Book Review - Hearts Awakening

This novel by Delia Parr tells the story of how a young widower with two children and an "old spinster" named Ellie fall in love. The story revolves around Ellie first becoming the nanny for Jackson's two sons, then entering a marriage of convenience with Jackson just to provide the children with a mother and Ellie with a home. Of course as with all marriages of convenience in novels, Ellie and Jackson eventually discover they love each other.

Overall I enjoyed this book. The descriptions of the island where Jackson lives with its large apple orchard make me want to visit it - even though it's a fictional place. The conflict Jackson must resolve of still thinking he's in love with an old girlfriend is also interesting. I wasn't completely sold on the conflict resolution between Jackson and Ellie, though. I can't put my finger on it, but it didn't quite ring true. Maybe because Ellie was so understanding and long suffering. I'm not sure how realistic her reactions were to Jackson's emotional unfaithfulness to their marriage - even if it was a marriage of convenience. That said, it was still a good book.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, however the opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Book Review Sixteen Brides

Before I began this book I wondered how in the world the author was going to follow the stories of sixteen different women and create a coherent story out of it. Well, it turns out the story is really only about five of them - and the author does a great job of making each character's story interesting and easy to follow.

The premise of this book intrigued me. Apparently, in the aftermath of the Civil War when many families immigrated West there was also a subset of women - mostly widows from the war - who also went West in search of a new start. The fictional women in this book represented women who planned on homesteading on 160 acre tracts of land free to anyone (man or woman) who would live on it for five years. Although the people of the town of Plum Creek, Nevada had been told they were out west looking for husbands the women themselves had no intentions of marrying and left the "bride train" as soon as they found out they had been promised as brides at the next train stop west. From that point onward the book follows the stories of the five women as they settle their property and earn the respect of the people of Plum Creek.

This was an engaging book and quick read. I thoroughly enjoyed it and although no sequel was hinted at I would love to continue following stories of the homesteaders in Plum Creek.

Although I received a free copy of this book from the publisher the opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Book Review - Mystically Wired

I will readily admit that my prayer life as a Christian is not as strong as it should be. Yes I pray daily but I often seem to find myself in a prayer rut of sorts. Therefore I was excited to get this book and work toward improving my prayer life. Unfortunately, this book fell short of my expectations. The first several chapters are more of a "science meets religion" primer on how the brain is wired to pray. I'm a science-oriented kind of person, but this book seemed poorly written and almost confusing as it jumped from topic to topic on how our brains are wired for prayer and where our brains "take us" when we pray.

My faith is strongly grounded, but for someone who is still searching or who is a new Christian, this book could get very confusing as it compares the Christian faith to Eastern religions and how meditation can be an important part of prayer life. Not that I don't see the author's point of view - meditating on Scripture should be a part of the Christian walk, but the way the book approaches the topic is off to me.

There were several good suggestions that I plan to implement, especially setting aside a quiet place to pray and praying outside in God's creation. Other suggestions were less appealing to me, especially praying through a particular set of pre-written prayers. I believe speaking to God is personal and I prefer using my own words when I pray. If pre-written prayers work for someone else, that's great, but this author really seemed to be pushing this particular book written by someone he knows. The book's title came up in several different chapters, which automatically turned me off from even considering it since he seemed to be pushing it at me.

Overall, I'm convinced there are better books on prayer out there than this one.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, but the view expressed here are entirely my own.