Lightning and Lace

Woowee!! I just finished reading Lightning and Lace. DiAnn Mills was right. Things aren't always what they seem. What I thought was going to happen, didn't. Way to go, DiAnn. If you crave adventure... LIGHTNING AND LACE is for you. If you love a story with characters you'll miss when you're done reading... then LIGHTNING AND LACE is for you. LIGHTNING AND LACE is a real page turner. The characters are fascinating. The plot is amazing and unpredictable~~~definitely unpredictable. And the metaphors are fresh and fit perfectly with the time. DiAnn is an excellent story teller with a wild and vivid imagination. And for your 411, all of DiAnn's stories are equally fascinating, and equally adventurous. You won't want to miss any of them. Now, back to LIGHTNING AND LACE~~~ (Sounds like I just finished a commercial huh? Now back to our reguraly scheduled program. hehe) What does a shaggy bearded pastor with a jaded past, a beautiful, feisty widow woman with a shameful secret, her rebellious, prankster son, several ex-brothel women, a sinister banker and his sweet wife, a stabbing that ends in death, lies and malicious gossip, and being held at gunpoint all have in common? A really fantastic, emotion-filled, adventurous story, that's what. I highly recommend this story. So, don't delay another minute. Make haste. Run out to your nearest book store and buy LIGHTNING AND LACE by DiAnn Mills. And if you don't have a bookstore nearby, then let your fingers do the walking. Type in [...], or wherever it is you buy your books from online, and purchase your copy of DiAnn Mills' intriguing story LIGHTNING AND LACE. You won't be sorry.

Let me start by saying that I don't usually read novels in this genre. But I had heard a great deal about DiAnn Mills' novels, and when the opportunity arose to read Lightning and Lace, I took it, and was pleasantly surprised. She certainly knows how to craft a story. Her prose is crisp and clean, her characters are real, and the plot moves along nicely. I can definitely recommend this as a pleasant reading experience.

With Lightning and Lace, DiAnn Mills concludes her Texas Legacy series. She finds yet another adventure with the Andrews family in Kahlerville as widowed Bonnie Kahler tries to regroup and get her children under control. When Travis Whitworth, the new preacher, arrives on the scene with a few secrets of his own. When he offers to help with Zack, Bonnie's troubled son, Bonnie realizes the opportunity God is giving her to start over again. However, the pompous banker, Lester Hillman, wants Bonnie's affections for himself. Under the guise of religious zeal, he manages to weave tales of evil around Travis and Bonnie. Mills' unique characters will keep the reader turning the pages to the end and will live in the heart long after the last page is read and love triumphs over evil.

I loved Leather and Lace, and couldn't see how a follow-up could be better. Then I read Lanterns and Lace and realized Mills had more ink in the well. Though after the first two, I expected a good read, I underestimated her ability to delve into the human struggle yet again. Kahlerville's characters come to life again with simple ease, and the questions are finally answered. Mills approaches the wrong choices even Christian people make in times of grief with boldness and style. She twines secrets into storylines with great skill, letting readers glimpse snatches without spoiling the surprise. Mills gives readers a glimpse of suffering and then shows them how to have calm in the midst of the storm without preaching a sermon. Aside from all that serious heaviness, she spins an exciting story with engrossing characters. Bonnie Kahler, the weak, very feminine wife of Ben who was dying in Lanterns and Lace, deals with widowhood badly at first. Neglecting her children and escaping through a "medicinal" glass of wine at bedtime, she finally comes to the realization that she needs to go back to living. After her first encounter with Travis Whitworth, the new town preacher, she is convinced the beggarly-looking man is a bully and shouldn't be coming to take the place of her minister father. As her out-of-control son reveals the impotence of her grief-ridden parenting, she struggles with how to escape from the situation she's entrenched herself in. Oddly enough, the new preacher offers to help give her son Zach a second chance before dealing with the option of jail or military school. Thrown together for the sake of Zach, Travis and Bonnie find an unexpected attraction for each other, which they struggle to overcome. However, Lester Hillman, the town banker, continues to spin his webs around Kahlerville, trying to bring Bonnie under his control as well as manipulate the town through his charitable giving. His conniving tears down the reputation of nearly everyone Bonnie loves, discrediting the testimony of those who can stop Lester's masquerade as a godly man. When a murder victim shows up, evidence points to Zach and the new preacher. Secrets have to be revealed and chances must be taken for right to prevail. From the first page the reader sees storm clouds rolling in, and it's evident the storm's going to be a doozy. Thunder rumblings and lighning flashes, with occasional drizzles, keep building up anticipation and dread. When it finally breaks, and the skies open up, and the reader is thrilled to be soaked to the skin and hoping another storm is approaching the horizon.

Diann Mills draws her Texas Legacy series to a close with Lightning and Lace, part thriller and part romance but great reading all the way. It's 1898 and Travis Whitworth steps off the train in Kahlerville, Texas with the hope of returning to preaching after the scandal in Southern Texas that involved his church and a brothel. He purposely dresses funny, with the hope of fending off all females, but Bonnie Kahler unwittingly bounces past his wild hair and too-big britches right into his heart. Bonnie also needs to mend her past and make right the neglect of her three children. But first she must rise from her grief over the death of her husband and put the married banker in his place by refusing any more of his gifts/advances. The fact that her oldest son was arrested and now lives with Brother Travis, along with other innocent but evil-looking circumstances, gives rise to enough rumors to feed the mill for years. The gossip threatens to destroy Travis and Bonnie and her family. Travis reaches past his own secrets to Bonnie, and together they walk into peace and forgiveness. It isn't easy but the past is healed and Mr. Banker's wrong actions are exposed. His wife confesses her crime and the dead body is buried. You will like this page turner, with conflict on every page. It's a great read for teenagers as well as adults.