{Fiction Guild Blog Tour} The View from Rainshadow Bay (A Lavender Tides Novel) by Colleen Noble

Book Description:  After her husband, Jack, dies in a climbing incident, Shauna has only her five-year-old son and her helicopter charter business to live for. Every day is a struggle to make ends meet and she lives in constant fear of losing even more than she already has.

When her business partner is murdered, his final words convince Shauna that she’s in danger too. But where can she turn? Zach Bannister was her husband’s best friend and is the person she blames for his death. She’s barely spoken to him since. But right now he seems her only hope for protecting her son.

Zach is only too happy to assuage his guilt over Jack’s death by helping Shauna any way he can. But there are secrets involved dating back to Shauna’s childhood that more than one person would prefer to stay hidden.

My Thoughts: Colleen Coble's mystery reads are some of my favorites.  In this particular book, The View from Rainshadow Bay, I thought the suspense was quite well intoned.  Since the setting of the story is in Washington state where the beautiful lavender fields produce quite an artistic flair to this wonderful story.

Shauna is trying with all her might to make a go of it since her husband, Jack, died.  She's doing her best to raise their son and keep her sanity.

Then her business partner is murdered.  And it seems that she and her son are now in grave danger.  The one person she knows might be able to help her is also the one person she blames for her husband's death, Zach Bannister.

But Zach wants to help Shauna.  He feels guilty but he knows he might be the one person that can help her stay safe.

What a story!  Loved the suspense and the mystery.  Honestly had a hard time figuring out the "one" who is guilty.

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

• Series: A Lavender Tides Novel (Book 1)
• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (January 23, 2018)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0718085760
• ISBN-13: 978-0718085766

WOW {Warm Oven Wednesday} Cute Valentine's Day Treat

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For a great Valentine's Treat I'm making Inside Out Chocolate Strawberries!  Simply cut tops off strawberries, hull, and fill with melted chocolate.  When filled, place in egg carton and chill for a couple of hours.  YUM!

Power Plates: 100 Nutritionally Balanced, One-Dish Vegan Meals by Gena Hamshaw

Book Description: These 100 recipes for wholesome and nourishing vegan food from blogger, nutritionist, and Food52 author Gena Hamshaw help you make delicious vegan meals that deliver balanced and sustained energy. Every recipe contains the key macronutrients of healthy fats, complex carbohydrates, and proteins, which together make for a complete meal--things like Smoky Red Lentil Stew with Chard, and Falafel Bowls with Freekah and Cauliflower. Photographs accompany each recipe, showing how Gena's simple techniques and fresh ingredients yield delicious meals. Additional tips and tricks for taking food on the go, and for cooking ahead on the weekend for quick weekday lunches and dinners, round out the collection.

My Thoughts:  Some people say that food is an art.  Well to me food is an ends to a mean. Art is something that can be hung up or displayed.  Food is to be eaten and enjoyed.  😋

I love this cookbook.  There are many wonderful recipes.  If one is on a diet or just wants to eat clean and healthy this is the book for you.

As much as I loved this cookbook I just couldn't wrap my head around the different foods to cook.  And I may be a lazy cook because I just don't like complicated recipes.  And, to me, this recipes are a bit time consuming and complicated.

I do like the idea of incorporating vegetables in every dish.  So, I've decided to I can incorporate veggies but maybe not cook quite as complicated.  

Here in the south we cook a bit more uncomplicated.  Ask least in this house we do.

I love the pictures that show the cooked dish.  And the tips are worth reading, too.

A wonderful cookbook for those who have a bit more time and love to cook than I do.

*This book was provided for review by Waterbrook/Multnomah*

One of the recipes:  

Rice, Beans, Tofu, and Greens

Makes 4 To 6 Servings

This dish grew out of my tremendous love of rice and beans, as well as my tendency to load up the dish with extras: greens, peppers, sautéed mushrooms, tofu or tempeh, and whatever else strikes my fancy. I love it because it’s fast and filling, and it all comes together in a single pot. I’m the sort of person who can eat plain tofu right out of the package, so adding unmarinated, uncooked tofu doesn’t bother me. If naked tofu is a turnoff for you, feel free to use 8 ounces (225 g) smoked or baked tofu instead.

