I really enjoyed this story about a young woman learning about trusting in God and following His path for her. It's set in an early 1900's small town and Astrid, the main character, is a new doctor trying to figure out what she should do with her talents and her life in general. The supporting ...
What a great, emotionally-draining and uplifting book! It alternates between two families linked by tragedy although they never meet. We experience the heart cries of both the mothers and see them bent low by worry and grief. One is given a sudden new joy in life and is able to sing heartfelt ...
For Nora Peterson, this was going to be the Christmas her family would long remember. After all the countless times her husband, Gordon, has been traveling for business, they were all going to be home together to celebrate those time honored traditions she had hoped would continue on as her twin...
I just love Lauraine Snelling. Her books are very uplifting, well written and such a delight to read. While this series contains 4 books it is really a continuation of 8 books in two other series. So the entire thee series covers about 25 years. This book takes place in the very early 1900's....
I could right the same review for almost all of Lauraine Snelling's books... I **LOVE** them! :-) She is one of my favorite Christian Fiction writers. Of course this new series is wonderful! I was sucked in and held captive from almost the first page.We follow Cassie from her life as the star...
This book snagged my interest as I am familiar with Lauraine Snellings work, & her Red River Characters. I really enjoyed this story & the description of life in Norway in the 1800's. I found her mom's attitude towards her sad & wished that it had been explained. I haven't read all of the Red Riv...
New author for me....I have enjoyed her writing.The book moves along at a steady flow. I am able to understand the story even though I did not read book one. This book picks right up and you can understand the storyline. Finding the hook of the book is easy. Love Mavis and her gift of hospitality...
Good story of a family and the individual choices they have made and continue to make in their lives....I did enjoy the book but I would have loved to find out more about the entire family....their individual stories....what drove them to make the choices they made, what made them happy, angry, f...
Heaven Sent Rain by Lauraine Snelling is about Dinah Taylor, a single woman who is a biochemist and CEO of her own company with a quiet, orderly life until it gets turned upside down when she befriends a small boy, Jonah, and his dog, Mutt. She finds herself really caring for the little kid and ...
Ever so slowly Dakota Territory is being transformed from a vast prairie into rich farmland. With the coming of the railroad, the small town of Blessing begins to prosper, and the Bjorklund family is reaping the promised harvest that had lured them from their beloved home in Norway. But for Inge...
Taming the land came at great price. Will their love survive the loss? It has required long, difficult years to tame the virgin prairie of Dakota Territory, but in spite of heartache and back-breaking labor, the hardy immigrants recognize that God has been with them every step. What was merely a...
I happened upon this book on a bargain table at Books-A-Million. Given that I've been trying to keep a more open mind about Christian Fiction and have actually very much enjoyed a couple of titles lately, I thought I would pick this one up. Thankfully, though it took me awhile to warm up to the s...
Broken by life�s disappointments, four women forge a friendship that leads in unexpected directions.Hope Benson is determined to do all she can for the broken souls who come to Casa de Jesus, a women�s shelter in the heart of San Francisco. When a difficult pregnancy forces her to relinquish ...
This is book #2 in this series; although you 'can' read it independently I wouldn't recommend it as it starts right where book #1 left off at. And although Ms Snelling does fill the reader in somewhat you still wouldn't get the full effect of the story without book 1.This story gives the reader a...
Ellie Wold can't wait to graduate from high school. She and Andrew Bjorklund have been waiting to get married since. . .well, since forever, and in June they will finally wed. When Andrew announces they have to postpone the wedding, she's disappointed but takes it in stride there must be a good r...
I enjoyed listening to this in audio format, especially moving from past to present. The leaps of time were clearly defined by the name of the lead character in each switch. Themes of doing vs being, achieving vs enjoying life, the important things in life, Alzheimers, teenage angst, art, all com...
Book 3 of RETURN TO RED RIVER by bestselling author Lauraine Snelling. Thorliff's goal of becoming a writer is within reach. Working for a newspaper in Northfield, Minnesota, he is busy writing articles and stories for the Minneapolis Tribune and Harper's Magazine. But his idyllic world comes to ...
This is book #3 in this series; although you 'can' read it independently I wouldn't recommend it as it starts right where book #2 left off at. And although Ms Snelling does fill the reader in somewhat you still wouldn't get the full effect of the story without books 1 and 2.This story gives the r...
For as far back as he can remember, the dream of becoming a writer has burned brightly in Thorliff's heart. But when he arrives at college, things are not as he had imagined. Thorliff longs for the familiarity and nurture of his loved ones back home. The distance has created a rift between Thorli...
The dream of their own farmstead and a good life in America had brought Roald and Ingeborg Bjorklund across the Atlantic to pioneer the virgin prairie ofDakota Territory. But Roald's tragic disappearance in a winter storm had turned Ingeborg's dreams into a living nightmare. Against nearly imposs...
