Eat Cake. Be Brave. By Melissa Radke

I purchased this book from Amazon to read with my sister. All opinions are my own. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Eat Cake. Be Brave. By Melissa Radke. An incredible true story of a woman who made a vow to be brave. We have all had those moments we fell and didn’t want to get up, those times where you just felt like getting out of bed was too much work, the moment when fun out weighed what needed to be done and while those stories are in this book, the message here is keep going, keep fighting, keep pushing forward because the blessings coming are better than where you are right now. The biggest message is BE BRAVER THAN YOU WERE YESTERDAY, oh, and yes if you are offered cake then you might as well eat it too! Review also posted on Instagram @borenbooks, Twitter @jason_stacie, Amazon, Goodreads/StacieBoren, Library Thing, and my blog at readsbystacie.com

Louisiana Catch by Sweta Srivastava Vikram

I purchased this book from Amazon to read. All opinions are my own. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Louisiana Catch by Sweta Srivastava Vikram. Ahana, a New Dehli raised child, escapes an abusive marriage only to lose her mother in the same year, just as her dream and career are taking off. In one of her weakest moments her cousin convinces her to join an online therapy group. Her new career forces her into creating social media and sets her up with a PR rep. She accepts a position to coordinate an annual conference called NO EXCUSE to raise awareness for violence against women. She immerses herself in dealing with the conference and misses key things happening in the world around her. Her PR rep guru has devoted himself to her but she only sees him as a womanizer and the one man she puts her trust into from her counseling group manipulates her emotions and creates gut wrenching pain inside of her. This novel is the perfect vision of being human in a digital world and what it mean when what you see online isn’t what’s real. The perfect balance of a self shaming woman trying to be heard in a sea of voices. Sweta Srivastava Vikram has perfected what it feels like to be a victim and on that road to self healing you want to shout and be heard but not feel noticed all at once. The book contains beautiful scenes from New York City, New Orleans and glimpses of New Dehli and tells a powerful story in less than 300 pages. Amazing. Review also posted on Instagram @borenbooks, Twitter @jason_stacie, Goodreads/StacieBoren, Amazon, Library Thing, and my blog at readsbystacie.com

Things You Save In A Fire by Katherine Center

I purchased this book from @bookofthemonth to read with my bestie @mycornerforbooksand. All opinions are my own. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Things You Save In A Fire by Katherine Center. Cassie has spent her entire adult life ensuring her place in the fire department. She has worked hard to keep her emotions, her career, and her personal life separate from her career, and her theory is simple: keep people at a distance preferably as far as possible. One night, one phone call and one decision to punch a handsy ex-boyfriend sends her entire world impaling in on itself. In order to find true happiness she has to find a way to learn forgiveness. Not just for everyone in her past but most of all for herself, even when giving up feels so much easier. Review also posted on Instagram @borenbooks, Library Thing, Goodreads/StacieBoren, Twitter @jason_stacie, Amazon, and my blog at readsbystacie.com

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

I purchased this book from Amazon to read with our local Bookclub. All opinions are my own. 🌟🌟🌟🌟 The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren. What a fun summer read! Olivia’s twin sister Ami gets married and after everyone at the reception gets ill from the buffet style dinner they had Olivia is forced into taking her sister’s place on the honeymoon. The catch is she has to take it with the best man, which she loathes. But come on guys it’s Maui! Who don’t want an all expense paid vacation at an Island resort even if you have to share a hotel room with your arch enemy? 10 days can’t be that terrible right? On the vacation things begin to unravel that will change the future for Olivia and her twin forever. Review also posted on Instagram @borenbooks, Library Thing, Amazon, Twitter @jason_stacie, Goodreads/StacieBoren and my blog at readsbystacie.com

Eat Pray Hustle by Havilah Cunnington

I purchased this book from Amazon to read with my sister and our Bible Study Group. All opinions are my own. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Eat Pray Hustle: Dream Chasing God’s Way by Havilah Cunnington. Dream chasing can be tricky. Finding your dream, building your dream, living your dream, protecting your dream, which season of life are you in? Do you think conquering all your dreams at once is the plan? One at a time? Patience, practice, protection are all very important dream building steps, this 20 day Bible Study derived from the life of Abraham is designed to help you understand the signs that will lead you down the path to your great dreams. Review also posted on Instagram @borenbooks, Library Thing, Amazon, Twitter @jason_stacie, Goodreads/StacieBoren and my blog at readsbystacie.com

The Guest Book by Sarah Blake

I received this book from my bestie @k.e.radke to read. All opinions are my own. 🌟🌟🌟🌟 The Guest Book by Sarah Blake. It is great to have friends that can share their books with you and this book is one that everyone should read! The secrets one family can hide from one generation to the next can only become known is someone outside knew. This book spans three generations of Miltons, beginning with grandparents Kitty and Ogden Milton who purchased an extravagant home on an Island in the 1930s. Their 5 grandkids now have to figure out how to keep the home in the family without going into debt. Once the family makes a temporary decision two of them return to the home and secrets long kept begin to unravel slowly. As if it wasn’t hard enough to jump into your future you now have to look back at the past and think where do I go now. This Island is what has held The Miltons together but it is also every reason they have to hold onto their secrets and let go of what can’t be undone. The words set to the scene make you feel like you open the book and step right into the summer between the pages. Review also posted on Instagram @borenbooks, Library Thing, Amazon, Twitter @jason_stacie, Goodreads/StacieBoren, and my blog at readsbystacie.com

