As Always, Dave (Jack Weyland)

When Dave leaves on his mission, he assumes that Abbie, his high school sweetheart, will wait for him and that they'll eventually marry. But by the time he gets home, Abbie has a new boyfriend and is now living in New York. Can Dave win Abbie back? Is she the right one? Weyland fans will enjoy this new young adult novel about relationships, romance, and finding true love.

Midnight Whispers (Carol Warburton)

With the loss of her father, Jessamyne Clayborne finds herself without any family, except for her estranged brother, Robert, who has long since sought his fortune elsewhere. Set in the wilds of colonial Australia, Midnight Whispers is an extraordinary new novel by Carol Warburton, filled with unforgettable characters, compelling dialogue, fastpaced action, and the faith of a strong woman who must follow her heart at any costs.

I liked this book. I had a hard time with all the australia and scottish accents that the author tried to put into it.

Tangled Roots (G G Vandagriff)

Accompany Alex on her attempt to unravel a family tree that proves to have more branches than she bargained for, not to mention a murderer, a misappropriated fortune, and a family secret someone is willing to kill for! As she grapples with this unwieldy job, she is also trying to learn to get to know her mother, whom tragedy separated from her as a teenager. A recent convert to the Church, she is still trying to trust God and discover the true essence of forgiveness. On top of all these issues, she also has serious conflicts in matters of the heart. Should she marry the charming Englishman Charles, who courts her so exquisitely, or the down-to-earth Daniel who knows her better than anyone?

Poisoned Pedigree (G G Vandagriff)

Once again, the author has managed to weave geneology tightly with the skeletons in the closet to create a murder mystery that will draw the reader into its plot. ...Poisoned Pedigree is as pleasant a way to spend a couple of hours as a murder mystery can be."-- Jaymie Reynolds, AML Review
Kerry McNee, a famous singer and songwriter, has enlisted the help of professional genealogist Alexandra Campbell and her sidekick, Briggie, to explore the star's pedigree. At the age of 37, Kerry wants to marry and have a family, but she is terrified by childhood memories that include whispers of a family curse and "bad blood." The investigation leads to a remote town in the Ozarks and a strange woman known as the Keeper, who seems to know secrets that no one else will share. But when the Keeper is suddenly murdered, Alex and Briggie are left to piece together the mystery from a 200-year-old scrapbook — a collection of writings that also includes cryptic references to the lynching of a Mormon missionary in the 1800s. Author G. G. Vandagriff combines mystery, suspense, and romance in this page-turning thriller!

I absolutely loved this book. I am a big family history junkie, so the genealogist work in this story was fun to follow. I was unable to put the book down once I started reading, because the murder mystery kept you in suspense. I need to get the other books from this series. I wish I would have known it was a series, so that I could have read them in order. It doesn't really matter because each book is a different genealogical case so it can be its own story also.

Eyes of a Stranger (Rachel Ann Nunes)

On the first day of her new life, Tawnia McKnight finds herself in Oregon, her fifth state in ten years. Another new job, new friends, a heartache left far behind. Maybe in Portland she can at last find what she is looking for. Maybe she can even forget Bret Winn. But when a tragic bridge collapse rocks the city, Tawnia is thrust back into the life of the man she thought she'd never see again. Then Bret introduces her to the eccentric Autumn Rain — a stranger with inexplicably familiar eyes — and Tawnia finds herself drawn into a web of confusion and deceit. Autumn's suffering over her missing father seems to be real, but there is much that cannot be explained. Will Tawnia find what she is looking for, or will everything she is beginning to care about slip once again from her grasp?

The Wednesday Letters (Jason F Wright)

Jack and Laurel have been married for 39 years. They've lived a good life and appear to have had the perfect marriage. With his wife cradled in his arms, and before Jack takes his last breath, he scribbles his last "Wednesday Letter." When their adult children arrive to arrange the funeral, they discover boxes and boxes full of love letters that their father wrote to their mother each week on Wednesday. As they begin to open and read the letters, the children uncover the shocking truth about the past. In addition, each one must deal with the present-day challenges. Matthew has a troubled marriage, Samantha is a single mother, and Malcolm is the black sheep of the family who has returned home after a mysterious two-year absence. The Wednesday Letters has a powerful message about forgiveness and quietly beckons for readers to start writing their own "Wednesday Letters."

I loved this book. It was a lot easier to read then the last one I read of his. I think the ending was perfect and the letters were a great touch to the story.

