Tag Archives: Books

Books Read in 2024

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Books read in 2024

I read 74 books this year, including audiobooks–75 if you count reading one twice in a row. That’s down a little from the last few years, but that’s fine. I don’t want to race through books just to get to a certain number. I want to give each its due.

I felt like I had a good blend of older and newer books, some having been on my shelf for a while; others were hot off the press. I enjoyed some by old favorite authors and discovered some new-to-me authors that have become new favorites. I read 29 fiction books, four classics, 35 Christian fiction, and five other fiction.

(MTBR behind a book title refers to the Mount TBR [To Be Read] reading challenge, an encouragement to read books already on hand. I decided to acknowledge those here rather than making a separate post. I aimed for 24 books [Mt. Blanc] and read 31.)

Titles link to my reviews:

Classics:

Nonfiction:

Christian fiction:

Tin Can Serenade by Amanda Dykes was a delightful short story.

Other fiction:

How was your reading year?

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Two Reading Challenge Wrap-Ups

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Though I’ll finish a couple more books by the end of the year, I thought this would be a good time to report on a couple of reading challenges I participate in.

Shelly Rae at Book’d Out hosts the Nonfiction Reader Challenge. Shelly has twelve different categories that we can aim for. Or we can be a “Nonfiction Grazer” and make our own goals. I chose the latter course, because I was only interested in a handful of the categories listed.

My own goals for this challenge and the results were (linked to my reviews):

Memoirs/Biographies:

Books About Writing:

Bible Study Books:

Christian Living Books:

Letters/Journals:

The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume III. I’m maybe halway through this one.

A Book by C. S. Lewis I Have Not Read:

Same as above.

Organization/Productivity:

Related to a Holiday:

The only category I missed was aging/midlife.

By my count, that’s 28 nonfiction book (or 29 if I count reading Adorning the Dark twice. I’m satisfied–all these were informative and some were profound.

The Intrepid Reader hosts the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. I like a variety of fiction categories, but historical fiction is probably what I read most. I aimed to read fifteen for the Medieval category. I completed twenty-four.

Linked to my reviews:

I love that there are classics here as well as some hot off the press, old favorites as well as newly-discovered authors.

Next week I’ll share my completed list of books read this year and my top favorites.

Review: Christmas at Sugar Plum Manor

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Christmas at Sugar Plum Manor

Christmas at Sugar Plum Manor by Roseanna M. White is a sweet (pun intended) Edwardian-era novella with shades of Jane Austen and The Nutcracker.

Lady Mariah Lyons’ step-father, the Earl of Castleton, has to leave his estate to a distant cousin due to an entail on the property. His heir, Cyril Lightbourne, had visited the manor as a child, where he and Mariah became fast friends. They were both imaginative and fun-loving, renaming Plumford Manor as Sugar Plum Manor and writing tales set in the woods.

But due to a misunderstanding, Cyril thought the Earl didn’t really want him as an heir, so he’s been absent for twelve years. Now he’s been invited to Plumford Manor for Christmas and is not quite sure what to expect.

Mariah isn’t sure, either, whether Cyril will be the same friend he was, or whether he will be distant and aloof. She’s heard he is courting Lady Pearl, and she doesn’t know why the men who flock to Pearl can’t see the cruelty behind the beauty.

Another guest arriving at the manor for Christmas is a Danish Greve (Count) who specifically wants to seek Mariah’s hand in marriage because his prince wants to strengthen ties with England by having a member of the royal court marry into a leading English family. He doesn’t love her: he thinks she is pleasant enough, though a bit silly, but he attributes that to her youth. Though handsome, he comes across as almost emotionless, cold, and calculating.

The two men had an altercation in the past, which sets the tone for their meeting at Plumford. Their pursuit of Mariah adds to their animosity and desire for revenge.

