Review: The Prince of Spies

Posted on April 15, 2026 by Barbara Harper

The Prince of Spies is the third novel in Elizabeth Camden’s Hope and Glory series. Luke Delacroix is the younger brother of Gray, who heads the family’s spice business. But Luke doesn’t have a head for business. His one attempt was a drastic failure that continues to haunt him.

Instead, Luke has become a journalist. He’s just returned from a fifteen-month stint in a Cuban jail. He was thought to be supporting insurrectionists there, but he was actually on an undercover assignment that outed a traitor in the US military.

Now he has set his sights on five Congressmen whom he would like to see removed from office by research and articles showing their downside.

Enemy number one is Congressman Clyde Magruder, the head of Magruder Foods, the rival to the Delacroix company. But it’s not just the business rivalry. The Magruders cut costs by using additives and chemicals in their products. There were no laws about food labeling in the early 1900s. Luke knows personally of people who have been harmed by contents from Magruder’s.

In addition, Clyde is known to have had at least two children from affairs.

One day, Luke spies a young woman trying to rescue a dog who had fallen through ice in a pond. He jumps in to help her, depute Gray’s admonitions not to. Luke and the young woman, whose name he learned is Marianne, successfully rescue the dog, and Gray whisks Luke away to get him into dry clothes. Luke tracks down the fact that Marianne works as a photographer for the government and eventually finds her. But he’s stunned to learn she is Clyde Magruder’s daughter.

They decide not to see each other, but they keep crossing paths–sometimes on purpose.

Luke learns of an opportunity to join a group of volunteers for experiments testing the effects of additives in food. He applies and is accepted, planning to use the information in his articles. The volunteers nickname themselves the Poison Squad. The author says in her end notes that there really was such a group. The experiments eventually led to laws to protect food products.

There were several layers to this novel: Luke’s finding his place after not feeling he fit in for so long, the Romeo and Juliet-type romance, the food safety issues. Also, Marianne struggles with wanting a “normal” family. She loves her family, but their constant bickering and her father’s indiscretions are hard to deal with. Then, as she joins Luke in his research, she finds her family’s business has not always operated candidly. Trying to find the right perspective and balance with them is difficult. And Luke has to learn that, in the course of righting wrongs, it’s all too easy to forget that innocent people who could be hurt by his actions.

I enjoyed this book, and the series, a lot. I’ve missed visiting with the characters since I finished.

Review: A Gilded Lady

Posted on April 2, 2026 by Barbara Harper

A Gilded Lady by Elizabeth Camden is the second in the Hope and Glory series, a sequel to The Spice King.

Caroline Delacroix is the younger sister of Gray Delacroix, owner of the Delacroix Spice Company in the early 1900s. Caroline and her twin brother, Luke, had been frivolous and undisciplined growing up. Gray, twelve years older, was more like a father figure, especially after their father died.

But now Caroline is the secretary to the First Lady, Ida McKinley. Ida has epilepsy and other ailments and has been grieving the loss of her two children. She is excessively dependent on her husband. Plus she is notoriously difficult (the author says in her notes that the medication Ida was given to calm her nerves and help her epilepsy may have actually caused irritation).

Caroline has been blessed with common sense, political savvy, and a charming manner. She can usually talk Ida down, smooth over her moods, or intervene to avoid political embarrassment, such as when Ida wants to wear a hat with egret feathers to a function, when the papers had just carried news of a shortage of the egret population due to their feathers being used in women’s fashion.

Nathaniel Trask has been hired as the new head of the Secret Service, tasked with beefing up security at the White House. Nathaniel is by the book, no-nonsense–just the opposite of Caroline’s free spirit. So they clash repeatedly.

Furthermore, Caroline must keep her family secret under even tighter reigns. Her brother, Luke, has been arrested in Cuba, charged with helping insurgents there. Luke says he is guilty and has fired every lawyer Gray has hired. But Caroline knows her twin: she knows Luke is not guilty. She hopes that President McKinley will eventually grant Luke a pardon. But if Nathanial Trask ever finds out about Luke, Caroline will likely lose her job as well as Luke’s chance for a pardon.