Recovering Charles (Jason F Wright)

Luke Millward is a man who does not know he is lost. His girlfriend loves him, his career is going well, and every night he falls asleep knowing that his life is good and meaningful. Only when the past reveals its twisted smile in a phone call and a disconnected voice asks him to come find his father in post-Katrina New Orleans is Luke compelled to find out what kind of man he truly is.
With the recent aftermath of Hurricane Katrina looming in the background, Wright's new novel hovers delicately between the reality of the hurricane's catastrophic damage to the city of New Orleans, and the intertwined lives of a few holdouts remaining in the city. As the broken residents hunt for survivors, successful New York photographer Luke Millward arrives to search for his missing father, Charles, a former architect who has long been absent from Luke's life. This New York Times bestselling author cuts deeply into the soul of New Orleans residents, and weaves a touching, if somewhat sentimental, tale of paternal love and emotional resurrection. Luke's personal journey to New Orleans reveals much about his father's recent life, including his recovery from alcoholism, a fascinating and mysterious fiancée, a revived musical career, and a group of intensely loyal friends who make it their personal mission to reacquaint Luke with his father.Effectively employing flashbacks to Luke's idyllic childhood, the slow deterioration of his relationship with his father is played out in touching vignettes, leading up to the suicide of Luke's mother following an inconsolable bout of depression. In his distinctively abrupt style, Wright easily describes his father's emotional turmoil soon after his mother's death: "My father clung to his complicated, braided rope of faith. He said one day Mother's soul would surface again . . . " His father's subsequent plunge into alcoholism becomes the basis for Luke's inability to commit to his longtime girlfriend, as well as the motivation that drives his career ambitions as a Manhattan photographer. Wright has previouslypublished three novels, The James Miracle, Christmas Jars and The Wednesday Letters, and is also a well-known political/social editorialist. In Recovering Charles, mystery and romance readers will be hooked on Luke's puzzling search and his encounter with an exotic mystery woman while in New Orleans. Readers favoring realism will suffer Luke's pain through aptly described recollections of his childhood. With a harsh dose of reality, Wright is accomplished in his use of imagery, as his descriptions of New Orleans are often graphic and moving. His plethora of New Orleans characters are intriguing and occasionally puzzling, if not particularly inspiring. In a surprising twist, the unexpected conclusion leads Luke to a place he never imagined, and leaves the reader with much to ponder.

I had a hard time with the first half of the book, because it kept jumping from the present to the past and I was having a hard time keeping the stories straight.

Echoes (Erin Grady)

Tess Carson isnt worried when her irresponsible sister, Tori, vanishes from her remote California town. But when Tess arrives in Mountain Bend to look after Tori's daughter, she realizes there is more to the disappearance than mere flight of fancy. Her sister's boss is dead - and Tori is the prime suspect...

Tess turns to an unlikely ally to clear her sister's name - the dead man's son. But Grant Weston is haunted by his own familial demons, making Tess wary of his true intentions - and suspicious of his connection to Tori.

And there is something else haunting Tess. Something forcing her to experience strange, terrifying hallucinations of another time and place. Now, the only way for Tess to discover the truth about her sister - and about Grant - is to confront the secret that binds them together through time itself...

All in all, this story was quite good and kept you turning the pages. When the book was finished it did leave some questions left unanswered which was a little frustrating. They dont deter from the story though. Maybe she'll answer those questions in a sequel.

Dear John (Nicholas Sparks)

An angry rebel, John dropped out of school and enlisted in the Army, not knowing what else to do with his life--until he meets the girl of his dreams, Savannah. Their mutual attraction quickly grows into the kind of love that leaves Savannah waiting for John to finish his tour of duty, and John wanting to settle down with the woman who has captured his heart. But 9/11 changes everything. John feels it is his duty to re-enlist. And sadly, the long separation finds Savannah falling in love with someone else. "Dear John," the letter read...and with those two words, a heart was broken and two lives were changed forever. Returning home, John must come to grips with the fact that Savannah, now married, is still his true love—and face the hardest decision of his life.

Reserved For The Cat (Mercedes Lackey)

Ninette Dupond was a dancer with the paris Opera Ballet. She had been very lucky - if she had not been pretty, and a natural dancer, she could only have become what her mother had been: a washerwoman, or perhaps if she were desperate and hungry enough, a prostitute.

But Ninette's good luck ended the day that the lead dancer sprained her ankle and Ninette was chosen to dance her part at a matinee. Her reviews had been very good - too good. Shortly thereafter Ninette had been fired in an attempt to soothe the wounded ego of the ballet's primary soloist.

Alone, unemployed, and filled with despair, Ninette had returned to her apartment to find a thin, rangy, tabby-striped tomcat sitting on her windowsill. He seemed like just another stray, until abruptly he spoke to her, mine-to-mind.

Ninette thought she was going mad, but the cat offered her an alternative to prostitution, albeit a very odd one. He proposed that she impersonate a renowned Russian ballerina, Nina Tschereslavsky, and go to work in a specific music hall in Blackpool, England. The cat also told her that he would take care of her in every way - he would somehow convey the English and Russian languages to her, supply her with monye, and guide her every move. With no other otpion open to her, she placed her life in his paws.

What Ninette didn't know was that the cat was an Elemental Spirit sent to protect her, and that the music hall in Blackpool was owned by an Elemental Master. But she also didn't know that the real Nin no longer existed. For the real Nina had been "absorbed" by an Elemental Spirit of the darkest kind that was now bent on Ninette's destruction...

This one was hard to get involved in. I actually would put it down and then read another book before picking it up again. now that I"ve finished it and looking back it does have a good premise to a story but is slow.

This book is actually book 5 in a series call The Elemental Masters.

I've been told that the others in the series are better.

