Bout of Books 15 Sign Up!

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 4th and runs through Sunday, January 10th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 15 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I can't wait to participate in the read-a-thon again. The challenges look super awesome too!!!

Top Ten Tuesday Double Feature!

Since I didn't get around to doing this last week, I am posting last week and this week's topics together in one post!

Last week's:

Favorite new-to-me authors I read in 2015

1. Candace Calvert-I fell in love with her writing back in May when I read The Recipe, her contribution to the novella collection Chance of Loving You. Later this year I read her book Trauma Plan and loved it as well! 

2. Debby Giusti-I read her book The General's Secretary back in October and loved it!

3. Victoria Bylin-In April I read her book Until I Found You, which I really liked!

4. Tracy L. Higley-At the very beginning of this year I read her book Rescued: An Allegory which I absolutely adored (And highly recommend!) and plan to read again many times in the future!

5. Lois Lowry-I absolutely loved The Giver, but wasn't as crazy about Gathering Blue. Though I am still looking forward to reading Messenger and Son when I get the chance! 

6. Sarah Holman-I loved her Cinderella retelling, Waltz into the Waves!

7. Carrie Stuart Parks-I loved her book The Bones Will Speak, it was a great suspense that really kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat!

8. Terry Lynn Johnson-I borrowed her book Ice Dogs from the library and loved it so much that I'm seriously considering buying a copy!

7. Katherine Reay-Loved her first book, Dear Mr. Knightley!

8. Bethany Hamilton-She has such an inspiring story and I love the movie Soul Surfer so I really wanted to read the book it was based on which was really inspiring as well!

9. Margaret Peterson Haddix-I really loved her book Running out of Time, it was super cool! And a quick read too!

10. Lee Strauss-I really enjoyed her book Gingerbread Man, it was a very enjoyable and totally mind bending tale!

And this week's:

Top Ten-ish Books I read in 2015!

These are the 2015 releases (In no particular order)

1. Three Little Words, From the Start and One Enchanted Christmas, all by Melissa Tagg

2. Always on My Mind and The Wonder of You, both by Susan May Warren

3. Love in the Details and The Proposal, both by Becky Wade

4. Love on the Mend and A Worthy Pursuit, both by Karen Witemeyer

5. The Art of Losing Yourself and The Perfect Arrangement, both by Katie Ganshert

6. A Brush With Love, How To Catch a Prince and The Wedding Chapel, all by Rachel Hauck

7. Through Waters Deep by Sarah Sundin

8. Fire & Ice by Mary Connealy

9. With Every Breath by Elizabeth Camden

10. Vendetta by Lisa Harris

 

11. Married til Monday and Falling Like Snowflakes, both by Denise Hunter

12. Retribution and No Place to Hide, both by Lynette Eason

13. Sabotaged by Dani Pettrey 

And these are the pre-2015 releases (again in no particular order)

1. The Rescuer by Dee Henderson

2. Quest for Celestia by Steven James

3. Trauma Plan by Candace Calvert

4. The Elite and The One, both by Kiera Cass

5. Running out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix

6. The Giver by Lois Lowry

7. The General's Secretary by Debby Giusti

8. Barefoot Summer by Denise Hunter

9. The Healer's Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson

10. Until I Found You by Victoria Bylin

Monthly Reflections #30

My goal for November was to read at least 7 books, I'm thrilled that I managed to read 10! 

Books read in November

1. Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry

2. Amish Christmas at North Star by Katie Ganshert, Amanda Flower, Cindy Woodsmall, Mindy Starns Clark and Emily Clark

3. A Worthy Pursuit by Karen Witemeyer

4. Toward The Sunrise by Elizabeth Camden

5. The Wedding Chapel by Rachel Hauck

6. Through Waters Deep by Sarah Sundin

7. Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson

8. Fire & Ice by Mary Connealy

9. The Proposal by Becky Wade

10. The Bronte Plot by Katherine Reay

I loved almost all of these books but my favorites were probably A Worthy Pursuit, Through Waters Deep and The Proposal 

I think December is probably going to be pretty busy for me so my goal is simply to read as many books as I can!

Top Ten Favorite Christmas Books!

Top Ten Favorite Christmas Books! 

