longer belong to them soon as it came with Hugh's job!

Jo's breakup with her girlfriend Caroline is devastating and she turns to her friend Andy for sympathy, and before she knows it, Andy is asking her to marry him. He has always loved her, and if she doesn't feel exactly the same that is ok. He knows she loves him, she isn't in love with him. She says yes, and now her Mom has to put together three weddings! The solution one wedding three brides. She has to get them all to agree, they do and then she is not only trying to put together a wedding for three brides.

Meryl's Mom starts having problems and is being kicked out of her apartment as she is disturbing the other residents. Mom moves home with Meryl and Hugh. No one knows that Hugh has lost his job! More and more problems crop up in planning this triple wedding. So many surprises many unexpected. Is Meryl going to get her girls safely to their "I do's"? You'll have to read the book to find out! Such a fast read you can't put this book down.

More as found here on Good Reads: Meryl Becker is living a mother's dream. The oldest of her three beautiful daughters, Meg, is engaged to a wonderful man from one of the country's most prominent families. Of course, Meryl wants to give Meg the perfect wedding. Who wouldn't? But when her two younger daughters, Amy and Jo, also become engaged to celebrated bachelors, Meryl has to admit that three weddings is more than she and her husband, Hugh, can realistically afford.

The solution? A triple wedding! At first, it's a tough sell to the girls, and juggling three sets of future in-laws is a logistical nightmare. But when Hugh loses his teaching job, and Meryl's aging mother suddenly moves in with them, a triple wedding is the only way to get all three sisters down the aisle. When the grand plan becomes public, the onslaught of media attention adds to Meryl's mounting pressure. Suddenly, appearances are everything - and she will do whatever it takes to keep the wedding on track as money gets tight, her mother starts acting nutty, and her own thirty year marriage starts to unravel.

In the weeks leading up to the nuptials, secrets are revealed, passions ignite, and surprising revelations show Meryl and her daughters the true meaning of love, marriage and family. Jamie Brenner's The Wedding Sisters invites readers to the most unpredictable wedding of the year.

Room For Hope by Kim Vogel Sawyer - Absolutely Five Stars!

  Room For Hope by Kim Vogel Sawyer:

I absolutely loved this book!  It grabs you from the very beginning and you are hooked until the last page.  Neva Shilling runs a small store, Shilling Mercantile and cares for twins while her husband takes the wagon out returning with cash to restock the store.  He restocks the wagon and goes back out to the neighboring communities; at least that is what Neva believes he is doing.  This book takes place during the Great Depression; everyone has to do what they can to make do.  When the wagon pulls back in she believes her husband has come back home and rushes out only to find a deputy driving their wagon with a bunch of furniture in it and three children in the wagon.  She is told that Warren and his wife had died and his last request was that the children be taken to his sister and that the children be raised by Aunt Neva!! 
She is in total shock!  On top of that she finds out he had a mercantile in the town he lived in with his “wife and children” and all of the things there had to be sold to pay his debts there.  She finds out more and more about Warren that she never had any clue to.  There are many more surprises (if you can call them that), and she really struggles with her faith in herself and in her God.  How could this all have happened and how is she to get on with her life with five children looking at her for everything and how does she keep her children from learning the truth about their Father?  This is just such a great inspirational yarn, I loved the book.  I have to give this one Five Stars I loved this book. "I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

More Info:

In a desperate time, can Neva find forgiveness for a grievous wrong—and make room for hope?

Neva Shilling has a heavy load of responsibility while her husband travels to neighboring communities and sells items from his wagon. In his absence, she faithfully runs the Shilling Mercantile, working to keep their business strong as the Depression takes its toll, and caring for their twins.

When a wagon pulls up after supper, Neva and her children rush out—and into the presence of the deputy driving a wagon carrying three young children. The deputy shocks her with the news that Warren and his wife have died, insisting it was their last request that the three children go live with “Aunt Neva.”

Neva’s heart is shattered as she realizes that Warren’s month-long travels were excuses for visits with his secret family. She wants nothing more than to forget Warren, but can she abandon these innocent children to an orphanage? Yet if she takes them in, will she ever be able to see them as more than evidence of her husband’s betrayal and love them the way God does? 

More Information on Author:

About Kim Vogel Sawyer

Kim Vogel Sawyer is the highly acclaimed, best-selling author of gentle stories of hope such as When Love Returns and Room for Hope. With more than one million books in print, Kim has garnered numerous awards including the ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) Carol Award, the Inspirational Readers Choice Award, and the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence. She lives in central Kansas with her retired military husband Don. She enjoys travel, quilting, and spending time with her daughters and their families.