The Mountains Bow Down

FBI Special Agent Raleigh Harmon needs a vacation. Her mothers mental health issues are getting too bad to cope with, work is getting stressful, and things are not going well with her fiancé right now. So when a chance to go on an Alaskan cruise with her Mom and her Aunt pops up, Raleigh jumps at the chance to get away for a few days, and spend lots of time with the beautiful Alaskan scenery.

When a woman is found murdered the first day at sea, and is assumed to be a suicide, Raleigh knows that it couldn’t have been suicide and she is determined to find the killer before he kills someone else on the ship. She calls for some backup and is annoyed to discover that the only agent available is her nemesis, the handsome Special Agent Jack Stephenson.

Faced with a mysterious murder that no one wants to talk about, ever widening family rifts, and her increasingly confusing feelings for Jack, Raleigh turns to God to keep her sane, and alive!

If you are into intrigue, mystery and romance, The Mountains Bow Down by Sibella Giorello is a read you wont want to miss.

The Truth of The Matter

The Truth of the Matter is the third book in The Homelanders series by Andrew Klavan, which, I am sad to say, is the only book in the series I have read. Aside from that minor detail, I found the book an instant attention grabber jam-packed with adventure, action and mystery. The protagonist Charlie West is an extremely likeable character with BIG problems! One problem is that he has been framed and found guilty for the murder to his best friend Alex. Charlie knows he didn’t do it but, no one other then his girl friend and his other best friend believe him. The next problem is his sudden case of amnesia, he doesn’t remember anything within the past year. Oh and did I mention that since escaping from the police [who are looking for him by the way] there is also a group of men who want him dead and that they are looking for him as well?
Charlie is on the look for answers, and his one clue is a mysterious person named ‘Waterman,’ a person he hopes can answer all his questions. Why has he lost his memory? Who are all these people chasing him? Who can he trust? And when on earth will he be allowed to go back to being a normal teenager?
I found this book easy to read and supremely hard to put down. I eagerly await the next instalment in The Homelanders series, and I can hardly wait to go back and read the first two.
-Rebekah

How Do I Love Thee?

How Do I Love Thee? by Nancy Moser, is a delightfully captivating, well written novel about the romance between Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning. Moser’s balance between her artistic imagination and the actual astounding fairy-tale worthy facts of the story, gathered mostly from Elizabeth’s correspondence with Robert and others, blend together into a novel that will draw you into her world on 50 Wimpole Street. The air she breathed, the air she feared; the room that was her sanctuary, the room that was her prison; the father that she loved, the father who would never love her; the man who loved her, the man with whom she fell in love; all of these can be seen through her eyes as you read her poetical story.

This novel surprised me at every turn, and I believe that women old and young alike will be able to connect to the poet, for she has the innocence of a young woman and yet the mind of someone far older; her childish fears that held her captive were eventually put aside and she bloomed into the brilliant and sunning rose that captivated the hearts of England with her Sonnets From The Portuguese, her love sonnets for her beloved Robert.
-Rebekah

You Can Be Everything God Wants You To Be

Have you ever been excited about going to work? I think I can hear more people saying “No!” then I can hear saying “Yes!”. Now, have you ever wished that your job was something you enjoyed; something that you loved to do so much, that you could go into overtime and not even notice? I think I can safely say that most people would like to have a job like that, and why wouldn’t they?

Max Lucado’s book You Can Be Everything God Wants You To Be is one of the first steps you can take towards achieving the goal of a job that you love. It will not get you the job, you will have to take those steps on your own, but it can equip you with the knowledge you need to move towards that goal. It will also ask questions that will make you think; questions about yourself, your life; questions about God, questions that can help you see God’s plan for your life, and questions that might help you discover who God wants you to be.
-Rebekah

This book has been read and reviewed for booksneeze.com, the comments made in this review are those of the reviewer and are not those of the publisher.

