Book Review

Chautona Havig has written yet another book this year! After writing Christmas Stalkings, she wanted to tell Neal Kirkpatrick’s story—he’s sort of the villain in it. New Year’s  Revolutions, therefore, is both a prequel and a sequel to Christmas Stalkings (see my review here).

Christmas Stalkings is told mainly from Wendy’s point of view, as she prepares for Christmas with her seven cats and deals with someone entering her house and moving things around. New Year’s Revolutions tells the story from her neighbor Neal’s point of view—but starts earlier and goes on a long ways after the first story ends.

For the rest of my review, you’ll have to visit Esther’s website! Read it here.

To buy the book, just click on the title. I used Esther’s affiliate links, so if you buy a book through them, she will get a little money to put toward maintaining her website and it won’t cost you any more.

Chautona Havig has written yet another wonderful book! I’m losing count of how many she’s launched this year, but it’s quite a few. Christmas Embers is a powerful book. To read Esther’s great review, go here. If you want to buy the book, go here. During the next couple of days, there is a bonus study guide available; visit chautona.com/bonus to claim it. (It’s only available to those who purchase through the 28th of November, 2016.) Sorry about this short notice—I wanted to get this review written and posted earlier, but there’s been a lot going on in my life and I haven’t had the brain power to do it any sooner.

Adultery. What really happens to a family when a spouse commits adultery? Is it really a big deal? It’s so prevalent today; surely that makes the impact less? Emily, a mom blogger, thought it was a big deal. As she discussed the issue with her husband Sean while she wrote a blog post about the topic, she thought of it as a sexually transmitted disease—it affects everyone you have been in contact with, including your souse, your children, your extended family, and even your church. She had just seen firsthand the devastation caused by a man’s repeated affairs. Emily was so very thankful for the agreement she and Sean had to tell the other at the very first hint of any attraction to another person, to talk about it and stay open about it.

Emily’s Christmas project that year would hopefully lead to a book contract. She visited her daughter’s classroom and drew a cartoon picture of each of the children while she discussed what they wanted for Christmas—anything, whether it could be wrapped and put under the tree or not. As she had hoped, she got some unusual answers. One little girl wanted “nothing”. One boy wanted his Mom home again when he got home from school. And Joey wanted his father. After just a little digging, Emily discovered that he didn’t know who his father was or where he was, and she set out on a mission to find him and help Joey’s mother, who was dying of hepatitis. And the next thing she knew, her world was spiraling out of control.

Christmas Embers is, in some ways, a hard book to read. The subject matter is not something we want to ever even think about, much less discuss. It needs to be brought out into the open at times, however, to be able to help people who are affected by the sin of adultery. Jesus made it plain that adultery is sin; it is listed as one of the sins that will keep people out of heaven if they don’t repent and turn from it. Christmas Embers shows clearly how adultery can affect a family, a community, and a church. This is a powerful story. Chautona Havig has crafted a masterpiece here, a beautiful, and ugly, picture of love and sin. She vividly shows the emotional fallout after sin is revealed. Can those hurt by other’s sin ever learn to forgive and trust the one who has wronged them—or is this sin unforgiveable? Is it ever possible to reconcile a marriage that has been damaged by this sin?

The characters are so real. I identified in many ways with Emily, and really grew to dislike her friend Kate. Why are some people so determined to drag others down to their level? As always, there is humor along the way. I loved the scene on Christmas morning when the children woke Emily up, and her daughter announced, “She’s awake! She wasn’t, but I fixed that.” You’ll find yourself laughing along the way, occasionally, and crying at other times through this story.

I appreciated the author’s care in writing this book to not show any graphic scenes. With the subject of the book being what it is, it would have been very easy to cross lines that should not be crossed, but she didn’t. She was afraid she had, and sent out the first half of the book to several people to make sure it would be all right. I read that first half, and told her I didn’t mind allowing my teenage daughter to read it—she was that discreet.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book and chose to write a review of it.

Edited to say: As of December 21, this set is no longer available. If you want to read these books, they are still available individually.

I really enjoy being an advance reader. Not only do I get to read books for free, I get to read them before they are published—and tell people about them! The latest one I got as an advance reader copy is the boxed set Christmas Lights. I’m not sure why it’s called a “boxed set” when it’s on Kindle, but I guess it just means you get four books together, in this case. Here is my review of the set, which will be available on Amazon until sometime in January. I noticed that the set is just $1.16–certainly a bargain!

