Once Upon A Wardrobe by Patti Callahan

 

Once Upon A Wardrobe by Patti Callahan 5 Stars 

What a beautiful story filled with the essence of Narnia and so much more. The storytelling was perfect, I need to read everything Patti writes now. This was filled with love and family. The ties to Narnia and CS Lewis are truly immersive. This story is all about college student Meg and her younger brother George. His last wish as terminally ill young boy with a weak heart is to uncover the truth of Narnia, as its his favorite story. What happens next is a beautiful story of love, sibling bonds and the life-changing magic of stories like Narnia. Set in 1950, we see Meg as a student at Oxford University. When George asks her to find out about Narnia, she tells him its just a children's book....but soon realizes it's so much more herself. She goes on a hunt to find the answers to George's questions and the rest is history as she meets CS Lewis himself (since he is a teacher at her university) and she asks him the questions. But what CS Lewis responds are stories of his own life for Meg to form her own conclusion that led to his inspiration. She takes these stories home to George and the adventure goes on from here....

The writing is magical. The story is magical. EVERYTHING WAS JUST MAGICAL AND BEAUTIFUL AND I CRIEDDDDD. The ending - those last few pages - everything - so many tears. 

You really fall right in with this family and connect with Meg and George and you feel the beauty of Narnia in the pages of this book. I can't really express how this story will sit in my heart forever. Highly recommend. 

Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5900341999

Amazon: https://amzn.to/4cgn330

*Amazon links are affiliate links and a commission may be earned on items purchased from these links.

It's Boba Time for Pearl Li! by Nicole Chen

 

It's Boba Time for Pearl Li! - Nicole Chen 4.5 Stars

We follow a big hearted Taiwanese American girl - Pearl Li - who has a heart for crafting amigurumi dolls, her favorite boba tea shop - Boba Time, her friends, family and Boba Time's owner - Auntie Cha.

Pearl learns that Boba Time has financial troubles and decides to sell her amigurumi dolls to raise money to help the shop. She starts to navigate the ups and downs of running a business and Pearl realizes that its a bit more complicated than she originally thought....

What a cute middle grade book! I loved learning about Pearl's crafts, the Boba Tea shop, seeing her relationships with her friends and family! It also made me SO hungry for good food and a tasty boba drink!

I loved seeing Pearl realize her mistakes, come into her own as a young girl and see why its important to talk to your parents about what you truly love in life. For a while, I kept saying girl, just talk to them LOL - and loved how it all turned out. I think seeing her stubbornness can be an eye opening lesson for kids reading this book.

Auntie Cha was also super sweet. I love how close she was with her and involved in the It's Boba Time shop. 

Her sister Jade was also a great character and I loved seeing her sister relationship and how supportive she was to Pearl. 

Overall a solid middle grade story with an uplifting ending! Bonus points for BOBA!

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5393313471
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3TwH11W

*Amazon links are affiliate links and a commission may be earned on items purchased from these links.

A Lady's Guide to Marvel's and Misadventure by Angela Bell

 

A Lady's Guide to Marvels and Misadventure - Angela Bell 🦉🌍 ✨

"Just as Grand would never expect a clock to mend its own windings, God would never expect us to mend our own hearts." 

🦉🌍 ✨What a fun, whimsical story with great quirky characters that go on an adventure together! This is a Christian Historical Romance that has some steampunk-ish vibes and is a great read for lovers of The Nutcracker or Around the World in 80 Days! 4 stars!

This book starts off with our main character of Clara Stanton trying to protect her family from her ex-fiancé's schemes and society's prejudice about them because they are very different! Her Grandfather brings on an apprentice with a mechanical leg and boy do things get wild from here! 

We see Theodore Kingsley, the apprentice who repairs clocks, desperate for a fresh start from his disappointed father who wants nothing to do with him and declared him dead. When Clara's Grandfather disappears in his secret flying owl machine, he leaves a note behind and she goes on an quite the adventure/scavenger hunt with Theodore...

I had a fun time reading this one! It made me laugh several times throughout the story and the premise is such a unique one that I haven't seen before in the Christian Fiction market! While the first 40% took me a little bit to warm up to Clara as she was very hesitant to trust anyone, including Theodore and had quite a bit of sass with him, once she started opening up and realizing she misjudged him, I really liked her character arc and where things went, especially in the faith developments. While I am not the biggest enemies to lovers person, the ending of this was very well done and I really appreciate the romance and faith elements in the end. 

Grand was also absolutely precious and chapter 27 was probably my favorite. I think anyone who loves a fun, whimsical story with unique characters, great historical background and beautiful faith content will enjoy this one! Excited to see what Angela comes up with next!

Thank you to the publisher for a copy to honestly read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5689798445
Amazon: https://amzn.to/48PELaD
Baker Books: https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/542740

*Amazon links are affiliate links and a commission may be earned on items purchased from these links.

