Saturday, September 12, 2015

From Good to Grace

From Good to Grace: Letting Go of the Goodness GospelMany women feel as if they do not do enough and are not enough. They're always trying hard to be good: a good friend, mom, wife, Christian, employee, or ministry leader, hoping for that "atta-girl" from God. With compelling illustrations from her own life, Christine Hoover leads readers to the understanding that they're living by a lesser gospel, the gospel of goodness, one without Christ's grace. Relying on Scripture, they can start asking, "What does God want "for" me?" before asking, "What does God want "from" me?" Women will breathe a sigh of relief at this powerful message of freedom and hope. Rather than serving God out of obligation or duty, they'll be compelled to love and serve God with great joy.


This book is a little harder for me to review than recent titles I have read.  I feel conflicted.  I ABSOLUTELY love the message of this book.  A life with Jesus does not have to be perfect, just filled with grace, for yourself and others.  However, I felt that many times the same ideas were repeated over and over.  I think this book could have been broken down into more sections to break up the thoughts.  It just started to feel like it was repeating itself.  Again, the message it was relaying was exactly what I needed to read, but I found myself often zoning out because it just all ran together.  I guess what I am trying to say is as much as I think the message is beautiful and one so many need to hear, this book could use some more editing.  If you are looking to change your mindset of trying to be "good" all the time, this book will help you see what you can discover.

 * I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review *

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Love in the Details: A November Wedding Story

Love in the Details: A November Wedding StoryWhen Josh returns to his hometown of Martinsburg, Texas, to help his best friend get married, he didn’t intend to run into church wedding coordinator—and ex-girlfriend—Holly. He can’t help but pine after the girl he never got over.



Holly broke up with Josh years ago in an attempt to ensure his future success. But she loved him then and still loves him now. As she helps him plan his best friend’s wedding, she can’t help but feel horrible for the pain she caused him. And even though she longs to be with Josh, she doesn’t feel worthy of his big-time lifestyle when she is more comfortable in her small town world. Will Josh and Holly be able to keep things as they are when their true feelings threaten to surface at every turn?



This novella didn't blow me away, but I don't think I expected it to either. I was looking for a light read that would be a buffer between other books and this worked. I would mention that I actually thought the plot of this book could have easily been made into a full novel and fared better. The characters had great background and I would have loved to have more, but as a shorter story it was just nothing special.

* I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review *