Mariah is a sweet girl, though not as beautiful as her widowed older sister. Her siblings and mother think she’s a bit immature, even ridiculous. Now the Greve feels the same way. Is what she always thought of as joyfulness truly childishness? Does she need to tone herself down to marry the Greve, or will Cyril ever see her as more than a childhood friend?

Embedded in the story are themes of faith, forgiveness, redemption, and being who God created you to be. I listened to the audiobook nicely read by Liz Pearce. This was a nice Christmas read.

(Sharing with Bookish Bliss Quarterly Link-Up)

Review: Christmas with the Queen

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Christmas with the Queen

I’ll say up front that I have mixed emotions about this novel.

Christmas with the Queen by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb opens in 1952 with Elizabeth II in the first year of her reign, planning to continue the Christmas radio broadcast her father and grandfather had begun. She’s finding her footing as a young monarch, as well as juggling royal and family duties. Plus the nation is undergoing changes following WWII.

Olive Carter is a reporter trainee with the BBC. She lives with her parents and young daughter, Lucy. She wears a wedding ring and tells people her husband died in the war, but she was never married. Lucy’s father is revealed about a third of the way through the book, but it’s no surprise.

Olive can’t seem to get any serious stories to cover. She’d love the royal news, but an older man, Charlie, has been covering the royal family for decades. However, when he gets sick over Christmas, Olive asks to take his place at Sandringham for the Queen’s first radio address. Her boss agrees.

Jack Devereux is an American from New Orleans who stayed in England after his time in the Navy was over in WWII. A group of friends found each other on VE Day and kept in touch afterward. Jack is attracted to Olive Carter, but once he gets to know Andrea, he develops a serious relationship with her. Jack and Andrea marry, and he works in a restaurant with the hopes of starting his own someday.

But then Andrea is killed in an accident. At loose ends, Jack doesn’t know what to do with himself in his grief. Finally a friend urges him to spend Christmas with him and his family, where Jack meets his brother, Mason, who works as an assistant chef with the royal family. There’s an opening, so Mason invites Jack to apply, which Jack does. In Sandringham, Jack is surprised to run into Olive Carter again.

Jack and Olive run into each other at intervals through the years, usually at Christmastime in Sandringham. At first Jack is too lost in grief to consider Olive any more than an old friend. But over time, he wonders if he can love again.

Olive, meanwhile, has an important secret to share with Jack, but never seems to find the right opportunity to do so.

They both have interactions with Elizabeth and Philip.

I enjoyed the story about the queen quite a lot. From the title, you’d think her story would have been the main one. But it’s not. I got frustrated with Jack and Olive going around the same circles so many times.

I also liked Jack’s journey from his grandfather’s restaurant in New Orleans to a chef in the royal kitchen, trying to balance his love for experimentation and spices with the more traditional fare he’s expected to serve.

It was fun to see Elizabeth’s and Philip’s interactions with each other and with Jack and Olive. I was surprised, but shouldn’t have been, that girls kept scrapbooks with news and pictures of Elizabeth just like they did for Diana years later.

However, I am sorry to say I didn’t like Olive much. She’s kind of a party girl at first and has no problem with lying to get ahead at work.

But what bothered me most was the attitude about Olive’s one-night stand when she got pregnant. Nothing explicit is shown, but neither she nor her best friend feel she’s done anything wrong, and that night is referred too often through the book as “delicious.” Then later, tired of being alone, Olive decides to go out with an old flame just for fun. Her friend says, “Sex, you mean,” and encourages her to go.

Yes, this is a secular book, so I don’t expect it to have Christian values. And, yes, non-Christian characters are going to act like non-believers. Secular authors have the right to write what they want, but I have the right to express when I don’t like something. Plus, there was none of this kind of thing in the previous book I had read from these authors, so I wasn’t expecting it here–nor the amount of bad words and taking the Lord’s name in vain.

I loved The Last Christmas in Paris by these authors and I am sad this book was not the same caliber.

