The Promise by Beth Wiseman ~ Book Review

As a teenager, Mallory Hammond made a promise to her dying cousin...that if she couldn't help save her life she would save someone else's.   Now an adult Mallory feels adrift in life as that promise hangs heavy on her.  When she starts working for her friend's fiance who is a doctor, she learns of a young girl who is from Pakistan that desperately needs help.  But in order to help her, Mallory needs to get her to the States for treatment and the only way to do that is risk everything and travel to a very dangerous part of the world and do something that will take all her courage.    Flying in the face of all reason and with dire warnings from her fiance, her friend and sister along with government warnings about the area, she decides to do it anyway so that she can fulfill her promise but what she finds waiting for her may cost her more than she ever bargained for.

I ordered this book because I have loved the other two contemporary books by this author that I have read.  Although the back description really didn't draw me at first, I went with the good reading experience I had already had.  And I'm glad I did.  I ended up really liking the book.  But to be totally honest the character of Mallory drove me nuts throughout the book.  Because of the promise she had made and her deep desire to fulfill it, she was totally blinded to what was common sense and warnings from those she should have trusted.  But the story really drew me in and I could feel her fiance's and friends tensions as she determined to make it happen.  At the end, what made the book even more interesting and relevant was reading the author's notes on why she wrote the book.  Based on a good friend's personal experiences, it made the story that much more real.  It brought to light & explained how people motivated by love and sacrifice can be betrayed and how shame or embarrassment keeps them from asking for help until sometimes it may be too late.  She explained which parts and experiences in the story her friend had actually lived through and that she wrote the story hoping to make a difference.   She also wrote the book hoping it would bring closure to their own situation and in an effort to understand her own friend's actions.  It certainly opened my eyes to how a person can get themselves into these kinds of situations beyond their control and moved me from being frustrated with the character to having empathy for the character.  The author's notes are a part of this book that shouldn't be left unread.

I gave this book a 9/10.

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister ~ Book Review

Lillian was a young girl of 8 when she took over the cooking in their home.  After her father left them, her mother also disappeared.  Not in the physical sense, but she checked herself out emotionally and lost herself in books.  Lillian first started cooking to have something to eat but then as her skills improved and she was mentored by a couple of loving ladies she started to see the power of food to heal.  She determined to "cook her mother out" and set herself on a course to perfect her cooking until she saw that happen.  Now an adult, Lillian owns a very popular restaurant and still has a special relationship with food and it's emotional power to heal.  And she passes that on with a once a month cooking class.  Here her students come to learn not only her recipes, but her art of cooking and they leave with not only skills transformed but sometimes also lives transformed.

The first thing that drew me to this book was the cover.  Is that not an absolutely lovely cover?  And I found the story just as lovely.  The descriptions of food are almost poetic and the author's prose is wonderful.  I found myself savouring some of the descriptions and sentences and how food and cooking were related to life.  I reread many of the sentences and paragraphs because they were so nice.  The main character was a likeable woman who had great insight not only into food but also into her students as well and used her creativity to help them define what they were seeking beyond learning to cook.  The book's chapters are devoted to the different students and their personal stories and how they found themselves at the cooking school.  They were each interesting and real and heartbreaking.  Each had something that needed mending deep within their hearts and souls.

The one criticism I had of this book had to do with one of the stories and the baking of an apple cake.  I found it very distasteful and totally gross and not at all endearing or sweet.  In fact, I had to reread it a couple of times to make sure that is actually what it was saying.  It was one sentence but just took over the whole emotion of what I should have been feeling at that part of the story and focused me on the thing with the cake.  Some may not agree with me, but that is what I felt and thought.

I do want to do a reread of this book.  It's not a long or a hard read, but because I'm so busy right now, I feel like my head wasn't always totally there, but on my never ending to-do list of all things wedding.  And it is a book I'd like to read again if only for the lovely writing.

I gave this a 10/10 in spite of the one criticism I had.  I thought long and hard whether one idea and one sentence that I hated should cause me to rate it at a lesser score.  I finally decided that I had enjoyed the writing too much to have one sentence take away from the overall scoring of the book.

Linked up with Semicolon: Saturday Review of Books

Wicked Women of the Bible by Ann Spangler ~ Book Tour and Review

From the Publisher:

What can Jezebel, the Bible’s wickedest queen, reveal about God’s holiness and power and even about his sense of humor? What about the Woman at the Well—the one with five husbands and a live-in lover? And what of the prostitute whose tears bathe the feet of Jesus in front of people who despise her?

There are also “wicked good” women like Deborah, Ruth, Hannah, Abigail, Esther, Mary, and more. What do their lives tell us about God’s invincible love and his determined plan to save us?

In Wicked Women of the Bible Ann Spangler tells the stories of twenty wicked and “wicked good” women in greater detail. At the end of each story, Ann provides a brief section including additional historical and cultural background as well as a brief Bible study in order to enhance the book’s appeal to both individuals and groups.

The stories of these women of the Bible reveal a God who is not above it all but who stoops down to meet us where we are in order to extend his love and mercy.

About the Author

Ann Spangler is an award-winning writer and the author of many bestselling books, including Praying the Names of God, Praying the Names of Jesus, and The One Year Devotions for Women. She is also coauthor of Women of the Bible and Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus and the general editor of the Names of God Bible. Ann’s fascination with and love of Scripture have resulted in books that have opened the Bible to a wide range of readers. She and her two daughters live in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Website: http://www.annspangler.com/

Blog: http://www.annspangler.com/category/blog/

My Thoughts:

Ann Spangler has taken the stories of 20 women in the bible, both wicked in thought and deed and wickedly good, and given us an easy to read, enjoyable look into their lives and times with the intention of applying the lessons to be gleaned from them to our contemporary lives and pointing us to a God who redeems.  I really liked the format of the book.  Each story is a chapter and is divided into 4 components:  After the title is a scripture that sort of defines the lesson to be learnt, then the story unfolds in a storytelling format.  Next comes a section called "The Times" where the author tells the probable years the story took place and then gives the scriptures where the biblical account can be found.  She then describes the historical times that each woman lived in so that we have a better understanding of what each faced in their lives.  Lastly comes "The Takeaway" where she asks us to answer some very thought provoking questions that serve to take it from just a story and a lesson to a more deeper application to our own lives.  

