It's time for my February book review, and I'm excited to share with y'all everything I've been reading so far this month!
I decided I needed to get back into the swing of reading this month, so I kicked February off with one of my favorite chick-lit writers, Elin Hilderbrand. Her books are always fun, easy reads that involve family dynamics, romance, and are always set on Nantucket which I love!
Winter Street is Elin Hilderbrand's first Christmas novel. I bought the book in November and meant to read it over Christmas, but the holidays are always so busy that I just got around to reading it now! With that said, I still really liked this one. It's focus is much more on family relationships than some of her other books, and I really liked the change of pace. It's about a family who owns and operates an inn on Nantucket, and it focuses on each of the family members and the events in their lives around the holidays. I really liked this book, even though it ends in a cliff hanger, and I now have to read the sequel to know what happens! It also left me really wanting it to be Christmas again...only ten more months to go!
I'm trying to read one religious book a month in addition to my "for fun" books, and this month I'm continuing my Beth Moore kick with, Jesus the One and Only. I really like this book even more than some of her other studies because it is somewhat less structured. A lot of her studies address a certain topic related to Christianity, and give you scripture to read, or some kind of guide to follow at the end of the chapter. This book reads almost like a novel about Jesus's life, with Beth's commentary sprinkled along with it. Sometimes it's nice to read a religious book that is more relaxed and allows you to step back and appreciate the amazing life and work of Christ, and that is exactly what this book does, along with Beth's upbeat, infectious thoughts about Jesus and the wonder of His works. LOVE this one!
I'll admit it...I caved and read a Nicholas Sparks book. I will always love The Notebook and A Walk to Remember (they will always have my teen girl heart), but every other Nicholas Sparks book I can do without. The are all the same. Girl meets boy...they fall in love, but there is a reason they can't be together....they get together anyway...one of them dies. EVERY. TIME. And then sometimes they are just plain odd...I'm looking at you Safe Haven (Spoiler: Her neighbor is the ghost of her new boy toy's dead wife?! And nobody finds this the slightest bit weird?!). But I digress. Anyway, I saw the trailer for The Choice, and despite my best cynical attempts, I found it promising. So I read the book and guess what?!?! It's almost exactly the same as all the other Nicholas Sparks books. I did find the banter between the main characters charming, but you don't get nearly enough time to enjoy it. The book gets divided into two parts, the first part is about how they meet, and the second part is several years later and she's in a coma. So just as I started to get involved in their relationship, the book skips ahead past all the good stuff, and goes straight to the heartbreak part. Not cool Nick...not cool. I would pass on this one if I were you.
My best friend Sarah and I decided somewhere around college that it was getting too hard to think up original Christmas and birthday gifts after so many years of friendship, so we started giving each other books instead. (This is a genius idea btw, and I highly recommend it for you and your bestie!). Sarah gave me Mennonite in the Little Black Dress a few years back, and I loved it! I re-read it again recently and found it just as charming the second time around. The book is a memoir about a writer who's husband leaves her after fifteen years for a MAN he met on gay.com, around the same time she is in a car wreck. She decides to pick up the peices by moving back in with her family who just happen to live in a Mennonite community. Rhonda Janzen has such a sarcastic, hilarious sense of humor throughout the book, but still manages to be heart felt and sincere about heartbreak, and going home to a family that you may be different from, but that you still love unconditionally. It is sweet, sincere, and hilarious, and I can't recommend it enough!
“In my opinion, sexiness comes down to three things: chemistry, sense of humor, and treatment of waitstaff at restaurants.”
As always, I'd love any recommendations of books I should read next month!
I am so behind on reading books. I downloaded audible, but can't even find time for that. I've never read an Elin Hilderbrand book, but now I am curious!!
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