Under a Summer Sky

Melody Carlson

Seattle art teacher Nicole Anderson spends her summer in Savannah, Ga., managing an art gallery owned by a longtime family friend. During her stay, she rebonds with two brothers she hasn’t seen since childhood. Dueling affection for her sparks their sibling rivalry. While not overtly Christian, moral themes arise like workplace integrity, underage drinking, and the effect of divorce on children. Lovely descriptions highlight downtown Savannah’s charms—although too much talk about ghosts grows tedious. An obnoxious co-worker and a precocious teenager complete the cast in this fun, easy-breezy novel.

Chasing Secrets

Lynette Eason

Irish investigators reopen a 25-year-old cold case, which takes them to South Carolina where Irish-born Haley Callaghan lives and works as a bodyguard. While she learns about the family she never knew, she’s busy dodging an assassin who doesn’t want her past revealed. She gets plenty of help from her fellow Elite Guardians and the handsome new detective on the Columbia police force. Her volunteer work with underprivileged children shows her compassion and reliance on God and adds depth and suspense to the drama, especially when the kids get in the assassin’s way.

Just Look Up

Courtney Walsh

Career-obsessed Lane Kelley believes a big job promotion will provide the security she craves. When her brother sustains life-threatening injuries in an accident, she reluctantly returns to her quaint hometown where she telecommutes via laptop and cell phone and reconnects with a family she’d rather forget. Longtime family friend Ryan Brooks chips away at Lane’s tough veneer to help her realize that faith and love are more satisfying than a job title. A decent romance although slightly lopsided: Lane’s prickly nature may leave readers wondering why charming Brooks would try so hard.

Bread of Angels

Tessa Afshar

Inspired by events recorded in Acts 16, this enchanting novel tells Lydia’s story. Afshar imagines Lydia’s young life marred by fear, shame, and guilt. When someone falsely accuses her father of a crime, she flees her home in Thyatira, taking with her closely guarded formulas for the coveted purple dyes her father perfected. Settling in Philippi, Lydia becomes a successful purple cloth merchant, but peace continues to elude her until she learns to put her trust in Jesus after a life-changing encounter with Paul of Tarsus and his friends.

Afterword

High as the Heavens (Bethany House, 2017) by Kate Breslin takes the reader on a breathless journey through German-occupied Brussels during World War I. British nurse Evelyn Marche also works as a spy relaying German secrets to the British. When she discovers the injured pilot of a crashed plane is the husband she thought long dead, she risks her life to save him from a German prison camp. The book offers surprises until the last satisfying page. —S.B.

Allison Pittman’s Loving Luther (Tyndale, 2017) is an engaging novel based on the life of Katharina von Bora, the nun who became Martin Luther’s wife. The story portrays Katharina as a smart and feisty girl who ends up in a nunnery when her father remarries. Years later, smuggled snippets of Luther’s teachings make their way into the monastery and lead Katharina along with 11 other nuns to escape. Eventually Luther’s and her intellectual sparring and friendship turn to love and marriage. —Susan Olasky