#87 The Nightingale Nurses by Donna Douglas

Book Three in the Nightingales series. The final year in the Nurses training.

Helen finally stands up to her mother...now what? Marriage?, but maybe not happily ever after.

Dora can't seem to get over Nick, who is married to her best friend.

Millie finally commits to Seb, but will he come back from the war? A visit to a fortune telling patient gives a dire warning.

Dora's brother is in deep with the anti semitic "Blackshirts".

All the Nurses are looking forward to finishing school, and wondering who will win the Nightingale Medal, and with it, a job at the Hospital.

Dora tries dating Joe, but her heart is just not in it. Helen finally  connects with her mother after learning the secret she had so long tried to hide.

I would love to see more stories from the Nightingales!

ASIN: B00DOL0GHY

#86 The Nightingale Sisters by Donna Douglas

Book two in the Nightingales series.  We meet Violet, the new Night Sister, mysterious, secretive, she has something, or someone, to hide.

Dora continues her studies, She really misses a special guy, but that seems to be a lost cause.

Millie is searching for what her future should be. A new friend, an elderly patient, makes her even more unsure.

All of this while the whole country mourns  King George the V.

Sister Wren rules with an iron hand, and the students suffer for it!

Millie feels horrible when an abrasive patient ends her own life.  Comfort comes from an unexpected source. Another fascinating peek into the lives of the Nightingales in 1930's England.

• ASIN: B00BY7NJPG

#85 The Nightingale Girls by Donna Douglas

Dora Doyle was tough, she had to be. Growing up in Bethnal Green meant you had to fight for what you wanted. You had to earn the respect of the others in your life by being tough. 

But she had a dream, to be a Nightingale Nurse. So her she was, sitting in  front of the Matron at the Nightingale Teaching Hospital trying to explain why she felt she had earned a place there.

Lady Amelia Charlotte Benedict was supposed to be engaged following her Grandmothers plan. Instead, here she was, at the Nightingale Teaching Hospital, standing in the Matrons office, again, this time being told she had failed her preliminary training. Millie tried, but she tended to be clumsy, distracted and not at all like the proper lady she was supposed to be.

Helen Tremayne was quiet, kept to herself and did what she was told.

They were unlikely roommates. 

It is fascinating to look inside the training and society of 1930's England as we follow the trials and tribulations of their time at the Nightingale.

If you love PBS's Call the Midwife, you will love this series.

• ISBN-13: 978-0099569350

#84 The Hollows Limited Edition Boxed Set, Skeleton Song and Skeleton Lake, by Angela Kulig

Raiden and Conrad are Skeletons. So is Cassie. Their world is strange, foreign, confusing. Don't worry and keep reading. The farther you descend into their world, the more you will understand.

It all has to do with the Lake. 

At first you are repelled, but then you begin to empathise, and later even to understand Cassie. When she dies for the last time...you ache a little. 

When Marlow dies for the first time, you realise, slowly, that she will struggle to not make the same mistakes Cassie did. Cassie is there helping too...in a way.

These books, Skeleton Song is the prequel to Skeleton Lake, are disturbing but fascinating. 

I have never read anything quite like them. I hope you find your way to them and through them. 

I can't wait to continue the story.

• ASIN: B00H0OFXJM

#83 A country Doctor's Casebook by Roger A. MacDonald, M.D.

Wonderful tales, told with the wit, wisdom and common sense of a true Country Doctor. Having spent time in the medical field myself I could immediately connect with the truth in his stories. He is not afraid to shine a light on the failures of the system, and sometimes just the failure of medicine itself. Sometimes, the patient steers the boat, no matter how hard we try to bring it to shore! These are the stories of a Doctor from a more principled, more open time. A simpler time maybe, but certainly no easier than now. He did what needed to be done, simply because there was no one else to do it. 

