Review: Out of the Ashes by Tracie Peterson and Kimberley Woodhouse

Okay, as you might have picked up by now.... when I have too many feelings for a book, I find it necessary to use an official blurb from the back of the book.

After the death of their father, Collette and Jean-Michel Langelier are no longer tied to post-war France. While his sister dreams of adventure, Jean-Michel is hoping to finally escape reminders of the horrors he faced in the Great Syrian Revolt of 1925. When an unexpected invitation for them to visit Alaska and the Curry Hotel arrives, it seems like the perfect opportunity.

Young window Katherine Demarchis is also traveling to the foot of Mt. Denali with her grandmother-a last trip before she retreats into a quiet and solitary life, finally free of the dangerous husband she was forced to marry. Yet when she encounters there a Frenchman from her past, her plans for the future are thrown into question.

Both haunted by the violence of their pasts, can Katherine and Jean-Michel rediscover the bond they once had? Or, when Jean-Michel's nightmares return with terrifying consequences, will it be impossible to heal what's been broken for so long?

(Apologies in advance for my excitement for this book, which will come through in a rainbow of text colors. It's exuberant, but I'm excited and it's my blog anywho!)

Shall I start with the obvious, and by that I mean, 5 stars for a book that I only put down because I wanted to keep my job and not fail my classes! Alright, let's get started. Ummm.... hello!?!?! ALASKA!!!! This is my happy place in books. It's wonderful! I want to go so badly! And this book just made that desire all the stronger. I want to see Denali!! And the caribou and the northern lights and the trains! And then the characters! I got to revisit my favorites from the last book (Incidentally, the book that introduced me to Kim Woodhouse!) and got to see where they were going. I found out that where they were going was exactly what my heart had hoped for. Honestly, this book is goals BrilLiaNt!!! New characters were introduced, and I loved them too. Reading good books is like making friends all over the world! Can I just say that Mrs. Johnson is one of my favorite people in this series!!?!! I'm a sucker for the hard-to-crack-really-actually-teddy-bear people! And of course Mrs. Harrison was hilarious! Cassidy..... my heart! (No, I can't tell you! I need you to read this for yourself!) Of course, the spiritual side to this book was uplifting and real, as always! You could see God working across the pages! Now THAT'S a good book! When scary things happen at the end, well.... if I hadn't been at work with like 50 kids in close proximity, I'm 99.9998% certain that I would have dissolved into a heaping mess of tears and love for literary characters. In fact, when I had the last 5 pages to read, my roommate stepped out of the room. I told her, "Allie, if you come back and I'm sobbing my heart out, just don't touch. I need to have my real tears for my literary characters on my own." Thankfully for the both of us, I was fine. Long story short, if you don't read this you'll probably regret it for ages and ages! But that's okay. I'm not telling you how to live your life. (Lies! I totally am!) Anyway, I'm sure you want to see the beautiful cover.

P.S. I'm sure you're wondering what happened when I GOT TO MEET MY TWO FAVORITE AUTHORS! And I'll tell you, as soon as I have a good long time to sit down and think through my words so that I don't discombobulate anyone, because I was so happy that I can't speak about it coherently. (Pardon me while I roll my eyes at myself, and also as I realize that "was" is the wrong tense for that sentence....)

I received this book from Bethany House in exchange for my honest review. (But let's face it. We all knew that I would have bought it if I had to.) Thanks Amy!!!! (I also got to meet her, and that was great! I was very excited about that too!)

Waiting-On-Wednesday: The Sea Before Us by Sarah Sundin

I like to call Sarah Sundin the "Queen of WWII". This series will focus on Normandy and D-Day. I can't wait since that is one of my favorite parts to read about when learning about WWII.

Feb 2018.

About

In 1944, American naval officer Lt. Wyatt Paxton arrives in London to prepare for the Allied invasion of France. He works closely with Dorothy Fairfax, a ÒWrenÓ in the Women's Royal Naval Service. Dorothy pieces together reconnaissance photographs with thousands of holiday snapshots of France--including those of her own family's summer home--in order to create accurate maps of Normandy. Maps that Wyatt will turn into naval bombardment plans.

