by Crystal Caudill | Aug 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.”
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
The Lost Melody
by Joanna Davidson Politano
Review by: Crystal Caudill
Joanna Davidson Politano has long been a blow-my-mind-away, favorite author. Her gothic-feeling novels are always so steeped in God that I cannot help but sit in awe and wonder for long moments after. This book was no different, and yet so different. With a plot that takes place mostly in an insane asylum, the setting was unique. While heavy, it also had a beauty to it that I would never have expected. The characters were heart-rending, memorable, and cherished. Every person seemed so real, and each character gave a wholeness of understanding that I’d previously lacked. I’ve grown up surrounded by mental illness, treated and untreated. I know that people are so much more than the labels and struggles they face, but this also brought a new understanding and almost healing to some areas where I still struggle. I had to take the book slowly, but I cannot say enough about just how absolutely beautiful and human each character is–no matter their struggle. This is definitely a book that will stick with me for a long time. No wonder it won a Carol Award. I highly recommend this book to anyone I meet.
Genre: Historical, England 1885
Plot Overview:
When concert pianist Vivienne Mourdant’s father dies, he leaves to her the care of an adult ward she knew nothing about. The woman is supposedly a patient at Hurstwell Asylum. The woman’s portrait is shockingly familiar to Vivienne, so when the asylum claims she was never a patient there, Vivienne is compelled to discover what happened to the figure she remembers from childhood dreams.
The longer she lingers in the deep shadows and forgotten towers at Hurstwell, the fuzzier the line between sanity and madness becomes. She hears music no one else does, receives strange missives with rose petals between the pages, and untangles far more than is safe for her to know. But can she uncover the truth about the mysterious woman she seeks? And is there anyone at Hurstwell she can trust with her suspicions?
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 September:
- The Seamstress of Acadie by Laura Frantz
- The Paris Dressmaker by Kristy Cambron
- Love from Afar by Penny Zeller
- After a Fashion by Jen Turano
- A Tailor-Made Bride by Karen Witemeyer
- A Heart Most Worthy by Siri Mitchell
What did you read for the challenge? What were your thoughts on it? Would you recommend it?
by Crystal Caudill | Jul 5, 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.”
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: A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
Challenge Theme: Second Chance Romance or Family/Friend Reconciliation
A Midnight Dance
by Joanna Davidson Politano
Due to deadlines and family needs, I did not get my challenge book read, although I’ve made it 1/3 of the way through and have been enjoying it. So I snuck over to GoodReads and stole some reviews from friends. 🙂
Review by: Multiple people
“This book held within its pages as much grace and drama as ballet itself. Politano is an artist who painting pictures with her words and digging deep into far corners of every reader’s heart. I loved this unique view into the history of theater and ballet and how we can worship God in the form of dance. The mystery woven within kept me turning the pages until the very last with a satisfied sigh.” – Sarah Monzon
“Politano crafts the world of the Victorian ballet with depth and beauty. Her writing is evocative and immersive. All of her characters are well-rounded and layered, but this stirring story best highlights the faith of a young woman in a time when it was believed God and the theatre could never mix. Well-paced and thoroughly mesmerizing, I both savored and devoured every page.” – Stephenia McGee
“The prose of A Midnight Dance is gorgeous. There’s a lyrical flow to this book as graceful as a ballet itself. Highly recommended.” – Rachel McDaniel
Genre: Historical Romance
Plot Overview:
All theater romances are tragedies. Ella Blythe knows this. Still, she cannot help but hope her own story may turn out different than most–and certainly different than the tragic story of the Ghost of Craven Street Theater. Yet as she struggles to maintain her tenuous place in the ever-shrinking ballet company, win the attentions of principal dancer Philippe, and avoid company flirt Jack, Ella cannot deny the uncanny feeling that her life is mirroring that of the dead ballerina.
Is she dancing ever closer to the edge of her own tragic end? Or will the secrets that are about to come to light offer release from the past?
Mystery and romance make the perfect dance partners in this evocative story from fan-favorite Joanna Davidson Politano.
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 July:
- Counterfeit Love by Crystal Caudill
- Shadow of Truth by Susan Sleeman
- The Sea Before Us by Sarah Sundin
- The Metropolitan Affair by Jocelyn Green
- Curse of Misty Wayfair by Jaime Jo Wright
- Flight of Fancy by Laurie Alice Eakes
- Butterfly Palace by Colleen Coble
- “A Flood of Love” by Tracie Peterson in Serving Up Love: A Harvey House Brides Collection
- Remembered by Tamera Alexander
- The Lady of Bolton Hill by Elizabeth Camden
- A Life Once Dreamed by Rachel Fordham
What did you read for the challenge? What were your thoughts on it? Would you recommend it?