(Sharing with Bookish Bliss Quarterly Link-Up)

Three Short Christmas Reads

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I finished a few very short Christmas stories or novellas, so I thought I’d mention them in one post.

Bespoke: A Tiny Christmas Tale by Amanda Dykes

Bespoke: A Tiny Christmas Tale is a novella by Amanda Dykes which takes place on the Isle of Espoir, halfway between France and England. A famed composer lived there, Giovanni St. John. Superstition in his day said “a composer must never write beyond his ninth symphony. To do so was to face certain death.”

He disappeared after conducting his eight symphony, then suddenly reappeared nine years later with his tenth. He said the ninth was there, but they would never see or hear it.

Many years later, an aged St. John returns to the Isle of Espoir, to the old house villagers had taken to calling the Silent House because of his long absence. His grown daughter, Aria, is with him, gloved hands concealing injuries which had silenced her promising music career.

Aria has one last thing to do before her father dies. But she’ll need the help of her long-ago childhood friend, James. Yet Her father has forbidden James to see her, blaming James for the accident that injured Aria–as James does, himself.

This was a sweet and poignant story, packing a lot in for a novella.

Amanda shares at the end that this book was part of a campaign to get a bicycle to Gospel for Asia missionaries. When all was said and done, enough was raised for fifteen bicycles!

Tin Can Serenade by Amanda Dykes

Tin Can Serenade is a short story by Amanda Dykes, made up entirely of notes sent back and forth in a tin can on a pulley rope between two houses separated by a river. Two children are the writers and exchange notes first about a lost toy boat, then include biscuits, peppermint sticks, and such. She writes with flowery words, having read a lot. He’s very plainspoken. She lives with her widowed mother; he lives with his widower father.

As their correspondence reveals details about their families, they have no idea what they are about to stir up.

This was one of the sweetest things I have read in a long while, and wonderfully, beautifully written. It was originally written as a free story for Amanda’s readers and is free for now as a Kindle book.

Christmas at the Circus by Joanne Bischof is listed as a “short story from the Greatest Season on Earth.” The characters are the same as those in The Lady and the Lionheart by the author (linked to my review) about a want-to-be nurse who helps a circus performer in need and (spoiler alert) ends up marrying him. I think Christmas at the Circus may have been a bonus or Christmas story around the time Lionheart was published.

At any rate, Charlie and Ella are married, raising his niece. The circus is at their off-season location, with all the performers preparing for at big Christmas celebration under the big top. But Ella has no idea a special surprise awaits her.

There wasn’t much else to this story, but it would have been a fun addendum for fans of the original book.

(Sharing with Bookish Bliss Quarterly Link-Up)

Review: The Painted Castle

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The Painted Castle by Kristy Cambron

The Painted Castle is the third in Kristy Cambron’s Lost Castle series, the first two being The Lost Castle and Castle on the Rise.

In modern-day Dublin, Keira Foley is the sister of the two main characters in the previous books. She is an art historian but lost her job, and her fiance broke up with her. She’s working in her brother’s pub for now, until she’s asked to authenticate a portrait of Queen Victoria painted by Franz Xaver Winterhalter. It was discovered in an old manor home whose owner just wants to sort through and sell everything. But Keira doesn’t know if she can trust the man asking: a rumored American art thief. She decides to go with him, and uncovers more questions than answers.

In 1833 England, Elizabeth Meade is shattered when her beloved father is killed. He left her and her mother in dire financial straits, which her mother tries to hide from society. Elizabeth’s only goal in life to to find the man who killed her father and take revenge. Her favorite pastime, painting, is not approved by her mother, but brings Elizabeth joy. When Elizabeth is grown, her mother arranges her marriage to a Viscount Huxley, and Elizabeth is startled to learn he is the very man she thinks murdered her father.

During WWII, Amelia Woods turned the estate into a haven for refugee children after her beloved Arthur died. But now she’s ordered by the English military to house a group of American pilots. Amelia does her best in a difficult situation, trying to shelter the children from the war as much as she can and manage amidst rationing. She and the American captain bond over the books in her husband’s library.

