Where Treetops Glisten: Three Stories of Heartwarming Courage and Christmas Romance During World War II by Tricia Goyer, Cara Putman, Sarah Sundin

Book Description:  The crunch of newly fallen snow, the weight of wartime

Siblings forging new paths and finding love in three stories, 

filled with the wonder of Christmas

 Turn back the clock to a different time, listen to Bing Crosby sing of sleigh bells in the snow, as the realities of America’s involvement in the Second World War change the lives of the Turner family in Lafayette, Indiana. 

In Cara Putman’s White Christmas, Abigail Turner is holding down the Home Front as a college student and a part-time employee at a one-of-a-kind candy shop. Loss of a beau to the war has Abigail skittish about romantic entanglements—until a hard-working young man with a serious problem needs her help. 

Abigail’s brother Pete is a fighter pilot hero returned from the European Theater in Sarah Sundin’s I’ll Be Home for Christmas, trying to recapture the hope and peace his time at war has eroded. But when he encounters a precocious little girl in need of Pete’s friendship, can he convince her widowed mother that he’s no longer the bully she once knew?

In Tricia Goyer’s Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Meredith Turner, “Merry” to those who know her best, is using her skills as a combat nurse on the frontline in the Netherlands. Halfway around the world from home, Merry never expects to face her deepest betrayal head on, but that’s precisely what God has in mind to redeem her broken heart. 

The Turner family believes in God’s providence during such a tumultuous time. Can they absorb the miracle of Christ’s birth and His plan for a future?

My Thoughts:  It's that time of the year again!  Christmas stories!!

And best yet...three stories in on book!  Three great authors pen about WWII and romance at Christmas time.  

In White Christmas Cara Putman writes about Abigail who is trying so very hard to hold.it.all down as she attends college and works part time at a candy shop.  But then a someone with problems bigger than hers comes along and Abigail steps in to help.  A sweet story!

In I'll Be Home for Christmas Sarah Sundin tells about Pete a fighter pilot in the war who meets the cutest most precious little girl.  This cute little girl has a widowed mother whom Pete would gladly like get together with but Pete was once a bully of sorts and the widowed mother isn't so sure about Pete.  This is what Christmas is all about!

Tricia Goyer writes about Meredith or Merry as her friends call her in Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.  Merry is a combat nurse on the from lines in the Netherlands.  Merry and her adventures were like being on the front lines...romance and all. I loved this story simply because my baby sister recently married and moved to the Netherlands....it just hit home with me.

All three stories are novellas...short stories but they are ever.so.interesting and fun to read!  I love them all!  What a grand book! 

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: WaterBrook Press (September 16, 2014)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1601426488
• ISBN-13: 978-1601426482

An Amish Homecoming by by Amy Clipston, Beth Wiseman, Shelley Shepard Gray, Kathleen Fuller

My Thoughts:  Amish and four stories by my favorite authors!

No Place Like Home by Amy Clipston:  An interesting and at times humorous story of a widow, Eva.  This story brings out how difficult it is for a widow with a child to move on with her life.  Amy Clipston catches the emotions of both the widow and the in laws.  

When Love Returns by Beth Wiseman:  A modern day Amish story about Sarah and how her unplanned pregnancy moved her but now with Hurricane Harvey messing up the land she has to go home with her child.  And then at home there's Abram.  A story of pride and redemption.

The Courage to Love by Shelley Shepard Gray:  Quite a read about misunderstandings and removing preconceived ideas and embracing people for love and honor.  

What Love Built by Kathleen Fuller: Carolyn is headstrong but quite charming.  She has a dream of owning her bakery.  But as the dream is coming to fruition Carolyn realizes that she can't do it all on her own.  She needs help.  A fun and loving story of letting go of the past and embracing the now.

Great short stories!

*This book was provided for review by BookLook*

Delayed Justice by Cara Putman

Book Description:  Jaime Nichols went to law school to find the voice she never had as a child, and her determination to protect girls and women in the path of harm drives her in ways both spoken and unspoken. As Jaime, now a criminal defense attorney, prepares to press charges against someone who wronged her long ago, she must face not only her demons but also the unimaginable forces that protect the powerful man who tore her childhood apart.

Chandler Bolton, a retired veteran, is tasked with helping a young victim who must testify in court—and along with his therapy dog, Aslan, he’s up for the task. When he first meets Jaime, all brains, beauty, and brashness, he can’t help but be intrigued. As Chandler works to break through the wall Jaime has built around herself, the two of them discover that they may have more to offer one another than they ever could have guessed—and that together, they may be able to help this endangered child.

