Christian Bookshelf Reviews

2025 Mini-Recap & 26 Books I Want To Finish In 2026

2026-01-02T01:11:00.000-06:00

Hello 2026! I'm planning on gettting more consistent with posts this year and hopefully getting over this persistent reading slump I've been in. I thought I would share a little recap of 2025, plus some reading "goals" and a tbr list of 26 books I'm wanting to finish in 2026.

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According to Goodreads challenge, I read 43 books. That was way lower than my goal of 130 books, but as I said I've been in a slump with reading and so I'm glad that I at least finished some books. ;)

Some highlights from the books I read:

26 Books I Want To Finish In 2026:

Most of these books are ones that have been sitting on my TBR shelf way too long and I want to push myself to finally read them. Going to try my best to get them read this year.

1. Milk and Honey: A Devotional Journey Through Scripture to Savor God's Goodness by Cambria Joy

2. No More Boring Bible Study: Why Taking Scripture Seriously Is Easier and More Exciting Than You Think by Faith Womack

3. What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Qur'an by James R. White

4. How to Live a Life of Prayer: Classic Christian Writers on the Divine Privilege of Prayer by John Wesley

5. Christ's Call to Reform the Church: Timeless Demands From the Lord to His People by John MacArthur

6. Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith by R.C. Sproul

7. Writing Peace on My Heart: A 6-Week Bible Memory Devotional by Janice Thompson

8. The Joy of the In-Between: 100 Devotions for Trusting God in Your Waiting Season: A Devotional by Ashley Hetherington

9. The Cumberland Bride (Daughters of the Mayflower, #5) by Shannon McNear

10. The Liberty Bride (Daughters of the Mayflower, #6) by MaryLu Tyndall

11. The Alamo Bride (Daughters of the Mayflower, #7) by Kathleen Y'Barbo

12. The Golden Bride (Daughters of the Mayflower, #8) by Kimberley Woodhouse

13. The Express Bride (Daughters of the Mayflower, #9) by Kimberley Woodhouse

14. The Rebel Bride (Daughter of the Mayflower, #10) by Shannon McNear

15. Great Plains Brides by Ramona K. Cecil & Erica Vetsch

16. Into the Fire (Undaunted Courage #1) by Irene Hannon

17. Over the Edge (Undaunted Courage #2) by Irene Hannon

18. Out of Time (Undaunted Courage, #3) by Irene Hannon

19. Still My Forever by Kim Vogel Sawyer

20. The Songbird of Hope Hill by Kim Vogel Sawyer

21. Hope's Enduring Echo by Kim Vogel Sawyer

22. Where We Belong: An Orphan Train Novel by Kim Vogel Sawyer

23. The Farmer's Daughter Romance Collection

24. The Erie Canal Brides Collection

25. Seven Brides for Seven Mail-Order Husbands

26. Sincerely Yours

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Goals:

Ideally I will read at least 1 nonfiction book a month and 3+ fiction books a month. With my current reading slump, it would be really nice to read at least that. :) I hope to also post here at least once a week.

What are some reading goals you have for 2026? Any books you especially want to read this year? Please share in the comments below. Thank you for stopping by.

The Short Game | Movie Review + Gift Card Giveaway! In Theaters August 29th!

2025-08-29T13:10:00.001-05:00

About the movie:

Jeremy Avery is vying for a college golf scholarship awarded to the winner of the State Championship, but his preparation and game are affected by family pressures and having to take care of his younger autistic brother, Ethan. These challenges, along with the pressure of carrying his team to State against an opponent who will do anything to win, leads Jeremy on a journey of discovery both internal and of his brother’s savant-like gifts, that if embraced can create an unstoppable pair. On the brink of his greatest victory, Jeremy is forced to make a life-altering decision, finally realizing his own personal dreams or standing by his brother.

Movie Trailer:

https://youtu.be/r8BiMoNHDhc?si=a65qcL_gBputQ8Qq

In Theaters August 29th, 2025 | Find tickets: https://www.shortgamemovie.com/tickets

Website: https://www.shortgamemovie.com/

My rating:
4 stars

(View my rating system)

My thoughts:

The Short Game was a really good movie with a great and moving storyline. I'm not someone who knows much about golf, but I found the movie to be interesting and actually enjoyed the golf aspect.

The characters were great. I was surprised by a certain turn of events in the movie, but that made it an even more engaging watch.

All in all, The Short Game was a good movie and I loved that it was not predictable. It held my attention, was moving, and also had moments that made me laugh.

