The Key on the Quilt by Stephanie Grace Whitson

Synopsis :

God’s Plan Revealed. . .Stitch by Stitch

 

From a distance, the building may resemble a castle, but it’s the last place Jane Prescott, Mamie Dawson, and Ellen Sullivan thought they’d be, and the last place they expected to see love grow.

 

Broken in spirit and wondering if God has abandoned her, Jane is serving a ten-year sentence at the Nebraska State Penitentiary, even as she hides a startling secret. How will one caring physician help unravel the hidden meaning behind Jane’s courthouse steps quilt?

 

Mamie told God she’d go anywhere, never dreaming He’d send her to nurture women the world had forgotten. But while helping those around her, will she stubbornly keep the attentions of a kind guard at arm’s length?

 

Ellen was never going to leave Kentucky, but then marriage made her a Nebraska warden’s wife. Can she reach past uncertainty and fear to find God’s purpose in it all?

 

Together, these three women form an unlikely friendship that takes them to the end of themselves and, ultimately, on a journey that proves prison walls can neither frustrate God’s plans nor keep love out.

This is my first time reading a historical novel.  I usually stay away from such as I just don’t like it but I didn’t know this is one such novel when I first got hold of it.  However, I must say I enjoyed it. 

Set in the 1890s in Lincoln, Nebraska, I enjoy the story of Jane, Ellen, Mamie and the other ladies.  I feel for Jane for what she had to go through and I’m so glad that things worked out for her.  I especially feel for her need to experience God’s ‘grace note’ in her times of darkness and it is such grace note that pulls her through. 

I love every characters in the book. Each brought so much charm and life to the story.  From Ian Sullivan, the warden to Minnie Dawson, Matron Mamie's sister, I would love to continue to read about them.  

The Key On The Quilt was published by Barbour Publishing in March 2012. I did this review for netgalley.com.

A Sister's Forgiveness by Anna Schmidt

Synopsis :

Teenage cousins Sadie and Tessa are best friends, just like their mothers, sisters Emma and Jeannie. Their families are close and the girls themselves are inseparable. And then the unthinkable happens. A single instant of Sadie’s inattention causes a tragic accident—and Tessa is dead. Everything changes in that moment: Jeannie’s lost her only child, Emma’s daughter is facing legal consequences, and both families are reeling from grief and loss. Soon sorrow becomes bitterness as Jeannie’s marriage disintegrates and Emma’s two children are mired in guilt and depression. But through faith, can each sister find a way from heartbreak to forgiveness?

This is both a tear jerker and a page turner.  I can’t stop bawling my eyes out as I read along and neither can I stop reading. 

The story is not uncommon.  Someone you love with all that you can die and the person responsible is another person whom you love as well.  How do you cope? How do you react?  Is it a case of ‘an eye for an eye’ or is it a case of ‘turning the other cheek’

Emma and Jeannie are sisters.  They have been very close to each other since young.  Tessa is her only daughter.  Sadie is her niece.  For Jeannie, it’s even worse as she felt she is partly responsible for her daughter’s death too.  If only she didn’t go with Sadie to get her learner’s permit. But then Sadie should know better than to drive without an adult.  For Emma, she is glad that her daughter's alive but trying her best now to get her out of trouble.  She felt for Jeannie but if only Jannie didn't go behind her back to get Sadie's learner's permit.

In a situation such as this, everyone get hurt, even the bystander and in this case, it’s Matt, Sadie’s brother who felt that post the accident, the family is no longer a family and everything is focus on  Sadie.  He started to hang out with the wrong crowd after being ignored by Greg, Tessa's father who knew that Matt is not to blame but he can't help but to think of what Sadie did each time he saw Matt. If only Greg has insisted to send Tessa to school that morning.

 Eveyone is a victim but everyone is also on offender at the same time.  Expected publication: May 1st 2012 by Barbour Publishing, Inc. I review this for netgalley.com.

Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich

 Synopsis :

For bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, life is rosy and she's spending her days chasing down the usual cast of losers and weirdos.  Until, that is, the tables are turned and suddenly, someone's after her.  Her mysterious stalker, a crazed woman dressed in black, carries a Glock and has a secret connection to the dark and dangerous Ranger.

The action turns deadly serious and Stephanie goes from hunting kips to hunting a murderer.  Ranger needs Stephanie and the two must work together to find the killer, rescue a missing child and stop a rapidly rising body count.  But they're getting too close for comfort - what will cop Joe Morelli, Stephanie's on-again, off-again boyfriend have to say?

For some reason that I'm not sure of, I seems to average this series once a month or so.  This time round it is book twelve of Stephanie Plum's wacky adventure.  Review for book ten (Ten Big Ones) is here.

All I can say after a couple of Stephanie's book are that they are more or less the same. You will have Stephanie trying to act cool when we all know that she's not.  You will also have Lula trying to be who is isn't and this time round even getting Grandma Mazur into trouble with some song and dance routine that are just plain hilarious and oh ya, both Joe and Ranger moved into Stephanie's apartment! At more or less the same time!

Twelve Sharp certainly delves deeper into who Ranger is and humanised him (as much as possible) in the process.  It wasn't that great a storyline but it still delivers from the entertainment perspective.

You might be keen to check out review for book thirteen (Lean Mean Thirteen) here after this.

Need You Now by Beth Wiseman

Synopsis :

When big-city life threatens the safety of one of their children, Brad and Darlene Henderson move with their three teenagers from Houston to the tiny town of Round Top, Texas.

Adjusting to small-town life is difficult for the kids especially for fifteen year old Grace who is coping in a dangerous way.

