Blood, Tears & Joy by Bill D. Hallsted

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a heart-wrenching book!! Andrew started life as a healthy, happy child, but at the age of two, Andy suffered his first seizure. This began a journey of doctors, medicines, prayer, heartache, bitterness and--finally--joy.

As a mother, this book was very hard to read at times. My mother's heart broke along with these parents as I read of the struggles and anguish they went through. I ached as with brutal honesty the author told of his bitterness and how he not only gave in to it, but cultivated the bitterness, not allowing himself to let go of any slight, real or imagined, each wrong diagnosis, each hurt or resentment. I loved the way God finally got through to him--in the middle of a sermon on forgiveness that the author himself was preaching! Oh, the joy that followed the rooting out of bitterness!! No, Andy wasn't miraculously healed and life didn't suddenly get easier, but the joy from God was now there and they could lean on Him for each trial in life.

I received a copy of this book from BookCrash.com for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Wishing on Buttercups by Miralee Ferrell

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Beth has struggled through the years with the scars on her body that she's not even sure how she got. She doesn't know where her family is or what happened to her. After some bullying as a child, she has ceased to trust pretty much anyone. Jeffrey has secrets of his own, but is drawn to the quiet young woman at his boarding house. Will their secrets keep them apart?

Too many secrets!! That was my overwhelming thought after finishing this book. Communication is so important and pretty much NO ONE communicated much of anything in this book until the end. It ended up quite frustrating as so many moments of anger, hurt feelings, distrust and so forth were easily fixed with a little communication or even just paying attention to the other person. This made for a book that was hard to read at times.

I received a digital copy of this book through NetGalley.com for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Road Trip to Redemption by Brad Mathias

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After discovering their middle daughter had been molested, the Mathias family heads out on a seven-thousand-mile trip across the country in a desperate attempt to reconnect their family. This book tells their story.

Road Trip to Redemption, unfortunately, is an accurate description of a lot of "christian" families today. Parents who are so busy with their lives they aren't spending the time with their kids they need to, unchecked behavior from children, playing at church and christianity and expecting it to be enough to ground the kids in the faith...the list goes on. While I may or may not agree with the way he may do things with his family, just realizing the fact that going to a "hip" church once a week is not the way to grow you and your family spiritually is something that many still don't grasp. Your kids need a PERSONAL walk with the Lord. They need to see you living for Him and not just going through the motions at church and doing your own thing at home. I appreciate the honesty of the author that many of the issues in the family were his "fault" and not trying to pass the blame along.

One thing about this book that really got to me was the fact that they were strongly urged not to take legal action against the guy who molested Bethany for her "mental and emotional sake" and so nothing was done. It isn't clearly stated in the book exactly what was done to her, but that mindset is one reason so many sexual assaults aren't reported and these guys get away with it again and again. I had to wonder how many other girls this guy has assaulted and will assault in the future do to their inaction.

I really enjoyed the journal entries at the end of the road trip chapters that show the kids' different perspectives of the day. As a mother of four, I know that each child is different and will look on things differently. What one child may see as horrible or very boring, another may love it. One may see the small things--the eggs in the nest or the sun glinting off a leaf in a particularly gorgeous way--while another may be content to sit down and enjoy the awe-inspiring vista as a whole.

I was expecting this book to be more about the road trip itself, but the book was nearly half over before the trip ever began. The "back story" was way too long and drawn out. I appreciate the fact that some of it was needed, but it was drawn out so long that the trip that was supposed to be the whole point of the story felt incredibly rushed. I'm sure it felt like it in real life as well. For someone who is trying to do something to draw his family closer, nine-hundred-mile-a-day drives seems more than a bit odd, especially since he clearly states that they don't do well on 3 hour trips! I really felt sorry for his family. Their map-reading skills were another story. To look at a map and think you can drive from Sioux Falls to Rapid City in two hours made me laugh out loud. I drove that road many times when we lived outside of Rapid City, and you're lucky if you can make it in 5 to 5 1/2 hours--it took them six.

