Our Favorite Reads For June by Haynes, Flynn and Rivers

Since Gerard's reviews are short, I let him have a tie for his June favorites.  The second one of his I read as well and didn't care for it at all.  Although I had several good books in June, my favorite was a contemporary Christian fiction combined with historical fiction by Francine Rivers.  It had the flavor of a Belva Plain book but without all the detailed description.

Gerard had a tie between two:

You just have to make time to read Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes —it's awesome!! It tells the story of young pretty Catherine Bailey. She was in a very abusive relationship with Lee. The thing that makes this book so good is that it follows her and Lee's relationship but also three years later as she is trying to recover and get back to being normal again. You get two stories at once! The writing is superb and the ending shocking! This is a page turner that is hard to beat. It doesn't get any better than this! Must read!

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn tells the story of Nick and Amy. On their fifth wedding anniversary, Amy turns up missing. Did Nick have something to do with it? WOW oh WOW! It doesn't get much better than this story that is told by Nick and Amy. I had a love-hate relationship with them both! I never knew what was going to happen next and had a hard time putting it down. I hated to see it end! The writing is superb! I think this would make a fantastic movie and loved this book! Don't let GONE GIRL pass you by, believe the hype!

Gerard and I differ on our opinions of this book. I didn't care for it at all and only read about 1/3 of the way. I really didn't like either Nick or Amy all that much and the bad language turned me off too. It seemed I was plowing through it but wanted to keep going since Gerard thought it was so good. Then I saw another blogger's review of it and they didn't like it either. They said the first 100 pages were very boring. The reviewer compared it to Still Missing by Chevy Stevens and Before I Go To Sleep by S. J. Watson because of the ending leaving the reader feeling tricked. I wish I could remember where I saw it so I could share the link here with you, but I can't remember. Anyhow, I was bored with this one so gave up on it and went on to read something else--"Impeccable Petunia" which I had a request to review.

Karen's Favorite for June

The Scarlet Thread by Francine Rivers is contemporary fiction about God’s sovereignty and faithfulness. After 13 years of marriage, Alex decides on his own to leave his steady job for an opportunity in California as a video game designer. His wife, Sierra, does not want to move and becomes angry and bitter. I particularly liked reading the part about the issues in the contemporary marriage. The couple has four times as much money but becomes very unhappy and Alex asks for a divorce. Sierra’s Godly mother gives her an old journal and a quilt of one of their pioneer ancestors, Mary Kathryn, who also had to move against her will back in 1847.

The author beautifully combines this contemporary fiction novel with historical fiction by showing the parallels between Sierra’s and Mary Kathryn’s journeys, women from two different time periods. They both are bitter and resentful towards God at the beginning but as he works in their lives, they come to see his love, faithfulness and goodness. Great writing with a wonderful message and a great ending! I think this would be an excellent book club read because of the marriage issues and the spiritual journey. It even has discussion questions in the back! This is my favorite read for June and balances out Gerard's dark books of late!

Visit Grab A Book From Our Stack to see all our book reviews (and more pictures of our pets).


(We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during June and July to The Wounded Warrior Project which helps wounded warriors and their families returning from current conflicts.)

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