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Book Review: Undaunted Hope

January 27, 2016January 24, 2016 Sarah

Find out all about Jody Hedlund’s wonderful new novel, Undaunted Hope. It just came out this month and I know you’ll love it!

Undaunted Hope by Jody Hedlund - a #BookReview on thepajamachef.com

A description of the book from the publisher:

Tessa Taylor arrives in 1870s Upper Peninsula, Michigan, planning to serve as a new teacher to the town. Much to her dismay, however, she immediately learns that there was a mistake, that the town had requested a male teacher. Percival Updegraff, superintendent and chief mine clerk, says she can stay through winter since they won’t be able to locate a new teacher before then, and Tessa can’t help but say she is in his debt. Little does she know that Percival will indeed keep track of all that she owes him.

Determined to become indispensable, Tessa throws herself into teaching, and soon the children of the widowed lighthouse keeper have decided she’s the right match for their grieving father. Their uncle and assistant light keeper, Alex Bjorklund, has his own feelings for Tessa. As the two brothers begin competing for her hand, Tessa increasingly feels that someone is tracking her every move, and she may not be able to escape the trap that has been laid for her.

As usual, my five point review:

Did you ever read Hearts Made Whole? If so, you’ll remember Tessa. In Undaunted Hope, Tessa is the star, not her older sister. Don’t fret though–these stories, while related, are completely independent. Tessa is phenomenal in this book. She’s so mature and full of faith in God. It’s fun to see the changes in her from one book to the next.
My favorite part of Jody Hedlund’s books are her characters. No matter who she is writing about–the main female lead, the main male lead(s), children, the “bad guys,” etc.–everyone… and I mean EVERYONE is well crafted and well developed. In this book, I think Alex and the children are the best characters by far! It’s rare that “adult books” have strong children characters, but this one does. Score!
Since I have family who live in Michigan, I’m familiar with the state. It’s fun to learn historical details about places I’ve been to or heard about. It’s also interesting to consider how HARD life was on the Michigan frontier in the 1870s, especially in remote areas accessible only by boat like Eagle Harbor, the setting of this story. This place was cold, isolated, and rough… but people survived and thrived. Incredible! I wouldn’t want to live there, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
One thing I loved about this story was how it combined adventure and romance and wit into one perfect, fun package. I didn’t think the actual description of the book was quite so accurate… the “trap” wasn’t quite as intense or as mysterious as it may seem, but it was pretty bad. 😦 Fortunately things turned out okay for Tessa!
The main aspect of this story that I didn’t enjoy was the love triangle. It didn’t feel very genuine or real, but it did bring for some extra special romance! 🙂 Overall, this was a great book… a fun read on a lazy winter afternoon. Definitely check it out soon!

What are you reading lately?

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bethany House Publishers. However, I was not required to write a positive review. The thoughts expressed above are entirely my own. Thanks to Bethany House for the chance to read this great book!

Reviews

Book Review: The Photograph

November 25, 2015November 22, 2015 Sarah

Read on to learn more about Beverly Lewis’ The Photograph! A great read to cozy up with this fall/winter! 🙂

Read on for a #review about the #book The Photograph by Beverly Lewis!

A description of the book from the publisher:

Eva Esch and her sisters are in a predicament. With the passing of their widowed mother, Eva’s older brother plans to move his growing family into the Eden Valley farmhouse where they all grew up, leaving little room for his three single sisters. Unless they marry within the year, the only apparent option is for two sisters to go to Indiana to live with an elderly great aunt. Eva hopes to be married, but she isn’t sure she wants to give up her sweet shop for the life of a farmer’s wife. And she can’t see how her prospects would be any better in Indiana.

When younger sister Lily disappears in the night, leaving only a brief note, Eva fears she has been wooed away from the People by an outsider. And when Jed Stutzman, a young Amish buggy maker from Ohio, shows up at Eva’s market stand in Lancaster with a photo of a Plain young woman, Eva’s world begins to tilt.

