Book review: Old Friends and New Fancies

The subtitle of this book really says it all: 'An imaginary sequel to the novels of Jane Austen'. And not just any sequel, one of the dozens which are released every year, no, this is the first published Austen sequel, from 1913. In Old Friends and New Fancies (love the title BTW!), Brinton intertwines the lives of characters from each of Austen's six major novels. The main characters are three ladies left unmarried at the end of their 'own' novels: Georgiana Darcy, Kitty Bennet and Mary Crawford. All three will fall in love and will feel the pangs of being kept apart by social or economical tensions.

Book review: The third sister

In Sense and Sensibility, Margaret, the youngest Dashwood sister, is only a young teenager, but witness to the pain her sisters are suffering for love. Now, at 17, she is the only daughter living at home with her mother. She wants more of life then the monotony of Barton Park and playing nursemaid to the Middleton children, but is also hestitant in socializing with men, cautious of making the same mistakes as her sisters.

Book review: Close to you

Allison Shire used to be a scholar specialized in the works of Tolkien, but after a personal crisis, she is now grudgingly guiding Tolkien enthusiasts through her homeland New Zealand. In her latest tour group is the strange couple of a rich elderly man and his nephew Jackson Gregory, whom Allison immediately recognizes as a fake fan. What is he doing on this expensive luxury tour?
As the group travels through New Zealand, Allison and Jackson keep getting thrown together and as they get to know each other better, slowly fall in love. Neither had expected they would fall in love again and regrets and pain from both their pasts have to be conquered before they can think about a life together.

Book review: A season to love

Willa Hart has been through too much, first loosing her husband and then seeing her young daughter battle cancer, to enjoy live unreservedly. Her brother challenges her to let go more and Willa takes the first small steps by accepting a part-time job. Then she meets the new town doctor, Patrick McCade, an adventurer by heart. They quickly strike up a friendship and Patrick sets out to show Willa how to be adventurous in everyday live. However, Patrick is only in town for a short time, but will this keep him and Willa from developing more than just a friendship?

Book review: The Salvation of Doctor Who

This booklet is part of The Pop in Culture series of Bible studies in which pastor Matt Rawle finds insight and inspiration in pop culture classics. In twenty short inspirational chapters, stories from Doctor Who are connected to Bible passages that teach us about who we are, how we have to understand time and how we live in a world where evil seems to reign.

Book review: Sense and Sensibility (The Austen project)

The Austen project is a series of six contemporary novels, modern interpretations of Jane Austen’s major works and written by well-known authors. The project was started to celebrate the 200-year anniversary of Austen’s works and the first book written for the project was Sense and Sensibility by Joanne Trollope.  The story is well-known I think, the Dashwood family, consisting of Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters, sensible architecture student Elinor, romantic guitar adept Marianne and teenager Margaret have to move to a small cottage in the middle of nowhere after their husband and father dies. Elinor and Marianne both fall in love, but are their men really what they seem to be?

Book review: Coming up Roses

After a difficult break-up, Daisy is happy she can house-sit for her parents and just withdraw from the world for a while. But as she works on the neglected garden at her parent’s house, she can’t help but be drawn into the life of the village. She makes unexpected friends in fellow-gardener Thomas, Ned the vet and Elaine and Jo. She becomes a part of committees and helps at the allotment. Just when Daisy really starts to feel at home she discovers her beloved garden is under threat by property developers. Together with her new friends Daisy has to fight to maintain the place she’s come to love.

Book review: Dear Mr Knightley

Samantha Moore grew up in foster care and learned to survive by hiding in books. In the company of her beloved fictional characters she feels save. After college and a failed attempt at a big city job, Samantha gets the opportunity of a lifetime when the anonymous benefactor who calls himself Mr Knightley offers her a scholarship to Medill School of Journalism. The only condition is that Samantha writes regular letters to Mr Knightley. Samantha starts her education, but finds out writing isn't as easy as she thought and neither is growing up. But when she starts making real friends in her classmate Ashley, fellow foster kid Kyle and famous novelist Alex Powell her life really starts to change.

Book review: Emissary

All Hyam wants is to be a farmer and live a quiet life in his out-of-the-way village of the Realm. But his mother's dying wish is that he returns to the Long Hall, the residence of the mages, where he spend five years as an apprentice under their strict rule. Five years he'd rather forget as the mages bullied and mistrusted him for his extraordinary ability to learn the ancient Milantian language. Now, back at the Long Hall as an adult, Hyam will learn secrets about his origins that will change his life forever and send him on a journey to become a hero.

Book review: Like a flower in bloom

Charlotte Withersby has had a rather unusual upbringing for a Victorian young lady as both her parents were passionate botanists. For years now, she has been her father's assistant and more, writing his scientific articles for him. Charlotte longs to one day be a botanist herself, but the Victorian society frowns upon females in science. Then her uncle reminds Charlotte and her father that the proper future for a young lady is as a wife and mother and thus, Charlotte needs to go out in society to find a husband. She doesn't like this at all, but believes her father will soon miss her and put an end to this. But then her father takes on a new assistant, the infuriatingly efficient Mr Trimble, Charlotte feels unwanted and lost in a society filled with all these rules she has no clue about.

Book review: If you find this letter

Hannah Brencher's mother always send her handwritten letters and they became her lifeline in growing up. So when she moved to New York and saw around her a city full of people searching for their place in the world Hannah decided to write to them. Seeing a culture where people only connected to each other on screens, Hannah poured her heart out on paper and send the letters to people who might need them. Her idea quickly grew when she started the blog More Love Letters and she involved other people in her quest: to make the world better, one letter at a time.