Still Lives by Maria Hummel

I purchased this book from @bookofthemonth to read with my bestie Christina. All opinions are my own. 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Still Lives by Maria Hummel. A young editor working for a Los Angeles Art Museum finds herself sifting through the kidnapping of a new up and coming artist that goes missing the night of her opening gala. Kim Lord is about to become famous for depicting herself as a murder victim in her art and even worse stole Maggie’s boyfriend, Greg. Maggie is in over her head when her ex-boyfriend Greg trusts her with details she shouldn’t have access to and a private investigator begins popping up in unexpected places, Maggie runs through the suspects of Kim’s kidnapping until the pieces began flying at her faster than she can make them make sense. Soon she’s standing next to her closest friend and wondering if she’s ever going to survive the mess Greg trusted her with. Review also posted on Instagram @borenbooks, Library Thing, Amazon, Twitter @jason_stacie, Goodreads/StacieBoren and my blog at readsbystacie.com

June Reading Wrap Up

June has flown by and it was such a busy month I was no where near my monthly goal for reading. I usually try to reach between 16 and 20 a month. This month only 12. Books I finished in June:

🌹 Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
🌹 Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
🌹 Love and Luck by Jenna Evans Welch
🌹 Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
🌹 31 Proverbs to Light Your Path by Liz Curtis Higgs
🌹 Legend by Marie Lu
🌹 The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin
🌹 Rebel Seoul by Axie Oh
🌹 City of Omens by Dan Werb
🌹 Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte
🌹 Whiskey and Charlie by Annabel Smith
🌹 How Joyful People Think by Jamie Rasmussen

In July I am looking forward to The Guest Book by Sarah Blake, Still Lives by Maria Hummel, The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren, Eat Pray Hustle Bible Study, When God Doesn’t Fix It by Laura Story and maybe starting ACOTAR series since I’m probably the last person on the planet to read it.

How Joyful People Think by Jamie Rasmussen

I purchased this book from Amazon to read with my friend Kayla. All opinions are my own. 🌟🌟🌟🌟 How Joyful People Think by Jamie Rasmussen. Kayla and I have read many, many Bible studies and Devotions together. Some if them only skim the surface of feelings and some reach into our core and pull things out we never thought of. This one took a different approach for me. I wasn’t one that gets you all fired up. It wasn’t one that tears the emotion from you and makes you cry. This one was about perception centered on one Bible verse. Phillipians 4:8 Not the kind of perception that makes you think the glass is half empty or half full but the kind of perception that is laid out word for word in The Bible. The way we were created to think. Whatever is honorable. The power of a “biblical whatever.” Whatever is just. Whatever is pure. Whatever is lovely. Whatever is commendable. If there is any excellence. If there is anything worthy of praise. Imagine 8 topics that can lead you to a better way to problem solve, a more positive way of thinking and ultimately a joyful life. Not because the situation or problem has changed but because in 8 simple steps you can adjust the way you approach and perceive the problem at hand. Review also posted on Instagram @borenbooks, Library Thing, Amazon, Twitter @jason_stacie, Goodreads/StacieBoren, and my blog at readsbystacie.com

Whiskey and Charlie by Annabel Smith

I purchased this book from Wal-Mart to read. All opinions are my own. 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Whiskey and Charlie by Annabel Smith. Whiskey and Charlie (born William and Charlie) are twins born in England, named after Princes and couldn’t have been closer until those competitive teen years. In younger years they used walkie talkies and spoke to one another in two-way alphabet they were taught by a guy in the American Air Force. When the family moves to Austrailia things begin to get awkward for Charlie, he feels like his twin brother Whiskey is the favored brother better at everything except Golf. As the boys get older the rift grows and grows until one day Charlie recieved a phone call Whiskey was in a horrible accident and is in a coma. For months Charlie struggles to hold his life together, control his anger, and deal with strange family issues that continue to pop up. He attempts to understand what’s going on with Whiskey’s medical care until everything become too complicated. The guilt he feels over the silly fight he’s had with his twin 10 years ago becomes too much for Charlie to bear if Whiskey doesn’t wake up he will never get to make amends. I cried, I laughed, I felt everything Charlie was feeling as it was happening in the book. There was not a moment when I thought that was unrealistic or that was not the appropriate emotional response. The feelings in this book were real. Review also posted on Instagram @borenbooks, Library Thing, Amazon, Twitter @jason_stacie, Goodreads/StacieBoren, and my blog at readsbystacie.com