Her Fateful Debut - Written by G. G. Vandagiff - I gave this one 4 stars!

I did like this book. It didn't take long to finish it there was enough going to keep me interested. This wasn't the usual Regency romance, there was enough suspense, real romance, to keep me interested. I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys Regency romances
Found on Good Reads: Her Fateful Debut
by G.G. Vandagriff (Goodreads Author)
really liked it 4.0  ·  
Classic Regency romance with a dash of suspense . . . 
Beautiful Miss Penelope Swinton wants to live out her life as a spinster in her beloved Northamptonshire, but with an ailing father and an entailed estate, she must come to London and enter the Marriage Mart. And if she must marry, she is determined to marry for love. 
In a brief respite from the social whirl of the season, she retreats from the restrictions of the ton to sketch in the park and stumbles over a French spy. When Penelope finds her life in danger, Viscount Beau Wellingham steps up to protect her, however he has secrets of his own. Wellingham leads a clandestine life as an agent for the Foreign Office trapping spies. In defending her life, he unwittingly puts her reputation at risk. 
In order to save Penelope from society’s scorn, Beau presses for a betrothal. Though she resists, he insists. Soon Beau is unable to deny the attraction he feels towards her. Before he can act on his feelings, danger rises again. This time, his life is on the line. 
With a desperate spy closing in, Penelope must choose the safety of what she has always known or a chance for love. But will she be too late?

Waves of Mercy by Lynn Austin 5 Stars!

I loved this book.  It took a little reading before I was hooked, and that is what happened.  This is a Historical Christion Fiction Book.  Geesie de Jonge was leaving Netherland and traveling with her close family and one man who had worked for her father.  She was leaving friends and relatives behind knowing she wouldn’t see many of them ever again, in order to be free to follow her religious beliefs freely and not be forced into another.  Fifty years later, part of the group that developed Holland, She is writing her life story, she was requested to do by this by the people putting together a celebration of how they came to be there in Holland.  She didn’t want to write that story as it brings up so many emotions and memories of the past.

 I remember my husband finding information on his family that came from Germany and helped to develop Frankenmuth!  The docent in Frankenmuth gave us newspaper articles in German, that had a picture of his people who came here to what is now known as Frankenmuth.  There is a small street by the name of Rupp, a room in the hotel named Rupp just small things to pay tribute to his family for settling in Frankenmuth and getting it started and developed. 

Much of the story which is fiction, is taken from true stories of shipwrecks and history of the people who settled in Holland and made that land the place that it became. 

This book has many references to the Bible, surprising to me, many of the things that were referenced from the Bible were things that I needed to hear, they left me thinking long after the book was put away. 

While Geesie was writing her long ago memories of traveling by ship, at a nearby Hotel on the shore of Lake Michigan, a 23 year old Anna Nicholson is trying to get over a broken engagement to a well to do Chicago Banker.  She meets a young seminary student who is working at the hotel for the summer and she finds herself drawn to him to get answers of her past.  I can’t say much more without telling the entire story but I can say the book really resonated with me, the characters are well developed and very interesting, you want to know their story and how things are going to turn out.  It was a great read!

I received this book for free as a part of Bethany House's blogging program. I was not required to like the book, only to give my honest opinion of it.

Description as found on Good Reads:

Austin Returns with a Multi-Generational Historical Novel

Geesje de Jonge crossed the ocean at age seventeen with her parents and a small group of immigrants from the Netherlands to settle in the Michigan wilderness. Fifty years later, in 1897, she's asked to write a memoir of her early experiences as the town celebrates its anniversary. Reluctant at first, she soon uncovers memories and emotions hidden all these years, including the story of her one true love. 

At the nearby Hotel Ottawa Resort on the shore of Lake Michigan, twenty-three-year-old Anna Nicholson is trying to ease the pain of a broken engagement to a wealthy Chicago banker. But her time of introspection is disturbed after a violent storm aboard a steamship stirs up memories of a childhood nightmare. As more memories and dreams surface, Anna begins to question who she is and whether she wants to return to her wealthy life in Chicago. When she befriends a young seminary student who is working at the hotel for the summer, she finds herself asking him all the questions that have been troubling her.

Neither Geesje nor Anna, who are different in every possible way, can foresee the life-altering surprises awaiting them before the summer ends. (less)