Book Review: Shadows on the Sand

Book Review: Shadows on the Sand, A Seaside Mystery by Gayle Roper

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

Book Review:

She serves him breakfast at her cafe' every morning...but he never seems to notice her.

Carrie Carter's small cafe' in Seaside, New Jersey, is populated with a motley crew of locals...although Carrie only has eyes for Greg Barnes. He's recovering from a vicious crime that three years ago took the lives of his wife and children--and fromt he year he tried to drink his reality away. While her heart does a happy Snoopy dance at the sight of him, he never seems to notice her.

When Carrie's dishwasher is killed and her young waitress disappears, Greg find himself drawn into helping Carrie solve the mysteries...and into her life. But when Carrie's own painful past becomes all too present, her carefully constructed world begins to sink.

Will the fragile relationship she's building with Greg implode fromt he weight of the baggage they both carry?

My Review:

This book came with a beautiful cover of the boardwalk which immediately draws you to want to read it. Carrie, the owner of a cafe in Seaside, New Jersey lives an ordinary life. Living upstairs from the cafe along with her younger sister Lindsay, she has the life she has always wanted. But, she and her sister have a secret about their former life and where they came from. Carrie has eyes for Greg, a regular in the cafe, and former cop. Greg lost his family to a tragic accident years earlier which have left him depressed in his own mind and withdrawn from others. When workers come up missing from the cafe', Greg's cop instincts take on while also finding a way to get to know Carrie. As their search (and becoming closer) progress, Greg starts to worry about whether he wants to give someone else his heart. Once he gets the ok from his "wife" or the Holy Spirit, he proceeds, but almost loses her in a freak accident along the beach. Can his heart take much more?

Book Review: Thank you, God, for Loving me

Book Review: Thank you, God, for Loving me

"I received this book for free from Booksneeze.com for an honest  review”.

Book Review:

My great big God loves me!

This charming board book with sweet, rhyming text helps preschoolers know how much God loves them. God's love is a big concept, but Little Hermie makes it easy for kids to understand by showing the many ways God expresses His love as He cares for us each day.

My Review:

This was the most adorably written book!! It is just the right size that you can keep your child's attention with very colorful pictures. The rhyming passages make it a fun book to read as well! This book truly explains to a little one how much God loves them at all times; day and night, rest and play, big and small. Nestled in a hardback book, you can expect this favorite to stay nice for quite some time :)

Book Review: One Call Away, A Memoir by Brenda Warner

Book Review: One Call Away, A Memoir by Brenda Warner

"I received this book for free from BookSneeze for this review”.

Book Review: What can you do when your well-laid plans fall apart and life takes an unexpected turn? Brenda Warner is best known as the outspoken wife of NFL Superstar and Dancing with the Stars alum Kurt Warner. But year earlier, she found herself living through any woman's nightmare: a healthy baby tragically injured in the bathtub; a sudden end to a career she loved; betrayal and divorce; poverty; public humiliation; and deadly natural disaster that destroyed her foundation and shook her to her core. One shattering phone call at a time, Brenda Warner's life came to resemble little of her dream.

But each time her plans fell apart, Brenda faced a choice; to collapse in the face of tragedy or press forward and survive. She chose to keep going. In the process, she's learned that the unexpected is only one call away. Her story provides hope and encouragement for anyone facing life's challenges and shows us that our circumstances don't tell us who we are, nor are they a measure of God's love. God has a plan for us, even when our plans fail. Brenda's life is proof that sometimes the best dreams are not the ones we dream, but the ones that come true when we least expect them.

My Review: Brenda Warner did a great job in letting us into her personal life for a glance at hard times, sad times and even better, the happy times. From the very beginning, Brenda Warner was a determined young girl who had a lot of faith in God. Throughout her life, she would run into obstacles that would try to pull her from God's path in life. An accident involving her first child and being betrayed by her husband after standing by him. Going from a marine to an unemployed mother of 2 on government assistance. Losing her parents to a deadly tornado. Finding the man of her dreams and being ridiculed in public the choices she made.

Brenda pushed forward no matter what life threw at her and how many times a phone call brought tragedy. God's child from the beginning, she never strayed from her faith and brings encouragement to those who are unsure about their current situation and where they are going in life. She proves to us that even those in bad conditions can come out on top and use their better situation to better others. Photos are included to get a visual of those mentioned in the book. Brenda Warner is a brave person who put her life out there for others to read and relate to. What an inspiration!