I had known next to nothing about the McKinleys, so their history as well as behind-the-scenes looks at living in the White House in that era were interesting. The second half of the plot went in a little different direction, which I can’t reveal without spoiling the story. It was good to finally learn what was going on with Luke.

I didn’t like that this story overlapped with the previous book by about four months instead of picking up where the last one had left off. And I didn’t like that Caroline was given a vice in this book–smoking–that was not mentioned at all in the previous book. I think that took away from rather than added to the story.

But, overall, I liked the story and the characters. I listened to the audiobook, which had a much better narrator than the first book.

Review: The Spice King

Posted on March 24, 2026 by Barbara Harper

The Spice King by Elizabeth Camden takes place during the Gilded Age in Washington, DC.

Annabelle Larkin had come to DC from Kansas when her blind sister, Elaine, received an opportunity to volunteer at the Library of Congress. Elaine had been depressed for a long time after her blindness, but now she was venturing out of her familiar safety. But she was still fearful and dependent on Annabelle.

Annabelle was given a temporary position as a junior botanist at the Smithsonian. Her boss promised her a permanent position if she could persuade Gray Delacroix, owner of Delacroix Global Spice Company, to donate his plant collection to the Smithsonian. Mr. Delacroix had traveled the world for his business, bringing back and cultivating plants he found along the way.

But the famously reclusive Mr. Delacroix has no interest in donating anything to the Smithsonian. He flatly refuses all of Annabelle’s requests.

Undaunted and determined, Annabelle shows up at his home with a gift. At first he refuses to see her. But his interest is piqued, so he allows his assistant to show her in. Their mutual love of plants draws them into conversation, but he still won’t give her any.

When Gray was young, the Union Army seized his father’s ships and burned their home to the ground. Gray and his father lived in a shed while they rebuilt their business. His father later remarried and had two more children: twins, Caroline and Luke. The twins had not known privation and hard work, so they tended to spend and act frivolously. But when Luke’s antics go too far, his life as well as the family’s reputation is in danger. And, unfortunately, Annabelle may have had a hand in his troubles.

Meanwhile, Gray’s business’s fiercest rivals are filling their food products with additives and fillers, making them cheaper than his wares and dangerous to people with sensitivities to them. But can he prove it? His distrust of the government makes him reluctant to appeal to them for regulation. He prefers the food industry to police itself, but what if it won’t?

I’ve read a few of Elizabeth’s books, but this one is my favorite by far. First, I enjoyed that the subject matter was different from other historical fiction books I’ve read. Most are situated in WW2, which is fine–I enjoy those stories. But I do get a little tired of them and wonder why authors don’t venture into the multitude of other eras available.

Then, the spice and food industry proved to be really interesting. Elizabeth shares enough detail to be informative but not academic. Good Housekeeping magazine even makes an appearance in the story long before its “seal of approval” days.

None of that would be helpful if the story and characters weren’t good–but they were!

Though this was Christian fiction, there were a couple of little oddities mentioned, like the luck of a horseshoe and the “stars coming into alignment.” Overall, however, faith in God and living by His Word were the main emphases.

I listened to the audiobook which was well done except that the narrator over-enunciated words, ran sentences together as if they didn’t have periods between them, and emphasized odd words in her inflections, like prepositions (“She disembarked FROM the streetcar,” “his empire IN Virginia,” “He stared at her hand BEFORE offering his own,” and so on). It took a concerted effort to concentrate on the story and not get distracted by the narration.

I thought one character’s fate was left hanging, but then I realized this book was the first in a series called Hope and Glory. I’m looking forward to reading the rest.

Review: All We Thought We Knew

Posted on March 11, 2026 by Barbara Harper

In All We Thought We Knew, a novel by Michelle Shocklee, Mattie Taylor was adamantly against the Viet Nam war. So she was stunned when her twin brother, Mark, and his best friend joined the military. She blamed her father for not discouraging Mark from going. Then Mark died in the war. The day after his funeral, Mattie left for the hippie movement in California.