The Snow Queen

Hans Christian Anderson is the author of many awesome fairy tales, including, The Snow Queen. There are tons of translations/variations of this fun fairy tale, whithe tale of Gerda and Kay, two childhood playmates who were 'window box' neighbors.
The story is set in a large city, where Gerda and Kay live next door to each other. In the summer Gerda and Kay played under the shade of roses in their connecting window boxes. And in the winter they would visit each other in their houses.
Tragedy strikes the winter (or spring, depending on your translation) Kay is pierced in the eye and in the heart by two shards of the evil magic looking glass. Everything now looks nasty and ugly to him. And his heart is slowly turned into ice. Kay now thinks that Gerda is just a baby, and starts to hang out with the other, older, boys in the town.
The winter of (or after) Kay gets pierced in the eye by the shards of glass, he joined the older boys in their, slightly reckless, activitues. One of the boys' favorite winter activitys was to tie their sleds onto the backs of one of the farmers’ big sleds, and to ride behind it through town. Just to show off Kay attaches his sled to a huge white sled that is pulled by reindeer. All was fun and games until something went wrong. The sled pulled out of the town square where the boys were playing, and headed out into the fields of cold snow and icy wind. Kay, had been taken by the Snow Queen! The rest of the story is about Gerda, and her search for her lost playmate. And with the help of some people, animals, and flowers, she finally finds her Kay.
This is a lovely child’s fairy tale. Any fan of Hans Christian Anderson, or fairy tales in general, will like it. It shows you the faith and courage of the pure and innocent Gerda, on her journey to overcome the dark and ice-cold Snow Queen, for the sake of her friend Kay.
-Rebekah

Howdy! [&& Snow]

Ok, I can't figure out which book to review first! Hmmm....decisions, decisions!

I KNOW!

Snow, by Tracy Lynn, from the Once Upon A Time series. Best. Fairytale. Series. Ever!!! They're amazing novels, you should definetly read them. :)

So it all begins with 'once upon a time..' Well, it actually begins with the Prologue but we all know the story really begins in Chapter 1. This story is set in Wales, about the duchess Jessica. Just incase you haven't guessed by now this is a story of Snow White. Like the stereotypical Snow White, her mother dies and her father eventually gets remarried. What is different about this book is the fact that Snow actually LIKES her stepmother. At first...

Then, things change. The new duchess (who happens to be an evil scientist *insert dark music here*) gets, lets say, just a little upset with Jessica. Jessica's punishment is to stay inside all day, everyday, for the rest of her life, like a servant, doing servants's work. This is how she comes to get her name of Snow. For her skin becomes "snowy white", and her hair darkens to black.

Life continues and the duchess continues with her evil scientistic work. She decides she wants a baby, and she will do anything within her power to get one. She tries potion after potion, but to no avail. Finally, the duchess realizes that she is missing a key ingredient. The heart.....OF...A HUMAN!!!!! Like the stereotypical Snow White, Jessica runs away, but this time, to the big city. Instead of meeting seven dwarves, she meets five unusual beings. Back to the normal story, Snow lives and works for them. Shortly after becoming friends and earning their trust, Jessica is found by the duchess and put into a 'scientifically' enchanted sleep. AHA!

Adding to this whole mess we have a childhood friend named Allan, a ridiculous duke with his bodyguard, and a slightly jealous Raven.

Jessica is a sweet, lovable girl who wins you over immediately. Her relationship with Allan is a true example of the way we are to treat our brothers and sisters in Christ. And Jessica's continual belief in her stepmother, that there was some good in her, is the simple belief of a girl who refuses to give up hope in the people she loves. Her forgiveness towards her stepmother in the end exemplifies the love and forgiveness we are to show towards everyone, even those we don't like and/or have done unkind things to us.

This is an unusual "scientific" version of Snow White and I LOVED it! The characters are realistic and the lack of magic draws you in. It kept the magic but completely got rid of it at the same time. But I guess love is a tad magical isn't it? :)
-Erikah