Book Review | March 2019

It's Tuesday y'all (as if you needed that reminder) but before I know it it's going to be Friday again. (not that I'm complaining) but I swear I feel like time is FLYING! 

It's also the LAST Tuesday of the month and I'm sharing my Book Review. 


I realize that most of you do not read the rated R type books that I read and I completely understand. I also understand that most of you find it comical that I mix my rated R book reviews with my devotional books. I get it, I understand, but this is ME!

So without further ado here are the 5 books that I finished in March. (yes, I realize the graphic just shows 3 books but I made it last week and finished 2 more over the weekend) 

The Better Mom Devotional. 

Amazon: As a mom, you want to give your best to your family. Motherhood is incredibly rewarding, yet its challenges can leave you feeling anxious, inadequate, and overwhelmed with mom guilt.Trusted author Ruth Schwenk of Pressing Pause and The Better Mom blog will help you learn to give yourself grace as you grow in wisdom with The Better Mom Devotional.
As a busy mom of four kids, Ruth understands the stress of raising a family and trying to do it all perfectly, but she has uncovered a secret: becoming a better mom starts not with what you are doing but with who God is inviting you to become.
In The Better Mom Devotional, 100 devotions filled with scripture, prayers, and reflection questions will help you discover:
  • How God uses motherhood to change you from the inside out
  • Intentional ways to deepen your faith in any season of parenting
  • The true calling of motherhood: training, disciplining, and loving your children well
  • The life-giving impact of honest, loving friendships
With Ruth’s encouragement, you can overcome mom guilt, stop trying to be the perfect mom, let go of the endless to-do list of motherhood, and experience the most challenging but rewarding adventure yet: becoming The Better Mom.

Heather: I didn't love this devotional. I didn't find anything that stood out to me and just settled into my soul. I'm sorry.

Brave Love. 

Amazon:Women today feel pressure to be the best wife, mom, and professional possible - often at the expense of their own identity. But what if you could experience deep peace - knowing you are loved right now, just as you are? In Brave Love, the founder of the multi-million dollar company Lisa Leonard Designs inspires women to find themselves again amidst the noise and competing demands of real life.
Brave Love is about what it means to be human, how it feels to be broken and afraid, and what happens when we dare to love deeply. Join Lisa on a journey where you will discover you are worthy and lovable just as you are. You don't have to try harder or be better. You don't have to prove yourself and you don't have to make others okay. In this freedom you will find more peace and more joy. Most importantly, you will learn that as you stop trying to be everything to everyone, you will love others better.
Lisa Leonard shares her story of finding truth and wholeness in the midst of life's competing demands. When she said her marriage vows, she was determined to be the best wife she could be. When her first son was born with a severe disability, Lisa promised herself she would always be the mother he needed. When she began her jewelry business, Lisa committed to giving it her all.
Over the years, the exhaustion of trying to be the perfect wife, mother, and businesswoman took its toll. Lisa knew it wasn't working. She wanted to change things, but how? Everyone depended on her. So she kept going, kept pushing, kept trying to prove she could do it all. Until one evening, in tears and desperation, Lisa realized that she could no longer be everything to everyone. Somewhere along the way, she had lost herself.
In Brave Love, Lisa shares her story of losing - and finding - her own voice in the clamor of family, career, and internal pressure to prove herself.

Heather:  This book really touched me. I don't know if I can ever be as BRAVE as Lisa shared in her story but it is something that I strive to be everyday. To be BRAVE to speak up, express how I feel, be a member of my family even though I don't contribute financially. To be BRAVE when I talk about my shop and my blog. 
It's a great read if those are things that you struggle with as well. 

The next 3 books I received as ARC.
(Advanced Reader Copies) 


Amazon:Getting in deep has never felt this good...

Commercial diver Tara Hunter nearly lost everything in an accident that saw her medically discharged from the navy. With the help of the Warrior Fight Club, she’s fought hard to overcome her fears and get back in the water where she’s always felt most at home. At work, she’s tough, serious, and doesn’t tolerate distractions. Which is why finding her gorgeous one-night stand on her new dive team is such a problem.

