parklandmom's reviews
682 reviews

This is a e-short prequel to the Coastal Hope series. It also contains a few chapters of book 1. 

I read book 1 before learning about this e-short. It was nice to get Alex and Lilly’s background story. My only complaint is that it wasn’t longer! 

Stars: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ & 1/2 (4.5 stars, rounded up)
Read: September 2024

Series: Coastal Hope, #1
Format: audiobook borrow from Everand
Narrators: Savannah Rivers, Jarman Day
Challenge Prompt: EOW’s, “a mystery or suspense (historical or contemporary)” — read anytime in 2024

Book #88 of 2024:
[Narrators — Savannah is spot on and perfect for the role of Eliza. She is a great narrator in general. Jarman was okay for me but some of the female voices sounded weird and forced.]

REVIEW: This is a mainstream author who changed to Christian fiction and therefore an NTM author. I had a little trepidation going in but I liked what I heard in the sample. I wanted to be fair and make a choice based on my own experience. I’m so glad that I did. I do wish the publisher name was something more appealing than B.A.D. I would recommend a change. 

This was terrific romantic suspense!! I love the community and I see it as being a welcoming and lasting aspect of this series. 

Eliza, female main character, is believable after all she’s been through. She was abandoned by her parents and in a ten-year abusive marriage with an unfaithful and narcissistic spouse. The reader learns all of this right away in the book. Her growth and her journey back to God and His word is a wonderful thing. 

Lance, the male main character, is a former veteran who owns a security firm. He’s such a caring, giving man and makes an amazing romantic hero. He follows God’s leading despite their (way!) less than positive initial meeting and his strong attraction to her. 

The book had me engaged all evening last night and I finished the last quarter this morning. This is a series that I will be continuing and I trust that the faith aspect will be woven throughout the remainder of the series. This book has balance with great suspense, swoony and clean chemistry, along with the beauty and strength of a small community. 

Stars: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 stars)
Read: September 2024

Series: Northwest Ice Division, #1
Format: Kindle e-book
Challenge Prompt: CNL’s #40 of 50 — “featuring a journalist” (main female character is a sports journalist)

Book #87 of 2024: [I am a hockey fan. I have to be honest, this Calgary stuff for an Edmonton Oiler fan was a stretch. Lol. So allow me to make note of the line about retro Calgary uniforms being like those they wore the “last time” they won the Stanley Cup. Calgary has only won it once. Sorry, but as a true hockey fan and a lifelong Oiler fan, I had to set the record straight! Lolololol!]

REVIEW: i have mixed feelings about this book. I do see how female sports reporters have been treated poorly by some. However, I’m just so weary of the entire, woke “toxic masculinity” talking point. There are some toxic males and females out there but that doesn’t means masculinity or femininity is toxic. At all. In fact, a truly masculine man is the character of Franklin or the character of Mike. 

Personal side note about sports reporting in general: 
Female sports reporters in men’s changing rooms is wrong and hypocritical. It doesn’t empower women sports reporters at all. Do we want male reporters in the female changing rooms then? We now have boys and men going into girls’ women’s changing rooms and calling it their right. This is all very broken. 

I just didn’t really connect to the story as a whole. I didn’t really feel invested. Some parts didn’t really strike me as believable. Some of the resulting drama felt contrived and overdone over a comment. I did love  Franklin & Cassie’s family and their ranch. I did love the chemistry and history between the two main characters.

Stars: 4.5, rounded up to 5
Read: September 2024

Series: Aveline, #3
Format: Kindle e-Book
Challenge Prompt: CNL’s #32 of 50 — “author with a pen name” (author’s real name is Rachel Devenish Ford)

Book #86 of 2024: The Aveline series has been a joy to read! I really, really want the author to continue this series. I’ve fallen in love with this community and its people. I want to move there and sit under a jacaranda tree after the ladies get together to share and pray. I mean, CLEARLY Mercy and Lewis’ story needs to be told! And Francisco deserves his happy ending. I could go on and on. 

I absolutely love Daniel and his refreshing honesty. What an amazing man. And Ani is the perfect match who sees those amazing qualities. She’s an incredible person. I adore their makeshift—and very REAL—family with the Venezuelan family. 

