tyndale

Ladies of the Lake by Cathy Gohlke – Review

July 31, 2023 by Suzie Waltner Leave a Comment

About the Book

After two young women’s deep bond is torn apart, what will it take to bring them together again? In The Ladies of the Lake, the beloved author of Saving Amelie and Night Bird Calling returns with a transformative new historical novel about the wonder and complexities of friendship, love, and belonging.

When she is forced to leave her beloved Prince Edward Island to attend Lakeside Ladies Academy after the death of her parents, the last thing Adelaide Rose MacNeill expects to find is three kindred spirits. The Ladies of the Lake, as the four girls call themselves, quickly bond like sisters, vowing that wherever life takes them, they will always be there for each other. But that is before: Before love and jealousy come between Adelaide and Dorothy, the closest of the friends. Before the dawn of World War I upends their world and casts baseless suspicion onto the German American man they both love. Before a terrible explosion in Halifax Harbor rips the sisterhood irrevocably apart.

Seventeen years later, Rosaline Murray receives an unsuspecting telephone call from Dorothy, now headmistress of Lakeside, inviting her to attend the graduation of a new generation of girls, including Rosaline’s beloved daughter. With that call, Rosaline is drawn into a past she’d determined to put behind her. To memories of a man she once loved . . . of a sisterhood she abandoned . . . and of the day she stopped being Adelaide MacNeill.

Concrete Evidence by DiAnn Mills – Review

October 28, 2022 by Suzie Waltner Leave a Comment

About the Book

On the family’s Brazos River Ranch in Texas, Avery Elliott helps run her grandfather’s commercial construction business. Raised by Senator Elliott, Avery has never doubted her grandfather is the man of integrity and faith she’s always believed him to be . . . until the day she finds him standing with a gun over the body of a dead man. To make matters worse, Avery’s just discovered a billing discrepancy for materials supposedly purchased for construction of the Lago de Cobre Dam.

Desperate for answers, Avery contacts FBI Special Agent Marc Wilkins for help. As Marc works to identify the dead man Avery saw, threats toward Avery create a fresh sense of urgency to pinpoint why someone wants to silence her. With a hurricane approaching the Texas coast and the structural integrity of the Lago de Cobre Dam called into question, time is running out to get to the bottom of a sinister plot that could be endangering the lives of not only Avery and her loved ones but the entire community.

The Book of Amazing Stories by Robert Petterson (Review)

October 22, 2017 by Suzie Waltner Leave a Comment

About the Book

You may have thought you knew the lives of famous people―such as Martin Luther King Jr., Howard Hughes, Mother Teresa, Muhammad Ali, Ronald Reagan, Susana Wesley, and many more. But, in The Book of Amazing Stories, you’ll know so much more about Ronnie’s faithful church-going single mom and William’s early days as a humble shoemaker’s apprentice. You’ll marvel at how God used the lives of these ordinary people to change the course of human history.

Life makes the strangest sharp turns and, sometimes, U-turns. Robert Petterson―popular speaker, storyteller, and author―has been a student for his entire life of what God is teaching us through those real-life U-turns. In this book, he compiles 90 amazing stories that teach lessons you won’t easily forget.

Each devotional ends with a compelling thought about life and God.

Be amazed. Be encouraged. Learn the lessons God is teaching through people’s lives.

Amazon // Goodreads

In My Opinion (Review)

I love a good story. The right true story will sometimes make me cry, give me chills, or leave me in awe. When a person overcomes an obstacle and achieves success—big or small—I can’t help but be moved.

As I was by several of the entries in Robert Petterson’s collection titled The Book of Amazing Stories. From well-known historical figures such as Winston Churchill, Mother Theresa, and Martin Luther King, Jr, to lesser-knowns, these bite-sized stories were often motivating.

More interesting is that Petterson also included some people who did not have happy endings, people who achieved notoriety due to their poor choices or their tragic lives. Kurt Cobain and J. H. Zorthian are only a couple names on that list.

Ninety stories fill this book—each about two and a half pages in length and ending with a quote and a scripture for reflection. These easy to read chapters make a great addition to your daily quiet time or can be used as conversation starters or icebreakers.

If you’re needing inspiration, if life is holding you down, if you’re asking Why, God? perhaps one or more of the people in this will speak to your heart and offer the encouragement you need. Because, after all, God is the author of the best stories ever.

