Author: lindasmatchett

If I Dream: A Book Review

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405 Pages

Independently Published

October 31, 2023

ISBN: 979-8864391839

Everyone should read this book. The author draws from her own knowledge of living in Dubai to create a realistic story about the complex society in Arab countries. The story is set in a fictional Muslim nation, but effectively evokes the exotic, desert setting of the Middle East. I have been exposed to Middle Eastern individuals here in the U.S. but my knowledge is limited, so I appreciated the opportunity to learn more about them and their way of life. Parts of the book are difficult to read as a Westerner, but they provide insight into the people and culture of a patriarchal society. The story shines on people’s need for Jesus’ redemption no matter where they live or what their heritage.

The book is not a romance per se, but there is a romance thread between the hero and heroine. Zahir is intelligent and full of integrity, yet flawed like us all. He has a temper which I can relate to and his responses gave me pause to consider my own reactions to situations. I love his protective nature (which is part of what makes him a great doctor), and the interactions among him and his family members: teasing and loving each other as well as experiencing difficulties and having hard conversations. I especially loved his grandfather. Despite his frail health, he is a force to be reckoned with, and he plays an integral part in setting things right as the story progresses.

My heart broke for Fatima as she struggled to deal with her life, that of a fourth wife of an overbearing and sometimes violent. The other wives are spiteful and mean, and it is difficult to watch her cower rather than speak up. However, as young as she was, and in her cultural situation, her behavior was normal. Her friend Amira is a pistol and has issues of her own. Her world is turned upside down at one point, and she must reconcile how she feels about what happens. Her reaction is very realistic, and I saw her pain behind the anger. I look forward to her story in book 2. The ending is fantastic with lots of twists and turns along the way, most of which I didn’t see coming. If I Dream does a great job of showing that people are the same everywhere, desiring the same things: good health, a loving family, and the ability to provide for themselves. Highly recommended.

Book Blurb:

Her destiny is determined by her family.
Her dreams are overshadowed by her duty.
Until, one night, it all changes…

Six years ago, Fatima al-Fatah was married off to a man old enough to be her father. At first, she had hoped to find love and belonging in her husband’s established household. The reality has turned out to be much more grim. Jealous and bitter, her husband’s other three wives despise and constantly berate her. Fatima begins to believe in her worthlessness, as she has been unable to deliver the one thing her husband desperately desires. Things quickly go from bad to worse in the span of a night, leaving her struggling to survive.

When Dr. Zahir Sayeed failed to protect Fatima six years ago, he ran away in shame, never intending to return. He has only come back to his birthplace out of an obligation to his family. Little do they know, he carries a secret that could send him to prison, or worse. When an accident brings Fatima back into his life, he finds himself drawn to her spirit and courage–an attraction that can only bring trouble. As he helps Fatima discover her true worth, he soon realizes that she is on the verge of uncovering a dangerous secret herself . . .

The Resolute: A Book Review

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325 Pages

Ransom Press

January 15, 2024

ISBN: 979-8989604616

I have enjoyed all the Legacy of the King’s Pirates books, but The Resolute is my absolute favorite. The cover enticed me immediately and captured the essence of the main character Captain Cadan Hayes, then the story snared me from the first sentence. Gabrielle literally hits the floor running, and her life is never the same. Author MaryLu Tyndall does an excellent job of mixing action, adventure, and romance (a sort of 17th century Indiana Jones).

Cadan and Gabrielle are highly complex characters with deep-seated issues they grapple with through the entire book. Just when you think neither is redeemable, they begin to change bit by bit. Cadan is the quintessential pirate without being cliché, and Gabrielle is a combination of high society and down-to-earth. The book can probably be described as “edgy,” and the author pushes “the line,” (we are talking piracy, after all) but keeps things clean.

The book takes place in 1696, a period of time I know little about. The author sprinkles information throughout the story that pushes the plot along, but also educates the reader about the slave industry, piracy, mercenaries, and the type of ships sailing the oceans at this time. Terms are used but in a context that allows the reader to figure out what it means without having to be explained. Especially thrilling is one of the battles between Caden and his enemy, as I was able to visualize the work it took to maneuver a huge ship.

Cadan goes head-to-head with Gabrielle, and he isn’t quite sure how to handle her because she is nothing like his preconceived notions about “ladies of class.” She gets under his skin which alternately angers and intrigues him. I love the relationship between he and Pell, a former preacher who has chosen a life of piracy. Soot is delightful, and his soft side is seen with the use of his pet rabbit. The villains are truly villainous, and I wanted them to receive their comeuppance.  

