Review ~ More Than Words Can Say (Patchwork Family #2) by Karen Witemeyer

Paperback, 384 pages

Published June 4th 2019 by Bethany House Publishers 

After fulfilling a pledge to a dying friend, Zacharias Hamilton is finally free. No family entanglements. No disappointing those around him. Just the quiet bachelor existence he's always craved. Until fate snatches his freedom away when the baker of his favorite breakfast bun is railroaded by the city council. Despite not wanting to get involved, he can't turn a blind eye to her predicament . . . or her adorable dimples.

Abigail Kemp needs a man's name on her bakery's deed. A marriage of convenience seems the best solution . . . if it involves a man she can control. That person definitely isn't the stoic lumberman who oozes silent confidence whenever he enters her shop. Control Zacharias Hamilton? She can't even control her pulse when she's around him.

When vows are spoken, Abigail's troubles should be over. Yet threats to the bakery worsen, and darker dangers hound her sister. Can she put ever more trust in Zach without losing her dreams of independence?

More about the author here.

READ an excerpt here.

Purchase Link:
Amazon
CBD 
I am NOT affiliated with any vendors. Links are for your convenience only. 

My Review

5 STARS!!!

‘He wanted to throw open the cellar door and let all his secrets escape so her light could shine into his dark places. Yet at the same time, he wanted to padlock that door shut and never risk her disappointment.’

Zach's past and his struggle in the present really touched me. I cried through one particular scene. Witemeyer really makes the characters come alive on the page. More Than Words Can Say might be one of the most descriptive books I’ve read so far this year. I mean listen to this:

‘This wasn’t how the evening was supposed to go. He and Abby were supposed to be sitting on a blanket by the creek, eating fancy hotel food, and sharing kisses. Not standing in the middle of an emotional briar patch, confessing secrets that held the power to destroy everything they’d built.

Yet in the midst of that poisonous bramble, a gentle hand alit on his arm, and his barbed surroundings retracted some of their thorns.’

Wow. An emotional briar patch. Can’t you just see it? All those ‘thorns’ (lies from the enemy) poking and prodding and drawing blood? How many of us can relate to this?? I’m telling you, Witemeyer has outdone herself with this story. And the scene doesn’t stop there. It gets even better because once the truth comes out then Abby has a choice of how to respond, either with condemnation or gentleness, just like we have that same choice when someone shares deep pain with us.

I highly recommend reading both books so you get the full measure of Zach and his beautiful patchwork family! More Than Words Can Say is a fantastic story filled with drama, wit, and love. Fans of historical fiction with a strong redemptive theme will enjoy this book. 

I received a copy of the book from the publisher. I was under no obligation to write a positive review. No compensation has been received.

Rebecca Reviews ~ The Number of Love (The Codebreakers #1) by Roseanna White + Giveaway of A Song Unheard (print AND Kindle)

Paperback, 368 pages

Published June 4th 2019 by Bethany House Publishers

Three years into the Great War, England’s greatest asset is their intelligence network—field agents risking their lives to gather information, and codebreakers able to crack every German telegram. Margot De Wilde thrives in the environment of the secretive Room 40, where she spends her days deciphering intercepted messages. But when her world is turned upside down by an unexpected loss, for the first time in her life numbers aren’t enough.

Drake Elton returns wounded from the field, followed by an enemy that just won’t give up. He’s smitten quickly by the too-intelligent Margot, but how to convince a girl who lives entirely in her mind that sometimes life’s answers lie in the heart?

Amidst biological warfare, encrypted letters, and a German spy who wants to destroy not just them, but others they love, Margot and Drake will have to work together to save them all from the very secrets that brought them together. 

Learn more about Roseanna and her books on her blog, Writing Roseanna.

Rebecca's Review

5 STARS!!!

"The numbers marched across the page in a glory all their own." 

Margot De Wilde stays quite busy using her prodigious mathematical prowess to aid England's intelligence network at its highest level; in short, Margot is a codebreaker. She would rather calculate the number of bricks used to construct a building, than bat her eyes in flirtation; thus keeping her male counterparts in Room 40 at a comfortable distance. That is until one day, when Lieutenant Drake Elton barged into her private conversation of numbers and popped just the right question, "Have you a name?"

Drake Elton cannot forget the girl without a name, whose dark eyes pervade his memory through-out the hours of his dangerous days and nights. When his own service as an intelligence agent is interrupted by a life threatening injury, Drake returns home to England to recuperate and discovers the enigmatic Margot De Wilde once again; this time at the side of his hospital bed, in the shadow of his beloved sister. Unfortunately, all is not fair in love and war as pundits would have us to believe, for there are some puzzles that seem impossible to solve, or perhaps it's just a matter of asking the right question.