As the two spend concentrated time together in the pressure cooker of war, their deepening friendship threatens to turn to love. Dorothy must resist its pull. Her bereaved father depends on her, and her heart already belongs to another man. Wyatt too has much to lose. The closer he gets to Dorothy, the more he fears his efforts to win the war will destroy everything she has ever loved.

The tense days leading up to the monumental D-Day landing blaze to life under Sarah Sundin's practiced pen with this powerful new series.

Waiting-On-Wednesday is hosted at Breaking the Spine.

New Blog Color Guys!

Tell me really, do you like this new color scheme? Here's a pic of the old one.

I kinda like the map on the brown one though! I've been thinking about changing the colors for a while but never did.

Sound off in the comments!

Waiting-On-Wednesday: A Passionate Hope by Jill Eileen Smith

Jill is an incredible author, and I love how she creates a beautiful web around familiar Bible stories, while still staying within parameters that keep it in possibilities that aren't detailed in the Bible, but could be right anyway. Hannah's story will be published in February 2018.

About

Hannah and her husband, Elkanah, share a deep and abiding love, for each other, for their God, and for his tabernacle at Shiloh. Greatly disturbed by the corruption of the priests, they long for restoration and pray for a deliverer. But nothing changes as the years pass. Years that also reveal Hannah to be barren.

Pressured by his family to take another wife, Elkanah marries Peninnah, who quickly begins to bear children. Disgraced and taunted by her husband's new wife, Hannah turns again to prayers that seem doomed to go unanswered. Do her devotion and kindness in the face of Peninnah's cruelty count for nothing? Why does God remain silent and indifferent to her pleas?

Travel back to the dusty streets of Shiloh with an expert guide as Jill Eileen Smith brings to life a beloved story of hope, patience, and deliverance that shows that even the most broken of relationships can be restored.

Waiting-On-Wednesday is hosted by Breaking The Spine.

Review: Oath of Honor by Lynette Eason

Goodreads Blurb....

Police officer Isabelle St. John loves her crazy, loud, law-enforcement family. With three brothers and two sisters, she's never without someone to hang out with--or fight with. And she knows they'll be there for her when things get tough. Like when her partner is murdered and she barely escapes with her own life.

Determined to discover exactly what happened, Izzy's investigation sends her headfirst into a criminal organization, possibly with cops on the payroll--including someone from her own family. With her dead partner's handsome homicide detective brother Ryan shadowing her every move, Izzy's head is spinning. How can she secure justice for her partner when doing so could mean sending someone she loves to prison? And how will she guard her heart when the man she's had a secret crush on for years won't leave her side?

5 STARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to delay this until I get to reread this book. JUST KIDDING!!!! I want you to know about this beautiful piece of art. But seriously, I'm craving to read it again. And I finished it less than 12 hours ago. As far as Lynette Eason's books go, this is now at the top of my list! (Which is substantial. I've read dozens!) I will admit that this one didn't have as big of a scare factor as they usually do, but I'll attribute that to the fact that I wasn't reading in the privacy of my own room, but rather the noisy environment of the dorm. Along the lines of characters, well, these were some of my absolute favorites. I picked Tabitha St. John as my favorite from this book the first time I saw her. (Wow, I'm really glad only fellow book nerds read what I write. Otherwise I might be considered certifiable....) These characters are... to use a word that has recently become one of my most used, much to both my roommate's and my own annoyance... simply stellar! Did I mention yet that I really just want to open it back up and read my favorite parts again? ;) No, really, the plot was special, the people were special, the place was special, (And I am very glad it was set in Colombia and not Greenville this time!) The bad guys didn't really have a POV in the book, which let me have more time with the ones that I love, and I also thought it was neat how the bad guys were coming from all sides. And then they worked together so how is that even a thing?? It was great, in a "I'm really glad that Izzy and Ryan are heroes" kind of way. How can I make this review say what I want it to say without sounding redundant? Basically, this book is so good that I'm almost (I said almost! And it's a half almost, so there!) afraid that book two can't beat it! (No, that's not really ever happened before for these books, but ya know...) I can't wait to read the next book though, and hope that each of the St. John children gets there own book so that it can be a beautifully long series and I can enjoy my new favorite characters for even longer! Bottom line... You won't regret reading this book.


