shelfreflectionofficial's Reviews (844)

“‘Sometimes I think I sold my soul for a handful of penny candy— as if some unseen devil heard Florence’s wish and granted it, using my talents as a vehicle for evil.’”


This is not my typical genre— gothic horror—and there were definitely parts that were not my favorite, but it had some redeeming qualities. I liked the second half a lot better than the first half.

I’ve probably only read a few ‘horror’ books so I don’t know what is normal for that type of read. For this book there were supernatural things happening and hauntings, but it wasn’t a super dark or gory story. Because it was set in 1925 the haunting part felt more like an atmospheric element than anything that was supposed to make me feel scared.

I would say it’s more gothic than horror.


The premise: Sadie, on the wrong end of a terminated affair with a married man leaves Kansas City, seizing on the opportunity to care for her great aunt in Arkansas, Marguerite, who is deteriorating with dementia.

“Marguerite was spirited. A chimera. An artist who broke rules and paved her own path in life.”

Family secrets come to light when Sadie experiences the supernatural through her aunt’s haunting portraits she’s painted of people now deceased. Sadie can see them walking in the house and can even be sucked into the paintings— portals to the past.

“‘This old house holds many ghosts, my dear. Some of them are mine.’”

The lure of the paintings centers on Weston Chase, the subject of one of the portraits who is also a womanizer. He seduces Sadie to carry on an intimate relationship through the painting portal.

“Weston Chase. Like something out of a tawdry romance. He’s a hunter, my dear. He chases. You fell right into his snare. But there’s a price to his pleasures. A price you’ll never be able to pay.”

But Sadie soon realizes something happened in Marguerite’s past that reveals these hauntings are part of a curse that must somehow be reversed before the rage of Weston kills them all.

“‘There’s a reason for her anger. Her pain. She just has trouble remembering what caused all of it.’”

“For the past few weeks, so much of what I thought I knew about my family has changed, as if I’ve been looking at them through distorted glass for all these years. Now I see them more clearly. How their well-bred ways were a facade for a well-hidden darkness.”



Okay, so the first half of the book felt largely unpleasant to read. Sadie was not my kind of girl. Carrying on an affair with a married man and then entering into another lustful endeavor with a ghost knowing the dangers surrounding it felt just very immature and selfish. I thought the whole book was just going to be about these supernatural escapades and how it deteriorates Sadie’s perception of reality. And if that’s all it was— and it did feel like it wasn’t really going anywhere— it was going to be a waste of my time.

Once I pushed through that part, we see some character development in Sadie as she recognizes that what she is doing is wrong.

“I’ve realized I’m not really in love with Weston. I’m addicted to him.”

She starts to have feelings for Beckett, the man on grounds who helps care for Marguerite— who is single by the way and not a ghost— and realizes what real love looks like.

So the main conflict becomes Weston’s rage when Sadie stops the relationship. He haunts the house and causes chaos and destruction. Even when they destroy the painting, it shows back up in the house. How can they stop him?

Then we have the portraits of the other people in the past that start showing Sadie Marguerite’s memories. Something terrible happened on a bluff in California and may be the key to reversing the curse if she can figure out what it was.

“‘But there are some things I’ll never tell you, child. I may be losing my mind. But I’ll take some of my secrets to the grave.’”

“The only way you’ll ever be free of him is by discovering the root of the curse. You must confront the wrongs of the past and make atonement— or the one who wronged him must, if they’re still alive.’”



I was glad when what I thought was just going to be a story about lust turned into more of a mystery about what happened in the past and that it was more centered around Marguerite than Sadie. Did she really have dementia? What memories could we trust? How do you kill a ghost?

The tension and conflict in the book built up a lot more and I really liked the ending. I thought it had a good balance of justice and redemption and allowing the grief of loss to linger. It’s not a completely happy ending, but it did resolve in a way that was satisfying.



Sadie’s selfishness turns to authentic love and care for her aunt and Beckett. She bears the burden of a lot of loss in her life, including her brother dying at a young age from illness and finding her father after he committed suicide on the day of her coming out party. Having been unable to save either of them, she feels compelled to do all she can for her aunt.

There is a discussion to be had here in terms of abusive relationships.

“Ted and Weston share many similarities. Passionate. Possessive. Dominant. And perhaps… duplicitous… What Weston offers me is familiar. But familiarity isn’t always good. Familiar can be dangerous.”

I was glad to see this growth in Sadie— not only that she recognized she didn’t want to be a mistress but that she realized she turned around and pursued a similar man, out of comfort of the familiar, which is not always good. Well, also he was a ghost, but you get it.



In the author’s note, Paulette says she was actually setting out to write a book about caregiving since she had some personal experience with it and wanted to highlight the challenges caregivers face and how our loved ones “teach us about living well and dying well in the process.”

But as she was writing, it kind of morphed into something more:

“While this is still a story about caregiving, it’s also one about generational trauma, and how the echoes of our actions filter down to our descendants.”

I thought this was interesting because I’ve recently been listening to Alisa Childer’s podcast series talking about demonic oppression and generational curses so for a generational curse to pop up in a fiction book I was reading was timely.

One of the ways Sadie attempts to combat Weston was to see a fortune teller where she got something to sprinkle in doorways, a charm to wear, and a prayer to recite. These are similar things to what is discussed in the podcast— what is demonic oppression and how do you deal with it?

I don’t usually choose to read books that have supernatural elements because some things depict reality and others dramatize or exaggerate for the story. I don’t want to romanticize, trivialize, or catastrophize the spiritual world.

If you are a Christian reader and you’re not sure what to think of things like this, I would recommend Childers’ podcast as a launching point to thinking more about these kinds of things.


Supernatural world aside, I do think that there is something practical to be said of family legacies and the things we pass down to future generations. Paulette chose to depict this using a curse. I don’t believe in curses, but I do think that how we parent our children is relative to how we were parented and will be relevant to how our children will parent their children. Abuse has been seen to be passed down. How we treat people. Our beliefs. Our way of seeing the world. Our values and priorities. The way we use our time and our money. All of these things influence future generations for good or bad.

And it’s not to say we can’t make mistakes, but what do we do with our mistakes? Do we cover them up or lie about them? Or do we confess and repent and teach people from our own mistakes?

It is right to think about the legacy we might leave for others. Are we leaving them a blessing or a burden?



A couple other random comments:

- I wish we had gotten more information as to what turned the paintings into portals. Was it something in the way Marguerite painted, was there an event that triggered it? Perhaps it would have been too complicated to integrate well into the book, but it’s something that just has to be accepted and I would have preferred a better explanation.

- We never did tie up the comments surrounding the Blaylock family and the death that occurred in the house. Was that just to add to the eerie vibes or was it meant to be some sort of plot point that got forgotten?

- I agree with another reviewer that I’m not sure I really felt the chemistry between Beckett and Sadie. I was not wanting the lustful connection Sadie had with Weston, but I do think there was something missing from Beckett’s character to connect the readers to him and Sadie’s relationship.

- I will also include this quote from the author’s note for readers more savvy than me: “Savvy readers will notice my nods to The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, and The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier, all of which helped inspire certain aspects of this story.”

I actually hated Wuthering Heights and am not a big ‘classics’ fan in general so I obviously didn’t pick up on the cues, but maybe you can!

- This book does have a touch of time travel and the idea that we have to be careful changing the past because we don’t know what it will affect in the future. That’s the thing about mistakes and regrets. They still shape who we are and our experiences that lead us to people and discoveries that we otherwise wouldn’t have.

- Based on the author’s content warning printed at the beginning of the book, she attempted to bring a lot of things to bear in this story. Some more so than others. I suppose it makes for book club discussions, but sometimes I think authors can try to shove too many hot button topics into one book. To be honest, though, most of these were so subtle that I didn’t even notice them or feel overwhelmed by them … other than when I read the whole list before starting. Luckily, I forgot about them pretty quickly.



Recommendation

This one is hard to know how to recommend. I’m not a fan of the lust and sexual content, or the first half of the book in general, but I was glad with the turn the book took and some of the themes that eventually shone through.

I think there are both reasons to read it and reasons not to read it. I think I’ve provided enough information for you to know if this is a good fit for you.


[Content Advisory: 0 f- or s-words; there is sexual content, nothing drawn out but a few sex scenes and lust is a main plot point; supernatural elements and a demon/ghost; LGBTQ+- Marguerite had several female lovers]


**Received an ARC via NetGalley**

“If you were accused of honoring the Holy Spirit, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”

[This is a shortened review- the full review can be found HERE]

Lots to glean from these pages as is typical of Packer’s books! Definitely one that would benefit from multiple readings if you can.

