Disclosure:   I received these books to review. This post contains affiliate links. Opinions shared are 100% mine.

It’s cold.  Really cold.

Yeah, the calendar says it’s supposed to be cold because it’s January, but I wasn’t expecting THIS.  Temperatures of 4 degrees are not fair when it’s not a day when we can all stay at home in our fleece jammies.  December tricked me into thinking this might be a mild winter.  It might be time to order a Farmer’s Almanac.    Since we haven’t been able to play outside much in the past couple of weeks, I’ve really finished a lot of books!  Wondering what to read this weekend? Here are some stand-outs that you might want to reserve at your library.

The Promise by Beth Wiseman caught my eye because of the dramatic cover and captivating summary on the back cover.  I thought I’d really love this book but, to my surprise, I spent most of it with my hand slapping my forehead.   The main character (Mallory) made one poor decision after another.  She often came across as a naive, spoiled snob.  Cultural stereotypes are exceedingly pronounced in The Promise.  My expectation of loving the book wasn’t the reality, yet I couldn’t put it down.  I had to finish!!  When the author’s note came along at the end of the book, it seemed like a cloud of resentment lifted from my heart.  Knowing that this story is based on true events changed my chagrin to compassion.  The Promise is an eye-opening tale of misplaced trust.  While I felt that there were many directions the story could have taken for perhaps a better ending, it was worth the read.

Evening Prayers: For Every Day of the Year is literally just that.  The book contains a brief prayer for each day of the year.  Usually not a big proponent for pre-scripted prayers, this didn’t appeal to me at first.  My relationship with God is more of the winging-it kind.  There have been times, though, when I felt a bit stumped when it came to prayer.  It was hard to put my feelings into words, or my nebulous worries into a coherent plea.  Evening Prayers is organized and perfunctory.  It might not seem like the most personal of messages until you read the prologue of the book.  The prayers in this book are worshipful, shining with gratitude and reverence.  They’re old-fashioned in a sense.  The concise messages are perfect to use, modify, and enjoy as devotionals in a small group.  I’d like to see an index in the back of the book; this would make it easier to find relevant prayers for specific needs.  Overall, this is a good choice for those who want to start small with a devotional in 2015.

Jumping the gun and suggesting the entire Price of Privilege trilogy to you….although I haven’t read books 1 or 2. Now, I normally don’t suggest books that I haven’t read myself yet. However, I did read the Price of Privilege which is book 3 in this trilogy.  It was ah-may-zing (singsong voice).  With its glorious air singed with mystery and twisted justice, there’s somehow this fairytale feeling of being caught up in an Gothic slash Austenesque novel.  Mournfully, it would have been helpful to read the first two books because clearly I have missed a lot. I’m not sure that I can go back and read the first two with an open heart after finishing off this delectable morsel.  Oh, but I wish I had started with the first!!   Author Jessica Dotta has the storytelling skills of a writer from a bygone era.  The words simply dance off the page!  In this title, there’s this grand scheme playing out that was rather confusing to me. I had no idea where Dotta was headed, until the very end of the novel.  I mean, wow.  If you’re a fan of Christian novels that hint of things behind closed doors yet remain clean enough to pass the book along to your grandmother, then look no further.  You need to start with book 1 and don’t pause until you finish book 3!