Book Review: “Turning Guilt Trips into Joy Rides” by Shirley Brosius, Janine Boyer and Kim Messinger

April 30, 2012 at 7:23 pm | Posted in Books | 1 Comment
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Shirley Brosius, Janine Boyer and Kim Messinger in their new book “Turning Guilt Trips into Joy Rides”  published by Westbow Press offers us an insightful look into the grace of God

From the back cover:   Women today are busy, stressed, and guilt-ridden, yet they long to develop their spiritual sides. “Turning Guilt Trips into Joy Rides” offers inspirational thoughts based on scripture-brief enough to be read during a television commercial, yet insightful enough to open your eyes to the grace of God on days you change diapers and/or lead corporate meetings. Each reading suggests a “Guilt Trip to Avoid” and ends with a way to “Take the Joy Ride” The book includes six months of daily readings so that you may establish a habit of connecting with God. Readings are listed under letters of the acronym G-R-A-C-E, representing God, Relationships, Acceptance, Challenges, and Emotions.

The co-authors hope these meaningful readings will help you deal with guilt-both real and imagine. By applying the insights shared in Turning Guilt Trips into Joy Rides, you may develop a calmer, less guilt-ridden lifestyle and become better equipped to function as wives, mothers, and friends. Younger women often develop patters of thinking and experience feelings of guilt that carry over into their mature years, so women of all ages will find this book helpful.

Guilt.  It holds us back, weighs us down and condemns us.  Not only did we not do what we wanted but we should have known better and it is wearing us down and tiring us out.  The authors know about guilt but they also know how to turn our guilt trips around and make them joy rides.  In daily personal stories they give us confessions of taking a wrong turn into guilt but then finding the way out and back into joy. It’s encouraging and uplifting. The stories are short, to the point and bringing a wide range of situations we can all relate to.  I enthusiastically recommend this book.

Shirley, Kim and Janine are sponsoring a great giveaway . See below for info on entering to win gift certificates to Amazon.com and a free life-coaching consultation.

Guilt! She pokes you as you write about your quaint, eccentric aunt. She grabs you as you wander from e-mail to Facebook to laundry instead of focusing on your work. She kicks you as you complain about your husband to a friend.

Have you noticed? Women seem riddled with guilt. And it’s hard to know if guilt is legitimate or simply a product of our imaginations. After all, should we really feel guilty about things over which we have no control?

We are not perfect. We have no control over some things, so it’s no use feeling guilty. We can’t do it all.

To celebrate the release of Turning Guilt Trips into Joy Rides, Shirley, Janine and Kim are giving away some great prizes during the blog tour. Share your own “guilt trip” or “joy tip” and be entered to win a free life coaching consultation and a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate.

JUST CLICK THIS LINK (http://justforfun.friendsoftheheart.us) and share what trips you up, holds you back or any tips you may have for overcoming guilt and keeping your joy. Fill out the quick form at the link and you’ll be entered to win a free life coaching consultation from one of us AND a gift certificate to Amazon.com to use to purchase whatever strikes your fancy!

Contest runs 4/23 – 5/12. Winner announced here on 5/14.

Link to buy the book: bit.ly/HZSBdg  
 About the authors:

Kim Messinger, Janine Boyer and Shirley Brosius had a common bond of Christian service when Christ drew them together for their first small group meeting in January, 1998.

Since then they have drawn closer through life’s joys and struggles and found God to be sufficient for their every need. They call themselves “Friends of the Heart” because their passion is to help women open their hearts and find joy in Christ.

Kim and Janine supported Shirley in writing Sisterhood of Faith: 365 Life-Changing Stories About Women Who Made a Difference, which was released by Howard Publishing, a division of Simon & Schuster, in 2006.  More recently the three women worked together to write another devotional book, Turning Guilt Trips into Joy Rides. They have spoken at women’s retreats and events in five states. All three women live in Millersburg, Pennsylvania. Visit their website for more info.

If you would like to listen to interviews with other authors and professionals please go to www.kingdomhighlights.org where they are available On Demand.

