God I Know You're There (book review and giveaway)

   I have another great childrens book to share with you!  God I Know You're There by Bonnie Rickner Jensen.  This book was such a cute book!  I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish.  The pictures were adorable and the words simple and touching.

  With the turn of each page the picture was brought to life by the words describing the presence of God. 

  Gods presence can be seen and felt throughout all the aspects of nature.  A rainbow, the wind and even the rain.  This story allows the imagination to see that God is by your side regardless of the day, weather or season. 

  Learning about God and following him is hard when you can't see him nor understand the concept but this book is a nice stepping stone.

  Now is your chance to try your luck at winning a copy for yourself! Enter the giveaway here!

  I enjoyed the words on each page as much as the pictures.  This book overall was one of my favorites.  Its such a fun and relaxed read.  Younger kids can understand the points on each page and its easy to translate for kids if they have questions.  This is an easy read board book. Beginner readers can read this book

  I received this book complimentary for review purposes.  All comments and opinions are my own. 

Marlena book review

  My second finished book of the year was a random book selected from the shelf.  I state this because my yearly books will be made up of random books, books suggested to me and book club selections.

  I read 40 books last year based on challenging myself to read more.  This year I have challenged myself to read 50! 

  Marlena by Julie Buntin is a fiction novel.  The story revolves around 2 families of 2 teenage girls.  Both girls live on the same property and are friends based on proximity and income.  One is only slightly better off then the other.  Both girls missing a parent in their life but the similarities end there.

  One girl Catherine whom is enchanted with the older and more rugged Marlena form a unbreakable bond that gets them  feeding danger together.  School becomes unimportant.  Trips to vacant hotels, church tunnels and doghouses are just part of the day.  Eventually too much school skipping is found out all because of a spontaneous pizza lunch. 

  The teens indulge in drugs and alcohol.  Catherine is concerned with her friend but, still follows the bad behavior of her friend.  The setting in a rural  town with minimal entertainment other then finding trouble makes the drug abuse seem almost expected. 

  This book gives you a glimpse of teens and drugs.  Misguided teens, unsupervised teens.  It's kind of a sad story when you read about the drug abuse and how it's obtained, made and sold to other teens. 

  There is tragedy and more tragedy and as much as I would like to state comedy I can't think of one spot.  You don't know where the book is going to take you from start to finish; so you have to read it to the end.


  It was a good book.  The plot was easy to follow.  There was a point to the whole book.  All in want from my books is to not get me lost.  It ends not the way you expect.  The two girls do part ways and you don't expect that from bestfriends either. 

  Now I will end with that I have not spoiled the book if you choose to pick it up!  I'm off to read book number 3!