"Dear Mr. Knightley" book review

   

Sam is a 23 year old orphan who is trying to attend Northwestern University's Journalism program. In order to get funds to attend the program from her benefactor, she has to write letters to him, a man she only knows as Mr. Knightley. Sam is a great lover of books, and quotes Jane Austen's works when trying to express herself to others. She rarely hears from Mr. Knightley and starts writing to him as if she is writing in her own journal. Perhaps even a little too comfortable in her letters to him, with a few of the subjects she brings up, considering she does not even know him. Being an orphan, and being part of the foster system, Sam does not trust people that well, so she does not have any friends. This starts to change though when she meets Alex, who loves books as much as she does. They both have their own secrets and quirks of how they deal with the events in their life. I greatly enjoyed this book, but at times really wanted to know what Mr. Knightley thought of the letters he received from Sam. She was also a little naive at times during the book, but was pretty insightful about her thoughts and as to the real reasons why she read books. Her using books and running as a way to escape reality, but at some point needing to use the courage that she knows she has but is too afraid to use it. As with a lot of books though, the ending came too quick and left me with wanting more. I have read a few of Austen's books but not all of them, so sometimes was a little bit of a lost, since I didn't understand all of the meaning behind some of the quotes. So, far the author isn't writing a sequel to this book, but we can all hope. I rank this book 4.5 out of 5. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for an honest review through Booksneeze.

Who Doesn't Love Homemade Bread?

In the past few weeks I have been making a few loaves of homemade bread. They are easy recipes, and no knead breads as well. Here they are a few of the photos, along with the attached websites for the recipes;

Rosemary Bread

I just used the regular bread dough recipe from here and added a little bit of olive oil and rosemary. It turned out pretty good, as you can see from the photos.

Cranberry, Orange, Almond Bread

The recipe is towards the bottom of the website. It was really good. I took it to a quilt guild meeting and it was all eaten, so it was good I was able to get a slice before it was all gone.

Oat Bread

This bread was really good, but it makes a LOT, so be forwarned.

Tomorrow I will be baking another bread.

Postcards

I have been getting quite a few postcards in the mail lately for swaps I have been doing. If you like to get items or letters in the mail, check out swap-bot.com. I thought I would share a few of the postcards I received;

Books I will review soon....

I plan on reviewing these books during the next two weeks; 

This is for the book club that I belong too. It looks interesting, but I haven't started to read it yet.

Dear Mr. Knightly will probably be reviewed this week for booksneeze. 

This will be reviewed for the Classics Club.

Have you read any of these books, if so what did you think?

My Hope is Found Review...

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through blogging for books for free, for my honest review of the book. This is the third book in the Cadence of Grace series. I really enjoyed the first two books, and did enjoy some of the parts of the third. Gideon and Lonnie are forced to be separated from each other again, in what may be forever in the third book. While Lonnie and Gideon area no longer together, she wonders what Gideon is doing, while at the same time starts to have feelings to Reverend McKee. Choices at times in our lives are not easy, but in this book at the end I felt that Lonnie didn't really make a choice it was made for her. I had a few issues with this book; how involved both of the Reverends were in the Cassie/Lonnie/Gideon marriage scenario, Lonnie couldn't write her aunt to find out information every once in awhile? (which in previous books she did exchange letters in), Lonnie after a few months of being separated from Gideon, suddenly has feelings and possible fell in love with someone else. These were just a few things that I didn't quite believe. Especially, if Lonnie loved Gideon I would think that she would still be grieving too much to even think about another relationship. Yes, I know that during this time period women still had to rely on men for their livelihood (especially if one had children), but she lived with the Bennetts and it wasn't like they would kick her out on her own. Then at the end she doesn't even make the choice really herself, it is made for her, perhaps because she couldn't decide by herself? I want to know though what happens more to the man who didn't get her in the end. If you have read the other books, you will want to read this one as well, but not the best one out of the series.

Rank: 3.0 out of 5