Category: Fiction

This is the first book in the “True Lies of Rembrandt Stone” series. It is written by three authors, Susan May Warren, James L. Rubart, and David C. Warren, under the pseudonym of David James Warren. I have read all of James L. Rubart’s books and a good portion of Susan May Warren’s books. This is a debut for David C. Warren who is the son of Susan May Warren. This book has it all between cold cases, romance, and time travel. I believe it will appeal to a wide variety of readers. This book is so good that it drew me in not from the first page but from the very first paragraph of the book. This is definitely a series that you are going to want to read from the beginning. I like that they made Rembrandt Stone, who is the main character, an author that writes books based on what he knows about being a police detective. However, this is just an interesting side story. By the end of this book, you are definitely left wanting more which is why it is so good that they have all six books scheduled to come out in 2021.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book for an honest review.

I have read both of Karen’s other Christmas books and loved them so I was so excited about this one. Before I get into how good the story was, I do have to say that I was amazed at the number of errors in wording and punctuation in this book. I am really glad that this story was beyond good because that was the reason I was able to overlook the errors. It did however slow me down a little when words were accidentally left out or the wrong word was used. Anyway now that we have that little tidbit out of the way, I can tell that if you like Hallmark style movies then this is the book for you. It has all the elements it needs to be turned into a Hallmark Christmas movie. When you first meet Riley who is the main female character, she comes off a little rough around the edges but once you know her back story it makes complete sense why she is a little tough on the outside. Luke, the main male character, on the other hand is all gentleman. He is definitely one of those guys you can see as the hero of a story. Also if you have read Karen’s previous novels then you’ll remember the whole Christmas camp idea. I have to say every time I read about Christmas camp, it makes me want to go to one. With all that being said, I just want to make sure I reiterate that in spite of the errors I would still totally recommend this book to anyone but especially those who love good Christmas books.

I made the mistake of not checking what genre this book fell into because I had read books by this same author before under Marybeth Whalen and loved them. And when I got the book, it had a scripture in the front so I was still not aware of the quality it would end up being. While I finished the book because I really hate to start a book and not finish it, I was very disillusioned by the fact that an author I had read before and loved could write something with the amount of curse words that this book had. While it didn’t have the worst curse word in it, it had enough that I was shocked this was the same author who wrote “The Mailbox”. I personally did not enjoy this book.

Because this book was published by Hallmark and the cover did not look bad, I was hoping this book would not have cuss words or graphic physical scenes. I was so glad I was right about that. This book was such a great Christmas book. I will say though that it was a little frustrating to see that the main male character’s name was spelled wrong in more than one place and I remember one other typo that made the sentence read funny though it was easy to figure out what it should have instead. However, all that being said I would still recommend this book. Also, it is such a good story that all the typos aside it is well worth reading especially if you like good Christmas stories.

When I first started this book I was afraid that the dialect in some chapters and the Pennsylvania Dutch in others was going to make this one slow read, but I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t slow me down at all. If you think that you are the only one who has secrets or shows a facade to people while inside you’re dying of guilt, then this books will remind you of just how wrong you are about that. Everyone has something that they don’t want the average person to know about themselves or their situation. I highly recommend this book. It is such a good read. It reinforces the idea of forgiving others but even more the idea of forgiving yourself which is sometimes the hardest person to forgive.