The Help Meet Wife

Every Bride Has Her Day is the third, and I believe final, book in Janice Thompson's Brides With Style series. I didn't realize this was the last book in a series when I ordered it, but I decided to give it a shot anyway and read it without reading the prior books, then decide if I liked it enough to order the first two books. What really drew me in was the super cute cover and the description. The back cover reads: "Another Delightful Romance from the Queen of Romantic Comedy Katie Fisher is ecstatic. Pro basketball star Brady James has proposed, and she can't wait to start planning their life together. She's confident she'll make it down the aisle this time--but it still may be easier said than done. A high-society Houston bride has Katie and the Cosmopolitan Bridal team scrambling to get the perfect dress done in time for her spectacular wedding. Meanwhile, Katie finds herself bombarded with everyone's competing visions regarding her own special day...

I always enjoy a good Christian suspense novel, so I was excited to have a chance to read Silence In The Dark by Patricia Bradley. I'd never heard of Patricia Bradley before, and I saw that the Logan Point novels were her first series. I hadn't read the first three books in the series (Shadows of the Past, A Promise to Protect, and Gone Without a Trace), but it seems like while these novels do revolve around one town and have overlapping characters, each one focuses on a different main character so can function fairly well as a standalone novel as well. The back cover reads: "Two years ago, Bailey Adams broke off her engagement to Danny Maxwell and fled Logan Point for the mission field in Chihuahua, Mexico. Now she's about to return home to the States, but there's just one problem. After Bailey meets with the uncle of one of the mission children in the city, she barely escapes a sudden danger. Now she's on the run--she just doesn't know from whom. To ma...

Every once in awhile, I'm in the mood for a good cozy mystery, and Murder Comes By Mail by A.H. Gabhart certainly fits the bill. This is A Hidden Springs Mystery, part of a series. I didn't realize this was book two in the series, and I normally hate stepping into the middle of a series without having read the beginning, but luckily the author catches you up pretty well on what happened in the previous book, Murder At The Courthouse. The back cover reads: "A Cozy Mystery Complete with a Small Town Full of Charming, Quirky Characters Deputy Sheriff Michael Keane doesn't particularly enjoy being touted as the hero of Hidden Springs after pulling a suicidal man back from the edge of the Eagle River bridge in front of dozens of witnesses--a few of whom caught the breathtaking moments with their cameras. But the media hype doesn't last long as a new story pushes its way into the public consciousness of Hidden Springs' concerned citizens. Photos of a dead girl...

Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of Billy Graham, has written a definitive book on prayer and revival - The Daniel Prayer: Prayer That Moves Heaven And Changes Nations. I think most Christians today would agree that America is in great, great need of prayer and revival. But while that is a desperate need, this book is also a call for revival in our own personal prayer lives. I've been feeling a lack of power, fire, and zeal in my prayer life lately, so I was eager to read this book for a refresher on passionate prayer. The book description reads: "Many people today find that their prayers don’t “work.” And like a broken cell phone, DVD player, or TV remote, they throw prayer out as unnecessary “clutter” in their busy lives. Anne Graham Lotz has found that while prayer does work, sometimes the “pray-ers” don’t. So she has turned to the prophet Daniel for help. The Daniel Prayer is born deep within your soul, erupts through your heart, and pours out on your lips, words created by...

The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night At A Time is Arianna Huffington's latest book. In it, she tackles a subject that I'm extremely interested in: sleep. The importance of it, why we're not getting enough of it, and how we can fix it. I've become very interested in the subject of sleep lately because I am trying to radically restructure my sleep schedule and make proper sleep a major priority in my life. I've noticed a big sleep deficit in my life over the past few years, and I'm trying to get it under control and fix my sleep patterns. So I knew I'd want to read this book right away as soon as I saw it. The book description reads: "We are in the midst of a sleep deprivation crisis, writes Arianna Huffington, the co-founder and editor in chief of The Huffington Post. And this has profound consequences – on our health, our job performance, our relationships and our happiness. What is needed, she boldly asserts, is nothing short of a...

