Book of the Month

Our Review Team Members love to read good books. Who doesn't? While they have been busy reviewing books they are also voting for their favourites each month. These books become finalists in our Book of the Year Awards. And they get our "Highly Recommended" Seal of Approval!

November Book of the Month

The Queen's Cook
​by Tessa Afshar

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In the heart of ancient Persia, the empire's Jewish citizens face an ominous edict that threatens their very existence. Roxannah, the daughter of an impoverished Persian lord, is devastated by the news but feels helpless to come to the aid of her Jewish friends. Desperate to support her family, Roxannah approaches the royal physician, Adin--the man whose kind eyes haunt her--and seeks his help to find employment in Queen Esther's kitchens.
 
In the opulent palace of Susa, Roxannah tries to survive the spiteful ploys of the other cooks as she ascends through the ranks. Her loyalty earns her the trust and friendship of Queen Esther, who is navigating dangerous politics with wisdom and grace. When Roxannah and Adin uncover a sinister plot against Amestris, the king's most powerful wife and Esther's archenemy, they find themselves tasked with the impossible job of discovering the culprit. As secrets unravel and alliances are tested, the fate of Esther's reign hangs in the balance.

October Book of the Month

The Burning of Rosemont Abbey
​by Naomi Stephens

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Everyone in Wilbeth Green has something to hide, but she's about to uncover their secrets.

1956: In a quiet English village, the smoldering ruins of Rosemont Abbey have set the residents' tongues wagging, and everyone is quick to accuse troublemaker Paul Everly of the crime of arson. Paul has vanished without a trace, leaving only his plucky twin sister, Louisa, certain of his innocence. Fueling her conviction is an inexplicable connection--she felt her twin's death an hour before the abbey went up in flames.

Armed with nothing but her wit and her keen sense of intuition, Louisa embarks on her own investigation, challenging the dubious townspeople and the disdain of her aunt and uncle. Even Inspector Malcolm Sinclair, once Paul's closest friend, warns Louisa to abandon her pursuit. But Louisa is determined to solve a murder no one else believes was committed, even if it means unraveling secrets that could shake Wilbeth Green to its core.

September Book of the Month

A Token of Love
by Carrie Turansky

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Separated by centuries, the lives of two women intertwine through their shared pursuit of love, truth, and justice.

In 1885 London, Lillian Freemont embarks on a treacherous journey to reunite with her long-lost niece, Alice, who was abandoned at the Foundling Hospital eight years ago. Fueled by her sister's plea and armed with the gold token that identifies her niece, Lillian teams up with investigative reporter Matthew McGivern to expose the grim reality of the shadowed streets of London. As Lillian and Matthew unravel the mystery of Alice's disappearance, their partnership blossoms into one of shared purpose and undeniable attraction.

In present-day London, Janelle Spencer finds herself unexpectedly running the Foundling Museum. When filmmaker Jonas Conrad arrives to document the museum's history, their collaboration takes a surprising turn as they uncover articles from the past that shed light on a haunting connection to the present. As Janelle becomes caught between exposing the truth and protecting the museum's reputation, she must decide if she can risk everything for what she believes.

August Book of the Month

Shield of the Mighty
​by Connily Cossette

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Captured by the Philistines as a young boy, Zevi has grown into a formidable warrior. As a captain in King Saul's army, he is assigned a crucial mission: recruit soldiers, gather tribute for the royal coffers, and find talented artisans for the king's court. But when he is sent to Maresha, the town he was forced to leave as a child, he is dismayed when the elder council rejects King Saul and his campaign, leaving the town vulnerable to retribution and the threat of outside enemies.

Yochana, a widow and skilled woman of business, is captivated by a stranger who enters her perfume shop. Upon discovering he is not only a soldier but a captain responsible for enlisting young men to die in battle, fury and pain from her past loss resurfaces. But when Zevi's actions in Maresha entangle Yochana in his radical scheme, they'll be forced to face present dangers while confronting scars of the past.

July Book of the Month

Meeting Her Match
​by Jen Turano

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Miss Camilla Pierpont, a renowned matchmaker and influential member of the New York Four Hundred, has vowed never to marry after suffering a devastating heartbreak during her debut years ago. However, when she is nearly abducted along the Hudson River, she finds herself rescued by an annoyingly outspoken, albeit fascinating, gentleman who challenges her in a manner she wasn't expecting.

After learning that Camilla Pierpont has enjoyed success with taking wayward young ladies in hand, Mr. Owen Chesterfield travels to the Hudson River Valley determined to convince Camilla to sponsor his sister, who is in desperate need of social rehabilitation.

Knowing her life is in danger, Camilla agrees to Owen's proposition and travels with him to West Virginia, finding herself charmed by the less-than-formal attitude of his small hometown, as well as by Owen himself. But danger waits in the shadows, disrupting what she knows would be the most spectacular match she's ever made--her own.

June Book of the Month

Born of Gilded Mountains by Amanda Dykes

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A lost treasure. A riddled quest. The healing power of friendship.

Legends are tucked into every fold of the Colorado mountains surrounding the quaint town of Mercy Peak, where residents are the stuff of tall tales, the peaks are taller still, and a lost treasure has etched mystery into the very terrain.