A main character in each timeline is recovering from some kind of loss. Many of the characters learn that though our path isn’t always what we’d planned, we can trust God through it.

Partway through the book, I began to wonder if Winterhalter was a real artist. He was! And the portrait of Victoria was real as well, commissioned by her for her husband’s birthday. It was unconventional for the time, showing Victoria with her hair down and a bit more shoulder uncovered than usual. Albert loved it, but felt it was too intimate for public display, and hung it in his study.

Much historical fiction these days is written with two timelines. Kristy is the only writer I’ve known to weave together three, and though she does it well, I hope this does not become a trend. 🙂 She does a good job keeping us from getting confused by naming the date and location at the beginning of each chapter and orienting us quickly with pertinent details.

I enjoyed the settings and stories as well as the way details were unfolded throughout the book. Each of the characters seemed relatable.

A couple of favorite quotes:

Books are a completely personal kind of journey. On the first page, they ask us not only to be willing but to be moved, changed, persuaded, even made new by the time we reach the end. Everyone’s walk-through is different (p. 104).

Parham Hill seemed to own the strange combination of both peace and pain. Beauty and bitterness. A lavishness surrounded by a coldness . . . They were strange bedfellows to find hidden in the shadow of Framlingham Castle and its quaint little country hamlet (p. 131).

In her author’s notes, Kristy shares that her father was an American pilot in WWII who flew in the very area she wrote about here. And she shares other bits and pieces that inspired her plots.

There are also some interesting bits in the book about H. A. Rey and his wife, Margret. He was born in Germany, and he and his wife were Jews living in France. They escaped on bicycles not long before Paris fell, taking their manuscript of Curious George with them, which became an instant success when they got it published.

Though it’s been a while since I read the previous two books, I felt the last chapter pulled everything together very well and was a fitting conclusion.

(Sharing with Bookish Bliss Quarterly Link-Up)

Review: Waking Up in the Wilderness

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Waking Up in the Wilderness by Natalie Ogbourne

Natalie Ogbourne has been to Yellowstone National Park over 30 times. And not because she lives close to it: she lives 1,000 miles away in Iowa.

Natalie’s parents first took her and her brother to Yellowstone when she was twelve and he was eight, to show them “there was more to life that malls and movies” (p. 30, Kindle version). Natalie wasn’t impressed at first. But eventually she grew to love the place, working there when she was a little older and taking her own family back several times in all seasons.

Natalie shares her experiences and observations in a memoir titled Waking Up in the Wilderness: A Yellowstone Journey. She writes in her prologue, “Waking Up in the Wilderness is more than a story of me and my family doing what we love, in a place we love, with people we love. It’s a sign saying ‘Look at this!’ so readers can experience the park and see what there is to see for themselves” (p. 10).

When I think of wilderness, I think of a barren place. But Natalie helped me realize wilderness is wildness: it can be teeming with life. Though there are touristy areas of Yellowstone, paved roads, shops, and cabins, there is also an abundance of wild flora, fauna, and geological wonders.

Natalie often says, “What’s true on the trail is true in life.” “Creation speaks–more often in a whisper than a shout” (p. 69). Yellowstone taught her many lessons applicable to all of life, but she shares them naturally, not in a “moral of the story” way. Lessons like trusting that your guide knows more than you do when he’s taking you somewhere you don’t want to go, or the conflict between wanting to “take the road less traveled” while also wanting to “feel comfortable and safe.” She notes,”Rarely is this the same road” (p. 96).

I thought one of the most profound experiences came near the end of the book, when Natalie and her father found new signs in Yellowstone, after a couple of people had died there the previous year. In all caps, the sign read: “THERE IS NO GUARANTEE OF YOUR SAFETY WHILE CAMPING OR HIKING IN BEAR COUNTRY.” Natalie didn’t want a tame Yellowstone, with everything behind barriers. But how can one navigate in areas where a bear might be around the next bend? “If safety isn’t the point, and fear isn’t the answer, I don’t know what is” (p. 192). I don’t want to spoil the book, but the conclusion she came to had me thinking all afternoon after I read it.

