This is Where it Ends by Cindy K. Sproles
Topic or themes I saw: Receiving genuine love, the value of elderly. Rejection, unworthiness, sadness over a life you wished had been lived differently. Setting our eyes on eternal things, not temporal. The beauty of relationships.
Read it if you love:
✔️Immersive Appalachian reads
✔️Strong faith themes
✔️Lonely to loved stories
✔️Historical fiction with more focus on the story than history
Story: Wow, this novel had an incredibly satisfying ending! What do you do when you get to the end of your life and realize the life you were living was a lie? You believed what you wanted to believe, not what was true. And you wish you would have done things different? That you thought you were loved, but really weren’t? It’s never too late. And life is more than perfection and always making the right decision. It’s more than wallowing in our mistakes. And it’s more than shoving aside the painful parts of life—the things we wished were different. It’s acknowledging our disappointments while grabbing ahold the beauty we have. It’s in forgiveness and love. It’s clinging to the promise that God’s love holds us secure. This novel portrayed all these things in a heart-hugging kind of way. The plot was slower moving, but love for the characters and the desire to learn the truth about the box will keep readers turning pages!
Main takeaway: True love holds us secure.
Here are a few ‘gold nugget’ quotes I loved:
“I imagine the heart hides the truth when it sees pain.”
“Few care about the person, just the secrets against them.”
“The Lord didn’t give me everything I wanted, but He’d provided what was best.”
“The sign of love is the one who carries you through.”
“Her life was not always internally peaceful, but she never veered from the life that would come.”
Thank you Revell for a gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
With Every Memory by Janine Rosche
Topic or themes I saw: Trauma, broken families, forgiveness.
Read it if you love:
✔️Contemporary
✔️Mother, Daughter POV
✔️Women’s fiction
Story: This novel sucked me in almost instantly and it was beautifully written. What do you do when the life you remember doesn’t match up to the life you currently have? After an accident leaves Lori with a traumatic brain injury, she can’t remeber the last 8 years. And it seems they aren’t as good as what she does remember. This compelling story told through the mother/daughter POV’s is a story of loss and healing. While this story was clean and the characters underwent transformation, I’d say it was a touch on the negative side of gritty. I love the tough reads. The real life and pain. They are my absolute favorite reads, but I think I would have appreciated this one a bit more if there had been a softer, truth-telling secondary character for Lori, and if Avery would have been a little softer from the start. I personally would have loved to see a bit more faith elements weaves in as well.
Main takeaway: “Even the hardest hearts need love sometimes.”
Thank you Revell for a gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
The Enlightenment of Bees by Rachel Linden
Topic or themes I saw: The powerful impact of small things done in love and the power of doing life together in relationship. Figuring out what one wants in life, wrestling with the handling of purpose, dreams, and if any of it is big enough to matter.
Read it if you love:
✔️Contemporary novels
✔️Stories with humanitarian projects
✔️Strong themes and character growth
✔️Women’s fiction
✔️Character driven novels
Story: Mia’s life suddenly crumbles around her and she finds herself joining a humanitarian project. She hopes to finally do something big and important with her life. This novel is one I slowly savored, and dog eared numerous pages to go back and reread, thinking through the concepts in my own life. Books that’s both entertain me and make me see my life differently are my favorite kind. I wouldn’t say this is Christian fiction but it is clean and incredibly thought provoking!
Main takeaway: The big important things that can help make the world a better place aren’t always what we think they are. Sometimes it’s the small things that we think could never be enough that really matter. The things we love to do and do with great love toward the worlds pain.
The Lazy Genius by Kendra Adachi
I found im actually quite efficient in many of these principles and doing them already. It’s funny how often I negate the things I am doing. What I gleaned most from this book was permission to have values and focus on them instead of feeling like I should do something else or be someone else because other people value things I don’t. I was nourished with permission to be who God created me to be and stop overthinking 😅. These are reminders I need often.
I love how she called out how easy it is to swing from one extreme (lazy) to the next (genius). But instead we should be both. A middle ground. And that’s what this book teaches us. How to be a lazy genius with the things that matter.
Main takeaway:
“Every choice matters because each one matters to someone, but hold only the ones that matter to you.”
A few other favorite quotes:
“Trust that you know what to embrace on your list and what needs to wait until another day. Trust that your people value you for reasons beyond what you do.”
“Without affection for ourselves, without softness on the inside, without being kind to ourselves, we will always be tired. We will always carry what we were never intended to carry and dig holes that go nowhere. Our energy goes to keeping up with our moving finish line, leaving no space for contentment and acceptance of who and where we are right now.”
No Better Mom for the Job by Becky Keife
A very relatable, truth filled book to nurture any mother’s heart. While the examples are focused primarily on the young years, it’s truths and principles extend to any season. If you don’t feel enough in motherhood or if your heart needs a word of encouragement and truth poured into it, this book is for you!
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