Book Reviews

Book Review—Volition

May 13, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

About the Book

Book: Volition
Author: Chautona Havig
Genre: Christian fiction, futuristic
Release Date: December 31, 2019

“I should have made that left turn at Tucumcari.”

It’s Doctor Who meets mail-order brides when “rescuers” from the future arrive to save Andi Flanders from a happy life with her loving family and fiancé.

Okay, so they meant to get her suicidal roommate, but hey. Mistakes happen, right?

And as far as Andi’s concerned, they can fix them—by sending her home.

However, when she learns what happens when she disappears from home, Andi has an impossible choice. Stay in the government-controlled futuristic world she despises and never see her family again or return to the twenty-first century and doom an innocent person to death.

Volition— Life and death decisions are so overrated.

My Thoughts:

I actually posted a review of Volition on my blog already, a day or so after it published. You can read my review here. So, why did I sign up for the tour? Simple—if I helped Chautona out by promoting her book again, she would send a copy of it to my mom! I really enjoyed the book, and I love helping Chautona out, so here we are. And I hope my mom doesn’t mind my saying it, but I hear that she told my daughter that she had to exercise great self-discipline the day that Volition arrived in the mail! I know what she means—that’s the way I am with a new book by this author! So, if you enjoy futuristic sci-fi, check out this book! Or, even if you don’t. I don’t like time travel, and I don’t like sci-fi, and this book is both—but I couldn’t put it down. And now, with the way things have happened in the last couple of months, with the COVID 19 pandemic and governments seemingly using it as an excuse to establish a police state, Volition sounds quite plausible.

I received a free copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it. Also, links in this post are likely affiliate links.

About the Author:

Chautona Havig lives in an oxymoron, escapes into imaginary worlds that look startlingly similar to ours and writes the stories that emerge. An irrepressible optimist, Chautona sees everything through a kaleidoscope of It’s a Wonderful Life sprinkled with fairy tales. Find her at chautona.com and say howdy—if you can remember how to spell her name.

More From Chautona:

What Happens When You Explore Logical Progressions?

She used chopsticks. Me? I’m a fork kind of gal. But over plates of sesame chicken and fried rice, we hashed out what our NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) books would be. Every year, I challenged myself. Once by writing drippy romance (Discovering Hope). Once by turning a sermon into a story that wasn’t preachy (Argosy Junction). (psst… links are affiliate links—they provide a small commission at no extra expense to you!)

This time, I’d decided the challenge would include writing in the first person. Anyone who knows me knows how much I don’t like the first-person perspective. As we tried to figure out what our plots would be, my friend added another challenge. “Do science fiction.”

I’ll be honest. I almost laughed her out of the restaurant. But then an idea hit me. Why shouldn’t I? I could kill two dislikes in one book. Bam! Done!

That kicked off a book I probably never would have written otherwise.

I knew doing major techno-science stuff wouldn’t be conducive to trying to write 50,000 words in thirty days, so I immediately chose futuristic over space travel. The decision to go with a form of time travel was probably inspired by Doctor Who, now that I think of it. I didn’t back then. I just went with what I thought I might be able to make interesting—to write, if not to read.

That kicked off an idea that sent my brain spinning.

What would happen if you got kidnapped and taken to the future, but returning to your former life means someone’s soul will never be redeemed?

Of course, it would take a really strong, amazing character to pull off that kind of thing. Not everyone could do it. But who… who give up her life for someone else?

That’s when I knew. That soul saved would have to belong to someone my character didn’t even like. Gotta raise the stakes, you know?

That’s also when I discovered that I wouldn’t like her—not at first.

Andi Flanders jumped onto the page with hands on hips and eyes flashing. She was livid that people in the future had interfered with her life. Then she’s broken when she realizes she can’t go back.

Fiercely independent, Andi enters futuristic Rockland with a critical eye and condemning spirit. Since most sci-fi stuff I’ve seen focuses on sleek, pristine futures full of glass and steel, I wanted to go a different direction. But how?

That’s when my solution came to me.

I’d take today’s world and push everything to logical exaggerated conclusions.

Environmentalism? We’ll have a world that tries not to encroach on nature any more than necessary
Population? I took China’s “one child” policy and made it worldwide… and then let the future deal with the fallout.
Globalism? I let them have their one-world government that protects everyone from themselves.
Apathetic faith? I didn’t persecute Christians. I just let their faith die a slow, natural death.

