To Everything a Season

Trygve Knutson is devoted to his family and his community. With his job on the construction crew, he is helping to build a future for the North Dakota town of Blessing. Though he loves his home, he sometimes dreams of other horizons--especially since meeting Miriam Hastings.

Miriam is in Blessing to get practical training to become an accredited nurse. She's been promised a position in the Chicago women's hospital that will enable her to support her siblings and her ailing mother. Although eager to return to her family, Miriam is surprised to find how much she enjoys the small town of Blessing. And her growing attachment to Trygve soon has her questioning a future she always considered set in stone. When a family emergency calls Miriam home sooner than planned, will she find a way to return? If not, will it mean losing Trygve--and her chance at love--for good?


Cafe Lily's Review:

I have always enjoyed Lauraine's books.  To Everything A Season is the first book in her new Song of Blessing series. I found this book interesting and easy to read. Some repeat characters show up in this book from her Home To Blessing series, but I did not find the story hard to follow at all.  The characters are entertaining and believable and the author's writing is vivid and easy to imagine in my mind, as I read. The end of the book left me hanging a bit - it will be hard to wait on the second book.


 

An Insider's Guide to Spiritual Warfare: 20 Battle Tested Strategies from Behind Enemy Lines

Having spent years as a medium, witch and ghost hunter before reclaiming her identity in Christ, Kristine McGuire has been on both sides of the battle lines.

In her new book, An Insider's Guide to Spiritual Warfare, she offers unique insight, revealing Satan's 7 favorite battlefields (such as fear and gossip) as well as the most effective tactics he employs in the battles we face every day.

 McGuire also shares 30 battle-tested strategies for victory based on her firsthand experience with the occult and the paranormal.

Some of the topics she covers include:
* how to walk in God's authority
* using spiritual armor
* how to recognize and avoid the influence of the occult in our culture
* whether the Bible supports the existence of ghosts


 Cafe Lily's Review:

This was one of the best books I have read on spiritual warfare.  Kristine McGuire breaks the subject down very well and makes it easy to understand.  The chapters are short in length, but meaty in material.  It's just enough information to easily meditate and digest before moving on.  The end of each chapter offer reflection questions, main points, strategy points and scripture to back up the main ideas.  I highly recommend this and think it would be great as a small group study.
 

 

A Life Intercepted

Twelve years ago Matthew "the Rocket" Rising had it all.

Married to his high school sweetheart and one of the winningest quarterbacks in the history of college football, he was the number one NFL draft pick. But on the night of the draft, he plummeted from the pinnacle of esteem. Falsely accused of a heinous crime with irrefutable evidence, it seemed in an instant all was lost--his reputation, his career, his freedom, and most devastatingly, the love of his life.

Having served his sentence and never played a down of professional football, Matthew leaves prison with one goal--to find his wife, Audrey, whom no one has seen since the trial. He returns to an unwelcoming reception from his Gardi, Georgia, hometown to learn that Audrey has taken shelter from the media with the nuns at a Catholic school. There she has discovered a young man with the talent to achieve the football career Matthew should have had. All he needs is the right coach. Although helping the boy means Matthew violates the conditions of his release and--if discovered--reincarceration for life, he'll take the chance with hope of winning back Audrey's love.


  Cafe Lily's Review:

I am neither a sports fan, nor a football enthusiast.  Based on that, I would probably never have read this book if I were not familiar with the author.  Having read numerous books by Charles in the past, I was happy to get my hands on his newest title. 

I was BLOWN AWAY and could not put this book down.  I read far past my bedtime, completely engrossed in the story and characters.  It is riveting and heart wrenching.......I had to keep reading to see how it would end.  I had some of the story figured out but there is just enough suspense and mystery to add in twists when you least expect them.

If you have yet to try out this author make sure you get your hands on this one.  The story is much deeper than football and betrayal.  By the time time I turned the last page, I was wrung out with emotion. This story is amazing and I highly recommend it.

I am still torn between When Crickets Cry and The Mountain Between us as my favorite books by Charles - however check out my other reviews because he has so many good books to choose from.