Until Leaves Fall in Paris by Sarah Sundin

 Lucie Girard, though American by birth, has studied as a ballet dancer in Paris since she was ten years old. When Nazi's descend on Paris, she makes the difficult decision to leave her position in the ballet and buy her Jewish friends' bookstore so they will have enough money to flee the country. She is initially charmed by a wealthy American industrialist who brings his daughter to the bookstore's weekly story time, especially when she finds out he is a widower. Then she discovers that his factory has agreed to make delivery trucks for the Germans. Lucie dislikes the invasion of the Germans so much she agrees to allow her bookstore to be a "mail drop" for the resistance movement.  After mourning his wife for two years, Paul Aubrey is surprised with the growing interest he feels in the petite American who owns the bookstore. She has made her feelings about his collaboration with the Germans abundantly clear, and he is unable to tell her that his cooperation with them is only a front to cover his own resistance activities. Can their mutual love for Paul's creative four-year-old daughter overcome the distrust they feel for each other?  As tensions between the French and the Germans rise, they can no longer deny that God has brought them together for a reason.

Here is a new Christian historical romance writer I decided to try out.  I am impressed, but I want to read one more book by her before I add her to my coveted "Clean Romance Writers" list. The story had good plotting and quite a bit of suspense near the end. The characters are charming and Sundin does a good job showing how the stress of working in secret for the resistance wears on them. The book wasn't based on any real story, and doesn't, I think, quite have the historical detail that other of the WWII novels I have read, but Sundin has a nice light touch with the religious elements. It is good enough that I am eager to try something else written by this author. (2022, 416 p)

Halloween Party Murder by Leighann Dobbs

 Juniper Holiday is know for throwing the best Halloween party around. As she and her goddaughter, Victoria, make the final preparations for the spook ally in the guest house, they check the casket they borrowed from the mortuary and discover it contains a real dead body.  Juniper resigns herself to calling the local inspector, Desmond Mallard, who is as handsome as a male model but as boring as dry toast. As he starts to investigate, Juniper, with the help of her ghost and werewolf friends, decides she wants to solve the mystery before Inspector Mallard does. Her motivations are twofold; bragging rights, and because she is one of Mallard's prime suspects. 

I picked this book while I was working on a long and tedious task and needed something new to listen to in a hurry.  I thought, how fun, a Halloween book. In the end, it was squarely in the B to B- range.  The dialog is awkward and there never is any explanation why, halfway through the book, we discover that Juniper speaks to ghosts and is friends with werewolves. It is labeled as the first in a series, but I wonder if there wasn't one before it that introduced these "little" details. The upside of the book is that it is really short.  It is self-published but somehow it is available in audio on Libby, so there is hope out there for you Amazon publishing writers.  It wasn't terrible and didn't have anything objectionable in it, so if you want a very fast, very shallow, Halloween themed book, go for it. (2022, 170 p) 

Legacy of Roses by Melanie Cellier

 Rosalie lives in a small village that is under a Legacy.  It was once the location of the story of Beauty and the Beast, and some power in the village wants to keep reenacting the story. When a minor royal moves into what was the Beast's castle, Rosalie, as the daughter of a merchant who had recently had a reversal of fortune, know that she is a prime candidate to play the female lead in the Legacy's reenactment. Her life is further complicated by an ex-boyfriend who suddenly shows us and sees a way to profit from the Legacy's attempts to get the prince, Dimitri, and Rosalie to fall in love. Rosalie doesn't want to get caught up in the story, and begs Dimitri to leave, but he has recently lost his other family members and has no where else to go.  Rosalie doesn't know what terrible thing will happen if she fights the power of the Legacy, but going along with is isn't a good option either, is it?

After I finished my last book I was at a total loss on what to read next. It occurred to me that I hadn't listened to a Melanie Cellier book for a while, so I searched to see what was available.  Cellier has an enviable challenge.  She writes fairytale retellings, but she has been so successful that she ran out of stories to retell.  This is a different approach to the genre, and it turned out well enough. This is the first in a series, but she just expects the reader to accept the concept of the Legacy. We don't know where it came from or why it wants to recreate stories. I wonder if she will explore that more in subsequent books in the series, or if we are just to accept it as an axiom, and read on from there. I am actually Ok with that. Not every author is as careful and tight with magic systems as Brandon Sanderson after all. :) It looks like the next one is a Cinderella retelling and the third is Sleeping Beauty.  I don't know if I will read either of them or not. (2024, 428 p.)

