Disclosure: I received this book to review. The opinions shared here are 100% mine.

Book covers melt me. In real life I strive to look beyond surface appearance, but the cover of a book can win me over in a heartbeat. The image on the front of A Promise Kept is no exception.  How could I resist a book that hints of heirlooms, a hope chest, and an log cabin’s attic window?  Instant love.

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Disclosure: I received this book to review. This post contains affiliate links.

It was kind of funny when my husband opened the box containing this review book.  He read the title aloud, like he always does, and walked away.  Then he stopped and turned around as he realized what the title actually said.  He asked me, “So I need prayer?”   Well, of course he does!  The truth is, I’d been praying for my husband before we even started dating.  My friend Kristi and I were prayer partners and we added our future husbands to our list.  Unfortunately once we married, my prayers for him got a little dull and predictable.  So I’m setting out to change that, with this book in hand and my  head bowed. [Read more…]

Disclosure: I received this book to review. The opinions shared here are 100% mine. This post contains affiliate links.

 Remember reading The Stinky Cheese Man and the other twisted fairy tales in your youth? TaleSpins is a little like those, except much more sinister. These are not fairy tales for the little kids, folks.  These are perfect for teens and young adults who want to know the real story.  Since these are written in poetry form, they’d be an interesting supplement to a poetry unit in the middle grades or even high school.  The Plight and Plot of Princess Penny deals with bullying, which is a relevant topic for many schools today.  It’s important to remember that these stories are out of the ordinary, so don’t expect to have the same warm fuzzy after reading these.  In fact, I felt a little bit….well, creepy….after reading them.  I think that’s the point of TaleSpins, though.

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Disclosure: I received this book to review; this post contains affiliate links.

A surefire way to catch my interest in a book is to tell me that it’s set near Charleston, South Carolina.  Oh, how I love that place!  My first visit there was on my honeymoon and we’ve visited many times since.  Carolina Gold opens with a trip down Meeting Street; be still my heart!!   [Read more…]

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I received a copy to review; the opinions shared here are 100% mine.

Sex and prostitution are topics not often addressed in Christian fiction. These hush-hush issues form the backbone of Stranger Things. However if you’ll remember my review of Afloat from last summer, Erin Healy doesn’t product the typical Christian fiction books.  For me, her books are eerie and unsettling.  I found myself confused by some of the descriptions in the book.  And all the while I was completely riveted.

Even though the book’s plot centers around the extremely dark topic of human trafficking, Stranger Things has a silver lining. [Read more…]

Disclosure: I received this book to review; the post contains my affiliate link.

Oh my, where do I even start with this book?  Even the cover seems to whisper of mystery and a little despair.  Before I tell you my own opinion of it, let me share that The Painted Table is a heart-wrenching story to which many of us can probably relate.  Coming from a broken family, laced with ethnic diversity that seemed to create a wall rather than a melting pot, my own life seemed mirrored in this sad tale.  I, too, remember crawling under the dining room table and watching my parents from afar.  It seemed a safe haven at that time, although even my child’s mind knew it couldn’t protect me from all the pain of the world. As I grew older, I craved my mother’s attention and approval, often outright asking her if she loved me.  My mom would scoff and say that I should know that she did.  As a child, though, I didn’t understand the stress and exhaustion that came with being a single mother.  I only understood that my mother was disconnected and didn’t seem to like me very much.  Now that I’m an adult, I can see things from my mom’s point of view. She’s much better now that her life is a bit easier and she doesn’t have the burden of two children underfoot all the time.  I wish I could go back to those early days; I would have been more of a help to her.  But that’s the sad part of hindsight, isn’t it?  As I reviewed this book, I realized that I had projected those feelings into my own family’s relationships and vowed to be different for my children.  Understanding that the drive to addiction is very real within my family’s roots, I avoided alcohol and drugs throughout my life.  Then I ended up with cirrhosis anyway!!  Ironic, isn’t it?  Yet my children didn’t suffer from the side effects of addiction the way my brother and I did.  Like me, Saffee chose to make a difference for her own family’s sake. [Read more…]