Mindy Starns Clark

My Daughter’s Legacy is the outstanding conclusion to Mindy Starns Clark and Leslie Gould’s 3-book series, Cousins of The Dove. All three combine history, mystery, romance, and a family saga that spans several centuries. This novel continues the present-day mystery for the four Talbot cousins and introduces the Civil War tale of courage, faith and conviction of their great+-grandparents. I found the history surrounding the waning days of the Civil War fascinating and the mystery puzzling show more and surprising in the end. My book club has read the first two books of this series, and I can’t wait to share My Daughter’s Legacy with them. It is one I can highly recommend!

Nicole Talbot has completed her rehab and is pursuing her degree in order to become a therapist. After a successful first year, she is looking forward to reconnecting with family and working as an assistant to an equine therapist. The murder scene she and her cousins discovered when small children is a shadow that has impacted her whole life. But new clues and a new endeavor point to a promising future for Nicole. Photographs from the Civil War connect the mystery from her childhood and the present and reveal a legacy none of the Talbot cousins were aware of.

I really like dual story lines, and Clark and Gould do an excellent job of weaving the two different yet compelling stories together. The stories are told in the first person voice of Nicole and the third person perspective of Therese — present and past juxtaposed believably. While I always enjoy a good mystery (and this one has been good through all three books), I liked Therese’s story the best. The two authors really did their homework as they brought the tension of the last days of the Confederacy to life. Richmond is on the verge of being overrun by Union troops, the many hospitals are full of the wounded and dying, and spy networks are doing their best to bring an end to the conflict. There is a lot going on in Therese’s world, and I felt right in the thick of things. Photography was new at the time of the Civil War, and the book incorporates that to document the realities of life in the South. Therese is a young woman of strong convictions, yet is pulled by family loyalties and obligations. In the end she leaves a legacy of speaking for those without a voice.

A great ending to a great series, My Daughter’s Legacy could probably be read as a standalone novel. But don’t do it! All three are available for you to binge read right now! Get them and enjoy!

Highly Recommended.

Audience: older teens and adults.

Great for book clubs.

(Thanks to LitFuse for a complimentary copy. All opinions expressed are mine alone.) show less

Gould and Clark Always Equal Gold!!

Mindy Starns Clark. Leslie Gould. With these two names as co-authors, the only question one needs to ask before buying is, which book in a series is it?

My Sister's Prayer is #2 in the Cousins of the Dove series. Written in first person POV, the reader meets two pairs of sisters, their thrilling stories alternating by scenes of present-day and the early 1700's Virginia.

Celeste Talbot is the obedient sister, Berta the wild one. However, one choice lands the show more young Talbot maidens in a strange land with more trouble around every corner than imaginable.

How could such a good girl go so wrong, and will she choose bitterness or forgiveness when the opportunity comes? The colonies are full of unsavory characters. Will the sisters trust those worthy of their friendship and love?

Meanwhile, in present day, perfectionist Maddee brings her sister Nicole to her house to recover from a drug-induced accident. The girls share a horrible secret from the past, but can Maddee trust Nicole, whose life has spiraled out of control since then? How does the reading of the eighteenth century Talbot sisters' letters influence the relationships of the twenty-first century Talbot sisters?

First, I would buy a Clark/Gould collaboration without giving any thought to the subject matter. They make such a dynamic fiction duo!!

The writing just envelops the reader and carries one along, just as if one is caught in a river's raging current, and just as fickle. One moment I'm excited, the next holding my breath, the next trying to tell characters how to act(they don't listen!), the next crying.

Finally, I finish the book and am spit up on the shore, gasping for breath, reeling from all that has happened. Incredibly, I wish I could start at the beginning and relive this wonderful,faith-filled historical with its present day counterpart all over again.

