BookLoverAmanda

  Murder in Highbury by Vanessa Kelly  4 Stars  Felt like this one was a good, classic mystery! Reminded me of like an Agatha Christie style mystery. Although I haven’t read Emma by Jane Austen and can’t personally compare how closely this aligns with it, I still found this to be an excellent read. From what I’ve gathered from others, it stays true to Austen’s style by going into themes of class, marriage, and social status. I could definitely recognize those elements myself, having read Pride and Prejudice , Persuasion , and Northanger Abbey . A year into her marriage to Mr. Knightley, Emma is working through things with her family estate, social engagements and whatnot, when things get crazy after she finds Mrs. Augusta Elton, the vicar's wife, has been murdered. Emma and Mr. Knightley become the newlywed sleuthing duo, trying to figure out who really murdered Mrs. Elton.  I think readers who enjoy a good classic mystery will enjoy this book as I did! Sometimes th...

Once Upon A Christmas Carol by Melody Carlson 4 Stars  I really liked this year's Christmas novella by Melody! It has A Christmas Carol feel with our main character of Carol who is a bit of a Scrooge about Christmas, but she soon realizes Christmas may finally be a happy day after all when her planned trip to the Bahamas gets derailed due to a snow storm in Michigan - which just so happens to be where her Aunt Maria - who she never met before - lives. Her mother and Maria have been estranged for years due to a falling out many years ago. When Carol randomly calls her up needing a place to stay due to her travel delays, Maria is beyond kind and welcomes her to her farm with open arms. This blesses Carol in many ways.  As Carol stays with Maria, she realizes she may never want to leave and Michigan feels more like home than anywhere else before...especially after she meets the handsome Victor. :) Victor did have a girl Victoria he had been seeing on a few dates but nothing serio...

Book Review: When The Road Comes Around by Katie Powner  A 5 Star Favorite of 2025 I am finding I LOVE a good Christian Contemporary Fiction book that explores themes of family, faith, and real life struggles and WOW - Katie brought SO much to this story. As a special needs Mama still early on in my parenting journey with our son, I related to Anita and was inspired by her so much. Stay tuned for my reading vlog on YouTube on Thursday, August 28th, 2025! Lots of emotions.  Read if you like: - Montana Settings - Christian Contemporary Fiction - Special Needs Families Represented In Books - Strong Christian Faith Content in Books - Second Chances - Found Family - Stories with Depth - Horses and Farm Life We are in the small town of Grady, Montana. We follow 24 year old Tad who has a reputation for trouble and past mistakes. He gets a job at Come Around Ranch. Here is where he meets Sam, the ranch owners disabled 20 year old son. He develops a soft spot for him and wants to help ...

Book Review: Ransomed Love by Kate Goodwin  5 Stars  Book 2 in the Hatcher Hollow Series  Wow, Kate does it again. This book was so layered, in depth and beautiful. We have a modern day biblical retelling of Samson and Delilah, with a little bit of Hosea elements tied in too. We are in Nashville, Tennessee with Greyson and Dahlia. Dahlia is sent from her controlling father to take down Greyson at his investment firm company. Dahlia is used to getting what she needs to for her father so she will do everything she can to try and earn his love, even though it's not really there to have. So she takes the job to work for Greyson. She doesn't expect to fall for the town, his family, the church....him.  The Lord pursues her and Greyson in this book so heavily. While this is a more gritty Christian Fiction book with some mature themes, it was REAL and raw and powerful.  I know I loved Reckless Love by Kate last year and this one is yet another, favorite book of 2025....

Book Review: Gelato at the Villa - Robin Jones Gunn  5 Stars - A Favorite Book of 2025  Have you ever had a friend that you were praying would return to the Lord after hurt from the past? Have you been the friend that turned back to the Lord after His constant pursuit? This book is one you don't want to miss.  This book was SO impactful for me. I laughed. I cried. I can't recommend it enough! We need more friendship stories in books and I loved this one! In this book, we follow Grace and Claire. Told from Grace's POV, we see our best friends travel to Italy, making stops in Venice, Florence and Bellagio. The girls enjoy art, cooking, AMAZING food, gelato (of course!), museums and the LORD truly works on this trip. I also LOVED the people they met along the way and all the travel details. I have a full YouTube reading vlog coming out on August 25th with ALL the tears and thoughts, but all I can say is this book is one I needed!  Seeing Grace's POV praying for her frie...

