Customer Comments

I'll admit I am a great fan of Agatha Christie. I love cozy mysteries and the historical ones set in the 1920's to '50's are favorites of mine. Ms. Deering has done a fantastic job of writing a Christie-esque style murder mystery. In fact, there were times I became so intwined in the story and writing that I thought I WAS reading a Christie, and then a character would bring out some Biblical or Christian point, and I was reminded I was reading modern Christian fiction. Very well done. (By the way, the Christianity is not overdone, quite subtle overtones.) I enjoyed the first novel of this new mystery series. Drew Farthering in the main sleuth intent on solving the double murder especially as it happened on his own estate and one of the victims was his own mother. The story included a great cast of characters who fit perfectly in this 1930's world. Nick is his right hand man and friend while Madeline is his love interest but also at his side trying to solve the crime as well. Drew and Madeline reminded me a lot of Tommy and Tuppence in their first book together (Agatha Christie characters). I look forward to seeing all these characters in the following books and how the relationship between Drew and Madeline develops. Overall I found it to be a riveting novel, well-researched, with a mystery and writing voice perfectly suited for the time period. 5 stars.

Dauntless by Dina Sleiman is a delightful Christian fiction novel filled with adventure, love and redemption. Ms. Sleiman is a new author for me, but I am excited to read and review the other books in this series. I picked up the first book in this series because I love Robin Hood and this looked like a version of that iconic story. I was pleasantly surprised that this book was so much more than what I expected. The writing is fantastic, characters memorable and the historical details will pull you into this story and hold you captive to the very end. It is a novel of faith and the characters accomplish this without the story becoming preachy. However, there is one scene which seemed a bit too supernatural for me toward the end when a small child is miraculously healed. Other than that, I absolutely loved this book! You definitely will want to read this one before the others in the series as the characters introduced in this book will show up as the central characters in other books in the series.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Your Wedding by Cindy K. Green is one of those stories that you read, but never forget. I know it will come back to me at odd moments, when I least expect it to.