And then I threw in a character with a love for Jesus and a minor obsession with Ayn Rand’s objectivism. Yes, I’m aware that those two things can be mutually exclusive. That was the fun of it.

This Rand-spouting, Jesus loving, freckle-faced, fiery redhead had to deal with all if this stuff in a world as opposite from her freedom-loving self as can stand.

Ninety-thousand words later, I was done. And then I shelved the book.

For ten years.

On December 27, 2019, I got a message from my son.

He’d found a book cover design contest and wondered if he should enter. And if so, with what book? We hashed out ideas when I remembered Volition. It wasn’t edited. Done, but not edited. Could I possibly get the whole thing cleaned up before December 31 rolled over into January 1?

I decided to try.

Nolan got to work on a cover while I began editing like nobody’s business.

With the help of my amazing launch team, an incredible editor, and no sleep, the book was live on New Year’s Eve with three hours to spare.

Then my son decided not to worry about entering this year.

He lives. This is a testimony to God’s grace and control over my life. And my hands.

Or maybe it’s because he lives three hours south of me, and I’ve only seen him once since then. You don’t kill your son at your daughter’s wedding reception. Just sayin’.

But let’s go with the first reason. It makes me sound more spiritual or something.

To purchase your copy, click here.

To visit more of the blog stops on this tour, click here.

To enter a fun giveaway, click here.

Product Review—Beyond the Stick Figure Art School

May 12, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in
exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I
compensated in any other way.

I have a son, Mr. Imagination, who loves to draw and wants to learn more about art. When we were offered the opportunity to use the Beyond the Stick Figure Complete Drawing Course Plus 3 Bonus Courses from Beyond the Stick Figure Art School, he was very enthusiastic. This sounded perfect—a step-by-step, incremental guide to art.

Mr. Imagination and Little Miss working on an art project.

The first several lessons went very well; both he (age 8) and Little Miss (age 5) loved doing the projects, and even Mr. Sweetie (age 10) joined us. We learned about circles and dots, and curved lines and straight lines, and practiced looking for these in objects around the house. We drew circles on paper, and made pages of bubbles, then colored them in with markers. We drew designs with each of the other components of pictures, too, and colored pretty designs. Then, we started drawing flowers. I really liked the projects where we drew a flower in the foreground and then more behind it! I have never considered myself an artist, but I could do that!

As we moved on, however, my little ones got bogged down in the repetition. We ended up skipping a large section of lessons so that I could see what the rest of the course was like, in order to tell you in this review, and found a project that they liked better. We got to draw hills, cover the nearest one with grass, and paint the picture with a watercolor wash. Everyone enjoyed that! Unfortunately, because of the lockdown due to COVID 19, we did not have proper watercolor paper. We had to use printer paper, because that’s all we have (we were not able to get more because it’s nonessential), and it doesn’t work well with watercolors.

We also were not able to get the markers that are recommended. I think if we had been able to, the earlier projects would have been much more satisfying. She recommends Prismacolor markers, and they aren’t sold in this country anywhere that I could find, even without lockdown, so I bought the only ones I could find. They were washable, which means the color ran and mixed in ways we didn’t want it to. If you want to use this course, try to find the proper markers (if you live in America, they are on Amazon—shipping is much too high for me to be able to get them that way here).

Anyway, back to the course. The next section, which we haven’t done anything with yet, is about watercolor painting. It looks fun! Even though my little ones are tired of this course, because of the constant repetition, I think I can interest them in the painting part of it. I watched a few of the instructional videos, and in them she was teaching how to create different tones of paint. Once we are able to get watercolor paper, I want to try this. As with all the other lessons, these techniques are taught baby step by baby step.

Further lessons cover acrylic painting and sculpture. I don’t know if we’ll ever get to those lessons. They sound interesting; it’s just that Mr. Imagination feels pretty bored with the lessons we have done. I feel like this course, although it is simple enough for young children to do, would be better for older ones who can understand the need for repetition.

All the lessons are presented as 1-10 minute videos, with the instructor, who happens to be a homeschooling mother herself, talking through what she is doing and wants her students to be doing. She has a lovely British accent (and I can now tell the difference between British and Kiwi!). We did have some issues with the videos. The worst simply had to do with our computer. These videos are from Vimeo, and my computer often freezes when I play Vimeo videos. We had to do a lot of reloading to make them work. Also, the sound is very quiet on some of them, and even with our speakers plugged in, we had to strain to hear her talking. Here is a picture of our dashboard. It is very easy to move from one lesson to the next, although we have to mark each one complete in order to move on. It’s extremely easy to go back to a previously completed lesson!If you have a child interested in art, this might be something to look into. It certainly is easy to use; just watch a video to see what materials you will need for a given section, then move on and watch each instructional video and follow directions. Click the image below to read what 80 different families have to say about this course.