Fish in a Tree by Lynda Hunt

 

Fish in a Tree - Lynda Hunt - 5 Stars 

"Fish in a Tree" by Lynda Hunt is a heartfelt and inspiring middle-grade story that celebrates the power of resilience, empathy, and the importance of embracing differences. Our main character, a 6th grader named Ally, navigates the challenges of dyslexia, showing us her every day struggles in her learning differences. We see her being bullied by others, along with being frustrated and embarrassed by her inability to read. Yet, amidst these challenges, Ally's resilience shines through. She is determined to success, despite her challenges. Things really change when we see Ally start to accept her differences through the interactions with her friends Albert and Keisha, and her teacher Mr. Daniels. One of the greatest strengths in this book is through the portrayal of the teacher-student relationship between Ally and Mr. Daniels. He is truly patient with Ally and approaches her to help her overcome her academic struggles and instills a newfound belief in herself. Loved seeing this shine through because it really made the story!

Albert was also an AMAZING friend in this book and I loved seeing him stand up for his friends and himself. He was also hilarious and didn't let the bully's get him down. 

Overall, this story really brought me back to my childhood through some of the struggles and bullying situations I had in my own elementary/middle school days because of my learning differences and extra help I received with my ADHD diagnosis. Ally's journey will resonate with readers of all ages. This is a must read for anyone seeking an uplifting middle grade story that celebrates learning differences and the power of perseverance and friendship.

Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5398447589
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3v1KfRP

*Amazon links are affiliate links and a commission may be earned on items purchased from these links.

A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen

 

A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen - 3.5 Stars (Book 2 in Her Royal Spyness Series)

This series is always a fun time. While some of the sexual innuendos can be a bit much for me at times from her friend Belinda, I still recommend this as a fun British mystery series! Honestly, what Belinda is saying does usually make me laugh but I would just rather not have those bits at times. 

In this one, Lady Georgiana, 34th in line to the throne, has nothing to serve her Bavarian princess houseguest....even though the Queen of England has requested for her to entertain her for a week. Someone ends up murdered in a bookshop, among other murder mysteries taking place in this story, and all eyes point to Georgiana and her new houseguest. 

This one was so much fun and I look forward to the next one. The pacing can be a bit slow sometimes, but it's always fun to sit with our characters throughout the story and see what they get up to and what commentary they provide.

Content: There is a scene involving attempted sexual assault in this but it was brief toward the end. Again, like I said there is some sexual innuendos sometimes but it overall doesn't kill the story when they are mentioned. Just like to mention this so others are aware and can make their own decision to read these or not. I don't think it's over the top honestly, just sometimes annoying and would rather it not be there.

Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6324777046
Amazon Series Link: https://amzn.to/3Pc0UZE

*Amazon links are affiliate links and a commission may be earned on items purchased from these links.

Masked Ball at Broxley Manor by Rhys Bowen

                                         

                                    Masked Ball at Broxley Manor by Rhys Bowen - 3 Stars

This is a prequel to Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen - I have read book 1 and didn't realize there was a prequel novella so I decided to check this out as a quick read.

This is a quick audiobook listen featuring Lady Georgina, our main character in the Her Royal Spyness series. Great narrator and gives a lot of background to Lady Georgina's family. She is 34th in line to the throne and we see her high society lifestyle in this one. Everyone wants her to get married already and she ends up going to a masked ball at Broxly Manor. Her family doesn't understand why she was invited but she ends up going anyway.

At the masked ball, she dances with a prince and finds herself attracted to him. But when it's time to unmask, he is gone. She is curious about who this man is....and what is really going on at Broxley Manor.

Overall, a good prequel to get started with the series and introduce you to the main characters.

The Divine Proverb of Streusel by Sara Brunsvold

The Divine Proverb of Streusel by Sara Brunsvold - 3.5 Stars

The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip by Sara was one of my favorite books of 2022 so I was SO excited to dive into Sara's next book! While it's hard to live up to my love for Mrs. Kip's story, this one was a solid contemporary Christian story with beautiful faith content throughout the story that I thoroughly enjoyed. In this story, we follow Nikki who is devastated from her parent's divorce. She doesn't know what to do with her life, relationship with Isaac or how to approach her father after his betrayal to her and her family.

Nikki ends up going to stay with her Uncle Wes in the town her father grew up in. She ends up finding old recipes of her grandmother and learns so much of her German history within her family that she never knew about before.

I really enjoyed this one overall - while some parts were slow for me, I loved the faith elements, proverbs scriptures, recipes, characters and the forgiveness thread.

"It is not what I forgive, it's why I choose to do it that matters most. The why is Jesus." Amen.

This story has some tough topics discussed in depth for the divorce of parents but Sara handled it so well.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy to honestly read and review.

Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5923542074
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3TphhES
Baker Book House: https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/542760

*Amazon links are affiliate links and a commission may be earned on items purchased from these links.