As usual, my five point review:

About a year ago, I received The River by Beverly Lewis to read and review… and I think that was the last Amish fiction novel I’ve read. I used to be allll over Amish fiction but somewhere along the way I started reading other genres. But this fall, when I saw that Beverly Lewis had a new release, I decided to check it out–and I am so glad I did. This was another wonderful book. Whether it’s your first Amish novel, or the latest in your favorite genre, this is a book not to miss.
Though the overarching plot–Lily’s disappearance, Eva’s romance options, Jed’s search to find the woman in the [forbidden] photo–has suspense and romance, it is just a pleasant and relaxing read all around. I’ll be honest; if you have read one of these types of novels you can probably predict where this book is going, but the journey to get there is just fabulous.
Since I do have the “predictability” element of these books down to an art, I was expecting to find something disagreeable about Jed, the [as you guessed it] main love interest here. But really… I didn’t get that vibe from him. No jerky moves, no heart-breaking decisions… just a nice, honest, hard-working guy. He was my favorite character by far! Even the female leads had their issues at times, but Jed was just great and I wish there could have been more of his presence throughout the pages.
My other wish for this novel was that we would have learned more about Lily–WHY she left, WHY she decided to go against her community’s teachings and have her picture taken, and so many more questions along that vein. Yes, they were answered–somewhat–in the wonderful ending pages of the book, but I thought they could have been discussed more thoroughly. But perhaps the author left that a bit vague for another book!
Though I haven’t read many of Lewis’ books, she is renowned as a wonderful storyteller. This book is no exception! The plot, the characters, the setting… all are so well done and just enchanting. To be honest, a lot of Christian fiction or Amish fiction is not that way so it is refreshing when you come across a book that is all-around a winner. 🙂 I highly recommend this book!

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Reviews

Book Review: Hearts Made Whole

October 14, 2015October 12, 2015 Sarah

Read on for more about Jody Hedlund’s Hearts Made Whole!

A description of the book from the publisher:

After her father’s death, Caroline Taylor has grown confident running the Windmill Point Lighthouse. But in 1865 Michigan, women aren’t supposed to have such roles, so it’s only a matter of time before the lighthouse inspector appoints a new keeper–even though Caroline has nowhere else to go and no other job available to her.

Ryan Chambers is a Civil War veteran still haunted by the horrors of battle. He’s been given the post as lighthouse keeper, and the isolation where he can drown in drink and hide from his past is appealing. He’s not expecting the current keeper to be a feisty and beautiful woman who’s none-too-pleased to be giving up her position. They both quickly realize he’s in no shape to run the lighthouse, but Ryan’s unwilling to let anyone close, ravaged by memories and guilt. Caroline’s drawn to this wounded soul, but with both of them relying on that single position, can they look past their loss to a future filled with hope…and possibly love?

As usual, my five point review:

This book was hard to put down! I read it in less than two days, and it only took that long because I had to work one of those days. Yes, contrary to popular opinion, librarians don’t get to just sit around and read the day away. 🙂 That would be nice though! If you find that job, please let me know. Anyways, Jody Hedlund once again gives us a compelling, thrilling, and poignant novel. From the start, I was captivated by Ryan and Caroline and their individual [and soon to be shared] predicaments.
Let’s begin by talking about Caroline. Can I just say that I could NEVER imagine being in her shoes? Losing both parents, figuring out how to care for and provide for four siblings [including a very sick sister] on her own, and working a [more than] full time job as a woman in a male-dominated profession. Oh, and the majority of the men in her profession are trying to run her out. I cannot even imagine! But she handles her life with grace and dignity, working hard even when she thinks that she will inevitably be kicked out of her home and left with no where to go. She has to make some hard choices–even considering marrying out of convenience and fear in order to provide for her siblings. I realize that my/our cultural context for this, especially in middle/upperclass America, is very lacking, but I know that this happens even today in many parts of the world [America included] and it is just crazy to imagine. But even so, Caroline doesn’t face life dragging her feet or whining, but doing what she can for her family. Really inspiring, even if I know that won’t be my life ever.
Now Ryan. Ohhh Ryan! Like veterans from wars past and present, Ryan returns from the Civil War broken–physically, emotionally, and spiritually. He’s a flawed character yet beneath the surface, there’s something more. It is in that something that Caroline and Ryan can unite to provide what the other needs. Ryan struggles with drug and alcohol addiction throughout the book, and once again the author handled this timeless theme well. Today we have so many resources to help in those situations, but not so in the 1800s. So it was interesting [and SAD] to consider the cost of addiction in that day and age. I won’t spoil the end, but as you probably have expected, Ryan’s comeback was pretty phenomenal.
The setting of this book was amazing–historically, as well as situationally. I didn’t know about the history of women working in the Michigan lighthouse industry, nor about the importance of lighthouses on the Great Lakes over time. Neat stuff!
Overall, I loved this book. Probably my only complaint is that the cover was a bit weird. It didn’t seem to connect with the story at all and detracts from the loveliness of the book. It had a little bit of everything–romance, family, mystery… and was engaging from start to finish. Plus, it wasn’t one of those historical fiction novels that feels ancient. This felt accessible and enjoyable. Highly recommend!

