Everything's Coming Up Josey by Susan May Warren

This book has been in my to read basket for a while. I am so glad I finally picked it up and read it. I am not a huge fan of the first person voice you find in Chick Lit. It is not always done well, but it is in Josey.

Josey lives in the same small town where she grew up... living a rather plain and boring life in her opinion. Her sister gets married and the boy Josey has loved for ever (at least she thinks she might love him) shows up with a woman who could easily be a model. Could life get any worse!?  What is the purpose.. why is she here? Josey needs answers.

And she finds one in the form of a missionary.  As he speaks at her church, Josey feels certain God is calling her to Russia to teach English.  (He is calling isn't He? Or maybe she just needs to run away and the timing of this offer is perfect.)  So off to Russia she goes!

The reader is given a birds-eye-view (or maybe it would be better to say a Josey-eye-view) of her adventure as she balances learning a new culture, roommate, and love interests (yes, I said Interests.. plural) along with seeking to figure out her relationship with God.

Lots of laughter and fun in this book, as well as a few tears and a lot of soul-searching as Josey seeks to follow God's will and not her own.

And fun note.. there is a sequel, Chill Out Josey.  Looking forward to continuing on this adventure with Josey.

The Lover's Knot by Clare O'Donohue

I am a quilter, so I am drawn to books that involve quilts or quilting. I love Jennifer Chiaverini's Elm Creek Quilts series and Emilie Richards' Shenandoah Album series. I have been seeing Care O'Donohue's The Lover's Knot for a while now in a quilting catalog I receive, so when I placed an order and needed a few more things to bring me up to the "free shipping" amount, I toss it in my cart. I am sooo glad I did!

The Lover's Knot is book 1 in O'Donohue's Someday Quilts Mysteries. There are 2 more and I plan to snatch them up soon!

This book combines so much of what I love... mystery, romance, and quilts!  Nell is months away from her wedding to Ryan.  Plans are moving along as they should and life is good. To top it off, she receives her wedding quilt from her Grandmother... a gorgeous Lover's Knot pattern done in elegant neutrals as she requested.  Her excitement is doused when her finance' announces that they need to postpone the wedding a while.

Shocked and confused, Nell takes off to Archer's Rest... a small town in upstate New York .. to spend some time with her grandmother.  As she reconnects with her grandmother's friends and plays a bit around Someday Quilts, her grandmother's shop, Nell starts to relax a bit. She even enjoys the attention of the local handyman. But then he turns up dead... the same day Ryan comes to talk with Nell.

Nell sets out to prove Ryan's innocence and discovers more than she bargained for along the way