Queen of the Waves by Janice Thompson is historical romance from Summerside Press. Set in 1912, starting a month before the voyage of the Titanic, Queen of the Waves focuses on the lives of two women, Tessa Bowen, daughter of a pig farmer, and Jacquie Abingdon, daughter of an English businessman.

The gist of the story is that Jacquie's father was promised her to be married to a boring American business man for financial reasons, but Jacquie is in love with the gardner, Peter, who happens to be Tessa's brother.  Jacquie's mom doesn't want to her to meet the same fate of a loveless marriage that she has endured so she concocts a plan to send Jacquie to her grandmother in New York, via the Titanic in one month's time.  Not wanting to leave Peter she asks him to run away with her.  Instead, he suggests they send his sister in Jacquie's place.

Jacquie's a wee bit foolish and oblivious, never wondering how sending another girl in her place helps her plans to run away with Peter. And Peter really isn't about running away so much as he is about getting his sister out of her horrible situation on the pig farm.

But none of that matters once Tessa is on board the Titanic and meets Nathan Patterson, an American on his own way home to begin his new life with his father's insurance firm.

Janice Thompson does a great job with the descriptions of the Titanic and the first class people aboard. She sets a great stage of mixed nationalities and purposes and appearances for four fabulous days of sailing. If a person didn't know the ending, she would enjoy the ride.

Love Finds You in Wildrose, North Dakota by Tracey Bateman is an historical romance set in 1895. Tracey Bateman is a fine writer and her stories are always fun. But I listened to this story on my Kindle during a seven hour drive away from my home and two days later, back again … and though the Kindle is quite clear in a quiet house, I couldn't get it loud enough to ear with road noise. So picture me with the Kindle tucked under the seatbelt and my chin, listening as I drive down the road.

Also remember the Kindle doesn't read like an audio book, so I needed to listen closely to overcome the voice not stopping at periods feature. Imagine hearing this without pause: "whether he knew it or not Finn needed her too chapter seven Rosemary awoke to cold, wet droplets falling on her face."

Okay, all that was just to share a new experience.  Back to the book review.

Rosemary Jackson travels to North Dakota to stay with her twin sister and her sister's husband, after Rosemary's father has died and her Kansas homestead has been sold. Winter weather keeps her with neighbors where she finds out her sister is expecting a baby. Unfortunately, when Rosemary arrives at her sister's soddy no one is there and she finds a grave. Her sister has died.

The baby has lived, but isn't thriving, and Finn, Rosemary's brother-in-law, is barely functioning. The obvious thing to do would be to marry Rosemary so that she can care for the child while he gets back to farming, but Finn loved Rachel and is still grieving too deeply to consider the proposal.

I liked Rosemary's take-charge personality, how she wasn't bullied by tradition, men's chauvanisms, or an outright cattle ranching bully who wanted to scarf up all the settlers' claims. I liked how Finn had to work through his grief and how the tables turned on him and he become the one who wanted to marry. I liked the plot twist around the sheriff. I liked the historical facts fed through the story.

I wouldn't say this was an unforgettable Bateman book, but it was a straightforward, enjoyable Christian romance. If you like the Love Find You books, you will definitely like this one.

The Merchant's Daughter is Young Adult fiction from Zondervan. Playing on the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Melanie Dickerson sets her story in 1352 England. The Merchant's Daughter explores the feudal system in medieval times.

Annabel was once the daughter of a rich merchant who loved her and educated her and paid her tax so she didn't have work in her lord's fields. Now, Annabel is a half-orphan with a mom who is in denial, a brother who is feeble, and a brother who is too proud to work. Their tax hasn't been paid for three years, and one of the kids has to be a servant to the new lord to pay off the tax.

Ranulf le Wyse, disfigured from an encounter with a wolf (no, he's not a werewolf, nor does he have any of those characteristics!), and disgruntled by his wife's response to his disfigurement, decides to build a new life in Glynval. Alone after the plague has taken the rest of his family, Ranulf is a bit of a grumpy, old man at age 25.

I like the sweet love story in this book.  I like Annabel's innocence and desire to read God's Word and become a nun.  I like how Ranulf's heroic nature comes out again and again even while he tries to be distant and grumpy. I like that the bad guy is bad, but bad in a normal, not a creepy, give me nightmares, way. And I like that the secondary characters all have good and not so beautiful qualities about them.

This is my second Dickerson YA and I enjoy her style and stories. I look forward to reading Fairest Beauty for book club in a couple months. If you like the chivalry of the medieval era, the pleasure of young love, and a plot that you can simply enjoy without fear, you should try Melanie Dickerson fiction.