I found this book culturally rich and I learned many things. I also love how the unique titles have meaning to each of the three books. This one took me a little longer to get into this one so I lowered my rating very slightly to a 4.5/5 compared to the 5/5 that I gave each of the first two. The final 2/3 of this novel are special. 

I cannot recommend this series enough!! 

Book #84 of 2024
Completed: Aug. 31st

I’ve read many novels by this author but this is my favourite. It is her BEST work, in my opinion. From the gorgeous autumn cover to the epilogue that makes your heart feel like it will stretch right out of your body, this book is a must-read. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator, Kim Churchill, is fantastic! I had never heard her before but I wouldn’t hesitate to buy an audiobook with her name attached to it. 

This novel has joy and heartbreak, beauty and ugliness, tears and laughter, emptiness and fullness, strengths and weaknesses, low valleys and mountain-top moments. And she does it all with the reader feeling fully invested and immersed in the characters and community. 

They are not perfect characters with a Cinderella story. There are flaws. There are missteps. There are moments you want to scream in utter frustration, cry in despair, and cheer with jubilance. And swoon??? Oh, YES, there is heart-palpitating swoon that is so full of depth and meaning.

There are so many layers to this story and it keeps you reading as you peel them back one by one. I would love to see this become a series (hint-hint!!!) because I love the people and community of Pinehaven. I am, therefore, firmly invested in what comes next: 
- Jonah’s sister? 
- The handsome doctor returning home? 
- Lauren’s best friend visits or takes a job there? (Maybe her AND the doctor!)

Two or three more books would be juuuuust right! After all, that stunning barn venue is just waiting expectantly, in all its splendor, to be the amazingly romantic setting for endless weddings to come!

*** HUGE thanks to #NetGalley and #ThomasNelson (publisher) for an advanced copy of the audiobook. My honest review is voluntary and in my own words.  #BeforeWeWereUs

Read: August 2024 via ARC audiobook 

Format: ARC audiobook from Net Galley
Narrator: Em Eldridge, Jason Keller
Challenge Prompt: EOW’s “a book set on a farm OR has a farm as a major location in the story” (Sadie’s home is a farm and she works to help save it) 

Book #83 of 2024:
This is my second book by Rachel Fordham and I enjoyed it very much, just as I did the previous one. 
Em Eldridge is a fabulous narrator. I’m sorry to be blunt but Jason Keller’s voices for women were really creepy and turned me off. Em Eldridge could have narrated the book in its entirety. She was a delight to listen to.  

This is a modern-day retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I’m not one for fairytales but this was well done. I grew very fond of Sadie, Otis, and the minor characters, too. 

The characters illustrated that we all have scars of some sort. Not all of them are visible. There was so much raw honesty and it was beautiful. We all must see each other without judgment. 

My favourite quote is: “The world needs both the timid and the bold.” I highly recommend this novel.

Read: August 2024

Series: Lake City Heroes, #2
Format: Audible audiobook
Narrator: Lauren Pederson
Challenge Prompt: CNL’s #13 of 50 — “has a green cover” 

Book #82 of 2024: This was a great second instalment to this series. I remained interested through the entire audiobook. Lauren Pederson is the best narrator out of all the audiobooks that Eason has released. Her voice is suited to the romantic suspense genre. 

This novel had a good balance of suspense and regular life. I like learning more about characters and who they are, especially with a series. I loved the moments where they would chip in to help someone in need. 

I loved the build in the relationship between the two lead characters. It felt natural. I also liked the hints as to who will be coming up in book 3….. 

I’ve read or listened to most of Eason’s books and she is an automatic read for me. 

Stars: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars)
Read: August 2024
Format: Kindle e-book 
Challenge Prompt: ARoCF’s, “a suspense book by an author you haven’t read before”

Book #81 of 2024: New author to me. This is her debut novel and it’s a strong start to a continuing series. 

This novel had very likeable characters without making them ‘perfect.’ Corina’s tragic past is a lot to take in. There are a lot of tense moments and suspense in this story. I actually would have preferred a little less of that.  More info about the characters would create a better balance for me. I didn’t feel I got to know them as well as I would have liked. 