Unfortunately, I think that this book may not be as accessible as some of his others like Knowing God. I think many that begin to read might not stick with it. It’s definitely one you can’t read distracted. Even when I was really focused there were parts that I had to reread a few times to grasp.

Hopefully this review can help those who wish to read it— offer some framework and highlight some of his main points you can filter the book through. I also think that a pastoral take and consideration of this book will differ from a lay person’s view because pastors have had to navigate congregations of members with different views that lay people may not even be aware of.

I was really interested in what he said about charismatic practices as I’ve been skeptical of a lot of things. Packer affirmed some of my caution but also offered insights that helped me to think about those things in a different way.

Even though he addresses some highly divisive things, I don’t think this book made him any enemies. He approaches each view in a balanced way, acknowledging the strengths and weaknesses or vulnerabilities of each.

I will also say here that the book is full of Bible references to support all that he says; I didn’t include all of them throughout my review but want readers to know that this is a book written from reading out of the Bible not into the Bible.

The book I read was a re-print of the 2005 revision. The original was written in 1984 as a response to the charismatic ‘tidal wave’ that came across in Britain in the 1960s. There became divisions about what the ‘main role’ of the Spirit was as different groups focused on different aspects of the Spirit’s work and how to understand things like the gifts of the Spirit and speaking in tongues.

Packer said that he wrote this book to do four things:

1) restate the Christ-centered news of the Holy Spirit’s new covenant ministry, to counter the spiritual Spirit-centered news that was spreading

2) reaffirm the biblical call to holiness, in the face of the distortions and neglect from which it had long suffered

3) assess the charismatic movement and its claims even-handedly

4) show that in any case the charismatic vision falls short of the fullness of revival according to the Scriptures, so that however grateful for this movement we may be we must look beyond it. 


Part One

“What is the essence, heart, and core of the Spirit’s work today?”

Packer describes several camps of thought, however subtle, that emphasize different aspects of the Spirit’s work. He first shows how these are all founded on a biblical basis of truth and all have importance in terms of how we look at the Spirit, but when we overfocus or take them beyond where they were meant to go it can turn into bad theology.

Power: “giving the ability to do what you know you ought to do and indeed want to do, but feel that you lack the strength for” [Keswick teaching falls here]

the critique: “To start with, it blurs the distinction between manipulating divine power at one’s own will (which is magic)  and experiencing it as one obeys God’s will (which is religion).”

Performance: “exercising spiritual gifts… preaching, teaching, prophecy, tongues, healing”

the critique: “any mindset which treats the Spirit’s gifts (ability and willingness to run around and do things) as more important than his fruit (Christlike character in personal life) is spiritually wrongheaded and needs correcting.”

Purification: “cleansing his children from sin’s defilement and pollution by enabling them to resist temptation and do what is right.”

the critique: “Their tendency is to grow legalistic, making tight rules for themselves and others about abstaining from things indifferent, imposing rigid and restrictive behavior patterns as bulwarks against worldliness and attaching great importance to observing these man-made taboos.”

Presentation: “making us aware of things” [Bishop J.V. Taylor]

the critique: “it takes more to constitute real, valid saving knowledge of Jesus than simply being able to mouth his name… knowledge of Christ must be measured, among other texts, by how much of the New Testament teaching about Christ is or is not embraced.”


So while none of these are entirely wrong, imbalances in our thinking creates what he calls a “smudgy” understanding about the Spirit and can thus stifle His ability to work in our lives.

Packer offers a way of looking at the Spirit’s work in a more unified way. He calls it: Presence.

“The distinctive, constant, basic ministry of the Holy Spirit under the new covenant is so to mediate Christ’s presence to believers— that is, to give them such knowledge of his presence with them as their Savior, Lord, and God.”

Then it would follow that we would grow in fellowship with Jesus, be transformed to look more like Christ, and have assurance that we are loved, redeemed, and adopted into his family, encompassing all the other focuses listed above.

Another way to look at it is this:

“It is as if the Spirit stands behind us, throwing light over our shoulder, on Jesus, who stands facing us… The Spirit, we might say, is the matchmaker, the celestial marriage broker, whose role it is to bring us and Christ together and ensure that we stay together.”



Part Two

There are four chapters called ‘Mapping the Spirit’s Path’ that talk about holiness and the charismatic life.

“The pursuit of holiness is… a vital element in Christian mission strategy today. The world’s greatest need is the personal holiness of Christian people.”

He defines holiness as:

“Holiness is in essence obeying God, living to God and for God, imitating God, keeping his law, taking his side against sin, doing righteousness, performing good works, following Christ’s teaching and example, worshiping God in the Spirit, loving and serving God and men out of reverence for Christ.”

He critiques evangelicals for making holiness secondary. Saying we’ve become too busy in activism with little regard for our ‘inner lives’ just like the Pharisees.

He then goes through the principles of holiness (i.e. the nature, the context, the root, the agent, experience, rule, and heart of holiness)

One of the things he talks about that stuck out to me in this part was in regards to repentance: “Repentance means turning from as much as you know of your sin to give as much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of your God, and as our knowledge grows at these three points so our practice of repentance has to be enlarged.”

I also liked how he said that one of the ways by which the Spirit works in our lives is through helping us form holy habits. This is the counter to the ‘let go and let God’ approach and recognizes that the Spirit works through naturally formed habits and it doesn’t always (or usually) have to be a supernatural ‘spiritual experience’ to see the Spirit working.


He spends a chapter here discussing three views of holiness concerning the question- How do we achieve holiness?

I’ll try to make this part brief; it’s obviously more detailed in the book.

The Augustinian view, held by Lutheran and Reformed teachers (Calvin, Owen, Ryle), is based on the principle “that God out of grace (meaning, free, unmerited love to us sinners) and by grace (meaning the Spirit active in our personal lives) must and does work in us all that we ever achieve of the faith, hope, love, worship, and obedience that he requires… God gives what he commands.”

This view emphasizes humility in that we know we are sinful and cannot do anything good on our own, activity in that we must be zealous for good works doing all we can, and change in that we should expect to see transformation even as we acknowledge the daily struggle and failures.

It could be summarized by Phil. 2:12-13 which says- “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

The Wesleyan Perfectionism view holds that there is a second work of grace, post-conversion, in which “all sinful motivation is rooted out of a Christian’s heart.” and comes from teachings of John Wesley— also held by John Fletcher, William Booth, and Oswald Chambers— that actually may have been misinterpreted because of Wesley’s use of the word ‘perfection’. Packer thinks the term ‘total love’ would make more sense for this belief.

This view focuses on love of God and love for others as evidence of this second act of grace where we no longer desire to sin because we are so overcome by the love of God towards us; any sin you commit going forward would be involuntary because you would no longer voluntarily sin because of how much you love God. However, there is no biblical grounds to be confident that God would bestow that kind of transformation this side of heaven, indeed, our own reality and experiences shows us that sin is always creeping at the door. This view also creates uncertainty for Christians who can never seem to be ‘perfect.’

The Keswick teaching is similar to Wesleyan Perfectionism in that they both uphold a belief about attaining sinlessness on Earth. However, Keswick teaching denies human ability to do it. In this view it’s about ‘letting go and letting God’, trusting and having faith that God will keep you from sin. You still remove voluntary sin from your life but through a passive yielding to the Spirit to attain it.

One of the critiques of this view is their use of Paul’s words on ‘surrender.’ [Rom 6:13; 12:1] Packer says surrender here “is not meaning we lapse into inaction but rather that we should report for duty and set no limits to what Christ by his spirit through his Word may direct us to do.” We are not called to be passive, waiting for the Holy Spirit to pop up and change us, but that we are to “resolutely labor by prayer and effort to obey the law of Christ and mortify sin.”

Packer acknowledges that the draw for the Wesleyan and Keswick views is that these views attempt to encourage real hearts that struggle with the ongoing battle of sin and our desire to be free from it and victorious over it. Yet, the reality is that sin still dwells in our hearts and the sanctification process requires an ongoing battle, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to continue to resist temptation and to obey Christ’s teachings, until our promised glorification after this life.

Some might argue that they’ve seen or experienced lives changed by the Wesleyan or Keswick teaching and so doesn’t that mean something? Packer replies that 1) many might not actually get the complete teaching of that particular view but just an understanding of faith in Jesus and his power working in our lives and that 2) “God is very gracious and truly gives himself to all who truly seek him, never mind whether their theology is good or not so good.”

So then does any of this “justify the inaccuracies” of the teachings?

He says: “No. It is not much of a recommendation when all you can say is that this teaching may help you if you do not take its details too seriously… [and] if you do take its details seriously, it will tend not to help you but to destroy you.”