Now, a year later, Mattie receives news that her mother is dying and wants to see her. Though Mattie still bristles with anger over the war, she rushes home to see her mother.

Mattie’s mom, Ava, wants Mattie to read some old letters hidden away in a shoebox. Mattie isn’t very motivated–she doesn’t know the people addressed in the letters nor the senders. But she reads a letter or two at a time to placate her mother.

Ava had become a young widow during WW2 when her new husband was killed at Pearl Harbor. Ava lived with her unkind mother-in-law on the horse farm her husband, Mark, had intended to sell. When the military opens a base nearby and sends out a notice that they are hiring civilians, Ava applies for a job to help support herself and her mother-in-law.

Part of Ava’s job is to update the ever-changing personnel files. One day this takes her to a German detainee, Gunther. She learns that Gunther had come from Germany to America before the war to study medicine and become a doctor. Yet when America joined the war, officials rounded up German citizens and detained them at military bases as enemy aliens. Some were allowed to work on the base. Gunther’s medical experience opens a door for him to work as an orderly while under guard.

The point of view switches back and forth from Mattie in 1969 and Ava and Gunther in 1942, slowly unraveling the mystery of what ties the three together.

Though I have read several novels set in WW2, this is the first one that has touched on German detainees in America. It’s heartbreaking that they were gathered up and treated as Nazis, even though some fled their country because of Nazism.

It was also interesting to see the inner workings of a couple of temporary military bases in the WW2 section of the story and the horse farm in the 1960s section.

Mattie got on my nerves a bit. She’s totally self-centered–her opinion is the only right one in her eyes. But there was hope that she would mature and grow through the novel, and she did. I liked the way the others in her life patiently dealt with her anger, doubts, and questions.

I felt the “reveal” of the mystery was pretty obvious by the time it came out (to everyone but Mattie). But overall I enjoyed the book.

Review: Through Each Tomorrow

Posted on February 3, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Through Each Tomorrow is the sixth in Gabrielle Meyer’s Time Crossers series. Time crossers are not time travelers. They live in two timelines. They wake up one day in one time, wake up the next morning in the other, and then wake up the next day back in the first timeline. This goes on until either their twenty-first or twenty-fifth birthday, when they have to decide which timeline they want to remain in for the rest of their lives. After that, they just have one timeline.

Lady Cecily Pembrooke serves as one of Queen Elizabeth’s six maids of honor in 1563. A maid of honor in this time and place was not an attendant at a wedding: she was one of the closest attendants to the queen. The plague is raging through London, and the queen and her entourage have traveled to Windsor Castle.

Cecily had lived in 1900s, the daughter of Kathryn and Austen from the fifth book, Every Hour Until Then. She loved painting and had planned to stay in that path. But she died of polio in 1913.

Her step-brother, Charles, is a time crosser as well. In 1563, he’s the youngest member of the queen’s council and a favorite at court. In 1883, he’s trying to salvage his father’s horse farm in Virginia. It had been a successful business until the Civil War. Charles’ father had died in the war, leaving Charles with the responsibility of his mother and his sister, Ada.

Charles isn’t sure which timeline he is going to choose. He has obligations in each one. His parents in 1563 died, and he doesn’t want to leave Cecily alone. But he needs to find a way to rebuild the horse farm to take care of his mother and sister there.

His lifelong friend, Drew, occupies the same paths and has a plan. In 1863, Drew is the son of a wealthy shipping magnate. He feels sure his father will invest in Charles’ business if Drew asks. In return, he wants Drew to pretend to be the Earl of Norfolk–which technically he is in 1563–and come to Newport. His mother is in a battle for social supremacy there–which sounds a little silly, except the author says in her notes that this conflict is based on a real one. Having an earl visiting them would be a feather in his mother’s cap. Drew doesn’t care about such things, but he hopes this will put an end to the feuding.

Charles agrees if Drew, who is training to be a physician in 1563, will come to Windsor Castle to see if he can learn what is wrong with the queen.

