Someone Like You by Victoria Bylin

Julia Dare is a single mom who is trying to find her way as a new Christian and trying to run her own business.  She tries to balance it all with raising her young son.  Zeke Munroe works hard to keep historic Caliente Springs running.  His faith in God is in tatters.

Julia comes to Caliente Springs on an event planing trip and is surprised to see her the love of her life from college is the one running the resort.  Julia is hired to plan the wedding a life time.  A wedding that may save or destroy the resort.  Julia and Zeke need to work together to bring the wedding together and save the resort.

Julia and Zeke do their best to keep their relationship professional, but as they work together old feeling start to emerge.  Will Zeke open his heart back to God and turn back to him?  Will Julia help him to break down the walls that have been built up?

Victoria Bylin has written such a heartwarming story!  Not only is there the romance going n between Julia and Zeke, but Julia's own widowed mother as well with the resort owner - her teenager crush.  Ms. Bylin does a wonderful job of weaving the story lines of all the characters together.  You feel the agony Zeke and the others who work at the resort feel when they known they may soon loose their jobs.  The goat Ladybug had me laughing so hard!  

This is the first book I've read by this author and I want to read more!

This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.   I was not required to write a positive review.  The opinions I have expressed are entirely mylin own.

The Real Heaven: What the Bible Actually Says by Chip Ingram

Chip Ingram turns us away from what we've seen in movies and books and turns to the Bible to what it tells us about heaven.  He opens up the Scriptures and describes the details we are given about heaven.  He explains what God has opened up to us what happens to us after we die.  He explains what what heaven is like should matter to us now.  Knowing what heaven is like, know what our home is like, can change our lives in a mighty way.

Mr. Ingram uses the best source about heaven to tell us about heaven - he uses the Bible.  He goes to the different scriptures that open our eyes to what heaven is like and explains them to us.  He doesn't give us any ideas of what he thinks heaven is like but tells us exactly what the Bible tells us heaven is like.  He does an excellent job of laying out exactly what God has taught us about our heavenly home.  It is not a very large book, as he does indicate not much is indicated about heaven, but it is very powerful book.

This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.   I was not required to write a positive review.  The opinions I have expressed are entirely my own.

Think and Eat Yourself Smart by Dr. Caroline Leaf

Dr. Caroline Leaf talks about how what we eat impacts our health, including our brain health, in many different ways.  She mentions how we think very little about what we eat beyond basic nutrition values of the food.  Dr. Leaf explains how we can change the way we think about food and direct ourselves to a healthy lifestyle.  

In the first section of the book she describes the problems that are in the foods we eat today.  She describes how food has changed from the way God intended it to be to the processed foods we have today.

In the second section she talks about how the toxins in foods today can affect our bodies and what they do.  This part is very technical and at times very hard to understand.

The third section puts it all together.  She gives tips and advice on how you can apply it to your life and gives several recipes that her and her family enjoy.

I found some of what she talked about in how foods are made to be very eye opening.  While I don't know if I can every fully go as "clean" eating as she does, it does make me want to strive to watch what I am eating better.

The second section was hard to understand and I felt as if there were times she could have used simpler terms, so the every day person could easily understand what she was saying.

This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.   I was not required to write a positive review.  The opinions I have expressed are entirely my own.

Finding God in the Hard Times by Matt and Beth Redman

Matt and Beth Redman wrote this book based on experiences they have gone through in their own lives.  They talk about how to offer praise to God even when you are going through great pain.  They talk about different circumstances that may happen in your life and how you can turn to God during those times or how you can turn away from him.

I felt as if this book could have used a lot more scripture in it.  When I turn to God, I turn to his written word.  There was very little Scripture in this book and how we could use that in hard times.  The whole entire book seemed to promote their song over anything else.   (of which I listed to and didn't care for)

This book was very short and could have had more to it with more Scriptures and more ways that God can work and is working in our lives when we are going through hard times.

This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.   I was not required to write a positive review.  The opinions I have expressed are entirely my own.