Beyond the Stick Figure Complete Drawing Course {Beyond the Stick Figure Art School}

Book Review—Oh, Gracious!

May 7, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

About the Book

Book: Oh, Gracious!
Author: Chautona Havig
Genre: Christian fiction, contemporary Romance, woman’s fiction
Release Date: March 31, 2020

Life is too short to settle for just anyone.
Grace gave her whole heart to Jesus, but now he wants a part of it.

All she ever wanted was to be a homemaker.

Sure, she has a degree in physics. Yes, she could have a lucrative job in Rockland, but Grace Buscher enjoys her life as a single homemaker. As they say, it’s her choice.

As a successful business owner, a handsome guy, and heir to a small fortune, it’s no wonder Nolan Burke is one of Rockland’s most eligible bachelors. The problem is, he hasn’t met anyone who isn’t looking for a “trophy husband.”

Don’t family-centered women exist anymore?

Grace isn’t exactly eye candy. Nolan is a bit blind. So when an “accidental meeting” forges an unlikely friendship, it becomes obvious to everyone that it’s likely to become more.

But is Grace ready to give up the life she loves for the man she loves?

Find out in this completely updated, revised, and improved version of Chautona Havig’s first novel, Noble Pursuits.

My Thoughts:

One of the few books by Chautona Havig that I hadn’t yet read was Noble Pursuits. I believe it was the first book she published, and she has just now finished rewriting it as Oh, Gracious! I enjoyed reading it as she finished sections—I could hardly wait for the next installment to come along. Now, the entire book is available for your enjoyment and inspiration.

Nolan was fed up with women flirting with him and doing their best to get him to take them out—but yet he wanted to get married. He wanted a godly woman who wanted to be a homemaker; was such a person in existence anywhere near Rockland? Did he really have to move to a different area in order to find her?

Grace canned fruit to sell to friends, babysat children, and made handcrafts for her living. She had a degree in physics—but she wanted to be a homemaker. For a year now, she had proved that she could stay at home and make a living for herself, even if money was tight at times. She had given her whole heart to Jesus, she loved her life, and she wasn’t interested in changing.

And then, Nolan moved into the house across the road from Grace and they met in a rather dramatic way. Nolan was intrigued by this woman who seemed to be everything he wanted in a woman, and who wasn’t throwing herself at him. Could she learn to share her heart with a man, when Jesus already had all of it?

I love this story! It is delightfully sweet, but not mushy. I loved Grace; her focus on doing traditional woman’s work is something I really like. Her heart for God is wonderful to see, as well. Nolan was a great hero, too. He was loving, strong and sensitive—and real. There were times when both of them lost their cool, and then we got to see them calm down and make things right. I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys Christian women’s fiction.

I received a free copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it. Also, links in this post are likely affiliate links, and anything purchased through the link will benefit Esther’s website.

About the Author:

More From Chautona:

Wow, My Beloved First Book Was a Hot Mess

On my blog, I sometimes answer readers’ questions, and one of the earliest ones was, “Since you zip out your books so fast, do you ever later wish you had done something differently with them?”

My answer today is the same as back then—usually. No. Yes, I sometimes regret not being able to tell a supporting character’s story because the book has given away that person’s past and/or future. Still, most of the time, I tell the story as I want it.

But in that post about “regrets,” I said that as I learn, I definitely wish to improve sentences here, and others there. I did this already with Argosy Junction, the second book that I published. The first two or three books were experiments where I made many serious mistakes. Took bad advice. Didn’t know the right things to research. All the mistake-ness.

Total transparency here. I chose Argosy Junction to revise first because I made fewer mistakes on it. Still lots, but not as many as my first book, Noble Pursuits.

Bad editing advice, horrible cover design (twice), and just basic writing craft stuff that I didn’t know when I started this whole journey all culminated in a book I both loved (the story) and hated (the final result). Many reviewers said the same thing, too. That poor book has the worst reviews of all of my books combined.

And for good reason.

