Book Catch Up and Stuff

Alright people, I'm a slacker. I admit it and that's the first step, right? I planned on catching up last weekend when I went to the Tour de Safford with my husband. (Whoever thinks it's fun to ride a bike for 104 miles, I question their sanity but a couple hundred people did it that day! More power to them.) Well, instead of catching up I was asked to help with registration which took up my entire free day. Oh well, such is life. The race went well and it was nice to get away.

Then this weekend I had my sister's baby shower and a Pre-Thanksgiving dinner since I've cancelled Thanksgiving this year (hoping I'll be in the hospital having a baby). Needless to say, I

haven't had much time in between.

So here's the plan. There's a great book I know just came out that I'm going to buzz about, then I'm picking a couple of books to do a review on. If I don't get to all my reviews this year, I

'm not going to stress. You can always take a look at the books I've read on my books read page. Then, depending on the length of this post, I might put my Mary Kay sale in this one or the next tomorrow. We'll see.

Anyway L. C. Lewis' fourth book Oh, Say Can You Can You See? I believe is out and going. Here's

the backliner blurb.

Although the British raids

have left Washington a devastated, blackened city, the battered Constitution has held and the presidency has survived!

But the struggling government has no home. The British saw to that. Gone is the Capitol and her magnificent library, the chambers of the Supreme Court, the President’s House, and every relic and document not secreted out of the city.

Next on the list of British prizes—the rebellious port city of Baltimore! A victory here would assure the Americans’ defeat, but a loss would dilute the importance of the destruction of Washington.

But has the raid on Washington stiffened the backs of the Americans? This is the question gnawing at the leaders on both sides.

The Willows women are mourning their absent men—gone to war, or wounded, or captured—as they await the birth of a blessed child.

Mere miles away, attorney Francis Scott Key embarks on a diplomatic mission that will leave an everlasting mark on America. Proving that a pen can be more powerful than a sword, Key records his fears and hopes—the fears and hopes of his embattled people—as he watches the bombardment of Baltimore while detained in the midst of the British fleet.

What changed in this noble man’s pacifist heart, empowering him to pen the powerful anthem, known today as “The Star Spangled Banner,” an epic poem that rallied a shattered nation to rise from its knees to claim the dream of “one nation under God?”

Experience the personal sacrifice of five families placed in the firestorm of the War of 1812, citizen

heirs of the sacrifice of the Founding Fathers.

It sounds like a wonderful book. I've had several family members read it and absolutely love the series. It is definitely on my list of books to read. Take a look and let me know what you think! Here's the book trailer.

Now to book reviews.

I've read three by Janette Rallison, Trial of the Heart, Deep Blue Eyes and Other Lies, and Masquerade. Trial of the Heart is a darling love story that

was a fun read that I just enjoyed. It is clean and just good fun about a cleaning gal who gets left a multi-million dollar vineyard. She then gets stuck with the family that hates her because she is talking about the vineyard into something else, believing she is fulfilling the wishes of the person who left her the vineyard. Just delightful.

Deep Blue Eyes and Other Lies threw me back into high school. I forget sometimes how cheesy high school was, however I loved how Rallison portrayed the real consequences of people's actions and how sometimes you can't solve everyone's problems. Good lessons learned in this book.

Masquerade is written under the name Sierra St. James. It's another fun romance. I loved the interaction of the characters with the two young children in the story. It was very realistic and made it for a good read that is also clean.

And now I'm amazed at how quickly my energy level depletes. So I'll do more later. Life shouldn't be as busy now. Ha, ha, ha. I think I've said that before.