Book Review

If I’m totally honest, the primary reason I signed up to be on Chautona Havig’s launch team last year was so that I could read about Aggie. Of course, I love her other books, too, but Aggie is my favorite character. My introduction to Mrs. Havig’s books was the first Aggie’s Inheritance book, Ready or Not, in which Aggie, freshly graduated from college at age 22, suddenly inherits her sister’s 8 children. I loved the book so much that my daughter gave me an Amazon gift card to get me to buy the other two books in that trilogy! That was over a year ago, and I’ve been waiting impatiently since then for more about Aggie. It’s finally here! Ante Up! publishes this week, on the 26th of June, but it is available for preorder already. If you do purchase the book, any time between now and July 7, you can ask for the bonus that Chautona wrote. It is a devotional with a chapter for each chapter of the book, exploring the song that was used for the title of that chapter. I’ve read the devotional, Tune My Heart, already and it is very good. One thing that especially spoke to me was a sentence in Chapter 15: “Mrs. Keary said that she believed those things that interrupt our great plans were sent by God to keep us from becoming selfish.”

In some ways, Ante Up! is my favorite of the series. Aggie has now been married for nearly four years, and she has been mothering her sister’s eight orphaned children for nearly five years. Her second pregnancy is nearing its end, and she has the perfect birth plan mapped out. However, God throws a few monkey wrenches into her plans, as He does to all of us at times. How will Aggie respond? Will she continue to lean on the Lord and trust Him for grace? Or will she snap and show her all-too-human side? As one thing after another goes wrong for her, the challenges to her faith grow harder and harder to handle. Christmas is coming and she doesn’t have anything ready.

Meanwhile, the children have their own challenges to face, besides helping Luke to take care of the house and the little children. Vannie and Laird are faced with young people of the opposite sex being attracted to them (I loved the advice Laird got from older men—it was right on). Tavish is suffering physically from a somewhat foolish action, and Ellie desperately wants to try science experiments. Ian and Ronnie egg each other on as they act like typical little boys, and neither Luke nor Aggie has time or energy to deal with them properly. As the home spirals into chaos, what will bring back the order that Aggie thrives on?

I loved the humor that was woven into the story. My favorite scene involved stitch witchery and a worried little girl (Mommy wouldn’t have used that!). I also loved the roll-baking scene. Poor Ellie wanted to crawl into a hole at the end (“My career as a scientist is over before it even began.”) If you enjoy reading about large families or mothers, you will enjoy this book. If you enjoy watching God work to refine His people, you will enjoy this story. You will be challenged to check out your relationships with others, especially your husband, and your faith in God. Once again, Chautona Havig has crafted a great story that makes you think.

To get your own copy of this wonderful, encouraging book, the Kindle version is available here, and the print version here. If you are one of my friends who doesn’t have a Kindle, you can download an app to read books on your phone. I found a page here that has what you need (and if you’re local to us, Esther can help you install it–you know who you are!).

I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.  If you read this, Chautona Havig, thank you very much for allowing me to be on your launch team!

Edited to add: Chautona is having a giveaway of a Kindle Fire. To enter, go here: https://promosimple.com/ps/9ddb

WARNING: Not a story for children or men; there are a lot of details about pregnancy and labor.

One of these days I’ll get caught up on my regular posts about our life. Having a lot of computer trouble has put a damper on that project. I think my computer is working right again, and most of the programs I use are back in it. For tonight, though, I thought I’d just share a few of the books I’ve read recently and really enjoyed.

Mr. Intellectual was given the book Returning Home, by Loreen Plett, for Christmas. I finally read it a few weeks ago and loved it! I wrote a long review of it for Learning Resource Directory, so I won’t write a lot here, but it is a great book. It’s not quite a biography, but based on family history. It almost reads like an epic novel, though! It follows the life of Johann Plett, born into a Mennonite family in Prussia in the late 1700s. His life was one long series of tragedies and disappointments. He became more and more bitter against God, who never gave up on him. I definitely recommend this book, as well as its sequel, Crossing the Distance. This book, which I finished reading a few weeks ago, tells the story of Johann’s son Knals (Cornelius). He was born in Prussia, but grew up in Russia only a short distance from the Crimea. After watching his father’s life, he  became a Christian at a fairly young age, and was baptized into the Kleine Gemeinde church—an offshoot of the Old Colony Mennonnites. His strong, forceful personality caused some major problems and heartache in his life, but was also used greatly by God to strengthen the church and aid in the migration of the Mennonites to Canada. His actions were not always right, but his heart was in the right place and eventually he made right what he had done wrong. Both of these books are very inspiring.

