Oh my goodness. This book, y’all. THIS. BOOK. Angela Hunt is an amazing author. Her style is so incredibly unique. I was blessed to have EGYPT’S SISTER and now I’ve been doubly blessed to get to read another incredibly moving, mind altering novel by the uberly talented Ms. Hunt.

In this incredible novel, we get to see Judah and Leah. I had a deep sadness for all Leah went through. As someone who has dealt with an abusive man before, I felt all her trust issues, I felt all her pain and suffering. I can’t imagine what it was like during that time period to be abused by your father and not be able to trust.

And Judah….oh, how I loved his flaw filled self. He was not someone I would have normally enjoyed seeing in a book, but as I read the story, I fell in love with him hard. He was such a wonderful person for the story. Seeing him with Leah, well I cheered them on throughout the book.

Ms. Hunt has, once again, hit the Biblical fiction nail on the head. This book will shake you to the core, and leave you with all the feels that a book can leave you with. The inspirational messages from the Lord are perfectly pieced together within the pages of this book. If I could give this book 5 million stars I would. Go grab it now! You won’t be sorry!

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Publisher and was under no obligation to post a review, positive or negative.*

The Cooking Class is back! I'm so glad that Mrs. Brunstetter brought us back to the Troyers and Heidi's cooking class. This one was as addictive as the first two, and Mrs. Brunstetter's extremely captivating talent has shone once again! 

I loved seeing the Troyers and Marsha and Randy again. They are wonderfully chiseled characters and really come to life with each story. The other characters that Mrs. Brunstetter created for this one really stole a piece of my heart, too! Being married to my own firefighter, I loved seeing Darren Keller's character worked in there. It was definitely an added bonus to an already amazing novel. 

I loved the way Mrs. Brunstetter made this novel about the kids. It was such a refreshing change from the first two, though they were amazing, as well. The different familes that Mrs. Brunstetter created really made the story pop. Each family had a different circumstance, different struggles, and they all felt real to me. The inspiring ways that Heidi Troyer helps each family, really shines. 

This is definitely a 5 star worthy addition to a fantastically created 5 star series by the Queen of Amish Fiction. Mrs. Brunstetter adds yummy sounding recipes to the book, making this a tasty treat for all Amish fiction lovers everywhere. While this could easily be read as a stand alone, I don't recommend that you read it as one. Grab this one, along with the first two, and take a trip to the Troyer's farm, to the fun of cooking and baking, and to where God is foremost the center of the story! You won't be sorry! 

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Publisher and was under no obligation to post a review, positive or negative.*

It's 3:30 am and I'm just kicking off the 24hr Clean Sweep ARC Read-A-Thon! Anyone can join the fun! If you have some ARCs you need to clean out, you can still sign up at Caffeinated Book Reviewer. Good luck to everyone participating!

So I got interviewed as a book reviewer as part of an ongoing feature over at BlondeWriteMore.  I think it went pretty well- I'm talking about me, after all- but I can't help but feel like I should've fleshed it out a bit more.  Ah, well. 

(reblogged from BlondeWriteMore)

Welcome to my weekly series – Book Reviewer Interviews. 

I believe that book reviewers hold valuable insight for us writers and their answers to my interview questions make intetesting blog posts.

Please welcome my new book reviewer friend John Green and author of the blog Illuminite Caliginosus

John, thanks so much for sitting in my interview chair. Please tell us about yourself.

First one’s always the hardest. Lessee now- born, raised and still living in Brooklyn, NY. Wanted to be either a baseball player or paleontologist when I was little. Ended up joining the Marines instead, traveled the globe and can’t really say a bad word about my tour. To paraphrase Malcolm X: the plan was theirs, any mistakes were mine.

Worked for Virgin USA for over thirteen years; had a blast and met a lot of good people and had some great experiences. It was like getting paid for hanging out with your friends! If there ever was such a thing as a good retail job, that was it.

