A Sound Among the Trees by Susan Meissner

Once again Susan Meissner does not disappoint. This book captivated me from the moment I picked it up to read. While it isn't my usual genre that I choose to read, I really enjoyed this book. Marielle Bishop marries a widower and agrees to live in the house of his late wife so that the kids don't have to leave the only home they have known. Shortly after arriving there she hears rumors that the house is haunted by Susannah Page - a supposed Civil War spy for the North. Marielle is told more stories from Adelaide her step-children's great grandmother about the house Holly Oaks. She must decide for herself whether this house is truly haunted or if there is more than meets the eye. Since I don't believe in ghosts, I wasn't sure where this book was going to go and I really don't want to give too much away. I'll leave it at this book did not disappoint a non-ghost believer. Once again Susan Meissner weaves a delightful story mixing contemporary fiction with historical fiction. I had a hard time putting this down and loved reading the historical parts of the book. It really made the past come alive. If you love reading things about the Civil War, you will love reading this book. I received this complimentary book from Waterbrook Press in exchange for an honest review. I am under no obligation to give it a positive review.

Life Everlasting by Robert Whitlow

I really hate to write this review because I feel like I'm not qualified. Yes, I read the whole book. However, it is the second book in a series of which I did not read the first book. I received this book for free through the BookSneeze program in exchange for an honest review, but when I picked the book it had given the name and description of the first book in the series. You can imagine my surprise when the second book came instead since I still hadn't read the first book. With all of that being said, here is what I thought of this book... This book starts where the first book leaves off, or so I am assuming. From things that were mentioned in this book, it was only a few weeks after the incidents had taken place in the 1st book. Most of the book is written from the perspective of Alexia Lindale - a divorce lawyer that has recently started a relationship with God. She and her minister friend Ted Morgan are trying to use musical therapy to help heal Baxter Richardson who is in a coma after falling from a cliff. The back cover of the book leads you to believe that this is a mystery and that there will be lots of twists and turns involved; however, I didn't find that to the case. It seemed very slow for most of the book and then right towards the end it sped up in more of a "I need to be finishing this book up" kind of way. I often felt very confused and not sure if I should know more information from the first book. I think for the most part this book could be a stand alone because it didn't really appear to have taken place that long after whatever happened in the first book. Robert Whitlow did give you enough background so that if you were just picking up this book you wouldn't be too confused. I really didn't feel like I had any connection with the characters which is strange because so much of it was about a pianist (Ted Morgan) and the main character (Alexia Lindale) liking to listen to the pianist. I say strange because I was a music major in college, so that should have been a strong connecting point for me, but I didn't really connect. The characters seemed somewhat stilted to me in their interactions (again, some of this may be because I didn't and still don't have the background of the first book to go from). But the conversations didn't seem to be very real to me - maybe because the were usually one to two sentences long per character and I'm more on the chatty side. I can't really say I'd recommend this book to anyone - at least not to read by itself. I'm really hoping that if I were to have read the first book it would have gotten a much better review. Again, I received this book for free through the BookSneeze program in exchange for an honest review.