Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Initimacy with God by Timothy Keller - A Book Review

   

Wanting a more vital prayer life? Needing greater focus during your time with God? Going through a dry season? Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God may be just the resource you need. Did you know that even back in the 1500s Martin Luther wrote about his method for meditation that helped him to focus and warm his heart inclining it toward prayer? He recognized even without all of our modern distractions how easily prayer is put off in order to attend to this or that. Augustine wrote to a Roman noblewoman in the 5^th century about the importance of ordering our heart's loves, our priorities. Our struggles with maintaining a rich prayer life are not as unique to our 21^st century lives as we may have thought. Author Timothy Keller offers biblical guidance for a more personal, powerful prayer life. I highly recommend this book, and am grateful that my husband and I were gifted a copy from our son and his family this past Christmas.

From This Moment by Kim Vogel Sawyer - A Book Review

   

Keep reading! If you think that this book gets off to a slow start, don't stop reading or you will miss a blessing. If difficult times have ever caused you to question God, this is the book for you. Jase, Lori, and Kenzie all have pasts that have impacted their faith; each find their way to Christ, to God, in different ways, and from different depths of despair, but He was there guiding them, healing them, forgiving them. This book has characters to love and lessons to learn. I am grateful to have received a complimentary copy from WaterBrook via NetGalley without obligation. All opinions expressed here are my own.

The Prince of Spies by Elizabeth Camden - A Book Review

   

This book is for all of those who believe, or want to believe, in love at first sight, and that there is such a thing as a soulmate. Luke Delacroix found his in a highly unusual place, but find her he did. Marianne Magruder was smitten from the first time she saw Luke crawling out on the ice to help her rescue her nephew's dog who had fallen through a weak spot. Neither could have imagined the difficulties or the joys that would arise from their meeting that fateful day.

In this series, Hope and Glory, Camden's story revolves around the safety of the food industry in the United States. We may still be concerned when we see some of the virtually unpronounceable things that are added to our foods, but we should be grateful to the people whose work and sacrifices mentioned in this story led to the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, and eventually to the establishment of the Food and Drug Administration. Camden takes what could be a rather dry topic, and builds her story around it, filling it with romance and intrigue. She is a skilled writer who always offers her readers an entertaining story with depth.

I am grateful to have received a complimentary copy of The Prince of Spies from Bethany House via NetGalley without obligation. All opinions expressed here are my own.

The Paris Dressmaker by Kristy Cambron - A Book Review

   

The story of Lila de Laurent, the Paris dressmaker, along with the story of Sandrine Paquet, is both heart-wrenching and beautiful. The story is set in Paris, France between the years of 1939 and 1944, and focuses on the roles of women in the French Résistance, especially those who worked to catalog the art that was stolen and transported out of France, determined to help restore it to its original owners once the war had ended. These women risked love, life, and reputation in their efforts alongside the men who welcomed them as confederates, even though before the war they could not vote, work or open a checking account without their husband's permission.

The Paris Dressmaker is extremely well researched, and evokes a broad range of emotions in its readers. As with Cambron's other books, it won't be soon forgotten, and will leave an imprint on readers' views of the past as well as the future. I used the text-to-speech feature on my Kindle for much of this book, and that did make the story's structure a bit of a challenge as it goes back and forth,not only between Lila and Sandrine's stories, but hops around within the time frame in which it takes place. It is totally worth navigating, and once both the primary and secondary characters are firmly established, it will require less attention.

I am grateful to have received a complimentary copy of The Paris Dressmaker from Thomas Nelson via NetGalley without obligation. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Shadows of the White City by Jocelyn Green - A Book Review

   


Shadows of the White City makes the most of its setting during the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. The author skillfully weaves details of the Fair into a story whose ups and downs often feel like a modern day fair ride. Sylvie Townsend is a natural born caregiver, first caring for her ailing mother and war-damaged father, then for a young Polish girl whose mother had passed away and whose father could no longer care for her. Now that seventeen-year-old daughter was running headlong in pursuit of her birth relatives leaving her adopted mother feeling unloved and worried. Jocelyn Green explores the theme of what it means to love, and what love both requires and allows. This exploration also occurs as Sylvie's friend, for whom she is also landlord, struggles to know how to best love his wayward brother.