(Take a peak at this gorgeous cover! Don't you love the colors? One of my favorite Lynette Eason book covers!)

I received this book in exchange for my honest review from Revell publisher.


Now, you leave a comment and let me know what you think, and I will go reread this book! (But for the record, I will read and reply to your comments.)

Review: The Shock of Night by Patrick W Carr

Here is the book description (copy and paste) from Goodreads. [Yes, again!]

When one man is brutally murdered and the priest he works for mortally wounded on the streets of Bunard, Willet Dura is called to investigate. Yet the clues to the crime lead to contradictions and questions without answers. As Willet begins to question the dying priest, the man pulls Willet close and screams in a foreign tongue. Then he dies without another word.

Willet returns to the city, no closer to answers than before, but his senses are skewed. People he touches appear to have a subtle shift, a twist seen at the edge of his vision, and it's as though he can see their deepest thoughts. In a world divided between haves and have-nots, gifted and common, Willet soon learns he's been passed the rarest gift of all: a gift that's not supposed to exist.

Now Willet must pursue the murderer still on the loose in Bunard even as he's pulled into a much more dangerous and epic conflict that threatens not only his city, but his entire world--a conflict that will force him to come to terms with his own tortured past if he wants to survive.


Now, the harder part. The review. Boy, oh boy. Trying to make sense of what doesn't make sense. Is that me talking about the book, or my feelings on the book, well, your guess is as good as mine. I know this book deserves at least 4 stars, probably even a 4.5, but I'm thinking.... Anyway, back to actually doing things. This book is very well written. You must remember (as if you could forget!) that this is fantasy so it's doubly make-believe. The characters are strongly written, and you don't really have passive feelings for even the minor characters. I think part of that is the fact that while most of the book is written in first person, the other part is third person of Pellin, which makes it really neat. Then you get to become the character, but while you are just traveling from one side of the city to the other or knocked unconscious, the storyline keeps moving forward and nothing really drags. It is a multi-faceted storyline and that sucks you in pretty well. While I did not read this book in one sitting (It's 400+ pages for goodness' sakes!) I did go at it pretty hard and really did enjoy it. Thankfully, I was able to read this as the fantasy it is and not take offense at the strange weird things that happen in its pages. If you enjoy fantasy, and if you can handle the weirdness of switching POVs so drastically (I realize this could be obnoxious for a lot of people) then go for it. I enjoyed it immensely, and suspect you will too. (P.S. This is the first in the series, and I had already read the second book a year or more ago, so that may have influenced this review a tad. Link to the review for The Shattered Vigil below picture. I hope it isn't a terrible one. I know it's from early  on so....)

http://lovewhatyourreading.blogspot.com/2016/12/review-shattered-vigil-by-patrick-w-carr.html 

Review: Always Watching by Lynette Eason

Here is the official blurb thingy.... from Goodreads.


The bodyguards of Elite Guardians Agency have more than just skill and prowess in common--they're also all women. When it becomes clear that popular psychiatrist and radio personality Wade Savage has a stalker, his father secretly hires Elite Guardians in order to protect his son.

But when Wade's bodyguard is attacked and nearly killed, agency owner Olivia Edwards must step in and fill the gap. Olivia's skills are about to be tested to the limit as Wade's stalker moves from leaving innocent gifts at his door to threatening those closest to him. Olivia has the feeling that she's next on the list. And to complicate things even further, she realizes that her heart may be in as much danger as her client.

