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

Reid (A Very Bavarian Christmas) returns to quaint Bavarian Falls, Mich., and its German-themed counterpart, Leavenworth, Wash., for this well-intentioned if trite Christmas-in-July romance. Thirty-two-year-old Holly Brigham grew up dealing with the stress of her father’s health problems; now she’s seeking stability with her boyfriend, Nik, who’s inconveniently moved to Leavenworth. When Nik cancels his summer visit to Bavarian Falls, an anxious Holly decides to visit Leavenworth instead. There, her problems multiply—an old romantic interest shows up eager to win her over, and Nik’s so busy planning the town’s summer Christmas festival he scarcely has time for her. As plans for the festival move ahead, Holly’s inspired by a friend to use a set of 20 question prompts to reconnect with Nik, and the two gradually discover that their relationship need not be picture-perfect to be worthwhile. While Reid’s protagonists are relatable, her clumsy exposition and unsubtle dialogue leave little to the imagination, with characters often directly stating the book’s lessons (“Maybe they could embrace a different... kind of love? Not a love that criticized or hid but one that sought understanding and rose above? A love that was fixed on the only One who could repair and restore what, and who, was broken,” Holly muses at one point). This love story lacks spark. (July)

Reviewed on 04/25/2025 | Details & Permalink

An unlikely trio struggles to escape a volcano on the verge of erupting in the pulse-pounding latest from Mentink (Hunted on the Trail). After a painful divorce and miscarriage, Kit Garrido has made a fresh start by launching her own trucking business. Despite an evacuation warning, she decides to haul one more load over the roads crisscrossing Washington State’s Mount Ember. The next thing she knows, she’s waking up in her wrecked rig, with no memory of what happened, and fielding questions from ex-cop Cullen Landry, who saw her go off the road. Before they abandon the rig, Cullen checks the truck’s sleeper car and discovers an infant sleeping next to a window with a bloody handprint—and a baby bag containing $10,000 in cash. With no time to lose, the pair grab the child and escape. As they attempt to track down the baby’s mother—Kit has flashes of giving a ride to a destitute woman, but can’t remember anything about her—the suspense reaches a fever pitch, and each of the leads confronts their past traumas with help from God and one another. This starts with a bang and never lets up. (July)

Reviewed on 04/25/2025 | Details & Permalink

The immersive latest from White (A Portrait of Loyalty) sees two book lovers’ lives collide in WWII Paris. Sorbonne professor Corinne Bastien has never been one to comply blindly with authority, so after the Nazis take control of her city in 1940, it’s not long before she’s passing encrypted messages back and forth with her students and keeping a protective eye on “The Library of Burned Books,” a collection of titles banned by German officials. When Christian Bauer, a German professor who’s been unwillingly designated the Nazis’ bibliotheksschutz—charged with controlling libraries and the “dangerous” ideas they contain—arrives at the Sorbonne, they’re thrown into each other’s paths as he searches for books checked out under her mother’s name. After spending time together, the two come to realize they may be more similar than they think. But as the chemistry between them builds, so do the stakes, and when a secret of Christian’s threatens to come to light and the danger surrounding them mounts, both must draw on their faith to do what’s right. Propulsively plotted and richly detailed, the narrative depicts how dangerous it can be under fascism to entertain ideas deemed “different”—and how deeply necessary. The result is a captivating historical romance and a resonant ode to the power of literature in dark times. (July)

Reviewed on 04/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

Suntz debuts with a captivating tale of forbidden love and second chances in mid-19th-century Toronto. Sara O’Connor, 29, was disowned by her wealthy father after marrying a stable boy who later died of cholera; now a young window, she’s forced to work as a laundress at an inn to make ends meet. She crosses paths with widowed barrister James Kinney when he sends his precocious nine-year-old daughter, Evie, to etiquette lessons at the inn. James can’t deny he’s intrigued by the attractive laundress, but starts to worry when Evie befriends her, fearing Sara’s low social standing will reflect badly on his daughter. But there’s a lot about Sara that James doesn’t know—she’s started teaching Evie French, and has a repository of medical knowledge that comes in handy when Evie falls deathly ill. James and Sara bond while caring for Evie, but as their lives intertwine, Sara faces a past she thought she’d left behind and grapples with a faith she lost when her husband died. Suntz’s nimble prose burnishes the propulsive plot as the pair find their way to each other while tackling the social strictures that separate them. Fans of Julie Klassen and Laura Frantz will be transported. (June)

Reviewed on 04/11/2025 | Details & Permalink

Basham’s latest thrilling historical mystery (after The Juliet Code) gets off to a crackling start when honeymooners stumble onto a crime scene that appears to implicate the bride’s sister. After British couple Frederick and Grace Astley visit Grace’s sister, Lillias, in America and find her standing over her husband’s dead body, Grace insists on her sister’s innocence. The investigation, though, turns up some suspicious information—including that her sister’s expensive tastes have left the family in debt, that her husband had a gambling habit, and that they’d been fighting. Meanwhile, other oddities crop up, including a mysterious figure spotted skulking around Lillias’s home, and an attack on Frederick and the cook that throws the house into disarray. Just as Lillias’s name is cleared, the sisters discover they’ve inherited a Scottish castle from a relative. Lillias heads abroad, praying for a fresh start. But when trouble follows her, it becomes increasingly clear she’s being targeted by bad actors who’ll stop at nothing to get her out of the picture—and that Grace and Lillias must work out why to keep her alive. Despite some confusing twists, readers will be drawn in by the propulsive plot and vivid backdrop enriched by bits of Scottish folklore. Spirited if slightly overcrowded, this is an adventure Basham’s fans will be glad to take. (July)

Reviewed on 04/11/2025 | Details & Permalink