I think it’s clear by now that one of my favorite past times is reading. I do a lot of book reviews each month! I saw how Heather from Simply Save shared what she read in April. I loved that idea a heck a lot better than loading you down with a bunch of different posts for each individual book if I’m not also offering a giveaway with it too. I am going to give you a list of the books I’ve read each month. Mind you I do read a WIDE range of books.
Without further ado, here are the books I’ve read in May:
[easyazon_link keywords=”I Said Yes by Emily Maynard Johnson” locale=”US” tag=”slm016-20″]I Said Yes by Emily Maynard Johnson[/easyazon_link]
The star of television’s The Bachelor and The Bachelorette tells her story of faith, hope, and the search for real love before and after reality TV fame.
My Review
I Said Yes started out very slow to me. I almost didn’t even finish reading it. However, I’m glad I picked it back up and decided to finish reading it. Emily truly did have a true love story worth reading. In the end, I’m glad that I got this to review from Book Look Bloggers program in exchange for an honest review.
[easyazon_link keywords=”5 Habits of a Woman Who Doesn’t Quit” locale=”US” tag=”slm016-20″]5 Habits of a Woman Who Doesn’t Quit[/easyazon_link]
Have you ever gotten to the place where you just couldn’t take it anymore?
Dreams. Programs. Jobs. Relationships. There are so many different areas where we feel like calling it quits.
It’s time for an honest conversation on how not to give in to the temptation to give up.
Nicki Koziarz is a woman who has thrown in the towel a time or two. In fact, she’s quit just about everything in her life. But with God’s help, she’s discovered a few habits that have helped her and others conquer the choice to quit.
5 Habits of a Woman Who Doesn’t Quit will enable you to:
Evaluate the internal personal struggles that make you want to quit.
Cultivate consistent habits to help you progress toward your goals.
Receive a fresh dose of perspective from the Bible that will help you develop perseverance.You are not made to quit! Join Nicki as she identifies five habits to help you keep going no matter what struggles may come your way.
My Review
This book challenges readers to install 5 habits in their lives to make them live a better life. The author made this book easy to read and relatable. The author doesn’t come across as superior and better than the reader, but rather she makes us feel like she’s in the trenches with us learning with us all the things she’s learned.
The habits truly do make a positive impact when put into practice. It is filled with practical advice.
Also, if you are interested in doing a Bible study with this book be sure to check out Proverbs 31 5 Habits of a Woman Who Doesn’t Quit Bible Study.
Disclosure: I did get this book to review in exchange for an honest review; however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
[easyazon_link keywords=”Anger Taming a Powerful Emotion” locale=”US” tag=”slm016-20″]Anger Taming a Powerful Emotion[/easyazon_link]
Are you handling your anger, or is your anger handling you?
Life is full of frustrations—some big, some little. And while you might not be ready to blow a gasket, it’s easy to get angry in the wake of rejection, hurt, or embarrassment—and anger can have a really tight grip.
In Anger: Taming a Powerful Emotion, Dr. Gary Chapman offers helpful (and sometimes surprising) insights into why you get angry and what you can do about it. Using real-life examples of transformed lives and relationships, Chapman explains how to:
- Recognize the difference between “bad” and “good” anger
- Use anger to motivate you toward positive change
- Release long-simmering resentment
- Teach others (like your children) how to deal with anger
Anger is a reality of life, but it doesn’t have to control our lives. Learn how to handle anger and use it for good.
Includes reflection questions in each chapter; a 13-session discussion guide that’s perfect for small groups, workplace studies, and book clubs; and a personal anger assessment designed to help you see hose you manage anger.
My Review
Anger is a very powerful emotion for sure. Dr. Gary Chapman does a remarkable job of helping his readers to tame this ugly beast in this book. It’s filled with valuable bits of information that will help the reader to identify what is HEALTHY anger and HOW to deal with it. As usual, Dr. Gary Chapman doesn’t make the reader feel shameful, but rather hopeful that they can make the necessary changes.
I did receive this book to review from Moody Publishers in exchange for an honest review; however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
[easyazon_link keywords=”Pulling Back the Shades” locale=”US” tag=”slm016-20″]Pulling Back the Shades[/easyazon_link]
Christian women don’t have to choose between being sexual and spiritual. They have legitimate longings that the church has been afraid to talk about, and books like Fifty Shades of Grey exploit and distort them. We need the truth on the matter.
