Monthly Bookshelf Review - June 2019

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June has been a busy whirlwind of a month, which I hadn't quite expected. We had days jam packed with appointments and meetings and outings of all kinds, and we finished off the month with a bit of travel. But I did some reading along the way - just not as much as I thought I would. The To Be Read stack is large! I also thought this would be posted on Friday, but something didn't go as planned so I'm a bit late.

June's Books Completed and Reviewed

The Express Bride by Kimberley Woodhouse - Jackie Rivers is managing a Pony Express station when Elijah Johnson shows up looking for clues to the whereabouts of his employer's long lost daughter, and it raises questions about her own past. (Read my full review HERE)



The Pink Bonnet: True Colors: Historical Stories of American Crime by Liz Tolsma - With the help of a sympathetic lawyer, widow Cecile Dowd is trying to find her three-year-old daughter who has fallen into the clutches of a corrupt adoption agent. (Read my full review HERE)

A Dangerous Collaboration (A Veronica Speedwell Mystery) by Deanna Raybourn - Veronica and Stoker look for answers regarding the mysterious disappearance of a bride on her wedding day, and foul play is definitely suspected! (Read my full review HERE)

The Noble Guardian (The Bow Street Runners Trilogy) by Michelle Griep - After saving her from a highwayman attack, horse patrol captain Samuel Thatcher winds up escorting Abigail Gilbert across the moors to her fiance's home.  (Read my full review HERE)

During June I started reading:

 An Artless Demise (A Lady Darby Mystery) by Anna Lee Huber - Lady Kiera and her new husband Sebastian Gage find themselves in difficult situations when body snatchers strike in London and Kiera's past is raked up.

The Red Door Inn (Prince Edward Island Dreams Book 1): A Novel by Liz Johnson - Marie Carrington and Seth Sloane are both trying to escape their painful memories and wind up on Prince Edward Island helping Jack get a bed and breakfast up and running.




A Caribbean Mystery: A Miss Marple Mystery by Agatha Christie - Miss Marple is vacationing in the Caribbean and is intrigued by an old soldier's story of a man that seemed to have gotten away with murder.

Coming Up in July!

The Heart Changer by Jarm Del Boccio
Unshakeable: A Story of Unwavering Faith and Conviction by Elizabeth Wiens
The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country by Helen Russell
A Study In Scarlet Women (The Lady Sherlock Series) by Sherry Thomas

    

  

This post will be linked at:

Feed Your Fiction Addiction - June 2019 Wrap-Up Round-Up & Giveaway

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Share Four Somethings - June 2019

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I feel a bit rushed thanks to a busy week and way too many deadlines happening all at once! Hopefully it won't take me too long to share Something Loved, Something Said, Something Learned, and Something Read during this month, and I'm sure it will be a bright spot in my evening!

Something Loved

As always, so much to love and be thankful for! But one achievement that stands out is my daughter earning her driver's license. She looks like it's no big deal in this photo, but really it's just that she's a little annoyed that she had to wait for her actual card to arrive in the mail.

As we neared the end of the month, the hubster and I were able to take a short vacation to southern Ontario to visit friends and family. We had enough time to spend an afternoon and evening at Port Dover. And no trip to Port Dover is complete without having a meal of Lake Erie perch, and it was especially delicious this time!

Something Said

Fitting in, it turns out, is changing who you are to be accepted. But belonging is being accepted for who you are. ~Sabbath Society

Conversation, random encounters with strangers, the majesty of nature, once had more opportunity to draw us into self-confrontation. Today, their power is reduced by a screen so pervasive and compelling we feel bereft without it. The degree to which we remain hooked to the constant flow of diversion is the degree to which we avoid knowing ourselves. . . Only by having the courage to focus can we grow. Otherwise, we are forever wandering in circles, our eyes glued to a vision of life that glows but, in the end, leads nowhere. ~Dean Abbot, in the article "Self-Denial in an Age of Distraction" at The Imaginative Conservative

Something Learned

One of the things I'm very busy with is trying to get lesson plans plugged in for the two classes I'll be teaching at our homeschool co-op starting in September. I want to get them done and printed out so I don't feel compelled to renew my subscription to my online planner. Anyway, as a result I've already started learning background on the novels and authors we'll be studying in the Literature class.

This week I'm also getting a little preview experience of what our empty nest might be like. Our daughter is working at camp this week, and our boys went to Creation, so the hubster and I have the house to ourselves. It's not a bad thing, but at the same time I'm so glad that the kids aren't moving out just yet!

