Book Review of Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson

I absolutely loved reading Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson! It has so much depth and passion and romance and suspense and mystery all rolled up into one! There is a perfect balance of tragedy intermingled with the sweet love that is thinly veiled within the stubborn heart of a young woman trying to find her place in the world. What Kate’s heart longs for is always obscured beneath what she thinks she wants and what she knows is expected of her. Set in northern England in the 1820’s, Blackmoore is a house, more of a castle, perched precariously between the moors and the ocean. The cold, foreboding nature to the structure is suppressed by Kate’s love for the home she sees in her dreams. But Blackmoore is not all she expected. Having longed to go there all her life, she keeps a romantic notion in her heart of what it will be like. The unenthusiastic welcome she experiences at Blackmoore barely overshadows her excitement. Even as she is mistreated by the haughty guests, she finds solace and excitement by exploring the many rooms and secret passageways just as she had always imagined. What I hadn’t expected about the story was how many layers there were to the characters. Expertly taking the reader deep into the characters’ pasts, Julianne Donaldson gradually shows the reader why Kate behaves the way she does. The reader watches as Kate plunges through experiences she doesn’t want to relive and wishes she could forget. I cried several times while feeling Kate’s pain and struggles. I cringed as she was hurting and felt the passion she slowly allowed to flow between herself and her childhood friend, Henry. The tension is palpable throughout the book as the reader experiences Henry’s unrequited love for Kate. But the story itself is nearly lost in Julianne’s writing. The images she creates with her words are exquisite. I was swept away into Kate’s world for just a few short days since I couldn’t put the book down! I can’t wait to read it again! Have you read Blackmoore? What’s your opinion? -Julie L. Spencer

Read Julianne Donaldson's other novel Edenbrooke.



Read my book review of Edenbrooke here: Book Review of Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson.

I recently lost 42 pounds on the Take Shape for Life program! Want to check out my weight loss transition? Click here! -Julie L. Spencer

Book Review of Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson

In no uncertain terms, I absolutely loved Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson! I read it twice back-to-back! That doesn’t happen to me very often because I almost always have a stack of books waiting for me. I loved the relationship between Marianne and Philip from the first time they met to the final pages. He is the type of guy that every girl dreams to someday meet, and she is vulnerable and stubborn and clumsy and normal. She thinks that she is everything he would never want in a future wife and yet those qualities are what draws him to her. Although the book in and of itself was a little predictable, there were twists in turns in the plot which kept the story interesting. There was also a healthy use of foreshadowing to help the reader piece together what led up to the final harrowing climax. But it didn’t end there as it very well could have. Julianne did a great job of wrapping the ending up with a neat little bow and making the reader feel comforted. It promoted a feeling that love does exist in the world, that chivalry is not far away, and that the good guy can win in the end. There were parts where I was moved nearly to tears, parts where I was afraid for the safety of my favorite characters, and parts where I was drawn in to the romance and was able to lose myself in Marianne’s world. I loved the complexity of Marianne’s relationship with her maid Betsy. It was like Marianne didn’t come to realize how closely she needed Betsy’s friendship until she was rejected by those who she thought she could count on. Even though Betsy annoyed her in the beginning of the story, she came to love her more as a sister and realized that Betsy was one of the only girls who stood by her through all the ups and downs. I loved the way Marianne realized in the end that she was brave and beautiful and confident even though it took breaking through her own insecurities and feelings of inadequacies in order for her to get to that point. I loved the way she concluded that she didn’t have to change who she was in order to find real happiness, and that being a refined young lady wasn’t all that it was seemed on the surface. This is only the second book I’ve read by Julianne Donaldson and I look forward to many years of her future writings. Have you read Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson? What’s your opinion? -Julie L. Spencer

Read Julianne Donaldson's other novel, Blackmoore:


Read my book review of Blackmoore here: Book Review of Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson.



