Mommy Pick-Me-Ups: Refreshing Stories to Lighten your Load
By Edna Ellison & Linda Gilden
Review by Irene Grove

Have only a few minutes to spare?  Want to have devotions but are busy with a newborn baby?  This collection of 77 short stories is perfect for you.  Each story is relevant to issues mothers face in their everyday life.  Read the full review

The Bride Bargain
By Kelly Eileen Hake
Review by Roseanna White

Clara Fields is determined to make a new life for herself and her aunt. After living under the cruel thumb of her uncle for years, she is determined never again to feel the oppressive rule of a man. And when the kindly Mr. Reed in Buttonwood, Nebraska offers her the deed to his house, she sees visions of an independent future dancing before her eyes. There’s only condition: she has to convince Mr. Reed’s doctor son to settle down in Buttonwood and marry one of the town’s eligible young ladies. Simple! Right?  Read the full review

Unbridled Dreams
By Stephanie Grace Whitson
Review By  Deborah Khuanghlawn

Irmagard Friedrich was living the life her mother wanted. She seemed destined to live the life of a proper lady with finishing school in her future. That all changes when Buffalo Bill comes to town and Irma leaves home to fulfill her life long dream of becoming a rider in his show. With a new name and a new life ahead of her, Liberty Belle travels across the country and becomes the center of attention of two possible suitors. It's more than she could have ever dreamed of. Who wouldn't want to star alongside Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley as trick rider in the Wild West show? Read the full review

Suspicious Minds
By Christy Barritt
Review by Roseanna White

Bills must be paid. That’s the only reason Gabby St. Claire takes the mold remediation job, when her specialty is crime-scene cleaning. And it is g-r-o-s-s. But in the interest of paying her rent, she shimmies into the nasty crawlspace under the decades-empty house. And comes face to blue-suede-shoes with the King. Who is, without a doubt, dead. Now, how can her police-detective boyfriend possibly expect her to keep away from a case like this?  Read the full review

The Renovation
By Terri Kraus
Review by Shari Van Baale

I selected this book for review initially because of the intriguing title. I very much admire old houses and the process of rebuilding and restoring them. My dad was a carpenter, and I will always remember helping him hold boards to cut, the smell of freshly cut wood, frequent trips to the lumber yard and going with him to help others with their building projects.  Read the full review

Miss Fortune
By Sara Mills
Review by Roseanna White

A knock on the door at four in the morning always spells trouble to a PI. The only female investigator in New York in 1947, Allie Fortune has learned to trust her instincts—and her instincts say that there’s more to Mary Gordon than the woman lets on when she barges in that morning. Allie agrees to help her, but as an international mystery comes to light, she soon realizes there are more people on this case than just her. And maybe if she agrees to pool her resources with the FBI, handsome agent Jack O’Connor can help her with a problem of her own: finding the man she loves, who went missing in the war.  Read the full review

Keeping His Pants On Until He Gets Home
By Joyce S. Oglesby
Review by Jennifer Bogart

Joyce Oglesby, a pastor's wife of 35 years issues a clarion call to women to passionately engage their husbands in the battle against infidelity.  A refreshing change of pace from books that often sweep the issues of adultery and subsequent divorce under the rug, Oglesby encourages women to fight the good fight for their marriages, and she's not talking fisticuffs. Read the full review

The Big Picture
By Jenny B. Jones
Review by Stephanie L. Morrill

Fresh and honest are the two words that came to mind as I read Jenny B. Jones latest installment of the Katie Parker series (The Big Picture, A Katie Parker Production Act Three). Katie lives in In Between, Texas with her darling foster parents and endearingly crazy foster granny. When her mother is released from prison, she wants to start a new life with her daughter in a new town, and Katie is forced to walk away from a town she loves and a family who dotes on her. She also leaves behind a fabulous church, friends, and a boyfriend who suddenly can’t take his eyes off his ex. Even though life with her mom in the trailer park goes downhill very quickly, Katie falls in with a nice group of kids from a quaint church, including the pastor’s son, who’s dreamy enough to make her and the reader forget about that guy back in In Between. Read the full review

A Purpose Under Heaven
By Derek V. Smith
Review by Roseanna White

Technology—a force that defines our age. Alone, it is nothing. Just a tool, neither good nor bad. But as a tool, it can be used for great things or evil things depending on the hand that wields it. This is a truth that Derek V. Smith, CEO and chairman of a firm dealing in decision-making technology, is well acquainted with. In A Purpose Under Heaven, Smith sets out to tell a story that will hammer this point home.  Read the full review

Hope for the Journey Through Cancer
By Yvonne Ortega
Review by Monty Self

 “Cancer.” Even the word strikes fear in the human heart.  No other disease affects the human spirit so deeply.  Unlike other diseases where the body wears out or is attacked, cancer is the human body turning upon itself.  Oncology patients often wrestle with their mortality, the pain of broken dreams, and a need to understand the causes of human suffering.  All of these questions naturally lead to a spirituality quest.  Read the full review

