Bout of Books 11 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, August 18th and runs through Sunday, August 24th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 11 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team


-This will be my fifth time participating in this read-a-thon! I always have a blast! And since I saw that a couple of my blogging friends signed up, I decided to join in again too! :)

Review: When I Fall In Love by Susan May Warren

My Review:

5 Stars!!!

Another amazing treat of a read from Ms. Warren!

When I fall In Love is an excellent addition the Christiansen family series! After 'meeting' Grace briefly in the first two books in the series I was excited to get to know her. And it blew me away just how much I found myself relating to her, this made the story much more personal for me as I found myself learning and acknowledging a number of the same things about myself that Grace did about herself. And a certain very powerful scene inspired me to yet again recommit my life to Christ! So needless to say I loved Grace as a character (If she wasn't fictional I could totally see us being best friends!) And I also loved Max! He was a great hero, but I loved that he wasn't perfect, he had flaws and fears which we all have. This was definitely a positive which served to make him even more real and vivid as a character. It was so cool how this book was set mostly in Hawaii which is a state that I know next to nothing about so it was awesome to get some great history tidbits sprinkled through this book, and the surroundings were written so perfectly that I felt like I was there! At times this book made me laugh out loud and at others nearly made my heart break for the characters, further proof of Ms. Warren's brilliant storytelling. This was such an amazing book and I absolutely loved every moment I spent with my eyes glued to it's pages! I highly recommend this entire series! And I cannot wait to read the next book in this series. So hoping it's about my favorite member of the Christiansen clan... Casper! *Crosses Fingers*

I was honored to receive a review copy of this amazing book from Tyndale House publishers in exchange for my honest review! 

Firewall by Diann Mills

This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingFirewallTyndale House Publishers, Inc. (July 1, 2014)byDiAnn Mills



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

DiAnn Mills believes her readers should “Expect an Adventure.” She is a fiction writer who combines an adventuresome spirit with unforgettable characters to create action-packed novels. Her books have won many awards through American Christian Fiction Writers, and she is the recipient of the Inspirational Reader’s Choice award for 2005, 2007, and 2010. She was a Christy Award finalist in 2008 and a Christy winner in 2010.



DiAnn is a founding board member for American Christian Fiction Writers, a member of Inspirational Writers Alive, Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, and is the Craftsman Mentor for the Christian Writer’s Guild. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops.



DiAnn and her husband live in Houston, Texas. Visit her website or find her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/diannmills





ABOUT THE BOOK

After a whirlwind romance, Taryn Young is preparing to board a plane at Houston International Airport, bound for a dream honeymoon, when a bomb decimates the terminal. Injured but still alive, she awakens to discover her husband is missing and they’re both considered prime suspects in the attack. Further, the FBI is convinced her husband isn’t who he appears to be.




Agent Grayson Hall’s number-one priority is to catch those responsible for the day’s act of terror. All evidence is pointing to Taryn and her new husband. But his instinct tells him her pleas of innocence are genuine. Is her naiveté just for show, or could she truly be another victim of a master scheme, possibly linked to the software she recently developed for her company?




With both their lives and reputations on the line, and the media outcry for justice increasing with each passing minute, Taryn and Grayson have no choice but to trust one another . . . and pray they can uncover the truth before they become two more casualties.



If you would like to read the first chapter of Firewall, go HERE.





My Thoughts:
5 Stars!!!
This was my first time reading a book by this author so I didn't really know what to expect but the description of this book really intrigued me from the get go, and the glowing endorsements from two of my favorite authors didn't hurt either! :)
I loved this book! I've read a number of Christian romantic suspense novels and one of the things that struck me about this one was how truly unique all aspects of the storyline were! I loved both Taryn and Grayson, they were such awesome characters! Firewall hooked me at page one and didn't let me go until I reached the end of the epilogue! This book has it all, awesome suspense, sweet romance, a few heart wrenching moments, a very original plot, and a longer chain of villains than I have ever seen in a book before (BTW, I totally did not guess who the true mastermind was. Thinking about it after the fact, that person's identity probably should have been obvious to me but at the time I was totally and completely stumped!) I don't want to risk spoiling anything so I will just say that I absolutely loved Firewall from start to finish! I highly recommend it, and I look forward to reading more books by Diann Mills in the future!




I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author via CFBA in exchange for an honest review. The above is my honest opinion. All thoughts and opinions are one hundred percent my own.

Top Ten TV Shows/Movies

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke And The Bookish

 These are no particular order!

TV shows

1. The A Team

2. MACGYVER

3. Sue Thomas F.B.Eye

4. Mcleod's Daughters

5. Heartland

6. Under the Dome

And movies...

7. Tuck Everlasting

8. Courageous 

9. War Horse 

10 . Finding Faith

And because I couldn't stop there I'm adding...

11. Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken and Les Miserables (It's a tie between these two!) 

Monthly Reflections #13

In June I managed to read 8 books. June was a lot more busy than I thought it would be so I'm really happy with that!

The books I read were:

1. Full Steam Ahead by Karen Witemeyer

2. The Lady of Bolton Hill by Elizabeth Camden

3. Shenandoah Nights by Lisa Belcastro

4. Yankee in Atlanta by Jocelyn Green

5. The Guardian by Dee Henderson

6. Ten Plagues by Mary Nealy

7. It Had To Be You by Susan May Warren

8. Don't Look Back by Lynette Eason (Re-Read)


Favorite read of the month: I loved all of these books so much, I rated every single one of them five stars! So this is another month in which it's impossible for me to pick a favorite!


July is shaping up to be a pretty busy month for me but I'm hoping to get at least 7 books read. And to cut down my physical and Kindle TBR piles a bit!