September Book Review – Kristen Reads

I’ve read over 50 books this year and enjoyed the vast majority of them. This month was the first that I didn’t enjoy all the books I read! I was excited for these books, but they all didn’t meet my expectations. In this post, I’m giving my honest review of the 4 books I read in the past month. I’m always open to book recommendations and always interested to see what other people are reading!

This post wasn’t sponsored, but it may contain affiliate links, meaning I may make a small commission, at no additional cost to you. See Disclaimer for details.

 

Am I Enough? by Grace Valentine

 Without a doubt s my favorite book this month! I actually purchased this book quite a while ago but didn’t get to read it until this month. I wanted the right time and mind-space to read this one!

RELATED: Christian Books I Purchased Recently 

I’ve admired Grace’s blog (see it here) for a long time now, so it’s awesome to support her in her first book! This book truly stands up to Grace’s standard of writing. Throughout the book, she breaks down 10 ‘lies’ we’ve all believed as Christian women. Even from reading her blog for two years, I still learned so much about Grace and really felt like I got to know her through this book.

I talked about how much Grace inspires me in this video as well. It’s so awesome to see fellow 20-something women out there living their dreams in a Christ-centered way! I put this book right up there with my other recent Christian favorites, and I’d recommend it for any Christian woman.

 

Mere Hope by Jason Duesing

I received this book in exchange for my honest review.

I’ve read more and more Christian books recently and I was excited to get into this one. However, I didn’t leave this book as inspired as I’d hoped. Although it’s a short book, I found the explanations somewhat lengthy, without adding much new information to the chapter.

I was excited about the concept of ‘hope’ but found much more of the book dedicated to religious principles. I personally disagree with Duesing’s take on some things (which is fine, it just made the lengthy passages less appealing to me). Like some other reviewers of this book, I hoped for more practical applications of living a hopeful life in this ‘age of cynicism’, but just this book just didn’t get there for me. I don’t mean for this review to sound totally critical, I just do want to be honest in pointing out why this book wasn’t my favorite. I think it was well written and I’m glad I had the chance to read it, but it didn’t quite meet my personal expectations.

 

Mercy by Jodi Picoult

I mentioned in a recent post about my favorite books that one of my personal goals is to read all of Jodi Picoult’s book. This was the first one I didn’t truly enjoy. I love Picoult as an author, but I couldn’t enjoy this storyline. It’s complicated to explain Mercy without giving away the plot because it has two major conflicts happening simultaneously.

Both the major conflicts in the book are emotionally and almost-politically charged (in a right vs. wrong way). I was off-put by the way these ‘big’ issues were normalized by the main characters. Cheating in marriage is a big part of this book and that’s why I couldn’t enjoy it. I don’t personally agree with it as a human and as a Christian, and the way it’s included in this story made it honestly unsettling to read.

I was surprised by this and didn’t like the way cheating became the focus of the story. From reading the book’s summary (which is why I bought it), I thought the other major conflict would be central. I guess I’m just too stubborn in my beliefs to read this story without feeling strongly about it! That being said, my issue really was with the story itself. It was beautifully written like Picoult’s other books, and it was because of her vivid writing style that I didn’t enjoy feeling ‘so close’ to the events in this book.

 

Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty

This was the second Liane Moriarty book I’ve read (the other being Big Little Lies). While they’re both engaging books, Moriarty’s style just isn’t my favorite. I mention both because they have a level of unrealistic drama to the characters which doesn’t appeal to me. The level of drama is just borderline-realistic, and I prefer stories that are either ‘out there’ or more plausible. Personal preferences aside, Moriarty is a great author and I love the creativity of her characters and stories.

Three Wishes follows the stories of 30-something-triplets and the complicated mess of jobs, relationships, and drama in their lives. I would recommend it as a fun read but I don’t think I’d read more of Moriarty’s books in the future.

 

That’s concludes this book review! I don’t like being negative especially because I’m so passionate about both reading and writing, but I do think it’s important to be critical and honest! I hope this post showed why these books weren’t for me, although I think others would enjoy them more.

What books have you read recently? I’m always open to recommendations!