Eclipse

Book: Eclipse

Author:  Stephenie Meyer

As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob–knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella has one more decision to make: life or death. But which is which?

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After reading "The short life of Bree Tanner" - I had to go over Eclipse again & figured with the movie coming out, I needed to read it again...

I'm glad I did... this is my favorite of all 4 books - or is it 5 now with the new book?  But anyways - this is my favorite with Bella, Jacob & Edward...

Couldnt want to get to the chapter "Fire & Ice" that involved the tent scene.  I love the conversation between Jacob & Edward... & the chapter following where Bella finally realizes she does have feelings for Jacob... oh, be still my wolf-loving-heart.

It was neat to read it again - especially after the other book & knowing more "back story" ...

And I know this is a re-read, but I am keeping track of all the books I've read this year, so thats why I have to add it on here...

And once again, my rating:   5 skeins .... with a big dramatic vampire/wolf love triangle sigh....

The short second life of bree tanner

Book:  the short second life of bree tanner

Author:  Stephenie Meyer

Pages:  178

Bree Tanner can barely remember life before she had uncannily powerful seneses, superhuman reflexes & unstoppable physical strength.  Life before she had a relentless thirst for blood... life before she became a vampire.
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this is the story of a "newborn" Bree ... she is mentioned in Eclipse & this is the story of her life... the back story of the newborns from Seattle in Eclipse.

I love that Mrs Meyers did this & now that I read it, wish she would do more.

We know the characters of the Volturri in here & of Riley & of Victoria... but I really enjoyed the story of Freaky Fred & want to now know more about HIM!!!!  (Hint Mrs. Meyers - another story please?)

I so enjoyed when the Cullens became part of the story... I got to see my precious Charlisle too... ahh... I have to say though - I got confused when they were just naming people by hair color.  Edward had red hair?  I'm lost?  A girl had red hair?  The only red head I remember is Victoria... I was confused by that part of the story...

But I felt for bree tanner... knew what the ending of the story was going to be - which made it all the more sad. 

And now, as soon as I put the book on the shelf, I pulled Eclipse out & will now re-read it... I want to see once again the other side...

My rating:  5 skeins

The Help

Book:  The Help

Author:  Kathryn Stockett

Pages: 451

Twenty Two yr old Skeeter has just returned home from graduating from Ole Miss.  She may have a degree, but its 1962, Mississippi, & her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger.  Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared & no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeeth white child.  Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way.  She is devoted to the little girl she looks after (Mae Mobley), though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat & perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi.  She can cook like nobody's business, but she cant mind her tongue so she's lost yet another job.  Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation.  But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these woman will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk.  And why?  Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town & their times.  And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
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I've heard so much about this book & have seen it every where on everyone's reading list - so I had to see what it was about... & I am so thankful I did.  The story of these women & the other maids & the women they work for just takes you back into a time that wasnt that far behind us, but seems like it could be forever.  It blows my mind to think that in the time my husband was alive, in Mississippi, people still treated their "maids" or the HELP the way they did. The way racial differences were so harsh & cruel.

The chapters are told from the different perspective of these three women who come together.  Afraid to trust each other at first, but having friendships develope between them is just so endearing.  I couldnt wait to get to each word in this book, to see what would happen in the chance these women were taking. 

Skeeter, being an "outsider" because she wasnt married or had children & didnt quite fit in with the "society ladies" - people who used to be her friends growing up.  Aibileen, who did everything to make sure the children she watched had a little bit more sense of black people & they were really no different.  I love the stories she would tell Mae Mobley - especially about the green alien, Martian Luther King!!!! ... & I just love Minny - I can relate to a lady who has a big mouth.  The woman she works for, Celia, just entranced me too - because she too was a loner... someone who I envisioned as Marilyn Monroe - someone the other women didnt like because they knew their husband DID like her...

I didnt want this book to end.  I felt like I knew each one of these ladies... & I loved them... I can tell a good book by my reactions on reading a story.  Yep, I actually gasped at parts, actually laughed out loud at parts, & actually teared up in areas... & my heart ached for these women... that is why this book is up in a top ranking of my favorite books...you wont regret traveling back in time to Mississippi in the 60's & meeting these women...

