by Crystal Caudill | Mar 31, 2024 | Reading Challenge
It’s another month our challenge: Unlocking Ecclesiastes 3. I’m so excited to join you again this year with guest reviews from our reading challenge participants. If you want to submit a review for upcoming months, feel free to email me using my contact form. If you are looking for reading suggestions, I’ve cultivated a page just for that. (Note that it is still being updated throughout the year, so feel free to message me with suggestions.) I recommend you also checking Inspirational Historical Fiction Index or the Facebook Group Avid Readers of Christian Fiction or my Facebook group Crystal Caudill’s Reading Friends. I’ll also include a short list at the bottom of this post.
Don’t forget to comment at the bottom of the post for your chance to win a book off my prize shelf. *The list of prizes available from my prize shelf can be found here.*
Unlocking the Past: Ecclesiastes 3
Just as Ecclesiastes has two opposites in each verse, most months will leave you with two options to choose from.
“For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.”
March Verse: A time to kill and a time to heal.
Challenge Theme: A book with a serial killer or a character in the medical profession.
April Verse: A time to tear down and a time to build up.
Challenge Theme: A book with characters or plots related to construction, remodeling, demolition, or architecture.
Lost in Darkness
by Michelle Griep
Review by: Crystal Caudill, repost from 11/2021
If I were to describe this book in one word, it would be intense. Marvelously so. Michelle Griep has taken her writing to new levels in this gothic romance that leaves characters battling the monsters within . . . and without. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein had nothing on this story where the famed author makes several appearances. The story of Amelia Balfour, Graham Lambart, Colin Balfour, and Dr. Peckwood is sure to have your angst ratcheting tight all the way to the spell-binding ending, that while holding to magnificent gothic tradition, leaves the reader with hope for the future.
This was the most intense book from Michelle Griep that I have ever read, and to be honest, I was glad that I was listening to it as an audiobook and was forced to do thirty or fewer minute increments. The tension was so deep, so constant that my heart couldn’t take it all at once. I’m looking forward to reading it again soon, this time in one fell swoop. This is an unforgettable tale that will sweep readers away to a different time to face monsters that they might even see reflected in themselves.
I recommend this book for fans of Gothic romances, Frankenstein, obscure history, and deep truths discovered during trying circumstances.
Genre: Historical Romance, Victorian England
Plot Overview:
Travel writer Amelia Balfour’s dream of touring Egypt is halted when she receives news of a revolutionary new surgery for her grotesquely disfigured brother. This could change everything, and it does. . .in the worst possible way.
Surgeon Graham Lambert has suspicions about the doctor he’s gone into practice with, but he can’t stop him from operating on Amelia’s brother. Will he be too late to prevent the man’s death? Or to reveal his true feelings for Amelia before she sails to Cairo?
Purchase Links:
Amazon | Baker Book House | Barnes & Noble | Christianbook.com
Giveaway
For your chance to win a print copy, comment with what book YOU read for this month. Use the Rafflecopter below for extra entries and to mark that you left a comment. Entries end on the 7th of each month at midnight EST, and the winner will be drawn sometime that week and notified by email. The winner will be announced on the Rafflecopter widget.
*Open to all residents of the contiguous USA, legally able to enter, and an e-book format or Amazon Gift Card will be awarded to those outside that range who are legally able to enter.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Recommendations for April:
- A Model of Devotion by Mary Connealy
- On This Foundation by Lynn Austin
- A Battle Worth Fighting by Sarah Hanks
- Daughtry House series by Beth White
- Lost Castle series by Kristy Cambron
- Engaging Deception by Regina Jennings
What did you read for the challenge? What were your thoughts on it? Would you recommend it?
by Crystal Caudill | Feb 29, 2024 | Reading Challenge
It’s another month our challenge: Unlocking Ecclesiastes 3. I’m so excited to join you again this year with guest reviews from our reading challenge participants. If you want to submit a review for upcoming months, feel free to email me using my contact form. If you are looking for suggestions as to what to read each month, may I recommend joining my Crystal Caudill’s Reading Friends Facebook group, or visiting Avid Readers of Christian Fiction or Inspirational Historical Fiction Index. I’ll also include a short list at the bottom of this post. Don’t forget to comment at the bottom of the post for your chance to win a book off my prize shelf. *The list of prizes available from my prize shelf can be found here.*
Unlocking the Past: Ecclesiastes 3
Just as Ecclesiastes has two opposites in each verse, most months will leave you with two options to choose from.
“For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.”
