Review: Larkspur Cove by Lisa Wingate

Andrea Henderson is a recently divorced mother of a struggling fourteen year old son who has moved into her parent’s lake home to start a new life with a new job. Mart McClendon is a game warden who has returned to Moses Lake to try to forget a tragedy that he feels responsible for. These two are brought together when a mysterious young girl is seen a reclusive man who lives in the woods.

Moses Lake is quiet and charming town with small town characters that are easy to relate to. It’s the type of community where everyone knows everyone, and everyone pitches in to help when someone is in need. Wingate describes the community in detail. It’s a beautiful setting for this story of healing old wounds and renewed faith. The characters are well developed and compelling.

With a hint a romance, a surly teen, a mystery, and a café where all of this is gossiped about the story moves along at a nice pace and keeps the reader interested. I was a little disappointed that faith was such a minor part of the story. There was a bit of a casual approach to God as well (like calling Him the big man upstairs). Overall, this is a decent book.

I must mention that I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bethany House for review purposes.

An Anchor for the Soul

This short book by Ray Pritchard is an excellent evangelistic tool. It is a short book that covers the key elements of the Christian faith that is doctrinally sound, yet easy to read. The author does a great job of presenting the material without using Christian terms that might not be familiar to those who didn’t grow up in church. He clearly explains who Jesus is, what He did, and why we need Him. It’s page after page of the Gospel, which is so refreshing. I’m glad to say that Pritchard also understands that the good news in only good in light of the bad news. He uses the Law to show the reader their sinfulness before presenting the Gospel of Grace. His gospel presentation is powerful and thorough, yet easily understandable. It’s not the watered-down, seeker-sensitive, come to Jesus for a better life message that so many preach today – it is the true Biblical gospel.

The book is very compelling and easy to read. Each chapter ends with a truth to remember and a section for going deeper.

If you have a friend or loved one who it seems that God is drawing to Himself, I would highly recommend giving them a copy of this book.

A complimentary review copy of this book, along with a copy to give away, was provided to me by C. Grant & Company on behalf of Moody publishing for review purposes, but that in no way influenced my opinion of it.

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You can enter the giveaway for this book here.
Giveaway closes 4/17/11 at 8PM.



Review: If God Why Evil by Norman Geisler

I had high hopes for this book. Though I haven’t read any of his more recent works, I have long respected Geisler as a very solid apologetics teacher. In this one, however, he let me down.


First, I just didn’t like the way it was written. It is page after page of logical syllogisms which just don’t make for interesting reading and might not make that much sense to a reader who hasn’t studied logic.

Second, he seems to be answering questions posed by atheists thirty years ago, rather than dealing with the New Age spirituality (think Emergent panentheists) of today. It really didn’t seem relevant to the issues that face the church today.



Third, his main premise is based on the assumption that we have free will. Reformed readers will likely find this really frustrating to read. Geisler ignores the passages of Scripture in which God answered questions posed to Him about the existence of evil and suffering (Job 40-42, and John 9:2-3 to name a few). While Geisler blames evil on free will, we see in Job that Satan needed God's permission and God gave it (Job chapter 2). All that befell Job was not because of Satans free will, but because God allowed it.


On a more positive note, the last to chapters were devoted to hell and answering the question “What about those who have never hear?” I found those two chapters to be a refreshing improvement over the rest of the book.

I must mention that I received a complimentary review copy of this book from Bethany House, but that in no way influenced my opinion of it.