Ours For A Season by Kim Vogel Sawyer – 5 Stars!

I’ve always liked the author Kim Vogel Sawyer, this book was just another of hers that had me after the first couple of pages.  She writes often about the Amish or Mennonite people.  This book was about a couple who were part of a Mennonite community.  Anthony and Marty Hirschler married and he caught the Mumps after rendering him sterile.  She lost the baby she carried the first one and now her life is nothing like she thought it would be. They are falling further and further away from each other and Marty is having problems with her faith in God. She can’t stand to be around her family members that have little ones or are pregnant because it just hurts too much! 

Her friend Brooke a childhood friend who is not Mennonite writes and invites the couple to come and help run a construction crew to turn a ghost town into a resort community.  Anthony has a construction crew in Indiana.  There are many issues that come up through the story as I read it.  The book left me wanting to keep reading it, I carried it around where ever I went, to get a page in here and there.  The book was very interesting, compelling, and I liked the story line.  The characters were well developed as well as the story line.  Of course, God and the Bible are referenced in the book as the author enjoys a full time speaking and writing ministry. 

I received this book from the publisher through their book launch program. @WaterBrookjMultnomah #Partner.

An Old Order Mennonite couple's vows and beliefs are challenged in this stirring contemporary novel for fans of Cindy Woodsmall or Shelley Shepherd Gray.

Anthony and Marty Hirschler are part of an Old Order Mennonite community in Pine Hill, Indiana. The couple has grown apart since a doctor confirmed they would never have children. Marty longs to escape the tight-knit area where large families are valued, and the opportunity to do so arises when her childhood friend, Brooke Spalding, resurfaces with the wild idea of rebuilding a ghost town into a resort community. Brooke hires Anthony to help with the construction, drawing the Hirschlers away from Indiana and into her plan, and then finds herself diagnosed with cancer. Moral complications with Brooke's vision for a casino as part of the resort and the discovery of a runaway teenager hiding on the property open up a world neither the Hirschler’s nor Brooke had considered before. Will they be able to overcome their challenges and differences to help the ones among them hurting the most? 

Eagle & Crane by Suzanne Rindell – 5 Stars!

I won this book, it was part of a package of three books given out through a drawing at Read It Forward.  They usually give away one book a week, this time they gave three away.  This book I started reading as soon as I received it and it had me wanting to stick with it, right from the beginning.  This book was set during the depression era, also back when there were traveling circuses, gypsies, air shows, etc.  This book was really about two families and their animosity for each other, although the younger men really only disliked the other because their families had been telling them for years that they shouldn’t do anything together.  A traveling air show came to town and the two young men both showed up for the air show.  One decided he wanted to try and wing walk while up in the air, and was willing to pay double to try it the next day.  The other decided to do it because he couldn’t let himself be out done in the eyes of the people there from the area.  The man running the show was a bit of a shyster, always looking for his next big deal.  He married a woman who had a daughter, and he had them living in a caravan, and working the crowd and collecting money.  He wasn’t always the most pleasant man.  They did successfully walk on the wings of the airplanes, and that got the shyster thinking, he needed to make them a permanent part of the show.  The story about how things were going was very interesting as well as the back story between their families.  One of the men was Japanese and they were doing the air shows when Pearl Harbor happened. So another part of the story is about the camps they sent any Japanese people to for their own safety, although many people died in those camps.  They were run more like prisons.  With several back stories going on at the same time, the book was never dull or slow.  It was an easy read and I finished it over two days.  I really enjoyed the book.  The characters were well developed as well as the story line.  The ending was not disappointing and was really a surprise.

Thanks again to the people at Read It Forward and to the publisher at G.P. Putnam’s Sons it was an amazing read and a wonderful surprise! #RIFWINNER

Description as found on Good Reads: Two young daredevil flyers confront ugly truths and family secrets during the U.S. internment of Japanese citizens during World War II, from the author of The Other Typist and Three-Martini Lunch.

Louis Thorn and Haruto "Harry" Yamada -- Eagle and Crane -- are the star attractions of Earl Shaw's Flying Circus, a daredevil (and not exactly legal) flying act that traverses Depression-era California. The young men have a complicated relationship, thanks to the Thorn family's belief that the Yamadas -- Japanese immigrants -- stole land that should have stayed in the Thorn family.

When Louis and Harry become aerial stuntmen, performing death-defying tricks high above audiences, they're both drawn to Shaw's smart and appealing stepdaughter, Ava Brooks. When the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and one of Shaw's planes mysteriously crashes and two charred bodies are discovered in it, authorities conclude that the victims were Harry and his father, Kenichi, who had escaped from a Japanese internment camp they had been sent to by the federal government. To the local sheriff, the situation is open and shut. But to the lone FBI agent assigned to the case, the details don't add up.

Thus begins an investigation into what really happened to cause the plane crash, who was in the plane when it fell from the sky, and why no one involved seems willing to tell the truth. By turns an absorbing mystery and a fascinating exploration of race, family and loyalty, Eagle and Crane is that rare novel that tells a gripping story as it explores a terrible era of American history. (less)

Healing Hearts by Sarah M. Eden - A compelling read - 5 stars

Spoiler Alert – if you don’t want to know more about the secret revealed in the book don’t read this one.  Read the book to find out towards the end.

This book was a very interesting read!  It was set in the old west, Wyoming Territory 1876 in the town of Savage Wells.  It has so much information in the story line of how they treated illnesses back in the day, what some of the doctors were like, how mental illness was often something to be afraid of or a social stigma if your child had it.  Many with epilepsy were put away in institutions and couldn’t legally leave if their family signed them in.  Laws were different back then.  This book was a very compelling read, one you won’t want to lie down and walk away from.  You’ll find yourself carrying this one around your home with you in order to see what is going to happen next.  I really liked the main characters of this book and the story line. It was very well researched and very well written.  You won’t be disappointed if you pick this one up!

I received this book from the Net Galley through their book launch program. I did receive it in a kindle format. #HEALINGHEARTS #NETGALLEY

Wyoming Territory, 1876

As the only doctor in the frontier town of Savage Wells, Gideon MacNamara knows his prospects for a bride are limited. The womenfolk in town are either too young, too old, or already spoken for. So, being a practical man, he decides to take advantage of the matchmaking service of the day—mail-order brides—and sends away for a woman with nursing experience.

When Miriam steps off the stagecoach in Savage Wells, she sees a bright future in front of her. But when the town—and Gideon—meets her, ready for a wedding, her excitement quickly turns to horror. Somehow Dr. MacNamara's message had gotten turned around. He didn’t want a nurse, he wanted a wife. When she refuses to marry him, she finds herself stranded in Savage Wells with some very unhappy townspeople.

But Gideon is not like the other men Miriam has met. Embarrassed by the misunderstanding, he offers her a job, and the two begin an awkward—and often humorous—dance of getting to know each other as they work to care for the people of their town. Romance blossoms between the two, but when a former medical associate of Miriam’s arrives in town, Gideon and the other townsfolk must rally around Miriam to protect her from a dangerous fate. Gideon and Miriam must decide if they are willing to risk their hearts for each other even as buried secrets are brought to light.