40 Unforgettable Dates With Your Mate

40 Unforgettable Dates With Your Mate

Barbara and Gary Rosberg

This book is about how to reconnect with your spouse by dating again. The first half of the book is for the men and the second half is for the women. It has a list of pre-date instructions, dates (categorized by expense and time), questions to ask your spouse, and information on the needs of your spouse.

I liked this book, but I certainly didn't love it. It seemed very complicated and confusing. Some of the dates were good ideas, but not a one that my husband and I hadn't already done or thought of. Also some of the inexpensive dates needed a babysitter. Something that always makes the price of a date go up. I noticed another review mention that this seemed to be for younger people. I felt the opposite. It seemed to be geared towards retired people. There is no way that a couple with children has this much time to prepare and go on these dates.

I had to laugh at some of the date suggestions for men to do for their wives. They just don't sound like something a guy would enjoy doing. Most of them probably won't read this book. My husband certainly wouldn't. He takes me on dates, but he isn't going to read a book this detailed and complicated just to figure out how to spend time with me.

I was given an ebook to review. It made the book more complicated. If you think this book is something you'd like to try out than get the actual book. It just doesn't work well with an ereader.

If you are the type to always do dinner and a movie or really never dated before than this might help jump start things. It has some interesting questions that, if both spouses are willing to use, might help get some conversations going. It wasn't a bad book, it was just too much for me.

The Covenant Child

The Covenant Child

Terri Blackstock

This book was difficult to write a review for. I finished the book several days ago and just can’t seem to put my thoughts into words.

The story is about a woman who marries the man of her dreams. He has twin daughters and she falls in love with them too. But months after the marriage the man dies and her daughters are ripped from her arms to live with their grandparents who didn’t acknowledge them before the death of the wealthy father. Fifteen years later the girls are old enough to inherit their father’s fortune. But they don’t remember their step-mother and are suspicious of why she wants to give them a fortune with no strings attached.

The story was beautiful. I enjoy Teri Blackstock’s writing so I enjoyed the story. My only problem was separating the story from the allegory. The story was obviously an allegory of the plan of salvation and I think I would have enjoyed the story more if it was one or the other.  My thinking about how each part fit into the allegory disturbed the flow of the story for me. Since I also knew what would happen I read the story differently than I would had I been anticipating the end or climax of the story. While I really enjoyed this story, I don’t think it’s one I’ll re-read.

It is a book club (or study) book complete with an interview with the author and discussion questions at the end.

I received this book free of charge from Booksneeze in exchange for my honest review.

A Heart Like His

A Heart Like His

Intimate Reflections on the Life of David

Beth Moore

This book takes the life of David and goes in depth, drawing life lessons in each chapter. I’ve read books by Beth Moore before and enjoyed them. This was another great book. The title describes the book well. It’s hard to write non-fiction and make it interesting to the reader. Beth Moore has that talent. I was impressed and inspired. I learned some new things and was reminded of how much my Saviour loves me.

Another great feature is the review questions in the back. It’s great for deeper thoughts or could even be used for a Bible study guide. I would definitely recommend this book.

I received this book free of charge from Shelton Interactive in exchange for my honest review.

How To Raise A Good Kid

How To Raise A Good Kid

Starbuck O'Dwyer

The title of this book is slightly misleading. It is a bunch of stories about the author's childhood. Each chapter is titled with the character trait that is being showcased. Once I realized it wasn't a how-to book, I really enjoyed it. The stories were cute and refreshing. And they truly showed how the author's parents taught him the trait listed as the chapter title.

This book might not give you a list of instructions on how to raise your child. But it will be a look into a normal (if there is such a thing) family who raised their children with old fashioned values.

I received this book free of charge in exchange for my honest review.

Blind Hope

Blind Hope

An Unwanted Dog & the Woman She Rescued

Kim Meeder and Laurie Sacher

Laurie is a broken soul who rescues a broken dog. The book is a conversation between Laurie and Kim as they talk about how Mia, the dog, has rescued Laurie.

I read the brief description on the website before choosing to review this book. Like many other readers I was surprised to find this was a book about a woman's spiritual journey and very little about a dog. This wouldn't have been so bad if the writing style had been clearer. The format is conversations between the two authors and it was so stilted. I seriously hope they don't talk this way with each other in reality. It was very difficult to get into the story, because there just wasn't one. While the insights were helpful to the author, they seemed very overdone and contrived. I wouldn't recommend this book since there are so many others out there that have clearer spiritual insights.

I received this book free of charge from WaterBrook Multnomah in exchange for my honest review.

Bringing Up Girls

Bringing Up Girls

Practical advice and encouragement for those shaping the next generation of women

Dr. James Dobson

The premise for this book is explained in the title. It's a book about raising your daughter in a changing world. The world around us is becoming more addicting and dangerous for our daughters and this book is supposed to show us how to navigate through this.

Let me start off by saying that I'm a fan of Dr. Dobson and enjoyed his book Bringing Up Boys. This book, however, is incredibly long and filled with facts and data about our society and its depravity. Some of the information seems pretty dated even though the copyright in my book says 2010.  This book just couldn't hold my attention. I don't think a review should be written unless the book is read so I plowed through. It was very tedious reading for me. It was heavily slanted in favor of the dad as far as instruction goes. As a mother I felt I was reading a book meant for my husband. There just didn't seem to be anything that I could walk away with and use. It was mostly scaring me about how bad our world was and how easily my daughter could be harmed and damaged for life. 

I received this book free of charge Tyndale from in exchange for my honest review.

SlimKicker

I haven't ever reviewed an app before. But when I was asked I thought it might be fun and I agreed.

The app is called Slimkicker and can be found at this site.

The app is designed to help with weight loss and overall health. There are places to record exercise, food eaten and water consumption. There are challenges and motivational things to join that will help keep you moving towards your goals.

I liked this app. It was very simple to use and yet had everything I needed. It reminded me a little bit of SparkPeople, but without the silly awards and tons of requirements to get points. I also liked having it available on my Ipod. I have an Ipod Touch 4th Generation. This means that I was only able to access it whenever I was near a hotspot. This wasn't really an issue for me. I just waited to record things until I was near WiFi. But most people will be using this on their phone so that is a non-issue.

It is currently free at the app store. So definitely worth checking out.

I received this app free of charge in exchange for my honest review.