The Edge of Recall
By Kristen Heitzman
Review by Shari Van Baale

A whisper in her ear... A voice in her head... A dream...or a recurring nightmare? From unconscious thought to conscious shock, our story begins, at first in regression, and then - Smith Chandler, now a design architect with his own team, calls on an old college friend (who was also a previous girlfriend), Tessa Young, hoping to recruit her to help him complete a special new build. It requires the reconstruction of an authentic 17th century labyrinth on the grounds where Smith is designing a mammoth custom home for his clients. Read the full review

It's All About Us
By Shelley Adina
Review by Mimi Baker

Are you looking for a realistic view of teen life in a fictional setting? Do you have a teen girl who enjoys Christian fiction? Then Shelley's series about three friends is the perfect choice.  Read the full review

Sincerely, Mayla
By Virginia Smith
Review by Michelle Garlinger

Sincerely, Mayla was a great follow up to Just As I Am. At the beginning of the story the author expresses her hesitance in writing book two hoping that it will be able to stand up to book one that everyone enjoyed so much. Well, Virginia, no fears....it did! Mayla is back and is jobless. After the boss's niece moves in on Mayla job, Mayla begins to question herself. She has regrets about not going to college after high school and is stuck in a rut. However, after an interview in wet, snow soaked clothes (from trying to rescue a pet rabbit off the road), Mayla decides to head to Florida to visit the aunt and grandmother that she has not seen in years.  Read the full review

Just As I Am
By Virginia Smith
Review by Michelle Garlinger  

Readers fall in love with Mayla in Just As I Am. Purple haired, four piercings in each ear, and two on her face, friends with gays...Mayla is not a character you are easily introduced to in Christian Fiction. However, at the beginning of the book Mayla is baptized and continues to live her life for Christ throughout the story. She is a good example of what a beginning Christian should be.  Read the full review

THE FORBIDDEN
By  Beverly Lewis
Review by Laura V. Hilton  

Nellie Mae Fisher and her love, Caleb Yoder, are separated by a church split. Caleb’s father is not allowing Caleb to see Nellie Mae anymore since her father has left the Old Order Amish Church and started attending a New Order one. Nellie Mae assures Caleb she intends to stay Old Order, but she can’t deny the pull she has toward the New Order church her parents attend. Read the full review

Learn New Testament Greek
By John H. Dobson
Reviewed by: E. Abraham  

John Dobson, author of Learn Biblical Hebrew, continues his successful method of teaching foreign languages as he tackles the New Testament language: Greek. He applies the same methods and approaches that he used to convey the concepts of the Hebrew language to teach Greek. Read the full review

Blue Like Jazz
by Donald Miller
Review by David Mundt 

Subtitled “non-religious thoughts on Christian spirituality,” this book consists of Miller’s musings on Christian teachings and ideas. It is entertaining and even helpful in understanding how people approach the Christian faith and wrestle with its ideas.  This book is being widely read on college campuses and so I would recommend that pastors, youth pastors, and college ministry leaders read it.  Read the full review

Your Mother Has Alzheimer’s
by Margaret Byers, Ann Guyer, and Nancy Willich
Review by David Mundt

If you are the primary care-giver of an Alzheimer's patient or know someone who is, this book is a must-read. Written by three sisters, this book provides an insider's look into caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s. It is their story of caring for their mother. It is written with great sensitivity and provides down-to-earth insights that these sisters wished they had learned earlier in their journey  Read the full review

Sisterchicks Go Brit!
By Robin Jones Gunn
Review by Cheri Clay

Skizzer
By A. J. Kiesling
Review by Deborah Khuanghlawn

Growing Friendships
By Tracy Klehn
Review by V. Colclasure

Many of us have great memories of the fun days of childhood, of going outside to play or neighbor kids knocking on the door. Then we grow up, get busy, and close the door to friendship as a life priority. Becoming aware that skills involved in friendship are often neglected, author Tracy Klehn determined to share her understandings and approaches to initiating, restoring and maintaining them.   Read the full review

Sometimes you just have to get away. That’s what Tiffany LeBoeuf intends to do when she suggests a vacation with her father. They’re both still recovering from her mother’s death, and the beach house in San Diego sounds perfect. But it becomes perfectly trying when a scheduling goof leaves her face to face with Eve Danfield, the epitome of mean. The old Tiffany would have bared her claws and dug in. The new Tiff tries—really, really tries—not to be bothered. Not even by the constant references to Eve’s boyfriend, Jeremy, to whom Tiff is not attracted.  Read the full review

