Review: Deadly Encounter by Diann Mills

4 Stars! 

This is the second of Ms. Mills' books that I've read and I really enjoyed it! 

This book first appeared on my radar screen a few months ago and the description sounded very intriguing to me. As a lifelong horse owner and rider I was absolutely fascinated by the volunteer airport Rangers, what they did was so interesting and finding out that they really exist, that are real men and women who give their time to serve their communities was absolutely amazing to learn! 

I liked the two main characters Stacy and Alex, but I think my favorite character was twelve year old genius Whitt. I absolutely adored him and I hope I get the chance to read more about him, maybe his love story as an adult! I liked that Stacy was a veterinarian and I admired how giving she was, even to the point of putting herself in jeopardy to help others! 

This book was totally unique, I've never read anything like it before and I love that! I will admit that I was a bit surprised and disappointed by the pace of this book (it seemed to me to have a pretty slow pace) which in my experience is very unusual for romantic suspense novels, so because of the pacing it didn't read quite the way I was expecting but I still really enjoyed it. 

My brother and I have had a lot of fun lately watching old detective shows like Starsky and Hutch, Charlie's Angels, etc! And in many ways this book kind of reminded me of those old shows, and the plot certainly played out like one in my imagination!

For most of the book I had no clue what the motive was behind all the evil things that were happening and for the longest time I had no idea who the guilty party was, but I decided on the villain's identity the first time that person was introduced in the story and I was really surprised and impressed with myself that my guess turned out to be correct! The villain was very well hidden! 

I own a yellow lab and so of course I adored Xena! 

Overall, I really enjoyed Deadly Encounter and highly recommend it! 

I look forward to the next book in the series!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Tyndale House in exchange for my honest review, which I have done!

All thoughts and opinions are one hundred percent my own

Review: The Happiness Dare by Jennifer Dukes Lee

5 Stars!

Let me start by saying that I don't read much non-fiction, but there are some books that really jump out at me and I know I just have to read them, such was the case when I was offered the opportunity to review this book. My first thought was "That sounds like exactly what I need!" And I am delighted to say that it was exactly what I needed. I'm one of those people that really need permission to be happy and this book showed me how to give myself permission, one of the main questions this book answers is one that I have wondered about many times myself: does God really care about my happiness? The discovery I made was eye opening for me! 

Please allow me to veer off course for a minute here, I promise I will get to the point. As a twenty-something single woman who made a commitment to purity at the age of sixteen, I have read numerous books on the subject of purity and fulfillment in singleness, and they were very good but honestly I feel like The Happiness Dare has helped me to feel more fulfilled than all of those other books combined, I realize that this book is in no way connected to purity but the thing that I have found is that all of those purity books instructed me to "Delight in the Lord" for my worth and happiness both before I'm married and after, that was great and I highly agreed with it but what those books failed to mention was how to do that! I love Jesus and I take incredible pleasure in our relationship but I never knew how to know whether I was actually "Delighting" in Him, that is until I read The Happiness Dare, and now I finally know and understand how to delight in our amazing Lord! While of course I still want to get married someday, I'm now finding happiness in right where I am in life rather than wishing things were different! Thank you to the author for writing a book that had a huge effect on me personally, this book has changed my life in many ways! 

Another of the multitude of things I learned from and loved about this book was that I finally realized it's okay to be a Christian and find happiness in the good gifts that God has given us, including (for me) chocolate, my favorite TV shows, Christian romance novels, et cetera! Obviously not to excess and taking great care to prevent them from becoming idols, but I learned that every person has a unique happiness sweet spot where earthly pleasures (the good ones, not the sinful ones of course), heavenly joy and their own God-given wiring intersect, I found that the moments within my sweet spot are the happiest for me. I'm sorry if I'm giving too much away I just can't say enough about how profoundly this book has impacted my life! I highly recommend the Happiness Dare to anyone and everyone! And I plan to re-read it many times in the future! 

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Tyndale House in exchange for my honest review, which I have done!

All thoughts and opinions are one hundred percent my own

Review: Missing by Lisa Harris

4 Stars!

I have loved several of Lisa Harris' books including the first book in this series, Vendetta. So needless to say I was very much looking forward to this book, and I really enjoyed it. The suspense was crazy and soooo good, I hated to set the book down! Suspense/romantic suspense is one of my favorite genres and I've read a lot of them so it's rare for any plot twists to fully surprise and shock me, but I am pleased to say that there were several twists in this story that I absolutely did not see coming, loved that! I really liked getting to know Nikki better, and I was glad that even though there wasn't that much included this story did advance the plot line of Nikki trying to solve the case of her sister's kidnapping, I had been waiting with bated breath to find out the next piece of the story. I just have to say that even though she didn't have much page time, I loved Lucy, her and Mac's story broke my heart and I spent a large portion of the book hoping that she was still alive, I got so emotionally invested that I actually had to stop reading at times and remind myself that she was a fictional character, not a real person! 

This book was really good and I enjoyed it but I don't think I loved it as much as the first book in the series, it felt to me like there was quite a bit of what seemed to me to be unnecessary repetition of things regarding the case. And I don't really know why but I guess I just never quite connected to the story in the same way as I did with the first book. 

This was a great story which I highly recommend but I think it would be best to read Vendetta first to avoid any potential spoilers. I am eagerly anticipating the third book, Pursued and let me just say that after reading the preview of it at the back of Missing I seriously want Pursued NOW! :D

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

Review: Kiss the Bride: Three Summer Love Stories by Melissa McClone, Robin Lee Hatcher and Kathryn Springer

5 Stars! 

I love these year of Weddings novellas! And this was an awesome collection, not a single dud in the bunch! It seemed that I loved each novella more than the last. All three of these authors were new to me and I loved getting to read their work, I will definitely be reading more of their books in the future! 

Picture perfect love by Melissa McClone: I loved the photography aspect to this story, and I am a sucker for a second chance love story. The scenes on the ropes course were probably my favorite part! 

I hope you dance by Robin Lee Hatcher: I have wanted to read one of this author's books for quite some time now and just never got around to it, but I absolutely adored this novella! I think my favorite scenes were those between Skye and her horses!

Love on a Deadline by Kathryn Springer: This one just may have been my favorite of the three novellas, it was just soooo good! I loved both Mac and Ethan, and the depth to their story was just so awesome! 

Overall, I loved every moment of this novella collection and I highly recommend it!

It's a perfect summer read.

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.