Our Favorite Reads For March: "A Rope & A Prayer" and "Vicious Cycle"

Between us, we read 22 books in March so choosing just one each as our favorite is very difficult.  We encourage you that if you enjoy reading, you visit our book blog:  Grab A Book From Our Stack to see reviews of all the books we read.

Gerard's: A Rope and A Prayer by David Rohde and Kristen Mulvihill
This non-fiction book is my pick for my March book of the month and here are the reasons why:
(1)  It is the true story of David being kidnapped and held for over six months!
(2)  It’s the story as told by Kristen, newly married, sharing her feelings as her husband was being held.
(3)  It gives really wonderful insight into the Taliban and what they think and believe.
(4)  The writing is so very good that I got the sense of what David and Kristen went through.
(5)  Has a great ending too!
I highly recommend this book!

Others Gerard really liked a lot:  Black Hearts by Jim Frederick, Battle Hymn Of The Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

Karen's:  Vicious Cycle by Terri Blackstock
I was hooked from beginning to end!  It is actually about two families, one Christian family with a teenage daughter (Emily) who is just getting out of rehab after being in for a year and the other who is addicted to meth and wants to sell the teenage daughter’s baby for $45,000.  The only glitch is that the girl, Jordan, does not want to sell her baby but wants to give it up for adoption instead, and gets Emily’s brother (Lance) to help her get it away from her mother and brother. 



Vicious Cycle is a good Christian fiction suspense novel that I couldn’t put down.  I cared about the characters and was anxious to see how things would turn out.  It shows how drugs can ruin lives and how hard it is to get off them, but that it is possible.  I especially liked Lance because he’s a good teen who really cares about others which got him into some dangerous situations.  I liked how the author shows the contrast between the two different families and yet the fact that anyone could get hooked on drugs.  Every day we need to do the next right thing. 

I recommend Vicious Cycle to anyone who likes stories about family, suspense or teens.  This book is about the same Christian family that is in Intervention, the story of the mother getting Emily into rehab for her drug addiction.  It’s very good too!

Gerard read and liked this one too!  Here's his thoughts:  Vicious Cycle just might be Terri Blackstock’s best book yet!  It held my interest from the first page to the last.  It is the story of a young teenage girl with a drug problem who delivers her own baby.  When her man, also a drug addict, wants to sell the baby for money, she dumps it into a car of a friend of hers and takes off.  This is a great story with characters I cared about and a really good ending!  I enjoyed it very much!

Others Karen liked a lot:  Therapy by Sebastian Fitzek, Still Alice by Lisa Genova, Rose In A Storm by Jon Katz and Heartwood by Belva Plain (Gerard liked all these too except for the last one which he didn't read.)