But it’s a good story—one I love, as I said—and it has some strong fans. Some readers were able to look past the problems and see the heart of what I tried to do with it. And that was a beautiful thing. Those readers, actually, are the ones I’ve rewritten this book for.

Yes, I rewrote Noble Pursuits. While every sentence isn’t completely rewritten, enough are that I considered it a new book, not just a revised one.

A few readers have panicked to see the title changed, the story rewritten. They’ve asked if I took out this or even that. I took out and added nothing that 99.9% of readers would ever notice. And it’s a better book for it.

I am updating the original Noble Pursuits file with the new text. I’m doing this in hopes that those who already own that book can go into their digital content on Amazon and get the updated version. I don’t know if it will work, but I pray it does.

Meanwhile, for those who’ve asked why they can’t buy the first book on my Suggested Reading Order list, well… now you can!

Oh, Gracious! has been a long time coming, but she’s here with a new title, rewritten content, and even a lovely new cover by the brilliantly talented Perry Elizabeth. It took what seems like forever to settle on a title, but we finally did. Why we chose Oh, Gracious! however, is a story for another day.

To purchase your copy, click here.

To visit more of the blog stops on this tour, click here.

To enter a fun giveaway, click here.

Product Review—Everyday Education, LLC

May 6, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I don’t know about anyone else, but it seems like writing, and penmanship in general, are very difficult to teach to boys. They just aren’t interested! I struggle to get them to write at all, let alone legibly. Therefore, I was somewhat interested in using Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting ebook from Everyday Education, LLC. The premise sounded great—a simple method for teaching beautiful handwriting, and good reading. I thought I would use it to supplement the Language Arts program we’re using with the boys, and get a start on teaching Little Miss to read and write with it.

When I received the ebook, I was quite interested in reading the introductory pages. The history of our current type of cursive handwriting was fascinating, and I like the premise of this book, which is to simplify writing so that everyone can have beautiful handwriting. I believe the book would work to teach a child to read, as well, assuming the child had no learning disabilities and the mother had enough time to spend with them doing the lessons. For me, unfortunately, it didn’t work well.

I did not end up using this course as a supplement for my boys. This book teaches Italic writing, which is beautiful and simple, but they had already learned the normal cursive. Therefore, I felt like it would be too confusing for them to try to relearn everything. I did use it for Little Miss, to work on letter formation. She loved doing several pages of the letters, and did very well at learning the sounds. Each letter is given a picture of a word that begins with that sound—like A is apple, E is elephant, I is igloo, etc. We didn’t get beyond writing letters, though. The program doesn’t start putting letters together into words until all the letters have been learned. Then, it introduces short vowel words, consonant blends, compound words and plural words. It then moves on to vowel-R words and vowel teams. Each of these lessons has a list of words to learn to read, and then several sentences using the words. Each of the sentences is printed with blank lines under the words for practice writing. This is one of the strengths I see in this book, that the child is expected to write directly below the example, which makes it easy to follow the model.

After thoroughly learning the shapes of the letters, children are introduced to joining them. With the Italic system, most of the letters are actually not joined, as in most cursive systems. I found that quite interesting.

In summary, this book was not a good fit for our family at this time, both because I have already taught my boys to write cursive with a different system and because of the dyslexia that runs in our family. In the introduction, this book states that everyone will be able to read well by going through this system, but I know from experience that some people will not be able to—at least not with someone like me teaching them. I tried systems like this with my older boys and utterly failed, although I’m sure some people would have done well with it. This book would work well to teach most children to read and write, however, and if I didn’t already have a course on hand to use with Little Miss I would give this one a try. Take a look at it and see what you think!

Fifty families have been using Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting over the past month and a half; see what they have to say about it by clicking the image below!

Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting ebook {Everyday Education, LLC Reviews}

Book Review—One Rich Girl

April 27, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I was rather excited when I heard that Gwenda Smithies had written a book about her life. I met her several years ago at a meeting, and although I have not visited very much with her, I have greatly admired her. I’ve actually had more to do with her children than with her, and also talked to her mother awhile back. I was delighted to be given a copy of her book, One Rich Girl, to read.

Gwenda tells the story of her life from a third-person point of view, in a matter-of-fact way. She grew up in Nelson, and moved to Christchurch for University. There, she eventually met the man she would marry. They went on to have twelve beautiful children! Gwenda tells many stories about raising her children (the youngest of whom is only a couple of years old right now). Her joy in her family is very inspiring. I really loved reading about her experiences as the children came along.

