Klassen’s latest On Devonshire Shores novel (after A Winter by the Sea) is a lively tale of second chances. Estranged from her family after a failed elopement, Claire Summers has been living with her cantankerous great-aunt in Edinburgh. When her aunt dies, Claire has only a week to vacate the property, so she answers an ad seeking someone to help manage a seaside boardinghouse. The property’s owner, charming widower William Hammond, lives there with his young daughter, Mira, and Mira’s governess, Sonali. As Claire navigates the boardinghouse’s thorny dynamics—Sonali seems threatened by Claire, who isn’t sure why—she crosses paths with her own family, who operate a boardinghouse nearby. Her younger sisters are eager to reconnect, but her mother isn’t. Meanwhile, Claire develops feelings for William. Before love can blossom, however, she’ll need to draw on her faith to overcome the trauma of her last relationship and her fear that it’s made her a tainted woman. Brisk prose keeps the pages turning as Klassen delicately unpacks Claire’s guilty feelings and fragile hopes for love. This jaunt to the British coast delights. (Dec.)

Reviewed on 09/13/2024 | Details & Permalink

A woman’s murder sends her husband on an international search for justice in Linder’s energetic latest (after The Girl from the Hidden Forest). The story opens in turn-of-the-19th-century London as 17-year-old Simon Fancourt’s father demands that he join the clergy and marry socialite Georgina Whitmore. Feeling restless and constrained, Simon flees to America. Twelve years later, he’s living on a farm in North Carolina with his wife, Ruth, and two children. Tragedy strikes when two men break into the farmhouse and kill Ruth. Devastated, Simon learns that the suspects were British convicts illegally sent to America, so he returns to England to track down the responsible parties. When threats are made against his life, he asks Georgina—now 27 and still unmarried—to help protect his children. An attraction quickly grows between them, but Georgina struggles to move beyond Simon’s past rejection while Simon grapples with his faith in a God that allowed tragedy to strike his family. Linder develops her characters’ interior lives with subtlety and nuance, enriching the fast-moving plot with genuine tenderness and emotional depth. The result is an ideal mix of suspense and heart. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 09/13/2024 | Details & Permalink

Beckstrand follows up The Amish Quiltmaker’s Unexpected Guest with an upbeat enemies-to-lovers romance. Ada Yoder, 32 and single, has all but resigned herself to a humdrum life taking care of her family’s farm in rural Colorado, until handsome stranger Enos Hoover shows up one day and announces that he’s bought the neighboring plot of farmland and that six of her acres are actually his. An outraged Ada pitches a tent on the contested land in protest, ignoring her friends’ suggestions that the pair might be a match. As their daily chores bring Ada and Enos into regular contact, their arguments give way to moments of connection, with Enos opening up about his troubled childhood and Ada sharing how she had little choice but to take over the bulk of the farm work after her mother’s death. But when Ada criticizes Enos’s challenging relationship with his mother, it seems unlikely that these two stubborn souls will ever find happiness together. Beckstrand’s breezy dialogue adds humor (“How could I hone my camping skills if your stubborn claim to my land didn’t force me to camp?” Ada asks) to a plot enriched by colorful characters and the protagonists’ imperfect but enduring faith. Sweet and satisfying, this is sure to delight Beckstrand’s fans. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 09/06/2024 | Details & Permalink

Afshar (The Peasant King) kicks off her Queen Esther’s Court series with a rich and resonant retelling of the Purim story. It’s the 12th year of Persian king Xerxes’s rule and 23-year-old Roxannah lives in constant fear of her erratic father, Lord Fravartish, a former nobleman who sold off the family’s land to fuel his drinking habit. When he’s injured in a fight, Fravartish sends Roxannah to fetch the Jewish court physician, Adin, who’s immediately taken with her, though his faith forbids him from associating with a gentile woman. Meanwhile, court adviser Haman has convinced King Xerxes to issue an edict ordering the annihilation of the kingdom’s Jews. While Queen Esther works to intercede on behalf of her people, sectarian tensions combust into bloody conflict and Roxannah and Adin find themselves on opposite sides of the fight. Then Roxannah starts working in Queen Esther’s court, and they reunite to unravel a secret plot. Afshar rotates between Roxannah, Adin, and Esther’s perspectives, powering a twisty plot full of intrigue and divided allegiances, set against an intricately rendered ancient Persia seething with power struggles and violence. Fans of biblical fiction will be captivated. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 08/30/2024 | Details & Permalink

A missing woman, an attempted murder, and a cache of secrets keep detectives Lord Yates Fairfax and his sister, Marigold, busy in the hair-raising third installment of White’s Imposters series (after A Noble Scheme). In early 20th-century London, Lady Alethia Barremore enlists Yates to help find her children’s nurse, Samira, who’s recently gone missing. Bigger problems arise when two masked men burst into their meeting and shoot Lady Alethia. Yates whisks the badly wounded Alethia to a house in the country, where a pregnant Marigold and their childhood friend Lavinia are staying. As the three investigate who might want Alethia dead and why—and whether the culprit might also be responsible for Samira’s disappearance—clues point them toward the Empire House, a charity for women and children that’s linked to a ring of high-profile male aristocrats. Meanwhile, Yates develops feelings for Lavinia, and the case forces Lady Alethia to confront a secret that’s been haunting her since childhood. White seamlessly balances the high-energy, twist-filled plot with fine-grained character development as the three sleuths harness their faith to expose the dark underbelly of London society. The result is a thrill ride with surprising depth. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 08/30/2024 | Details & Permalink