Married life hasn't always been bliss, but their strong faith has carried them through the difficult times.  when Darlene takes a job outside the home for the first time in their marriage, the domestic tension rises.

While working with special needs children at her new job, the widowed father of one of Darlene's students starts paying more attention to her than is appropriate.  Problem is, she feels like someone is listening to her for the first time in a long time.

If Darlene ever needed God...it's now.

I don't think I read Beth Wiseman before.  I can't wait for my 'Index' page to be completely updated so that I can see immediately if I have read certain authors before.

Need You Now is a fairly good book.  I really enjoy the relax and calm approach the author took for this book.  It has some rather intense moment but generally, it was a good read.

I think the title reflects the need of each and everyone of us in our lives.  Darlene needed God to guide her and needed her husband to understand her.  Grace, her daughter needed to learn how to express herself outwardly rather than internalize her feelings.  Layla, Darlene's neighbour and new best friends needed to be set free from her guilt and from her bitterness.

Even Cara and her father Dave needed someone in their lives although they are not the focus of the story here.  I would like it if Beth Wiseman come up with another novel focusing on Cara and Dave.  I feel there's a story there.

I love the cover of the book too.  It looks very calm and peaceful.

Need You Now is published by Thomas Nelson and was released on 17 April 2012.  I did this review for B&B Media Group.

Skeleton Picnic (A.J.D. Books Mystery) by Michael Norman

 Synopsis :

Third generation Kanab, Utah residents, Rolly and Abigail Rogers, come from a long line of dedicated pot hunters who scour the desert southwest in search of valuable antiquities. When the couple fails to return from a weekend skeleton picnic, (pot hunting trip)along the desolate Arizona Strip, local Sheriff Charley Sutter turns to BLM Law Enforcement Ranger J.D. Books for help.

When Books searches the missing couple’s home for clues about their disappearance, he discovers the house has been burglarized and a valuable collection of ancient Anasazi and Fremont Indian antiquities stolen. Soon a search and rescue operation finds the Rogers’ truck and trailer at an abandoned campsite near an ancient Anasazi ruin that has been recently excavated. Footprints and other evidence lead Books to conclude that the couple may have been overpowered by a small group of unknown assailants.

 As Books close in on those responsible, Books’ own survival skills will be tested where the hunter becomes the hunted, and only one person gets to go home alive.

While this story managed to highlight the issue of pot hunting – illegal excavation of ancient Indian artifacts (jewelry, pottery, arrowheads, etc.), it failed to ignite my interest and curiosity on this issue.

The story is pretty boring from beginning to end and more like a narration rather than story telling. It lacked excitement and thrill and halfway through the book, I decided to ‘quick read’ it and am I glad I did so as the ending was as expected and pretty mellow as well.

The main character, J.D. Books is not an interesting character to me and other than the fact that he’s a coffee nazi who brews his coffee, there’s nothing about him that charms me, a reader.  The rest of the characters are equally one dimensional to me.

This is the second book under the J.D. Books series. The title of the first book was On Deadly Ground.  I don’t think I’ll be reading any of this series anytime soon.

Published by Poisoned Pen Press, Skeleton Picnic was released in April 2012.  I did this review for Netgalley.com.

The Firm by John Grisham

Synopsis :

The law student : He was young and had his dreams. He'd qualified third in his class at Harvard, now offers poured in from every law firm in America.

The firm :  They are small, but well-respected.  They were prepared to match and then exceed Mitch McDeere's wildest dreams - eighty thousand a year, a BMW and a low interest mortgage.

Soon the house, the car and the job are his.  Then the nightmares begin : the secret files, the bugs in the new bedroom, the mysterious deaths of colleagues and the millions of dollars of mob money pouring through the office into the Cayman Islands, dollars that the FBI will do anything to trace.

Now Mitch stands alone in the place where dreams end and nightmares begin....

The Firm is as exciting to read now as it was years ago.  This to me, this is a classic novel, worthy to be called a thriller.

I can't remember how many times I read these since I bought the book almost 18 years ago (I wrote the year I bought it in the inside cover).  Each time I read it, years apart, I would consider it time well spent.

Mitch McDeere is a classic character, full of charm, wit and extremely clever.  I guess you have to be clever in order to take on the mob and get away with it. Took on the mob did Mitch McDeere and got away with it did he too.

Same goes to many other characters in this book - Abby, Mitch's wife, Doris/Tammy, his assistant and even the mob lawyers like Avery and Oliver and Nathan Locke were quite characters too.  Even Terrance, the FBI agent has his moment too.  

My interest in this wonderful book of which I can't sing enough praises :) was actually re-ignited recently when I saw that a new series with the same title is currently showing in AXN.  The series actually follows the story of Mitch and his family 10 years after this book took place.  I can't decide if I like the series as yet as I only managed to watch bits and pieces here and there  Have you seen it? Do you like it?

Old Friends

For some reason, I have decided to revisit some old friends that I have with me. They are :

• The Firm by John Grisham

• If Tomorrow Comes by Sidney Sheldon

• Master of The Games by Sidney Sheldon

• Windmills of The Gods by Sidney Sheldon

I have them and many others in my collection for all these years but along the way, some were lost (most were borrowed out and never returned and I might have just misplaced some.)

Even though I have a lot of new books waiting for me to read, I felt it's time to put that aside and spend some times with these faithful friends who have never failed me before and I know they will deliver again.

In fact, I am bring them along for my forthcoming trips :)  We're going to have so much fun together!

Can't wait, guys. :)