Passage to November is historical romance from the Wild Rose Press set on the Great Lakes in 1913. It was a fun setting and time period that I don't remember reading before.

Clara Grace is a young woman on her own, just wanting a break in the music industry. She thinks she has a job with the orchestra on the Eastland but that opportunity is lost and replaced with cook on a cargo ship, Longhope.

Captain William McTavish is a crusty Scottish bachelor with a ship full of … well … sailors. The men are rough and not excited to have a woman along for the summer.

The story has some intrique as well as sailors that won't come around to seeing Clara's good qualities and worth to the crew, which leads to trouble by November.

But in the mean time, the romance that develops between McTavish and Clara is presented in such a way that I believe it. These two characters will make it through December if you remember the old Merl Haggard song and live well together. The short time in the story where they actually embrace their feelings are flirtatious and charming.

As a caveat for Christian readers, the sailors speak like sailors.  And though the Christian flavor is light and mingled with some fun superstition, it is definitely a book written from a Christian world view with characters who understand who holds their future.

I liked this book, these characters, the setting, the violin and Clara's creativity in composing a symphony, the ship and crew and ports, even the backstory, and how it all tied together. Passage to November by Phyllis DeMarco is a well-put together book and an enjoyable read.

Fiction. Christian. Romance. With a side of chick lit for snarky attitude of the heroine. Except she wasn't too snarky. I liked her. And she certainly wasn't my favorite "too good to be true" type heroine. Maddie Buckner has a past filled with not-so-good choices.

But she made a great one just months before the book begins — let Jesus be Lord of her life.

The gist of this romance is that our hero, Reuben, causes Maddie to get fired on the first day of her "new life" in Sandwich. She insists he make it right. He does so by hiring her himself — which eventually leads to a suitable job as his assistant.  Reuben is in need of organizational help at his restaurant, so it's win-win.

Except that Reuben has a steady girlfriend.

And Maddie and Reuben kind of fall in love even while trying not to.

Sandwich with a Side of Romance is cute and funny and walks deeper with Jesus as the story progresses. The theme of being willing to accept help as well as give it is seen in the lives of both the main characters, and through the secondary characters of Reuben's girlfriend and Maddie's brother. Plus, I love it when a book ties aspects together — like Reuben's name, his profession as a restauranteur, and the town's name of Sandwich.

Maddie's personality is delightful. Though she's had a tough life, she's not one to cry, "Woe is me!" and expect help.  I think her great work ethic is part of what makes her so likeable. She's a bit brazen in the beginning, but don't let that put you off. She's just desperate, and her attitude gentles as she sees more opportunities open for her.

The romance is subtle as the circumstances call for that. The secondary characters play their roles well — those who are good are loving and those who are bad are quite ornery.  An all round sweet romance that lingers after the read.

Race Against Time, Love Inspired Suspense, is a category romance about widowed mom, Madison Jacobs, and next-door-neighbor and police detective Brody Philips.  The suspense part is a serial killer who makes his victims look like suicides.

The book opens with a dramatic scene where this masked serial killer attacks Madison, but she is saved by Brody who is off his usual routine and jogging home when she screams. After she recovers, she explains that she wasn't trying to hang herself, but that someone had drugged her and forced her to write a suicide note.

As the search for the killer continues, Brody and Madison fight their attraction to each other for various reasons. Brody's main reason is that he doesn't think he is worthy since he had been a bit of a player in his younger years and a woman had killed herself  when he'd broken off their relationship. Madison's main reason for resisting Brody is that she'd had a great marriage, doesn't believe it can be dublicated, and doesn't want to settle for less.

The plot moves along with various suspense elements when the killer comes back to use Madison to taunt and leave messages for Brody.  Madison is a brave woman, because I promise you that the second time a psychotic murderer got a hold of me, I would have grabbed my son and been on the first plane to my parents in Florida. But she held out and worked with Brody to find the bad guy.

Often Love Inspired romances have a lot of repetitive elements, but that wasn't the case here — just a few repeated internal angst thoughts. The plot moved forward, the romance developed slowly and believably. My biggest grumble:  the climax.  All I'm going to say is what cop doesn't take a gun to a syringe fight?

I enjoy Christy Barritt's mysteries and this suspense was no different. I'm not positive I understood the serial killer's original motives very well when the story was all said and done, but on a life scale that's probably a good thing.

If you like Love Inspired Suspense, you'll definitely like Race Against Time.

