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.
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
A Thieving at Carlton House
by Erica Vestch
Review by: Crystal Caudill
The delay in this review just proves how crazy my reading life has been, but after many interruptions and long periods of not getting to read, I FINALLY FINISHED A THIEVING AT CARLTON HOUSE!!!! And I should have tossed aside all my responsibilities sooner. LOL Who needs clothes, food, doctor appointments, rides to and from school, or any other thing that stood in the way of my reading pleasure?
Sigh. I absolutely adore the fact that this new series is following Bertie and Philippa. Philippa is a former courtesan (aka prostitute who serves high-class clientele) who is working through the challenges of running a growing ministry that helps rescue women from a similar lifestyle. I love Philippa and her heart for women, and my heart aches as she wrestles to realize her worth not only as a person who can be loved, but as a child of God. Her struggle with forgiving her father is one that I think many of us can identify with, at least in the forgiving of someone who has done us harm–not for their sake but for our own. It’s a hard and difficult road to walk, and I loved walking that road with Philippa.
And then there is Bertie. Oh, good ole loveable Bertie, who has pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes. I am thrilled he gets his own series. That man has so much depth and it was good to see his internal struggle as he begins to come into his own and build his own team. I cannot wait to see how he grows and develops over the next two books . . . and, let’s be honest, how his relationship with Philippa will grow. I’m in a season right now where I am enjoying the romances that actually take several books to build, and this series is top of my enjoyment list. 🙂
I highly recommend this series from Erica Vestch.Â
Genre: Regency Mystery
Plot Overview:
The Home Office has asked Sir Bertrand Thorndike to head an investigation into stolen royal jewels. And as with everything concerning the Prince Regent, discretion is paramount.
It’s the perfect chance for Bertie to step out of his brother’s long shadow. Unfortunately, his superior, the Duke of Haverly, has a plan that makes him balk. In order to sell his cover, Bertie must play the part of a man looking for love, ready to reform his rakish ways.
Philippa Cashel escaped a life as one of society’s best-known courtesans and now devotes her time to helping other women in dire straits. Her hope is that laboring hard enough at her charity work will allow her to feel worthy of God’s forgiveness of her past. So when Sir Bertrand Thorndike approaches her about becoming an agent of the Crown, she is skeptical. Why her? She’s focused on getting her school for underprivileged women up and running, not on cloak-and-dagger skullduggery.
But when two of Philippa’s rescued girls become targets, Philippa risks partnering with Bertie to find the loot and stop a killer.
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.
Recommendations for November:
- The Letter Tree Rachel Fordham
- Counterfeit Hope by Crystal Caudill
- The Hart of Christmas by Latisha Sexton
- Red Siren byMaryLu Tyndall
- Dauntless by Dina L Sleiman
I read Angel Sister by Ann Gabhart. It is the first book of the series which is a bonus for me. It ended up covering both sides of the challenge. I previously read the third book of the series, so I knew that the family, especially a teen daughter, advocated for an abandoned child. But then another character had a stroke and could not speak. I highly recommend this book, the series and this author.
I read Waiting for Christmas by Lynn Austin. Starting on my Christmas fiction early.
I read Vow of Silence by BJ Hoff. It was the last book in a series I was reading, so I was glad that it worked for this challenge.
I read Appalachian Song by Michelle Shocklee, this was a Dual-Timeline story set in the 1940s and the 1970s. The storyline in the 70s was about a man trying to figure out his past, which leads him to a midwife/adoption advocate. The story was well written, and the characters were likable enough, I’m just not a huge fan of dual-timelines. Though I keep trying! 🙂
I read In the Arms of Immortals by Ginger Garrett. I didn’t realize before I started it, (because I have a habit of not always reading about a book before I pick it up to read) but it was a duel time sort of book. The first character that appeared in the book traveled back to the 1300s and when she’s there, she’s mute. This is going to sound odd, but I don’t know that I really understood what the book was about. Spiritual warfare maybe? It wasn’t a bad book, but it wasn’t my favorite either. However, I did find it to be a quick read!
I read Sheltered by the Doctor by Danielle Grandinetti. It was an interesting book.
I read Sookie’s Silence by Marisa Masterson. It was one that was suggested when I asked for recommendations. And I needed something shortish, as I had so many ARCs to read last month. She was a new to me author and I really enjoyed the book and can’t wait to read more of her books.
I have no clue what I am reading this month yet.
I’m about halfway through The Silent Governess, by Julie Klassen. So far I’ve really enjoyed it!