Book Reviews

The Case for Faith- Finished May 2023

In The Case for Faith, bestselling author, journalist, and former atheist Lee Strobel turns his investigative skills to the most persistent emotional objections to belief in God--the eight "heart barriers" to faith:

• "Since evil and suffering exist, a loving God cannot"
• "Since miracles contradict science, they cannot be true"
• "Evolution explains life, so God isn't needed"
• "God isn't worthy of worship if he kills innocent children"
• "It's offensive to claim Jesus is the only way to God"
• "A loving God would never torture people in hell"
• "Church history is littered with oppression and violence"
• "I still have doubts, so I can't be a Christian"

This bestselling book is for those who may be feeling attracted to Jesus but who are faced with difficult questions standing squarely in their path. For Christians, it will deepen their convictions and give them fresh confidence in defending their faith to skeptical friends, or during the hardest of times, when they have to defend their faith to themselves in moments of doubt.

Rating: We read this with my Bible Study and I really enjoyed diving into viewpoints of Apologetics. It was a great perspective for unwavering believers and stubborn skeptics. 

Mary Jane- Finished May 2023 

In 1970s Baltimore, fourteen-year-old Mary Jane loves cooking with her mother, singing in her church choir, and enjoying her family’s subscription to the Broadway Showtunes of the Month record club. Shy, quiet, and bookish, she’s glad when she lands a summer job as a nanny for the daughter of a local doctor. A respectable job, Mary Jane’s mother says. In a respectable house.

The house may look respectable on the outside, but inside it’s a literal and figurative mess: clutter on every surface, Impeachment: Now More Than Ever bumper stickers on the doors, cereal and takeout for dinner. And even more troublesome (were Mary Jane’s mother to know, which she does not): the doctor is a psychiatrist who has cleared his summer for one important job—helping a famous rock star dry out. A week after Mary Jane starts, the rock star and his movie star wife move in.

Over the course of the summer, Mary Jane introduces her new household to crisply ironed clothes and a family dinner schedule, and has a front-row seat to a liberal world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll (not to mention group therapy). Caught between the lifestyle she’s always known and the future she’s only just realized is possible, Mary Jane will arrive at September with a new idea about what she wants out of life, and what kind of person she’s going to be.

Rating: 4/5. This was a cute storyline that reminded me of my nanny days! Some parts were a little stretched out but it was a fun glimpse into the times of the past. 

The Hotel Nantucket- Read May 2023 

Fresh off a bad breakup with a longtime boyfriend, Nantucket sweetheart Lizbet Keaton is desperately seeking a second act. When she’s named the new general manager of the Hotel Nantucket, a once Gilded Age gem turned abandoned eyesore, she hopes that her local expertise and charismatic staff can win the favor of their new London billionaire owner, Xavier Darling, as well as that of Shelly Carpenter, the wildly popular Instagram tastemaker who can help put them back on the map. And while the Hotel Nantucket appears to be a blissful paradise, complete with a celebrity chef-run restaurant and an idyllic wellness center, there’s a lot of drama behind closed doors. The staff (and guests) have complicated pasts, and the hotel can’t seem to overcome the bad reputation it earned in 1922 when a tragic fire killed nineteen-year-old chambermaid Grace Hadley. With Grace gleefully haunting the halls, a staff harboring all kinds of secrets, and Lizbet’s own romantic uncertainty, is the Hotel Nantucket destined for success or doom?  

Filled with the emotional depth and multiple points of view that characterize Hilderbrand’s novels (The Blue Bistro, Golden Girl) as well as an added dash of Roaring Twenties history, The Hotel Nantucket offers something for everyone in this compelling summer drama. 

Rating: 4/5. This was such a cute story and I loved all of the characters! The weaving of storylines was fun to follow and now I just want to visit Nantucket!

Layla- Finished June 2023

When Leeds meets Layla, he’s convinced he’ll spend the rest of his life with her - until an unexpected attack leaves Layla fighting for her life. After weeks in the hospital, Layla recovers physically, but the emotional and mental scarring has altered the woman Leeds fell in love with. In order to put their relationship back on track, Leeds whisks Layla away to the bed-and-breakfast where they first met. Once they arrive, Layla’s behavior takes a bizarre turn. And that’s just one of many inexplicable occurrences. Feeling distant from Layla, Leeds soon finds solace in Willow - another guest of the B&B with whom he forms a connection through their shared concerns. As his curiosity for Willow grows, his decision to help her find answers puts him in direct conflict with Layla’s well-being. Leeds soon realizes he has to make a choice because he can’t help both of them. But if he makes the wrong choice, it could be detrimental to all of them.

Rating: 2.5/5. It took me a long time to get engaged and finish this book, mainly because I am not into supernatural storylines. However, it had a good, happy ending.

Local Woman Missing- Finished July 2023

People don't just disappear without a trace…

Shelby Tebow is the first to go missing. Not long after, Meredith Dickey and her six-year-old daughter, Delilah, vanish just blocks away from where Shelby was last seen, striking fear into their once-peaceful community. Are these incidents connected? After an elusive search that yields more questions than answers, the case eventually goes cold.

Now, eleven years later, Delilah shockingly returns. Everyone wants to know what happened to her, but no one is prepared for what they'll find…

Rating: 3/5. While I stayed engaged with the storyline, it took a very long time to get to the peak (the mystery not being solved with less than an hour left to listen). It did have an unexpected twist towards the end, but so many parts of the story were unbelievable and such a stretch while other parts didn't tie into the overall plot and were irrelevant.