February Verse: A time to plant and a time to harvest.
Challenge Theme: A book with a Rural Setting OR a Major Move/Life Change
March Verse: A time to kill and a time to heal.
Challenge Theme: A book with a serial killer or a character in the medical profession.
The Captive Heart
by Michelle Griep
Review by: Crystal Caudill, reposted from 2019 What I loved: Historical details are always a favorite of mine, and I really loved how the complexities of frontier life were displayed, especially for the heroine. To change from the pampered life of England to the comparably savage struggle of the frontier was fun to live through. I learned so much, and of course, I loved the romance. The struggle between the two to learn to love and trust each other was a slow simmer. Like a stew cooked to perfection takes hours and hours, Love is not rushed, and I really enjoyed that.
Favorite Character and Why: Samuel definitely won me over. He was a complex character, a puzzle to be figured out. He was both a man you loved and accepted as imperfect. He was real.
Who would like this? Anyone who loves frontier stories, romance, action, and danger. Also, if you love marriages of convenience, this is a fun story that breaks some of the molds.
Genre: Historical Romance, American Frontier, 1770 Plot Overview: The wild American wilderness is no place for an elegant English governess
On the run from a brute of an aristocratic employer, Eleanor Morgan escapes from England to America, the land of the free, for the opportunity to serve an upstanding Charles Town family. But freedom is hard to come by as an indentured servant, and downright impossible when she’s forced to agree to an even harsher contract—marriage to a man she’s never met.
Backwoodsman Samuel Heath doesn’t care what others think of him—but his young daughter’s upbringing matters very much. The life of a trapper in the Carolina backcountry is no life for a small girl, but neither is abandoning his child to another family. He decides it’s time to marry again, but that proves to be an impossible task. Who wants to wed a murderer? Both Samuel and Eleanor are survivors, facing down the threat of war, betrayal, and divided loyalties that could cost them everything, but this time they must face their biggest challenge ever . . .Love.
Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Christianbook.com
Giveaway
For your chance to win a print copy, comment with what book YOU read for this month. Use the Rafflecopter below for extra entries and to mark that you left a comment. Entries end on the 7th of each month at midnight EST, and the winner will be drawn sometime that week and notified by email. The winner will be announced on the Rafflecopter widget. *Open to all residents of the contiguous USA, legally able to enter, and an e-book format or Amazon Gift Card will be awarded to those outside that range who are legally able to enter. a Rafflecopter giveaway
Recommendations for March:
- Kaely Quinn Profiler series by Nancy Mehl
- When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin
- Patrick Bowers Files by Steven James (Warning: Graphic)
- With Every Breath by Elizabeth Camden (doctor, TB, mystery)
- While Love Stirs by Lorna Seilstad (light/sweet romance, doctor)
- White City by Grace Hitchcock
- Wedded to War by Jocelyn Green
- A Memory Between Us by Sarah Sundin
- Wings of the Nightingale series by Sarah Sundin
- The Doctor’s Lady by Jody Hedlund
- Lost in Darkness by Michelle Griep
- Within My Heart by Tamera Alexander
- A Lady in Attendance by Rachel Fordham
- At Loves Command by Karen Witemeyer
What did you read for the challenge? What were your thoughts on it? Would you recommend it?
by Crystal Caudill | Jan 31, 2024 | Book Reviews, Reading Challenge
It’s time to start our newest challenge: Unlocking Ecclesiastes 3. I’m so excited to join you again this year with guest reviews from our reading challenge participants. If you want to submit a review for upcoming months, feel free to email me using my contact form. If you are looking for suggestions as to what to read each month, visit my recommendations page – Reading Challenge Recommendations — or I recommend joining my Crystal Caudill’s Reading Friends Facebook group, or visiting Avid Readers of Christian Fiction or Inspirational Historical Fiction Index. I’ll also include a short list at the bottom of this post.an Fiction or Inspirational Historical Fiction Index. I’ll also include a short list at the bottom of this post.
Don’t forget to comment at the bottom of the post for your chance to win a book off my prize shelf. *The list of prizes available from my prize shelf can be found here.*
Unlocking the Past: Ecclesiastes 3
Just as Ecclesiastes has two opposites in each verse, most months will leave you with two options to choose from.
“For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.”
January Verse:Â A time to be born and a time to die.
Challenge Theme: A book with a Baby or End of Life character
February Verse: A time to plant and a time to harvest.
