Chaos Chronicles

I have just started reading my free, advanced copy, of One Day Way by Chantel Hobbs, thanks to the WaterBrook Multnomah Blogging for Books Program. Here is some information about the book and it’s author.

I will be posting a review and giveaway for it, so check back soon for an update!

One Day Way by Chantel Hobbs

Summary for One Day Way

The One-Day Way produces lasting results by taking you back to basics. No more complicated weight-loss strategies. No more expensive diet plans that achieve only temporary results. Instead, you will lose weight and get fit with Chantel Hobbs’s simple, high-energy meal plans and her at-home program for cardio exercise and strength training. She will teach you how to change the way you think, which leads to new actions. Before you know it you will be strong, fit, and healthy. All it takes is doing things differently for twenty-four hours—and then repeating it.

The One-Day Way gives you everything you need to lose weight and get fit in body, mind, and spirit:

• Break free from past dieting defeats
• Learn a realistic, life-changing way to measure success
• Change the way you think so you can change your life
• Translate your dreams into goals, and your goals into lasting achievements
• Get strong with thirty-one simple exercises, no fancy equipment required
• Take advantage of ten ways to eat better while you lose weight

By focusing on food, faith, and fitness, Chantel shows you not only how to lose weight, but how to build the new life you were designed to live. You don’t have to wait any longer. The One-Day Way gives you all the tools for success, starting right now.

Author Bio:
The author of Never Say Diet and The Never Say Diet Personal Fitness Trainer, Chantel Hobbs, is a motivational speaker, life coach, personal trainer, marathon runner, wife, and mother of four whose story has been featured on Oprah, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Fox & Friends, the 700 Club, and the covers of People and First magazines. She appears weekly on two fitness-themed radio programs and promotes her One-Day Way Learning System on television. Visit Chantel at ChantelHobbs.com for fitness updates and coaching tips.

The wonderful people at WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing (A Division of Random House) supplied me with this book to review, and then gift to my readers, as part of their Blogging for Books Program.  The rules for the giveaway can be found below my review.  Thanks for reading!   If you haven’t read my previous post about this book, you can check it out here.

——————————REVIEW——————————

Thirsty by Tracey Bateman

Thirsty by Tracey Bateman
Chaos Chronicles Rating: Rating:

Thirsty is a really good read, but I had a hard time believing it was vampire fiction.  It’s a great story, and I couldn’t put it down, though that was due to a combination of really good story lines and wondering when it will start reading like vampire fiction.

The main character, Nina Parker, does not have a lot going for her.  Alcohol destroyed her reputation and veterinary practice as well as her family.  Hard times follow this woman where ever she goes, as far back as her childhood.  She is a great character, and you get a good glimpse into her life.

This book is very well written as a regular work of fiction, but doesn’t really cut it as vampire fiction.  The vampire characters were more background characters and were not fleshed out enough to deem this vampire fiction. Instead, the author focused mostly on Nina Parker’s life.

The ending was a little disappointing as well.  While it was a good ending leaving the reading wanting more, it was wrapped up all too quickly and ended in a way I didn’t expect from a book that is supposed to be vampire fiction.

If you read Thirsty knowing it’s not really vampire fiction, it’s a much better read.  If you are expecting a good christian vampire novel, you will most likely be disappointed.

——————————GIVEAWAY——————————

How Can I Enter To Win Thirsty by Tracey Bateman?

Here is the deal! To enter the giveaway all you have to do is leave me a comment telling me about a good vampire fiction novel you’ve come across recently.  You get two entries for the price of one if the novel is Christian. If you do not include this in your comment, it doesn’t count.

For additional entries you can do any or all of the following, but you must let me know how you entered by leaving individual comments for each entry.

1. Join/Follow my blog using the Google Friend Connect Box to the right. – One Entry

2. Follow me on Twitter @nytshade and then Tweet about this Giveaway. – One Entry.

3. Subscribe to my blog (click the big orange square at the top right corner of my page). – One Entry

4. Blog about this Giveaway and link back to me. Put the link to your blog post in your comment. (comment twice please) – Two Entries

5. If you are an Etsy Seller or just an all around crafty person, you can donate an item to my 1000th Post Month-Long Giveaway Extravaganza! – Five Entries

This giveaway is open to everyone. This giveway will end January 15th, 2010 at midnight EST. Winner will be chosen via Random.org and announced the following day. Make sure to fill in your email address so I can contact you if you win. You will have 72 hours to claim your prize.

I have just started reading my free, advanced copy, of Thirsty by Tracey Bateman, thanks to the WaterBrook Multnomah Blogging for Books Program.  Here is some information about the book and it’s author.