She had promised herself that once they left the fjords of Norway, she would never look back. The promise of free land lures Roald and Ingeborg Bjorklund from their beloved home high above the fjords of Norway, and after three long years of scrimping and saving to buy tickets for their passage...
This story gives the reader a different outlook on the Civil War; one I never thought about. A family torn apart due to having to be sent away to fight some members killed, some missing and the women all wondering about them. All the while the oldest daughter has to do what she has promised her d...
Book 3 in the bestselling Dakotah Treasures series. Dove House has burned to the ground, Ruby and Rand have married, and now Rand's ranch is home for them all. Ruby's younger sister, Opal, is taking to ranch life like a hummingbird to sugar water. She can outshoot, outride, and work as hard as an...
This series picks up several years after the first Red River of the North series ends. We find the children of the first series graduating and thinking about life after school. The same cast of characters from Blessing are there, plus we meet Elizabeth Rogers from Minnesota. They suffer another d...
On the verge of Mt. St. Helens’ historic eruption, three women must face the mountain: two to search for their missing husbands; the third, to rediscover her life… After a local mountain becomes a deadly and imminent threat, three strikingly different women become linked in a desperate mission. ...
I love this book. I didn't expect this much christianity in it. You rarely get books like that!! I definitely can tell that this is a christian book. I love it. It also makes me love it more because I love horses and racing. I am glad that there are still good books like this in the world. I want...
If you havent read the first book or you are planning on reading it i woundnt suggest reading this review.(view spoiler)[As I started the 2nd book of Golden Filly by Lauraine Snelling I was excited to see what would happen next. I expected to it to be excciting and heart racing like the first boo...
I really enjoyed this Christian historical romance. It takes place in 1910. Nora has received money from her fiancee to come to America from Norway. However, when she arrives in a small North Dakota town, things don't work out as anticipated. She knows she needs to find a job so she can save for ...
High Hurdles by Lauraine SnellingtEven though everyone’s life story is different, they are all unique in some way or another. In Lauraine Snelling’s fictional story, High Hurdles, DJ’s life is nothing but chaos and struggles. DJ has a passion for horses; she works at a horse academy with her best...
Book 3 in The Dakota Plains Series The wide-open plains of the Dakota Territory formed the setting for the lives and loves of many inspiring women making their way in the New World. Rebekka Stenesrude has poured her life into her students, only to see her beloved school burned to the ground. Jude...
Leaving Norway for good Clara carries with her little more than dreams. Armed with a water-stained letter, a faded photograph, and a ticket to America, Clara Johnson travels to Soldall, North Dakota, and her handsome, curly haired husband-to-be. Imagine Clara's surprise when she is greeted instea...
Fourteen-year-old DJ Randall wants nothing more than to compete as a show jumper in the Olympics. The challenges that stand in her way only spur her to work harder toward her dream. Whether it's mucking out stalls and hosting pony parties to earn money to buy her first horse or navigating the cha...
Maggie Roberts is starting over again after her reckless driving led to a 10-year prison sentence and the devastating loss of her son. Having learned to repurpose retired thoroughbred racehorses through an inmate training program, Maggie finds a way to rebuild her life. But it's not until she mee...
Daniel Jeffers calling the meeting to order. “The purpose of this meeting is to better understand our financial resources available right now and to develop a plan to seek outside assistance if we need it.” Astrid sat at the back of the room to make...
Ruby frowned. ‘‘You all right?’’ Milly paused to look where Ruby was staring. ‘‘Of course.’’ Ruby glanced across the field. ‘‘He’s a right nice feller, wouldn’t you say?’’ Not usually, but today . . . Ruby mumbled something under her breath that she hoped sounded like an agreement and returned to...
Nothing. The best she could come up with was blue scrubs. She slipped into the top of a set so that she’d look halfway like a medical person, but she would not wear the baggy pants. She hated those one-size-fits-nobody scrub pants. More or less in uniform, she walked out t...
“I agree.” Kaaren swiped the hair from her face with the back of her hand. “Good thing our fishermen did well.” She took a cake pan from Ingeborg’s warming oven and added the four fish she’d just finished frying to the growing stack. “So Sophie and the babies and the boardinghouse are doing well?...
Mary’s home!” Daniel, the youngest of the Moen brood, left off swinging on the gate to the picket fence and leaped up the porch steps to the door. “Mother, did you hear me?” “Only me and half the town. Must you yell so?” Ingeborg Moen made her way down the steep stairs and...
Me too,” but she daren’t take her eyes off the horse to which she clung with hands, feet, legs, posterior, ankles, toes, elbows, and any other portion of her anatomy with which she could maintain contact.All but her stomach, which was ready to jump ship, or rather jump horse, at any moment.“How a...
