Title: Saffire
Author: Sigmund Brouwer
Publisher: WaterBrook
Pages: 336
ISBN: 978-0-307-44651-0
Publication Date: August 6th, 2016

Synopsis:

I reminded myself that once you start to defend someone, it's difficult to find a place to stop. But I went ahead and took that first step anyway. . .

For President Teddy Roosevelt, controlling the east-west passage between two oceans mattered so much that he orchestrated a revolution to control it. His command was to "let the dirt fly," and for years, the American Zone of the Panama Canal mesmerized the world, working in uneasy co-existence with the Panamanian aristocrats.

It's in this buffered Zone where, in 1909, James Holt takes that first step to protect a defenseless girl named Saffire, expecting a short and simple search for her mother. Instead it draws him away from safety, into a land haunted by a history of pirates, gold runners, and plantation owners, all leaving behind ghosts of their interwoven desires, sins, and ambitions, ghosts that create the web of deceit and intrigue of a new generation of revolutionary politics. It will also bring him together with a woman who will change his course or bring an end to it.

A love story set within a historical mystery, Saffire brings to vibrant life the most impressive--and embattled--engineering achievement of the twentieth-century.

Review:
Sigmund Brouwer has been a favorite author of mine for years. He is one who can span many different eras and make history pop off the pages.

Saffire, like many of the other books that Sigmund has written, unfold a more intense and deeper story as you dive further into the pages. Right off the bat, this story opens up with political dealings behind closed door. People want the higher ups involved, but due to the political restraints, they have to do some backdoor dealings of sorts.

James Holt is a guy who is as far from the political intrigue as they come. He is honest and has high morals, but he is pulled into this by a very high placed friend. Everything starts off simple, a job that should only take a couple of weeks, but it grows as James helps a young girl, Saffire.

Saffire, when introduced makes an impact and I couldn't help but route for this girl in hopes that she could find her mom. She was a spitfire who knew her mind, but still a child trying hard to live in a world of politics and mystery.

There was so much to this book! It started off wondering about one thing, but it kept shifting and morphing. It made it hard to put this book down.

Too Read
4 out of 5

About the Author:
SIGMUND BROUWER is the best-selling author of nearly thirty novels, with close to 4 million books in print. Based on his inspiration for Thief of Glory, which Sigmund wrote as a way to learn and honor his parent's stories, especially of his father's boyhood in a Japanese concentration camp, Sigmund leads The Chapters of Our Lives memoir seminars across the United States and Canada. (www.thechaptersofourlives.com). Sigmund is married to recording artist Cindy Morgan and has two daughters. 

Thank you to Blogging for Books, I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

Waiting On:
Title: The Illusionist's Apprentice
Author: Kristy Cambron
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Publication Date: March 2017

Synopsis:
From GoodReads

Harry Houdni’s one-time apprentice holds fantastic secrets about the greatest illusionist in the world. But someone wants to claim them . . . or silence her before she can reveal them on her own.

Boston, 1926. Jenny “Wren” Lockhart is a bold eccentric—even for a female vaudevillian. As notorious for her inherited wealth and gentleman’s dress as she is for her unsavory upbringing in the back halls of a vaudeville theater, Wren lives in a world that challenges all manner of conventions.

In the months following Houdini’s death, Wren is drawn into a web of mystery surrounding a spiritualist by the name of Horace Stapleton, a man defamed by Houdini’s ardent debunking of fraudulent mystics in the years leading up to his death. But in a public illusion that goes terribly wrong, one man is dead and another stands charged with his murder. Though he’s known as one of her teacher’s greatest critics, Wren must decide to become the one thing she never wanted to be: Stapleton’s defender.

Forced to team up with the newly formed FBI, Wren races against time and an unknown enemy, all to prove the innocence of a hated man. In a world of illusion, of the vaudeville halls that showcase the flamboyant and the strange, Wren’s carefully constructed world threatens to collapse around her.

Layered with mystery, illusion, and the artistry of the Jazz Age’s bygone vaudeville era, The Illusionist’s Apprentice is a journey through love and loss and the underpinnings of faith on each life’s stage.

Why I'm Waiting:
I have read the first 2 books by Kristy Cambron and just loved them! I can't wait to see what this book has to offer. This story looks like it will focus on a time and people that is really not seen a lot of in fiction and I can't wait to read it! I love different settings and time.


What are you waiting on this week?

Topic:

What are you waiting on for the Fall?

Title: Spy of Richmond
Author: Jocelyn Green
Publisher: River North
Pages: 432
ISBN: 978-0-8024-0579-1
Publication Date: March 1st, 2015

Synopsis:

Trust None. Risk all.

Richmond, Virginia, 1863. Compelled to atone for the sins of her slaveholding father, Union loyalist Sophie Kent risks everything to help end the war from within the Confederate capital and abolish slavery forever. But she can't do it alone.

Former slave Bella Jamison sacrifices her freedom to come to Richmond, where her Union soldier husband is imprisoned, and her twin sister still lives in bondage in Sophie's home. Though it may cost them their lives, they work with Sophie to betray Rebel authorities. Harrison Caldwell, a Northern freelance journalist who escorts Bella to Richmond, infiltrates the War Department as a clerk-but is conscripted to defend the city's fortifications.

As Sophie's spy network grows, she walks a tightrope of deception, using her father's position as newspaper editor and a suitor's position in the ordnance bureau for the advantage of the Union. One misstep could land her in prison, or worse. Suspicion hounds her until she barely even trusts herself. When her espionage endangers the people she loves, she makes a life-and-death gamble.

Will she follow her convictions even though it costs her everything-and everyone-she holds dear?

Review:
I have loved every book in the Heroines Behind the Line Series and Spy of Richmond really brought it all together and closed out this series beautifully!

This story follows Sophie, a girl who was born and raised in Richmond who went to a girl's school in the north when she was older. She was raised by her mother, who was from the south, and held in esteem by her father, a staunch southern supporter. When the war breaks out, Sophie's ideas draw her to the union side, but she has to be careful. Anyone with union sympathy is looked down on and questioned for any action. Sophie looses both of her parents in different way in the beginning of the story, which leaves her to do as she feels she needs to do.

Sophie walk cautiously along a fine line. As she moves along, she finds others with her opinion of the war. As we follow Sophie on this journey, she has someone she had cared about brought back into her life along with several new friends as she continues on this journey.

As you read through The Spy of Richmond, you can't help but get caught up in all of the fantastic history that is intertwined into the story. Jocelyn Green did so much research for this book and it shows. You can't helped but get swept up into the detail of the events, surroundings, and clothes of this time.

This book closes out this series perfectly. I'm sad to see this close out the series, since I love the history of this time, but there were no questions left open which made me very happy!

If you are a fan of the Civil War era, this series is one that you need to check out!

Too Read!
5 out of 5