Hiking through

I'm a big fan of reading real-life stories, I enjoy seeing how God works in them and through others to bring peace, love and courage into their lives.  I especially love it when God calls them to do something out of the ordinary and love seeing the heights that God leads them to when they follow His will! Its such an encouragement to read!
The author Paul is faced with a heart wrenching reality when he loses his wife to cancer (normally I avoid books such as these that deal with losing people to cancer or other facing cancer. In our day and age I don't think there's anyone out there that hasn't had this horrible disease touch them in some way. These books tend to be depressing to me, even when they're meant for encouragement, so usually I don't like to read them. However I'm glad that I read this book, it was really encouraging to see the author being held up by God, and seeing God's hand in his "recovery" so to speak, and how God brings him to a place of peace and purpose.) He (Paul) feels a leading/tug to get on the Appalachian trail and trusts God enough to set out on this journey set before him. Throughout the book we can see God's hand both comforting the author but also using him to bring help/comfort to others. This book was great, very well written and easy to read. Even though it dealt with sad situations, it was still such an encouraging book that is well worth reading! I very much would recommend this book!
"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group".

The Pursuit of Lucy Banning

I'll admit when I saw the title I thought this would just be a run of the mill typical romance story of a woman faced with the old fashioned dilemma of deciding who to marry. I'm so glad that I was completely wrong! I love books that have strong female lead characters (so many fictional historical books tend to leave them out!) that don't conform to the standards of the day, but choose to step out into their calling in spite of what people might thing. This book fit right into that, the main Character Lucy was kind and humble, but also had a back bone and was unwilling to sit back and have her life dictated to her! Lucy struggles to keep hidden her "Secret life" from her family and future husband, while at the same time desiring to break free from the mold that others are trying to force upon her.
This book was quite well written and very enjoyable, I'd highly recommend it to any fiction-lovers out there!!

"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group".

Dream

I was Thrilled at finding out that we were reviewing a book by Dutch Sheets, I absolutely love many of his books and have a really high respect for him. And true to form, this book was incredibly thought provoking and full of challenges and encouragement! One thing I really enjoy about Dutch Sheets is that his books challenge the reader without trying to guilt them into living by the letter of the book. His style is straight forward and very easy to apply to one's life!
I think the older we get we tend to lose sight of our dreams, or begin to find discouragement of them becoming fulfilled. We tend to let life pass us by when we need to be reaching out for what God has in store for us. I loved the message in this book, that God has plans for us and when we stop seeking earthly approval and start setting our sights on God's approval that, that is when are dreams start coming to light! This book was such a strong encouragement to me, I loved reading the stories in it that gave practical application to what he wrote about. I love it when authors include real life examples to help explain what they've written. It makes things seem more realistic and reachable to me!
I highly recommend this book, and will be buying a copy for our church's library!
"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group".

Travelers rest

An absolutely fantastic read, the kind of book that shows the strength of someone's character and encourages you along the way as well! This was one of my favorite books, the story was very thought provoking and heart wrenching. The characters were so well written I found myself cheering them on through out the story, they were so developed that they felt very realistic!
The main character Jane is put in a very difficult situation when her fiance is injured oversea's, through it she struggles to not only help him, but also come to terms with why it would happen and what the future may hold. Throughout the story she meets up with other people who help her to find her way back into the light.
This was a wonderful book, while it was very serious, it didn't have that "downer" type feel to it that many dramatic books sometimes fall into. While it dealt with some heavy subject matter, it was still very easy to read and very enjoyable to read. I imagine this will become one of the well worn books on my book shelf!
I Highly recommend it!

"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group".

