Reading, Writing & Pondering

  Find hope when you need it the most with this gorgeous 90-day devotional for women who need a reminder that God can bring you past your broken beginnings, through the messy middles, and into a faith-filled future. When you’re at the edge of what your heart can handle. When you can’t see the road ahead. When you wonder if the hurt is beyond healing.  One Prayer Away  by Lauren Fortenberry is for every moment of the journey. Each day invites you to begin with your brokenness. To speak to God about what keeps you up at night. To know that in every single thing you carry today, you do not need to carry it alone.  One Prayer Away  includes: 90 meditations of hope and encouragement in Lauren’s signature poetic style Prayers to receive for yourself or to pray for others Bible verses relevant to each day’s needs like hope, mercy, and surrender Inspirational quotes and soothing photography to create a place where your soul can rest This beautiful devotional is ...

  TLC Book Tours Book Spotlight: When you’re tangled up inside, it’s hard to find clarity. Yet so many of us guilt-trip or gaslight ourselves instead of working our way through complicated feelings.  You should be a good friend , even though you feel hurt by past betrayals.  Y ou should be content , even though you feel lonely or unfulfilled.  You should just have faith , even though you feel discouraged by unanswered prayers. This jumbled-up knot is a cry for gentle care and patient attention, but most of us haven’t been given the tools required to unravel it. Imagine you had a guide—a   way out of the chaos   and into the calm and clarity you need to face life’s challenges. Drawing from over twenty years of research and clinical practice,  I Shouldn’t Feel This Way  guides you through a groundbreaking 3-step process that has helped tens of thousands of people find emotional freedom and surprisingly simple breakthroughs. Dr. Alison shows you...

Welcome to the Blog + Review Tour for Love Overboard by Shannon Sue Dunlap, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours ! My Review: Four older women retire and live year-round on a cruise ship. Together, they are called The Shippers, and they are the matchmakers on the ship. Lacey Anderson is the ship's hostess and Jonathan King is the Cruise director of the ship. Lacey and Jonathan knew each other from another ship. Sparks fly but there are some complications that seem to be difficult to overcome--but The Shippers are a determined group of ladies. At the same time, there is a mystery of who is smuggling cocaine on the cruise line. Are they on this ship? Love Overboard offers a mix of romance, humor, and mystery to the reader. I enjoy older people so I especially liked The Shippers in this book. I also was rooting for Lacey and Jonathan. I enjoyed getting to know the ship crew as well as the other characters. There was a couple of twists near the end of the book that I didn't ...

  Tired of trying to be enough? The truth is you were never meant to be, no matter what culture might tell you. Christian women today are bombarded with confusing messaging–they are supposed to do and be it all but also die to themselves. They are supposed to believe that women can do anything and also surrender everything to God. Adding to that pressure, many women feel stuck in their current reality–spinning on the hamster wheel of life. They scroll past images that tell them everyone else has it together and is experiencing a purpose-filled, adventurous, fun, loving, and God-honoring life. Overwhelmed and at a loss, most women go one of two places: defeat or self-help empowerment, even Christian self-help. In Becky Kiser’s  But God Can , women realize this truth: on their own, she was never meant to be enough—that is the gospel message, that is why Jesus came.  But God Can  get her unstuck and find a purpose she has never known! She will identify the li...

  What if you could close the “joy gap,” that distance between how you feel now and the way you wish you felt? In  The Joy Challenge , pastor and bestselling author Randy Frazee shares the secret to experiencing real, lasting joy–and stepping into a life of contentment and purpose. If this sounds familiar, Frazee has good news for you. In  The Joy Challenge , he shares the secret to experiencing genuine joyfulness, the kind of resilient happiness that doesn’t evaporate in the face of challenges and setbacks. Bringing together research about the science of happiness with the apostle Paul’s masterclass on joy in the book of Philippians,  The Joy Challenge  will help you discover the vital link between increasing your joy and winning the battle against worry and anxiety; develop patterns and mindsets of gratefulness and forgiveness that clear obstacles to happiness; and access the kind of circumstance-defying contentment that opens the door to a truly fulf...

