Review of If We Survive by Andrew Klavan

I love any time I get a chance to read anything by Andrew Klavan.  I also love that I can pass these books onto my teenage son and he loves reading them also.  I love the characters in Andrew Klavan's books.  Will and Meredith captured my heart and I loved reading about them.  I would love to follow them in another book!

The book description says:

They came on a mission of mercy, but now they’re in a fight for their lives.

High schooler Will Peterson and three friends journeyed to Central America to help rebuild a school. In a poor, secluded mountain village, they won the hearts of the local people with their energy and kindness.

But in one sudden moment, everything went horribly wrong. A revolution swept the country. Now, guns and terror are everywhere—and Americans are being targeted as the first to die.

Will and his friends have got to get out fast. But streets full of killers . . . hills patrolled by armies . . . and a jungle rife with danger stand between them and the border. Their one hope of escape lies with a veteran warrior who has lost his faith and may betray them at any moment. Their one dream is to reach freedom and safety and home.

If they can just survive.

The book kept my attention from the first page to the last page.  I loved not knowing what was going to happen and the excitement of wondering what was going to happen.  I would highly recommend this book to others.  I received this book free from Booksneeze in exchange for an honest review.

Review of Heaven's Lessons by Steve Sjogren

The description of this book says:

“If you’d asked me who God is on December 9, the year of my accident, I would have been able to give you a fairly cohesive but theoretical answer. A day later all of that changed.”

A simple surgery went horribly wrong. Steve Sjogren died on the operating table. He encountered a heavenly world where he felt infinite peace. And then he had to come back—back to a physical reality filled with pain and disability and an endless line of tests.

The drama of dying suddenly paled in comparison to the trauma of living. Sjogren could not face this new existence with his same old comfortable understanding of God.

“I had minimized God,” Sjogren says. “Somehow, over time, he had become fairly predictable—like he could be outlined, fully grasped, and contained in a neat set of mere ideas. Now I saw that he apparently wasn’t all that impressed with my cool little notebooks.”

One day in heaven followed by hundreds in agony forged a deeper and stronger faith than Sjogren could have crafted on his own. In Heaven’s Lessons, Sjogren shares his experiences and the life-changing ways they have affected his perspective on success, suffering, and the mysteries of God.

If I could have reviewed this book about 1/4 to 1/3 in, I would have said I loved it.  The beginning of the book was great and really held my attention.  Once I got to about page 140-150, I was trying to just make it to the end of the book, because I did not like it.  Every time I opened the book to read it after page 150, I wanted to go to sleep.  I did feel really bad for the things that have happened in Steve's life with the operations and recovery.  I cannot imagine going through that.  I loved reading that he recovered, but it could have been a much shorter book, in my opinion.  I would not recommend this book to others.  I received this book from Booksneeze for free, in exchange for an honest review.  

Review of The Sky Beneath My Feet by Lisa Samson

The cover of this book looked cute and piqued my interest.  I ordered the e-book from Booksneeze to read and honestly was really disappointed in the book.  The cover of the book was much cuter than the book itself, in my opinion.  I think it was written well, but I had a hard time staying interested in the story.

The description says:

Being married to a saint isn't what it's cracked up to be.

Beth's husband won't be joining the family on vacation at the beach this year. He's not even joining them in the house. Instead, Rick has holed up alone in the backyard shed. Nobody knows exactly what he's up to. Maybe he's immersing himself in prayer. Maybe he's lost his mind. Maybe he's even the modern-day prophet or the saint the neighborhood artist imagines him to be. But while "St. Rick" waits for an epiphany, Beth will have to figure out what to do with herself and their teenage sons, possibly for the rest of her life.

What happens next is both uproarious and bittersweet: a peace march turns violent, her son is caught with drugs, and she embarks on an ambitious road trip that turns into something nearly surreal. Will Beth rediscover the idealistic woman she used to be, once upon a time? Can her marriage survive Rick's backyard vigil? Will anything ever be the same? And should it be?

Truthful, comic, heartbreaking, and magical in the very best sense of the word, The Sky Beneath My Feetgently tears the veil off our egos and expectations to reveal the throbbing, redemptive, and achingly beautiful life beyond and within us.

I had a very hard time relating to Rick.  I felt like there wasn't much explained about him in the story at all.  I enjoyed Beth's story through out the book, but the rest of the book was hard to read.  I would not recommend this book to others.  

I received this book for free from Booksneeze/Thomas Nelson in exchange of an honest review.  These are my views on the book.  

Review of A Matter of Trust by Lis Wiehl

Mysteries are usually not my favorite genre to read, but I have really been into mysteries lately.  I had never heard of Lis Wiehl, but I decided to give one of her books a try.  I loved most of the book.  I was trying to figure out who the murderer was from the third or fourth chapter, but I never would have guessed who it was.

The description says:

When life is murder, who can you trust?

One minute Mia Quinn is in her basement, chatting on the phone with a colleague at the prosecutor’s office. The next minute there’s a gunshot over the line, and Mia listens in horror as her colleague and friend Colleen bleeds to death.

Mia’s a natural for heading up the murder investigation, but these days she has all she can do to hold her life together. As a new widow with a pile of debts, a troubled teenaged son, and a four-year-old who wakes up screaming at night, she needs more time with her family, not less—and working Colleen’s case will be especially demanding. But Colleen was her friend, and she needs to keep her job. So she reluctantly teams up with detective Charlie Carlson to investigate Colleen’s death. But the deeper they dig, the more complications unfold—even the unsettling possibility that someone may be coming after her.

Lis Wiehl’s signature plot twists and relatable characters shine in this absorbing series debut . . . with an intriguing cameo from her best-selling Triple Threat series.

I loved the ending of the book.  It was very suspenseful.  I would recommend this book to others.  I received this book for free from Booksneeze/Thomas Nelson, in exchange for an honest review.