Showing posts with label Inspirational. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Inspirational. Show all posts

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Book Review Witcha’be by Anna Marie Kittrell






I usually don’t read Young Adult Inspirational.  However, when Anna Kittrell asked me to write a review in exchange for a free copy, I said yes. I’m glad I did.  

I would recommend this book to not only to young adults but to all ages.

Having recently moved to Redbend, Oklahoma, Molly Sanders is ecstatic to have a friend in Lenni Flemming.  Bianca Ravenwood, not so much.  Lenni Flemming’s best friend since they were small girls and self-proclaimed witcha’be (contraction of witch wannabe), Bianca has taken an instant dislike to Molly, using her for ‘witchcraft’ practice.

Molly’s fear that Bianca will be successful in ruining her friendship with Lenni manifests itself in hiccups and jumping to conclusions about Bianca’s motives. 

Bianca fears Molly will replace herself in Lenni’s life as best friend and lashes out at Molly with her ‘witchcraft’.

{SPOILERS BEGIN}
If you are a parent considering buying this book, other than mentioning witchcraft, defining what witcha’be is and some mumbling that is mistaken for ‘witchcraft’, the book doesn’t have any witchcraft.
{SPOILERS END}

Some of the questions raised in this book are: What do you fear? Does the fear dictate your actions or do you set aside your fear to make your decisions? What do you find solace in when your fear seems overwhelming?

The author has done a good job of answering those questions in a non-preachy fashion while crafting likeable characters in an interesting story.  The questions stayed with me, leading me to re-evaluate how I deal with my own fears.   

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Book Review A Light in the Window by Julie Lessman




18 year old Marceline “Marcy” Murphy returns to Boston after five years to be courted by her best friend’s older brother Sam O’Rourke and his best friend, Patrick O’ Connor. Both men are “rogues” in Marcy’s eyes but she finds herself attracted to both in spite of her reservations. Will Marcy’s dream of marrying Sam come true or will she pick Patrick instead?
Of the two men, Patrick appealed to me the most. While Marcy judges him based on her prejudices, Patrick decides to be generous and sacrifices his love for her happiness.
With such wonderful family background, Sam should have made better decisions. (I saw too much of myself in him.) I hope the author has a feisty heroine in the works for him.  
The characters are written well, with real dilemmas, real virtues and real faults.  While I didn’t feel preached at, I did continue to think on the applications to my own life. What I realized about myself made me decide to work harder to make the necessary changes. 
This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I will be reading her other works as soon as I can. 
 
I first read this as a judge for the Oklahoma Romance Writers of America’s (OKRWA) 2013 International Digital Awards (IDA). I was glad to see Julie Lessman’s A Light in the Window  win the first prize in the Inspirational category.