BookLoverAmanda

  Left Behind - Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins - 5 Stars - This book truly encouraged my faith. 5 stars. First time reading this, and wow, what an emotional and faith filled impact. This book truly encouraged my faith and made me stop and take time to check my heart and faith walk with the Lord. Many of you already know this book is surrounding the rapture of Christ's believers. Many movies have been made and I really want to watch them now because I am so invested in this series now. We follow Rayford Steele, who is a pilot. All of a sudden on a flight back home, passengers randomly disappear without any trace or cause, with their belongings and clothes left behind. Rayford's thoughts lead to the rapture as it's something his Christian wife always talked about. With the world in an uproar trying to figure out what happened, Rayford sets out to figure out things for himself too. When he realizes his wife and son are gone, but his daughter Chloe and him are part of those le...

  Set the Stars Alight - Amanda Dykes - 3.5 Stars - Poetic, whimsical and magical. This book took me a while to get through but I’m glad I finished! 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 on Goodreads. Amanda Dykes’ writing style is poetic, whimsical and magical. I liked our characters, storyline and mysterious aspect throughout the book. However, because I had to spend so much time trying to figure out what was going on throughout the story, specifically early on, it wasn’t a favorite read of mine. That is more of a personal thing – not necessarily anything against the book or author itself, so I’m rating this based on my personal reading experience. I know I missed several things in this story along the way, but I sort of challenged myself to get through this and see how I felt, and I am so glad I did. What a beautiful story of love, loss, history and magical stories. The story is a multi-timeline historical fiction, with snippets of romance throughout the story. It’s hard to describe Amanda’...

    Perfect World Manga Series - Books 1 through 9 Some of these below are actual reviews, others are just thoughts....wanted to just put all this in one review post. Overall, I liked the ending in book 9 (need to read book 10 and 11) but I didnt feel the need to after book 9. This book shows us what it means to be disabled in such a beautiful way but the angst and love triangles bothered me so I had mixed feelings throughout the series as you will see below. Book 1 Review: 4 Stars This is such an adorable manga that will grip at your heart strings. We see all the struggles our main male character goes through, as he is disabled in a wheelchair, while trying to help others in his job. The main characters met originally in high school but this takes place many years later as they are adults in their careers, where they meet again. Loved our main guy and girl together so much. The ending was precious. I just want them to be happy together! My heart. Cant wait to continue on. I l...

  Beyond the Wand - Tom Felton - 4 Stars - A fun life story of the one we all know as Draco Malfoy! What a fun life story of Tom Felton, the one we all know as Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter. I listened to the audiobook and read the physical copy - as Tom narrates this himself. I enjoyed learning about his experience as a child actor on set, his family, values, shenanigans, relationships with his co-stars and so much more. This does have some heavy language throughout but overall I had so much fun reading this and hearing his story. It was wild to hear about his life as a real life teenager and being bullied for being Draco in the movies! I did not expect that. The ending really touched me as he talked about troubles in his life and what it means to be "truly rich" in life. If you are a Harry Potter fan, I highly recommend this because he talks mostly about his Harry Potter acting life throughout the story. *Also added bonus because we get a forward from Emma Watson and a cha...

  Murder in a Scottish Shire - Traci Hall - 3 Stars  This is the first book in A Scottish Shire Mystery series. This is set in Scotland and follows Paislee, a 28 year old single mother, who owns a knitting shop called Cashmere Crush. She makes specialty sweaters, socks and more. Everything in her life seems like it’s going wrong – she receives an eviction notice, her estranged, homeless grandfather shows up after his son Craigh’s disappearance so he moves in with her and her 10 year old son, Brody and their dog, Wallace. Things get even worse for Paislee when she finds Isla, an employee of hers, dead. The story kicks off here as Paislee tries to solve the case. This cozy was a lot of fun because of the Scotland setting and Scottish narrator. I liked the mystery but found myself bored at times and even though this was just 300 or so pages, it felt too long on the audio at times because the mystery wasn’t progressing a whole lot and we were following some other side stories and ...

  Something Old, Something New - Amy Clipston - 3 Stars  3 stars - In this story, we have Christine Sawyer who has achieved her dream of opening an antique mall 10 years after high school graduation. She used to being the nerdy, hiding in the shadows twin sister, whereas her twin sister Brittany was always the popular one, head cheerleader who dated the homecoming king and quarterback. Then we have Brent Nicholson, who is having a tough time in life as he lost his construction business and continues to think of the past where he suffered a career-ending injury. Brent goes to help his great-aunt Midge to help make it ready to sell, when he ends up partnering with Christine after finding all the antiques in his aunt's home. They start to get close but the problem? Brent dated Christine's twin sister Brittany in high school, with their relationship ending their sophmore year of college many years ago.... Christine finds herself between a rock and a hard place of trying to figure ...