Christmas Lights is a collection of four Christmas novellas. They are all very clean, as far as romance and language go. I enjoyed the opportunity to read this book in advance of publication, although due to family circumstances I was not able to write my review in time.

The first book in the collection is The Heart of Joy by Vikki Kestell. Apparently, it is a addendum to a series titled A Prairie Heritage. Maybe it would have meant more to me if I had read that series; as it is, I wasn’t very impressed. It struck me as pretty much just romance, with nothing else to add value. Like I said, though, if I had read the series it would probably have been fine. Basically, Joy, a young widow, must decide if she can allow another man to capture her heart several years after her husband’s death—or if anyone she loves will inevitably be hurt.

The second book is Snow Angels by Cathe Swanson. I really enjoyed that one. The main character is another young widow, dealing with guilt from her husband’s death. She starts a project to help a homeless man find a job and get some self-respect, only to discover that everything she believes about him needs to be rethought. I loved the thoughts about not allowing grief to overshadow your entire life, and I loved the humor towards the end of the story.

Trip the Light Fantastic by April Hayman is the third book. I’m sorry, but I didn’t get a lot out of it. I thought that was because I had just started reading the book when my son suddenly died, and that maybe that was why the story didn’t make sense. When my daughter had the same reaction, though, and I read about someone else who also thought the same thing, I decided maybe something needs to be clarified in the story. I’m not sure what, though. As far as I can tell, the main character, an FBI man who desperately wants to make one more arrest for the year, is set up in a situation to force him to take a break. I couldn’t quite get the point of the story, though.

The last book is Christmas Stalkings by Chautona Havig. Anything by her is sure to be great, and I was not disappointed by this one. The main character is another widow, this time middle-aged—that makes three out of four novellas in this collection with a widow as the main character! Wendy is also rather crazy about her seven cats, and one of her obsessions is putting up a Christmas tree each year for each cat. This year, however, mysterious things start happening when she does; someone is entering her house and moving things. The police can’t solve the mystery; will Wendy be able to?

I also have longer reviews of two of the books, which will be available as stand-alone books after the collection is no longer around.

Snow Angels:

When Cathe Swanson asked for advance readers for the novella she wrote for the Christmas Lights collection, it sounded interesting. I was not disappointed! I found Snow Angels very funny at times, heart-breaking at others, and Lisa Marsh all-too-familiar at still other times.

Lisa was roped, unwillingly, into helping serve Thanksgiving dinner at the local community center in Chicago. Dealing with crowds of people was difficult for her at the best of times, but when Pete, a scruffy man with a horribly-looking beard accosted her, asking for potatoes, when she was serving turkey, she couldn’t handle it.

Read my full review here.

Christmas Stalkings:

Christmas Stalkings is purely a fun book! I enjoyed reading quotes from it as Ms. Havig was writing it, and hoping I’d get a chance to be an advance reader. I wasn’t disappointed! As with all of Chautona’s other books that I’ve read, the action starts right away and the characters seem very real.

Wendy Nabity is known in Fairbury as the crazy cat lady. She has seven cats in her house! And not only that, but she puts up a Christmas tree for each cat every year.

If you like light Christmas fiction, try out Christmas Stalkings. You won’t be disappointed. It’s a short book, too, more like a novella than a full-length book. This was a fun, easy read. I’m looking forward to reading the sequel, New Year’s Revolutions, when it’s finished.

Read my full review here.

All links in this post are Esther’s affiliate links, and any purchase you make through them will help support her website.

I am loving the fact that my favorite author is a prolific writer. Her fourth book for the year is publishing this week! Because this is the fourth book in a series, I “had” to read the first three, of course, so I’ve had a fairly steady diet of Chautona Havig lately. I’m not tired of them yet!

You can preorder the Kindle version of Front Window right now; it will be delivered on September 29. If you do preorder, be sure to ask Chautona for the bonus story. I can’t wait to read that—it’s going to be fun! I may have to reread the book, though, since the bonus gives more information to help solve the mystery. Go here to find out how to get the bonus.

