What Are You Afraid Of? By David Jeremiah

If we are honest, we will admit that no matter how strong our faith, we sometimes have fears.  In What Are You Afraid Of? Facing Down Your Fears With Faith, we learn to face those fears, work through them,

and revitalize our faith.  The fears covered in this book are common uncertainties such as financial security, illness death, and even a fear of God. Using his own experience and those of others, Dr. Jeremiah gives practical advice and encouragement to bring the fears under control.

This is not a light read, but neither is it dry. The stories are interesting and the advice pertinent to our daily lives.  I received this book from Tyndale for review so I read it through, but I plan to go back and read it as a Bible study, perhaps a chapter a week. 

Settled Blood by Mari Hannah

Settled Blood is the second in the DCI Kate Daniels series. The book seemed to be a little too much of an attempt to be an all inclusive genre. This mystery, thriller, suspense, police procedure and lesbian romance instead ended up a little muddled. There are very descriptive crime scenes, and the high suspense tension lasts until the end of the story.

I usually enjoy a methodical police procedure, but in this book, it seemed the details were too repetitive. How many reports does the DCI Kate Daniels need to receive ( and seem surprised about) stating the fall victim was alive when she hit the ground. It did nothing to add to the horror of the crime. Also, the pining over her ex-girlfriend seemed out of place in the middle of a tense drama.

This is a British author so there were quite a few terms and British slang that I was not familiar with, but that was not a big drawback because it just took a quick search online to find definitions. It did break up the flow of the story though.

A copy of this e-book was provided by Edelweiss, Above the Treeline.

Last Light by Terri Blackstock

We have all had situations arise when our power goes out, sometimes for a day or two.  What would happen if it went out everywhere. How would our smart-phone addicted society react without anything electronic?
Last Light explores how a family adjusts and recreates their lives under the most primitive of conditions.  Travel, food shortages, lack of medical care are all situations explored in the story.

The characters were realistic and well-done, but the oldest daughter, Deni, was so unlikable that I really didn't care about her or her goals.   Had she been portrayed as younger I could have understood her bad choices, but at her age she should have been more mature.

This is definitely a solid Christian book with scripture and Christian philosophy of life as the family struggles with decisions concerning sharing, concern for others, suspicion of neighbors and working together as a community.

A Very Sad Time

Michael Palmer, one of my absolute favorite authors died has passed away. His 20th novel, Resistant, is to be published in May. His memorial service is today.