Candle in the Darkness (Lynn Austin)

Why I have this book: I got the Kindle version for free back in 2013.

I enjoyed this book. It didn't have the depth that some of the author's other books have, but it kept me engrossed throughout. One thing I really liked is that it explained a lot about the Civil War in a way that was simple enough to understand —like why the war started and how it progressed. It was a complicated time with all the various battles and leaders, so it was nice to have a more simple explanation for how things went down.

I also liked seeing the conflict through the eyes of a Southern girl whose family owned slaves, but who also felt slavery was wrong. I wonder how many Southerners had that conflicted viewpoint.

I gave this 3 stars on Goodreads, but I really would have liked to give it something closer to a 4, like a 3.7. I guess I should round up and go ahead and give it a 4. :)

This Christian novel is clean. There are a few mild descriptions of battle wounds.

Petticoat Spy (Carol Warburton)

Why I have this book: It was a book club pick.

A friend actually loaned the print copy to me, but I only really have time to read at night right now, and I much prefer my Kindle Paperwhite for night reading. I ended up buying the Kindle version for that reason.

I returned it for a refund. I think I only got through about 20%, but honestly, I did not like this book. It was boring, the writing was so-so, and I had to force myself to pick it up again each night. I realized I'd had it for less than nine days or whatever the limit is to return an e-book, so that's what I did. It just wasn't worth the $10.99 I paid for it.

(And a big shout-out to Amazon for having a return policy on e-books! It's one of the many reasons I love that company!)

This book is clean, or at least I'm assuming the rest of it is as clean as the first 20%.

The Moonflower Vine (Jetta Carleton)

Why I have this book: It was a book club book from earlier this year. (I didn't read it that month, being so busy as a student these days and all...)

I liked this book. I can't say I loved it (I gave it a 3 on Goodreads), because it was kind of a slow read and didn't have a lot of action to keep me enthralled. Still, it was an interesting story and it got more intriguing as it went along. I wish I could have dug a little deeper and had a little more time to get to know everyone better. I would have liked to see how things played out with some of the characters — it seemed like some of them just went away when their lives were getting interesting and then we just heard later what happened, but only sort-of.

This book was fairly clean. One character swore a lot, but it was only in one small section of the book. There were instances where a married couple both "cheated" (it's complicated) on each other. It always came back to God and some kind of morality, or at least the struggle with wanting to do what was right. It was kind of weird in that regard, but I didn't feel that the author glorified immorality.