Into the Fray: How Jesus's Followers Turned the World Upside Down by Matt Mikalatos

★★★★✩
Goodreads | Amazon

Rediscover the wonder of sharing the story.

In the earliest days of the Christian church, the gospel spread out from Jerusalem in a burst of incredible stories – about a man who calmed a stormy sea with a word, healed the lame and the blind, enraged the religious leaders, and even raised people from the dead. Compare this organic, even entertaining, method of spreading the good news with how we are often encouraged to evangelize today, with clever arguments and our defenses up.

Somewhere along the way, we've lost the plot to the greatest story ever told.

Matt Mikalatos invites us into God's story, both to find our place in it and to rediscover the wonder that the apostles and their listeners experienced. As you lose yourself in these modern retellings of the events of the book of Acts, you'll find that sharing the story is easier and more rewarding than you ever imagined.

Into the Fray: How Jesus’s Followers Turned the World Upside Down is quite the interesting read. Author Matt Mikalatos brings the events of the book of Acts into the modern day with well-told narratives that remain true to Scripture and highlight their theological insights and relevance. It’s a refreshing and valuable read that I really enjoyed, and I would recommend it.

Thanks to Baker Book Bloggers, I received a copy of Into the Fray and the opportunity to provide an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, and all the opinions I have expressed are my own.

Waiting on Wednesday: Fire & Ice

Hosted weekly by Breaking the Spine 
to spotlight eagerly-anticipated upcoming releases.

Title: Fire & Ice

Author: Mary Connealy

Publisher: Bethany House

Expected Publication Date: 6 October 2015

Bailey Wilde is one of the best new ranchers in the West. She's been living disguised as a man for a while, but when Gage Coulter comes to drive her off her homestead, he quickly realizes he's dealing with a woman – a very tough, very intriguing woman at that.

Gage is an honest man, but he didn't make his fortune being weak. He won't break the law, but he'll push as hard as he can within it. Five thousand acres of his best range land is lost to him because Bailey's homestead is located right across the only suitable entrance to a canyon full of lush grass. Gage has to regain access to his land – and he's got to go through Bailey to do it.

Spending a winter alone has a way of making a person crave some human contact. In a moment of weakness, Bailey agrees to a wild plan Gage concocts. Can these two independent, life-toughened homesteaders loosen up enough to earn each other's respect – and maybe find love in
the process?

The Bishop's Son by Kelly Irvin

★★★★★

Two men offer Leila two very different futures. Will she choose with her heart or with her faith?

Leila Lantz has been in love with Jesse Glick from the day she first saw him at his father’s store, but she can’t make sense of his intentions. One day he wants to come courting, the next he seems to be putting distance between them.

Jesse may be the bishop’s son, but his faith has been wavering of late. If he is so unsure, is it fair to give Leila false hope for a future he doubts he can provide?

Then there’s Will, Jesse’s cousin. He has been trying to keep his feelings for Leila a secret, but he also knows Jesse is wrestling with his faith. Would declaring his feelings for Leila be in her best interest or simply serving his own selfish desires?

Leila knows she can choose Will and be secure in her own future. But when her heart speaks, it’s Jesse’s name she hears. When will God make His will known to her? Could leaving everything she knows – even her own faith – be a part of God’s plan?

Kelly Irvin returns to Bee County in The Bishop’s Son for another delightful Amish romance. Leila Lantz, the younger sister of The Beekeeper’s Son’s heroine, Deborah, stars in this novel, as two different yet capable men take interest and vie for her affections. She has a number of very difficult choices to make, involving her faith, family, future and feelings. As Leila struggles to make the best choices and weighs the impact of her different options, The Bishop’s Son tells an enjoyable story with diverse characters and offers a great read to fans of Amish fiction - and The Beekeeper’s Son in particular.  