• ASIN: B002J05HBG

#82 Woman of Courage by Wanda E. Brunsetter

Amanda Person thought she knew what her future would be, it was the night before her wedding and she was so happy. But an unexpected visit from her fiance changed everything. No wedding, no happily ever after, no future in the Quaker congregation where her father preached.
So Amanda and her father set out toward the West to Join a couple in their Mission to bring Christ to the Nez Perce  Indians in the Oregon Territory.
She was worried about her father who looked so tired. He finally was forced to tell her that his heart was failing, he was not long for this world and secured her promise she would continue on without him. She could have never guessed at the trials, dangers and the strengths she never knew she had as she struggles to fulfill that promise!
A wonderful story of a brave woman and her Journey with God toward true happiness.
ASIN: B00HX7CTB6

#81 Tumbleweed Weddings by Donna Reimel Robinson

Callie loves the library where she works, an old manor house, it is steeped in history, both it's own before becoming a library, and the history of a town full of children who learned to love books in it's comforting embrace. The head librarian, Lucille, keeps getting more cantankerous and tough to deal with every day! Not to mention the town council gunning to close the library and tear down the old building! Lane Hutchens comes to town, a stranger who seems to love books as much as Callie. Can they conspire to save the library and find love themselves?

Tonya speeds to work almost every day. Murry the local highway patrolman gives her a ticket..more than once!! Boy he gets under her skin! She's known him almost all her life and has not forgiven him for that snake he threw at her that got tangled in her hair as a kid...and she has no plans to! Beautiful, and used to using her beauty to get what she wants, she still feels empty, as if something is missing in her life. Murray finds himself with more feelings for her than he thinks he should. After all, he's not someone as beautiful as Tonya would ever fall in love with. Can they work out their differences and trust the Lord to work things out?

Cheyenne inherits 4 million dollars...BUT...only if she is married and has a child before she's 30. Big boned Cheyenne thinks that's not likely to happen. There's no men knocking down her door to propose, heck not even to ask for a date! She has always thought she would end up married to her best friend since they were kids, Derek Brandt. Unfortunately, Derek didn't want to get married until he was over 40. He had it in his head that God wanted him to stay single to focus on ministry. Then Rex Pierson moves into a ranch near town. He's a bit older, a widower and looking for a wife. He thinks Cheyenne is just what he is looking for and sets his sights firmly on her.  Cheyenne is flattered, but she just doesn't feel that "spark" with him that she does for Derek. Since Derek is moving off in other directions entirely, Cheyenne tries to resolve to marry Rex. Will she end up a Cowboys bride? Will Derek ever realize what he is missing?

A trio of interconnected stories, with a few more side romances thrown in, these are warm, inspirational romances that will warm your heart. enjoyable alone they are even better together!

• ISBN-13: 978-1628361773

#80 Blossom Street Brides by Debbie Macomber

Lauren, Lydia,  Bethanne, and Elisa's daughter Katie are all tied together. Throughout this charming novel, baskets of yarn with instructions to "Knit Me" start appearing all over town, telling folks that when the scarf is done they should take it to "A Good Yarn" Lydia's yarn shop to be donated to a homeless shelter. Each have their own relationship issues. this is a book filled with the unexpected, some surprising little things and others, some real jaw droppers. This is a book I read with a smile on my face, most of the time. Lauren dumps her long time boyfriend and finds love in a surprising place. Lydia struggles with a daughter who seems to be haunted by her past and a mother in decline. Bethanne struggles with a daughter who refuses to accept her parents divorce and her moms remarriage. Elisa is anguished to find out her daughter is pregnant at 19. You will feel like each of them is a friend or neighbor. A good read!

• ASIN: B00FUZPQZY

#79 Tide and Tempest by Elizabeth Ludwig

Captain Keondric Morgan never thought he would find himself embroiled in murder. It started with a passenger, betrothed to Killie McGrath, Braedon McKillop Had died on his ship. They had believed it to be from a mysterious illness. The ship's doctor confessed on his deathbed to having killed him for money. 

Neither the Captain, nor Mis McGrath could have imagined where this twisted path would take them.

Killie focused on her charity with the aged Sisters who ran a shelter, had no idea that his visit would set in motion a series of events that would lead her to her betrothed dark past and into a growing attraction to the Captain! With many twists and turns, this is a story that will keep you guessing until the end.