A Run at Love by Toni Shiloh is the second book in the Love in the Spotlight series. If you like horses and horse racing, I think you will enjoy this book. If not, the story around it is still a good one.  Piper McKinney is a black woman in the horse-racing world--a world with little diversity. Her adoptive parents raised Piper on their thoroughbred farm and she is determined to make her own mark in the horse-racing field. Her best friend and trainer, Tucker Hale, is right there by her side helping her train what she hopes is a winning horse, Dream. Then a shocking scandal involving her parents hits the media and some of the fall-out affects her. Can she overcome the scandal? Is it based on truth or a lie?  I enjoyed A Run at Love , although I was not much of a horse race fan prior to this book. I liked Piper. I also liked Tucker. I could relate to both of them in certain ways. Mostly, I like how real they seemed to be as well as how real the other characters in the book were...

  As Leaning on Air by Cheryl Grey Bostrom begins, Celia Burke run into Burnaby Hayes. Both share a love for the birds in the area but Celia is an ornithologist and Burnaby is a veterinary surgeon. This meeting ignites a relationship and marriage that has lasted several years. then Celia makes a mistake and it ends in tragedy. Can Burnaby understand her pain? She doesn't think so and she runs. Leaning on Air is a beautiful story. I love time in nature and birds so I really like that aspect of the story. However, it does contain a story of loss in the form of miscarriage. Having experienced my own miscarriage several years ago, I could relate to that aspect of the story. There is also an autistic character, which I like. My son is autistic and I find it good to see someone autistic represented in a story. I wanted to have time to read Sugar Birds first but have a lot going on in my life right now. I hope to go back and read that book and then read this one again so I can better en...

Hidden Mountain Secret s by Kerry Johnson is the latest book in the Tunnel Creek suspense series from Love Inspired Suspense.  Brielle Holt is an antique dealer who has stumbled into more than just the latest great finds for her antique shop. Unfortunately, she is in the middle of a family feud and it could have grave consequences for her--and her staff at the antique store. Fortunately, her old family friend, Lucas Scott, who is a trained detective is there to help her--but can he keep her safe? Hidden Mountain Secrets continues the story of the Holt family if you have read the two books prior to this release. However, it isn't necessary to read those to enjoy this story. I enjoyed the action and the suspense in this story. It took me a bit to figure out how the villain in the story was. These books are a quick read and a great size to stick in your book bag to carry with you and read when you have extra time waiting somewhere. Since they aren't as long as a trader paperback,...

  Loyally, Luke by Pepper Basham is the third book in the epistolary series following Authentically, Izzy and Positively, Penelope.I have been anxiously awaiting this book and pretty much squealed when it came in the mail! Luke Edgewood is a guy who works in the construction industry and has remodeling skills. He wears flannel and he likes his dogs and he likes his sisters--but he isn't romantic like they are. Or so he says.In Loyally, Luke, Luke goes to Skymar to work a construction job on a orphanage that happens to be in a castle. He also has a run-in with a Princess as he comes in to the country with a migraine in desparate need of coffee--so yeah, that didn't go so well. Later, he finds out that the Grace Kelly look-alike coffee snob is also his co-worker on the orphanage project.Thus begins his own adventure in Skymar, following Izzy and Penelope.  I really enjoyed Loyally, Luke . I enjoyed this whole series. I do think the series is best enjoyed read in order to truly a...

  God Made Me from A to Z: 26 Activity Devotions for Curious Little Kids by Allison Key Bemiss is a really fun book to use with little ones.  God Made Me from A to Z is a soft cover book that measures about 7 /25 by 9 inches and is aimed at children five and under. There are a lot of fun activities in this book including a recipe for muffins, measuring hugs, water bottle bowling and so much more. There are a lot of fun ideas in here to keep children active. The pages are thick and colorful. There is a mix of activities, Bible verses, prayer, and a short devotional for each letter of the alphabet.This book would have been both fun and useful when I was homeschooling out son. I would recommend it to any family with young children. It may also be useful to a Sunday School teacher or leader of another young children's group who needs ideas for readings and activities with children. I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions within this review are my own.