My Thoughts:  Having read the first two books in this Hidden Justice series I was excited to get the third book.  

In this novel Jaime Nichols is lawyer who is determined to protect women and girls from being victims of crime.

When Jaime was a young girl a horrible man with wealth made her a victim.  Jaime is determined to take him to court.  But with so much wealth and power it seems an impossible task.  

And then Jaime meets Chandler.

Together Jaime and Chandler need to work together bring delayed justice.
Okay, this story unraveled me a tad bit even though I have never been a victim.  I cried for Jaime.  So horrible and made me s little mad at her mother for not listening.

A great legal thriller with just enough romance and a whole lotta criminal activity and action to keep the reader on the edge of her seat.

It's the kind of read that makes one want to defend the young and all women.

*This book was provided for review by BookLook*

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (October 16, 2018)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785217916
• ISBN-13: 978-0785217916

WOW {Warm Oven Wednesday}

I love fall and I absolutely LOVE pumpkin spiced latte.  However, I don't live near a Starbucks or any coffee place so when I found this recipe on Pinterest I was so happy!  

I love this recipe!  However, I simply add 1/4 cup water and 1 cup milk (2%), then I warm in the microwave for 2 minutes in a glass measuring cup.  I use all the listed ingredients and mix well with a spoon.  Don't skimp on the whipped topping (smile).  You may want to follow this recipe exactly.  It is so good and it's so much cheaper to make your own.

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups hot whole milk 4 teaspoons white sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

6 ounces double-strength brewed coffee 3 tablespoons sweetened whipped cream 3 pinches pumpkin pie spice

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Combine the hot milk, sugar, vanilla extract, and pumpkin pie spice in a blender; blend until frothy. Pour the mixture into 3 coffee mugs to about 2/3 full. Pour 2 ounces coffee into each mug. Garnish each mug with whipped topping and pumpkin pie spice.

UNSPOKEN by Dee Henderson

Book Description:  Charlotte Graham is at the center of the most famous kidnapping in Chicago history. 

The task force of FBI and local cops found her two abductors, killed them, rescued her, but it took four very long years. The fact she was found less than three miles from her home, had been there the entire time, haunts them. She's changed her identity, found a profession she loves, and rebuilt her life. 

She's never said a word--to the cops, to her doctors, to family--about those four years. 

A family legacy has brought her back to Chicago where a reporter is writing a book about the kidnapping. The cops who worked the case are cooperating with him. Her options are limited: Hope the reporter doesn't find the full truth, or break her silence about what happened. And her silence is what has protected her family for years. 

Bryce Bishop doesn't know her past, he only knows she has coins to sell from her grandfather's estate--and that the FBI director for the Chicago office made the introduction. The more he gets to know Charlotte, the more interested he becomes, an interest encouraged by those closest to her. But nothing else is working in his favor--she's decided she is single for life, she struggles with her faith, and she's willing to forego a huge inheritance to keep her privacy. She's not giving him much of an opening to work with.

Charlotte wants to trust him. She needs to tell him what happened. Because a crime cops thought was solved, has only opened another chapter...

My Thoughts: We meet Charlotte Graham who has been through quite a trauma! Charlotte leaves has a lot of unspoken "things" that she needs to work through but yet, Bryce Bishop seems to want to draw closer to Charlotte, especially after Charlotte brings in old coins that seem to be worth quite a bit.  Are Bryce's intentions truthful and honest?

Poor Charlotte after all that she's been through I struggled a long with her in her journey to redefine her faith and her life.

As I read this wonderful romantic suspense novel all I could think was 

Dee Henderson does it again in Unspoken!  

The suspense, the mystery, the love and the faith of trying to cope with a tragedy that brings us to our knees is so well written that the reader tends to forget that this is not a real news flash/life.  {ah! The merits of a great writer!}

I love the title of this book because it sums up the "whole" of the read!

If you're a fan of Dee Henderson grab this read!  Never heard of Dee Henderson but love a great christian suspense novel?  Then this is a great book to begin reading!

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Bethany House Publishers 
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764211714
• ISBN-13: 978-0764211713

The Tattered Quilt (The Return of the Half-Stitched Amish Quilting Club) by Wanda E. Brunstetter

Book Description:  Amish widow-turned-newlywed Emma Yoder Miller begins another quilting class with a new group of unlikely students, all with tattered pieces of their lives that need mending.

