A So-So Book Makes a So-So Review

Saving Grace by Annie Jones

There is really one word to describe the book as a whole: underwhelming. I am still trying to figure out why this book is titled “Saving Grace” after a character with a minimal role. If I analyze it, I can see the stretch but because the author takes some time to get to the point of involving Grace and then she leaves her out of the action for much of the rest and then suddenly re-introduces her. It turns out that it was actually Grace simply being that saved a friendship. This book interested me in one way. It revolves around a friendship between four southern women. It describes their challenges with each other as friends as well as their personal struggles as women, wives, and mothers. Because I live all of these roles myself I could parallel the story to my own experiences, which was heart-warming. Perhaps if I’d read the first book involving these women I would have got more into this book however, as it was, it took me weeks to read and that screams “It was so-so”. I have to commend the author for keeping it clean and within keeping of standards of the Christian genre. There is no doubt this is a Christian book.

Disclaimer: I received this book free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Will you rank my review here? Reviews earn me points which earn me better books. It's easy and only involves checking your e-mail to verify your e-mail address. Thanks for reading!!

Another Book Review

"The Incovenient Marriage of Charlotte Beck" by Kathleen Y'Barbo

FYI: there are spoilers but I am not recommending this read unless you really like soap opera and Christian-y (only slightly) type books.

This was my first time to read anything by Katherine Y'Barbo. At first, I enjoyed her literary style but as I read on, I began to find holes. The story about Charlotte and Alex is solid in and of itself. However, I began to feel like I was reading the script of a soap opera.

This book is classified as Christian fiction yet there was very little mention of God and faith except in the last one hundred pages. Where faith is mentioned is brief, lacking depth, and corny. I do appreciate that overall the book was morally clean and free of inappropriate language. I find it disturbing that Charlotte's faith isn't brought up until the last few chapters when she is suddenly humbled back to spirituality. I would have liked to see more of a spiritual journey happen throughout the novel rather than "conveniently" at the end to explain Charlotte's sudden change of heart towards accepting her marriage.

I was frustrated with the courtship. Why didn't Alex "court" Charlotte? What happened to bringing a lady flowers and gifts or doing and saying those small things to win her heart once he decided he wanted to stay in their marriage? He thought she was beautiful and suspected he love her so why didn't he just tell her?

The author took Charlotte's stubborn tendancies to the extreme. I was almost ready to throw in the towel and be done with this character. I thought the book could have been little shorter; Charlotte's unwillingness to even consider the marriage was too much added in with all the "incovenient meetings" of the characters to prove how right for each they were yet how far apart from excepting each other they were.

I also would have liked to see more character development of the step-mother and her side of things. Why even put her in? She was like a movie extra. The father was like one of those super power, know-it-all, all powerful, know-everyone-and-everything-can-be-everywhere-all- the-time characters that is simple not reality and just added to the soap opera feel of the book. He reminded me of Victor on The Young and the Restless...always gets his way by miraculously controlling every aspect of everyone's life, even his acquantances.

The bottom line is the story and plot were a great idea but the writing is cinematic rather than novelesk. I found it sub-par. I will not personally seek to read another one of Y'Barbo's books nor recommend this to my friends unless they are superbly bored or perhaps they happen to like this style of book. To each his own.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Rank My Review here so I can get more books to review and be sure to check your e-mail to verify your review. Thanks heaps for reading!

Secrets of the Vine for Women

One of my friends recently introduced me to the world of blogging for books. Out there in the great internet expanse there are numerous venues who offer free books in exchange for a review posted to my (or your) blog, their website, and a consumer website such as Amazon.

I decided to give it a try. I went with a program called "Blogging For Books" offered through Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers. They gave me three books to choose from. As a result, I have agreed to review it and in return my review can be ranked by my bloggy friends if you can take a minute to run over to Waterbrook's website. The highest ranking book reviews win prizes so there is some incentive. I have provided a link at the bottom of this review if you care and would please go rank me even if you think its not such a great review. I cannot improve without critisism.

For the first try this has gone pretty smoothly. The book did take quite some time to arrive...almost three weeks and i have to admit for a book I wouldn't normally buy or pick up at the library, it was a read that I would recommend. The book is Secrets of the Vine for Women by Darlene Marie Wilkinson and it is a summary adaptation of a book written by her husband called Secrets of the Vine.

I’ll have to admit I chose this book because it was touted to be a short and quick read. I am not a huge fan of religious self-help books or any self-help books. This book proved to be just what I expected: a quick, easy to follow read. Though I appreciated the message of this book, finding some little tidbits to ponder on, for the most part this book was more of a review and reminder of precepts I already practice in my life. I can see this book being extremely helpful to Christian women who are just discovering the realm of their religion and who are looking to delve deeper into how to make their life more spiritually fulfilling. I cannot say there was anything remarkable in the writing for me but because spirituality is of such a personal nature, I would recommend this book for its quick read, basic easy to follow Christian concepts, and the potential to touch any woman’s life regardless of her situation. This book is an excellent one for devotionals and Christian book clubs for women.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.