Mr. President - Book Review

Mr. President (White House Duet, # 1)

By: Katy Evans

Published: November 5th 2016 by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

280 pages

Genre: New Adult, Contemporary

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Goodreads description--From New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Katy Evans comes a sizzling new contemporary romance.

He's won the hearts of millions. But is he willing to lose his?

I met the president’s son when we were both young. Matthew Hamilton was handsome, polished, and intelligent. I’d never met a boy like him.

He promised me that he’d never run for president. I promised that if he did, I’d be by his side.

Three terms later, an invitation to join Matthew Hamilton’s campaign is the most exhilarating opportunity I’ve ever experienced. I'm determined to make a difference; he is determined to win.

Focused on his goal, Matt is steadfast, ruthless, and disarming. All eyes are on him and his popularity is surging. But soon, the next possible president of the United States is possessing me in more ways than one—and despite the risks, I'm helpless to resist.

We're stealing touches, stealing moments, and stealing away at night. But our chemical connection is quickly becoming dangerously combustive, putting not only my heart, but Matt's chance at the presidency on the line.

Winning will take everything.

Walking away will be the hardest thing of all.

I was intrigued by Mr. President because of how into the 2016 US Presidential Election I was. The older I've gotten the more involved I find myself in politics. I hate the sides that it brings out in people, and I don't want to get into the pros or cons of the political candidates that we had this year or the mess of an election year it was, but all of that had me interested in this book. The idea of a candidate falling in love during the campaign process was a unique one. So I thought I'd give this a go.

I've never read Katy Evans before, and I should have been warned by the description. While there are no direct references to anything that would have turned me off, the description has several subtle hints at a direction that I'm not all that interested in. So I'm going to say upfront that Mr. President was not as good as I hoped it would be.

Charlotte and Matt meet when she's 11 years old and he's about 24. (I believe that's the right math.) Matt's father, president at the time, tells Charlotte that Matt's going to be president one day, but Matt has no desire to run or be president. Charlotte is so enraptured by Matt. He's her first crush. So she decides to do what little girls do and write him a letter telling him that if he does decide to run then she's going to help him campaign. In about 2 years, Matt's father is killed and Charlotte and Matt meet again at his father's funeral. So Charlotte is now about 13 and Matt should be about 26. The events in the book take place 11 years from the time they first met making Charlotte 22 and Matt 35. While I have no problem with the age gap between 22 and 35 (my husband and I have 12 years in between us), the gap between 11 and 24 is a bit too much to stretch the imagination. While Matt never claims to have had a crush on Charlotte at that age, he does suggest that she's been on his mind throughout the last 11 years. Some of Matt's comments concerning their past were too much for me.

I get that Matt's hot and Charlotte's had a crush on him from the time she was a little girl, but she just about to melt in a puddle of horny goo from minute one. There's attraction. Sure. And then there's ridiculousness. I felt like every sentence of this book was filled with innuendo except for those times when no suggestion was necessary. It's just too much. A scene here or there doesn't bother me, but when an entire book is filled with nothing but sexual content it drives me crazy. This is not good writing. I know this is what some readers are looking for, but it's not good writing. Less is more. And in the case of Mr. President MUCH MUCH less is more.

Expanding on that point, Matt and Charlotte know that having a relationship of any kind is temporary. Matt saw his mother take a back seat to the presidency for his father, and he refuses to do that to someone else. Charlotte knows where Matt stands. They both know that getting caught together will spark a scandal and cost Matt the presidency. Although they both claim that Matt becoming president is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING, in the moment when push comes to shove, they choose each other and their physical desires EVERY SINGLE TIME! I couldn't root for Matt to get the presidency because I kept feeling like he was proving over and over again that he doesn't have what it takes to be the president. Self-sacrificing and making the right call when it counts in the moment. And I couldn't root for Charlotte to get her man because every time she tried to stand up for herself and tell Matt what she needed, she caved like a cadbury creme egg. So in the end, I guess I just really had no respect for these characters.

Quotes that support my thoughts:

-I don't know whether I should do this or not, but right now all I hear my body say is that I need to touch this man.

-So perfect and so right, I forget that it's wrong.

-It was reckless--and it didn't matter.

-Matt is going to be the end of me. Maybe the end of my career, too. And I should probably take that into serious consideration before I do something reckless. I don't.

-What we're doing is risky, but how can it be wrong when it feels so right?

