"50 Women Every Christian Should Know" by Michelle DeRusha

"50 Women Every Christian Should Know by Michelle DeRusha is about learning from heroines of the faith.  I was excited when I first heard of this book but when I started reading it, I lost all excitement with the first women I learned about.  The first women was Hildegard of Bingen a Catholic Mystic who said God spoke to her and told her to write everything down to share with others. I have seen her writings as considered as visionary theology in my opinion that is not right, if its a vision of God then it should have been added to the scriptures.  The author also brings up another a Roman Catholic mystic Teresa of Avila who was another woman who said she had visions.  Yes there are some great women of faith in this book like Corie Ten Boom, Fanny Crosby, and Katharina Luther (which this one is interesting to me as the author put a lot of devout Roman Catholics in this book and then here is a woman who supported her husband in the Reformation) but that does not help this book for me.  I don't like the idea of having to spit out bones to get to the meat.  So this book goes on my no way list it had potential but flopped in my opinion.

I was given this book by BakerBooks publishing and was not required to give an honest review.

"Keepers of The Covenant" by Lynn Austin

"Keepers of the Covenat" by Lynn Austin is the 2nd book in her Restoration Chronicles series which takes the stories from Ezra and Nehemiah to life.  I like how Lynn Austin takes the stories from the bible and does not make them such the main part of the story that its like she is adding to the scriptures.  In this one one of the main characters is the Prophet Ezra but its not just about him but also about also other Jewish people and even gentiles during the time which also happens at the same time of the story of Esther.  I will admit at first I thought oh another book that the author tries to add more to the story of Esther but this did not do that.  I really like the side story of Amina a gentile child/women since this book takes place over many years.  In a way I wish her story was its own book.  I was very impressed on the use of stories from scripture without making me feel like the author was adding to the scriptures.  So many do that in this type of Christian literature.  There were multiple stories in the book but they all flowed very well together.  I can't wait for the third book in this series.  I highly recommend it.

I was given this book by Bethany House publishing and was not required to give a positive review.

Turning Points With God by David Jeremiah

"Turning Points With God" by David Jeremiah is a daily devotional.  I was excited to get this devotional but I quickly remember why I am not a big fan of devotionals.  I know devotional's are supposed to be quick but I still expect more bible verses than one quick verse sometimes in the days commentary there were more but not always.  Then I was just not a fan of a lot of the quotes on the bottom of each days devotion.  I also did not expect to see quite a bit of qoutes from catholic mystics like St. John of the Cross and others.   I just had a hard time using this devotional.  I will leave this one up to you if you want to use it or not.

I was given this book by Tyndale Publishers and was not required to give a positive review.

"A Promise to Protect" by Patricia Bradley

"A Promise to Protect" by Patricia Bradley is the 2nd book in the Logan Point series.  This was a murder mystery novel with the hero of the story a Sheriff Ben Logan protecting a woman he knows from his past named Leigh Somerall. It starts with the murder of Leah's brother and Sheriff Ben who found her brother who told him before he died to protect his sister.  That's all I will write without giving away much more. First off before I give my opinion I want to say I don't think I have ever read any other books by this author so I am not familiar with her style.  Well here goes I just did not like this book. It did not flow easily where I thought it should have it jumped and skipped to much for me.    I would start getting into the book then things bounced around too much for me and I just could not get into the book. I also prefer more mystery than romance and this book was so intertwined with the past romance of the main characters to the current story with them.  If you like mysteries that are romance stories also then this book is for you.

I was given this book by Revell a division of Baker Publishing Group for my honest review.

Stolen by Katarina Rosenblatt A must read!

"Stolen" by Katarina Rosenblatt is the author's story about recovering not only from being a victim of  sex-trafficking but also from an abusive past and marriage.  This has to be the most powerful book I have read all year.  I highly recommend this book to everyone out there.  The author explains how she was in the sex-trafficking world (one time almost at the age of 13 but she was rescued by remembering God would never leave her or forsake her).   This book is very intense and not just in details but in understanding the feelings of the author and even the story stories she puts at the end of other girls/women in the industry. She also talk about how we need to share Christ's love to all kinds of women no matter if they are strippers or any other women that society considers untouchable.  I think what part really impacted me the most was when near the end of the book which she explains some of the methods used today by these people to get young girls and boys into the sex industry.  I will quote the section that hit me the most right now "Through many methods, kids are seduced into trafficking.  It often begins with posing for pictures or videos.". She goes on for a little bit and then this section really hit me "By posting compromising photos online, children are letting traffickers know that they are easy targets for recruitment into false modeling scams, abusive boyfriends, or false-friend scenarios."  This really hit me as I have seen on Facebook (which she does mention being used by traffickers) many young girls and even boys posing in pictures in ways that are not appropriate but people think are cute and ok but in reality its setting up the child to be targeted. Also she brought up the point that many people think it only happens in big cities (I have heard that one a lot) but its not true it happens everywhere even in small areas such as the one I live in.  This book is very powerful and is such a serious topic it cannot be ignored or swept under the rug.  We need to wake up to whats happening around us.  This also made me think about how many of these girls especially the minors are taken to abortion clinics by their pimps and nobody says a thing.  Both industries breed off of each other and its sad.  Please read this book and I am very glad I requested it.

