In the Cradle Lies book two of the Tree of Life Series by Olivia Newport, Jillian and father, Nolan again become involved in another character’s life. Canyon Mines, Colorado is also the scene of this “meddling” with the ski industry at the focus. While I like the main characters, I have having a difficult time accepting their involvement in other people’s lives. Still they mean well.
One of the best parts of these stories is the parallel story for the past. This time is takes place in St. Louis area in the 30’s. The entire book is well structure and well written but it s the historical story that fascinates me in this book just like it did in the first book, Inn at Hidden Run. By the conclusion both stories tie together beautifully.

You do not have to be interested in genealogy to enjoy these stories but if you are, they will fuel your passion.

The publisher through Net Galley provided an ARC. I have voluntarily decided to read and review, giving my personal opinions and thoughts.

This is the second of Olivia Newport's Tree of Life series, and every bit as engaging as When I Meet You (book 3 of the series -- I haven't read book 1!). A handsome young skier coming to town is nothing new, but the amount of money he's spending draws the attention of the townspeople, not always in a good way. When he starts talking about skiing Hidden Run -- long closed and notoriously dangerous -- and tries to talk a local girl into skiing it with him, it's clear Jillian and Nolan Parisian-Duffy have both mystery to solve and a disaster to avert. Slipping skillfully between the present day and events generations in the past, Newport's heart-wrenching mystery deeply engages the reader, who will come away both satisfied and wanting more.

This is an excellent mystery. A mystery within a mystery, a story within a story, we simultaneously hear the back story from the 1930’s forward, and the modern story of the current generation as Jillian and Nolan help Tucker learn the history of his family. I’m thoroughly enjoying this series!

Another trilogy! I love it when I can follow characters through a longer period of time than just one book! It makes me feel like I’m there with the characters and they become my friends. In the Cradle Lies by Olivia Newport is an excellent book that took me through situations I wasn’t expecting!

Most often I like to start a series from the beginning. Unfortunately, I started in the middle. But that’s perfectly alright as I will read the first book next. And end with the last book in this Tree of Life trilogy.

Genealogist Jillian and her lawyer father Nolan live in Canyon Mines, CO. Both work from home and Nolan also goes into his office in Denver. Jillians bestie, Kristine, owns an ice cream shop and loves skiing. Jillian accompanies Kris on her ski trips while staying warm reading a book.

Kris loves the thrill of skiing the bigger, more challenging slopes. She finds another who is even more daring than she. When Jillian and Kris return into town they find this daring skier perusing a ski shop. After they notice, Tucker offers to spend loads of money on Kris and Jillian for new skis as well as a jacket and sunglasses for Jillian. They learn he’s from Missouri and visiting for a bit. Tucker doesn’t say much about where he’s from or what he does.

He finds himself asking Kris to join him on his ski adventures at various slopes in the area. He also runs into Nolan, who offers to go skiing as well. Tucker even rents newer skis for Nolan to show him the difference with the weight of the skis and the speed he can get on the slopes.

It seems Tucker has a desire to ski a very dangerous slope, called Hidden Run. A ski slope that closed down decades previously because people were injured and some died. It’s a steep run with many trees and possible boulders lining the path with risky jumps. It’s not clearly defined on maps after all these years. Everyone in town, including Jillian, Nolan, and Kris, try to talk Tucker out of skiing this deathly slope.

Will Tucker ski Hidden Run even with everyone discouraging it? Why is Tucker so keen on spending all this cash? Will Jillian, Nolan, and Kris learn more about why Tucker came to Canyon Mines?

In the Cradle Lies by Olivia Newport was provided complimentary in exchange for an honest review. I give it five out of five stars because it had many surprises and unexpected plot twists that kept me so engaged I didn’t want to put the book down!

#bookslattesandtiaras

A solid sequel in the series. I liked it even more than her first book, as the storyline was captivating throughout. I look forward to reading the next one!

Sometimes the Second Time Is the Charm
One of the best things about a great premise and a series is that if one of the books doesn’t do it for you, the next just might. While I didn’t love The Inn at Hidden Run like I wanted to, I loved the premise and the author’s writing. Something told me that the next book would knock it out of the park.