I recommend this book to those who love well-written historical fiction, and especially to those who have experienced difficulties in familial relationships. I am grateful to have received a complimentary copy of Shadows of the White City from Bethany House via NetGalley without obligation. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Obsession by Patricia Bradley - A Book Review

    


I have read all of Patricia Bradley's books, and she can always be counted on for an intriguing mystery, multiple possibilities for the culprit, a few well-placed red herrings, and a touch of romance that doesn't overtake the story. Obsession, book two in Bradley's Natchez Trace Park Rangers series continues in that vein, and is a wonderfully entertaining, engaging read.

Park Ranger Emma Winters never anticipated being shot at as she returned to her office for a forgotten file. Nor did she anticipate having her former fiance become her self-appointed body guard. Emma and Sam both struggle with forgiveness, Emma with forgiving herself, Sam with forgiving his father. Both learn the importance of the role of forgiveness in being able to move on. They also learn a lot about making assumptions concerning other's personal motivations, and the heartache those assumptions can bring.

I am grateful to have received a complimentary copy of Obsession from Revell via NetGalley without obligation. All opinions expressed here are my own.

The Moonlight School by Suzanne Woods Fisher - A Book Review

   

The Moonlight School is my favorite of all the Suzanne Woods Fisher books that I have read. Since reading Catherine Marshall's Christy, I have loved books set in Appalachia, especially those from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. Having now lived in Kentucky for over forty years, that love has grown. The Moonlight School is set in Rowan County, Kentucky in 1911, and while telling the fictional story of Lucy Wilson, it also tells a somewhat fictionalized account of the true person of Cora Wilson Stewart, the first female superintendent of schools for Rowan County. Stewart worked tirelessly to improve the education of the mountain children, but may best be known for her work in adult literacy. If you read this book, and I hope you do, don't miss all of the end matter that is much like Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story.

I am grateful to have received a complimentary copy of The Moonlight School from Revell via NetGalley without obligation. All opinions expressed here are my own.

When Twilight Breaks by Sarah Sundin - A Book Review

    


You might think that the dark heaviness that this book caused to hang over me as I read was a bad thing, but in actuality it speaks to the author's skill in placing her reader in the middle of her story. Set in Germany in the year 1938 as atrocities began to multiply, as oppression was not only tolerated but encouraged, as other countries looked on, hoping to avoid war and thus ignoring the treatment of people, how could that not bring on a dark heaviness? I have to consider too, as I write this and have to avoid certain words to keep my review from being rejected on some sites, if we are in danger of forgetting, of denying what took place. I am grateful to writers such as Sarah Sundin who keep the memory alive, lest we stand back and allow something similar to ever occur again. The protagonists in this book certainly did not ignore what was happening around them, but rather risked their careers and their very lives to do what was right, as did so many real heroes.

I am grateful to have received a complimentary copy of When Twilight Breaks from Revell via netgally without obligation. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Trial and Error by Robert Whitlow - A Book Review

    

Blair Smith, AKA Buddy, an attorney in Milton County, Georgia, had spent his adult life searching for the daughter he hadn't seen since she was an infant, now a seventeen-year-old young woman. This pursuit of his daughter and her mother, his high school girlfriend, had led him to assist parents whose children had been taken by their non-custodial parent. Now it had also led him to assist in locating a runaway girl who shared his daughter's birthday, and who was likely being trafficked. This intense, emotional story also delves into the importance and power of a life of prayer, and encourages perseverance even after years of praying.

While this story did progress a little slowly at times, it did build in intensity. I would recommend it to those who enjoy contemporary fiction or legal fiction. I am grateful to have received a complimentary copy of Trial and Error from Thomas Nelson via NetGalley without obligation. All opinions expressed here are my own.

The Lady in Residence by Allison Pittman - A Book Review

    

Wow! Simply wow! This book kept me awake long into the night, a ghost story that I could actually feel good about reading, characters whose stories tangled themselves in my mind refusing to let me rest until I got answers. Was Hedda's early 1900s story of abuse, love, loss, fear, and determination wrapped up in Dini's contemporary story of being orphaned, living a life dominated by isolation, fear, and determination, or was it the other way around? Who was the most haunted, the most obsessed? I encourage readers who enjoy just a touch of the macabre alongside an old mystery and a bit of romance to read The Lady in Residence, preferably at a time when they've got several uninterrupted hours to immerse themselves in the tale.

I am grateful to have received a complimentary copy of The Lady in Residence from Barbour Books via NetGalley without obligation. All opinions expressed her are my own.