The Healer’s Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson

Genre- Teen Fiction

The Healer’s Apprentice  by Melanie Dickerson

Published by- Zondervan

Copyrighted- 2010

Number of pages- 268

Age Group- Grade 7-10

Description of book- softcover, list price $9.99, ISBN: 978-0-310-72143-7

Rose is the healer’s apprentice at Hagenheim Castle.  She doesn’t like the sight of blood, but she needs to prove herself.  She doesn’t want to marry any of the elderly bachelors and widows her mother wants her to marry.

Lord Hamlin, the future duke, falls for Rose when she takes care of his injury from a boar.  Hamlin is unable to act upon his feelings, because he is betrothed to a young lady in hiding.

Rose has fallen for Lord Hamlin, but she knows he is betrothed to another.  She needs God to help her determine her own destiny.  Can she do it?

About the author- Melanie Dickerson lives in Alabama with her husband and two daughters.  She has a bachelors degree in special education of the hearing impaired and has been a teacher and missionary.  Her novel has been a finalist seven times in Romance Writers of America sponsored contests.

 

My thoughts- I loved reading this book.  I thought it was a great idea to use the basic storyline of Sleeping Beauty.  Rose is a wonderful example of how the young ladies of today should behave.  She did have moments of weakness, as most of us do, but she was strong when it was most important, when Lord Rupert and Lord Hamlin presented temptation or were the temptations themselves.  Even when she had the chance to be with both of them she held to her morals with the knowledge that God was with her and would help her.

 

I thought this book was wonderful and I would highly recommend this book to all young ladies so they learn better ways to behave and treat romance. 

Disclosure of Material Connection- I received The Healer’s Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson for free from Zondervan. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255. All links were current when posted.

Going Deep by Gordon MacDonald

Genre- Religion/Christian Life/Spiritual Growth

Published by- Thomas Nelson

Copyrighted- 2011

Number of pages- 384

Age Group- Adult

Description of Book- paperback, list price $6.99, ISBN 978-0-7852-2608-6

Have you ever wanted to become a deep person in Christ?  This book is going to show you how, so be prepared to enjoy this book and don’t forget to take notes.

Gordon MacDonald uses the fictional setting from his book, Who Stole My Church?  As the priest he realizes his church is missing something.  Deep people.

Along with his wife, Gordon chooses a small group of people to meet once a week to cultivate into deep people.  The group, along with Gordon and his wife learn what spiritually deep people are like.  And excitement spreads to the rest of the church.

Author- Dr. Gordon MacDonald has written a number of books and has been a pastor over fifty years.  He lives with his wife, Gail, in New Hampshire.

My Thoughts- I haven’t read any of his books, but I was intrigued when I read the synopsis.  I want to be a deep person for God and I thought this book would help me do that.

One of the best parts of this book was that is was written as a novel, which made it much easier to read.  I thought it could be dry if it had been written as nonfiction.

Even though it may be written as a novel, there were many nuggets of information in each chapter.  It took many notes about how Gordon should be a rabbi like Jesus, the group learned about their temperaments, how to pray, and many other things.

I would like to see a workbook to go with this book.  It would help many readers become deep people if there was a guide they could use on a daily basis.

I highly recommend.

Disclosure of Material Connection- I received Going Deep by Gordon MacDonald for free from the publisher through the BookSneeze Review Bloggers Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

The Scroll by Grant R. Jeffrey and Alton L. Gansky

Genre- Fiction/Suspense

Published by- WaterBrook Multnomah

Copyrighted- 2011

Number of pages- 342

Age Group- Adult

Description of book- paperback, list price $16.99, ISBN 978-0-307-72926-2

Here is a link to an excerpt.

Dr. David Chambers no longer wants to be a biblical archeologist, so he becomes a professor.

Abram Ben-Judah, an old mentor, asks him to come back to Israel to help him find the treasures written about in the Copper Scroll.  David feels he has no choice but to go.

Will this help renew his desire to be a biblical archeologist, his faith in God, and his former fiancée?

About the authors-

Grant R. Jeffrey lives in Toronto with his wife, Kaye.  He has written more than two dozen books and is a respected teacher of biblical archeology and prophecy/eschatology.

Alton L. Gansky lives in California with his wife.  He has been involved in more than 30 novels with nine nonfiction. 

My thoughts- I like reading suspense and Christian based books.  This book didn’t live up to either of those for me.  There was suspense here and there, but there wasn’t as much as I thought there was going to be based on the cover of the book.  Most of the high suspense didn’t happen until the last quarter of the book.

I know Dr. Chambers used to believe more in God, so I thought there would be more from the other characters to lead him back to God.  I was glad to see that by the end of the book that he does come back to God and become a better man.

I had a hard time putting this book down, so I recommend The Scroll.

Disclosure of Material Connection- I received The Scroll by Grant R. Jeffrey and Alton L. Gansky for free from the WaterBrook Multnomah “Blogging For Books” program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.