The battle scenes are well executed and descriptive without being gory, but by the end I was ready for them to be a bit shorter. The ending is wonderful, and included twists I didn’t see coming. Highly recommended.

About the Book

Pregnant, in prison, and about to be hanged for piracy, Lady Gabrielle Hyde has lost all faith in God, man, and life itself. Unlike her wildly adventurous family, all Gabrielle ever wanted was to settle down with a good man and have a bevy of wee ones. Then how did she end up about to take her last breath at the end of a rope?

Captain Cadan Hayes despises women of noble birth. Betrayed by his wife and her lover, he spent five long years as a prisoner-slave on Barbados. Now, as a fierce and successful pirate, he longs to enact revenge on the man who ruined his life.
When Cadan discovers that Gabrielle carries the son of his enemy, he captures her to use as bait. What he didn’t expect was that the lady would be the one to trap him!

Ship battles, sword fights, kidnappings, and a hunt for lost pirate treasure send the couple on a wild adventure that could either grant them their hearts’ desire or end up in disaster for them both.

Book Review: Trail to Clear Creek by Kit Morgan

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260 pages

Independently Published

September 8, 2018

ISBN: 978-1794240117

Part of the Thanksgiving Books & Blessings Collection One, Trail to Clear Creek is a delightful story with lots of twists and turns. Author Kit Morgan knows how to pack a lot into a novella-length book. The female protagonist and her sons are English, and the author did a good job of capturing the cadence and slang of the British dialect. Honoria has several challenges – to follow her dead husband’s dream, survive on a wagon train journey, and figure out how to live in the American West. The other characters who made up the community within the train were unique, some likable, some not so much! I loved the male protagonist, Jefferson Cooke. An integrity-filled, gentle soul, he is just what Honoria needs. I liked how he was with her boys. Even though he wasn’t their father, he expected respect and gave them a firm but fair hand, leading by example.

I’m a strong-willed individual, and I moved several times while growing up because of my dad’s job. In fact, I attended three high schools, and you haven’t lived until you’ve tried to fit in with teenage girls. But the experiences helped shape my character.

Having said all that, I cannot imagine what it would be like to pare down my belongings to the bare essentials, pack enough food for weeks, and travel thousands of miles in a covered wagon. I’ve ridden in wagons during farm festivals and between the hard bench and constant swaying, the allure dried up pretty quickly. Without bringing the story down, the author conveyed the tedium and danger of being part of a wagon train as well as the unpreparedness of Honoria for which the West was like a foreign land.

I also like how the author addressed blending Honoria’s and Jefferson’s families. In the best of circumstances, that would be difficult. Add a cross-country journey, grief of lost spouses, and the kids dealing with the loss of parents, and the situation would be even more challenging. The two sets of children are very different from each other and dislike each other immediately. Without the maturity to deal with what they are feeling, squabbles start, then escalate to more.

Likewise, Honoria and Jefferson must learn to blend their relationship. On the trail! Having both been widowed, yet having very different experiences, they bring baggage to the table, lots of baggage. Again, Ms. Morgan has done a great job of creating realistic scenes and situations the pair must deal with as time passes. My heart went out to the couple.

Messages of hope, faith, forgiveness, and God’s sovereignty are effectively woven throughout the story, leaving the reader with food for thought. A highly enjoyable read.

Book review: Heart in the Clouds:

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198 pages

Published September 3, 2023

ISBN: 978-0645856613

Heart in the Clouds is Jennifer Mistmorgan’s debut novel, and at the risk of sounding cliché, she hit it out of the park. Her writing is evocative, and I was immersed in the era from the first sentence. Descriptions were sprinkled, not poured into the story and I was able to hear, see, and smell what it was like to work at an airfield on the ground and in the planes. The author has obviously done her research and is quite knowledgeable of the era and military bases of the time. For example, she’s fully versed in the slang of the pilots, who refer to their planes as kites and the channel as “the drink.”

There were lots of characters, but each one was unique to so there was no confusion about who was who, with secondary and minor characters being fully developed. Internal dialogue got me into the characters’ heads and even though they were dealing with life and death issues, the story didn’t get maudlin. I enjoyed Alec’s journey from a cocky, reckless pilot to a confident integrity-filled man. His journey is littered with fits and starts, but he’s highly intelligent, and he begins to put the pieces together about God, His love, and His sovereignty. I loved his interactions with the vicar, a friend of Maggie’s, and who Alec thinks might be a competitor for her affections.

