"Dear Mr. Knightley" book review

   

Sam is a 23 year old orphan who is trying to attend Northwestern University's Journalism program. In order to get funds to attend the program from her benefactor, she has to write letters to him, a man she only knows as Mr. Knightley. Sam is a great lover of books, and quotes Jane Austen's works when trying to express herself to others. She rarely hears from Mr. Knightley and starts writing to him as if she is writing in her own journal. Perhaps even a little too comfortable in her letters to him, with a few of the subjects she brings up, considering she does not even know him. Being an orphan, and being part of the foster system, Sam does not trust people that well, so she does not have any friends. This starts to change though when she meets Alex, who loves books as much as she does. They both have their own secrets and quirks of how they deal with the events in their life. I greatly enjoyed this book, but at times really wanted to know what Mr. Knightley thought of the letters he received from Sam. She was also a little naive at times during the book, but was pretty insightful about her thoughts and as to the real reasons why she read books. Her using books and running as a way to escape reality, but at some point needing to use the courage that she knows she has but is too afraid to use it. As with a lot of books though, the ending came too quick and left me with wanting more. I have read a few of Austen's books but not all of them, so sometimes was a little bit of a lost, since I didn't understand all of the meaning behind some of the quotes. So, far the author isn't writing a sequel to this book, but we can all hope. I rank this book 4.5 out of 5. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for an honest review through Booksneeze.

Books I will review soon....

I plan on reviewing these books during the next two weeks; 

This is for the book club that I belong too. It looks interesting, but I haven't started to read it yet.

Dear Mr. Knightly will probably be reviewed this week for booksneeze. 

This will be reviewed for the Classics Club.

Have you read any of these books, if so what did you think?

Hopelifter book Review

  I recently read Hopelifter: Creative Ways to Spread Hope When Life Hurts by Kathe Wunnenberg. I received a free copy from Book Sneeze in exchange for my honest review. I thought this book had some good points, various stories of people's struggles, websites and organizations that help people in a variety of ways, but I had thought it would be more specific in how to help people. The author tells her own stories of struggles and how she started a support group for women that lost children throughout most of the book. Not to say that I did not like the book, but it was just different than what I had thought it would be. I rank this book 3 out of 5.

What's On Your Nightstand? August 2013

I didn't get as much accomplished as I had previously thought I would be able to over this month. Not sure how much I will get accomplished on my to do list for the Classic Club, but looking forward to some of the books I will get from publishers. Classes started last week and I will be reading as a stress reliever for sure!

Reviews of Books that I Read:

Forever Friday -This advanced reader's copy is being given away, check out the link in order to sign up for it. End's today!!!!

A Bride For All Seasons

The Winnowing Season

Currently Reading:

Emma-really enjoying it so far

Need to start for the Classic Club from last month:

Sense and Sensibility
The Railway Children
Heart of Darkness
Jane Eyre for this month's Spin book

Read and Review for Booksneeze:


 I will be reading Hopelifter


Read and Review for Blogging For Books:

I will be reading For Every Season

Read and Review for Tyndale:

I will be reading Born of Persuasion

Do you want to review free books too?

Here are a few links to apply to review books from publishers. Some of these I currently participate in and others I have put in an application to participate. Make sure you read each publishers qualifications and guidelines first.

Tyndale
Bethany
Booksneeze
WaterBrook Multonomah - Blogging For Books

Pursuing Justice Review....

I received a free copy of the book Pursuing Justice by Ken Wytsma from BookSneeze, I am under no obligation to give a positive review for the book.

 

The author Ken explains what he believes justice is using his own experiences, scripture and the thoughts of previous Christian authors/preachers/philosophers. His view of justice is not necessarily what we immediately think it is, which isn't a bad thing, although I didn't agree with him all of the time. It is always good though to see what others opinions are and how we differ, but also on things we agree on as well. The author has traveled a lot for various missions and uses some of them as examples in the book. I thought the book was a little too long in some places.  No one in life is perfect of course, but this book did make me think of a few things in my life that I could do differently.

 

I am rating this book a 3 and a half out of 5 stars. I thought the first half of the book dragged on quite a bit, and felt that some things repeated.

 

Love You More review...

I was given a copy of this book free from the publisher by BookSneeze, and am in no way obligated to give a positive review. These opinions I express are my own. I read Love You More: The Devine Surprise of Adopting my Daughter by Jennifer Grant. The book tells the story of Jennifer and her family, that consist of her husband and their three biological children. They decide to adopt a child from Guatemala, and the book is about that process. I really thought that I would enjoy this book and would feel some type of connect with the author, alas it was not meant to be. I felt that the book was choppy and jumped from place to place, anywhere from the past, to present and future. I felt that I was trying to spend half my time trying to figure out the exact order of the book. In some cases I felt that the author came off as being a little uppity, which was a huge turnoff for me. It took me a really long time to finish this book, even though it is a very short read. I rate this a 2 and a half.