Four siblings dream of abandoning the Englisch world for a simpler way of life in this solid series opener from bestseller Gray (An Amish Cinderella). Beth, Jonny, Kelsey, and Martin Schrock, whose father left the Amish community in his early adulthood, are all in their 20s and disillusioned with their ho-hum jobs when they decide to seek fulfillment on their Amish grandparents’ farm. The elder Schrocks, who are skeptical about the sudden interest in their way of life, stipulate that the siblings live with them—two at a time—for a year before being baptized. Martin and Kelsey commit to the trial period but hardly have to time to acclimate to the daily chores and lack of technology before Martin’s interest in his grandparents’ pretty neighbor, Patti Coblentz, and Kelsey’s budding attraction to Preacher Richard throw a wrench in the works—since neither sibling can get married until they’re baptized. Are the Schrocks serious about their faith or simply in love with the idea of “living happily ever Amish”? Gray effectively sets the stage for the rest of the series, leaving just enough loose ends dangling to keep readers on tenterhooks for the next installment. This is sure to charm Gray’s fans and net her some new ones. (July)

Reviewed on 04/19/2024 | Details & Permalink

A marriage of convenience promises to develop into a true romance in Craft’s satisfying if somewhat heavy-handed latest Great Wagon Road novel (following Love’s Winding Road). In 1753, as tensions rise between French and British colonists in North America, budding artist Tessa Harris is traveling from Pennsylvania to South Carolina when an ambush by French outlaws leaves her father dead and the 19-year-old alone and vulnerable. Thankfully, handsome former British cavalry officer Stephen Griffith is also headed to South Carolina and agrees not only to accompany Tessa, but to marry her in order to protect her from scandal. Despite her misgivings about hitching her wagon to a stranger’s, Tessa is gradually drawn in by Stephen’s tenderness and bravery. There’s not much time for the heat to build, though, before the pair are taken hostage by the same men responsible for Tessa’s father’s death. Before they can start a new life together, Tessa and Stephen must first draw on their ingenuity and faith to escape their captors. Readers will forgive the stock characterizations—Tessa is a delicate heroine recovering from tragedy; Stephen is her stoic protector—as Craft deftly balances high-intensity action with moments of genuine heart. This is swoonworthy. (June)

Reviewed on 04/19/2024 | Details & Permalink

Connealy resumes her A Western Light series (after Chasing the Horizon) with the nerve-jangling story of a duo thrown together by chance in the Wild West. Kat Wadsworth and Sebastian Jones have spent all winter holed up in an iced-over Idaho canyon after a benevolent family saved them from desperate circumstances: Kat had escaped from an insane asylum she’d been forced into by an uncle who was after her inheritance, while inventor Sebastian was recovering from a gunshot wound sustained by an unknown attacker. Both are now eager to escape the cave and start new lives. After getting married as a ruse to travel together, they take a train to Cheyenne, Wyo., and buy a homestead. Hopes of a quiet life (and budding romance) are quickly dashed by brushes with danger, including an attempt on Kat’s life. Their efforts to discover the culprit (suspects include Kat’s greedy uncle and jealous inventors eager to steal Seb’s patents) bring them to Independence, Mo., where they attempt to use their wits and God’s guidance to extricate themselves from the mess. By turns tender and funny, the novel sees the slow burn of Kat and Seb’s romance woven seamlessly into a propulsive narrative filled with masked gunmen, greedy manipulators, and enough twists to keep Connealy’s fans on the edge of their seats. Readers will be captivated from first page to last. (June)