"Three, nine, twenty-seven, eighty-one . . . Eighteen. Eighteen. Eighteen." The number of love.

Outstanding hardly seems adequate to describe the manner in which Roseanna White has brought these characters to life!

I received a copy of this book from the author and publisher. The opinions stated above are entirely my own. 

Senior Reviewer, Rebecca Maney

Rebecca is a graduate of Bryan College with a degree in Christian Education, and is currently serving at the First Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Gastonia, North Carolina as the Director of Children's Ministry. With over 30 years of experience in her field, she has had many opportunities to use her love of reading and writing in creative ways across the generations. A wife, mother of four "nearly" grown children, and grandmother to four beautiful grandchildren, Rebecca has been able to return to her love of reading and more recently reviewing, with a renewed passion for the "beauty of story".

Here's a bonus for anyone who has read to the end!

Margot De Wilde was introduced  as a secondary character in 

A Song Unheard (Shadows Over England Book 2) by Roseanna White. 

Rebecca has purchased a copy of A Song Unheard for GIVEAWAY!!!

Giveaway Instructions

1) You must follow the blog through GFC in the right sidebar >>>

2) You must leave a comment telling us what you enjoy most about historical fiction, especially books that take place during 'The Great War'. 

3) You must leave an email address in a non-spammy format
(jane at here dot com) so you can be contacted if you win.
No email. No entry.  (Unless I know you really well!!) I won't chase you down. :-)

US Only (48 contiguous states) because postage is a bear!

Winner will be drawn on June 18th.

REMEMBER: This GIVEAWAY is for a print copy of 
A Song Unheard (Shadows Over England #2)...NOT The Number of Love!!

BONUS GIVEAWAY!!!!

I bought a Kindle copy of A SONG UNHEARD for any international blog follower!!!!
Just leave a comment like the others but include what country you are in!!! 


~Happy Reading~

Review ~ The Noble Guardian (The Bow Street Runners #3) by Michelle Griep

Published June 1st 2019 by Shiloh Run Press

The must-read conclusion to Michelle Griep’s Bow Street Runners Trilogy: Life couldn’t be better for Abigail Gilbert—but it’s been a long time coming. Having lived with a family who hated her, love is finally within reach. Abby sets off on a journey across England to marry one of the most prestigious gentleman bachelors in the land—until highwaymen upset her plans and threaten her life.

Horse patrol captain Samuel Thatcher arrives just in time to save Abby. But to him she’s simply another victim in a job he’s come to despise. Tired of the dark side of humanity, he intends to buy land and retire.

Abby pleads with him to escort her on the rest of her journey. He refuses until she offers him the thing he desperately needs to achieve his goal: money. Delivering her safely will earn him more than enough to settle into a quiet life.

So begins an impossible trek for the cynical lawman and the proper lady. Each will be indelibly changed by the time they reach her betrothed, if they don’t kill one another first—or fall in love.

Purchase:

Amazon

CBD 

I am NOT affiliated with any of these vendors. Links are for your convenience only. 

My Review

4.5 STARS!!!

Talk about tall, dark, and dangerous…Samuel Thatcher deserves his own hashtag! Years of hunting down marauders have left indelible marks on Samuel, literally and figuratively. His goal is to earn enough to leave the Bow Street Runners and buy a piece of farmland, retiring to a life of solitude. He’s seen and done too many horrible things to ever hope for love.

Abigail Gilbert lives a pitiful life among a step mother and step sisters who despise her, and a father who is only looking to wed her off so he can go about his business with his ‘new’ family. He sends Abby away to join her fiancé, the supposedly upstanding and wealthy Sir Jonathan Aberley of Brakewell Hall. With no protection provided by her father, Abby, her maid, and driver must cross through dangerous territory, rife with thieves and the murderous Shankhart Robbins.

Due to unexpected circumstances, Samuel agrees to protect and deliver Abby to Sir Jonathan. Along the way they face much adversity and danger, bringing a level of complexity to their relationship neither one expected and opening each to the heart of the other. This story delves deep into restoration through Christ alone and offers hope to the most bone weary and burdened soul.

With an assemblage of some pretty amazing supporting characters, The Noble Guardian is a fine finish to Griep’s Bow Street Runners series. This is one for the keeper shelf that I highly recommend.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Barbour Publishing and was under no obligation to post a review.