• ISBN-13: 978-0764210419

#78 John Dreamer by Elise Celine

John Dreamer is a book unlike any you have read before. Part classic Sci-Fi / Fantasy riddle, part psychology case record, parable, All amazing! John, Andy, Matty and the rest suddenly appear in a featureless white room with a chair. Each one's chair is particularly suited to them. Each chair different, unique, personal. None of the know why they are there. Everyone is apprehensive, afraid of why they have been brought there. Things begin to happen and the others start to disappear. Their chairs disappear too. Slowly Andy begins to realise what is happening. And then there were 2, just Andy and John Dreamer.

I won't spoil the story for you. It is sweet and tender and scary and you will not want to put it down!

• ASIN: B00I9AV1MY

#77 Pressed Pennies by Steven Manchester

Abby and Paige were leaving behind everything Paige had ever known. "Just the two of us" Abby had promised. Patrick had been drunk more often than not, and angry, and abusive. Paige deserved more, better, so Abby and Paige left. They moved to a small, old fashioned neighborhood.
Rick was a VP for a leading investment company. His wife Rose was an executive too. But something was missing. It all felt so empty. They had everything they could want, it just seemed like they didn't want each other anymore.
An unexpected encounter with a homeless man, echoing the words his grandmother had said to him years ago brought home just how much he had changed over the years, how much he disliked the man he had become.
He took some time off, then reconnected with his grandmother. Started his life over, mourned what was lost, and began again.
Have you ever though about what would happen if you were reunited with your first love?
Well, this is not what you imagine. This is a sweet, painful story about lost loves, second chances and the complications of blended families. You will laugh and feel the pain of every thorn as this rose of a relationship grows after being so severely pruned.
Once again Steven Manchester has shined a light on the things that make our lives complete. The painful moments as well as the shining ones. This is a book you should not miss!

• ASIN: B00J1K3TJO

#76 Willow Creek Brides by Connie Stevens

What a joy to read these three stories of Women, with struggles, true, but they followed their faith and found the Man they were destined to be with.

Tessa, abused and berated by her father until she believed she had no value. Miss Pearl, a widow who thought she would be running her boarding house alone because she was too old for a new love. Tillie, who had been insulted and scorned by a "City Boy" who thought her beneath him, and now thought he was not good enough for her. These three intertwined stories show that trust in God, Love and patience and letting God lead can end in a joy and contentment beyond measure. A wonderful cozy read for the front of a fireplace on a dreary day. Sunshine in a book!
ISBN-13: 978-1628362350

# 75 Lone Star Romance Collection by Cathy Marie Hake, Kimberley Comeaux

Inspiring interconnected stories of women who are broken, bruised and battered by life. Combine them with a family of Scottish immigrant men who live true and love the Lord and you have some wonderful reading ahead of you! Reverend Caleb Stone goes against the town busybodies to court a "fallen woman" wrongly accused. Plain Patience Primrose never felt loved by anyone, would sheriff Lee Stone ever see past that plain exterior? Crippled Carmen Rodriguez knew she would never have children of her own, who would marry a crippled woman? So she cares for others children and for all those she sees have a need, often at the expense of her own needs. Cobbler Duncan Stone wants to give her the shoes she needs to walk easier, but she refuses anything she thinks is charity. Watch as each story unfolds and leads into the next. A wonderful, uplifting read.

ISBN-13: 978-1628362268

#74 The Divine Secrets of the Whoopie Pie Sisters: the Complete Trilogy By Sarah Price & "Whoopie Pie" Pam Jarrell

Lydia, Susie, Leah and Sadie are about as different as sisters can be, but they All come together at the "Whoopie Pie Place", where they bake and sell Whoopie Pies, shoo fly pies, fresh baked bread and Amish crafts. This is a story of the trials, joys, pains, sorrows and spats. Looking past the serene facade of the Amish community to see the gossip, the struggling marriages, illnesses and all the other things that are part of the human condition. Everything that effects one impacts the others.

