Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Similar story, different location

A Daring Venture  -     By: Elizabeth Camden

Set in the early 1900's, Elizabeth Camden's newest novel, A Daring Adventure, is the story of biochemist Rosalind Werner's fight for the use of chlorine to make the drinking water safe for the people of Jersey City.  She is a highly motivated young career woman whose past has made her future path clear.   Chlorine use has proven itself safe for cattle but has yet to be tested on humans so Nicholas Drake is determined his filtering process is far safer in protecting the residents from a cholera outbreak.While they both have the same ultimate goal, their difference of opinion land them in opposite sides of the courts but neither can deny their attraction to the other.

When I started reading this novel, it didn't take me long to think the story familiar.  A little digging on other reviews I have done revealed why.  It seems to follow a similar storyline to another of Camden's books, A  Dangerous Legacy.  The strong females in both stories are pitted against men who have differing viewpoints regarding the water system, just in different cities on the eastern coastline.  I enjoyed both stories but, as stated, I found them too similar in nature.  In both, the characters are well developed and spunky, particularly the women.  I admire that these women took on roles that weren't common for the early 20th c. but I also wonder how accurate the portrayal is.  I haven't studied early 20th c. women enough to know but these two certainly don't fit the stereotype.  In some ways that stereotype got in the way of making the women believable.

The book seems well researched for historical accuracy and Camden does weave a nice story.  I don't believe I will stop selecting her titles but this duplication of plot does discourage me a bit.  I did receive this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review and was in no way obligated to write a positive one.

Sunday, July 15, 2018

Precious time with your children

God's Blessing Day By Day: My Daily Devotional for Kids

What can be more important that beginning or ending our days in God's word?  However, it seems as if life gets so busy that our devotional time and prayer time is the first to get pushed to the back burner.  How might your priorities be different if spending time with God had been priority from as early in your life as you can remember?

Pastor of First Baptist Church of Woodstock, GA, Johnny Hunt, has a wonderful tool to help make devotional time with your children easy and enjoyable, setting them up to make it a habit that will continue with them throughout life.  Written by himself, other members of his church, and friends throughout the US, God's Blessing Day by Day contains a year's worth of one page devotionals with easy to understand scripture references, a brief prayer, and a short one sentence summary of the Truth the devotion centers around.  I won't even begin to attempt to cover the range of topics because they focus on every aspect of life your child (or we as adults) face.  The cute animal centered illustrations are bright and attractive, many of them reinforcing the truth held within the devotion.  Bottom line, I loved this devotional and highly recommend for your own family or for a gift. I know it will go on my list of either baby or sibling gifts.

The sturdy hard bound volume has durable binding and an attached ribbon bookmark to hold your place.  The book also contacts a list of contributors and scripture index divided by book of the Bible from Genesis through Revelation.

I did receive this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review and am in no way obligated to write a positive one.