I recently lost 42 pounds on the Take Shape for Life program! Want to check out my weight loss transition? Click here! -Julie L. Spencer

Book Review of Pocket Full of Posies by Julie Coulter Bellon

I just finished reading Pocket Full of Posies by Julie Coulter Bellon and I loved it! I loved the writing style and fell in love with the characters, even the bad guys. Sometimes the good guys & the bad guys can get blurred in a story because there is good in all of us, even when we are making bad choices. I’m not sure if this was an underlying message that Julie intended to share, but it was an impression I took away from the story. Although I was able to predict the ending, there were a lot of neat little twists & turns in the plot that took me along the characters’ journey. I liked how Julie bounced back and forth between Bart’s perspective and Lucy’s perspective. It was a bit like reading Twilight & Midnight Sun at the same time (which I’ve done and found it to be very fun! Do you think Stephanie Meyer will ever finish writing Midnight Sun?!) I’m not going to tell you much about who the main characters are in Pocket Full of Posies, or I will give away the plot before you have a chance to read it. Suffice it to say that it is obvious to the reader from the first time Bart hears Lucy’s name that they will fall in love. I like it that it took a lot of back & forth struggle between their circumstances, their personalities, what they think about one another’s lifestyles, and their own stubbornness before they finally admit their feelings…but not too long! I liked it that Julie allowed the reader to experience the two character’s attraction to one another and that there were a lot of little bits of romance leading up to a dramatic first kiss. I love first kisses! And they should be dramatic. Wasn’t your first kiss dramatic? My husband kissed me on our first date…on my forehead. It was amazingly frustrating! And I’ll never forget the way it made me feel. But, back to the book; I’m getting all off track! I liked taking a peak into the world of drug lords and terrorists and corruption and tropical island paradises. These are worlds I’ll never see in real life. Maybe a tropical island paradise someday, I don’t know. It seems far away from my little paradise in central Michigan, so I’m glad to have the chance to be transported there through Julie’s words. I think I’ll read this book again very soon. This is the kind of book I’d love to see made into a movie! Have you read Pocket Full of Posies yet? What's your opinion? –Julie L. Spencer

Other books by Julie Coulter Bellon:


Read my book review of All Fall Down here.



Read the whole Hostage Negotiation series:













Want to read about the first kiss that some of my characters have had in my books The Cove and The Farmer's Daughter? Check them out here:

First Kiss...Excerpt from The Cove.

Excerpt from The Farmer's Daughter...I told you that I tip well.

Read more excerpts from my novels here:
Excerpts from My Novels.

I recently lost 42 pounds on the Take Shape for Life program! Want to check out my weight loss transition? Click here! -Julie L. Spencer

Book Review of Seeking Persephone by Sarah M. Eden

Sarah M. Eden is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors! What a sweet story. I loved reading Seeking Persephone from the first page to the end. As it is with most books that I read, it was a bit predictable. But it didn’t in any way detract from my enjoyment. The story quickly launches into the wedding and then weaves the character descriptions into the story rather than starting with character development. I liked that. Persephone is from a family of very limited means and felt it was in her best interest to accept a marriage proposal from a wealthy Duke named Adam who had never so much as seen her face nor heard her name. He began criticizing her before the wedding was even completed. When he finds out that her name is Persephone, he thinks that it is a ridiculous name and tells her as much. When he discovers that she is young and beautiful, he is not happy and makes his feelings obvious. Because she doesn’t understand the underlying reason why he’s not happy, she assumes that he considers her ugly and beneath him. What she doesn’t realize is that he never really wanted a wife to begin with, but felt pressured to produce an heir to carry on the family name. He had one of his staff choose him a wife who was desperate for a way out of her current situation so that she would appreciate him rescuing her. He had hoped for an older, ugly woman who wouldn’t be tempted to leave him because she knew that she would never have the chance to marry anyone else. Adam was used to being feared and used to commanding everyone around him to do as he says. But he has visible scars from a series of surgeries in his youth, and underlying scars because of rejection from his mother and his peers. He despises being pitied and loses respect for those who feel sorry for him. When Persephone figures this out, she stands up to him and treats him like she would any other man, and he gains immediate respect for her because of it. She refuses to let him bully her and goes out of her way to weave herself into his sheltered, private world. Gradually he grows to like her, feels a strong need to protect her, and eventually realizes that he loves her – although he fights it to the end. While the story begins as a Beauty & the Beast type of tale, it ends as a sweet love story with a prince and his true love ready to take on the world side-by-side with confidence. I loved it, I couldn’t put it down, and I would read it again – which is a good sign. Have you read Seeking Persephone? What’s your opinion? –Julie L. Spencer

Other books by Sarah M. Eden:



Check out my book review of Glimmer of Hope here.













I recently lost 42 pounds on the Take Shape for Life program! Want to check out my weight loss transition? Click here! -Julie L. Spencer