The author uses her story telling skills in bringing to life these women's stories.  She relays through the story how these women might have been feeling, the setting of the times for their lives and what they were facing as women.  The author shows how we can learn from even those women who made history in infamy as well as those who in today's vernacular either were or did something "wicked good" which means great or excellent.  In their stories we find a God who redeems.  As with any type of historical, biblical storytelling it is best to know first hand what the bible itself actually says about each of these stories and the author provides the places in the bible for the reader to be able to go and look it up themselves.  There are many footnotes that provide the sources for pieces of information the author might have included in the story or in describing the time.   The questions are good both for personal devotionals and reflection and would be great as discussion prompts in a group study.  The chapters can be read in one sitting and a great for personal devotional time.

I was actually blessed to also do an online kind of bible study that had videos with the author so the book really did come alive for me.  I loved this study and am going to put it on my list of probable studies for my group next year.

Thanks to BookLook Bloggers for providing the book free of charge for my honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own and I was not required to give a positive review.

The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant ~ Book Review

Addie Metsky is 85 years old when her youngest granddaughter interviews her and asks her how she got to be the woman that she is today.  And there starts the story of a young Addie Baum who is 15 years old and growing up in the North End of Boston.  Living  in a one room walk up with her parents and 2 sisters, she was raised by a very strict and superstitious Jewish mother and her hard working Jewish father.  The family are immigrants trying to make it in a better world but not quite prepared for the progressive America.  Out of the 3 living children, Addie was the only one born in the US.  The mom has never moved on from being forced to leave her Polish home and come to America and blames the father for the loss of their other child who died enroute.  They were poor but not starving, in Addie's words.  With everyone chipping in, they made enough for rent and food.  Addie has a natural curiosity and is very smart so against the wishes of her mother, she joins a library group for girls partly so that she can get out of the house and away from her mom who has never shown her any love or acceptance.  She recalls her days at Rockport Lodge where the girls went for a vacation and the lifelong friendships she formed there that helped to shape her life.  As Addie reminisces, she tells the story of her life and what it was like trying to make her way in the early 20th century as a woman, a Jew and an immigrant and as a young girl chafing against the old ways and trying to embrace the new.  She tells of the influences of her first exposure to "love", the influences of her "delicate" sister and her stronger more worldly sister, of her lifelong desire just to have her mother's acceptance.

For some reason, I always really like a good immigrant story.  Maybe it's because my own parents were immigrants and it helps me to relate to everything they might have faced and went through.  I like to read of their hopes and dreams in leaving everything they know and making a journey full of unknowns in the hope for a better life.  The courage that would take is astounding to me.  I enjoyed this story of family, friendships, immigrants, and trying to find one's place in a world of changing times.  Addie was a wonderful character with so many facets to her personality and I felt myself really drawn into her story.  Each character was really well developed which made it seem like I actually knew them.  The heartbreak of the immigrant story of facing total culture shock was very emotional (as my parents were immigrants too) and the contrasts between the mother who refused to change and accept her new country and in turn the child who was born in America and the father and girls of the family trying to find their place in their new world was very well written.  The narrative moves along at a nice pace and I really felt like it was an actual person telling their story which was really nice to me as 1st person narrative is not my favourite choice of story telling.   The story pulls you through every emotion:  pain, sadness, grief, joy, laughter, love and hopefully leaves the reader with hope.

I gave it a 9/10

Reading Challenge Goals Met:  A book set somewhere I always wanted to visit (Boston), a book by an author I've never read before, a book by a famous author,

52 Little Lessons from A Christmas Carol by Bob Welch ~ Book Tour

Publisher's Description:  


Gold Medallion Award-winner Bob Welch crafts 52 nuggets of Bible-based wisdom from one of the most popular novels of all time, A Christmas Carol. "For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself." "No space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunity misused." "God bless us, every one." The lessons and stories from the beloved novel A Christmas Carol point to bedrock values we all share. Award-winning author Bob Welch takes readers deeper into the nuances of this classic by Charles Dickens. From the miserliness of Scrooge to the innocence of Tiny Tim, 52 Little Lessons from A Christmas Carol will inspire readers to live for what really matters, not only at Christmas, but all year long.

My Thoughts:
First off, I just want to say, is that not the lovliest artwork on the cover?  That alone would have made me pick up this book.  I really like that old fashioned type detailed and coloured type of artwork!

When I saw this come up on BookLook Bloggers for review I could hardly wait to nab it!  I have the book 52 Little Lessons from It's a Wonderful Life, reviewed here, and I loved it so I knew this was a no-brainer to order.  And I wasn't disappointed!  Bob Welch again takes values and lessons to be learned from a beloved story and makes a years worth of weekly lessons out of it.  Put into easy readable chapters that can be read in one short sitting, it is chock full of obvious and sometimes not so obvious lessons from Dicken's classic tale.  The author pulls us out of a surface reading or watching of the various movie versions and takes us into Dicken's intentions of waking us out of our stupors of lives devoted to our own selfish pursuits and causes us to take a look at our hearts and how we treat those less fortunate.   Bob Welche's hope by the books end is that "we will know ourselves better" (pg. xvii).  He states in the Author's Notes:

"But perspective on ourselves is critical.  It's easy for believers to see themselves as Peter during his bold confession of Christ, but not as Peter when he cowardly denies Christ.  Likewise, it will be easier to see ourselves as, say, Bob Cratchit or the kind-hearted nephew, Fred, in A Christmas Carol than as Scrooge.  We like to think the best of ourselves.

But doesn't Scripture suggest we all have a touch of Scrooge in us (Romans 3:23)?  And can't we all benefit from reexamining who we've become in our own life stories?"

                                                                                          pg.  xvii            Author's Notes
                                                                                          52 Little Lessons from A Christmas Carol

Bob Welch skillfully takes us through the contrasts in the life story of Scrooge and builds on lessons to take into our own lives today and breathes in a fresh perspective showing us that an old classic story can still be relatable to us now.  Though Scrooge is not your typical "hero" of a story, he has much to teach us both with his selfish life and with his redeemed life.   Chapter titles such as:

     - Context Clarifies a Story,
     -Misery Loves Company,
     -It's About More Than Christmas,
     -You Make The Chains That Shackle You,
     -You Can't Wish Away the Uncomfortable,
     -Death is A Comma Not a Period,
     -Grace Changes Everything,
     -Seeking Forgiveness is a Sign of Strength,
     -Life is Best Lived When You're Awake

...just to name a few, draw the reader right in.

