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This is an old book but oh so much fun to read. Fancy Pants by Cathy Marie Hake is a delightful and funny read about a woman who refuses to marry a man who can’t remember her first name! It’s Lady Syndey Hathwell by the way. So how does she escape this problem? Let’s just say there are scissors and pants involved.

This is one of those can’t put down books. What I didn’t realize is there are more books in this series! Color me happy! I’ll be adding the rest of the series to my TBR pile. Someday that tower is going to come crazing down on my head. Hmm, bed rest and books to recover?

Read Fancy Pants now!

When Britisher Lady Sydney Hathwell’s father dies, the American who planned to wed her suddenly reneges. Stranded in America and penniless, Sydney contacts a relative in Texas who, mistaking her male-sounding name, invites his “nephew” to join him on his ranch.

“Big Tim” Creighton, however, is appalled when this mincing fop arrives at Forsaken. He determines he’ll turn Fancy Pants Hathwell into a man before the boss returns home. From the get-go, he has “the kid” mucking stalls, clearing and plowing a field, and assisting with a difficult calving. But when Sydney’s true identity is uncovered, Tim resents being deceived. Yet in time, he also finds that he doesn’t like all the attention Sydney garners now that she’s wearing pretty gowns…

Together Sydney and Tim will discover the importance of family and what it means to be a man–and a woman–of God.

The Number of Love by Roseanna M. White caught me by surprise. The heroine of this story works as a codebreaker during the Great War. The story takes place in London. But the fact that she was a woman working with men during this time wasn’t what caught my attention.

Margo De Wilde’s life is all about numbers. Again, not unusual as we all know people who are brilliant with math. Margo is neurodivergent. That label is never applied in this book but if you are aware of friends or family who are high functioning autistic, you’ll see it right away.

Because I’m not neurodivergent it was difficult for me to put myself into this character—WAIT! That does not mean I disliked the book or Margo!
Instead of imagining myself as Margo as one tends to do when reading good books—they are after all escape hatches into worlds you can’t explore—I found Margo fascinating. Watching her go from happy with her ability to break codes, experience tragedy, and then finding herself in social situations she never expected kept me reading right through to the end.
The story itself is well-written and has intrigue, some action, and romance. Win-win!

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Three years into the Great War, England’s greatest asset is their intelligence network–field agents risking their lives to gather information, and codebreakers able to crack every German telegram. Margot De Wilde thrives in the environment of the secretive Room 40, where she spends her days deciphering intercepted messages. But when her world is turned upside down by an unexpected loss, for the first time in her life numbers aren’t enough.

Drake Elton returns wounded from the field, followed by an enemy who just won’t give up. He’s smitten quickly by the intelligent Margot, but how can he convince a girl who lives entirely in her mind that sometimes life’s answers lie in the heart?

Amid biological warfare, encrypted letters, and a German spy who wants to destroy not just them but others they love, Margot and Drake will have to work together to save themselves from the very secrets that brought them together.

Read it now!

Once again Jody Hedlund has kept me up until I finished reading Cowboy for Keeps.

What is it that makes reading (or writing) about life when it was so hard to survive? I look at the things Greta did to make money in this book and I shudder to think what would happen to me and my husband if I couldn’t put in a Walmart order!

Books with a child side character always touch my heart and this one has Astrid. She is spunky despite her illness. Again, something I lack, a cold will set me to fussing and asking for hot tea and a blanket.

Cowboy for Keeps starts off with a bang and sends Greta right into desperation mode when she finds out the man she’s to marry has died. Now she has no money and no husband. I admire this character as she sets out to find another way to earn money other than working at the brothel. No worries, she doesn’t go there. Instead, she ends up marrying before nightfall.

Hedlund makes me feel like I’m right there in the Colorado mountains looking at all the beauty of the trees, feeling the crisp air and breathing the fresh air that is so good for Astrid.

What I liked about this book is there is an attraction between the two of them—a slow simmering pot of water just ready to boil. The romance feels realistic, what should happen when people are getting to know each other. Hedlund carries this off well throughout the book never crossing the line of what Christian readers expect from a Christian romance.

Greta Nilsson’s trip west to save her ailing little sister, Astrid, could not have gone more wrong. First, bandits hold up her stagecoach, stealing all her money. Then, upon arriving in Fairplay, Colorado, she learns the man she was betrothed to as a mail-order bride has died. Homeless, penniless, and jobless, Greta and her sister are worse off than when they started.

Wyatt McQuaid is struggling to get his new ranch up and running and is in town to purchase cattle when the mayor proposes the most unlikely of bargains. He’ll invest in a herd of cattle for Wyatt’s ranch if Wyatt agrees to help the town become more respectable by marrying and starting a family. And the mayor, who has promised to try to help Greta, has just the candidate in mind for Wyatt to marry.

Get Cowboy for Keeps

Come Back to Me by Jody Hedlund starts with some suspense and rocky family dynamics. It doesn’t take long to realize you won’t be setting this book down to do something else.

It’s another book a bit different for me. I’m no fond of time travel books but it’s Jody Hedlund, I had to try it. Sometimes it pays to read in something different. I enjoyed this book isn’t strong enough to convey my feelings.

This is part 1 of a 6 part series. I can’t wait for part 2 Never Leave Me which you can preorder now. It comes out Jan. 4, 2022.  Hedlund pulls off a time travel that makes sense. She doesn’t time hop constantly which means most of the time in part 1 is spent in medieval times. This book is rich in details that put you there with Marian as she tries to navigate the times when women weren’t heard, and the clothing weighs heavy with its many layers in warm weather.

I’d recommend this book in a heartbeat.

Come Back to Me

The ultimate cure that could heal any disease? Crazy.

That’s exactly what research scientist Marian Creighton has always believed about her father’s quest, even if it does stem from a desire to save her sister Ellen from the genetic disease that stole their mother from them. But when her father falls into a coma after drinking a vial of holy water believed to contain traces of residue from the Tree of Life, Marian must question all of her assumptions. He’s left behind tantalizing clues that suggest he’s crossed back in time. Insane. Until Marian tests his theories and finds herself in the Middle Ages during a dangerous peasant uprising.

William Durham, a valiant knight comes to Marian’s rescue and offers her protection … as his wife. The longer Marian stays in the past, the more she cares about William. Can she ever find her father and make it back to the present to heal her sister? And when the time comes to leave, will she want to?

Bestselling author Jody Hedlund is your guide down the twisting waters of time to a volatile era of superstition, revolts, and chivalry in this suspenseful story.