Plain Paradise, by Beth Wiseman

 Plain Paradise is about a young amish woman named Linda, who finds out when her biological mothers comes knocking at their door that she's adopted. Linda goes through all the emotions of just finding out this news and coming to terms with what kind of relationship she will have with this woman who's just entered her life.  As well as dealing with her own relationship with the man she hopes to marry.
     Josie, was forced to give up her child 17 years ago when she found herself 17 years old and pregnant. Through the years she often thought of her daughter "Helen", wondering what she looked like, what was she like, etc.. But now a sense of urgency has hit that she needs to finally meet her daughter before its too late. Not only does she meet her daughter, but Josie also rediscovers a relationship she'd abandoned years ago, the most important relationship of all.
     I can't even begin to explain how excited I was to see a book by Beth Wiseman offered for review, I fell in love with her writing when I first read Plain Pursuit. So dove into this book to discover that it was a part of a series that included Plain Pursuit, so got to read more about the characters I enjoyed so much from the last book. I love this book, I could read it over and over again. Beth Wiseman does such a great job at making amish life look so intriguing and explains it so well. This book is a must for for anyone who enjoys a good christian fiction novel. Not only this book but the whole series is a must! I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of the last book in this series!

A Distant Melody, by Sarah Sundin

 In this book we meet Allie a sweet young lady, who faces a world of problems. She comes from a wealthy family and is expected to do exactly as her parents tell her to, including to marry the person they choose for her. She must decide if she's going to obey her parents and marry a man she doesn't love or follow her heart and God's voice and choose the man she does love.
     Walt is a pilot fighting against the Germans. He meets allie at a wedding of his good friends and hits it off with her right away. He falls for Allie as soon as he meets her, but Walt also has a tendancy to lie if he thinks it'll benefit those around him and himself. Walt soon learns what God has to say about his behavior and change comes through hard circumstances.
     I loved this book, rarely will I sit and read all day, but I just couldn't put this book down. I started it yesterday afternoon and was done by this afternoon. I loved the story! I cried with them when loved ones passed away and rejoiced when love was found. This is so well written and  a must read for anyone!! I'm sure I"ll read this book time and time again!


*Available now at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing group

Scattered Petals, by Amanda Cabot

     Scattered Petals is about a young woman (priscilla) who faces unspeakable tragedy. She ends up alone in a strange town surrounded by people she doesn't know.  Through a series of events she ends up needing to get married, so Zach steps up and offers to marry her in order to keep her from being shamed in the community. Priscilla is unsure if she can ever love a man after what happened to her or let one even touch her.
     Zack has a past of his own that he's been ashamed of for so many years. When he discovers Priscilla's prediciment, he steps up to marry her to in a way to make amends for his past choices. He quickly discovers that he's falling in love with her. Something he thought could never happen as he doesn't think he deserves happiness.
     This book was  a little hard to get into in the begining as there was so much attention that was focused on what happend to priscilla rather than what was going on around her. But after geting through the first part of the book, the send half was wonderful! I really enjoyed reading this story. I look forward to seeing if I can hunt down the first book in this series and read it too!!

*Available now at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing group

Hearts Awakening, by Delia Parr

 Ellie finds herself with no place to really call her home and desperite for work she goes to work for Jackson in hopes of a referance to land a permanent job. While Jackson desperite for some one to care for and love his children since his wife's passing. Proposes an odd business "partnership" to Ellie. To marry him (in name only, with the understanding that there were no feeling of love etc.., but as some one to be a mother to his two boys) and help raise his children. Ellie accepts this odd request and quickly finds herself falling in love with this man and his two small boys and hoping that he'll eventually return that love. She finds out that his "true" love is standing in the way, Dorothea. Will he leave Ellie for the woman he's really loved for years? Or find love with Ellie?
  I absolutely love this book! It shows people struggling in their faith and steps taken to get back to their faith. Its not like other stories where there's a fairytale story thats perfect. We see the ups and downs continually in this book. I really appreciated this! It is well written and so captivating. I feel very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to read this book. It is a great book about faith and love!

