Review: Heart's Promise by Linda Hoover

 

Heart's Promise (Heart's Desire: Book Three): Gilded Age Romance

Heart's Promise (Buy now)

Linda Hoover

Linda Hoover Books

Kindle and paperback

382 pages

June 23, 2025

 

Welcome back to Jacob and Julia's Iowa farm.

In 1893, their son Justin is eleven, and daughter Annaliese is ten. When Jacob and Julia adopted Annaliese as an infant, they were told God had a special plan for her. As Annaliese grows up, she wonders if her purpose will be world-changing.

Julia's old friend, Edward Harrington, comes to visit from England, along with his wife and son, Robbie. Their time at the farm is the beginning of a like/hate relationship and later something more between Robbie and Annaliese. When the families traveled to San Francisco in 1900, a shocking revelation from Edward's wife could change everything, beginning with taking Annaliese to England.

If this is God's plan, Annaliese is disappointed. It's nothing like she imagined, and her heart's desire is to go to veterinary college. This could mean a very different future for her.

 

Reviewer’s comment:

Julie and Jacob Anderson adopt Annaliese and watch her grow into a level-headed young woman on their farm. She helps them with tending the animals and enjoying farm life in a small Iowa community. Later, family friends, Edward Harrington, his wife and son Robbie, come from England to visit the Anderson family. The Harringtons are polite but used to the cultured ways of high society. Julia’s family hailed from the Bostonian elite society, but Julia shed that class distinction for a simpler life with Jacob in Iowa. As Annaliese grew, she became a sympathizer of the Suffrage Movement, believing women were as capable and just as smart as the men. Annaliese soon learns in her relationship with Robbie that American culture and English refined culture were very different. And although she and Robbie were friends, their cultures drive a wedge between them when they try to converse and find themselves on opposite sides of the fence.

Annaliese's dream is to attend Veterinary College, but a trip to England gives her a taste of the refined life and family she’d never known before. While there, she gets to know Robbie better, and as their relationship grows into something more, they still have opposite views on issues, like a lady’s place in society. From different backgrounds, their courtship is stormy. As Annaliese’s progressive ideas hold firm, she returns to America. But will being a progressive woman win out over love and a straitlaced English gentleman? I’ll let the reader decide when they read this delightful, gilded age romance. The historical events lend a pleasant aspect to this well-written, adorable novel. Highly recommended.     

About the Author:

Linda lives in west central Ohio with her husband and grandson. She earned a degree in psychology from Anderson University where she learned the voices in her head were actually characters from stories waiting to be told.

Linda has been writing since childhood, but her publishing career started with writing columns and a middle grade serial for the South Charleston Spectator. A retired librarian, she now enjoys being a fulltime author in her home office.

You are invited to visit her website, Linda Hoover Books, to find out more about her and her books. You can stay in touch when you subscribe to her newsletter, and as a thank you, you’ll receive a novella.

https://www.lindahooverbooks.com

Love's True Measure by Lori DeJong

Love’s True Measure

(True Calling – Book 3)

Love's True Measure (Preorder or Buy)

Lori DeJong

Scrivenings Press LLC

June 10, 2025

Kindle & Paperback

376 pages

Shannon Trent has dedicated her life to ministering to teens, even as she hides secrets from her past that haunt her. Born into privilege but starved for unconditional love and acceptance, she’s built a simpler life away from the expectations of her influential family. Shannon is content on her own, believing that opening her heart would mean unearthing her deepest shame. But when her charming neighbor stirs feelings, she’s never allowed herself to entertain. His lack of faith provides the perfect excuse to keep her distance.

Hunter Kavanaugh has spent years chasing his dream of becoming the youngest partner at his prestigious Fort Worth law firm. But when his mother’s sudden death leaves him the sole guardian of his teenage sister, his carefully curated world crumbles. Struggling with grief, anger at God, and the demands of his career, Hunter is surprised when Shannon’s unwavering faith resonates with him—and her ability to connect with his sister draws him closer.

As Hunter and Shannon navigate their growing bond, unexpected challenges force them to confront their fears and priorities. Both must either choose to trust that God’s plan is far greater than their own—or risk losing the love of a lifetime.

About the Author

Lori DeJong (pronounced DeeYung) is a contemporary Christian romance author who enjoys penning stories full of grace and the redemptive power of God’s love that inspire others to hope regardless of circumstance, find joy in the moment, and grow in their faith.