In one of those rare, lovely times that I enjoy so much… I was right.

In the Cradle Lies corrects everything that I didn’t love about the first book as well as standing alone as a great story period. I sat glued to every page and wanted more even when I had to put it down to get that important little thing we sometimes call “sleep.”

Excellent characterization, interesting plot lines, and dual-time story that keeps you riveted to every page, there really isn’t too much to quibble with.
If I had to find any fault (and I may amend this review later to reflect this) it would be that it has a similar root to the first book’s story. Additionally, the spiritual element dances along the lines of someone being “good at heart” when Scripture makes it clear none of us are good at all. Still, I get what the author meant by that, and I chose to see that–that people sometimes make decisions that aren’t right because in the moment, they think it is the right option. It’s a fact of life, not the author’s recommendation for how to behave. She showed it well.

Tucker is a bit melodramatic, much like Meri in the first book was, but this one it seemed to fit more somehow. I don’t know. It just didn’t bother me like it did in the first. I’m thrilled to have requested a free review copy, to have read it, can’t wait for the next, and recommend it for anyone who loves light romance, a good mystery, and dual-timeline stories.

On a solo ski vacation in Canyon Mines, Colorado, Tucker spends indiscriminately while skiing fearlessly and preparing to conquer Hidden Run, an overgrown and dangerous slope. Curious genealogist Jillian tries to uncover enough of Tucker’s family tree to understand his charming nature but reckless resolve. Meanwhile, her father Nolan asks Tucker for ski lessons and tries to connect Tucker's recklessness with his family's secrets.
"In The Cradle Lies" is the second book in the Tree of Life series by Olivia Newport, but it does stand alone as an independent book.
I appreciated the themes of forgiveness, shame and anger. The family dynamics are realistic without happy or contrived endings.
Like in the first book, Jillian and Nolan are too nosy, in my opinion. The book is a bit preachy in places, too. There's little mention of God, but the author introduces random hot-button topics in conversations seemingly for the sole purpose of revealing her opinions on the issues. The transitions between the modern day and past day storylines are often unclear, also, which is confusing.
Basically, this book is an easy beach read. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 because the book is clean.

I love series books and this series, The Tree of Life by Olivia Newport, is mind-blowing. A father-daughter lawyer/genealogist team explores family mysteries and links the past and the present. I literally couldn't put it down and read well past my bedtime with every book.Read all three of the books, you won't be sorry. I can't wait for the 4th book of the series coming out in November 2020.

This book and series in FANTABULOUS!!

Families come undone- can be put back together like unraveled fabric.
You are never alone when you have love. Love upholds you!
When one does wrong, still not responsible for the other doing wrong.
Amends need to be worked on together.

READ THIS BOOK and SERIES!!

In the Cradle Lies by Olivia Newport is the second book in the series. Set in the Colorado mountains, this book has a fantastic setting and interesting characters. I found the story hard to get into. This book has a very distinctive voice that may not be for everyone. I found it hard to finish. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

In the Cradle Lies
by Olivia Newport
Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Shiloh Run Press
Christian , General Fiction (Adult)
Pub Date 01 Nov 2019




I am reviewing a copy of In the Cradle Lies through Shiloh Run Press and Netgalley:





Tucker is on a Solo Ski Vacation in Canyon Mines, Colorado. He has a love hate relationship with his wealth. He spends indiscriminately even on strangers and he skis fearlessly. As he prepared to ski Hidden Run, a dangerous run no one has dared to attempt in decades.




Jillian is a genealogist who tries to uncover enough of Tucker's family tree in hopes of getting a better understanding of his charming nature but she's also trying to figure out where his reckless resolve comes from. Jillian's Father who is just as charming as Tucker convinces Tucker to give him ski lessons to get him talking about the suspicious circumstances surrounding his grandfather’s life in St. Louis in the 1930s.




Tucker's family history seems perfect on the surface, but that is only on the surface. The truth, the secret may lie in a sealed envelope. The envelope Tucker carries with him all the time.