Former navy deep-sea diver Jesse Anderson just can’t seem to stop making mistakes—the latest being the hot-as-hell night he’d spent with his new partner. This job is his second chance, and Jesse knows he shouldn’t mix business with pleasure. But spending every day with Tara’s smart mouth and sexy curves makes her so damn hard to resist.

Joining Tara’s wounded warrior MMA training program seems like the perfect way for Jesse to blow off steam—except now they’re getting in deep and taking each other down day and night. And even though it breaks all the rules, their inescapable attraction might just be the only thing truly worth fighting for.

Heather: This book took me a while to read and I'm not sure why. It was a good book but just didn't hold my attention. I do love that Tara and Jesse had a "one night stand" and then ending up working together. I can't even imagine how embarrassing that would have been. 


Amazon:From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Samantha Young…

Autumn O’Dea has always tried to see the best in people while her big brother, Killian, has always tried to protect her from the worst. While their lonely upbringing made Killian a cynic, it isn’t in Autumn’s nature to be anything but warm and open. However, after a series of relationship disasters and the unsettling realization that she’s drifting aimlessly through life, Autumn wonders if she’s left herself too vulnerable to the world. Deciding some distance from the security blanket of her brother and an unmotivated life in Glasgow is exactly what she needs to find herself, Autumn takes up her friend’s offer to stay at a ski resort in the snowy hills of Montana. Some guy-free alone time on Whitetail Mountain sounds just the thing to get to know herself better. 

However, she wasn’t counting on colliding into sexy Grayson King on the slopes. Autumn has never met anyone like Gray. Confident, smart, with a wicked sense of humor, he makes the men she dated seem like boys. Her attraction to him immediately puts her on the defense because being open-hearted in the past has only gotten it broken. Yet it becomes increasingly difficult to resist a man who is not only determined to seduce her, but adamant about helping her find her purpose in life and embrace the person she is. Autumn knows she shouldn’t fall for Gray. It can only end badly. After all their lives are divided by an ocean and their inevitable separation is just another heart break away…

Heather: This one was fun and flirty. I love the chemistry between the characters immediately. They were just drawn to each other even though Autumn tried real hard to fight it. 



Amazon: From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Rachel Van Dyken…

She left.
Two words I can't really get out of my head.
She left us.
Three more words that make it that much worse.
Three being another word I can't seem to wrap my mind around. 
Three kids under the age of six, and she left because she missed it. Because her dream had never been to have a family, no her dream had been to marry a rockstar and live the high life.
Moving my recording studio to Seaside Oregon seems like the best idea in the world right now especially since Seaside Oregon has turned into the place for celebrities to stay and raise families in between touring and producing. It would be lucrative to make the move, but I'm doing it for my kids because they need normal, they deserve normal. And me? Well, I just need a break and help, that too. I need a sitter and fast. Someone who won't flip me off when I ask them to sign an Iron Clad NDA, someone who won't sell our pictures to the press, and most of all? Someone who looks absolutely nothing like my ex-wife. 


He's tall. 
That was my first instinct when I saw the notorious Trevor Wood, drummer for the rock band Adrenaline, in the local coffee shop. He ordered a tall black coffee which made me smirk, and five minutes later I somehow agreed to interview for a nanny position. I couldn't help it; the smaller one had gum stuck in her hair while the eldest was standing on his feet and asking where babies came from. He looked so pathetic, so damn sexy and pathetic that rather than be star-struck, I took pity. I knew though; I knew the minute I signed that NDA, the minute our fingers brushed and my body became insanely aware of how close he was—I was in dangerous territory, I just didn't know how dangerous until it was too late. Until I fell for the star and realized that no matter how high they are in the sky—they're still human and fall just as hard.

Heather: I don't know what it is about me and rockstars but I will fall for them every time. 😉 Maybe I just wish that one of the guys from News Kids on the Block would just come and sweep me off my feet. (I'm totally kidding) but when your boy band crush walks into the coffee shop you are working at and somehow you become his nanny. Yep, I was HOOKED! 

What have you been reading lately? 


No comments