MONTANA HEARTS

Being the cowboy lover I am, when I spotted this book on the shelf at the store I couldn't resist. Never having read a book by Charlotte Carter before, I was taking a chance but after reading the synopsis I was hooked.

Montana Hearts was well written with a wonderful storyline and characters you're sure to love. A very sweet story, played out at just the right pace. I especially loved the ending. Though you could imagine how it would end, the author threw in a few twists with a unique ending. Very cute. I loved it.

GOD'S PROMISES FOR MOTHERS

I wasn’t too thrilled with this devotional. I’m more into contemporary writing then straight out of the Old King James Bible, version. So, if you like that type of writing, then it’d be a good choice for you but if you’re like me, then no. I enjoy a devotional like Joyce Meyer’s would write.

COWBOYS AND ANGELS

After running across this movie on Amazon, being the cowboy lover I am, I just had to have it. The acting was good, and the overall movie was good. The underline message was good as well but I felt it was a little too subtle. A little disjoined, a little confusing. It felt like there was something missing to the connection between the Angel,the cowboy and the other woman.

In the end they kind of threw you for a loop, not leaving you with an “ah, ha” moment but confusion. I mean I got it but it was rather blunt, not carried out very well. I felt they should have played it out a little better to get across the point they’d been trying to convey that hadn’t been clear up until that point. At any rate, it was a good movie, just not great due to the way it was played out in the end.

LAST CHANCE CAFE

I rarely watched TV and only recently discovered I had Lifetime with my new cable provider along with being able to tape shows. When I discovered by chance that a movie was on earlier, LAST CHANCE CAFÉ and that I'd missed it, I was mortified. I simply couldn't wait another month until it was to be on again. I just had to order it online (eventhough I had to order it from Lifetime), knowing it would be a movie I'd watch over and over, again.

I'm a HUGE Linda Lael Miller fan, and have read many of her books, fifteen or more. One of them being LAST CHANCE CAFÉ, which I loved. Oh, what a great day it was to discover one of her books has been made into a movie. I would love to see all of them become a movie...well, almost all of them.

Just as I loved the book, the movie was good as well. Loved the storyline. The acting was good though I wouldn't say great. There were some really great scenes, so true to Linda's writing.

THANKSGIVING GROOM

When I pick up a book with the name BRENDA MINTON on it, I know I’m in for a treat. Just as I’ve come to love about Brenda’s books, the characters and the story that unfolds in THANKSGIVNG GROOM had me turning the pages, wanting to know what happens next. What great characters!

I have to admit that the cover of a book speaks volumes to me, being a visual person and all. I also have to admit that I wasn’t too enthused with this particular cover. Funny how things have a way of taking you by surprise, though. I knew the exact moment in the book that the cover was created for and it was so perfect it changed my whole view of it. It was a very profound moment for it had become alive.

I loved Tuckers, as well as Penelope’s story. Brenda has an amazing way of portraying stubborn, hardheaded characters, yet you can’t help but fall in love with them. She also has a way with delivering some really great lines that leave you in awe of her writing.

I must say the ending really did it for me. The way it all came together, and what Tucker did (Sorry, you’ll have to read it to find out.) stirred up many emotions. Very touching.

Can’t wait for her next book.

EAT PRAY LOVE

I guess there is a spoiler in my review but I don’t really know any way around it to get across what I’d like to convey. Sorry about that. I usually don’t put them in my reviews.

Every since I saw the cardboard standup at the movie theater, I wanted to see EAT PRAY LOVE. I didn’t make to the theater when it was out and waited patiently in hopes that my local library would get it in. And they did. I waited three weeks on a waiting list and when I got the call it was my turn, I went in to pick it up immediately and planned to watch it that night.

I must say I was a bit disappointed in this movie. I was really expecting something profound. Yet as often as the case, I heard the book was really good by a few people. Still, having watched the movie I can’t say I’m eager to read it. A positive note, the acting was good.

I for one am a deeply committed person, so right off the bat the main character leaving her husband the way she did, didn’t sit well with me. As the story unfolded, I kept waiting for something, something that never happened.

The flashbacks of her husband put in my mind she’d come to her senses and discover she really did love him, and needed to give her marriage the work, commitment and chance every marriage deserves. It bothered me greatly that it never materialized.

I totally get that people often make the wrong decision, and that one needs to discover who they are, their purpose in life and all that. In EAT PRAY LOVE, honestly, the only connection to the title I came away with is EAT. She did indulge in eating. As far as PRAY, I was thrown for a loop on the whole praying thing. As a Christian, did I miss something? Or was the PRAY part, praying to a picture of a woman. That was a little disturbing to me to say the least. As far as LOVE, well yeah, she quickly went from one guy to another with a hint of LOVE. Is it me or did she basically jump into another relationship like she confessed she had from the marriage she’d just ran away from?

So in the end I was sorely disappointed in this movie. I felt the title was misleading, leading you down a path far from what the title suggested.

Maybe a better title would be EAT MEDITATE AND HAVE A FLING.

THE MAN I WANT TO BE - CHRIS YOUNG

Okay, so I’ll admit it. There are times I purpose a CD for one song in hopes that I’ll like enough of the others on it to make it worth my wild. Once I receive the CD, I’m often so enamored with that one particular song that I can’t stop listening to it, thus never getting to the others on the album…or I only listen once through, not really absorbing each one for it’s uniqueness. There are those times when a song hits you right away and you fall quickly in love with it and other times where it takes hearing it a few times before you become hooked.

Mind you, this does not happen all the time but with this particular album, it did. So I specifically purchased it for GETTING YOU HOME. Months later I have the radio on in my car, something I rarely do (always listen to CD’s), and an amazing song comes on, VOICES. It didn’t take long to recognize the amazing, soothing, deep rich voice of Chris Young. Immediately it hit me that I may very well have that song.

When I got home I punched in CHRIS YOUNG on Amazon, and just as I thought, he only has two CD’s out and I have them both! What a great surprise that was. Since then, I’ve listen to the entire album over and over, loving ALL of it.

Funny how things work out sometimes.

YULETIDE COWBOY

YULETIDE COWBOY is a very charming story. How could one not fall in love with such a sweet and caring man such as Chance Turner? I liked the storyline for Lynn as well as Chance. Woman fleeing abusive situations is a great topic to bring to light. I was also intrigued by the whole rodeo preacher. Something I had never thought about, yet thoroughly enjoyed getting a glimpse into. As always, Debra Clopton has a way of drawing you into her stories and having you fall in love with her characters.