I wasn’t a big fan of Twilight, but my daughter went on and on about it, so eventually she begged me to read it. No, I didn’t fall in love with Edward. Frankly, I thought he was a bit “stalkerish” and played mind games with Bella (It’s too dangerous for you to be around me, etc.). However, I read the other two in the trilogy and saw some redeeming qualities to Edward, although I’ll never be a swooning Twilight mom.

What I found more interesting, as an author myself, was that I could see a growth in Stephenie. Her writing got better and while I still think she’s overly in love with vampires and therefore makes them nearly flawless, at least the Cullens, when she does action, she is good.

This book blew me away with the fact that stuff that I thought she just threw into the first books were actually thought out and planned. It was easy for me to believe she wrote Twilight for fun, never expecting it would take off and then had to write more. No, apparently, she had it planned and it worked.

SPOILERS (Like anyone HASN’T read this yet!)

I do agree with one reviewer who said Bella’s love didn’t require any sacrifice. She got to keep Charlie, Jacob, Edward AND be a vampire (and therefore become beautiful, strong, perfect). She never had to deal with the struggles that newborn vampires usually had and this wasn’t sufficiently explain, at least from my point of view.

Life isn’t that perfect, but you know, what? This isn’t life. It’s fantasy, so I’m willing to overlook this, even if it bugs me a little.

The last few scenes kept me reading, even when my husband wanted me to turn the light off so he could sleep!

I wish Steph had done more with the Volturi wives. It was mentioned over and over that “even the wives are coming!” and this was a BIG DEAL, and nothing was done with that. This is a big flaw in the book, in my opinion.

Over all, I think this was the best of the four, and I do wish she’d play a little more in this universe. I’d love to see what she’d do with some of the other vampires (the Amazons fascinate me) and what will happen with Renesmee in the future!

From the back cover:

Linda Revere longs to have a sizzling affair . . . with her husband – a practical, no-nonsense community college science teacher. Unfortunately, life isn’t scripted, and nothing goes according to plan. From having a demanding boss and at times a frustrating job to helping her family and friends with their troubles, life seems to be preventing Linda from achieving her goal of an exciting and passionate marriage. Linda hopes God will answer her prayers to jazz up her marriage, but is she ready for what happens next?

This is the debut book for Ms. DiMaria and I think she hit it out of the park!

Linda’s desire, after many years of marriage, a son in college and a daughter in high school, to find the romantic man she married, is one many women can relate to. Linda takes matters into her own hands and starts a well-organized plan to bring the romance and spice back into her marriage.

However, her daughter makes a dumb mistake that threatens to tear the family apart and Linda has reason to fear for her own health and possibly her life. All this puts the romance plan on hold and also makes her question whether there is even a marriage to save.

Ms. DiMaria writes in such an authentically emotional way that I found myself being worried and stressed for no reason and realizing that I was empathizing with Linda so much it affected me even when the book was closed.

I was pleasantly surprised when my fear that the worries would be dealt with in a simple, cliche way were completely unfounded. Her solution to things was creative, surprising and real.

I definitely look forward to reading whatever Ms. DiMaria is working on next!

The back cover blurb says:

Twenty-eight-year-old Emma Browning has experienced a good deal of life at her young age. Proprietor of Emma’s Boardinghouse, she is “mother” to an array of beefy, unkempt, often rowdy characters. Though many men would like to get to know the steely, hard-edged, yet surprisingly lovely proprietor, none has truly succeeded. That is, not until the town’s new pastor, Jonathan Atkins, takes up residence in the boardinghouse, affecting not only her with his devout faith and strong convictions, but her clientèle as well. Emma clings desperately to her stubborn ways, refusing to acknowledge God’s love until all of Little Hickman witnesses a miracle — the conversion of her abusive and alcoholic father, Ezra! Only then will Emma begin to experience God’s transforming power at work.

This blurb doesn’t do justice to the depth of emotion in this book. I don’t normally cry while reading a novel. Movies, yeah, but it takes a lot in a book to make me cry.

Well, I did toward the end of this one!

Also, this blurb doesn’t tell you about the romance in the book and how wonderful the characters are portrayed. Emma and Jon are real people with real problems and pasts that are not so clean and shiny. They share a common, abusive past, but where Jon let God open his heart and learned how to forgive even if it was after his father’s death, Emma stayed bitter and angry at her father, who, in her mind (and the mind of some townspeople) is unworthy of any kind of gentle feeling or compassion. She only deals with him when she has to and refuses to let anyone help her, believing that her father is her problem.

Jonathan, who she knew as a child, took a different path and ends up helping Emma with her father, regardless of her bitterness and out right anger at the idea of a loving God. Jon’s example and refusal to back off from his beliefs eventually soften her heart and allows her to see God’s love and her own worthiness.

An excellent book and one I would recommend to anyone interested in reading a wholesome inspirational that doesn’t paint life as always rosy and sweet. Real people dealing with real problems and finding God through it all. Wonderful!

I had the pleasure of taking a workshop given by Ms. Cast at RWA’s National Conference last summer, and reading this book was like hearing her voice again. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Shannon Parker is a 30-something high school teacher with a passion for flea markets and estate sales. When she goes to a sale out in the middle of nowhere in the part of Oklahoma that she calls home, she finds an ancient ceramic vase with her image painted on it! This vase weaves a spell over her and she has to buy it.

Driving home, feeling a little strange, she encounters a freak storm and the pot explodes. When she wakes up, she finds her best friend acting like her slave and discovers that she’s been transported to a mythological world. If that weren’t confusing enough, everyone is calling her Rhiannon and she is also expected to wed a Centaur Shaman, like right now!

ClanFintan, the Shaman, is probably one of the greatest heroes I’ve read in romantic fiction in a long time, and yes, the Centaur thing is a little disconcerting (imagine yourself in Shannon’s place), but it does work out without any strange inter-species stuff.

PC Cast’s voice is contemporary and fun, like you know this person and really want to hang out or go shopping with her. Shannon/Rhiannon has to deal with a terribly scary enemy and deal with people who believe her to be a nasty, slutty Goddess. She manages it all while remaining a fun, 21st century woman. Being a high school teacher serves her in ways you wouldn’t expect given the situation she finds herself in.

Shannon is a girly girl in all the best ways and finds herself surrounded by true girlfriends who help her deal with tough problems along with the enemy who threatens her new found home.

I LOVE this book. I found myself actually cringing when things got bad and laughing out loud a lot of the time. This was one of those books you never want to end. Fortunately, there are more in the series and I intend to read them all!

If you’d like to read Divine by Mistake, leave me a message and I’ll pick the name of someone who comments to get this book. Please leave me a working email (separate the elements so as to stop the dumb spammers!). I’ll draw a name next Monday!