Terri Blackstock/Beverly LaHaye

Dear Readers,
I am beginning to feel like every other book I am reviewing lately is a recover. Well I hate to say it, so is this one. But this is a great deal. 10 years ago Terri Blackstock and Beverly LaHaye released a series loosely called the Season series. They never really gave the series a title, but readers and stores alike started calling it that because of the titles.

Season Under Heaven and Showers in Season are now in one book together and Times and Season and Season of Blessings are in the second combined book. Which makes them a great deal. The plot line behind the series is 4 different families that all live on the same cul-de-sac. Because each family is at different points in their lives you think they won't have much in common, but their lives intertwine together.

Each of these 4 books are just a delight to read and they are some of my favorite stories I had read.

Happy Reading,

Ted Dekker

Dear Readers,
I know Ted Dekker is not everyone's cup of tea, but he is one of my favorites. The Bride Collector is going to be one of my favorite of his novels. It is a psycho-thriller. It is dark and plain and simply scary. I actually put off reading for a couple of days as my husband was out of town and I really didn't want to be home alone while reading it.

Why would someone kill anyone? Why would this mad man kill the most beautiful women? He says it is because he loves them. Brad Raines is trying to track him down before he kills again. With 6 women to his credit already the Bride Collector has vowed to continue to kill women until he finds the most beautiful of them all. Brad isn't sure who to turn to for help. He finds the Center for Wellness and Intelligence with the last hope that the patients there will help him get ahead of the killer and help Brad catch him.

When Brad finds himself attracted to one of the young woman helping him, he begins to see that she may be the center of all that is going on. Paradise has been a patient a long time, and yet she seems to be the only one who can help Brad. Will Brad be able to catch up with the Bride Collector before he claims his next bride? Or will someone close to Brad pay the ultimate price?
If you like Ted, read this book. There is no reason to not read it. Yes, it is intense. Yes it is creepy, And yes it will keep you up at night. But why else would you read a Ted Dekker book.
Happy Reading

Beth Hoffman

Dear Readers,
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman is not a book I will be able to carry on my shelves here at the store. That doesn't mean it isn't a good book, it just has a few language and some "moral" issues. I really liked this book and found myself trying to talk myself into carrying it. But by the time I got the the 3rd or 4th "problem" I decided that it isn't one that could make the cut. Which is too bad.

I don't want to talk any of you out of reading it, I just know that it will offend some people and church libraries shouldn't carry it. One of the main characters practices Karma etc... and even though it kind of pokes a few holes in the theory it still does not completely point out the wrong in it. I mostly had a problem for carrying it with the swearing. It doesn't have anything major in it like the "f-word" but it does have enough to make it a problem for some. I do have to admit that a couple of times I would have been swearing along with the character if that is what was happening to me.

CeeCee Honeycutt takes care of her psychotic mother. She is an outcast at school because of it and so she hides away in her books. Her father is a traveling salesman and so stays away from home longer and longer, which CeeCee later figures out is because he has a girlfriend, not just because of work. CeeCee does her best and yet tries to b a kid. When her mother is killed, CeeCee isn't sure what will happen to her.

When a great aunt she didn't know about arrives just after the funeral and asks her father to let CeeCee live with her, CeeCee sees it as the final betrayal by her father. Why doesn't he love her and why couldn't he help her with her mother? What it does for CeeCee is set her down in the middle of a loving house that is nothing like anything she has ever experienced before. She finds herself meeting people she never dreamed existed and being loved for herself. It is a world of women that is filled with quirky characters that are just so much fun reading about.

From Aunt Tootie to her next door neighbor, busybody Violene Hobbs, to Oletta Jones and her crazy sister. It is just a great place to be. The ladies all teach CeeCee something a bit different about the world. I am still not sure who was my favorite character, but I am leaning towards Miz Thelma Rae Goodpepper. She is quite a free spirit and is worried about her Karma being good. What is funny is that is only true if it benefits her. Ask her neighbor Violene that she has a thing against. This was just a fun read. I read it while in South Carolina, not far from Savannah which made the southern setting of this book all the more fun. I also many years ago lived in a small town in SC just north of Savannah and spent time there. It is a beautiful town and one that is well worth a visit if you have never been there or a revisit.


Happy Reading

Robert Whitlow

Dear Readers,
Greater Love by Robert Whitlow is the 3rd and final installment of the Tides of Truth series. Deeper Water is number 1 and Higher Hope is the 2nd book. They have all centered on Tami Taylor, a young law student who is interning at a prestigious law firm in Savannah Georgia. This one is no different. Ok, maybe a little different in that Tami is now a full lawyer and has to decide between the law firms that have offered her a job.