Gwenda’s faith is also inspiring. I appreciated the way she shared about her walk with God and how He worked in her life. God’s provision for the Smithies family’s needs is also amazing—I loved the way He gave them a dishwasher when they needed one. Gwenda’s challenge with forgiveness at one point stood out to me, as well.

This is a great book to read if you enjoy stories of mothers and their children. Read this book to be encouraged to love your husband and to love your children, and to find joy in the little everyday things in life. It will also encourage you in your prayer life. I would have liked this book very much even if I didn’t know the author personally, but since I do, that adds another dimension, of course.

I received a free copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it.

Buy your copy of the book here.

Book Review—Not If, But When

April 23, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

As a mother of several boys, I am always happy to find a product that will help in teaching them godliness in their personal lives.

When I saw the book Not If, But When being offered for review by the publisher, Christian Focus, and read the description, I was immediately interested. The subtitle, Preparing Our Children for Wordly Images, really only hints at the content of this book; I was glad that there were some sample pages on the publisher’s website. Looking at those helped me make the decision to request the book, and I’m glad I did. I read this book aloud to all five of my boys yesterday afternoon when the rain kept us all inside, and then talked about it with them during and after the reading.

This book contains two stories, one each for girls and boys. Since my girls are not within the age range for this book, I didn’t read the part for girls very closely. It is very similar to the one for boys. The story begins with a child coming home from a day at the waterpark with his/her class, and coming to a parent with questions about his/her friends talking about s-xual things. The child also had a friend show them some pornography pictures on a phone that day. As the parent discusses these occurences with the child, God’s design for s-x is discussed; God designed it and it is a very good thing—in the right context and timing. During the discussion about the pictures shown, the parent talks about how that type of picture objectifies and disrespects people that God made, and about how viewing it becomes an addiction. The child compares this to an addiction to coffee, which made my boys chuckle! Each short chapter has a scripture passage to read, and some thoughts to help focus the study.

The book is a high-quality hardcover with thick, glossy pages. It is beautifully illustrated with somewhat stylized pictures of children and homes, for the most part. The pictures actually have little or nothing to do with the subject matter of the book. My 5-year-old girl loves looking at the pictures, and because she can’t read, I don’t mind her browsing through it.

I asked each of my three teenage boys what they thought of this book and how it made them feel. One, especially, felt like it was helpful to him. He has struggled some in this area and appreciated the encouragement to keep his thoughts pure. The other two didn’t feel like they needed it so much. One of them thought it would have been a good book for him to read at about age 13. They all agreed that the way the topic of s-x was discussed in this book was pure, and helpful as a reminder to keep their thoughts pure. Because none of our boys has any close friends who have their own phones, they haven’t been faced with a situation like what was described in the story, so they couldn’t really identify with that part of the book. I am hoping that if such a situation arises, having heard this story will help my younger ones know how to handle it. Reading the book together gave an opportunity to discuss strategies to cope with such a situation; the publisher recommends this book for ages 7-11, with a parent reading it with them.

I am thankful to have had the chance to read this book, and plan to go through it again in a couple of years with my younger children. In the world in which we live today, it is truly a case of Not If, But When.

***The publisher accidentally sent me two copies of this book, and I have permission to give the extra one away. If you live in New Zealand, and would like your own copy of this book, let me know and I’ll mail it to you. If more than one person requests it, I will draw a name.***

Fifty-three families have read three different books from Christian Focus. Click the image below to read their reviews!

Psalms for my Day, 30 Prophecies: One Story & Not If, But When {Christian Focus Reviews}

Product Review—Home School in the Woods

March 26, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Last month, we were offered the opportunity to use and review a product from Home School in the Woods. We really enjoyed doing a history study from them six or eight months ago, and the children were fairly enthusiastic about doing another project now. I gave Mr. Sweetie, Mr. Imagination, and Little Miss the choice of two Lap-Paks, one about Knights and one about Benjamin Franklin. They decided they would like to do the Knights K-2 Lap-Pak, so that’s the one we requested. We’ve been working on the projects in it ever since receiving our download. We haven’t quite finished, but almost. We put the lapbook together yesterday, and got a start on coloring the picture for the cover.

There are 12 different little projects to do for the lap book. Each one gives more information about knights. The first project talks about the feudal system in general and how it was organized. There were also projects about the knights’ armor and weapons, and how a king knighted a man (that one was very fun!).

