A pretty good book. I liked the plot, though it was a bit cliched. I was bored by the endless amount of marriage advice. This book is . . . basically a fictionalized "How to get through the first few months of marriage" book. I'm fourteen. Not only do I have no interest in marriage or boys (shocker, I know), I also can't legally get married for four more years, so the tons of marriage advice fell flat with me.

So, taking a look at Mallory. She's a good character. Not one to jump out and stand apart from the other characters though. She's your regular woman who had a nice job and life and left it all behind for love and moved to a small town where everyone knows just about everyone.

Let's look at the love of her life, Daniel. He's a bit different. I don't really recall another character like him. At the beginning, he's pretty sweet and all. Towards the end, he's more tense and snappy, which doesn't make me like him very much.

And now Nick, Daniel's son, and Mallory's stepson. Nick is one of the only characters I liked. He was sweet and charming, for a three year old. Though the constant misspellings and words he couldn't pronounce were a bit much. I have an almost-three sister. She can speak almost as well as I can. There's really no need for all of the wrong pronouncing.

All of the side characters are pretty much the same. Woodsy and kinda redneck. Small town people. Basically, whatever you think of when you think of small town, that's them. They fit just about every stereotype that you can come up with.


Okay, I promise I won't spoil it, but I just have to say, the ending was disappointing. We didn't get many answers. Very few questions I had were answered. So if you are the kind of person who wants everything settled and no stone left unturned, you probably shouldn't read this book. There are a lot of possible ways this story could have gone, and it had so much potential on all of the ways, but it seems like the author took the easiest and quickest way.

Obviously, the ways she could have gone probably wouldn't have worked for Bethany House, but I'm just saying.

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Disclaimers: I received a temporary electronic arc from the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not obligated to write a good review nor did I receive any compensation for writing this review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

An Overview of the Novel: Mallory Hale had great plans for her life. She was going to be a great lobbyist...then she fell hopelessly in love and her whole life is turned upside down. Next thing she knows she's leaving for Texas with her husband and leaving everything she's known behind her.

The adjustment is hard and Mallory ends up wondering what on earth possessed her to move. Oh yeah, love. But she rarely sees her husband and everything about where they are living seems off.

His boss seems to be involved in suspicious behavior and Mallory certainly doesn't like him. But when tragedy strikes is Mallory really ready for it.

My Overall Thoughts/Impressions: I did like this book but everything just seemed so fast-paced. I'd barely get my bearings on what was happening and then everything would shift.

Plus, I'm more of a romantic suspense girl than a romance girl and so in my mind the promise of suspense was ultimately unmet. There was a sprinkling of suspense, but not enough to satisfy me.

I also often found myself very annoyed with the characters. They all kept doing such stupid things that left me shaking my head. However, I did really love watching the characters grow and I did love the writing style.

All in all it was a good enjoyable book.

Love,

Danica Page

Mallory stubbles into a relationship, marriage, family, and new lIfe all within about a month. Her life changes in the blink of an eye, and the more she lives the new life, the more she feels she is there for a reason.

The book blurb was a but deceptive and understated. I was expecting this to be a romance that dealt primarily with the nuclear family created by Mallory and Daniel.

Instead, it was part suspense, part romance, part friendship, part self-discovery and growth. It was so much richer and way less fluffy than I thought it would be. There were themes of friendship and personal bias and undertones of faith and about building a marriage and family. Also the combination of politics and small-town neighbors was fascinating. I can tell the author lived part of it and must have researched the rest really well.

I'm not saying it was a difficult read. It just had more meat to it than I'd anticipated, which made the light read even more enjoyable.

Via Black 'n Write Reviews
My Final thoughts:
Firefly Island is a well-written novel which I was unaware is part of a series but has proven that you don’t need to read the first 2 to find out what’s happening in Moses Lake. We meet a very well-done young lady who falls head-over-heels in love with a man she bumps into 2-3 times while she’s shuffling around Capital Hill. They start dating, Daniel Everson, the man on her dreams, gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to move across the country and work for a notorious Texan on his acreage to work on a very secretive science experiment relating to growing crops in “weird” places. Does he pass it up or take the offer? What does this mean for him and Mallory? Did I forget to mention that Mallory has fallen completely in love with Daniel’s tyke son, Nick? Oh the drama!

Actually it’s not. Nothing that wouldn’t be considered irregular. Almost like if you were witnessing the happenings and the politics of a small town that one could never expect.

Is this book worth a read? Absolutely! I’d recommend this book to be a great beach read.
- Krys

I loved Firefly Island by Lisa Wingate! Mallory is single and works on Capitol Hill when she falls in love and her world changes in so many ways. She meets Daniel while at work and they fall in love. Daniel has a young son from a previous relationship that he has custody of. When Daniel is offered a job in Moses Lake, TX he asks Mallory to marry him and move to Texas with him and his son. Mallory's life changes immediately in that she is now a mother to Daniel's son and they are living in a new and strange place. All the obstacles and adventures that Mallory goes through make her second guess her decisions to get married and move to Moses Lake. You learn many life lessons through the things Mallory goes through. I had a very hard time putting down the book because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. Many times when I thought I knew what was going to happen, I was wrong. Lisa Wingate does a wonderful job with describing the area that I could vividly picture where the story was taking place. Come to find out Moses Lake is a real place you can go visit. Even though this is book three in the series you do not need to read the other books to understand this one. I have read book 2 in this series and know that this is true. After reading book 2 and now 3 in the series and loving both, I want to find book 1 to read. Go read this book so you can find out "What Comes Next" as mentioned at the beginning of the book.

I received this book from Bethany Publishing House free for an honest review.