Great Courses: What Darwin Didn't Know by Professor Scott Solomon

Charles Darwin is famous as the father of the idea of genetic evolution, but there was a lot about evolution that Darwin didn't ever know.  In this 24 lecture series Dr. Solomon illuminates the discoveries made since Darwin's Origin of Species that have confirmed and expanded our understanding of how evolution really works in nature and in our lives. He starts by explaining the basic premises of evolution, and then explores how the field has expanded. He uses a lot of examples of how evolution has favored changes in plant, animal, and microorganisms. He ends the series by projecting how evolution will affect the future of both the biome and the human species. 

Dr. Solomon lectures at a level that I, as a college graduate, was able to follow without much problem.  He uses a lot of interesting examples from nature that are amazing and sometimes bizarre. That being said, it was a little more dry than some of the Great Courses lectures I have learned.  Or maybe, I am just not as interested in the hundreds of species of ants as a I am about, say, the history of Europe. I think the lectures would have been more engaging if I had been able to see the visuals.  Still, I made it though 12 hours of it without feeling tempted to stop. This would be a good series to listen to if you were about to take a college biology class and wanted a quick brush-up on your science facts. (12 hrs. 2020)

The Trouble with Heroes by Kate Messner

 Finn Connelly, dealing with grief over the death of his father, goes to a cemetery and kicks over a headstone.  He is caught, of course, and is given a choice.  His family can come up with the $2000 needed to repair the broken headstone, or he can commit to climbing all 46 high peaks in the Adirondack mountain range near his house in the course of one summer. He knows his family can't afford the $2000 so he agrees to the climbing challenge. He is not thrilled, at first, that he is required to take the pet dog of the diseased woman whose grave he vandalized with him on the hikes. Nor is he happy that he will have "hiking nannies" to go along with him on each hike.  During the summer, the time with caring adults, experiences in nature and time to process his father's death, heal him more than he could have imagined. 

This is a book I chose on a whim. I remembered that it got a lot of attention when it was published a few years ago at the end of the Covid Pandemic. I didn't realize when I started it that it deals with the long term PTSD that first responders to the 9-11 attacks had to deal with.  It ended up being a good way to reflect on that event just after its 25 anniversary. Messner is an amazing author. She has a really good pre-teen male voice, and Finn is sympathetic without ever being sappy. She also does a great job describing nature and the specific hikes mentioned in the book, Messner herself being a "46 Peaker." If you want a heart warming story of a boy dealing with loss, you can't go wrong here. (2023, 368 p.) 

Stealing the Preacher by Karen Witemeyer

Crocket Archer took over the care of his brother's spiritual welfare when the group of teenage boys were left as orphans. Now an adult, he is eager to audition to lead his own parish in Piney Woods Texas. On the way to his interview, his train is held up by bandits.  They aren't after valuables.  Instead they are there to steal the him.  They take him to the ex-train robber's home and present him as a present to his daughter, Joanna.  She is mortified by her father's actions, but shares with Crocket her dreams of finding a preacher for their towns long empty church. Circumstances conspire that convince Crocket that this is the destination God intended for him, and that he has a role to play in Joanna's life. Life's pathways are never smooth, and Joanna and Crocket have many bumps in the road to overcome before they reach their divinely appointed happy ending. 

Here is another Texas Christian romance by Karen Witemeyer about the Archer boys we were introduce to in the Short Straw Bride.  It is the book that I skipped when I read Full Steam Ahead, but even after reading this one I see no connection to that one. Because the love interest is a preacher, this story tends to be even more preachy than her other books but really, I don't mind. I enjoyed the side story of Joanna's father's path to reconciliation with God after a young adulthood of crime. Of course, Crocket and Joanna are endearing as well. Still, this is my third Christian historical romance in a row, and I am ready for something else. (2013, 515 p.)

The Best-Laid Plans by Sarah Eden

 Newton Hughes is getting pressured by his parents to find a suitable match and settle down as a gentleman of leisure. Ellie is getting pressure from her parents to make a match with Charlie Jonquil, since her older sister was unable to ensnare him the previous season. Neither Ellie nor Newton want to do what their parents have planned for them so they, with the help of Artemis Lancaster, plan to thwart their parent's plans by pretending to form an interest in each other. As they spend time in each other's company, they discover that they actually like each other.  Newton likes Ellie's intelligent (though reserved) wit, and Ellie likes Newtons' quiet loyalty. As their pretend romance becomes real, it attracts the attention and ire of their families, one member of which goes to great lengths to squash their growing attachment.

This is a cute short novel in the world of the Lancaster and Jonquil families. It follows the romance of secondary characters to the main novels, but gives the readers a healthy dose of characters they love from the original series.  I especially liked watching Artemis and Charlie interact, knowing what was going to befall them in Charming Artemis. I recently watched the Netflix series based on Seeking Persephone and love love loved it! I was happy to dive back into Ms Eden's delightful dynasties once again. (134 p. 2021)