 "52 Little Lessons from A Christmas Carol is tinted with a fair share of how-not-to-live lessons as well as how-to-live lessons. We learn from both.  Scripture is filled with both.

Dickens understand this, for he wrote a story that reaches us from both perspectives and is leavened with the author's faith."

                                                                                         pg.xiv               Author's Notes
                                                                                         52 Little Lessons from A Christmas Carol

In short, I loved this easy to read but chock full of good stuff book.

Thanks to BookLook Bloggers for supplying me a copy of this book for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions are my own.


Also linked to Semicolon Saturday Review of Books

Finding Mercy by Michael Landon Jr. and Cindy Kelley ~ Book Review

Book Two in this story starts with bounty hunters chasing Mercy as she still tries to figure out her past. Heading south to where she believes she might have come from she is having to dodge not only the bounty hunters but try to pick up clues as to who she might be. After running across a portrait of a military man something in her memory is finally sparked and she goes in search of who it might be. Finally a clue that leads her to a large rice plantation has her meeting her family but still not recognizing them or knowing them. But even as she tries to fit into her past life more questions arise as to who and what kind of person she really was. And then there is still the nasty little detail about the bounty hunters that just won't give up.

As Mercy is thrown back into her life with a party being thrown for her return by her family, the confusion and mystery continues for her. The black woman who raised her and whom she was supposedly very close to can barely tolerate being in the same room with her and Mercy doesn't know why. She is appalled by the treatment and living quarters of the newly freed slaves who are now employees of the plantation. The attitude of her brother and step Mom towards the black servants saddens her and yet on the flip side they are surprised that she is not harder on the staff. As the young woman she was slowly comes to light, Mercy must reconcile the unrecognizable person she was with the person she is now. Does she want to go back to being that young woman from before the war and reclaim her old life or will she take steps to right the wrongs of the past and embrace who she is now?

Loved the sequel to Traces to Mercy. What a great story these two books were. I appreciated how the story wove the story of the north and the south viewpoints into it. The immediate results of the civil war on both the plantation owners and the freed slaves was something that this book really brought out to me. I hadn't really paused to think of what those newly freed people would do when on paper they were free but the attitudes were still the same towards them. I thought that the inner struggles that Mercy was having were very well written and felt myself hoping for the best for her and wishing she would quit making impulsive choices. I rooted for her through the set of two books and couldn't wait to see how it all played out for her. This and the first in the series, Traces of Mercy, was an excellent read. It'll be a keeper on my bookshelf.

Reading Challenge Goals Met: Book I own but haven't read yet; Book by an author I love but haven't read yet

Review linked to Semicolon Saturday Review of Books

Traces of Mercy by Michael Landon Jr. and Cindy Kelley ~ Book Review

After waking up in a doctor's office as the civil war ends, a young woman grapples with the fact that she has no memory of her past or who she is, nor how she was injured or how she came to be at the doctor's office. With no clues to go by, the doctor takes her to live with a group of nuns in the hopes that eventually her memory will return, at least enough to get her home. But as time passes and still no return of any of her memory, the nuns name the young woman Mercy because of a mercy medallion that was around her neck. Mercy lives her days longing for her memory to return so that she can know who she is. But after meeting a handsome young Yankee bachelor from a prominent family who wants to have a future with her she puts her reservations and hope of knowing her past life aside and instead agrees to marry him. Her life becomes a whirlwind of learning the proper etiquette and behavior, none of which she naturally remembers, and of planning her wedding. There is so much to look forward to until a stranger she meets at her engagement party threatens to destroy everything. He knows something of her past and gives her an ultimatum of telling her fiance by a certain date or he will. Though Mercy remembers none of what he tells her she did, she is thrown into a panic of what it will do to the life she is now trying to build and decides to take matters into her own hands. But her choices can take her down an even more devastating path.

Though it took me until chapter 2 to really get into the story, once at that point I was hooked. The first chapter is written in a way where no given names are used so I think that is why I found it a bit difficult to just get on board with the story right away. (And that is all I can say so that I don't reveal the story). Once chapter two hits, however, all that falls into place and the story really just takes off. I found the way it was written was really absorbing. The struggles Mercy faces between wanting to know her past and wanting to choose the wonderful future placed before her really drew me. I could almost feel her confusion and how she was torn at times. The innocent and sweet young lady she is is direct contrast to who this stranger claims she is and you feel her pain and panic as she tries to make sense of it all. The contradictions of her actions had me either cheering for her or going No what are you doing? It was relatable though in the sense that we all do stupid things when in a panic and threatened with losing what we consider precious that in reflection makes us shake our heads  . I loved this story and couldn't wait to get into the 2nd book of the series.

Reading Challenge Goals Met:  A book I own but have never read; A book from and author I love;

Betrayed by Lisa Scottoline ~ Book Review

 This book is part of the Rosato and DiNunzio series, but can stand alone.  It focuses on Judy Carrier who is an associate at the all woman firm of Rosato and Associates.  After being handed a damages case where she would have to defend a company Judy is not too happy with her boss.  The case will take an enormous amount of her time and energy.  She can't count on her best friend to go to bat for her with the boss because her friend is now a partner and it would cause issues.  And right at the same time, she receives news that her beloved Aunt has breast cancer, has had chemo and now needs breast removal surgery.  Taking the weekend she immediately goes to see her aunt before her surgery.  When she arrives, however, she discovers her mother already there.  Already on tense footing with her, the stress of the situation amplifies when her mother makes it clear that her Aunt Barb's Mexican friend Iris is not someone her mom approves of.  When Iris turns up dead in her vehicle, Aunt Barb cannot come to grips with it being the heart attack that the police are saying it was.  Suspecting foul play and out of compassion for her distraught aunt, Judy starts to poke around and discovers huge amounts of money in Iris's gardening box in her aunt's garage.  As she starts to try to figure out how that kind of money could come to an illegal immigrant, Judy starts to uncover all manner of mystery about the woman's life and death.  And to top it all off, things aren't going so well back at work or in her relationship with her live in boyfriend.