Challenge Theme: A book with a Rural Setting OR a Major Move/Life Change
Catching Christmas
by Teri Blackstock
Review by: Crystal Caudill
Yes, I know. It’s a Christmas book and a contemporary one at that. I promise most of my future challenge books will be historical in nature, but I accidentally read this end-of-life book in December and decided to work ahead since I had a deadline in January. What do I mean by accidentally? I wouldn’t have picked it up if I knew it was an end-of-life book when I started listening to it. As a caregiver, that is just a hard subject for me right now, and the grandma, Callie, in this story dealt with a lot of memory/dementia-type issues and something else that . However, I forced myself to finish listening to it since it came so highly recommended, and Terri Blackstock has been on my need-to-try author list for a long time.Â
I’m still processing it. It was written in first person, one of my least favorite, but it didn’t fall under suspense or romance like I thought it would. It was fascinating to be in Finn’s perspective, and Sydney was . . . a difficult character for me. I tend to fall along Finn’s lines in that you sacrifice and give up for your family. Not that Sydney wasn’t trying her best, but I really got frustrated with her throughout the book with the decisions she made.
Genre: Contemporary Christmas
Plot Overview:
An overworked attorney’s grandmother will stop at nothing to find her a date for Christmas in this heartwarming holiday love story about finding what really matters in life.
As a first-year law associate, Sydney Batson knows she will be updating her resume by New Year’s if she loses her current case. So when her grandmother gets inexplicably ill while Sydney is in court, she arranges for a cab to take her grandmother to the clinic.
The last thing cab driver Finn Parrish wants is to be saddled with a wheelchair-bound old lady with dementia. But because Miss Callie reminds him of his own mother, whom he failed miserably in her last days, he can’t say no when she keeps calling him for rides. Once a successful gourmet chef, Finn’s biggest concern now is paying his rent, but half the time Callie doesn’t remember to pay him. And as she starts to feel better, she leads him on wild-goose chases to find a Christmas date for her granddaughter.
When Finn meets Sydney, he’s quite certain she’s never needed help finding a date. Does Miss Callie have an ulterior motive, or is this just a mission driven by delusions? He’s willing to do whatever he can to help fulfill Callie’s Christmas wish. He just never expected to be a vital part of it.
Purchase Links:
Amazon | Baker Bookhouse | Barnes & Noble | Christianbook.com
Giveaway
For your chance to win a print copy, comment with what book YOU read for this month. Use the Rafflecopter below for extra entries and to mark that you left a comment. Entries end on the 7th of each month at midnight EST, and the winner will be drawn sometime that week and notified by email. The winner will be announced on the Rafflecopter widget.
*Open to all residents of the contiguous USA, legally able to enter, and an e-book format or Amazon Gift Card will be awarded to those outside that range who are legally able to enter.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Recommendations for February:
- Counterfeit Hope by Crystal Caudill
- Mark of the King, Jocelyn Green
- When Valleys Bloom Again by Pat Jeanne Davis
- Forsaken Dreams by MaryLu Tyndall
- Rocky Mountain Promise by Misty Beller
- Shaped By the Waves – Christina Suzann Nelson
- The Shunning trilogy by Beverly Lewis
- Forsaken Dreams by MaryLu Tyndall
What did you read for the challenge? What were your thoughts on it? Would you recommend it?
by Crystal Caudill | Jan 4, 2024 | Book Reviews, Reading Challenge
It’s time for another month of the Unlocking the Past Reading Challenge: Unlock an Adventure. I’m so excited to join you on an adventure this year with guest reviews from our reading challenge participants. If you want to submit a review for upcoming months, feel free to sign up for a month here and use the Google form to submit your review. As my time has become too limited to do a suggestions post each month, I encourage you to jump over to the Unlocking the Past Reading Challenge page and ask for suggestions from there or from any of a number of amazing reader groups like Avid Readers of Christian Fiction or check out the Inspirational Historical Fiction Index.
*The list of prizes available from my prize shelf can be found here.*
December’s Theme: Christmas
January Verse:Â A time to be born and a time to die.
Challenge Theme: A book with a Baby or End of Life character
Christmas at Whitefriars
by Elizabeth Camden
Review by: Crystal Caudill
I’ve long been a fan of Elizabeth Camden, and I’m slowly working my way through her backlist. This story is a lot of fun, taking place in a castle in England at Christmas. The heroine, Mary, is agoraphobic–meaning she has a fear of leaving her safe little castle, while the hero is a businessman who has a partnership with Whitefriar Castle to license their image for their food products. The interaction between the two is sweet, and one I’m ready to reread again. But can love and marriage happen when the hero, Everett, has to live in New York for his business and Mary can’t even leave her English castle? You’ll have to see how they overcome this obstacle because it’s not what you expect, and I cheered the whole time.