I was given this book by Revell a division of Baker Publishing Group for my honest review.

"Thunder" by Bonnie Calhoun

"Thunder" by Bonnie Calhoun is a "Christian" dystopian novel.  It is about Selah and Bodhi (a Lander don't ask me what a lander is I am still confused by it) and their romance/fight for life. It starts with Selah as trying to be a hunter of Lander's but finds herself getting into more trouble than she thought when she ended up helping Bodhi.  For most of the book I could not get into it and then about half way through it the book finally picked up for me.  I still did not like it and I just don't know why it was just one of those books that I did not enjoy.  Maybe for me is there were things in it that just struck me as odd or out of place for a Christian novel like noticing peoples aura's or the ability to read minds.  To me there were just a lot of little side stories that needed some explanation that I just was not getting.  Also the main point of this book to me seemed be a romance between Selah and Bodhi which is not why I picked this book.  Oh well depending the person feeling on this type of genre I would say it could or could be a good read.  I know very flighty on thoughts on this book I just could not get into and I usually like dystopian type novels.  

I was given this book by Revell a division of Baker Publishing Group for my honest review.

Doctor Who, The Crawling Terror by Mike Tucker

"Doctor Who, The Crawling Terror" by Mike Tucker is another Sci-fi Doctor Who book.  If you are not familiar with the Doctor Who series it is a wonderful British Sci-Fi television show.  Now the books are wrote by different authors which can mean each book is a different style. This one started out for me to be just like the shows which is what I was looking for but then the story seemed to get more mixed up.  The author did treat the main characters just like they are portrayed in the television show but the book itself had more bad language than I am used to in the show.  The story was a very interesting one about these bug aliens without giving away too much the Doctor and Clara ended going back in time to find out how the Nazi's have something to do with their present problem.  The story did drag at times but then it sped up so quickly I could not believe it was finished.  Even with these issues for me I still recommend this book for teens and older (as some of the description of the victims were a little too graphic for kids below teens) who are Doctor Who fans.

I received this book from Blogging For Books for my honest review.

Trying something new.

I have decided to try something new by adding video's to my blog. This first one is just a preview of the books I am reading.   I am not sure if I will ever film myself this is taking a huge step for me by just doing this one.

 
I hope you enjoy and if you don't oh well.

"Breathing Room" by Leena Tankersley

"Breathing Room' by Leeana Tankersley is book about letting go so you can live life.  First off I can't recommend this book at with a good conscience. I knew when I just started reading this book that I was not going to like it.  She right off the bat puts "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin as an excellent book.  I am sorry but that book was awful, yes I know it was wrote in the 1800's and was ground breaking at its time but I just could not stomach it.  So I was already on high alert when I started reading then not too much farther in the book she starts quoting Carl Jung a man who was the father of analytical psychology who also was a pantheist (the belief that the universe is identical with divinity).  She very rarely references the scriptures almost as an after thought.  Mainly she talks about her life (which is fine and what I was looking for) but then discusses how different people (personal friends, historical people or modern people like Stephen King) helped her learn to breathe (I am still confused by that).  I am sorry but I see in nothing about needing to learn to breathe in the scriptures but I see that we need to be born again by God himself.   I could go on but I will not as this was enough for me to know I do not recommend this book.

This book was given to me by Revell Publishing a division of Baker Publishing Group.

"Steel Will: My Journey Through Hell to Become the Man I Was Meant to Be" by Shilo Harris

"Steel Will: My Journey Through Hell to Become the Man I Was Meant to be" is about the life of retired soldier Shilo Harris.  As you can tell by the cover Mr. Harris was severely injured by an IED (improvised explosive device) in the Middle East.  First off I really appreciate that at the beginning of the book our author gives a run down of  what the military terms he uses mean.  Also I am very thankful that Mr. Harris  does not hold anything back about what our men and women go through in war.  This book is not for the faint of heart as he talks about his rough children, young adults years and goes into detail of horrific things our soldiers have seen in the middle east. Also details on sufferers of PTSD which he description has really helped me to understand more on what our soldiers are going through.  Yes, I will never completely understand but now I can be more caring with knowledge.  I highly recommend this book for anyone to read.

I was given this book by Baker Publishing and was not required to give a positive review.

Deceived by Irene Hannon

"Deceived" by Irene Hannon is the third book in the Private Justice series (don't worry its a series you can read out of order).  Our main character Kate Marshall has lost her son and husband in a tragic drowning accident.  Then a couple years later she sees a boy that looks identical to what her son would look like if he was still alive. So she hires private investigator Connor Sullivan who finds a mystery that neither could have guessed.  This was a mystery romance story however, the romance portion of the story did detract from the mystery.  While I was reading I even forgot about the romance portion as I got so into the book that once I picked it up I could not put it down.  The mystery at first was a little bit confusing but then it cleared itself up (I know ironic).  The characters in the story are not one sided we have well rounded characters with twists and turns in the story.  A very good and intriguing story.  I know now I have found myself a new author I really enjoy.  I highly recommend this book.

I was given this book by Revell a division Baker Publishing Group for my honest review and was not required to give a positive review.