I love mysteries by Lisa Scottoline but I have to say this wasn't a favourite.  It had it's highs and it's lows for me.  For starters, I don't know if I was sold on the main character of Judy. There was just some things that didn't mesh for me. Just for a few examples without giving away story:  She was desiring to eventually want to make partner in the firm yet was trying everything she could to get out of the work her boss was putting on her to do.  She seemed to not know about some things in the storyline that I thought was odd, for example, for an educated woman she didn't know what surgical drains were, for a lawyer she seemed to have no clue what ICE was which is Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  I thought that was odd.  She may not have specialized in that but as a lawyer you'd think she would know the term.  She put herself in not just extremely dangerous situations, but to me, foolishly dangerous situations... again for an educated woman?     Anyway that could have just been the way I viewed things. Maybe because it involved her precious aunt she lost sight of what was totally and foolishly unsafe in lieu of finding the answers.   There was also the issue of too much.  Between family illness, family relational breakdowns, love relational issues, work issues, and now a big old mystery on her hands, there just seemed to be too much going on in this girl's life all at the same time. I wondered how on earth she got herself up and going with everything happening to her.   I did, however, enjoy the actual mystery.  It was a page turner and I couldn't put it down.  I had to see what was going to happen and how it all played out.  I also liked how through the characters of Iris and her immigrant friends, I learned a bit about the difficulties of illegal immigrants in the U.S.  That was interesting for me.

So in all, this particular one was an average read for me, didn't hate it but I didn't love it either.  But it won't stop me from reading other books from this author.

Gathering Shadows by Nancy Mehl ~ Book Review

(Finding Sanctuary Book 1)

Wynter Evans is a reporter with her eye on the anchor seat at a St. Louis television station. But when she sees a picture of a Mennonite teenager she thinks she has spotted her brother who had been abducted at the age of 7, eleven years earlier. At twelve, Wynter felt the deep ache of loss of her brother and was well aware of how it affected her family. The subsequent divorce of her parents devasted her teenage years and it seemed the pain would never go away. But she always felt deep inside that her brother was alive somewhere so when she sees the picture of the Mennonite boy she heads to where the picture was taken, the small town of Santuary. Convincing her station boss to do a story of the interesting things in small towns in Missouri, she is able to arrive in town under the guise of putting together a story. The mayor though is a bit skeptical and very protective of the people in his town. But he agrees to help line up some people Wynter can talk to. But when Wynter and her camera man start to dig too deep and start unearthing secrets, someone wants them either scared off or dead. As they get closer to finding the Mennonite young man, Wynter's estranged father all of a sudden comes into town and the truth may just change everything she thought she knew of her family.

 This is my first book by this author and I thought it was a great suspense story. It is full of intrigue and layers of secrets. Sanctuary is an interesting town and being a place as it's name implies, it is part Mennonite town and part a place where people go who are looking for a place of sanctuary. That made for some interesting characters involved in the story. Being under the romance suspense genre, the story was light on the romance which I thought that was in line with the main gist of the story. Wynter was there on a mission of finding her brother, nothing was more important and I thought the whole thing was woven together nicely with the romance not being foremost and taking over the story.

Reading Goals Met:  Book from a female author; mystery or thriller; new to me author

Lethal Beauty by Lis Wiehl ~ Book Tour

Publisher's Description:

Mia Quinn discovers that a series of seemingly unrelated murders are linked. How far up are the strings being pulled-and what happens when one of her own is at risk? The murder Mia is prosecuting seems like an open and shut case-until the accused claims he was the real victim and that the dead girl attacked him first. The tabloids dub her a "lethal beauty." Still, a conviction seems imminent. Then a key witness goes missing. Just when it looks like the killer could walk free, the dead woman's mother takes matters into her own hands. Meanwhile, Charlie Carlson, a Seattle homicide detective, is investigating the murder of a man whose body washed up on the beach of Puget Sound, but he's got little to go on. He has no dental work, fingerprints aren't on file, and he doesn't match any missing person reports. Then a church pianist is senselessly gunned down before horrified parishioners. All three cases seem unrelated-but are they? Together, Mia and Charlie race to find the answer before another crime hits too close to home.

 About the Author:    Lis Wiehl is a New York Times best-selling author, Harvard Law School graduate, and former federal prosecutor. A popular legal analyst and commentator for the Fox News Channel, Wiehl appears weekly on The O'Reilly Factor, Lou Dobbs Tonight, Imus in the Morning, Kelly's Court, and more. Visit her website at www.liswiehlbooks.com Twitter: @LisWiehl Facebook: LisWiehl

My Thoughts:  

Lethal Beauty is the third installment of the Mia Quinn Mystery series by this author. In this story Mia is prosecuting what would seem to be an open and shut murder case of a young Chinese girl. But she watches in frustration as a key witness goes missing and one member of the jury she helped choose becomes disengaged during the trial. And now another young Chinese person is found murdered. But are they all connected? The more she and homicide detective dig into things the more shocking of a story they unearth. And now can they ever get any new evidence to get the proof they need to convince Mia's boss to take the young girl's case back to trial? With all this on her plate and trying to juggle her family after her husband's sudden death, Mia has her hands full. How do you intermingle a high profile job and a young family as a single parent and not have them interfere with each other? Tough decisions need to be made. Gabe, her teenage son, is struggling trying to take on helping his Mom in roles that really should belong to his Dad and with how he fits in at school. When the opportunity to "improve" himself and become more manly comes along, he makes a decision that could change his life forever. But was it the right one? He seems to think so according to his own research until things start happening that he never could have imagined.

 This was another fast paced murder mystery by this author. Though third in the series, it can easily be a stand alone read. I enjoyed it as it kept me engaged without slowing down and I read through in a few days, always being kept on my toes and turning the pages to find out what happens. The author has taken on some interesting issues as the base of the story. The main issue is that of human trafficking and modern day slavery in America. That was an eye opener for me. I have read and thought about human trafficking but never connected it to a modern day slavery in America. It was, in my mind, a horrible thing that was going on elsewhere in the world. It is something that is hard to grasp as happening in this day and age in North America. And the second is of drugs marketed to teens to help them with normal everyday issues or to achieve something without all the hard work. Both lines of the story were well written and informative, making me think, while being woven into the lives of the characters.  Of particular note, is the Reading Group Guide which I thought  asked great questions to really make you think and be more aware.