The next morning, the S.A.V.E. Squad converged on their “official” meeting spot, the children’s section of the Oakton Community Library. “Sunny!” Nadine’s cheerful face, framed by long black hair and bangs, greeted her. “Your mom and brothers have been in. I’ve missed your smiling face and your g...
“So why can’t we just meet at the ice cream shop, order a cake in advance, and that’s it? I know they have a party room.” Mona gave him one of those looks. “Really.” He wasn’t sure if it was a question or a statement, so he let it lie there. “Would ...
Squad Chapter 15 Racing against Time Half an hour later at the library, Nadine hung up the phone and swiveled her big leather chair toward them. “The council secretary is a volunteer with Paws ‘N’ Claws. She tells me the people who live on Park Street called the council offices to say they don’t ...
As David climbed from the cab of the farm pickup, four people slammed doors on theirs. “We heard you needed help.” A burly man tipped his hat back and extended his hand. “Mr. Benson, Fred.” David shook hands with the four guests. “How did you…I mean…why are…?” “Don’t be surprised, son,” Frank Joh...
“Need be home before dark.” “Meshach, I know that!” She felt like screaming. What could have happened to Agatha? Somewhere from the far reaches of her memory, she heard her father saying, “That aggravating Agatha, I swain . . .” Jesselynn now understood why. Couldn’t she h...
Daniel Jeffers met his mother coming out of her room at the boardinghouse. “But I have always made your breakfast, and at least I can pretend, can’t I?” Daniel shook his head and held out his bent arm to escort her to the dining room. “After breakfast, what do you have planned for today?” “I have...
Easy, wasn’t it?” “Dr. Bjorklund, everything looks so new.” Miriam stared around her. “Well, yes, the hospital has not been open very long. Your hospital in Chicago is quite old in comparison. We are still trying to bring in needed supplies, but we ...
Bridget forced a smile.“For two nights, then?” The man looked as if he’d been traveling without sleep for half of his young life.“Ja. Henry here will show you up. The towels are on the end of your bed. A hot bath is extra, but he will bring up a pitcher of hot water. Supper is at six.” She pointe...
Anji stood on her front stoop and watched Thorliff hustle off on his way to the next house. And to think there was a time, when they were both young and foolish, when she might have married him.She read the paper he had just handed her. Her heart jumped, and not from thoughts of love. Diphtheria!...
Elaine dumped her bag on a chair.Teza looked up from tightening one of the corner clamps on the quilting frame. “No, what?”“Well, I have a little fawn-and-white Chihuahua named Doodlebug, you know, a little dog.” Elaine held her hands for both height and length, neither large. “Our neighbor—she m...
What a job that had been, added on to all the other chores that continued every day. Thanks to Hjelmer’s trapline and Tor’s fishing skill, they often had meat to go with the porridge, for they had run out of vegetables other than what they could harvest from the wild. Tor ...
She stared at her husband through eyes that felt as scratchy as a day-old mosquito bite. With a deep sigh she said, “What else am I to do? Tell everyone not to get sick, not to have any accidents, and above all, not to birth any more babies?” She’d just come home from being all night with one of ...
Katy shook her head, setting the golden curls flowing down her back to bouncing. “John is never abrupt like that. He was downright rude.” She shook her head again, this time more with sorrow than indignation.“Maybe he had something on his mind.” Zeb MacCallister propped a lean shoulder against th...
“Thanks for the ride,” Lindy said when they arrived home. She prodded DJ. “Yeah, thanks.” “See you tomorrow?” DJ heard Robert ask, but she didn’t wait for her mother’s answer. If she never in her whole life spoke to her mother again, it would be too...
Thane stopped, Matty at his heels. She sat and looked up at him, adoration evident in every quiver of her sturdy body. From the top of the bridge over the Alhambra Creek, he scanned the entire waterfront. Plenty of people, strollers, joggers, bikers, dog walkers, but not one purple-coated pixie w...
I’ve never heard singing like that.”“That’s all right, dear, there’ll be more singing. I’m just so glad Cap—Mr. McHenry is back.” Ruby shook her head. “Fiddle. I’ll never be able to address him without his rank. That’s just who he was.”“Was is right. He said he retired from the army, and his rank...
The part that frustrated Ransom the most was that he’d finally thought his brother had grown up a little and knew in his heart that Cassie was the woman he had always dreamed of. He could hear Lucas saying those very words: a woman I’d dreamed of. Well, the fool had made a...
Squad Chapter 26 Cute Litter Pans? I don’t think it’s going to happen,” C. P. said Thursday, holding up yet another attempt to make cute litter pans. He had daubed white shoe polish in dots over a litter pan he’d spray painted black. “Still looks like a painted litter pan.” The girls, C. P., and ...
Judith took her coffee mug to stand in front of the window beside Angela. “Fireworks all around the lake like that last night, and today it is back to placid.” The sun had just leaped into the sky, making the blue even deeper as it traveled. While the men had picked up most of the debris from the...