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Age Appropriate For: 10 and up (for some thematic elements)

Best for Ages: 12-25

Description:  Journey with a horseback librarian into the hidden crevices of Kentucky mountains. Feel her pain as she struggles not only to barely make ends meet but as she also attempts to connect the pieces of her own life while her mom continues to make selfish decisions.

Lena Davis is the daughter her mom never wanted.

But she survived. Through stories. Because books didn’t judge. Books weren’t angry she was alive. Books never expected her to be anything but who she was.

As she grows up, her beloved library becomes her true home. So when the library is designated part of President Roosevelt’s Packhorse Library Project, Lena is determined to get the job of bringing books to highlanders, believing she’ll finally be free of her mom forever.

But earning the trust of highlanders is harder than she imagined, and her passion for books might not be enough to free her from her chains.

I was very excited about this series. I mean, it was such a fun historical concept. I’m happy to say that Amanda Tero did an amazing job developing her characters, historical setting, and also getting a message that had some real impact.

Lena is a character that I intently felt I both understood and wanted to protect. True, I don’t live in a situation anything like Lena, but she reacted much like I suspect I would. I felt like her character depth and how she grows with the story shows also how Tero is progressing as a writer. Lena was not as flat as some of her characters have been.

Tero did a great job in this story with balancing being realistic, without giving a lot of unnecessary detail. It’s obvious that Lena’s mother leads a pretty sinful lifestyle and is verbally abusive to her daughter. Yet, it’s written in a way that a young person can read it and understand most of what is going on without feeling dirty. 

Book lovers will enjoy not only the refinances to libraries and books, but also get a glimpse into this interesting program from the ’30s. Roosevelt’s Packhorse Library Project I feel, from my limited knowledge, was shown well. The challenges, as well as joys, are shown. 

While a shorter book, Tero still managed to have a powerful and well-executed message. I felt like the ending was beautiful, realistic, and showed the love and forgiveness of Christ in a way many people can relate to. 

I highly recommend this book for teens, those who enjoy historical fiction, and anyone interested in the packhorse librarians. 

 

Ready for some summer fun?

I'm so excited about the recent release of A Very Bookish 4th of July! 

Let me introduce you to the authors and the stories

 

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Age Appropriate For: 14 and up for mild violence and mild scary scenes

Best for Ages: 14 – 25

Description:  A race of miniature humans called to a faith of tremendous size. When the royal family of the Roden tribe of Minatchi vanishes without a trace, only Delia is left to wear the crown. Deaf since the age of three the princess prepares for a difficult reign, only to watch as her coronation day is turned into one of catastrophe. When the tribe of Minatchi disappears like their royals before, Fetch - a Bengal Retriever - faces a choice that will confront everything he knows and force him to evaluate a faith he never truly embraced. When matters quickly escalate beyond their control, the joined forces of a few will be stretched beyond their limitations, tribal loyalties, and even the border of the valley they call home. What lies beyond is more than a land of giants and untested danger...Destiny awaits the called.

When I saw one of my favorite authors had realized a new book, just before my birthday, I was so excited. I went and bought it right away. I’m so glad I did. It was worth every penny.

While almost of Sagar’s other books are in the same fictional world (she writes non-magical fantasy). This is a new world with a new race of people – people who only stand on average eight to nine inches tall.

As someone who was fascinated by the idea of tiny people when I was a kid, I ate this story up. Unlike the few books and movies I had seen/read on the subject that were a little creepy, this story was full of fun, adventure, and great morals. Sager took this very fun idea and used it not only to tell a great story but also to teach some great lessons.

The story itself had so many twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my seat. I wanted to not only know what was going to happen next but also to see if the various characters would realize their God-given potential.

As with Sager’s other books, the gospel and faith were not changed, even though it is a fantasy world. It’s one of the things that keeps me coming back.

I loved both the main characters. Fetch is a likable roughish character who I cheered for and hoped he would learn a lesson. Delia was just the best. She is deaf and goes through a lot of hard stuff and grand adventures. Her faith was the best and I loved seeing her grow into maturity.

I could go on and on about this story. I love it so much! But I’ll just end this review by saying you need to read it!

I highly recommend this book for those who love kingdom (non-magical) fantasy, adventure stories, and books that have a solid spiritual foundation.

 

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Age Appropriate For: All Ages

Best for Ages: 15 and up

Description: Do we know who our King is?

At thirty years of age, Jesus launched his ministry with the words “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Yet even before then, his life pulsated with the mystery and revelation of the kingdom of God—still the most critical and yet misunderstood component of the Christian faith and the life of anyone who desires to follow Jesus.

In this electrifying little book, author and speaker Rachel Starr Thomson argues that King and kingdom are inextricably interlinked: to see one is to see the other. In her lyrical, accessible style, she guides readers through Jesus’s early life as chronicled in the gospel of Matthew—an ancient book that bridges Old and New Testaments and reveals king, and kingdom, within their prophetic and historical context.

Every day, millions of Christians pray “Your kingdom come.” Let this journey with Jesus deepen your understanding and practice of those words as you see Jesus in a whole new light, and with him, discover the astonishing reality of the kingdom of heaven on earth.

Thomson is one of my all-time favorite authors. I've been impressed with her writing since reading her Seventh World Trilogy. While her fiction is masterful and some of my favorites, her non-fiction is quickly becoming an auto-buy for me. I was offered a chance to be part of the advanced readers for this book and I jumped at the chance.

