Loree LoughReseñas
Autor de Dream Seekers
Reseñas
This story was one of ten delightful Christmas Miracle stories and so fun. A second chance for Jerry and Mary. Will the twins succeed in their sneaky plans or get themselves in trouble, as usual!
Truly a sweet and tender story mixed with some humor. Although I am reading it after the holidays, it is every bit as good as before. I recommend these sweet stories and hope you take the time to read them!
I received an ebook copy from one of the authors with no expectation of a positive review. All thoughts are my own.
Can you imagine leaving your home and going to marry a man with children, that you have never met, and having it be a business arrangement? Not only that, but you quickly see, that the arrangement is a God send to this young woman, Bethel.
Your heart will go out to Aaron Bontrager, a struggling widower with three children, desperately needing a woman in their home. He has tried everything, and now is welcoming and hoping for the best as they make room for Bethel to come, and wait until to you see what happens!
One never knows what is going on in other peoples lives, behind closed doors, and now we are privy to some here, with many surprises. With a lot of great life lessons, you won’t want the story to end, and I was left with the feeling that I wanted to continue on with the lives of these individuals.
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Kensington, and was not required to give a positive review.
This story has a range of emotions, there is depression, fear, love, compassion and more, and we are here to experience them.
This is not the usual Amish read, there are topics here that we don't hear about in their community, but we are all human and problems exist. There is also evil lurking and we see how it is handled, and the end results.
This read was a page turner, and answers come, not always as we hope!
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Keningston. and was not required to give a positive review.
"Sam" is a spunky lady, who can handle most anything Bryce throws at her (after all she grew up with older brothers). These two will entertain you with their interaction and likability. It was just an all round enjoyable story to read, especially during this Christmas season.
Emma recently lost the “aunt” who raised her and is now, in turn, raising her younger sister, Jenni. As the story opens she receives some shocking news about her parentage from a letter that her “aunt” left behind. I appreciated this bit of character development, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to impact Emma in the way one might think it would and has little effect on the trajectory of the story. Emma works for the town doctor as his nurse, and takes in Matt, a young boy whose entire family was killed by runaway horses. As she’s contemplating the possibility of legally adopting him, Matt starts bringing home other orphans he’s found around town, all of whom were supposed to meet the doctor when they got off the train, but who got scared and ran away instead. Without hesitating, Emma takes them all in, even though it’s a strain on her finances and makes it more difficult for her to work to earn the much-needed funds to care for them. Then she meets and gets to know Nate, the man who saved Matt’s life the fateful day that the rest of his family was killed, and she’s instantly smitten. I adored Emma for having such an open and loving heart and for taking care of all the kids until permanent homes could be found for them. She’s equally kind and compassionate with everyone she meets, including Nate, despite his past failings.
Nate is an Irishman, who was a soldier in the Confederate army during the Civil War. With the horrors of the war pressing in on him, he often turned to the bottle to find comfort. On one such night, after drinking whiskey, he fell asleep while on guard duty and awoke to a bloodbath with all of his fellow soldiers either dead or dying. He, alone, ended up being the sole survivor of the incident, or so he thought, and has been wracked with guilt ever since, believing that the deaths of nearly a hundred men were his fault. Now Nate works as a carpenter and lives alone, thinking that he isn’t fit to be anyone’s husband. Then he meets Emma at the bank after her foster son plays an innocent prank due to boredom, and she invites him to Sunday dinner. He can’t seem to resist and quickly finds himself falling for the lovely woman, but he struggles between his feelings for her and the past that he can’t seem to let go of. Nate is a real sweetheart, who is kind and caring, which is probably why he carries so much grief and guilt inside him. I really did love him and thought that he was a wonderful man, but the one thing that gave me a bit of pause was his service to the Confederacy, which seemed to be at odds with the rest of his persona. I just couldn’t quite buy into the idea that a man who had believed in the cause of the South enough to risk his life for it would not only be OK with a woman who took in an orphaned black boy, but also be someone who treated that boy no different than the other children in her care. Don’t get me wrong, I was glad that he did. It just didn’t make much sense to me given his background.