My rating:  5 skeins

The Last Christian - & GIVEAWAY!!!!

Book:  The Last Christian

Author: David Gregory

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group

The video says it all.... this is a story of Abigail Caldwell, who lived in the jungle her whole life with her missionary parents.  Its 2088 AD & she has survived a mysterious disease that killed everyone in her village.  This leaders her to America, only to discover a nation where Christianity has completely died out.

Abby sees this new world, that involves virtual reality, the dissolving of marriage, the way education has changed, to the scientific ways of thinking of the world. 

Personally, this book freaked me out, because the ways this books describes how Christianity dissolved in America are things that are very real & have potential to becoming true.  The way it shows how the next generation saw no real change in people who accepted Christ, how mega churches were built only for entertainment & not reaching to the lost... even gives "historical" records of politics which are from our times of George W. Bush & political decisions that are happening in our world now, & how things were accepted so easily that it turned into a "so what" nation of "anything goes"...

I really was wrapped up in the story... I'm not a big science fiction sorta person & I thought it would be hard for me to get into this book, but I was totally swept up in the story.  The ending, I will admit, I had to struggle with in knowing what was happening, but its only because my sci-fi-brain isn't up to speed with those things... but I did get it, understand it, & was surprised at the ending... not at all what I expected.. & I love that in a book...

Lucky for you, I have another copy given to me from WaterBrook Press that I can offer for a giveaway...

All you have to do is answer this question - What do you think the future looks like?  Simple enough
Leave me another comment if you are a follower & you'll get another entry... Good luck!  Deadline to enter will be Friday at 7:00

My Ratings: 4 skeins.... was going to be 3 only because my sci-fi brain, but loved the thought process & how "real" this could be...

UPDATE:  Random Number picked #3 - which is JULIE!!!! YIPEE!  Congrats girl!

Indivisible

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group

Book:  Indivisible

Author:  Kristen Heitzmann

Battling his own personal demons, Police Chief Jonah Westfall has experienced the dark side of life & is committed to eradicating it.  When a pair of raccoons are found mutilated, Jonah investigates the gruesome act, seeking to unmask the perpetrator before the crime escalates & destroys the tranquility of his small mountain town.  Jonah fights for answers - & his fragile sobriety - amid a rising drug threat & never-ending conflict with Tia Manning, a formidable childhood friend with whom he has more than a passing history.
But he cant penetrate every wound or secret - especially one fueled by a love & guilt teetering on madness.
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That is the description on the book - & I dont think it tells NEARLY anything about what this book is about.  There are more characters besides Jonah & Tia ... including the vet who helps Jonah, Liz... & Tia's friend, Piper who works at the local bakery owned by Sarge... & Jay, Jonah's sponsor that helps him with his sobriety - not to mention a Coyote that becomes a part of the story...

This is a mystery - & I'm saying "ITS THEM" with every new character - which keeps me reading on pins & needles with each page.  I love when I'm right ... & I love when I'm wrong & I'm surprised! 

I'm not going to give anything away with this though - that's the point of a MYSTERY!!!

I will say, I do love that the book is much deeper then the description though.  You really learn so much about ALL the characters in the stories... & the writing in this book is wonderful.  It explains everything in words that are just so descriptive, but not over someone's head (hate that!)...

After I finished this book - I felt like I had to breath for a minute... after I found out that the suspect is......
Nah - I'm not telling...

If you want to check out a chapter of this book: 
http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/2010/03/16/sneak-peek-indivisible-by-kristen-heitzmann/

My Rating: 3 skeins

The Bridegrooms

This book was provided for review by WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group

Book:  The Bride Grooms

Author:  Allison Pittman

Tragedy hit the Allenhouse family on a hot summer night in Ohio when a mother of four vanished.  8 yr old Vada virtually grew up overnight & raised her 3 younger sisters while her father lost himself in his medical practice in the basement of their home.

Now Vada is a grown woman, still making her home with her father & sisters.  Her days are spent serving as an errang girl for Cleveland's fledgling amateur orchestra; her evenings with Garrison Walker, her devoted, if seeminly passionless, beau.