Thanks to BookLook Bloggers, I received a copy of The Bishop’s Son and the opportunity to honestly review it. I was not required to write a positive review, and all the opinions I have expressed are my own. (I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”)

About the Book

Kelly Irvin is the author of several Amish series including the Bliss Creek Amish series, the New Hope Amish series and the Amish of Bee County series. She has also penned two romantic suspense novels, A Deadly Wilderness and No Child of Mine. The Kansas native is a graduate of the University of Kansas School of Journalism. She has been writing nonfiction professionally for thirty years, including ten years as a newspaper reporter, mostly in Texas-Mexico border towns. She has worked in public relations for the City of San Antonio for twenty years. Kelly has been married to photographer Tim Irvin for twenty-seven years. They have two young adult children, two cats, and a tank full of fish. In her spare time, she likes to write short stories and read books by her favorite authors.

Taming the To-Do List: How to Choose Your Best Work Every Day by Glynnis Whitwer

★★★★★

Ever just wish the world would stop for a day so you could catch up? 

No matter how much we accomplish in a day, we nearly always feel a little guilt over what we didn't do. But do we really have more to do than the women who came before us? Maybe not.

In Taming the To-Do List, Glynnis Whitwer exposes a seismic shift in society: from one in which most of us were proactive to one in which we carry the burden of having to respond – to every email, text, tweet, and message we receive. This creates a cycle where everyone else sets the priorities for our days rather than us directing our own lives. The result? We procrastinate, putting off the important stuff for later while we tend to the "urgent" stuff right now.

It's time to take back your schedule! Ready to tame that to-do list? This book shows you how.

In a society that fosters busyness and procrastination, the to-do list seems to easily stretch too long and become unmanageable and overwhelming. Glynnis Whitwer, with her Taming the To-Do List: How to Choose Your Best Work Every Day, addresses the to-do-list challenges so many face, as well as the reasonings behind them. She offers interesting, helpful insight and both practical and spiritual tips for the to-do list and time management. It’s a valuable read and I would recommend it.

Thanks to Revell Reads, I received a copy of Taming the To-Do List and the opportunity to provide an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, and all the opinions I have expressed are my own.

Eve by Wm. Paul Young

★★★★★

The Shack shattered our limited perceptions about God. Eve will destroy harmful misconceptions about ourselves.

From the author of the 25-million copy bestseller The Shack comes a captivating new novel destined to be one of the most important and talked-about books of the decade.

When a shipping container washes ashore on an island between our world and the next, John the Collector finds a young woman inside – broken, frozen, and barely alive. With the aid of Healers and Scholars, John oversees her recovery and soon discovers her genetic code connects her to every known human race. She is a girl of prophecy and no one can guess what her survival will mean…

No one but Eve, Mother of the Living, who calls her daughter and invites her to witness the truth about her story – indeed, the truth about us all.

Eve is a bold, unprecedented exploration of the Creation narrative, true to the original texts and centuries of scholarship, yet with breathtaking discoveries that challenge traditional misconceptions about who we are and how we're made. As The Shack awakened readers to a personal, non-religious understanding of God, Eve will free us from faulty interpretations that have corrupted human relationships since the Garden of Eden.

Eve opens a refreshing conversation about the equality of men and women within the context of our beginnings, helping us see each other as our Creator does – complete, unique, and not constrained to cultural rules or limitations.

Thoroughly researched and exquisitely written, Eve is a masterpiece that will inspire readers for generations to come.

As one of the few people who has yet to read Wm. Paul Young’s The Shack, I can’t make any comparisons - good or bad - between it and his newest novel, Eve. But I can say that, on its own, I enjoyed Eve. Though the novel seemed to start slowly for me, since it took me a few chapters to acclimate to Young’s storytelling and interpretation, I couldn’t put it down once I had an understanding of the set-up. Young’s creative depiction of the creation story, as well as its implication for humanity, intrigued me and left me thinking and evaluating my understanding of the biblical story. Overall, Eve is a worthwhile and thought-provoking read, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.

Thanks to Howard Books and NetGalley, I received a copy of Eve and the opportunity to provide an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, and all the opinions I have expressed are my own.