Reviewed on 04/12/2024 | Details & Permalink

A derringer-toting matchmaker gets embroiled in a love affair of her own in Turano’s spirited latest entry in the Matchmakers historical romance series (following To Spark a Match). After having her heart “shattered” by fortune hunter George Sherrington, Camilla Pierpont swore off romance forever and dedicated herself to orchestrating others’ relationships instead. Her relatively stable life in the Hudson River Valley is interrupted on a morning horseback ride when she and her assistant, Lottie, are pursued by a band of kidnappers. Thankfully, handsome businessman Owen Chesterfield swoops in to save the day, then enlists Camilla to transform his “ragamuffin” younger sister into a refined debutante. Eager to avoid the newly divorced George Sherrington’s return to town, Camilla accompanies Owen to his West Virginia home, where flirtatious banter and stolen glances spark an attraction. Just as Camilla starts to rethink her “spinsterhood,” however, the kidnappers—one of whom may be closer to home than she realizes—reappear, threatening to curb the budding romance before it can start. Buoyed by self-aware humor (when Camilla confesses her irritation with Owen to his grandmother, the latter suggests they “could very well be experiencing that enemies-to-something-delightful scenario that authors often write into their romance stories”), the propulsive narrative pulls off its twists and turns with aplomb, and the chemistry between the leads will keep readers invested to the last page. Turano fans old and new will be delighted. (July)

Reviewed on 04/05/2024 | Details & Permalink

Beckstrand (The Amish Quiltmaker’s Unlikely Match) continues the Amish Quiltmaker series with a sweet unexpected romance between a hardheaded widower and the enterprising baker he has his eye on. A year after Menno Eichler’s wife died of ALS, the overworked sugar beet farmer is on the market for a new frau to mother his small daughters and help out on his farm. Pickings are slim in his small Idaho town, so he travels to his cousin’s Colorado Amish community, where he meets and is instantly taken with baker Joanna Yoder—who promptly writes Menno off because word has spread that he’s focused on simply finding a wife to cook and clean for him. Menno’s cousin draws up a list of the town’s bachelorettes and Menno dutifully dates, and systematically rejects, several of them—Sadie “has a cell phone and giggles”; conversation with avid gardener Naomi is dull—before realizing the problem may be his own businesslike approach to finding a wife in the first place: “You can’t nicely fit people into a set of plans or write them down on a list.... People don’t work that way,” advises a town resident. The supporting characters churn up plenty of fun, and the zippy romance between stubborn, literalist Menno and free-spirited Joanna is a treat (“He was looking for a can of corn, and Joanna refused to be a can of corn,” Beckstrand writes of Menno’s desire to pick a wife as though off a grocery store shelf). Series fans will be smitten. (June)

Reviewed on 04/05/2024 | Details & Permalink

A Black racehorse owner chases love and success in Shiloh’s spirited follow-up to The Love Script. Piper McKinney has always felt a sense of obligation to her wealthy white adoptive parents, Ian and Jackie McKinney, the owners of a thoroughbred farm, who gave her an idyllic childhood and nurtured her love of the sport. Still, she dreams of striking out on her own to raise a horse good enough to win the Kentucky Derby. Leaving her parents’ horse farm to start her own has its risks, of course, and to complicate things even further, she’s recently fallen for her childhood friend Tucker Hale and doesn’t know how to tell him. Not only is she reluctant to spoil the friendship, Tucker is white, and interracial relationships are rare in their homogenous community of Eastbrook, Ky. As Piper works to get her new farm off the ground, hurdles arise—shady dealings at her parents’ farm, in particular—and Tucker helps her harness her faith to achieve her ambition of becoming the first Black owner of a Derby winner. While the characters sometimes speak in clichés (“Who you are on the inside is what matters most to me”), Piper’s internal battles between familial duty and a desire for independence are sensitively rendered, and readers will cheer her on as she tackles the racial stereotypes baked into the overwhelmingly white world of horse racing. Shiloh’s fans will speed through this sweet, satisfying romance. (May)

Reviewed on 03/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

Blackburne’s latest Heart of the Amish romance (after Ruth’s Gingersnap Surprise) unspools a tender love story between an injured Amish woman and the Mennonite doctor who wants to help her heal. Since a buggy accident more than 25 years ago killed her father and left her badly hurt, Mary Yoder has spent her days in near-constant pain, though she keeps busy breeding chickens, weaving and selling baskets, and caring for her younger brothers. When Reuben King, the handsome new doctor for the nearby Willow Creek community, takes an informal interest in Mary’s case and suggests she undergo a surgical procedure (performed by another doctor) that might improve her mobility, Mary’s resistant. Eventually, she warms to the idea as she spends more time with Reuben, sparking an attraction that’s forbidden by her community. Mary turns to prayer to sort out her thoughts about her health and love life, but when advice arrives from an unlikely source, she’ll have to trust herself to follow it, and to take a few risks along the way. The chemistry between the two leads is palpable, and it’s easy to root for the spunky, independent, and dauntless Mary as she fights to carve out a life of her own choosing. Blackburne’s fans and series newcomers alike will delight in this sweet and energetic tale. (June)

