Book Review: The High Divide

Book Title: The High Divide

Author: Lin Enger

Publisher: Algonquin Books

Publisher Date: 3 September 2014 (332 Pages, Hardcover)

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Western, 1878 - 1889 Gilded Age

Series: 

In 1886, Gretta Pope wakes one morning to discover that her husband is gone. Ulysses Pope has left his family behind on the far edge of Minnesota's western prairie, with only the briefest of notes and no explanation for why he left or where he's headed. It doesn't take long for Gretta's young sons, Eli and Danny, to set off after him, following the scant clues they can find, jumping trains to get where they need to go, and ending up in the rugged badlands of Montana. Short on money and beleaguered by a treacherous landlord, Gretta has no choice but to seek out her sons and her husband as well, leading her to the doorstep of a woman who seems intent on making Ulysses her own. While out in the Western wilderness, the boys find that the closer they come to Ulysses's trail, the greater the perils that confront them--until each is faced with a choice about whom they will defend, and who they will become. Enger's breathtaking portrait of the vast plains land- scape is matched by the rich expanse of his characters' emotional terrain, as pivotal historical events--the bloody turmoil of expansionism, the near total demise of the bison herds, and the subjugation of the Plains Indians--blend seamlessly with the intimate story of a family's sacrifice and devotion.

Disclaimer: I received this book free from LibraryThing Early Readers for an honest review. This is my honest review.

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We are introduced to the family that we will be following. We are seeing Eli's point of view at the moment.

We know the boys are home, and Eli see thus father walk away? But why? Will Eli go looking for his father? Will he stay and help his mother and brother?

We seem to be seeing how each member feels or struggles when someone walks away. Will Danny and Eil keep looking for their father? Will Eli go off and leave his brother, Danny, with their mother?

Eli seems determined to go search for their father. Danny seems to have either dreams or nightmares. Are his headaches due to them?

Now there m I ther is looking for both her sons. Will she find them? What will she do if and when she finds them?

It looks like the boys are searching for their father. After finding out some information about him, they realize they do not know him. Will they decide to head back home? Will they follow, hoping to find their father? Will their father return, and will they all be together? Will it just be Gretta and her sons that remain?

What adventures does Eli go on, and will he let his father learn a lesson, or will Eli do something to help his father heal and help a man who lost his whole family? Will his father feel better?

Was his guilt too much to consider dying, and will this Magpie and his family understand, and what is the result of giving one son for another? Will the Inians see that his son might be struggling, and is that what he wanted for a son he so wanted to teach and have help hunting? Did these Indians decide that what they did would not help, or did it make more sense to see the world as it changed to?

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Book Review: The Black Midnight

Book Title: The Black Midnight

Author: Kathleen Y'Barbo

Publisher: Barbour Publishing

Publisher Date: August 1, 2020 (256 Pages, E-ARC, E-Book)

Genres: True Crime, Crime, Historical Fiction, England, USA, Mystery

Series: True Colors #7

Two Series of Murders Seem Mysteriously Connected
Step into True Colors -- a series of Historical Stories of Romance and American Crime

Could a series of murders in London in 1889 be related to unsolved murders in Austin, Texas, 1884? Queen Victoria wants to know and asks her granddaughter—who left the queen’s good graces by going off to America to become a Pinkerton agent—to quietly look for any connection. The catch is the queen doesn’t want her to do it alone. Alice Anne must find her former Pinkerton agent partner—now an attorney in Austin—and enlist him in the hunt. As the pair get closer to finding their suspect, their lives become endangered, but they refuse to be intimidated. Can this case be solved?

Discliamer: I received a complimentary E-ARC copy of this book from Netgalley and Barbour Publishing for an honest review and was under no obligation to post a review.

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If you are a history lover and enjoy England, you will enjoy this book. Well, you will get a bit of a tour of London. Though we start in Austin, Texas. We are introduced to every strong Pinkerton detective and her partner. We seem to have unsolved murders in Texas. But our detectives seem to be quite busy otherwise while chasing down a killer.

Will Annie and her partner Isaiah solve the murders in Austin and London? Will they find the killer that is killing women in their beds in Austin and the connection with the killing in London? The queen seems to want her great-granddaughter to look into them with her friend from Texas.

