Mary, Chosen of God by Diana Wallis Taylor

About the Book

★★★★★ 
Goodreads | Amazon

"Blessed are you, Mary, chosen of God." 

Mary is ordinary girl from Nazareth. She helps her mother with household chores, she daydreams about a handsome carpenter's son named Joseph, and at night she lies on the roof and contemplates at the stars. But one evening, a heavenly visitor comes with unexpected news—and her life is changed forever. 

Experience the life of the Messiah from the perspective of his mother, who must place her trust and obedience in Adonai, the Most High, as he fulfills centuries of anticipation in the middle of her daily life. Walk with Mary as she witnesses Yeshua grow, mature, minister, and even crucified—and then raised again, to the kindling of her new faith.

Waiting on Wednesday: Can't Help Falling & Shadow of the Storm

Hosted weekly by Breaking the Spine 
to spotlight eagerly-anticipated upcoming releases.

Love Everlasting by Julie Lessman

About the Book

★★★★★
Goodreads | Amazon

He sets hearts on fire.
She’s been burned by love.

Can hope survive the flames of the past?

School teacher by day, ghostwriter by night, sweet and shy Shannon O’Bryen doesn’t mind writing romance on the sly, but to live it? No, thank you, not since the man she loved turned out to be a player who broke both her heart and her spirit. Now focused more on her faith and her fiction, she vows the next time she falls in love, it will be safely—through the pages of a book.

Dr. Sam Cunningham is a charismatic player who breaks hearts as regularly as he washes his pearl-white Corvette. Abandoned as a young child, Sam was an orphan shuffled through the foster-care system, bitterly driven to prove he is worthy of love—the kind that lasts forever. Once he learns Shannon is a romance writer, he enlists her help in winning back his ex-girlfriend. She teaches him about faith and the true definition of love, and he soon discovers he’s been seeking it in the wrong place all along—and with the wrong girl. But can he convince a woman who's been burned by love to open her eyes—and her heart—to a love everlasting?​​

The Tea Planter's Wife by Dinah Jefferies

★★★★✩
Goodreads | Amazon

Nineteen-year-old Gwendolyn Hooper is newly married to a rich and charming widower, eager to join him on his tea plantation, determined to be the perfect wife and mother. But life in Ceylon is not what Gwen expected. The plantation workers are resentful, the neighbors treacherous. And there are clues to the past - a dusty trunk of dresses, an overgrown gravestone in the grounds - that her husband refuses to discuss. Just as Gwen finds her feet, disaster strikes. She faces a terrible choice, hiding the truth from almost everyone, but a secret this big can't stay buried forever...

The Friday 56: The Oregon Trail

Hosted weekly by Freda's Voice.

Happy Friday!

It's been an adventurous week on the Oregon Trail for me: I started with Jane Kirkpatrick's This Road We Traveled, and today, I'm finishing Rinker Buck's The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey.