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Since You’ve Been Gone by Tari Faris

Disclosure: Bear in mind that some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

About the Book

Title: Since You’ve Been Gone
Series: Restoring Heritage #3
Author: Tari Faris
Genre: Contemporary Christian Romance
Publisher: Revell
Release Date: September 7, 2021

With her vision and his know-how, this thing just might work . . .

Leah Williams is back in the quaint town of Heritage, Michigan, and ready to try again to make her business a success. But blank slates are hard to come by, and a piece of her past is waiting for her there. Heir to the Heritage Fruits company, Jonathan Kensington is the guy who not only made Leah’s past difficult, but he also seems determined to complicate her present as well.

In order to avoid forcing a buyout of Leah’s building, Jon will have to strike a compromise. Can the two of them work together? Or will their troubled past set the tone for their future?

Click HERE to grab your copy!

About the Author

Tari Faris has been writing fiction for more than thirteen years, and it has been an exciting journey for the math-loving dyslexic girl. She had read less than a handful of novels by the time she graduated from college, and she thought she would end up in the field of science or math. But God had other plans, and she wouldn’t trade this journey for anything. As someone told her once, God’s plans may not be easy and they may not always make sense, but they are never boring.

Tari has been married to her husband for eighteen wonderful years, and they have three sweet children. In her free time, she loves drinking coffee with friends, rock hounding with her husband and kids, and distracting herself from housework. Visit her at tarifaris.com to learn more about her upcoming books and to read what happened the day Leah and Jon were on the river.

My Review

Since You’ve Been Gone
by Tari Faris
Book 3 in the Restoring Heritage series
Rating: 4.5/5

One of the things I love about Tari Faris is she likes to give the reader two love stories in one book. The characters are great and it’s nice to catch up with characters from the other two books in the series. However, this book can be read by itself without confusion. I do still recommend reading the other two books though because they are also great.

Leah is back in her hometown and wants to revive her grandfather’s general store. However, she needs the cooperation of the Kensingtons without compromising her vision. When she discovers Jon is back and helping run the company, she doesn’t know how to handle it. For some reason, Jon has always had it out for her and she can’t explain why. Meanwhile, Jon has had a huge crush on Leah since high school but his words always seem to be misunderstood when he speaks to her. Can these two find a way to partner in business and maybe in love?

Madisen is back in her hometown but only briefly to renovate her childhood home to sell it. When Colby’s friend invites him to lay low in Heritage, he takes a chance and even offers to help Madisen with renovations. As a Christian musician who’s looking to avoid scandal, Colby finds Heritage more interesting after meeting Madisen. She has her own secrets and is afraid that her small town will judge her based on her actions during high school. Can Colby convince her to open up her heart to her town again and maybe even him?

The themes of redemption and learning to trust and forgive are prominent and really resonate with the reader. I love how naturally the author incorporates faith into the story. I always love returning to Heritage and am sad the series is over.

Highly recommend if you enjoy Christian contemporary romance with humor, heart and small towns.

My thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with an ARC of the book. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own. No positive review was expected and no compensation received.

Restoring Heritage Books & Novellas

Read my reviews for You Belong with Me, Until I Met You and While It Was Snowing.

Giveaway

Enter here: https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b464bfed64/

September 7, 2021 by Kim Book Reviews Giveaway

Hostile Intent by Lynette Eason

Disclosure: Bear in mind that some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

About the Book

Title: Hostile Intent
Series: Danger Never Sleeps #4
Author: Lynette Eason
Genre: Christian Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Revell
Release Date: August 3, 2021

Ava Jackson entered the military shortly after high school, but her mother’s illness has forced her to request an early discharge. She already lost her father while deployed, and there’s no way she’s going to let her mother die alone. But after a visit to the nursing facility where her mother lives, Ava is attacked walking back to her car. Fortunately, FBI Special Agent Caden Denning arrives in time to help fight off her attacker.

Caden reveals to Ava that she may hold the key to the murders of three families, and he needs her help before anyone else is harmed. The hits show a pattern, and clearly the killer has an agenda. But if Caden and Ava can’t discover what it is, Ava may be next on the hit list.

Bestselling author Lynette Eason concludes her latest suspense-filled series with a bang as secrets are revealed and the guilty are brought to justice.

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About the Author

Lynette Eason is the best selling, award winning author of almost forty books including the Women of Justice series, the Deadly Reunions series, the Hidden Identity Series and the Elite Guardians series. She writes for Revell and Harlequin’s Love Inspired Suspense line. Her books have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists. She has won several awards including the 2013, 2016 and 2017 Carol Award in the Romantic Suspense category. She’s also the recipient of the Christian Retailing’s Best 2017 Award. She placed in the top ten (out of thousands of entries) in the James Patterson 2016 co-writer contest. Her Stolen Past was recently made into a Lifetime Movie Network movie and will air February 2nd, 2018. Lynette teaches at writing conferences all over the country. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), Romance Writers of America (RWA), Mystery Writers of America (MWA), International Thriller Writers (ITW), and Faith, Hope, and Love chapter of RWA as well as the Kiss of Death (KOD) chapter. Lynette can be found online at www.lynetteeason.com and www.facebook.com/lynette.eason and @lynetteeasonon Twitter.

