Book Review: Fatal Tide

Fatal Tide by Lis Wiehl is the third book in the Salem trilogy.  I read the first one because I had read other book by Lis Wiehl and liked them.  After 50 pages of the first Salem Trilogy, I was hooked.  I have been eagerly awaiting the other two.  The second came out 6-8 months ago.  It was really good (not as good as the first, but still).  I was so excited to get my hands on the third one and see how everything played out.

Fatal Tide is the final chapters in the story of Dani and Tommy fighting evil forces (demons) who are trying to destroy the world.  We left off with Tommy and Dani defeating a dragon like beast and realizing the evil forces at St Adrian's Academy had poisoned water supplies around the world with a new drug that would turn children into violence addicted murderers.  Now Danni and Tommy along with a few close trusted friends must infiltrate the school and pharmaceutical company to find out more information in what they can do. With the help of a few friends along the way they all fight for something greater than their lives or their town.  They fight for the world and with the heavenly realm to keep Hell from consuming the world.

From the beginning this book is full of action and suspense.  There are many close calls and many deaths.  Lis Wiehl has done an amazing job (again) bringing this story together to create an amazing third act.  This is a book that is very hard to put down.  I cant wait to see what she comes up with next.


Note: I did receive a copy of this book to read and review for free from www.booksneeze.com.  The opinions above are my own and I was not compensated for a positive review.

Book Review: Jesus on Every Page

Jesus on Every Page by David Murray is a book about how Jesus is reflected and in not only the New Testament by also the Old Testament.

As most Christians, I knew the prophesies and foreshadowing of Christ in the Old Testament.  Lately my pastor has spoken more on how Jesus was more involved in the Old Testament. 

Mr. Murray took all my theories and expanded on them one-hundred fold.  He does a very good job at going through all the different histories, beliefs, laws, etc. and show how Jesus was intimately involved.

I would say like most good book, while reading, 25% of the information I had a light bulb moment and agreed with immediately.   Another 50% I am very intrigued by his stance and all the evidence supporting and am excited to do some further research and see if I agree.  The remaining 25% the author and I have different interpretations of The Word.  Although I clearly understand his point and the evidence supporting it, I do not agree with his conclusions.

All in all I really enjoyed this book.  I found it very well written and laid out.  It is also well put together with references and evidence supporting his beliefs.  He does quote a lot of other scholars, which I personally found a little off putting.  Instead of describing how he came to a conclusions a lot of times it was just that he had read a book and would quote how the other author came the conclusion.  I understand its all builds onto his greater point but it seemed less emphatic to have the author quote you other authors to get his point across.

Note: I did receive a copy of this book to read and review from Thomas Nelson Publishing through www.booksneeze.com.  The opinions above are my own and I was not compensate for a positive review.

Book Review: A Plain Disappearance

A Plain Disappearance by Amanda Flower is book about murder in the Amish Community. 

Chloe moved to the town of Appleseed Creek almost 2 years ago.  In those two years she has stumbled onto 2 murder mysteries and helped the police solve them.  Now she is glad that it is almost Christmas time and all the murders are behind her.  She is out on a walk/date with her ex-Amish boyfriend Timothy.  As they go for a walk on a snowy evening they come across the body of an Amish girl.  Again, Chloe has to call the police and ends up involved in the mystery of who would murder a young, beautiful Amish girl.

As they piece together the girls life they are amazed at the number of potential suspects; the controlling Amish father, jealous ex courter/boyfriend, current courter/boyfriend, obsessed English teenager/neighbor, Ex-Con car mechanic, or someone more sinister? 

I really enjoyed this book.  I found the characters fun and real.  The story had enough depth to follow and a lot of unexpected twists and surprises to keep me up late reading page after page.  I also enjoyed how the faith portion of the book was brought out by how the characters lived their lives and not overly blatant or out of place.  I am excited to read more stories in this series and see how the characters grow.

(Note: nothing wrong with quoting scripture, its just always seems disconnected when every time there's a problem a character stops to say "Well this is just like Matthew....quote verse perfectly out of preferred translation" and it seems to solve everything)

All in all I loved this book.

Note: I did receive a copy of this book to read and review for free from Handlebar Publishing.  All the opinions above are my own and I was not compensate for a positive review.

Book Review: A Walk Through the Dark

A Walk Through the Dark How My Husband's 90 Minutes in Heaven Deepened My Faith for a Lifetime By Eva Piper, with Cecil Murphey is an amazing account of Eva Piper’s side of the story.

