Stephany Writes

Categories: Books

Book Review: Illusion by Frank Peretti

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Illusion
Author: Frank Peretti
Rating: 5 of 5 stars

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Goodreads Summary:

Dane and Mandy, a popular magic act for forty years, are tragically separated by a car wreck that claims Mandy’s life—or so everyone thinks. Even as Dane mourns and tries to rebuild his life without her, Mandy, supposedly dead, awakes in the present as the nineteen-year-old she was in 1970. Distraught and disoriented in what to her is the future, she is confined to a mental ward until she discovers a magical ability to pass invisibly through time and space to escape. Alone in a strange world, she uses her mysterious powers to eke out a living, performing magic on the streets and in a quaint coffee shop.

Hoping to discover an exciting new talent, Dane ventures into the coffee shop and is transfixed by the magic he sees, illusions that even he, a seasoned professional, cannot explain. But more than anything, he is emotionally devastated by this teenager who has never met him, doesn’t know him, is certainly not in love with him, but is in every respect identical to the young beauty he first met and married some forty years earlier.

They begin a furtive relationship as mentor and protégée, but even as Dane tries to sort out who she really is and she tries to understand why she is drawn to him, they are watched by secretive interests who not only possess the answers to Mandy’s powers and misplacement in time but also the roguish ability to decide what will become of her.

Frank Peretti has crafted a rich, rewarding story of love and life, loss and restoration, full of twists and mystery. Exceptionally well written, Illusion will soon prove another Peretti classic.

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My review:

For a book to be given a 5-star rating with me, it has to grip me from the beginning and never let me go. This book had over 500 pages and I was gripped from start to finish. From the very first page, I was immediately entrenched in Dane’s pain of losing his wife of forty years and then dropped into the mystery of how his wife ended up as a 19-year-old girl in 2010.

Throughout the novel, Peretti painted a picture (how’s that for alliteration?) of Mandy and how she manages to practice her magic. She doesn’t know how she does it but somehow she and Dane (who remains his 60-year-old self) end up in the same town and she begins practicing at a local coffee shop. He takes her on as an apprentice because as crazy as he knows he may seem, she is his Mandy. Their relationship blossoms as Mandy’s career takes off. She has major skills, but Dane knows something else must be at work.

This story had so many twists and turns that in every chapter, I was hesitating to see what would come next. I knew there had to be an explanation for why Mandy, who had died at age 59, was now in present-day as a 19-year-old (but swore she was born in 1959). I like stories that offer a crazy premise but then offer an even crazier explanation for it.

I don’t want to give any part of the story away but trust me when I say, this novel is a must-read. It kept my attention from the get-go and never wavered. Peretti’s writing style gets into your bones and grips you from beginning to end. While there are Christian themes in the book, it’s never overdone or the main premise. It’s written in a way where you know this is a Christian writer, but he doesn’t bang you over the head with it. This was the first Peretti novel I have read and now I’m on a mission to read them all.

All in all, this book affected me deeply. There is so much to take in, so much to discuss, and so much I most likely missed. It’s a book worth a reread, and I’m not one to say that for many books.

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The best part of all this is that I have a copy to giveaway to any of my readers! I’m so excited to be able to give this book away because it’s one I absolutely loved to my core and I think everyone should put it on their “to be read” list. To be entered in the giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post about the last book you gave a “5 star” rating to. The giveaway ends on Sunday, April 1st at 11:59PM EST and I will announce the winner on Monday, April 2nd. Good luck!

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Disclosure: I was given a copy of this book for free, as well as one to give away, in exchange for a fair review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Categories: Books

February Reads

First of all, I completely stole this post idea from Erin. Full credit to her, but love the simple way but effective way of reviewing books one read throughout the month. And yes, I realize it’s mid-March already. Bear with me.

L.A. Candy by Lauren Conrad — 2 stars. I struggled a lot with the rating of this book. On the one hand, the writing was atrocious. The book needed at least ten more rounds of edits, in my (very) humble opinion. But on the other hand? The plot was so intriguing and such a page-turner. Some of it was super silly and the characters were pretty predictable, but at the same time, it was a book I couldn’t stop thinking about when I wasn’t reading it. But I just couldn’t let the terrible writing off the hook. If you can get past the bad writing, it’s an easy, fluffy chick-lit book.

The Admiral’s Bride by Suzanne Brockmann — 5 stars. I finished this book in one day, which is a feat I can rarely do nowadays. (My attention span isn’t to the point where I can sit down for hours and read a book in one sitting.) It was a military-driven romance with strong characters and a crazy plot. I’ve been a Suzanne Brockmann fan for a long time and she never fails to impress me with the way she writes.

Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein — 5 stars. A fabulous book that researched the history behind the girlie-girl movement (i.e., Barbies, Disney princesses, beauty pageants, sexism in children’s toys, etc.) and the effect it is having on our society. Being single with no children on the horizon, I still thoroughly enjoyed this book. Full review here.

Until There Was You by Kristan Higgins — 4 stars. I’ve been a Kristan Higgins fan for a while so I was excited to see this book on my library’s Kindle page. I really enjoyed the book, especially the small-town life and family. The main characters (Posey and Liam) were well-developed but I didn’t feel as if their love story was fully authentic for my tastes. What I do love about Higgins is how real she makes her characters. They are loveable, but also have irritating and complex issues that affect them.

There You’ll Find Me by Jenny B. Jones — 4 stars. This was a sweet, sweet YA novel about a girl, Finley, who moves to Ireland for her last year of high school. Two years ago, her brother Will was killed while overseas where he was reporting for a news station. She comes to Ireland to hopefully find her faith again and find closure to her brother’s death. While the book was slow-moving at first, it definitely picked up and became a book I couldn’t put down for anything! A predictable read, but predictable in a good way.

Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay — 3 stars. This was our #twookclub pick for February and I was excited to read it, after reading tons of great reviews. For me, it felt very slow and I didn’t find Julia’s story very believable or authentic. I loved reading about Sarah’s part and I loved the history in this book, but there was something contrived about Julia that bugged me too much to love the book as others seemed to. (Missed the chat? Here is an edited transcript of it!)

The Duke and I by Julia Quinn — 4 stars. I’m a huge lover of historical romance novels and Julia Quinn has always been one of my favorites. I just started reading her Bridgerton series, which involves the stories of all eight Bridgerton children. The first one involves the fourth child (and first girl) Daphne. She is independent and feisty and sassy. I loved Daphne. She really doesn’t take crap from anybody, not even her husband Simon. She is also a woman who wants to be loved and cherished. I could relate to almost every character in the book. The story was simplistic in nature, but the problems that arose were complex and authentic. I’m excited to read about the other seven siblings!

Books read in 2012: 16

Categories: Books

Book Review: Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein

Cinderella Ate My Daughter
Author: Peggy Orenstein
5 of 5 stars

Goodreads Review:

The acclaimed author of the groundbreaking bestseller Schoolgirls reveals the dark side of pink and pretty: the rise of the girlie-girl, she warns, is not that innocent.

Pink and pretty or predatory and hardened, sexualized girlhood influences our daughters from infancy onward, telling them that how a girl looks matters more than who she is. Somewhere between the exhilarating rise of Girl Power in the 1990s and today, the pursuit of physical perfection has been recast as a source—the source—of female empowerment. And commercialization has spread the message faster and farther, reaching girls at ever-younger ages.

But, realistically, how many times can you say no when your daughter begs for a pint-size wedding gown or the latest Hannah Montana CD? And how dangerous is pink and pretty anyway—especially given girls’ successes in the classroom and on the playing field? Being a princess is just make-believe, after all; eventually they grow out of it. Or do they? Does playing Cinderella shield girls from early sexualization—or prime them for it? Could today’s little princess become tomorrow’s sexting teen? And what if she does? Would that make her in charge of her sexuality—or an unwitting captive to it?

Those questions hit home with Peggy Orenstein, so she went sleuthing. She visited Disneyland and the international toy fair, trolled American Girl Place and Pottery Barn Kids, and met beauty pageant parents with preschoolers tricked out like Vegas showgirls. She dissected the science, created an online avatar, and parsed the original fairy tales. The stakes turn out to be higher than she—or we—ever imagined: nothing less than the health, development, and futures of our girls. From premature sexualization to the risk of depression to rising rates of narcissism, the potential negative impact of this new girlie-girl culture is undeniable—yet armed with awareness and recognition, parents can effectively counterbalance its influence in their daughters’ lives.

Cinderella Ate My Daughter is a must-read for anyone who cares about girls, and for parents helping their daughters navigate the rocky road to adulthood.

