Five Hidden Gems From My Favorites Shelf

 

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Today's Top Ten Tuesday prompt is "Books I Loved With Fewer Than 2,000 Ratings On Goodreads." Ooh, good one! I took a peek through my favorites shelf and found a few that I thoroughly enjoy and have recommended many times, but still I don't hear a lot of buzz about. Maybe you'll want to look some of them up for yourself!

  "The Evidence" and the whole Mars Hill Classified series by Austin Boyd
As a science fiction fan, I was hooked from the moment I heard about these faith-based thrillers written by a spacecraft engineer and NASA astronaut finalist. Terrorist attacks, mission disasters, and the first colony on Mars are all things this series explores, and I'm a fan!


  "Awakening" by Tracy Higley
As I said in my review, this book is part contemporary, part historical, and part speculative, with a dash of allegory thrown in, too. Imagine if you can't remember your own history but are obsessed with ancient culture - and then get the chance to trot the globe looking for artifacts! Will you uncover your own past on the journey? Very intriguing.


  The Sullivan Crisp novels by Nancy Rue & Stephen Arterburn
Throughout this series, Christian therapist Sullivan Crisp helps various people with situations in their own lives while working through his own on the side. I really liked the depiction of the counseling relationship and the different methods that were used to help his clients overcome the inner turmoil they were facing.


  "Loves Comes Calling" by Siri Mitchell
Socialite Ellis Eton feels like she's a perpetual disappointment and wants to run away and pursue her dream of becoming an actress. To help out a friend in an emergency, she agrees to take over her identity for a few days and pose as a telephone operator - and of course her first day on the job she overhears a murder plot! Ellis reminded me of Amelia Bedelia and the story was laugh-out-loud funny while also containing a page-turning mystery and a sweet romance.


  "Just As I Am" by Virginia Smith
Mayla Strong was as surprised as everyone else that she ended up at the altar one Sunday morning. Now that she's given her life to Jesus, this purple-haired young woman wants to learn all she can and become active in her church. She puts her pastor on speed-dial and deals with helpful and not-so-helpful members of the congregation as she attempts to grow in her faith. 


Find more Top Ten Tuesday posts at That Artsy Reader Girl.

"A Light on the Hill" by Connilyn Cossette

 

In recent years I’ve heard great things about Connilyn Cossette’s Biblical fiction, and she was on my list of authors I hoped to try in 2019. I was thrilled to pick up this first book in her Cities of Refuge series, and it did not disappoint.

Our story opens with Moriyah, an Israelite woman who lives a fairly solitary life due to an event in the past having left her face with a horrible scar. Moriyah wears a veil whenever she is in public and mostly keeps to herself. Now that her father is getting older he has decided it’s time to find a husband for Moriyah, and she will need to be brave and vulnerable in building the relationship.

Things quickly become complicated when she meets the man who has agreed to the betrothal, and furthermore when an accident claims the lives of two young boys.

This book’s setting is fascinating. Not just the focus on the Cities of Refuge, but the look at how things might have been for Israel under the leadership of Joshua as the tribes went in to conquer the Promised Land. This book is post-Jericho but before the Israelites were fully settled in Canaan.

Although this was the first book in a new series, it frequently referenced people and events from Cossette’s previous series. I did not have trouble following along, but I feel it might be even more enjoyable if you have read her Out From Egypt books. Overall I’d recommend this for anyone who enjoys Biblical fiction, and look forward to reading more from this author myself.