A Chance At Forever by Melissa Jagears

A Chance at Forever
(Teaville Moral Society #3)
by Melissa Jagears

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~ MY REVIEW ~

Two good, mostly uninterrupted, afternoons of reading and this book was finished!  Obviously, it was a pretty fast read for me. 😉

I was a bit disappointed in the first book (A Heart Most Certain) in this series– not because it was bad or anything (it was pretty good), but because I was unable to connect with any of the characters– and I will admit that had me a bit worried going into this book.  However, I ended up really enjoying this one and flying right through it at near record speeds!

These characters felt much more relatable and I even liked the characters from the first book better in this one.  It sounds terrible to say this, but… I actually really loved that the main character is missing her hand.  See what I mean? That’s such a horrible thing to say, right?! 😦  And yet, it’s still true.  I’m pretty certain that the only books I’ve read where a character was missing a limb were cases of soldiers having been injured in battle so this– a girl being born without part of her limb and having to grow up suffering through the teasing, bullying, etc. as a result– was a new and quite interesting perspective, especially, I think, for a historical fiction book.  It’s not something that you typically see and I though it was very well written!

I feel like I really can’t say enough about these characters.  Mercy is a beautiful, realistic, totally relatable mess of kindness and compassion… and bitterness and unforgiveness. She really made me consider my own actions toward certain people– how I can have kindness and compassion toward some, but what about when I am confronted by those who have hurt me?  Do I express that same spirit toward them or do I stubbornly harbor those hard feelings that most people would never even realize I have?  Food for much thought right there, let me tell ya.

And Aaron… Sweet, hurting, repentant Aaron.  He is such a different person now than he was when Mercy knew him as a child.  God has worked such a transformation in his life and it shows in every way.  Oh, I cried over this man… I have no shame in admitting that.  Seeing how badly he desired forgiveness for all the hurt he had caused years ago– the lengths to which he went to show others how sorry he was for what he had done– and seeing how he wanted to be a different, better man and wanted to use his past and his present to impact others like his younger self and show them God through his own life.  How could a reader not love this character?

In the end, I was left with some questions and felt that some of the secondary characters’ stories didn’t end in quite as satisfying a way as I would have liked, but that is a bit of reality that should be expected.  Overall, this book is one I am glad to have read and one that I will likely read again.  The pain, the struggles, and the ultimate forgiveness and growth of these characters makes this the type of story that resonates in hearts and minds, lingering long after the final page has been read.

 

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review, all opinions expressed are my own.

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~ WHAT SOME OF MY FRIENDS ARE SAYING ABOUT THIS BOOK ~

I highly recommend this novel, and the entire series – for fans of entertaining yet challenging historical fiction with a sweet romance.  Read more…
~Beth

I don’t know what else to say except that I absolutely adored this book, highly recommend it…  Read more…
~Caitlyn

Overall, the storyline was amazing. I have never read a plotline like this, and I think it was so well written.  Read more…
~Nicki

 

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~ SOME FAVORITE QUOTES ~

The only tool she had was prayer, and if that was so, why didn’t she use it more often?

“Being moral isn’t doing what’s easiest or what makes you feel comfortable, but rather, it’s choosing to do right even when it hurts, when it costs, when it’s difficult.”

Aaron: “No one’s going to notice that wet spot since his [the baby’s] toes are exposed for all the women to gush over.”

 

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Check out the entire Teaville Moral Society series!
    

Miscellaneous Short Reviews

Sometimes I simply do not have the time (or perhaps the desire) to write a very long book review, but I still want to say a little something about the book.  When I share a review on my blog, I like it to be a “full-sized” review post so I don’t often share these shorties here, but I figured I could do a compilation post and share several shorties in one post. 😉

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Love in a Fix (Modern Conveniences #1)
by Leah Atwood
3.5 stars

I actually enjoyed this book quite a bit more than I expected to. Though the marriage itself did feel a bit rushed… the fact that the couple had known each other & been friends for years made that not bother me as much as it otherwise might have. And I like how realistic and understandable the issues were that they faced in their relationship.

I don’t know when I read this– I can’t find it on my GR bookshelf– but I know I’ve read it before so I’m marking it as a re-read. 😛

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P.S. I Like You
by Kasie West
4 stars

I would probably normally only give this book 3 stars… maybe 3.5, but I was so pleasantly surprised that I just had to give it 4 stars.
I don’t read YA fiction much at all.  I just don’t generally enjoy the characters or the stories…  But this storyline was a nice difference from what I had been reading and I quite liked this book!  The first person pov was, I thought, very well done!  And the narrator (I listened to the audiobook. The narrator was Shannon McManus, I think.) was pretty good too.
I decided to try some other books by this author since I liked this one so much… I’ve read 5 now and this one remains my favorite.

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Under the Cajun Moon
by Mindy Starns Clark
3 stars

Honestly, I thought I would end up giving this book only 2 stars.
The story didn’t pull me in, the characters weren’t all that great, I didn’t care for the switching between first and third person or the switches between the past, present, & historic parts of the story, I figured out the “bad guy” right away (even though I don’t think readers are supposed to figure it out that fast), and I did not like the narrator at all– mostly because of the accents.
((And the first kiss scene..? *major eye roll*))
However… toward the end, I did start to enjoy it a little more. The mystery did have some interesting parts that I enjoyed reading about. And I did really like the spiritual aspects of the story. So– 3 stars it is!

