The Help Meet Wife

When We Were On Fire by Addie Zierman promises a story of consuming faith, tangled love, and starting over. The first part of the book focuses on Addie's upbringing in an evangelical church, where she was heavily immersed in church culture and life. The second part zeroes in on her disillusionment with the church and her rebellion away from the church, which leads to heavy drinking and nearly cheating on her husband. The final portion is supposed to be about her redemption and starting over with her faith. I have mixed feelings about this book. It was a very quick read, 231 pages, but the story moves briskly. It's the type of book you'll want to stay up all night to finish so you can see what happens and which direction her life ends up going. I did grow up in the 90s, but I did not grow up in a Christian home, so her description of her childhood didn't sound that bad to me - in fact, now with hindsight as an adult and Christian, I always wish I'd had an upbringi...

Critical Condition by Richard L. Mabry, MD immediately caught my eye because I've read, and loved, three other books by him so far. I love his unique blend of medical, thriller, and Christian novel rolled into one. In fact, he's one of my favorite new authors! So I was excitedly looking forward to reading another great book by him. Critical Condition is the story of Dr. Shannon Frasier, her fiance Dr. Mark Gilbert, and her troubled, recovering addict sister, Megan. Shannon's previous fiance had been shot down in front of her, and now during a dinner party, a strange man is shot dead on her lawn. She's thrust into a mystery involving dangerous criminals, a bank robbery, kidnapping, murder, and, oh yeah, her own HIV scare due to tainted blood. I want to start off by saying I have absolutely loved Mabry's previous books, and they kept me up all night turning the pages. However, I had some trouble connecting to this one. Don't get me wrong - it was a great story, ...

Girl At The End Of The World is Elizabeth Esther's memoir of growing up in a fundamentalist cult called The Assembly, which was run by her grandparents. She details her life basically from some of her earliest childhood memories up until the present day and shares what life was like growing up in The Assembly, how she met her husband, and how they eventually (painfully) left the cult. I really had mixed feeling about this book and therefore am finding it a bit difficult to review. I don't like writing negative reviews, so I'll start with the positive. First off, the cover of this book is beautiful. Very engaging and made me want to pick it up and read it immediately. Secondly, the story itself was mesmerizing. I read this book in just an afternoon. I could've just sat down and read it in one sitting if I didn't have any other obligations! Her story was very interesting and I couldn't wait to see what would happen next and how it would all end up (although I pr...