Thank you to Momentum for including me in this promotion. I was able to watch an early screening of the product for this review. Opinions are 100% my own.

GIVEAWAY!

Giveaway: Enter for the chance to win a $10 Amazon gift card (Note: This is limited to US winners only). Please enter by filling out the Giveaway Tools form below. Ends 9/3/25.

*If you win this giveaway from a different blog for this promo, you are ineligible to win again. Winner's name/email will be sent to Momentum along with a backup/alternative winner(s), should the first winner be ineligible. You will be notified by them if you are the winner. I am not responsible for giveaway/prize.

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Review: The Collector of Burned Books by Roseanna M. White

2025-08-11T00:00:00.001-05:00

About the book:

In this gripping World War II historical about the power of words, two people form an unlikely friendship amid the Nazi occupation in Paris and fight to preserve the truth that enemies of freedom long to destroy.

Paris, 1940. Ever since the Nazi Party began burning books, German writers exiled for their opinions or heritage have been taking up residence in Paris. There they opened a library meant to celebrate the freedom of ideas and gathered every book on the banned list . . . and even incognito versions of the forbidden books that were smuggled back into Germany.

For the last six years, Corinne Bastien has been reading those books and making that library a second home. But when the German army takes possession of Paris, she loses access to the library and all the secrets she’d hidden there. Secrets the Allies will need if they have any hope of liberating the city she calls home.

Christian Bauer may be German, but he never wanted anything to do with the Nazi Party―he is a professor, one who’s done his best to protect his family as well as the books that were a threat to Nazi ideals. But when Goebbels sends him to Paris to handle the “relocation” of France’s libraries, he’s forced into an army uniform and given a rank he doesn’t want. In Paris, he tries to protect whoever and whatever he can from the madness of the Party and preserve the ideas that Germans will need again when that madness is over, and maybe find a lost piece of his heart.

The Collector of Burned Books

Hardcover | 979-8-4005-0173-9 | $32.99

Softcover | 979-8-4005-0174-6 | $18.99

July 2025

Tyndale.com

My rating:
5 stars

(View my rating system)

My thoughts:

The Collector of Burned Books was an amazing read! The story was a little confusing at first (as I was trying to figure out who was who), but it didn't take long for me to get hooked and emotionally invested in the characters.

The story was written so well and I can't believe how emotional I got reading certain scenes. It was just SO good and the characters felt like real people. I absolutely loved reading this book and it was such a good read.

All in all, I loved The Collector of Burned Books and recommend it if you enjoy historical romances. It has danger, deep characters, and a sweet romance story. There were a couple things that bugged me, but nothing major. A great read!

*Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention/review it on my blog. I was not required to give a positive review, only my honest opinion - which I've done. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own and I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.*

Q & A with Roseanna M. White, Author of The Collector of Burned Books!

2025-07-16T13:34:00.003-05:00

Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award–winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she's homeschooling, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books . . . to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary. You can learn more about her and her stories at RoseannaMWhite.com.

Q & A with Roseanna M. White, Author of The Collector of Burned Books

1. What inspired this story?

A couple years ago, I read a nonfiction book called When Books Went to War, all about the role of books and the publishing industry during World War II. In that book was this brief, passing mention of a place in Paris called the Library of Burned Books—it was started by German expat writers who were forced from their homeland in 1933 because of their heritage or political ideas, but it was also sponsored by writers from around the world similarly censored and banned in Germany, like H.G. Wells.

As soon as I read about this place, I was intrigued. An institution by the same name soon followed in New York, but it was the Paris one that really intrigued me . . . because it was the Paris one, the original, that was presented to the Nazis on a metaphorical golden platter the very day they took Paris in 1940. What happened to it? That’s still a mystery. The author of When Books Went to War said the Germans kept it “under lock and key” for the duration of the war. And that got me thinking.

Why would they simply protect it instead of immediately dismantling it? What sort of person would have been put in charge of it? How would they have been impacted by the verboten books on those shelves? And, of course . . . what if that “library protector” had secrets of his own?

It took me a while to figure out which story I wanted to tell, but once I realized that I wanted my focus to be, not on what the library was before the occupation, but what happened to it during, the pieces all came together.

2. What messages or themes do you focus on in this book?

As one might expect from the title and location, censorship and book banning is a big subject in the book . . . but I try to dig a little deeper into it and explore why our human instinct is to snuff out what we disagree with. Why we go from I don’t like that idea to That idea is dangerous to That idea must be eliminated.

