My review of Covet by Tracey Garvis Graves

Thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Dutton and NetGalley, I was given the opportunity to read and review Covet by Tracey Garvis Graves. I was very excited to read this book as I am a fan of the author and her other book On the Island.

This book grabbed my attention from the beginning and held it through the end of the book. The basis of the book is a woman who is married and feeling lonely as her husband cuts her off emotionally and is traveling a lot. The woman meets an Police Officer who takes an interest in her as a friend at first, but he begins to develop romantic feelings towards her. She resists the feelings at first, but the loneliness gets to be too much for her and she begins to let herself return those feelings.

The main character of the book, Claire Canton, was very relatable in her emotions and you could not help but understand her feelings and have empathy for her. While the book is predictable in many ways, it was well written and you had a deep understanding of all the characters and what was going on in their head. There was definitely a lot of psychological understanding as to the characters point of views as it switched every few chapters. I felt that it gave the book a little more depth as to how the emotional connection developed between the characters.

I enjoyed the ending of the book and felt that the author did a great job of giving the story a good ending from all of the main character’s perspectives. It was definitely something that made me think and even after finishing the book, I thought of the situation that Claire got herself into and ultimately understanding the start of an emotional affair. It made my eyes mist up at the ending of the book and how it played out in the final chapters. I would recommend this book to fans of the author and those looking for a good book that is an easy read, but at the same time has some depth to the feelings of all the characters.

My review of The Third Peril

Thank you very much to Goodreads and L.P Hoffman for the opportunity to read and review a copy of The Third Peril. I would like to start out saying, why on earth did I put this book off for a few months to read some others?!?! When I first received this book sure it did not jump out at me, but when I started it two days ago, I found that I just could not put it down.  

There are many different characters and it switches often through the book. That was probably the biggest reason that I didn't want to put down the book….I enjoyed all the characters and their stories that I wanted to keep reading to find out what would happen next. For me the description of the book does it little justice. This book does begin with a child (Connor) receiving a message from an Angel and while that plays a large part of the book, the book is so much more.

The character that I enjoyed the most was Zeke as I am certain he was an Angel, or at least it appeared as so in the book. His unwavering faith and how he affects each and every character in the story was incredible to me and made him so likable I thought the author did a nice job of slowly piecing together what had occurred between David and Paige to cause a strain in their brother-sister relationship, and I kept waiting for Paige to give in and forgive her brother who was so obviously still hurting from the situation. Nora was another favorite character of mine and she really was such a sweet lady that just wanted to see the good in everybody. I started to guess that Joel had something to do with Nora after he met with his sister in New Orleans and was thrilled he was able to find a way to North Dakota with Zeke to figure out his family situation. It had a pretty intense, but very realistic story line.

I honestly loved how the book played out from start to finish and I am glad that in the end, the unwavering faith that Connor had regarding everything he had been told by the Angels, was proven true. I stayed up very late both nights I was reading this and can admit it was so very hard to put the book down at times. I cannot remember the last time I have read a book that had me wanting to read through the entire night just to finish it. In the end I smiled at the end of this book because while most would say it ended stereotypical, I would say that yes…most of it was very happy, but there were also some very sad situations that ended as such. I would recommend this book to both my friends of faith and those that might not quite be there yet because the ultimate message that I took from this book is that we all need something to believe in.

Nae'body's Hero Review

I was given the opportunity to read and review this book courtesy of the author Mark Wilson. It took a couple chapters to get into the book and I’m usually not a big fan of switching characters every chapter, but it worked for this book. I love how their intertwined at the end and watching the progression of each of the characters’ personalities and the growth that they each made throughout the story.

Robert Hamilton, Arif Ali, and Kim Baker all had interesting backgrounds and stories. There were a lot of historical references in the story leading up to September 11, 2001. Like the author states at the end of this book, I only wish that it all was true. Robert has Super hero powers of sorts and is very intent on doing only good and never taking a life. He makes it his mission to help everyone that he can as he can speed across the world in seconds.

Overall I really did enjoy this story and without giving too much information, I absolutely am a big fan of anything with a good amount of historical references and information that I can further Google. The portrayal of the terrorist training camps was eerily similar to what I have read in the past and heard from others. It is terrifying and does offer some compassion for the boys that are often forced into these positions in horrifying ways. I definitely would recommend this book as it was enjoyable and an interesting read.