There are funny moments in the book, like when a visitor asks where the animals are kept at night. There are tense moments, when surrounded by a herd of bison or coming uncomfortably close to a bear. And there are poignant moments of insight.

Natalie and I are in the same critique group, so I got a sneak peek at a couple of her chapters. It’s been such a joy to see the book come into being and go out into the world.

The only thing that would have made the book even better is photos. But I imagine that adds another whole layer to the publishing process. She has plenty of pictures at her blog, along with other resources. I also looked up YouTube videos for some of the specific places she mentions.

Though Natalie’s book isn’t overtly Christian, her faith in God’s hand and care is evident throughout, especially the last half of the memoir.

I’m not a hiker, a traveler, or an adventurer, and I prefer indoors to out, but I still enjoyed Natalie’s treks into Yellowstone. I am happy to recommend her book to you.*

*There’s one little word I wish wasn’t there, but I suppose it was understandable in the context.

(Sharing with Bookish Bliss Quarterly Link-Up)

Review: An Honorable Deception

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An Honorable Deception

An Honorable Deception is the third in Roseanna M. White’s Imposters series about an aristocratic English pair of siblings in the early 1900s whose father left them nearly penniless. One of the father’s extravagant expenditures was a circus, whose residents now make their home at the Fairfax tower and whose staff taught the siblings, Yates and Marigold, skills to help them in their venture as private investigators

Yates heads to the church of a friend, James, who allows him to conduct interviews with potential clients in the confessional booth. Yates poses as “Mr. A” with an accent, Scottish this time. A “Miss B” on the other side of the booth asks him to help find her ayah, Samira. Miss B had been raised in India when her father was a viceroy there. Samira was with the family until they moved back to England, and since then she has traveled back and forth in several similar situations. Miss B. and Samira have remained close and meet whenever Samira is in town. But Samira missed their scheduled meeting, and so did a friend who was supposed to give Miss B. some news.

As Mr. A. and Miss B talk, they hear banging doors and hurried footsteps. Before Yates can stop her, Miss B leaves the confessional, says, “You!” and is shot three times.

Yates is in danger of blowing his cover, but he has to help Miss. B. As he leaves the confessional, the men have gone, and he discovers Miss B. is none other than Alethia Barremore, daughter of one of London’s leading families.

James and Yates bring Alethia to the Fairfax’s London home for her safety, fearing her attackers would find her in a hospital. As she slowly recovers, they learn more of her story and start looking into her case.

Also with the Fairfax siblings is a longtime friend, Lavinia Hemming.Yates had loved Lavinia when they were teenagers, but she developed scarlet fever which damaged her heart, leaving her ill for several years. Then when Yates discovered he had no money, he knew her parents would never consent to him asking for her hand. And Lavinia herself seemed totally uninterested in him.

In one of the previous books, Lavinia discovered her mother was a traitor who threatened her life, her father’s and Yates’. Her mother was killed, leaving Lavinia to recover from the disillusionment of her deception. With her father away, Lavinia accompanies the Fairfax siblings to their Northumberland tower, where she accidentally learns that they are the Imposters. She recruits herself into the group to help.

Their investigation turns out to be involve more than a missing ayah as they uncover some of society’s seedier secrets.

I don’t want to spoil the story, but some readers would want to know the last half of the book shares details of child abuse and sex trafficking. However, nothing explicit is shown.

As almost always, I loved Roseanna’s story. Though dealing with a serious subject, there are moments of lively banter. And Lavinia and Alethia wrestle with several emotional issues in the wake of their parents’ sins.

A fun surprise in this book was the appearance of Barclay Pearce from Roseanna’s Shadows Over England series about a group of street kids who form their own family.