This weeks topic was supposed to be 2016 debut authors I'm most looking forward to reading, but I couldn't come up with any so I decided to list my favorite Christmas books instead! 

1. The Good Little Christmas Tree by Ursula Moray Williams and Gillian Tyler-This is one of my favorite childhood books, I read it every year and it never fails to make me tear up!

2. A Christmas Star by Linda Oatman High and Ronald Himler

3. The Christmas Cat by Tasha Tudor and Efner Tudor Holmes

4. Apple Tree Christmas by Trinka Hakes Noble 

5. Where Treetops Glisten by Sarah Sundin, Cara Putman and Tricia Goyer

6. One December Night by Melissa Tagg

7. The Proposal by Becky Wade

8. Christmas Cover-Up by Lynette Eason

9. Evergreen by Susan May Warren

10. Falling Like Snowflakes by Denise Hunter

Review: The Wedding Chapel by Rachel Hauck

4 Stars!

I have read and loved four of Rachel's full length novels as well as two of her novellas! So needless to say I was very excited for this book, and while I didn't love it quite as much as I had hoped to, I still was not disappointed! This book has such a great love story (Two love stories actually!) I loved the romances and how each chapter alternated between the four main characters points of view, and it was brilliantly done, I never found myself wondering who's head I was in! The wedding chapel was such an incredible place, it truly became another character in the book; I found myself wishing it was real because I wanted to go there! As I was reading The Wedding Chapel I kept thinking to myself "My Nana would have loved this book!"

This was a really good book and I recommend it!

However, I'm giving it four stars because I just never felt like I really connected with the story and the characters, at least not as much as in the books of this author's I've read. And there were a couple of things that I didn't personally like or agree with; they were fairly minor and didn't really affect my overall enjoyment of the book, but due to subject matter I wouldn't recommend this book for young teens, while this book is clean I think it's definitely one for adults! 

I can definitely see this book having the same kind of multi-generational appeal as Nicholas Sparks' The Notebook and The Longest Ride, I am a big fan of the movie Letters to Juliet and while this book is very different, the storyline reminded me of it in many ways! I think any fans of these books and movie would really love this book!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through the BookLook bloggers review program in exchange for my honest review, which I have done. All thoughts and opinions are one hundred percent my own.

Review: Amish Christmas at North Star by Katie Ganshert, Amanda Flower, Cindy Woodsmall, Mindy Starns Clark and Emily Clark

5 Stars!

I don't read very much Amish fiction, and I'm not gonna lie to begin with the only reason I wanted to read this book was to read the novella by one of my favorite authors (Katie Ganshert) which of course I absolutely loved but then I got sucked in and found myself loving each subsequent novella just as much as the one before it! This is a great Christmas novella collection written by some very talented authors; three of which were new to me authors! There is much more that I want to say, and normally I would do a mini review of each novella, but in this case I don't feel I could do that without away too much of the plot so I will just say that I loved this book and I am so glad that I got the opportunity to review it, this book is definitely one that will go on my keeper shelf and I anticipate re-reading it many times in the future, it just might even become a book that I read every Christmas season! 

I highly recommend Amish Christmas at North Star, even if you don't usually enjoy Amish fiction I think you should still give this one a try! 

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through their Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review. Which I have done, the above is my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are one hundred percent my own.

Top Ten Tuesday!

Top Ten Sophomore Novels That I Loved Just As Much If Not More As The Author's Debut

1. Shattered by Dani Pettrey-I have loved all of her books but her sophomore novel may just be my favorite! And I can't wait to read the first book in her new series!

2. Here to Stay by Melissa Tagg-Her debut Made to Last was awesome, this one topped the awesomeness scale and her third book From the Start upped the ante even more, needless to say I cannot wait to read her fourth book when it releases in April!

3. Head in the Clouds by Karen Witemeyer

4. Wishing on Willows by Katie Ganshert

5. Undeniably Yours by Becky Wade

6. A Most Peculiar Circumstance by Jen Turano

7. Resurrection by Jennifer Hartz

8. The Doctor's Lady by Jody Hedlund

9. Don't Look Back by Lynette Eason-I don't know if this was actually her sophomore novel but it was her second novel with Revell publishers so I'm counting it!

10. The Pawn by Steven James-He had published numerous non-fiction titles prior to this book but I'm pretty sure this was his sophomore novel!