10 Blind Dates (Ashley Elston)

Why I have this book: My friend recommended it to me, so I borrowed the audio version from the ebook library.

I thought it was okay. It was cute (like my friend said), but also an unlikely scenario within the family of the protagonist. The romantic relationships seemed a bit grown up considering the characters were still in high school. If I didn't know that, I'd have thought it made more sense for college-aged students than for kids still in high school.

I gave it two stars on Goodreads.

I don't recall any swearing (but could be wrong). I do know they used God's name as an exclamation of emotion. There is one scene that alludes to a porn movie and a related "toy" shop, but nothing is described in depth and it's handled as an inappropriate situation.

Wish (Barbara O'Connor)

Why I have this book: I borrowed the Kindle version from the ebook library because my daughter said she loved it. She's read it three times! (We have the paperback edition, but I like reading on my Kindle, so I was glad the library had it available.)

I really loved this book. I even gave it five stars on Goodreads because four didn't seem like quite enough. It's a sweet and touching story that makes you want to hug your dog and do the things that make your home filled with love.

Clean.

The Happiest Refugee (Ahn Do)

Why I have this book: I don't remember at all why this book ended up on my wish list on Amazon, but I eventually bought it. It wasn't cheap, either, so...

I gave it four stars on Goodreads. In actuality, my rating was somewhere between a three and a four, but his story is interesting, and I'm grateful it reminded me to think about the lives of hard-working immigrants. So many who immigrate to various countries around the world (his family immigrated from Vietnam to Australia through both illegal and legal processes... illegally leaving, legally being assigned a country) sacrifice a lot and work very hard to give their children a better life. He recognizes that and appreciates what his parents did for him.

He's apparently quite a big star in Australia, but I haven't seen anything he's done. I might look him up online and watch some of his work. 

I'm glad I read it. I'm not sure I would pay as much as I did, though. It's probably a $7 book instead of the sixteen dollars I paid.

Clean. I don't remember any swearing or anything offensive at all, but I did read it over the course of several weeks, so I might be forgetting something.

Two books in the "Sweet Magnolias" series (Sherryl Woods)

Stealing Home

A Slice of Heaven

Why I have these books: Because I hadn't learned my lesson and bought ALL the (Kindle) books in the series when there was a special. I was interested because I watched the first two seasons of Sweet Magnolias on Netflix, and it seemed like the books might be nice to read.

*To be accurate, these two came in a "boxed" set, but I entered them separately on Goodreads so I'd get credit for two instead of one large book (as it is with the Kindle edition I bought). Gotta get my book count! haha

I gave them both 2 stars on Goodreads. Oh, my gosh. The first one had a scene in it that would not fly at all these days. I just checked, and I'm surprised to see it was originally published in 2007. I can't imagine the scene in question would have been okay then, either. (A man takes a woman's hand and puts it on his crotch to prove he is, indeed, attracted to her.) So gross and inappropriate, and dare I say, even sexual harrassment/assault.

I think if I hadn't seen the show, I wouldn't really have much connection to the characters. The character development isn't there. The story depth isn't there. I'm actually really surprised someone was able to see the potential in the story for a tv series. This is one time I can honestly say the show is better than the books.

As I mentioned, I bought the whole series on a whim. Dumb! I'm sure I'll still read them, but I've got a couple others to get to first.

I don't recall any swearing, but if there is, it's mild and infrequent. There is the one stupid scene mentioned above in the first book. The second book has a moderately described sex scene. A fair amount of "hot and bothered" going on in both books.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (JK Rowling)

Why I have this book: Same as the previous Harry Potter review... we have both the print and audio versions. I listened to the audio version (narrated by Jim Dale) this time.

Another five star rating from me. I just am amazed at the author's brain, and I was super engrossed and entertained by her imagination and writing skills.

Interestingly, there was one part where Dumbledore referred to Voldemort as an "ancestor" of another character. That didn't seem right (based on the time line), so I went back and listened to that part again to see if I misunderstood. Then I looked it up online to make sense of it, and turns out that the author used the wrong word (ancestor vs descendent) which was later corrected in the book. I'm not sure why it wasn't corrected in the audio version since it shouldn't be difficult to do that in a digital product. What's strange to me is that nobody caught that in editing or performing the narration or whatever other processes the book goes through before publishing. Honestly, though, it feels like these books are pretty close to perfect in all the ways that matter... hence my five-star rating.

I don't recall any swearing. There's obviously a scary component to these stories, but so far the series doesn't feel too dark or gory. This book might have even seemed less so than the first book.

Counting the Cost (Jill Duggar)

Why I have this book: I borrowed the audio version from the ebook library.

I gave this one four stars on Goodreads. I liked it better than the book by her sister (which I read earlier this year) for a few reasons:

1) It wasn't religiously preachy like her sister's book. She obviously is still a faithful Christian, but she wasn't using this book as a tool to preach her version of Christianity to the readers.

2) I feel like she was more open and honest about her family. She shared both the good things and the hard things. That took a lot of courage, especially in regards to her father and how he managed their family/business/money. She also was brave in sharing where she saw her own shortcomings.

3) She didn't shy away from taking a stand about her brother and his issues.

All narrators are reading their material, but her narration definitely sounded like it. I don't know that I'd be able to do any better, though, so I give her a pass on that. I'm sure it was scary to put her story out there, and she has a lot of emotional risk and investment in this, so maybe her nerves came into play. She still kept my interest, and I'm glad I listened to her story.

For the record, I never watched the Duggar's show. Maybe I watched one or two episodes, but maybe I'm just remembering clips I saw online or something. My interest stems mostly from learning about how some of the adult children have deconstructed the faith of their upbringing and how they made sense of it.

Clean. There is some basic info about the sexual behavior and criminal activity of her brother.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (JK Rowling)

Why I have this book: I actually listened to the audio version this time. I love that Jim Dale narrated it (loved him in the old Pete's Dragon), although I hear there's another narrator that also did a great job.

In any case, I have all of the books in the series in Audible, so I decided to give them a listen. I had read through the fourth book before, and that one was a bit on the dark side for my sensibilities, so I never read any further. I think I watched the first three movies, too.

BUT... I'm determined to listen to all of them and to watch all the movies now, so here I go! I gave this first one five stars on Goodreads. I think JK Rowling has the most amazing brain to set up all these paths that will come to fruition in the future books. She's an excellent writer with an unbelievably creative mind.

Clean. I don't recall any swearing in this one, but if there was, it was mild. I know the story gets scarier as it goes on, but this one wasn't so bad.