The last few years I’ve been in the Sports & Entertainment field; blogging and reviewing was something I kinda fell into, and I really enjoy doing it. I’ve met a lot of good and… interesting… people during my online career.

I’m also a member of Amazon’s Vine program and a former Top 1000 Reviewer on the site.

Been an avid & voracious reader all my life; I was that nerdy kid who’d always get “volunteered” to enter trivia contests, spelling bees, etc, and I always had to take something into the bathroom with me to read (once upon a time that wasn’t always seen as a good thing. Neither was being nerdy). One of these days I’ll finally finish my own novel and then get to see how the other half lives.

Anyone who wishes to contact me for any reason can do so via: Email / Booklikes /
WordPress / Twitter / Pinterest

What made you start reviewing books?

During my time at Virgin USA I was the Magazines Buyer for the NY stores, getting my hands on more books and reading material than I’d thought possible (rubs hands gleefully).

**The store was located in the same building where Random House had their offices, and I was on good terms with the building guys so they always let me know when RH would dump out books. Discovered a lot of new authors that way- good, bad and ugly. I’ll always be proud to call myself a Dumpster Diver.**

**Our UPS driver, Joe, offered to grab a few books for me while he was delivering up there, and part of the stack he brought back included the first three books of GRRM’s Song of Ice & Fire- all hardcovers with original artwork.**

After Virgin USA closed I spent a lot of time on Amazon buying even more books. I got in the habit of sifting through the reviews for recommendations, etc, and picked up on a few individuals I felt I could rely upon not to steer me wrong, like EA Solinas, Chibineko and others. I’d always been the one my friends and family would go to for a critique because they knew I was hard but fair, and it finally occurred to me that I should write a few reviews myself- sort of give back a little and have my say. Next thing I know I’m making steady progress through the ranks and I wondered what I could do with this.

How many books do you review a month?

It varies. I’ve slowed down over the past couple years; used to aim for maybe 5-10 a month, right now maybe half that. One of my goals is to clear out some of my TBR pile; I know- we ALL say that, but my work schedule affords me a lot of free time, so I have a good shot at it. I’ve still got stuff going back to the 2010 BEA I haven’t checked out yet.

What is your selection process for reviewing a book?

Nothing set in stone. The easy answer is “whatever catches my attention”, but defining that is the trick. I’m a very eclectic reader; I’ve always been chiefly into Fantasy/Sci-fi but right now I’m really into Steam/Diesel/Atompunk- though I haven’t seen much of the latter two so far. There’s also Lovecraftian Horror, which I think’s been under-appreciated but seems to be enjoying a renaissance now. Guess we can thank the oversaturated PNR/UF genres for that.

Both the blurb and the cover are key, of course- you never get a second chance at that first impression. There’s been quite a few eye candy covers that made me stop to check them out, only to get let down by the synopsis. So many books nowadays, especially in the YA genre, immediately drop the ball from sounding like carbon copies of each other that it’s hard to find anything worth investing time in. I swear you can choose ten, TEN, YA novels at random and the blurbs will all sound the same! How many Chosen Ones with Destined/Fated/Soulmates stories does the human race need? When’s the next Alice in Wonderland/Brothers Grimm ripoff due out? Will this end up being Gregory Maguire’s enduring legacy?

For me, it’s gotta be something at least a little different; whatever the genre it has to be something that makes it appear like the author actually had something to say- a story they wanted to tell and not just aping the latest trend to try and make a quick buck. And that gets harder to find every day.

A good one was Pagan by Andrew Chapman. It’s a PNR/UF/Horror series about vampires having existed for centuries but only certain agencies like the Catholic Church knew of them. All the books, movies, etc, served as misdirection and softening up for when they finally emerged and basically sucker-punched the entire human race. Some countries tried to make nice and assimilate them True Blood-style while others said F-that! Even the werewolves sided with humanity against the vamps. Made for a refreshing change of pace from sparkle-pires and woobie-wolves.

Read the rest of the interview here.

(reblogged from BlondeWriteMore)