*Available now at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing group

Gigi's Hugest Announcement

I just recieved the DVD based on the books by Sheila Walsh- gigi God's little princess . This dvd has two stories in it The first one "The Royal Tea Party" Gigi wants to share with her best frined Frances that she is also God's princess, but being Gigi, wants to do it the most royal way she can. Which leads to trying to plan an extravegant tea party. In the end she realizes that its not the tea party that's important, just the news that God also loves Frances. The second story on this dvd is "The Pink Ballerina", where Gigi learns a verse at sundayschool about dancing for the Lord. She decides that the most royal way to dance is ballet and so begins Gigi's troubles! She discovers that God isn't only please when we do things perfectly for him, but that we love others and try!
     I have two little girls who adore the Gigi, God's little princess books and movies! So I was excited to see this come up on Booksneeze to review! My kids love anything princess and I love that it teaches them about being God's princess and lessons that are consistant with our beliefs as Christians. I strongly encourage any parent of young girls to get these movies for thier chidre, they're are excellent and you don't have to worry about what you're child is watching. They don't teach inappropriate behavior or bad language etc... You're children get to watch movies about Godly character!

Some where to Belong, by Judith Miller

Somewhere to Belong is the story of two young ladies on the Amana colonies (for lack of a better word). Johannah has always been in Amana, but longs to see what the outside world looks like, while Berta has seen the outside world and longs to go back to it. But rather is forced to stay in a place she doesn't enjoy.  We see the simple life the people led and experience the battling with Berta for her to take hold of their ways and participate. Berta has a good heart, but is very mischievous lol which tends to get her in trouble quite a bit.
 It took a little while to get into the book, but when I did I loved the story, I love a book that takes you to that location as you're reading and makes you feel like you're right there, which this author has done! I wouldn't quite say that its a romance novel as its more about Berta and Johannah's journey to discover where they belong, although there is a bit of romance in it. It was a very good read and I look forward to reading more of Judith Millers work in the future. Definately worth a read!!

*Available now at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group

The Promise of Morning, by Ann Shorey

     The Promise of Morning is about Ellie and Matthew Craig, A pastor and his wife. We follow Ellie through the grief of loosing her babies and the lonliness of being abandoned as a child by her father. While they struggle to piece their lives back together after loosing another baby, another gentleman comes to town who tries to take all that Matthew has built in his church and his family. We follow him through his feelings of not being enough, of questioning his call to ministry and also his cowardness towards the new man in town. We also get to follow him though when he regains his courage and goes after to take back what was taken from him!
     I found this book a little hard to follow in the begining as I wasn't sure what the story was actually about till about half way through. But once getting into it I couldn't put the book down. I really enjoyed the story, Shorey has a way of making you feel like you're right there with them through out this book, so you feel their happiness and their pain. This book was definately worth pushing through and reading! I also appreciated her showing how pastors have the same problems as the rest of the world! He struggled with faith and courage, etc... Yet in the end regained all that. I highly recommend reading this book!

*Available now at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Essentials for Life, Your Back-to-Basics Guide to What Matters Most

Essentials for Life, Your back-to-basics guide to what matters most, by Marcia Ford. I've been waiting for this book and excited to read it. So much so that I found a website on line that has a full copy you can read on line (they have copy right permission to do so) so I could start it before my book arrived lol. Marcia's book goes through a series of questions on different aspects of life and also attempts to answer them. By far my favorite is the very first chapter which addresses the question "what is the meaning of your life?" she answers it so simply and so beautifully as well as correctly teaching scripture that covers that subect as well. I honestly loved what she has done in this book. I'm not a fan of most devotional books as I find there's not much substance in them. But Marcia's book just seems like more than a devotional, you can almost feeling like you're sitting in the room with Marcia as she's talking to you teaching you about yourself. She asks you to look into your beliefs find out what you really believe, how do you really see God? etc.. This book will be well treasured for years to come. Thank you blogsneeze for giving me this book to read, I'm sure in no time its pages will be weathered as I refer back to it time and time again. Well Done Marcia Ford.