After Tucker is unable to be reached when the fiance he never mentioned shows up in Canyon Mines, they are faced with the fact that Tucker is likely skiing Hidden Run in a Snow Storm.


Will anyone be able to save him?




I give In the Cradle Lies five out of five stars.

After giving the first book in the series a 2.5 rating, while friends loved it, I decided to give the series another try. Alas. This one was worse.

1/5 plot: A skier wants to ski down a slope that has been abandoned for 86 years. The MCs would prefer to interest him in discovery of his genealogy instead, but they especially wish to prevent him from skiing the old slope.
1/5 characters: So inconsistent and mostly interested in controlling each other’s destinies.
1/5 dialogue: Putting facts the characters should all know in conversation results in awkward conversation; some people erroneously believe that means they are showing instead of telling, but in reality they are telling another character instead of the reader and ending with conversations that would probably never happen in real life.
1/5 historical accuracy: Don’t insert details that sound fancy if you haven’t researched how they actually work, at least on Google.

<spoiler>
Plot: I was shocked that anyone would think a ski slope would be viable after 86 years. The city is located just west of Boulder, Colorado, and the elevation is around 8,000 above sea level (number given when the fiancée shows up)...even if the slope is 2,000 feet above town, he’s facing a mature forest of aspen and blue spruce. The tundra line in the Colorado Rockies is above 13,000 feet. There would be no slope to ski. Based on the information given, nature has reclaimed the land long since.

Characters: They are all up in each other’s business and really bugged me. But for all the being in each other’s business, when a stranger comes to town and starts throwing around hard cash, they don’t seem to have heard of the stranger-danger term, not even when the man begins to show evidence of insanity when deciding his life is incomplete until he’s skied a long-defunct trail. The women instantly think romance and accept his lavish gifts with very little demur. Tucker himself disgusted me, from crazed sugar-daddy to the moment when his fiancée shows up and reclaims him. Lots of folks find out they are adopted, or of an adopted family...I never got sold on why finding out a family secret of someone he wasn’t even related to would make him suicidal.

Dialogue/narrative: From the 1934 narrative when the small boy is using fifty-dollar words at the age of four in his personal narrative and reasoning out complex ethical questions at age seven, but regresses to normal conversation by age 14, all the way up to where the modern father and daughter have to have a conversation about what a topographical map is and treat it as a great anomaly in the world (they have one copy and are quite careful of it...seriously, those are available at any bookstore...I wouldn’t go to Colorado without one if I meant to leave the interstate...)

Historical accuracy: “The age of the Ryder home meant any efforts to heat it efficiently were unsuccessful...delivery of the oil he hoped would see them through the winter if they were sparing with the radiators...” Don’t add these details if you didn’t Google something, even if you have no clue how historical homes are heated. Radiators are not run on oil; they run on steam with heated water. Steam heat is so efficient that many old homes are able to stay comfortable in the winter at levels of energy that qualify for today’s modern energy star ratings, and some modern homes are actually installing new versions of radiators for energy efficiency. The key, if you have a working steam heat system, is to block drafts (insulate) and to keep your radiators cleaned and sized correctly to the rooms. If he’s got plenty of ill-gotten gains, there is no reason his home can’t be warm. Further, holes were left when the radiators were installed, and Matthew overhears conversations through the holes. But in one scene he watches through the hole to see what happens below...well, if he had a small enough head to put an eye to a hole beneath a radiator that probably weighs at least 300 pounds (they are made of cast iron), then it’s still going to be the edge of the room and he would only be able to see what’s directly below...so the folks in the room would need to be sitting against that lower wall for him to see anything, even if he could access that spot with an eyeball. Also if they only use their steam heat a little, the lines are going to freeze and break and there won’t be any more steam heat...the boiler is what prevents the lines from freezing.