Of course, plans based on deceptions are going to have their problems. Charles is a believer but isn’t walking with the Lord at this point. One of the things he learns is that he can’t manipulate things according to his desired outcome. He needs to seek the Lord and follow His will.

Further complications arise when Charles, Drew, and Cecily each fall in love with someone they can’t have, according to the strict class rules at the time.

It took a short while for me to settle in to the story, with so many time crossers in the same book. But I did enjoy the characters’ journeys and what they learned along the way.

It was neat to see some connections with characters from the previous books.

I have not read much about the 1500s, but everything I have read has confirmed that I am glad I don’t live in a royal court at that time. The strict unwritten rules, the politics and posturing, the constant care of not displeasing the monarch, would all add up to a lot of pressure.

After reading the first few books in this series, I wondered how many Gabrielle could write, how many different takes she could come up with for this concept. Sure, there are multitudes of historical settings she could use. But so far she has managed an unexpected twist in her time crossers’ situations in each book. I know at least one more book is coming in this series. I look forward to it.

Review: The French Kitchen

Posted on January 27, 2026 by Barbara Harper

The French Kitchen by Kristy Cambron is a novel set mostly in two timelines in France–one in 1943, during WWII, and one after the war in 1952.

Kat Harris likes to work in her deceased father’s garage in Boston, but her high-society French mother wants to turn her into a debutante. Her brother, Gavin, stops by to say he’s going on a trip with friends for a couple of weeks and will write. But he never does. Kat learns that he joined the military to fight in the war, but he’s missing. Kat is recruited by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and is sent to France.

Due to an accident on her way to her assignment, she is injured. She wakes up in the house of the Vichy captain in a small French village. Since Manon, the chef at the nearby Chateau du Broutel–also an operative–was expecting a replacement who didn’t arrive, she claims Kat is the person she was expecting, named Celene. Kat aids the OSS and the French Resistance under the noses of the Nazis while also learning to cook French Cuisine.

In 1953, Kat receives a telegram saying her brother is alive. She believes it was from the same Vichy captain. When she confronts him, he neither confirms nor denies it. But they decide to enter a marriage of convenience to help each of them with their pursuits.

Then Kat runs into the man that betrayed her during the war. He goes by a different name now, and they can’t let on that they know each other. But now she wonders if he sent the telegram for his own purposes. In addition to searching for her brother, she has to keep one wary eye in what this man is doing.

Kat’s friend, Mimi, talks Kat into coming to cooking classes with her, taught by Julia Child–before she was known as the Julia Child. As Julia and Kat become friends, Kat learns she has more in common with Julia than a knowledge of French cooking: Julia also worked for the OSS during the war.

Kristy Cambron is one of my favorite authors. I would almost buy a new book from her before knowing what it was about. I liked the overall story here, but I found it very hard to follow. I’ve read many books with dual timelines–and even a few of Kristy’s with three–without any trouble. But I think the fact that these two timelines were close together, involved many of the same people, many of whom had two different names due to their espionage, and both timelines involved looking for Kat’s brother, made them so similar that it was hard to distinguish them at first. I had to make a point of looking at the dates before each chapter to get oriented.

Plus there were a lot of details and surprises of discovering who certain persons were and where their loyalties unexpectedly leaned.

Also, Kristy usually writes Christian fiction. There’s little mention of anything Christian here besides an occasional reference to prayer or a “God help him.”

The book did have its bright spots. It was fun to discover who some of the people really were. I liked the unfolding relationship between Kat and her husband. And though I know nothing about French cooking and little about Julia Child, I enjoyed seeing her in the pages.

I didn’t dislike the book–I just didn’t enjoy it as much as some of Kristy’s others. But lots of other readers did, so you might, too.

Kristy wrote a fun article about what she learned from Julia while writing this book here.

Review: Saving Grayson

Posted on January 22, 2026 by Barbara Harper

In the novel Saving Grayson by Chris Fabry, Grayson Hayes has early-onset Alzheimer’s. He knows his diagnosis and realizes his thinking ability and memories are slipping away. But there are some wrongs he would like to right while he can–even if he doesn’t remember exactly what they are.