Thanks to BookLook Bloggers and Thomas Nelson Publishers for giving me a free copy for my honest review.  All thoughts and opinions were my own and I was not required to give an positive review.

Lethal Beauty is available for purchase here.

This review will be linked at Semicolon Saturday Review of Books

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder ~ Book Review

Little House in the Big Woods is the first in this classic children's literature series of homesteading and early prairie life by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I have not read this book since I was a kid. None of my own children had interest in the series, much to my disappointment, so I thought I would jump on board with Barbara at Stray Thoughts and her Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge which happens in February.

 It was fun to revisit the story, but one thing I was struck by rereading as an adult was how "elementary" the writing was. Of course, I didn't remember something like that from reading it as a child.

 Laura's story in this book scans about a year of her life from the age of 4. There were a few things that stood out to me reading it this time around. Even though I watched the Little House on the Prairie series, again as a young person, and had a somewhat visual  in my mind, I was still struck by how difficult and filled with hard work the pioneer life really was. Just a few of the things from the book that jumped out was how disciplined the children in the story were (for the most part, with some exceptions) and how hard they actually helped out with different aspects around the house that was really hard work at such a young age. I think of kids nowadays at that age and how easy their lives are now in North America. I really enjoyed the descriptions of how they had to prepare foods for the winter. We take so much for granted with grocery stores having all our foods readily available without the hard work. The simpleness of their existence in terms of things they had was also something that really stood out. We have so much stuff nowadays that we think are so essential to our survival, when it's really for our comfort and overt luxury. The sheer isolation of life on the prairies back then boggled my mind. That's something I never really thought about before. Being a bit more of an extrovert than introvert I wonder how I would take to something like that. All I can say about the homesteading life of that time is that I'm sure glad that God knew what He was doing and put me into this time as I don't know how I would have survived all that the prairie life required.

 Reading Challenge Goals Met: A book from my childhood, a popular author's first book, a book based on or turned into a tv show

Will also be linked to Semicolon's Saturday Review of Books

Seagrass Pier by Colleen Coble - A Hope Beach Novel

Elin Summerall has had a lot on her plate in the last while. After catching a virus that ruined her heart she was lucky to have received a heart transplant and a second chance at life. A young widow and mother she was also caring for her mom who was dealing with early dementia in her 50's. But ever since Elin received her new heart she has been having dreams of being strangled that wake her up in a cold sweat. Knowing that her heart donor had been murdered these dreams are leaving her very unsettled and with unwanted attention from the press and from the donor's murderer. With the police skeptical of any connection between her dreams and the events she is now experiencing, she moves her family to a quiet remote location in Seagrass Pier where she hopes the dreams will stop, her family can be safe and she can finish healing physically in peace. But the dreams and the strange occurrences follow her. And now she must work with Marc Everton, an FBI agent, a man from her past whom she had never wanted to run into again.

 I really enjoyed this story though am finding it hard to write a review because there was a lot going on it. There were sub-plots running that connected back to other stories and characters as this was the 3rd in a series. I had read the second one, Rosemary Cottage reviewed here, and really enjoyed it but it was a while ago and I didn't quite remember the characters. But this book was great as a stand alone read without having to know the details from the first stories.

 The cell memory aspect of the story, where Elin has memories of the donor's murder was interesting. It certainly would be totally unsettling and weird. Though that was the main plot, there were also several story lines revealed throughout the story. A  historical connection with a former owner of the house brings it's own mystery as well as Elin's troubles.  It made for many twists and turns in the plot and caused it to be a real page turner. You just never knew what was going to be revealed next and I never guessed the ending. The love story was clean and sweet which is always a plus in my books.  I did find a bit of how Elin insists and throws herself into the investigation by the FBI agent a little bit unrealistic. I can understand working with him, but him allowing her into some of the dangerous situations rang a little untrue for me, even if he was off-duty and not acting in an official capacity. Without wanting to give away anything in the story, I won't go into more detail than that. Everything was tied together well in the end without anything that left me scratching my head. I really enjoy Colleen Coble's books and this one didn't disappoint in the suspense/romance genre.

Reading Challenge Goals Met:  a book by a female author; a mystery or thriller

Will also be linked to Semicolon Saturday Review of Books

Laura Ingalls Wilder Country... by William Anderson

"The People and Place Behind Laura Ingalls Wilder's LIfe and Books"



I picked this book up for Stray Thoughts Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge. I really enjoyed this "real life" peak and tour into Laura's life. Filled with historical photos and drawings of Laura and her family, family artifacts and pictures of the prairies and homes or replicas thereof where they lived and an engaging commentary. You saw the creek, the farms and landscapes of Laura's life. There were lots of little tidbits that I had never known before that made for a very interesting read. I also found the U.S. map co-ordinated with the different locations of major events of Laura and her families lives very interesting. It really opened my eyes to how much she really did move over her lifetime. Perfect for anyone who has read Laura's books or even watched the tv series to see a real life perspective in photos.

If you'd like to join in on the reading challenge skip on over to Stray Thoughts and join in!

Will also be linked to Semicolon Saturday Review of Books

"The Hundred Foot Journey" by Richard C. Morais ~ Book Review

Young Hassan Haji grew up learning about the love of food and cooking from his mother. Surrounded by spicy Indian foods cooked in their restaurant and the food markets of Mumbai his mother passed on her love of trying new foods and gourmet outings on to her son. But when tragedy strikes the family, their father takes the family on a journey out of India, all across Europe and finally settles in England. But when again circumstances dictate a move the family unwittingly ends up in a small picturesque village in France called Lumiere. When purchasing the mansion across the street from a very high class inn and restaurant, the family opens up their own Indian cuisine restaurant, Madame Mallory, the Michelin award winning chef,  must face her own issues of fear, mistrust and entitlement. As they wage culinary wars against each other, young Hassan is still drawn to the French way of cooking and Madame Mallory realizes that he is a truly gifted chef. When yet another tragedy strikes, Madame Mallory at last gives in to what she knows she must do, and that is to train Hassan in the art of French cuisine knowing he will make his mark in the world with his gift. Hassan leaves his family and crosses the hundred feet across the road to become a student of Miss Mallory leaving his Indian way of life and cooking behind.