Dizzying change occurs the day the Brooklyn Bridgegrooms come to town to play the Cleveland Spiders & a line drive wallops the head of a spectator.  The fan is whisked to the Allenhouse parlor & questions swirl around the ananymous, unconscious man.

Suddenly, the subdued house is filled with visitors, from a flirtatious would be sports writer, to the Bridgegrooms' handsome star hitter to the guilt-ridden ball player who should have caught the stray shot.  Vada's life is awakened amid the super-charged atmosphere of romantic opportunity....
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I  adored this book!  I love the story of the sisters & just felt like it was a sorta "Little Women" kind of book.  With each sister having such a different personality, I enjoyed learning more about all of them...

Vada - the oldest who took care of her sisters & virtually became their mother, when their mother left for another man.  Vada then struggles with a new French baseball player that put some passion in her life... & it was so interesting to see how she so badly hated her mother for leaving for another man, but when she was faced with the choice herself with this new ball player, or her predictable, "boring" Garrison, the decision wasnt as easy as she thought.    I loved Vada... I could understand the choices she was having to make & why she was questioning things... I just felt like I was back in time with this girl & watching her life develop.

Hazel - the "heavier" sister who so desperately wanted love & sent letters to men, afraid of what they would think once they saw her.

Althea - the sister who would never speak... she was so damaged by her mother leaving, she kept to herself & only communicated through pen & paper... what the stranger who got hit on the head does for her life!

Lisette - the baby... the beautiful one that knew she had all the men in the town wrapped around her finger.

It was an era when women's honor was big, horse & carriage were ways of transportation, when a man courted a future wife... it all seems to real in this book...

I loved the book did have a love story in it that was not "fake" - you know, the ending you KNOW is going to happen. I think I was so intrigued with this book because I DIDNT know what Vada would do... I didnt know which way her heart would lead her... didnt know the reactions of how the men in her life would go.  I really enjoyed this book... hated to let the sisters go on the last page...

If you want to see more or interested, visit this site right here:
http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/catalog.php?isbn=9781601421371

My rating: 4 skeins

Forget Me Not

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group

Book:  Forget Me Not

Author:  Vicki Hinze

Crossroads Crisis Center owner Benjamin Brandt was a content man—in his faith, his work, and his family. Then in a flash, everything he loved was snatched away. His wife and son were murdered, and grief-stricken Ben lost faith. Determination to find their killers keeps him going, but after three years of dead ends and torment, his hope is dying too. Why had he survived? He’d failed to protect his family.


Now, a mysterious woman appears at Crossroads seeking answers and help—a victim who eerily resembles Ben’s deceased wife, Susan. A woman robbed of her identity, her life, of everything except her faith—and Susan’s necklace.

The connections between the two women mount, exceeding coincidence, and to keep the truth hidden, someone is willing to kill. Finding out who and why turns Ben and the mystery woman’s situation from dangerous to deadly. Their only hope for survival is to work together, trust each other, and face whatever they discover head on, no matter how painful. But will that be enough to save their lives and heal their tattered hearts?
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I've kinda been looking at others reviews on this book & it seems like everyone loves this book.  I guess I am just the odd man out.  Not saying I didnt love the book, I just struggled with it.  I think because I came out of my last few books of Amish, calm living - another story of living in an old era - & then right from the first page of this, it was like a "Die Hard" movie - with people chasing people, shooting others, blowing up things, running for your life...it was action packed.

And the story IS an interesting story & one I enjoyed, but for me, I think I may have just read through the beginning too fast because I was getting WAY confused with all the "bad guys" & who was who & leading who & what the plans were.  Definately a lot of characters in this book.... & its my own fault.  I usually make my own "cheat card" with characters names & who's who to stay on top of things.  That would have been really helpful with this book, for me anyways.

I will give this book another chance - but this time, I WILL do the cheat card thing so I can thoroughly enjoy it to the most.  Because again, it does seem like a good story line... I think it was just bad timing for me to get into a story that had that much intensity....

If you are interested in checking this book out, you can visit the publishers website, right here:
http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/catalog.php?isbn=9781601422057

My rating:  0 skeins - FOR NOW.. I will reread & update the rating later when I can give it a fair rating.  Check out the other reviews though... I'm seeing nothing but raves!  So it makes me even more excited to give this one another chance.