“Live in Love” is the story of Lauren Akins during her youth and then Lauren Akins and Thomas Rhett. This book was a fast read for me. The way it is written reads like you are reading Lauren Akin’s journal. It is very personable and refreshing. Throughout the book, she is very honest about things and just tells it like it is. In these times, it is so nice to know there are good honest people out there especially ones who love the Lord and want to do what they feel is His work for them. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an inspirational story.
Review of “Focus: How One Word a Week Will Transform Your Life” by Cleere Cherry Reaves
This devotional is set up for you to read one devotional each week and then to memorize scriptures that are listed at the end of each devotional. After four devotionals, there is something called “Taking Inventory”. This is to help you figure out how you are doing with growth. I have heard of doing word studies before and that is one of the things I thought of when I heard about this devotional. I loved the different words that Cleere chose to use for this book and that she puts scriptures that relate to that word at the end of each devotional. I also love that she puts focus tips in there to further help with application of each word to our life and walk with the Lord. The other thing that makes this devotional unique is that Cleere is doing a podcast to go along with it called “Let’s be Cleere”. I highly recommend this book and the podcast. And I myself am looking forward to further digging into the devotional and listening to the future postcast episodes (I have listened to the introduction episode).
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in order to give an honest review.
Review of “Something Worth Doing” by Jane Kirkpatrick
This is the first book I’ve read by Jane Kirkpatrick. It is based on a true story set in the 1800s. One of the things I like that this author did was with the list of the characters she has in the front of the book she mentions which ones she completely made up so there is no question. I am not sure why but most historical fiction for me are slow reads even if I am enjoying the book. And I did very much enjoy this book. I would love to know more about the main character of Abigail Scott Duniway and which parts of the book really happened. She was big on women’s rights and was a suffragist. I can see why the author chose to write a story based on her. I would recommend this book.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in order to give an honest review.
Review of “Once Upon a Christmas: Contemporary Retellings of Timeless Tales” by Various Authors
“Once Upon a Christmas” is a collection of five novellas by Toni Shiloh, Andrea Boyd, Mikal Dawn, Angela Ruth Strong, and Jaycee Weaver. Each novella is a modern twist on a fairy tale: Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Mulan, Cinderella, and the Little Mermaid. I found each story in this book really entertaining. All of these authors did an amazing job of making it easy to tell which fairy tale they were retelling. I thought they all were very creative. I have to say I especially liked that they all took place during Christmas time. I am a big fan of Christmas and I loved the cover which is why I wanted to read this book. I have not read any novellas or novels by these authors before so I was also excited to find new authors that I would want to read more books by. Even if you are not a fan of fairy tales I still think you would love these stories.
Review of “Nine” by Rachelle Dekker
This is the first novel I have read by Rachelle Dekker and I have to say honestly that I did not know exactly what to expect from it. I thought that the story blurb on the back of the book sounded extremely interesting which is why I decided to read it. The book starts out with a doctor named Olivia and a teenage girl named Lucy running from several men that were chasing them. However, you are not yet told a lot of information as to why they are being chased or where they are being chased from. Because of this vague and somewhat confusing, but intriguing beginning, I have to say I was really afraid that I was not going to like the book. I was also nervous that she was going to do what another author I read once did which is keep me confused the entire book. However, instead of leaving me confused, Rachelle allows you to slowly learn about what is going on as the main characters, Zoe and Lucy, learn about things with the caveat that you also get to learn more than they do. With this extra information does come some unknowns in and of itself though because one of the characters, Agent Seeley, is acting/talking one way around Lucy and Zoe but another way entirely around the other agents he works with. If you are looking for a good suspense novel with a lot of twists and turns that feels like you are putting a puzzle together right along with the main characters then look no further because this is the book you are looking for.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy in order to give an honest review.