Soldier's Wife, Crazy Life

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Favorite Books of 2014

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In case you haven’t noticed. I love to read. I always have. This year I read 39 books. Not my best year since I started tracking. I don’t really have a goal for books but I find the numbers interesting.

Out of the 39 books I read, here is a list of my top 10! My 10 favorite books from the year 🙂

1) The Fault in Our Stars by John Green-I started reading this one way before the movie. I was just going to read a few pages and before I knew it I was almost halfway through. It is a quick read and an interesting story about two teens with cancer who fall in love. Read the book, then see the movie.

2) The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton-I heard about this from another blogger and it sounded really interesting to me. It was the story of best friends who started meeting at the park when their kids were little in the late 60s. It takes place in the Bay Area and I was hooked right away. There is a sequel I still need to read.

3) The Longest Ride– I haven’t read too many of Nicholas Sparks books but I heard good things about this one. The story goes between an older man who is stuck in the snow and a young couple. I hear they are making a movie in 2015 and I hope it turned out to be good. It really is a great story.


4) Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs- I had seen this book before and it looked interesting to me. I started reading it a few weeks ago and it drew me in. It is the story of a 16 year old boy who grew up with a Grandfather who told him the most interesting stories. They always assumed he was making them up until the boy finds out that he really wasn’t. I also finished the 2nd book in the series but liked the first one a lot better.

5) Matched by Ally Condie- I love dystopian fiction. Ever since the Hunger Games I have found other series that are similar and this is one of them. In this world everything is controlled. People are only allowed to list to 100 songs or read from a list of 100 books. They also don’t get to pick who they marry. They are matched. This story is about a girl who gets matched with her best friend. This rarely happens and was a very interesting book. The other two in the series were not quite the same but overall I really enjoy this series.

6) Witches of East End by Melissa De LaCruz- I wanted to read this one once I saw the show. It has most of the same characters as the show but things are very different. It is about a mom and her two daughters that happen to be witches living in a small town called North Hampton.  I am on the waiting list for the next one.

7)Written in my Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon- As a fan of the Outlander series, I couldn’t wait for this book to come out. I was waiting about two years for the book since I finished the last one. This book continues the story of Jamie and Claire as well as their daughter Brianna and her husband Roger.

 

8)Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter- I bought this book because of the cover and took it with me camping. It was a great story about an island near Italy, an American movie star and it takes place in the 1960s as well as present day. I would love to read more by the author in the future.

9) Full Measures– I love it when Military spouses write fiction books. This book is a love story between the daughter of a Military man who is killed in action and a local Hockey star. Their relationship is emotional and enjoyable. It was written by Rebecca Yarros who blogs at The Only Girl Among Boys.

 

10) Wedding Night By Sophie Kinsella- I loved the shopaholic series and as I wait for the next book to come out I decided I wanted to read the author’s other books. Wedding Night is the story about a crushed girl who runs into an old flame and decides to marry him right away. It’s funny and takes them to a romantic island.

What were your favorite books this year?

Navy Seal Noel Book Review by Liz Johnson

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Navy Seal Noel

 

A few years ago I was able to read the book A Promise to Protect by Liz Johnson. I enjoyed that book and was excited to hear about her latest, Navy Seal Noel.

A LETHAL REUNION

Abducted by a drug cartel, scientist Jessalynn McCoy’s orders are simple—release a deadly toxin, or be killed. Trapped with no options, she’s desperate for help…she just never expected it from Will Gumble. The boy who let her down years ago is now a navy SEAL. She trusts his skills, his experience. Yet trusting him is a struggle. Will’s Christmas wish is to heal their damaged relationship and get them to safety. But time is running out and the danger is rising. Any mistake could mean the difference between spending the holidays together or apart forever.

Excerpt:

          “Jess, calm down. I won’t hurt you.” The words made no sense to her muddled brain, but they continued, quiet and assured. “Don’t scream. It’s all right. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

          It wasn’t the words that made her sink into him, but the voice that, even after all this time, she’d recognize anywhere. Her eyes hadn’t been playing tricks on her that afternoon. Will Gumble was in this compound. In her very room.

          “I thought I saw you—I thought that was you, but…” Her words were little more than a whisper despite his assurance that it was safe to speak. Her stomach pitched, fear and relief mingling with alarm and the echo of a remembered betrayal. But dealing with her emotions would have to wait until she felt steadier on her feet. Exhaustion and the ebbing of her fight-or-flight adrenaline rush had left her legs like jelly. She leaned into Will. He held out his arms, as though he knew just what she needed. As though he was still someone who cared about taking care of her, being there for her.

          But she didn’t want him holding her. She wanted answers. She wanted to understand what on earth was happening. Most of all, she wanted to silence the little voice in her head that kept saying Will’s appearance was simply a dream or hallucination.

          Yanking herself upright at the last possible moment, she shoved his chest with both hands. “You scared me to death! Why did you break into my room? What are you doing here?”

          His lopsided grin had always started with a little quirk to the left before spreading across his mouth. And that hadn’t changed, even as he looked down at the tiny black-and-white-checkered floor tiles.

          He scraped his fingers over the black whiskers covering his chin. “Your dad sent me.”

          “My dad?”

          “Well, I couldn’t say no to my new XO, could I?”

          “So you’re still in the navy?” Oh, she sounded bitter—so much more bitter than she wanted to. Why couldn’t her words be flippant and nonchalant, as if it didn’t really matter that she no longer knew even the most basic things about him? He’d popped back into her life, and she didn’t want it to matter.

          But it did.

          Maybe because of the extreme situation.