The dedication to friendship with Bryce and Allye (pronounced Allie) toward Corina was remarkable. I wish I knew more about what it was like before Corina and Bryce had parted years before. 

The ‘hair’ scene raised the hair on my arms! That was my favourite suspense scene. Corina’s moment of surrendering it all to God was my favourite non-suspense scene. 

I look forward to book 2 with Allye as the main character. 

Read via my own paperback copy in February 2023. Fantastic paper quality and clarity! 🇨🇦Canadian author.🇨🇦 

When I first heard of Sara Davison and the subject matter of this book, I knew I had to read it. Human trafficking, of all forms, is something that does not get the awareness it should. Yet it is a worldwide problem of epic proportions. And the only way that this ‘business’ profits billions of dollars/year is because big money and big names are at the top of the feeding frenzy. Plain and simple. I’ve researched this topic for the last few years and I’ve been appalled at what I’ve found. 

NO ONE chooses to become a prostitute or a porn film star. No one chooses to be molested or abused. It’s always about manipulation, control, and PROFIT. Whether it’s through drugs or torture or an underground cartel, it happens because there are no alternatives. Furthermore, it also happens to young children and people don’t want to acknowledge that fact. Obviously this is a subject that I am very passionate about and I will never stop trying to bring awareness to it. We cannot turn a blind eye. 

This book handles the topic with bluntness yet not with an approach anymore detailed than it needs to be. The author found a good balance. While I’m sure the female main character isn’t the norm for someone who has been trafficked, she shows the strength and miraculous nature of God. He can take anything, no matter how ugly, and use it for good. 

I was taken in by this book immediately. I could feel that this topic was as important to the author as it is to me. It’s unusual for me to buy a book by an author I’ve never read before, never mind a few. I have book two in paperback and a couple on my Kindle. These characters and their plight were real to me because I know there are people going through this in real life. That isn’t something I will ever ignore. 

The characters were very well-developed. I saw their strengths, weaknesses, and growth. I cried for them, agonized with them, and cheered for them. I’m already anticipating the second book and third books.. 

The book does speak of some of the manipulation tactics and tortures used by these sick and evil people. She gets the point across without extreme measures. As horrific as they are, I know of even worse from my time researching. THIS is the reality that some people around the world live in and deal with. It’s our job to be aware and do things to help. However, I believe we must be careful in how and where we help. Is a charitable agency truly assisting or are they being a secret conduit for further trafficking measures? That is the state of our world today with so many NGOs and charities that simply money launder the bulk of the funds. 

It’s not an easy read due to the subject matter but it is an important read. The story flowed well and I felt connected and invested. The author does a wonderful job and I’m sure it wasn’t easy for her either. Kudos to Sara Davison, who is a fellow Canadian. 

Sadly, this is real life for some. Ignoring it or evading it doesn’t make it go away. It’s time the world pulled their collective head out of the sand and made this fight a priority. The ownership, slavery, and abuse of human beings is something we should all be seeing eye-to-eye on. We can’t change the various forms of slavery in the past. Nothing can fix that. We can, however, do something about it today. It is much bigger, much deeper, and much more sinister now than ever.

Andrew Farmer is on the fast-track in the literary world. As an up-and-coming agent, he is constantly on the road, wooing prospective clients and making a name for himself. But all of his travels leave his wife and childhood sweetheart, Beth, home alone, wondering what has happened to their marriage.

Andrew returns from yet another last-minute trip, knowing he needs to make amends to Beth for his departure just days before Christmas, but he doesn’t expect her frosty greeting and the argument that ensues. Would they have spent their last moments together arguing had they known that just before midnight on Christmas Eve, Beth would be hit by an out-of-control taxi that would ultimately take her life? Andrew would like to believe not, but it isn’t until he meets a humble, straight-talking angel in disguise named Lionel that Andrew receives the opportunity to try again.

Lionel grants Andrew the gift of the last three days of Beth’s life to relive, but there’s a hitch: her fate cannot be changed. Only one gift will save her life, and Andrew has a mere seventy-two hours to figure out what that gift is or he’ll lose Beth forever.