Hey y’all! Today I’m going to post a quick review of The Best of Intentions by Susan Anne Mason followed by a quick authory update (because I have newssss!).

Also, I hope to have some more awesome blog posts up later this week! For now, I apologize for not having any particularly awesome. But I hope this book review will be fun!

ALSO … this post contains a survey I’d LOVE to have you answer! Basically, I need your opinion on reviews. 😅😉

FTC Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher through NetGalley. I was not required to provide a positive review. All thoughts are my own.

Title: The Best of Intentions

Author: Susan Anne Mason

Series: Canadian Crossings, #1

Genre: historical romance, inspirational

Era: 1919, I think?

Setting: Canada

Publisher: Bethany House Publishers

Source: received from the publisher through NetGalley

Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

The Best of Intentions by Susan Anne Mason

Buy on Amazon ~ Add on Goodreads

Let me just say it was a surprisingly good book! I wasn’t sure what to think going in (having not really paid attention to the blurb, haha), but it ended up packed with heart and awesome.

This is a sweet, clean romance which isn’t too predictable, and that’s something I really value! Christian romances can follow the same pattern, and this one, thankfully, didn’t.

The side plots were also great. I had to love that it wasn’t all focused on one thing as it allowed a lot of variety!

Christian was so sweet! I liked Ginny and Collin a lot, too, and the reverend.

My biggest negative for this story is that the beginning was slow. In addition, the prologue was … awful.

I understand that it was setting up for the next two books in the series now. But I didn’t get that at first.

I thought I was looking for a romance between a certain male character and a certain female, and so I was jolted when a completely DIFFERENT story started in the next chapter!

How unsettling!

A lot of it was just … left hanging. It never popped up again. It felt like a complete waste of my time!

So, no, I don’t think it was a good way to tie three otherwise completely unrelated stories together on the author’s part. It was just … confusing. And weird.

CONTENT

Language: n/a

Violence: n/a

Sexual: romance, some attraction, etc. Nothing inappropriate.

Other: n/a

2/5. It’s a romance which some parents might not want their younger kids to read, but there’s nothing inappropriate about it.

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Review by Kellyn Roth of Reveries Reviews.

Now, the author update …

A Very Serious Author Update

I sort of launched the covers for this series!

And yes, I realize they leaked … everywhere … but now this is the official release! Sort of!

Much love to my designer, Savannah Jezowski!

Also, I’d like to officially announce the next two books in The Chronicles of Alice and Ivy (formerly titled Alice Unanswered and Only a Mother).

These are NOT final covers, but they are placeholders for now! I hope you enjoy them (and the titles).

So that’s right!

And here’s a bit more information on each story!

A Prayer Unanswered has:

• heartache 💔
• wanting things you can’t have 😞😐
• ✝ soldiering on even when it seems impossible ✝
• 💛joy💛 > 💙happiness💙
• basically, happiness sucks
• Peter’s family 🔅
• Riley Farjon 😱😏🧐😍 (you’ll understand later …)
• Kell sobbing through the tough scenes 😢😢😢
• A cat named Cassius 🐱
• #writerslife ✏📝📚📗
• Suicidal thoughts + depression 🖤😰😢
• AMERICA, finally 🇺🇸
• Lilli 💁 #actuallyagoodmotherinlaw

Love Once Lost has:

• difficult relationships 😑
• God’s love and mercy ⭐
• little Molly and Aria   👩‍👧‍👧
• SCOTLAND 💙💙💙 (again)
• More McAllens, esp. McAllens standing up for Ivy 😍
• #accidentallyScottish
• Family grouping together in hard times 💏👩‍👦👪👨‍👩‍👧
• Violet. Just what we DIDN’T want. 👤
• Except we love her anyway, now, don’t we? 😘😘😘
• #GiveVioletaHug (<< should be trending)
• Darker themes which I can’t talk about now. 😬🤬🤐

Both of these books will cover a lot of heavier subjects. Most of which I can’t talk about because spoilers!

But suffice to say that, between the two of them, we’ll have everything dark and unsettling.

Miscarriage/losing a baby, all the worries of having a preemie (in an era when it meant death for the child and probable death for the mother), unfaithfulness and betrayal, being rejected by your family, suicidal thoughts, depression, anxiety, mental health … basically, these books will be a lot more PG-13 than my other ones.

And it’s part scary … and part good, you know? I believe God is strongly leading me to discuss these topics with these characters, and He has gifted me with the words to do so.

I am so incredibly blessed – but also intimidated! Yet He gives me what I need to put these thoughts, and His Word, into these stories and these situations!

Current Update

In case you wonder what I’m working on now!

1. Writing Interpreting Callie James.
   • Historical romance
   • Randomly started writing this novella a couple days back
   • Fun so far!
2. Editing The Lady of the Vineyard.
   • You know about this one!
   • It’s my main project until I hear back from the alphas of Souls Astray.
3. Planning my revisions for The Dressmaker’s Secret.
   • I have editors lined up for her this summer and autumn, and after that, I’ll never touch this book again.
   • Really. I mean it.
   • No, seriously. 😅
4. Outlining and fussing over A Prayer Unanswered and Love Once Lost.
   • I’m an old mother hen when it comes to my babies! 😜😎❤

And the Survey!

This survey is to collect information which will hopefully help my review posts be more fun for y’all!

Click to Fill Her Out!

I would really appreciate it if you could take a couple minutes to do this; it’s a huge boon to me! I really want to do my best by y’all as a blogger, but I need feedback to do so!

TTFN!

Goodreads · Facebook · Twitter

~Kellyn Roth~

p.s.

Did you enjoy the review? How could it have been better? (I know this one was kinda boring, though; I didn’t have a thing to say!)

Did you enjoy my authory updates? Aren’t the covers pretty? (The pro ones, not mine!) Are you excited for A Prayer Unanswered and Love Once Lost? Any predictions/thoughts?

Did you get a chance to fill out the survey? What are your thoughts on reviews? Do you post reviews on your blog? Or elsewhere (e.g. Amazon, Goodreads)?