BookLoverAmanda

Book Review: A Simple Kindness in Flatsboro by Heather Norman Smith  5 Stars  This book completely blew me away. As a special needs mama, this book touched my heart and didn't let go y'all. It's one of those that truly will stick with me. It's about friendship, second chances, forgiveness, being kind to one another...especially when no one is watching. This book shares the Gospel of Jesus Christ in such a beautiful way. Our characters navigate grief, life's hardships, and how to trust the Lord in those moments. A favorite book of 2025 for me for sure. Andy Clark has always been different. That's how the synopsis starts this book off. He's always had a tumorous mass covering half of his face but he's also the anonymous do-gooder, in quiet kindness....in Flatsboro, North Carolina. Andy is living his life exactly how his mother taught him. She left so many notes on cards for him that he reads after her passing over and over to continue to get her advice. He...

  Book Review - Holly and Nick Hate Christmas by Betsy St. Amant 4 Stars This was so funny for Christmas time! We have a fake dating rom-com, enemies to lovers, clean romance with a dash of faith added. I love the characters are in their 30s and the number of times I cackled with the Christmas shenanigans - so funny! We follow Holly who has hated Christmas forever.....she was teased all the time for her name being Holly as it was...and her birthday was overlooked each season so it wasn't the best season for her each year. She doesn't get the promotion at work as she hoped....in fact...she was downsized at the company. So now, she is single, unemployed, turning 30 and not in the best frame of mind for the upcoming Christmas season. Holly's brother Ryan asks his best friend, known as "Holiday-Hater Nick" to go home with him. Unfortunately....Holly overhears her brother asking Nick to be her date for the Christmas party. She feels like this is the best time to get ...

  The Women of Oak Ridge by Michelle Shocklee 5 Stars A Favorite Book of 2025 Wow, what can I say? My first Michelle Shocklee book and not my last because WOW - 5 STAR FAV book for me y'all. Michelle truly brought Oak Ridge to life. I grew up near Oak Ridge. I attended community college there. My first job was there. My husband attended Oak Ridge High School. So many memories. As someone so familiar with the history and town, I appreciated the way she told this story. A piece of my heart will always belong to East Tennessee, and I’m grateful Michelle chose to write about it. I can't wait to attend one of her upcoming book tour signings! The Lord really put this book in my path as someone who primarily reviews Christian Fiction books, this book being a Christian Fiction with a beautiful faith thread, all about a city very close to my hometown, was perfection for me.  This is a Christian Historical Fiction, dual timeline in 1944 and 1979. In 1944, we follow Maebelle Willett...

Canyon of Deceit by DiAnn Mills 4 Stars In Canyon of Deceit, we follow a rescue team looking for a missing young girl. Therese is a wilderness survival expert and gets a call from former colleague Professor Rurik Ivanov saying his young daughter, Alina, is missing and his wife has been murdered. Rurik asks for help to find his daughter but the police can't be involved as the kidnappers requested. With her past scars of losing her own sister years ago to cancer and the death of her parents, she has a lot of guilt...and hearing about a missing daughter has put a fire in her heart to try and find this girl as soon as possible. So, she reaches out to Texas Ranger Blane Gardner, who she met 7 months ago during a training course. Blane's background in c risis negotiation makes him prepared for this one. This book was INTENSE. That is the best word for it. I have found I love DiAnn's writing style and am just always fully engaged in her suspense.  From the very beginning, our main...

 On A Midnight Clear by Tracie Peterson, Karen Witemeyer and Misty M. Beller  (3 in 1 Novella Collection) This was a good collection of Christmas novellas centered around the Nativity story. Each one had something unique and different.  Novella #1: The Shepherd's Heart by Tracie Peterson - 5 Stars  Loved this one so much. On the western frontier in 1875, we see a widowed sheep rancher with his children, Vincent Duran. He needs a mother for his two children after losing his wife and other children. He and his remaining two children have been through so much grief. Angel Lewis agrees to marry him, a marriage of convenience if you will. They brace a winter storm and find love again. I loved seeing Angel walk through the grief with this family together, helping the children understand what happened and about how to trust God even through hardship. Seeing the real meaning behind Christmas on display through the Nativity story was the best too. I have never read a book by ...

  A Sea View Christmas by Julie Klassen 5 Stars  (Read the Novella after you have read the On Devonshire Shores Series, Book 1 is The Sisters of Sea View) This felt like Little Women at Christmas! LOVED it so much to see the ending for this family. All the resolutions, healing, romance, Christmas elements, faith - it was great! We are back in Sea View with our sisters and this time we finally get Sarah's romance story! I LOVED seeing Callum, the Scottish hero of the story back again. He is so kind, considerate, patient - and the fact he is a SCOT - I was here for it :) We also get the POV of Georgiana, who is 17 years old and her story with Colin.  Sarah has been a character with such dedication to her family that she never felt like she could find love or have a life for herself. To see her make this journey in this novella was so nice. She has spent her life helping her mother run Sea View and she finally gets her happy ending here. Loved the faith, Christmas elements, ...

   The Seaside Homecoming by Julie Klassen (Book 3 in the On Devonshire Shores Series) 5 Stars  There was something so special about this book. The story reminds me of Little Women in a way. Julie always writes these great settings, this one being on the coast of Devonshire. I have enjoyed my time with these sisters and with the new Christmas Novella released, I wanted to finish the series before diving into this one. As I write my review for book 3, I have just finished the Christmas Novella, and would highly recommend you finish the trilogy before you pick that one up. My review for it will come very soon! :)  Back to this book though, we get Claire Summers' story, the oldest of the Summers sisters. She has been living in quiet disgrace away from her family, exiled to Scotland with her great-aunt. When her great-aunt passes away, she isn't sure what her next steps are. She answers an advertisement for a "respectable female partner" in a boarding house near Sea View...

  The Rules of Falling for You by Mollie Rushmeyer 4 Stars  What a delightful Christian rom-com with a Jane Austen twist! Read if you like: - Best Friends Brother Trope - Jane Austen Elements in Books - Podcast Details  - Books that make you Laugh - Romance with lists/rules  - Regency References  - Forced Proximity  - Diabetes Rep  - Secret Admirer Letters This was very charming. I liked how the author combined the regency inspired romance with a modern rom-com setting. We follow Harrison and Zoe in this book. Harrison is Zoe's podcast producer and best friend's brother. He agrees to attend a regency themed singles retreat with her to capture footage as Zoe searches for her real life "Mr. Darcy". Zoe has this ideal checklist, which undoubtedly has too many requirements lol. Harrison, the true man of her dreams, is right in front of her. When will she realize? Harrison is such an honest man, a man of integrity. I loved how his cared about her. Zoe wasn'...

Book Review: Buried Wilderness Secrets by Jaime Jo Wright 3.5 to 4 Stars - 4 stars for the entertainment factor  This is a love inspired Christian romantic suspense and I enjoyed it. Look at Jaime Jo with the ROMANCE haha.  We follow Montana park ranger Aaliyah Terrence and she finds a serial killer's burial ground. She ends up getting attacked right after finding it. The burial ground is tied to an old cold case that detective Wade Marlowe comes into town about. He explains to Aaliyah that her birth mother was the murderer's first victim and it becomes clear that Aaliyah is in the eyes of the killer as the next target.  I liked it pretty good. While the romance wasn't exactly my favorite, the plot was very interesting. I love the adoption storyline and how they were trying to track everything down. Overall a quick read, good pallet cleanse. As one of my other friends mentioned though, Wade not having a gun but having bear spray gave me the WHAT YOU DOIN SIR without your...