My Rating:

***I receive complimentary books for review from publishers, publicists, and/or authors, including NetGalley. I am not required to write positive reviews. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

Maybe It’s You by Candace Calvert

January 25, 2017 by Suzie Waltner Leave a Comment

Maybe It’s You by Candace Calvert

About the book

ER nurse Sloane Ferrell escaped her risky past—new name, zip code, job, and a fresh start. She’s finally safe, if she avoids a paper trail and doesn’t let people get too close. Like the hospital’s too-smooth marketing man with his relentless campaign to plaster one “lucky” employee’s face on freeway billboards.

Micah Prescott’s goal is to improve the Hope hospital image, but his role as a volunteer crisis responder is closer to his heart. The selfless work helps fill a void in his life left by family tragedy. So does a tentative new relationship with the compassionate, beautiful, and elusive Sloane Ferrell.

Then a string of brutal crimes makes headlines, summons responders . . . and exposes disturbing details of Sloane’s past.

Can hope spring from crisis?

My thoughts

If you’ve read the previous book in Candace Calvert’s Crisis Team series, you’ll remember Sloane as the antagonist to that book’s heroine. And chances are, you didn’t think much of her.

An author who takes an unlikeable character and creates a story where I not only sympathize with that same character but also root for her HEA is rare. Calvert manages to tell Sloane’s story in a way that resonated with me. Her poor decisions from the past aren’t justified or glossed over but they build depth to the person Sloan is striving to become.

And when she gets to know Micah Prescott, she beings to believe she is worthy. But Micah has his own past regrets and demons he’s holding on to.

Maybe It’s You kept me involved from chapter one, rooting for Sloane to accept those in her life who want more for her—friendship, acceptance, forgiveness, grace, and perhaps even love.

The Crisis Team series allows readers a small glimpse into the lives of family, friends, and witnesses after tragedy strikes. In a world filled with too many horrible news bites, learning about people who have a heart for those left behind to pick up the pieces is refreshing and encouraging. Calvert manages to bring those people some well-deserved recognition through her books.

About the author

Candace Calvert is a former ER nurse and author of the Mercy Hospital, Grace Medical, and Crisis Team series. Her medical dramas offer readers a chance to “scrub in” on the exciting world of emergency medicine. Wife, mother, and very proud grandmother, Candace makes her home in northern California. Please visit her website at www.candacecalvert.com.

Q&A with Candace Calvert

http://mediacenter.tyndale.com/downloads/press_kits/Maybe%20It’s%20You_AuthorQA_Final.pdf

Read the first chapter

https://files.tyndale.com/thpdata/firstChapters/978-1-4143-9036-9.pdf

Disclosure statement:
I receive complimentary books for review from publishers, publicists, and/or authors, including Netgalley. I am not required to write positive reviews. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

Coloring Craze: Restore My Soul

June 3, 2016 by Suzie Waltner Leave a Comment

I’ll be honest, I don’t get the grown up coloring book craze (sorry, adult coloring books make them sound like something else entirely). Perhaps it’s simply the fact I’d much rather immerse myself in a good story than spend the time worrying about coloring inside the lines. Or maybe it’s because the details of these coloring books are so intricate I spend more time focusing on how much I still have left instead of on the motions and mindlessness of the actual act of coloring. And then there’s the problem of choosing the right book. A lot of the books seemed kind of new age-like to me (is that even still a term these days?).

All that said, when Tyndale House Publishers offered the chance to review one of these books that included devotionals, I decided to give one a try. Restore My Soul, written and illustrated by Ann-Margret Hovsepian, offers thought-provoking devotionals and if you’re not one who has to concentrate on the actual coloring, you will have plenty of time to meditate on the words.

While I’d much rather pick up a dollar kids coloring book, I know several people who enjoy these more complex designs. And the addition of the devotionals adds something you’re not going to get anywhere else. All in all, grown up coloring books still aren’t for me (it’s taken me over a month to color one page and I’m still not finished with it), that doesn’t mean it’s not for you. If you’re looking for something to keep your hands busy while focusing on the love and grace of God, Restore My Soul is for you.

****Tyndale House Publishers provided me with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. All opinions expressed are my own.