He has a recurring dream about a woman in his home town. She’s on a bridge and someone is trying to push her off. Grayson feels his dream is a sign that he is supposed to go back to his home town in West Virginia and either save her from her fate, or find out what happened and who is responsible so justice can be satisfied.

Gray’s longsuffering wife, Lottie, has sworn never to go back to WV. And she can’t let Gray drive alone. But a young Black man named Josh volunteers to drive Grayson from AZ to WV.

As you might imagine, Josh and Grayson have several arguments and misadventures along the way.

Grayson isn’t a very nice person. At first we assume this is because of his condition and his frustration over things like his wife trying to sell his tools and pack up for a move. Grayson is paranoid, instantly thinking people are conspiring against him instead of assuming there is a reasonable explanation for whatever is happening. Lottie knows this is part of his disease but admits she is exhausted.

Yet when Grayson finally makes it to WV, nearly everyone he meets says, “I can’t believe you would come back here.” So we wonder if maybe his abrasiveness is not completely due to his disease after all.

Yet Grayson had an encounter with God late in life that changed him, and moments of clarity sometimes come through.

Chris Fabry skillfully weaves together threads of what it’s like to lose your memories and yourself, to love someone in this situation, the value of all life, the nature of forgiveness and receiving love, a little humor, and some suspense.

I’ll admit the first few chapters were not a cozy read–it was frustrating to read of Grayson’s misunderstandings and antics. Yet I am sure it’s many times more frustrating for all involved to actually deal with these issues.

But I am so glad I kept with the book. I loved the redemptive arc the story took. There was a nice “aha” moment when I realized who one character was (I don’t want to say more and spoil the surprise for other readers). The last chapter was a nail-biter.

Some of my favorite quotes from the book:

He had clear memories of the past, but others were fuzzy, like a photo taken from a car at a high rate of speed (p. 9. Kindle version).

How many of the mean people he’d met in his life were just scared of something, a monster they couldn’t see past? (p. 55).

Can God forgive what a man can’t remember? Can a man atone for the mistakes that haunt him when his memory is in ruins? If I could go back and relive a moment or an action, I don’t know where I’d go or what I’d do to make up for my failures (p. 215).

Let people love you. Don’t push them away. Allow God to love you through those he’s put in your life. Live knowing you are loved. You don’t earn that kind of love. You just receive it every day (p. 229).

Forgiveness is not never thinking of the bad things again. Forgiveness is choosing to move past them. Or maybe better put, allowing the past to move in next door (p. 240).

Chris has a Q&A about the book here. I got the Kindle version on sale last year and then the Audible version, read by Chris, a few weeks ago. It was nice to be able to switch back and forth between them.

I wasn’t sure what “Jerry Jenkins Presents” on the front cover referred to. That wasn’t explained inside the book. But this article shares that this book was one of three published by Focus on the Family and edited by Jenkins which deal with modern issues in a redemptive way.

Though this book would be helpful for friends and loved ones of people with dementia, I think it would be beneficial to anyone. The story itself is excellent and enjoyable. And many of us wrestle with feeling we have to earn people’s love–or God’s–instead of receiving it. Or we feel we have to atone for our sins, when Jesus is the only One who can do that.

Review: Count the Nights by Stars

Posted on January 20, 2026 by Barbara Harper

In Count the Nights by Stars by Michelle Shocklee, Audrey Whitfield is the college-aged daughter of the manager of historic Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville in 1961. The hotel had once been one of the grandest in Nashville, but was now mainly used as a residential hotel.

Audrey’s mom passed away the year before. Her brother, Emmett has some kind of unspecified developmental issues–though he’s seventeen, he has the mind of a five-year-old. Her father had a near break-down of his own. Plus the employee who worked at the front desk had just gotten married and moved to Texas. So Audrey is helping out until she can get back to school or decide what to do next with her life.

Then one of their oldest residents, Miss Nichols, suffers a stroke. When Audrey’s father learns that Miss Nichols probably won’t return to the hotel, he asks Audrey to box her things until they know what to do with them.

