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.*
August’s Theme: Bounty Hunter
September’s Theme: Time Travel
A Worthy Pursuit
by Karen Witemeyer
Review by: Crystal Caudill
Out of a need to have an audiobook to read this month, I had to abandon my original read in order to finish the reading challenge on time. Karen Witemeyer has long been a personal favorite–especially after her sweetness in sending my dying grandma a signed copy of Stealing the Preacher–the book we started to read during my goodbye trip. I can’t read a Karen Witemeyer book without remembering that sweetness and being grateful to the kindness she bestowed on my grandma. I now have that copy book, as well as the one we read together, as treasured possessions on my shelf. All the sentimentality aside, I knew that I couldn’t go wrong by picking up a book of hers that has long been on my TBR pile.
Karen never fails to bring humor, faith, and complicated characters to a wonderful story. They are light and airy while still being full of substance and the danger I crave. Stone and Lottie were two characters I thoroughly enjoyed. They were each strong individuals who sought to protect those who were defenseless, even at great cost to themselves and their reputations. Listening to the story as I prepared for a conference and tried to set my house to rights made the tedious tasks more enjoyable. I loved the antics of the children, Stone’s persistent calling of Dobbson as “gnome,” and the special talents of each character. Oh! And I LOVED all the ties to dime novels. I won’t give anything away where that is concerned, but I thoroughly enjoyed the real heroes of the West and not just their fictionalized versions. Overall, I definitely recommend this story for those looking for an exciting story with romance, laughter, danger, and a swoony hero.Â
For Fans of: westerns, swoony heroes, children in peril, bounty hunters, sweet romances
Genre: Historical Romance, Western
Plot Overview:
A teacher on the run. A bounty hunter in pursuit. Can two enemies learn to trust each other before they both lose what they hold most dear?
Stone Hammond is the best tracker in Texas. He never comes home empty-handed. So when a wealthy railroad investor hires him to find his abducted granddaughter, Stone eagerly accepts.
Charlotte Atherton, former headmistress of Sullivan’s Academy for Exceptional Youths, will do anything to keep her charges safe, especially the orphaned girl entrusted to her care. Charlotte promised Lily’s mother she’d keep the girl away from her unscrupulous grandfather, and nothing will stop Charlotte from fulfilling that pledge. Not even the handsome bounty hunter with surprisingly honest eyes who comes looking for them.
When Miss Atherton produces documentation that shows her to be Lily’s legal guardian, Stone must reevaluate everything he’s been led to believe. Is she villain or victim?
Then a new danger forces Charlotte to trust the man sent to destroy her. Stone vows to protect what he once sought to tear apart. Besides, he’s ready to start a new pursuit: winning Charlotte’s heart.
Purchase Links:
Amazon | Baker Book House | Barnes & Noble | Christianbook
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.
Recommendations for September:
- When the Day Comes by Gabrielle Meyer
- In This Moment by Gabrielle Meyer
- Jody Hedlund’s Waters of Time series
- Lisa T Bergren’s River of Time series
- The True Lies of Rembrandt Stone series by David James Warren
- Stephanie H. McGee’s Back Inn Time series
I read Tainted, by Morgan L. Busse. It was excellent, but also left on a cliffhanger, so I need to read the second one right now!
I also read A Worthy Pursuit by Karen Witemeyer. It’s one of the few by her I hadn’t read yet.
I read Beryl’s Bounty Hunter by Linda Shenton Matchett. She’s a new to me author and I enjoyed this novel.
I also read A Worthy Pursuit by Karen Witemeyer. It was the second book I’ve read by her and I loved it. The first was Fairest of Heart, which I absolutely loved as well. I plan on reading another of hers this month for another one of my challenges, Head in the Clouds (because I need a book where the hero/heroine is a teacher).
For this challenge I plan on reading the final book of the River of Time series by Lisa T. Bergren, Deluge.
There’s an option for September I’d also recommend. Its YA, but it is Christian fiction. The 4 book Timebenders series by Jim Denney. A smart kid turns a VW into a time machine, and ends up taking his bully along time-traveling. Has humor- one scene with modern Christian music had me cracking up 🙂 .
For August, I read the If I Run series by Terri Blackstock. Casey is framed for a murder she didn’t commit, and runs. Meanwhile Dylan is hired to track her down. Actually in the second book, Dylan states that he isn’t a bounty hunter. But its a great series, 10/10 recommend! Also, I read A Worthy Pursuit a couple of years ago, 10/10 recommend!
I also read A Worthy Pursuit. It was wonderful!
I read A Worthy Pursuit but forgot to post in the rafflecpter! Oh well on to September!