Under a Cloudless Sky

There are some authors that you wish could write a new book every month. Chris Fabry is the author I wish could write faster!. He is a masterful storyteller that engages you in his characters and plot. I always wish I could read his books slower so there won't be such a long time before his next one.
Under a Cloudless Sky has everything you want in a book..characters that are memorable, time frame of seventy years that encompasses generations and a surprise ending that I never saw coming.

Under a Cloudless Sky explores the well kept secrets of a lush and storied coal mining town-and the good people who live there-in danger of being destroyed for the sake of profit. The mining town of Beulah Mountain, West Virginia Ruby and Bean form a unique friendship.  Ruby is from the right side of the tracks and Bean the other. Ruby's father is a mine owner and Bean's daddy is a drunken disgruntled miner. This takes place in 1933 and the story focuses on the simpler times and how friendships are formed.  Ruby and Bean discover secrets about the town and a tragedy comes and threatens to tear them apart forever. Ruby struggles to understand the inequalities of life, asking "Why do some have it good and some have it bad?" Bean answers, "Some say it's the luck of the draw.  Some call it Gods will.  I think it's somewhere in the middle.  You got to take the good with the bad." The storyline jumps from 1933 to 2004 and how one man..Hollis Beasley is holding out from selling his land to Coleman Coal and Energy. His families legacy is on Beulah Mountain and he is taking his last stand.  The town is dying and Coleman wants to open the Company Store Museum to pay homage to the past-even the massacre of 1933.
Enter the star of the story..Ruby Handley Freeman. She is a feisty octogenarian that is invited to the Company Store Museum since she was a part of the history.  She lives hundreds of miles away and decides to drive herself to Beulah Mountain.  Except her kids have taken the keys away from her. The fun begins with the harrowing tale and as she begins the journey, she needs to face a decades-old secret that will change everything for her and those she meets.

This story will stay with you long after you turn the last page.  How secrets can destroy you and relationships like Ruby found out. Loved the two different time periods and how the story intersected each period. Will the truth about the town's past be its final undoing or its saving grace?  Please pick up this masterful story and find out for yourself.  You will be like me, can't Chris write faster.

Thanks to Tyndale Publishers for this free copy just for my honest opinion.
 https://files.tyndale.com/thpdata/firstChapters/978-1-4964-2828-8.pdf
 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35754710-under-a-cloudless-sk

The House of Foster Hill

Sometimes you try a new author and are impressed and sometimes the book just doesn't connect.  I can say that Jaime Jo Wright's debut novel..The House on Foster Hill was an outstanding read that had me thoroughly involved throughout the story. I really enjoy the story lines that span history and entail two different time periods that the story weaves around. This story spans over a hundred years to the present and the author redefines historical suspense with a house and the women it touched.

Starting out in Oakwood Wisconsin in 1906, Ivy Thorpe felt that death had a way of creeping up on a soul, and Ivy Thorpe was determined that when it visited her, she would not be surprised.  Her story would be recorded and remembered. When a body is found in the Foster Hill oak tree, Ivy sets out to find out her story and what happened to her and her baby. The House of Foster Hill has always had a reputation of sinister happenings and now this.
Kaine Prescott is heading to the Foster Hill house from California after she purchases her grandfather's house sight unseen. Her husband died two years ago and she believes it to be suspicious and keeps trying to get the investigation reopened. When Kaine sees the abandoned house, she realizes her decision was foolish to try to compensate for her husbands death. She wants to redo the house because he wanted to always do that. Now she is learning the dark history to the house and someone is out to keep her from continuing to find out the the truth.  She finds small treasures in the house from Ivy and Kaine is trying to put together the same story that Ivy was putting together about the strange house on Foster Hill.

This storyline has it all...suspense, romance and intrigue that will keep you turning pages to find out what Ivy and Kaine find out about the House on Foster Hill and just how the two stories are stories of legacy and loss. The characters were very well crafted along with twists that surprised me and hope that tied it altogether. Please pick up and read, you will not be disappointed.

Thanks to Bethany House Publishers for this free copy just for my honest opinion.