My Review of "Waiting for Morning"

Karen Kingsbury's Waiting for Morning is the first of her novels I've ever read. So I was excited to get to review Waiting for Morning, and although it had its imperfections, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think the characters are, for the most part, very real.

The story recounts the tragedy of Hannah Ryan. Hannah waits at home for her family -- her husband and two teenaged daughters -- to return from a camping trip. But what she wants, isn't want she gets. Instead, a police car pulls into her driveway, delivering to her the worst news a mother and wife could imagine. The aftermath of what has happened is simple: Hannah is full of rage and grief and makes it her missing to get revenge on Brian Wesley, the drunk driver who took her family from her. Somewhere along the way, she began to blame God, too, and now it's up to two people to bring her peace and forgiveness and closeness to God again.

The story weaves the biblical text of Lamentations into the real lives of people who face extraordinary loss. What we find in Waiting for Morning is a Christian retelling of the story of Lamentations -- the movements and moments between grief and hope, between anger and forgiveness. What readers find here is a moving story of just how those things must exist together. Without grief, hope becomes insipid. Without forgiveness, anger only becomes bitterness.

Certain elements of the story are predictable -- those are Waiting for Morning's imperfections. And I had to suspend my disbelief more than once. (Jenny is a particular character that I found just too unbelievable to be real.) But if you overlook those, Kingsbury's Waiting for Morning is a novel worth reading.

I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

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My Review of "Come as You Aren't"

Come as You Aren't: A Role-Playing Game for Adventurous Couples is a simple role-playing kit for couples who want to explore and experiment in ways to seduce one another that they simply wouldn't have imagined otherwise. The set is meant to offer one partner who draws a Who, a What, and a Where card at random and places them in an envelope for the other partner. From there, it's up to them to enact the scenarios as they see fit. The instructions are printed on the back cover of the box and the deck comes with a few blank cards for couples to customize. This is a fun little gift for couples -- and just in time for the holidays. I received a free copy of this game from the Blogging for Books review program in exchange for my honest review here.

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tasting rome -- a book review

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The Mrs. & the Minister

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