Overall, Emma’s Orphans was a pretty good read. I liked the characters quite well and the theme of a young woman taking in orphans was appealing. Also the inspirational elements were limited to a few prayers and scripture verses, rather than being preachy, which was a plus. However, perhaps because of its short length, it doesn’t reach particularly deep on the character, relationship, and plot development. The character backstories are fairly good for this shorter format, but aside from Nate’s guilt, they don’t really play into the story as well as they might have in a longer novel. The romance is sweet, but Nate and Emma basically start falling for one another after one dinner together, and by the second meal, they’re already in love, even though Nate tries to fight it a bit. Then there was the plot, which was decent but perhaps a tad too ambitious for a short novel like this. The ending felt pretty rushed with confessions being made, forgiveness offered, and the villain being dispatched with little fanfare. We never even find out what happened to the town doctor for his part in the misdeeds, and as an aside, I never quite figured out why the doc wasn’t suspicious when all the orphans he was waiting for went missing and suddenly Emma, his employee, starts expanding her little foster family. Despite the weaknesses, though, I did enjoy it, and I think that readers who like this genre and who enjoy a kind, gentle hero and heroine with a few cute kids on the side will find it a worthwhile read, too.
it was amazing
This is a set of sixteen suspense novellas that are all fantastic. Some are all suspense and others are full of romance and suspense. There are 16 Christian authors in this book. I knew most of the authors but a few were new to me. These stories definitely made me want to read a lot more of these authors books. I received a copy of this book from the author for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.
I'm not really done with it, but if Inscription: Relic Hunters Taskforce by Ruth Hartzler is any indication, I will wind up with my nose stuck in the rest of the 1000 pages! Inscription is an intro into a new series about an ancient Greek scholar who becomes involved with the good guys who are tasked with protection of certain artifacts with a supernatural provenance. Excellent!
Enter a difficult time in these characters lives, and little Gabe becomes ill, will he bend to the culture and put all in the hands of God, or receive help that God has provided by way of modern medicine?
This makes for a page turning read, and I loved the epilogue. Thank you Loree Lough!
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Kensington, and was not required to give a positive review.
Sky was born in Montana, but moved to Atlanta with her parents, which is where she grew up. After losing her father, who was a sheriff, in a bank robbery gone bad, she decided to move back to her roots. She’s started a small, successful veterinary practice on the land that her father used to own in Big Sky Country. Sky loves the outdoors and when she’s out hiking one day, she witnesses a mother wolf being shot. Realizing the two cubs are still too little to make it on their own, she risks life and limb to scoop them up and make a run for it. Back at her ranch, she sets out to care for them until they’re old enough to be released back into the wild. But local ranchers have a bounty out on the wolves, and Sky begins to receive threatening notes and phone calls. Enter Chet Cozart, one of those ranchers. After learning that his father-in-law was one of the people sponsoring the wolf bounty, she’s a bit suspicious of him, but he gradually wins her over and charms his way into her heart. I liked Sky’s spirited, independent nature. She’s definitely a force to be reckoned with and refuses to let anyone scare her away from her mission. I understood her reluctance to involve Chet or her friend, Dale, in her problems, out of fear for their lives, but I never quite figured out her refusal to involve law enforcement, especially after someone set fire to her clinic. Even then, she was insistent on handling the matter herself, which seemed foolhardy to me. So while I liked Sky and thought she was a good heroine, I felt like she took her independent streak just a tad too far.
