Friday, July 5, 2013

Review: Unveiling Grace

Lynn Wilder is amazing, all at the grace of God, of course. Her book "Unveiling Grace" does a fabulous job of clearly laying out what the life of most Mormans looks like, all while showing God's amazing control over her journey in this autobiographical account of Wilder's own journey out of Mormonism.

Wilder weaves key Mormon teachings, both publicly touted and kept more secret, throughout her account, pointing out the strong contradictions between Mormon beliefs and Christianity, as well as the contradictions within the Mormon faith. But Wilder also has an incredible love for the Mormon people, one that allows her to tell her story in an easy and loving way.

It's a book you'll have to read more than once or take regular notes on to really solidify the great takeaways. If you're looking for a book on Mormonism that's more of a story than a straight-forward non-fiction, this book is for you. And if you're merely interested in different religions, this is a good book. This is a good book for any believer to read.

*Disclaimer: I received this book for free from BookSneeze in exchange for my honest review

Review: Eye of the Sword

I have no idea why it took me so long to finally read Karyn Henley's fantasy book, "Eye of the Sword." I started reading it months ago and then set it aside in disinterest. A few days I picked it up again and could not set it down. I became entranced by the characters and their world full of angels, alchemy and magic.

The main character, Trevin, has fallen in love with a princess, but his heritage is unknown and his past is not pleasant, and the princess' first priority is to find the lost and stolen harps that may restore the stairway to heaven and put an end to the evil Reijus' expanding reign. Of course, as this is a trilogy, the harps are not reunited by book's end, and Henley definitely leaves her readers in suspense, wanting more. She pulled me in with Trevin's zero to hero story, and now I want to finish the series and return to the first book, which I never read (that did contribute a bit to how easily the book read, but I got the hang of it as it went on).

I recommend this book for any fan of fantasy fiction. It's clean. It has some Christian metaphors and parallels, but none of them are too obvious. It's just a fantastic book.

*Disclaimer: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for my honest review of it.