-Nothing matters, it doesn't matter.

I'm sorry guys, but again I just don't want to read about characters that have no backbone, about characters that know what the right course of action is but ALWAYS choose the wrong. An occasional mistake or slip up might be understandable and forgivable, but a continual trek down a path that leads nowhere all the while the character is constantly aware that they're making the wrong choice is just not for me. I love reading about strong characters. Especially strong female characters. The ones that can stand up for themselves. The ones that say "NO! I will not settle for less than what I deserve. I will not settle for this compromised crap position you want to give me. I will not be used by you." Think Jane Eyre. When she found out that Mr. Rochester was married but wanted to marry her anyway, she couldn't do it. Even if his current wife was stark, raving mad. Even if it was the hardest thing in the world for her to do. To walk away. To RUN away. Even if she was haunted by him. Even if she wasn't sure she would ever find love again. I respected the crap out of Jane Eyre. Charlotte is no Jane Eyre. And Matt is worse than Mr. Rochester.

I found some aspects of Mr. President confusing or contradictory. Like a moment Matt says "Growing up, there were actually very few people in my life that I could be certain wouldn't run to the media with the story a night later." But then later he's called a playboy. and we're told how much of a bad boy Matt is and how he's frequently been in the news for his flings with women (I'm paraphrasing). This is just one example.

I will say that I was impressed and appreciative that Katy Evans chose to go completely fictional with the candidates in Mr. President. I was half expecting them to be a mirror image of the ones we had in 2016 and I was cringing in fear of having to relive that whole mess again. While her candidates might have taken qualities from some real life individuals, she was pretty vague about them and the actual politics behind them. Just the simple fact that Matt is running as an Independent and not for one of the two major political parties was a relief. I really appreciated this and I feel like making these choices allows Mr. President to appeal to all readers and not just one political party or other.

Mr. President caused me to evaluate myself in what I'm looking for in a book. While, I love books that are fast reads because they are driven by emotion, I find that I don't love books that are driven by physical desire. Even books that are emotionally driven can often have the characters continually following a path they know isn't right. And that's not what I'm looking for either. Evaluating this for myself prompted me to write this discussions only we know post where I dive deeper into figuring out which books are right for me and why.

So I don't think if you've read even a portion of this review that you'll be surprised by me saying that I did not enjoy Mr. President. It wasn't what I hoped it would be. It helped me realize that this is the exact type of book that I don't enjoy reading. The characters constant decision to follow a path they both know to be wrong for each other and for the country (assuming Matt becoming president would be the best thing for the country) meant that I couldn't support or respect these characters. And that makes rooting for them pretty impossible. I originally thought that I would try to read Commander in Chief in hopes that most of what I found wrong with Mr. President would be solved in it, but since writing this review, I don't see the point. Mr. President gets 1 Star. Have you read Mr. President? Let me know!

Lies We Believe About God - Review

Lies We Believe About God

By: William Paul Young

Publication: March 7th 2017 by Howard Books

272 pages

Genre: Non-fiction, Christian, Spirituality

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

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Goodreads description--From the author of the twenty million plus copy bestselling novel The Shack and the New York Times bestsellers Cross Roads and Eve comes a compelling, conversational exploration of the wrong-headed ideas we sometimes have and share about God.

Wm. Paul Young has been called a heretic for the ways he vividly portrays God’s love through his novels. Here he shares thirty-three commonly uttered and sometimes seemingly innocuous things we say about God. Paul exposes these as lies that keep us from having a full, loving relationship with our Creator.

With personal anecdotes and sharing the compassion readers felt from the “Papa” portrayed in The Shack—soon to be a major film starring Sam Worthington and Octavia Spencer—Paul encourages readers to think anew about important issues including sin, religion, hell, politics, identity, creation, human rights, and helping us discover God’s deep and abiding love.

I didn't love The Shack by William Paul Young. I liked that it challenged me to think more deeply, but I fundamentally disagreed with a lot of the theological aspects about God as described by it. Truly the only way I made it through reading The Shack was to remind myself that it was a work of fiction. I wish I'd re-read my review of The Shack before deciding to request Lies We Believe About God, but I didn't. What I did was remember that while I didn't agree with everything William Paul Young said...it did cause me to think. And since I've been overwhelmed with a feeling of how much and how often so many people believe things about God that just flat aren't true, I was intrigued by this book. I was hoping that it would be a great reference to be able to refer people to when they misunderstand God's nature. Yet again...I was WRONG. Instead what I found was that William Paul Young himself believes quite a few lies about God.