Optional Toppings

Crumbled corn chips, chopped fresh cilantro, lime wedges, hot sauce

Recipe

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and bell pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 7 minutes, until the onion is tender and translucent. Stir in the cumin, chili powder, paprika, and salt, then stir in the beans, tomatoes, rice, and water. Add the tofu and stir gently to combine. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat, cover, and simmer, stirring gently from time to time, until the rice is tender, about 20 minutes for white rice or 40 minutes for brown rice. 

Add the greens, cover, and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, until the greens are wilted. Season with red pepper flakes and stir in lime juice to taste. Taste and adjust the seasonings if desired. Serve right away, with any additional toppings you like.

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press (January 23, 2018)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399579052
• ISBN-13: 978-0399579059

With This Ring?: A Novella Collection of Proposals Gone Awry by Karen Witemeyer, Mary Connealy, Regina Jennings, Melissa Jagears

Book Description:  Humorous Historical Romance Novella 

Collection Offers Love and Laughs

Four top historical romance novelists team up in this new collection to offer stories of love and romance with a twist of humor. In Karen Witemeyer's "The Husband Maneuver," Marietta Hawkins decides to grab the reins when the ranch foreman she loves seems to be leaving forever. Regina Jennings offers "Her Dearly Unintended," where friends stranded by a rising river pretend to be newlyweds when a dangerous stranger arrives. 

Mary Connealy's "Runaway Bride" finds a Texas ranger getting more than he expected when he rescues a young woman fleeing a dangerous arranged marriage. And Melissa Jagears' "Engaging the Competition" finds a young woman forced to assist the man she's often sparred with after an accident leaves him helpless. Each tale is a fun blend of history and romance that will delight readers. 

My Thoughts:  A fun and light read for the reader who needs a laugh...somtimes a belly laugh from the antics of these proposals gone south.

The novellas are wonderful short stories of love and romance but there's a hitch!  These grooms.to.be aren't in the know or are truly lacking in the romance department.  

Love can be quite unexpected and sometimes quite unplanned.

The Husband Maneuver:  This story is about Marietta Hawkins who feels that she must take the lead in the romance department when the ranch foreman, Daniel Barrett, decides he is leaving forever.  Marietta comes up with a plan to lasso Daniel to the altar.
Her Dearly Unintended is a more serious story with Josiah Huckabee trying to save Katie Ellen Watson when a storm comes.  But with a washed out bridge and no way out they must stay put...and then a menacing stranger comes along.  Josiah and Katie [pretend to be married to save their reputations but also to save a life.  However, can a pretend marriage turn into a real marriage?

Runaway Bride is another mini story about a man trying to keep a woman safe by helping her escape from a "bad" man intent on marrying her.  Carrie and Big John, a solitary Texas Ranger, soon finds himself not just taking care of a lady but falling for this lady.  A cute story.

Engaging the Competition introduces us to a tomboy, Charlotte Andrews and Harrison Gray,,,they have been rivals for years.  And Charlotte is intended for another man.  But when Charlotte breaks Harrison's glasses, he cannot see thing.  Charlotte must help him with his teaching position making for a fun read.

A thoroughly enjoyable read with four great mini stories from four great western authors!

*This book was provided for review by Bethany House*

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Bethany House Publishers (January 5, 2016)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764217720
• ISBN-13: 978-0764217722

WOW {Warm Oven Wednesday}

These are the best!  

I love them with coffee in the morning.  

Go Here for the simple recipe!

Step by Step (Crisis Team) by Candace Calvert

Book Description:  Three years after a tragic accident left her a widow, ER nurse Taylor Cabot is determined to move on, checking off one item after another on her survival list. Her relationship with a handsome plastic surgeon even gives her hope for the last point―“fall in love again.” At least until crisis chaplain Seth Donovan steps back into her life, reawakening unanswered questions about her husband’s death.