The details of our theology matter. He likens it to car parts being recalled for being faulty. Sure you may be able to drive, but would you want to be driving around in a car with a defective part? Pastorally, defective theology needs to be recalled and corrected.



Charismatic practices/beliefs can often be divisive in churches. What spiritual gifts should we expect to see today? Can/should people speak in tongues? What should worship look like? What should conversion feel like? What should we think about charismatic prophesying?

These are the questions Packer delves into and I can’t go into it all here— especially the speaking in tongues and prophesying parts as I believe his arguments are probably best read within the context of his entire book in detail.

While Packer does have some critiques of the charismatic movement, he spends time listing twelve positive aspects of it including Christ-centeredness, joyfulness, prayerfulness, communal living, and generous giving.

“No type of Christian spirituality is free from dangers, weaknesses, and threats to maturity arising from its very strengths, and it is not as if Christian maturity were overwhelmingly visible in non charismatic circles today.”

He challenges non-charismatic churches to learn from charismatics by being more exuberant and joyful in their worship, not to be passive and relying on their pastors to ‘do everything’ but to be active and fervent in prayer, using our gifts to serve, and being more open to the power of the Spirit at work in their lives. To seek to encourage congregation members to find a role to play in the church instead of being a consumer.

He admonishes any church that feels vindicated that they don’t have the ‘Corinthian’ problem and I agree that a lot of churches should be less orderly if it means the Spirit has risen them up!

“If our reaction as readers is merely to preen ourselves and feel glad because our churches are free from Corinthian disorders, we are fools indeed. The Corinthian disorders were due to an uncontrolled overflow of Holy Spirit life. Many churches today are orderly simply because they are asleep, and with some one fears that it is the sleep of death. It is no great thing to have order in a cemetery!”

He challenges charismatic churches to be more committed to seeking solid theology and a biblical basis for all that they do, to focus less on performance which often creates group pressure to conform in physical and emotional experience, and to be less focused on man-centered or supernatural experiences and more open to God working in the natural.

As for the gifts of tongues, prophesying, and healing, Packer provides biblical arguments for how what is practiced today cannot be convincingly viewed as a ‘restoration’ of what was practiced in Scripture by the apostles. However, he doesn’t necessarily condemn their practice.

For example, of glossolalia (tongues), he says:

“It is often urged that since God’s goal is full integration of the individual under fully self-conscious, rational control, the overall pattern of ongoing sanctification must involve steady recovery of such control as we move deeper into what Scripture calls sincerity simplicity, and single mindedness (Phil 3:13, 2 Cor 11:3, James 1:7-8) In that case, there can be no place for glossolalia, in which rational control of the vocal chords is given up BUT … it does not seem inconceivable that the Spirit might prompt this relaxation of rational control at surface level in order to strengthen control at a deeper level… In this way glossolalia could be a good gift of God for some people at least, on the basis that anything that helps you to concentrate on God, practice his presence, and open yourself to his influence is a good gift.” 

You can find his nine conclusions for these things on pg 269-276 (end of Chapter 6).



Generally speaking, Packer applies both a credal and a moral test for the charismatic movement and finds the best practicers of this movement to be aligned with a right theology of the Incarnate Son (credal) and to have a desire to obey God’s commands, avoid sin, and love others (moral).

He reminds us that you don’t have to have perfect theology to experience God in a real way. That is true. Yet, we should be applying these two tests to anything we encounter because not all charismatic churches or experiences fall under ‘best practices.’ We should always be checking beliefs and practices against Scripture in any church we attend and make sure to give God’s Word supremacy over experience because He is our authority in his revealed Word.

 

Recommendation

I know there was a lot in this review, but I hope it inspires you to give the book a chance. Read it in a group if it will help to put several minds together to grasp what’s going on (I made my dad book club this book with me and it helped a lot!).

It’s true that the inner life is neglected and we’ve been running around with an improper theology of holiness and sinlessness. These things are worth thinking about. We don’t want a smudgy view of Christ or his Spirit, do we?

Packer admonishes that we can’t just say, “Let’s be different!” because “that’s a principle of reaction, and reaction rarely works righteousness.”  That’s where the pendulum starts swinging. We need to be thoughtful about what we’re doing and where we’re going, aligning with God’s Word and command.

Let Packer bring some clarity for you. Let him also challenge your church- charismatic or not- to consider how your practices do or do not honor the Spirit. Whether you need to seek more solid theology or to worship with more emotion and heart, be open to the Holy Spirit at work in your life. 

“Real love isn’t just gazing into each other’s eyes. It’s looking out together in the same direction.”- David McCullough


If I saw this book on the shelf, I probably wouldn’t pick it up. The cover isn’t very compelling and the phrase ‘A woman’s guide to having it all’ sounds artificially self-helpy and immediately turns me off. In short- it’s not really my type of book.

However, despite the ‘bleh’ marketing quips, I did find some very helpful insights in this book.

Megan Basham recently published the book Shepherds for Sale which looks at the ways progressive theology has infiltrated evangelical churches. That book has taken off a bit. In contrast, this book was written back in 2008 and is not from a religiously affiliated perspective. Megan Basham is a believer but has written Beside Every Successful Man as a religiously neutral book.

I would sum up the overall push of this book to be about how wives can come alongside their husbands to help them achieve their professional goals. It was largely inspired by a biography she read of John and Abigail Adams and how Abigail Adams was such an asset to John Adams and how their working relationship enhanced the intimacy of their marriage relationship at the same time.

Basham, using her journalistic skills and background, discovered that so many of the male success stories in the world include the female behind the scenes helping make it all possible. She shares many of these anecdotes throughout the book, as well as her own experience with her husband changing careers in his thirties to something he did not have the schooling for.

“Whatever else a wife chose to do, she could be a vital, interactive force in helping her husband realize his ambitions.”



Now the book intentionally says ‘beside’ instead of ‘behind’ because she believes that marriage is a team endeavor. She points out that this book is likely to ruffle some feathers because ‘progress’ says it’s somehow degrading to women to help men professionally.

Whether you believe that statement or not, this book is not about women as a whole elevating men as a whole. It’s about a wife who loves her husband and desires to help him succeed.

“It’s strange that we have come to a place in our society where a wife’s desire to support her husband’s career should raise anyone’s ire.”

Basham’s point is not about what a wife puts aside or ‘gives up’ to help her husband, but I do appreciate that she pushes back on the feminist battle cry because it tends to hurt marriages rather than help them. And Basham rightly asks of those who flinch at assisting their husband’s professional career— are you reacting to your husband and his personality and behavior toward you? Or are you reacting to an idea that has haunted the gender debate?

“Though the feminist movement was essential and positive in many respects, certain factions of it have led us to a place where women are encouraged to treat their husbands as rivals and their homes as battlegrounds over whether everyone is doing the same amount of the dishes and earning.”

So to properly gain from this book we must set aside any pride or cultural grooming that has put us at odds with the idea of a man in our lives being successful.

Besides, one of her main points is that this is a symbiotic relationship. If your husband finds professional success it benefits you, the wife, in many ways!



At the beginning of the book she shares a lot of statistics and studies that show that contrary to the loudest voices, most women don’t really want to climb the corporate ladder. Especially if they have families. They would rather work less to spend more time with their children.

[I’ll note here that yes, these statistics are old, but I’ve found similar things reported in books like Discrimination and Disparities and Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth and Radical Womanhood]

“A 2007 Pew Research Center found only 21 percent of mothers say they prefer full-time jobs…”

“In 2005 a study conducted among female students at Yale University 60 percent said they planned to cut back their hours or stop working once they have children.”

“Why, when half of all MBAs are earned by women, are only 16 percent of corporate officers female?… maybe women aren’t getting there because they don’t want to.”

Basham shared that she found women weren’t begging to get into the workplace more; a great deal of women would love to cut down their hours. And some would be able to if their husbands made more money.

“Unfortunately only those women on the high and low ends of the economic scale typically feel able to opt out…because unskilled labor isn’t worth the cost of child care… or husbands’ incomes give them the flexibility to choose… what about the vast majority of working mothers who are simply logging hours at a job but would opt out in a heartbeat if they believed it was financially feasible…”

The approaches discussed in this book “enable a wife who wants to prioritize her time at home over her time at work to use all the wonderful talent, intelligence, and skill she possesses to help her husband get ahead.”

The chapters discuss things like how we can offer psychological support, help our husband identify strengths and how to apply them at work, motivate him to persevere in the face of obstacles, advise him on people and relational problems, and see how to make connections and network in ways that help our husband’s work.



I think one of the biggest takeaways of this book is a principle that transcends just a professional work environment. 

Basham describes how males and females think differently and how they value different things. She doesn’t really say this, but it’s the age-old love and respect paradigm. 

