Book Review: Stuck Together

I've heard it said that authors should set up their characters and then put them in hot water and pour on the trouble.

That's exactly what Mary Connealy does in Stuck Together, book 3 of her "Trouble in Texas" series.

This is the first time I've received a free book to review from Bethany House Publishers. A free book, in exchange for an honest review? How could I turn down a free book? I was excited when I ordered it--they let you pick from a list of new books, or bypass them all and wait til next month--but then I started reading another book, got into that, and when Stuck Together came in the mail, and I opened it, I just wasn't that interested. But I had to read it so I could review it, so I left my other book at home and, somewhat grudgingly, brought this one to Mexico with me.

Thankfully, it only took a little while of setting the stage and introducing the characters before the action started. And once the action started, it didn't stop. In fact, more and more stuff started happening.

Abridged synopsis from the back of the book:

Vince Yates earned the nickname "Invincible Vince" because of his reputation for letting absolutely nothing stop him. But Vince is about to face his biggest challenge yet: his past has just caught up with him. His father, mother, and the sister he didn't know he had show up in Broken Wheel without warning. His father is still a schemer. His mother is showing signs of dementia. And his surprise sister quickly falls for one of Vince's best friends.

That's not even to mention a friend and his pregnant wife being shot at, an angry Indian tribe, a jail break, a stash of whisky bottles being found, and a manhunt. Meanwhile, as if Sheriff/Lawyer Vince's life wasn't crazy enough . . .

With nearly every other man in town married off, Vince finds himself stuck with strong-willed Tina over and over again. Of course, Tina is the prettiest woman he's ever seen . . . .

And that's why I've gladly carried this book around the house with me and stayed up late reading, reading, reading to see what would happen next. Unlike my initial fears, it wasn't boring at all. At all. Stuck Together was one of those books that immediately took me to my happy place.

Frozen's song "For the First Time in Forever" has been doing that lately too. :-P

93: Mexico

From "the book," in honor of my impending trip to Mexico and the many memories collected from the many missions trips I went on there growing up.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The sun was setting over the ocean as we all huddled around the campfire, salty, sandy, uncomfortable and content.

I had never felt such closeness with a group of people that I largely had not known before five days ago.

After the sun sunk into the Pacific, we headed through the darkness toward the car, attempting to knock as much of the gritty sand off our legs and feet as possible. A few people got into the truck. The rest of us hitched ourselves up into the truck’s bed. I headed towards the back and lowered myself to the floor, leaning against the truck, hidden from the breeze. A couple of the girls joined me. Joey and the guys sat on the side rims, holding on with both hands. The engine started, and we jerked forward. I bumped against the corrugated bed floor. Joey swayed on his perch.

One of the girls inside the cab began singing a song we had been learning in Spanish.

“Todos deben de saber--”

We all joined in.

“Todos deben de saber

 Todos deben de saber

Quien es Jesus.”

After repeating the chorus we launched into the verse in our obtrusive American accents, singing our hearts out about our Savior into the Mexican night, the starts twinkling overhead and the light of the moon and the truck’s headlights creating comforting shadows as we bumped over the dirt road.

We finished the Spanish lyrics and switched to English.

“Everybody ought to know

Everybody ought to know

Everybody ought to know

Who Jesus is.

He’s the lily of the valley.

He’s the bright and morning star.

He’s the fairest of ten thousand.

Everybody ought to know."

Lord God in heaven, I prayed. This is paradise. This is beautiful. This is redemption. This is pure.

I smiled. Not an outward smile, but a true happiness from deep in my soul radiating outward.

A happiness and peace and contentment I hadn't felt for a long time.

my nephew, fitting right in

Me, 2008

92: opposites attract?

Tonight I sat on a grassy knoll in the warm, but breezy, shade, watching an ultimate frisbee game that I wanted to join, but since I can barely catch or throw a frisbee, I just couldn't bring myself to go do the whole act-like-I'm-playing-when-really-I'm-just-running-around-on-the-field thing.