While in San Diego to train community volunteers, Seth hopes to learn why Taylor is backing away from the crisis team and from their friendship. But nothing prepares him for the feelings that arise when he sees Taylor again . . . and sees her moving on with another man.

When a community crisis hits home and puts lives at risk, emotions run high and buried truths are unearthed. Will hope make the survival list?

My Thoughts:  The first novel I read my Candace Calvert was By your Side.  I enjoyed the read so much that I was thrilled to receive Step by Step the next book in the Crisis Team "series."  Don't worry these books don't have to be read in order.  

Step by Step is about ER nurse Taylor Cabot (Candace is an ER nurse so the scenarios are first hand knowledge).  Since her husband was tragically killed she is trying to get on with her life.  And the handsome plastic surgeon makes her think that maybe she can move on.  And then, the crisis chaplain, Seth Donovan, reappears in her life.

Seth has feelings for Taylor but Taylor seems to want nothing to do with Seth or the Crisis Team....she has a new man and wants to move on.

But then a crisis hits their community and Taylor and Seth must work together.  With emotions running on nerve endings it seems that no one is getting anywhere fast in the love lane. 

And interesting and fast reads.  The medical books are my favorite reads lately because they deal with "things" I know nothing about.

Loved this read!

*This book was provided for review by Tyndale*

• Series: Crisis Team
• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. (February 1, 2016)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1414390343
• ISBN-13: 978-1414390345

The Mountain Midwife by Laurie Alice Eakes

Book Description:  For nearly two hundred years, women in Ashley Tolliver’s family have practiced the art of midwifery in their mountain community. Now she wants to take her skills a step further, but attending medical school means abandoning those women to whom she has dedicated her life, the mountains she loves, and the awakening of her heart.

Ashley Tolliver has tended to the women of her small Appalachian community for years. As their midwife, she thinks she has seen it all. Until a young woman gives birth at Ashley’s home and is abducted just as Ashley tries to take the dangerously bleeding mother to the nearest hospital. Now Ashley is on a mission to find the woman and her newborn baby . . . before it’s too late.

Hunter McDermott is on a quest—to track down his birth mother. After receiving more media attention than he could ever want for being in the right place at the right time, he receives a mysterious phone call from a woman claiming to be his mother. Hunter seeks out the aid of the local midwife in the mountain town where the phone call originated—surely she can shed some light on his own family background.

Ashley isn’t prepared for the way Hunter’s entrance into her world affects her heart and her future. He reignites dreams of having her own family that she has long put aside in favor of earning her medical degree and being able to do even more for her community. But is it commitment to her calling or fear of the unknown that keeps her feet firmly planted in the Appalachian soil? Or is it something more—fear of her growing feelings for Hunter—that makes her hesitant to explore the world beyond the mountains?

My Thoughts:  Another new author to me, Laurie Alice Eakes, writes a paced novel about babies!  Well, midwifery.

Not one who has ever been interested in midwifery or birthing, I did find this novel, The Mountain Midwife, interesting.

Ms.Eakes writes with a dramatic flair that makes the reader feel the pain and trials of a young woman who helps others and of a young man who just wants to find his birth mother.

When I first saw the book and its title I thought that this would be an 18th century or early 19th century read but no, this is a modern day story.  Cell phones, jeans, and mountains.

Ashely finds that she needs to deal with feelings of the "unknown" and Hunter, well, Hunter brings a lot to Ashley's small world.

Other "secondary" characters in the story make the story well rounded  . . . at times funny, other times suspenseful, and sometimes just plain mean.

This is quite a story!  

One that I think all readers will love whether you like midwives or not.  

And of course, romance.

*This book was provided for review by The Thomas Nelson Street Team*

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan (December 15, 2015)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031033344X
• ISBN-13: 978-0310333449