Hope’s Journey by Stephanie Worlton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is one I plan to bookmark for future use. It needs to be read by kids who are dealing with teenage pregnancy (both male and female) but I think it is also inspirational for all people who struggle with having self-worth or who have made bad decisions that they need to find a way past. I really want my girls to read it as I hope it will help them to understand their infinite worth as daughters of God, which will hopefully help them make good decisions. Relating one’s own self-worth with their ability to take good care of themselves is one of the major themes of this book.

The synopsis: a teenage couple winds up pregnant. The very foundation of their faith are shaken, as is their relationship.

I really enjoyed the way the author gave us the story chronologically from both character’s standpoints. She did a great job of giving them each their own voice and it is of no surprise that she herself has dealt with teenage pregnancy. Her portrayal of emotions was very honest and obviously from the inside of the problem, not from the outside looking in.

My only critique would be that it has a lot of LDS references which I think could have been flushed out to make this more appealing to a larger audience. Mormons aren’t the only kids dealing with this issue. As a Mormon, however, I really enjoyed the accurate portrayal, even if it is a shame that many of the members of my church really are judgmental and callous at times. Aren’t all religious people at risk of such?

As a codependent in recovery I think this book will speak powerfully to many other suffering codependents who look to others to define their own worth. In fact, I would love to hand out a copy of this book to every woman in my weekly support group.

Well done Stephanie Worlton. Your labor of love is inspiring and I hope it will end up in the hands of every person who needs the message of self-love and self-acceptance delivered. Sometimes God speaks through fiction and this is the kind of book that I believe He will use for his purposes. As a writer you have achieved the miraculous with this book. Not all books can draw one into the story and also give a portion of self-help but yours has.

I loved it.

You can go to the author’s blog here.
You can even read a few chapters of the book here.

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This was my first review where I was contacted directly by the author. Thanks Stephanie. Go on over to her blog tour to purchase or enter for a chance to win a free copy of the book.

On Little Wings by Regina Sirois

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I reviewed this book on the kindle, so coming over to goodreads to write my review and seeing the actual cover has made my day. And it’s only 10am. The cover is perfect. I love the title of this book, especially when it reveals itself in the actual story. One could say that this book is a compelling argument for the saying, “Let love go, and see if it comes back to you.” More than likely if the love is true, it will fly back to you on the wings of angels, even if it takes far too much time.

While reading this book, I mentally added another place in the good ol’ United States that I must visit. I want to go up and experience the fishing industry in the Northeast. It sounds like a place that an honest tough girl like me would fit in just right.

What is the book about? A teenage girl from Nebraska finds out she has a family member that her mom has never before mentioned. Feeling very betrayed, she takes a summer visit to her long-lost auntie’s (her mom’s sister) house on the coast. The story is the ultimate summer adventure full of great characters and lessons of love. Great characters really sounds way too modest. They are amazing characters. Amazing. So amazing I would love to see a sequel. An old cantankerousness woman named Little was by far my favorite character. She is where the wings all come together.

Throughout the book the author ever so sly-fully included lines from classic literature, putting a large focus of the book on the power of words. I loved this aspect of the book and I loved the author’s voice. She wrote beautifully reminding me that the power of words is not limited to classic writers, but it lives within all of us.

Thank you Regina for letting me review your book. I highly recommend it to everyone. Great great story.
The paperback is only $10.95 and the kindle ebook is only $2.99. That’s a steal! Get it NOW. You won’t regret it.

Read this article about how Regina’s book shot up in sales in January right between Water For Elephants and The Help. Be jealous; she’s self-published and living the dream. She deserves it. I can’t wait to see what she writes next.

I think this may be Regina’s blog. I am going to be a follower once I figure it out for sure. I am so stinkin proud of her and so enamored with her work.

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Heir to Power by Michele Poague

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book took me a long time to read and I really think it can be shortened by at least 200 pages. There is a very “technical” feel to it and I wasn’t surprised when reading that the author has written technical manuals. Sometimes I felt like I was reading a manual instead of a piece of fiction.

I think that Poague’s overall idea is a great one. The tribe of Survinee people whom which the book were based upon were very intriguing, and seeing the world through their eyes felt almost like being an adventurous child again. That was probably the aspect of the book that I enjoyed the most: seeing my world through the eyes of someone who has never experienced it. Come to think of it, the two weeks that it took me to read this book was a little like I was a foreign exchange student experiencing a whole new place.

