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It just shouldn’t be this hard!”



Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a day where everything that could go wrong does go wrong—you lock your keys in the car while it’s running, lose control with your kids, make a mistake at the office that results in hours more work. And just when you think not one more thing could possibly happen . . . well, fill in the blank. The struggle is real, friends. It may not be major stuff. Lives are not on the line here. But it makes us feel awful . . . and then we feel guilty for stressing when other people have “real” problems that are so much more serious. Yet the fact remains: We live in a world that often feels harder than we think it should be. And so it can be easy to believe the stories we tell ourselves—that we’re doing it wrong, that we’ll be stuck in this place forever, that God doesn’t love us. We struggle to practice gratitude, to make godly choices, and to live our daily lives with confidence and contentment. So what can we do? Join popular Bible teacher and counselor Nicole Unice to discover why the struggle is real . . . and what to do about it. Nicole offers practical tools to help you navigate the daily ups and downs, and ways to rewrite your struggle into a new, God-centered life story. The Struggle Is Real is an invitation to take the hard, hurtful, and confusing moments and turn them into opportunities to grow in wisdom, strength, and joy.





 My Thoughts: We all have days that seem to go wrong; sometimes life just seems to be a struggle. Where do we turn? Nicole Unice teaches us to turn to God and to understand why these days happen to us and how to deal with them. She shows us how to make "Godly" choices that will help us, rather than make us feel joyless.


This is a wonderful book, that I encourage all to read. I know we all have had a period of time in our lives when every day is difficult, a day when we say "Why Me?". This book will help us understand why life seems like a struggle, why we respond the way we do in some situations. This book will prepare you and help you. We need to remember that God is greatest, and He knows best. In other words, trials form us, shape our character, make us stronger and God is in control!


This is an exellent read and highly recommended.



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The Frightened Little Flower Bud
The Frightened Little Flower Bud
Renée Paule | 2018 | Children
6
6.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I don’t usually read Children’s Books. I used to love them when I was a kid, and of course, those were the books on which I learned how to read. Those are the stories that I will always remember with happiness in my heart and they will always have a special place in my heart.

I was lucky enough to win The Frightened Little Flower Bud on a giveaway from Booklikes, and I couldn’t be happier! This is a short, cute story about one flower, and the process of how it blooms.

Before it blooms, it has many fears as to what is going to happen, it fears that the sun will dry it, and the rain will drown it, and that it won’t be as beautiful as the other flowers out there.

It reminds me of the fears that us people have every day before we go out of the door. We fear this and that, without realising to enjoy our lives, and live them like they are our last. A perfect description of how fear and doubt can let us down, but also a perfect example of what happens when you actually get the courage and go out there, and realise that yes - you can be the prettiest flower out there.

I liked how there are questions at the end of the books, to engage the little readers after reading it. However, in all honesty, I believe that the images inside the books won’t keep a kid there for very long, and they might not be the most exiting this in the world.
  
This was your typical, hilarious Rick Riordan companion novel. Like Percy Jackson telling us in his witty way about Greek mythology in the two books about Greek Gods and Greek Heroes… Various residents of Hotel Valhalla tell us about Norse mythology. It was filled with interviews, stories and jokes. Part encyclopedia and part comedy sketch. I do wish that it was longer and more in depth. Generally, people know more about Greek mythology than they do about other types, so it would be great to have a more expansive discussion about the gods, goddesses, monsters and origin stories in Norse Mythology. Perhaps this will be rectified in a future expanded novel? That would be my one criticism for this book, otherwise it was a fantastic, quick, funny read. Highly recommended for middle grade and young adult readers who are already fans of Rick Riordan's, love fantasy, mythology, funny books or pretty much anything else. I just recommend that you read the Magnus Chase series before delving into this book to give yourself a little familiarity.
  
5A
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
<a href="https://awindowintobooks.wordpress.com">Full Review</a>
50 American Heroes Every Kid Should Meet by Dennis Denenberg & Lorrain Roscoe is absolutely amazing. I loved every part of this book. It covers a wide variety of American heroes. There are civil war heroes, turn of the century heroes, modern heroes and heroes from when this country was created. There are heroes that are well-known and no so well-known to those i've never hear of. The pictures of great and the fact are spot on. The facts that are given are interesting and relevant to kids and adults.

I would love to use this book in the classroom to teach my students about American heroes both present and past. Also, to teach them that ordinary citizen like you and me can do great things and make a big difference. One aspect I really appreciate as an educator are the activities for further learning.

I received this advanced readers copy from Lerner Publishing Group and Hillbrook Press via NetGalley for an honest review.
  