Freedom, however, is irrevocably linked to ideas and the people who put them down on paper. A people that reject the responsibility of sifting through ideas on their own is a people who will soon only think what they’re told to think. But the real kicker here is that it wasn’t the Nazi party that decided to dictate to the people what they could read or not. It was the people, the university students, who demanded “dangerous” or “unfitting” or “disgraceful” books be removed that led to the book burnings now decried as one of the worst offenses to freedom.

Yet if we truly take a look at ourselves, our communities, our culture . . . are we so different? Are we willing to accept the challenge given in this story to read, not just what we like, but what we don’t? To read things we don’t agree with, not for the sake of arguing, but for the sake of understanding? To read not to condemn but to grow? I don’t know about you, but that’s something I need to work on!

3. How does faith play a role in this story?

While Paris in the 1940s was known for its rather lax morals, my heroine, Corinne, is a woman of faith clinging to God, not just to protect her from the evil surrounding her, but to strengthen her for whatever the fight for freedom looks like.

My hero, Christian, is forced into a Nazi uniform, but as he puts it, “He called the Nazi party an enemy before the rest of the world knew to fear them.” At the start of the book, he’s coming out of a place of extreme hardship that has left him too hollow to approach God . . . but he quickly remembers that the only way to be filled again is to invite the Lord to close that distance.

4. What do you hope that readers learn from The Collector of Burned Books?

My deepest prayer is that as readers get to know Corinne and Christian, they’ll not just get swept up in romance or espionage or the tension of living a double life under an oppressive regime, but that we’ll all pause to remember that words, spoken but especially written, are so, so powerful. The words we consume become our thoughts, our thoughts become our actions, and our actions become our legacy. Are we giving those words the care they deserve?

5. Who is your favorite character in the book and why?

Ack, this is always such a hard question! I love Corinne for her boldness and fearlessness, Christian for his gentle spirit . . . but I think my favorite might be Corinne’s adopted uncle, Georges, because he’s in fact a grown-up version of a beloved minor character from my previous books set in the First World War. Georgie was always my on-the-ground, behind-enemy-lines contact . . . and I had so much fun imagining who he’d be in this next war!

6. What do you find to be the most challenging part of the writing process? What advice would you offer young writers?

I’m one of those people who love the entire process of book creation, from the first spark of idea to editing. The challenge, I think, is always going to be finding the time for creativity amidst the demands of life. But to those interested in becoming authors, my best advice is always “Respect the dream.” Give the learning process the time it deserves. Most of us are in a rush to publication, but would we want someone performing surgery after two whole months of study? Of course not. Chasing the dream of writing is no different than chasing the dream of healing or being a missionary or building bridges. It deserves the same respect . . . and demands the same investment of time. And especially if you feel this is something the Lord has called you to, treat that time spent chasing it as something sacred . . . because your words can change the world!

7. Which books and authors have shaped you most as a writer?

So many! If I look back to childhood, my first influences were C.S. Lewis and L.M. Montgomery . . . then came Lori Wick, Francine Rivers, and Frank Perretti. There have been many, many more, of course, but those are definitely the ones that I reread now and think, Oh, THAT’S where I got that!

8. Do you have any future writing projects planned?

Always! Right now I’m working on another book set in France during the occupation, this one focusing on a fictionalized version of the amazing woman who led France’s first and biggest spy network during the war, Alliance. The Face of Deception will release in summer 2026 and has my mind abuzz with adventure and intrigue!

The Collector of Burned Books

Hardcover | 979-8-4005-0173-9 | $32.99

Softcover | 979-8-4005-0174-6 | $18.99

July 2025

Tyndale.com

About the book:

Monthly Reflections | March 2025

2025-04-03T00:00:00.001-05:00

Monthly Reflections, where we take the time to reflect on the previous month.

I Can't Wait for... The Collector of Burned Books by Roseanna M. White (Can't-Wait Wednesday/Waiting on Wednesday)

2025-04-02T15:56:00.000-05:00

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they're books that have yet to be released. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.

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About the book:

Stand-alone historical fiction from a bestselling, Christy Award-winning author
A thought-provoking novel perfect for book clubs
Includes discussion questions

Pages: 368
Publisher: Tyndale Fiction

Release Date: July 15, 2025

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8400501746

Find the book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/42bjZkt (aff link)

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Review: Uneasy Street by Becky Wade

2025-03-31T21:09:00.000-05:00

About the book:

Christy Award Hall of Fame Author

Once upon a time Max Cirillo and Sloane Madison were close friends and business partners. But when their business relationship imploded, so did the friendship.

