It’s time to start our newest challenge: Unlocking Ecclesiastes 3. I’m so excited to join you again this year with guest reviews from our reading challenge participants. If you want to submit a review for upcoming months, feel free to email me using my contact form. If you are looking for suggestions as to what to read each month, visit my recommendations page – Reading Challenge Recommendations — or I recommend joining my Crystal Caudill’s Reading Friends Facebook group, or visiting Avid Readers of Christian Fiction or Inspirational Historical Fiction Index. I’ll also include a short list at the bottom of this post.an Fiction or Inspirational Historical Fiction Index. I’ll also include a short list at the bottom of this post.
Don’t forget to comment at the bottom of the post for your chance to win a book off my prize shelf. *The list of prizes available from my prize shelf can be found here.*
Unlocking the Past: Ecclesiastes 3
Just as Ecclesiastes has two opposites in each verse, most months will leave you with two options to choose from.
January Verse: A time to be born and a time to die.
Challenge Theme: A book with a Baby or End of Life character
February Verse: A time to plant and a time to harvest.
Challenge Theme: A book with a Rural Setting OR a Major Move/Life Change
Catching Christmas
by Teri Blackstock
Review by: Crystal Caudill
Yes, I know. It’s a Christmas book and a contemporary one at that. I promise most of my future challenge books will be historical in nature, but I accidentally read this end-of-life book in December and decided to work ahead since I had a deadline in January. What do I mean by accidentally? I wouldn’t have picked it up if I knew it was an end-of-life book when I started listening to it. As a caregiver, that is just a hard subject for me right now, and the grandma, Callie, in this story dealt with a lot of memory/dementia-type issues and something else that . However, I forced myself to finish listening to it since it came so highly recommended, and Terri Blackstock has been on my need-to-try author list for a long time.
I’m still processing it. It was written in first person, one of my least favorite, but it didn’t fall under suspense or romance like I thought it would. It was fascinating to be in Finn’s perspective, and Sydney was . . . a difficult character for me. I tend to fall along Finn’s lines in that you sacrifice and give up for your family. Not that Sydney wasn’t trying her best, but I really got frustrated with her throughout the book with the decisions she made.
Genre: Contemporary Christmas
Plot Overview:
An overworked attorney’s grandmother will stop at nothing to find her a date for Christmas in this heartwarming holiday love story about finding what really matters in life.
As a first-year law associate, Sydney Batson knows she will be updating her resume by New Year’s if she loses her current case. So when her grandmother gets inexplicably ill while Sydney is in court, she arranges for a cab to take her grandmother to the clinic.
The last thing cab driver Finn Parrish wants is to be saddled with a wheelchair-bound old lady with dementia. But because Miss Callie reminds him of his own mother, whom he failed miserably in her last days, he can’t say no when she keeps calling him for rides. Once a successful gourmet chef, Finn’s biggest concern now is paying his rent, but half the time Callie doesn’t remember to pay him. And as she starts to feel better, she leads him on wild-goose chases to find a Christmas date for her granddaughter.
When Finn meets Sydney, he’s quite certain she’s never needed help finding a date. Does Miss Callie have an ulterior motive, or is this just a mission driven by delusions? He’s willing to do whatever he can to help fulfill Callie’s Christmas wish. He just never expected to be a vital part of it.
Purchase Links:
Amazon | Baker Bookhouse | Barnes & Noble | Christianbook.com
Giveaway
For your chance to win a print copy, comment with what book YOU read for this month. Use the Rafflecopter below for extra entries and to mark that you left a comment. Entries end on the 7th of each month at midnight EST, and the winner will be drawn sometime that week and notified by email. The winner will be announced on the Rafflecopter widget.
*Open to all residents of the contiguous USA, legally able to enter, and an e-book format or Amazon Gift Card will be awarded to those outside that range who are legally able to enter.
Recommendations for February:
- Counterfeit Hope by Crystal Caudill
- Mark of the King, Jocelyn Green
- When Valleys Bloom Again by Pat Jeanne Davis
- Forsaken Dreams by MaryLu Tyndall
- Rocky Mountain Promise by Misty Beller
- Shaped By the Waves – Christina Suzann Nelson
- The Shunning trilogy by Beverly Lewis
- Forsaken Dreams by MaryLu Tyndall
I read Fragile Designs by Colleen Coble. It was great! I loved the suspense and the characters.
That’s awesome! I’ve fixed the Rafflecopter, so be sure to go up and enter there. It makes it a little easier on me to pick the winner.
I read “The Captive Heart” by Michelle Griep. This story had a different style than the Michelle Griep books I’ve previously read (probably because of the setting). Still enjoyable though!
I loved that book. It’s not my favorite, favorite, but I’m definitely contemplating reading it again for February’s theme. I’ve fixed the Rafflecopter, so be sure to go up and enter there. It makes it a little easier on me to pick the winner.