So much of our husbands’ identities are wrapped up in needing to be good providers and having wives that view them as such.

She contrasts a ‘nag’ with a ‘cheerleader’ and reminds us that our husbands already have a mom. They want someone who is on their team, cheering them on and believing that they can accomplish what they want to. If their own wife, someone who knows them the best, doesn’t believe they can do it, they probably can’t. It defeats them. 

That goes for work-related things, but also things like addictions. A man is largely motivated or demotivated to work hard or go to battle against a bad habit based on their wife’s view of their ability to do it. 

(And if this feels like putting up a false front or manipulation then you probably need to do some reflecting on your relationship with your husband.) 

It’s about loving your husband and understanding that trying to motivate him with criticism or threats of what will happen if he fails are just not going to work, and it’s going to damage your marriage. 

These were all very good reminders of how I can be a better encourager, verbalizing my husband’s strengths and his character and saying— it might not be easy, but because of who you are, you can do this and I’m here to support you along the way.

I know it makes a big difference because I’ve fallen into these harmful patterns in the past. A lot of this book confirms what I already unfortunately discovered on my own in regards to communicating with my husband about his work and his fears regarding work. There was a time when my husband felt like I didn’t believe in him and that I looked at him with resentment that he wasn’t doing enough. It didn’t motivate him to change, it made him feel defeated and depressed. It created detachment and isolation, not teamwork and intimacy.



Another thing that stuck out to me was the realization that sometimes we can hinder our husbands from pursuing careers that better fit their interests or strengths if we shroud them in our fear of the unknown.

“How many great careers or public contributions have been sidelined by a spouse unwilling to gamble a comfortable present on a promising future? How many wives shut the door on opportunity because it lacked a guaranteed outcome… if helping your husband become his professional best is the goal, some risk is likely to be involved… You may have very good reasons for deciding that a change in your husband’s job or location isn’t a good choice for your family right now, but make sure you are basing that decision on solid risk assessment and not just fear of the unknown.”

Career change for the sake of career change may not be wise, but if you help your husband identify his strengths and how he desires to use them, it may make the most sense to try a career change. And it may be uncertain. And it may require stepping down to a lower income. But often, those changes become stepping stones to something better, financially or emotionally.

If your husband is floundering, you may have to sacrifice some comfort and immediate security to help get him to place a thriving. Career paths aren’t necessarily linear; there are ups and downs and lateral moves on the road to success.



I liked how she pointed out that there are different visualization techniques. Most people employ an outcome-based visualization— visualize yourself winning or getting a high score. But that the more effective strategy is not to focus on the outcome but to employ a process-based visualization— visualize yourself completing the steps that it takes to reach the desired outcome like doing the workouts and studying the material. You’re more likely to then accomplish those steps which helps you attain the outcome you were wanting.

I’m not a huge proponent of manifestation, but I can see how process-based visualization does help motivation. I realized I do this when I don’t want to clean all the clutter in my house. The night before I picture the next day and what I’m going to do first and then next, etc. Then it’s not so hard to get going the next day. It doesn’t feel as overwhelming because I’ve visualized the plan. If I had just visualized a clean house, I would have been too demotivated when I woke up to the clutter I still had to deal with.



She also brings up a psychological principle that may or may not be familiar to you. I’ll just briefly mention it here but it’s an important way of looking at life and hard situations:

“One of the biggest differences psychologists have found between optimists and pessimists is that an optimist will usually explain a defeat in ways that are temporary, isolated, and impersonal. A pessimist, on the other hand, will blame setbacks on reasons that are permanent, pervasive, and personal.”

A pessimist will say that they failed that test because they are dumb— something that is personal to them that they can’t change. An optimist would say they failed the test because they didn’t study hard enough or they didn’t get enough sleep— things that are not permanent but can be changed.

This isn’t an excuse to always blame external things for all our failures, but it’s something to be cognizant of when we’re looking at failure and trying to figure out how to move forward from it.



I will say that much of this book focuses on financial success. Success can be measured in a lot of ways but money is probably the most tangible. As a follower of Christ I understand that life is not about making the most money. In fact, the pursuit of money often leads to a lot of negative and harmful things.

Reading this book requires discernment and knowing that my goal is not to make sure we achieve success by the world’s standards— a huge savings account. That may or may not be an outcome of my husband’s career.

For some reading this book, seeking a higher income means a wife/mom able to stay home with the kids which is a noble goal. For some, it is more about helping your husband feel motivated and passionate about his work. For others, it’s more about knowing how to team up with your husband instead of feeling in competition with one another.

What I feel I’ve gained from this book is not a path to wealth, but principles that will enhance our marriage as I seek to support my husband in finding meaningful and God-honoring work that is best for our family. Principles that help me respect and love my husband in ways that he highly values. It reminds me that even if I don’t fully understand my husband’s job, he wants to feel like we’re doing it together, that everything he does is for me and our family. So being involved, whether that’s psychological support, networking for him, being willing to try something new, or using my actual skills to help him with work-related communication or materials, is important.



One critique for the book: I noticed there are no footnotes or notes in the back of the book. She quotes a lot of statistics and stories and such and I was really surprised not to see her sources for any of the quotes and all that. As a journalist, I would have thought that to be second nature. I don’t think she is trying to be deceptive, most of what she brought up rang true, but I think it would have been better to at least have sources in the back of the book to support her material.

I haven’t read Shepherds for Sale yet but I’ve been told that this is definitely not a problem in that book and that there are tons of footnotes to corroborate material there.



Recommendation

If you want to know how you can better help your husband in the workplace or how to motivate him in his work, I think you’ll find some great insights in this book. 

If you’re looking for a path to enhance your husband’s career in a way that allows you to stay home, you may find some inspiration and things to try. 

It also reads pretty quick and does not require an intense amount of brain power to understand. The stories she includes provide real life examples and make the book go fast. 

This book is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s also not a comprehensive marriage therapy book. You’re not going to find all of life’s answers for what success really means and what it looks like for your family. 

But as a woman, you’ll be able to understand better where some of the work-related conflict in your relationship stems from and how to combat that to love your husbands better. 

“‘Revenge can be a powerful motivator.’”


This one felt a little different than other books of this series (that I’ve read). Granted, there is a year break in between reading each one so my memory of them might not be the best.

A Dead Draw felt a little more technical with some of the descriptions of guns and shooting and the legal stuff in the trial. He brought in an autistic character and some commentary on video games. There was also a good deal of Tracy thinking about her sister Sarah.

I probably could have done without some of the gun details, but I didn’t have a problem with the other themes. It made the book feel a little more layered than usual, which isn’t a bad thing.

I liked the old Western vibes in this one— even if I don’t have the same ‘watching Westerns with my dad’ nostalgia Dugoni had— and liked the more atmospheric vibe that got woven into the plot.


The final duel was also pretty epic. I think the cover of this book should have somehow depicted the ghost town or something like that instead of the mansion.

This book doesn’t really connect with the previous ones and could probably be read as a standalone, but as with most series, it always helps to know where the main character has come from. Especially since this one talks so much about Crosswhite’s murdered sister.



This story begins with Crosswhite still working in the cold case department. She is working on a trial for Erik Schmidt, a suspect in two cold case murders of young women. During her interrogation of him she finds out that he was prison mates with Edmund House, the guy who murdered Crosswhite’s sister, Sarah.

Schmidt’s taunting gets under Crosswhite’s skin causing her to lose her cool. When he gets off on a technicality and threatens Tracy, she takes her family to Cedar Grove to get away.

But Schmidt won’t let her off that easily. He has some revenge to enact and it has more to do with Cedar Grove than Tracy realizes.

We know that Tracy did shooting competitions when she was younger and that she is an amazing shooter, but her nightmares and demons have affected her ability to react and discern at the speed her job requires. Can she get her ‘mojo’ back before she’s forced to face Schmidt?



Overall I really liked the book and its layered, different feel and atmospheric setting. But I do have one pretty big bone to pick that costs this book one star.

Dan, Tracy’s husband, runs into a suspicious guy at the coffee shop. When he tells her about it at home they wonder if it was Schmidt. Dan has to go to San Francisco for a trial but tells Tracy he wants to stay back with her.

She says no and that “We don’t have any evidence the man in the coffee shop was Erik Schmidt.”

Because all she does is ask Dan to describe the man he met. I’m tempted to put this in all caps but I’ll refrain: Why didn’t she SHOW Dan the MUGSHOT of Schmidt to verify if it was him?!?!?! Okay I had to use some caps, because duh. She HAS a mugshot because she gave it to the local police. Even if she didn’t, it’s called GOOGLE. He was just on trial and would have been in some sort of article or story online. It would be so EASY to make sure if the guy was Schmidt or not.