You guys...there was SO SO SO much wrong with this book. I truly wish I could break down every single lie within this book...every single misrepresentation and present you with a rebuttal. I wish that I could, but it isn't the purpose of my blog to do so. My purpose is to review the book and what I thought about it. So I'll do my best to do so.

If you choose to believe in God there has to be a standard or a place where you receive your information about Him. You can't just make it up...although many people have. So...where do you go? Where do you find the information needed to find out who God is and what His character is like? HIS WORD. He has revealed Himself to us through His Word--The Bible. God revealed Himself and divinely inspired over 40 different authors from all manners of vocations over a period of 1500ish years using 3 different languages. For this book to be cohesive and non-contradictory is impossible without Him. Yet it is because of Him. So what I expected to find when reading Lies We Believe About God was a bunch of Scripture to back up these "lies". Instead what I found was William Paul Young quoting his own works of fiction. There are 32 references to/quotes from The Shack in Lies We Believe About God. This is not including any references to William Paul Young's other books (Eve and Cross Roads). In a 272 page book, that's roughly every 8.5 pages that he references his own book, his own thoughts as a source of information about who God is. In comparison there were roughly 14 references to New Testament Scripture within the main chapters of this book. That's roughly every 19.5 pages. So William Paul Young references his own books more than 2 times the frequency of Biblical text. (Granted, I didn't search for Old Testament Scripture references, but I also didn't cite his references to his other two books either.) He does have a chapter at the end of book that has an additional 33 references from The Bible. This means that overall the Bible is only used within Lies We Believe About God 15 more times than his own books. You guys...this is unacceptable. If you want to learn about God, you don't go to a human's work of fiction. That's no better than making things up yourself. You go to the Source. God's own Word about Himself.

There were many times when I felt like William Paul Young was arguing over semantics. Yes, I'm a firm believer that our words mean something and it is important to choose to right words in our conversation and speech so that we convey the message we mean to convey. Let's take one chapter titled "God is disappointed in me." He argues that there is a difference between disappointment and grief. "Disappointment largely revolves around expectations and imagination. I expect you to act a certain way, or I expect a specific outcome..." "This is precisely why God is never disappointed in you. God has no such imaginations or illusions. God knows you, completely, fully, and with unrelenting affection. You don't surprise God. God delights in you, as you delight in your own children; God also grieves for and with you when you act inside your lies and darkness--but not because God expected more of you." This is semantics. Whether we "disappoint" or "grieve" God because of our behavior, the outcome is the same. He is not pleased. Yes, He can and does still love us despite our actions, but William Paul Young is giving off the impression that it doesn't matter what you do...how you act...and I don't see how anyone who has read the Bible can come to that conclusion. In fact, if you've read the Bible, you don't get 3 chapters in (on page 3 in my own personal Bible) before man's actions make a huge impact and "grieve" God. Semantics. And this isn't the only time this happens. It happens frequently throughout this book.

In connection with my point about William Paul Young quoting and referencing himself and his own published books more frequently throughout the main body of Lies We Believe About God, I felt often times that he was just "making things up because they sounded good." There were often times when his thoughts were poetic. And that's hard because I believe that God is a poet. His Word is beautiful. His thoughts are beautiful. The magnitude of His knowledge and planning and working is beautiful. He is so multi-layered. Everything about Him from the way that He thinks and acts to His very character. He can be 100% Love while also being 100% Justice at the same time. And so there were times when the poetry of what William Paul Young suggested about God sounded good to my human ear, but when bounced against the Scripture it just didn't add up. I don't claim to know all there is to know about God. I don't claim to be perfect or to have a perfect understanding of Him, but having read The Bible cover to cover each year for the last 5 years and I'm working on my 6th straight read-through I feel pretty confident in being able to spot false teaching about God like this.

I don't want to judge his person...his heart. That's not my job or my duty or my desire. God is the judge. However, I felt like pride and arrogance were pouring from the pages of this book. Nearly every chapter felt full of both. I even read his acknowledgements where he says "I am surrounded by people who love me, but aren't impressed. Thank you!" Even though this was an attempt to appear humble, it didn't read so to me. It read falsely. Or at the very least "thank you all for not being impressed by me because I'm so impressed with myself." It's funny because I told Husband that this felt so starkly contrasted against Shaken by Tim Tebow where humility truly poured off every page. I felt like Tim Tebow is a truly humble person from his book and where he might struggle with pride, the effort to crush it was palpable. And this is not the same vibe that I got from William Paul Young.

