Tag: Thomas Nelson

Guest Review: The Center of Gravity by Laura McNeill

Posted October 6, 2016 by Tina R in Reviews | 0 Comments

Guest Review: The Center of Gravity by Laura McNeillReviewer: Tina
Center of Gravity by Laura McNeill

Publication Date: July 14th 2015
Genres: Women's Fiction
Pages: 320
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
five-stars

The truth could cost her everything.

Her whole life, Ava Carson has been sure of one thing: she doesn’t measure up to her mother’s expectations. So when Mitchell Carson sweeps into her life with his adorable son, the ready-made family seems like a dream come true. In the blink of an eye, she’s married, has a new baby, and life is wonderful.

Or is it?

When her picture-perfect marriage begins unraveling at the seams, Ava convinces herself she can fix it. It’s temporary. It’s the stress. It’s Mitchell’s tragic history of loss.

If only Ava could believe her own excuses.

Mitchell is no longer the charming, thoughtful man she married. He grows more controlling by the day, revealing a violent jealous streak. His behavior is recklessly erratic, and the unanswered questions about his past now hint at something far more sinister than Ava can stomach. Before she can fit the pieces together, Mitchell files for divorce and demands full custody of their boys.

Fueled by fierce love for her children and aided by Graham Thomas, a new attorney in town, Ava takes matters into her own hands, digging deep into the past. But will finding the truth be enough to beat Mitchell at his own game?

Center of Gravity weaves a chilling tale, revealing the unfailing and dangerous truth that things—and people—are not always what they seem.

This review is gonna be really short. The reason? Basically because there is nothing much for me to say except this….”Read this book!”

If you are a fan of Gone Girl like I am, you will definitely LOVE Center of Gravity by Laura McNeill. I stayed up until I read the last page knowing that I had to get up for work in a few hours! And, I think I held my breath through chapter 60 until the end of the book! THIS is the kind of book a reader like me searches for. So read it…today.

 

Rating: 5 out of 5

five-stars


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Review: First Date by Krista McGee.

Posted January 17, 2012 by Rowena in Reviews | 6 Comments


Rowena’s review of First Date by Krista McGee.

Main Character: Addy Davidson
Love Interest: Jonathan Jackson
Series: None
Author: Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads

Addy Davidson is the last girl in the country who wants to be on the new reality TV show to win a date to prom with the President’s son. She’s focused on her schoolwork so she can get a scholarship to an Ivy League college, uncomfortable in the spotlight, never been on a date, and didn’t even audition for it.

But she got selected anyway.

So she does her best to get eliminated on the very first show… right before she realizes that the President’s son is possibly the most attractive guy she has ever seen in person, surprisingly nice, and seemingly unimpressed by the 99 other girls who are throwing themselves at him.

Addy’s totally out of her comfort zone-but that may be right where God can show her the most about who she is . . . and who she was meant to be.

I went into this book thinking that it was going to be a bunch of fluff and I wasn’t wrong. This book follows Addy Davidson as she goes on a reality TV show (pressured into doing the show is more like it though) to try to win the chance to go to the prom with the President’s son. She gets roped into going on the show by her Principal and then her Uncle, who all said that it was God’s plan for her to do this. I thought that was strange since I can’t imagine God sitting up in Heaven thinking, “Yeah, I think this reality TV show is the perfect place for Addy Davidson.” Reality television shows with a whole lot of backstabbing and bullying isn’t something that I thought God would want a good Christian girl to be at, but well, that’s what Addy was told in this book.

So Addy goes to this reality show in hopes of saving her school. Saving it by getting some press so that people would want to go to that school and they’d pay tuition money to go there. That was another thing that I couldn’t believe. The Principal was basically whoring Addy out to get more money and students and I thought that was completely strange.

The book itself was an enjoyable read but there were quite a few things that got on my nerves about this book. If Christian fiction books are done right, they won’t come off as preachy but there were parts of this book where I thought it came off a bit preachy and I would put the book down. It wasn’t like that throughout the entire book but through enough of the book that I took notice. Now, don’t go thinking that I’m saying this book is all about preaching the good word because that’s not what I’m saying. I’m just saying that there’s enough Christianity in this book to make a person that isn’t used to reading about that stuff in their fiction books to sit up and take notice.

It’s an enjoyable book with great characters. I really enjoyed getting to know Kara, Addy’s best friend on the show. Kara was a good friend to Addy and was there when she needed her because the other girls on the show were a bunch of bully’s and haters. I think I liked Kara better than I liked Addy. To me, Addy was too perfect. Even when she wasn’t being perfect, she was too perfect. I wish there had been more conflict with her character, everything came too easy for her and I was left hoping that she had things a little harder. Had that been the case, this book would have gotten a B instead of the C that it got.

