Margaret Anscombe

Emergency Response by Susan Sleeman My rating: 1 of 5 stars I did not really care about the main characters somehow. They didn't really seem like real people to me and I had trouble believing that they would get over their emotional baggage as quickly as they did in the end. Some things were left unresolved in the story. For example, the hero, Noah, had a child he'd abandoned years before whose life he now wanted to be a part of. He never even got to interact with his son, let alone make progress towards his goal of being a part of his son's life. Since this book is part of a series, I suppose she may intend to resolve that issue later, but it was still unsatisfying to be left hanging. The was one major implausibility near the end of the story. *Spoiler alert if you care about such things.* Throughout most of the book, the heroine, Darcie, had gang members who kept trying to murder her by strangling her, shooting at her, etc. They didn't care ho...

One Step Closer: 40 Doses of Motivation, Hacks, and Experiences to Share with Millennial Catholics by Anthony Freeman My rating: 3 of 5 stars I found this book a bit disappointing. There was no real depth to it and hardly any real spiritual insights. If anything this book is definitely milk and not solid food, but it wasn't even very much milk. Reading it felt equivalent to drinking milk by the teaspoon. Each of the entries was short and said very little. He did have some material on how to work on getting rid of your vices that seemed helpful, but other than that, I did not feel like I gained any insight from it. This book could also have used an editor. There were various mistakes throughout, the most memorable being a reference to something "stumping" your growth rather than "stunting" it. I really wanted to like this book. Anthony Freeman seemed like a great guy and it is sad that he died so suddenly before he had a chance to become a p...

Beyond East and West by John C.H. Wu My rating: 5 of 5 stars I thought it was fascinating to read about life in China during the first half of the twentieth century. Wu's upbringing was so different from anything I'd ever read about. He was raised my his father's first wife because his father's second wife, Wu's biological mother, died when he was four, and Wu's father also died when Wu was young. Already that seemed different from most people's upbringings, but I was very surprised that his stepmother showered love on him and he adored her back. It was refreshing to read about, since it's so different from what you might have expected, especially since the stepmother was jealous of Wu's biological mother. He was also betrothed to be married at the age of six and didn't meet his wife until the day of their wedding. I loved how when someone asked him how he could love his wife if he didn't choose her he said something along...

Their Second Chance Love by Kat Brookes My rating: 3 of 5 stars Warning: Spoilers ahead, if that bothers you. This is the only Christian Romance novel I've ever made it all the way through, so I think Kat Brookes deserves a lot of credit for writing an engaging story. I liked the characters in the story, especially the hero, Logan, and I was happy that things worked out. I'd love to read the other novels in the series in any case. However, I did think this particular story could have been improved. Logan and Hope were a couple when they were teenagers and they had been planning to get married, but Hope dumped Logan when she found out from her doctor that she was infertile and would never be able to give Logan the many children he'd always wanted. Instead of telling him this, Hope lied and said she didn't love him when she ended things. Fast forward nine years later. Hope's father's health problems end up throwing Logan and Hope together. Th...