Chet was a rodeo star for a hot minute until an injury sidelined his career. At that point, he hung up his spurs, married one of Sky’s good friends, and went into the ranching business with his father-in-law. Unfortunately his wife died in childbirth, leaving him a single father to a now-five-year-old girl. Chet is rather taken by Sky’s spiritedness from the moment he meets her and goes to visit her at her ranch. He figures out pretty quickly that she’s hiding the wolf cubs there and isn’t too pleased about it. However, when he finds out that someone is threatening her, he wants to keep her safe, although she doesn’t really let him. We get very little of the narrative from Chet’s POV, so I don’t feel like I got to know him as well as I did Sky. He seemed like a good guy, but I felt like there were some contradictions in his character. For all his niceness and attraction to Sky’s independence, he can still be a tad chauvinistic at times. He mentions at least two or three times that he’s part Native American (I believe it was either his grandmother or great-grandmother who was Cheyenne), but I honestly didn’t know what the point was of bringing this up as it didn’t play any real part in the story. In fact, normally, Native Americans have a strong reverence for nature, but Chet wasn’t really interested in helping Sky keep the wolf pups safe, only in keeping her safe. Then there was the fact that it was his own father-in-law who’d put up the bounty on the wolves and was in part responsible for the situation Sky was in. You’d think Chet would have some pull with his kin and that getting the bounty dropped would be the quickest way to ensure Sky’s safety, but he refused to confront his father-in-law, which didn’t make a lot of sense. So, while most of the time, I liked Chet, there were some red flags in his character that kept me from truly loving him.
For such a short book, Montana Sky was a pretty good story. It had decent character and plot development for a story of this length. However, where things started getting confusing is when the suspense element suddenly shifted from a focus on the wolf bounty to a developer pulling the strings behind the scenes. This all seemed very abrupt and I felt like I was missing something. I’m not sure if passages were edited out and then the story wasn’t smoothed out around it or what, but it did disorient me. I also wasn’t sure how I felt about Sky and Chet handling things all on their own, because they technically ended up breaking the law in order to get evidence on the bad guy. But then the villain never did get arrested or genuinely taken to task for anything he’d done, so this part of the story was a little unsatisfying. On the upside, the relationship was fairly well done with a decent emotional connection between Sky and Chet, and a touch of sexual tension, which I don’t often see in inspirational romance. The story also wasn’t preachy like a lot of inspirationals. It only had some prayer and a few scripture references, which was a plus as well, and should make it more accessible to believers of all stripes or perhaps even non-believers. Overall, I enjoyed Montana Sky in spite of its weaknesses. This was my first read by the rather prolific Loree Lough, and I found it to be good enough to make me interested in reading more of her work.
The story begins with Gabrielle riding Triumph at a run! Drew had allowed her to ride Triumph any time she wanted when the separation papers were signed. Whenever she arrived at the ranch, he was not around. She felt guilty because no one was there to take care of Drew, now that she was gone. Triumph felt her tension. She hadn't been happy with their married life, but the last night...maybe she could have done something differently. She stopped her tears, what happened couldn't be changed. As a child, Gabrielle had often asked that they stay where they lived until the finish of school, but to no avail. She had to admit that Drew was as rooted as a man could get...maybe a little too much? Triumph had run to a place that she knew. A thunderstorm had blown through that area of Montana last week causing much devastation, but it would grow back in time. If only time would heal what Drew had done that night. At the sight of a sidewinder, Thunder reared & bucked, Gabrielle flew!
Gabrielle work up with a headache & a bleeding goose egg on her head. She had fallen off horses before, and knew how hard the fall could be! She took time to admire the view, noting the pink snow. Everywhere she looked, she felt life! She had to get home where her husband waited. Her wristwatch had broken in the fall, & although it read 11:35, the sun said it was after noon! She had to hurry because she had promised to make lasagne for Drew for their 2-month anniversary.