I gratefully received an e-copy of this book from NetGalley, plus I bought my own paperback version to keep on the shelf. show less

My Sister’s Prayer by award-winning authors Mindy Starns Clark and Leslie Gould continues the saga of the Talbot family. This time sisters are the focus of the novel with the dual storylines of Celeste and Berta and Maddee and Nicole. The setting is Virginia, but the times the sisters live in could not be more different. Celeste and Berta are new immigrants to the Virginia colony, and Maddee and Nicole’s story is contemporary. But despite the differences in culture and technology, there show more are many parallels that can be drawn — struggles of the heart are not so different across the centuries. My book club, By The Book, chose this as their February selection, and it got a unanimous thumbs up! We had a great discussion.

There were several things we liked about My Sister’s Prayer. Number one is the historical setting of Celeste and Berta’s story. Our group includes a 4th grade teacher who loves history. She read many excerpts to her class in their discussions on indentured servants. This topic, as well as the general deprivations and dangers of immigration in the early 1700s, generated a great conversation.

We liked the likable characters and disliked those who were either cads, bad guys, or generally annoying 🙂 . There were a number of minor characters that gave depth to the main characters’ stories. We also liked the romances that developed. The continuing mystery of the murder at the cabin when the cousins were children provided a connecting thread for the contemporary plots. The only criticism we had was that the ending seemed rushed — everything wrapped up in just a few pages.

We recommend My Sister’s Prayer and are looking forward to book 3 in the series, My Daughter’s Legacy, which is due out in July of this year.

Recommended.

Audience: older teens and adults. show less

I got up to Chapter 9 of The Amish Midwife—about 100 pages of teeth gritting and eyelid drooping—before I had to put it down. While there are some interesting aspects to midwifery I enjoyed discovering and some issues regarding Lexie's coming-to-terms with her discarded Mennonite faith, everything else about the actual story, the writing style, and the characters, was unsatisfactory.

I knew I couldn't like the main character the moment she first referred herself (emphasis on first, show more meaning she does it more than once) as the "handsome counterpart" to her "handsome boyfriend." Do people really talk about themselves like that? Not to mention the way she treats her so-called boyfriend, leaving him without closure just so she can aimlessly tread murky waters on the other side of the country on a matter on which she is entirely clueless. She can't seem to think of anyone but herself, and doesn't have a compassionate bone in her body. This all annoyed me; it's one thing for me not to be able to relate to Lexie, but to actually not like her is an entirely different story.

This book is classified as "romance," but let me tell you: if the romantic interest does not show his face by page 100, something is terribly wrong. I admit I haven't tried my hand at Amish romances before, but even for a religious storyline, I'd expect faster action or at least proper character introduction 1/4th of the way through. I didn't even get to the romance part of this story and I was still sick of it... big red flag.

There isn't much else I can say about this one. Nothing worth mentioning that I enjoyed; nothing interesting enough to keep me reading. I actually had to fight from falling asleep in more than one sitting while reading, which means there's a large problem beyond my sleep deprivation that made it really difficult for me to read The Amish Midwife, and that problem would be The Amish Midwife itself.

Pros: Realistic tone // Struggles with faith are well-captured

Cons: Painfully slow pace // Lexie is incredibly dislikable // Character interactions are detached and flat

Verdict: With an entirely self-absorbed and socially oblivious main character, a troubling so-called "romance" story structure, and a HUGE (read: not huge) family secret that lacks all of suspense, action, and intrigue, Clark and Gould's first installment in The Women of Lancaster County was a major letdown for me. Regulars to the genre may enjoy this one better because it does have its individual aspects, such as matters of Lexie's misplaced faith and her vocation, so if you've tried Amish romances before and have liked them, please don't let my review discourage you. As for me, The Amish Midwife has turned me away from all Amish fiction; I now know to stay away from this genre.

Rating: 2 out of 10 hearts (1 star): Not completely a lost cause, but could not finish; I did not enjoy this book.

Source: Complimentary copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest and unbiased review (thank you!). show less