Our Favorite Reads For December

We read a lot of good books in December and it was hard to choose, but we decided on these:

Gerard's Favorite was Promise Me by Richard Paul Evans

Promise Me by Richard Paul Evans is a good Christmas read!  It is a fiction story of Beth Cardall.  Her husband cheats on her, is dying of Cancer and her young daughter has an unexplained illness.  One night she meets a man who knows all about her.  He seems too good to be true.  It has kind of a weird twist, but the ending is very good!  It's a quick read that I liked a lot.  I give it 8+ stars.  You can visit the author’s Facebook page and his website at www.richardpaulevans.com

Karen's review:
Promise Me is a off-the-wall story with a very happy ending that I enjoyed immensely! I’m so glad I read this one because it had believable characters that I cared about in an unrealistic book that kept my interest all through it. I was impressed that the male author told the story primarily from Beth’s point of view and could write about hardship without it being a depressing book. Promise Me deals with loss, marriage, love, hope and is a thought-provoking book. It presents the questions of how would your life be different if only this didn’t happen and what would you do if you only had 10 months to live and money was no object? This is a fun read, in spite of a cheating husband, financial struggles and a mysterious disease that a 6-yr.-old has. It’s a “Christmas Miracle” book about hope and promises, a quick-read that leaves you happy. I promise, you’ll like this one! We highly recommend it for a light, entertaining fun read.



SPOILER ALERT: I loved the mystery the author created about Matthew, Beth’s stalker. (If you haven’t read this book, I strongly advise you stop reading now! I don’t want to ruin it for you.) When she let him co-sign her loan, I thought she was very stupid, but was relieved to find that he really did have her best interest at heart. Who knew he was a time-traveler from the future so he knew what sporting events to bet on to make a bundle. I really liked this angle of the book—it would be so cool to be able to do that!

Karen's Favorite: Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult

Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult is about an Amish teen girl who is charged with murdering her illegitimate baby.  At first Katie denied even having a baby and consistently denied killing it.  Ellie reluctantly volunteered to be her defense attorney who becomes her friend while staying on the farm with Katie to comply with the court order as a condition while awaiting her trial.  Jodi Picoult shows the contrasts of the Amish and the English cultures in this intriguing novel of ethics, psychology, mystery, romance and judgment. 

I was drawn into this story immediately and had a hard time putting it down.  The story is told from Ellie’s perspective, and I couldn’t help feeling sorry for her when she was trying to get the truth from Katie as to what really happened. The trial was interesting and I definitely came away with a better understanding of the Amish community after reading Plain Truth.  I highly recommend this book, especially to women.

If you like to read, please visit our Grab A Book From Our Stack blog where we post reviews of everything we read.