May, June, and July Book Review!

I may have taken the summer off from blogging, but I definitely kept up with my reading. I have such an awesome list of books to recommend to you today! Some were great, amazing, thrilling, and some were so so. But they are all worth a read if you have time!

 

Book reviews are my most favorite post of the month because I am a huge reader, and so are many of you. If reading isn’t your thing, we will see you back here next time!

 

Today I am recapping all of my May, June, and July reads, and August’s book review will come out the last Thursday of the month per usual.

 

Okay, let’s get started!

 

Without Rival

There is a reason we look at others as rivals and limit ourselves to comparison and competition. We have an enemy assaulting our mind, will, and emotions in the hope that we’ll turn on ourselves and each other. It’s a cycle that isolates us from intimate connections, creates confusion about our identity, and limits our purpose. Lisa Bevere speaks so well on this topic. I have one small little complaint if you even call it a complaint. Her chapters (in all her books I’ve read) are too long. They just go on and on and tell the same message three different ways. Has anyone else read her books? What are your thoughts?

 

Spoiled

This is a fun, mindless read.  I read it on the plane to New York City. It is set against a world of Redbull-fuelled stylists, tiny tanned girls, popped-collar guys, and Blackberry-wielding publicists. Molly has just discovered that her biological father is Brick Berlin, world-famous movie star and red-carpet regular. Intrigued (and a little) terrified by her Hollywood lineage, Molly moves to Los Angeles after her mother’s death and plunges headfirst into the deep of Beverly Hills celebrity life. Just as Molly thinks her life couldn’t get any stranger, she meets Brooke Berlin, her gorgeous, spoiled half sister, who welcomes Molly to la-la land with a smothering dose “sisterly love”…but in this town, nothing is ever what it seems.

Messy

So this one did not live up to the first one. Sequels rarely do. When Brooke Berlin of Spoiled catches a taste of fame and her movie-star father’s attention, she decides it’s time to take her career to the next level–by launching a blog that will position her as a Hollywood “It Girl” who tells it like it is. But between schoolwork, shopping, and spray-tan appointments, she hardly has the time to write it herself… If you read Spoiled you have to find out what happens afterward, but don’t start with this one.

 

Nantucket Nights

It’s been awhile since I read an Elin Hilderbrand, so this was the perfect next read. It’s also half the length of her normal books, so Nantucket Nights was the perfect interlude for my heavier reads this month. For 20 years, Kayla, Antoinette and Val have performed their own special summer ritual. Once a year, the old friends put aside their daily, separate lives to drink champagne, swap stories and swim naked under the Nantucket stars. But on one of those bonding nights, one of their trio swims out from the shore and doesn’t return. You’ll just have to read it to find out what happens.

 

The Last Days

Last summer I read The Last Jihad by Joel C. Rosenberg, and it was incredible! But, I never read the others in this series. Before becoming an author, Joel worked as an aide to U.S. and Israeli business and big name political leaders. He knows this stuff intimately.  There’s a new battle for control of Jerusalem and the Holy Land and an Iraqi plan to rebuild ancient Babylon. It’s eerily prophetic. LOVED it so much that…

 

The Ezekiel Option

After The Last Days I immediately read The Ezekiel Option, and it’s the best Joel Rosenberg book I’ve read! Sequels are never this good! When Russia’s richest oil baron is killed, Moscow suddenly teeters on the verge of political chaos. Tehran races to complete its nuclear arsenal. Washington finds herself dangerously divided from her European allies. A new evil looms on the horizon. A dictator is rising in Russia. Iran is feverishly building nuclear weapons. A new axis of evil is emerging, led by Moscow and Tehran. And Jon Bennett and Erin McCoy, two senior White House advisors, find themselves facing the most chilling question of their lives: is the world rushing to the brink of an apocalypse prophesied more than 2,500 years ago? I devoured this one in just a day or two. It is seriously that good. Don’t forget, this is book 3, so start with The Last Jihad!

 

23 Minutes in Hell

This book was…I really don’t know how to describe it. “My sincere hope is that this book is the closest you will ever come to  experiencing hell for yourself”–Bill Wiese saw the searing flames of hell, felt total isolation, and experienced the putrid and rotting stench, deafening screams of agony, terrorizing demons, and finally, the strong hand of God lifting him out of the pit. Let’s just say you will want to run down your streets yelling, “Turn or Burn!”. If you’re curious, read it. Especially if you want to know how to better evangelize your communities.

 

The Residence

I really enjoyed The Residence. I do realize it might not be for some of you though. If you like American history, politics, or even Scandal, you’ll enjoy this book.  America’s First Families are unknowable in many ways. No one has insight into their true character like the people who serve their meals and make their beds every day. This book combines incredible first-person anecdotes from extensive interviews with White House staff members. You can an inside scoop of the Kennedy assassination, which Presidents and First Ladies were the most warm and welcoming to those that were most disliked, and the detailed account of 9/11 is haunting. It’s an incredible read.

Beach Town

I really liked this one! I’ve heard really good things about Mary Kay Andrews, and I found a few of hers in the bargain section at Books a Million and decided to try them out. Beach Town was great! Movie location scout Greer Hennessy is tasked with finding a town that represents “old Florida”, somewhere far from tourists and theme parks. She finds the perfect spot in tiny Cypress Key, but runs into a roadblock when the town’s mayor, Eben Thibadeaux, has some reservations about having a big-budget film crew descending on his hometown. Greer manages to persuade Eben that a touch of Hollywood will be a boon to the local economy, but once filming gets underway chaos (and romance) ensues.