Joel Osteen: It's Your Time

I am not a huge fan of the feel good Christianity. While it is nice to here that “God loves you and he wants you to be happy” or “God wants you to have financial success” things like that are not biblically based. Now, I am not a fire and brimstone sermon-loving girl, but I do like my teachings to come directly from the bible. That being said, it is nice to hear the God is on my side and rooting for me, theme that Joel Osteen commonly preaches.

He is one of the most well-known and popular preachers in the United States, selling out stadiums across the county, and has made the New York Times Best Sellers list often with his novels. This review is about his work, It’s Your Time.

In the tradition of Joel Osteen, it quotes very little of the actual Bible, but does have a good message about seizing the day and making your life better. The focus of the book is on you, the individual reader. If it was just put in the self-help section, I think it would be better. It feels as if Joel uses God to push his agenda.

Many of the stories in it, while inspiring, felt very Chicken Soup to me as well. Again, nothing wrong with that, as I love those books, but posing it as a God book kind of bummed me out. I would give it a two and a half star rating.

The Stellow Project: Review

It was suppose to be a fun weekend at the cabin with her sister and best friend, but on the drive up Lilah realizes something is wrong. The wind is getting worse, hail the size of soccer balls begins to fall, and cell service is out. The three girls continue to drive up the mountain to the cabin, knowing that there is a landline and that Lilah’s father is on his way. Only he isn’t.

Calls home are spotty at best, and the girls discover that not only has New York City practically been leveled (along with much of the country), but Lilah’s dad is being blamed.

Mr. Swellows is a well know environmentalist, but the past years have turned him from scientific authority into a crazed end on times environmental terrorist. He is the one who disabled weather satellites, making sure that no one knew of the catastrophic events heading for the cities. It’s is fault that thousands of people are dead, and as it turns out it is his fault that Lilah is sick.

Ever since Lilah can remember, she has trouble breathing. Pills and surgeries have plagued her life, at seventeen she has never been allowed to stay home alone in case she stops breathing and has to be resuscitated and taken to the hospital. Her father has kept her inside their houses, in climate controlled and pressurized rooms. He made her sick, she was his control group for medicines, theories and environmental tests.

After Lilah’s best friend deserts her and informs on her to the FBI, Lilah and her sister are taken in by a group of scientists who know more about her and her family then Lilah knows about herself. Befriending the lead scientists son, Lilah begins to investigate. Files on her and her mother are found behind locked cabinets. Pills in different dosages and animal testing are being done behind doors. Experiments are running rampant and Lilah doesn’t know what to do, or what any of it means. Lilah has to decide if some mistakes and experiments are worth it in the search for the greater good of humanity and the planet. But how much can she tolerate? And what are her father and the secretive scientists going to allow her to see before the Lilah experiment is killed off for the greater good of the research?

The book was okay. I think that the premise is good, but I didn’t like the main character. She was whiney and I felt no real connection to her. It also felt like it ended rather abruptly, almost like the author wrote 300 pages and then decided that was enough so she quickly finished the novel. At the moment there doesn’t appear to be a sequel, but the way the book ended leaves it open to have one in the future.

Anna Dressed in Blood

I started Anna Dressed in Blood nearly half a dozen times before I got past the first few pages, and I am so glad that I did. The beginning was a bit rocky, and there was a section in the middle that I found extremely boring and unnecessary, but the book overall was good.

Cas comes from a legacy of ghost killers. Ever since his father was torn apart by some demon, ghost thing that got away, Cas has been on a mission to hunt down every spook he can and send them to their resting place. Armed with his father’s old knife, he and his mother travel the county based on tips from different covens and inner circles to destroy every beast they can.

Going off of a tip one of his friends gave him, Cas heads to Canada hoping to find and destroy the spirit Anna Dressed in Blood. But things are different here, not just with the spirit but with Cas as well. Cas has always put up walls, no reason to connect with other teenagers when he’ll be moving on soon, but that was before he met Thomas and Carmel.

Thomas isn’t ordinary, he can read people’s minds when he concentrates and comes from a long line of witches and voodoo channelers. It was Thomas who made contact with Cas’ inner circle to bring him hear, to destroy Anna.

But Anna is different than any other entity that Cas has faced. Her power comes from somewhere else, she knows that she is a spirit, and hates that she hurts people. There is something else, a demon inhabiting her spirit form. She wants out of her predicament, just as much as Cas wants to put her out. There is more to her original death than meets the eye, and more evil lurking around Cas then even he knows, things that go back to the murder of his father.

I really thought that this book was excellent (well, besides the part in the middle that just dragged on and on without any point or direction). I thought it was a great little ghost story, that delved into the misuse of magic, without being to scary of hard hitting.

