Review: A Short Walk to the Edge of Life by Scott Hibbard

A Short Walk to the Edge of Life is the tale of one man's physical and spiritual journey through an extraordinary life-and-death circumstance. 

A seasoned hiker with lots of experience, Scott Hibbard had no idea what awaited him when he set out on what would turn out to be the hiking experience of a lifetime. Anticipating a relatively short day hike, Scott set out into the South American desert unprepared for what lay ahead. 

Unknowingly going off-course from his intended route, Scott found himself lost with a rapidly diminishing amount of water and no way to get more. As he struggled to get back on course, Scott found through and unexpected and lifesaving set of miracles that God's plan for our lives can turn out to be far different than what we expect and that sometimes in order to be rescued you have to be past the end of your rope. 

This book was pretty good. I enjoyed it. The one part that bothered  me was the author's credit to his late brother, who the author saw while hallucinating, for getting him back on the path that would lead him to being rescued. I think God can use hallucinations to accomplish His purpose, and I just think that the author should have given all the credit to God for that. 

If you enjoy hiking yourself or if you enjoy true survival stories, you would enjoy this book. I rate it 4 stars. 

I received a copy of this book free from the publisher for the purpose of writing this review. All opinions expressed here are my own. Thank you, WaterBrook Multnomah, for my free copy! :-)

Book Review: Life Support by Candace Calvert

I was really disappointed in this book. I was looking forward to reading a book relating to the medical field because I thought it would be very interesting... but Life Support was not that great. The author's writing just didn't pull you into the story, and the storyline fell flat. There was a lack of strength in the writing. When I finished the whole thing  I was just like "And the point of this book was....?" It was difficult to get into, and was not very interesting. I was really disappointed in this book. I hate to be harsh, but this book was lame. I would not recommend it.

I received a copy of this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Review: The Young Entrepreneur's Guide to Starting and Running a Business

Start your own business!

Whether or not you are a "young" entrepreneur or entrepreneur wannabee, you will find this book helpful. I have been very impressed by it. It is very, very detailed, with lots of real-life examples, figures, facts and details. A very thorough book, and of course all the stories of small-business entrepreneurs are very inspiring to start a small business of your own. Even if you are not going to start a business right away, this book will give you some interesting reading material and lots of things to think about!

At first I was surprised at how huge it is - at nearly 500 pages it's pretty thick - but it's full of tons of great information. I'd definitely recommend this book.

I received a copy of this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Spoken For by Robin Jones Gunn and Alyssa Joy Bethke

I knew I wanted to read this book when I saw that one of the authors is Robin Jones Gunn. My first taste of Roin's wiritng was the Christy Miller series, which I loved, and I have read and reread Praying For Your Future Husband multiple times. I knew that if Robin wrote it, it would be a good read. This was the first time I heard of Alyssa Joy Bethke but after reading Spoken For, I would love to read more by her.
 
Spoken For is about the relentless love that God has for us, now He loves us, wants us, and pursues us because we are His true love. Robin and Alyssa write about how you are wanted, pursued, loved, have been called, are of great value, are a peculiar treasure, are set free, covered, promised and spoken for. Robin and Alyssa use examples from their own lives and love stories as an example of God's love for us. Bible verses, poems, and quotes lace this book together. 

This book was sweet and encouraging. I recommend it to ladies of all ages, whether you are single or married. 

I received this book free from WaterBrook Multnomah in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! 

Review: A Broken Kind of Beautiful

At 24, Ivy is in jeopardy of losing her modeling contract to a new and younger face. Caught up in bitterness over the love and acceptance that she has longed for but never received from her late father, Ivy ends up in a small South Carolina town modeling wedding dresses for her stepmother. This brings her back in touch with David, her stepmother's nephew, who also happens to be Ivy's photographer for the wedding dress shoots. Doing photography again after he'd sworn long ago to never pick up a camera again brings back David's memories of a past he wants to forget. Will David accept forgiveness for the past? Will Ivy realize the love that God has for her and her immeasurable value in His eyes? Will both of them embrace healing?

A Broken Kind of Beautiful by Katie Ganshert was a worthwhile read. I rate it 4 stars. Women of all ages would enjoy this book.

Thank you to WaterBrook Multnomah for sending me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: Cloak of the Light by Chuck Black

This is the first book that I've read by Chuck Black and I will definitely be reading more by him in the future.When I looked at the description of this book, I thought it looked like it might be kind of strange. Or weird. But then I remembered that I thought the same thing at first about a book that I read awhile back, and that book turned out to be one of my favorite books ever. So I just had this hunch that I should give Cloak of the Light a chance and I'm glad I did. I absolutely loved this book. No review that I could write would do justice to it. It was FANTASTIC.