To listen to 24 hours non-stop Christian music please visit our internet radio station http://www.kingdomairwaves.org

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Litfuse Publicity Group..   I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

To See the Sun by Peggy Blann Phifer

April 30, 2012 at 1:53 pm | Posted in Books | 1 Comment
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It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today’s Wild Card author is:
Peggy Blann Phifer
and the book:
To See the Sun
CreateSpace (January 6, 2012)

***Special thanks to
Peggy Blann Phifer for sending me a review copy.***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Peggy Blann Phifer is an author and columnist, whose work has appeared on various Web sites and writer periodicals both in print and online. She is also an avid reader and loves to escape between the covers of a good book. A retired executive assistant, Peg now makes her home in southern Nevada with husband Jim.
To See the Sun is Peg’s debut novel, released January 2012

Visit her blog, Whispers in Purple.
Visit the author’s website.

SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Pregnant and widowed hadn’t been part of her “happily ever after” dream. And now, someone was trying to kill her . . .

Erin Macintyre never expected to be a widow and a new mother in the same year, anymore than she expected mysterious notes, threatening phone calls, and a strange homeless man who seems to know all about her. The thought of raising a child without a father is daunting enough—worse when you have no idea who might want to harm you. Put an old flame into the mix, and her life begins a tailspin into a world she never knew existed.

When P.I. Clay Buchanan, stumbles upon Erin at her husband’s gravesite, he’s totally unprepared for her advanced pregnancy. Her venomous reaction at seeing him, however, was predictable. But Clay can’t let her distrust, or his guilt, get in the way—not when he has evidence that proves Erin’s life is in danger.

With few options left, Erin begrudgingly accepts Clay’s help . . . and it just might be her undoing.

Product Details:

List Price: $12.99

Paperback: 356 pages

Publisher: CreateSpace (January 6, 2012)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1468121081

ISBN-13: 978-1468121087

AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:

Friday, March 26, late afternoon
What a fantastic day. A bid won. A contract signed. The job of a lifetime that would put Stuart and Macintyre at the top of the construction heap, not just in Las Vegas, but all of southern Nevada.
Whistling, Justin Macintyre pressed the keyless remote of his Cadillac Escalade, tossed his briefcase across the console to the passenger seat and slid behind the wheel.
To top it all off, after seven long years, he and his wife, Erin, were going to have a baby. A baby! He laughed aloud at the overwhelming joy of it.
“Hey, world, I’m going to be a daddy!”
He shifted the SUV into gear and pulled out of the Mt. Charleston Lodge area onto Kyle Canyon Road and headed down the mountain to the Las Vegas Valley below. Despite the successful day, Justin couldn’t banish his worry over a recent discovery of some irregularities in the company’s finances. Nothing concrete, and his Uncle Sebastian, S&M’s CFO, assured him everything was fine. Nevertheless, Justin’s uneasiness had prompted him to send what little proof he had to his long-time friend, Clay Buchanan, a private investigator in Texas.
Preoccupied with his thoughts, he vaguely registered the yellow and black blind curve warning sign. Too late he saw the stalled car across the center line. No time to stop! He spun the wheel to the right.
I’m going too fast! God, help me . . .!
###
Seconds passed and silence settled once more over the mountainside. A shadow emerged from behind a Joshua tree and stepped to the edge of the ravine. After a moment, the form walked to the car in the road and drove away.
###
Erin Macintyre stretched her arms along the balcony’s balustrade of her twenty-seventh-floor condo above the streets of Las Vegas. Beyond that, the lower edge of the setting sun kissed the still snowy peaks of the Spring Mountain Range and Mt. Charleston.
Justin would be home soon.
“Erin, where’s the zester?”
Erin returned to the kitchen. “In the utility drawer.”
“Which is the utility drawer?” Magie Gifford, Erin’s dearest friend, pulled out drawer after drawer.
Erin giggled and reached across Magie’s arm and slid out the utility drawer.
“You changed it.” Magie snatched the zester and bumped the drawer shut with her hip. “That’s not where it was last time.”
Erin wrapped her arms around her friend and hugged. “No, Mags, I didn’t change anything.” She waited a beat. “Can I interest you in a memory enhancement program?”
“Very funny.” Magie pushed Erin aside and proceeded to rub a lemon across the gadget and then whisked the zest into a frothy mixture of olive oil, Italian herbs, and balsamic vinegar. “Okay, just drizzle this over the salad and stick it in the fridge.”
That done, Erin checked on the lasagna in the oven. The garlic toast waited on the foil-lined cookie sheet ready to pop under the broiler. Everything was ready.
Erin glanced at the kitchen clock. “He’s late.”
“Posh. You should know by now how those meetings can drag on.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s just—”
“Get over here, Erin. He’ll be here when he gets here.”
Erin joined her friend in the breakfast nook off the kitchen and adjacent to the balcony. She scooped up a dozing Siamese cat from her chair and sat, settling him back on her lap.
“You spoil that critter.” Magie brushed off the chair cushion before sitting.
“Yeah, I do. But you love him, too. I saw you sneaking him some treats earlier.” Erin smiled. “Not to mention the romp you had with him in the living room when you got here.”
“Busted. But he’s so much fun, aren’t you, Kazimir?”
At the sound of his name, the cat uncoiled, left Erin’s lap and jumped onto Magie’s. She snorted. “So much for protecting my black slacks.”
“Thanks for coming over to help with this meal. I wanted it to be special and I never know when the nausea will hit.” She raised an eyebrow. “But you will leave as soon as Justin gets here.”
“You think he’ll get that bid?”
Erin tapped her heart and nodded. “I know he will.”
The first five descending notes of Welcome to My World sang out in the condo’s foyer. Justin! No, he wouldn’t ring the doorbell. Puzzled, she stepped across the tiled floor and rose on tiptoes to peer through the peephole. She gasped and jumped back.
The doorbell chimed again.
Fingers trembling, Erin released the security lock and opened the door to two uniformed police officers.
“Mrs. Macintyre?”
Erin nodded as Magie moved to her side.
“What is it, officers?”
“I’m afraid there’s been an accident, Mrs. Macintyre. Your husband . . .”

Book Review: “Saving Hope” by Margaret Daley

April 29, 2012 at 5:14 pm | Posted in Books | Leave a comment
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Margaret Daley in her new book, “Saving Hope” Book One in The Men of the Texas Rangers Series published by Abingdon Press gives us a contemporary adventure with The Texas Rangers.

From the back cover:  When the people you love are threatened, it’s personal.

When a teenager goes missing from the Beacon of Hope School, Texas Ranger Wyatt Sheridan and school director Kate Winslow are forced into a dangerous struggle against a human trafficking organization. But the battle brings dire consequences as Wyatt’s daughter is terrorized and Kate is kidnapped.

Now it’s personal, and Wyatt finds both his faith and investigative skills challenged as he fights to discover the mastermind behind the ring before evil destroys everyone he loves.

I like stories that involve The Texas Rangers.  It does not matter to me what time period the story takes place in just so that it involves them.  There is a certain personality to this group that captures my attention so when I heard about this series I was very excited.  Let me say this right off, Margaret Daley does not disappoint.    Don’t you just love the title, “Saving Hope”?  The book is about the things we hope for as well as the name of the school.  The story is about child prostitution, those who are in it and those that are trying to get them out of it.  This book is a thriller as the characters are in deadly danger practically from page one.  On top of everything Ms. Daley manages to weave a romance into this story that just captivates you.  She makes you care for all the characters and their journey.   This is also just plain fun and exciting as well.  Don’t start this book late at night because it will cost you sleep.  I look forward to the next book in the series.

If you would like to listen to interviews with other authors and professionals please go to www.kingdomhighlights.org where they are available On Demand.

To listen to 24 hours non-stop, commercial free Christian music please visit our internet radio station www.kingdomairwaves.org

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Abingdon Press.   I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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