Book Notes: November 9, 2022 - Historical Romance

 Welcome back, Readers! I hope you're having a wonderful week. I'm happy to say I have a couple of book reviews to share with you in one of my favorite romance genres -- historical romance. One is inspirational, the other isn't, but both are clean reads. And if you keep reading, you'll find another three-word prompt. Let me get straight to it. 

Book Review: Tales of Love Looking West (Mail Order Brides #1, 3, & 5) by Etta Foster 

Τales of Love Looking West by Etta Foster
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Only Read The First Story

There were a few things I loved about story one. The innocence of the story really made me recall my own imagination about what finding love might be like. It also reminded me of the fairy tales I enjoyed reading. The story was clean and sweet.
But there was so much that bothered me, too. Formatting doesn't seem like it would be such a big issue, but a space between every paragraph proved a major distraction for me. There was also a lot of telling going on, rather than showing. The avoidance of contractions made all the dialog sound super stiff. This book may have been edited, but it doesn't seem like it.
If I hadn't really been invested in the characters, though, I would definitely have stopped after the third chapter. I did want to know how the story would unfold.
While this wasn't exactly my cuppa, if you are an avid fan of super-sweet, clean romance bordering on fairytale, then I'd recommend this book to you.

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*I must tell you I only read the first story. When you're behind on your reading challenge, long books aren't gonna help you get there. However, each story in a collection like this represents one book. Considering the formatting issues and the super-sweet, unbelievable nature of the story I did read, I felt it probably wasn't best to try fighting my way through the other two stories at this point. I may read them later, though.

Book Review: Protecting Annie by Jodie Wolfe

Protecting Annie by Jodie Wolfe
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Every Bit As Interesting as I Expected

I love this author's style. The way she weaves faith into the daily lives of her characters is pretty amazing. It never comes across as preachy, but the message comes across true to scripture and life.
These two MCs intrigued me from the get-go. I couldn't wait to see how these opposites would end up. Their antics were fun, funny, heart-breaking, and more.
If you love a clean, historical romance which is faith-filled and full of adventure, then why not give this one a try?

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I have really enjoyed Jodie Wolfe's books. She was new to me at the beginning of the year and I feel like I'll be reading more of her books in the future. She's got a fun way of relaying a story. 

Just Keep Writing: Wednesday Whimsy

I've got another word prompt for y'all. Are you ready?

If this is your first time participating in this kind of writing exercise, you're in for a treat. If you've done this with me before, just keep scrolling for the prompt.

Rules:

1. You can use any/all of the words and/or the photo in the prompt below to create a unique written work. Fiction or nonfiction, poetry or prose, even lyrics are acceptable.  
2. Please keep the material you write clean (ie. nothing R-rated or worse) if you wish to share the link to your work here, as well as if you link back to my site. I strive to keep my site free of such things. My readers know and expect this. I respect your right to write whatever you feel you need to write. And you're free to use my prompts. But if your material is graphic, I'd rather not view it, and most of my readers will not wish to. 
3. Have fun! This type of exercise is perfect for growing in the writing craft, or for helping through a rough patch in your current WIP. If you're looking to push your author limits and you normally write in nonfiction prose, try a whimsical collection of lyrics. If you normally write poems about real life events, try your hand at a fanfic. Give yourself some room to explore.

Don't forget to leave a link to your creation (unless you're writing graphic material) so my readers and I can check out your work. I'd appreciate a link back to this post to help me reach more readers, but it's not required. 

Photo by Daka

If you think this photo is pretty cute like I did, you'll want to click here to check out Daka's gallery on Pexels.com. I hope you have fun creating with this prompt. 

Thank y'all for stopping in today to see what I had to share. I hope you saw something interesting or useful here. If you did, or even if you didn't, try again tomorrow. I'll have another word prompt for you. 

Until next time...

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