Book review: Our Mutual Friend

A body is found in the river Thames and believed to be John Harmon, the heir to a large fortune who just returned to England. His death and discovery will affect various corners of London society. There are Mr and Mrs Boffin, the Harmon's servants, who suddenly come into a large sum of money. There is Bella Wilfer, bethrothed to John Harmon, who now sees herself consigned to a life of poverty. And Lizzie Hexham, daughter of the man who fished John Harmon from the river will become very much involved in the aftermath of the murder and meet two men who pursue her.

Book review: The secret of Pembrooke Park

Abigail Foster and her family face financial ruin when a family investment goes wrong. Abigail, always the practical one, takes it upon herself to find a new, affordable home for the family and makes sure her younger sister can still have a Season. Then, a mysterious offer arrives: the family can live in Pembrooke Park, a manor from distant relatives which has been abandoned for 18 years. Abigail, not seeing a better alternative, takes the offer and moves to the village of Easton. She enjoys living in the large old house and makes friends with the local curate William Chapman and his sister Leah. But there are many rumours about the previous inhabitants of Pembrooke Park and a possible hidden treasure. Then,letters without sender reach Abigail and she becomes more involved than she bargained for.

Book review + GIVEAWAY: Ana of California

Fifteen year old Ana Cortez may be out of chances. Kicked out of a foster home again, her case worker gives her a choice: a group home or a farm internship in Northern California. Ana chooses the farm internship at the farm of brother and sister Abbie and Emmet Garber. But it's a big change for Ana from the streets of Los Angeles to the fruit trees of Garber Farm. Determined to make this work, Ana soon takes to life at the farm and build relationships with Abbie, field worker Manny and local alternative girl Rye Moon. Then, during the harvest festival, Ana inadvertedly gets into trouble. Will this be the end of her time at Garber Farm?

Book review: The Way We Live Now

In 1870's London, Mr. Melmotte, a financier with a mysterious past is rising the ranks of society. The gentry, among them the Longestaffe family, abhor him and want nothing to do with him. But their own financial troubles will force them to seek Mr. Melmotte's help. Mr. Melmotte's daughter, Marie, is flaunted before all the bachelors in London, but loses her heart to the dissolute young baronet Felix Carbury. Carbury's sister Hetta is trapped between two men: her kind and dependable cousin Roger whom she does not love and the young businessman Paul Montague, who seems to be keeping secrets from her.

Book review: Thunder

In post-apocalyptic America, Selah Chavez lives in a small fishing community. Next to fishing, her father and brothers hunt for Landers, mysterious people from across the sea who wash up on the shostre sometimes and have strange abilities. In just a day, Selah will turn 18 and she knows she will be expected to marry a man her father chose for her. But she would much rather be taken serious by her father, as her brothers are, and be a part of the family's hunting endavours. Almost by accident, Selah manages to capture a Lander herself, but strange things start happening to her afterwards. Before she knows it, Selah is running for her life without a place to go and the only person who can actually help her is Bodhi, the Lander she captured.

Book review: A second bite at the apple

Sydney Strauss has always wanted a job in food journalism. So when she is let go from her ´second-best' job as a producer for television, it seems like the perfect opportunity to finally go for the job she really wants. But this proves harder than she thought and a few months later Sydney finds herself working for a grumpy baker at a Farmer's Market to earn her keep. Sydney starts writing for the Market's newsletter and finds romance with Jeremy and is actually quite content. But then she gets whiff of scandal in the food world and finds out some secrets about Jeremy's past and suddenly her live becomes very complicated.

Book review: With every breath

Kate Livingston was just let go from her respectable, though rather dull, position as a government statistician. Then she receives an interesting job offer from a doctor researching tuberculosis. Kate is intrigued, until she disovers the doctor is none other than her school rival Trevor McDonough. Why would he offer a job to her of all people?

Trevor's one big goal in life is to find a cure for tuberculosis. His work would become much easier if he had a competent assistant and he decides to find Kate Livingston, the clever and quick girl he always competed with at school. While working together, Kate and Trevor form a tentative friendship despite their very different characters. But mysterious things happen at the hospital: missing stock, data which have been tampered with. Trevor tries to ignore it, but then whoever is trying to ruin his name starts to target Kate and her family. Kate and Trevor must try to find the person behind this and for that, Trevor must open up and tell Kate his secrets.

Book review: All right here

Ivy Darling can't have children and the silent resentment of her husband Nick is slowly driving them apart. When the three kids next door are left by their mother, Ivy opens her home and heart to them and suddenly, she and Nick are foster parent's to the only black children in the small town of Copper Cove. As the months pass, Ivy comes to love the children and considers them as part of the family. But Nick refuses to accept their unorthodox family as permanent. Do Nick and Ivy still have enought in common to make their marriage work?

Book review: Jane Austen's first love

At 15 years of age, young Jane Austen has big dreams of seeing the world and writing great novels, but has hardly traveled beyond her own village. Then, her family is invited to celebrate the engagement of her eldest brother Edward and spent a month in Kent. Jane makes many new young acquaintances, among whom young heir Edward Taylor. She is fascinated by his adventure-loving character and even though Jane knows a match between them is unlikely, she starts to fall in love with Edward. When the young people decide to set up a play as the ending of their festive summer, Jane tries to play matchmaker for some of her new friends. But not all her efforts turn out as expected and both for others and herself, Jane must learn not to rely on first impressions.