Andrey finds a scrapbook in Miss Nichol’s room dating back to the time of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition in 1897. She keeps it out to show a friend who is interested in history. They find clippings about the expo as well as postcards written from someone named “Peaches” to a “Luca.” Then there’s an article about six women who disappeared during the exposition. Audrey and her friend, Jason, try to research and find out more about this time in their city’s history.

The book goes back and forth between 1961 and 1897, when Priscilla Nichols was the daughter of a railroad magnate. Their family lived in Chattanooga but came to spend several weeks at the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. Her parents keep thrusting her into the company of Kenton Thornley, hoping for an engagement. But Priscilla refuses to be married as part of a business deal. Plus, she knows Kenton isn’t all her parents think he is.

The luxurious Maxwell House Hotel supplied ladies’ maids and drivers for its guests. Priscilla’s maid is a lovely young Italian girl named Gia, and her brother, Luca, is the family’s carriage driver. Since Priscilla’s parents have various social obligations, and Priscilla can’t go around the Expo alone, she is often accompanied by Gia and Luca. She’s amazed at how much more respectful and thoughtful Luca is than Kenton.

Then one day, Gia mysteriously disappears. As Priscilla and Luca use their separate resources to search for Gia, they discover a seamy side to the beautiful city. As they work to rescue Gia, Priscilla can’t help but wonder about the other young women caught up in the same business about which polite women did not speak. But if no one speaks for them or intervenes for them, how will they ever make it out?

I loved the historical aspects to this book, which sent me on internet searches for more information. The Maxwell House Hotel was a real grand hotel in its day, which later became a residential inn. It’s also where Maxwell House coffee was first served. Sadly, the hotel was destroyed by fire in the 1960s. The current Millennium Maxwell House Hotel was named for it but was built on a different site.

It was fun to learn about the Exposition as well. I found some sites online with drawings of some of the buildings and features mentioned in the book. A replica of the Parthenon from the Expo still stands.

I didn’t see in the author’s notes whether the part about six girls going missing during the expo was true. But I respected the careful way Michelle dealt with the trafficking issue. Priscilla wants her life to count, and she knows that if she starts to work with a couple who helps rescue women in this situation, she’ll likely never marry or be accepted in “polite” society of that era.

Michelle says in this interview that one theme of this book is “I see you,” while another is “Love thy neighbor.” I think she brought out both themes well.

I enjoyed Audrey’s story, too. She’s at a crossroads in her life, waiting until she can take the next step. How God leads her and how she changes in the interim was a nice arc as well.

I listened to the audiobook, nicely read by Sarah Zimmerman. But I also checked the Kindle version from Libby especially for the author’s notes.

This is my second book by Michelle, the first being The Women of Oak Ridge. I am eager to read more.

Review: The Book of Hours

Posted on January 14, 2026 by Barbara Harper

In Davis Bunn’s novel, The Book of Hours, Brian Blackstone has been traveling aimlessly for the past two years, grieving the death of his wife. After a harrowing illness in Sri Lanka, and still not completely well, Brian lands in Oxfordshire at Castle Priory, where his wife had grown up. Her aunt had passed away and left the property to him.

The aunt had been elderly and unable to keep up with repairs, plus, the property had sat untouched for some time. It needed a lot of work in addition to an enormous amount of death duties owed. Though Brian would like to keep the place for his wife’s sake, he can’t afford it. The real estate agent in charge of the property already has it set up to be sold at auction.

The people in the small town around the castle mistakenly think Brian is only after the money the estate will bring, not realizing their won’t be any money left after the sale. One who is particularly frustrated with Brian is Cecilia Lyons, an American doctor whose dream has been to practice in an English village. Plus, she loves her home, Rose Cottage, which is one of the buildings on the castle property, and doesn’t want to lose it.

In addition to the castle drama, the local vicar is facing a battle on another front. The church bells had been taken down to be repaired. But some people don’t want them put back up. They used to chime every hour, which annoyed many people. But the vicar insists it’s not just about the bells–the chimes were a call to prayer.

