Review: 30 Red Dresses

30 Red Dresses by Johan Twiss
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was not a book I would have picked up on my own. The title suggest a book that might appeal to female readers. The description indicated a subject of human trafficking. But a strange thing happened. I offered to advance read a different book for the author and I got sent a copy of this book with that cover. It was an honest mistake, but I realized it as soon as I started it. The writing style drew me in.
An 8 year old orphan in the care of her abusive uncle is sold into a brothel. A man on a book tour to Cambodia has to take refuge in the same during a flood. Their paths cross.
This book grabs you and will not let you go. Writing is clear and concise and no word is wasted. You start to feel something for each person in the story. You either love them or hate them, there is no in between.
I recommend this to everyone. Considering the subject, though we are talking about sex trafficking, there is not real sex that takes place in the book, There is more violence in the book than sex. It is safe for all to read. Grab a copy and have your life changed.

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Review: Pineapple Beach House: A Pineapple Port Mystery: Book Five

Pineapple Beach House: A Pineapple Port Mystery: Book Five by Amy Vansant
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ms. Amy has another winner in this interesting series. In fact I think other than book number one, this was the best one. It is nice, even though some of the regular cast is there, we get to get away from the series namesake of Pineapple Port. Even thought the cast is slimmed down we pick up a few others along the way to make up for the ones left behind.

The premise is that Charlotte, her boyfriend, his uncle and two of the husband.wives who raised her in the retirement home she was double orphaned in (read the early books to make sense of that sentence) are going on a working vacation over the Thanksgiving holidays. They agree to repair a beach property owned by a friend in exchange for use of it. Except, it is on the South Carolina coast and there is a huge storm out there. Things get interesting when they find a finger in frozen trash. Did I forget to say there is Nursing Home (Elder Careolina.... get it, North Carolina.... if I have to explain it to you it is just not funny!), that seems to be missing a few residents?

With the weather bad what is a private detective in training going to do? Do I really need to ask? You got it, since the police cannot come to them, they are going to solve the mystery themselves.

This is a fun book, though by the description you might not think so. Amy does a wonderful job of making this cast of characters come to life. I recommend it to anyone wanting a fun mystery. As I have said before, this is not a cozy mystery series. It does not have violence or sex, but it hey it has body parts (just wait till you see the part about the eye!)
As part of the author's street team I was allowed to read the book for free. This is an honest review. If I thought it was bad, you would know it.

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Review: Old Earth or Evolutionary Creation?: Discussing Origins with Reasons to Believe and BioLogos

Old Earth or Evolutionary Creation?: Discussing Origins with Reasons to Believe and BioLogos by Kenneth Keathley
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

IVP press and Netgalley provided a copy that I could review.

I always though that the problems with evolution and the like came down to Christians v. science. I was wrong. In the middle are Christians who are scientist, and even then they cannot agree.
I may have oversimplified the opening point, but I think that it gets the point across. Even among people of faith, there are varying levels of what they believe just as their are people of science.

This book is an attempt at dialogue between two groups of Christians as they discuss things that matter to them in the attempt to have scripture and the world seem to co-exist in a relevant way.
Though they try to imply that this is a series of moderated writings, it comes across as a series of public debates. BioLogos and RTB has sponsored a series of these moderated by the Southern Baptist Convention so it is not that much of a stretch.

There were many times that I was able to push through and read a lot at one sitting and be interested. Other times I just felt that I was fighting my way through the material. I suspect that was more me and the topics that I seemed to have an interest in. I would imagine that the same would be true for others as well. This is not a book that you will have an interest in every topic.

The layout is familiar for each topic:
*moderator introduces topic
*one group speaks
*other group speaks
*moderator brings up rebuttal topics
*one group speaks
*other group speaks
*moderator sums things up

Each chapter a different subject. Each one covered in detail.

I liked the format, and I especially liked that they could disagree on a topic and not get disagreeable. They were polite and even talked about points of agreement that they had.

I am not sure I could recommend this to anyone I know. Maybe someone taking a philosophy class would enjoy it. I enjoyed the book but I am thinking that this might be an acquired taste for me.

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