I was just dumbfounded. Man, I just really wish there was a way to know if the guy that threatened me is now in our very small town that we escaped to- what color was his hair and eyes again? Shoot, it’s so hard to know. Welp, time for you to leave for the airport- I’m sure everything is fine.

Even further, if we were getting out of town to avoid a dangerous guy that is out and about, I would be sure to know what that guy looked like so I would be on the lookout if I saw him near my family. Dan is a smart guy, but not smart enough in this scenario.

And it’s not just Dan. When Calloway goes back to the coffee shop to ask the barista about it, he tells Crosswhite that she “gave us a description.” He didn’t say anything about SHOWING HER THE MUGSHOT because God forbid we confirm an identity on the exact picture of a person. We just don’t have the technology.

At least it ended up not being as big of a plot point that I thought it was going to be, but even still, Dugoni really missed this one.



Part of Crosswhite’s extra training involves FSP games. I personally have not played any of these and I know there is mixed data on the use of violent video games. In the author’s note at the end Dugoni mentions his use of them in the book after talking with a friend in the gaming industry and how “games are not about violence but more about strategic thinking at a very high and very fast level.” I’m not entirely convinced of these benefits and would like to see more research on whether playing these games would actually improve someone’s actual shooting.

Along these lines Dugoni says of this book, “I wanted her to face a lawless situation where she stood isolated, on her own, and had to either kill or be killed, to put her shooting to the ultimate test— take a life or lose her own.”

I actually really liked this premise. It built on Tracy losing her shooting edge and needing to work to get it back using a unique method and encountering a young girl who reminded her of her sister who was arguably a better shooter than herself. It built on the Western duel and lawlessness culture.

It also tapped into Tracy’s motherhood and being part of a family who needs her. Dan gets involved with this one after Tracy doesn’t heed his advice, “During their years of marriage, he had become his wife’s conscience when she needed it most. He was the voice in her ear talking sense. And he would bring her home before she did something that would impact him and Daniella for the rest of their lives.”

He knew that she had gone and put herself in a dire situation without any backup and couldn’t let her put herself in harm’s way so deliberately.


It will be interesting to see where this series goes. Tracy moving into the Cold Case division was a way to stay out of the danger of the field and just use her detective skills after she had Daniella. Will she be able to go back to that situation or will she have to look at a different career path that provides more safety for her family? Is this series going to be wrapping up?



I also liked the way Dugoni chose to connect the video game aspect with real life— the idea of just focusing on the level that you are on, not the past level or what’s to come:

“‘One level at a time’… a way to live her life, not to dwell on past mistakes, regrets, or losses, and not to anticipate what could or might be— things that had not yet happened and might not ever occur. She would stay in the present, living each moment fully, handling whatever problem she might encounter, and enjoying every blessing.”



New word alert: I had never heard of the term ‘spaghetti western’ before. If you haven’t either, it’s a subgenre of Western films by Italian filmmakers mostly filmed in Europe in the 60s and 70s. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is a popular one.



Recommendation

As with the rest of this series, I do recommend it. Tracy Crosswhite is a great character and I’ve loved seeing her progress not only in her detective career but in her family life.

You may not want to start with this one, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world if you did.

The main downsides to this book were just the increase in technical content and the mugshot debacle. Some reviewers thought there were too many uncharacteristic things of Tracy and that this book diverted from the typical caliber for this series. I did feel the difference but didn’t feel like it was entirely bad and I actually really liked the ending even if it was a bit dramatic. To me it fit the vibe nicely.

But definitely if you like police procedurals, strong female leads, Westerns, or a person with two big dogs, this book is for you!


[Content Advisory: 4 f-words, 35 s-words; no sexual content]


**Received an ARC via NetGalley**

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. (Jn 6:68) If God’s love isn’t real and steady and ultimately steadfast, what hope do any of us have? To what philosophy of life will we turn?”

Sam Storms begins his book by confessing that he doubts the love of the Lord. He sees the tragedy and evil in the world and he, like I think most of us, wonders where God is and what he is doing. Is his love for us real?

How can he write a book about God’s love?

“the only way I was going to press through this dark season in my soul was to bathe it in the repeated theme of Scripture that ‘the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.’ (Lam 3:22)”

We might never be able to explain all the evil or the tragedies and hardships we encounter, but I love what he says here:

“I cannot, I will not, allow my intellectual shortcomings to account for the problem of evil to blind me to the bright light of the everlasting, unchanging, soul-saving, steadfast love of God.”

And so this book looks at what Scripture tells us about who God is and how he loves us. In Lamentations, right before verse 22 that’s quoted above, Jeremiah says, ‘This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.’

If we have lost our hope, then we need to do a better job of calling to mind the truths that God has revealed to us about himself. And Sam Storms does a wonderful job sharing them with us in this book.



I appreciated Dane Ortlund’s (Gentle and Lowly) foreword in this book because he focuses on who Sam Storms is. Storms covers a few touchy or controversial topics in his book and so when we read this we may say- well who does Sam think he is? why should I listen to him?

Ortlund says that Storms is four things: an exegete (trained well in handling the Scriptures in the original languages), a theologian (thinking deeply and biblically with both nuance and boldness), a shepherd (writing to build up the church), and a lover (passionately sharing about the exuberance of God’s love). 

Therefore we trust what he has laid out in this book because he is qualified to parse Scripture and he’s doing it from a place of pastoral care and love. 

I found this book to be very encouraging, giving me lots of truth to meditate on. 



Right out of the gate he takes on a controversial issue— the progressive concept that ‘love is love’— but I think this is a great place to start because we need definitions of what we’re talking about, especially when it comes to love 

 

That is the world’s perspective of love. But Sam is not willing to acquiesce to such a concept: 

 

He defines love: 

 

Once we have that established, we use this framework to see how God’s love for us is, in the same way, giving us what we need to flourish now and in eternity. His love for us and our joy actually all converge to bring him glory.



So what do we learn about his love?

In Chapter 2 Storms walks us through Psalms to better understand the word ‘steadfast’ and that God’s love is enduring forever.

In the following chapters he looks at passages like Jesus washing the disciples feet, Jesus looking at Peter when he has denied him, and Jesus healing the leper to see how he is sovereign and serving and how even when we are his enemies he draws near to us and looks on us with compassion; no one is excluded from his love.


Storms draws on Ephesians 3 to explain how we actually need God to help us experience his love:

“Paul is praying that we would be strengthened… [because of] our inability to wholeheartedly believe in, feel, and rejoice in the love that God has for us in Jesus… To think that God loves me so deeply and intensely and sacrificially that he works in me by his Spirit to make it possible for God himself to fill me up with God himself— what words can adequately account for this?”


I think the chapter where he goes through John 3:16 may be my favorite chapter of the book. It’s a well-known verse but we don’t totally grasp the depth of what that verse means for sinners. He explains each part of the verse and has a lot of really good truth in this short chapter.

“I can assure you that neither [I nor my wife] said anything along the lines of, ‘I’m willing to marry a person who utterly despises me, who is worse than indifferent toward me. I’m hoping for someone who hates me, treats me with contempt and disdain, and who wants nothing whatsoever to do with me.’ But God did. When the Father sought a bride for his Son, he set his affection and love on a people who were his enemies.”

It was poignant here too that he also looks back to the bronze serpent in Numbers 21 and the correlation to sin and the snakes and that even if we’re surrounded by sin, God provides a way to be saved.


Because suffering is a primary example of when we start to doubt God’s love, Storms has a chapter dedicated to it. He even says that one of the main jobs of pastors should be to prepare their people for suffering. Suffering can shake faith or strengthen it, but if we are unprepared for it, we’ll probably waste our suffering.

“Suffering accomplishes nothing good in us if we don’t reflect on how God uses it to build endurance and perseverance in our hearts.”

We won’t always be able to explain why bad things happen, but we know that it’s not because God doesn’t love us.

“Don’t ever think that your hope is only as good as your ability to experience or feel God’s love for you. He most assuredly wants you to feel it, but even when you don’t, you can know his love is real and sure and certain by reminding yourself of the lengths to which he went in making you his child: the death of his own Son on your behalf.”



There are also a couple chapters that answer the question- Will God ever give up on me? Is our salvation secure? He looks at Romans 5 and 8 to answer these questions to assure us that when we are in Christ we are sealed with his promise and nothing can then ever separate us from his love.

He talks a bit about election and God’s sovereign and loving choice to save us. He pulled a lot in from his book that I also recently read called Chosen for Life so if that topic interests you I would recommend that for a more in-depth look at those doctrines.



