Turning Hearts (Deanne Blackhurst)

“Jake and I have called off the wedding.” “Amanda’s mother, doing dishes at the sink, froze at Amanda’s words. Her father stared at her in dismay. “But why?” her mother asked. “You both seem so happy together.” “Is it a worthiness issue?” her father turned a grim eye on Jake, who blushed. “No, sir,” he said. “It’s nothing like that.” “Then why?” her mother repeated. Amanda took a deep breath. “Because I’m going on a mission.”

Amanda knows there’s a certain family out there that needs the gospel—and she also knows she’s the one who’s supposed to bring it to them. Her recurring dream makes it seem urgent—the dream with the shiny gold frame and the vaguely familiar faces smiling down at her. The dream in which her grandmother says, “You must find them. You’re the only one who can.”

When Amanda gets to California and starts teaching, she wonders which family she was sent there to find. What happens next is something she never would have expected.

Turning Hearts is an inspiring story of faith, love, and the bittersweet struggles of missionary work that you won’t want to miss.

This was a quick read. I felt like I was reading a missionaries homecoming talk. It is a story about this girls testimony of missionary work and shared some of her favorite events throughout her mission.

The Crossing Places (Elly Griffiths)

When she's not digging up bones or other ancient objects, Ruth Galloway lectures at the University of North Norfolk. She lives happily alone in a remote place called Saltmarsh overlooking the North Sea and, for company, she has her cats Flint and Sparky, and Radio 4.
When a child's bones are found in the marshes near an ancient site that Ruth worked on ten years earlier, Ruth is asked to date them. The bones turn out to be two thousand years old, and DCI Harry Nelson, who called on Ruth for help, is disappointed. He'd hoped they would be the bones of a child called Lucy who's been missing for ten years; he's been getting letters about her ever since. Then a second girl goes missing and Nelson receives more letters. Soon it becomes clear that Ruth is in grave danger from a killer who knows that her expert knowledge is being used to help the police with their enquiries.

I enjoyed the mystery of this story, but I had a hard time with the wording she used to describe things and situations.