Greater Love opens with Tami finishing off her last year of law school and being offered a job at Braddock, Appleby and Carpenter, the law firm she has spent the last couple of summers interning at. She is the first ever female intern to be offered a job by them. She isn't sure if she wants to take the job offer because she wants to work there or because both of the gentleman that are interested in her work there. Yes Zack and she are still courting, but Tami is still not sure he is the one God has planned for her to marry.

Tami's new case has her dealing with a teenage runaway that Tami knows is lying. Jessie is hiding something and she is willing to go to jail rather than reveal her secret. She is not talking to Tami or the cops. Jessie knows that if she reveals her secret she is a dead person, just like what happened to Rod. There are forces at work no one can see and Sister Dabney is back to make sure everyone is on the right path.

I am not sure this is my favorite of the three books. I really liked the law case that Tami is involved in, but I did find the storyline of Tami/Zack/Vince a bit slow and even annoying. But it was fun to visit with old friends like Mrs. Fairmont and Tammy Lynn's parents. I would be glad to read another book about Tami. She is an interesting character and she does make me think about how I make decisions and choices in my life. She reminds me that God is interested in every aspect of my life including my job and things I do for fun and recreation.

I have said this many times and will say it again. Robert's books are easily recommended to guys, even with a female lead but also for John Grisham readers. He writes those southern genre lawyer mysteries that John is so fond of writing.

Right now we have in the store book one for $2.99 and book #3 at 20% off. Makes the series an easy an inexpensive pick up.

Happy Reading

Sandra D. Bricker

Dear Readers,

I always have a book that I read here at work. I read while on lunch, which means it can take a bit longer to read a book. It doesn't mean it isn't a good read, I just don't have much time to read them and I do get interrupted once in a while. I actually started The Big 5-oh by Sandra D. Bricker several weeks ago. It has been a fun and cute book to read. One that is easy to remember what is going one in between the lunch 1/2 hours that I have to read on.

Olivia Wallace is turning 50 this year. In fact in a couple weeks. She believes her birthday is cursed. Strange and not happy things happen on her birthday. Her husband dying, being told she has cancer, to name a couple. So she is not looking forward to her birthday for several reasons. She just wants to hide away and let the day pass unnoticed. Her friend Halley doesn't believe in the curse, but offers her mother's house in Florida for good place to go hide out. Olivia figures what can it hurt. Besides it is warm there and Ohio is still buried under snow.

Once there Olivia realizes that this is not a quiet place to live. Whether is it is the "stinky" dog she is asked to dog-sit or the alligator that comes visiting, Olivia isn't sure this was a good alternative to snow. But soon she finds out that there is a very good looking doctor living just a few doors down that might make the stay a bit more interesting.

Ok now there is nothing in this book that will make you lie awake at night and wonder what is happening or even going to happen. It is just a great get-away book. It is quirky and funny and just a cute book to get away for a while.
Happy Reading

Patricia Sprinkle

Dear Readers,

10 years ago I read The Remember Box by Patricia Sprinkle. It is still a book I recommend to readers along with its sequel Carley's Song. They are both out of print now, but our used book dept gets copies once in a while and I make sure to mention them when I get a chance. Since then I have been waiting for another one like them from Patricia. Hold up the Sky is what I have been waiting for.

A southern genre book about 4 different women who are about at the lowest point one can be at in their lives. Mamie has just found out she has congestive heart failure, but feels like she has work to do yet. She swears her daughter to secrecy and continues on with the work she feels God has called her to do.

Bill Waits has the perfect name for her. She waits for a lot of things. Her husband's check to arrive each month, rain so her garden will grow so she will have vegetables and peaches to sell, she is really waiting for life as she is busy raising her special needs daughter.

Margaret' s husband takes a large sip of his coffee one morning and announces that he wants a divorce. With no warning and with no marketable skills Margaret's world is sent in a tail spin. This was the life she always wanted, a beautiful house, children and a husband to love. How can she go home to her father's house again.

And lastly there is Emerita. An illegal immigrant who has a story to tell, but no one to trust it with. These 4 very independent and different woman are thrown together in the middle of a hot and dry Georgia summer, with a drought that seems to drag on and is stealing the life from them and the land. When they all meet up in a hot kitchen while canning the few vegetables and fruit that they are able to save they find out they need each other more than they thought.

This is just one of those good stories books. You are gently included in each woman's story. They are not pretty stories, but they are close to real life. Homelessness, divorce, missing husbands, illegal immigrants, drought and death. They have all made headlines at one point or another in the past few weeks, but most of them actually touch our lives also.

Happy Reading