I had read Don Piper’s 90 minutes in heaven a couple years ago and love it.  I was moved and convicted while reading it.  Don’s book describes his experience after being in a car wreck and being dead (aka no heart beat) for 90 minutes.  After a pastor came and prayed over his lifeless body, he came back to life.  Don then goes through a year of painful surgeries and medical treatments to fix his broken legs and arm.  The major injury was 4 in of his femur were missing and were slowly regrown using a device that rebreaks and stretches the existing bone every 4 hours, 1 mm at a time, until the 4 inches have been made. He struggles with constant pain and the depression of being brought back to earth from the perfect Heaven he spent 90 minutes in.

But, the entire time he was describing his story I wondered what it must have been like for his wife and kids.

This book is the answer to my questions. Eva and Cecil did an amazing job communicating Eve’s struggles, emotions, and true feelings.  I loved how she described her struggle with God and why this was happening to her family.  I agree with her that you can question God without questioning your faith or His Godness.  Does that make sense? 

I love how this book focuses on what she learned from the experience not the pain she suffered.  I love her advice on how to handle other people in these long term situations. 

If you can’t tell, I loved this book.  I devoured the ~230 page book in 2 days.  I was only planning on reading a little bit before I fell asleep.  Next thing I knew it was 2 am and I was half way through. 

I would definitely recommend this book and Don’s book to everyone I know.  I cant wait to pass this book on to friends and family to read.

Note: I was given a copy of this book to read and review from www.booksneeze.com for free.  The opinions above are my own and I was not compensated for a positive review.

Book Review: a Bride for All Seasons

A Bride for all seasons: The Mail order bride collection by Margaret Brownly, Deborah Clopton, Mary Connealy, and Robin Lee Hatcher is a series of four stories of men and women who tried to find spouses through the Hitching Post Mail Order Bride Catalogue.  Unknown to the men and women involved, the middle man at the Hitching Post like to edit the ads and correspondence to entice the couples to marry.  After traveling thousands of miles to the Wild West to meet their prospective husbands, the women (and med) are shocked to learn about the edited tidbits of their spouses lives. 

 I really enjoyed this series of stories.  The authors did a great job of developing the characters and allowing the conflicts to play out naturally.  Nothing was overly forced of abruptly fixed to complete a story.  I also enjoyed how all four authors were able to incorporate their faith into the characters without making it too forced.

If you enjoy Christian fiction book with Wild West or Country/Amish themes, I think you would like this book.

Note: I did receive a copy of this book for free from www.booksneeze.com to read and review.  The opinions above are my own and I was not compensated for a positive review.

Book Review: unveiling Grace

Unveiling Grace; The Story of How We Found Our Way out of the Mormon Church by Lynn K. Wilder is an amazing book.   I thought I would find it interesting but I was amazed at how I could not put this book down.

Unveiling Grace is the story of Lynn and her family being introduced and becoming Mormon.  They lived the near ideal Mormon life for many years until one day their phone rang.  Their son who was on his mission in Florida converted to Christianity.  This huge blow leads the entire family to dig deeper into the Mormon bible to disprove his life.  From this they realized that the Bible was the true word of God and the inconsistencies in the book of Mormon.  In the end the entire family leaves the Mormon Church and converts to Christianity.

This story is so good.  I have stayed up very late reading this book.  I just could not put it down.  This is an amazing book for Christians who want to learn more about the Mormon faith and how it differs from Christianity.    

Note: I did receive a copy of this book for free from www.booksneeze.com to read and review.  The opinions above are my own and I was not compensated for a positive review.

Book Review: Reclaiming Love

Reclaiming Love: Radical relationships in a complex world by Ajith Fernando is a book about making Love your first priority.

 This book is an amazing collection of thoughts about how love can revolutionize everything.  Forgiveness, bitterness, envy, contempt, etc can all be fixed if we learn to love as God commanded us to.  This is more than the “I love you, you love me.”  This is “ Love because you have first been loved,” “The greatest commandment is this, to love your neighbor as yourself.”  This is everything Jesus has ever showed us about love, everything Paul and the apostles showed and wrote about as Jesus and love took over their life.

I really enjoyed this book.  He did an amazing job at explaining individual concepts (i.e. the best remedy for contempt or envy is love) and then getting very specific with examples of people in history and in his life.  I loved his use of Corrie Ten Boom’s story over and over again about how love is drastic and life changing.  I have always loved her story.

 

Note: I did receive a free copy of this book from www.booksneeze.com.  The opinions above are my own and I was not compensated for a positive review.