Krista’s #CBR4 Reviews #70 – 72

Keeping myself caught up, here are three more reviews. I am so close to my personal goal of 75 books!

70. A Time to Embrace by Karen Kingsbury
Karen Kingsbury’s novel A Time to Embrace is the second in a two-book series (I reviewed A Time to Dance, the first book in the series, almost two years ago). This was available at my library and while I liked the first one, I received it for free in return for a review and didn’t enjoy it enough to by the second. So free from the library = a good way to finish out the series!

This book picks up right where Dance leaves off — the Reynolds are newly in love after coming incredibly close to getting divorced. They are still dancing together, taking the cheesy metaphor from the first book to a new dorky level (they literally dance together by taking lessons that involve lots of ridiculous laughter from Abby). Life is going great until a tragic accident (how seriously cheesy of me to write that cliche!) almost undoes all of the restoration God has brought. [You can read the rest of my review by clicking the link to my review blog!]

71. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

The Age of Miracles is the story of Julia, who is a young girl when “the slowing” starts. Suddenly, and without any reason given or able to be found by scientists, the world is turning more and more slowly each day. By the end of the book, the natural day (period of light) and natural night (period of dark) are weeks long. This is a book of what happens to one young girl as her world is thrown into chaos — literally. Okay, so… when I shut the book after I finished it, the first thought I had was “I can’t tell if I love or hate this book.” [You can read the rest of my review by clicking the link to my review blog!]

72. Son by Lois Lowry
In Son, we meet Claire, who is a few years older than Jonas (remember him from The Giver?) in the same community. At 12, she is chosen to be a birthmother, the least honorable but very much needed of jobs. Something goes wrong with her delivery and she is reassigned from birthmother to work at the fish hatchery. Claire feels compelled to know her son, though, and volunteers at the center where children are kept until the Ceremony of the Ones. Her son, Gabe, is the baby from The Giver who has a hard time adjusting and goes home each night to sleep at Jonas’s family’s house. When she finds out that Jonas and the baby have escaped the community, Claire boards a supply ship and escapes, too, in hopes that she can find her son, but the boat she is on capsizes and she washes up on the shores of a distance village. What happens next is her search to find her son before it’s too late. [You can read the rest of my review by clicking the link to my review blog!]

— Krista

Krista’s #CBR4 Reviews 9 – 13, too many authors to mention!

I just realized that although I’d reviewed books 9 – 13 on my review blog, I failed to post those reviews on here. Whoops! So now I’m updating this (with a backdate, hopefully, so it appears in between my other posts!) so you can read the rest of the reviews.

9. Shades of Blue, Karen Kingsbury
This book was what I call a fluffy read. It wasn’t bad or good, it just was. To be honest, most Christian fiction I read is pretty much similar in plot to the rest of the Christian fiction I read and this novel by Kingsbury is no different. It covers the usual topics: forgiveness, God’s grace, and the reassurance of eternity. The characters were mostly likeable, except Laura kind of got on my nerve when she was upset with Brad for going to see Emma, when I feel like it was pretty clear that he wasn’t going back to be with her.

10.7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess, Jen Hatmaker
All right, I am going to come out and say this. I LOVED THIS BOOK. A friend told me about it and I thought it sounded like a cool book, and when she came to visit in February she brought it with her and let me read it. Oh my gosh, it was more than a cool concept. It’s now on my “favorites” bookshelf over on Goodreads because homegirl strikes hearts with her faith and her preaching of the truth.

11. Redeeming Love, Francine Rivers

I know I said before in a different review that most Christian fiction has a huge cheeseball factor, and while this book had its moments of cheeseballness, it was actually a really good, insightful read. Drawn from the Biblical story of Hosea, this novel follows Michael Hosea’s journey to love a woman we know first as Sarah, and then as Angel, as God works to show His love to a woman whose life has been taken over by prostitution and cruel men. I thought this was a beautifully told story and sadly, it’s all too near and dear to my own heart.

12. Wednesday Were Pretty Normal, Michael Kelley
I’d like to think I’d be the most faithful servant of Jesus ever, but you never know until it’s you walking through that mire. Michael Kelley didn’t know until he knew. That’s the heart of this book. Once Kelley knew “the other side,” he didn’t quit being authentic. He didn’t only tell people he was great. He didn’t blindly follow Jesus without bringing his own pain and suffering to the cross. What he did was lay his soul bare in these pages and told readers, “I was here. It was hard. I struggled. But God’s truth is still the truth, even when Satan makes it feel like it’s all lies.” Better yet, Kelley doesn’t just say that. He shows readers, countless times in the scriptures, where what God promises He will stay with us.

13. The Night She Disappeared, April Henry
If there’s anything that I love, it’s a good mystery. The first “adult” books I read were Mary Higgins Clark’s mysteries, and I love that the writing world is now writing books targeted for the kind of teenager I was. It’s clear from April Henry’s The Night She Disappeared that this is a book of suspense and mystery. Mysterious title? Check. Mysterious cover art? Check.