Book Reviews January 2023 + Announcement

 

Book Reviews January 2023 + Announcement 

| Yours Truly, Thomas by Rachel Fordham & Roses For Mama by Janette Oak |

Hello, Sweet Friend! 

Today I wanted to share two book reviews with you! I adore both these books and have read them as part of the ‘Cowboy Hero’ reading prompt I’m doing as part of the ‘Heroes Reading Challenge’! Both are set in a western ‘cowboy’ setting but are just sweet Christian stories I highly recommend reading! 

ALSO…

I’m very excited to announce that BEHOLD PEACE is open!!! You can now check out the BEHOLD PEACE blog! Have fun exploring and seeing what I’ve been working on all month (if you have any questions, check the ‘How It Works’ tab explaining how the Bible Study is run and how to comment on this new platform if you need help! As always, you can comment here and I’ll answer any questions you have)! Check BEHOLD PEACE on Wednesday for a *possible* special post! Our first study will be on Esther! I can’t wait to get started!!! 

Behold PEACE: https://beholdpeace.wordpress.com 

AND…come back tomorrow for a special post I’m doing to help one of my friends launch her upcoming book! 

AND…(last update, I promise XD), I’m back on Instagram! After over two whole months of being off IG, I’m coming back! I won’t be as active as I was before, primarily I’ll be posting only for blog updates. Mostly I’m excited to connect with you all on Instagram again and to thank all the sweet friends who have connected with me while I’ve been away. Thank you for your patience as I was away. I’m excited to be back! 

Yours Truly, Thomas by Rachel Fordham 

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Cleanness: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️*

Oh My Word! I love this book so much! This is such a sweet and beautiful book! It makes my heart happy! Normally I’m not a fan of ‘cowboy’ books (unless it's by Jannette Oak) but this one reignited my faith in Christian westerns, hurray! No seriously, this was such a lovely book. I devoured this book mostly today in one sitting because it was just SO GOOD!

As always we have to talk about characters because the characters are always my favorite part! 

Thomas! He is such a good conflicted character with a past and deep hurts that pull you in. I loved his heart of gold and the kindness you see growing in his heart. Also, I just have to say that I love strong and sensitive male characters and he was the perfect example of this. I loved how he was strong and humble and meek and could cry without being ashamed. I just loved his character and wanted to give him a hug a lot of the time. 

Penny! Oh sweet Penny! I love her so much! She reminded me a lot of Anne Shirley with her joy and how she viewed the world. I loved how ‘in love with love’ she was and how important letters were to her. I also loved that she was an aspiring author! 

Honey, sweet pup, always made me smile! 

I loved Margaret’s character and how—in a way—she was like a mother to both Thomas and Penny. Giving them love, making sure they were fed, and being proud when they connected and told each other the truth! 

I also love (I keep saying that a lot XD) how letters were woven into the story with there being letters sprinkled within the book and there being letter stamps for each chapter! I love when elements like that which are important to the story or characters are then woven into the formatting and cover. Silly thing to note, but that's me! 

Also, the epilogue made me want to cry! (happy tears of course <3)

I also want to say thank you to my friend Erin who got me to read this lovely book! I probably wouldn’t have read it without your recommendation, so thank you SO much! 

Some favorite quotes:

“Someday I hope you find a man who makes your heart flutter and writes you heart-wrenching love letters.”

—

“That, my friend, is one of the great secrets to a happy life. Face it. Whatever it is. Day after day. Face it and decide you won’t let it knock you down.” 

—

“I never knew love until I met you and now it grows and grows.” 

*Cleanness: This was a really cute & sweet romance. Nothing beyond a few kisses. Talk of the saloon where people get drunk where it is hinted at that more questionable things happen but are never said. It's hinted that a woman is being abused by her husband. There is talk of Thomas’s past and there being some kind of accident. Some fights. There is a scene near the end where there's a fire and someone goes mad and another almost dies and is badly injured. An animal is injured. At the end there is a man shot and killed. 

Roses For Mama by Janette Oak 

“You are my flowers. My roses. You and your brothers and sisters. You make up my bouquet.” —Janette Oke, Roses for Mama

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Cleanness: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book is SO sweet!!! <3 

Everything I have read of Janette Oke is just sweet and wholesome and comforting. I love Roses for Mama! All I can think to describe this book is: SWEET. 

I love the characters and seeing the siblings' relationships with each other. I loved seeing them grow up and care for each other. 

Angela is a character who loves her family deeply, will do anything for them, and is just trying to do the right thing and raise her siblings just like mama would. She struggled and made bad decisions but she learned from them and was loyal to her family above everything else. I really respected her for that. 

I love how sweet and protective Thomas is of his siblings. He is such a good brother and so responsible talking care of his siblings and providing for them since and young age. It was sweet seeing how much he cared for his siblings but was still able to have fun and have friends. 

I love the differences between the kids. We have Derek who is just the sweetest and had such a beautiful story of going from this broken shy boy and growing up and becoming a young man. He was probably the sweetest of the Peterson kids. Then there is Louis who is the challenger of the kids, wanting to grow up. I loved seeing her little journey of growing up, becoming more responsible, and becoming a young lady. Sara was cuteness! She reminded me a bit of my little sister at that age: full of joy, adventure, and excitement (and loves sweets)! 

THANE! I love Thane! He is so sweet and such a wonderful friend! I love how he is around all the kids and how he takes time to play with them and be there for them. (view spoiler)

Can I just say that every chapter that mentioned Carter (young Mr. Stratton) gave me anxiety. I was so anxious. I haven’t felt that anxious reading a book probably since reading The Elite last year. XD 

Anyways, now that I have finished my rant over the characters I think this review is done! This was just so sweet and cozy and I loved it! I’m going to be passing it along to my sister now because I think she will really like it! I can’t wait to hear her reaction! 

Bye, friends!

Fun afterthought: I have the top review for this book on goodreads! How fun is that! If you want to see the goodreads review, check this link (and I’d love to be your friend over there if you have a goodreads account)! https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5242992925?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1 

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More posts…

• The Chasm  

• Annie May On The Train (a short story)

• The Official Announcement For BEHOLD PEACE 

• Broken Ballerina: Celebrating Writing My 4th Novel     

• My Favorite Books 2022  

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Discussion Time

I hope you liked these two book reviews!!! Thank you so much for reading this post! <3 

I want to hear from you! Meet me in the comments and tell me have you read any of these books? Do you think you’d read any of them? Do you like ‘cowboy’ Christian fiction? If so, what’s your favorite book in that genre? I would love to chat! 

If you have any questions or want to talk, make sure to comment down below! Be sure to subscribe to this blog to stay in the know because I post new content here every week. ALSO, If you want to hear more about my writing and read snippets from my stories, make sure you are subscribed because I am doing special updates for BLOG SUBSCRIBERS ONLY! 

XOXO Moriyah 🤎