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.
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.
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
I read These Healing Hills by Ann Gabhart. It’s about a midwife in the Frontier Nursing Service in the Appalachian Mountains. Sweet mountain story with a bit of history. I recommend all of Ann’s books.
I also read a book about midwifery in the Appalachians! This one sounds great!
Ann is such a sweet person. Her books are on my TBR.
I read When the Waters came by Candice Sue Patterson. It’s part of the A Day to Remember series and wow. It’s the first time I can remember almost choosing to DNF a book in the first chapter! It was hard to read, but I’m so glad I kept on! The FMC is a nurse who apprentices under Clara Barton as she helps deal with a tragedy, which I thought was fascinating. It really was a worthwhile book!
Yay! I am so glad you pressed through and found it worthwhile!
I read The White City by Grace Hitchcock. I absolutely loved the book! It was very well written with characters that I liked! Also, even though the book is set during the Chicago World’s Fair and real life serial killer “H. H. Holmes” plays a prominent part of the story, it wasn’t a heavy book. I really enjoyed it and would recommend!
It’s one of my favorites from Grace! Be on the lookout for her debut Regency, To Catch a Coronet. I was blessed to endorse it, and I really enjoyed it.
Appalachian Song by Michelle Shocklee it is about midwifery and choosing life (while others try to take it) so it’s fitting for the challenge on both ends! I really enjoyed it! It’s heavy but redemptive too.
I’ve heard good things about it! So glad you liked it!
I read “The Black Midnight” by Kathleen Y’Barbo, a new author for me; I warmed up to the characters immediately, and thoroughly enjoyed reading this one! I’d recommend!😁
I read Lost in Darkness last year, and though I enjoyed it, it was intense! I had to take a couple days off reading (after finishing the book) just to process everything!😂
Yeah, it was definitely an intense book. I read it a couple years ago and just reposted because I didn’t have time to read this month. That and I’m in a “need light, fluffy, and short” season right now. “The Black Midnight” is on my TBR pile.
I read Silent Night Deadly Night by Dr. Richard Mabry. It was a thrilling medical drama that kept me guessing. It was short but interesting.
Fun! I’m needing short in my life these days.
For the March challenge I read A Thousand Words by Mandi Blake. I found it a very enjoyable book.
What do you get when a young doctor with no bedside manner, and no work life balance gets ordered by his boss to connect with a given person to basically learn how to be nice to people.
Then, throw in the twist that he actually knows this woman, he grew up with her, and she CAN NOT be put in a box, but has an infectious love of life.
Watch them grow together, even through a challenging situation and find love.
Oh, that sounds really fascinating. I’m trying to debate if it’s one I throw on my Kindle. Would you call it a light and quick read, or not so much?
I read Within My Heart by Tamera Alexander. It was a really interesting book.
I’ve only read a novella from her. I’ve yet to have time to dive into a full-length from her.
I read Let it be Me by Becky Wade this month. The hero, Sebastian, is a doctor and the heroine, Leah, is a teacher. It was so well done, and really kept me turning those pages!
Yay! So glad you enjoyed it!
I read The Mapmaker’s Secret by Jennifer Mistmorgan for March. I’m not sure what I am going to read for April yet.
The title alone intrigues me!
I read Critical Care by Candace Calvert. The main characters were a doctor and nurse.
Fun!
I read Set in Stone by Kimberley Woodhouse. HIGHLY recommend!
Yay! It’s on my TBR!
I read Mind Games by Nancy Mehl. It was really good and had some well-thought out twists.
She’s on my list of authors to check out!
I read Emma by Jane Austen—it’s one of my favs! Also your new book sounds really interesting—I’ll add it to my TBR list! 😁
I love Mr. Knightly. Emma . . . not so much. LOL Thanks! I’m hoping to announce the title this summer. 🙂
I read When Hope Sank by Denise Weimer. The main male character is a doctor. The main story line is about a vessel that was blown up shortly after the end of the Civil War. I didn’t know about this!
Oh, now I need to look this one up. I’m wondering if it’s the event I’m thinking.
For March I read Mind Games and Fire Storm by Nancy Mehl. And right now I’m working on the third book in the series. 10/10 recommend! Of all the suspense I’ve read, this is one of the best series. It has a pretty classic trope of the villian challenging the detective, but it’s not out dated. My recommendation is to have enough time set aside to read the entire series (I didn’t have that option, and missed a couple of things in book two).
Good to know! Thanks!