Top Ten Tuesday: Books Too Good to Review Properly

Five star reads. Book hangovers. We’ve all read those books that stay with us long after we’ve finished reading them. With this week’s topic, you better believe I’m sharing my favorite five-star books (aka books I can’t stop recommending). And I couldn’t narrow this down to just ten, so you get a couple of book recommendations this week. I’m including a short snippet of my reviews for each of these books and linking them to the full review. Just click on the book cover image if you’d like to read more. Check out what books others had difficulty reviewing at That Artsy Reader Girl.

 

 

Told through five points of view and based loosely on the Unknown Soldier, this book is like nothing I’ve read before. It is a story of war but more so it a story of human nature and fear and heartache and courage and sacrifice. It is emotional and raw and real.

In short, it is the best book I’ve read this year (and maybe since Dykes’ previous book). You do not want to miss this book but be sure to keep the tissues on hand.

 

 

 

Through the eyes of eighteen-year-old Annie, we experience love in all forms in Annie’s life—that of siblings who are best friends, family, friends, and perhaps the beginnings of romantic love. As the town and the family are touched by tragedies, I found myself wanting to hug each of these characters who became so real to me I forgot there only exist on these pages.

Keep that box of tissues near and sit down with Annie, Mike, Joel, and the rest of the family. This is one visit you’re going to want to experience for yourself.

 

 

With a fictional story steeped in research and historical facts, Amanda Barratt pulls readers into the horrors of World War II Germany, the sacrifice made by a handful of young people to take a stand and not waver no matter the cost, and the thread of hope that one day, the war would end.

The White Rose Resists is an emotional story of courage and honor of love and sacrifice. It is a story I will not soon forget. And it a story everyone should read.

 

 

 

Throughout this entire book, I found myself smiling, giggling, and even laughing out loud once or twice. Permilia and Asher play off each other and navigate the perfect comedic dance. From the first pages of Behind the Scenes, I liked Permilia. Snubbed by society but unwilling to let that determine her worth, she finds other occupations to keep her entertained during the many times she’s not asked to dance. While she’s a strong woman, she also has a shy side with most men that is endearing.

 

 

In The Promised Land, Elizabeth Musser bring three very different characters with different life experiences, dreams, and struggles together on the Camino pilgrimage. All while she brings her reader along to experience the challenges, joys, beauty, food, and friendship of this 90-mile walk.

If you’ve ever completed an endurance race, you will understand how the fatigue strips you down until you can’t hide your emotions. And if you haven’t, The Promised Land allows you to experience the pain, effort, and triumph at reaching the finish.

 

 

 

As Jacob and Kate trade their luxury condo for a skoolie and meet just the right people, their history is revealed, and I just could not help but root for these two broken and hurting people who felt so alone in their pain and brokenness.

With deep and complex characters, you cannot help but be drawn to, this is a moving and emotional story about how being stripped of everything we hold important in life opens our eyes to what really matters, to the truest blessings in our lives. It’s about finding ourselves and leaning on God when all hope seems lost. About healing.

 

 

Flawed and prone to mistakes and missteps, Amber reminded me that God meets us where we are. In our anger, our despair, our acceptance. We may not understand why he allows it but he never leaves us—even during those times we rail at him.

This book is about relationships. Broken ones, those in disrepair, those that fall away, new ones, and ones that last a lifetime.

Full of twists and turns, beauty, and poignancy, Hold the Light is one book you will not be disappointed in picking up.

 

 

This story. Wow! There is so much I want to say about this book, so many things I want you to know but at the same time, I want readers to experience it for themselves. Katie Ganshert has outdone herself with this one.

When Autumn and the Elliotts’ paths cross, there are moments. Moments of laughter, moments of hope, moments when they forget the tragedy and focus on life. As these four try to make sense of the tragedy, to put the before behind them, there is a small glimpse into the future. One that, while loss and grief are a part of life for many, it doesn’t have to be something that defines them.

 

 

In the same vein as the Lizzie Bennet Diaries and Emma Approved, Kate Watson takes a classic, beloved story and makes it better, more relevant for 2017.

Once I started reading this book, I could not put it down. Finley Price is so much more likeable than Austen’s Fanny Price. Finley’s painful, tragic past makes you want only the best things for her. Harlan Crawford is never quite likable enough to be good enough for Finley, either.

With the perfect mixture of pop culture and classic literature, Kate Watson delivers a stunning debut.

 

 

 

This book can be summed up in one word: POWERFUL. This is not a light-hearted, uplifting story. Although there are moments of hope and good, Something I Am Not is filled with pain and with the horrors and torment the depravity of sinful and greedy people inflict on those who can’t defend themselves. Or those who are so starved for affirmation, acknowledgement, or affection from the people in their lives.

 

 

 

Told through the eyes of Sara, the newest member of the group, readers go along on an emotional rollercoaster ride from the second chapter and on. Sara deals with the death of a dream she’s held for three years (which also becomes the death of a friendship).

Told through the eyes of Sara, the newest member of the group, readers go along on an emotional rollercoaster ride from the second chapter and on. Sara deals with the death of a dream she’s held for three years (which also becomes the death of a friendship).

 

 

 

What a surprising and heartachingly beautiful story this was. Brenda S. Anderson wallops readers over the head right away with the upheaval in Erin’s life and doesn’t stop tugging those strings of compassion, grief, forgiveness, and hope until the end.

A Beautiful Mess does not shy away from realistic, hard-hitting topics such as infidelity, bitterness, and how love looks different to different people. The characters in this are flawed and grieving messes of human emotions but throughout the book, there are glimpses of true love and hope of healing an extremely broken family.

 

 

 

 

Have you read any of these wonderful books? Are any of them on your tbr? Let me know in the comments.