Also, a woman recalls her baby’s birth accurately after her child is stolen from her bedside in a hospital in the 1930s. This was the era when women experienced “painless childbirth” via twilight sleep. This combo of morphine and scopolamine was used in a vast majority of hospital births from 1914 until the expose in 1958...there is no way she would recall that experience lucidly if she was under it, and I can’t conceive of a baby-snatcher being stupid enough to take a baby from an alert woman even if she had some reason to refuse “twilight sleep” since it was touted as being without side effects until the 1958 expose.

Now for a fun pet peeve: the weather! Five inches of “almost a blizzard” in Colorado creates panic among the townspeople and shuts down the whole town. Somehow this storm also knocks out windows and freezes pipes in town. A major pipe leak shuts down a town business in the middle of the storm. 1) if it’s a regular leak with a pipe coming undone, turn it off at the main junction and you just function without water 2) if you are going to blame it on the storm, hate to break it to you, but if the pipe breaks because it froze, then there is no flood until it thaws. Not during a winter storm. If the power goes out during a winter storm, don’t panic over your ice cream melting: just sit it outside in a snow bank... Then they say the street is slicking over and it’s becoming “an ice storm”....uh, you don’t get ice during snow blizzards unless the street has experienced melt and then refrozen...this isn’t a side effect of five inches of snow until the sun has come out. And when did I miss that the snow changed to rain and created that ice? Because the only thing mentioned as falling out of the sky is more snow.

</spoiler>

So, yeah, there was more in this that didn’t make sense than what did. I won’t be continuing the series. *Edit: I forgot I already downloaded the next from NetGalley, so I don't know if I will ever read it or not. Probably not.

Thanks to the publisher for a free reading copy. A favorable review was not required.

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley. These are my honest opinions.

As much as I adored the first book in the Tree of Life series, I struggled dramatically with this one. It was rife with inaccuracies and factual errors, there were hardly any descriptions of what the characters looked like (but buildings were well described), and common sense as well as common courtesy seemed to fly out the window.

What hampered my enjoyment from the beginning were the characters. Jillian, Nolan, and Kristina all decided to control a random tourist’s choices and convince him that his goal of skiing down Hidden Run, which hadn’t been touched by anything other than nature in over 70 years, was something he should abandon. I agree he was insane to want to attempt a ski run that had likely grown into a dense forest by now, but if he wanted to risk life and limb trying, I guess that would have been his prerogative.

Then there was Tucker. He arrived in a creepy stalker sort of way, dishing out gobs of money and extravagant gifts to people he’d never met and demanding they take them, but as I got to know him, I realized it was even worse: He had a bizarre goal (skiing down Hidden Run) that left me wondering why he was so important to the story if he had a goal that made no logical sense whatsoever.

The characters in the historical thread weren’t any better. Matthew started out much too smart for his age (there was no proof of genius in his background, and there was no logical reason why he should be a prodigy). There was obviously something hinky about his parents, and it was clear his education was the least of their concerns, yet the four-year-old kid knew the meanings of words (and how to appropriately use them) that most grown-ups would have to look up in the dictionary. As he aged throughout the historical thread, his vocabulary decreased, which made me wonder why it was even a plot point that he was so smart to begin with. Apparently, that was only so a four-year-old could psychoanalyze his parents and figure out that there was something illegal happening around him… perhaps solely for the reader’s benefit, which is the worst possible reason to make a four-year-old fictional character so intelligent and all-knowing. It yanked me right out of the story and made it difficult for me to root for him at all at any stage of his life.

The only character that seemed completely realistic to me was Judd… the antagonist. He wasn’t a good character, so I couldn’t root for him, but at least his actions and behaviors made logical sense for his personality and goals. I wanted him to be caught at what he was doing, but I was kind of sad when it happened, because I knew this meant the only believable character was then going to disappear from what little remained of the story.

I was looking forward to this book before I dove into it. I was eager to see what happened to Jillian and Nolan and whoever their next client was. Now that I’ve read it, I’m disappointed. It’s been a long time since I read a book with such severely controlling leads that I was somehow supposed to root for. I’m not sure how I possibly could have rooted for people who made it their business to control the actions, goals, dreams, and hopes of everyone around them. Personally, I don’t want other humans controlling what I think, feel, and hope for in my life’s journey. I don’t think Tucker’s goal, as outrageous as it was, was any of the Parisi-Duffys’s business, and I lost all respect for them when they made it their life’s mission to stop him from reaching his dream.

