Prince Noah and the School Pirates by Silke Schnee

Prince Noah and the School Pirates by Silke Schnee is the next book in the Prince Noah series and if you liked The Prince Who was Just Himself you will absolutely love the School Pirates.  This book takes you into the world of Prince Noah as he gets his education.  In this book all children are divided into ships to be educated onboard.  The children are divided depending on who or what they were.  There was a ship for boys, one for girls, one for children with eye patches, one for children who had only one leg and a ship for children who didn't learn so fast.  Noah was sent to the school on the sailing ship for children who didn't learn so fast.  Noah's ship was multicolored and looked different from the rest which were decorated according to who was schooled there: girls were pink, boys were on the orange one, the children who couldn't see very well had very high sides.  The children on Noah's boat learned things and also danced in class.  The girls learned to paint and sew but not to learn math.  The boys played sports and their teacher had given up on teaching boys anything but games, diving and climbing.  Each ship had learning based on what everyone thought they could learn but some of the girls wanted to learn math and the other children wanted to be able to learn other things but it had always been done like this and so it continued until the day of the big storm.  The storm carried them off  into pirate territory.  The pirates captured the boats and threw the children in the pirate ship hold. To find out how the children work together to rescue themselves and their teachers read this exciting book.

I loved this book and how it held the attention of the children to whom I read this.  This book discusses the education system still in use in Germany.  This story tells of how education could be improved with what in the U.S.A. we call mainstreaming.  The book is beautifully illustrated and the children will love looking through the pages.  The star of this book series is based on the author's son who happens to have Trisomy 21 commonly called Down Syndrome.  This book is based on what could be accomplished in Noah's life with a change in the education system.
This book was provided by Handlebar for this review.

To Love a Stranger by Colleen Coble

To Love a Stranger by Colleen Coble is the newest Christian love story to be published.  In this western love story Ms Coble takes the reader back in time to pioneer Utah and Arizona territory in the days of the mail order brides.  Jasper Mendenhall desperately wants a bride to share his life with in Arizona territory and so has been corresponding with Bessie or at least he thought it was Bessie.  In reality Bessie's beautiful but spoiled little sister, Lenore who is just seeking a little excitement has been writing back and forth with him.  They have even exchanged pictures but Lenore who is already engaged to another has been corresponding with her picture and Bessie's name.  Of course as with most lies Bessie finds out.  Bessie is mortified but somehow Lenore convinces her to marry him and then afterwards to go out to the post and meet him and live with him.  Lenore of course doesn't tell Bessie about the picture exchange and she doesn't tell Jasper about the sister exchange.  Jasper of course is shocked when the very plain Bessie is who arrives on the train from Boston as is the rest of his family. Bessie agrees to go with Jasper from Utah to settle in Arizona at the new fort.  This is the story of how Bessie and Jasper not only learn to live together but fall in love with each other.

I loved this story.  It proves that though the looks of the person does matter it is also possible to love the looks of a person because you love them.  This book tells of the hardships of settling the west but that many loved the life and stayed to settle the new country.  This tells of the importance of faith when the hardships close in on you.  And the importance of honesty when you think that the other person will never except the reality of what really is. 
This book was provided by Booksneeze for this review.

Fraying at the Edge by Cindy Woodsmall

Fraying at the Edge by Cindy Woodsmall is the second installment of the Amish of Summer Grove series.  This installment follows Ariana and Skylar as they now are required by Nicholas the biological father of Ariana and the father who helped raise Skylar to switch lives. Ariana follows his edict because she wants to make sure that the midwife who brought her into this world does not get sued and Skylar because she was given the choice of go into drug rehab or go into the Amish family in which she was supposed to belong before being switched at birth.  Ariana is as completely lost in the English world of cell phones, electricity and cars as Skylar is with living the Amish lifestyle of hard work and living with her new sisters all in the same bedroom.  Both girls must dig deep into their own strengths in order to survive in their new surroundings.  Ariana is no longer living the deeply religious family centered life and now is expected to learn new skills such as driving a car with her atheist father while at the same time Skylar is being expected to help with gardening, the closeness of a large family, and helping out in the family café while detoxing from her old drug filled lifestyle.  Skylar has attempted to keep in contact with her boyfriend who occasionally brings her the drugs she needs as well as stealing from the cash drawer and the medicine cabinets of family members.  Ariana even though missing her family and her boyfriend learns to accept and even enjoy some of the new opportunities offered by her new family as well as reconnecting with her old friends Quill and Frieda.  Skylar learns to love herself and the closeness of a loving family while dealing with her feelings of rejection from the family that she had always known. 