 First off, I must qualify that I saw and fell in love with this movie before I read the book. The movie, to me was wonderful with incredible scenery and food photography. It gave you a real sense of the love and beauty of "real" food and the wonder of preparing it, both French and Indian. I loved the love story line, the friendship story line, the story of overcoming prejudice and fear. I loved how Hassan, his father and Madame Mallory changed and grew in the movie.

 Now the book. In a very rare case for me, I did not like the book as much as the movie. This is the second time this has happened to me in a story that featured cooking and food, the first being Julie and Julia reviewed here #27. While I guess this story was an ok read, it covered a much longer time period in Hassan's life than did the movie, which is only natural. But the thing that I found so different, and it took me a long time of thinking about it and to pin-point it, was that the book was missing the sweetness, the charm and the humor that the movie had. The movie story veered off the book in a lot of places and I found that I liked the changes and liberties that Steven Knight, the movie screenplay writer, had taken. While the movie brought out the beauty of food, I found the book actually grossed me out in a lot places. The father was written as a man of less than charming characteristics who didn't seem to change a whole lot like he did in the movie. There was descriptions of some things about him that really were useless to the story, in my opinion, but left a yuck image to me, the reader. Madame Mallory was a much more unlikeable character than even the movie portrayed and I found I mistrusted her true motives at the end even though she did take young Hassan under her wing. The book got into some of France's ins and outs of owning restaurants that may or may not have interested me so much. And I didn't like the character of Hassan in the book as much as I liked him in the movie, he didn't have that air of innocence that the movie gave him. So in this case, I hate to say, but I know I will re-watch the movie over and over but I will take a pass at reading the book again, though I guess it was good to read it to find out the original way the author intended the story to be.

Book Challenge Goals Met:  A book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit; a new to you author; a book that became a movie; a book with a number in the title; a book set in a different country

Will also be linked to Semicolon Saturday Review of Books

"You Are Here - Around the World in 92 Minutes" by Chris Hadfield

Chris Hadfield is a Canadian astronaut and icon. During his last space mission on the International Space Station from December 2012 to May 2013, he inspired generations of children and adults as he tweeted from space, sang and played guitar in space and had  classroom conferences with school children in live time from space.  He lit a fire for science and exploration that I'm sure we'll still see the results of as this generation of children grow and turn into adults and choose their careers.  As he orbited the earth every 92 minutes and as the earth also was rotating he took about 45,000 photographs.  These are his favourites.  Grouped into countries, it's a visual wonder looking at his photographs and reading his short descriptions.  It's a view of our planet and landmarks from a whole other perspective.  Not wanting the photos to just look like a satellite image, he took them with an human element and point of view in mind.  They are amazing.  How different parts of a map look like a whole other 3D thing as it's seen whizzing by, the differences in continents and actual recognition of divisions of countries, the beauty of cities and the incredible actions of nature are described by Hadfield in sometimes a very witty way.  Totally enjoyed this book.  A treat visually and descriptively.

Reading Challenge Goals Met:  a book you can read in one day, non-fiction, new to me author

Will also be linked to Semicolon Saturday Review of Books

Hansi: The Girl Who Loved the Swastika by Maria Anne Hirschmann

This is the true story of Maria Anne who as a young Chechoslovakian teenager in 1940 won a scholarship to a Nazi school in Prague.  Maria Anne's mother died when she was very young and her father gave her away to another family to raise but would never give them permission to adopt her yet had nothing to do with her.  This made her foster father never quite accept her as one of his own, though her foster mother loved her deeply and treated her with love and taught her how to pray and love God.  However, Maria Anne always felt the deep rejection of her foster father and her real father and therefore when the chance to get away from the home life and poverty she knew through the scholarship she jumped at the chance.  She was thrilled that she could have an education for free and was honored to have passed the tests and been chosen out of all the participants.  At fourteen, as her train pulled away, her tearful foster mother's words "Don't ever forget Jesus" went with her.  But once at the school Maria Anne went on a years long journey of learning atheism and blind devotion to Hitler and the Nazi system. Through years of war and hardship she vehemently stuck up for what she thought was a better Germany coming.   When she finally came to have her eyes opened to what Hitler and his regime had actually done and the cowardice of Hitler's suicide, totally disillusioned,  she made a frightening escape across the Communist border into West Germany and into a renewal with her relationship with Jesus.  After being treated kindly by the American soldiers after her escape, Maria Anne always had a desire to move to America .  Eventually the opportunity presented itself and she and her family moved to New York.  But things were not as they had imagined it to be at first and they were overwhelmed with their own poverty trying to establish themselves and with their observance of careless affluence of others in America.  But as they worked to find their footing in this new land with all it's new customs and ways the one thing they took to heart was the freedom they had to make of themselves what they dreamed and the freedom to talk about and teach their deepest Christian convictions.

This was an old book from the '70's that I picked up some years ago.  I thought it sounded like an interesting story and I wondered at the author's perception of being right inside the Nazi youth.  Her life makes quite the story in everything she saw and experienced as she was immersed and deceived  into the culture of the Nazi's reign.  What really spoke to me in the story was how this family has taken their freedom here in America and truly appreciate it and revel in it.  The wonder that they have in being able to share their faith is fresh and inspirational.  Coming from freedom my whole life sometimes I feel I slip into an almost apathetic place in truly realizing what I have.  But this book really made me more aware of that.  It was also very interesting reading someone's story who had been right smack in the middle of Europe during World War II getting caught up in Hitler's Germany.  It was a great testament to God's forgiving power and ability to totally change a life.

Book challenge goals met:  a memoir, a book by a female author, a non-fiction, a book set in another country, a book based on a true story, a book at the bottom of your to read list

Will also be linked to Semicolon Saturday Review of Books

Miracle on Voodoo Moutain by Megan Boudreaux ~ Book Review

"A Young Woman's Remarkable Story of Pushing Back the Darkness for the Children of Haiti"

Publisher's Description:


"It took months of God waking me up in the middle of the night before I realized I was the one He was calling to leave my comfortable American life and move to Haiti."

 Miracle on Voodoo Mountain is the inspirational memoir of an accomplished and driven 24-year old who quit her job, sold everything, and moved to Haiti, by herself-all without a clear plan of action. Megan Boudreaux had visited Haiti on a few humanitarian trips but each trip multiplied the sense that someone needed to address the devastation-especially with the children, many of whom were kept as household slaves on the poverty-stricken and earthquake-devastated Caribbean island.

