Ann Gabhart – Vegan Book Blogger

All the World’s A Stage in this intriguing historical mystery taking place on a riverboat-In the Shadow of the River by Ann H. Gabhart

345 pages Revell publisher May 09, 2023 publish date

About The Book

If all the world’s a stage, Jacci will play her part.

She only hopes her story does not turn out to be a tragedy.

In 1881, Jacci Reed is only five years old when a man attempts to kidnap her from the steamboat her mother, Irena, works on. Badly wounded during the confrontation, Irena takes Jacci aboard the Kingston Floating Palace, a showboat tied up beside them. There, Jacci’s actor grandfather tends to her mother and Jacci gets a first taste of the life she will come to lead.

Fifteen years later, Jacci is an actress aboard the Kingston Floating Palace, and largely contented with her adopted family of actors, singers, and dancers. Especially Gabe, who has always supported her, and the gruff grandfather she has come to know and love. Jacci’s mother has been gone for years, but the memory of the altercation that ultimately took her life–and the cryptic things Jacci has overheard about her past–is always there, lurking in the back of her mind.

When someone on the showboat tries to kill Jacci, it’s clear her questions demand answers. But secrets have a way of staying in the shadows, and the answers she craves will not come easily. Gabe only hopes they come in time for him and Jacci to have a future together.

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My Thoughts

I enjoy books taking place on the river and this one takes place on a showboat described as a floating palace. The book has such wonderful descriptions and sounds so opulent inside.

The thing I enjoy about this author’s books is she writes different historical topics than many authors do which makes for quite an interesting read.
Spending her life since she was five years old on showboats this is all that Jacci Reed knows. When she was very young her mother kept her from the shows but now that she’s older she is an actress on the stage of the showboat. Sadly, her mother passes away when she was very young, and she continues to live on the showboat on the Ohio River with her grandfather and his theater troupe.

I enjoyed the historical aspect of the story and equally I enjoyed the mystery of who was putting Jacci’s life in danger and why. The book kept me entertained and I read it in less than 24 hours I found it very hard to put down.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book from Baker Books through Interviews & Reviews.
All opinions expressed are my own.

About The Author

Ann H. Gabhart caught the writing bug at the age of ten and has been writing ever since. An award winning author, she’s published many books for both adults and young adults. Her books cover several genres from historical to small town family stories to cozy mysteries (mysteries published with author name A.H. Gabhart). Her ideas are sparked by events in Kentucky history and by experiences in her own family. Her first Shaker novel, The Outsider, was a finalist for the ECPA Christian Fiction Book of the Year. Love Comes Home won the Selah Book of the Year award, and These Healing Hills was the Faith, Hope & Love Readers’ Choice Women’s Fiction Book of the Year.

Ann lives on a Kentucky farm not far from where she was born. She and her husband have three children and nine grandchildren. Ann enjoys hiking on her farm with her grandkids and her dogs, Frankie and Marley. See more about her books at http://www.annhgabhart.com or join the conversation on her Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/anngabhart.

Have a beautiful day. Thanks for stopping in.

When The Meadow Blooms By Ann H. Gabhart Book Review

My Review

This book is absolutely incredible!
I’ve always loved this author’s books and this one is my new favorite.
Her storytelling is fabulous, her imagination more than impressive. It would be interesting talking with her and finding out what inspires her stories.
A sanitarium would be a depressing place to be ,wondering if you would ever be able to leave, so would an orphanage. But this is where Rose and her two daughters are in the mid-nineteen twenties when Rose is struck with tuberculous and she has no one to care for her children. She promises she’ll be out quickly so they can be together again.
Her daughters are young, the older protecting the younger. The time slowly passes, the mother is sad and lonely despairing of never seeing her daughters again. The girls starting to forget what mother looks like but never forgetting her love for them.
Able to finally get out it seems as though it’s a dream to be able to stay at her brother-in laws farm, Meadowland with her daughters.
The girls help their mother and the youngest has a special affinity with nature and animals.
Her brother in-law is a sad man grieving his past, not wanting to talk about it and keeping his heart shut tightly to any possibility of love.
The girls at his farm start to make a big change in his heart as he’s able to let love in again. I enjoyed seeing a spiritual growth in him. It’s amazing what a crow and the man’s visitors can do to start his healing process for his heart. We don’t have to keep everything bottled up inside, healing is available if we just embrace it.
So full of emotions, you will love this book and want to read it more than once. I know this book will stay with me for a long time.

Pub May 3,22.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

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GoodReads Synopsis

Widow Rose Meadows eagerly accepts her brother-in-law’s offer for her and her two daughters to live on his farm after her treatments in a sanatorium finds them needing a home. But is this scarred and reclusive man ready for all the changes these women will bring to his life?