Young Vines by James Russell Lingerfelt

No compensation was received for this review. All opinions expressed are my own or that of my family. A complimentary review copy was provided to me. 

This past week, I spent my evenings reading Young Vines by James Russell Lingerfelt. The book is the third one in the collection of books sharing about the lives of three college friends: Ryan, Oz and Finn. This third book features Ryan and is primarily set at his Grandmother's vineyard. You can read my reviews of The Mason Jar (featuring Finn) and Alabama Irish (featuring Oz) by clicking on each book's title. As with the other two books, each can be enjoyed on its own but if you have the chance, I would recommend reading all three.

Young Vines is a contemporary novel about life, love, loss and good friends. When Ryan learns that he has inherited his Grandma's vineyard, he reaches out to his friends to have them join him for a couple of days at the Vineyard - in part to have time together and in part to not face it alone. At its heart I think it was a love story and as with the other two books there is something so enticing about reading a love story from a guy's point of view, especially when written by a man. The vineyard is the perfect backdrop for Ryan to reflect on the memories of his time there with his Grandma and provides him a place to heal and prepare to move forward. Lingerfelt does a great job developing characters by using a mix of active story telling and reflection and his rich descriptions help bring the surroundings to life.

This book (really, the whole collection) would be a great addition to your library and makes a great summer read.

about the novel

Dr. Ryan Lockwood is known as a professor who deeply cares for his students. Having grown up as an orphan, he now serves as a literature professor at Pepperdine University, his old alma mater. Located in Malibu, California, Pepperdine holds some of his most treasured memories. It's where he dated and married his first love, and it's where he met his two best friends, Clayton "Finn" Fincannon (The Mason Jar) and Brian "Oz" Bailey (Alabama Irish).

Now, Ryan's on track to become the department Chair, a position he's dreamed of since graduate school. At just thirty-two years old, life couldn't be better. But when his wife passes away unexpectedly, and his grandmother follows soon after, Ryan falls into a deep depression.

His grandmother leaves him her vineyard in Tennessee, where Ryan spent his childhood summers. Since the estate hosts sell-out jazz concerts and the best wine in the southeast, Ryan plans to sell the estate to the highest bidder. But when he visits the vineyard, he meets Rachel Young, the twenty-five year old daughter of the vine dresser. Rachel is good-sensed, hard-working, and she's one of the prettiest women Ryan's ever encountered.

Ryan has sworn to never fall in love again, the vineyard is auctioned at three times it's value, and Pepperdine offers him his dream. Now, Ryan must make a decision: Return to his career and friends in California, or begin a new chapter in life with a young love in Tennessee.

A love story set among the beaches of Malibu, and the lakes and pastures of Tennessee, Young Vines teaches us that sometimes we must let go of old dreams to embrace new ones.

about the author

James Russell Lingerfelt is also the author of The Mason Jar and Alabama Irish.

Find James online: website, Facebook, Twitter

No compensation was received for this review. All opinions expressed are my own or that of my family. A complimentary review copy was provided to me.

Home to Heather Creek by Kathleen Bauer

A complimentary review copy was provided to me.

I recently finished reading the first two books of a series from Guideposts, that became available in stores September 1st. The series is Home to Heather Creek and the first two books are Before the Dawn and Sweet September. Unlike (at least as far as I know) most series that I have read, this one is actually written by multiple authors under the common pseudonym of Kathleen Bauer. There are a total of 24 books in the series. (When I learned that there were 24 books, I became a little bit curious as to how they released 24 books in a series in such short order. As I looked around, it appears that they have been out for a while, so I am assuming that they were recently re-released.)

The Home to Heather Creek series follows Charlotte and Bob Stevenson as they come to grip, not only with the death of their daughter, but the sudden growth in their household when Denise's three children - Sam, Emily and Christopher - come to live with them. The children are faced with a lot of change, losing their mother unexpectedly, moving in with grandparents that they barely know and leaving the suburbs of San Diego to live on Heather Creek Farm in Nebraska. As you can imagine, it is an adjustment on both sides of the equation. The full series covers the first two years following their move.

As the children discover life on the farm, the relationship with their grandparents and their Uncle Pete start to develop. Pete helps to provide a young perspective and helps Sam learn to drive, buys games for the kids and introduces them to several of his favorite movies. They also start to meet people in town and more of their family. Through these relationships, they start to find ways to cope and adapt to the many changes that they are faced with.

