Cover Revel of Roseanna M White's final book in The Code Breaker's series: A Portrait of a Lady

The Cover for the final book in The Code Breaker series is finally here and I'm excited to read it and finish out the series.  And I just know that just like the first two in the series this is going to be another great read.


Zivon Marin was one of Russia’s top cryptographers, until the October Revolution tore apart his world. Forced to flee after speaking out against Lenin and separated from his brother along the way, he arrives in England driven by a growing anger and determined to offer his services to the Brits.

Lily Blackwell sees the world best through the lens of a camera—and possesses unsurpassed skill when it comes to retouching and recreating photographs. With her father’s connections in propaganda, she’s recruited to the intelligence division, even though her mother would disapprove.

After Captain Blackwell invites Zivon to dinner one evening, a friendship blooms between him and Lily. He sees patterns in what she deems chaos; she sees beauty in a world he thought destroyed. But both have secrets they’re unwilling to share, and no one is quite certain where Zivon's loyalties really lie—until his enemies are discovered to be far closer than he’d feared, and only Lily's skills can save him.

Review of An Hour Unspent

Title:  An Hour Unspent

Author: Roseanna M White

Series: Shadows Over England book 3

 

Chapters: 33 plus Epilogue

Pages: 416

Genre: Christian Historical fiction, Christian Historical Romance

Rating: 5 stars  

An Hour unspent is the third and final book in the Shadows Over England series by Roseanna M White.  It's Barclay's story, the story that I've been waiting for since I read the first book in the series.  Barclay's the "older brother" of Rosemary and Willa and the rest of the rag tag group of orphans. He's a reformed thief who now uses his skills for the good of England.   

Evelina Manning is the daughter of a clockmaker who just may have the key to helping England win the war against German.  Barclay is sent to steal the secrets any way he can. But what he doesn't count on befriending both Evelina and her father. But he doesn't' feel like he would ever fit into Evelina's world.  But on that same note Evelina who walks with a limp do to a polio like disease as a child doesn't think any man can love her for herself.  She knows her former fiance didn't not really.  Can these two misfits find a place together. 

Out of the three books in this series, An Hour Unspent was my favorite, I loved Barclay and Evelina did finally grow on me after a while.   I enjoy books set during WWI but I haven't found many of the Christian fiction market.  So I was thrilled to discover that Roseanna had this series especially this year being the hundred anniversary of   the end of WW I.   

Evelina and Barclay are both flawed characters but they both grow throughout the book especially in their faith. I loved the ending especially when Barclay was able to "steal" the thing that his sister challenged him to steal.   Got a love an honorable reformed thief.  This was my favorite book of the series to me Roseanna saved the best character for last, but I am sad that this series is over. Barclay has been added to my list of favorite book heroes.  I look forward to the next book or hopefully next series from Roseanna M. White. 

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves historical fiction. WWI history especially if you want stories about the home front and the social aspects of the war like I do.  Not only I am a book nerd, I'm a history nerd. 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.

Review of The Captured Bride

Title: The Captured Bride 

Author: Michelle Griep 

Pages: 256

Series: Daughters of the Mayflower book 3 

Genre: Christian Historical fiction 

Rating: 4 stars 

The Captured Bride by Michelle Griep is the third book in the Daughters of the Mayflower, but it was the first book in the series that I didn't DNF. While the writing of the first two books was good the storyline of The Mayflower Bride and The Pirate Bride just didn't hold my attention.  

But I loved Mercy Lytton and Elias Dubois. Everyone thought Elias was a traitor who started out working for the English but then switched to the French. Mercy was a woman doing a man's job as a scout. Half white half Mohawk but raised as a full blooded Mohawk.   

I always seem to like the frontier stories set during the colonial period more than the ones set in the "civilized"  areas of the colonies. These stories just seem more real with strong characters both male and females, because I pretty sure colonial and frontier women had to be tough in order to survive. Michelle's The Captured Bride captures those aspects of a frontier novel. She's not afraid to shy away from the rough, gritty, and dirty aspects of frontier life.  Real frontier life wasn't pretty and it wasn't clean.  

In The Captured Bride, Michelle Griep doesn't white wash history but she also doesn't make the Natives out to be the automatic villains either so that was a nice change of pace from similar novels. This is the second frontier novel by Michelle that I have read the other being A Captive Heart.  In both these novels her main character has a foot in two worlds, one white and the other Native.   She does it with the right balance she doesn't favor one side over the other. 

The Captured Bride was the first novel I read set during the French and Indian War, I now want to look for other book set during this time period.  As well as more books by Michelle Griep. She now joins Laura Frantz as my go to frontier authors.