Each project required printing from one to five pages, each on its own PDF, on either white or colored paper or cardstock. I was thankful to have a supply of these on hand from the last time we did a similar-style study! Each project was a little different. Most of the projects have some sort of flaps to lift in order to read information underneath, and a couple of them have several small pages stapled together. One project involved drawing a coat of arms for yourself or your family. Mr. Sweetie remembered seeing a coat of arms that related to our family in a book we have about the Middle Ages, so he based his on that—fun! Two of the projects used paper fasteners to make moving parts, and another has a little “puppet” to show a tournament happening.

This project is a really fun supplement to a study of the Middle Ages. It was something different to do in our school days. We learned a fair amount about knights, and in such a way that the children will remember what we learned. They did get pretty tired of coloring pictures by the end; there is a lot of coloring involved. I had them work on coloring while we read aloud, and that helped. This project was good for developing fine motor skills, and, as one of my boys learned the hard way, it is good for learning to follow directions! I had to reprint one or two projects because they weren’t done correctly.

Pros—fun way to learn
easy way to do a little art
very little preparation time required
all printing is black and white, with one page per PDF
Cons—lots of coloring, which my boys struggle with
quite a few pages to print

Will we do more of these projects if they are offered to us? Yes, indeed! We would love to do the Benjamin Franklin lapbook next! Would I buy one? Yes, to use as a supplement to a study we’re doing. These projects are well-thought-out and easy to work into our school days. And by the way, if you’re interested in how the elections work in the United States, this publisher has a Lap-Pak about them. Check out this page if you want to know more about it. Also, if you are curious about lapbooks, I found a very informative blog post about them, here. Click on the link below to see what 79 other families experienced with various products from Home School in the Woods!

Home School in the Woods Collections - Lap-pak, Timeline Figures, History Studies & Activity-Pak {Home School in the Woods Reviews}

Book Review—Byrd’s Eye View

March 25, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

About the Book

Book: Bird’s Eye View
Author: Chautona Havig
Genre: Fiction / Christian / Historical / Mystery
Release Date: February 18, 2020

If everything looks so perfect, how does she know it’s all wrong?

Madeline just wanted to learn to develop her own pictures. It seemed an innocent enough pastime until she sees something in the developer’s tray that piques her meddlesome curiosity.

Now she’s on the hunt for clues to spare a man’s life, and she might just land her father in hot political waters while she’s at it.

The fifth book in the Meddlin’ Madeline Series, Byrd’s Eye View sees Madeline back at home in Rockland and determined to stay out of trouble, although that’s not likely to happen, is it?

My Thoughts:

I have been enjoying the Meddlin’ Madeline books ever since the first one was written four years ago. These historical novels are such fun mysteries! I really appreciate the work this author goes to to make sure the books are historically accurate, and she weaves a great story.

Byrd’s Eye View isn’t finished yet, as you can see by reading the guest post here. I have read the first nine chapters, though, and can tell you that this book will be great—I’m really looking forward to reading the rest of it! You can preorder your copy now, and if you enjoy historical mystery stories with a Christian worldview, you will like this book. Don’t break into the middle of the series, though; start at the beginning with Sweet on You. You can find my review of it here, and I have also reviewed Such a Tease, Fine Print, and Dead Letter.

I received a free copy of this book from Celebrate Lit, and these are my honest thoughts about it.

About the Author:

Chautona Havig lives in an oxymoron, escapes into imaginary worlds that look startlingly similar to ours and writes the stories that emerge. An irrepressible optimist, Chautona sees everything through a kaleidoscope of It’s a Wonderful Life sprinkled with fairy tales. Find her on the web and say howdy—if you can remember how to spell her name.

More From Chautona:

It’s Like This Book Didn’t Want to Be!

It’s an hour and a half from my mother’s old house in Missouri to the Springfield airport—a perfect distance for plotting out a book. So, when I had to drive back to swap out rental cars, I decided to work on the early 2020 books. Up first… Madeline #5.

Often when I’m plotting out a new book, the first few minutes are kind of jumbled messes as I consider this plot point or that and get into a work flow, and that day was no exception. However, by the time I hit the interstate again, I’d done it. Madeline would learn how to develop pictures in this one. The plot would revolve around that new skill.

By the time I hit Noel, I’d really come up with a cool book idea. I was so excited. You have no idea. Then, as I passed Noel on my way to the hospital in Gravette, Arkansas, I stopped on the side of the road so I cold turn off the voice recorder and start working on another book.