          Sure. She’d just keep telling herself that.

          His smile flickered for a moment before he nodded slowly. “I am.”

          Forcing a chuckle, she said, “I figured when my dad realized I was missing, he’d send a SEAL team to bring me home.”

          “Not a full team—he just sent one.”

My thoughts: I am a big fan of books that are in a series. Sometimes that means that each book is about the same people and other times it means that the book includes the same people but changes who the main story is about. This is the case with the Men of Valor series in which Navy Seal Noel is book three. In previous books we got to hear the stories of Ashley and Matt and then Staci and Tristan. This one is about Jess and Will whom we have seen bits of before. I loved the fact that Jess was a scientist and that they came from San Diego. I wasn’t sure how this story was going to turn out. I knew somehow Will would save Jess but it was exciting waiting to find out how that was going to happen. If you like romantic suspense, you will like this book.

About the author:

unnamed (1)By day Liz Johnson is a marketing manager for a Christian publisher. She finds time to write late at night and is a two-time ACFW Carol Award finalist. Liz makes her home in Nashville, TN, where she enjoys theater, exploring local music, and making frequent trips to Arizona to dote on her nieces and nephews. She loves stories of true love with happy endings and shares about her adventures in writing at Facebook.com/LizJohnsonBooks and Twitter.com/LizJohnsonBooks.

 

 

Links to retailers carrying the book:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

CBD

Book Depository

 

I was provided a free copy of the book for review.

5 Reasons Why E-Readers Are Better Than Traditional Books

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This post does contain affiliate links. 

I bought my first E-reader in 2010 and I fell in love with it. I am one of those people who is always reading a lot of books at once. It is a pain to carry them everywhere so the Kindle made so much sense.

Years later I still love my Kindle but have recently tried to read more traditional books as well. I had missed them.

I think there are benefits to both and I talked about why traditional books are better than E-readers in my latest post. This post is about why E-Readers are best and why I like them so much.

I read on a Kindle Paperwhite and I know some can read their e-books on an ipad or other type of tablet or phone, I only prefer the E-ink ones. They are closer to reading like a traditional book and don’t hurt my eyes.

1) The space factor. I love my books and filling bookshelves but there is only so much space. I like that I can carry so many books in one place. This is especially good for me as I tend to jump from book to book until one of them really draws me in. It is also super handy for travel because I don’t have to worry about packing too many books which I always used to do in the past.

2) You can get books instantly. When I have been in the middle of a book series and end one of the books at 11pm on a Friday night, I can get the next book right away if I want to. No waiting until I can get to the store. It is so nice. It was one of the things that drew me to E-readers in the first place.

3) I don’t have to remember to return library books. When you borrow e-books from the library, they expire and that is how you return them. If our town had more libraries, it wouldn’t be as big of a deal for me but we only have one and it is on the other side of town. And I have it set up that if I am on a waiting list and the book becomes available, it automatically goes to my account.

4) Reading at the gym. I always bring my Kindle with me because it is so much easier to read that way then a more traditional book. I am sure there are other places where this is true too. It is nice because reading makes my workout time go by a little bit faster.

5) I can easily read at night. Before I got the Paperwhite I bought a cool little light that attached to my Kindle. Now with the one I have I can read in the dark without any issue. This is one of my favorite features because I like to read in bed at night and I don’t want to keep my husband awake when I do it. I also like knowing how much time I have left in a chapter. I am not sure why, but it is a cool feature that I just don’t have with a traditional book.

 

What about how? How do you like to get your reading done?

 

5 Reasons Why Traditional Books Are Better Than E-Readers

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E-readersThis post does contain affiliate links. 

In case you are new here, I love books, I love to read and I always have. In 2010 I got my first Kindle and I fell in love with it. I loved that I could have so many books all in one place. Over the years I have upgraded and have been using the Kindle Paperwhite for almost a few years now. I love that thing I really do. I get books from the local library and every once in a while I might buy one if the price is right.

That being said, there is something about a traditional book that you just can’t get with a Kindle. I have been thinking about this a lot lately and I decide I wanted to go back to reading more traditional books. I still have my Kindle, I will still read on it but I am going to try hard to pick up more traditional books because, I have missed them.

Here are 5 reasons why traditional books are better than E-Readers. And before you call me an E-book hater, I am not. I actually plan to write a post about why they are better than traditional books. I love both equally but for different reasons.

1) The feel. There is just something about holding a book in your hand you don’t get with a Kindle. Maybe it is the thickness or just the way it sits. It is just nice to hold a real book in your hand.

2) The smell. Kindles don’t smell like old books. That smell. The one you encounter in a used book store. The one you encounter in a regular book store. There is nothing like it. It is like roses to a book-worm like me.

3) Thrift stores and garage sales. One thing I loved to do in my pre-Kindle days was look for used books at thrift stores and garage sales. Finding a book for a quarter or even just a couple of bucks was exciting. Especially if it was one on my to-read list. I really started to miss that when I was reading almost everything on the Kindle.

4) The covers. I picked up Beautiful Ruins this summer because of the cover. I just had to have it. I couldn’t help it. It turned out to be a great book too. I like walking around at bookstores and looking into different books because of their covers. Although you can pick out some pretty neat Kindle covers, it just isn’t the same.

5) Resale value. I used to sell my used books all the time. I only kept the really good ones. You can’t do that with E-books. It is nice to get a little bit of money back for new books when you are done reading them. I would like to go back to that as I start reading and collecting more traditional books again.

What about you? What is your reading choice? Do you like both methods or are you firmly in one book camp over the other?