It’s not a bad book but there was too much sunshiny goodness for me to enjoy it more than I did and I think that was why I didn’t connect with Addy more. I did really enjoy getting to know Jonathan Jackson and was happy that a friendship sparked between him and Addy. I enjoyed their little romance connection and was glad that I finished the book.

..and that’s your scoop!

This book was received through NetGalley.

Buy the book: B&N|Amazon|Book Depository
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com


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Review: There You’ll Find Me by Jenny B. Jones.

Posted September 29, 2011 by Rowena in Reviews | 4 Comments


Main Character: Finley Sinclair
Love Interest: Beckett Rush (highlight to see)
Series: None
Author: Website|Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads

In a small cottage house in rural Ireland, Finley is forced to face a past she can’t outrun.

When Finley books her trip to the “Emerald Isle” as a foreign exchange student, she hopes to create a new identity and get some answers from God. After all, since her brother’s recent death, God seems to have forgotten she even exists.
Now all she wants to do is let her heart heal, see the sights in her brother’s favorite country, and work on her college audition piece for a prestigious music conservatory. She plans to use her brother’s journal from his time as Ireland as her guide, yet from the moment she boards the plane and sits next to Beckett Rush, teen star of the hottest vampire flicks, nothing goes according to her well-ordered plan.
The peace and beauty of the Irish village are no match for the chaos that soon becomes her life. When she gets roped into working as Beckett Rush’s personal assistant, she finds this famous wild child is not quite what he seems. And as she grows closer to the mysterious actor, her own secrets refuse to stay put.
As things begin to unravel, Finley takes desperate measures to control her own life and fill the empty spaces her brother left behind.
When it all comes crashing down, Finley must discover how to give her past to God . . . if there’s to be any hope in her future.
At first glance of that cover, I thought this book would be a lot lighter than it really was. This book dealt with dealing with the loss of a loved one and the grief that can take over your life if you don’t control it from the jump. This book follows Finley Sinclair as she takes a trip to Ireland to see the sights that her late brother wrote about in his traveling journal. She’s hoping that she’ll find some closure from his death and finally be able to move on with her life because for the past two years, his death is still as fresh and as raw as it was when she first found out he died.
We meet Finley as she was being bumped up from coach to first class and gets sat next to A-List celebrity Beckett Rush. She’s got no interest in Beckett or his fast paced celebrity life and Beckett is pleasantly surprised by this information. He doesn’t need to guard himself against her and he can be the one person that he can’t be around everyone else on the planet, including his father, and that’s himself.
Finley is doing the foreign exchange student thing and her host family runs the B&B that Beckett is staying at. The B&B is a strange place for the star to want to stay at since it’s a very homey place and not at all the 5 star hotel resort that you would think actors would prefer to stay at. But as you get to know Beckett, you start to realize that he’s not the party animal one would have you believe from reading all of the tabloids. Getting to know Beckett also makes you want to smash his father’s head in because that boy needs a father more than he needs a manager and that makes me think of Kris Jenner from the Kardashian’s. Ugh, I’m not a fan of hers and I wasn’t a fan of Montgomery Rush either.
This story was a compelling story about a sister who’s love for her brother (and not the gross kind of love either) sends her to another country to feel closer to him. She had a wonderful relationship with her older brother Will and she can’t forgive God and the people responsible for his death. She can’t get over his death and she misses him everyday. She keeps his travel journal with him and she wants to see the same sights and feel the same things that Will felt when he was there in Ireland. She wants to heal from all of the hurt that she’s been through but she ultimately just wants to get better.
Watching her struggle through to the end was a trial to get through because I got frustrated with her at so many turns over the course of the book. Her treatment of Beckett got on my nerves and her denial made me want to smack some sense into her but even through all of that, the book was good. I enjoyed getting to know her host family, I enjoyed getting to know the sisters from her school and my most favorite relationship in this book was the friendship and bond that bloomed between Mrs. Sweeney and Finley. Of all of the relationships in this book, it was that friendship that I enjoyed seeing come together.
My frustrations with Finley lay with the fact that she worried so much (I’m a worry wart too but she takes worrying to a whole other level) and the eating disorder, her complete lack of faith in Beckett despite everything that he’s done for her. I hated the way that she doubted everyone but expected everyone not to doubt her. I understand that I shouldn’t have been annoyed with her because of all of that but that didn’t stop me from wanting to smash her face in every time she wouldn’t let anyone be there for her. There were plenty of times when I thought I would put the book down because I couldn’t take any more of Finleys woe is me crap but it was the other characters that pushed me through. It was the other characters like Mrs. Sweeney, Beckett, Erin, Nora and all of those characters that made me want to finish this out.
In the end, I’m glad that I pushed my way through because I was happy with the way that it ended but there was so much frustration throughout the book, having to deal with Finley that it chipped away at my enjoyment of the book. Overall, the story was great and the characters were charming but I didn’t love the book. One thing that I feel needs to be pointed out is that this is a Christian YA fiction book so if you’re not into the religion stuff than I don’t think this is the book for you. There isn’t a lot of preachy stuff in here and I didn’t think the author came off as preachy at all but there is a lot of stuff with faith and God and stuff in here so if that’s not your thing than this isn’t the book for you.
I enjoyed the book and I enjoyed getting to know the characters but the main character herself rode my nerves the entire book and though I was supposed to sympathize with her, there was a part of the book (most of the book) where I just wanted her to own up to her mistakes and move forward and I felt like it took her too long to come to that point.
..and that’s your scoop!
Buy the book: B&N|Amazon|Book Depository
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com