The recorder was off. All my “brilliant ideas” were gone.

Sometimes, I wish I was a crier. It would have been appropriate right there. Just sayin’.

Determined to record the ideas all over again before I forgot them, I started the first few things, watching the recorder bars rise and fall with the inflection of my voice. It worked great.

The only problem was I couldn’t remember anything I’d come up with. Photography. That was it.

That’s when I called my friend and wailed.

Look, it had been a hard couple of weeks, a rough day, and now this. But, complaining about it offered enough catharsis that by the time I went back to Springfield the next week, I was able to record most of it again. Some of it was actually better.

Little hint: it usually is the second or third round of ideas.

By the time I’d finished, I knew what happened and what havoc it would cause, but not to whom or why. Enter Clark.

You know, the guy who made me split the first book into two separate books (you can read about that HERE), and the guy who tried to make things get really gruesome in book four (you can read about that HERE—halfway down the pageish—and be assured that I didn’t do it).

So, just as I was getting into Byrd’s Eye View, Clark and I met up at Denny’s to figure out how to make all the elements I had work.

My one issue became another one. Why became totally different from anything I’d considered. Who became a great reason for it to make things tough on Madeline’s father, and a previous thing I’d thought was a bit excessive became more so… and more believable at the same time. How cool is that?

There was still one problem, though.

I wasn’t done with the book I needed to finish before I could immerse myself in this one.

And this book needed to be done yesterday.

Look, I had actually considered not doing this book until later in the year. For a few minutes, I wished that I had. But Madeline always comes out in February/March and I’d kind of like to keep it that way. So…

Despite losing my notes, having plotter’s block, having Clark upset everything I’d planned and making it better… again. It’s here. And I think it’s my favorite one yet. Who am I kidding? Of course it is!

To purchase your copy, click here.

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To enter a fun giveaway, click here.

Book Review—Why Can’t We Trust God?

March 11, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Book: Why Can’t We Trust God?
Author: Thomas Wise
Genre: Non-Fiction/Personal Growth
Release Date: January 17, 2020

So you think God turned his back on us?

Why else would this world be so miserable?

While this world is spinning out of control, we are left with the tough questions:

Why is this happening to me?

Why won’t God stop this?

Why am I in pain?

Why did my child die?

Why do they hate me?

WHY CAN’T WE TRUST GOD?

Well, at the time my wife and I were suffering financially due to her loss of a good job. We wondered how we would pay our bills but chose to continue to trust in God as we paid our tithe and held our breath, hoping my income would cover our bills each month. We prayed for relief but never expected the answer would include the total destruction of everything we owned. The tornado crashed through the town, causing death and destruction to everything in its path.

After the grief subsided at the loss of life suffered by our neighbors, we came to realize that we also lost all of our debts and the decay of the older home we owned. We received so much more than we lost.

NOTE: I WAS GIVEN A COPY OF THIS BOOK BY THE AUTHOR. ALL OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE MY OWN. LINKS IN THIS POST MAY BE AFFILIATE LINKS

My Thoughts:

I struggled to read this book. That was not because it wasn’t worth reading, but because I have a hard time reading theological books like this. It was a very worthwhile book, but I found it hard to keep focused. I also struggled at times to tell how the content related to the title. However, it was a very inspiring book, and short enough that I read it through twice to get more out of it. Some of the things that stood out to me were that we cannot love until we can truly trust. Children trust anyone who loves them first. Even though this world is filled with things that seem bad (sickness, sorrow, death), God is Lord over all things and will make us conquerors. The story the author told from his own life to illustrate this point made me cry, but I have experienced almost exactly what he did—and found God faithful to use painful, hard experiences for good. As the author experienced, this made me, too, more able to trust God.

About the Author:

Tom and Nancy Wise are award-winning authors. Their first novel, The Borealis Genome, is the grand-prize winner of the Chanticleer Book Reviews Dante Rossetti 2013 Award for YA Novels and 2014 Cygnus Award Lab Lit Category.

Thomas grew up in a military family moving from base to base as the child of a Marine, living the life of an officer’s brat in times of war while Nancy was raised the youngest child of a WWII veteran. When not working together on their novels, Tom teaches at University and authors articles on project management topics and nonfiction books published by Gower Publishing in the UK.

