By Kelly Bridgewater
FALL!!
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| pinterest.com |
Love
the orange, brown, yellow, and red on all the trees.
Cooler
temperature.
Bonfires.
Pumpkins.
Holidays.
Covered
Bridge Festival.
Trail
rides.
Halloween.
S’mores.
Baking
Homemade goodies.
What
about you? Have anything that you look forward to?
By Kelly Bridgewater
In this compelling
new time-slip mystery, a little girl goes missing from her family’s castle in
the Thousand Islands of New York. Eighty-five years later, a journalist teams
up with a woman living on Koster Isle to find out what happened to Poppy, once
and for all.
1907. On the eve of her fifth birthday, Poppy Pendleton is tucked safely
in her bed, listening to her parents entertain New York’s gilded society in
their Thousand Islands castle; the next morning, she is gone, and her father is
found dead in his smoking room.
1992. Though Chloe Ridell lives in the shadows of Poppy’s castle, now in
ruins, she has little interest in the mystery that still captivates tourists
and locals alike. She is focused on preserving the island she inherited from
her grandparents and reviving their vintage candy shop. Until the day a girl
named Emma shows up on Chloe’s doorstep, with few possessions, save a tattered
scrapbook that connects her to the Pendleton family. When a reporter arrives at
Chloe’s store, asking questions about her grandfather, Chloe decides to help
him dig into a past she’d thought best left buried. The haunting truth about
Poppy, they soon discover, could save Emma’s life, so Chloe and Logan must work
together to investigate exactly what happened long ago on Koster Isle.
My Thoughts:
The
Wings of Poppy Pendleton by Melanie Dobson took my
breathe away. I love how she creates a pathway that readers might think be the
solution to the missing Poppy, but then Dobson threw another twist into the
story. I love how "Poppy" has a redemption plotline. The modern,
Chloe, character took in a little girl with no question asked. Dobson does a
wonderful job at bringing readers into the setting. I would have loved to visit
this castle and roam the expansive setting. The hidden passages filled with
jewels was never really explored. I would have loved to have seen Chloe stubble
across a pathway with many of the jewels left by Amelia. The two timelines
mixed and mingled nicely. I kept flipping through the pages of the story. I
could not wait to see what happened to Poppy and what this has to do with
Chloe. The historical mystery and the contemporary mystery wrapped nicely at
the end of the story. I LOVED this story, and I can't wait to have a physical
copy on my bookshelf.
I received a complimentary copy of The Wings of Poppy Pendleton by Melanie
Dobson from Tyndale Publishing, but the opinions stated are all my own.
My
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Purchase The Wings of Poppy Pendleton
By Kelly Bridgewater
I
work in a Financial Aid office at a university.
I
see students that take debt because they have no plan to pay their academic
year bill.
Their
parents did not save anything. They attend colleges all the way across the
country where the student is paying complete out-of-state rate, which is
usually two times as a resident of that state.
Or
students who live in town of the college, but they want that college
experience, so the parents want them to live on campus and pay out for room and
board. At our university, it is $12000 a year.
That
is A LOT of money to live across town.
All
of these students and their parents are willing to take out loans.
I
see some students that do not want to take loans out, but they have no idea how
to pay their bill.
I
see Physician’s Assistants that take out over $50,000 a year in loans because
they have to travel for their clinicals to another state.
None
of these student work.
They
live in the most expensive apartments in town. New cars that they lease but
want all this debt. They are taking them willingly.
So
why as a country should we forgive any loans?
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| debt.org |
No
one is putting a gun to their head and making them take these loans.
I
graduated with my BS and MA with no debt.
My
son, who is a current senior at a university, has not taken out any loans. He
still lives at home and goes to work 24 hours a week. Every paycheck is going
toward his bill. He drives his paid for car and pays the car insurance a year
in advance.
Why
should I, as a responsible adult, have to pay more in taxes to pay back YOUR
student loan debt?
If
you took it out, then YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE to pay it back.
If
you do not want to pay it back, then do not take it out. Go to school closer to
home. Work while attending school part time. Live at home.
No
one is picking up my mortgage and wiping it away. I still have to pay that
every month.
Why
should all these people have their loans forgiven?
If
so, then what about the people that have had their loan paid in full, do they
receive a refund check for the amount they paid off?
Wrong!
No student loan debt forgiven!
By Kelly Bridgewater
Some secrets can only stay buried for so long. . . .
Anna Lakeman has spent her life working
alongside her paleontologist father, drawing intricate sketches at every dig.