As she walked toward the highway, Gabrielle remembered many things she had memorized, but nothing could make her stop thinking about her headache. When Troy stopped when he saw her, he said she looked peaked. He looked her over & asked how she got the goose egg on her head, but she had no response. As she walked to the truck she stumbled, but Troy caught her. He commented on how white she was. Gabrielle's watch had been a gift to her father from her mother, Leah, & it was her most prized possession, but now it read 11:35 no matter how often she looked at it...she had always kept a picture of her mother on her bedside table. Gabrielle's father had taken the picture on their honeymoon. Gabrielle was glad that Troy had happened along, Drew had taught her survival skills so she wasn't afraid during the day. However, night was a different story. Gabrielle's mother had saved up her money to buy the watch for her father & presented it to him the night Gabrielle was born. Leah had often said that the watchband was as sturdy as her marriage to Jared, & Gabrielle thought how lucky she was to have found Drew, who was rooted in the land. When Troy dropped her at the house, Gabrielle told him that she thought Drew was mending the back fences, but he asked about the rest of the hands. According to Gabrielle, Drew had given them off to go to Oktoberfest, but Troy knew that had taken place two weeks earlier. When she got in the house, she realized that something was wrong...she never left the place in that kind of a mess! She got an asprin from the cupboard & wondered why the cups were put away in such a haphazard manor! She really needed Drew to come home!
In the Prologue Dara couldn't believe what Noah Lucas told her that her father had done. Because she taught geometry & algebra at the local high school, she knew that the numbers didn't lie. Noah had no idea why Jake Mackenzie, Dara's father, would have taken funds from the company account. More than $200K had disappeared from the company account & the same amount was deposited in Dara's father's savings account. Jake Mackenzie had a reputation as an honest businessman, and was the last person Noah would have suspected. Dara was sure that the truth would come out & her father would be cleared of the accusations. Lucas seemed really concerned as he sat in her grandfather's chair, the founder of Pinnacle Construction. Dara continued to say that her father hadn't taken the money, while Lucas wanted a reason to believe her. Her dad had brought Mr. Turner into the business because he was about to loose everything, not because they were friends. Working together they had turned the company around. Dara thought that Kurt Turner was trying to get rid of his competition. When her father went to England to get the deal with The Acmic Chemicals, the stress had cost him his life. Kurt Turner was now sole owner of Pinnacle Construction, but the Mackenzie's had built it. Dara was going to clear her father's name. Dara was angry with Lucas because he wanted to find out what her father had done with the money.
Dara called her pastor & volunteered to teach a Sunday School class. The last Sunday School class she had taught was for junior high children. She was hoping teaching the class of 1st & 2nd graders would take her mind off Noah Luca's investigation, among other things. She was going to review the lesson as she waited for the children to arrive for her first class, but all she could think about was what she had found out about Noah Lucas. When the children came into the room she knew that she had done the right thing. Lucas's children were in the class, the boy looked like his father, the girl must take after her mother. Dara wondered what it was like for these children, growing up without a mother. The former teacher, Mrs. King, had her baby & Dara was the new teacher. One of the boys hoped that she had a boy because there were too many girls already. However, Dara told them that Mrs. King had had a girl. Dara observed that the Lucas children were different. Jesus loved the little children, but the Lucas children seemed that they lacked the innocent playfulness that most children had. Dara asked what the Golden rule meant, the answer given was "Don't do to others what you don't want done to you." When they made cards for Mrs. King, Bobby knew how to spell "Congratulations"! It appeared that Noah Lucas had the discipline down, but what about the loving? Bobby Lucas said that his sister, Angie, said things to shock people, and Dara figured it worked. Dara had to decide if she was going to answer Angie's questions or divert her attention, so she commented on the card Angie was making. It seemed like their father had discouraged them from mourning their mother's death, somewhat like Dara was repressing the fear that her father had actually stolen from Pinnacle. Noah Lucas believed the numbers that showed that her father had taken money, the same judgemental behavior had his children living like wind up toys. Tina asked for a drink, & Pete showed her his card. She would be praying for the Lucas children.
