Redeeming Love

Written by Francine Rivers

Reviewed by J Renee Archer

“Simply put, Redeeming Love is the most powerful work of fiction you will ever read” —Liz Curtis Higgs

“Francine Rivers is one of the most riveting novelists I’ve ever read.” —Patsy Clairmont

These comments by fellow authors state it best. There is no better description of Rivers or her book Redeeming Love. I don’t often agree so wholeheartedly with those who endorse a book, but Rivers is deserving of the accolades she receives for all her books.

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Artist Spotlight: Jason Upton

By Mark Bowyer

Like so many other people these days, with a troubled economy comes the necessity for each of us to wear many hats. In Jason Upton’s case, his journey through life has made him wear the hats of worship leader, inspirational teacher, husband, father, songwriter, and independent recording artist. Jason’s Key of David Ministries is a powerful source of Godly wisdom and musical inspiration. With at least ten albums to explore, it becomes more of a history lesson of a decade gone by—where God taught Upton through lyrics and chords and unlocked doors of opportunity for future tours.       

Jason’s MySpace music page, along with a more personal page at http://www.jasonupton.com, lay out everything about his life in the open. A proud father, and highly sought after speaker/performer, the seriousness of a sermon is always coupled with the melodies in his music. Songs like “You Are Holy,” and “How to Know if We Are Born,” speak specifically to growing closer to God and swept away out of the corruption of this world into the glorious holiness of the next.

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Wind Dancer

Written By Jamie Carie

Reviewed By J Renee Archer

Wind Dancer is a romance novel set during the American Revolution and is a gripping tale of unusual circumstances that join two strangers.

Jamie Carie created characters that make for entertaining reading and a story that keeps you turning pages. Isabelle can match the ability of most men and is more at home in the timber hunting than in the kitchen cooking the kill. Just as Isabelle is not the typical woman, Julian, her younger brother, is not the typical young man. He enjoys writing poetry over hunting and music over physical labor. Then there is Samuel; strong, unbridled and who most Indians would love to scalp.

Isabelle and Julian are asked to travel to another town for their pastor. They set off, unaware that this trip will forever alter their lives. Along the path Isabelle and Julian meet an American spy, Samuel Holt. The three travel together and their lives remain intertwined forevermore. Their journey turns dangerous, even deadly when they encounter Indians who hold them captive.

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Try Dying

Written By James Scott Bell

Reviewed By Nike Chillemi

Try Dying is the first novel in the Ty Buchanan legal thriller series. If this is going to be the measure of the series, I can’t wait to read the next book.

Ty Buchanan is preparing a case involving repressed memories that might make him a partner in his posh L.A. law firm. Meanwhile, he’s dealing with some memories of his own he’d like to repress. Schoolteacher Jacqueline Dwyer, the fiancé he adores and a committed Christian, winds up in what appears to have been a freakish accident. A gang-banger shoots his live-in girlfriend, jumps off a freeway overpass, and lands on Jacqueline’s rooftop, killing her. Less than an hour after Jacqueline’s funeral, a deranged man buttonholes a grief stricken Ty, claiming it was murder. The disheveled man attacks Ty and steals his wallet.

Ty Buchanan is charming guy, and the reader feels for him as he begins to doubt his own sanity. Bell’s ability to describe Ty’s descent into obsession keeps the reader turning pages, as this white-collar hero enters the seamy streets of L.A. seeking the truth, risking his life, and sustaining more than one beating in the process. He’s shocked and horrified by his own behavior when he is able to give another man a beating. Ty is quickly losing what little faith he had left. His investigation leads him to a modern day self-help folk-hero, Rudy Barocos, lionized by local politicians and in the press for rehabilitating gang-bangers.

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Movie Review: The Invention of Lying

By Nike Chillemi

I both liked and hated this movie.

I liked that there were truly funny moments. I did laugh a lot in this movie, more so in the beginning. The second half was more thought provoking than the movie previews suggested.

Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais, who also directs the picture) is having a terrible week. He lives in an alternate reality where everyone is compelled to spew out the brutally honest truth, at all times. It’s a world where people form opinions based on surface appearances, and where everyone’s out for themselves.

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