THE PATRIOT BRIDE By Kimberley Woodhouse

Part of the Daughters of Mayflower series, The Patriot Bride, is one of my favorites so far. Ms. Woodhouse does a great job incorporating history. In fact, the balance of romance and revolutionary life draws you in so that you feel as if you are part of the action. More than that, you find yourself sympathizing with General Washington and Ben Franklin because of the glimpse of the life they must have led and the sacrifices they had to make which lead you to appreciate them more. I don't think I had ever truly understood. I had learned the facts of history but it is so impersonal. 

It is pure enjoyment to read this book and see what our founding fathers and early american ancestors had to do to ensure the freedom we enjoy. Faith Jackson, a widow, agrees to be a messenger, a dangerous job, and in the process she meets Matthew Weber, a patriot, undercover as a loyalist attempting to gather information and transfer it to Faith to get to the leaders of the cause. 

As war begins to break out around them, they found their feelings for each other escalating and the danger to them both also increasing exponentially. To complicate matters, Faith has an unwanted suitor who is insistent and persistent.

Will their love survive the coming conflagration or will the sacrifices be too great. This book has my 5 star recommendation and can stand alone in the series. Thanks to Barbour Publishing for allowing me to read The Patriot Bride through Netgalley.

MINDING THE LIGHT By Suzanne Woods Fisher

Minding the Light, is the second book in the Nantucket Legacy series by author, Suzanne Woods Fisher. Ms Fisher puts you right in the middle of early 19th century America with flashbacks to a century before that through the journal of Mary Starbuck. She gives you glimpses of Quaker life as well as that of seafaring men and the women who wait for them at home.

In fact, the opening scene is of Jane Macy as she and her children are hurrying to meet her seafaring Captain husband, Reynolds Macy. But Jane only has a small role in the story although her character has an affect on all the others. The true heroine is her sister, Daphne who must step in and her the widowed Captain with his children whom he has only just met.

Jane leaves Reynolds a dying message to "Mind the Light" from which the book gets it's name. Reynolds, decides his wife didn't only die from sickness but was murdered. He accuses the Doctor because of some medicine he has been treating her with but all may not be as it seems.

Tristam, Reynold's partner also has him deep in debt and then suddenly disappears. A bounty hunter appears to apprehend Reynold's first mate, a black man, whom the bounty hunter wants to return to slavery.

Daphne's mother despises Reynold's and his children but she had already turned her back on Jane before she died. Now she pushes Daphne and Tristam into a betrothal neither, secretly, seems to want.

Minding the Light is a very interesting character study and a lesson in humility, redemption, and forgiveness. It is a historical romance but the romance rolls very gently through the story.

It makes for an interesting summer read. Thanks to Revell for allowing me to read Minding the Light through Netgalley

THE HOPE OF AZURE SPRINGS By Rachel Fordham

Rachel Fordham is a new young author but, already, I suggest you add her to your list of authors for your reading lists. This is an excellent start for her. From the opening paragraph to the final page, I was hooked. Em, the heroine, truly warrants that title. She is a young woman who has survived adversity knock after knock. She survives an attempted murder that succeeded in taking the life of her guardian, who turns out to not be much of a guardian. She is brought into Azure Springs where she meets Sheriff Caleb Reynolds who vows to find the perpetrators.

Sheriff Caleb Reynolds mistakenly treats Em as a child to start with until she corrects him and then he realizes she is just half starved to death. He thinks she's plain, not much to her, and not much to look at; but slowly she transforms and he finds that her beauty shines from within and makes her a hidden treasure. 

Caleb is determined to solves Em's case and protect all those under his care especially Em. He feels he has to prove himself to his parents as the only living son since his three brothers all perished in the war. 

Em doesn't trust easily and holds her past close to her vest. Her greatest desire is to find her little sister lost to her when they were separated off the Orphan Train.

Slowly, with out trying, Em begins to steal Caleb's heart and in turn he begins to share bits of himself with her as she does with him. Things escalate when Em is kidnapped by the bad guy. That is not the end of the surprises in the story. The ending is a true happily ever after, one a princess would appreciate. You'll know what I mean if you read the book.

Thanks to Revell for allowing me to read The Hope of Azure Springs through Netgalley.