My Review:

I should preface my review by saying I am not a mother and I am nowhere close to becoming a mother anytime soon. But I am a woman and I was quite interested in what this book was all about. I grew up in the ’90s and had a collection of Barbies (Veterinarian Barbie was my favorite!), as well as an entire suitcase filled with Barbie clothes, shoes, and accessories. I loved the Disney princesses but especially had a soft spot for Belle and Pocahontas. I never held Barbie (or any of the Disney princesses, for that matter) up to some ideal I needed to get to. They were just toys to play with. That’s it. That’s all. I am not a feminist and I squeal over little pink baby clothes and adorable tutus.

I don’t know what I expected to get out of this book but the subject matter was intriguing. Peggy Orenstein left no stone unturned in her quest to discover the history behind this girlie-girl culture and what effect it is really having on girls today. The chapters were vast and chock-full of information and Orenstein’s own personal stories. She tells of her own struggles trying to raise a daughter in a world consumed by Hannah Montana and princesses. She dissected the pageant scene, Disney stars (such as Miley Cyrus, Hilary Duff, and Christina Aguilera in an appropriately titled chapter “From Wholesome to Whoresome”), the rise of Barbie and Bratz Dolls, and the truth behind fairytales, just to name a few of the topics.

I thoroughly enjoyed Orenstein’s writing style and all the research she put into this book. (She went to a Miley Cyrus concert. That? Is dedication.) She was hard-hitting but backed up everything she said with honest and true facts. And she even let the reader into her own life, documenting problems that had arisen with her own daughter and how she handled them. (And she didn’t put herself on a pedestal as the way all mothers with daughters should solve problems. She had many tugs-of-war with her daughter and she freely admits she didn’t always act in the right way.) I’m not one to say a nonfiction book is a page-turner, but this one most certainly was. I couldn’t get enough of it!

What I learned most of all is that it’s not enough to keep girls away from this new rising culture, but it’s also not enough to give in to their every whim to be the “cool mom”. There is a balance that takes place and discussions that need to happen. Raising daughters in this day and age can be an exhausting task, with the way the online world has exploded (“35 million kids ages three to eighteen-80 percent of kindergarteners alone-are online”, pg. 160), the way Disney princesses have now morphed into beautiful girls filling TV screens (and radios and magazines), and the way marketers are now aiming their sights on kids younger and younger these days. This is a book I think every woman needs to read because I was appalled by some of the facts represented. Orenstein is not talking simply about the “inherent evil” in just Barbie dolls and Disney princesses, but that we need to be aware of what is out there. And it’s not pretty.

I’ll finish this (extremely long!) book review with some quotes:

“…so does the path that encourages them to equate identity with image, self-expression with appearance, femininity with performance, pleasure with pleasing, and sexuality with sexualization.” (p. 8)

“[Disney] princesses avoid female bonding. Their goals are to be saved by a prince, get married,…, and be taken care of for the rest of their lives. Their value derives largely from their appearance. They are rabid materialists.” (p. 23)

“…like pink products all along the age span that urge girls to “be yourself,” “celebrate you,” “express yourself,” they define individuality entirely through appearance and consumption.” (p. 50)

“In 2009, twelve thousand Botox injections were given to children between the ages of thirteen and nineteen. In 2008, forty-three thousand children under the age of eighteen surgically altered their appearance.” (p. 206)

What is your opinion of the “girlie-girl” phenomenon? Do you think it’s harming girls today? What was your experience with Barbie and Disney princesses?

I received this book for free from TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. All words and opinions, unless otherwise stated, are my own.

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading – the February Edition

The Marriage Plot
Author: Jeffrey Eugenides
4 of 5 stars

This was the January book pick for #twookclub. At first, I was excited to read it because I had heard nothing but rave reviews. It was the book I voted for. And then, I started hearing more and more people talk about it. How it was slow and boring. How the characters, especially Maddy, were annoying. Some people even gave up on the book before finishing. So I opened the book with a lot of apprehension. The book was not an easy read, but I can surely shelve it as one of the best books I’ve ever read. The characters were dynamic and interesting, the plot was intriguing, and the themes were compelling. There was something about each main character – Maddy, Leonard, and Mitchell – that called to me. I loved them all and feel like it so accurately depicted the life of a 20-something college graduate and all the mistakes and experiences they go through. I absolutely adored Eugenides’s writing style. And it made for a great, honest discussion during our #twookclub chat. I’m so grateful for all of you who made it to the chat!