I loved this installment from this series and I am so anxiously awaiting the next installment.  This one was quite possibly better than the Ties that Bind 1st book of the series.  This book deepens the development of all the characters in the 1st as well as deepening the reader's understanding of the characters complex personalities.  As in real  life each one has a reason for being the way that they are.  This is quite possibly Ms. Woodsmall best book and that is saying a lot because I have loved them all.  Hurry and write the next one.  I am so excited to read it.
I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Vegangelical by Sarah Withrow King

Vegangelical by Sarah Withrow King is a book with the premise that Christians should not or at least consider not eating meat or meat product and points to Biblical references to back up her premise.  To further back up her claims she also points out the many reviews on factory farm operation practices as well as some of the well publicized dubious practices of factory meat processing plants.  She proclaims that if we as humans are to have dominion over the animals then we should be taking the best care of them and not killing them for food or really any other reason.  She states that the original purpose that God had for humans was to care for the animals and not eat them as originally Adam and Eve were vegetarians.  She admits that she used to eat meat, eggs and milk without thinking anything of it but that upon reflection she feels that now she would be not doing her Christian duty if she were not vegan.  She states that if we cared for animals and did not kill them for food or anything else then our Earth would flourish as God intended because less land would be required for food.

This book was an interesting read but I felt it was a little far fetched in some of her ideas as expressed in the book.  As a rural person I feel that not eating meat because of a few poorly managed factory farms and processing plants is short sided.  I feel that on our farm we treat our animals in a way in which the animals are treated as animal were intended-cattle graze on pasture rather than fed in a feed lot, our chickens roam the yard and pasture and are only in the chicken house at night or as they get hungry to eat something other than bugs, weeds, or an occasional tomato out of my garden.  We also eat our excess roosters and share a calf and a pig a year with 3 families.  Having been raised on the Bible my whole life and whereas I thought this book sometimes interesting, I don't think the Bible tells us to be vegan.  If I used some of the thoughts expressed in this books I would quit eating fruit--after all God's first punishment for humans was for eating fruit from the tree of knowledge. 
I received this book from BookLook for this review.

June by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

June by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore is a the next delightful novel by the bestselling author of Bittersweet.  Cassie has just lost her grandmother, the closest person to her and the person who raised her after the death of her parents in a car accident.  Cassie is depressed that she hadn't even spent enough time with her grandmother, June, to even notice that she was dying of cancer. Cassie has inherited her grandmother's house and is astonished to find that it is falling down in disrepair.  How could all of this happened and Cassie not even notice?   Her depression is so bad that it is all Cassie can do to even get up out of bed after spending 16 or more hours there.  If that were not enough there are the strange dreams of the past.  It is as if the house has its own life and it is trying to tell her of its past and of Cassie's own history and that of June's life as a young girl.  While Cassie is wallowing in her own sadness, one day the doorbell awakens her midday and the caller, Nick, announces that Jack Montgomery, an old famous actor, has left her his entire fortune along with the announcement that she is his granddaughter.  Of course Cassie knows that this must be a hoax, wouldn't she know it if she were a part of a famous man's family?  Nick it turns out works for one of Jack's daughters, Tate, and she was expecting to inherit the money and is miffed that the money is to go to someone she has never even heard.  Nick's job  is  to get Cassie to give him some DNA off of a cheek swab and he could be on his way.  That is what he was supposed to do but Nick just loves the character of the old house and gets lost looking at the crown molding and such.  Nick is not bad to look at and he is very interesting so though Cassie agrees that it is very unlikely that she is related she wants to have more information about Jack and her grandmother, June.  Soon Nick and Tate along with her sister Elda, none of whom get along have moved into Cassie's house and Cassie finds herself interested in finding out the truth of the house and June and Jack's love story.