Bestselling author and fan favorite Lynette Eason drops readers right into the action in this fast-paced new series with a unique twist. Readers will love these strong female characters who put it all on the line to save lives.


And here is the official review thingy.... from Me! (Okay, that was a silly joke. Forgive me, I'm not all the way awake yet and haven't had any nectar of the residents of Mount Olympus  coffee yet. I'm giving this book 5 stars and here is why it absolutely deserves them. If you follow me on Twitter you may have noticed my tweets on this book last night. Basically that's my review in 3 140-character pops. But I'm gonna give you the long version. First off, Lynette Eason writes spine-tingle-ers, I know this. And yet, I was surprised when it started in at chapter 2. 2!!! WHAT!?!?! And of course, it didn't stop. Not till the very last page. And even then I read the rulebook for next semester to just calm myself. I was pretty sure that I was sleeping with the light on several times during the book. Okay, this is very realistic writing is my point. But enough about my over-dramatic imagination. Let's talk characters. Let's talk traumatic past meeting traumatic present and uncertain future. Let's talk insecurity and high security. Let's talk don't trust anyone. Let's talk not trusting anyone, not opening up to anyone. Let's talk how this book is very scary for the Greenville resident.

Olivia can't allow herself to feel anything. She's safe because she hasn't let anyone close to her. She won't let the pain in.
Wade, well, he just wants to be let in. And he is shocking himself by even caring. He's also been closed off. But not anymore!

I love the romance, which was sweet and not harsh or tooooo fast. Loved Amy, and how developed her character was, especially the growth that little Amy went through. 

The concept of an all women, elite bodyguard company is an incredible thing. Okay, to be all hip/cool... THIS IS LEGIT! I'm very eager to read the second book in the series. It happens to be the only one that I haven't read. (SO far. I'm seriously hoping for a continuance in the story line. Make it a super long series.) 

Can we talk about the villain... without it being a spoiler? I don't know... I'm trying. How twisted can you be? And then.... well, I can't tell you what happens then, but even I was surprised when it dawned on me. I mean, I sort of had the stalker pegged, but then things happened and I figured it out about 2 pages before the name came out. And I was mad. But if I continue this you'll soon know the ending. So there's that. 

So, be on the lookout for the killer the whole time that you're reading. (Seriously, a ton of people died!)  After you go buy the book. Because this is one adventure you don't want to miss. Predictable... NOT HARDLY!

It's 2018 Y'all!

Hey guys! First post since January started! I'm very excited. I think I'll just give a general update about what's happened and what's gonna happen.

What's happened:

1: I finished my first semester at Bob Jones University. I joined the Chi Kappa Delta Dragons as my society. I was elected as spirit leader for my society next semester. I made a ton of new friends and participated in a lot of fun outreaches and other things. 

2: I've gotten my first real job. I work as a late stay worker, teachers' aide, and music hall monitor at Bob Jones Academy

3: My friend Suzanna taught me how to play the ukulele. I'm addicted!

4: I learned how to crochet. I'm pretty okay at it. 

5: I survived Atlanta airport by myself. Twice. I was impressed with myself. 

6: Today I went to Ollie's and got Always Watching by Lynette Eason, The Shock of Night by Patrick W Carr, and Sabotage by Dani Pettrey and I got Chinese food so that's nothing to sneeze at! Also got my new glasses.

What's going to happen!

1: Classes resume on Wednesday I think, but I'll be back down there no later than Monday.

2: On January 23rd Tracie Peterson and Kimberley Woodhouse are going to be at the BJU Bruins Shop and I literally CANNOT wait! It's going to be so epic. My goal is to get pictures and post them. Time permitting. Fingers crossed. Two of my favorite authors at once! Whatever will I do? (Probably make a fool of myself with nerves but whatever!)

3: The two year blogversary is going to be in March and I am trying to think up a great prize. Input appreciated.

4: Other things that I'm not aware of yet but I will let you know. Probably. I'm sorry I'm not around as much as I used to be. College is keeping me plenty busy.