Disclosure: I received these books to review. Post may contain affiliate links; opinions shared are mine.

With school starting on Monday (yes, it’s true! August 3!), I feel the pressure of the finite summer break. This week I read no less than 8 books, trying to satiate my yearning for fiction. There’s also a new book on my radar that I’ve got high hopes for!  If you’re wondering what to read this weekend, consider one of these titles.

Although An Ember in the Ashes released in April 2015, this new world hasn’t made it onto my bookshelf yet.  It sounds like something my students will love, so I’m promising myself a little time to enjoy it once school is underway.  With comparisons to Hunger Games, Game of Thrones, and an author who is likened to Harry Potter’s J. K. Rowling, An Ember in the Ashes has a lot buzz surrounding it right now.

My book postings hit a snag this summer right around the time our house sold, we bought a new house, and tried to pack our whole lives into a couple of storage units. We haven’t moved yet, but it’s down to single digit weeks now.  Thankfully, the Colleen Coble Journey of the Heart series books are so short that I can finish one during dinner.  I read them all in July, and can finally rest knowing what happened to the characters.  In A Heart’s Betrayal, Coble surprised me by adding in an integral new character mid-novel. Normally that would be awkward, but it really works with this story. Emmie had a lot of strikes against her going in. She was Ben Croftner’s sister, had nowhere to go, and her reputation was teetering on the edge of a cliff.  Her situation was a great way to illustrate how unconditionally kind Sarah was.  Again, I’ll say — DON’T read the back of these books unless you want absolutely no surprises when you look inside!

This cover is my favorite of the entire serialization.  That beautiful backdrop, paired with the amazing house…..it just wows me.  In A Heart’s Promise, things start to come together.  I had to go back through a few of the earlier books to remember what happened in those.  In that regard, the separation of the book didn’t work for me.  The interesting point of A Heart’s Promise is how the plot switches gears from being so concerned for Sarah’s well-being, to getting our hopes up again for a completely new romance.  It’s rather like a soap opera. The shining star of A Heart’s Promise was a new character named Maggie. She works at the wash house and has such potential – I hope to see Colleen Coble base a book around Maggie at some point!  There are several other side characters who come to the spotlight in this part of the novel.

I read several other books this week, so look for those reviews coming soon!