To the FTC, with love:  I received a PDF of Fires of Jerusalem from the generous folks at Parables via the Whitney Award Committee.  Thank you!

Someone (I believe it was Gaye of Inside a Book) recently accused me of not posting any new pictures of my baby on this here blog.  In my defense, it's a book blog, not a Mommy blog, so I try to keep things mostly book-related.  However, my daughter has grown a lot since I last showed you a photo of her.  She hardly even resembles the cute little toddler I'm holding in the photo on my right sidebar (*sigh*).  Obviously, she's still cute, it's just that she's such a big girl now.  It makes me a little sad to watch her getting so grown up and independent.  Really, where has the time gone?

Luckily for Gaye, my mother-in-law shot some pictures of little Miss J. just a couple of weeks ago.  not only are they dorable, but they're also bookish in nature.  So, here you go:


Isn't she just too cute for words?  That huge grin is always on her face.  It's absolutely infectious and has gotten her out of trouble many, many times.  Someone once said that this little girl's special talent is making people happy and I couldn't agree more.  She brings joy into our lives every single day.  

The pictures are of J. using the Little Free Library my in-laws set up in their front yard.  Have you heard about this small, but ingenious movement?  It's been a fun little project for my in-laws.  Their lush, well-maintained yard has always received lots of attention, but now that it's got this small, take-a-book-leave-a-book library, it's become an even more popular spot!

In other news, I'm now only 8 reviews behind.  Maybe I will finish writing them sometime in this lifetime!  One can always hope ...

 At any rate, Daughter of Helaman has the potential to be a really exciting and inspiring story, especially since it features a heroine who's not only tough physically, but valiant spiritually.  The problem is that Keturah's a little too tough.  She shows little vulnerability and even less humility.  Worse, she achieves her goal with almost no resistance—and in the middle of the novel, too!  Plus, Keturah spends the majority of her time in training, not doing any real life-or-death type fighting.  While her skirmishes with Gideon keep things interesting for awhile, nothing real really happens until the very end of the book.  Now, I'm guessing (guessing, because I don't actually know) this is because Moncur's setting us up for a sequel, but still, nobody likes stories where nothing happens.  Unfortunately, Daughter of Helaman qualifies.  I would have liked the book a whole lot better if Keturah actually had to work to achieve her goal, if she had to suffer a little humiliation, if she had to struggle a bit to get what she wanted.  As is, the heroine achieves her goal way too easily, the climax of her story comes way too soon, and I stopped caring about what happened to her way too early.  I wanted to love this one, I really did, but I got bored with it long before I had a chance to get into it, you know?  And that's a real bummer because I think this one has definite potential.  It just didn't quite reach it, not in my mind, anyway.             

(Note:  Although this review will not contain spoilers for Miss Delacourt Has Her Day, it may inadvertently reveal plot surprises from its predecessor, Miss Delacourt Speaks Her Mind.  As always, I recommend reading books in a series in order.)