RCR: Engaging Deception by Regina Jennings

RCR: Engaging Deception by Regina Jennings

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.”

 

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

Engaging Deception

by Regina Jennings

Review by: Crystal Caudill

My MIL and I listened to this delightful tale while driving down to and back from watching the total eclipse. This book has long been on my TBR pile–the whole series really–and it was a joy to finally dive in. Olive was a wonderful character who, while reserved, was also interesting, had a wild/stubborn/brave streak, and was incredibly intelligent. The hero, Maxfield, was a loving dad running from his grief. The way both of these characters came together through architecture–at first as secret rivals–was a journey that was enjoyable, poignant, and had a depth I wasn’t expecting. The story was very well done, and I’m looking forward to reading Regina Jennings other books. I can’t remember if I’ve read her before, but this certainly won’t be my last.


Genre: Historical Romance, late 1890s to early 1900s, American

Plot Overview:

A lively competition draws her into her rival’s blueprints–and maybe even his heart.

Olive Kentworth has spent her life hiding her interest in architecture, even though she pores over architectural books and sketches buildings. When she accepts a job on a home expansion, it’s only because her cousin Amos agrees to pose as the builder. To further hide her involvement, Olive takes a position as a nanny–not knowing that she’ll be working for her idol, Joplin’s leading architect, widower Maxfield Scott.

Maxfield is intrigued by his new nanny–she makes his home and his life bearable again. His work, on the other hand, is a disaster. An untrained builder is remodeling a completed project of his. What’s worse, Maxfield’s current client wants changes to his plans because of that builder’s work.

As the architectural one-upmanship heats up, Olive’s involvement becomes harder to hide. Will the relationship between her and Maxfield survive, or will they both miss out on building something for their future?

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 May:

  • The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh
  • The Swindler’s Daughter by Stephania McGee
  • Hadley Beckett’s Next Dish by Bethany Turner
  • The Hart of Christmas by Latisha Sexton
  • Playing the Part, Jen Turano
  • Worthy Pursuit, Karen Witemeyer
  • Husband Auditions or Hero Debut by Angela Ruth Strong
  • Loyally, Luke by Pepper Basham

What did you read for the challenge? What were your thoughts on it? Would you recommend it?

RCR: Lost in Darkness by Michelle Griep

RCR: Lost in Darkness by Michelle Griep

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?

RCR: The Captive Heart by Michelle Griep

RCR: The Captive Heart by Michelle Griep

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?

RCR: Chasing Christmas by Terri Blackstock

RCR: Chasing Christmas by Terri Blackstock

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:  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. 

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?

2024 Reading Challenge Announcement

2024 Reading Challenge Announcement

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:  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: 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.)

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