I also liked his conclusion. He ends by a short meditation on 2 Thessalonians 3:5 which says,

“May the Lord direct our hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ”

When we are struggling to feel or know God’s love, it is right to pray for it. The Lord can direct our hearts to his love and to comprehend the steadfastness of it. And part of how we do that, as stated earlier, is to dwell on what we know to be true of God. Hope comes from recalling and recalling is worship.

“Worship your way into the experience of God’s love… Often we must sing to joy rather than merely from it.”



I will say, as a fairly unemotional person, sometimes I wonder if I’ve ‘felt’ the love of God very often. I’m still pondering this, but I think it’s less about feeling and more about knowing. At least for me. Experiences are fleeting and feelings go up and down, but the character and love of the Lord is unchanging. That’s comforting to me because even if I don’t know if I’m feeling it properly, I know it to be true.

And this book has encouraged me to ask God about it; maybe he will open up my heart to new ways of knowing him if I just ask!



Recommendation

I would definitely recommend this book! Sam Storms has a pretty clear and loving way of communicating, even hard truths, and reminds us of so many different facets about God’s love.

Truly, we can’t fully comprehend God’s love, but he has given us minds and hearts to know him in some capacity and this book brings to the forefront some very comforting truths— the Lord’s love is steadfast and gives us assurance in salvation and in the blessings that come with abiding in Christ.



Further Reading:

He referenced lots of books in his book, but here are a few mentions that I’ve reviewed:

The Intolerance of Tolerance by D.A. Carson

The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God by D.A. Carson (I just got this one in the mail to read)

Knowing God by J.I. Packer

Chosen for Life by Sam Storms



I also recently wrote THIS blog post that ties in some of themes that were in this book.


P.S. Also a shoutout for the book cover— really nice and applicable use of the infinity symbol!


**Received a copy from Crossway in exchange for an honest review**

“‘You two are either going to kill each other or be the best team ever. I can’t decide which.’”


It’s always a gamble when you read books from authors you’ve never heard of that are up and coming. The gamble on this book paid off!

I was pleasantly surprised by this time-travel science fiction novel and am looking forward to continuing the series— especially because this one leaves you on a cliffhanger!


I wouldn’t say the general time-travel plot of this book was incredibly unique— Earth destroys itself in a nuclear war (classic)— The Purge War— and in the year 2355 the earth is less and less inhabitable so they use time travel to try to go back and stop the nuclear war from happening.

The method of time travel, however, has some of its own flair. Or maybe it’s been done and I just haven’t read enough sci-fi time travel books to know about it. But they discovered an Anomoly— a wormhole— that they’ve ‘harnessed’ to send agents back in time on missions.

Agents have to undergo a genetic ‘rebirth’ that transforms them into a kind of superhuman with greater strength, physicality, and a stronger body structure to endure the effects of jumping into the The Worm. The agents that jump are linked via transponders. They can’t pinpoint an exact moment and place in time to jump to. Their accuracy is getting people to the right continent within a year or two of the right time so their missions have to be flexible and adaptable to wherever they end up. They also can’t really control when they ‘go back.’



There are a few main characters in the book.

Hope Bannister, aptly named, is living in the year 2355 and has fashioned this Time Forward force in an attempt to stop The Purge War from happening because if they can’t, the Keplers (the bad guys) plan to exterminate the natives of another planet in order to provide enough room to transport people from Earth to the habitable planet. Using The Worm is their last hope.

Then we have Kristen. She is also living in the year 2355 and not in a good place. Earth has a series of ‘bubbles’ that people live in. Her parents tried to take them from the Dallas bubble to the Kansas City bubble by using seeds to trade for a new life. Their plan went awry leaving them dead and Kristen captured. When she finally escapes she finds herself in a position to either be enslaved to another man or volunteer herself for Hope’s team. With no knowledge of what she’s about to embark on, her only choice is to leave Earth and hope for the best.

Kants ends up being Kristen’s jump partner. He was the last superhuman on Earth when The Purge War began back in 2098. Since then he has sought to change history and get back the wife he lost.

Hunter Coburn and his brilliant mind is the key to it all— somehow. He ends up getting linked to Kristen in her jumps. Wherever she jumps to, he ends up landing with her. When she jumps back to the future, he returns to his timeline which is 2025. Through one of Kants’ missions Hunter was recruited to the FBI and is developing sentient AI systems.

Which brings us to our last main character— Comperi. This is the first sentient AI created by Hunter. It helps Hunter in this book a little bit, but I have a feeling its purpose is going to expand and become more important in subsequent books.



As with all time travel novels, some of the effects of their time traveling on the future is often hard to grasp or follow or when they go back in time to tell someone they need to do such and such at a future time to help someone, it’s the whole chicken or egg scenario, but with this book I was generally able to understand what they were trying to do and what what would happen if they failed or succeeded.

The Keplers add a good element of unpredictability and mystery to this novel. Somehow they know wherever Kristen or Kants is jumping to and they have their own agents there already trying to thwart Kristen and Kants’ mission. We aren’t given enough information about that yet— why are they trying to keep the Time Forward Project from preventing The Purge War? how do they know ahead of time of where they’ll be? Are they actually bad guys or are they good guys trying to prevent worse things from happening that the Time Forward team aren’t aware of?

Hopefully we get some more pieces to the puzzle in the next book.


Other things that I hope are going to be fleshed out in the next book— what happened to Chen-Yi and why is she obsessed with Hunter? Will Hunter ever have his happily ever after with Rachel and his future daughter? What’s the deal with Kants? Is something going to get altered in time where he is back on the team in real time? Are we going to find out more about Kristen’s background— is there more to her parents’ death and the seeds or is that purely just the catalyst for getting Kristen to space? How is Comperi going to save the world?

As I said before, this book ends on a cliffhanger. Let’s just say that their missions aren’t as successful as they were hoping so we have to keep going into book two to see where they go next.



As to the writing style, it was better than what I was expecting and had good pacing to it. I don’t know if it had a unique or show-stopping quality to it, but it was easy to read and get lost in the story. There weren’t distracting things about the writing that jarred me away or annoyed me.



Recommendation

If you’re looking for a dystopian or space-y sci-fi book, I’m not sure this one will scratch that itch for you. The future is somewhat dystopian and in space but a majority of the book takes place on Earth before 2100. And the future parts are generally relegated to the space station.

But if you just want to enjoy a good time travel novel with elements of AI and space, then I think you’ll enjoy this book. Or if you are looking for a book with some whales in it— this is probably it.

I enjoyed the adventure and felt invested in the fate of the world. I’m looking forward to see what book two holds!

Also- if you’re interested, HERE are some more time travel books I’ve also reviewed if you’d like to go on a time travel binge.


[Content Advisory: a handful of s-words, some innuendo but no sexual content]

**Received a copy of the book from the author in exchange for an honest review**

I read this book during the 40 days of Lent this year and it was an encouraging yet convicting time! This is by no means a book purely for anticipating Easter because the message of Easter is for every day. Read this at any time of year and you will find truth and hope for your soul.

This book consists of 40 devotional readings 1-2.5 pages long (of a small book) each ending with a short reflection paragraph and a short prayer. All of the material is taken from sermons given by Charles H. Spurgeon. The book was compiled by Jeff Medders.

There is an appendix in the book that lists each sermon the material was derived for each devotion as well as where you can locate those sermons if you want to read/hear more on the subject.

The devotions were very short but most of them packed a punch! Deep thinking here and bringing to light new facets of familiar passages for me that I really enjoyed.

I’ll share some of the things that stuck out and some quotes to give you a taste of what you’ll be reading.


In the devotion about John the Baptist he talks about how John the Baptist can’t be understood apart from Christ because he was to bear witness to Jesus.

“May our lives be such that they cannot be understood apart from Jesus. May it be the case that if we were to take him away, our whole character would become an inexplicable mystery. I am afraid that some professing Christians could be easily interpreted apart from Christ…”



“Repentance without hope is hell. It is hell to grieve for sin with the pangs of bitter remorse and yet to know that pardon can never come and mercy can never be granted. Repentance, with the cross before its eyes, is heaven itself.”



This next one was said within the context of evangelism— Jesus making us fishers of men. He talks about fishing being an act of faith: “Where has God’s providence taken you so you can cast your net and win souls for Christ?” We don’t want our relationship with God to be “only right doctrine and right living that never leads to right evangelism.”

And I love this quote for that purpose, but also just in the sense that we can’t truly encounter Jesus and come away unchanged. He transforms. He ‘makes.’ And in faith, we entrust him with who we are and who he wants us to be, and by his grace he will finish what he started. Exciting to think about.