Submerged

Now this is the kind of book that I love to read, full of suspense and strong characters that have distinct personalities and are easy to like! I loved this book, it was really fast paced, I was actually up till about 2am trying to get to the end of the book, since I knew I wouldn't be sleeping till I found out the ending, lol. Its one of those books that once you start reading it you struggle to set it down!
The story centers around Bailey who grew up in Yancey Alaska and made a rather bad name for herself when she was there. After striking out on her own, she came into a relationship with Christ and cleaned up her act, hoping to never step foot into Yancey again! However when some unforeseen events happen Bailey is forced to face her past, and confront some ghosts as she comes to the knowledge of Christ's changing power, and that she is a new creation. Aside from that she's also faced with some big mysteries and some harrowing events that leave the reader eager to read more! This writer reminds me a lot of Randy Singer (who happens to be one of my favorite authors!) and the suspense mixed in with romance type writing style. I will definitely be seeking out books by this author!

"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group".

My stubborn heart

I'm honestly kind of torn about this book, on one hand I greatly dislike corny romance novels, and this easily fits into that category, so at the beginning of the book I was rather turned off. However, this author is hilarious, and she has such great timing when it comes to putting humor in her book, that I found myself enjoying this book in spite of it being a typical romance novel!
The story is basically focusing on Kate a social worker who's a bit disillusioned at her job, and Matt a former NHL hockey player who quit playing when he lost his wife. The two meet and fall hard for each other, but fight against it to try and stop the hurt that they've previously felt from coming back.
If you're into romance books I can easily see someone enjoying this immensely, it was a well written book. And for those of us who aren't into it, although there are some eye-rolling moments, it was still a really funny book and one that I'm glad I read!
I'd recommend this one to a least a few of you out there!


"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group".

I don't think I've ever read a book that I've loved as much and hated as much as this one. What the author Pete Wilson speaks about in his book convicted me like crazy. I (like many out there) got caught up on being more, on having more. I needed to be better looking, I needed to have more items, I needed to be better than others. I had this need to be on top, to be the best out there, and it wasn't even a need that I was fully aware of. As a Pastor's Wife, I tend to follow the stereotypical thought that I need to be the best, the most loving, the most giving, the one in church who doesn't have issues, who doesn't fall short.
Throughout the book I was able to pinpoint instances where I had the same feelings that the author was describing. Now I've read books and heard speakers who tell us that we need to move beyond those needs, but they seem to rarely give us the tools to actually move past, they've pointed out the problems but have never given a solution. I was so thankful to the author that instead of just pointing out these area's in our lives where we're holding on to these "empty promises" he also gives Biblical tools on how to move beyond this. I also appreciated very much how he showed his own personal struggles in his book, I'm the type of person who will very rarely take advice from those who haven't been where I've walked, who don't know what I've gone through. So I appreciated his personal approach to this, by showing that he's had these struggles, that he's come against the same feelings as the rest of us, and then he goes on to give a Biblical approach on how to get past them.
I love this book, and am planning on ordering the Bible Study kit to do with our church. There are so many times where we claim a book "changed our lives", this isn't one of those books. Reading this didn't change my life, it instead has put me on a continuous journey in getting to know my Creator better and getting to know what my walk with Him should be. I highly recommend this book.


"Book has been provided courtesy of Thomas Nelson and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Thomas Nelson".  

Anything: the prayer that unlocked God and my soul

The idea of surrendering all to God is nothing new, there are plenty of books out there that speak for hundreds of pages on it. So when I got this book in the mail I wasn't expecting to read much more than what we've already seen in so many other books. And while some of it was the same type of ideas the author at the same time was able to lead us on her journey through "Anything".  There were so many instances that Jennie Allen presented, and so many desires/wants that she shared that mirrored my own, there were times where should could have been speaking on my life. So many times these types of books are almost a way for the author to share just how fantastic they are and how wonderful they are to have come up with this "new" concept. I honestly did not get that impression from Allen's book, while she shared how her life (and more specifically her spiritual life) changed once she prayed to God that she would do anything, it wasn't in a boastful way. It was simply to share her heart and encourage her readers to move into this complete and fully surrendering relationship with God.
I've recommended this book a lot to our ladies groups, but also I've been encouraging families to really get into reading parts of this together. Its such a simple concept that will completely change your world and your relationship with Jesus.

"Book has been provided courtesy of Thomas Nelson and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Thomas Nelson".