A Broken Kind of Beautiful

A Broken Kind of Beautiful

By Katie Ganshert

I loved this book from its perfect title to the last page!  Katie Ganshert is an awesome writer!  She brings the characters to life and your heart is touched with their struggles.  As she weaves the story of broken lives  – she explains deep spiritual truths about God’s total forgiveness and unconditional love.  Over and over I kept thinking of how profound this segment or that portion of the story was.  Yes, it was a page turner, I couldn’t stop reading it!  In fact I read it in one afternoon, but it was so much more than an unforgettable story.  This book reached deep into my heart and reminded me that God loves me!  Read this book!  Share it with everyone you know!  You won’t be disappointed.

I received this book free from the publishers and was not required to write a positive review.

The Queen's Handmaid

The Queen’s Handmaiden

By Tracy L. Higley

This book had a lot of historical information connecting Cleopatra, King Herod (who was King at the time of Jesus’ birth) and Octavian.  The story is told from the view of Herod’s wife’s handmaiden.  Through her eyes we learn a lot about the fragile threads of political loyalty and safety even among family members.  There is emphasis on Jewish traditions, the way treasured written history and prophecies were handed down through the generations or hidden for safety and different ways various factions waited for the Messiah.

The trouble I had with this book is there were detailed descriptions of torture, executions and murders.  I have read similar accounts in other historical novels.  However, since this is a Christian historical novel I felt that the mention of these did not have to be in such vivid, gruesome detail. 

Another problem area was that the transitions between time segments was not smooth or clear.  This happened at least 3 times in the book where suddenly you are thrust years ahead and there wasn’t anything to let you know that time has passed so the sequence of events was confusing.

I received this book free from the publishers and was not required to write a positive review.