The pages will make you want to read until the last page. You will be on your toes and turning or sliding your pages up reading until the end. Is the killer Jack the Ripper, or is it someone else? You will be trying to guess and figure out along with the Pinkerton detectives in their investigations.

I felt like I was investigating along with them trying to find the killer of the mysterious deaths. You do get pulled into experience the London along the way. Who or What is the Black Midnight? Is the Midnight Assassin the same person as The Black Midnight or Jack the Ripper?

All fans of historical fiction and crime will love this book and the series. It had me wanting more. It is in does go into details about investigations but not a lot into the deaths of killings. This is good in that way. What does the Prince want with his daughter? Why is he trying to bring his daughter home? Who is Annie Walters? Will she give herself away? What up with Cameron Blake and his reporting. Some entertaining story plots are going on. We go on as adventure with this one.

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Review: Too Rich For a Bride

Book Title: Too Rich For a Bride
Author: Mona Hodgson
Genres: Historical Fiction, Romance, Historical Romance, Christian, Christian Fiction, Western
Series: The Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek (#2)
Publisher: WaterBrook Press
Publish Date: May 3rd 2011 (320 Page, Paperback)
Disclaimer: I received this book free from the author for doing a survey. My review as no opinion from her or my honesty thoughts. They are my own.
Description: With a head more suited to bookkeeping than a bridal veil, Ida’s dreams include big business- not beaus.  Ida Sinclair has joined her sisters, Kat and Nell, in the untamed mining town of Cripple Creek, Colorado for one reason: to work for the infamous but undeniably successful businesswoman, Mollie O’Bryan. Ida’s sisters may be interested in making a match for their determined older sister, but Ida only wants to build her career.Under Mollie's tutelage, Ida learns how to play the stock market and revels in her promising accomplishments. Fighting for respect in a man's world, her ambition leaves little room for distractions. She ignores her family's reservations about Mollie O'Bryan's business practices, but no matter how she tries, she can't ignore the two men pursuing her affections—Colin Wagner, the dashing lawyer, and Tucker Raines, the traveling preacher.Ida wants a career more than anything else, so she shrugs off the suitors and pointed “suggestions” that young ladies don’t belong in business. Will it take unexpected love—or unexpected danger—for Ida to realize where her priorities truly lie?

Ida Sinclair is headed to Cripple Creek. She must first graduate from Business school. There someone that tries and mess that up with her. Her professor see her skills and is intruding and asks Ida to meet him at his office to chat after she done with her duties.

Ida just want a job in the business world? Will she get it in New York or will she go to Cripple Creek? That her plan to go to Cripple Creek to be with her sisters Nell and Kat along. Her father want he to. Her little sister Vivian is to join them the next summer.

Tucker Raines is asked to come to Cripple Creek by his mother. He arrives a day or so before Ida Sinclair. He left his sister to come help out. He finds out his father is ill and he got to take over the family business “The Raines Ice Company”. Tucker finds that having his mother and father stay in Colorado Springs so that his father can stay at the hospital is the best option and care.

Tucker finds out what the real reason and his father is in debt. How will Tucker pull his family business out of debt but also pay for his sister Willow care as well. Tucker runs into Ida Sinclair for the first time at the depot with his mother and father.

There are surprises as you turn the pages. What will happen to Tucker and Ida? Mona get you hooked and you can't be let go. You also learn about the Cripple Creek around that time period in history.

 

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Review: A Plain and Simple Heart

Book Title: A Plain and Simple Heart
Author: Lori Copeland, Virginia Smith 
Genres:  Amish, Historical, Romance, Adult, Young Adult, Western, Christian Fiction, Christian Historical Fiction, Adventure, 1884, Series
Series: The Amish of Apple Grove #2
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
Pub Date: September 1st 2012 (320 Pages, Paperback)
Book Source: Won it in a giveaway on Goodreads

Synopsis:
A Plain and Simple Heart, an exciting new Amish-meets-Wild West adventure from bestselling authors Lori Copeland and Virginia Smith, weaves an entertaining and romantic tale for devoted fans and new readers.

1884-Several years earlier, young Rebecca Switzer lost her heart to Jesse Montgomery, a rugged but dissolute cowboy on a dusty cattle trail near the Amish settlement of Apple Grove. Now she is grown up, and when she hears one day that he has been spotted nearby, her desire is plain and simple: She must see him.