 God guided her every step as she moved blindly to a foreign land without knowing the language, the people, or the future. From becoming the adoptive mother of former child slaves, to receiving the divine gift of the Haitian Creole language, to starting, building, and running a school for more than 500 children, "the amazingness of what God did after I made the choice to be obedient is incredible," said Megan.

 Three years later, six acres on Bellevue Mountain in Gressier is the home of the nonprofit Respire Haiti at the former site of voodoo worship, and in the area that many still come to make animal sacrifices, Megan and her staff of nearly 200 are transforming this community as they educate, feed, and address the needs.

 About the Author 

 Megan Boudreaux, at the age of 24, founded Respire Haiti, a non-profit to fight for the freedom of Haiti's estimated 300,000 child slaves. Megan followed God's call to begin a feeding program and transform a barren hillside into a refuge and a school for 500 children. A medical clinic is nearing completion with future plans for a church, community center, and library. Megan has adopted four Haitian children and in 2013 she married her best friend, Josh Anderson.

My Thoughts:

To say this memoir is inspirational is an understatement.  To say that it was totally convicting to my own life and that it was perfect timing  is not an exaggeration.  I don't believe it was a co-incidence that this true story came across my radar.  From the first paragraphs Megan's story grabbed my heart and didn't let up.  The book is a very easy read and almost reads like a novel.  From her dreams of a lone tamarind tree on a mountain in Haiti, to packing up her whole American life and moving to Haiti with no plan just a deep conviction that that is what God wanted her to do, to finding out the mountain that was in her dreams was actually a place of voodoo worship and sacrifice, to God opening her eyes to the horrendous situation of child slavery that so many children of Haiti live under, to confronting voodoo priests and sham orphanages, it was all a new experience for 24 year old Megan Boudreaux.  Experiences that drove her to her knees to seek God's guidance and leading.  And she takes you along on that crazy adventure of faith and obedience with her book.

That she went with no real plans and not knowing anyone there or the language boggles my mind.  Everyone thought she was crazy, but she knew she had to be obedient to the call of God.  What she has accomplished with the Lord guiding her in three short years is truly a miracle.  Starting with a Saturday feeding program because she noticed so many of the children were literally starving she wondered why so many children were dressed in rags and hauling water instead of being in school.  As she came to realize the ugly truth of Haiti's child slave culture she set out to bring change by helping to get some of these children to a school they could attend for free.  It evolved into a two room school which they quickly outgrew.  Establishing the non-profit organization Respire Haiti with literally no knowledge of how to do it or how to run it, Megan now has bought land on the mountain which in the past has been the biggest area where voodoo priests have performed their rituals and has built a school which currently has 500 students, a medical center, and a feeding program and a community center, library and church are in the works.  Yet, when Megan has someone say to her "I could never do what you do",  her response is "Don't we serve the same God?  And doesn't He give us all the courage, strength, and boldness we need to do His work?"

For anyone, young and old alike, highly educated or not, this book serves as a great encouragement to exactly that, taking the step to be obedient to what God has showed each individual and then watching Him work the miracle.


 Respire (which means to breathe in and out; to breathe easily again, as after a period of exertion or trouble) Haiti's mission statement is "to encourage, educate, and empower restaveks (child slaves), orpahns and vulnerable children."

Thanks to BookLook Bloggers for sending me a free copy of this book for my honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own and I was not required to write a positive review.

"Miracle on Voodoo Mountain" is available here.

Will also be linked to Semicolon Saturday Review of Books

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill ~ Book Review

 I know this is a long review but bear with me it was a long book and covered much.  Inspired by the actual Book of Negroes penned in Manhattan in which names were listed of former and current slaves who had helped the British during the Revolutionary war and who were qualified to board ship to travel to a new life in Nova Scotia, Canada.

 Aminata Diallo was only 12 years old when she was abducted by slave traders from her home in West Africa. Forced to walk for 3 months in chains until they reached the sea, she is then shipped to America where she is sold in South Carolina to an indigo plantation. Having the skills of a midwife passed onto to her from her mother she uses those skills to survive and help other slaves by "catching" their babies. Knowing she must learn all she can to survive she secretly is taught to read by the black women who takes her under her wing at the plantation and when she is sold to a Jewish indigo inspector, she is more than willing to learn to work with numbers and ledgers when he wants her to. Befriended by his wife, Aminata continues to expand her knowledge of the white man's world and ways and when opportunity arises for her to make her escape she ends up in Manhattan living in a colony of other ex-slaves. Her reading and writing skills come to the attention of the British military who then "hire" her with the promise of her own name being added to write the "Book of Negroes" a historic British military ledger that allowed Black loyalists passage on ships to Nova Scotia where there were promised land and freedom. With the desire in her heart to someday return to her beloved African village of Bayo, Aminata agrees, seeing it as one step towards that dream. But her losses keep adding up. When the opportunity finally arrives to return, and with no more family ties in North America, she takes her chance and arrives in Freetown, Sierra Leone, a British colony created for returning slaves. Will her losses and disappointments finally end now that she is back in her homeland? Now all of a sudden unsure, Aminata risks her life to travel back to her village not knowing if she will even see it still standing or if anyone will remember her.

 It was hard to put this book down once I started. Epic in it's scope the story starts with an aged Aminata in Britain then travels back to about 40 years earlier to Africa to America to Canada, back to Africa and finally settles itself in Britain. I was amazed that the author, a male, had written such a strong female character, and that, in a first person point of view. I really liked all his research into the historical aspects of the British military and abolitionists role in the actual Book of Negroes and returning slaves to Africa. The Book of Negroes is the largest single document about black people in North America until the end of the 18th century according to the author's research. 3000 names of men, women and children were recorded, those who had served the British in some capacity during the revolutionary war and then promised a new life, so to speak, in Nova Scotia. It was interesting to read his chapter at the end entitled "A word on history" and should not be skipped as it gels the story together.

