Hope at Dawn
Hope at Dawn by Stacy Henrie is $1.99 right now. This is the first book in Henrie’s Of Love and War series, which is set during WWI. The heroine teaches German-American students at a time when there is rampant and vicious prejudice against them. This book has a 4+ star average, and readers found it to be very moving, absorbing, and thoughtful.
The book also received a B grade as part of this year’s RITA® Reader Challenge. Tealadytoo wrote:
On the plus side, we have the very interesting background, and intriguing questions of what patriotism and loyalty really mean. We have a nicely developing relationship where the conflict starts out as a matter of trust and understanding (Is she just as bigoted as the other townsfolks? Is she being loyal to her family if she is kind to a non-combatant German when her brothers are fighting overseas, possibly even fighting relatives of his?) and then evolves to issues of whether it is safe to purse the relationship when a love affair between an American girl and a “Bosch” would inflame an already tense situation.
With her brothers away fighting the Great War overseas, Livy Campbell desperately wants to help her family. Her chance comes when she meets a handsome stranger who lands her a job as a teacher in a place far from her parents’ farm. But the war casts a long shadow over the German-American town that Livy now calls home—and the darkness will test everything she thought she knew about family and love . . .
More than anything, Friedrick Wagner wants to be part of his adopted country’s struggle for peace. But when the bitter animosity between Germans and Americans soon turns citizens against newcomers, friend against friend, he will do whatever it takes to protect Livy from the hysteria that grips their town. As tragedy—and dark secrets from the past—threaten their future, Friedrick and Livy have one chance to stand up for what’s right . . . and one chance to fight for their love.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
This book is on sale at:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!The Dancing Master
The Dancing Master by Julie Klassen is $2.99, or $2.51 at Amazon. This is a historical inspirational, and it has a 3.6-star average. It’s set in the Regency, where the hero, the dancing master of the title, moves his family to Devonshire and is appalled to find that dancing is outlawed there. More than one reviewer on GoodReads referred to this book as “Regency Footlose,” which is seriously tempting to me!
Finding himself the man of the family, London dancing master Alec Valcourt moves his mother and sister to remote Devonshire, hoping to start over. But he is stunned to learn the village matriarch has prohibited all dancing, for reasons buried deep in her past.
Alec finds an unlikely ally in the matriarch’s daughter. Though he’s initially wary of Julia Midwinter’s reckless flirtation, he comes to realize her bold exterior disguises a vulnerable soul–and hidden sorrows of her own.
Julia is quickly attracted to the handsome dancing master–a man her mother would never approve of–but she cannot imagine why Mr. Valcourt would leave London, or why he evades questions about his past. With Alec’s help, can Julia uncover old secrets and restore life to her somber village…and to her mother’s tattered heart?
Filled with mystery and romance, The Dancing Master brings to life the intriguing profession of those who taught essential social graces for ladies and gentlemen hoping to make a “good match” in Regency England.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
This book is on sale at:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!After a Fashion
After a Fashion by Jen Turano is $1.99 at Amazon and Google: Play. I think those two price matching fairies are bffs. This is the first book in the “A Class of Their Own” series, and is set in New York in the late 19th century. The conflicts are bountiful, too: crossing class boundaries, and pretend engagement to satisfy business arrangements. Readers who liked it say that the dialogue and banter are terrific – and the book has a 4.2-star average, too! (And gosh, the cover is gorgeous.)
Miss Harriet Peabody dreams of the day she can open up a shop selling refashioned gowns to independent working women like herself. Unfortunately, when an errand for her millinery shop job goes sadly awry due to a difficult customer, she finds herself out of an income.
Mr. Oliver Addleshaw is on the verge of his biggest business deal yet when he learns his potential partner prefers to deal with men who are settled down and wed. When Oliver witnesses his ex not-quite-fiance cause the hapless Harriet to lose her job, he tries to make it up to her by enlisting her help in making a good impression on his business partner.
Harriet quickly finds her love of fashion can’t make her fashionable. She’ll never truly fit into Oliver’s world, but just as she’s ready to call off the fake relationship, fancy dinners, and elegant balls, a threat from her past forces both Oliver and Harriet to discover that love can come in the most surprising packages.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
This book is on sale at:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Courting Miss Amsel
Courting Miss Amsel by Kim Vogel Sawyer is $1.99 right now. This is book 6 in the Heart of the Prairie series, though readers who reviewed it didn’t indicate that reading the prior 5 books was a requirement. The heroine is a new teacher in a small Nebraska town in the 1880s who quickly becomes beloved by her students because she doesn’t punish them cruelly, but she is less popular with the parents and townspeople. This book has a 3.9-star average.
Edythe Amsel is delighted with her first teaching assignment: a one-room schoolhouse in Walnut Hill, Nebraska. Independent, headstrong, and a strong believer in a well-rounded education, Edythe is ready to open the world to the students in this tiny community. But is Walnut Hill ready for her?
Joel Townsend is thrilled to learn the town council hired a female teacher to replace the ruthless man who terrorized his nephews for the past two years. Having raised the boys on his own since their parents’ untimely deaths, Joel believes they will benefit from a woman’s influence. But he sure didn’t bargain on a woman like Miss Amsel. Within the first week, she has the entire town up in arms over her outlandish teaching methods, which include collecting leaves, catching bugs, making snow angels, and stringing ropes in strange patterns all over the schoolyard. Joel can’t help but notice that she’s also mighty pretty with her rosy lips, fashionable clothes, and fancy way of speaking.
When Edythe decides to take her pupils to hear Miss Susan Anthony speak on the women’s suffrage amendment, the town’s outcry reaches new heights. Even Joel isn’t sure he can support her newfangled ideas any longer. And if he can’t trust her to know how to teach the boys, how can he trust her with his heart?
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
This book is on sale at:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!
Don't want to miss an ebook sale? Sign up for our newsletter, and you'll get the week's available deals each Friday.
Amazon has further reduced “The Dancing Master” to $1.99.
I haven’t read Hope at Dawn by Stacy Henrie, but I did recently read and enjoy Hope Rising (Of Love and War series Book 2).
I’m a bit late commenting on this, but I bought Hope at Dawn after seeing it here on the sale page. I didn’t realize it was an Inspirational and was a little bit annoyed by that (my problem for not paying attention) but I really enjoyed the story. I particularly liked the hero who was not enlisted in the Army because he needed to stay home and run the family farm since his father was dying. He faced dangerous prejudice with dignity and strength.