There were three teams so they rotated out. And in one of the teams was a very cute couple.

I know the guy a very little. The girl came up and introduced herself.

I am quite thankful I refrained from saying what was going through my head: I know who you are. I've stalked you on Facebook. You're with so-and-so, right?

So thankful.

She was all girl. Petite, wearing a cute bright pink shirt, not playing much when she was on the field. He was all boy. Tanned, sweating, putting his all into the game.

I watched them interact when they weren't playing (call it reality TV...without the cameras). They made each other laugh. He'd grab her hand and they'd walk down the hill together and then they'd let go and race the rest of the way.

So cute.

And, once again, I am baffled. Ok, I understand why girls like guys. Because they're GUYS! But why oh why would a guy like a girl? We're nothing like them. We put demands on their time. We aren't their buddies that do all that guy stuff with them. And sometimes, we're silly.

And then, how on earth do two people fall in love?

The verse in Proverbs 30 came back as oh so true:

There are three things which are too wonderful for me,

Yes, four which I do not understand:

. . . [T]he way of a man with a virgin.

Hear ye, hear ye! This, indeed, is a mystery!

One of God's mysterious planned ironies.

91: don't let go of your surrender

Tip of the evening: Don't watch a sappy Hallmark chick flick late at night.

I've been processing a lot this year. And I've learned something about myself, that I kinda knew before, and that's kinda embarrassing, ie. I take a long time to process and learn and grow. One of those, oh, I was saying the exact same thing last year? And I'm still saying it now because I haven't mastered this yet?

Actually, I was encouraged. I read a journal entry from a year and a half ago, and I found I had actually grown in that area. :-P Only a year and a half later!

Then sometimes I read what I write and go, wow, that was amazing. Why don't I say the same things now?

Anyway . . . sappy romance movie. About twue love. And of course, what does that make us single girls want? Twue love. :-P

But, to rehash a year plus of rambling on this blog, a guy that loves me and whom I love back is only a wish. It is not a promise. Or a right. Or a necessity (tho sometimes I wonder, since it was part of the creation plan). Because, as a friend so wonderfully and unintentionally reminded me a couple months ago, life is not about that--marriage, having kids, etc.--it's about glorifying God.

It takes a marked amount of surrender to say that and mean it. So if you can say it now, let me warn you, do not let go of that surrender. It is so valuable. You need it to be the person you want to be--a girl who wholly follows God.

Let your desires be desires and not demands. And then you can feel the pain of loneliness without having it destroy you.

"'You are My witnesses,' says the LORD" (Isaiah 43:10).

90: the assumption that I'm a sinner

After the academic part of school ended and we just had school picnics, award ceremonies, and cleaning up, I started watching Once Upon a Time. I had heard that it was addicting, so I put it off til then. Good thing I did too!

In the second season (SPOILERS), Snow White kills Cora. Snow is devastated. She is known for being pure--more or less faultless. When she kills Cora, her heart grows a dark spot. According to Regina, that dark spot will grow until her whole heart becomes dark.

Watching that, I thought how I cannot imagine not having forgiveness. The Bible starts with the assumption that we are all sinners. The book of James tells us to "[c]leanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded" (4:8). Unlike Snow, we don't start with a perfection to maintain. As Bible-believers, we don't believe in the Lockean blank slate.

I forgot the freedom in acknowledging that I am a sinner, that I need a Savior, and that there is a Savior and Redeemer of my sin.

Snow White doesn't have that. All she can do is work to redeem her sin for herself and hope she doesn't become a villain.

But as believers, although we strive to be like Snow White--holy and blameless--when we mess up we haven't destroyed who we are. Instead, our sin testifies that God's plan for our salvation is exactly what we need.

In the fairy tale, true love's kiss is always the last hope against death. But fairy tales don't have what we have: a Master Savior who will walk us through any mess we make during life and will guarantee us life everlasting after death.