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KatieLouCreate (162 KP) rated The Surface Breaks in Books

Jun 19, 2018 (Updated Jun 19, 2018)  
The Surface Breaks
The Surface Breaks
Louise O'Neill | 2018 | Young Adult (YA)
8
7.6 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
Good story (1 more)
Feminism
Too much feminism at times (0 more)
Loved reading this book. A nice quick read for those who aren't committed to a long read.

It's a wonderful re-imagining of the Hans Christian Anderson's version of The Little Mermaid. What I like is that it still follows this version of the events to an extent- more accurate than Disney's the little mermaid, at least.

The book is a great read for young women; teaching them that it is ok to be a woman, to love another woman, and to still be strong and independent regardless of social constraints.

What I perhaps dislike is that the man-hating is just a little too much. Yes, some men can be horrible and misogynistic. But not all men. I think there was all but one minor minor character who wasn't a brute towards females- an inaccurate representation of men if you ask me. It just seemed a little too much in my opinion.

But the story line, character development, and writing style are wonderful. :)
  
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Bethr1986 (305 KP) rated Never Let Go in Books

Mar 22, 2023  
Never Let Go
Never Let Go
Lori Duffy Foster | 2022 | Thriller
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Independent Reviewer for Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!


Nick is living his perfect life with his wife Carla and baby Christopher, nothing could be better. He really is contented and, as far as he's concerned, so is his wife. Then she disappears with their son, telling him she doesn't love him anymore but something doesn't sit right with Nick. Nothing is as it seems.


What a brilliantly written book. I seriously didn't want it to end. It had me hooked it was thrilling and suspenseful. I enjoyed the storyline and that it seemed to be more than one story. It didn't get confusing which I find is rare when you do something like that they were all connected in some way. I did find myself, when I got to the end, wanting more pages, I enjoyed it that much.


A recommended read


** same worded review will appear elsewhere **

 

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
  
The Psychology of Time Travel
The Psychology of Time Travel
Kate Mascarenhas | 2018 | LGBTQ+, Mystery, Science Fiction/Fantasy
5
8.3 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Psychology of Time Travel – Kate Mascarenhas [BOOK REVIEW]
Full review on my blog: www.diaryofdifference.com

I love the idea of time travelling and I love the idea of time travelling books. That is the main reason why I chose to read this ARC copy. The synopsis sounded intriguing, and the cover was gorgeous. I don’t have much experience reading time travelling books. I still believe the synopsis is intriguing and the cover is gorgeous, but I am not satisfied with the feelings this book left me, after I read the last chapter.

The story begins when four ladies in the early 1960s work together and build the first time travel machine. And they are surrounded by curious people and media, and one of them has a breakdown and is expelled from the project, as she is a risk to herself and others. But they don’t just exclude her from their project, but from their whole lives, and time travelling altogether.

”Sometimes we want proximity and a crowd gives us the excuse.”

And many years after, when time travelling is something everyone knows about, secrets start to be revealed, little by little, and a murder happens without explanation. A few young women, completely unrelated and with different missions will try to get their way into the whole time-travel business, and try to figure the answers to their questions.

In The Psychology of Time Travel, one is certain – you will flow through time and places like never before. One chapter it’s 1967, and the next one, it’s 2015. You will meet a lady and her young self, her old self, and her current self, all at one place, talking to each other, or simultaneously performing a dancing act. You will get to see a world very well created, a complex structure of how time travel might work, and details that you wouldn’t thought of checking twice.

I couldn’t connect to any character. Maybe there were too many. The chapters were very short, and they travelled through years so quickly, that I couldn’t catch up. Catching up with the plot of a book, and figuring out what is going on while being presented things so fast is very frustrating. It’s like watching a movie in a foreign language, the subtitles being your only way of gathering information, and they disappear instantly, without you having a chance to understand.

The romance in this book was another thing that bothered me. While we get a lot of romantic relationships going around, one particularly threw me off my feet. A love story where one girl is in love with another. This is the completely realistic part. But the unrealistic one was that one girl lives in the present, and the other is a time-traveller in the past – so even though they are currently (technically) the same age, in reality one is in the mid 20s, and the other in the mid 80s. I couldn’t process this, or agree with it.

”You couldn’t get involved with someone who spent most of their life in a different time period from you.”

I am sure I would have loved the characters, have I had more chances to get to know them. They showed signs of bravery, and goals and hopes for a better tomorrow, with a spark unlike any others. But it all lasted so short, before we switched to another character, and so on.

Even though this one didn’t work for me – I still encourage you to give it a go, if you are a fan of time travel. The idea of time travelling is very well done, and deserves to be discussed.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books, for providing me an ARC copy of The Psychology of Time Travel in exchange for an honest review.