Ellie and the Harpmaker By Hazel Prior ★★★★★ #bookreview #bookblog

Synopsis from Goodreads
A rich, heartwarming and completely charming debut that reminds us that sometimes, you don’t find love–love finds you. Dan Hollis lives a happy, solitary life carving exquisite Celtic harps in his barn in the countryside of the English moors. Here, he can be himself, away from social situations that he doesn’t always get right or completely understand. Ellie Jacobs is a lonely housewife, her days filled with walks and poetry she writes in secret. One day, she comes across Dan’s barn and is enchanted by his collection. Dan gives her a harp made of cherry wood to match her cherry socks. He stores it for her, ready for whenever she’d like to take lessons. Ellie begins visiting Dan almost daily, drifting deeper into his world. But when she accidentally discovers a secret, she must make a choice: keep it from him and risk their friendship, or change the course of their lives forever?

My Thoughts
A single word keep going through my head while I was reading this book. That word was lyrical and it really had nothing to do with

Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone ★★★★★ #bookreview

This YA book is about Samantha, a girl with Purely-Obsessional OCD who is persistently consumed by dark thoughts and worries. She is part of the popular girls’ clique in school, but she knows that those girlfriends will turn on her if she does one single thing wrong that would embarrass them, including finding out she has OCD. In a way she feels protected by her circle of friends, but she understands the rules for remaining in the clique, and those rules definitely do not include Samantha’s new friend Caroline. Caroline is carefree, funny, and doesn’t care about being popular or

The Warrior Maiden by Melanie Dickerson ★★★★☆ #bookreview

This is a retelling of the legend of Mulan – the girl who becomes a soldier to assume her deceased father’s duties in war. This is the 9^th book in the Hagenheim series by Melanie Dickerson.

My 15 year old granddaughter suggested I read this series earlier this year. I read all 9 books in the series in the past few months. They are all fairy tale retellings (at least loosely) and they all have a Christian element to them.

I really enjoyed this book. The Hagenheim series started out strong for me, but

Crow Flight by Susan Cunningham ★★★★☆ #bookreview

Synopsis from Goodreads
The curious flight patterns of crows lead a teen computer programmer down a path of mystery and romance. Gin trusts logic a little too much. She even designs programs to decide what to eat and how to spend her time. All that changes when she’s paired with a new transfer student, Felix, on a computer modeling assignment to explain certain anomalies in the behavior of crows. As she enters Felix’s world and digs further into the data behind crow behavior, Gin uncovers a terrible secret. And the wrong decision could equal disaster squared . . .

My Thoughts
The synopsis does describe the book, but it isn’t interesting enough to make someone want to read this book in my opinion. This book is so much more than the synopsis describes!