  The Rose and the Thistle - Laura Frantz - 5 Stars - LOVED this book! The setting. Characters. Romance. LOVE! When I first read the synopsis of The Rose & The Thistle by Laura Frantz, I KNEW this book was going to be a new favorite of mine. I love stories set in Scotland, particularly during the 1700s and the added details surrounding the Jacobite Uprising, the Scottish Highlands/Lowlands, the Stuarts, the Scottish dialogue – were perfection! This was my first Laura Frantz read and it will NOT be my last! 5 big stars for such a stunning Christian historical fiction with a sweet, clean romance between a “Sassenach” Englishwoman and a hunk of a Scotsman! Set in 1715, Lady Blythe Hedley, who is the daughter of a Jacobite sympathizer and enemy of the British crown, finds herself forced to flee her home in Northern England to the tower of Wedderburn Castle in Scotland. She is sent there for her protection when she meets the Scottish Laird, Lord Everard Wedderburn. Everard has recen...

*EDIT - RE READ JANUARY 2023 - loved just as much all over again!! 5 stars ya’ll! Becky Wade is a new favorite author for me! Must read all the books! Stay with me is the first book I have read by Becky Wade. It’s the first in the Misty River series. This story tackles the difficult topic of opioid addiction paired with God’s redemption, love and grace. This story is about Genevieve Woodword (Gen) and Sam Turner. The story starts with Sam finding a random girl asleep in his guesthouse on his farm, which turns out to be Gen. He soon finds out this is due to her being under the influence of pills and quickly decides he doesn’t want anything to do with her because of issues from his past. Gen is a very famous bible study author and has an addiction to Oxycontin after being prescribed them for an injury about a year ago. She continued to take them long after she should have stopped and developed an addiction. She decides she wants to get clean but the only way she can do it is away from he...

  Live and Let Chai - Bree Baker - 4 Stars - A cute southern charm cozy mystery! (Book 1 in the Seaside Cafe Mystery Series) What a fun little cozy mystery with all the southern charm, tea, cafe and beach vibes you could want! I really enjoyed this one and look forward to reading the next in the series. This is set in the town of Charm, North Carolina on the Outer Banks. Everly Swan has returned home and has a beautiful little home on the beach. She has opened a tea shop called Sun, Sand, and Tea cafe that sells a variety of teas and foods! We love to see it! All of a sudden, Everly stumbled upon the body of the town councilman she has been arguing with for a long time, dead from what appears to be poison from her teas! She becomes the number one suspect and Detective Grady Hays starts trying to solve the case....but he won't be able to solve it without the sleuthing of Everly to clear her own name. This was a lot of fun. I need to try the recipes out in the back of the book! Some ...

  Loved buddy reading this with my friend Amy! We both really liked the first 2 novellas but didn’t love the last one. A December Bride - Denise Hunter: 3.5-4 stars This is actually a Hallmark movie - which is pretty cool. I could see that for sure. This is about Layla trying to get her home staging business up and running when some circumstances happen where Seth gets them in a situation where they have to pretend they're dating and engaged. He agrees to let her decorate his home for Christmas Home Show and the story takes off there. Liked this pretty good, but the ending was too rushed. A January Bride - Deborah Raney: 5 stars - loved! This is all about Maddie who is an author and needs a place to write her manuscript because her house has some electrical issues going on. Ginny, who is her 80 year old neighbor, recommends Art's house that used to be a bed and breakfast. She goes to his home for about a week, each day, writing her story. Each day they write letters back and fo...

  Christmas in Winter Hill - Melody Carlson - 4 Stars  Melody Carlson’s Christmas books can be hit or miss for me but I really enjoyed this one! This is all about Krista Galloway and her 8 year old daughter Emily who move to Winter Hill, Washington for Krista’s new job as Winter Hill’s city manager. Krista is recently divorced and grew up in foster homes - always having a disappointing Christmas each year. This year, they hope all is different as Emily and Krista start anew in Winter Hill. This was such a cute, heartwarming Christmas read with all the makings of a beautiful Christmas movie! Some nice faith content, hometown family vibes, wonderful Christmas details - all the fun things you want at Christmas time. 4 stars. Goodreads Review:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5212490206 Amazon:  https://amzn.to/43qRkGw YouTube Review Video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmUXgZGhqm4&t=64s