At First Sight (Nicholas Sparks)

There are a few things Jeremy Marsh was sure he'd never do: he'd never leave New York City; never give his heart away again after barely surviving one failed marriage; and, most of all, never become a parent. Now, Jeremy is living in the tiny town of Boone Creek, North Carolina, married to Lexie Darnell, the love of his life, and anticipating the birth of their daughter. But just as his life seems to be settling into a blissful pattern, an unsettling and mysterious message re-opens old wounds and sets off a chain of events that will forever change the course of this young couple's marriage.Dramatic, heartbreaking and surprising, this is a story about the love between a man and a woman and between a parent and a child. More than that, it is a story that beautifully portrays how the same emotion that can break your heart is also the one that will ultimately heal it.While the novel picks up the tale of Lexie Darnell and Jeremy Marsh that started in True Believer and will delight fans of that novel, it stands on its own as one of Nicholas Sparks's most deeply moving love stories.

Emma : Woman of Faith (Anita Stansfield)

Emma stood alone at the edge of the Mississippi, pondering its lazy flow that was so familiar to her. . . . More than three decades had passed since she'd lost her precious Joseph. She had learned to live without him . . . but nothing had ever felt right without him. . . . "Joseph," she whispered into the breeze as she lovingly fingered the worn gold beads encircling her throat, a gift from Joseph, one of the few tangible remnants of his love for her.
In this triumphant tribute, well-loved LDS author Anita Stansfield conveys Emma Smith's greatness of spirit; her undying love for and loyalty to Joseph; her remarkable compassion, courage, and dignity; and her unwavering testimony of the Savior.
Joyful and poignant, insightful and moving, intense and reverent, this thoroughly researched fictional narrative paints an intimate portrait of the Lord's "elect lady" through a love story that transcends time and embraces eternity.

This book is almost exactly like the movie "Emma Smith : My Story". It does portray her love for Joseph a little more, but if you have seen the movie, then you pretty much have read this book.

The Magicians and Mrs Quent

The Magicians and Mrs QuentBy Galen Beckett
. Young Ivy Lockwell, the unmarried daughter of a family stricken with poverty after her magician father went mad, travels from her home in Invarel, a mirror of Austen-era London, to become a governess at the country estate of Heathcrest, a Bronte-analogue complete with mysterious Rochester stand-in, Mr. Quent. As a woman, she is forbidden to perform magic and consoles herself with the study of magical history, discovering an ancient story still working its will on the world. Treading a fine line between homage and unoriginality, Invarel occasionally sparkles with descriptions of illusionist shows and quasi-fascist government activity, but Heathcrest is lifted part and parcel from Jane Eyre, and Beckett relies too much on references to that work to fuel emotional arcs and reader attachment.

Ivy Lockwell is a responsible eldest daughter who dreams of mastering enough magic to save her mentally ill father. He has left her clues to the puzzle, but mysterious "others" may solve things before Ivy can. Perhaps the rakish Mr. Rafferdy can help? Too bad Ivy can't stick around town to find out. She's off to the remote countryside to serve as a governess to the enigmatic Mr. Quent's niece and nephew. Earning her living is the only way to save her family from financial ruin. Marrying the boss could really solve her problems. Beckett's tepid debut is partly an homage to Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, only without any energy, drama, or originality. He creates a world (the island nation of Altania) with great potential, which he then squanders through slow pacing, minimal character development, an implausible romance, and very little fantasy. .

This book took me a while to get into. Once I did I could not put it down. It also has a sequal (The House on Durrow Street) I was going to go get it so I could see if its any good.

Black Swan, White Raven (story collection)

Come revisit the tales that charmed, enthralled, and terrified us in our early youth - but this time, hear the stories of Rapunzels, Rumpelstiltskins and sleeping beauties from an edgy, provocative and distinctly adult perspective.

Dont waste your time on this one. I couldnt even read all of the stories. I got maybe half-way through and decided I just couldnt take anymore. Most of the stories left me thinkin...huh!?!

A Knight's Vow (story collection)

The Traveller (Lynn Kurland)
A bedraggled knight makes a solemn vow to protect, defend, and rescue any and all maidens in distress - even those from Manhattan...
The Minstrel (Patricia Potter)
A vow to marry for love transforms a marquis into a minstrel who must sing for his supper - and for a woman whose heart is true...
The Bachelor Knight (Deborah Simmons)
A forgotten vow comes back to haunt the greatest knight in all the land, when a fair maiden asks for his hand in marriage...
The Siege (Glynnis Campbell)
Trapped underground with his unwilling betrothed, a deteremined knight vows to free her - body and soul...
These were all good reads. I think I enjoyed The Siege the most.

My Heart Stood Still (Lynn Kurland)

Thomas McKinnon is used to attaining impossible heights, both in business and in the mountains he loves. But when the chance to restore a twelfth-century castle comes his way, he gamesly take hammer in hand and crsses the Atlantic, expecting to find nothing more interesting inside his new home than cobwebs and weeds.

But in that ancient, crumbling castle, the fierce, restless spirit of a medieval Scottish woman lives on - a woman so haunting that he would do anything, go anywhere, risk anything to mak her his forever...

This was a good romantic story. I enjoyed it.