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Reading Habits Tag

I wasn’t tagged to do this, but I saw it on Emilie’s blog: Create Explore Read back in January and thought it looked like fun!

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1. Do you have a certain place at home for reading?
—-  Wherever I can find a quiet, comfortable place. 😉  Usually on my bed or in a comfy chair in the living room… or outside.

2. Bookmark or random piece of paper?
—-  Yes.  Whatever works and is handy at the moment.

3. Can you just stop reading or do you have to stop after a chapter/ a certain amount of pages?
—-  Unless I am so totally exhausted I can’t keep my eyes open any longer or I suddenly have to leave… I don’t stop until I reach the end of a chapter or at least the end of a section.

4. Do you eat or drink while reading?
—-  Sometimes.

5. Multitasking: Music or TV while reading?
—-  I usually find music to be a distraction– either I want to sing with the music or it makes me sleepy.  I have watched movies while I was reading, but only when both the book and movie were already familiar to me.  However, I multitask all the time when listening to audiobooks!  I’m listening to “Betrayal” by Robin Lee Hatcher as I write this post and I listen to audiobooks all the time at work.

6. One book at a time or several at once?
—-  It’s not often that I only have one book in progress.  I usually have at least 2 or 3 going at a time.

7. Reading at home or everywhere?
—-  Well, not everywhere… but certainly not just at home! 😉

8. Reading out lout or silently in your head?
—-  Both.  Though I usually read silently, I do sometimes like to read out loud.

9. Do you read ahead or even skip pages?
—-  Um… maybe..?  Not often, but sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures.  If I do skip ahead, I almost always go back and read what I skipped– unless the book is just too boring or awful to read in it’s entirety.

10. Breaking the spine or keeping it like new?
—-  I prefer to keep my books looking as new and beautiful as possible!

11. Do you write in your books?
—-  Sometimes, yes.  My paperback copies of Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre are particularly marked up because I wanted to mark some favorite sections and make some notes.  Usually, though, I mark passages with sticky notes to avoid writing in a book.

 

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Anyone who thinks this looks fun, count yourself tagged! 😉

Passport to Pinterest Tag

Created by Livy at Livy Lynn Blog.

About the Tag-From Livy:

Pinterest is my happy place. My darling boards are sprinkled with puppy dogs, castles, the rainy streets of London, and LOTS and LOTS of pink! Pinterest is such a wonderful place to express yourself, share your personality, and design a visual haven of all the things you adore! So naturally, loving Pinterest as much as I do, I decided to create the Passport to Pinterest (Bloggers Tag!)

As bloggers, I know we’re always brainstorming fun new post ideas. So what could be more fun than mixing your enjoyment of blogging, with your passion for Pinterest?

Rules:

1. Open your Boards.
2. Open http://www.random.org (Or any random number generator website or app of your choosing.)
3. Enter the number of pins on your first board. For example, my first board is “Hair {S T Y L E S}” with 35 Pins. So I typed in the number 35.
4. Click “Generate.” (I got 4)!
5. Find that number pin on your board (I used my 4th).
6. Share the image of that Pin in your new Blog Post, and a little blurb about why it’s important to you!
7. Continue the process with ALL or as many of your boards as you like!
8. Tag another blogger! (Or two, or three…or ten! The more, the merrier! :D)
(Link back to thank the blogger who tagged you!)

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So here’s a little peek into my Pinterest!

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– BIBLIOMANIA –

 

– GOOD READS –

 

– SOONERS FOOTBALL!! –

 

– SERIOUSLY SARCASTIC –

 

– SPEAK MY LANGUAGE –

 

– PRIDE & PREJUDICE 🙂 –

 

– NICK & NORA –

 

– THE AVENGERS –

 

– STEVE –

 

– LOTR AND THE HOBBIT –

 

– OTHER AUSTEN MOVIES –

 

– IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS… –

 

 

– OKLAHOMA –

 

– NEED A LAUGH? –

 

 

– WHY DO THESE PLACES CALL TO ME? –

 

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I have more boards, but I’ll leave it at that… 😉

Looking Back on March 2018

    

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New-To-Me Authors: 0

And the places I “visited” in my reading…

States: Texas – Louisiana – Mississippi – Michigan – Wisconsin

Countries: Germany – England

He Is Risen!!