The story is very touching and the emotions are real. Charlotte relies on her faith and her good friends to help her through the adjustments that come to raising children again. She is afraid to make the same mistakes that she did with Denise, that caused her to run off at a young age. She tries to learn from what did and didn't work with her own kids, as she raises her grandchildren.

Initially, as I transitioned from the first book to the second book, it was a noticeable different tempo and voice. I think this is a true concern and could make reading the full 24 book series a little awkward. Normally, when you read through a series, hopping into the second or later book is easy, the author provides a little background for the benefit of the reader that hasn't read the other books and to help refresh the reader that has, but from there, it falls right back into the rhythm of the previous books. At first, I was worried about this change in tempo and voice, but as I continued to read, I became accustomed to the new storyteller and it felt right again. That being said, I am not sure how it will flow. The one thing that I think will help is that many of the authors wrote more than one book in the series.

I found these first two books in the series to be enjoyable. I want to continue reading, so that I can continue to watch Sam, Emily and Christopher grow and adapt (or not) to life on the farm. I want to see how Charlotte and Bob address the challenges that they face as they raise their grandchildren. I want to see if and how having the kids on the farm changes Pete. If you enjoy a good story, these might be books that you would enjoy checking out.

No compensation was received for this review. All opinions expressed are my own or that of my family. A complimentary review copy was provided to me.

Not This Time by Vicki Hinze

It seems like it has been forever since I had time to read. I know that there is time, if I am willing to make it. Although, we went through a stretch where I'm not sure I could have kept my eyes open to read if I had wanted to. In fact, the one book that I just finished reading, I had started several months ago but didn't get around to finishing.

The book was Not This Time by Vicki Hinze. The challenge - I just couldn't seem to get focused on the book. I would read a few pages at swimming lessons, but just wasn't caught up in the book. Despite my slow start, I am so glad that I didn't give up on the book. It turned out to be an amazing, page-turner that I couldn't put down. There were a few nights where I stayed up later than I should have once I got into the book, but I simply had to know what happened next and would have stayed up longer, if I hadn't considered when I would have to get up the next morning.

I think that part of the challenge to get started was that I was trying to read it in short snippets at the natatorium, while I my daughter called out "Mommy, watch this" (her teacher has to love her need to call out to me the whole class). I think the other part was that it took me a while to identify with the characters, to get to know them. Turns out that this book was the third in a series, so whereas it is a great stand alone read, there likely was some expectation that you could jump into the story - when it picked up at some point after the last one left off.

It actually wasn't until I got to the end that I actually realized that there had been two other books in the series. I probably should have realized it sooner - the other two books are called out on the cover, I just didn't realize that they were from the same series, I figured that they were just two other well known books by the author. Lately, I seem to have a knack for picking up a later book in a series. In many instances, it has not been an issue. Once I knew the characters, I was happy to go back and read the earlier books in the series. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that this is the case with Not This Time. You see, it is a suspense series, and there were several references back to the events of those earlier stories. I would love to go back and learn a little more about the characters and how they were shaped, but I already know how it ends. Is a suspense story any good if you know, at least to some degree, how it turns out because you know where things wound up later (ie in the last book). The good news for me is that Vicki Hinze has written several other books and has a few upcoming books - so there are still many options for me to read more books by her.

Not This Time is the third book (as I mentioned) in the Crossroads Crisis Center series. The story is focused around Sara and Beth. Together they have built a strong business and friendship. When Sara gets married to a man that Beth can't trust, their otherwise strong friendship is challenged. Sara pushes Beth away, sharing cryptic information like protect yourself from me. When he is kidnapped, Beth becomes a suspect in his disappearance. The story follows their journey to find Sara's husband. Along the way, Beth is falling in love - it is always a nice touch when you can weave in a bit of a love story. It soon becomes obvious that there are 'villains' amongst them, making them unsure of who they can trust and who they can't.

I would recommend this book. You may want to consider starting at the beginning of the series, but even if you don't it is a fully contained story that is well worth the read.

No compensation was received for this post. A copy of the book was provided through Blogging for Books. All opinions expressed are my own or that of my family.
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