Selma is a belittling busybody. Terry is a rugged roofer who just wants a casual date with a pretty classmate. Blaine loses a bet and has to join the class, where he soon finds himself in friendly competition with Terry. Anna’s mother signs her up in a desperate attempt to keep Anna from leaving the Amish faith. Carmen holds tightly to bitterness while hiding her secret motives for taking the class. And Cheryl has a broken, mistrusting heart that needs just as much mending as the tattered quilt she brings.

Members of this new patchwork group find friendship, faith, healing, and restoration while gathered around their quilts, under the Father’s guiding hands — for only He can take what’s ragged and shabby from the lives of His children and turn it into beauty for His glory.

My Thoughts:  I read the first book in this Half Stitched Amish Quilting  Club and it was such a fun read.  

So when I received The Tattered Quilt I knew this would be another.not.to.be.missed.read!

And I was so right!

The first club was full of a mixed motley crew.  Again, poor Emma has quite a crew on her hands. I must admit that Selma got on my last nerve.        Terry  and Blaine have some kind of a guy fight going on.  Poor Emma (the only "real" Amish girl in the group) is way too stressed.  Carmen and Cheryl seem somewhat alike...both struggling with "issues."

This is a fantastic read!  There's not a suspense or mystery, just good people relationships and how people of all ages and backgrounds need/should get along in life.  And that's just what the Quilting Club does-it brings people together as they find out more about God and His mercies.

This is a stand alone read and it isn't just an "Amish" read.  Emma and her new husband are Amish but they just teach quilting. 

If you want a fun light read that is serious about God's mercies and lovingkindness then this is the read for you!

Loved, loved this read!  

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc. 
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1616260866
• ISBN-13: 978-1616260866

{Fiction Guild Blog Tour} Auschwitz Lullaby: A Novel by Mario Escobar

Book Description:  On an otherwise ordinary morning in 1943, Helene Hannemann is preparing her five children for the day when the German police arrive at her home. Helene’s worst fears come true when the police, under strict orders from the SS, demand that her children and husband, all of Romani heritage, be taken into custody. Though Helene is German and safe from the forces invading her home, she refuses to leave her family—sealing her fate in a way she never could have imagined.

After a terrifying trek across the continent, Helene and her family arrive at Auschwitz and are thrown into the chaos of the camp. Her husband, Johann, is separated from them, but Helene remains fiercely protective of her children and those around her. When the powers-that-be discover that Helene is not only a German but also a trained nurse, she is forced into service at the camp hospital, which is overseen by the notorious Dr. Mengele himself.

Helene is under no illusions in terms of Dr. Mengele’s intentions, but she agrees to cooperate when he asks her to organize a day care and school for the Romani children in the camp. Though physically and emotionally brutalized by the conditions at Auschwitz, Helene musters the strength to protect the children in her care at any cost. Through sheer force of will, Helene provides a haven for the children of Auschwitz—an act of kindness and selflessness so great that it illuminates the darkest night of human history.

My Thoughts:  This is the first novel I've read by Mario Escobar.  I almost didn't read this story simply because I knew I would cry.  

But I couldn't resist reading the first page and then, well, I was hooked.

Helene's story bought me and grabbed me and just wouldn't let go.

Helene is the mother of five children and she is married to a Gypsy.  Helene is safe in Germany but not her family simply because she married a Gypsy.

I loved the way Mario wrote about gypsies.  He gives a complete and accurate description of a family who have the blood of gypsies but the heart of a christian.  Just because one is born into a certain blood line does not mean that they follow that pattern.  However, this is not the story.

The story lies with Helene.  Oh, this is based on the true life of Helene. 

If there is one sentence that gripped my heart in this whole book it is what Helene said, I thought that someone would stand up to him (Hitler).  I never thought it would be this horrible. ( a paraphrase) 

Oh, how my heart cried for Helene and all the terrible atrocities that Dr. Mengele and the horrible Nazis inflicted upon the people and children.

Yes, this is tear jerker.  Yes, the reader will try not to read this story but will be so taken in by Mr. Escobar's delivery of Helene's story that the reader will keep reading.  And, yes, the reader may leave with a sense of justice for Helene and the children.

**Never Forget!**

*This book was provided for review by the Fiction Guild*