  Last Light Over Galveston by Jennifer L. Wright 4.5 / 5 What a moving, emotional read. This was my first book by Jennifer and will not be my last. I really enjoyed the way she can pull you in to the story and you feel like you are right there in the midst of what the characters are going through. I cried. I felt such empathy. And I learned so much about this moment in history. This is surrounding the most devastating hurricane that occurred in 1900 in Galveston, Texas. We follow Kathleen McDaniel who returns to New York after finishing school in Switzerland. A horrific event happens and she flees into hiding....she finds refuge and safety at St. Mary's Orphan Asylum on Galveston Island. She makes friends at St. Mary's, Sister Emily, Mother Camillus, Maggie and Matthew. Matthew is a handsome man who works for Isaac Cline at the US Weather Bureau.  This is dual timeline so we follow Kathleen's life 6 months in New York with her family before she flees to St. Mary's and ...

Love in the Eternal City by Rebecca W. Martin 4.5 Stars  This was a beautiful read. A book club read with my sweet friend Tammy, @protagonistpub on YouTube! While I am not Catholic, I really appreciated how the Catholic Faith was very beautifully portrayed and the characters endured real life struggles and this book is not short of emotional depth. You can see how much the characters love the Lord and how important their faith is to them.  We follow Elena, an American who is struggling with a lot of personal issues after her engagement ends. She leaves her home in the states and travels to Rome where she works closely with the Vatican. This feels like a fresh, new beginning for Elena. Here, she meets Benedikt (Beni) who is a member of the Swiss Guard and she becomes friends with Beni's sister, Reni. We see how Beni and Elena's friendship turns into more and its a very sweet romance. Beni is such a great guy and he truly cares for Elena, I loved that. He loves her for who she i...

Final Approach by Lynette Eason  3.5 Stars - rounded up to 4  Book 4 in the Lake City Heroes Series This book starts off with a BIG suspense aspect! LOTS of action, feels like a movie or tv show. We see Air Marshal Kristine on a flight to Florida with her law enforcement friends & FBI Special Agent Andrew. A hijacker all of a sudden tries to take control of the plane in a whirlwind of suspense. People get hurt but they make it out alive....unfortunately, this investigation is more than just trying to understand why this man randomly hijacks the place. Andrew and Kristine work together to figure out how this all ties in with some past circumstances and as usual, a slow burn romance ensues.  I have enjoyed my time in this series by Lynette. I think they are best read all around the same time since all the characters are friend groups and make cameos in other books. My brain likes to forget names so easily haha.  I really liked the suspense and friend group. The end...

  What the River Keeps by Cheryl Grey Bostrom  4.5 Stars (Rounded up to 5 On Goodreads, Honorable Mention of Fav 2025) What a powerful story. This is my 3rd Cheryl book and I just love the way she tells layered, in depth stories set in the Pacific Northwest. The setting always comes to life and her characters, while they go through hard things, really tug at your heart strings and you can always see hope between the pages.  Here, we follow Hildy Nybo, a biologist that specializes in Pacific Northwest fish. She has anxiety, memory loss and a traumatic childhood where her father went missing. When her mother's health declines, leading to a dementia diagnosis, Hildy returns to her family resort on the Elwha River to help restore the Elwha River after the demolition of two century-old dams. Side note, I love how in the beginning, we see Hildy as a young child with her father and she told her Dad she met God in fish and nature. It was such a beautiful detail from a child's POV...

Welcome to the Honey B&B by Melody Carlson  3 Stars  I read Welcome to the Honey B&B with my friend Melissa and this had the makings of a cozy, heartfelt small-town story with a realistic and heartfelt portrayal of CT and Honey walking through CT's dementia diagnosis. Knowing this was a personal story for Melody, I can see the level of care, detail and heart she put into writing it. I really felt the empathy as a reader for the characters and loved Honey's character the most. I teared up a couple of places because of what they were going through. In this story, Jewel goes home to Oregon to help her parents and takes her 13 year old daughter Cooper with her. Jewel convinces her parents to turn a farmhouse into a B&B to make some needed money. Aaron, the contractor for the job, is interested in Jewel but she isn't sure she can trust him. Miguel is a neighbor that also helps out and cares about her family's well being. Jewel and Miguel have more of a romantic i...

 Book Review: Things We Keep Hidden by Jill Lynn  4 Stars Jill sure does know how to tell contemporary women's fiction stories with real life struggles, issues and characters with depth. This book follows 3 friends - they have swore not to talk about the night their friend CeCe took her life, but with them and their husbands back together at Isley's vacation home, there is a note left by a stranger that says "Tell The Truth or I Will." and they all think it has something to do with the circumstances surrounding their friend CeCe's death many years ago when they were young. Who is the message referring to?  We see this friend group, Isley, Payton and Clara being together again and working through real life problems with their marriages and children, as well as revisiting memories of the past together. I really enjoyed the story and how Jill brought these real life struggles to the forefront - we see some hard topics discussed such as suicide, grief, drug addiction,...