Thomson has, for a while, shared her thoughts on Matthew in the form of blog posts. For those who have followed that series, this won't be new material. However, I haven't followed it as faithfully as I would like and it's been a long time since I read the beginning. So reading this was a delightful journey.

There were a lot of wonderful insights in this book, but I wanted to pretty much highlight all of Chapter 14. It was a powerful chapter on a passage of scripture that I too struggled to understand. Perhaps you might have already realized some of the things that Thomson points out about the temptation of Jesus. However, I'm sure that there are many things in this gem of a book that will touch your heart.

Here are a couple of my favorite quotes:

"Salvation is not simply a matter of escaping the world after death. It is holistic, and it is now (and also later)."

"Jesus is Son of God become Son of Man, eternally blurring the lines of separation between God and humanity."

"If Jesus had hinged his identity, his belief that he was who God said he was, on an outcome in his circumstances, then not getting that outcome would have had the potential to destroy his identity."

I was given a copy of this book for review purposes. I was not required to write a positive review. All thoughts in this review are my own.

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Age Appropriate For: 13 and up for violence, mildly scary scenes.

Best for Ages: 13 - 25

Description: She doesn’t have much longer to live.

Losing the last of the radialloy puts Andi’s life in immediate danger and sends her, August, and the Doctor rushing towards the demolished Qandon system in search of more. Their speeder is crippled, a powerful man is desperate to stop them—and they are running out of time.

Meanwhile, Crash has escaped from prison and is hiding somewhere in Hungary, hunted by assassins who have instructions to kill him if Andi and the others don’t return to Earth in one week. The only person on Earth who can help him is Guilders, who very nearly despises him.

Is there more radialloy out there? Can Crash and Guilders make it to safety? And will Andi ever be able to return to the way of life that she loves so much? 

This story is exhilarating, heart-breaking, faith-building, tear-jerking, inspiring, and so much more. Do I have your attention? Good. This book, this series, has been a favorite since book one. Not only is this clean sci-fi, it masterful story-telling. 

I think Pennington has reached a new level in her writing. While her story-telling abilities have always been great, this book had a new quality to it that just shines. She has always done a wonderful job of pulling emotion out of both her characters and her readers. However, this book just stood out to me as her best at emotion yet.

We get to meet some new characters, most notably to me was Book. While I don’t want to give anything about the plot away, let’s just say I like this very quirky character right from the beginning. I apricated how he handled Andi 

Andi herself is not the same girl from book one. In fact, there are a couple of times in this book that she doesn’t act very lovable. However, under the top-secret-I-will-give-no-spoilers circumstances, I think everyone will understand why Andi acts the way she does.

The faith element in this story shines brightly. There is faith and doubt, trust and suspicion, hope and tears. Yet, more than any of the other books in the series yet, faith was the solid foundation for some of the characters. It just goes to show you that when times are tough, that is when our faith shines. Now, not every struggle by every character is tied up with a neat bow. However, this book is encouraging and faith-building while being very honest that it’s hard to trust God at times.

The story took several unexpected twists. I had a serious book hangover. I was grateful my sister had read it two days before me because we were able to console each other. Yet, even though part of this book was sad, it still was very satisfying.

I highly recommend it to those who enjoy clean sci-fi stories, solid YA fiction, and stories that keep you guessing.

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I was a little worried going into this book. After all, some of my friends who loved the other two books didn't like some of the things in this one. I enjoyed it a lot. Don’t get me wrong, parts of it had me banging my head against a wall, wondering why some people (*ahem* Grace) did what they did. That isn’t to say I was confused about their motivations but, just frustrated. Yet, I totally understood why people were doing what they were doing.

Does that sound confusing to you? Well, Ruggieri writes complex stories with complex characters. You have to read her stories to truly understand them. When you have read the story, you feel as if you have met real people. They make mistakes, the sin, yet they also find the grace of God.

This story kept me reading, flipping the digital pages, and I was very happy with the ending. I was really worried until the end. A couple of times, I thought about giving up because I was worried about where the author was going. In the end, she wrapped everything up in a satisfying way, but also in a way that made it clear that the characters had growing and changing to do in the years to come.

The romance? It was sweet, clean, devoid of many elements that have made me give up on so many modern Christian fiction romance books. Are the character perfect? Without temptation? Not at all! They do choose to do what is right.

I highly recommend this book to those who have enjoyed the first two in the series, like realistic characters, and stories deeply rooted in God’s amazing grace.

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Okay, I’m ashamed to admit that it took me a while to read this book because I thought the end of the last book might end up being a quick and easy solution to the major problems with the Picoletti family. I was wrong. Once again, Ruggieri has written a story that reflects real-life struggles, hurts, and joys. Ultimately, this is a story about how God can fill and redeem the empty places in each of our lives.

All the characters have struggles they are facing. Nothing is easy or simple for them. Financial strain hits the Picoletti family hard. While a way out is provided, it comes with its own challenges. As in life, there is nothing that suddenly makes our life happily-ever-after. Yet Ruggieri shows that there is hope in Christ.

Ruggieri’s characters are vivid and all of them are complex, like in real life. You feel as if you have met real people who have their own motivations, pasts, and challenges. Yet, the thing that remains the same in all Ruggieri’s books is the amazing way all of it is brought to the foot of the cross.
As I don’t want to give anything about this story away, I’ll leave it at that.

This book is powerful. I highly recommend it to those who like life-like characters, faith-building stories, and solid historical fiction.