“When Christ calls us by his grace, we ought not only to remember what we are, but we also ought to think of what he can make us. Jesus starts by saying, ‘Follow me, and I will make you…’ We should repent of what we have been but rejoice in what we may be. It is not ‘Follow me because you may make something of yourselves’, but ‘Follow me because of what I will make of you.’”



Talking of feeding the five thousand:

“Let us bring all we have to Christ in faith, laying it at his feet, believing that his great power can make little means suffice for mighty ends… We can bring our meager talents and abilities to him— and watch him work!”



In regards to the story of the prodigal son:

“We see the prodigal father ran. Slow are the steps of repentance, but swift are the feet of forgiveness. God can run when we can scarcely limp…”

And then he talks about the filthy rags the son shows up in and how the father has a feast prepared for him. When the son said, ‘Father, I have sinned’ the father’s next words are: ‘Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him’

“And so the Father covers all our sins with Christ’s righteousness… When the repentant sinner comes to God, his or her past is not only covered by the righteousness of Christ, but they are prepared for the future blessedness which is reserved for the pardoned ones.”



“Consecrate to the Savior all that you have: every faculty, power, possession, and ability… Half a heart given to Christ? Never. Half a life given to Christ? Half your faculties, half your powers given to Christ? It is an unworthy gift. He gave you his all, and he claims all of you.”



“The words ‘It is finished’ consolidated heaven, shook hell, comforted earth, delighted the Father, glorified the Son, brought down the Spirit, and confirmed the everlasting covenant to all the chosen ones… Your sins have received their death blow; the robe of your righteousness has received its last thread. It is done— complete, perfect. It needs no addition; it can never suffer diminution… Therefore in this cross of Christ we glory; yes, and in it alone will we glory evermore.”



Recommendation

I highly recommend this little book. It’s a book you can easily go through multiple times and still find good reflections and convictions to meditate on. Read one a day or one a week if you want to reflect more deeply on it.

The chapters definitely prepare you for the meaning of the cross to us, sinners, and how we can most glorify our risen King. It has a very clear gospel message and very clear hope for weary souls.

Easter was yesterday, but we glory in the cross of Christ every day— so don’t let this book pass you by: meditate on our Lord, his power and his love.


**Received a copy from The Good Book Company in exchange for an honest review**

“‘You could rattle the stars. You could do anything, if you only dared. And deep down, you know it, too. That’s what scares you most.’”

I know I’m late to the Sarah J. Maas party. Throne of Glass is her debut novel from 2012. Since then she has finished this series and written ACOTAR and Crescent City series that have become very popular.

I opted to read the Throne of Glass series instead of the ACOTAR (do you put ‘the’ in front of that??) because I was told the TOG series is less spicy. It’s hard for me to read series like I used to (my TBR is too long and I read a lot of different genres) so I am more selective of what I start. Since I can’t really commit to both series I decided the less spicy one was more speed. I’ve only read one book but the ‘less spicy’ descriptor holds true thus far.


There are some common tropes in this book. Our main character (Celaena Sardothien) is a young girl and warrior with the destiny to fight for her oppressed people. She most likely has some sort of magic ability; she is an orphan and must pretend to be loyal to the ones (most likely) responsible for their deaths; there is a bit of a love triangle, including someone from the ‘enemy side’.

“The King of Adarlan had outlawed it all— magic, Fae, faeries— and removed any trace so thoroughly that even those who had magic in their blood almost believed it had never really existed, Celaena herself being one of them.”

Some elements remind me of Tahereh Mafi’s This Woven Kingdom series as Alizeh too is an orphan destined to help her people who has special powers and falls in love with a prince; she also is up against dark magic. In both worlds aspects of magic are outlawed.

Some elements remind me of Hunger Games or Red Rising series where youths are fighting each other. Similar to Red Rising, if Celaena wins her competition she earns a spot defending or fighting for the king, but like Darrow, will seek to secretly help her people when she can.


The setting for this series is your classic Medieval type world with horses and castles and swords mixed with the magical realm of faes and demons and some sort of sorcery known as the Wyrd.

Perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself.


The main premise: Celaena is approached by Prince Dorian while serving her sentence in his father’s labor prison (Endovier). His proposition: Come be my competitor in the king’s tournament. Winner becomes the king’s champion. Serve four years as his assassin and you’ll earn your freedom. Refuse, and you can remain here where death is imminent.

Of course, Celaena isn’t your typical eighteen year old. She’d been trained to be an assassin since the age of 8. We don’t know how she was betrayed, but she is serving her sentence for being the renowned ‘Adarlan’s Assassin.’ To fight other thieves and criminals is in her wheelhouse.

“Yes, she could go anywhere, even through the Gates of the Wyrd and into Hell itself, if it meant freedom. After all, you aren’t Adarlan’s Assassin for nothing.”

Of course she would compete and win her freedom.

But she wasn’t quite prepared for what awaited her in the glass castle. One, a couple love interests, including Prince Dorian, the womanizer. Two, the supposedly outlawed black magic that has been unleashed inside the castle taking out competitors left and right.

Can she survive long enough to win; and if she wins, can she stomach the thought of killing for the king?



This was a good first book and has drawn me into the world and the story. I suspect that this isn’t going to be my favorite book of the series and that the best is yet to come.

Throne of Glass feels like a good introductory book. The stakes start off high, but we’re still getting to know our characters and getting our bearings on what this world is about and who the good guys and the bad guys are.

There are plenty of unknowns yet to be uncovered like: What happened to Celaena’s parents? Who is Sam and what happened to him? Who betrayed Celaena and how did she come to be in the death camp? What is the wyrdmark about that was on her forehead? What’s the deal with Philippa— maybe there’s nothing here but it seems like there is something to learn about her and her role in Celaena’s future. What kind of chaos is Dorian’s brother going to cause when he returns home? Whose side is the Queen on? Is the assassin trainer going to reach out to Celaena now that she’s no longer imprisoned? How will Celaena be able to justify killing for the king and can she work around his plans to help her people? I have a feeling Kaltain, Nox, and Nehemia will resurface in important ways. And Fleetfoot has to become some sort of heroic dog, right?

So we have some major pieces of the puzzle and the pieces show us the puzzle is worth trying to put together. The series (at this point) is worth continuing to read. I like that Maas laid the ground work for more avenues to traverse in the series without trying to cram too much into the book.


When I explained the book to my husband after I read it, he was like- ‘So not much happened in the book?’ and in some ways, that’s a little true. But when you’re reading it, it doesn’t feel like there’s a lot of dead space. (Ha… well there’s space with death but you know…)

Because it’s a romantasy it has to have some scenes of action and magic and fighting and plot movement, but there are also relationship building drama scenes that slow the book down in some ways.

I felt like there was good balance in this book. Hopefully the balance is sustained as we go deeper in.



I jumped ahead and looked at some reviews of the later books and it’s really hard to tell where I’m going to be with it all. There are some who love every book where this series is one of their favorites. And of course you have others who felt disappointed or hated the writing or the characters.

You’re pretty much always going to have both. The trick is figuring out which voices and preferences line up most with your own and following those people’s advice.

For now, I plan to continue to read, but 600+ page books are a big commitment and if I start to lose interest, I might have to give the series a rest.


Reading Order

I am no expert on this series at this point by any means, but I have been told that there is a recommended order for how to read this series. It’s not crazy, but there’s a prequel— The Assassin’s Blade— that is recommended to be read after book two.

Some also suggest reading books 6 & 7 in tandem. It sounds intense, but if I do that, I’ll be using this reading plan that tells you what chapters to read together.


Pronunciation Guide

I found this reference guide for the character pronunciations if you’re interested:

CHARACTERS:
Celaena Sardothien: Sell-Lay-Nuh / Sar-Doth (like 'cloth')-ee-en
Chaol Westfall: Kay-all (like "chaos") / West-fall
Dorian Havilliard: Door-ee-en / Have-ill-yard
Nehemia Ytger: Neh-heem-ee-yah / Yet-gerre (like "garrison")
Kaltain Rompier: Cal (like "calcium)-tane (like "cane") / Rom-pee-ay
Arobynn Hamel: Arrow-behn / Heh-mel
Elentiya: Elle-len-tee-yah

PLACES:
Eyllwe: Eel-way
Erilea: Err-rel-yah
Terrasen: Terra-sen (like "sent")
Adarlan: Ah-dar-len
Endovier: En (like the letter "n")-doe (like "dough")-vee-er
Orynth: Or-inth
Anielle: Annie-elle
Melisande: Mell-iss-sand
Wendlyn: Wend-lin

TERMS:
Wyrd: word
Wyrdmarks: word-marks


Recommendation

I would recommend this book. If you’re looking for a new series to get into and don’t want something too heavy or too spicy, this may be a good option. (Again, I’m only one book in, so it’s quite possible I don’t have a true grasp on the vibes of this book)

If you read a lot of fantasy books it’s possible that this may not feel super new or unique, but I don’t know because I don’t read enough from that genre. Based on the Goodreads Choice Award nomination and the ratings/reviews, it would seem that this book was well-received by fantasy lovers.