The principle told her that there wasn't money in the budget to continue her position. The serious situation made his office seem cramped, when would she have to clean out her desk? The end of February would be the end of her job. Dara shook his hand and Westfall told her that he'd do anything to help her. Neither Sunday School or job hunting would be a very good diversion from the Pinnacle mess.
The weather man predicted snow in the afternoon, but Dara's Sunday School class would go on as scheduled. Bobby volunteered to open the class in prayer & everyone bowed their heads. The lesson was in Genesis, and she had the children mixing peanut butter, sugar, & vanilla. How were they to share what they made the same way God shared his creation with Adam & Eve? After class Dara cleaned up what had been dubbed the "Genesis mess". The only problem with the class was that none of the children were hers. Mr. Lucas stopped by to thank her for what she had done the week before. This was special because Mr. Lucas didn't often say such things. Dara commented on how well behaved Bobby & Angie were. He commented on the extra work she must have gone through to make sure that none in her class were allergic to peanuts, but she hadn't checked. It seemed that he knew a lot about her! Lucas helped her put her coat on & it felt right. When they got to the hall, Bobby asked if she would join them for dinner.
In the story, Jaina couldn't believe it when her mom, Rita, told her that the mother was gone! Ray, her father, wondered how she knew they weren't murderers. He wanted to call the cops. Rita had a note to Jaina. The mother had come to Ellicott City to ask her uncle to take care of Liam, but he didn't seem like a loving person. She was dying, only had a few months to live. She wanted Jaina to take care of Liam. She was convinced that God had led her to Jaina. Ray dumped the baby's bag to find the picture of the young woman & a birth certificate. Liam seemed to recognize the picture of his mom. Ray suggested that everyone should pray about what was best in this situation, so they prayed together. Rita commented that Jaina had always been bringing home stray critters, including a skunk! Jaina's past had effected her parents. The more Rita looked at Liam, the more she liked him. Jaina didn't want to talk about what the doctor had said years ago, even though it hadn't been her fault. She hadn't taken the Doctor to court because she couldn't prove that he had botched the surgery. It was getting late. Ray reminded her that the right man would love her & not be concerned with the scars. If only Jaina could believe him. Rita commented that Jaina wanted to be Liam's mommy. But Jaina was convinced that Liam's mom would be back. Why did the name "Buchanan" sound so familiar? Jaina would call Skip in the morning. She had prayed for divine intervention right up to the point of impact. She'd keep the baby until the mother came back. This was a temporary arrangement.
Jaina lined the bottom dresser drawer with a quilt for a crib for Liam. She watched him as he slept, hoping that the pain of separation would pass quickly. How had Kirstie known that Jaina would do right by Liam? Rita had always told her that a mother knew what was best for her child. Today was June 22, eight years to the day of the accident. Connor Buchanan had no idea that his niece had been to see him. Jaina decided to call him, even though it was 5:45 AM. He answered the phone & accused her of trying to con him. With caller ID, he had her number. Liam's giggle was a direct contrast to his uncle's complaints.
Pearl McKenzie asked Conner why he was frowning. He told his secretary of the unusual call that morning. She told him about Kirstie Buchanan coming to see him about a custody matter. Was this the prank caller? He called the number from the caller ID & got The Chili Pot. The woman's voice was musical. They agreed to meet in his office. He didn't want the call to end.
Ciara ran downstairs & tried to stop Mitch from leaving. He had left already. She went back into the house they had bought a week ago. She started emptying boxes into the dining room & living room, arranging his thing the way she hoped he'd like them. They had met on a cruise & her mom objected to him being a cop...but he was FBI. Ciara's mom felt that her husband had walked all over her. Ciara had first seen him playing "Marco Polo" with some youngsters. The pastor had introduced them. Ciara had always been proud of her strength, but in Mitch's arms she felt protected. After their marriage she heard about the death of Special agent Abe Carlson on the TV, which she thought was awful for the family. She prayed to be the wife he deserved.