Maggie is delightful as she matures and comes into her own. As one of two daughters of a vicar, she has been somewhat sheltered her whole life. Then her mother dies, and her father is thrown into despair leaving Maggie to be somewhat in charge. He is angry that she joins the WAAFs, but she feels called to serve somewhere in the war. Having been “dumped” by a pilot, she is wary of all pilots, which is challenging since she’s surrounded by them on the airbase. I loved Jonty, a pilot she’d saved from his burning plane in the past. He helps her see she can’t lump all pilots together as being arrogant and out to get what they can from women.

As an author of WWII fiction, I’ve done my fair share of study and research, yet I did learn several things. As an American, I enjoyed seeing the war from another viewpoint, and it was fun to watch British Maggie interact with Australian Alec.

The only disappointment was the five or so instances of profanity. The words did nothing to further the plot or character development, and I prefer my Christian fiction to be void of such words. Despite this, the book is a worthwhile read.

Book Blurb:

He’s a charismatic Australian bomber pilot used to beating the odds.
She’s the radio operator he speaks to each night before he flies.
He makes a bet that he can steal a kiss….and ends up getting much more than he bargained for.

RAF Bottesford, November 1942:

Maggie Morrison joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force for a free ticket into the romance she craved, away from her sleepy life as a vicar’s daughter. But the men of Bomber Command are careless with the hearts of women. She hides the pain of her broken heart and mother’s sudden death behind calm confidence on the airfield radio, as the last voice men hear before they fly into danger.

Australian pilot Alec Thomas is a gambling man on a winning streak. Every night when he flies with RAF Bomber Command, the odds of surviving are fifty-fifty. And every night so far, he’s made it back to English soil. But as the battles over Europe intensify, Alec’s luck feels less certain.

When Alec bets with his crew he can get Maggie to kiss him before the year is out, he has no idea it’s the most important wager he’ll ever make. But pursuing her leads Alec to reexamine everything he believes about his so-called luck, prompting him to question what—or who—is behind it all. Even if Alec can win his bet, can his risk-taking ways win her heart? Or will his luck in the brutal air war over Europe run out before their first kiss?

Meet Francine O’Malley from Francine’s Foibles by Linda Shenton Matchett

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Welcome to Novel PASTimes! We’re so pleased you could stop by. Could you tell us a bit about yourself?

Let me assure you, my life isn’t very exciting. I was born in Laurel, Maryland and have lived here all my life. Despite the proximity to our nation’s capital, I’ve only been to Washington a handful of times. I was sixteen when the stock market crashed, and our family did the best we could to get through the depression. Then my father died, and Mother took ill. Fortunately, I was able to secure a job at the public library while being her caregiver. It was challenging, but others have difficulties, too. Mother passed shortly before the end of the war.

I love books. What is like to be a librarian?

I’m no longer at the library, but it was a joy to work there. We were very blessed with copious donations, and it was my job to process them. That may sound tedious, but I was able to meet each book as it came through the door. I wrote down the ones I wanted to read, {smiles}but realized nearly all of them ended up on the list. I also answered people’s questions or recommended authors or titles they might like, and of course, I checked out the books to the patrons. A wonderful job.

Where do you work now?

I am Fort Meade which is just about equal distance between Baltimore and Washington, DC. The facility was put in place in 1917 to prepare the men for going overseas during the Great War. Nearly 400,000 of our soldiers trained there, but for this last conflict over three and a half million of our boys passed through. At 70,000 men and women currently, the fort is like a small city. I type the discharge paperwork for the men. It’s not exactly doing something for the war effort, but I feel I’m making a difference.

Tell me a bit about Ray Fisher?

{blushes} I, um, met him at Meade. He was one of the men who came through my line. He was a Seabee, part of the Naval Construction Battalion…CB, get it? Anyway, he ended up helping very dear friends of mine, the Feeneys. They’re an elderly couple, and Ray is an experienced general contractor. He had, er, has his own business. He has performed many repairs for the couple. Even though he’s a brawny man and can seem overpowering, he’s quite gentle. He helped Mrs. Feeney during one of Mr. Feeney’s episodes.

Rumor has it that Ray is German. Doesn’t that bother you?