This story easily flows back and forth between the summer of 1955 and June and Jack's love story and the present day of cell phones and the renovation of the house.  The reader finds herself drawn into how this story could have taken place and the secrets needed to keep the story in the past.  Cassie has always thought she knew her grandmother and grandfather, Art Danvers, but there was the time she deeply hurt her grandmother after she had made the picture of her family car accident and displayed it.  Cassie had thought she was merely portraying  distant memory but her grandmother had strangely said something about keeping it quiet like it was a secret. At the time she had just thought it was the bottle on the floorboard of the car that caused June all the distress.  Then Cassie had known that her grandfather's real name was Adlebert and though she thought it an odd name she didn't know until Nick told her that this was Jack Montgomery's real name.  This mystery/love story is difficult to lay down once you start reading it so don't start it just before bed unless you want to be up all night.
I received this book from Blogging for books for this review.

Sister Eve and the Blue Nun by Lynne Hinton

Sister Eve and the Blue Nun by Lynne Hinton is the next escapade of the Eve Divine mysteries.  While Eve is back at the monastery to listen to  a speech by a young professor from the college, Dr. Kelly Middlesworth, on one of Eve's favorite subjects, the Blue Nun.  This nun's merits were being discussed for sainthood.  Eve had very much hoped that her sister nun would be judged a saint and was interested in the new evidence being presented in the first session in the morning.  She was also friends with the professor's brother as he was a monk in the monastery.  Eve couldn't sleep so she had made her way to the chapel to pray, she just didn't know how to help her friend, Anthony who had just had a big fight in front of everyone with his sister, Kelly.   Well she couldn't sleep anyway might as well go talk with Kelly and see if she could help smooth the waters.  As she stood to leave there stood Anthony with tears streaming and so distraught he could barely tell her that he had just come from Kelly's room and she was dead and that it was all his fault.  Eve ran to check on Kelly just to make sure she was dead and not just really sick--well she was dead.  It appears and smells like from drinking arsenic laced tea.  All evidence points to Anthony but Eve just knows he couldn't have done it-no matter what he said.  Read this next episode in Sister Eve's adventures with all its twists and turns.
I liked this book as I have liked all of the Sister Eve stories.  These books are easy to read and can be enjoyed by any age group.  It is a Christian novel though that is not part of the story other than it takes place in a monastery and the main character is a nun who is trying to decide if she wants to take her final vows.  It is a difficult decision for her but the pull of working in her father's private eye business is challenging her brain.
I received this book from Booksneeze for this review.

Someone Like You by Victoria Bylin

Someone Like You by Victoria Bylin is the next Christian novel by this author.  Julia Dare has just started a new business, broken up with her on again off again fiancé, moved in with her recently widowed mother, became a new Christian, and if that isn't enough she is a single mom of a young son, Max.  Julia got involved with Max's father, Hunter, while she was dating a good Christian man, Zeke, because he seemed exciting at the time.  Now that Max is in her life however she would like less drama and more help or at the very least some support for what she does every day.  Julia is in search of a new venue for Carter Home Goods.  This company rewards their employees with vacations and Julia is headed out to meet with someone named Ashley and look at a historical resort called Caliente Springs.  When she arrives however she finds that Ashley is at the hospital with her daughter and she is going to meet with the manager of Caliente Springs.  Imagine her surprise, not to mention embarrassment when she comes face to face with Zeke who is the manager.  While Zeke shows her around Caliente Springs she finds that it is in a state of disrepair but utterly charming and speaking of charming so is Zeke.  But Zeke is in trouble because the owner of the resort wants to put on the wedding of the century at the resort not only that but he needs to have this wedding outside and ready to go in only a month.  Julia is sitting in the room and thinks she can help and agrees to be the planner of this event.  What else could happen or go wrong?
  If you love Christian novels then you will like this one.   It has more twists and turns than the average Christian love story and I think anyone especially women and teenaged girls will love this.  There is no strong language or sex in this novel so really safe for any age to read.
I received this book from BethanyHouse for this review.