When they find dinosaur bones near their home in Wyoming Territory, they're
given the opportunity of a lifetime and are swiftly caught up in the
competitive era of the Bone Wars. But after her father becomes sick and Joshua
Ziegler, an old beau, returns for the summer, Anna's world is upended, and the
practical, orderly life she has made for herself shatters.
Medical student Joshua Ziegler left his hometown to forget Anna, the one woman
he truly loved and deeply hurt. But when he returns, time hasn't erased the
feelings they've always had for each other. After Joshua's nephew goes
missing--just like his sister did years ago--and Anna's job is threatened,
tensions mount and dangerous secrets are unearthed.
My Thoughts:
The Secrets Beneath
by Kimberly Woodhouse is a unique story. With Paleontology as the main story
thread, I have never seen this is a story. At least, not in the Christian
fiction market. The story was well-written with plenty of intrigue, romance,
and action to keep the story alive. The one character that I really felt bad
for was Julian. I kept wanting to see what would happen to him. Since I read a
lot of suspense novels, I had a pretty good idea where his part of the story
would end up. I would have liked to have seen what the end result of the
archaeological dig that Joshua and Anna worked on through the whole story would
have shown. Unless Woodhouse plans to keep working on this same dig site in the
second novel, it would have been nice to see the final discovery or the article
with Anna’s pictures and names on them in a magazine. Overall, The Secrets
Beneath by Kimberly Woodhouse was different, thrilling, and had hints of
romance to round out a nicely handled story.
I received a complimentary copy of The
Secrets Beneath by Kimberley Woodhouse from Bethany House Publishing, but the opinions
stated are all my own.
My Rating:
4 out of 5 stars
Purchase The Secrets Beneath
By Kelly Bridgewater
depositphotos.com
No reason to talk about this. I believe James
said it the best.
By Kelly Bridgewater
For the past five years, FBI Special
Agent Risa Jacobs has worked in the violent crimes against children division of
the Houston FBI. She’s never had reason to believe there’s a target on her back . . . until now.
When the long-awaited reunion between Risa and her brother, Trenton, ends in
tragedy, Risa is riddled with guilt, unable to cope with the responsibility she
feels over his death. On leave from the FBI, Risa returns to her former career
as an English teacher at a local college, only to see her past and present
collide when one of her students, Carson Mercury, turns in an assignment that
reads like an eyewitness account of her brother’s murder, with details never
revealed publicly.
Alarmed by Carson’s inside knowledge of Trenton’s death, Risa reaches out to
her former partner at the FBI. Special Agent Gage Patterson has been working a
string of baby kidnappings, but he agrees to help look into Carson’s
background. Risa and Gage soon discover their cases might be connected as a
string of high-value thefts have occurred at properties where security systems
were installed by Carson’s stepfather and children have gone missing. There’s a
far more sinister plot at play than they ever imagined, and innocent lives are
in danger.
My
Thoughts:
Facing
the Enemy by DiAnn Mills features two mysteries that
come around and tie together into one eye opening ending. Mills does a
wonderful job at diving into a story that uses a writing assignment and missing
babies and ties them together. The writing assignment was my favorite part. As
a budding author, it felt unique and different. The plot did capture my
attention and did not let go. As for the budding romance between Gage and Rise,
it seemed a little over the top. Yes, the heroine and the hero have a past, but
personally, I wanted a little deeper of a relationship before they dove into
their budding feelings. Mills did a wonderful job at crafting a world that
keeps the readers actively involved in the plot. The element of the missing
babies tugged at my heartstrings. I could not imagine how awful it would feel
to have your baby stolen from you when the baby was under three months old.
Overall, Facing the Enemy by DiAnn Mills
has some unique, yet original plot ideas; however, the romance was not what I
expected. More backstory that leads to the growing romance.
I received a complimentary copy of Facing the Enemy by DiAnn Mills from
Tyndale Publishing, but the opinions stated are all my own.
My
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Purchase Facing the Enemy
By Kelly Bridgewater
At
least, schools are back in session and the pools are closed.
Time
to buckle down and finish those last yard projects before winter.
Time
to put out the firepit for those cool nights.
Time
to put away the sounds of summer.
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| wallpaperaccess.com |
Even
though in Central Indiana, it stays warm until about Halloween, so I won’t be
getting too ready currently.
I
have mowed the yard the week of Thanksgiving before because it was still in the
60’s outside.
It
usually stays pretty warm by allowing us to still wear t-shirts and a hoodie
until after Thanksgiving.
Come
on cooler weather.
Bring
it on!
Do
you look forward to cooler weather or do you frown about this time of the year?
If you like warmer weather, please share why?
