The Love Letters

The Love Letters by Beverly Lewis, shows how families cope with a handicap child; some parents don't handle it well. It also dives into death, grief, acceptance of different denominations, guardianship, dementia, and a whole lot of emotions. Yes, it's a packed book. Let's face it, life is a roller coaster. Beverly did a wonderful job capturing many different trails in life that we all face. What happens when the man you plan to marry disagrees with your current situation? Do you still associate with people who worship God, but in a different denomination? What if your first child arrives with difficulties you didn't expect? How do you handle waking up one day not knowing your name, address, or if you're still married? What happens when a family member gets hurt or dies? Who watches the deceased's children or takes care of their spouse? Beverly shows her families all walking some hard paths and through it all they're unknowingly helping each other heal from their crippling mindsets. Through the crazy roller coaster of life, true love reigns.

The Beekeeper's Son

The Beekeeper's Son is a captivating story about loss and love in a dwindling Amish community. This is one of those novels I want to read when I can't, stay up reading much later than I should, and have regrets when I'm done. It's been a long time since I've read a novel this gripping.

Kelly Irvin has a new fan.

Finley Flowers Original Recipe

Finley Flowers Original Recipe isn’t my cup of tea. The kids have fun mixing different ingredients for a cooking contest while they struggle with lack of parental supervision and not listening to each other’s ideas. I’m not a fan of teaching my daughter she can treat someone different simply because she’s jealous of them. Also, the mention of playing with a Ouija board and meditating were completely unnecessary in the story.

Alien Invasion in My Backyard: An EMU Club Adventure

I loved it and my eight year old will too. This story reminds me of Phineas and Ferb. We have three kids and a dog having a crazy adventure. Of course a problem will come up and the trio must band together to solve it. This story is full of surprises. It's a fun read that I would suggest to all young chapter book readers who love adventures.

Treasure Town

Treasure Town by Doug Wilhelm is a playful tale of three children and two accident prone stowaways who are searching for pirate treasure in a small Florida town. Some of the characters have fun names like Speedup and Bug Luck. I appreciate the playful names because they hold my daughter's interest and she can pronounce them.

For me the two men stole the show. No matter what they did or where they went, a mishap was sure to follow. And of course they couldn't do something little with small repercussions. No, they must start a little something and before you know it the whole town is living with the immediate fallout. Can you say T-R-O-U-B-L-E?

I read the book first and then had my eight year old read it to me. She quickly go into the story and read for almost 40 minutes before I realized it was past bedtime. She enjoyed it so much she begged to keep reading. She loved both the riveting story and the illustrations. We both give the book two thumbs up!

Covering Home

Covering Home is a whirlwind love story that crosses the globe. Caleb and Britt are quickly off again - on again while sharing passionate kisses and debating if what they have can even last. Now mix in careers that are pulling them different directions and you have a full blown drama on your hands.

This book took me a while to finish because I was uncomfortable with the level of intimacy shown so early on in the relationship. After knowing each other a couple days they are locking lips in what's described in such passionate detail I expected them to go back to one of their hotel rooms. Shortly after the kissing scenes the two are back to debating their relationship. Drunk driving is mentioned at one point, but it doesn't stop anyone from drinking. Thankfully they mostly have someone else driving. God, church, or anything spiritual are hardly mentioned which makes me question this book being placed in Christian fiction. There never seemed to be a spiritual awakening.

An Amish Cradle

An Amish Cradle is a four part novella made up of all the good parts of a normal Amish novel that we don't normally get to read. I really enjoyed this twist on the typical Amish story. It's not boy meets girl, but now that they're married and having a baby real life's problems are crashing in around them. The stories deal with step children, life after loss, special needs, and financial struggles. These novellas were so well written two of them were hard for me to read because they hit so close to home. The emotions portrayed were spot on.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves Amish fiction and wonders what happened after the wedding.