Friday, January 21, 2011

UNBROKEN CONNECTION by ANGELA MORRISON

from the back of the book:
Against all odds, the couple that swept you away in Taken By Storm is back. Michael is in Thailand diving his dream. Leesie is at BYU living hers,
And they just can't leave each other alone.
Their romance rekindles, deeper than before. They grow desperate to see one another again. To hold one another again. Michael decides there is only one direction their relationship can go and asks Leesie the ultimate question. Her answer challenges everything Michael is and wants to be.
Can she change for him?
Can he change for her?
Enough?
I was exited to read more about Leesie and Michael. At the end of Taken by Storm, they decide to break up and go their separate ways, but that was not to happen. 
They started out chatting when he was in port, near an Internet hot spot, then Michael send her a new lap top and a cell phone so they could talk. 
There are a lot of twists and turns, and compromise. Michael wants Leesie to learn to dive, Leesie wants Michael to talk to the missionaries. Leesie does her best to conquer her fear of water and learn to dive, Michael agrees to talk to the missionaries, which doesn't go well.
I loved that Angela Morrison managed to avoid the convenient happily ever after ending, which would have been so easy.
To learn more about Angela Morrison and her books CLICK HERE.
I would recommend this to teens and adults that have read Taken by Storm, or who are looking for "sweet romance" books. 

You can find Unbroken Connection at www.amazon.com, www.bn.com and inter library loan.

TAKEN BY STORM by Angela Morrison

From the back of the book:
Leesie thinks she has her whole life planned out, get into the school of her dreams, write her poems, meet the perfect guy, and settle down. Then she meets Michael- a boy whose parents were killed in a diving accident during a terrible storm.
Michael is drowning in tragedy. And all Leesie wants is to save him. With each day, her heart hurts more. Could it be, perfect Leesie is falling from grace?
Or is she just falling in love?
This story is a amazing mix of love, grief, forgiveness and clean passion.
When I first started reading this I wasn't sure I was going to like it. The format was different than what I a used to and in all honesty I dislike poetry, and a large portion of the story is told in Leesie's poems. After I started reading and got into the story and attached to the characters I found that none of that mattered.
I found myself hoping Michael and Leesie could make their relationship work, without Leesie having to compromise too many of her rules.
Leesie is a Mormon girl, the only one in her High School class, I identified with her, having been the only active Mormon girl in my class too. She had a lot of rules of conduct she stuck to rigidly and was dubbed the ice princess, until she met Michael.
Michael was a diver, kind of cocky, had always had his way with girls. He came to town a broken boy, after loosing his parents tragically.
Leesie put a lot of herself into helping Michael deal with the tragedy life dealt to him. She was willing to compromise on a lot of her rules for Michael.
 Michael seemed incapable of understanding and accepting Leesie's rules and standard, and every time she called for recess as he called it, he would end up doing something stupid, that could have cost him her love and support. 
Leesie showed an amazing capacity to love and forgive. 
To read more about Taken by Storm and to l earn more about the author Angela Morrison CLICK HERE
I would recommend this for teens and adults who want to read "Sweet Romance".
You can find it at www.amazon.com , www.bn.com,  the BYU bookstore and the Flying Pig Bookstore,or check out inter library loan.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

BACKLASH by TRACI HUNTER ABRAMSON

From the back of the book:
In the five years she's been married to Navy SEAL Kel Bennett, Marilyn has lived with fear as a near-constant companion. But the morning she sees two men in naval uniforms approaching her doorway with solemn faces, her fear turns to terror. This is what she signed up for when she exchanged wedding vows with that stunning man in military dress whites: a husband who leaves home whenever the phone rings and who might not ever come back. Turns out Marilyn is lucky this time: Kel is still alive, although gravely injured from the Saint Squad op that thwarted a terrorist attack in the southwestern US. While his wife is relieved to have him stationary in a hospital bed, Kel's necessary lack of openness about his work puts a strain on their already troubled marriage. As the distance between the couple widens, Marilyn turns to the book she's secretly writing to express her unspeakable emotions.
Meanwhile, the backlash from the foiled terrorist mission brings Halim Karel to the States in search of Seth, the undercover agent who'd infiltrated his organization and spearheaded the abduction of his boss's niece. As danger mounts and the SEAL team springs into action, Marilyn is shocked by her first glance into the grisly realities of her husband's profession: violence, deception, even killing. And when she becomes a central ploy in Halim's revenge plan, she struggles to find needed trust and confidence in this military man she loves-not just to save their marriage but to save their lives.
This is the 4th book in the Saint Squad series and it was just as good as the previous 3. I waited to read it until I knew I had some free time, because I knew that once I picked it up I would have a hard time putting it down.
This book centers on Squad leader Kel and his wife Marilyn and their adjustment to being together after he is injured in the line of duty.
Kel & Marilyn never spent much time communicating about their lives when they were apart, and that made things tense when he found out a terrorist was tracking them.
Marilyn never told Kel she had aspirations to write and was,in fact, writing a book. 
Kel's story shows how important communication is in marriage, although it made for much more suspense with neither of them knowing what the other was doing.
I recommend this book to anyone who likes suspense. It is part of a series, but the series can be read in any order.
To learn more about Traci and her books CLICK HERE.
You can find  Backlash at www.deseretbook.com, www.seagullbook.com, www.amazon.com or through inter library loan.
 Traci & I at the Glendale Deseret Book, Oct 21, 2010
No doubt, we will yet have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own. But such literary greatness will be achieved only by great souls. Our religion is capable of cultivating those great souls; and it shall.

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DISCLAIMER: I do not receive any money for my posts. I do however occasionally receive the review products at no charge to evaluate and express my opinion.

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