My Feelings On Ender's Game (non-summary)

Ender's Game is my all time favorite book. I have read it over 20 times cover to cover, plus own in on CD and I just recently purchased it on audible.com so I can listen to it in preparation for the movie coming out in less than a month. It would be difficult, very difficult to write a review without becoming emotional, in fact I don't think that I can. Ender's Game makes me smile, and at times cry hysterically no matter how many times I have read it.
The first time I read Ender's Game was New Years Eve in 2008. I had just gone to the Miley Cyrus MTV party and was at my best friends house waiting for midnight when I started reading it. I missed midnight, I missed the party, midnight kiss, ball dropping, everything. I was so engrossed in the story that I couldn't see or care about anything else. The next few weeks I spent reading the entire series, at least everything that was published at the time. I loved the series, but as someone who rereads books all the time I wasn't in a position to say it was my favorite book.
Ender's Game becoming by favorite book happened almost by accident. The next few years, it was always a book I recommended or gave as gifts to friends and family. When my brother was driving his car to college, a two day journey, I bought him the book on tape. Yes, I reread it a few times, and bought all the books in the series that had been published, but it wasn't until I was having a horrible christmas break in 2011 that I realized Ender's Game had gone from one of the best novels I had ever read, but it had become the best book I had ever read. I reread it two and a half times in less than a week, and whenever I was out of the house I put on my headphones and listened to the CD. Ender's Game had become my escape from being sad, and more than that I still wanted to read it when I was happy. It made bad days better, and when I was happy I want to read it to stay happy.
I think that Ender's Game is the most beautifully written novel in history, and I encourage everyone to read it. I will write an actual review on the book, shortly before the movie and then a comparison of the two as well.

The Fall of Five (I Am Number Four Series) REVIEW

I love the Lorien Series, ever since reading I Am Number Four a few years back, I can't stop. The Fall of Five is just as gripping and fantastic as the other novels, and e-reader novellas that came before it. 

This book brings the entire Garde together, but not only that it also reunites Sam and his father. While living in Nine's penthouse in Chicago all the living members of Lorien and their human allies train, and now that Five has joined them, they believe they finally have the upper hand. If course, that would make things to easy. 

The only downside of this book was its title, The Fall of Five. It kind of gives away what will happen. The title tells the reader that one of two things will happen, either Five is going to die, or he will betray them. Want to guess which it is? It's betrayal. 

Turns out, that Five has been living, training, and working with the Mogs since he lander on earth. He gives away the secret base of the Garde, kills number Eight. To make it worse, Ella (number Ten) is kidnapped, and a prophesy is seen my Four, and in it Ella marries the leader of the Mogs and helps them take of earth. 

I love this series, and I defiantly left out a lot of information and details in this review, but I can't give everything away right? This is one of the best, and well thought out alien series I have come across, and recommend the whole series to everyone. 

Harken by Kelab Nation (Review)

It took me over three months to finish Harken by Kaleb Nation. It wasn’t the worst book I have ever read, but it didn’t hold my attention and I kept being distracted by other books and reruns of television shows. I think part of the reason that this book was such a letdown was it was really hyped up in the BookTube community and on book blogs. The writing was only mediocre, it sounded like someone who was used to just writing blogs and reviews online, the language wasn’t fluid enough for me. One of the things I hate most about many new and young authors is how pretentious they try to sound in their writings. That was something that unfortunately happened with Mr. Nation’s first novel.

The plot is a great one that was full of potential. Its one of those stories where a teenager finds out he has a great destiny foretold in prophesy or unknown family lineage. It’s set up like a Percy Jackson novel or one of the Heir Chronicles. Unknown origins, that leads to epic battles and growth. I feel like I should have loved this novel, but again the writing was just a little to difficult to get through.

Michael Asher has the ability to see people’s true emotions. When he looks into their eyes he knows what they are thinking and hiding. He made his money from spying on couples that suspect their significant other of cheating and lying. One night while investigating a possible affair, a man attempts to assassinate him. Turns out, Michael is the reincarnation of a warrior who is tasked with riding the world of evil beings.

His adventures lead him to finding his two protectors, also reincarnations, who have tried to protect him throughout all of his lives. Those who are trying to kill him feed stories to the news about Michael being a terrorist, not hard to fake since Michael keeps being in places he shouldn’t be. Plane crashes, burning houses, and killed law enforcement agents are only a few of the things that are being pinned on Michael.

The end of the book was a decent one. Enough open ending plots to make the second book a smooth transition of story, but not enough of a cliffhanger that I will buy the book. I really wanted to like this book, but again it was only a mediocre read. Three months to finish a novel? That usually isn’t a very good sign, but at least I finished it. It wasn’t bad enough for me to give up on. I can understand why people liked it, there are some great battle and fight scenes, but the writing was a little to pretentious for me, and Michael was a little to whiney for my taste.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes suspense and light conspiracy theory novels. Books with heroes who have special abilities, novels similar to the Heir Chronicles, books by Cat Patrick or The Time I Joined the Circus by J.J. Howard.