Lieutenant Chet Bradley had seen the Colombian, Pericolo, order men killed for slamming doors, so he didn't question him. He'd been paid in uncut cocaine for the services he rendered. The younger Colombian, Chambro, walked him to his car. Chambro wanted his boss gotten rid of. He called it taking care of two birds with one stone.
Mitch wondered why his desk lamp was on. Being around Bradley made him uncomfortable, he had hoped that once he became the boss the resentment from their earlier association would fade. Bradley wanted him to go to Philadelphia. This was a great case, but after what had happened at home, could he accept it? Looking at her picture, Bradley asked about his wife, saying that they didn't like to put married men under, but he was the best! Bradley said they didn't have time to get anyone else, and Bradley would be his only communication with the outside world! Pericolo was one of Ciara's greatest fears! Six months earlier he would have accepted it without question! Bradley said it was good that Mitch's wife understood. Hazardous duty wasn't something a wife could live with! Mitch told Bradley about the fight...after only 4 weeks! What if she wasn't waiting for him when this was over? He needed her to be! This could be a real distraction! There was a car waiting downstairs & reservations in his new name. He'd need all the divine intervention he could get. He wrote a note to Ciara & handed it to the lieutenant. He was told he'd be gone 2 weeks. Mitch thought he felt like the sky was falling.
All 4 stories in this book involved Christians who were professionals. I enjoyed it!
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Yet, it seemed to me that the further the story went along, the more the characters' actions/behaviors, their styles of speech and expressions they would use, and what they would specifically say didn't have the truest ring to it all. At first I figured I was just having trouble getting a clear sense of the characters' personalities, but the characterizations and their development felt a little off and scattered. Also, the various pieces of commentary on race, racism, and social responsibility in the story seemed to be shoehorned in, in a rather unnatural, didactic sort of way.
I didn't find out until after I stopped reading that this book with a chiefly Black cast of characters—a story that endeavors to present different aspects of the Black experience—was apparently written by a ChristFic author who isn't Black, using a one-time pseudonym.
Do I think that authors must only ever create characters with whom they share the same race/ethnicity? Personally, no. I don't. But I also think it depends on the writer as a person, the particular story, the story's purpose, and the characters' specific roles, among other factors to consider. It seems that in this case, the author used Black characters (and a Korean character with a pretty caricatural feel) to present a social lesson to, in significant part, point out what's wrong with the Black community. It wasn't anything I've never heard before, but the blanket criticisms came off as deficient in empathy—and underinformed. Criticisms that may be the easiest to make about a disadvantaged community if you've lived outside of their experience as a people and have gotten an oversimplified, incomplete picture of their collective story. A collective story that's long, layered, and complex.
From what I can tell, this novel was an inappropriate setup for the racial messages in it. It seems to me that for an author apparently writing outside of their race with the use of Black characters, at the least, the author could have left out the particular racial and socioeconomic commentary in this book, and the plot about familial and romantic love and healing wouldn't have lost anything it needed.
Speaking of the plot, I'll admit I thought this book would be a romance, given the publishing imprint. But it isn't. It's a contemporary family drama written from the perspectives of three main characters, not solely a romantic couple. While the novel's overall premise is interesting, the story develops awkwardly.
Different important events and turning points in the various characters' lives rush by in the background, including key stages of the romance. Because the author would "tell" a bit about a turning point after the fact rather than "show" the process to the reader as it happened, it felt like the story kept having to play catch-up after sudden changes in the characters.
On a more minor note, using exclamation points in a novel's narration comes off as a storyteller shouting at the reader. It can be funny in comedies, but otherwise in adult fiction, it tends to feel over the top when a narrator exclaims (!) parts of the story, as it felt to me in the case of this novel.
I got almost 3/4 of the way through this book before I decided not to finish it.
However, I did have a favorite part, when the heroine reflects on the way she once handled being jilted at the altar. Her untypical choice on that score made me smile.