Speed Reviewing

4 Stars

Suffering from survivor's guilt and unable to resume his career with the FBI, Mac McKeown moves to northern Minnesota to start over as a general contractor and forget that fateful day that changed everything. When he discovers the body of his nemesis on Glory Palmer's property, along with a warning for her to leave while she still can and abandon her dream of building a Christian retreat, Mac realizes his past has come back to haunt him and an innocent woman's life is in grave danger. He vows to keep her safe during construction of the retreat... but how will he protect his heart?

***I really liked this book. It was a nice easy quick mystery/love story. It was kinda long but didn't seem long when you were reading it, it went quickly. Nice character development and nice scene setting! I could picture being there. This is the first book in the series "Piedmont Island Trilogy". I am looking forward to reading more!

4 Stars

Rose Kauffman, a spirited young woman, has a close friendship with the bishop's foster son. Nick dresses Plain and works hard but stirs up plenty of trouble too. Rose's sister cautions her against becoming too involved, but Rose is being courted by a good, Amish fellow, so dismisses the warnings. Meanwhile, Rose keeps house for an English widower but is startled when he forbids her to ever go upstairs. What is the man hiding?
Rose's older sister, Hen, knows more than she should about falling for the wrong man. Unable to abandon her Amish ways, Hen is soon separated from her very modern husband. Mattie, their young daughter, must visit her father regularly, but Hen demands she wear Amish attire--and speak Pennsylvania Dutch, despite her husband's wishes. Will Hen be able to reestablish her place among the People she abandoned? And will she be able to convince Rose to steer clear of rogue neighbor Nick?

***I read book 2 first then had the chance to read this one - Well that explains a lot! Now I know why the stuff was happening in the second book! LOL Hint: It is a good idea to read book in a series in order.
Great book, great series! Can't wait to read the third one.

4 Stars

Perfect Parker Fadley isn’t so perfect anymore. She’s quit the cheerleading squad, she’s dumped her perfect boyfriend, and she’s failing school. Her parents are on a constant suicide watch and her counselors think she’s playing games…but what they don’t know, the real reason for this whole mess, isn’t something she can say out loud. It isn’t even something she can say to herself. A horrible thing has happened and it just might be her fault. If she can just remove herself from everybody—be totally alone—then everything will be okay...The problem is, nobody will let her.

***This book started out slow for me, kinda hard to get into, then... Bang! It suddenly got better. I am so glad and I really ended up liking this book a lot! It does have a lot of swearing in it, which was a turn off at first, but that is who she is (Parker) she is a suicidal, angsty, angry, bitter, teenage girl. So of course she swears! But this book is about so much more than that. All through the book you get glimpses of something that happened in the past. All through the book I was dieing to find out what happened!
This book reminds me so much of "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson. If you read Speak and loved it then you should read- Cracked up to Be.

5 Stars!!!!!

 Wow, wow, wow! Talk about a book affecting you! I have not stopped thinking about this book since I stopped reading it! I seriously want to email the Author and tell her how wonderful this book is and how much I loved it!

Calle and her mom move a lot, A LOT! So she never makes friends and never really fully unpacks, she has always just kept to herself.  Her mom has been re-married 5 times and Calle has never known her real Dad. She is not allowed to ask about him. Her mom never wants to talk about it and shuts her right out when Calle asks. At this new school, Calle dares to start making friends. She starts hanging out with the Drama crowd. She finds out that she has a lot more in common with a few of them than she would have guessed. She also starts having feelings for Sam, a boy with secrets of his own.
She accidentally finds an old letter addressed to her from her father,that her mom kept secret from her for years! She begins to question everything her mother has told her about the past. Wrestling with these thoughts, the normal highs and lows of high school, and her developing feelings for Sam are enough to send the surprisingly stable teen into an emotional tailspin.

This book is so well written. It has such great character development I really felt connected to these troubled teens. I loved Calle and felt this strong ... more than a connection really, to her. This story was beautiful, honest, sad, heartfelt and full of such deep emotion. It almost brings tears to my eyes just writing this review. I know the reason that I felt such a bond with Calle and this book is due to my own personal experiences, but it was more than that. It was the Author's way of bringing you in, allowing you to enter the character's hearts. I know this will be one of my favorite books of 2011! I would dare say that this might be the most beautiful YA book I have ever read!
I hope this Author - Kim Culbertson, continues to write. She has another book out (Instructions for a Broken Heart) that I think I will try to read also.