89: you won't believe it

Since I last wrote, I did something daring and adventurous and out of the ordinary. And no, I didn't go on a hike. I actually went on a date with a guy I met online.

*gasp*

It was all safe and unscary--we had mutual friends, met in a public place, I checked him out on Facebook first, etc.

I only had a couple days to mentally prepare. To psych myself up. Or rather, keep myself calm. To give myself good advice before I acted on instinct instead of wisdom.

And this is what I told myself, or rather, what I typed in my phone as a note to remember:

"Do not critique [his work]--get to know his heart. Don't try to make him work within parameters or worry when he doesn't--get to know him and how he specifically works."

I'm so glad God put these thoughts in my head before I went. Because he wasn't at all what I was expecting...but then, I went in to it not expecting anything. And it was enjoyable! Calmly enjoyable. Two hours of conversation over burgers and chicken strips.

I don't usually do things right when it comes to the male species. Only days before I had walked into a situation where I specifically wanted to make a good impression, and instead, I opened my mouth and inserted my foot. What is up with that? At times like that I'm like, I just want to stay single, forever, because I make such a fool of myself when I try.

So I'm thankful that this time I listened to God's wisdom and just listened and enjoyed the person. I might have got other things wrong (sometimes my face contorts randomly as a memory of something I said or did comes to mind), but I left my witty criticisms and analytical categorizing and cataloguing at home.

So. Online dating. In general, I don't think it's for me. But in July I'm going to another wedding of people who met online!

88: and if thou bidst me decide for myself in any affair...

I'm still working on writing my "book." I'm not at all sure it is meant to ever be published or if it's just for my own verbal processing. Recently I divided it up into 4 Word documents. I love having small chunks so that as I come up with ideas for one section I can open that document instead of scrolling through thousands of words to find the right area to insert my new scene. This last scene, just scribbled down, was inserted in Part 4. The names have been changed/deleted so that if it ever does get published, I won't have given away key character details! :-P Although the situation is fictional, the prayer included is one of my favorites and has played a role in my life when thinking about relationships.

He had asked me out to coffee. This sounded so familiar. First at the wedding. Then when Tom wanted to court me. Now again with him.

My guard was up.

Sure, I had liked him for awhile. I had been aching for this to happen.

But it was a little too good to be true.

A thousand questions flickered in my mind. We wouldn’t like each other once we spent time together. I wouldn’t fall in love with him. God wouldn’t give me a green light. I wouldn’t be able to get used to spending time with a real life burping, farting guy. I’d fall too fast, too hard, and I would come off possessive and drive him away.

Oh yes, my imagination was sinking the ship before the ship even left the dock.

I shut my bedroom door and crawled into my oversized rocking chair and began rocking.

“Lord God, this is what I’ve wanted, but I don’t know if it’s going to work. I want to let myself relax and let things happen naturally. But I’m afraid. Of lots of things.” I mentally went down my list of fears. “Lord, what if all this is of me and not of You?”

A memory--"God the All” in the Puritan prayer book Valley of Vision. It had devastated me when I was with Tom—God’s will had been contrary to my own. And now?

I had fresh faith in God. Battered faith. But one that I couldn’t afford to let go of now that I had experienced the bitterness and lostness that occurs when a person walks away.

“O God Whose will conquers all,” I prayed again to the One who had brought me through Tom and I’s breakup and the breakup of //those other people whom I won't mention here//.

There is no comfort in anything apart from enjoying thee

And being engaged in thy service;

Thou art All in all, and all enjoyments are what to me thou makes them, and no more.

I am well pleased with thy will, whatever it is,

Or should be in all respects,

And if thou bidst me decide for myself in any affair,
I would choose to refer all to thee,

For thou art infinitely wise and cannot do amiss,

As I am in danger of doing.

I rejoice to think that all things are at thy disposal,

And it delights me to leave them there.

This was my God, and a peace settled over me. This was truth. And I recommitted my love life or lack thereof into God’s hands.

He could work wonders, either now, or in His own sovereign timing.

I choose to trust Him.