Midnight Promises by Sherryl Woods
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love this Sweet Magnolia series. I forget how much till the next book comes along and then I can't put it down till I have finished it and then i am sad that I am done.

This is the story of Karen and Elliot and how no matter how much you love each other you must work at marriage.

Karen came into this marriage with 2 children and although their 'real dad' is not in the picture Karen is afraid to let Elliot adopt them. Then there is Elliott and the other 'men' who want to open a men's gym and Elliott being the man keeps things from Karen.

But the best part is catching up with everyone from the last 7 books. Although I think Sherryl did us an injustice by not doing a mini book about the Vegas trip and just kind of throwing it in at the end.

Very excited to hear we have more books coming.

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The Lying Game by Sara Shepard

So I picked up this book because I LOVED the tv series on ABC family and was unsure whether or not it was going to be renewed and I wanted to know what happened. Well joke's on me, the book and the series are so different I have decided the series is strictly paying to use the characters names and that's it. Once I got over the shock of how different it was I was able to get through it (and by that I mean I read it in under 24 hours). Can definitely tell it's a YA book due to language and structure. Really did not find the characters as likeable as I wanted and the plot had a lot of turns it was sometimes hard to follow. The book is narrated by a ghost but sometimes it's written in third person so I got overly confused. It was okay overall, no answers were given in the book so I guess it's on to book 2 me. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

The Half-Stitched Amish Quilting Club by Wanda E. Brunstetter

It has been a long time since I had read one of Wanda's books and I had forgotten how much I enjoy them. Partly because they are an easy read but mainly because she writes a good story. This one fell a little short for me. I loved the concept and I thought she pulled together a great group of different people to attend her quilting class. But there were a lot of little things thrown in that I didn't see the need for or understand. I don't think they brought anything to the story and maybe took something away. There were a few laugh out loud moments, a few awkward moments but overall a good read.

Beyond Hope's Valley - Tricia Goyer

Great ending to this series

You loved Marianna from the beginning and the ending was just what I wanted it to be.

Marianna goes back 'home' to marry Aaron and be there for her brother, Levi. Levi has just come back into the Amish and marries his girlfriend, who is pregnant with a child of another. Levi does an amazing job of showing that love for his woman overrides the mistakes she made and he becomes the father to this child. Tricia shows the love that Naomi has for Levi but allowing Levi to name 'their' son.
Marianna does a lot of soul searching and her path to finding the one true God is wonderful and truthful.
Ben takes his music career back on the road and sees life differently as a Christian musician.
Who does she choose? You won’t want to miss finding out.

A few minor bumps in the road for me on the story but I really enjoyed this series.

Gone - LN Cronk

I finished this book yesterday while traveling, the good news was it made the travel go by much faster, the bad news was I was crying so much people had to wonder what was up.

This is the last book told by David in LN Cronk's Chop Chop series.
The good news is she is writing 2 more from other people's point of view.

I LOVED this book, now agreed there was lots of questions that went unanswered - like when did they go from 2 (3) children to 6. Did they ever reconnect with Amber?

I was taken aback when I started it to see how many years I had missed between the Other Mothers and Gone, but I quickly got over it as I got sucked into this great book.

It has been determined that David has early-onset Alzheimer's disease. This is David's story(and of course Laci's,and Tanners) through this disease. I thought the author did an amazing job of writing this. Now I do not (thank goodness) have any experience with this disease but what they went through really makes me pray for those who have loved ones with this.

I highly recommend you read all 6 of these books, while waiting for the final 2 to come out!

The Other Mothers - LN Cronk

Signs of a good book -
they make you laugh out loud (San Francisco trip)
they make you sad (Amber)
they make you mad (David's treatment of others)
they bring it back around to make you want to start the next one immediately.

This book had all of these plus some.

David and Laci, in the other brother, became foster parents to Amber. In this book both Amber and Dorito's mom show up. This is the story oh how foster / adopted parents have to adjust when that happens.

It's about how strong relationships are during the trials God put us through and how we hand the trials.

Lessons to be learned in this book as well.

A Season of Love - Amy Clipston

Not my favorite but enjoyable.

This is Katie's story. With her 2 best friends falling in love she feels left out. She falls for a non Amish boy and this deals with what they have to go through in order to try and be together.

I thought Katie's father was a little harsh and I wonder about how quickly this relationship developed but it does seem to happen that way in many of the Amish books I read.

I love the recipes that are spread throughout the book.

The Sweetest Thing - Christina Mandelski

This book was very enjoyable. I started and finished it all in one day.

The main character,Sheridan Wells, a 15 year old cake decorator has to deal with the world changing around her, this is how she deals with it. Do I agree with it all? Absolutely not. Are all the loose ends tied up - not to my satisfaction. Did I enjoy this book - very much so, so much that I am already looking to see what else the author writes as she is a new author to me.

How do you deal with life when it throws you a fast ball? Hopefully you ask God's to help you get through. This books suggestions that.

http://jnut1-ilovebooks.blogspot.com

The Other Brother - LN Cronk

Another great read by L.N. Cronk. I can't beleive how much I care about these characters.

This 4th book to me is about Dave's heart - love for a new child, jealously, stepping away from God's direction, hurt, anger.

We continue to watch Dave and Laci's children grow and their friendships with Tanner, Jordon, Mike and his wife, Charlotte and Mrs. White.

A few unexpected things occur in this book too which just makes it harder to put down.

I felt that (and I sure is it addressed in the future books) Tanner's relationship with Christ is still very unclear and that Dave isn't doing all that he can to minister to Tanner but I also know how hard it is to minister to your friends. and family.

Keep up the good work! Looking forward to book 5, The Other Mother.