"Max on Life: Answers and Insights to Your Most Important Questions" by Max Lucado

Max Lucado is known for his amazing insight into the gospel of Jesus Christ, his ability to connect to readers on a spiritual level, and his unassuming way of inspiring us. In "Max on Life: Answers and Insights to Your Most Important Questions," he once again shares his inspiration answering numerous real life questions with love, thoughtfulness, and scripture. What I loved about this book is that it answers real questions from real people. Max Lucado does not try to "preach" or "convert" with his answers, he just gives inspirational answers based on his understanding of the gospel of Christ. I think this would be a great gift to give a graduate, as a wedding present, to new parents, or to anyone who is struggling with seemingly unanswerable questions. Max Lucado seems to have a genuine love for his readers, and for Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. That really shows in his writing, especially in his answering tough questions for this book. I really enjoyed this book because of the variety of questions answered, such as "Is God willing to use anyone to change the world? Even people who've lived ungodly lives?" and "I applied for a job and got rejected. I asked my grandmother for a loan; she turned me down. My boyfriend says we should split up. I'm having a hard, hard week. Is God even listening to me?" and "I grew up in a home with no discipline. My parents let me do anything I wanted to do, and I did. In raising my kids, I don't want to follow their example. I don't want to over-discipline either. What is the balance." And many, many others. I believe that anyone could find something relevant to their own lives in this book.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255

"The Final Summit A Quest to Find the One Principle That Will Save Humanity" by Andy Andrews

Fans of "The Traveler's gift" by Andy Andrews can FINALLY find out what happened to our favorite traveler, David Ponder, after his amazing journey. "The Final Summit" picks up several years after David Ponder makes his travel into history. The archangel Gabriel returns to bring David to a summit with the other travelers from history. Some are fairly obvious, such as Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln. Others you may never have heard of, such as Joshua Chamberlain, and Erik Ericson, but all are amazing and inspiring. The summit must come up with the correct answer to the question that will save mankind. I don't want to give too much away, but I will say that I LOVED the book. I loved the discussions that take place in the summit, and I LOVE the final solution. The only thing that concerns me about this book is that if you haven't read the first one, there are a few little holes that you can't necessarily fill in just reading this second book, and you are missing out on some amazing lessons that are hinted at in this book but never fully explained. I would recommend this book to just about anyone, teenagers and up.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255

"Heart of Ice" by Lis Wiehl with April Henry

The triple threat club is a group of three friends with a passions for crime fighting in common; Allison Pierce is a federal prosecutor, Nicole Hedges is an FBI agent, and Cassidy Shaw is a television crime news reporter. They met in high school, reconnected at their 10 year reunion, and have been fearless friends since.

Cassidy meets cool, beautiful, and charismatic Elizabeth Avery at an exercise class and quickly becomes entranced by her. As the story progresses we discover that Elizabeth has some very deep dark secrets. The triple threat club has to pull together and work to discover just how cold Elizabeth's heart is.

This book is the third in the "Triple Threat Club" series, but if you have not read the others (I hadn't,) you can pick it right up without being lost. I loved how developed the characters are. They each struggled with personal issues that affect their decision making, and objectivity. However they are able to work through their problems and come together to figure out Elizabeth's deceptions and how she relates to a string of murders in their area.

I really enjoyed the mystery and crime solving part of this book. I found that part to be well written and engaging. I was less thrilled with the infusion of Christian values. This felt forced and unnatural. There were just a few places where a character would talk about her faith, or mention the Bible that felt oddly juxtaposed into the story. It almost seemed like an afterthought and did not feel genuine. The Christian references could have been more smoothly woven into the story, and would have felt more natural if they were brought up more often. For this reason I gave the book 3 stars. "Heart of Ice" was entertaining and I would definitely be interested in reading the rest of the series.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255