Now, four years later, Max is a rich CEO. Sloane’s a not-so-rich etiquette expert who returns to Maine to serve as her niece’s temporary guardian and help the girl search for her birth father. Sloane and her niece move into a darling garage apartment but Sloane’s joy in their accommodations soon turns to horror when she realizes their apartment belongs to Max. Thanks to an unbreakable lease, she’s stuck living right next door to him.

Max pulled strings to bring Sloane into his orbit because he needs closure on what went wrong between them. Quickly, though, his scheming comes back to bite him. The world might view him as a cold-hearted rake, but this one woman has dangerous power over his emotions.

They’ll have no choice but to confront their history—and the undeniable spark between them—while living side by side on uneasy street.

Discover witty humor, rich emotion, banter, and charm within the pages of this sweet enemies-to-lovers romance!

Find the book on:

Amazon (aff link), Goodreads

My rating:
4 stars

(View my rating system)

My thoughts:

Uneasy Street is the third book in Becky Wade's Sons of Scandal series and a wonderful read! I really enjoyed the romance and how they were former friends who had to work through their past hurt. It was interesting to learn what had happened to cause the fracture in their friendship.

The mystery of Ivy's search was great. It had some surprising twists and I loved how that storyline turned out...the ending was so sweet!

I loved how this book wrapped everything up so nicely. It was great to see how the main characters from the previous books were doing and get updates on their lives.

All in all, Uneasy Street was a great read and I think fans of romance novels will enjoy it. It was a very good romance. It was written so well and held my attention. So good!

Weekend Wrap-Up (February 22nd, 2025)

2025-02-22T18:35:00.002-06:00

Weekend Wrap-up is where I share what I read this past week, am currently reading, and my reading plans for the coming week.

Feel free to join along and post your own Weekend Wrap-up on your blog/site (if you do, please leave the link in a comment so I can stop by) or, in a comment, share what you've read this past week. :)

Review: An Honorable Deception by Roseanna M. White

2024-12-19T18:25:00.001-06:00

About the book:

In the trying art of balancing investigations and love, a detective must determine his priorities when faced with dangerous circumstances that could threaten everything he holds dear.

As the leader of the Imposters, an elite private investigative firm, Lord Yates Fairfax has made an art of concealing his identity. But when his newest client, the beautiful Lady Alethia Barremore, is shot while leaving their meeting, he throws caution to the wind and rushes to her aid. Though Lady Alethia thought she was only looking for her missing former nanny, she has clearly stumbled upon something much more dangerous.

Lady Lavinia Hemming suspects her longtime friends hold more secrets than they're willing to admit, and when she stumbles upon the truth that they're the esteemed Imposters, she recruits herself into the firm. While she is happy for the distraction of an investigation, Lavinia's own family secrets continue to haunt her. And the one thing bringing laughter back into her life--her friendship with Yates--lands her squarely on the disagreeable side of her best friend: his sister.

Tormented by a past she doesn't dare voice aloud, Lady Alethia does what she can to help her handsome host, her new friends, and the investigators. But as clues lead them deeper into the dark side of society, Alethia, Yates, and Lavinia learn anew that the gentry isn't always noble . . . even as they fight to hold fast to their own honor.

My rating:
5 Stars

(View my rating system)

My thoughts:

An Honorable Deception was a highly anticipated read for me and it was just as amazing a read as I had hoped! I was eager for Lavinia's story and Yate's story as well.

The romance was good and I was eager to see how the story would end. It was a bittersweet ending to me as I was sad to say goodbye to these characters...but I'm hopeful Roseanna will include these characters in future stories someday. 😊

The writing was fantastic and I had no trouble following the storyline or characters. The subject matter was sometimes a difficult one, but it brought to light evil and I loved the way the story concluded.

All in all, An Honorable Deception was a fantastic read and I highly recommend it. The whole series has been amazing and I think fans of historical romance will enjoy it. I can hardly wait for her next story!

Find the book on:
Amazon (aff link), Goodreads

Top Ten Tuesday | 10 Christmassy Books on My TBR

2024-12-02T22:53:00.003-06:00

Top Ten Tuesday | 10 Christmassy Books on My TBR

For this freebie week, I decided to share ten Christmassy books that are on my TBR. I actually hope and plan on trying to get most of these OFF my TBR this winter season. Some of them have been on my (virtual or physical) shelf for years and I need to finally read them.

Do you have any Christmas books on your TBR?