Book Review: TWENTY, TWENTY photographs and poems by T.M. Rago

Book Review: TWENTY, TWENTY photographs and poems by T.M. Rago

I received a complimentary copy of Twenty Twenty, as a member of the

Dorrance Publishing Book Review Team. Visit dorrancebookstore.com

to learn how you can become a member of the Book Review Team.

Book Review: TWENTY TWENTY: photographs and poems is a wonderful book presenting twenty photographs taken by T.M. Rago between 1954 and 1965, then challenged and illuminated by twenty poems written about forty years later.  The synergy is extraordinary, melding the universal language of the photograph's visual image with the rhythm and nuanced meanings of the poem. Yet each image, visual and verbal, maintains its integrity with a universal meaning.

My Review: I have a lot of interest in photography and usually can't wait to receive any book that has photos, especially with poetry next to each. I must say that I was very disappointed by this book. I knew going in that the photos would be older photos which I didn't have a problem with. The photographs were very poorly copied into black and white pages, making them hard to see on quite a few pages. Although some of the poetry was very beautiful, others were kind of disturbing. Not that the disturbing poetry was bad, it just didn't align well with the other poems in the book. The poetry should have been under a certain genre. Some of the poems also did not go well with the photos they were next to. I would not like to review another book like this one.

Book Review: Waiting for Morning by Karen Kingsbury

Book Review: Waiting for Morning by Karen Kingsbury

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


Book Review:

"I'm afraid there's been a car accident.."

As Hannah Ryan waits for her family to return home from a camping trip, she realizes she has everything going for her--a husband other women admire, two charming teenage daughters, and a loving Christian home. As the sunny afternoon turns into twilight, her uneasiness grows along with the shadows. Then a car uplls into Hannah's driveway, bringing two police offiers..and devasating news that shatters her for life forever.

In the days that follow, Hannah struggles with unspeakable feelings of sorrow and rage--feelings that fuse into one chilling purpose for living: revenge against Brian Wesley, the drunk driver who has caused all her pain.

In her fury, Hannah shuts the Lord out of her life. She's determined not to forgive Wesley or the God who allowed this tragedy to happen. Can two caring people help Hannah rediscover her faith...before bitterness destroys her?




My Review:

This book had me in tears from the very beginning and was very hard to put down.  Coming from a family who has lost someone in a car accident, I know the feeling of police officers arriving at your door unexpectedly. Hannah Ryan had the perfect life, husband and children. So, why did God decide to mess that up for her, or so she thought.? It is easy to want to blame someone for the terrible things that happen in your life, why not blame the one person that won't fight back? While putting blame where she believes it is due, she begins to ignore her one surviving daughter while making it her mission to make sure the man responsible for the accident suffers. She needs to forgive, which her husband wants for her all along. As hard as that is for Hannah to do, she must trust in God and continue her path of Christianity where forgiveness is key to everyone's happiness. For the man who made her feel pain, the daughter who wants to cause herself pain and the mother/widow who needs relief from her pain. 

Like to Read?

It's that time of year!! Magazines, magazines and more magazines!!! Elementary kids are selling them and what better time? Gives you something nice to have on hand for those long sports practices, doctor's office appointments or just hanging out in the bathroom when you don't have a parade of kids marching in and out :)

How Great to be 8!!

My first daughter Kaplyn, turned 8 this year and what a change!! She is still the sweet little girl that she has always been, but is becoming more and more independent.

I took her out to buy a dress for her birthday portrait like I always do. (She chose Goodwill believe it or not) We tried on just about every dress in the kids section and could not find one that was "her". Ready to throw in the towel for the day, we walked past the women's dresses and what caught her eye? This gorgeous white with black accents party dress! It was a bit loose and took some pinning here and there, but we got it all ready to go for her 8 year old photos :) I added a black beaded necklace to her bare neck area. Hair took a spray of white pearls and a simple black feather!

Kaplyn has gotten more into singing lately so we thought a Tony Award winning background would be perfect!! Can't get much more theater than comedy and tragedy!

A classic closeup ends our session.

I can't believe how much she has grown up just in the last year!