Ray’s ancestry is German, but that doesn’t bother me in the least. His parents emigrated to the U.S. after the last war. They were destitute and anxious to make a new start. Ray was a young boy when they arrived. Being German doesn’t make one a Nazi. I wish more people would realize that fact.

What is one thing you’d like readers to take away from your story?

Joy is possible in spite of our circumstances, not because of them. Too often we base our happiness on what is happening in our lives. Joy is not happiness; it is an inner gladness, one that comes from our faith in God. We can have joy no matter what is going on around us, even war.

About Francine’s Foibles

She’s given up hope. He never had any. Will they find it together?

World War II is finally over, and America is extra grateful as the country approaches this year’s Thanksgiving. But for Francine life hasn’t changed. Despite working at Fort Meade processing the paperwork for the thousands of men who have returned home, she’s still lonely and very single. Is she destined for spinsterhood?

Grateful that his parents anglicized the family surname after emigrating to the United States after the Great War, first-generation German-American Ray Fisher has done all he can to hide his heritage. He managed to make it through this second “war to end all wars,” but what American woman would want to marry into a German family. Must he leave the country to find wedded bliss?

Linda Shenton Matchett writes about ordinary people who did extraordinary things in days gone by. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she was born a stone’s throw from Fort McHenry (of Star-Spangled Banner fame) and has lived in historical places all her life. She is a volunteer docent and archivist at the Wright Museum of WWII and a former trustee for her local public library. She now lives in central New Hampshire where she explores the history of this great state and immerses herself in the imaginary worlds created by other authors.

Book Review: The Vaquero’s Heart

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162 pages

Published August 22, 2023

ISBN 979-8860467682

Heather Blanton’s books are page-turners, and I better not start one late in the afternoon or I’m going to lose sleep. Fortunately, for The Vaquero’s Heart, I had an entire day and set aside chores to hunker down on the couch and lose myself in the story. The book is part of the Burning Dress Ranch series but is easily read as a stand-alone (other than making me want to go back and read the others.)

Pearl, the female protagonist, is a horse thief through no choice of her own. Her father is cruel and heavy-handed, and unmarried women in the 1800s had few options, so Pearl is stuck. A chance to escape occurs and through a series of events, she ends up at the Burning Dress Ranch. What Pearl doesn’t realize is that the owner’s purpose is to take in women who are hurting in some way, and then teach them a skill through which they can earn a living. Miss Sally also shares the love of God with them to help them heal. Miss Sally is a force to be reckoned with and has her own baggage to deal with. I love how she treats her staff and the girls she’s housing.

Pearl meets her match with the head wrangler at the ranch, Rodrigo Garcia. A widower with a young son, he can spot a liar a mile away, so he immediately knows Pearl is hiding something. He makes it his mission to find out what.  The author does a wonderful job of getting readers into the characters’ heads and hearts discovering their flaws and vulnerabilities. I enjoyed learning about the role the Latinos played in the cowboy culture.

The Spanish influence in ranching and the Old West began before there was an Old West. Spanish rancheros filled the Southwest landscape with horses, cattle, and sheep by the mid—1600s. Hispanic contributions to cowboy culture did not end with the introduction of the horse, as evidenced by the terminology. Vaquero is the Spanish word for cowboy. Bronco, the English spelling of broncho is Mexican Spanish for wild or rough. A lariat is la reata, “the lasso,” from the Spanish word reatar which means to tie together.

My heart broke for both Rodrigo and Pearl as they tried to deal with the difficulties in their lives and navigate the unwanted feelings they had. Rodrigo’s son is delightful, precocious but not obnoxious, and he acts as the bridge between his father and Pearl. A beautiful story of redemption.

Book Blurb:

She wants to steal horses…but at Burning Dress Ranch, only hearts are stolen.

On the run from the law, daring horsethief Pearl Pickett stumbles upon the enigmatic Burning Dress Ranch and its mysterious owner, Miss Sally. Sensing something is amiss with the newcomer, Miss Sally asks Pearl to work with a captivating herd of Arabian horses. Pearl’s sole desire is to lay low for a while, but the allure of these stunning creatures proves irresistible.

Ranch wrangler Rodrigo Garcia is a widower with a young son. Brooding and surly, he’s not happy about taking on a know-it-all female as an assistant. But the sassy woman knows horses, even though she initially tries to hide it. As the two work together, Rodrigo can’t help but soften a little, particularly when he witnesses the bond she is forming with his son, Miguel.

Still, it is a shocking revelation when he realizes Pearl is stealing his heart.

But that may not be all she’s out to steal…