"There You'll Find Me" Jenny B. Jones :: Review ::

(Thanks to Booksneeze.com and Thomas Nelson publishing co. for providing me with this advanced copy of the book for reviewing purposes) 

     
Grief brought Finley to Ireland. LOVE WILL LEAD HER HOME.

"Finley Sinclair is not your typical eighteen-year-old. She’s witty, tough, and driven. With an upcoming interview at the Manhattan music conservatory, Finley needs to compose her audition piece. But her creativity disappeared with the death of her older brother, Will.
She decides to study abroad in Ireland so she can follow Will’s travel journal. It’s the place he felt closest to God, and she’s hopeful being there will help her make peace over losing him. So she agrees to an exchange program and boards the plane.
Beckett Rush, teen heartthrob and Hollywood bad boy, is flying to Ireland to finish filming his latest vampire movie. On the flight, he meets Finley. 
She’s the one girl who seems immune to his charm. Undeterred, Beckett convinces her to be his assistant in exchange for his help as a tour guide.
Once in Ireland, Finley starts to break down. The loss of her brother and the pressure of school, her audition, and whatever it is that is happening between her and Beckett, leads her to a new and dangerous vice. When is God going to show up for her in this emerald paradise?
Then she experiences something that radically changes her perspective on life. Could it be God convincing her that everything she’s been looking for has been with her all along?"


     Speechlessly inspiring.
     I can say this, without a doubt in my mind, that this is the best Christian Fiction Young Adult novel you will ever pick up. From the very moment I opened the book to the introduction, I was hooked. Mrs. Jenny B. Jones had me on the edge of my seat crying and laughing right along with Finley Sinclair and the other characters. She held me tight within its pages as she told me the story of this struggling young Christian woman; trying to find God again and feel closer to Him through the land her deceased elder brother felt so in love with, Abbeyglen, Ireland.
     And then before she's even in the glorious land of Ireland, she meets Beckett Rush. (As described in above summary) And I must say that from the very moment she saw him on that plane, I knew their relationship was going to be worth reading about. I even wanted to slap him with some of the horribly arrogant words that came out of that boy's mouth lol, but I grew to like him very much over time because of how Jenny formed his character.
     I salute you Jenny B. Jones for making him so admirable, even within the pages of a book a man can attract me. I found myself wanting to really meet Beckett Rush, just for the sake of saying I did. For once I actually an author with an extraordinary talent of writing a wonderful story and making me fall in love with the characters. The relationship between Beckett and Finley is hilarious and heart warming throughout the book. :)
     And I felt much more connected to Finley when I started to read about her struggle with feeling as though God was being silent, and ignoring her. Right now I'm going through something very similar, so that touched me very much and I teared up a little. That is why I say it was inspiring. And I know that every woman or girl goes through life thinking they are ugly as all get out, and fat, and "flabby" (As Finley describes her arms and thighs more than once in the book) and feel the need to be skinnier in order to be beautiful, Finley goes through stresses of her audition and being in a relationship thing with Beckett and dealing with teenage drama at the Catholic girls school and develops anorexia along with exercising excessively. It inspired me in more ways than one to see her overcome it for the most part.

      I hardly have anything to say negatively about this book, but I suppose I'll pick some things out. The only things that I can pick out is that the accents were confusing a bit, because sometimes there would be things in Beckett's words that would show he has a hint of an Irish accent, but then it wouldn't. Same with the other locals in the story for the most part, it wasn't to bad because I got the idea though and that's what counts.
     And then Beckett's words when he was talking to Finley or his father, was... distant sometimes. Like Mrs. Jones may have gotten distracted and his words lost emotion. It's hard to explain, but there were these scattered very few parts in the book that had these parts in them. It wasn't that bothersome, so I don't really care. Just some little things.
     An excellent read! And this woman captured my heart for Finley's love of Ireland, I would be more than happy if someone gave me a gift of money to go there and enjoy myself!

I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars... (of course!) Well done Jenny B. Jones, I'll definitely be picking up the rest of your books very soon! And whenever you come out with your next novel, I'll be buying it.

Thanks for reading.

~Jazmine

(Note: I am not obligated to write an honest review, only an honest one)

"The Realms Thereunder" by Ross Lawhead

"Uncover a land that has been hidden for over a thousand years.
Beneath the land of Britain, a great army is sleeping. On a visit to an old church, Daniel Tully and Freya Reynolds awaken two ancient knights from a centuries-old slumber. They are kidnapped and taken to an underground city that stands in peril, besieged in all directions by a vicious warhost. Nidergeard is the only thing protecting the upper world's blissful ignorance of mythical forces that have been held at bay since the creation of the world. In order to return home, Daniel and Freya must strike at the heart of the opposer's power.
Fast forward eight years. Daniel, now homeless, still wages what he believes to be a righteous war against those he judges to be evil. Freya has tried to put the past behind her and concentrate on getting an education, a job, and a life. When they reconnect in Oxford, unseen forces begin to ally against them. Daniel is pulled through a portal and into another world. Freya is abducted by someone—some thing—posing as her professor and drugged to keep her in a delusional state. After they finally break free, neither can deny the truth . . . they must return to Nidergeard and resume the battle.
With a thrilling narrative that draws heavily upon British mythology, The Realms Thereunder will quickly establish Ross Lawhead as a major new voice in fantasy."