[Content Advisory: minimal if any swearing; romance but no sexual content; dark magic]

“Thoughts swirling, they wonder what clues the police will find. The group chat? The social-media posts? The video of the horror that brought them here?”


This is my third Alex Finlay book. I’ve read The Night Shift and What Have We Done?.

I have learned that Alex Finlay’s writing style involves a lot of unlikable characters. Sarah Keller— the FBI agent that is in this book and The Night Shift— and her husband are likeable, but in all the books I’m not sure I liked anyone else.

Out of all three books I think I liked What Have We Done? the best.


Parents Weekend is not a spectacular book because I saw the ending a mile away but it’s still a decent enough read. Just like the other two, it reads very quickly so your time commitment to the book is low.

I actually hesitated to request this book from NetGalley because I tend to be a pessimistic reader of story lines that involve youths and partying as a main plot point. But I remembered liking What Have We Done? so I thought I would give it a chance.

And my original instinct was somewhat accurate: I’m just not that interested in thrillers that revolve around youths doing stupid things while drunk or on drugs which are in and of themselves stupid things. I don’t even have a ‘that’s just kids being kids in college I can relate to that’ kind of perspective because that was nowhere close to my desired or actual college experience.



This book takes place over parents weekend at Santa Clara University in California. We are first introduced via multiple POVs the different parental units of a group of friends:

The Roosevelts (Blane): parents divorced, mother (Cynthia) is high up in the State Department; Blane was abducted as a kid

The Maldonados (Stella): dad (David) is a plastic surgeon who recently cheated on mom (Nina) who is a yoga teacher and things went bad

The Goffmans (Felix): mom divorced abusive dad a long time ago and now works for the dean at the school

The Akanas (Libby): dad (Ken) is a judge that just presided over a well known case regarding a rock star and ruled against him, mom (Amy) is a lawyer turned stay at home mom who quit working to take care of their son who has since died from cancer

Mark Wong: estranged dad did jail time for sexual assault of minors


An arranged dinner for these families is the first sign of trouble. None of the kids show up and they aren’t answering any texts or phone calls.

Because two of the families are high profile, FBI agent Keller is called in to work with campus police to determine what happened to the students.

Of course all the families have to have some sort of abuse, infidelity, or problem to create additional avenues of investigation on who would have targeted these kids. Unless it’s all some sort of ruse, prank, or just irresponsible decision making that is classic of young freshmen college students.

The longer they go without news of the students the less likely they are to find them alive.



Random Comments:

I thought there was going to be something more substantial come from the encounter between Cynthia and Mitch.

Alice read a book about how to be a better communicator and if you want to read it too, it’s most likely Supercommunicators.

The quote I put at the beginning of this review talks about a group chat, and I’m not sure that was ever discussed…

They mention a cliffside in Australia that is known as a location for a lot of suicides and that reminded me of Sally Hepworth’s thriller The Soulmate that revolves around a cliff in Australia with suicides but it’s called The Drop instead of The Gap.



Recommendation

This was never going to be my favorite book, but it’s still a pretty standard, decent thriller.

I probably just need to trust my instincts on college-related stories and save those for others that are more interested in that. I can still see myself reading another Alex Finlay book if the premise is compelling.

I would recommend Parents Weekend for people who enjoy thrillers and don’t care if they like the characters or not.

If you prefer hard to figure out thrillers or ones with a lot of likable characters, this might not be the book for you.


[Content Advisory: 20 f-words, 35 s-words]

“Seven writers board a train. At the end of the line, five will leave it alive. One will be in cuffs.”

This is my third Ernest Cunningham novel— yes I read the Christmas one out of order. That being said, I would definitely recommend reading them in order. Especially the first two.

If you read this book first I think you’ll feel like you’re missing something important. I honestly don’t remember a ton from Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone so I can’t tell you exactly how much you’ll be missing but you’ll feel it.

He admits that there is a bit of similarity between this book and the first: “I will point out that one inadvertent mimicry is the curious coincidence that both cases are solved by a piece of punctuation. Last year it was a full stop. This time, a comma saves the day.”

I don’t even remember enough to know if I just gave away a spoiler from book one. But seeing as he is pretty tight lipped about those events in this book I have feeling that tidbit is provided early on.


This series has a very consistent tone and writing voice that I love. They’re all told first person from the perspective of Ernest Cunningham, a writer who keeps having murders happen around him that he just so happens to be good at solving.

The schtick of the series is that these are all ‘Golden Age’ mysteries. He describes it in detail in book one, but basically it’s supposed to be like an Agatha Christie novel where all the clues are available to the reader to solve the mystery, the narrator doesn’t lie, there is nothing supernatural, and no secret twins.

As the narrator, Ernest gives us hints and tells us when we should pay attention, but even then I think it would be hard for a reader to solve the mystery in its entirety. In all three books I’ve been able to figure out some of the clues but there is always something I didn’t catch or put together. I think if I had really gotten into it and took my own notes down on paper and attempted to figure it out I could have come closer, but I was too busy reading.


Ernest is the kind of guy that doesn’t take himself too seriously so there is a lot of humor in this book. Stevenson is really creative with his word choices and descriptions. It definitely doesn’t feel like a run of the mill kind of mystery, but has its own unique vibe.

Here are a few quotes I enjoyed:

“I’d say Van Dine would be rolling in his grave, though that would break one of the golden rules about the supernatural. So he’d be lying very still but disappointed all the same.”

“His sentences had a way of cascading over one another, the oven between thought and speech undercooking everything: he spoke in first drafts.”

“‘Pisssss off’ he said, spending S’s like he’d robbed a bank of them.” [pardon the language on this one… I debated about putting it in but it was a good simile]


The setting of this book takes place on a train. You may have heard of Murder on the Orient Express. This is not the same train. This is a cross country luxury train that spans Australia north to south.

The context is a crime-writing conference. Ernest, who is with Juliette (from book one), is supposed to be writing a fiction book and participating in panels for the conference attendees, but when a murder happens aboard the train, he may be writing another true-crime book after all.

I will say that I had a hard time picturing this writing conference group in reference to the train as a whole. There are other guests in other carriages and we are not told the names of all the conference attendees, but when I read it it feels like a big shindig for like 12 people. I think I’m mis-picturing it.

I will also say that I loved the Andy cameo and all of Ernest’s side comments about him. Great comedic relief.


The first book focuses on Ernest’s family. The Christmas book is a bunch of strangers in his ex-wife’s life. This one has a combination of people he knows and people he doesn’t. It also gives a little glimpse into the writing world with the pressures of writing and dealing with agents, publishers, fans, and bad reviews.

Ernest is talking to the reader about the book that he is writing and how he is writing it so that’s an interesting perspective, almost like a book within a book feel.

He even throws in a Jane Harper blurb reference. So I checked and sure enough, Jane Harper blurbed this book!


I don’t have new Australian vocabulary on this one, but seriously, every book I read that takes place in Australia astounds me with new information about the continent as a whole. There really is so much more than kangaroos and venomous things and the bush.

Three of the stops on the train excursion are Katherine Gorge (a huge gorge great for canoeing), Alice Springs (a town in the middle of Australia) and Coober Pedy.

And dude, Coober Pedy is wild! It’s like a real life version of Holes (see below). They do opal mining and to protect from the dangers of people improperly filling in their mine shafts they leave their hole and the mound of dirt so everyone knows it’s there. It’s also so hot there that a majority of the people live underground.

[to see pics of these places check out my original blog post]

What a continent of hidden gems. Good on ya, Australia.



If you would like to read more books that take place in Australia, check out Jane Harper or Sally Hepworth, or the books Homecoming or Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder (which is basically an Aussie version of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine).


Recommendation

I would definitely recommend this book. While I think I might have liked the other two books a smidge bit better for their ability to keep things straight a little easier, this is a series I think I will always enjoy reading.

It’s got the mystery, the likeable characters, and the humor. It’s a unique take on a murder mystery with creative writing and an interesting setting.

Somehow these are ‘feel good’ books even though there is death and murder and body pieces to collect and I’m here for it.

But a recommendation for Stevenson on the next one: I think we’re going to need to include some of the venomous creatures of Australia as part of the story so I can learn more about those and how to visit Australia for all the gems without the immense fear I have of death by creature.



[Content Advisory: 4 f-word, 6 s-words; no sexual content; mention of rape]