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Midyear Reflections: The Power of Being Flexible

From Lisa Notes – Host of One Word 2025 We’re halfway through 2025—can you believe it? That makes now the perfect time to pause and reflect on your One Word. Is your word still working for you? If yes – wonderful! Keep reading for some fresh ideas to keep it alive. If not – no shame in changing it. Seriously. This practice is about you. Give yourself permission to pivot. You’re not alone if…

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An Heiress Worth Rescuing (American Heiresses #5) by Violet Sinclair [REVIEW]

SYNOPSIS Two hearts. One dangerous deception. A love worth fighting for. Charlotte Edgewood is no ordinary heiress. With a mind for business and a spirit too independent for London society, she’s resigned herself to spinsterhood—until her younger sister is targeted by the manipulative Lord Hargrove. Desperate to protect Amelia from a loveless marriage to a dangerous man, Charlotte will risk…

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Death's Open Portal to the Spirit World by Brenda E. McDaniel [REVIEW]

SYNOPSIS This book is about loss, hope, love, and faith! It’s about Spiritual growth, too! It’s also about God allowing us to look into the Spiritual realm, which definitely does exist! You will understand the Real Battle going on in our world between Good and evil! There are more things to this world than just what eyes can see and ears can hear! Don’t believe just in things you can see and…

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Bottled for Murder (Whisper Ridge #5) by Maisie Diamond [REVIEW]

SYNOPSIS A Whisper Ridge Mystery of Bootleggers and BetrayalWelcome to Whisper Ridge—where secrets age longer than whiskey, and someone just uncorked a deadly one.When beloved town historian Franklin Harper is found dead during the annual Prohibition Party, local journalist-turned-sleuth Sophie Maxwell knows it’s no accident.Not with the body posed like a 1930s mugshot.Not with bootleg whiskey…

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What Do You See? (127)

Choose 4 things within 4 feet of you and write for 4 minutes. One sentence each. <><><><><> The thermometer reads 92⁰F with a feels-like index of 104°F, gotta love the first full day of summer in Chicagoland. 🥵 The ceiling fan spins at a dizzying pace, trying to keep up with the air conditioner. 🪭 Folded sheets and towels lay in the basket at my feet, waiting to be transported to the linen…

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River's Treasure (Apex Adventures #4) by Jennifer Arrington [REVIEW]

SYNOPSIS A mystery envelope, a riddle, and time is running out…A strange blue envelope greets the kids of Coral Canal the week before Independence Day. Inside it contains a riddle and a set of instructions. Nobody, not even their parents, seems to know who sent the riddle, and the children only have six days to solve it and send photographic proof.With hard work, humor, and perseverance, Marisa,…

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Murder at the Dig (Carolina Cozy Mysteries #3) by Andrea Kress [REVIEW]

SYNOPSIS Family, Fortune, and Fatal Secrets: Which Will Prevail?Gemma Farnese and her husband, Lt. Steve Thibault, are pulled into a web of tension and turmoil when Steve’s brother, Bobby, celebrates a major real estate victory—only for it to turn into a nightmare. A groundbreaking deal at Indian Corners screeches to a halt when mysterious human remains are unearthed, threatening Bobby’s…

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The Shepherd - Experiencing Psalm 23 by James Collins [REVIEW]

SYNOPSIS Is it possible that the solutions to your problems can be found in a 3000-year-old piece of ancient Hebrew writing? For many people, worry, anxiety, depression, and fear are continuous feelings. All too often, these concerns are crippling, keeping us from the life God has called us to live. Is there any hope against all this darkness? The Twenty-third Psalm is more than a psalm that…

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Where Grace Abides by Kelsey Lasher [REVIEW]

SYNOPSIS Andon Cox hasn’t been home to Vermont in twelve long years. After Emma Transom, the love of his life, crushed any hope they once had for a future together, he left with no intent to return. That is until his father died and left him an inheritance- a farm-house that dates back to the 1770s and one that holds secrets both distant and personal for Andon and Emma. Andon’s father has tasked…

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A Girl Called Samson by Amy Harmon [REVIEW]

SYNOPSIS From New York Times bestselling author Amy Harmon comes the saga of a young woman who dares to chart her own destiny in life and love during the American Revolutionary War. In 1760, Deborah Samson is born to Puritan parents in Plympton, Massachusetts. When her father abandons the family and her mother is unable to support them, Deborah is bound out as an indentured servant. From that…

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Shadows in Chinatown (Mrs. Kelly #1) by Jolie Tunnell [REVIEW]

SYNOPSIS Karine Kelly’s dream of a fresh start as a mail-order bride in booming 1882 San Francisco becomes a nightmare when her charming Irish husband is murdered on their wedding night. Waking to destitute widowhood and fiercely angry in-laws, she discovers a series of shocking secrets that her husband left behind. Why did he tell no one about their wedding? Why was a Chinese assailant hunting…

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The Lost Coin (Trinity Series # 2) by Seth Warner [REVIEW]

SYNOPSIS In Luke 15 Jesus tells a story about the Holy Spirit’s determined search for her treasure. This creative adaptation of Jesus’ parable is beautifully illustrated and lyrically written to inspire children to trust that there is no place so dark that the Spirit cannot bring light! Along with book 1 of the Trinity Series (The Lost Sheep), these stories help to remind us all that the Father,…

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What Do You See? (126)

Choose 4 things within 4 feet of you and write for 4 minutes. One sentence each. <><><><><> It’s been a lazy day, and burgers on the grill are just the thing to end the day with. 🍔 My stack of unread books is a little shorter today, but there are oh so many more to go. 📚 The collection of things that I need to take to work on Monday sits patiently by the door awaiting transport. 🪑📚📦 The…

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Liberate: 50 Meditations on Faith, Freedom & Forgiveness (50 Meditations Book 3) by Kory M. Capps [REVIEW]

SYNOPSIS “For freedom Christ has set us free” (Gal 5:1). Freedom. We ache for it, strive for it, and yet, so often, it eludes us. There’s a deep tension in our souls, captured perfectly by Paul: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Rom 7:15). We are, so often, our own greatest obstacle to freedom. This isn’t a modern dilemma; it’s the…

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The Disenchanted Heiress (Cousins of Cavendish Square #3) by Iris Lim [REVIEW]

SYNOPSIS A blackmail threat. A fake engagement. A runaway bride. Join the Cousins of Cavendish Square in three clean and sweet Regency romances. ***** She flees an arranged marriage in quest of her past, but she just might discover her future instead. Born in faraway Canton yet raised in England, Amelia Fitzwater has always fallen just short of being a true lady, even if she were the niece of…

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Death, Deceit and the Deep (Pelican Shores #4 by Bessie Barr [REVIEW]

SYNOPSIS The water only looks a tad choppy when Finn decides kite-surfing is in order. But, it doesn’t take long for the fog to settle and the wind to gust before Finn finds herself swept out to sea. In a storm. Without a phone. And now in the middle of the ocean. Birdie, Beau, and Queen Bean manage to find Finn…and the dead body she’s attached to. But an unexpected rescue comes courtesy of…

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A Different Kind of Memorial Day (Originally published May 2020)

Has it really been five years? Sometimes it feels like we are still in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet most of the time it feels like a nightmare and the world has finally been shaken awake. Memorial Day is usually a pretty big deal in our city . But this year is different. On Saturday the young men of Boy Scout Troop 165, along with their families usually go to each cemetery and put…