Rachel Kovaciny's Blog, page 14

"A Little Persuaded" by Kendra E. Ardnek

I was hesitant about this final volume of the Austen Fairy Tales by Kendra E. Ardnek.  Persuasion is my favorite Jane Austen novel, but this book is blending it with "The Little Mermaid," and that is not a fairy tale I tend to love, at least not most retellings of it.  In fact, I actively dislike the Disney version.
Happily, Ardnek made the two stories and sets of characters work together really nicely.  Enna, her Anne Elliot/Little Mermaid character, was as retiring, thoughtful, and wise as Anne...

"Noel Streatfeild's Christmas Stories" by Noel Streatfeild

This is EXACTLY the sort of book I want to read at Christmastime!  Heartwarming, sweet, uplifting short stories featuring realistic people in realistic situations that are treated with humor and kindness.  
My favorite stories were:
+ "The Moss Rose," about a young skater who loses her costume and skates on the subway, but it all turns out okay.
+ "The Princess," about a princess who goes shoe-shopping and gets shanghaied into performing in a ballet incognito.
+ "The Chain," about a boy who imagines...

"Meant to Bee" by Storm Shultz

This is the sweetest rom-com kind of book I have read in a long time.  Yet it also has a lot of serious and meaningful things going on!  I think that's what makes it so delightful.
Single mom Cordy spends everything she has on a cute little cottage in a small English village, sight unseen.  When she and her toddler arrive there, that cottage turns out to be full of leaks, creaks, and grime.  But Cordy has nowhere else to go, so she rolls up her sleeves, blows her nose and dries her eyes, and gets...

"By the Great Horn Spoon!" by Sid Fleischman

Way back when I was ten or so, By the Great Horn Spoon! was the first Sid Fleischman book I ever encountered.  My mom read it aloud to my brother and I, and we laughed and laughed and laughed over it.  (My brother and I also picked up using "Blast!" like an expletive, like a ship's captain does in this book, which our mom eventually got very tired of.  I still say it when something goes wrong, thirty-some years later.  Very handy word, really.)
A few years ago, I read this aloud to my own kids.  ...

The Black Friday Indie Book Sale!

This weekend, I have marked down the Kindle editions of all four of my Once Upon a Western novels to $0.99 for Black Friday, and that sale will last through Cyber Monday!  My e-book editions are usually $2.99-$3.99, so this means you could theoretically get all four of them for less than just one Kindle copy of My Rock and My Refuge.

Not only that, but my books are part of the massive annual Black Friday Indie Book Sale hosted by author Perry Kirkpatrick, which includes more than 500 ebooks all p...

"Murder at the Royal Botanic Gardens" by Andrea Penrose

Another wonderful entry into what is fast becoming a favorite mystery series for me!  These Wrexford and Sloane Historical Mysteries are absolutely delightful.  So far, not a single one has disappointed me.  In an age when so many mainstream books are better suited to the recycling bin than my bookshelf, Andrea Penrose is a beacon of hope for me.  These books are fun, intelligent, character-oriented mysteries that provide plenty of sparkage between the main characters, but never slide into smut....

"The Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins

I have put off writing this review for almost two weeks now.  Which, I suppose, tells you a lot right there, doesn't it.
I really enjoyed The Moonstone  when I read that a couple years ago.  And I've read some short stories by Wilkie Collins that were fun, so I expected to enjoy The Woman in White too.  I wanted to enjoy it.  I tried to enjoy it.
But oh my goodness, did I ever have to push my way through this book.  I did want to know how it all ended, so I kept with it, but it was a struggle.  Mos...

"And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie

Oh. My.
I picked this up in an airport bookstore on the way home from visiting my parents earlier this month.  I really was in the mood for a mystery, but hadn't brought any with me, and this seemed like a perfect read for October, especially since I have been participating in the #AMonthOfMystery challenge on Instagram again this year.
What a wild ride this book is!  I almost don't want to say too much about it because I didn't really know anything about the plot before reading it, and that was a...

And then this happened...

My Rock and My Refuge has won another award!  This time, it has been named the second place winner of the 2023 PenCraft Award for Literary Excellence in the Christian Historical Fiction category!

I am endlessly grateful to God for giving me the ability, tenacity, and opportunity to write books and share them with others. He has blessed my efforts so much. To God be the glory!
If you haven't read My Rock and My Refuge yet, but you love historical fiction, fairy tale retellings, Christian fiction, a...

"The Ferguson Rifle" by Louis L'Amour

I decided to read this because it had Chantrys in it, and I had just reread Borden Chantry, which remains my favorite L'Amour book.  While I didn't love The Ferguson Rifle as much as Borden Chantry, it was still a very enjoyable read!
This one is set in the very early 1800s -- Lewis and Clark get mentioned as being contemporaries of the characters, so that tells you about what era this would be.  Ronan Chantry lost his wife and son in a terrible fire, and is a broken and haunted man.  Armed with ...