Click here for my review and giveaway!

Thirsty by Tracey Bateman

Summary for Thirsty

There’s no place like home, they say.
“Hello, I’m Nina Parker…and I’m an alcoholic.”
For Nina, it’s not the weighty admission but the first steps toward recovery that prove most difficult. She must face her ex-husband, Hunt, with little hope of making amends, and try to rebuild a relationship with her angry teenage daughter, Meagan. Hardest of all, she is forced to return to Abbey Hills, Missouri, the hometown she abruptly abandoned nearly two decades earlier–and her unexpected arrival in the sleepy Ozark town catches the attention of someone–or something–igniting a two-hundred-fifty-year-old desire that rages like a wildfire.

Unaware of the darkness stalking her, Nina is confronted with a series of events that threaten to unhinge her sobriety. Her daughter wants to spend time with the parents Nina left behind. A terrifying event that has haunted Nina for almost twenty years begins to surface. And an alluring neighbor initiates an unusual friendship with Nina, but is Markus truly a kindred spirit or a man guarding dangerous secrets?

As everything she loves hangs in the balance, will Nina’s feeble grasp on her demons be broken, leaving her powerless against the thirst? The battle between redemption and obsession unfold to its startling, unforgettable end.

Then check out this awesome giveaway for IzzyBelle’s over at ParentingPink.com!  I can tell you that if win, I am sooooo getting that Preschool Rocks Tee!

I have just started reading my free, advanced copy, of Kiss Me Again: Restoring Lost Intimacy in Marriage by Barbara Wilson, thanks to the WaterBrook Multnomah Blogging for Books Program.  Here is some information about the book and it’s author.

I will be posting a review and giveaway for it, so check back in a few days for an update!

Kiss Me Again by Barbara Wilson

Summary for Kiss Me Again

Many married women genuinely want to feel more desire toward their husbands.  But while sex before marriage was hard to resist, now resisting seems like all they do. In her new book, Barbara Wilson shows how couples can suffer for years from the “invisible bonds” of previous relationships without even knowing it. Hidden emotions of distrust, shame, and resentment can sabotage even the most loving marriage.

In Kiss Me Again, Wilson:

· Shares her own story of healing and renewed desire

· Helps women forgive themselves and their husbands for past choices

· Shows readers how to break free from “invisible bonds”

· Explains God’s plan for helping a husband and wife to re-bond

· Includes conversation helps for both wives and their husbands

· Helps couples reignite the passion that they thought was lost

With assessment tools, write-in exercises, and gentle guidance, Kiss Me Again offers a biblical plan for rekindling the closeness and passion women long for in marriage. Because no past is beyond the reach of God’s healing touch.

Author Bio:
Barbara Wilson is the author of The Invisible Bond and former director of sexual health education for the Alternatives Pregnancy Resource Center in Sacramento. She speaks nationwide to youth and adults with her message of sexual healing, and she teaches frequently in the women’s ministry at the multi-campus Bayside Church in Northern California. Barbara and her husband, Eric, have been married for twenty-eight years.

I have just started reading If God Is Good by Randy Alcorn.  I will be posting a review and giveaway for it, as part of a Blog Tour from WaterBrook Multnomah Blogging for Books Program.  Here is some information about the book and it’s author.

Check back in a few weeks for my review!

If God is Good by Randy Alcorn

Summary for If God Is Good

Every one of us will experience suffering. Many of us are experiencing it now. As we have seen in recent years, evil is real in our world, present and close to each one of us.

In such difficult times, suffering and evil beg questions about God–Why would an all-good and all-powerful God create a world full of evil and suffering? And then, how can there be a God if suffering and evil exist?

These are ancient questions, but also modern ones as well. Atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and even former believers like Bart Ehrman answer the question simply: The existence of suffering and evil proves there is no God.

In this captivating new book, best-selling author Randy Alcorn challenges the logic of disbelief, and brings a fresh, realistic, and thoroughly biblical insight to the issues these important questions raise.

Alcorn offers insights from his conversations with men and women whose lives have been torn apart by suffering, and yet whose faith in God burns brighter than ever. He reveals the big picture of who God is and what God is doing in the world–now and forever. And he equips you to share your faith more clearly and genuinely in this world of pain and fear.

As he did in his best-selling book, Heaven, Randy Alcorn delves deep into a profound subject, and through compelling stories, provocative questions and answers, and keen biblical understanding, he brings assurance and hope to all.