I read In Harm’s Way by Irene Hannon. It was a really interesting book, very intriguing. By the way, I don’t see any Rafflecopter in the post.
Ugh. It’s fixed now, so be sure to go up and enter there. It makes it a little easier on me to pick the winner.She’s on my new author to me list to read. Eventually I’ll get to her.
I read The Bounty Hunter’s Baby by Erica Vetsch
The writing was good and the storyline was unique, which I like!
I love Erica’s books! I’ll have to find a copy to read. I’ve fixed the Rafflecopter, so be sure to go up and enter there. It makes it a little easier on me to pick the winner.
I read Fragile Designs by Colleen Coble.
I read “The Extraordinary Deaths. of Mrs. Kipp” by Sara Brunsvold. I highly recommend this read! I read so many positive reviews about this book and finally listened to the audiobook. It didn’t disappoint!
That book is on my one day pile, but in this season of my MIL not doing well, I can’t bear to read it. But Sara is an AMAZING person. I’ve fixed the Rafflecopter, so be sure to go up and enter there. It makes it a little easier on me to pick the winner.
Oh, you’re the second person who’s said that. I’ll have to look it up. I’ve fixed the Rafflecopter, so be sure to go up and enter there. It makes it a little easier on me to pick the winner.
The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip by Sara Brunsvold
It’s on my one day read pile. With my MIL’s current health concerns, I just can’t handle an end of life story. But Sara is an AMAZING person. I’ve fixed the Rafflecopter, so be sure to go up and enter there. It makes it a little easier on me to pick the winner.
I read The Secrets of Farrow Hall by Teah Kemp Weight. The older brother dies and the younger brother has to figure out how to care for his family.
Oh that is hard, but sounds like it would be a good story. I’ve fixed the Rafflecopter, so be sure to go up and enter there. It makes it a little easier on me to pick the winner.
I read The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip by Sara Brunsvold. It was a five star read, and something I’m still thinking about even after finishing the book. I highly recommend it.
It’s on my one day read pile. With my MIL’s current health concerns, I just can’t handle an end of life story. But Sara is an AMAZING person. I’ve fixed the Rafflecopter, so be sure to go up and enter there. It makes it a little easier on me to pick the winner.
I read Unexpected Delivery by Cathy Marie Hake.
Oh, I’ve not read that one, and I love her books. I’ve fixed the Rafflecopter, so be sure to go up and enter there. It makes it a little easier on me to pick the winner.
I read There I Find Rest by Jessie Gussman! I would definitely recommend this wonderful tale. Though it touches on sensitive subjects, it is so well done. The idea of rest was part of why I picked it.
Rest is a concept I’m still working on. LOL I’ve fixed the Rafflecopter, so be sure to go up and enter there. It makes it a little easier on me to pick the winner.
I read Fragile Designs by Colleen Coble. I’ll be reading The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond for Feb. I think.
By the way, the Rafflecopter isn’t showing for me. Just thought I should mention it.
Ugh! It’s fixed now! I’ve not read either of those!
I read In Harm’s Way, by Irene Hannon. I started the month by reading the Haven Manor series by Kristi Ann Hunter. Based on the premise I thought that it would fit the baby prompt, but it didn’t. I mention it because it’s a solid 10/10 (especially book three).
Then I read the Heroes of Quantico series by Irene Hannon. One of the best contemporary suspense that I’ve read in a while. In Harm’s way is a slower buildup to the suspense, but not dull at all. 10/10 recommend for this series as well.
I read The Year of Goodbyes and Hellos by Kelly Irvin.
Suggested for February:
Rural: The Irish Matchmaker by Jennifer Deible
Life Change: All My Secrets by Lynn Austin.
Embers in the London Sky by Sarah Sundin
I read In Harm’s Way by Irene Hannon for January.
For February, I read Searching for you by Jody Hedlund.
It was both a major life upset and largely in a rural setting.
It was a good plot that kept me engaged. I was unclear about the relationship between Sophie and the small children. I thought the youngsters were Sophie’s siblings. Eventually, I learned that there is no blood relationship between them. Perhaps if I had read this series in order, I would have known what the relationships were.
Sophie was a pretty determined young woman who made seemingly good decisions, but with unwanted results.
Reinhold was a hardworking man with a painful past and a temper.
Both struggle with life’s hardships and pain, and they don’t know what sort of relationship they should have with each other. Each makes deep, misguided sacrifices, in order to do the right thing.
I did skip through the sensual, steamier sections. I don’t enjoy reading that.
I was particularly intrigued by the epilogue regarding the Children’s Aid Society. I didn’t know that a significant number of children were left to their own devices.
I recommend the book for those who are specifically looking for romance, or a historical account in the latter 1800s regarding the orphan trains.