A middle-aged woman finds a new appreciation for the holiday season in the charming latest from Carlson (Welcome to the Honey B&B). Despite being born on Christmas Day, 40-year-old Carol Langstrom has dreaded the holiday ever since she was a girl and her family’s yuletide gatherings were marred by her parents’ blowouts. Eager for a fresh start, she decides to spend Christmas in the Bahamas, but when a blizzard scrambles those plans and strands her in snowy Michigan, she’s forced to take refuge at her estranged aunt’s farm. Carol’s frustration at missing her vacation quickly evaporates as she bonds with her sweet aunt Maria, who’s recently broken her arm and needs help decorating her house and planning the local Christmas Cotillion. It doesn’t hurt that Maria’s attractive, charming neighbor Victor is on hand to help set up their Christmas tree and cook. As Carol grows closer to her aunt and uncovers more about how her mother’s relationship with Maria fractured, she struggles to forgive her mom and embrace the Christmas season. Carlson’s gentle humor and quirky, lovable characters have more than enough charm to propel the plot to its feel-good conclusion. Readers won’t be able to resist this. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 06/06/2025 | Details & Permalink

Barnett follows up Beyond the Ashes with a gripping tale of twisted family bonds set in Utah’s Zion National Park. In 1948, park ranger Henry Eriksson is reeling from the death of his infant son when he discovers a baby boy on the banks of the Virgin River, which runs through the park. Initially determined not to get attached to the “Zion foundling,” Henry embarks on a fruitless search for the baby’s mother. Eventually, he allows himself to hope the child might be his and his wife’s second chance at parenthood. Three years later, the Erikssons are settling in as “Billy’s” parents when a reporter draws a link between the child’s appearance in the park and a newborn’s kidnapping from a Salt Lake City hospital. As the missing child’s parents take an interest in Billy and Henry’s wife Alma uncovers a damning piece of evidence, the Erikssons must contemplate what it would mean to lose a second child—and what they’re willing to do to keep him. A second story line unfolds in the present as the Erikssons’ great-granddaughter Talia takes a DNA test on a lark and ends up unseating everything the family knows about their heritage. The historical narrative unspools slowly on the way to a rewarding climax that touches on faith, the ties that bind families, and the profound, far-reaching effects of the secrets they keep. Readers will be swept up. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 06/06/2025 | Details & Permalink

Shocklee (All We Thought We Knew) unspools a gripping dual-timeline historical centered on the Manhattan Project. In 1944, Mae Willet lands a job as a maintenance clerk at the Clinton Engineer Works in Oak Ridge, Tenn., a secret arm of the Manhattan Project that enriches uranium. Mae and other administrative workers are kept in the dark about the plant’s purpose and barred from disclosing anything about their work to others. After her roommate and coworker, Sissy, starts dating a suspicious man, Mae and Sissy get embroiled in a plot that involves split allegiances, government secrets, arson, and possibly worse. In 1979, PhD student Laurel Willet travels to Tennessee to interview her aunt Mae as part of her doctoral thesis on the Manhattan Project. Aunt Mae is unwilling to talk, but Laurel is determined to uncover her role at Oak Ridge—especially after finding the ID badge of another Oak Ridge employee in Mae’s old things—and help Mae find healing through God. Shocklee’s sympathetic characters add plenty of depth to the action-packed plot, and the atmospheric renderings of an anxious wartime America are especially vivid. Fans of Christian historicals will be captivated from first page to last. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink

Pastor Jeremiah (The Coming Golden Age) makes his fiction debut with a gripping ride through endtimes-inspired chaos. U.S. Army major general John Haggerty heads a task force charged with containing the spread of deadly global viruses. As deaths linked to a new coronavirus spike, he heads to Crete and then Italy, where he focuses on implementing a quarantine—and reconnecting with his adult daughter, Sonya, with whom he’s had a strained relationship since splitting from her mother 16 years ago. After an earthquake hits and traps the two in a cave, Haggerty opens up about the real reason the marriage fell apart, revealing in the process devastating truths about Sonya’s dead brother. Just as their relationship starts to heal, they make it out of the cave and learn the virus has spread beyond the containment zone, multiple international conflicts have broken out, and fears of World War III are on the rise. As Haggerty works with international governments to contain the spread, he grapples with his damaged faith and weighs his responsibilities to his wife, his daughter, and his mission. Jeremiah makes good use of today’s social and political turmoil to fuel a propulsive plot amplified by plenty of emotional conflict, and leaves a few threads dangling for future installments. Readers will want to dive right in. (July)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this energetic historical, Cambron (The Italian Ballerina) whisks readers along on a woman’s harrowing quest to track down her soldier brother in WWII France. It’s 1943, and Kat Harris is content repairing cars in her late father’s auto shop when her brother Gavin enlists in the army. After months go by with no word from Gavin, Kat receives a mysterious letter inviting her to join the same “subversive operation,” headed by the U.S. Office of Strategic Services, that he was supposedly a part of. Kat joins the mission, which brings her to France, where she poses as a chef at a chateau frequented by powerful Nazis. By war’s end, she still hasn’t reconnected with her brother, but she retains an uncanny faith that he’s still alive—and when she meets Julia Child in a French cooking class after the war, new clues emerge that might help her unravel the mystery. Kat’s multiple code names can be difficult to keep straight, but Cambron paints a textured portrait of wartime France, balancing action-packed scenes with entertaining appearances from Julia Child and mouthwatering descriptions of French cuisine. The author’s fans are sure to savor this. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