Whether you are single or married, sexually dead or just looking to revive your sex life, Pulling Back the Shades will address your desire to be both sexual and spiritual. With solid biblical teaching and transparent stories, trusted authors Dannah Gresh and Dr. Juli Slattery offer an unflinching look at the most personal questions women ask. The book offers practical advice for women to address five core longings:
- to be cherished by a man
- to be protected by a strong man
- to rescue a man
- to be sexually alive
- to escape reality
God designed women with these longings and has a plan to satisfy them. It’s time for women to identify their intimate longings and God-honoring ways to fulfill them.
My Review
This book gave me some perspective that I wasn’t prepared to read. I have read erotica a lot in my life. I have even written quite a bit of it myself (but never had it published) because I haven’t been able to shake some of the wildest things that run through my imagination. I love my husband very much and he is the only man I long for sexually. However, I can see now that reading erotica can be a toxic thing for my relationship with my husband as well as God.
In this book, the author argues against Christian women reading erotica. I believe that erotica and porn itself are very closely related. I don’t go out of my way to read erotica books anymore.
However, there are books that I have started reading that have had erotica in them that the story line itself has pulled me in enough to want to finish reading it. I can honestly say that I skim over the erotica portions of the books because I DON’T need it! I’m happily married and our sex life is good as it can be considering our health issues.
This is one of those powerful books that will make you question your actions. It is very well written and she doesn’t point any fingers at the readers. However, she does give clear examples and arguments! I do feel that every church should have their teenagers and women read this book.
I did receive this book to review from Moody Publishers in exchange for an honest review; however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
[easyazon_link keywords=”The Goodbye Bride : a Summer Harbor novel” locale=”US” tag=”slm016-20″]The Goodbye Bride : a Summer Harbor novel[/easyazon_link]
She only remembers loving him. But he can’t forget the way she left.
Lucy Lovett can’t remember the last seven months of her life. She doesn’t remember leaving her fiancé Zac Callahan weeks before their wedding or moving to Portland, Maine. And she sure doesn’t remember getting engaged to another man. All she remembers is loving Zac more than life itself.
Zac was just beginning to get his life back on track after Lucy left him with no explanation. And now she’s back—vulnerable, homeless, and still in love with him. Has he been given a second chance with the only woman who stirs his passion and haunts his dreams?
Lucy knows she must unlock those missing months and discover why she threw everything away. And Zac knows that if he follows his heart he’ll win back the love of his life—but if Lucy’s memory returns, his would-be bride might say goodbye forever.
My Review
This book captivated my attention when I was at the library with the kids. I devoured it in one weekend!! It reminded me a lot about Del and I’s relationship in the fact that the main character had to forgive and love wholeheartedly. Like the woman in this book, I have many old wounds that made it really hard for me to learn to trust and love Del completely. It’s a wholesome romance that proves that love never fails.
[easyazon_link keywords=”Carolina Dreaming” locale=”US” tag=”slm016-20″]Carolina Dreaming[/easyazon_link]
When it comes to love, anything can happen on Dare Island—especially in this latest novel from New York Times bestselling author Virginia Kantra.
After escaping a disastrous marriage, bakery owner Jane Clark has convinced herself that she has everything she needs—her precious son, a thriving business, and a roof over her head. But the arrival of a handsome stranger on the island shows her exactly what she’s been missing…
The only home Gabe Murphy ever had was the Marine Corps. He’s working hard to rebuild his life. It will take a special place, and a special woman, to make him want to stay.
Now Gabe is determined to prove that he’s worthy of Jane’s trust—and her love. But when her past reappears, that trust will be tested, and Jane and Gabe will have to fight hard to hold onto their love and make their dreams a reality…
My Review
This book is another library goodie! I got it because I can always relate to domestic abuse victims who are women seeking to love again. This romance does a wonderful job of displaying the ups and downs of having to start over again. The main characters both have their own stories that keep you on your toes rooting for both of them. It’s like we’re outsiders watching the whole romance bloom right in front of our eyes.
[easyazon_link keywords=”Somewhere Out There: A Novel” locale=”US” tag=”slm016-20″]Somewhere Out There: A Novel[/easyazon_link]
What happens when two sisters who were torn apart when their young mother abandoned them—and grew up in tragically different circumstances—reunite thirty-five years later to find her? For readers who love Jodi Picoult, acclaimed author Amy Hatvany fearlessly explores complex family issues in her gripping, provocative new novel.
