Book Review: The Dating Charade

So, a couple times a year a bunch of Christian fiction authors get together and do a Scavenger Hunt.

It's great! You get to jump from blog to blog, read a bit about the author and his/her (usually her) latest book, write down the CLUE WORDS, and enter raffles by "liking" the author's FB page or signing up for her newsletter.

It's how I discovered Carrie Stuart Parks, my latest favorite author. It's why I read Carry Me Home by an Australian author. It's why I was curious about Irene Hannon's suspense novels and No Ocean Too Wide by Carrie Turansky before friends recommended them, even though I haven't read them yet.

And it's why I followed Australian author Hannah Currie and saw The Dating Charade in a stack of her books and also saw it in another author's TBR pile.

Long way of getting to the point.

The point is, the cover was super cute. The title was fun. The idea of it being about online dating appealed to me.

Basically, it sounded like a really shallow chick-flick novel that I should not check out.

But the cover was soooooo cute.

And I finally caved. As to a guilty pleasure.

And the first several chapters WERE fun. Cassie has been there done that with the online dating thing and she has the first date down to a science.

But, this book is no guilty pleasure.

Because after several chapters (each chapter trades off between Cassie's perspective and Jett's perspective), I was drawn heart and soul into a story about foster care.

I really don't want to ruin the book for you, but the depth here is what pulled at my emotions. It's what made me enjoy this book so much. The "dating charade" took a back seat to the side-story of kids needing stability, and single people with hearts to help but no idea what they're doing. (That last line was a generalization because, again, I don't want to give too much away.)

I have had a heart for foster care for a long time. Caring for other's kids. Taking in those kids who have had to build up walls or have created unacceptable behavior patterns and give them love and stability until they begin to relax and relearn how to live well. I don't have any experience, but it's been a one-day dream.

So that's why I liked this book. And besides, the cover really is so cute!

A Bride in Store book review

Impatient to meet her intended groom and help him grow his general store, mail-order bride--

Well, of course I was going to pick that book to review! Who says that arranged marriages and mail-order brides don't make for fascinatingly romantic stories? I don't!

Melissa Jagears has written an engaging, well-developed story, but if I tell you what it's about, I'll give it away. Let's just say, Eliza, the mail-order bride-to-be, meets someone before she meets her fiance, which causes . . . plot developments.

I have two complaints about this story, both minor.

1) The ending is obvious for a long time (most of the book?) but it takes the characters forever to finally achieve their happily ever after! The story is drawn out with few real threats to make one wonder if they'll end up with each other.

2) Near the end, there is a short conversation about how the way so-and-so kissed such-and-such was so passionate and unlike any kiss another-so-and-so had ever been kissed, even by her husband, and thus this was evidence that so-and-so really cared for such-and-such beyond a shadow of a doubt. (Got that?) I think there is a false implied corollary here, probably unintended by the author, that true deep love is evidenced by passionate deep kisses. I think that philosophy could destroy a potentially wonderful romantic relationship and marriage, especially for those of us who are saving our kisses til marriage. Can't really prove before marriage whether the love is deep and passionate if you have to have an amazing kiss to know! But passion isn't an evidence of love, and I would hate to have one novel cause me to think that if a guy isn't "I'm going to lose her and so I'm going to kiss her like I've never kissed her before" passionate that I am then settling for second best.

Otherwise, this book was worth the wait of putting off other novels til it arrived in the mail. The characters were diverse and likeable, the subplots interesting.

As always, I was given this book free of charge from Bethany House publishers in exchange for my unbiased review.

Moms' Night Out review

Sunday night, when I should have been sleeping, I was lying in bed reading reviews on the movie my mom and I had just seen: Moms' Night Out.

I was a bit riled by the reviews I was reading. But first, a little about the movie.

Directed by the same brother duo that put out October Baby, Moms' Night Out is the story of a harried mother of youngsters who is on the verge of an emotional breakdown. Strike that. She does have an emotional breakdown. Her husband comes home to find the house in an absolute mess and his wife hiding away in the closet, holding an empty bag of chocolates. "I ate this whole thing." (I thought that part was hilarious.)

With her husband's encouragement, she decides to take a night off--a mom's night out with two church friends. But, as is typical with moms (especially when they leave their kids at home with their husbands), it isn't easy for them to unplug. And when they do, chaos ensues.

Basically, Mom's Night Out puts real mom life on the screen, throws in some action packed craziness, and ends with an encouraging message to mothers that you are not a failure and your job is important.

I also thought it clever that it leaned heavily on the current mommy blogger movement.

The secular critics though are obviously not stay-at-home Christian moms needing affirmation.

 USA Today criticized the main character for being a "weepy, complaining clean freak."

Is she a weepy, complaining clean freak? I suppose so. But she is human and real.

"Alyson ultimately realizes . . . that God loves her. Somehow she didn't know this before," reads the review. "Lovely sentiments, but Jesus might prefer that Allyson work on being less of a pouty whiner" (USA Today).

This movie was intended to affirm and encourage moms, and in order to do this, it showed the inner real thoughts of moms--the "oh my word, my kids are eating raw egg and sticking their heads in toilets and coloring on walls and I can't do this!" thoughts. I cannot speak for Jesus (especially when it comes to rating movies!). But, at base level, I think God is glorified when moms are encouraged to keep up the good work.

Another review calls Moms' Night Out "depressingly regressive and borderline dangerous" because it "peddles archaic notions of gender roles in the name of wacky laughs" (Roger Ebert).

I'm sorry, but can I laugh at that?

Or maybe it's too depressing a reflection on our culture to laugh at.

It goes right along with the review that said the movie "is really all about moms staying home, where, according to this movie, they apparently belong. . . . Allyson learns strict lessons about a mother's place in the world" (NY Daily News).

That is not the message the movie conveys, by the way. Rather, stay-at-home moms are the audience, and so that is already assumed, not preached.

And amidst all the other reviews, there was the man that criticized the movie because it didn't clearly present the Gospel.

Sigh. You can't win when making a faith-based movie, can you?

Like all Christian movies, everyone--believers and nonbelievers alike--will have their own opinion on the movie-making quality, acting, spiritual overtones, movie premise.

But this girl gives it a thumbs up.

By the way, I just read an article that quotes extensively from one of the directors/writers. If you want to read what I just wrote, but better written and straight from the criticism recipient's mouth, go here: The Blaze.