Author Bios:

Randy Alcorn is the founder and director of Eternal Perspectives Ministries and a bestselling author. His novels include Deadline, Dominion, Edge of Eternity, Lord Foulgrin’s Letters, The Ishbane Conspiracy, and the Gold Medallion winner, Safely Home. He has written eighteen nonfiction books as well, including Heaven, The Treasure Principle, The Purity Principle, and The Grace and Truth Paradox. Randy and his wife, Nanci, live in Oregon and have two married daughters and four grandsons.

I have just started reading You Were Born For This by Bruce Wilkinson. I will be posting a review and giveaway for it, as part of a Blog Tour from WaterBrook Multnomah Blogging for Books Program.  Here is some information about the book and it’s author.

Check back in a few weeks for my review!

You Were Born For This by Bruce Wilkinson

Summary for You Were Born For This

His New York Times phenomenon The Prayer of Jabez changed how millions pray. Now Bruce Wilkinson wants to change what they do next.

Anyone can do a good deed, but some good works can only happen by a direct intervention from God. Around the world these acts are called miracles—not that even religious people expect to see one any time soon. But what would happen if millions of ordinary people walked out each morning expecting God to deliver a miracle through them to a person in need? You Were Born for This starts with the dramatic premise that everyone at all times is in need of a miracle, and that God is ready to meet those needs supernaturally through ordinary people who are willing to learn how Heaven works.

In the straightforward, story-driven, highly motivating style for which he is known, Wilkinson describes how anyone can help others experience miracles in such universally significant arenas of life as finances, practical help, relationships, purpose, and spiritual growth.

You Were Born for This will change how readers see their world, and what they expect God can do through them to meet real needs. They will master seven simple tools of service, and come to say with confidence, “I want to deliver a supernatural gift from God to someone in need today—and now I know how!”

Author Bios:

One of the world’s foremost Christian teachers, Bruce Wilkinson is best known as the author of the New York Times #1 bestseller The Prayer of Jabez. He is also the author of numerous other bestsellers, including A Life God Rewards, Secrets of the Vine, and The Dream Giver. Over the past three decades, Wilkinson has founded several global initiatives, including organizations that recruited and trained thousands of Americans to address hunger, AIDS, and poverty in Africa. Bruce and his wife, Darlene, have three children and six grandchildren. They live outside Atlanta.

David Kopp has collaborated with Bruce Wilkinson on over a dozen bestselling books, including The Prayer of Jabez. He is an editor and writer living in Colorado.

Joy from Joy To The Blog won this giveaway!  Please drop by her blog and congratulate her!

The wonderful people at WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing (A Division of Random House) supplied me with this book to review, and then gift to my readers, as part of their Blogging for Books Program.  The rules for the giveaway can be found below my review.  Thanks for reading!   If you haven’t read my previous posts about this book, you can check them out here and here

——————————REVIEW——————————

Stray Affections by Charlene Ann Baumbech
Chaos Chronicles Rating: Rating:

How wonderful it would be to be able to see God’s blessing unfold before you, and see how He works in all our lives.  Charlene gives the reader this kind of experience with Stray Affections.

In this book, you get to experience something unique.  A glimpse of just how awesome God is, and how His blessings for you can have a ripple affect to those around you.  When God opens the floodgates of His blessings for you, one blessing can, in turn, overflow into a blessing for another person or family.  This is very thought provoking to me, because you never stop to think how a blessing will affect anyone else but you and your family.  When God works in your life, big things can happen.

For me, the begining of the book started off a little slow, but after the first few chapters the book turned into a tear jerker story of how life can really beat you, only for God to send in blessings and healing , in ways you never knew you needed.  Definately have a box of tissues handy.

——————————GIVEAWAY——————————

How Can I Enter To Win Stray Affections by Charlene Ann Baumbech?

Here is the deal!  To enter the giveaway all you have to do is leave me a comment telling me about a special pet you’ve had or one you wish you had. If you do not include this in your comment, it doesn’t count.

For additional entries you can do any or all of the following, but you must let me know how you entered by leaving individual comments for each entry.

1. Join/Follow my blog using the Google Friend Connect Box to the right. – One Entry

2. Follow me on Twitter @nytshade  and then Tweet about this Giveaway. – One Entry.

3. Subscribe to my blog (click the big orange square at the top right corner of my page). – One Entry

4. Blog about this Giveaway and link back to me.  Put the link to your blog post in your comment. (comment twice please) – Two Entries

5. If you are an Etsy Seller or just an all around crafty person, you can donate an item to my 1000th Post Month-Long Giveaway Extravaganza!  – Five Entries

This giveaway is open to everyone.   The Giveway will end September 18th, 2009 at midnight EST. Winner will be chosen via Random.org and announced the following day. Make sure to fill in your email address so I can contact you if you win.  You will have 72 hours to claim your prize.