Tag Archives: book review

Exciting Updates

This month has brought forth so many new and exciting things.  Please bear with me as this post is FULL of links.  Just yesterday I had the privilege of speaking to a great group of students at the Power House in Texarkana.  The Power House is the youth of Church on the Rock Texarkana, and it is where Eric and I began our ministry work.  It was great to be back in that building speaking to a whole new group of students, and I enjoyed seeing the many familiar faces.

Throughout the month of June, I’ve also been “touring” around the country making stops at blogs and websites of many different people.  The tour continues through next week, and I hope you continue to follow me on the various sites.  If you’ve missed any stops this week, you might want to check out Monday’s book review at Leelee Writes.  She has been a fan of A Princess Broken since it began if I’m not mistaken, so I really enjoyed hearing from someone who knew the book before it ever became a book.

I must admit, yesterday was one of my favorite stops for one reason in particular.  I Devour Books is a site of reviews for young adult books of all different genres.  It’s interesting because as I interacted with the reviewer of the books and author of the site, I somehow never knew anything about him.  After reading his touching review, I found that he’s a 15-year-old boy!  I want you to know this book may be called A Princess Broken, but I wrote it in such a way that anyone can enjoy it or take pieces from it.  I’m so excited to have him be a part of my tour to reflect the thoughts of a teenage male.  Thank you, Kreag.  You may click HERE for his book review, and HERE for an interview with me.

If you remember, a while back I talked about an amazing book series I had found, The Soulkeepers.  The author, G.P. Ching, also stopped by here during her blog tour for the third book in the series.  I feel extremely privileged to have her participate in my own tour.  Today you can check out my post on her page, So, Write.

You won’t want to miss tomorrow’s stop with Mickey Mendoza of The Hush Project.  I did something completely different with this stop, and I think you will enjoy it.

I promise I will be back to writing my regular blog posts next month.  This really has just been a busy busy month, and I thank you all for following along in the tour.  I hope you are enjoying it.  Have a wonderful summer, and God bless you!

Websites in this Post:
Church on the Rock Texarkana
Leelee Writes
I Devour Books
So, Write
The Hush Project
 A Princess Broken Blog Tour Calendar

 

The Next Target Book Review

The Next Target by Nikki Arana

When I was asked by David C. Cook Publishing to do a review for Nikki Arana’s new book, The Next Target, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.  I don’t mean that in a bad sense either.  This book is filled with action and suspense.  Although it’s fiction, it has a remarkable resemblance to reality.

Austia Donatelli is a widow who strives to keep her husband’s ministry alive but comes to a crossroads when her friend is killed, and she knows her death was related to the ministry.  Her work of teaching English classes in a Muslim community is really a cover-up for her underground ministry of leading Muslims to God.  The leaders in the Muslim community catch wind of what’s going on and begin plotting to end the underground ministry.  Austia is torn between her mission and the people around her as she watches many lives be taken by the Muslim leaders. 

Even as she toys with the idea of falling in love with someone new, Austia must be careful of who she trusts and who she lets in to her life.

The Next Target is a great book with an amazing message.  What would you do?  Would you give up on your faith and a ministry you know God has called you to do if you saw those around you being murdered because of it?  Would you continue your ministry even with the knowledge that you’re probably the next target?

This book hits close to home for my own family, which kept me turning the pages.  While it is full of page-turning action, I found myself getting stuck in a few places.  There were times I had to go back and re-read because I was lost at what was going on, and the characters take a while to become developed.  Sometimes I had to look back at character descriptions to figure out which person she was talking about.  Chapter 6 had me reading and re-reading trying to figure out whether Zaki and Hussein were two different people or the same person and who was the leader.  Something about it confused me, so it took me longer to get through that chapter, and I still found myself confused on the two as I read.

Overall it was a great book with few challenges.  I would recommend it to friends because I believe it has a great message and forces the reader to ask what he or she would do in Austia’s situation.  For the most part, we are passionate about our beliefs and faith, but is there a breaking point where you throw it all away to save the lives of those around you?

You can find out more about the book at TheNextTarget.com
Follow on Twitter @nikkiarana and @David_C_Cook with Twitter Hashtag #nexttarget