Camden’s Breadcrumbs : Part 1

Hello, I hope everyone is starting April on the right foot!

In Spring of 2017 the Christian book stores in the San Antonio area closed with a big blow out sale. I filled a basket for a steal-deal of $10 and among my treasure were 3 books by Elizabeth Camden. I had never heard of her as I had stopped reading Christian books for about decade. My love for Christian books resurrected in November when I finally sat down to read my first novel by her. She’s the one who inspired me to read other Christian authors and start writing reviews. She is just that good y’all! 👐 

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that a year and three months later after reading 7 more books by her, I’d have the opportunity to be on her first launch team!

 After the awesome privilege of  reviewing the last book from her series ‘An Empire State’  https://faithandbookscom.wordpress.com/2019/02/23/a-desperate-hope-by-elizabeth-camden-book-review/ 

I  decided to revisit book 1&2. It was such a delicious treat I must share my experience with you !😉

A Dangerous Venture  is 💕 💕 💕💕 💕 all the way! It has adventure, mystery, suspense moments, and a great romance story! I remember at one point I was like ‘oh my gosh!’, tapping my feet anxiously. I hadn’t realized how loud I’d been until I saw my co-worker eyeing me suspiciously. ‘They’re about to get killed!’ I exclaimed. She laughed shaking her head, so I don’t think she believed me, the audacity!

The second in the series is A Daring Venture:

Historical wise this was probably my favorite of the trilogy. I learned so much about Dr. Leal who is credited for saving millions of lives by implementing the first disinfection of U.S. drinking water supply using chlorine. People were so skeptical about it he poured it into the water without asking permission. His belief was so strong he fought court battles and dealt with angry citizens. Of course Elizabeth Camden did an amazing job recreating the riot and I give this aspect of the novel 5 💕 s, however the romance between the fictional characters isn’t my favorite from her books. The conflict between the hero & heroine is great. She is the assistant for Dr Leal and hiding the deception of the chlorine scandal from the hero who is part of the water board commission and adamantly against chlorine in water. However at times they seem a bit forward for my taste and therefore I rate the romance part 4 💕. The narrators for both books are good and I rate them 4 1/2 💕 . As a whole this novel is 4 1/2 💕 🤔. It has all the fun elements I’ve come to enjoy by Elizabeth Camden. I was shocked to discover I had missed an important detail the first time I read it 😲. The author brought back a character from her novel Beyond All Dreams. I think I smiled foolishly the rest of the day because of it. Even more so when I messaged her and she messaged back saying, I was the first one to catch it and that she actually does that on several books. She calls them bread crumbs. What?!

Okay now I’m on a Camden Crusade to find All her bread crumbs. Yes I was already a huge fan of hers  but now I’ve been ‘Camdenized’!  At the time I owned 7 out of 12 of her books, now I have 9. So I have 3 more to go before having her full collection. This doesn’t include her novellas which you can find for free on Kindle. Also most if not all,  her gems are on kindle unlimited, FYI.

Anywho, the two audio books I bought last month were her first two novels: The Lady of Bolton Hill

Her debut took me by surprise 😲. Unlike her newer stuff, it seems more focused on the romance aspect than on a historical event. It  was a very sweet story, that contains a mystery and thrilling moments, but dealt with the subject of suicide. It is a tough subject and I’m not sure I agree with her view of what happens with a soul after suicide. It definitely shows more of her spiritual beliefs which was refreshing. It’s fun to see how she has grown as an author and have so much respect for her. I would give this a 4 1/2 💕 but the suicide view makes me give it a 4 💕.

The second audio I bought was her second published  ;).

Against the Tide is 5 💕! Excellent story with adventure, mystery and humor, I love it! This is a spin-off of one of the characters from The Lady of Bolton Hill. It’s not series so they can be read as stand-alone. They mentioned people from the first book although they don’t necessarily appear and since it’s a spinoff I’m not sure they are considered ‘breadcrumbs’  🤔.

Another book I re-listened to was From this Moment. 

This is actually the first book I read by her. Although I own this novel I borrowed the audio from the library to go through it faster:). It is a wonderful sister book set in Boston. I was hoping to find breadcrumbs from Against the Tide because it is set in Boston as well but, either I missed them or it doesn’t have any. It did mention some of the same restaurants but I’m not sure that is a breadcrumb lol. Anyway this is another 5 💕.

Well that’s all for now folks!  I’ll be buying some more of her audio books in search of her bread crumbs. I’ll have a part 2 ready for next month :)!

My rating system:

💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 – I love this book so much I could kiss the author! 

💕 💕 💕 💕 – I love it!

💕 💕 💕 –  It’s a good book.

 💕 💕  – It’s OK.

💕 – Not my cup of coffee and I didn’t  have the heart to finish it.