What are you reading lately?

Reviews

Book Review: A Fifty-Year Silence

September 19, 2015September 18, 2015 Sarah

Today I have a memoir book review for you! I love memoirs, so I was excited to request Miranda Richmond Mouillot’s A Fifty-Year Silence from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.

Here is a description of the book from the publisher:

A young woman moves across an ocean to uncover the truth about her grandparents’ mysterious estrangement and pieces together the extraordinary story of their wartime experiences

In 1948, after surviving World War II by escaping Nazi-occupied France for refugee camps in Switzerland, the author’s grandparents, Anna and Armand, bought an old stone house in a remote, picturesque village in the South of France. Five years later, Anna packed her bags and walked out on Armand, taking the typewriter and their children. Aside from one brief encounter, the two never saw or spoke to each other again, never remarried, and never revealed what had divided them forever.

A Fifty-Year Silence is the deeply involving account of Miranda Richmond Mouillot’s journey to find out what happened between her grandmother, a physician, and her grandfather, an interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials, who refused to utter his wife’s name aloud after she left him. To discover the roots of their embittered and entrenched silence, Miranda abandons her plans for the future and moves to their stone house, now a crumbling ruin; immerses herself in letters, archival materials, and secondary sources; and teases stories out of her reticent, and declining, grandparents. As she reconstructs how Anna and Armand braved overwhelming odds and how the knowledge her grandfather acquired at Nuremberg destroyed their relationship, Miranda wrestles with the legacy of trauma, the burden of history, and the complexities of memory. She also finds herself learning how not only to survive but to thrive – making a home in the village and falling in love.

With warmth, humor, and rich, evocative details that bring her grandparents’ outsize characters and their daily struggles vividly to life, A Fifty-Year Silence is a heartbreaking, uplifting love story spanning two continents and three generations.

And as usual, my five point review:

I love historical fiction and non-fiction… I always joke that World War II was my favorite war, but I think that’s simply how accessible it has been for much of my life. Both of my grandfathers as well as other relatives served in the war, and I was introduced to the war in elementary school through books like Number the Stars, Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl, The Endless Steppe, and many, many others. So to find that this memoir deals with the life [and secrets] of the author’s grandparents during and after World War II was incredibly intriguing. And the beginning was fascinating! The author does a fabulous job of pulling the readers into her life and her grandparents’ stories. There’s something magical about Europe, and France in particular, and the author captures the place beautifully.
As I read on though, my interest in the book fizzled out and I actually ended putting it down for a time. There just was so much speculation and not enough facts. I don’t want to spoil the ending for you, but while I appreciate the author’s book in that it memorializes her grandparents, her theories are just not compelling enough for me to believe. That does not in any way detract from what she does know–I’m just not sure I could come to the same conclusions about how and what they survived. This also does not detract from the way the author tells her love story, her life story. As a standalone story, her life/her love is pretty neat too. 🙂 Her grandparents’ lives are awesome too–her grandmother became a doctor during the middle of the 20th century in a time when many women didn’t even go to college. Her grandfather was an interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials in Germany after the war.
Miranda Richmond Mouillot has a lovely writing style. I’m not sure if she plans to write other books, but her lyrical prose draws in readers like nothing else can… making a non-fiction story read like a classic, lovely novel. Again, the setting of the book in FRANCE definitely helps but still–her writing style and word choice is gorgeous. Instead of being on my couch in Nashville, I was in a medieval stone house in an a village older than time. Can it get any better? Ohhh, France.
The biggest problem I had with the book aside from the lack of information was that, not to discount anyone’s survival from the Holocaust, her grandparents were not in concentration camps. They were not captured and didn’t seem to have many [any?] close calls either. They were Jewish. They had to flee, but they survived. And that’s incredible and I don’t want to discount their story or others like it. However, in some tiny ways, saying individuals like that survived the Holocaust is a shaky subject, and may even be one that I can’t take too hard of a stand against since I don’t have that first-person/familial experience. In some ways that discounts the stories of those who did survive concentration camps. It just, to me, softens those survival stories in some ways. I’m not sure of a better way to frame their experience besides “Holocaust survivors” but I just think there has to be some other category. I do understand the perspective of Mouillot on this though.
Overall, I enjoyed reading the story of Mouillot and her grandparents–their stories of life and love and survival were incredible, passionate, and told beautifully. Reading about the animosity [to put it lightly] between her grandparents was hard. I can’t imagine not talking to Ben ever again like her grandparents did, or the effects that would have on our larger families. This book wasn’t exactly what I was expecting but it was lovely, even if hard to read at times and controversial in terminology too.

