Book Review Wednesday

I have three reviews today. One I just read and two I read a long time ago when they were new and again a few times since. It's been a blessed reading time!

The Prisoner by Cheryl Reavis. Only "Ashokan Farewell" playing in the background could have improved this book. I admit to it being a re-read, but it had been long enough since I read it--the year it won the RITA--that it was new all over again. I say this every time I read a Cheryl Reavis book, but those were some of the best reading hours I've ever spent. John Howe is one of the most heartbreaking heroes I've ever read, and Amanda one of the strongest heroines. The Civil War and its aftertimes are one of my favorite periods of American history to read, and this book is way at the top of the considerable heap of stories I've read about it.

I've bought and read it again with the missing chapters. If I could give it more stars, I would. Still at the very top of that heap I mentioned above.

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Beneath A Thousand Apple Trees by Wrangler Janie DeVos. I can't begin to tell you how much I love Janie DeVos's writing. I'm a fan of Southern fiction anyway, but her prose put me right over there in the Blue Ridge and made me feel it. She made me love and support Sam and Willa and Jack and Rachael. Although there was much grief in the story--there always is in family stories--there was so much love, too, so much sweetness. I love learning things, too, and having my first meeting with a Wart Buyer was an enchantment in itself!

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Though the Mountains Be Shaken by Kathleen Neely. When a Parkinson's diagnosis and a professional crisis fall like rocks onto an already troubled marriage, finding their way out of the tumbled wreckage of their lives is a humbling struggle. This book was wonderful. I won't say I always found the characters sympathetic, but I found them real. My heart broke right along with theirs, and their celebrations became mine, too. Thanks, Ms. Neely, for sharing such a great story.