I was super excited to read Brian "Head" Welch's new book, With My Eyes Wide Open:Miracles & Mistakes On My Way Back To KoRn. I haven't read his first book, Save Me From Myself, yet, even though it's been on my "TBR" list since it first came out. I'll definitely be buying it and reading it ASAP now after reading With My Eyes Wide Open. This book picks up where his first memoir left off, and details how and why he came back to KoRn and what he's been doing since he left. The book description reads: "He left KoRn to help himself. He went back to help others. And along the way, he nearly lost everything. A life-changing spiritual awakening freed Brian “Head” Welch from a stranglehold of drugs and alcohol and prompted him to leave the highly successful nu-metal band KoRn in 2005. What followed was a decade-long trial by fire, from the perils of fathering a teen lost in depression and self-mutilation to the harsh realities of playing sol...

After reading The Outcast and The Midwife (two of the best fiction books I've ever read in my life), I've been eagerly awaiting and counting down the days until Jolina Petersheim's third book, The Alliance, was released. This book is a bit of her departure from her first two books. It's the first in a dystopian series. The setup of an EMP is reminiscent of Terri Blackstock's Restoration series, which I love. The cover of The Alliance is beautiful, like all of Petersheim's book covers, but the style of the cover has changed from the first two books. What hasn't changed, though, is Jolina's artful storytelling and her ability to write extremely realistic and non-formulaic Mennonite/Amish stories. The book description reads: ""[An] astute meditation on the intersection between belief systems and the politics of aggression." ~Publishers Weekly When Leora Ebersole sees the small plane crash in her Old Order Mennonite community, she has no ...

Colors of Goodbye: A Memoir of Holding On, Letting Go, and Reclaiming Joy in the Wake of Loss is September Vaudrey's first book. I've been on a bit of a memoir kick lately in my reading, and I've always enjoyed a gripping true story. I wasn't sure how much I'd be able to relate to this book, considering that I've never lost a child in this way and my kids are much younger than September's. However, it sounded so interesting that I decided to pick it up anyway. When I first picked up this book, I was struck by how absolutely gorgeous it was. The cover is a rough draft of Katie's last painting, and her art, plus lots of photographs, are spread throughout the book. There's a photo section as well as a section explaining and talking about Katie's art pieces that were chosen from this book. There's also a selection of grief and loss books that September especially likes and recommends. The book description reads: "What happens after the wo...

The Longing In Me:How Everything You Crave Leads to the Heart of God is Sheila Walsh's latest book. I'd previously read her book Loved Back To Life and enjoyed it, so I was excited to read The Longing In Me. I also felt like the title spoke to me: I often feel an indeterminate longing inside for different things. I can also relate to craving things that don't truly satisfy you. Ultimately, only God can satisfy all of our longings and cravings, and this is what Sheila imparts in this book. It's based on the story and life of King David, and you can purchase a companion study guide for a deeper study. The book description reads: "Do your desires have you going around in circles? You may be looking for fulfillment in all the wrong places. You vowed you’d never repeat the same mistakes—yet you find yourself right where you started. What is it that keeps drawing you back into the same old traps? The fact is, your longings are built from the blueprint of your needs:...

After reading Addie Zierman's first book, When We Were On Fire, I knew I'd want to read her follow up. Night Driving: A Story of Faith in the Dark is the story of a journey: Addie's physical journey on her road trip, and her spiritual journey finding her way back to faith. While I have some issues with the conclusions she draws in both her first book and this one, no one can deny that Zierman has a magical quality to her writing - once you pick up one of her books, you won't put it down until you're done. It seems like it's almost a trend lately to write edgy memoirs about how horrible it was to grow up in an Evangelical Christian home in the 80s/90s (while I'm rolling my eyes and wishing I was lucky enough to grow up in a Christian home, but I digress), but Addie does write an interesting and insightful story. The book description reads: "In the emotionally-charged, fire-filled faith in which Addie Zierman grew up, the answer to this question was si...

I'd never heard of Katherine and Jay Wolf or read their blog before, but as soon as I heard about their new book, Hope Heals: A True Story of Overwhelming Loss and an Overcoming Love, I knew I wanted to read it. I was actually kind of glad that I went into the book fresh, not knowing anything about them or their story beforehand, because it was all new to me. I always love reading memoirs of people who have overcome great obstacles and have gone through great titles, and this certainly qualifies. When Katherine and Jay's new son was just six months old, Katherine suffered a massive stroke. Miraculously, she survived, and has gone on to make incredible strides in her recovery. The book description reads: "When all seems lost, where can hope be found? Katherine and Jay married right after college and sought adventure far from home in Los Angeles, CA. As they pursued their dreams, they planted their lives in the city and in their church community. Their son, James, came ...