About this book:
“A Wildfire Races toward the Hadley Ranch
It’s less than a week until Christmas in Mabank, Texas, and just a few days away from RaeLyn and Mason’s wedding on Hadley ranch. Unfortunately, a wildfire with mysterious origin is rapidly traveling across several counties and headed right for the Hadley acreage. Fire fighters rush to put it out before the family homestead goes up in flames, taking the business and the old red truck with it. Their perfect wedding may be ruined, and RaeLyn and Mason are determined to find the source of the fire.”
Series: Book #3 in “The Little Red Truck Mysteries” series. Book #1 Here! and Book #2 Here!
Spiritual Content- Isaiah 43:1-3 at the dedication & author’s note; Scriptures are read, mentioned, remembered, & quoted; Prayers & Thanking God; Church going & a Christmas Eve service; Witnessing a miracle (*Spoiler* regarding to the fire coming right up to the edge of RaeLyn’s family’s property and then the firefighters being able to stop the flames *End of Spoilers*); Talks about God, praying, & miracles; 'H's are capital when referring to God; RaeLyn calls her best friend a “spiritual powerhouse”; Mentions of God, Jesus, & faiths; Mentions of prayers, praying, a prayer chain, thanking and praising God, & blessings over food; Mentions of Bibles, Bible reading, & a Bible study; Mentions of churches, church going, pastors, services, worship songs, & Sunday school classes; Mentions of blessings & being Blessed; Mentions of miracles & divine intervention; Mentions of Christmas nativities & hymns; A few mentions of those & events in the Bible; A few mentions of a priest; A couple mentions of a revival meeting & people being “slain in the Spirit”; A couple mentions of missions; A mention of a godly couple; A mention of a church denomination; A mention of gaining answers to hard questions one day in Heaven; A mention of a person not being a “religious person” but rethinking that after God saved her sons from a fire; A mention of religious paintings;
*Note: Religious phrases like ‘heavens!’ or ‘heavens, no’ are said four times; RaeLyn’s mother comments on owning something before she got married “a million years ago” and RaeLyn’s father mutters “before dinosaurs roamed the earth, apparently”; Bessie Mae comments on a man not knowing what Blue Bell (ice cream) is being “practically a sin” and she’s going to “baptize” him in homemade vanilla; Mentions of luck & being lucky.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘duh’, a ‘dumb’, a ‘stupid’, five ‘my stars’s, and ‘good grief’s; Eye rolling & Sarcasm; Pain, Injuries, & Throwing up (up to semi-detailed); RaeLyn and her family have a nearby wildfire & have to soak down their home and property (they all fear the worst happening, but praying for the best & have many emotions about it all, semi-detailed); All about & many mentions of fires, losing home and property, two young boys being separated from their family in the fire, smoke, & a possible arsonist (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of a car accident, death, & grief (Mason for his father); Mentions of other deaths & grief (including RaeLyn for her grandfather & a woman for her husband); Mentions of injuries & pain; Mentions of nightmares (including of fires); Mentions of divorces & a man who “traded in wives like old cars”; Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of gossip & rumors; Mentions of chewing tobacco; A few mentions of throwing up; A few mentions of drinking & AA; A few mentions of lottery tickets & gambling; A few mentions of jealousy; A mention of a woman disappearing on a cruise (implied possible murder by her husband); A mention of a man possibly being an ax murderer or escaped convict; A mention of skin cancer; A mention of cheating; A mention of a child being bitten by a dog & being scarred by it;
*Note: RaeLyn’s mother treats her daughter-in-law coldly because of her and the son eloping without telling anyone (*Spoiler* Towards the end, her mother says that she didn’t see what a good person the new daughter-in-law is and now realizes it *End of Spoiler*); RaeLyn’s father always gives his (adult) kids a lottery ticket in their Christmas stockings (which their mother scolds him for because neither of them believe in gambling); Mentions of stores (Walmart, Brookshire Brothers, & Amazon); Mentions of brand names & items (Blue Bell Ice Cream, Life Savers, Tupperware, Barbie, Radio Flyer wagon, John Deere, Gucci, & FaceTime); Mentions of celebrities/singers & songs (John Wayne, Carmen Miranda, Whitney Houston, Dolly Parton, Ricardo Montalbán, Cesar Romero, Marilyn Monroe, ‘I Will Always Love You’, ‘I Loved Her First’, & ‘Celebration’); A few mentions of car brands; A couple mentions of social media platforms (Facebook & Pinterest); A mention of the Wizard of Oz; A mention of a musical (Annie Get Your Gun); A mention of an Academy Award; A mention of a football team; A mention of buying something being “cheaper than therapy”.
Sexual Content- a fingers-to-lips touch, a nose kiss, a forehead kiss, three cheek kisses, three not-detailed kisses, and twelve barely-above-not-detailed kisses; Remembering kisses (barely-above-not-detailed); Seeing married couples kiss (barely-above-not-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Hand holding, Flutters, & Nearness (barely-above-not-detailed); RaeLyn blushes when others bring up about wedding nights; Towards the end and after their wedding night, RaeLyn’s heart rate quicks at the sight of Mason coming out of the shower in nothing but a towel (no noticing anything else and that’s all that is said in this scene); 1 ‘hottie’; Mentions of wedding nights & honeymoons (all that is said or implied are: the couples blushing, couples needing their privacy, saying “ooh-la-la” about their wedding night, another couple saying that they had a wonderful wedding night and the wife comments on making the mistake of wearing a silk nightie while having silk sheets, RaeLyn is given the advice to make sure she eats at the reception to have energy, RaeLyn says about going on a honeymoon for “a week of R&R” and Mason adds “among other things”, another woman comments about “what’s the point of a weddin’ night if you’re not gonna muss your hair?”, & RaeLyn calls her wedding night “blissful” and going to adopt the other ladies’ phrase “ooh-la-la”); Mentions of married couples kissing (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of a handsome man being called “dreamy” and a Casanova; Mentions of boyfriends/girlfriends, dates, & dating; Mentions of blushes; Mentions of crushes; Love, being in love, & the emotions.
-RaeLyn Hadley, age 27
1st person P.O.V. of RaeLyn
256 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
Aww, I’m so sad this series is over, but this book was such a great ending to such a fun trilogy. I’m not usually one for reading Christmas books before November, but I made an exception for this anticipated one!
The mystery took more of a backseat in this book with the preparations of RaeLyn’s wedding and all the planning of it. I really liked the second book in this series, but I would say this was my favorite of the trilogy. It felt so much like a Janice Thompson book—and of course it does, it’s written by her!—but it reminded me of all the elements that I love about her books: faith-filled main characters, Texas charm, small towns, big families, humor, and the characters going through the ups and downs of life. I’ve said before that this series reminds me of the “Brides with Style” trilogy, but this book particularly reminded me of the “Weddings by Bella” series with the main character planning and having her wedding in it.
There was a lot of emotions in this book with the nearby fire, but also all of RaeLyn’s feelings on her upcoming wedding which include joy and excitement, but also realizing that life is fixing to change in a big way and savor the current moments.
I would suggest this book for 16/17+ because of the very vague mentions of wedding nights.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
*I received this book for free from the Publisher (Barbour) for this honest review.
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