Connect with Lynette: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Bookbub

My Review

Hostile Intent
By Lynette Eason
Book 4 in the Danger Never Sleeps series
Rating: 4/5

Lynette Eason does it again! She has this uncanny ability to keep the reader’s attention and weave this intricate plot regarding secret pasts and the people involved. This book can be read as a stand-alone but would be more enjoyable if read in order.

Ava has a secret that she’s never shared with anyone, but when she discovers she’s on the radar of someone who is killing whole families in different states, FBI agent Caden is not willing to risk her safety. With the help of some friends (introduced in earlier books), Ava and Caden must race against time to uncover the truth and save each other. Can Ava handle working with her childhood crush? Can Caden ignore his budding feelings for the mysterious Ava? Will she ever be able to trust him?

As someone who has enjoyed the previous books in the series, I was not at all surprised that I continued to enjoy this book. It jumps right into the villain’s head and then switches perspective throughout the story. Faith is mentioned briefly in parts but is not preachy. The action and attention-to-detail is top notch and you can tell the author did her research.

Highly recommend if you enjoy Christian romantic suspense with lots of mystery and action.

My thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with an ARC of the book. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own. No positive review was expected and no compensation received.

August 26, 2021 by Kim Book Reviews

Book Review: The Nature of Small Birds by Susie Finkbeiner

Disclosure: Bear in mind that some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

About the Book

Title: The Nature of Small Birds
Author: Susie Finkbeiner
Genre: Women’s Christian Fiction
Publisher: Revell, 368 pages
Release Date: July 6, 2021

In 1975, three thousand children were airlifted out of Saigon to be adopted into Western homes. When Mindy, one of those children, announces her plans to return to Vietnam to find her birth mother, her loving adopted family is suddenly thrown back to the events surrounding her unconventional arrival in their lives.

Though her father supports Mindy’s desire to meet her family of origin, he struggles privately with an unsettling fear that he’ll lose the daughter he’s poured his heart into. Mindy’s mother undergoes the emotional rollercoaster inherent in the adoption of a child from a war-torn country, discovering the joy hidden amid the difficulties. And Mindy’s sister helps her sort through relics that whisper of the effect the trauma of war has had on their family–but also speak of the beauty of overcoming.

Told through three strong voices in three compelling timelines, The Nature of Small Birds is a hopeful story that explores the meaning of family far beyond genetic code.

Read an excerpt here.

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About the Author

Susie Finkbeiner is a story junkie. Always has been and always will be. It seems it’s a congenital condition, one she’s quite fond of.

After decades of reading everything she could get her hands on (except for See the Eel, a book assigned to her while in first grade, a book she declared was unfit for her book-snob eyes), Susie realized that she wanted to write stories of her own. She began with epics about horses and kittens (but never, ever eels).

It takes years to grow a writer and after decades of work, Susie realized (with much gnashing of teeth and tears) that she was a novelist. In order to learn how to write novels, she read eclectically and adventurously (she may never swim with sharks, but the lady will jump into nearly any story). After reading the work of Lisa Samson, Patti Hill, and Bonnie Grove she realized that there was room for a writer like her in Christian fiction.

Her first novels Paint Chips (2013) and My Mother’s Chamomile (2014) have contemporary settings. While she loved those stories and especially the characters, Susie felt the pull toward historical fiction.

When she read Into the Free by Julie Cantrell she knew she wanted to write historical stories with a side of spunk, grit, and vulnerability. Susie is also greatly inspired by the work of Jocelyn Green, Rachel McMillan, and Tracy Groot.

A Cup of Dust: A Novel of the Dust Bowl (2015), Finkbeiner’s bestselling historical set in 1930s Oklahoma, has been compared to the work of John Steinbeck and Harper Lee (which flatters Susie’s socks off). Pearl’s story continues with A Trail of Crumbs: A Novel of the Great Depression (2017) and A Song of Home: A Novel of the Swing Era (2018).

What does she have planned after that? More stories, of course. She’s a junkie. She couldn’t quit if she wanted to.

She serves on the Fiction Readers Summit planning committee, volunteers her time at Ada Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and speaks at retreats and women’s events across the country. Susie and her husband have three children and live in West Michigan.

My Review

The Nature of Small Birds
By Susie Finkbeiner
Rating: 3.5/5

“It’s the nature of small birds to sing their hearts out. And it’s the nature of God to hear them.”

As someone who is a third generation Chinese-American, I was super interested in the story when I read about it. I was unfamiliar with Operation Babylift and wanted to know more. However, as I continued to read the story, I found myself getting confused by the jumping around in perspectives and timelines. It was clearly labeled by chapter but it was harder for me to track. While I found parts of the story really interesting, there were a lot of other parts that did not keep my attention. I struggled with wanting to like the book but wanting to be honest about how the book lacked making an impact on me. The book has some great quotes but it did not connect with me as much as I was thinking it would. The story seems well written and thought out but I just didn’t enjoy it the way I thought I would.

“Sometimes the dreams of the young were replaced by those they never could have dared to imagine.
It didn’t mean that one dream was better than another. They were just different.”

This book is a story about family and what it means to bring a little child into your home who doesn’t share your culture and language and the journey to becoming one family. It’s a beautiful picture of adoption and the love that grows out of that choice. Does it have its flaws? Yes, but it still resonates with some heartfelt truths which make it worth reading.

Recommend if you enjoy books that alternate perspectives and timelines and tell a family’s story.

My thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with an ARC of the book. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own. No positive review was expected and no compensation received.