Cloak of the Light was very strongly written, excellent plot, and had spiritual redemption woven into the story without being preachy or cliche. It was a great fiction story that also dealt with spiritual warfare (one of the main themes in the book) in a really interesting way. I really appreciated how at the end of the book the author listed a bunch of Scriptures about angels and what we know for fact about them. This is the first book in a series and I am really looking forward to reading the next one. This book was great and I HIGHLY recommend it!!

Thank you to WaterBrook Multnomah for sending me a free copy of Cloak of the Light in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed it!

Book Review: Prepared for a Purpose by Antoinette Tuff

This is the inspiring true story of Antoinette Tuff, a woman who God used to stop a school shooting in Atlanta, Georgia from happening.

This book was a worthwhile read. It will remind you of God's work in our lives every day and how He has a purpose for each one of us despite the hard times that we may go through or challenges that we might face along the way. I enjoyed reading this book. I rate 4 1/2 stars.

I recommend this book, especially to anyone who enjoys biographies or true stories of God working through people.

Thank you to Bethany House Publishers for sending me a free copy of Prepared for a Purpose in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: The Sentinels of Andersonville by Tracy Groot

Book Review
Title: The Sentinels of Andersonville
Author: Tracy Groot

The Sentinels of Andersonville is a Civil War story. Emery Jones, a Southern soldier, strikes up an unlikely friendship with Lew, a captured Union soldier he is escorting to Andersonville, a POW camp. Upon reaching Andersonville with Lew, Emery is shocked to discover how inhumane the prison's conditions are and begins formulating a risky plan to get Lew out of there. Dance Pickett, a sentry at Andersonville, is also aware of the horrible conditions in the camp. Violet, a local southern girl, learns of what is going on in the camp and is determined to do something about it. Together, will Emery, Dance and Violet be able to raise awareness to the townspeople of what is going on or will they be seen as traitors to the South? And will Lew make it out of Andersonville alive?

I was really disappointed in this book. The description sounded great- strong plot, good characters- but the story just fell flat. Parts of it were really choppy and hard to follow and the characters just weren't believable enough. I felt like the story just wasn't written with enough depth to it to make a good-quality read. There were some parts of the book tha were good- the Golden Rule was an underlying theme, and this book will make you ask yourself the question "Who is MY neighbor?"- but overall, I don't recommend this book because I think that you'll be disappointed in it.

Thank you to Tyndale House Publishers for sending me a free copy of The Sentinels of Andersonville in exchange for an honest review.

Author Biography can be found here: http://mediacenter.tyndale.com/2_authors/author_bio.aspx?authorID=1376

Read the first chapter of the book here: http://www.tracygroot.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/The-Sentinels-of-Andersonville-Chapter-1.pdf

Review: Blades of Valor by Sigmund Brouwer (ebook)

In the fourth and last book in the Merlin's Immortals series, Thomas has made his way to the Holy Land on a quest to find answers to his questions about Magnus and the mysteries that surround it. But along with answers, Thomas finds still more questions that must be solved. Because of an unexpected plot twist, Thomas sets out for Jerusalem alone on yet another risky journey. Will he find there what he is searching for? Will he be able to determine who he can trust? What is the final key that will unlock all of the mysteries?

This was a great conclusion to the Merlin's Immortals series. Like the previous three books, Blades of Valor is strongly written. Excellent storyline, great theme and characters. This is one of my favorite series' of all time and I HIGHLY recommend this book and the whole series.

Thank you to WaterBrook Multnomah for giving me a free ebook copy of Blades of Valor in exchange for an honest review.

Review on Ten Days Without by Daniel Ryan Day

"Life is full of good intentions, but for too many, our good intentions never become good actions - they don't move us forward, draw us closer to God, or make a difference in the world. Good intentions are cans of paint that could have become amazing works of art... but never did." -Daniel Ryan Day in Ten Days Without

Ten Days Without is a book about someone who went beyond good intentions to do something to make a difference. For ten days at a time, Daniel Day went without a specific "essential" thing in order to raise awareness for a need. For example, he went without shoes for ten days to raise awareness for disease. He went ten days without furniture to raise awareness for poverty. He went ten days without speaking to raise awareness for victims of human trafficking and slavery. In Ten Days Without, Daniel Day talks about his experience doing these things and encourages the reader to do a Ten Days Without experience too.

This book was interesting, inspiring and challenging. Reading this book really made me think about how much I take for granted and how many people around the world don't even have things like shoes or coats or even a voice and it has challenged me. Reading this book has inspired me to do "Ten Days Without Shoes".

I think that the subtitle sums up this book well: "Adventures in discomfort that will change your world and you". Reading this book will change your perspective, raise your awareness and challenge you to do something about it.

I recommend this book.

Thank you to WaterBrook Multnomah for sending me a free copy of Ten Days Without in exchange for an honest review.