An unlikely pair finds love amid challenging circumstances in Irvin’s wrenching latest (after The Heart’s Bidding). Auctioneer Declan Miller has had a crush on Bethel King since the two were in high school together. While she’s charmed by his “sunny smile and sweet attitude,” 24-year-old Bethel has bigger things on her mind: her 13-year-old sister has recently begun to exhibit symptoms of muscular dystrophy, which also afflicts Bethel’s two younger brothers, whom she spends much of her time caring for. Eager to prove he’s matured since his class clown days, Declan makes an effort to keep Bethel’s brothers in good spirits, and she begins to see humor’s value “in the midst of trials.” Just when she’s started to change her mind about Declan, however, his own health takes a turn for the worse, threatening his livelihood, the pair’s chances at a future, and Bethel’s faith in a God who would permit such suffering. Irvin gracefully braids together themes of sorrow and faith with a sweet opposites-attract romance. Though the message that disabilities and illness are “Gott’s will” won’t resonate with all readers, this is sure to tug on the heartstrings. (July)

Reviewed on 05/03/2024 | Details & Permalink

Hauck (The Best Summer of Our Lives) centers this poignant second-chance romance on a 100-year-old skating rink in the quaint town of Sea Blue Beach, Fla. Over the decades, the Starlight has housed needy families during the Great Depression and hosted countless birthday parties and other events. When the mayor threatens to demolish the Starlight and build a shopping center in its place, the townspeople and the rink’s sprightly 87-year-old owner, Tuesday Knight, band together to save it. Leading the charge are Tuesday’s grandson, movie star Matt Knight, and—somewhat improbably—former supermodel Harlow Hayes, who fled to the Sea Beach house she’d owned with her billionaire ex after he dumped her. Sparks fly between Matt and Harlow, who once costarred in a romantic comedy, but as they battle the mayor and his cronies, issues arise—especially after Matt blabs a secret of Harlow’s during a talk show appearance—and they must repair their trust and put their faith in God to build a future for the Starlight and themselves. Interwoven with flashbacks to the 1930s, when Tuesday’s husband purchased the skating rink for her, Matt and Harlow’s slow-burning romance is brought to life through vivid prose and fine-grained characterization. This love story has charm and depth to spare. (July)

Reviewed on 05/03/2024 | Details & Permalink

Bestsellers Coble (Break of Day) and Acker (Guilty Blood) team up for a heart-pounding tale of stolen artifacts and murder. History professor Savannah Webster has struggled to pick up the pieces after her marriage fell apart in the wake of her toddler’s death three years ago. While researching the Willard Treasure, a collection of pre-Columbian artifacts housed in a museum at her Alabama university, Savannah discovers a stack of fake provenance letters and becomes suspicious that someone is trying to steal from the collection. She goes in search of answers from “slimy” university president Ellison Abernathy—only to stumble on his dead body in his office and become a prime suspect in his murder. When Savannah’s soon-to-be ex-husband Hez arrives for a new teaching job, she enlists his help tracking down the killer. Along the way, they draw on their faith to heal the emotional wounds from their daughter’s death and try to resist falling back in love before their divorce is finalized. The second-chance romance adds dimension to the well-plotted whodunit, which leaves more than a few secrets to be uncovered in the next installment. Readers will be on tenterhooks. (July)

Reviewed on 05/03/2024 | Details & Permalink

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