Dancy Ames has your typical up and down life. Her father is an alcoholic and her mother is rather controlling, which is really the reason why her parents are separated. She is working her dream job at Lane Publishing with her eyes set on the Senior Editor Position and living in an apartment with her two best friends, Tabby and Laini. She helps out at the local coffee shop for the owner Nick, who she thinks is part of the mafia with his rough exterior but can’t help thinking of him as the father figure she so desperately needs.  Read the full review

Many books have boasted about its abilities to teach languages. However, from my experience, many books have not delivered. But this book, Learn Biblical Hebrew, has not only delivered but it also exceeded my expectations.  Read the full review

Hoerth and McRay have put together a helpful resource for people who want to know what kind, quantity, and quality of archaeological evidence exists for Bible times. Beginning with Mesopotamia and continuing with Egypt, Palestine, Persia, Turkey, Greece, and Italy, Hoerth and McRay systematically walk us through the archaeological finds pertaining to each of these regions and show us the significance to the Biblical narrative. Read the full review

Emily Benton is on the verge of becoming the first female to be elected President of America. Her campaign manager Kate Rosen is doing whatever it takes to make Emily's lifelong dream come true. This means making Emily look to be the best candidate possible and proving to the voters that she has what it takes to run the nation. However, there are those that want to stop Emily with threats and shootings. Kate also has to face the dilemma of what to do when her faith conflicts with the dark side of politics.  Read the full review

Many in North America think of Harry Potter or India when they consider the words “curses” and “occult”. After all, it seems like something that can only happen in movies or in places really far away. However, Unbroken Curses reveals the contrary to be true. In civilized and educated North America, curses and witchcraft are subtle and hidden. Read the full review

Jazmin’s parents have created a program that allows them to hear the Voice of God, a program that they have been kidnapped for. Jaz is only thirteen years old, a very grownup thirteen-year-old and has run to the one place her parents always told her to go if there was trouble: to her Uncle Charlie.  Read the full review

Pagan Christianity? Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices, may very well be the most important book written on the Christian church in the last two millennia.  Frank Viola and George Barna team up to give their readers a critical examination of the last 1700 years of church history.  Does the institutional church have any biblical and historical right to exist?  “Are the practices of the institutional church (the clergy/laity system, salaried pastors, sacred buildings, the order of worship, etc.) God-approved developments to the church that the New Testament envisions? Or are they an unhealthy departure from it?”   Read the full review

Haunting and powerful are two words that come to mind at the close of reading Roseanna M. White’s debut novel, A Stray Drop of Blood. Not since Francine Rivers’ Mark of the Lion trilogy has a book and its characters captured me so completely. From its rich, historical prose that depicts the era of Christ with startling reality, to a compelling love story that will both jolt and seize your heart, this is one of those rare novels that haunts you centuries beyond the last page. Read the full review

Elizabeth Westbrook is determined to prove to the world—and her Senator father—that a woman can be an outstanding photographer and journalist.  She has the perfect opportunity, too: a trip to the Colorado Rockies. All she has to do is send her work back to her employer at the Chronicle, and she may win a new position. One where she can use her own name.  Now all she needs is a guide through the wilds. . . and to keep control of the lung condition that had killed her mother when she was Elizabeth’s age. Read the full review

In the third book in the Daughters of Blessings series we are told the story of Grace Knutson, the daughter of Lars and Kaaren. Because she is deaf, she has always had to rely on everyone else, therefore earning the nickname "Grace Always." But she wants to break out of that mold, and her opportunity comes when Jonathan Gould arrives from the city to stay with the Bjorklands. His city ways and her country style seem to blend well together to the point where Grace leaves home to go to New York. Now she has to rely on herself to break barriers and prove that she can survive on her own.  Read the full review

A SUSPICION OF STRAWBERRIES
By Lynette Sowell
Review by Laura V. Hilton

Andi Clark loves her soap shop, and her new facial scrubs are taking off. She hopes that business will be even better now that Charla Rae Thacker and her bridesmaids are coming for a morning of pre-wedding pampering. Andi lets Charla Rae pick out her own facial scrub and then waits on the wedding party hand and foot while they are in her store. The last thing she expected is for Charla to keel over dead from an allergic reaction to strawberries—when Andi personally made a cherry facial scrub.  Read the full review

Reading this fast legal suspense story, Blood Brothers was like being buckled into an intense thrill ride.  You know the kind. The extremely amazing roller coaster ride with all its surprises, twists, turns, ups and downs.  I just couldn’t put this book down.  I kept reminding myself “This is just Fiction” (breathe)! What was so unnerving to me was the story line about the pharmaceutical companies and how they rule the world! (or would like to). It was fascinating and scary all at the same time when Rick Acker describes the internal workings of a large pharmaceutical company and how they interact with the FDA.  All the court room drama in the story was just as powerful. It reminded me of the TV show Law and Order “Criminal Intent” on steroids, very vivid and deep.  Read the full review

