Whether you are currently walking through the desert place or not, Meredith McDaniel’s “In Want + Plenty” will speak to your heart. Subtitled “Waking Up to God’s Provision in a Land of Longing”, it gets to the heart of the matter, because we are all longing for something, and the only One who can satisfy us is God Himself in the person of Jesus. This book is unique and interactive, taking readers through the book of Exodus on a journey to recognizing and drawing sustenance from God’s provision. The author’s compassionate heart and counseling background shine through and coalesce as she guides readers through the Israelites’ journey, which our own lives mirror in so many ways. This connection focuses on manna: that which God provided for the Israelites in the wilderness and that which we receive today. McDaniel explains that “God’s willingness to enter in and hear the hearts of his people is a form of manna. He is God and he does not owe us that gift of his presence, yet he offers it constantly.” Indeed, this is our blessed assurance, that “when we surrender to trusting Jesus and enter a relationship with him, recognizing him as the ultimate Manna in our life, we do find peace.” Regardless of our circumstances, God is always there, “making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” (Isaiah 43:19).

“In Want + Plenty” has an integrative format perfect for either group or individual study. Its arrangement reminded me of a devotional. There are nine sections interspersed with questions for personal reflection, as well as re:story questions for journaling at the end of each section and a re:sound, a song meant to heal. Highlighted phrases throughout the text and quotations pulled from the text and placed in the margins appear in green and draw the reader’s attention to them while summarizing the valuable skills. Each section begins with an exploration of the Exodus journey, followed by personal stories from the author that are germane to the Biblical story and to the focus of that section. This is a great arrangement because it teaches how the Old Testament is still vitally important to our faith. Furthermore, “In Want + Plenty” demonstrates that our own journey through the desert will lead us, also, to a land of milk and honey if we accept the Manna that God sent for us in the person of Jesus.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Revell and was under no obligation to post a positive review. All opinions are my own.

Adrian Gray,an unpleasant patriarch of an equally unpleasant family invites his six children (and their partners) to the family manor to celebrate Christmas. He is not a very loved or likeable man and his family have solid reasons to murder the old man. And one of them does murder Adrian Gray on Christmas Eve. The identity of the murderer is immediately revealed. This is not a who,how or why done it. The story revolves mainly around the exposure and evidence seeking to convict the culprit. It has definitely a modern,not Golden Age at all,twist about it but it took me an eternity to finish it and some parts just dragged on. True,my mother passed away in December and that really didn't help me to keep focused...

Therefore it is really very difficult to give an unbiased opinion on this classic mystery...

Olivia has started a diary in honor of moving into her new bedroom, which is in the attic of her family's house. She's now in the perfect spot to keep an eye on her neighborhood's goings on, which is fun but also sad, because she can see the empty house where her best friend Lucy used to live.

But then Olivia notices that someone new has moved into Lucy's old house. There's also a new girl, Matilda, in her class. Is it possible that she and Matilda could become friends?

A coworker of mine recently had an "Usborne Facebook party," which I decided to treat as an opportunity to get my Christmas shopping for all my sister's kids done early. I like to read all the books I give the kids, in case they say anything about them (which hasn't happened yet, but an aunt can dream), so that's the stage I'm at now. This particular book was purchased for my youngest niece.

The story is set up as though it were Olivia's diary, complete with her various drawings. Many of the entries read as though Olivia wrote them only a few minutes after the events happened.

I really liked this! I wasn't expecting a chapter book to be so interesting, but I found myself intrigued by the mystery of Matilda's strange behavior, and I enjoyed Olivia's efforts to prove that someone was entering her room when she was gone. Olivia's various intruder detection plans were fun, and her curiosity about and frustration with Matilda were believable. The book's ending was sweet, but not, I think, excessively so.

The one thing that bugged me was that it seemed simultaneously like Olivia and her family had maybe just moved into their house (based off of Olivia getting a new bedroom) but also like they'd lived there for at least a year (based off of Olivia's accounts of slipping through the fence to play with her friend Lucy). It's possible that Olivia once shared a room with one of her siblings, but if that was the case, it wasn't mentioned. It looks like this series is a spin-off of one focused on Olivia's older sister, Ella, so maybe the situation is explained more in those books.

I hope that my niece will end up liking this as much as I did.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

Kaden is the second book in RJ Scott & Meredith Russell’s ‘Boyfriend for Hire’ series and while I really enjoyed Darcy, book #1 in the series I found Kaden to be just a bit more enjoyable. While the Darcy and Kaden both work for ‘Bryant & Waites’ this is the only connection they have to each other making both stories easily readable as a standalone.

When one of the worst moments in Ryan Levesque’s past shows up on social media for all the world to see, his manager decides to use some unorthodox means by which to deal with the resulting negative backlash to Ryan’s acting career and before he knows it Ryan finds himself at ‘Bryant & Waites’ about to embark on a public relations blitz that will hopefully put his public image  back on track. Provided he can keep his personal feelings in check.

Kaden’s worked for ‘Bryant & Waites’ for a few years now and while he’s never had a client as high profile as Ryan Levesque, Hollywood’s latest golden boy, both he and his cousin Gideon (owner & manager of Bryant & Waites) are confident that Kaden’s the right man for the job.

I loved how this story unfolded. The relationship between Ryan and Kaden was a slow burn and initially Ryan was faced with a bit of an emotional dilemma. While he knew that his agent’s plan was very probably the best solution for his situation, it still didn’t go far towards gaining enthusiastic participation from him.

While I liked both of the MCs in this story, I found Kaden easier to warm up to and I loved that his character gave Ryan a chance to share his side of things and that he didn’t just buy into the part of the story that was made public to decide that there wasn’t more to things and that Ryan. I also really liked that Kaden was portrayed as being someone who was kind and patient but without making him seem like he was someone who could be easily manipulated or victimized in any way.

The story was told from shifting POVs which for me made a lot more sense than if it had all come from one direction since we were given not just Kaden’s and Ryan’s backgrounds but some of their personal and emotional reactions to events and it just feels more natural to find out from Kaden or Ryan how they felt about things that happened to each of them in the past or even the present.

While I really enjoyed this story, I have to admit for me there was one minor issue and that was the relationship between Ryan and his sister.  Obviously, they were close she was his PA and while her actions show us that she really cared about her brother for some reason I just wasn’t feeling that close sibling bond that they had and in truth this was probably at least a little bit of ‘it’s me not you’, but other than that little glitch I really enjoyed this one and found myself very invested in the story.

While both Darcy and Kaden are set to the theme of ‘the pretend boyfriend’ each story presents a very different plot and I find myself curious to see what a third book will bring to this series. I’m not sure whose story is next in this series but I’m very much looking forward to finding out.

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A copy of ‘Kaden’ was graciously provided by the authors in exchange for an honest review.