Fields of Bounty by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am a fan of books by Lauraine Snelling for years. I especially enjoy the details she puts in her historical fiction collections. I enjoy reading what's for dinner, what's been cooking all day, and what chores need to be done. She is excellent at building the alternate world and populating it with people I might recognize.


View all my reviews

A Time to Bloom by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



View all my reviews

The Seeds of Change by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



View all my reviews

The Healing Quilt by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



View all my reviews

A Blessing to Cherish by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I looked forward to reading another story about Ingeborg, and this is not the story I expected. In my imagination, based on all the stories from all the novels, Ingeborg was much older than the 55 years that she is in this book. Surely, she must be older than I am by now. I had been sharing this series with my 93-year old father who had been raised by his grandmother who was also born around 1858. The stories of life on the farm and the town of Blessing reminded him of his childhood. In chapter 8, I was uncomfortable with how disconnected David was with his own children and how he judged them as harshly as he did his board of directors, with an inability to separate family from business. I was uncomfortable because it seemed to reinforce my own father's judgements and righteousness at the end of his life when he could not understand nor respect the difficulties of decisions made in the time of a pandemic. I recommend it to fans of the series because it cannot be read as a stand-alone. .


View all my reviews

The Long Way Home by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the last book in Snelling's "A Secret Refuge" series.
I am a fan of Snelling's historical fiction.


View all my reviews

 Sisters of the Confederacy by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm a fan of books by Lauraine Snelling.


View all my reviews

The Brushstroke Legacy by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoy this author's historical novel series.
This combines both present day restoration and the story of her ancestor who came to this house as a housekeeper.
I recommend it for all readers.


View all my reviews

Daughter of Twin Oaks by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was able to read it for free with my subscription to Amazon Prime.
I wanted to read it to assess the level of violence in it before recommending it to my 92-year old father who expressed an aversion to books with killing in it. This is is favorite author so I may ask how he feels about books where the wounded are treated and the dead are buried.
I take 1 star away because this book ends with "WAIT, THERE'S MORE-style ending" and this is just the beginning of a trilogy. If Dad decides he wants to read this Civil War era book, he will want all 3 in the series.


View all my reviews

Half Finished by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read the book after my father was finished with this latest Snelling book.
Sometimes when Snelling gives as much detail to the chores and tasks that modern women do that she does to the chores and tasks of historical women, I can get a bit eager to get on with the story because I am as busy as these characters are. I know that I never would be as good a friend to Ginny as Amalia is.
I may not have unfinished craft projects; but, I do have many books on my to-read shelf and my currently-reading shelf. Thank you, Goodreads for giving me a place celebrate books finished and to hold myself accountable for books already in my home library, for those I borrow from town library, for those I download when they are free, and for the purchases I make.


View all my reviews

A Song of Joy by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I purchased this book for my father who enjoys Snelling's stories of frontier life with minimal violence. I enjoy them too. Her books give my father and I something to talk about on which we can agree.


View all my reviews

Dakota Destiny by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This completes the Dakota series that I have been reading with my 92-year old father. He was born after this time period, and still this book triggers some stories of his own life on a farm in rural southwest Ohio.


View all my reviews

Dakota December by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I mentioned before this author is the only one that my 92-year old father and I currently agree writes a good story with characters he respects because the characters are hard workers who build a community; hard workers who help those who need assistance; and Christians who are temperate. I enjoy the stories of pioneers in historical settings. I enjoy the romance in the story as it builds to a courtship.


View all my reviews

Dakota Dusk by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received this book as a Kindle matchbook because I purchased the Dakota series for my Dad's gift for his 92nd birthday. I am as entertained by Snelling's books as much as he is, and this author is the only one we both enjoy. While the books are set in a different state and in an earlier time than when he lived, the lives of these Dakota settlers remind him of living on a farm in rural Ohio where he was part of an extended family, a family who lived with the strong-willed grandmother who raised my father and his siblings after Dad's mother died shortly after childbirth of her fifth living child. Dad went to one-room township schoolhouses, and this book opened up some memories about the school teachers he had.
In the afterword, Snelling tells a story of how she was informed about a mistake she made in this book. The mistake does not keep it from being entertaining.


View all my reviews

 Dakota Dream by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I received this book as a Kindle matchbook because I purchased the Dakota series for my Dad's gift for his 92nd birthday. I am as entertained by Snelling's books as much as he is, and this author is the only one we both enjoy. While the books are set in a different state and in an earlier time than when he lived, the lives of these Dakota settlers remind him of living on a farm in rural Ohio where he was part of an extended family, a family who lived with the strong-willed grandmother who raised my father and his siblings after Dad's mother died shortly after childbirth of her fifth living child.



View all my reviews

Dakota Dawn by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received this book as a Kindle Matchbook because I purchased the paperback version for my father's birthday. We both finished this book quickly because it was hard to leave at the end of a chapter.
I recommend it to all readers who enjoy the books about Snelling's immigrants to the Dakotas and Minnesota.


View all my reviews

A Season of Grace by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed it as much as I did Snelling's previous books.


View all my reviews

A Breath of Hope by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I bought this book as an Amazon Matchbook for my Kindle when I purchased the paperback edition for my father. He is 91-years-old, and he has read every one of Snelling's Bjorklund and Carlson family sagas. I have also read all of them.
These books are rich in the description of family-based lumber and farm businesses in this era.
I recommend these books for all readers.



View all my reviews

The Promise of Dawn by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I ordered this book for Dad as soon as I heard it was released, for he thoroughly enjoys the books Snelling writes about the Bjorklund family. This story is about Norwegian cousins who will settle in Minnesota. My Kindle copy was available as a matchbook.
I enjoyed the story; but there were moments when I felt Snelling was relying too much on the details of how to do tasks like washing the butter or keeping the fire in the stove the right temperature for the work of boiling enough water, and every other household chore to stifle the words of frustration that these immigrants felt for working off their debt to their relatives.
I recommend this book to fans of this author, and I eagerly anticipate the second book in this series/


View all my reviews

A Heart for Home by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the third novel of the Home to Blessing series as part of the Bjorklund family books by Lauraine Snelling.
I enjoyed each and every one of these books, and I recommend them to all readers.


View all my reviews