"Plain Proposal" by, Beth Wiseman

I had a chance to review the book “Plain Proposal” by Beth Wiseman. This book follows the life of a teenage Amish girl named Miriam Raber living in Lancaster County. She has always had her eyes set on Saul Fisher, a teenage Amish boy in her same community, but is torn when she must decide whether to continue with the dream of marrying Saul and possibly leaving the only life that she has ever known, or staying in the community and perhaps losing Saul forever. Her cousin, Shelby, is sent to stay at her family’s house for the summer and she helps her to renew her faith in God and family. This is a wonderful love story full of hope and insight into the lives of the Amish community.

This was a great book that allowed me to understand more about the ways of the Amish and their strong sense of community. I am very interested in reading more of Beth Wiseman’s books and would highly recommend this book to anyone that likes a good Christian romance novel and wants to learn more about the Amish community. I received a free copy of this book for an honest review through the publishers at BookSneeze.com.

"When the Heart Cries" by, Cindy Woodsmall

This novel entitled “When the Heart Cries” is a fictional story by Cindy Woodsmall. This is the first book in the “Sisters of the Quilt” book series of three. This story is about the life of an Old Order Amish teenage girl, Hannah, who faces many overwhelmingly difficult trials yet even through the trials she learns to trust God and comes into a personal relationship with him, in which she never realized was possible.

This book was excellent! It did teach me a lot about the Old Order Amish culture that I was unaware of. This book focuses on seeing the good things even in difficult and bad situations which is always a good lesson for me to remember. It left me wanting to jump up and get the next book in the series to find out what happens to Hannah. I would highly recommend this book to any avid fiction reader. I received a free copy of this book for an honest review through Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers.

"The Promises She Keeps" by, Erin Healy

This book entitled “The Promises She Keeps” by Erin Healy is a very creative book. It weaves together the lives of five very interesting characters; an autistic artist named Chase, Chase’s caregiver and twin sister Chelsea, a singer named Promise that has cystic fibrosis, a witch named Porta, and Porta’s substance abusing son and aspiring artist named Zack. This book shows the struggles of following the things of the flesh and that everlasting life is only given because of Jesus Christ.

When reading the description of this book I didn’t think that I was going to particularly like it because there were too many “interesting” characters involved but, I ended up really liking this book and not wanting to put it down. Although the characters in this book are extreme, you can also find that you relate with one or several of them. Chase sees life for what it really is, Chelsea is career oriented, Promise is always looking for greatness and fame, Porta is seeking lasting youth, and Zack is trying to avoid life. It had enough quirkiness to be very interesting and to make you think about and re-evaluate your own life and goals.

The one and only critique that I would give is that the author didn’t know enough about cystic fibrosis (CF) to know that there would not be two friends with CF living together. Although individuals with CF can sometimes be around other people, it is deadly for them to be around another person with CF because of the harmful bacteria that is likely to be passed back and forth to each other. I received a free copy of this book for an honest review through the publishers at BookSneeze.com.

"Little Star" by, Anthony DeStefano

The book “Little Star” is a children’s picture book that captures the Christmas story through the eyes of a star. This story begins with a little boy looking out the window asking his father where the little star is that shone brightly to announce the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. The father tells the story of the little star being too small and lonely that he got ignored just like Mary and Joseph got ignored when they were searching for an inn. The little star, although smaller than the others, spent all of his power to shine brightly so that Jesus could stay warm and others could find him to worship. It ends by describing that even though that star is no longer in the sky, that it is remembered when we put the star on the top of our Christmas tree every year.

This book was cute and showed a different interpretation than the typical Christmas stories, from the eyes of the star. It was a very creative idea but, I didn’t necessarily like all of the book’s wording. Although it did tell the story of Jesus’ birth, it also said that the star was meant to warm Jesus when really it was a sign that he was born and allowed a way for people to find him and worship him. All in all, this book was just alright. I am sure that I will read it to my daughter when she gets older but I don’t think that it will necessarily be a favorite Christmas story. I received a free copy of this book for an honest review through Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers.

"God Loves Me More Than That" By, Dandi Daley Mackall

This an adorable, rhyming children's book about how God's love is higher, deeper, wider, bigger, louder, and softer than even the highest, deepest, widest, biggest, loudest, and softest things possible on earth. When I was reading this book it brought to my mind the verse "And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:17-19).” This book has wonderful illustrations and captures even my one year old daughter’s attention. This is definitely a book that will be a family favorite for years to come. I received a free copy of this book for an honest review through Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers.

"SoulPrint" By, Mark Batterson

This book entitled "SoulPrint" is written by Mark Batterson. This book implores you to take a look at your own life to find what you are truly destined to be; find your soul print. Mark does an excellent job explaining and describing how to find your unique soul print. He expresses the need of past experience, integrity, embarrassment, and acknowledgment of sins as helping you to define your unique skills and self discovery. He does this through following David as he goes through joyous times, times of battle, and difficult times all as part of God’s divine plan for him.

He explains thoroughly throughout the book that each of our soul prints are as unique as our fingerprints and that God’s plan for our life is not the same as his plan for anyone else. He expresses that each of us needs to strive to find ourselves and not be defined by others but to be defined solely by God. This book was excellent and I would highly recommend it to anyone. In my life, as I am sure it is in most lives, I tend to define myself by what others expect or what is socially acceptable. This book can help anyone from any walk of life to navigate your way back to the path that God intends you to be on. I received a free copy of this book for an honest review through Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers.

"Adventures in BoogaBooga Land: Squid Sushi Loses His Marble" (DVD) by, Thomas Nelson

The dvd entitled Adventures in BoogaBooga Land: Squid Sushi Loses His Marble is a children’s dvd that teaches three parables. The dvd contains three episodes, one for each of the parables and each episode is about 15 minutes in length. The three parables that it portrays are: the lost pearl (Matthew 13:45-46), the soil and the seeds (Matthew 13:24-30), and the wedding banquet (Matthew 22:2-14). Although I was looking for a great new Christian dvd for my daughter this one was a bit of a disappointment to me. I was expecting to see a show that was different than most other cartoons because it was based on the Bible. The only way that I could tell that it was a Christian dvd was the fact that it told the Bible verse that the parable came from before each of the segments began.

The first parable portrayed on the dvd was the parable of the lost pearl. I did not feel that it had a very good story line and that it didn’t relate anything to the kingdom of heaven or even hint at it. The second parable portrayed was the soil and the seed and had nothing to do with the parable at all. The third parable portrayed was the wedding banquet and by far, out of the three, this one made the most sense and had a good enough cartoon storyline to go along with it.

The characters of this series are just average but lack a bit of energy. The Christian values don’t seem to be represented much in these movies because there are a lot of characters getting hurt (splatted, sling-shotted, catapulted, etc.) with no apologies or asking if they are alright. I wouldn’t really recommend this dvd to anyone with the vision of helping their child learn about the Bible stories but if you would like just a typical cartoon then this dvd would be fine for that. I received a free copy of this book for an honest review through the publishers at BookSneeze.com.