A Most Inconvenient Marriage

  Our story opens with the siege of Vicksburg bringing to conclusion the Civil War.  Our heroine Abigail Stuart is forced to leave her Ohio home for reasons I will not disclose.  Abigail moves near St. Louis, Missouri and finds employment nursing confederate prisoners at Gratiot Prison.  One of her favorite patients is an arm amputee who is dying from gangrene.  Because this soldier values the care and dedication of his nurse he makes an unusual proposal.  He offers to marry Abigail leaving her financially secure with his farm, stock, prized horses and a family to love and be loved by.  In return she is to care for his mother, ailing sister and the farm.  Abigail accepts his proposal and becomes Mrs. Jeremiah Calhoun.  At the death  of Jeremiah, Abigail moves to his farm in the mountains of Missouri and that is when the story becomes intriguing.  After two months living with the family, a soldier shows up claiming to be Jeremiah Calhoun.  However it is not the man she married.  So the story unfolds with Abigail struggling with remaining in a complete strangers home and unwrapping the mystery of who she married.  Can she find the love and companionship that she is desiring?
  The author Regina Jennings  weaves in the poverty, unusual language and the colorful culture of the Ozark mountain people of the Missouri.  Some of the charm is the women smoking pipes and the
slang vocabulary strange to anyone from outside of the area.  The Hatfield's and McCoy's come to mind because of their distrust of anyone outside of their mountain hollow.

  I enjoyed reading about the color and quirks of the local people and would recommend "A Most Inconvenient Marriage".  The only negative comment that I would share is I feel sometimes the author jumps from one event to another without giving a good connection between the two events.

  The opinions of this review are strictly my own of a free book that I received from Bethany Publishing House.  I would give this book four stars.

The Christmas Story

Ever have a Christmas wish you could die for?  Remember in "The Christmas Story" the little boy who wanted a Red Rider BB Gun.  Well our story opens with this prayer from a twelve year old Eddie.  "I know that Mom is working hard and money is tight, but please, God, if I could just get a bike for Christmas then everything will be better.  I'll do what ever you want to prove that I'm worthy".  Eddie's Dad died unexpectantly of cancer when Eddie was nine.  So life was hard.   His Mom worked several different jobs to keep a roof over head and food on the table.  Needless to say the longed for red Huffy bike with black banana seat never appeared.  Instead a hand knit scratchy red wool sweater appeared in its place.  Through a series of additional tragedies Eddie's whole world is turned upside down.  The author does a terrific job of weaving humor, heart break, anger, loneliness, guilt, and a twelve year olds selfish attitude thru his story.  It is so easy to turn angry and bitter and blame God and every one else when life deals you a bad hand.  However Eddie is able to overcome these negative attitudes thru the persistent love of family and friends.  I really liked Glen Beck's "The Christmas Sweater" because of his ability to portray his characters with human feelings we have all experienced.  Glen does a Paul Harvey at the end of his book.  If you remember Paul Harvey's famous line "The rest of the story is . . . . "  Glen puts an unexpected unique twist to end the book.  I give this book a high five.

The Story

Many churches are using the book "The Story" by Max Lucado and Randy Frazee for a whole church study and individual Bible and small group studies.  The book begins with Genesis the first book in the Bible and ends with Revelation the last book in the Bible and puts this material in the format of telling a story.  The authors use a unique approach.  They place God in what they refer to as an upper story working to full fill His plan of salvation.  Likewise they place man in a lower story context living out his daily life.  The separation between the two stories is a result of mans sinful nature and disobedience toward God.  The book relates how God because of His love for His creation is working in the upper story to enter into the lower story to restore the lost relationship between Himself and man.  In my opinion the book is a good read for people who are seeking to gain more knowledge and better understand the Bible.  For people who are more familiar with the Bible the necessity to read this book, I feel, is not as great.  I give this book four stars.

Like Dandelion Dust

Have you read any of Karen Kingsbury's stories?  If not I recommend that you read her book titled "Like Dandelion Dust?.  It is an easy read and it held my interest from the first to the last page.  Her character's feelings run the gamut of fear, anger and joy as they struggle with extremely difficult problems.  Kingsbury's characters first try to solve their problems on their own.  But in the end they rely on Biblical principals to sort out what is best.  I enjoy how Karen keeps us in suspense as we are watching this process unfold.  In this story we are dealing with a wife who realizes that she is pregnant after her husband is just incarcerated for five years for domestic violence.  Since she doesn't want to bring a child into a family where the mother is sole supporter working two jobs and the father is in prison, she puts the baby up for adoption.  Five different lives are turned into complete turmoil after the father is released from prison.  He learns he has a four year old son living in another state with different parents and he wants his son back.  Read "Like Dandelion Dust" to see how each individual copes with the crisis.  Lets give this book five stars.

The Burning Hills

If you enjoy western stories you will enjoy Louis L'Amour in "The Burning Hills".  The author is a master at painting word pictures in your mind.  He goes into great detail describing his characters and the story setting.  When reading "The Burning Hills" you can see the rugged red rock formations, the many variety of cactus, the tumble weed blowing, and feel the burning sun on your back.  His main character is usually a loner, Indian smart at tracking and living off the land, a top marksman with a gun or rifle, a great boxer,and loves his horse.  Then he encounters a beautiful woman, and he goes into a brain freeze.  In our story the two main characters are Trace Jorden, a man who is being hunted for shooting the owner of a large cattle ranch, and Maria Cristina, a Mexican woman who helps her family raise sheep.  I highly recommend that you read "The Burning Hills".  This story deserves five stars.

The Chance

I have read a number of books by Karen Kingsbury.  She is a good storyteller, but she also has a unique way of having her characters deal with and conquer the complex problems and struggles of daily life. Our story opens in Savannah, Ga. where we meet Alan Tucker a marine drill instructor and married to Caroline Tucker, the love of his life.  And their daughter Ellie who is fifteen.  Nolan Cook is Ellie's age, constant companion and best friend.  Nolan is a dedicated basketball player who hopes to go pro and play for the Atlantic Hawk's after college.  Alan abruptly moves himself and Ellie from Savannah to Camp Pendleton near San Diego, Ca.  Now comes the love interest of our story.  The night before Ellie and her Dad leave for San Diego, she and Nolan go to their favorite park.  While sitting under a hugh oak tree they both write a letter revealing how they feel about the other person.  The unread letters are then put in a tackle box and buried under the oak tree.  They then agree to meet on June 1st. elevan years later to read the other persons letter.  During the elevan years Ellie and Nolan experience abandonment;, loneliness, abuse, deceit, betrayal, shame, anger, determination and faith.  The authors handling of these real life issues is both reasonable and realistic.  Read "The Chance" to find out if Ellie and Nolan meet under the oak tree, and how their issues are really resolved.  I give this book five stars.