Book Notes: June 22, 2022 - Historical Romance Book Reviews

 Welcome back! I have a couple of inspirational, historical romances to share with you. One author is Cat Cahill. I've read and enjoyed her work before. But the other is a brand new author to me -- Jodi Basye. I found her work enjoyable, so I'm happy to share these reviews with you today. 

Book Review: Ruthann (Brides of Fremont County #3) by Cat Cahill

Ruthann by Cat Cahill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Lovely Historical Romance

I loved a lot about this book, including the heroine's name. It was also great to read a clean, sweet historical romance. I think Cat Cahill does a good job of balancing the sweet/clean with growing love between her MCs without it coming across as excessively juvenile or shallow. This is not really an inspirational romance, but there is a bit of faith mentioned in appropriate places in the story.
If you enjoy clean, sweet, historical romance, I'd recommend this book to you.

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Book Review: Redeeming the Prodigal (Cross Family Saga Book #1) by Jodi Basye

Redeeming the Prodigal by Jodi Basye
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

4.5 Stars, A Good Retelling

This is the first book I've read by Jodi Basye. At least, I think it is. It's good! There were only couple of places where the wording sounded odd, but it certainly didn't stop me from reading on. The time it took me to read the story seemed longer than the usual book in this genre. I liked that, though. The history of the MCs, presented as memories here and there, was interesting. I like how the author took two Bible stories and retold them set in the American West. It's been done with just one story, I know, but this worked well, in my opinion.
If you're looking for a clean, historical, inspirational romance and you enjoy retellings, then maybe try this one.

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Of these two books, I think Ruthann would be my favorite if I wanted some lighter reading. But if I wanted a story with a little more depth, which went a little deeper into the characters' lives, then I'd go for Jodi's book. 

They both include main characters striving to reach the moral high ground. And while Ruthann isn't an outright inspirational story, the main characters are shown as attending church, as holding to the morals we learn in the Bible. 

In Redeeming the Prodigal, Jodi Basye tackled the Biblical stories of the Prodigal Son and Hosea. I love that this heroine recognizes her own role in her downward slide to disgrace, that she doesn't allow anyone around her to influence her toward playing the victim. She's excessively hard on herself, though, and by the end of the book, I was thinking, "Why don't you get it already?!" 😅 

Having said all that, I enjoyed the book enough to read it again sometime. I gave it 4.5 stars because of the phrase 'mounted the saddle.' It's not technically incorrect, but the wording was just odd. And I counted two instances, so it was really noticeable. The author might've done better to just leave it at 'mounted' but that could just be my personal preference. Otherwise, I didn't notice any typos or misspellings and that's pretty dang amazing these days.

Thank you so much for stopping by today! So what do you think? Will you give (or have you given) these books a try? Post your comments below if you'd like. I would love to hear what you have to say.