I definitely think that this book is being classified in the wrong genre. There were only about 5 paragraphs in the whole book that left the reader with any feeling of futuristic, much less science fiction. If you took out those 5 paragraphs, this book could have been a work of non-fiction about any ancient civilization.

I felt like the author left a lot of loose ends at the closing of the book which is always frustrating to me and I just read another review on goodreads that says the author plans to make a trilogy (which would explain the loose ends.) I know I am no expert but if I were to sit down with the author and have a perfectly honest talk (I don’t believe I am even capable of being anything but completely honest) I would tell her to forget the trilogy and to get a good editor to cut the book length in at least half. Use the ideas for a trilogy to make ONE sound book that has a faster cadence with a whole lot less detail and technicalities. This will take a lot of letting go emotionally for the author, but I do think it would be to her great advantage in the book sales department.

As of right now, the one word that comes to mind with this book is “long” which I don’t think any author wants to have on the book cover. However, I do think the story-line and the author have a lot of potential and Poague could have a great best seller on her hands with some editing.

This book made me think about Emily Dickinson. She wrote and wrote all day, but only let the public see a small 1% of what she found her best writing. I hope that when I write that book I’ve been dreaming about one day that I will be able to self-edit because I am also long-winded.

I received a copy of this book for free but as you can see I am still very honest in my critiquing. Note to future best-sellers: send me your books first, I will be brutally honest. Please go here and buy a copy for yourself and tell me that you didn’t think the book was long at all and that I am just a slow reader, it will make me feel better. It is always fascinating to me how every reader has a completely different experience with the same book.

You can also go over to Michele (with one L) Poague’s website if you would like.

Check out the goodreads book synopses:

The colony of Survin has been hidden for centuries, protecting an ancient religious artifact called the Healing Crystal from men who would steal or destroy it. Kairma, heir to the Crystal, is destined to mate with the handsome Naturi and become the leader of the reclusive colony, but she is too young to realize the peril soon to arrive. At sixteen, Kairma is too young to realize many things…

Kairma would rather go spelunking with her brother and his best friend than study ancient medicine and religious laws, but the discovery of a tomb containing ancient artifacts leads Kairma to question her religion and the true nature of the Crystal. To further complicate Kairma’s ascent, a childhood illness has left her resembling a nearby race of men both hated and feared by the people of Survin. Because of this, Kairma’s younger sister Kinter, who is in love with Naturi, believes she is the rightful heir.

Disease and infertility have decimated Survin, but bigotry and religious laws forbid the introduction of new members so things heat up when a traveling archeologist stumbles upon the reclusive colony and introduces a powerful new weapon. Forced into a larger world, the Survinees discover they hold an object of unimaginable power, a power other men covet, a power that might save or forever damn the human race

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I will be reading a Christmas books about idioms to the kids today at the Christmas party.
I love idioms so much I could eat them.
Did you catch that?

On Sunday, LG and I discovered that the phrase “sticks out like a sore thumb” isn’t an idiom at all, but a tried and true description.
I cut my thumb good while making hashbrowns. OUCH!
LG was so kind and wrapped up real tight to stop the excessive bleeding.
The wrapping seemed to multiply from the roll to the application.
My thumb was humungous by the time he got done.

Of course this happened on the Sunday that Abigail and I were scheduled to sing in church.
The only comfort I got from the constant throbbing was to hold my thumb above my heart,
so while singing I had to ignore the throbbing. I wasn’t about to hold it up for everyone to see.

For some reason I have been having a bad week.
This morning while Caroline and I were cleaning up all the books she had dumped out all over the floor, my bad week was hopefully finalized. Caroline was wearing her pink cowboy boots and she stomped down hard on my thumb re-tearing open the wound.

Did that just make you squirm? Because it did for me.

What a boring post, but that photo is pretty cool, huh?

Cold River by Liz Adair

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sometimes I wonder where my brain is. It wasn’t until I sat down to write this review that I realized how the title Cold River reflects the subject of the book. I swear I am blonde sometimes.