Powner (Where the Blue Sky Begins) unfolds a complex and resonant tale of redemption and forgiveness. Twenty-four-year-old Tad Bungley has blown every job he’s had in the past five years, but he’s committed to making a go of his new gig on Anita and Dan Wilson’s ranch. When an ex-girlfriend drops off a three-month-old daughter he didn’t know about, Tad’s more determined than ever to keep the job, but he still manages to attract trouble—especially since dangerous incidents keep befalling Sam, the Wilsons’ intellectually disabled adult son whom Tad is meant to be caring for. Scarred by his acrimonious relationship with his alcoholic father, Tad is grateful for the Wilsons’ forgiveness, especially after accidentally letting Sam get drunk on his watch. But as tensions rise on the ranch, thanks in part to a secret scheme taking shape in one of the Wilsons’ sheds, the characters must lean on their faith in God to survive and see the good in one another. Powner vividly conveys her characters’ moral complexities—even Tad’s father has his moments—though a few threads are left dangling at the novel’s end. The result is a stirring testament to the power of hope in dark times. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

Gunn follows up Tea with Elephants with a clumsy tale of travel, spiritual renewal, and new beginnings. Grace and Claire first connect at a coffee shop, bonding over their shared love of books. Years later, the two friends are struggling with their own personal crises—Grace is grappling with a stressful job as a receptionist, while Claire’s reeling from the recent deaths of her parents—and they decide to seek a fresh start in Italy, where they enjoy pasta, gelato, and sightseeing. Paulina, the enigmatic owner of the out-of-the-way villa where they’re staying, shows them the sights of Venice, including a series of awe-inspiring churches that spur Claire to rethink her abandoned faith. First, though, she’ll need to open up about a traumatic childhood trip to Rome that drove her away from God, wrecking her relationship with her parents in the process. While vivid descriptions of Italian food, art, and culture add color, the plot is hampered by clunky writing and awkward dialogue, and Claire’s spiritual reawakening feels forced. Readers in the market for a sweet, faith-filled travel adventure would be better served by Pepper Basham’s Some Like It Scot. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

Members of a rural Appalachian community grapple with forgiveness and faith in this uneven offering from Cox (He Should Have Told the Bees). After protecting her kindergarten class from a school shooter, Ana Leigh Watkins wants nothing more than to escape her local reputation as a hero. So when her great-aunt Cora invites her to spend the summer in Roan Mountain, Tenn. (formerly “Bitter End”), she jumps at the chance. She finds refuge in the Bitter End Birding Society—a ragtag group of nature lovers whose ranks include Sam, a shepherd with a mysterious past, and Marilyn, Cora’s sworn enemy. Meanwhile, Ana discovers that her family’s history is intertwined with some of the mountain town’s darkest secrets. Woven through the present-day plot is a 1950s-set narrative following Ana’s grandmother, Viola Whitt, as she falls in love with the preacher’s son, triggering her moonshiner father’s paranoia and anger. As Viola’s tale hurtles toward a shocking conclusion and Ana works to heal her wounds, both learn to lean on their faith and love of nature in life’s lowest moments. While Cox poses intriguing questions about trauma and forgiveness, the historical plot sometimes feels rushed and the narrative is weakened by a surfeit of unsubtle emotional exposition. This has its moments, but never quite takes flight. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/16/2025 | Details & Permalink

Wright (The Girl from the Papers) whisks readers to turn-of-the-20th-century Texas with this breathless tale of a socialite seeking refuge from her past. Kathleen McDaniel’s father has arranged for her to marry a wealthy business associate to solidify a contract. But she wants more out of life, and when she discovers a secret about her father’s business that leads to a shocking revelation about her upbringing, she boards a train and flees New York City. She ends up in Galveston, Tex., where she’s taken in by nuns who operate an orphanage. Eager to stay under the radar, Kathleen adopts a false name and hides the details of her past from everyone, including handsome Matthew Richter, an aspiring meteorologist with whom she quickly bonds. But when a reminder of her former life shows up in town as a hurricane brews off the coast, she must weigh the costs of revealing her true identity. Wright ratchets up the suspense with vivid, atmospheric descriptions of the oncoming storm, and Kathleen’s crisis of faith adds depth. Fans of clean historical romance will be more than happy to come along for the ride. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/09/2025 | Details & Permalink

An archaeological dig turns up secrets past and present in this spirited Regency romance from Hovde (Winter Weather). Bridget Littleton promised her dying mother that she’d look after her brother, Daniel, but he’s now a member of the Royal Navy and has been missing for eight months. Determined to raise the funds to pay an investigator to search for him, Bridget hatches a plan to submit a research article to an archaeological journal, which offers 50 pounds for the best piece. She turns to the nearby Hawthorne property—where a friend recently found an ancient mosaic—in search of a discovery that might provide material. But the property’s been recently occupied by Rafe Hawthorne, a handsome war veteran who’s determined to restore his family’s estate to glory and has little interest in anyone excavating it—even enterprising Bridget, to whom he’s quickly drawn. Bridget eventually persuades him to let her dig, but more challenges await as she struggles to be taken seriously as a female archaeologist, grapples with her relationship with God, and uncovers a plot tied to the site that threatens her and Rafe’s lives. The narrative perspective alternates between Rafe and Bridget, gradually ramping up the romantic tension, but making the plot more difficult to follow. Still, fans of Julie Klassen and Sarah Ladd will be swept up. (July)

Reviewed on 05/02/2025 | Details & Permalink