Genre: Historical Romance, 1912, England
Plot Overview:
Mary Beckwith lives in a magnificent English castle during the twilight years of the gilded age. With the help of an American millionaire, she has succeeded in renovating her beloved Whitefriars castle into a splendid estate just in time for Christmas.
From across the ocean, millionaire Everett Wooten has spent a fortune propping up Whitefriars to add modern conveniences and rebuild crumbling old walls. Even though he’s never met Mary, they have enjoyed a lively business correspondence over the nine years they have been working toward a renovation. Now he has finally come to see Mary and the castle in person, but nothing is as he was led to believe.
Mary and Everett try to find a way forward, but red-blooded American entrepreneurship doesn’t always mingle with blue-blooded English tradition. Can a Manhattan business tycoon and an English lady come to an accord, or will their joint venture in Whitefriars result in heartbreak for them both?
Giveaway
For your chance to win a print copy, comment with what book YOU read for this month and you will also be entered into the year-end Grand Prize Reader Basket. Use the Rafflecopter below for extra entries and to mark that you left a comment. Entries end on the 7th of each month at midnight EST, and the winner will be drawn sometime that week and notified by email. The winner will be announced don’t the Rafflecopter widget. (This month is being extended to the 12th, due to my lateness in getting it out.
*Open to all residents of the contiguous USA, legally able to enter, and an e-book format or Amazon Gift Card will be awarded to those outside that range who are legally able to enter.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Recommendations for January:
- The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip by Sara Brunsvold (End of Life)
- Something I Haven’t Told You by Pearl Ada Pridham (Baby)
- Where the Blue Sky Begins by Katie Powner (End of Life)
- Chasing Christmas by Teri Blackstock (End of Life)
- This is Where it Ends by Cindy Sproles (End of Life)
- Fragile Designs by Colleen Coble (Baby)
- Because of the Rain by Deborah Raney (Baby – but tough read)
- The Noble Guardian, Michelle Griep (Baby)
- In Harm’s Way by Irene Hannon (Baby)
- Love Finds You in Golden, New Mexico by Lena Nelson Dooley (Baby)
What did you read for the challenge? What were your thoughts on it? Would you recommend it?
by Crystal Caudill | Dec 12, 2023 | Reading Challenge
As we close out another year of the Unlocking the Past Reading Challenge, I’m looking forward to a new year with new challenges. After taking suggestions from my Facebook Group, I’ve settled on the theme:
Unlocking the Past: Ecclesiastes 3
Just as Ecclesiastes has two opposites in each verse, most months will leave you with two options to choose from.
“For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.”
January Verse:Â A time to be born and a time to die.
Challenge Theme: A book with a Baby or End of Life character
February Verse: A time to plant and a time to harvest.
Challenge Theme: A book with a Rural Setting OR a Major Move/Life Change
March Verse: A time to kill and a time to heal.
Challenge Theme: A book with a serial killer or a character in the medical profession.
April Verse: A time to tear down and a time to build up.
Challenge Theme: A book with characters or plots related to construction, remodeling, demolition, or architecture.
May Verse: A time to cry and a time to laugh.
Challenge Theme: A RomCom or a book that makes you cry
June Verse: A time to grieve and a time to dance.
Challenge Theme: A book with a funeral or with a character who is a dancer.
July Verse:Â A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
Challenge Theme: Second Chance Romance or Family/Friend Reconciliation
August Verse: A time to search and a time to quit searching.
Challenge Theme: A mystery or a theme of someone searching for family
September Verse: A time to tear and a time to mend.
Challenge Theme: A Tailor/Seamstress character
October Verse: A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
Challenge Theme: A mute/deaf character or a character who advocates for others
November Verse: A time to love and a time to hate.
Challenge Theme: An enemies-to-lovers book
December Verse: A time for war and a time for peace.
Challenge Theme: A book set at the end of a war
Just as this year there was a monthly prize, there will continue to be a monthly prize with this reading challenge. You don’t have to participate every month to qualify. Participate in what months you can and skip the months where life gets in the way.
Now I need YOUR help. I want to create a page, as well as posts, with recommended reads for each month. So help me out and tell me what books you’d recommend. (Be sure to say which month 1, 2, 3, etc your recommendation goes with.)
