A Prelude for a Lord by Camille Elliot

This book takes place in England in the year 1810.  Alethea Sutherton is a twenty-eight years old and considered an old maid.  Her father is dead and her brother has just died.  They were both terrible to her.  Her cousin comes in as the new Lord and instantly sends her to Bath to live with her aunt to get her out of the way.

Alethea has one passion and that is music.  She loves to play the violin but it is considered very improper for a woman to play the violin. Aletha’s late brother went so far as to break two of her fingers so she couldn’t play the violin.  A very dear friend gave her a violin on her death.  It has a very sweet sound and is very special to her.  She has rebuffed offers to buy the violin and now there have been attempts to steal it.

Lord Dommick is back from the war a mentally scarred man.  Today we would call it PTDS.  He and several of friends formed a quartet and are quite popular with English society and is quite knowledgeable about violins.  His help is ask to determine the origin of Alethea’s violin and why someone wants to steal it.

There are too many characters to mention in this review.  But they all play an important part of the story and I had no trouble sorting them out. 

This isn’t your typical romance novel. The two main characters don’t fall in love with each other immediately.  Lord Dommick also believes it is not proper for a lady to play the violin and years ago made his opinion known to Alethea.  She does not want his help but has no one else to turn to.  There is the mystery of the violin.  I didn’t guess who the bad guy is until it was revealed at the end of the book.  I liked how to characters relied on God.  It wasn’t thrown in your face type of religion. More of just everyday living your life with God’s help.

I highly recommend this book and will be looking for other books by this author. 

I was given this book by the publisher for an honest review.  I was not compensated in anyway.

Evergreen by Susan May Warren

Evergreen is the story of John and Ingrid Christiansen.  They are the parents to six children who have all recently left the nest.  Christmas is approaching and John is about to surprise Ingrid with a trip to Europe for Christmas. What could be more romantic that Christmas in Paris?  At a church function Ingrid volunteers to spearhead the live Nativity for Christmas Eve.   When John tells Ingrid about his surprise trip she is flabbergasted that he would even think of leaving at Christmas time. 

Then their dog, Butterscotch, gets sick and needs an emergency operation. John doesn’t want Butterscotch to have the operation because of the expense.  Ingrid is just as determined the dog will have the operation.  John reluctantly agrees to the operation and it just about drains his vacation fund. The discord brings to the surface the unrest that has been hovering over their marriage for awhile.

Ingrid’s nephew arrives on the scene to live with them just ahead of Christmas.  John is resentful of all the interruptions to his vacation plans.  He can’t understand why Ingrid doesn’t see what all this is doing to his trip plans.

I would recommend this book to anyone. It can be read in one setting. I’m not sure what genre I would call this book.  It’s not what I would call a romance, but maybe just a cozy read. References are made to other books in the series but it isn’t necessary to read those books.  This book addresses the issue of how we can drift from depending on God and how not being open with our spouses can have a lasting effect on a marriage. 

I was given this book by the publisher for an honest review.  I was not compensated in anyway.