Natalie Clark knew never to ask her sensitive adoptive mother questions about her past. She doesn’t even know her birth mother’s name—only that the young woman signed parental rights over to the state when Natalie was a baby. Now Natalie’s own daughter must complete a family tree project for school, and Natalie is determined to unearth the truth about her roots.
Brooke Walker doesn’t have a family. At least, that’s what she tells herself after being separated from her mother and her little sister at age four. Having grown up in a state facility and countless foster homes, Brooke survives the only way she knows how, by relying on herself. So when she discovers she’s pregnant, Brooke faces a heart-wrenching decision: give up her baby or raise the child completely on her own. Scared and confused, she feels lost until a surprise encounter gives her hope for the future.
How do our early experiences—the subtle and the traumatic—define us as adults? How do we build relationships when we’ve been deprived of real connection? Critically acclaimed author Amy Hatvany considers controversial and complicated questions about childhood through the lens of her finely crafted characters in this astute novel about mending wounds by diving into the truth of what first tore us apart.
My Review
I got this actually in the month of April during the Adoption Month at the library, but I couldn’t bring myself to write about this book until now. This book shook me to the core due to the fact that I know what it’s like to deal with adoption from both ends of the spectrum. I honestly have no clue how I would react should my first-born decided to come see me or her siblings again. I long for that day all the time, but in the same token, I also know that she wasn’t old enough to fully understand my side of everything when she left. I REFUSE to try to express my side online.
I know Jimmy also has mixed feelings about his adoption quite often too. It’s never easy for anyone involved in an adoption to come to grips and fully understand all of the ins and outs of the process. Regardless, this book made me think and ponder my own situation quite a bit. I cried quite a bit all over again, but I will hang onto the hope of seeing her again one day if for no other reason than to answer her questions and give her my side of the story IN PERSON.
[easyazon_link keywords=”I Don’t Get You” locale=”US” tag=”slm016-20″]I Don’t Get You[/easyazon_link]
Relationships can be confusing, and communication is a huge part of that confusion. I Don’t Get Youaims to be a practical, accessible resource that helps readers navigate opposite-sex communication with intentionality.
This booklet explores how God designed our hearts and the variations between men and women. Men and women relate, attach, and express themselves differently. Even what we think and feel during a shared conversation may be misunderstood.
The 5 Categories of Conversation introduced in this booklet give practical and easy-to-apply guidelines for interaction. The material guides us to fulfilling relationships that respect emotional boundaries and promote healthy interactions. I Don’t Get You equips men to protect their own hearts and the hearts of women around them. It also reveals how we can intentionally pursue the heart of one special person. Women will learn to recognize the invisible emotional ties that easily form and to guard their hearts from uncommitted emotional intimacy.
My Review
This book is a small simple guide to building and maintaining healthy relationships with the opposite sex. I do feel that the author gave some reasonable guidelines for how someone should go about having a relationship with someone of the opposite sex. I think this is a book that many people would benefit from reading.
Disclosure: I was given this book to review in exchange for an honest opinion; however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
[easyazon_link keywords=”Trouble in Sudden Falls” locale=”US” tag=”slm016-20″]Trouble in Sudden Falls[/easyazon_link]
They say you can never go home.
But Maddie O’Callaghan doesn’t have much choice. When her freak of an ex-husband steals her job, her life and her sanity, Maddie finds herself with nowhere to go but back. Back to the small shop her mother is giving her six months to make profitable or she’ll be on the street again. Back to the town that abandoned her over her high-school mistakes. Back to her lifetime crush who turned her down. That last one was, admittedly, the worst, because Eli Redmond never turned any woman down. To have a chance with her, though, Eli knows he needs to clean up his womanizing ways and fast, since Maddie’s dead-set against trusting anyone as smooth-talking as Eli.
When Eli’s high-school girlfriend drops Rogan, the seventeen-year-old son he never knew he had, on his doorstep, his problems only seem to get worse. Rogan is distrustful of Eli’s attempts to build a friendship, and the boy is the closest thing to the Anti-Christ that Sudden Falls has ever seen.
Maddie wants to trust that Eli will do the right thing, Rogan’s trusting that he won’t and all Eli knows is that trusting his heart may just be the most dangerous gamble of all.
My Review
I am a sucker for small town romances! This book gave me not one, not two, but three sweet romances in one easy to read book! I am now a huge fan of [easyazon_link keywords=”Elizabeth Bemis” locale=”US” tag=”slm016-20″]Elizabeth Bemis[/easyazon_link]
Which of these books would you like to read?
