Reading, Writing & Pondering

Smitten,Vermont is a struggling community when the town's largest employer, Smitten Lumber, closes up. Four friends get together and decide to turn Smitten, Vermont into a romantic getaway and honeymoon destination by capitalizing on the town's name. Natalie, Julia, Shelby and Reese are all good friends who love their community and want to see it thrive. The faith of a young girl also helps the 4 friends, as well as others in the town, see what faith in God can do. As all four friends work together to help the town grow again, each of them finds their own true love as well as increasing their faith in God. The four stories of Natalie, Julia, Shelby and Reese are all wound together to create one unified story. Each story is written by one 4 real-life friends and popular Christian fiction authors: Colleen Coble, Kristin Billerbeck, Denise Hunter, & Diann Hunt. As I read the book, I thought the stories all flowed seamlessly from one to the other. It was a light, relaxing read

Jade finally thinks she is in a safe place. . .she is happily married and the owner of 2 successful vintage boutiques. Then the drama begins. . .Jade picks up her mother-in-law, June, from the airport and takes her home to find her father-in-law with another woman. . .Jade's mother is dying from leukemia. Jade, after a few miscarriages, discovers that her husband already has a son--with another woman and she knew nothing about it. Jade, June and Jade's mom, Beryl, decide to hit the road and head back home to where Jade grew up in Iowa. . .It is there where June and Jade come to terms with the challenges in their marriages and where Beryl comes to live out her last days in this touching story. This is book 2 in the songbird series and if you haven't read book 1, I would encourage you to do so before this book. This is one series where you really need to read them in order to truly understand and appreciate the story. I picked this book because I live in Iowa, not all that

The Sweet By and By is a story mostly about Jade. Jade chases her dreams and owns a vintage shop after college. She has also hooked one of the area's most eligible bachelors, Max. Together, they have a pact to leave the past in the past and make their life together about moving forward. . .but does the past really stay in the past or are there repercussions in life as we move forward from our past history? Part of this story is set in Prairie City, Iowa, not far from where I live. Prairie City is where Jade grew up and there are flashbacks to this location throughout the book. I liked that aspect of it. I can't honestly say I enjoyed all of the drama of this story. This book seems to be a rather sad tale but life is sometimes just that way. In any case, I am planning to read on in the series and see how the whole story unfolds. This is the first book in the songbird series. I checked this book out of my local library for this review.

Do you need healing of some sort in your life? Healing Is a Choice by Stephen Arterburn could set you on the healing path in your life. This new book is a revised edition with a complete workbook included within the book. I was glad my review copy was the hard copy of the book so I could  write out the answers to the workbook portion of the book. This book helps you answer the question, "Do you want to get well?" Stephen Arterburn offers 10 choices to help you receive healing, whether that healing be physical, spiritual or emotional. God does heal but according to Arterburn we can either help ourselves facilitate that healing or we might be hindering that healing. Along with the 10 choices, he alternately offers 10 lies that can prevent us from making the healing choices we need to make. I found this book to be extremely helpful to me with some issues I was struggling with. I especially appreciate Stephen Arterburn's openness about challenges he has gone through in his