Leah is by default the matriarch of the family, after the death of both parents in an accident, she runs the business that supports them all at least partly and is raising the younger kinner still left at home. With the leukemia of a younger brother, Tobias, her worries are adding up, always worrying about a relapse is always in the back of her mind. Lydia and Susie bicker constantly while cooking in the bakery. Lydia is often leaving early, complaining about aches and pains. Susie's husband is often angry and resents the time she spends at the bakery. Sadie is feeling tired more and more every day, but doesn't want to add more worry to Leah's already heavy burden.  

This will be a book you won't want to put down, wanting to know what happens next!

• ASIN: B00HDW6QQU

#73 Maybelle in Stiches by Joyce Magnin

 

Maybelle was content with her life, if not happy. Her husband Holden was away at war in europe, she was living with her Mom and working as a "Welderette" at the Shipyard. World War II had effected every part of her life. She was a tomboy through and through despite her mothers attempts to turn her into a housewife. When her mother unexpectedly dies, then her husband is listed as missing, she is forced to step into the role as "Lady of the House". Her friends are other military wives and widows, all doing their best under tough circumstances. Maybelle is nudged into making a quilt. Something she thought she would never do after a disastrous outcome in High School when she attempted to make a "simple" dress!

This is a wonderful look inside the day to day lives of those left at home during WWII. From rationing, to service flags to visits from the military bearing bad news. 

If you enjoy looking through the keyhole into lives of past eras, you will love this book!

ASIN: B00IBJP64C

#72 Clipped Wings by Helena Hunting

Hayden and Tenley have a lot in common, crushing losses, devastating guilt, aching loneliness. they dance around each other before Tenley makes tentative moves to respond to Hayden's advances and ask him about the huge tattoo she wants him to do on her back. Hayden is fascinated with Tenley but can't really figure out why.

They find themselves magnetically draw to each other with an electricity that sizzles each time they touch.

The sexual energy is palpable, but Hayden has this rule about dating (or sleeping with) clients. They are each keeping important things about themselves secret, fearing rejection, pain, hurt, loss, both their own and for the other.

Can they get past their pasts? Will they end up hurting each other beyond repair? Filled with hot, HOT sex, as well as tender hearted moments, this is not a book for the faint of heart, or those of tender ages!

I cannot wait for the next book to continue the story, as this ends in a cliffhanger worthy of a season ender of the best TV shows!

ASIN: B00F8KUK8O

#71 Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski

 

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to know, really know what someone else was thinking? Well it might not be as easy as you thought! Mackenzi, Cooper, Olivia, and the rest thought they were just getting a flu shot! But as a bizarre side effect they all got ESP!! Imagine High School with all your friends knowing exactly what you were thinking...ACK! Even worse, you know exactly what your parents are thinking...GROSS! What would you do? Who would you want to hear what was going on inside their head? Follow along with the members of Homeroom 10B as they work their way through all the ins and outs of telepathy 101. A really fun story with some parts that will make you think...about what you are thinking.
ASIN: B00FIN0TZ0

#70 Taken for English by Oliva Newport

 

Ruth and Analise are friends, but they are at opposite ends of the Amish community near Westcliffe, Colorado. Analise is just joining the Amish Church, having given up her "English" life. Ruth on the other hand has chosen not to join the church so that she may continue her training as a nurse. There are fires threatening the community and Ruth has a chance meeting with a volunteer firefighter that seems destined to make her life even more complicated. Analise feels drawn to help a rebellious Amish girl seemingly bent on putting herself in danger.

Set against these modern day dramas, we get a look at another town town circa 1892 as danger and violence threaten the town's peace and future. Sheriff Byler tries to stop a feud between the Twigs and the Dentons in Gassville, Arkansas as Joseph Beiler and Zeke Berkey arrive looking  for a spot for a new Amish settlement. and Joseph finds himself attracted to an English woman in town Maura Woodley.

The two stories lead us through the junction of English and Amish in both time periods.

Jumping back and forth between the stories can be a bit disconcerting, but both stories are well worth the journey!

