Not This Time by Vicki Hinze

 

 

I found this book to be very confusing at first. I think part of this has to do with the fact that this is a third book in a series and while I had read the second book it was a long time ago and I didn't really remember the characters that well.

 

As I got a little bit more into the book, I started to remember the characters a little bit better and for awhile it didn't seem to matter anyway as it was a new story just using "familiar" characters. I felt that the book was very drawn out and that the ending was a bit of a disappointment (not wanting to give too much information about the ending though, of course).

 

This book is written mostly from the perspective of Beth Dawson who finds that her best friend Sara has been acting strangely and then her husband Robert disappears. Beth had not been a fan of Sara's husband anyway and their relationship had been a bit strained, so when she questions Sara on various things it doesn't go over very well. The villagers are concerned that the terrorist group named "NINA" is at work trying to infiltrate them again (NINA is a group that is throughout the series). Many of the characters are unsure of who they can/should trust.

 

The book continues following through Beth's struggles of the next few days after a possible terrorist attack and show how Beth falls in love with Joe (a character from a previous book). This book bounces back between their relationship, but mostly focuses on trying to catch or figure out who the bad guys are.

 

I can't really say that I'd recommend this book because it took a long time to get to a pretty unsatisfactory conclusion. However, if you've been reading the previous books in this series then you may just want to get it so you can finish up the set. 

 

 

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review through the Blogging for Books program of Multnomah. I was under no obligation to give this a positive review - all of the thoughts on this book are my own. 

Prize of My Heart by Lisa Norato

I found this book to be a little slow in the beginning. It seemed to me that there wouldn't be too many twists or turns and that it would be pretty straight forward and so I found it hard for me to stay interested in it. Knowing that I needed to finish reading this book so I could post my review, I eventually picked it up again and delved into it. Maybe it was just the difference of where my life was at when I originally picked it up or something else, but I found I couldn't put this book down. I read the rest of the book (the majority of it) in two sittings...much to the neglect of my housework.

Prize of My Heart is about the journey of a man who has had his young son taken from him by his vengeful wife. Three years have passed since he has seen his little boy and his wife has been deceased for the same amount of time. When he finally discovers his son living in another home with a different name and extremely happy, he wonders how he is going to be able to capture him and take him back to live with him. As many stories go...there is a young woman that stands in the way and that he soon begins to have feelings for. Not wanting to give anything else away, I'll just say that if you enjoy historical fiction and love stories about sea captains and fair maidens, then you should enjoy this book as well.

This is a Christian book so it also does a good job of showing that in all of the different circumstances in life - God is still in control!

Once I got into this book, it was a pleasure to read and review this book. I enjoyed the twists and turns that I really wasn't expecting.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review from Bethany House Publishers. All the thoughts and contents are my own and I was under no obligation to give it a good review.

The 365 Most Important Bible Passages for Mothers: Daily Readings and Meditations on Experiencing the Lifelong Blessing of Being a Mom

 

Reading this book for a review was kind of challenging, not because the content wasn't enjoyable or because it wasn't practical because it all was. But mainly because it is supposed to be a day-by-day devotional book not a sit down and read through the whole thing in a few days.

That being said, this book is such a valuable resource. It was so practical and really helped me as a mom to think more about raising my child. It seemed to me that this book would be helpful for any stage of motherhood you are in, but seeing as my child is only two this is just a guess.

Things to note since you are probably reading this book to find out if you would like to purchase it yourself...if you like the Bible passages to be from only one translation you might not enjoy this book. If you really only like to read from the KJV and nothing else you may want to pass as the KJV isn't used (the NKJV is, but not KJV).

While this book does go by the calendar year, it also has a handy table of contents at the beginning that shows you what the different subjects are throughout the book. This could be helpful if you are really needing to encouragement about a certain topic you could use that as a guide to find a devotional that would be more relevant to what you are going through at that time.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review through Faith Words. All of the opinions are my own.

Ricky the Remarkable Raccoon

 

 

 

This is an adorable story about a little raccoon who wants to be part of a family. He sees a boat and decides that the family gathered there will be his new family only to discover that they don't want him. What's a little guy to do?

 

 

 

Fortunately this book does have a happy ending, but I don't want to give too much away as you'll just need to buy this book and see for yourself.

 

This book was written by a social worker and so it is easy to see how her work has largely tied into this book.

 

The illustrations are beautiful and Ricky is an adorable little raccoon!

 

 

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review from the BookCrash program. All opinions were my own.