This book was a little difficult to get into first of all, but it was an entertaining read with neat characters. I think I liked Daniel more than Freya though, Freya seemed a little psychotic but Daniel seemed like the cool one with awesome sword fighting skills.
I read another review that stated "It felt like he was trying to hard to make this book a bestseller." I regret agreeing with that statement. Like I said earlier, it was just a bit to hard to get myself absorbed in the story world.
I enjoyed the world of Nidergeard, it was a different kind of world. That's one thing I always enjoy about reading fantasy books; seeing what kind of world each author creates! :)

Anyway, the positive things I do have to say about the book is that I liked the way it was flashing back and forth, it gave a different perspective on things. I got to see little Daniel and Freya, and older Daniel and Freya.
The description was nice though his writing could use some work to be honest, I wish I could say I enjoyed this book thoroughly. But when I pick up a book and I don't get absorbed right away, that means I don't like it. If I really like something I'll finish it in 4 days flat.
Oh, one more thing I did like was the range of differences in Daniel and Freya's personality.
I'm sorry that I had to write a negative review, but I'll definitely see what is in store for Nidergeard in the next book if Ross Lawhead ever writes another one.

Thanks for reading. :)

~Jazmine

(Note: I am not obligated to write a positive review, only an honest one) 

Thanks to booksneeze.com for providing me with the an e-book copy for purely reviewing purposes. 

My Secret Life: House frustrations beyond compare

     So I'm not sure if this will be a positive post at all. But you'll understand my frustration once I explain it. 

     For some reason the house moving has completely halted, we were all ready to have the keys last week, but that didn't happen. And then we were ready to have them by Tuesday, but that didn't happen either. And now we were hoping we'd get them today, but NOPE! The idiot airheads on the east coast that run the banks that are supposed to give our loan to us haven't figured out what they're supposed to do yet! Its just SO much fun having everything postponed. 
     I've got a gut feeling that our move is NOT going to happen for another two weeks at the latest. It sucks butt and it makes me angry beyond belief that we're having to wait this long, and go through all this bull crap to get a house! I thought we were almost done, but apparently not. 
      I was expecting to be able to be living in a new house by this weekend, but that's not going to happen no matter how much we pray. Because we did want to paint, AND we needed to do some more fixes to the house before we moved in. So basically I hate the banks on the east coast and they are complete jerks, they clearly have mental problems otherwise it wouldn't be taking this long.
     I'm almost wondering if this is some sort of punishment from God for me not praying that everything goes well...

Anyway, on a positive note I get to go to horseback. Which I'm happy about. So yay!.... :-/ Who knows when this nightmare is going to end.

Bye for now.

~Jazz

My Secret Life: Moving.

     I don't think I've actually ever mentioned the fact that me and my family are moving to a new house. :) Its exciting. We're going to paint in the coming week, which means no horseback for me, but if I want to paint my room I have to miss it. We're getting the keys on Tuesday, and its a bought house so we can do all sorts of stuff to the house. 
    Its kinda neat because I get to paint my room, which I've been looking forward to for a very long time. And there's this little nook behind some bushes where I'm hoping I can get a bench or something to set there and I can get "inspired" for my books. 
     Anyway, I gotta go but just thought I'd blog about that. Hopefully I'll get some pictures of my room in the process of getting painted. Fun fun fun. :) 

Bye! 

~Jazz

My Secret Life: Bareback cantering!

     Hey guys, 

     This is just a little bit later than I would've liked to post this. I kind of forgot though, just wrapped up in school and everything. Just thought I'd blog about the amazing horseback lesson I had on Wednesday!
     I cantered... for the first time... bareback!  It was incredible! Unfortunately I have a feeling I won't get to do it again for a few weeks, because next week we're doing cavilleties. [Which I'm equally excited about; they're basically ground jumps. And we're going to take them at a canter! AWESOME!]
      Anyway, on with my story. So I was riding Sunny... [awesome horse, love him]

     Gorgeous appaloosa horse as you can see above, and a sweetheart. [When he wants to be hehe] 
     So I'm riding him in the arena trying to get him to trot bareback, which I'm still very wobbly at, so I kicked him a little to hard and he tried to canter but I laughed it off and I was surprised that I managed to stay on. And then Corrie told us that whoever feels comfortable can try cantering bareback, and then everyone else took off, and I decided to take advantage of me not thinking it over and I tried it. I've fallen off before so the worst that was going to happen was lots of sore bones, I highly doubt I'll ever break a bone. Unless I'm jumping. As soon as I felt Sunny make the smooth transition my stomach lurched, but I remembered what Angela and Corrie told me. Don't cinch your legs upwards, and put your heels down like you still have a saddle. It worked. =]
     It was SO much fun though! I hardly remember it unfortunately =[ I wanted to do it longer, but then it was time to let the other class in. I'm crossing my fingers that perhaps Corrie might do more than just the end of the lesson for bareback time. All though she uses that time for cool down so, its kind of like that. =] Sometime I'm gonna have to go up there just to ride and hang out with the horsey boys, and help out around the ranch. 
     It would be a lot of fun to get to go riding around her property, and the roads near her house and stuff, even though I don't know how I'd handle it heh. Anyway, I'm just really excited about trying out cantering bareback again soon! And the cool thing is I probably won't have to do it on Tipper, who has a huge canter, and I would definitely fall off if I did it on him before I have a steady seat in bareback. Anywho, I gotta go, bedtime... so I'll blog again soon! :) 


Bye! 


~Jazz