ASIN: B00HWL1I4W

#69 The Workhouse Girl by Dilly Court

Sarah Scrase found herself in the workhouse, alone and terrified. Beaten and terrorized by Mister Trigg and his wife. Power hungry and cruel they enjoyed seeing the small children cower. They call Sarah the Devils daughter.  She and her protector, scrappy Nettie Bean escape the workhouse thanks to a goodhearted mill owner.  But the Triggs will continue to haunt her and those she cares for in ways she could never imagine for the next many years to come.
Sarah doesn't fear hard work, and when by circumstances she ends up in a dreary Marsh, living with and learning from a woman known as a witch by the nearby townsfolk, she learns to adjust and comes to love the queer but goodhearted woman.
A wonderful tale full of twists and turns and filled with the unexpected. You won't want to put it down as you find yourself drawn into the sights, sounds and smells of 1800's England. A great read for a dreary winter day!
ASIN: B00CA88MOG

#68 The Answer to Bad Religon Is Not No Religon by Martin Thielen

 

Every Minister, Pastor and Priest should read this book! It clearly and concisely addresses the problem of "Gorilla Religion" in America today. The negative, judgmental and hostile type of religion that is more interested in keeping the "wrong people" out of their churches and loudly telling them why they are surely going to Hell. The Author clearly covers what the problem is, what it is not and how to fix the problem. I found him to be a wonderful story teller with thoughtful insights and a clear vision on how to fix this issue that is destroying religion in the U.S. today. The "Nones" are people who say they identify themselves with no religion. The nones used to be only 6% of the population. Now they are 20% and growing. Why? Because Americans have been so wounded, so damaged and so repulsed by bad religion, the nones feel No Religion is better than Bad Religion!
I was so overjoyed to hear someone say what I had been thinking for the last few years, that I read it straight through in one sitting. This is a road map of how to get us back to what Christianity was meant to be.
ASIN: B00I0G3STQ

#67 The Rockin' Chair by Steve Manchester

                                 

Alice was drifting...farther away every day. John held on to what she had been and tried to ease her days as the confusion stole away the woman he loved and had loved for so many years. It was time for the grandchildren to come home.

As the time grew short, his pain was overwhelming. Then at her funeral he felt her poke...insistent, and he knew. John set out to heal the wounds of his family. They may all be broken, his fault as much as any of theirs, but he would set them on the road to healing, and heal himself in the process.  This is a story that is painful to read at times, with pain raw and real, but also with Joy, forgiveness and redemption. A journey well worth being undertaken.
 ASIN: B00CNVPHIE

#66 The third Rule of Ten by Gay Hendricks and Tinker Lindsay

 

What can I say, I have devoured another book of the fascinating detective Tensing Norbu. In this one he struggles with relationships, secrets, and his own darker side. An enemy thought Dead, is alive!  Between a luxurious Quinceanera celebration to illegal organ transplants to the next Tea Party candidate for Governor. It is in all ways another rule of Ten. If Ten were to show up at my door, I know I could spend many hours in deep conversation while we consider how to change the world, which of course starts with changing ones self. So Center yourself, breath with intention and dive into the World of Ten!
ASIN: B00F8KX74S

# 65 The Broken Rules of Ten by Gay Hendricks and Tinker Lindsay

If formulaic main characters, bore you. If reading the same old stories frustrates you. You MUST read this book and those that follow after in this series! Tenzing Norbu is like no detective you have ever encountered. The way he thinks, moves and acts have little in common with most detectives and this book has little in common with most mystery novels.
This is the story of how he got started, where he comes from and why he is like he is. The son of a drunk Parisian mother and a Tibetan monk father, he truly has a foot in each world like few ever will. 
You will see how spending time in the monastery with his critical father nurtures his self doubt while it feeds his ability to focus and control himself. How spending time in Paris with his dependent mother nurtures the rescuer and self reliant side of himself. Tenzing is just a boy, and learns many painful truths about life and about himself. This story is the beginning.
ASIN: B00BLSZKS2

The best laid plans and so forth

This Fall and Winter have been tough, with Family crises and deaths, illness and injury. But now all is if not well, at least under control. So I apologize for the huge gape in reviews, and will try to get back on track! Thank you for your indulgence.