Sheriff Colin Maddox is counting the days until he can leave law enforcement and follow his dream of starting a church. When a lovely woman, new to town and looking travel weary and a bit lost, gets caught up in the middle of a temperance riot, she is arrested along with the leaders. He can hardly believe she is what she claims?a Plain and simple woman. Nor can he believe how quickly he loses his heart to her. Can Colin convince her to forget Jesse and give him a chance?

My Thoughts:
This book is the second in the series called "Amish of Apple Grove." Really enjoyed this book for it quiet funny to see Rebecca get in a mess of things when she arrives in Lawrence, Kansas. She starts out day dreaming about her love for Jesse who she met four years earlier on a cattle trail drive. She hear of his aware about and heads for it.

Sheriff Maddox learns what it takes to keep peace in the small town. He just hoping things are peaceful during this time before the new sheriff arrives to take over. But things start to get quite interesting the mintue Rebecca arrives in Lawrence Kansas. Colin see her and judges she there for a protest of the night she arrived.

There are a few thing that are surprises throughout the book and believe me it a book to read. I do not want to giveaway any of the secrets of what happens to Rebecca  or Colin for that matter. I do not want to tell you want happens to a few of the folks in the town. To find out it book to pick up. Another book to pick up is called "The Heart Frontier."

Book Reviews: Goodread/ Shelfari/ LibraryThing/

My Rating:

Review: The Heart's Frontier

Title of Book: The Heart's Frontier
Authors: Lori Copeland, Virginia Smith
Series: The Amish of Apple Grove #1
Genres: Amish, Historical, Romance, Adult, Young Adult, Western, Christian Fiction, Christian Historical Fiction, Adventure
Publishers: Harvest House Publishers
Pub Date: March 1, 2012 (320 Pages, Paperback)
Books Source: Borrowed from Library
Contact Authors: Website / Virginia Smith Goodread Profile

Synopsis: from Goodreads
Kansas,1881--On a trip to visit relatives, Emma Switzer's Amish family is robbed of all their possessions, leaving them destitute and stranded on the prairie. Walking into the nearest trading settlement, they pray to the Lord for someone to help. When a man lands in the dust at her feet, Emma looks down at him and thinks, The Lord might have cleaned him up first.

Luke Carson, heading up his first cattle drive, is not planning on being the answer to anyone's prayers, but it looks as though God has something else in mind for this kind and gentle man. Plain and rugged--do the two mix? And what happens when a dedicated Amish woman and a stubborn trail boss prove to be each other's match?

My Thoughts on Book:

This is unique kind of story in itself. It about a family in Apple Grove along with Luke Carson and his men on a trail. There are some things that happen along the way. Emma and Luke relationship starts to form.

In the prologue you learn about Luke Carson, and his pa. Luke was picked to be a trail boss to take Mr. Hancock cattle to market. He is to take the cattle drive from Texas to Hays. We find out what some of what Luke Carson wants in life and it bit different then this fathers life.

Emma Switzer and her family were on their way to Troyer. Emma does not want to leave Apple Grove to go to Troyer to live with her aunt. Her Grandmother  Switzer insisted on going with Emma to Troyer.

We start out on the trail in Kansas going from one Amish community to another Amish community. When unexpected things start to happen to the Switzer's family. They are robbed of their belongings, and were left with nothing, but their lives. Emma Switzer's father Jonas, sister Rebecca and grandmother Switzer's were all traveling to Troyer, KS. They were hoping that Emma would find husband, as their were more Amish men available there.

After they are left on the trail, they pray for God's help and is provided with assistance from Luke Carson. He is on a cattle drive, and is in a anxious to get to Hays, KS with his animals.

Wait until you hear what Grandma Switzer.... says and does on the wagon ride. It to funny.

So if you are in a need to laugh or you just want to read it read about to see what up with this wonder of a book. The best way to put on smile is to laugh at something. As they say laughter is best medicine. 

I would recommend it but to read this it up to you to decide. These are my honest feeling and for this review. It is a fun and funny book, but if you do not like western or cowboys or rustlers this may not be a book for you but that is up to you to decide. I do not like to many histical or western stories but this one got my attention and did like it.

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