Dr. Rachel Donovan has worked real hard to build a name for herself in Shady Grove’s a town where she grew up. The people of this town voted her Citizen of the Year because she loves them and they know it. She wants to make people proud of her but how can she do that when the past is not far behind. Always overshadowing her achievements. She was the responsible child growing up, always easy going and someone you could rely on until that one summer when her world was turned upside down. One bad choice, that’s all it took to be out cast and all alone. She thought she would never recover from that one decision.   Read the full review

Well, I finished a great book today. My Heart Remembers by Kim Vogel Sawyer. It was a story of three siblings who are orphaned during a tenement fire in NYC. The eldest, Maelle, has promised her father that she would take care of her siblings. She does not want to see them split up. But unfortunately after spending a short amount of time in the city's orphanage, the three children are carted o to a train heading west, the orphan train. And inevitably the three children are split up to three different families.  Read the full review

Lily is not in the small town of Browning City, Iowa to stay.  Nothing in the world could possibly convince her to forego her dreams of city life—people, lights, and enough noise to keep her from ever feeling lonely again.  It’s what she wants.  That’s why she’s determined to avoid Ben Purcell. The new man in town sends sparks down her spine, but he’s made it clear he’s in Browning City is his final destination, which means he isn’t the right man for her. Read the full review

This is an adorable book about how God cares for his animals.  If your child is interested in animals he/she will enjoy this book.  It is meant for younger children but as an adult I even enjoyed reading it. Read the full review

This book tells the story of a high school boy falling in love.  The author does a great job letting you into the mind of the main character.  Dante, the teenage boy and main character, feels things deeply but quietly.  He notices a girl in class and is drawn to her.  I love how the story centers on the young mans viewpoint and yet you get to know the other characters as well.  Even as an adult reading this story you can relate to the emotions the characters feel.  The girl Dante is attracted to is Helen.  She comes alive in the pages with her well written responses to Dante’s advances.  Her family life is an intricate part of the story and helps you understand her character even better.  She has an adorable younger sister, Maristella, whose interaction with Dante is priceless.   Read the full review

Abby Warner, editor of her family founded and operated Oak Hill Gazette, struggles with financial pressures that threaten to destroy her 100+year old family business and heritage. She reluctantly agrees to a twelve-week audit by Campbell Publishing, a Chicago-based conglomerate that considers the Gazette for acquisition. When jaded playboy and heir apparent Mark Campbell shows up to do the audit, he insults Abby with his ignorant and condescending attitude toward her small town and business. Although a mutual attraction flickers between them, it can’t change the fact that in Abby’s eyes, MBA/CPA Mark is a jerk and a slacker. Read the full review

Sarah Woodward came to Kentucky as mail order bride—for a man who’d fallen in love with another before she showed up.  But Sarah’s convinced the Lord led her to Little Hickman for a reason, and she isn’t about to leave just because a husband wasn’t awaiting her.  She has plenty of money, and she doesn’t mind the distance between her and the man back east determined to marry her.  What she does mind is the way one Rocky Callahan is dealing with his niece and nephew, who rode in on the stage with her. Read the full review

Dani Richards thinks she was getting a night off from journalism when she takes her aunt to the theater—but that’s before she discovers a dead body in the next box. And before her old flame Caleb arrives, now an investigator for the local police. She gets to cover the case by default—but the deeper she digs, the clearer it becomes that the killer won’t rest until she backs off.  And that’s something she just can’t do. Read the full review

Hours after Catherine Newbury meets an intriguing American architectural student, Carter Danby, at her home in England, her father, a wealthy merchant, is wrongly accused of a heinous crime. Newbury is imprisoned, but not before he bundles his daughter off to America with two trusted servants. Five years later in Philadelphia, where Catherine has been posing as the daughter of her servants, she desperately works as a dress designer and seamstress with hopes to prove her father’s innocence and gain his freedom before it is too late.  Read the full review

“A sojourner is one who resides as a foreigner or stranger in an unknown land.”  So starts this book about our journey here on earth as Christians.  The author does a great job describing how we should be different then the world we live in.  There are ample scripture references to back up what she points out.  The personal examples from her life are filled with God’s grace and love.  There are current events used to help clarify the principles she teaches.  The best parts of the book are the explanations and definitions of different Bible verses, words or events.  You come away feeling you better understand every scripture she refers to. Read the full review

Why has the cell church strategy flourished in other countries but floundered in North America? Cell churches around the world are exploding in growth but not in North America. Joel Comiskey takes a close look at the North American culture and then attempts to provide a model that will work in this context. And to be clear, the cell church strategy is not the same as small group ministry. Cells differ from groups in their intentional emphasis on evangelism, leadership development, and multiplication.  Read the full review