Everyone who comments will be entered for a chance to win either a signed copy of one of my books (your choice) are a book off my prize shelf. (The winner will be randomly selected on December 19 and emailed.)
by Crystal Caudill | Dec 1, 2023 | Book Reviews, Reading Challenge
It’s time for another month of the Unlocking the Past Reading Challenge: Unlock an Adventure. I’m so excited to join you on an adventure this year with guest reviews from our reading challenge participants. If you want to submit a review for upcoming months, feel free to sign up for a month here and use the Google form to submit your review. As my time has become too limited to do a suggestions post each month, I encourage you to jump over to the Unlocking the Past Reading Challenge page and ask for suggestions from there or from any of a number of amazing reader groups like Avid Readers of Christian Fiction or check out the Inspirational Historical Fiction Index.
*The list of prizes available from my prize shelf can be found here.*
November’s Theme: Archeologist or Paleontologist
December’s Theme: Christmas
Refuge for the Archaeologist
by Danielle Graninetti
I so wanted to be done with the book in time to write my own review. Alas, my life had allowed little time for reading, and I’m only halfway through (and definitely enjoying it). As a kindness to myself and y’all so I could get this post up, I’ve reached out to a fellow reviewer to ask if I could use their review of the book. Connie graciously said yes. 🙂 So without further ado, November’s Reading Challenge Review:
Review by: Connie Saunders – You can follow her on her Older & Smarter? Blog at https://connie-oldersmarter.blogspot.com/ or follow her on Instagram.
History, mystery, and romance! An introduction to intriguing new characters and a reunion with some that we’ve already met! Author Danielle Grandinetti invites us back to Crow’s Nest, Wisconsin and I’m so happy to return! The characters are appealing, the suspense kept me fully engaged, and there was also an inspiring faith element woven into the plot. What more could I ask for? How about an unlikely romance between a female archaeologist and a devoted son and uncle who longs to return to his work on a Western ranch? Is it possible for Cora and Silas to give up their dreams and settle instead for a future in Crow’s Nest…together??
Refuge for the Archaeologist is a great addition to the Harbored in Crow’s Nest series. It’s the second book of the series but don’t worry if you haven’t read the first. Grandinetti shares background tidbits to help you understand what’s occurred previously! I recommend this book to all who enjoy historical Christian romance.
I received a complimentary copy from the author and publisher. There was no obligation for a positive review. These are my own thoughts.
For Fans of:Â
Genre: Historical Romance, Depression Era
Plot Overview:
Lies, greed, and lost dreams chase an out-of-work archaeologist and an out-of-place cowboy. Visit small-town Wisconsin in this Depression-era amnesia romance.
Will uncovering the truth set them free or destroy what they hold most dear?
Wisconsin, 1930—With her health in shambles and her archaeological career on the line, Cora Davis retreats to Crow’s Nest and the home of her great aunt to heal. She doesn’t think much of the missing memories from between the earthquake that caused her dizzy spells and her trip home. Until she begins remembering the danger that sent her fleeing her last dig and the person responsible.
After a decade as a ranch hand, Silas Ward returned to Crow’s Nest to provide for the women in his life. That same protective instinct propels him to Cora’s aid. But when finances dwindle, the lies and greed of others threaten to ruin his family. Unless Silas can walk the thin line of compromise. A choice that might cost him Cora’s affection.
As winter’s chill threatens, will Crow’s Nest prove a refuge, or will both Cora and Silas have no choice but to sacrifice their chance at happiness to save those they love?
Welcome to Crow’s Nest, where danger and romance meet at the water’s edge.
Purchase Links:
Amazon | Author’s Shop | Barnes & Noble
Giveaway
For your chance to win a print copy, comment with what book YOU read for this month and you will also be entered into the year-end Grand Prize Reader Basket. Use the Rafflecopter below for extra entries and to mark that you left a comment. Entries end on the 7th of each month at midnight EST, and the winner will be drawn sometime that week and notified by email. The winner will be announced don’t the Rafflecopter widget.
*Open to all residents of the contiguous USA, legally able to enter, and an e-book format or Amazon Gift Card will be awarded to those outside that range who are legally able to enter.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Recommendations for December:
- We Three Kings: A Romance Christmas Collection by Crystal Caudill, Cara Putman, and Angela Ruth Strong
- A Louisana Christmas to Remember by Morgan Tarpley Smith, Betsy St. Amant, and Lenora Worth
- Chiseled on the Heart by Elaine Marie Cooper, Cynthia Roemer, Candace West, and Kelly J. Goshorn
What did you read for the challenge? What were your thoughts on it? Would you recommend it?