 The hardships Aminata endured from her capture right until her move to Britain were horrendous and yet her drive for survival and keeping her character never left. There were times in the story, though, when I thought her strength and backbone would have landed her in way more trouble than the story unfolded and she seemed to walk away from a lot of horrible consequences other slaves might not have and lived a proportionately better life than was the status quo of her peers. But totally free of horrors she was not. Physical, mental and emotional abuse followed her throughout her life. It was heart-rending to read of all her losses throughout her life, yet refreshing to also read of her overcoming them and never losing her character or the will to survive within her. Mentioned in the beginning was the fact that her father was a Muslim and taught her to pray but it is not delved into much further within the story. A reunion of a loved one in the end seemed to happen a little too conveniently for it to be quite believable and was unnecessary to the story but didn't detract from the power of the story.   It was a brave life that she had the courage to step beyond her pain, losses and disappointments, beyond letting hatred consume her and allow herself to work with the white British abolitionists for the removal of slavery even after being disillusioned with them also. If nothing else the Book of Negroes and the story of Aminata should speak to us of hanging onto our hope and courage in the hardest of times

Worthy to mention is the fact that  there is some sexual content.  Too descriptive for my liking it had me skipping a few paragraphs but it is  fairly moderate in today's adult book standards but deserves the mention that there is some in the context of the story.

Alternate title and  cover used in U.S.







Reading Goal Met:   Book with more than 500 pages (slight cheat coming in at 474), Book that made me cry, Book by an author you've never read, A book you own but have never read, A Book based on or turned into a tv show.


Will also be linked to Semicolon Saturday Review of Books

"The Hatmaker's Heart" by Carla Stewart

With this novel, Carla Stewart has taken a step back farther in time than she usually writes about and has created a story set in the Roaring 20's.  The heroine, Nell Marchwold, dreams of designing and making hats.  It is sheer joy to her to have a woman try on a hat she designed and witness that woman see herself as beautiful and poised, whether the woman is outwardly beautiful or not.  For Nell it is not about fame.  As an apprentice hatmaker at Oscar Fields Millinery in New York she works hard for her employer even though he is a hard taskmaster and can be quite belittling.  When she is called upon to design hats for a valued customer and her daughters, Nell's world is changed as she is thrown into the spotlight from the rave reviews on her designs.  Though thrilled with the business it brings, her boss is not too happy to not have the credit himself and is very skeptical when a up and coming fashion designer wants Nell to design the hats to go with his new collection.   With that success opportunity comes knocking to expand the business to England and he quickly has Nell on the ship with two assistants to design hats for a prominent family there who will be attending the wedding of the queen.  Thrilled to be going home, Nell hopes to visit her aging grandmother and her long time friend Quentin but her boss is quite adamant about controlling every moment of her time.   As Nell faces her feelings for Quentin, she has to decide what it is she really wants out of life.

I have enjoyed every Carla Stewart book that I have read and this was no exception.  For me, this author has a real gift at transporting the reader into another era.  The setting was quite different than her usual backgrounds being set in the 1920's rather than the 1960's.  It was interesting reading about the New York lifestyle during that time period.  Nell was an endearing character who drew you into her quiet world with her great attitude and her passion for hat making and seeing the blossoming of women as they wore her creations.  She is a character of high standards in her work and personal life.  I liked the glimpse we got into the life of a woman of that time, one with dreams of entering a field dominated and run by men, and especially a woman with a speech impediment and how she was treated because of it.    As family secrets are revealed and the pressure of the fashion business closes in on her, I really liked how Nell grew throughout the story and came into her own at the end.

The Duck Commander Faith and Family Bible NKJV ~ book tour & review

Edited by Phil and Al Robertson

Publisher's Description:
The stars of the hit TV show Duck Dynasty are committed to upholding five core values both on and off the screen: faith, family, fellowship, forgiveness, and freedom. The Duck Commander® Faith and Family Bible features new stories and testimonials by Phil, the Robertson family patriarch, and his son Al, a pastor with more than 22 years of experience. Together they offer fresh wisdom on biblical values and how everyday people can apply them to their lives. Powered by relentless dedication to sharing the gospel and celebrating Christ’s kingdom, the Robertson family has become influential to contemporary evangelism and discipleship. The Duck Commander® Faith and Family Bible unleashes the power of their practical insight into critical faith issues, founded on God’s Word.


My Thoughts:
I was drawn to say yes to review this bible, not because I am a huge fan of the show, I really have not watched it, but because people I know have mentioned their strong stand as family for God.  The only real thing I know about the Robertson family is the couple of visual clips my pastor has shown in church or by some quotes and by the media storm that surrounded Phil in the last year.  And it is from those clips that were shown in church, one about giving and another about putting God first in your life, that I was totally drawn to order this for review.  Their strong stand for the things of God and their passion to share the gospel as a family was so appealing.

Having no preconceived ideas from watching their show, I was really pleasantly surprised by their bible.  It's New King James Version, which I don't mind.  There's a nice welcome page written by Phil and Al that let's you know why they wrote it.   There are a set of 30 devotionals called "LifeChangers" which are true stories that came about when they have shared the gospel and the transformation of lives that followed.  Then throughout the bible are biblical guidance essays, called Set Your Sights,  that tackle topics and subjects that they get asked about consistently.  These are filed under 5 catagories that are central to the Robertson family:  Faith, Family, Fellowship, Forgiveness, and Freedom.  Each essay is accompanied by a scripture pertaining to the topic and then they give added scripture, under an "on the hunt" title so that the reader can really hunt and search the Word of God for more of what He has to say on the topic.   I loved the everyday language they used in the lessons.   I have to say it is one of the few devotional type bibles where I really wanted to read each and every one of the devotionals, and I think it is because of the conversational style of writing that they had.

What I also really liked was that these lessons are also categorized for the reader in the beginning by topic and writer so that you can do one a week if you want.   In the back the Set Your Sights Categories are also listed by even more specific categories so it makes so that it makes it super simple to look any area up.  Also included in the indexes at the back are The ABC's of salvation, 30 Days with Jesus, Ministry of Jesus, Parables of Jesus, Miracles of Jesus, and Miracles of the Apostles all of which lead you to the corresponding scripture.   This bible is set up to make it really easy to get you into the Word of God digging around for yourself rather than just taking their word for it which is an aspect that really appealed to me.

Thanks to BookLook Bloggers for giving me a free copy for review.  I was not required to have a positive review and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Duck Commander Bible can be purchased here.