In 1948, when outsider Mercy Windsor arrives after a scandal shatters her gilded world as Hollywood's beloved leading lady, she is determined to forge a new life in obscurity in this time-forgotten Colorado haven. She purchases Wildwood, an abandoned estate with a haunting history, and begins to restore it to its former glory.

But as she does, her every move tugs at the threads of the mountain's lore, unearthing what became of her long-lost pen pal Rusty Bright, and the whereabouts of the infamous Galloping Goose Railcar No. 8, which vanished years ago--along with the mailbag it carried, whose contents could change the course of countless lives. Not to mention the fabled treasure that--if found--could right so many wrongs.

Among the towering mountains that stand as silent witnesses, the ghosts of the past entangle with the courage of the present to find a place where healing, friendship, and hope can abide amid a world forever changed.

May Book of the Month

The Song of Sourwood Mountain
​by Ann H. Gabhart

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The doors she thought were closed forever are starting to open up . . . just a crack

Though the century began with such promise, it is 1910 when Mira Dean's hopes of being a wife and mother are dashed to pieces. Her fiancé dead from tuberculosis, Mira resigns herself to being a spinster schoolteacher--until Gordon Covington shows up.
 
No longer the boy she knew from school, Gordon is now a preacher who is full of surprises. First, he asks Mira to come to Sourwood in Eastern Kentucky to teach at his mission school. Second, he asks her to marry him. Just like that.
 
With much trepidation, Mira steps out in faith into a life she never imagined, in a place filled with its own special challenges, to serve a people who just might end up becoming the family she always yearned for.

April Book of the Month

Night Falls on Predicament Avenue by Jaime Jo Wright

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As the walls of the house at Predicament Avenue reveal their hidden truths, two women--generations apart--discover that fear and foreboding are no respecters of time.

In 1910, Effie James is committed to doing anything to save her younger sister, who witnessed a shocking murder, leaving her mute and in danger of the killer's retribution. Effie must prove what her sister saw, but when a British gentleman arrives, he disrupts Effie's quest with his attempts to locate his wife, Isabelle Addington, who was last seen at the supposed crime scene in the abandoned house at 322 Predicament Avenue. Just as Effie discovers what she seeks, she finds that the blood staining the walls will forever link her to a scandal she couldn't imagine, and to a woman whose secrets promise to curse any who would expose them.

A century later, Norah Richman grapples with social anxiety and grief as she runs her late great-aunt's bed-and-breakfast on Predicament Avenue. But Norah has little affection for the house and is committed only to carrying out her murdered sister's dreams until crime historian and podcaster Sebastian Blaine arrives to investigate the ghostly legacy of the house's claim to fame--the murder of Isabelle Addington. When a guest is found dead, the incident is linked to Isabelle's murder, and Norah and Sebastian must work together to uncover the century-old curse that has wrapped 322 Predicament Avenue in its clutches and threatens far more than death.

March Book of the Month

Set in Stone
by Kimberley Woodhouse

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A dangerous scheme could bury their long-held dreams forever. . . .

From the time she was little, Martha Jankowski has been digging in the dirt, much to the dismay of her mother. Now she dreams of being a paleontologist and is determined to make her parents proud by uncovering the next big discovery. When Martha finds what she hopes to be a fully intact dinosaur skeleton--one that could win her an acclaimed exhibit--she learns another team is competing against her and could steal her chance at being recognized for this momentous discovery.

Paleontology student Jacob Duncan has fulfilled his dream of digging for dinosaur bones at last. In a race against time, he and his team are bent on unearthing a complete skeleton to claim a museum exhibit with their names on it. But when Jacob meets their charming competitor Martha and uncovers foul play within his team, love and danger grow hand in hand until a menacing ruse threatens to destroy it all.

February Book of the Month

Embers in the London Sky
​by Sarah Sundin

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London, 1940

As the German army invades the Netherlands in 1940, Aleida van der Zee Martens escapes to London to wait out the occupation. Separated from her three-year-old son, Theo, in the process, the young widow desperately searches for her little boy even as she works for an agency responsible for evacuating children to the countryside.

When German bombs set London ablaze, BBC radio correspondent Hugh Collingwood reports on the Blitz, eager to boost morale while walking the fine line between truth and censorship. But the Germans are not the only ones Londoners have to fear as a series of murders flame up amid the ashes.

The deaths hit close to home for Hugh, and Aleida needs his help to locate her missing son. As they work together, they grow closer and closer, both to each other and the answers they seek. But time is running short--and the worst is yet to come.

January Book of the Month

The Divine Proverb of Streusel
by Sara Brunsvold
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Shaken by her parents' divorce and discouraged by the growing chasm between herself and her serious boyfriend, Nikki Werner seeks solace at her uncle's farm in a small Missouri hamlet. She'll spend the summer there, picking up the pieces of her shattered present so she can plan a better future. But what awaits her at the ancestral farm is the past--one she barely knows.

Among her late grandmother's belongings, Nikki finds an old notebook filled with handwritten German recipes and wise sayings pulled from the book of Proverbs. With each recipe she makes, she invites locals to the family table to hear their stories about the town's history, her ancestors, and her estranged father.

What started as a cathartic way to connect to her heritage soon becomes the means through which she learns how the women before her endured--with the help of their cooking prowess and a healthy dollop of faith.