When Brian finds a letter from his wife’s aunt with a clue to finding another message, he, Cecilia, the vicar, and a couple of others discover that the castle problem and the bell problem might be intertwined. But will they find the solution in time?

I am not sure of the time frame of this story. I don’t think one was mentioned. There are cars and phones, but no mention of cell phones, computers, the internet, etc.

Though most of the book takes place in the weeks before Christmas, that’s almost incidental. The connection with Christmas isn’t mentioned until the last chapter.

I really enjoyed the story a lot. I loved how so many people had to overcome their mistaken impressions about each other. There was quite a lot of suspense in the latter half of the book. And I really loved a lot of side characters, particularly an older couple who are Brian’s neighbors. I found the spiritual journeys of the characters quite touching.

The only odd thing about the story was frequent mention of proceeding with an action or conversation because it “felt right.” That’s not so unusual in itself, but it was mentioned so often it began to stand out.

Overall, I loved the book.

Two More Christmas Books

Posted on December 30, 2025 by Barbara Harper

The Wish Book Christmas by Lynn Austin takes place in post-WWII America. Audrey Barrett and Eve Dawson are best friends who came to America after being ambulance drivers in England during the war. That story is told in If I Were You, which I have, but have not read yet.

Each of the women has a young son in kindergarten in 1951. Bobby, Audrey’s son, is quiet and reticent. Eve’s son, Harry, is outgoing and a natural leader.

When the Sears Christmas Wish Book catalogue arrives, the boys are obsessed with all the toys (as well as a dog and a daddy) that they hope Santa will bring them.

At first, Audrey and Eve are at a loss as to how to turn their sons’ attention away from their own desires and towards to the true meaning of Christmas and serving others. But gradually, ideas start coming to them.

Reading this novella without reading the book that came before it means I probably encountered a lot of spoilers. But I don’t think it will ruin my interest in the first book when I get to it.

I thought the story went in the same circles at first, but then picked up as the moms began implementing measures to help their sons.

The moms are dealing with issues of their own: Eve feeling she needs to atone for a past sin, and Audrey feeling she needs to make her own way without relying on others for help.

I’ve had the Kindle version of this for a while, but just got the audiobook via a special coupon from Audible. Once again, it was nice to go back and forth between them since they automatically synced with each other.

Blizzard at Blue Ridge Inn wasn’t described as a Christmas book, though it is set in the weeks before Christmas.

In this story, three women end up at the Blue Ridge Inn at the same time. Amanda Sullivan has been married to her second husband for nine years. She knows she doesn’t love him as much as her first husband, her soul mate, who was killed in a car crash. She’s hoping this romantic get-away will revitalize their relationship.

Erica Parker fears her husband is hiding something, possibly an affair. She’s on a mission to find the truth.

Wendy Peterson is in her twenties and loves having a rich husband and the ability to buy whatever she wants. She’s pregnant with her first child and is a little immature and naive. She can’t wait for her husband to join her at the inn.

However, all three husbands are delayed by work. And then an unusual blizzard traps all three women at the inn for a couple of days. They have nothing else to do but get to know one another better.

When the snow begins to clear, they’re informed that a stranger wants to meet with them together. They learn that they are not at the inn by accident. And it’s no coincidence that none of their husbands have arrived.

What the stranger shares will turn their worlds upside down. Each woman has to decide how she will navigate the changes to her life.

I didn’t know when I started this book that it was the first in a series of six about the women. I was frustrated to find that Wendy doesn’t have her baby until the third book, and apparently the antagonist still hasn’t been dealt with by the sixth. I don’t feel inclined to read the rest of the series–at least, not any time soon. The story was compelling, but the writing didn’t really grab me. It wasn’t terrible, but it just didn’t resonate with me. I have too many other books stacked up that I really want to read to spend time with some that I am not into.

I also wasn’t sure if this was meant to be Christian fiction or not. About 80% of the way through the book, one of the women meets with her pastor, who gives her some good advice.

According to the reviews, though, lots of people love the series. So you might get more out of it than I did.