Born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, Lori arrived in Texas in 2005 and dug those roots right in. She currently resides in beautiful Georgetown, north of Austin, with her husband of thirty years. Other than their two fur-babies, their nest is empty, as their daughter graduated from college and settled in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, where she is thriving in her faith and career.

Lori loves to write about love and romance and all that fun stuff, with a firm foundation of faith. Clean but sassy, sparkly, and even goose-bumpy romance, with God in the middle and characters seeking and learning and changing, couldn’t be more heartwarming or spine-tingly.

Lori’s debut novel, "Love’s True Calling", Book One of her True Calling Series, was the 2020 winner of the Scrivenings Press Novel Starts Contest, the 2022 winner of the ACFW Genesis Award for Romance, was a double finalist in the 2024 Selah Awards, placed second in the 2024 FHL Reader's Choice Awards, and was the Scrivenings Press 2023 Contemporary Book of the Year. "Love’s True Home" was released in June 2024 and was a 2024 Selah finalist. "Love’s True Measure" released in June 2025. Her novella, "Jingle Bell Matchmakers" was released in October 2024 as part of "A Match Made at Christmas, a collection of Christmas romance novellas." 

Heart of Grace

 Hearts of the West Series #13

                                                                                                    Heart of Grace (Buy Now)                                                     

Linda Hoover

Linda Hoover Books 

April 8, 2025

Kindle and Paperback

313 pages

                  

St. Louis

1890
Lydia Bailey grew up with parents who provided housing for missionaries on leave. One summer a young boy named Adam Johnson and his parents stayed with them. Every bug and worm she showed him outside scared him to tears. Lydia had wondered what was wrong with him.

Years later, when Lydia’s father passed away and her mother fell ill for a year, it seemed God had abandoned them, so she signed up to get a teaching certificate to help cover household expenses. When she came home, her mother had cleaned the guest room. The boy who had come ten years ago needed a place to recover from malaria. Would Lydia have to put off getting her certificate to care for him?

Adam finds himself delivered to the home his parents had arranged for him to recover. To his horror, all he can see is the skinny girl with red braids who tormented him when the family stayed here years ago.

Will Lydia open her heart to God’s healing? Can Adam find it in his heart to forgive Lydia? Will both seek God’s plan for their lives?

Reviewer's Comment:

    Lydia Bailey’s dream is to become a teacher and to return to school in the fall, but she worries about her mother, who seems to tire easily these days. And at times, mom seems short of breath, but mom said it was nothing. After father’s death, her mother often opens their home to missionaries, revival ministers or tent meeting preachers, which wear mom out. Now, mom wants to help friends and missionaries, the Johnsons in Botswana, Africa, by letting their son, Adam Johnson, come to her home in the United States to recover from malaria.  

    But mom was also on a mission to find Lydia a husband. If not the pharmacist, then someone else.

    Adam remembers Lydia from childhood as a skinny annoying young girl and is dreading meeting her once again.

    Lydia, remembers Adam as a thin boy with dark hair and huge eyes in his small face. What could he possibly look like now?

    Mom assured Lydia that Adam didn’t require much attention. He only needed rest and relaxation. Lydia fears he might need too much help and would drain her mother of strength and Lydia of time, but Lydia has little to say about the situation already set in motion. And as long as it didn’t hinder Lydia of taking teacher’s classes in the fall or draining mom of strength, then Adam could come and stay as long as he wanted.

     Hearts of Grace by Linda Hoover is an adorable and well-written novel that will appeal to those from 18 to 80 years old. It will draw you into the lives of Lydia and Adam and their individual goals and how love and God can alter the best-laid plan. This story is about a warm, welcoming family that gives you a slice into the 1890’s life in St. Louis, Missouri, and brings you into their home. The story is sure to capture your interest on the first page and hold it until the last. A for sure, must read.

Linda's Bio:                                                                                

                                                                                       

Linda lives in west central Ohio with her husband and grandson. She earned a degree in psychology from Anderson University where she learned the voices in her head were actually characters from stories waiting to be told.

Linda has been writing since childhood, but her publishing career started with writing columns and a middle grade serial for the South Charleston Spectator. A retired librarian, she now enjoys being a fulltime author in her home office.

You are invited to visit her website, Linda Hoover Books, to find out more about her and her books. You can stay in touch when you subscribe to her newsletter, and as a thank you, you’ll receive a novella.

https://www.lindahooverbooks.com

This link will take you to all the places you can find Linda. http://linktree/lindahooverbooks