The jest of the story-line in Cold River is a gutsy gal takes a job as a superintendent of schools in the small town in the upper mid-west of the US. She has never lived in such a small town and so when she ends up renting a house right on the river, the river and its surrounding landscapes are a comfort to her as she acclimates to the small town life. The river also has significance in one of the main plots, but I hate to give away spoilers in the reviews I write, so you will just have to read the book yourself.

This book was a fun read. It took about 100 pages until I formed any kind of attachment whatsoever to the story-line, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad book, it took me the same amount of time to love Harry Potter, and we all know how that turned out. I fell in love with the male co-leads, if that’s what we can call them. There are three cousins that are completely different yet equally hunky and mysterious. Once the story got going it was fast paced and intriguing and the suspense and romance only grew my interest up until the very end.

I loved how the relationships all twist and intervene with one another; the mere idea is so consistent with small town living, especially because everyone is related in one way or another. I didn’t guess the villain of the story until they were revealed and that is not easy for an author to do…I always guess what’s going on, so I appreciated the surprise. It was a great surprise and I love when an author can get me shaking my head at myself for not guessing what was really going on in the story-line.

I am personally connected to the three subplots of music in schools, literacy, and gaining emotional maturity and I agreed with the viewpoint of the author on them all and enjoyed how Adair wove them into the greater story.

The end of the story was magnificent. I have a real hard time giving a book a good review if I don’t think the end was spectacular. It has to be not only spectacular but real to life and feel-good. I know that limits me, but I don’t think I am going to change now, so all you authors out there, write good endings. I like setting a book on the shelf knowing that it left me with a greater expectation from the world around me and the end has to leave me feeling good for that to happen.

I highly recommend this book. If I had to describe it in one word it would be adventurous. Get the book, it will take you on an adventure physically and emotionally. You may even feel like finding that Cold River and staking out a home of your own.

Purchase the book here. When I last checked it was only $12. Great deal. Even better Christmas present

Say hi to author Liz Adair on her blog here.

Ask her to write more good stories for all of us.

I was compensated for this review with a free copy of the book,
but like always, I gave you my honest opinion.
I don’t think I am even capable of anything besides my opinion! 

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Hey book club.

You are all invited to Utah to see the midnight premiere with me.

Who needs Twilight?

The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can’t believe I never read this book until this year. WOW! Another great recommendation by my local librarian. This book was written by Christopher Paul Curtis, and was nominated for many awards including The Caldecott. It is beyond me why this book didn’t win and Bud Not Buddy did. Bud Not Buddy was also a great read, but this book was phenomenal. Phe-nom-e-nal!

The characters are so real and the story so honest that I really truly thought it was a work of non-fiction the whole time I was reading.

The Weird Watsons are loveable. So loveable. So real. So funny. The book has a very light feel to it until the very end when the family of 5 takes a trip to Birmingham, where they come face to face with an ugly part of American history: the racism and hatred in the South during the civil rights movement.

This book was emotional. It was raw. It was funny. It was so real. I felt like I was a fly on the wall to the home of the Watsons and to the soul of each member of the family. They are all absolutely entertaining and it’s fun to spy on a family dynamic that is fun.

The end was perfection. Pure perfection with the most unlikely of heroes. I don’t want to give away too much, but once again love conquers all.

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Truckers by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The librarian at our local library has amazing taste in books. When she hands me a stack every time I go to the library I know I will like every single one. She is such a motivation for me to read often.

This book is the first in a series of three books and was recommended to me by her and she said, “You are going to love these.” She was absolutely right. While reading the whole time I kept thinking I want to write books like these. Forget the huge daunting novel. How about a short, quirky, hilarious, and fun short series for older kids? I think I can do that.

The book is about a bunch of nomes. They are very literal and live in the walls of a store. They’ve been around since humans have even though they never show themselves to human. A group of nomes shakes things up when they arrive from the outside (a place no one thought existed). The inside nomes worship the store maker as their God and they try to follow all the signs in the store like “everything must go.” The outside nomes try to be patient with the inside nomes funny ways and whimpy attitudes. The characters are wonderfully intricate and the plots are almost silly yet still intriguing. I read all three books in a week.

I hope that someday my kids will read these stories and get as many laughs as I did. Thanks you Terry Pratchett. You are so witty and I love your relaxed writing style.

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