I mentioned earlier the chapter at the end of Lies We Believe About God. He titles it "A Catena" which means "a connected series or chain". And ironically, because I've read The Bible from cover to cover it felt so obvious to me that these verses used to convey a specific message were pulled so completely out of context. You can use Scripture to prove just about any point sadly. The Bible even says "There is no God" (Psalm 14:1). But that's pulled out of context because the verse says "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" I think we've all witnessed how words and phrases taken out of context can give a completely unintended and false meaning. Watch any court TV show where a witness's words are twisted by a stealthy lawyer. You'll see it happen. I told Husband that reading those series of verses, Words from God's mouth, strung together out of context made my stomach hurt. Seeing God's Word twisted to mean something that it doesn't...it made those words ugly. And the sad part is that someone who might not know better could be misled by them. Context is so important. I myself have used a verse here and there to prove a point, and I don't know that doing so is wrong if you're not using those verses to make a point outside of what Scripture as a whole harmonizes to say. Yet the person unfamiliar with the Bible and what the context should be would never know. This is why reading it (the Bible) for yourself is so important. It is crucial. Not just taking the word of a preacher or family member. Definitely not taking the opinion of an unbeliever who might have "thoughts" about God and who He is and how He thinks. And not even taking the word of someone who appears to know much about God. You have to search and read the Bible for yourself.

I feel certain that there was much more that I wanted to say about William Paul Young and Lies We Believe About God, but what it truly boils down to is "this man does not know God." Don't read this book to learn about God. Read The Bible. William Paul Young references his own (FICTION) books more frequently throughout the meat of Lies We Believe About God than he does any other source--especially The Bible. This is not the book, nor the man, to go to if you want to know God. And I personally won't be reading any more of his work myself. Lies We Believe About God gets 1 Star. Have you read Lies We Believe About God? What did you think? Let me know!

Stealing Parker - Review

Stealing Parker (Hundred Oaks, # 2)

By: Miranda Kenneally

Published: October 1st 2012 by Sourcebooks Fire

242 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Source: Borrowed from the library

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Goodreads description--Red-hot author Miranda Kenneally hits one out of the park in this return to Catching Jordan's Hundred Oaks High.

Parker Shelton pretty much has the perfect life. She’s on her way to becoming valedictorian at Hundred Oaks High, she’s made the all-star softball team, and she has plenty of friends. Then her mother’s scandal rocks their small town and suddenly no one will talk to her.

Now Parker wants a new life.

So she quits softball. Drops twenty pounds. And she figures why kiss one guy when she can kiss three? Or four. Why limit herself to high school boys when the majorly cute new baseball coach seems especially flirty?

But how far is too far before she loses herself completely?

So I have no idea where my original review went for this book. I know I typed it because I remember some specific things that I said about it. However, when I went to go prep this blog post, I couldn’t find it anywhere! UGH! That’s so annoying. Especially because this is a book that I had a lot to say about…or at least, I had a lot of feelings about. But just to be frank and upfront…this was not a book I enjoyed so I’m not looking forward to reviewing it again. That being said…this probably won’t be as long or as thought out as my original review. It might be a little nicer (but probably not).

First of all, this isn’t mentioned in the description so it might be considered as a spoiler, but I wish I’d known about it before picking up this book. Parker’s mom’s big secret…she “announced she’s a lesbian and ran off with her friend who was more than just a friend.” Parker is understandably hurt by her mother’s decision. Sexual orientation and preferences aside, 9.9 children out of 10 that have experienced a divorce will tell you that this severely impacted them emotionally. Add to that the other and you’ve got an emotionally screwed up Parker.