Looking Back on February 2018

      

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New-To-Me Authors: 0

And the places I “visited” in my reading…

States: Texas – Illinois – Wyoming – New Mexico

Countries: Germany – England

I’ve Got You Under My Skin by Mary Higgins Clark

I’ve Got You Under My Skin
(Under Suspicion #1)
by Mary Higgins Clark
& Alafair Burke

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~ MY REVIEW ~

Not super crazy about this one… The storyline was good; it was interesting, for sure. But I felt that the phrase “under suspicion” was seriously over-used. It left me wondering if it was the same way in the later books in this series (#3 & #4) that I’ve already read (yes, I’m reading them out of order, but it was an accident!) But I didn’t notice it and I really think I would have.
Anyway… Another thing that bugged me was the thoughts of the characters being used so often to describe in such great detail what had happened in the past. This really got on my nerves and actually made me want to just skip those parts. However, with much determination, I managed to resist that urge.
On the positive side, the mysteries were quite interesting! All the secrets, and sadness, and guilt, and hatred, and blackmail, and intrigue! Though I did figure out some of it, some parts did remain a mystery until quite late in the book. I’m still not certain how I feel about the way things ended with some of the characters… but I suppose that’s okay.
My favorite thing about this book was being able to go back and see how Laurie and Alex met and how everything got started with her show and all. (This is why I try to always read series in order!! 😛 )

Note of Warning: For the readers out there who are looking for a clean/Christian read, this is not Christian fiction– there isn’t any sex or anything, but there is some bad language in this book.

The Mistletoe Inn by Richard Paul Evans

The Mistletoe Inn
(Mistletoe Collection #2)
by Richard Paul Evans

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~ MY REVIEW ~

Was this a good read? Mm… it was okay. Not wholly awful, but not all that good either. I don’t often say this, but I liked the movie better and the movie wasn’t even all that great, in my opinion. I actually decided to read this book because I had seen the movie and thought the book would probably be better. Well… there was more to it, for sure. And there are some differences in the main couple’s relationship, not to mention the storyline in general, though that is to be expected and can even be a good thing. But I don’t think the book is as good as the movie, much less better than it.
The book is rather darker and sadder than the Hallmark movie. There is depression, suicide, cheating, professor/student relationships, divorce, cancer….. Yeah. Sadness and heartache. But the strange thing is that, while I would expect all that to evoke an emotional response… it really didn’t. None of it felt all that real to me. The telling felt bland and flat to the point that it didn’t make me care about these characters and what had happened/was happening to them. I don’t enjoy reading books that are sad and make me cry, but if it’s going to be sad? Make me feel it– make me cry!
Now, that’s not to say there isn’t anything lighthearted and happy in the story. There is, I promise. Kim and Zeke have their romance and their happily ever after (come on, that’s not a spoiler!) and there are funny moments with Kim’s new friend at the Inn. Some other secondary characters even get happy endings. There are special moments and sweet moments. There just wasn’t enough to outweigh the negatives for me. Things like being told every single thing they ordered every time they had a meal. Why? It reminded me of kids adding in as many needless words as possible to a school report so they could reach their word count requirement faster. I don’t need to know this. It doesn’t help or enhance the story at all. Maybe that’s just me, but I found myself rolling my eyes every time they headed to dinner because I knew what was coming.
Also there were some things in the story that just didn’t make any sense to me at all. I wouldn’t normally include stuff like this, but it just got to me so I’ll share a couple of examples.
1) At one point, Kim puts her wedding ring back on to deter unwanted attention from a certain jerk. But… she’s divorced and has been separated from her husband for a while, if I remember correctly, so why did she even have her wedding ring with her? I mean, even if she still had it at home, why would she have brought it to the writers retreat?
2) Toward the end of the book, there was a conversation where someone was misinformed about a situation (I’m going to try really hard to not give anything away here). Kim was trying to set them straight, but they didn’t believe her because they doubted the person concerned would tell Kim about the situation in question. Instead of simply explaining that she was present when the person told the whole story to a roomful of people, she tries to convince them that she really did know the person and they told her the story personally. Yes, she did tell the truth, but it was unnecessary and over-complicated things. And I suppose it could be played off as an emotional reaction, but it just made it seem really forced and kind of ridiculous because it was a pointless conversation.
I’m sorry… I feel like maybe I’m being overly critical here. It’s just that, the more I think about it, the less I like this book and the more I want to give it only 1 star, even though I started out giving it 2. Because the characters weren’t very likable either and the writing in general really wasn’t all that great. But then there was some good stuff thrown in there about love and relationships…

“Romance novels are all about desire and happily-ever-after, but happily-ever-after doesn’t come from desire—at least not the kind portrayed in pulp romances. Real love is not to desire a person but to desire their happiness—sometimes even at the expense of our own happiness. Real love is to expand our own capacity for tolerance and caring, to actively seek another’s well-being. All else is simply a charade of self-interest.”

“They say love is blind, but it’s not. Infatuation is blind. Emotional neediness is blind. Love sees the fault, it just sees beyond it as well.” 

*sigh* I guess I’ll leave the rating at 2 stars, but I think it’s probably more like 1 1/2.

Content Advisory:
There are a couple of mild cuss words used and a couple remarks regarding kissing and being naked that might be considered somewhat inappropriate by someone looking for a very clean read. I would consider it inappropriate for a Christian book, but I don’t think this book is classified that way, is it..?

Looking Back on January 2018

       

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New-To-Me Authors: 4

And the places I “visited” in my reading…

States: Michigan – Kentucky – Illinois – Montana – New York – Colorado – Nevada – Vermont

Countries: England – Switzerland – Serbia – Germany – Czechoslovakia