Archive | January 2022

A Soldier’s Return by Paul Carlin

Jan25

Wow – Mesmerising

A Soldier’s Return by Paul Carlin is an absolutely fantastic and compelling dual timeline novel that gripped me from the start. It is set in 2014 and from 1914 during World War I in an old manor house.

Paul Carlin draws the reader in from the start as there is an air of mystery and menace that has the reader asking questions – why do the villagers want nothing to do with the old house? The manor house holds its secrets and we want to know the answers.

1914 was a bygone age of masters and servants. Society was still very much class based. Morals and values were definitely slanted towards the upper classes. The lower classes must do as they were told or suffer the consequences.

War was terrible. World War I produced cannon fodder using young men on both sides. “The men they were fighting, the men they were raining bombs on, were no different to them.” Strip away the uniforms and the men were all the same. Paul Carlin has captured the horrors of World War I with his full descriptions.

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The Secret Keepers Of The Old Depot Grocery by Amanda Cox

Jan22

A Place Of Community

The Secret Keepers Of The Old Depot Grocery by Amanda Cox is the most delightful Christian dual timeline novel that filled my soul with love.

The novel is set in present day and from 1965 working forwards. It is a story of family and love and life.

A character has been grieving her whole life for a boy who went to Vietnam and never returned. Life still kept turning and she had to learn to live again in spite of her grief. Grief never leaves us. We just need to find our way through it.

We witness the horrors of war in the lives of those who return. “How could they find normal after that? Love when they’d been baptized in hate.” Some lives buckle with PTSD and they escape through alcohol and drugs.

There is the theme of guilt. A character is drowning in it, carrying burdens that were never meant for her. “I’d become so tainted by darkness that I couldn’t feel the warmth of the sun anymore.”  It is time to let go and let God.

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Ranch Feud by Sarah Sawyer

Jan21

Learning To Forgive

Ranch Feud by Sarah Sawyer is a historical Christian western and the fifth book in the Doc Beck Western series but can be read as a stand-alone.

I enjoyed catching up with familiar characters. I love the close bond between Doc Beck and Just Jimmy whose friendship blossoms as Doc Beck takes him under her wing.

There is a kindness of heart as situations begin to heal.

Forgiveness is a major theme. “Forgiveness is simple. It’s just not easy.” If we cannot forgive in our strength, we need to press into God and lean on Him and forgive with His strength. Sometimes it is forgiving the face in the mirror that is the hardest to do. At other times long held feuds have promoted bitterness that is hard to shed. When we forgive, we begin to heal.

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No Ex Before Marriage by Portia MacIntosh

Jan21

The Feel-Good Factor

No Ex Before Marriage by Portia MacIntosh is a really fun contemporary novel that will leave you smiling.

The novel is about love and life, friendships and family, relationships and road trips as we follow a group of thirty somethings who have been friends since school. There have been marriages and a divorce as Portia MacIntosh delves into the difficulties divorcees may experience as they are excluded from certain couples’ activities. Being single also gives others the opportunity to match-make.

A new friendship springs up that adds a spark of life to ignite the life of another.

You never forget your first love even if the road was bumpy at times.

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