There’s an interview with Roseanna about this new book here. I assume this is the last of the Imposters books–Roseanna’s series all seem to form groups of three. If so, I’ll miss these characters.

(Sharing with Bookish Bliss Quarterly Link-Up)

Review: 2 Corinthians for You

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2 Corinthians for You by Gary Millar

The Corinthian church was one of the messiest ever known. Factions divided over favorite preachers. Their church dinners became feasts for the well-off members, while the poor ones were left out. Some were involved in such blatant sin as a man sleeping with his mother-in-law. Their culture honored eloquence in public speaking and scorned Paul because he didn’t speak or write that way. They rejected his authority as an apostle.

Most of us would avoid a church like that. But God hadn’t given up on them. He inspired Paul to lovingly rebuke, plead with, teach, and encourage them toward a right relationship with God, each other, and himself.

2 Corinthians is actually the fourth letter Paul wrote to the church. 1 Corinthians was the second. We don’t have the first and third, but Paul refers to them. Between the second and third letter, Paul made a “painful visit” to them to try to set things right and sent some of his coworkers to them as well. His care was evident: he didn’t just dash off a rebuke and leave it at that.

Gary Millar guides us through Paul’s letter in 2 Corinthians for You. He takes an expository approach, covering anywhere from a few verses to a chapter and a half from 2 Corinthians in each of his chapters. He explains the culture of Corinth at that time, a Grecian city with heavy Roman influence and a large number of Jewish exiles. He puts the pieces together from 1 Corinthians and Acts to help us understand this letter of Paul’s better.

Though he gives us a lot of helpful information, his style is easy to read and not academic. He does an excellent job pulling out application from the Corinthians and Paul to our lives hundreds of years after 2 Corinthians was written.

One of the themes throughout the book is weakness. The Corinthians thought Paul was weak, and he said, in effect, “That’s right.” He refers to his weakness thirteen times in this letter. One reference is the famous passage many of us lean on in 12:9-10, where, after praying three times for God to remove whatever his “thorn in the flesh” was, Paul writes, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Paul repeatedly points out to the Corinthians that the church is God’s, to be conducted the way He wants. And ministry is done for Him and through His power.

Throughout both letters, Paul demonstrates Christian love, which mourns over sin, rebukes when needed, pursues even those who think we’re enemies, and gives of itself. One of many verses that stood out to me was “I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls” (2 Corinthians 12:15). At times I have felt utterly spent after ministering in some way, and this verse reminds me, yes, it’s supposed to feel that way. As God pours into us, we give out to others.

I have mnay places underlined and noted in Millar’s book, but here are a few quotes that stood out to me.

When the gospel is our absolute priority, we will be predictably, reliably faithful to the gospel, even if it means that our plans may change when the progress of the gospel demands it. And how can we pull that off? Once again, it’s because God hasn’t simply told us to be like Christ, he has intervened in our lives powerfully and dramatically to enable us to be like Christ (p. 35).

When Christ is preached, God works by the Spirit to show people how stunningly, gloriously beautiful Christ is. We should keep going because the ministry which God has given us reveals the glory of God in the face of Christ, and there is no greater beauty, no greater privilege, no greater experience for human beings than this (p. 57).

A basic step in a lifetime of gospel ministry is to get over ourselves, to realise that ultimately whether people like us or not doesn’t really matter. Whether we’re perceived as successful or not doesn’t matter. Whether we’re recognised or not doesn’t matter. All that matters is preaching Christ as Lord. We keep going because it’s about him, not us (p. 67).

Ministry that isn’t borne out of love for people will be miserable for you and miserable for the people you are supposedly serving! (p. 114).

Investing in people is costly and time-consuming. The hardest this about ministry is always people. It doesn’t matter how extrovert or introvert you may be, it doesn’t matter how much you like the person or you struggle with them. Investing in people always drains energy and sucks up time. But remember—people don’t take you away from your ministry; they are your ministry (p. 115).