Freeheads, book 3 in the Dark Trench Saga, by Kerry Nietz, the cool conclusion to the wonderful story started in A Star Curiously Singing.

Hmm.  What to say?  Kerry Nietz created a terrifying world of future slavery on earth, that unfortunately seems plausible by man's current bent toward comfort. The plot is not simply summed, but I'll give some highlights to tweak your interest.  In book 2, Sandfly and Hardcandy, two escaped debuggers, have traveled to the Star that sang in book 1, met the Superlative Stream, and as book 3 begins are re-approaching earth. They plan to share the good news of the truth of A-A cubed with all peoples. But the evil Jinn of book 2 have sabotaged their space ship, Dark Trench, and they arrive back nearly forty years later, rather than the two weeks they have been gone. And the earth is much changed. There is a side trip to the moon, and the plot continues to build from there.

I love the spiritual depth in these books.  I love how so much of the details of story must be delved for.  What you as the reader bring to the table is definitely a plus in this series. Not bringing a lot of science fiction knowledge with me, I was never sure what was creative Nietz and what he was building on from other scifi worlds, but the tech was even interesting to this non-tech thinker. Of course the romance writer in me enjoyed watching Sandfly and Hardcandy's relationship develop, the unexpected, and never named, jealousy, and the unity of their working together.

The new kid, Flit, was interesting and an added dimension. Even GrimJack has so many layers, the reader is kept in wonder of all his motives.

And the bad guys.  A story needs an evil bad guy to see the grace and power of God come shining through, and Kerry doesn't let us down in this aspect either. I dare not offer more details, but I can't imagine why you wouldn't love the ending.

The spiritual themes summed up so succinctly:  He stoops. Touch the stream. Be a one.

Be a one, not a zero. That's for the computer geeks. Be turned on so that the energy flows through you. Who am I kidding?  That's for all of us. Who, on some level, wouldn't understand be a one, not a zero? Say "yes" to Christ. That is actually one of my favorite spiritual themes.  Say "yes" to Christ.  Be turned on for Christ. Don't fight His plan for you because God has the best life for you all planned out. Join Him in the journey. Allow the Holy Spirit to set the pace and the heading. And above all remember that we have a God who loves us to death … and beyond. He stoops for us.

The Dark Trench Saga from Marcher Lord Press by Kerry Nietz. I recommend them all. Especially if you like speculative fiction packed full of Truth.

Addison Blakely: Confessions of a PK is a slice of the life of a teenager's junior year in high school. First, Addison is a good girl, yes a preacher's kid, and the only daughter of said widowed pastor.  It's not one of those situations where she has to be the parent to her bumbling father, so much as she has raised herself emotionally, while her father has shepherded his flock and protected her physically.

Addison's overwhelming concern is a boy she's adamantly refusing to be concerned about.  Bad boy, older than her, high school drop out, no ambition, Wes.  (Does anyone else think Dread Pirate Roberts when that name comes up?) Wes works hard for his stereotype — motorcycle, leather jacket, skanky (Addison's word) girlfriend, and no job.  No interest in getting a job. And though Addison has lived her entire life knowing what she should and shouldn't do, she can't seem to shake this guy's hold on her even when she knows she should.

Toss in a few great secondary characters — messed up best friend turned enemy, Claire, and new best friend, foreign exchange student, Marta, and we have the girlfriends in a pickle.  Toss in two more love interests for Addison — football jock and bonehead, Austin, and nice, but no spark, Luke, and the plot thinkens. Then, if Addison needs some more trouble, lets add her dad finding his old high school sweetheart in Addison's very own English teacher.

All great.  Adds up to a fun young adult novel.  Even has plently of God moments woven into the plot and characters in real, coming of age ways.  So what's my issue? The conversion scene.  This is "Seek Truth. Read fiction" blog reviews.  I can't speak for Betsy St. Amant's conversion experience. I can only speak from what the Word says about becoming a new creation in Christ, but Scripture shows it's more involved than, "Okay, God. Let's try this again. For real this time. PK status not withstanding — I'm Yours."

Which I think is an awesome prayer.  Which I think would have marvelous ramifications in the spiritual realms.  Which I can completely believe our loving Father would respond to. It shows Addison yielding. But where's the repentance? Where's the baptism? Where's the Holy Spirit?  In fact, I just thought it was a Christian moment of recommitment … until later in the book.

That's my only gripe, and I am well aware that this won't be a gripe for the majority of readers. So having shared my two cents, I now thoroughly recommend Confessions of a PK for young adults and all adults who want another look into the psyche of our teenagers.