The trip descriptions were very disappointing as well. "Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is a nice town...or so I've heard. We didn't stay long enough to find out." Mt. Rushmore was barely described, Yellowstone was deemed "amazing", but very little description of the places they visited there and he seemed rather unimpressed with the Grand Tetons at all.

This book had some great possibilities, but instead it felt drug out for the first half, and seriously rushed for the last half. The trip itself that he seems to be pushing for families to do is well outside the budget for a lot of families. $300 to $450 per day might as well be $1,000 per day to many families. The "insights" at the end, while true are pretty basic. Don't be a hypocrite--live what you teach. Look for changes in the heart, not just behavior, pray, don't be guided by fear. You don't have to go on a super long, super expensive trip to learn this lessons. Get into God's Word and draw close to Him and let HIM lead you as you lead your family.

I received a copy of this book from Tyndale for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Critical Pursuit by Janice Cantore

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Officer Brinna Caruso has an obsession with missing children since she was once a missing child herself. She has built up a reputation as the one to call when a child goes missing and will stop at nothing to find them.

Jack O'Reilly chooses to move to patrol as he isn't ready to return to homicide after his wife and unborn child were killed by a drunk driver and is partnered up with Brinna--something neither one of them is happy about.

I enjoyed the storyline is this book very much. Much of it felt realistic, some didn't. Jack's super quick turnaround from being considered on the edge of insanity from anger and bitterness and close to being kicked out of the department was just a bit too quick to feel realistic. I loved Ben's character and wish there would have been a little more of him. It was great to see a friend of Jack's who is a christian as well, but doesn't give up on Jack when he turns his back on God.

You can tell this is not a stand alone book as there are questions left at the end of the book. The main storyline is wrapped up pretty good, but lots of loose ends in the characters lives are screaming "sequel".

I liked this book, but I can't say I "loved" it. I would like to see what a sequel would do with these characters, though, so I'm keeping an open mind for the next book.

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley.com for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Trapped by Irene Hannon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read a lot. I also really love mystery/suspense books. The downside to that is that it takes a lot for me to give a really great rating for this kind of book. I don't like predictable, and this book was pretty predictable for me. It's kind of funny that the only thing that surprised me was the lack of this author's normal "send the hero out of town/state/country just in time for the heroine to do something stupid and get caught by the bad guy" kind of twist. It looked like everything was being set up for that to happen again, but thankfully she ditched it this time.

Laura is a really nice woman who has been thrown in over her head after taking in her teenage half sister who has been pretty much doing what she wants up until now. She really cares about people and has a heart of gold. Darcy deep down has a good heart, but is pretty much of a brat in the beginning. She's gotten used to doing what she wants, and doesn't appreciate the boundaries Laura is trying to put into place. Dev is....I never could quite make up my mind. I never really trust the guy who dates a new woman every few weeks and suddenly turns into a one woman kind of guy as soon as he meets "the one" who, of course, is the anti-thesis of his "type".

As the wife of a former police officer, I really appreciated Dev staying inside the law (mostly) and the frustration of knowing something was wrong, but legally not being able to do anything about it. That felt very real. The story line had great possibilities, and I really liked Laura and, eventually, Darcy. They brought my rating up to 3 stars.

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley.com for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Journal by Beth Harlow

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A nameless confederate soldier is given a journal by his fiance when he goes off to fight in the war. The journal changes hands multiple times throughout the war through different circumstances, and even crosses the battle lines more than once. It is an interesting look at the Civil War through many eyes.

This is a short little book--only 62 pages--but quite interesting. You get a little peek into several lives throughout a terrible time in US history. I enjoyed the different "writers" throughout the book. It was frustrating at times to not know the end of some of their stories, but that also brings authenticity to the book. It bothered me reading of these men getting baptized to "wash away their sins" knowing that baptism is nothing more than a symbol--it does NOT save you. Other than that, I really enjoyed this little book.

I received a copy of this book from BookCrash.com for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.