We must do everything in our power to remember that we never get past needing God to work in us (and through us) by his grace (p. 146).

Every time we look at another person and measure ourselves against them—we are throwing the door wide open to pride (if we can find a way to score ourselves higher than them) or its twin sister, self-pity (if we can’t). Every time we compare, we throw living by grace through faith out the window and start to run with a gospel of good works. Every time we compare, we swap living to please God with living to please ourselves, under the guise of impressing other people—and it stinks! (p. 151).

Let me challenge you right now to set yourself to hold onto the truth, and to ask God to give you a highly sensitive theological radar for the sake of the church in years to come. Be ready to think through the implications of every new idea, and be ready to fight for the truth . . . don’t swap the truth for lies (p. 160).

Real ministry is always accountable to God, saturated in and motivated by Christ himself, and has the clear aim of building up the church. Everything Paul did was done with the clear purpose of building up the Corinthians (p. 178).

There were a couple of minor points where I disagreed with Millar, but overall, I thought this book was a great companion and aid in getting the most out of 2 Corinthians.

(Sharing with Bookish Bliss Quarterly Link-Up)

Review: Across the Ages

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Across the Ages

Across the Ages is the fourth in Gabrielle Meyer’s novels about time crossers: people who live in more than one timeline until their twenty-first birthdays, at which time they can choose which of their timelines to stay in and which to forfeit.

In all the previous books, the time crosser had a parent to tell them what was going on and share the rules. In this book, Caroline’s mother left her as a baby with her grandfather in South Carolina in 1727 and then fled, never to be heard from since.

Caroline goes to sleep in South Caroline and wakes up in Minnesota in 1927, where she is the dutiful daughter of a famous pastor. The next night, she goes to sleep in MN and wakes up in SC on a plantation with her grandfather, without having lost a day in-between.

When Caroline tried to tell either family about her strange existence as a child, they scolded her for making up stories. Her grandmother from her 1727 life had been burned at the stake as a witch. All Caroline can figure is that she’s under a curse from that grandmother.

When her grandfather in 1727 plans to force her into an arranged marriage with a man she doesn’t love, she decides to try to find her mother to get some answers. Caroline dresses as a boy and finds work on a ship to Nassau, the last known location of her mother. Everything goes well—until her boat is captured by pirates.

In 1927, Caroline’s brothers don’t live up to her father’s standards. One is a crooked cop, the other a crooked businessman. She tries to keep her brothers’ activities secret so as not to harm her father’s reputation. But she admits that living under public scrutiny is wearing. Her own search for answers leads her to places her parents wouldn’t want her to go.

Gabrielle Meyer keeps finding ways for new takes on this unique concept. This is the first book where the main character isn’t related to the main characters in the previous books. But I realized further in that there was a connection in this book with some of the side characters from the third book, For a Lifetime.

I listened to the audiobook, nicely read by Rachel Botchan, who has narrated all the books in this series. Thankfully, the audiobook included the author’s historical notes.We meet Ernest Hemingway and Charles Lindbergh as characters in this book, and several others are based on real people. Caroline’s preacher father is based on Billy Sunday, which I had guessed due to his having been a professional baseball player. However, I had not known that Sunday’s sons did not share his faith and dabbled in the things he preached against, like Caroline’s brothers did.

Some readers would want to know that there is mention of adultery and brothels with the corrupt brothers, but nothing explicit is shown.

Part of the history also included in this novel was the O’Connor agreement in St. Paul, MN, whereby criminals could stay in the city without being bothered as long as they checked in with the police, paid bribes, and did not commit crimes while there.

But besides the fascinating historical detail, I enjoyed Caroline’s personal journey, though it was painful for her in parts. She struggles to discern what true belief in God is, rather than just performing outwardly to her parents’ expectations. And she finds that she is not cursed, but blessed.

Although this book could be read alone, I’d recommend the whole series.