The Harvest of Grace by Cindy Woodsmall

The Harvest of Grace by Cindy Woodsmall is about a girl, torn by her loyalty to her family and a secret that she believes is too terrible to reveal, who makes the decision to leave her family and work far from home. She starts a journey that will eventually lead her to forgiveness from her family, from God, and from herself.

This book is the third in a series and I have yet to read the first two books. I know that I would have definitely understood the characters better if I had read the other two books first, but the author did a good job with explaining the characters so that not much was lost by not reading the first books. This was my first plunge into Amish Christian fiction and I was very impressed. I liked how the author developed the character of Sylvia. She did a great job with showing the different layers of her personality and character. Sylvia was a tough character to fully understand. This book was mainly the story of Sylvia, but there were also four other love stories that gave depth to the book. The different stories intertwined beautifully and built on each other very well. It could have been overwhelming to try to straighten out the different stories from each other but the author did a wonderful job with intertwining the stories without confusing the reader. Overall, I thought this book was an excellent read and I would recommend it to anyone.

I received a complimentary copy of The Harvest of Grace from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review.  I received no other compensation.

The Inconvenient Marriage of Charlotte Beck by Kathleen Y’Barbo

The Inconvenient Marriage of Charlotte Beck by Kathleen Y’Barbo is a novel set in 1887 about a young girl who has high aspirations of one day following in her father’s footsteps and join the family business. She wants a college education and will do about anything to get it, including making a deal with her father that would end up changing her perspective on life.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was predictable, but a fun read. Charlotte was a very interesting and very likable character. At the end of the book, reading the author’s note, I found out that this book was the third in a series of books about Charlotte’s life. This book was a good stand alone book, but I think I would have understood some of the nuances in the novel better if I had read the other books. One of the main issues with Charlotte and marriage was a back story about her mother that must have been explained in one of the other books as it was only briefly mentioned in this book. If I had read the other books first, I am sure that I would have understood Charlotte better and would have been able to relate to her more.

Overall, this was a nice read. It wasn’t a very deep book, but it made for some nice light reading. If you have a day that you want to spend curled up with an ice tea and some light reading, this is the book for you.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

DragonSpell by Donita K. Paul

DragonSpell by Donita K. Paul is a fantasy story about a girl who used to be a slave and is now on a magical quest of great importance. Kale’s life was once about following orders and doing as she was told, but then at the age of 14, her life drastically changed. She suddenly had a purpose and was thrust into a quest that would change her life forever.

I really enjoyed this book. In recent years I have been getting really into different fantasy books and I was really impressed with how Paul was able to write a fantasy book and have all the values that I are important to me.

One reason I really liked this book was that the magic in it paralleled Christianity. There was a God figure and a Jesus figure that were essential to the book. It was a classic good against evil book in which good triumphs over evil and you feel uplifted after you read it. It was about one girl’s journey to understanding that she was important and she had a purpose and that God loves everyone no matter who they are and He has a plan for their life.  

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Sweet Sanctuary

Sweet Sanctuary, by Sheila Walsh and Cindy Martinusen Coloma, is a wonderful book about forgiveness and moving on with your life. It is about a single mother trying to raise her son while struggling with moving on from her past and making the right decisions for the future. I actually really enjoyed reading this book; I normally read historical books and tend to stay away from books set in modern times. I found this book refreshing in that it was a modern story but it still had the morals that I am used to in the historical books.

One thing I really liked about this book was that when issues arose the answer was almost always to put your trust in God. I thought that there were many parts of this story that were relevant to the problems that happen in real life and that the way that the characters struggled and solved their problems was very encouraging to readers. The importance of family was prevalent throughout this novel. I really enjoyed reading how the relationships between the family members changed and grew stronger as the novel progressed. At the beginning of the book you find a broken family that is hurting and by the end of the book you find a family that is healing and growing stronger.
I received a complimentary copy of Sweet Sanctuary from Booksneeze for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review.  I received no other compensation.

Psychopath

So, my husband called me a psychopath and a murderer today. I killed Mr. Fish. The problem is that it wasn't my fish, it was my husband's family's fish that I was taking care of. This fish survived many things, including being frozen accidentally, but me, it could not survive. I killed the unkillable fish. On the other hand, the nine turtles that they have me taking care of are doing just fine.

Books

I am absolutely in love with books. I love reading and pretty much always have. I learned to read a little later in life than most, I was almost 8, but ever since then, you will rarely find me without a book. I love mysteries and suspense books. Some of my favorite authors are Ted Dekker, Frank Peretti, Agatha Christie, G.K. Chesterton, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dorothy Sayers. I also really love George Barr McCutcheon. I know, most of the authors I named are dead but books aren't written like they used to be.
Lately I have been getting into what I call chick-flick books; mainly, Christian historical novels. For some reason I really love these books. I don't have as much time to read as I used to and I like to read books that don't take that much effort to read and that I can finish in a day if I get really into it. I have spent way too many sleepless nights staying up to read extremely long books because I couldn't put them down than I would care to admit. When I was in college, I also found myself getting into young adult books. I really like fantasy young adult books. Something my mother probably wouldn't be very proud of :) My older sister's favorite book is War and Peace and she even has her favorite translation, and I really like reading Twilight. I think my mother's hopes for me went down a smidgen.
I really like the idea of having an electronic device on which I can store and read my books but I really like holding a book when I read. I would really like to get a Kindle or a Nook, or something like that so that I could have my books anywhere with me, but I would still like to own a hard copy.

Me

So, I guess I should tell you a little about myself. I am a 22 year old college graduate, married to a really terrible guy :) Not really, I just always wanted to say that because in all the game shows the people introduce their spouses by calling the "wonderful," like they could call them anything else on television. I am married to the best guy for me. I am a born-again Christian and I truly believe that God created us to be together. There is no other reason that I can come up with for why we are together :)
The best way for me to describe myself is to say I am an oxymoron. I am a collection of opposites from the music I listen to and the movies I like to the college classes I took. I have a degree in Forensic Science and I really like Biology, but I also really love literature and I took as many classes as I could. I would really love to get a degree in literature at some point. If I could, I would probably be a professional student.
Just a little tidbit for now, more to come later.