More from Tom:

“Why Can’t We Trust God?” reflects my struggle with the purpose of suffering. I identify with Jacob, wrestling with God, holding on to my pain and anger, determined to find God’s blessing in compensation for a life that didn’t seem to meet my expectations. I dug my feet in, refusing to be moved, and I was determined to find some confirmation of why life hurts, why I suffer from failure, health, setbacks, and the meaning of life.

“Why Can’t We Trust God?” published by Zion Press, a CrossLink Publishing imprint, describes my exploration of the word WHY in relation to God’s more excellent plan for life on earth.

Why did I write the book, “Why Can’t We Trust God?” Because we need answers.

To purchase your copy, click here.

To visit more of the blog stops on this tour, click here. (Scroll down the page to see the stops.)

To enter a fun giveaway, click here.

Product Review—Pilgrim’s Rock, LLC

February 28, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

One of the products available for review from the Review Crew recently was The Unbreakable Faith Course from Pilgrim’s Rock, LLC. After I looked at it a little bit, I printed out the information and showed it to Gayle, asking him if this was something he was interested in our family going through together. We ended up being put on this review, so for the past month our evening Bible time has been spent working through this course as a family.

The Unbreakable Faith Course consists of 6-8 video lectures per part (there are 6 parts), as well as reading two books, The Box and God the Reason. Both of these books were sent to us as PDFs, and I printed them to make it easier to read them together. We have gotten through the first three parts, and started the fourth tonight. Each part ends with a quiz, which we have also been doing together. We go around the room, each person answering a question. If there is any objection to the answer chosen, we discuss it. Even Little Miss wants her turn, so someone supplies her with the correct answer! When we began working through the course, we started by reading The Box.

We found this book very good and easy to understand. As a discussion between two imaginary friends, a Christian and an atheist, some very good arguments and proof for the existence of God were displayed, in a very accessible way. Part 1 had a lot of good thoughts that we appreciated hearing; I believe everyone in the family was getting a lot out of the course at that point. Esther wrote this about it in her newsletter: “There’s a lot to be learned from this course, as it turns out, and I feel like the little that has stuck with me is only a scratch off the surface. But some things it talks about are things like He created the universe; therefore, He is outside the laws of the universe. It’s not a problem for Him to do the things the Bible says He’s done (raising people from the dead, Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark, etc.). Who do we think He is when we think He isn’t (or can’t be) concerned with our little things here? Even Jesus gave us a definition of something that was “easy” to do in Luke 12:25-26—add a cubit to our height!” As we started reading God the Reason, however, and moving on into the videos for Parts 2 and 3, we started feeling like there was a lot of repetition. We read the book, and then heard the same thing in the videos. That kind of repetition can be very good, but in this case it was a bit much. All of us are feeling fairly similarly at this point, that the content of the course is going over our heads. Esther and I, and Mr. Intellectual, have quite good vocabularies; I would say well over high school level. Even so, we struggle to get a lot out of what we hear and read from Unbreakable Faith. Esther said she would consider this course to be difficult for a high schooler to grasp. Gayle feels that the average high schooler or even university student would struggle to make it all the way through the course, because of the way it is presented. He also mentioned this evening again how wordy it is; it would be better if it was a bit more concise.

There are some very good illustrations, both pictorial and verbal, which we can understand. We appreciate the way God is glorified and His truth is upheld. One thing we are taking away from this course is that there is no excuse for someone not to believe in God. As Craig Biehl, the author and speaker, says over and over, the evidence for God is “clear, comprehensive and compelling.” He makes that point abundantly clear, with much evidence to back up his claim. We also appreciated a very simple way to counter an atheist’s claim that there is no God: To know that, you would have to know everything in the universe and beyond! God the Reason is a lengthy treatise about Who God is.

The subtitle is the theme for the entire course: How Infinite Excellence Gives Unbreakable Faith. Each chapter talks about a different facet of God’s greatness, such as that He is eternal, He needs nothing, He cannot be known unless He chooses to reveal Himself…. Many arguments are given, in depth, in support of each of these statements. There is a lot of meat in here; this is not a book for “babes in Christ.” I think it would take me several readings to get everything out of this book that is in it. Who would this course be good for? Those who have a very scholarly bent and enjoy listening to solid Bible teaching. If you enjoy listening to sermons about apologetics, this may well be a great fit for you!

Thirty-four families besides ours have been using this course over the past month. Click on the image below to hear what they have to say about it—I’m going to be reading some of those reviews after I finish my own! It’s always good to hear multiple points of view about something like this.

The Unbreakable Faith Course {Pilgrim's Rock, LLC Reviews}