Disclosure: I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review. However, I was not required to write a positive review. The thoughts expressed above are entirely my own. Thanks to Blogging for Books and the publisher, Crown Publishers, for the chance to read this great book!

Reviews

Book Review: Keepers of the Covenant

September 3, 2015September 2, 2015 Sarah

This book review is a wee bit tardy but here it is! Find out all about Lynn Austin’s Keepers of the Covenant.

A description of the book from the publisher:

In Their Darkest Hour, Where Would Hope Be Found?

In one life-changing moment, the lives of the exiles in Babylon are thrown into despair when a decree from the king’s palace calls for the annihilation of every Jewish man, woman, and child throughout the empire in less than one year.

Ezra, a quiet but brilliant scholar, soon finds himself called upon to become the leader of his people. Forced to rally an army when all his training has been in the Torah, he struggles to bring hope in a time of utter despair, when dreams of the future–of family and love–seem impossible.

In Keepers of the Covenant, acclaimed novelist Lynn Austin weaves together the struggles and stories of both Jews and Gentiles, creating a tapestry of faith and doubt, love and loss. Here, the Old Testament comes to life, demonstrating the everlasting hope displayed in God’s unwavering love for His people.

As usual, my five point review:

It took me so long to read and review this book because I didn’t realize it was the second book in The Restoration Chronicles series until after I had received it! Whoops! The first book, Return to Me, was great. I couldn’t put it down. Unfortunately, this book, for me, wasn’t quite as compelling and was too long. It may have just been that it was hard to get into, but I never got that must-not-put this-book-down feeling here. But you might love it!
Regardless, this still was a well written book. Lynn Austin is a great author and I have enjoyed much of her historical fiction (especially that set in the Civil War and WWII eras). The plot centers around the Biblical books of Ezra and Esther, so the time of Jewish captivity. Biblical fiction is just not my favorite, but since I do like Lynn Austin I thought I’d give this book a try.
The way that Lynn Austin told this story was easily the best part of the book. Her writing style and heart comes through so well in this book! When reading Biblical fiction or watching Biblical movies (not that I do that very often… but churches do show them for things from time to time), I find it important that the story be compelling (so as to not further the notion that the Bible is boring) while not adding too much to the text. There has to be a balance between making the times come alive and not assuming too much. I think this book (and series) do a good job at helping readers understand how life might have been like during this period of history. Lynn Austin does use scripture often, so that helps with its authenticity.
Perhaps one of the reasons why this book wasn’t my favorite was that there was a lack of energy and story. Some characters I expected to be more exciting(?) just weren’t, like Devorah (Deborah). Other parts just seemed somewhat detailed and tedious, and while I don’t have anything against long books, this was just hard to power through.
Overall, I have mixed feelings on this book. Since it is based on Biblical history, I don’t want to say it’s bad… and it’s not. However, this genre isn’t my favorite and compared to the first book in the series, this one just didn’t hold my attention as well. It’s worth the read to learn more about this portion of Biblical history for sure. There are lots of good reviews for this book on Goodreads so I may be in the minority on this book! As I said previously, there are other Lynn Austin books that I love so don’t dismiss this author because of me! I hate writing less than glowing reviews, but I do want to be honest. Thanks for reading!

What are you reading lately?