 

 

What Happened to Goodbye
Author: Sarah Dessen
5 of 5 stars

Mclean Sweet is a 17-year-old girl who had her world rocked when her parents announced they were getting a divorce. Her mom was leaving her father to marry the coach of her father’s favorite basketball team. And her mom was pregnant with the coach’s twins at the time. Not being able to handle a completely new relationship with her mom, her new stepfather, and her twin babies, Mclean decided to move in with her father. It was a hard decision but the right one to make at the time. Mclean and her father, a restaurant consultant, moved around a lot in the next 3 years as he traveled from city to city wherever the restaurant he was consulting at needed him. In each new city, she developed a new persona and a new name. It was her way of coping but it wasn’t until she started in the town the book took place in that she discovered how damaging these personas could be. In this new town, she didn’t have a chance to be someone new. In this town, she was Mclean. Mclean found a group of friends who liked her just as she was, even if her life was pretty messed up. It was a story about friendship and family, and how desperately we need both. With each new Sarah Dessen book I read, I find another character I connect with and love. Her characters have so much depth and life to them that I can see myself in them. There is something about the way Dessen crafts plots and characters that draws you in from the first page and leaves you sad when you finish as if you just had to leave behind some of your best friends. Another beautifully written story and one I completely recommend.

Cover Me
Author: Catherine Mann
4 of 5 stars

I’ll admit: military-driven romances are my guilty pleasure. If you find a great author, these books can seem so authentic and real, the characters tangible and the books incredibly difficult to put down. Catherine Mann is one of those authors (Suzanne Brockmann and Cindy Gerard are two other I wholly recommend). The series of hers I’m reading through now follows the lives of pararescuemen, which is a branch of the military I’ve never read about before. This book followed the lives of Wade Rocha and Sunny Foster. Wade is a PJ who jumps out of a plane to rescue Sunny, a guide and a lady who knows her way around the Alaskan territory. The book is action-packed from the first sentence to the last as Sunny and Wade uncover a murder plot and try to find out who is behind the serial murders happening in her small, cut-off-from-the-world town. Their romance is sizzling (and believable!). The character development is spot on. And while this isn’t a whodunit type of book, it was still a thriller to see how it all unfolded.

What is your guilty pleasure when it comes to reading? If you read The Marriage Plot for #twookclub (or for your own reading pleasure!), what did you think of it?

Categories: Books

Book Review: Night Swim by Jessica Keener

Title: Night Swim
Author: Jessica Keener
Published: 2012
Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Review from Goodreads: Sixteen-year-old Sarah Kunitz lives in a posh, suburban world of 1970 Boston. From the outside, her parents’ lifestyle appears enviable – a world defined by cocktail parties, expensive cars, and live-in maids to care for their children – but inside their five-bedroom house, all is not well for the Kunitz family. Coming home from school, Sarah finds her well-dressed, pill-popping mother lying disheveled on their living room couch. At night, to escape their parents’ arguments, Sarah and her oldest brother, Peter, find solace in music, while her two younger brothers retreat to their rooms and imaginary lives. Any vestige of decorum and stability drains away when their mother dies in a car crash one terrible winter day. Soon after, their father, a self-absorbed, bombastic professor begins an affair with a younger colleague. Sarah, aggrieved, dives into two summer romances that lead to unforeseen consequences. In a story that will make you laugh and cry, Night Swim shows how a family, bound by heartache, learns to love again.

My review:

This book started off really slow for me. It took me a while to really dig into the book and feel the flow of Keener’s writing. It felt very disconnected at the start and I didn’t feel like I understood who Sarah was.

But then Sarah’s mother died. And then the story really picked up. This is when the dysfunctional family fell apart. When Sarah started making some really bad decisions that I didn’t quite agree with. When her big brother left home to pursue a music career, when her father began dating someone much younger than him, and when Sarah begins to experience life itself. I felt that this was the moment I could finally feel her character and who she was.

This wasn’t a fluffy, silly novel. Keener hit readers hard with issues of sex, drugs, and death and how all three affect you, no matter your age. It’s about a girl who has had her entire world turned upside down and is scrambling to figure out where she fits in the mess that remains. The cover of the book itself was stunning and the writing began to tug at my soul as I became more entrenched in Sarah’s life and the decisions she was making.

Ultimately, it was a book with hard themes that were a little difficult to read about at times but a book with raw and honest writing. While it had a clean, albeit predictable ending, it also felt very honest and I ended the book with a tiny smile on my face, knowing Sarah and the Kunitz family were going to be all right.

And the author has also generously agreed to give away one copy of the book to one of my readers! Leave a comment on this post to be entered in the giveaway. Giveaway ends Wednesday, February 1 at midnight and I’ll announce the winner on Thursday.

I received this book for free from TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. All words and opinions, unless otherwise stated, are my own.