Something Read

I completed four books in June, and I've got quite a stack I'm working on now. You can see more about my reading in my Monthly Bookshelf Review for June 2019. (Will be posted on June 28th)

The Express Bride by Kimberley Woodhouse
The Pink Bonnet: True Colors: Historical Stories of American Crime by Liz Tolsma
A Dangerous Collaboration (A Veronica Speedwell Mystery) by Deanna Raybourn
The Noble Guardian (The Bow Street Runners Trilogy) by Michelle Griep

This post is linked at Share Four Somethings hosted by HeatherGerwing.com

©2008-2019 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Recent Reads - The Express Bride

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The Express Bride by Kimberley Woodhouse -  After her father's death, Jacqueline "Jack" Rivers took over management of his Pony Express station, thriving in her work but worried that the company would not allow her to continue in the position once they realize she's a woman. She is still grieving her dad when Elijah Johnson arrives looking for information about someone that may have passed through the area twenty-some years ago. Jackie and Elijah quickly strike up a friendship and Elijah decides to stay at the station for awhile, awaiting further instructions from his employer. Another guest at the same time is a government official who approaches both Jackie and Elijah about helping him gather information about counterfeiters operating in the Utah territory.

Elijah has been commissioned by his employer, Mr Vines, to follow the trail of the wife and daughter that left more than twenty years ago. Anna Vines had escaped her husband's abuse with her infant, and had covered her tracks very well, but Vines is a changed man and his failing health has motivated him to make one more attempt to reconnect with his daughter. Elijah doesn't have much information to go on - Anna had headed west, had traveled under different names, and had passed away when the daughter was about three - but some cryptic entries in the guestbook at Jackie's station seem to match up so he sticks around to find out more. As he puts the pieces together, he begins to suspect that Jackie may actually be the long-lost daughter and heir of his employer. And if she is, how will she take that news? Will she believe that Elijah is genuine in his growing affection for her, or will she think he is trying to get access to the fortune she could inherit?

The novel opens with the prologue of Anna Vines and her desperate bid to escape her drunken and abusive husband, and keep her infant daughter safe. So the reader has some inside information that Jackie is almost certainly the long-lost daughter of Charles Vines. Jackie and Elijah are both engaging sympathetic characters, and an older and wiser Mr Vines is as well. The historical detail and background of how the Pony Express station operates creates an intriguing backdrop for the whole story, and I quickly found myself hoping that Jackie and Elijah would discover the truth about her identity and looking forward to a joyful reunion with Jackie's biological father.

The subplot about the counterfeiting operation seemed disconnected from the main story right from the start, and I felt like it was there only as a device to add an element of danger. It also added some suspense when Elijah was gravely injured in a stagecoach attack and because he was unconscious for quite some time, he and Jackie were unable to exchange any information. But in my opinion, the storyline about the counterfeiting operation was an unrelated aside and purely coincidental.

From the publisher:

The Wilderness Is a Great Place to Hide

Jacqueline Rivers manages a Pony Express station in 1860 Utah territory after her father's death. There are daily stresses placed on her in this unconventional role - and now a government official is asking her to sniff out counterfeiters. When Elijah Johnson passes through on the stage while on an exhausting quest to find his boss's heir, he doesn't want to leave the beguiling station manager. In fact, he may never leave when caught in the crossfire of the territory's criminal activities. Jackie can't decide if Elijah is friend or foe. Can she remain strong when secrets of the past and present are finally unearthed?

Other books in this series: The Mayflower Bride, The Pirate Bride, The Captured Bride, The Patriot Bride, The Cumberland Bride, The Liberty Bride, The Alamo Bride, The Golden Bride

Book Seven in the Daughters of the Mayflower series.

By the same author: The Mayflower Bride, The Patriot Bride, The Golden Bride

I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley for the purpose of this review.

©2008-2019 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Wordless Wednesday - Port Dover

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Whenever we have the time on a visit to family in southern Ontario, we like to go down to Port Dover. It's a sort of lakeside resort town on Lake Erie. On a trip last week, we did have time to spend a bit of time walking around the beach and pier, and to enjoy a delicious dinner of Lake Erie perch.

See all the pictures and a few more words on my Homeschool Coffee Break post: A Short Vacation PhotoJournal

This post is linked at Wordless Wednesday, hosted by Life on Chickadee Lane.

©2008-2019 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.