Reviewed on 03/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

Vamosh (The Scroll) and Everson (The Ornament Keeper) put an empowering spin on the biblical story of Tamar, the daughter of King David. A respected healer in her father’s court, Tamar is commanded to minister to her half-brother Amnon, a “beast of a man” suffering from a mysterious “illness” that was only a pretense to rape her. David refuses to punish him and, worse, it becomes clear that Tamar’s brother Absalom helped orchestrate the rape to usurp power from Amnon, heir to the throne of Judah. Reeling from the assault and her family’s betrayal, Tamar relies on her servant, Mara, and her father’s benevolent advisers Gad, Nathan, and Mephiboseth to help her flee the palace. She strikes out on her own as a healer in the city of Abel, where she gains power and dreams of traveling to Geshur, the home of her long-banished mother Maacah. Vamosh and Everson’s characters are made three-dimensional through evocative descriptive language (Amnon is “a scorpion quietly biding its time beneath a colorful tapestry”). The revisions to the original story—in the Bible, Tamar eventually dies “desolate” in Absalom’s household—uplift, even if the propulsive plot leaves little room to develop her motivations. Still, it’s a welcome and often gripping portrait of the unsung courage of a biblical heroine. (May)

Reviewed on 03/22/2024 | Details & Permalink

Hunt (The Emissaries) sends readers to ancient Rome for the immersive tale of a Christian convert who seeks to maintain her faith in a pagan world. The year is 60 CE and 15-year-old Mariana lives in Corinth, a city filled with worshippers of the Roman god Jupiter, among them her power-hungry father, Narkis, and stepsister Prima. While Mariana and her mother, Hester, feign partial allegiance to the Roman deities, the two have quietly become devoted to the Christian god, Adonai, and his son, Yeshua, since hearing his message from the “fiery emissary” Paulos. The family lives in relative peace until Narkis tries to make a match between one of his daughters and the son of a powerful governor of Achaia. Despite Mariana’s misgivings about marrying an idol worshipper, she and Marcus develop an attraction for each other, fueling jealous Prima’s attempts to break up the two. Meanwhile, Marcus is torn between Jupiter and Mariana’s god, a choice that grows increasingly perilous as Emperor Nero’s suspicion of Christians intensifies, putting Marcus’s hopes of becoming a governor at risk. Chapters alternate between Mariana and Prima to build suspense, and—while her conversion to Christianity is somewhat abruptly explained—Mariana’s fiery devotion to her faith adds energy to the fast-moving plot. Hunt’s fans will be eager to sink their teeth into this evocative historical and its inspiring message of faith in times of trial. (May)

Reviewed on 03/22/2024 | Details & Permalink

Fuller follows up The Courtship Plan with a spirited enemies-to-lovers Amish romance featuring a jaded butcher and a headstrong grocer. After being dumped by one paramour and catching a second with another man, Nelson Bontranger swears off love and moves to the Amish community in Marigold, Ohio, where he plans to open a butcher shop. Unfortunately, the grocery store next door is run by Ella Yoder, “one of the pushiest females he’d ever met.” When sparks fly between Ella’s younger sister Junia and Nelson’s nephew Malachi, they’re forced to chaperone the young lovers on dates. Ella and Nelson squabble as deeper tensions build between the sisters—ostensibly about the grocery store, though the real issue stems from resentments that developed after their mother’s death—leading to a massive blowout. Ella realizes she needs to work on her anger, though God never seems to answer her prayers for patience. As she works to turn over a new leaf, Nelson ignores his growing feelings and resolves to keep her at a distance. God may have other plans, however; when Malachi and Junia’s relationship hits a speed bump, Nelson and Ella must work to bring them back together. The sisters’ relationship serves as the novel’s emotional through line, keeping readers invested in the romantic foibles, clashes, and make-ups. It’s an irresistable charmer. (May)

Reviewed on 03/15/2024 | Details & Permalink