A Letter From Lancaster County

While Kate Lloyd’s A Letter from Lancaster County isn’t absolutely appalling, it is rather dull.  Had the paperback version been available this reader would’ve sorely tempted to skip multiple pages. The story is told from the perspective of two very different sisters, Angela and Rose.  The constant change in voice from one sister to the Read More

My Daughter’s Legacy

Authors Mindy Starns Clark and Leslie Gould gambled writing a book within a book.  My Daughter’s Legacy is actually two stories running parallel, one set in present day Virginia, the other 1864 Virginia.  The risk doesn’t pay off; the two stories don’t mesh together well. The book starts out in the present day jarring the Read More

His Guilt

How many different Amish stories can be written?  Although Shelley Shepard Gray’s, His Guilt delves into a different aspect of the Amish community, it still feels stale. This book is surprising; however, as it addresses a darker side of the Amish community, not often written about; families who are Amish in name, if not in Read More

Grounded Hearts

Grounded Hearts set in Ballyhaven, County Clare, Ireland 1941 is an interesting story of a fallen Canadian pilot and the Irish midwife who nurses him back to health. Nan carries guilt not only over her husband’s suicide, a sin according to her Catholic upbringing, but also because she allowed the entire community including her priest; Read More

God’s Smuggler

While it is obvious there is much Divine Intervention within the pages of Brother Andrew’s God Smuggler. I found the book rather boring. Given the tales of going behind the Iron Curtain and into communist countries on a mission for Christ, I wanted the tale to be gripping, but it just wasn’t. The book is Read More

Dragon Seed

Although classified as juvenile fiction, Marty Machowski’s Dragon Seed is a worthwhile read for young and old alike.  Written as an allegory, Dragon Seed is a story within a story, comparing and contrasting Lucifer’s fall from heaven to the earthly havoc resulting from that fall. As the story unfolds, readers are sure to look inward Read More

The Captain’s Daughter

Set in 1879 London, “The Captain’s Daughter” gives readers a peek into late 19th-century life, a time when women’s, roles as well as societal norms were experiencing transitional birthing pains. During this time period, individuals associated with the theater lived on the outer fringes of proper society.  Although many of the individuals connected to the Read More