A Most Unsuitable Match by Stephanie Grace Whitson (a Bethany House Publishing Blogger Review)

**Bethany House Publishers provided me a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for posting a review with my honest (positive or negative) opinion of it.**

This was a wonderful book.  Kind of a “coming of age” story.  Actually, when I think of the phrase “coming of age” I usually think of a younger person.  Perhaps the appropriate phrase for this book should be, “a rich 20-year-old getting a reality check.”  However, Miss Fannie Rousseau is such a likeable character that it’s more amusing to find she doesn’t even know how to use a broom than utterly contemptible.

The story clearly demonstrates that, in life, it doesn’t matter our social standing, our financial situation, our race, or whether or not we’re sighted, we’re all challenged in a number of ways throughout our lives.  Our response when facing these challenges determines our path, and we shouldn’t judge the way someone else faces (or has faced) his/her challenges in the road of life.

Except for Emma’s Mr./Major/Lieutenant/Whatever Johnny Chadwick, pretty much all of the characters were likeable in this book—even the son of a wallyhoo steamboat captain and sweet Mrs. Tatum.

Definitely worth the read, and I’ll be looking for other Stephanie Grace Whitson books!

Pattern of Wounds by J. Mark Bertrand (a Bethany House Publishing Blogger Review)

 

**Bethany House Publishers provided me a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for posting a review with my honest (positive or negative) opinion of it.**

I hadn’t heard of J. Mark Bertrand and Roland March until receiving Pattern of Wounds for review. Thus, I haven’t read the first in this series.  There was a lot of underlying tension and agitation written into the March character, that I couldn’t understand the basis for, and perhaps had I read the first book in this series I would have understood.

I love a who-done-it, and was actually a little disappointed because I figured out who-done-it as soon as the do-er crossed the page (but than I got the satisfaction of “told ya so” at the end).

I know some people won’t look twice at this book just because it’s “Christian” fiction.  However, the Christian twist of the plot isn’t overbearing or preachy, and Roland March has some pretty good arguments against an all-loving God (the muscle-builder next door scenario, for example).

This was a good book, and I’m happy to recommend it to Christians and non-Christians alike, who like a good mystery mix of a serial killer, a couple of bloody mutilated bodies, and a partridge in a pear tree.