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Review: Caleb + Kate by Cindy Martinusen-Coloma.

Posted September 21, 2010 by Rowena in Reviews | 5 Comments


Main Characters: Caleb Kalani, Kate Monrovi
Series: None

“Romeo + Juliet gets an update in this story of forbidden love. Shakespeare’s never been so hip.” — Jenny B. Jones, author of The Charmed Life Series As the popular darling of the junior class and heiress to the five-star Monrovi Inn empire, Kate has both everything and nothing. She’s bored with school and life…until she locks eyes with Caleb at a school dance. Caleb is new to Kate’s exclusive prep school, and it’s clear he doesn’t fit in. In fact, he and his dad work in maintenance for Kate’s father. And while Caleb knows better than to spend time with the boss’s daughter, it seems that every time he tries to back away, something pulls him right back in. When their parents demand that they are to stay away from each other, they learn of a fight between their families that occurred more than fifty years ago. It’s a mystery Kate doesn’t understand…but a legacy Caleb has endured his entire life. With the world stacked against them, Caleb and Kate will have to walk by faith to find the path that God has planned for them.

This is a modern re-telling of Romeo and Juliet with the whole feuding families and what not but I enjoyed this story. Caleb transfers to Kate’s school and because the principal knows all about their family feud, she pairs Caleb up with Kate so that Kate can show him the ropes around school. She does this in an attempt to show that the past is in the past and also in hopes that the new generation would learn to be civil to each other.

Kate has no idea about any family feud so when she finds out about it all from her principal, she’s confused and then when she meets Caleb, she’s so attracted to him that it’s hard for her to remember to stay away from him. Caleb on the other hand, knows all about the feud. He was raised on the feud and knows that he should stay far away from Kate but when that becomes impossible, he gives in gracefully.

I enjoyed the romance that blossomed between Caleb and Kate. I thought it was young love at its best but what I didn’t truly get was the whole feud. I guess I didn’t buy it all that much. The way that Kate’s Dad flew off the handle and lashed out at Caleb at the dinner table kind of threw me off, Caleb’s grandfather and his Hawaiian pride seemed off to me but outside of the whole feud thing- I enjoyed the book.

I thought that both Kate and Caleb were great characters with flaws that made them likeable. I loved that Caleb was going to fight for Kate’s honor and I love that Kate was so head over heels in love with Caleb. I loved how pure their love was too. You could tell that they meant the world to each other but Caleb held true to his beliefs and I respected him for that. I adored Caleb and loved that he was Polynesian. It was good to see some Poly’s get some good page time without being either dumb, a bouncer or someone scary.

The one thing that I flat out could not stand was Kate’s reaction to Caleb leaving. I thought she blew that crap right up and made a big deal out of something that Caleb couldn’t control anyway. I couldn’t believe that she would make him choose between her and his family. It dampened my enjoyment of her character and though things ended okay, I still resented her a bit.

All in all, I was glad that I read this book and I’m already looking for other books by this author. This book was a solid spin on the Romeo and Juliet story and it was an enjoyable way to spend a few hours. I would recommend this one to lovers of romance in their story. There’s a happy ending and that makes me a happy camper.

Buy the book: B&N|Borders|Amazon|The Book Depository
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com


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