Burning Sky by Lori Benton

Burning Sky by Lori Benton is the newest novel by this author.  It is a novel of the American frontier immediately following the Revolutionary War.  Willa Burning Sky, who had been abducted by the Mohawks, the Longhouse People at the tender age of 14, was returning to the Long Knives home of her childhood using only the memory of her father's words in her head.  Willa though kidnapped by the Longhouse People had grown to love them and was grieving the loss of her 2 daughters to the dreaded small pox disease of the white invaders known as the Long Knives.  Upon returning to her home she found that she would have to fight the government for her own farm because her parents before their disappearance were accused of being Tory sympathizers.  She is fighting the love of her Indian brother, Joseph Tames His Horse of which she has no blood relation and the white man, Neil, of whom she rescued during her return to the farm.  This is the story of Willa working through her grief while at the same time fighting for her right to stay on her family farm.
I loved this story.  While it is a love story it is mostly a life story.  It does not glorify the white or the red man's ways but rather looks at both and sees the bad and the good of both of them  It also points out that many of the racist views of both races come from fear and jealousies of our past as well as the new ones that keep cropping up as we all live our daily lives.  This book shows the courage that it takes to be the first of a group to be Christian and learn to love the peole of God no matter their color or thnicity.  This is a book which needs to be read by all but most especially all women to learn to appreciate the freedoms which we now take for granted and should not but rather to appreciate the fight that our foremothers had to fight in order just to live. 
I recieved this book from Waterbrook Press for this review.

Rosemary Cottage by Colleen Coble

Rosemary Cottage by Colleen Coble is a Christian mystery novel which moves quickly.  This book tells the story of Amy Lange who is a nurse midwife who returns to the vacation spot of her family to mourn the death of her much beloved brother, Ben. No one believes that this surfing death is anything but an accident.  Amy meets and grows to love one of her neighbors, Curtis who is raising the daughter of his sister, Gina, who recently died around the same time as Ben.  This seems too big of a coincident to the two of them as Gina and Ben are the parents of Raine the baby that Curtis is raising.  It seems odd that 2 such good swimmers should die within 2 weeks of each other of simple accidents.  This is the story of Curtis and Amy convincing the local police to further look into these deaths and how they all work together to solve the murders of these young parents.

Rosemary Cottage by Colleen Coble is a Hope Beach novel and is evidently the 2^nd in the series but it easily can stand alone as an easy to read novel.  The characters are introduced and the reader is not left wondering how the characters interact.  I loved this book and read it easily in one day; I just could not put it down for long.  It is a Christian novel but that just is a part of the makeup of the characters.  I would recommend this for reading for as young as middle school age children.

I received this book from Booksneeze  for this review.

I've Got Your Back by James C. Galvin

I’ve Got Your Back by James C. Galvin is advertised as a leadership parable of Biblical principles for leading and following well.  This book tells the story of 4 young adults in their 20’s who are trying to survive in the workforce under the influence of exceedingly bad bosses.  They find themselves with the opportunity to learn under the leadership of Jack Hendrickson who is a retired Army Special Forces Sergeant and missionary.  He teaches them Bible principles about leadership by first learning how to be an excellent follower under the bad bosses that they already have.  To begin, this makes their professional lives much worse but later when their boss finds that they are seriously trying to help them life starts getting better.  Each week Jack provides them with a new step and assignment for the week in the process toward good leadership.

This is an easy to read and more importantly interesting to read how to book on leadership.  It is difficult to make a self improvement book interesting to read.  Mr. Galvin has used the same technique that Jesus did—tell a story to teach a lesson.  Mr. Gavin puts the parable into a realistic story of modern times.  Many times people in the workforce know that they are laboring under a poor boss but do not know what to do about it.  This is the book that will help the reader to improve their work situation whether they intend to move into leadership or merely improve the situation under the management currently in charge.  I would recommend this book.

This book was provided by Handlebar Publishing for this review.

Splitting Harriet by Tamara Leigh

Slitting Harriet by Tamara Leigh is a new novel by this author.  Harriet grew up in a good home.  She was always well fed by her loving family.  Her father was a preacher and her mother was always available whenever she needed her.  When Harriet entered her teen years she started to move into a wild party life including indiscriminate sex, alcohol and bars.  One day her brother and 2 female members of her father’s church “rescued” her from a party and cleaned her up and forgave her.  The church was not however all forgiving.  Because of Harriet the church had a split and her father was encouraged to retire.  Harriet (Harri to her friends) has since spent her life trying to keep the church just as it was before her mother and father moved into the mission field.  The new pastor is trying to move the church’s mission into one which is needed for more of the people who live around the area, families with children and young people.  This story is of how the people of this church learned to work together with the younger citizens of the area and make a church family for all the people in which the various ages work together for the good of all.  The members of the church change and not all of them agree with the changes and some do move to other churches but by in large the members find that the intergeneration church improves both the lives of the younger as well as those older members of the church.

I liked how this book integrated the generations and though expecting the elder members to change also used the elder generation to teach the younger the valuable lessons that needed to be learned by the younger as they approach this new life as Christians.  The way it has always been is not always the best way any longer but much can be learned from our elders.  They are not set in their ways for no reason after all.

I received this book from Multnomah for this review.