Better late than never right? Here were just a few of the over 150 books I read and loved last year! All of them are Philippians 4:8 Approved! Don’t know what that means? Head over to the blog post I wrote titled The Philippians 4:8 Challenge to dive in deeper!
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The Secret of Pembrooke Park
This book was fascinating. A family moves to a new home with a mystery. Everything inside remained exactly as the previous family had left in twenty years earlier. Tea and biscuits still sat half consumed, a girl’s dollhouse lay collecting dust with the dolls left at mid-play. What happened to the family? Why was everything left in such a rush? This and far more mysteries are uncovered in this book.
I loved it because it explored messages of faith along with mystery. The characters sought to uncover the truth of what had happened. The dash of romance is clean and adds to the the overall story rather than detracting from it. This is a great read I would recommend to anyone who likes history, mystery and adventure!
2. The Lady and the Highwaymen
By: Sarah M. Eden
From Goodreads:
“Elizabeth Black is the headmistress of a girls’ school and a well-respected author of “silver-fork” novels, stories written both for and about the upper-class ladies of Victorian society. But by night, she writes very different kinds of stories—the Penny Dreadfuls that are all the rage among the working-class men. Under the pseudonym Mr. King, Elizabeth has written about dashing heroes fighting supernatural threats and dangerous outlaws romancing helpless women. They contain all the adventure and mystery that her real life lacks.
Fletcher Walker began life as a street urchin, but is now the most successful author in the Penny Dreadful market, that is until Mr. King started taking all of his readers–and his profits. No one knows who King is, including Fletcher’s fellow members of the Dread Penny Society, a fraternity of authors dedicated to secretly fighting for the rights of the less-fortunate.
Determined to find the elusive Mr. King, Fletcher approaches Miss Black. As a fellow-author, she is well-known among the high-class writers; perhaps she could be persuaded to make some inquiries as to Mr. King’s whereabouts? Elizabeth agrees to help Fletcher, if only to insure her secret identity is never discovered. ”
3. She Walks in Beauty
By: Siri Mitchell
This book about a young debutante living near the turn of the century focused on the lengths women will go to make themselves appear more beautiful, when their Creator sees no flaw in their appearance. Clara Carter is told by her aunt that her mouth is too large so she must cover it with her hand or her fan when speaking to anyone. She is told that her hands are too large so she must wear gloves two sizes too small in an effort to shrink them! She has to wear her corset to bed to try to fix the “mistakes” that God made.
Throughout Clara’s journey of self discovery she also discovers who God made her to be with the help of friends she makes along the way. She learns to see her worth through His eyes and not through the eyes of those who wish to change her appearance to meet their own beauty standards.
4. His Bluestocking Bride
By: Sally Britton
Ellen likes books and she is proud of it. This book is more of a romance novel than the others as the love story is more of the focus of the plot. If you like that genre this is a good choice for you as it is clean and focuses on the lovely and the pure in a love story.
If you want a nice, easy read then this is the book for you!
5. Midnight on the River Grey
By: Abigail Wilson
Another intriguing historical suspense novel. I have read this one a few times since the beginning of 2019 last year – it is that good! It is filled with twists and turns as all suspense novels should be but removes the elements that keep you up at night fearing the shadows in your perfectly safe room.
From Goodreads:
“After her brother’s mysterious death, Rebecca Hunter vows to expose the man she believes responsible: Mr. Lewis Browning—known by the locals as the Midnight Devil and by Rebecca as her new guardian.
Summoned to his reclusive country estate to await her London season, Rebecca plans her own secret investigation among the darkened corridors of the mysterious Greybourne Hall. Yet Lewis Browning is not as she once imagined, and his motivation is horribly unclear. Recurrent nightmares and Rebecca’s restless feelings are further complicated by the shadow of her mother’s prior descent into madness and wondering if she, too, will follow the same heartbreaking path.”
6. Wonderland Creek
By: Lynn Austin
From Goodreads:
“Alice Grace Ripley lives in a dream world, her nose stuck in a book. But the happily-ever-after life she’s planned on suddenly falls apart when her boyfriend breaks up with her, accusing her of living in a world of fiction instead of the real one. To top it off, Alice loses her beloved library job because of cutbacks due to the Great Depression.
Longing to run from small-town gossip, Alice flees to the mountains of eastern Kentucky to deliver five boxes of donated books to the tiny coal-mining town of Acorn, a place with no running water, no electricity, and where the librarians ride ornery horses up steep mountain passes to deliver books. ”
A lovely story that mixes history, adventure and a dash of romance from the most unexpected of places. Lynn Austin crafts realistic, amusing characters that capture the readers attention and affection from the very first page. If you’re a fan of Catherine Marshall’s Christy, you will love this novel!
7. Ring of Secrets
By: Roseanna M. White
From Goodreads:
“Winter Reeves is an aristocratic Patriot forced to hide her heart amid the Loyalists of the City of New York. She has learned to keep her ears open so she can pass information on British movements to Robbie Townsend, her childhood friend, and his spy ring. If she’s caught, if she’s hung for espionage…well, she won’t be. Robbie has taught her the tools of the trade: the wonders of invisible ink, drop locations and, most importantly, a good cover.
Bennet Lane returns to New York from his Yale professorship with one goal: to find General Washington’s spy hidden among the ranks of the elite. Searching for a wife was supposed to be nothing more than a convenient cover story for his mission, but when he meets Winter, with her too-intelligent eyes in her too-blank face, he finds a mystery that can’t be ignored.”
This book is an amusing tale of the harrowing ordeals of Revolution era spies who collected intelligence on their own families and friends to pass to Washington’s army. I loved the dialogue that ensued as Winter had to purposefully hide her own intelligence so that no one would ever expect her to be capable of spying on them. Her willful misunderstandings and Bennet’s determination to see behind her apparent airheadedness were a treat to read.
Let me know if you have read any of these books or decide to pick one of them up! I would love to hear your thoughts!
Emily Baer 