Positive Grace by Deb Haggerty

Deb’s Dozen: Hope Harbor: Where Hearts Heal … Love Blooms. Christian Romance at Its Best!

It’s my week for Irene Hannon—and a switch from suspense/mystery to straight romance—and Irene satisfies both needs. She is equally facile in both genres.

Michael Hunter, a recent widower, drives from Chicago to Hope Harbor to honor a promise to his wife. She loved Hope Harbor and wanted him to feel the same. When he arrives, tired and hungry, to his surprise, the hotel where he had reservations is closed. Finally, turning on the cell phone he’d shut off for peace and quiet, he found several messages from the proprietor trying to advise him of their closing. She finds him a room in nearby Coos Bay—a disappointing turn of events for Michael.

Following a near disaster after almost bumping into a bicycle carrying a beautiful young woman, which crashes avoiding him, he slumps on a bench in the town gathering area, and attempts to regroup—Hope Harbor definitely doesn’t seem to offer him hope. A reclusive woman, Anna Williams, sees him sitting there as she orders her lunch from Charley Lopez’ fish taco stand. Neither recognizes the stranger on the bench. Charley sends Anna over to Michael with a bag of tacos and a note. As Anna sits next to him, she is shocked to realize he looks almost exactly like her estranged son, John.

The bicyclist, Tracy Campbell, loves Hope Harbor. She has been working overtime to try to keep her late parents’ business, Harbor Point Cranberries, solvent. In addition to part-time work as a CPA, she also volunteers many hours at Helping Hands. Crashing because of the clumsy stranger was not on her agenda for the day.

Hope Harbor is a wonderful, well-written story of triumph overcoming life’s tragedies; a heart-warming tale of people who are believable and lovable characters, albeit carrying deep secrets. I loved Michael and Anna and Tracy and Charley Lopez. You will too. Four stars and well-worth the pleasurable read.

Irene Hannon

Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, gave me a copy of Hope Harbor in exchange for my unbiased review.

Deb’s Dozen: A Curse, A Chatelaine, A Curmudgeon: God’s Generous Grace Overcomes All Odds

Elizabeth Camden paints the most realistic pictures of times gone by. She has displayed her artistry again in Until the Dawn, a novel set in the late 1800s in the Hudson River Valley. Dierenpark is an abandoned mansion high overlooking the Hudson River. Although the house is supposedly cursed, that onus has not kept the citizens of the tiny village adjoining the property from keeping the mansion as a tourist draw. Sophie van Rijn has, in fact, built a rudimentary weather station on the roof to aid her in her quest to have her village become the site of the Weather Bureau’s next permanent station. The riverboats stop at the pier, the guides tell the gruesome story of the Vandermarks and their curse, the townspeople sell pastries and postcards.

All comes to a screeching halt the day the Vandermarks return. Sophie, who has served as the chatelaine of the household in their absence, runs afoul of the crusty curmudgeon who is Quentin Vandermark. Sophie discovers to her horror the reason for the presence of the Quentin and his son, Pieter, is for Quentin to draw up plans to totally destroy Dierenpark.

Sophie is appalled, to say the least, to find the enmity Quentin holds against the house and his heritage. She finds Dierenpark and the environs to be a piece of Paradise, which is what Direnpark means. The Edenic gardens and surroundings have been her solace for years.

Sophie and Quentin engage in a duel of wits: Sophie with cheerfulness and Christian demeanor; Quentin with depression and belief in nothing but Science. How Sophie endeavors to win over Quentin, her building relationship with Pieter, her winning over of the gruff bodyguards all come together in a marvelous story of God’s goodness and grace.

You’ll want to visit this Eden, meet her characters, and revel in the byplay of engaging personalities found in Until the Dawn. Four plus stars!

Elizabeth Camden

Bethany House gave me a copy of Until the Dawn in exchange for my unbiased review.