Two book reviews to end the year!

I have two book reviews to end the year. 

They were both good books.

First I will share my review about the Miners lady.

I have read several books by Tracie Peterson and was glad to be chosen to read this one. I really enjoy a good historical novel. I enjoyed the small mining town and reading about the Italian families settled there, the feud between two families stretching back so far back that the current generations didn't even know the details of how the discord started. It made me really think about family dynamics and forgiveness. I also enjoyed the love story and how they were willing to do anything for love. It was much like Romeo and Juliet yet the plot just wasn't as heartfelt as I would have liked.. I did feel like much of the story could have used some deeper details and the characters seemed undefined per se. I found myself reading it just to get to the end of the story not really Savoring the process. For those reasons I will give this book three out of five stars.

The second book, " An elegant solution" was not a read- in -one - night - sitting book. It took putting the little one to bed and burning the midnight oil while the rest of the house was sleeping. The author did an impeccable job of developing the plot and characters. I love a book that really requires thought and where details matter, this book was quite a surprise and gave me something to chew on and look forward to each evening. Many of the books I read this past year I wouldn't recommend to my husband or sons, but this one would really be something to hold their attention. ( Especially my engineer / mathematician bent son)  If you enjoy a book with suspense, well researched historical content, and well developed characters I would highly recommend you read this book. I will give this one five stars on Amazon.

Thank you to Bethany House publishers for the copies of these books for review purposes. The review are my honest, personal opinions and I am in no way compensated for my review.

Edited to add: it does not sit well with me to open my blogger tool to find an error message " retry publishing" which means this post sat for two plus weeks without being posted. I've had many blogger friends switch to another format and Im highly considering it for myself. I will spare you the book review I was signing on to publish and do that tomorrow. 

Here is a photo to share what we did over the Christmas break.

Come back tomorrow and I will share more!