I really enjoyed Front Window. It was really hard to put it down—sometimes it’s pretty frustrating to only be able to read for a couple of minutes at a time, although it’s good discipline.

There have been a lot of changes in Alexa’s life. She has switched houses again, and her relationship with Joe is better than ever. She is also enjoying having Aunt Faye in Fairbury. However, Aunt Faye has found the perfect way to disturb a honeymoon. When things start disappearing from the retirement apartments Aunt Faye is living in, and the police don’t seem alarmed or helpful, how can Aunt Faye prove that one of the residents isn’t stealing the items? Things go from bad to worse over the next few weeks. Aunt Faye just isn’t impressed the how the police are investigating the string of crimes, and she lets Joe and the rest of the force know in no uncertain terms.

This is definitely not just a mystery story. There is so much else included! Ask my children about the time Mom was laughing out loud in the bathroom—the Christmas gift scene is hilarious! There are several other very funny scenes as well, and some serious ones. Aunt Faye, though never married, has some extremely good advice and observations. For example, “I decided that if I had to act a fool to get a fellow’s attention, then I didn’t want it.” I also loved, “I always despised those arrogant kids who set themselves up as authorities when God gave them perfectly good ones in parents.”

For those who love mysteries, this is a good one. You will be kept guessing at the identity of the thief until nearly the end of the story. I appreciated the Christian values portrayed in it, although there wasn’t nearly as much about Alexa’s and Joe’s faith in this story as in some others by Chautona Havig. I’m still not convinced that I want to read very many murder mysteries, but I don’t mind reading hers.

I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

WARNING: A couple of the characters say a mildly bad word when under great stress.

I also wrote a review of the entire series, for those who are interested:

Murder mysteries? Not my cup of tea—usually. I prefer books that have sage advice woven throughout, books that make me really think about things. The Hartfield Mysteries, however, do that.

Alexa Hartfield is an author living in the small town of Fairbury, near Rockland. Her specialty is murder mysteries. She lives alone and likes her life that way. To most people, she appears eccentric; most of her clothing appears to be from other eras, from medieval times to the 1980s. Her comfortable life is suddenly shaken up when, in the first book, Manuscript for Murder, people start dying. The strange thing is that they are being killed in exactly the way she’s writing about in her current book! What is going on? Joe, the policeman who comes to her rescue a few times, ends up a frequent visitor, but she is certainly not interested in romance—and neither is he.

Crime of Fashion involves a new business which Alexa becomes involved in—but odd things happen there, too, and tragedy strikes close to home for her. After that is all resolved, she goes to California for her biannual visit to her parents (in the author’s hometown!) in Two O’clock Slump. She anticipates the usual stressful visit, with her extremely religious parents trying to get her to repent of something that happened when she was a teenager, but then a man is found dead in the next motel room to hers, which was supposedly empty. During the investigation, she must flee. I had a hard time with this book; you don’t find out until one of the last two or three chapters who the villain is, and it’s very hard to put the book down at that point.

Front Window picks up soon after Two O’clock Slump ends; one of the main characters is Alexa’s Aunt Faye. We met her in the last book, but she really shines in this one. She has moved from California to Fairbury in the interval between the two books, into a retirement apartment. While Alexa is away from home, Aunt Faye finds the perfect excuse to annoy her greatly—someone is stealing things from the residents! The police are convinced that the thief is someone who lives in the complex, but Aunt Faye doesn’t believe that. Can she find a way to prove her point?

If you want a clean Christian mystery series, check out the Hartfield Mysteries. Just be careful when you get engrossed in them, or you may find meals being put on the table late—and you may well find yourself annoying the people around you as you hoot with laughter at some of the situations described. I hear that my children heard me laughing hard a couple of times in one day as I read Front Window! Mystery and humor aside, I really enjoyed watching Alexa grow and change in her relationships with other people, especially Joe, and the community in general. The only thing I did not appreciate about the books was the character who married a divorced woman; I take Matthew 5:32 literally.

WARNING: There is at least one murder in each book, not graphically described but there all the same. In Front Window, the police chief is mentioned as swearing a time or two.

The book titles are Esther’s affiliate links. By clicking on them to buy the books from Amazon, you’ll help support her website, with no extra cost to you.

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.