Another problem with this book was its blurb. It gave away things that happened in the climax of the story! It’s Book-Blurb 101 to avoid spoiling the story for the reader, yet there were lots of details in the blurb that took place beyond chapter three in the story. I couldn’t believe how long I had to wait to reach some of the events mentioned in the blurb. This is a prime example of why I don’t like to read book blurbs until after I read the book. Unfortunately, I had read the blurb before diving into the book this time.

One tiny positive is that the book featured a black-market-babies angle, which is a fascinating yet heartbreaking topic. While I’ve enjoyed other books that featured this theme (such as Lisa Wingate’s Before We Were Yours), I don’t think it was presented in the best package this time. However, it did at least keep me reading to see if I was right on my guesses (which I was) and to see how things would turn out in that thread.

I really wish I had some additional positives to share about this one. Honestly, it was a hot mess from the beginning and continued to get worse the deeper in I got. This is one series I won’t be finishing.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. A full review will be posted on Amazon and Goodreads

The sins of the fathers is a theme in this story. Tucker’s grandfather, Matthew, has hidden a family secret for decades and left the end of the mess for Tucker to (hopefully) clean up. Tucker is appalled by the idea of the secret and reluctant to get involved. He escapes the responsibility by running off to Hidden Run, Colorado, a ski town, and taking unnecessary risks.
He employs the services of genealogist Jillian and her attorney father, Nolan, to help him sort things out. Jillian is able to dig into the backstory of Matthew and find out what needs to be done.

The exciting second book in the Tree of Life series by Olivia Newport.
We continue to uncover secrets with father-daughter Genealogy Team Link Present to Past on Family Trees.
They are working hard to understand family secrets .
The mysteries that become known and the touch of romance make this a hard to put down book well worth the read.

Published November 1st 2019 by Shiloh Run Press
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. Thank you.
All opinions expressed are my own.

This was a wonderful follow-up to the author's previous book, The Inn at Hidden Run. And while it could be read as a stand alone, you would miss some of the background about Nolan and Jillian that helps. I love the father/daughter duo and their relationship. The characters are endearing and their supportive relationships add to the book.

I enjoyed the back and forth time frame. You learn about Tucker's family history, which enhances the present day story. It adds just enough mystery to keep you flipping the pages as you race to the end. After having just read Lisa Wingate's book, Before We Were Yours, the backstory was interesting and heartwrenching. You will continue wondering exactly what is triggering Tucker's reckless behavior.

There is a theme of forgiveness, accountability, and grace that flows through the pages. I am a huge fan of the Tree of Life Series. And I'm looking forward to the next adventure with Jillian and Nolan.

Thank you to NetGalley and Shiloh Run Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I received an ARC of this family mystery. A boy lost from his family changes the family history over generations. I couldn't sop reading until the very end, I had to find out how all the secrets were revealed.

Jillian has a new genealogical challenge in this novel, along with a friend who soon becomes enamored with the new guy who came town to ski. Should she trust him and accept his lavish gifts? The book definitely can stand alone, but is even more enjoyable if you’ve read the first in the series, The Inn at Hidden Run. Both contain suspense and quirky characters that add much to the compelling story.

Tucker, a wealthy businessman and accomplished skier, comes to Canyon Mines, Colorado, to try all the nearby slopes. Yet he brings along some secrets from his past—including some even he doesn’t know. He pitches in to help others, but can Jillian and the others help him too? I like books that unfold mysteries linked to the present and keep the reader engaged. This book offers plenty to hold your interest. I received a copy from Celebrate Lit. All opinions are my own.

"In The Cradle Lies" is the second book in the (Tree of Life). Even though it is the second book in a series, it can be read alone. The story was well written and I love The storyline and the likable people. The story was well written and I just love the storyline. This story was about two family and it goes back and forth. I love the genealogy aspect of this book. I am fascinated with genealogy and this book just added to my fascination.