Andrews (In Feast or Famine) creates a rich backstory for King David’s little-known first wife in this captivating historical. Seven years ago, Ahinoam and her father Toren, members of the Kenite clan, fled King Saul’s imminent attack on their Amalekite city for Jezreel, where they have lived ever since, supplying weapons to the city’s warriors. King Saul failed to wipe out the Amalekites, who now seek revenge on the Kenites for “colluding” with the Israelites. When an Amalekite raid strikes Jezreel, Ahinoam and her father flee, and Toren decides they should join up with fugitive future king David, who’s hiding in the Judean hills. Ahinoam is far from enchanted with David—she even hurls a dagger at him during a tense exchange with one of his generals—though her feelings start to shift when his sister Zeruiah shares how God has chosen him as the Israelites’ future leader. Ahinoam proves a dynamic and irresistible lead as she faces the resentment of David’s generals, fends off assassins, and gathers intel that saves the clan. Most affecting of all are her strength and self-possession, which come through as she falls for the brave yet flawed David. Propulsive and finely detailed, this promises more good things to come from Andrews. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/23/2024 | Details & Permalink

Basham (The Juliet Code) sets a sweet and spirited romance against a rugged, early 20th-century North Carolina backdrop. After 17-year-old Kizzie McAdams gets pregnant and is disowned by her family, she seeks refuge with the baby’s father, wealthy Charles Morgan, who sets her up in a house of her own. Sympathetic neighbor Nella reminds Kizzie of her worth as a child of God, though Kizzie feels rejected by Charles and is convinced her sins are irredeemable. When Kizzie and her son are threatened by judgmental townspeople, Nella helps Kizzie skip town. She sets out in the middle of a snowstorm and happens upon handsome Noah Lewis, whose carriage has been overturned. He welcomes her and her son to the estate he shares with his mother and brother, and Noah and Kizzie begin to fall for each other, though there are formidable obstacles standing in their way, including a scheming brother, a contested family fortune, and a ghost from Kizzie’s past. While the character of Noah feels too good to be true, Kizzie’s irrepressible spirit carries the narrative forward as she strives to restore her faith and carve out a better life for herself and her son. This has charm to spare. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/16/2024 | Details & Permalink

Prysock (Waiting for Wilson) kicks off the Kentucky Debutantes of the Gilded Age series with this paint-by-numbers tale of an arranged marriage that turns into true love. Ever since Veronica was spurned by a crush, she’s planned to live out her days as a single woman on her parents’ Kentucky horse farm. So when her parents arrange her marriage to a high-society Princeton grad, she’s incensed. Still, when Edward and his family visit, Veronica goes along with the plan to avoid causing a scene. As she gets to know the sensitive, smart, and godly 28-year-old, she’s swept off her feet. There’s another reason for the match, however—Veronica’s father is offering a handsome dowry to Edward’s cash-strapped dad, who needs to pay off creditors after his stockbroking company went belly-up. As the plot unfolds, Veronica discovers there may be more to the story, while also confronting the challenges of joining her life with Edward’s. Unfortunately, stilted dialogue and thin characterizations (“He prayed Veronica would say yes, because at this point, his heart would never be the same again if she declined him”) keep the well-worn premise from taking flight, and manufactured-feeling roadblocks to the relationship remove any suspense. This disappoints. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 08/16/2024 | Details & Permalink

The exciting third installment in Meyer’s Timeless series (after For a Lifetime) follows a 20-year-old time traveler as she grapples with her identity in two different centuries. Caroline splits her days between 1927 St. Paul, Minn., where she’s the daughter of a minister, and 1727 South Carolina, where her hardheaded grandfather wants to marry her off to the wealthy Thomas Shepherd. Caroline has other plans, however, especially after she discovers a letter from her mother revealing that she, too, was a time traveler. Seeking answers about her past, Caroline disguises herself in 1727 as a boy and finds work on a ship bound for the Bahamas, where her mother said she was headed in the letter. When the ship is captured by pirates, Caroline turns to an unexpected ally, quartermaster Marcus, to keep her true identity a secret and help her survive. Amid the high-stakes action, which toggles between the high seas and Prohibition-era speakeasies, Caroline wrestles with her faith as she works to understand whether her time-traveling ability is a curse or a gift. Propulsive and intricately detailed, this hits all the right notes. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 08/16/2024 | Details & Permalink

Baker’s shaky latest in the Heart of the Amish series (after The Quilt Room Secret) finds a mysterious break-in wreaking havoc on a sleepy Illinois town. Serenity Miller is trying to get back on her feet after criminals invaded her barn and left her bound and gagged until she was rescued by handsome neighbor Stephen Lantz. Afterward, the police are certain they’ve caught the suspects—bank robbers seeking shelter from a storm—but Serenity has her doubts, especially because the men in question don’t have the hoarse, raspy voices she remembers from that night (she didn’t see their faces). As her anxiety mounts, she and Stephen scour the town for possible culprits. Though he tries to court her, Serenity is standoffish and cagey, dodging his professions of love despite the obvious spark building between them. It may be that a secret about her health—one that “only Gott” knows—is preventing her from pursuing the romance. While the bond between Stephen and Serenity has some appeal, clumsy exposition and wooden prose sap the sweetest moments of life (“As they studied each other, he yearned to be her husband. He longed for love”). Despite a promising premise, this fails to live up to its potential. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/09/2024 | Details & Permalink