I’ve also been enjoying a lovely series of fiction books. I read the three Aggie’s Inheritance books a year or more ago, and loved them! In fact, Ready or Not was the first modern Christian novel I have found that I was interested in rereading. For Keeps and Here We Come are just as good. They tell the story of Aggie Milliken, who at age 22, fresh out of college, inherited her sister’s eight children when Allana and her husband suddenly died. Through reading this series of books, I discovered a new favorite author, Chautona Havig. She has let me be on her launch team now when she publishes new books, and since the fourth Aggie book is publishing this month, I reread the first three. They are just as good as I remembered, and every bit as engrossing the second or third time through! This week, I got to read the advance reader copy of the fourth book, Ante Up! It is great, too. It’s not necessarily a fun read; Aggie has some major struggles. There is a lot of food for thought in it, though, which is something I really love about Chautona’s books. There is some humor, too—I love the scene in which Kenzie is aghast at the thought of using stitch witchery (Maybe we should pray over it), and Ellie’s attempt to bake rolls is quite funny, too.

If you’re looking for a good read, check out one of these books. They are all well worth your time.

For the third time now, I’ve been invited to read one of Chautona Havig’s books before publication and help her to launch it! What fun. She is one of my favorite authors; I haven’t been disappointed with any of her books that I’ve read.

Here is my review, which will be here until it publishes on Esther’s website:

I discovered one of Chautona Havig’s books a couple of years ago, and loved it, but didn’t read any of her others till about a year ago. Once I got started, however, I was hooked. I love her books! Most of them are fairly light, easy reads, but they all make you think. She has a knack for showing how Christians should live in the form of a gripping story. Her books are not preachy, but very definitely portray people living out their faith in Jesus.

Sweet On You is a little different from a lot of this author’s books. The main character is Madeline Brown, a young lady in a midwestern city sometime around 1901. She knows what society demands of young ladies, and what her aunt’s expectations are. She also knows that if she oversteps conventions she’ll harm her father’s political career. Therefore, she will not join the suffragettes or the temperance movement. However, she can’t stand to just sit at home and do nothing!

One evening, when Madeline is at a party at her friend’s house, she notices that Edith is receiving special attention from a man new to the city. Then, she notices something strange. She starts wondering about Vernon—and ends up finding herself becoming a detective!

I loved reading Sweet On You and watching Madeline investigate clues around the city while trying not to shock her aunt too much. Of course, I was fairly sure what the outcome of the investigation would be long before Madeline arrived at a conclusion, but it was quite intriguing to watch her using the resources at her disposal to learn the truth. I look forward to reading the next book in the series and seeing Madeline’s growth, not only as a sleuth, but also as a Christian. Her faith seems to be very shallow in this book, not at all like most of the author’s characters. There are a couple of friends of Madeline’s who seem to have a very strong faith in God, and Madeline considers them to be fanatics—I will be very interested to see what Havig does with her in the sequel! I can’t wait to read the next book, especially with the cliff-hanger with which this one ended. There are supposed to be six books in the series eventually.

I enjoyed the vocabulary used in this story as well. Havig did a lot of research into the way people talked and wrote around 1900, and her characters consistently use appropriate language. Another thing I found interesting was the way people thought about new inventions that were just coming into use—their reactions seemed quite natural. I highly recommend Sweet On You if you are looking for light, inspiring reading.

I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. You can buy it, in  Kindle format, here. Edited to add: I forgot to mention this at first, but if you buy the book this first week, you can get a free bonus short story about one of the minor characters in the book. Find the details here.

I discovered Chautona Havig’s books about a year ago, when I read Ready or Not for the second time. After reading the next two books in that series a few months later, I was hooked. When she asked for people to help her launch new books, last September, I immediately volunteered. Jack is the second one I’ve been able to read before publication. Today is the release date! If, after reading my review, you think you might ever want to read the book, buy it within the next few days and you can get a bonus story, which I’m looking forward to reading myself. Buy it here; to get the bonus story go here.

And, without further ado, here is my review, which, as with other reviews I post her will be taken down when it publishes on Esther’s website.

For the past year, I’ve been enjoying Chautona Havig’s books. When I had the chance a few months ago to sign up to help her launch new books, I took it—it means I get to read them for free before they are published! I probably would never have read Jack otherwise; I’m really not into cowboy stories. However, I found myself enjoying this one, as I have her other books that I’ve read.

Read my full review here.

I had the opportunity, over the past couple of months, to do something new. When my (current) favorite author, Chautona Havig, asked for volunteers to read her new Christmas book, Carol and the Belles, as she wrote it and help her launch it, I signed up. I’ve been enjoying reading another three chapters each week as she completed them–although it’s a little harder to keep track of the plot with that lag time in between. The book is finished now, though, and is publishing on Thanksgiving Day–she said it should certainly be up by 8:00 pm PST. If you would like some light reading after Thanksgiving, check this out. Here is my review; as with my other reviews on this blog, I’ll take it down when Esther publishes it on her website, so I don’t mess up her SEO.

Chautona Havig has dreamed up an incredible “hook” at the beginning of Carol and the Belles! I won’t tell you what it is, because that would spoil the suspense, but it’s one I couldn’t have imagined.

Read my full review here.