Parker’s family attended church and because of her mother’s decision Parker faces a lot of judgmental people. Her mother and father’s former friends now talk about them behind their backs, they turn their noses up, and they tell their children not to play with Parker because the lesbianism might rub off. (I’m exaggerating here, but only slightly.) That being said, Parker turns her nose up at the church. She still goes because her father makes her, but she’s not really interested anymore and even at one point blames God for her mother’s decisions. (“Why did God let this happen to me?” and then later “I don’t see how a loving God would split a family up like he did mine.”) The only person who’s stuck by her side has been her best friend Drew who she secretly wonders if he’s gay too. (Can you guys feel the amount of sarcasm I’m trying to hold back?) This hits on three of my biggest pet peeves in YA literature these days. 1) these types of Christian characters, 2) the best friends of the opposite sex can only be best friends if a, they’re in love with each other or b, one of them is gay, and 3) just gay characters in general being forced down out throats in another book about "acceptance". Tired. Overplayed. Worn out. Used up. Get a better storyline.

So not only does Parker respond to her mother’s behavior by rejecting religion, but she also decides that she has to do everything she can to prove that she’s not a lesbian like her mother. This leads her into dangerous territory with the opposite sex. She hooks up. A lot. She doesn’t move past making out, but her reputation is beginning to grow that she’s “easy.” She doesn’t see the harm. Besides she loves flirting and hooking up and making out. So much so that she doesn’t even blink her eyes at going after the new assistant baseball coach. He’s young for a coach/teacher, but he’s still a teacher nonetheless. If this freaks you out, it should. While I have no issues with age gaps necessarily (my husband’s 12 years older than me), the idea of my daughter hooking up with a teacher is not cool…at all.

My issues don’t stop there. While the idea of my teenage daughter having any sort of relationship with a teacher/coach at her school freaks me out, there’s something else that bothers me about their relationship. Parker and Bryan start off having a really good dynamic where their entire relationship is built around conversation. They have several things in common and so it’s easy to see how there could be an attraction there. However, once things crossed any kind of physical boundary it’s like all conversation went out the window. I guess this is possible. But it just felt weird to me that they had such a verbal relationship in the beginning only to swap to a relationship where no talking was really involved. It didn’t feel consistent to me. Despite that, I didn’t want these two together anyway, so I was okay with how things ultimately ended up as far as they’re concerned.

Another thing that bothered me is Parker’s relationship with her mom. In the beginning of the book, Parker wants nothing to do with her mom. This isn’t because she feels betrayed by her mom “choosing someone else over her family” so much as it is because Parker doesn’t want her own friends to think that she’s gay. So she avoids her mom totally because of this. For one, I think that Parker would be extremely hurt and betrayed by her mother’s actions regardless of who she left her family for. Yet at some point, she "just needs her mom" and all of a sudden everything’s forgiven. I found that hard to believe too. It takes years to work through the kind of pain and trauma that’s caused by a parent suddenly leaving the family. Some children never really recover from those hurts. This isn’t a pain easily recovered from.

And then we get into the overall message of the book which was “do whatever makes you feel good/happy.” You guys, this message is the biggest load of crock I’ve ever heard. Do what makes you feel good? Some people see possessions that they do not own and think to themselves “you know, it would really make me happy to have that,” or “I’ll finally feel good about myself when that’s mine.” Yet they don’t have the means or the money to just buy it. And what do they do? They go out and just take it. Some people find that it makes them feel insanely good by torturing other people and chopping their bodies into tiny pieces. I know that’s an extreme, but where do you draw the line? How do you make a distinction between doing what makes you feel good and when you’ve crossed the line into “wrong”? There has to be some standard of measurement. You can’t just make it up. Not that those who take this stance care much about what the Bible says, but Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is deceitful above all things…” Sure as long as it makes you happy, bail on your family, your word, your kids, your promises, your spouse… whatever works best for you. Problem is...often times what we want or what would make us happy also hurts others. Does that make it okay? What feels good to you hurts me. But just so long as you feel good. Whatever. Moving on.

The only (and I do mean only) redeeming quality that I enjoyed about this book was Parker’s transition into finding the guy who is the best fit for her. Often times, people end up with spouses/significant others who are not a good fit for them. And often times those people are even aware of that, but they stay because they’re comfortable. They might not be happy, but at least they know what to expect. Yet Parker does evaluate the two options before her and has to make a decision about which one is right for her. I think she made the right choice in the end.

All in all, I just didn’t like it…period. I will look back on Stealing Parker with nothing but bitterness, annoyance, frustration, and even anger. While I’ve enjoyed Miranda Kenneally before and this book didn’t completely turn me off her other work, I did not enjoy this book. At all. 1 Star from me for Stealing Parker (a first ever). Have you read Stealing Parker? What did you think? Let me know!