A Life Apart by L.Y. Marlow

A Life Apart by L.Y. Marlow is a novel starting during the 1940’s and ending present day.  It is the story of Morris who grew up in an abusive home and decided that his future would be different than his past.  He dated a beautiful girl, Agnes, and when she got pregnant did the right thing and married her.  He loved her but he knew deep down that there was love and then there was LOVE that is everlasting and deep enough to survive all that life threw him.  He joined the Navy and was lucky enough to survive Pearl Harbor but only because his friend, Robert, stuck his black hand in the murky water and pulled Morris’ white behind out and then drug him to safety.  Morris always knew that after Robert died he would find Robert’s family to tell them what a hero he was and how he saved him.  What Morris didn’t know is that he would fall deeply in love with his sister, Beatrice, and the complications that a secret interracial relationship would hurt and enhance all of their lives.  Morris kept the secret of his 2 families—one white and one biracial—for years.  Through the years of his daughter growing up and his son’s death soon after birth.  Through the years of Beatrice’s pregnancy and the raising of their twin daughters.  Through the civil rights years and on and on.  This is the life of one man of this greatest generation mistakes and all but always with love.

I really liked this book.  It will be on my “best books” list.  Anyone of any age could and should read it.  I had not heard of this author before but I am glad I found this book.  It treats with respect an out of wedlock love and does not sugarcoat it but rather deals with the hardships and pain of all who are involved.

I received this book from Multnomah for this review.

Sharing Christ with the Dying by Melody Rossi

Sharing Christ with the Dying by Melody Rossi is a very simple how to book on introducing a dying person to a personal life and afterlife with Jesus Christ.  The author is very open with how she dealt with the deaths of her mother, father and stepmother.  She tells of how to do the introductions but rely on prayer with God in order to decide when to lay low and when to go forward with Christian education.  She freely admits that she cannot "save" anyone--only Christ can do that.  She tells of how first with her mother she overcame her fears of rejection from her mother in order to show her the truth of salvation which was a big part of Ms. Rossi's own life.  She shows how to be non-confrontational but still get across the message before their ultimate death. 
This book is advertised as a how to book for showing Christ to the dying but what I think is that this book would be a great resource book for anyone going into the mission of telling the story of Christ and his loving mercy to anyone.  It brings forward that no one can save anyone else-that is only Christ's job.  But it tells of how through prayer God can guide the missioner with exactly how far to go and what to say at what time.  It tells how to recognize when a person is open to the spirit and when to be low key and just listen to them.  This book does not pretend to be a tell all book but rather instructs to pray and follow your own prompts from the savior in order to guide you in introducing a spirit filled life to another.  This book needs to be read by all ages.  It has many Biblical references for the missioner to use in their own mission work with the dying.
This book was provided by Bethany House for this review.

Secret Revealed by L. Marie Adeline

Secret Revealed by L Marie Adeline is an erotic book mainly written for women.  Cassie  and Solange have joined the group of women of S.E.C.R.E.T.  This is an underground group of women who have basically given up on having a sex life though they all have secret fantasies which until now they had never shared with any other person.  They both meet Matilda who was the leader of the group in different ways but both just as all the other women in the group were exploring not only their sexuality which had been lost but also their self confidence in themselves and who they once were and could be again.  Cassie had just be crushed by the loss of her relationship with Will and Solange with another relationship and also still maintained connections with her former husband and father to her son.  The jest of the novel is that each member of the S.E.C.R.E.T. club meets with Matilda and fills out the form in which each tells of her fantasies.  Matilda and the others then seek to fulfill the fantasy. 

This is the 3rd of the S.E.C.R.E.T.  series by this author.  It is well written and in graphic detail.  Any who had enjoyed the Shades of Grey series would enjoy this series though it is by of course different authors.  Though the lady on the front of the book is white or at least fair skinned this book tells of the black experience and because of that I thought that the least they should have done is graced the cover with a woman of color.  That is about the only complaint that I would have about the book.  This book should be read only by grown women or only children who are mature enough to handle the subject matter (high school age maybe).

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Four Weddings and a Kiss by Margaret Brownley, Debra Clopton, Mary Connealy, and Robin Hatcher

Four Weddings and a Kiss by Margaret Brownley, Debra Clopton, Mary Connealy, and Robin Hatcher is 4 novels within a novel.  The novel opens with 5 men who happen to be pastors sitting around a campfire in 1885 discussing the revival meeting that they have been holding the past week.  The youngest pastor is a very young man and has just broke up with the love of his life because he knows that she is not good pastor's wife material.  He is very conservative and he pastors a conservative church in a conservative community.  His 4 pastor advisors encourage him to marry her if he loves her with these 4 stories of odd love matches.  Each of the authors has authored one of each of the 4 novels.  Then the reader is brought back to the original young pastor's problem and the 5 of them work on the solving of his love problem.  Mary Connealy begins with the spitfire named Maizy who finds herself in trouble after purposely disobeying her father and trespassing onto her neighbor's property.  She finds herself between a bear and a cow with calf being protected by a prize bull.  The owner, Rylan, saves her but not without himself being injured so badly that he will find it difficult to meet his financial obligations to the bank and lose his farm.  Maizy has always done the work of a man dressed like a man but she agrees to follow her fathers edict and wear a dress while addressing the needs of Rylan while he recuperates.   When Rylan's lazy hired hand decides to leave the farm Maizy takes on the ranching needs also but this time she calls the shots and goes back to dressing as she pleases (in pants).  There are 3 more western love stories in the book all set in the late 1800's, all Christian, all quite interesting. 
My favorite story of the grouping was the first though all were very good.  I loved reading them and I think that anyone interested in historic or Christian love stories would also love them.  I highly recommend this novel to readers who are of at least middle school years and this is just for the interest of the content.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading the novel.
This book was provided for this review by Booklook.