Accidentally Amish Book Review

2016 Reading Challenge

14. Accidentally Amish by Olivia Newport

Synopsis:

Escape the helter-skelter of the modern culture and join software creator Annie Friesen, hiding at the home of an Amishman. With her high-tech career in jeopardy, Annie runs from fast-paced Colorado Springs—and straight into the hospitality of San Luis Valley’s Amish community. There she meets cabinetmaker Rufus Beiler, and the more time she spends with him, the more attracted she becomes. When Annie finds she shares a common ancestor with Rufus, she feels both cultures colliding within her. But is her love for Rufus strong enough for her to give up the only life she’s ever known?

My Review:

     It's not everyday that someone shows away (aka runs away from her problems, so to say) in a pickup truck and ends up in an Amish community. That's exactly what Annie did when she had enough of a certain situation. Deciding to hanglow for awhile, Annie stays in an inn just on the outskirts. In the meantime, Annie and Rufus, despite the their stubbornness to admit it, start to fall for each other. When an accident happens, Rufus' family takes in Annie to help her recovery. Rufus has to deal with problems of his own as someone tries to sabotage his work. After Annie heals, they depart, knowing that their different lifestyles won't work out well together. That is until something tragic occurs, bringing them back together. Both of their situations end up well and Annie decides to make a radical change by (thinking about) converting to Amish. 

     I thought that the storyline and plots were well-developed. I've always admired the Amish lifestyle, in particular how they all come together (without question) to rebuild after tragedy strikes and their power of forgiveness. In this story, it was interesting to see the difference between the Amish ways and English ways. Both Annie and Rufus had somewhat similar situations, but handled it differently. Getting revenge isn't always the best solution as Annie comes to find out.

As Annie gets to know about Rufus and his family, she ends up discovering more about her family, like finding out she has some Amish blood. Genealogy plays an important part in who we are. Did you ever find out something interesting about your family history?

♥Meg♥

Holding On Book Review

2016 Reading Challenge

13. Holding On by Rachael Brownell

Synopsis:
For five years Becca has been struggling to hide her feelings for her best friend, Brad. Now she finally has a chance to move on. She’s in a new city, she’s attending a new school, and she’s met the first guy besides Brad who’s held her attention in a long time. Not only is Ethan attractive, he’s an amazing tennis player, and he might just be Becca’s match on and off the courts.
Brad has loved Becca for as long as he can remember. Now that Becca’s family has moved two thousand miles away, Brad may finally be ready to lay his heart on the line and do whatever it takes to hold on to Becca.
But is Brad too late? Or will Ethan’s secret drive Becca back into Brad’s arms? Torn between her love for Brad and the promise of something new and exciting with Ethan, Becca has an almost impossible choice to make, the choice between letting go or holding on.

My Review:
     Holding on to the past and knowing when to move on. That's what this book is all about. When Becca's family moves, she has to choose whether to hold on to her past or move on from what she once knew. In this case, it's mostly about teenage love. Becca spend most of her life being best friends and having feelings for Brad (and watch from the sidelines when he gets a girlfriend). When she starts getting settled in to another city 2,000 miles away, Becca encounters a couple guys and begins to fall for Ethan. For Brad, it takes Becca leaving to realize how much he wants to be with no one but her.
     This was a decent story and pretty accurate in regards to teenage relationships. I liked how Becca handled the move maturely, unlike most teens would have. Becca, Ethan and Brad had good character development. It did seem to take some time for the plot to move on, but it still was engaging. I admired Ethan's character near the end with the whole situation about Brad and Becca's need to be with him at a hard time.
     Holding on to the past can make it hard to enjoy the present. Letting go and moving forward isn't easy either. Rachael did a good job of portraying that.

♥Meg♥

Note: I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but there were some problems (and still are) problems with the computer keyboard.

Meg's 2016 A to Z Reflection

2016 A to Z Reflection

Another year of the A to Z Challenge is over. And now it's time to reflect back.

First, I just wanted to congratulate everyone who completed the April A to Z Challenge this year. This was my second year participating in the challenge. For my reflection, I am going to compare and contrast between what I learned last year and how I incorporated into the challenge this year. I am only discussing two main things.

Choosing a Theme

Last year, I chose to not have a theme and essentially just went with the flow. This year, I decided to have a theme so I could have an easier time staying on track. After the challenge finished last year, I started thinking about what theme I wanted to use this year. Although I had several ideas in mind, I decided to do it on books. On this blog, I write a lot of book reviews and I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite books. I chose to feature one classic book each day of the challenge and for an added measure, to include some of my favorite book through the years. It was fun to look back and recall those stories again. For the classics, I have not read all of the ones I posted. Doing it though made me discover some new classics that I never heard of before. For me, it was definitely easier having a theme, as supposed to not having one.

Scheduling Posts

     Last year, I wrote the posts either the night before or the day of whatever letter it happened to be. The main issue I had with that was I didn't have a lot of time to visit other blogs. Another issue I had was that I would stress out about getting the posts out on time and it became more like work.

     This year, I decided to pre-write the posts and schedule them ahead of time. I actually figured out how to do that after reading it on someone's reflection post last year. I managed to do some of the posts at the end of March, knowing that I was going to be busy and out of town the first few days of the challenge. During the first full week of April, I got the rest of the posts written and scheduled. Doing it this way did give me more time to visit other blogs and enjoy the challenge more. If I somehow got behind on the visiting, I made up for it on Saturday or Sunday.

Looking Ahead to Next Year

     I'm not saying that I have a theme picked out already for next year's challenge already, but I do have some ideas in mind.

     For starters, I am most likely going to be doing the A to Z Challenge on both of my blogs next year. And be choosing a different theme for each. I realize it might be a little harder and time consuming, but I think I will be able to handle it.

    

Today, I'm starting a personal writing series on my other blog if anyone's interested. You can check it out here on Writing with Meg.

♥Meg♥

Zesty Z's #atozchallenge

Day 26 of the April A to Z Challenge

A Book Extravaganza - featuring classics and some of my favorite books

Classic: Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis

Synopsis: This is the story of two men, their incredible friendship, and the importance of living life to the fullest. Zorba, a Greek working man, is a larger-than-life character, energetic and unpredictable. He accompanies the unnamed narrator to Crete to work in the narrator’s lignite mine, and the pair develops a singular relationship. The two men couldn’t be further apart: The narrator is cerebral, modest, and reserved; Zorba is unfettered, spirited, and beyond the reins of civility. Over the course of their journey, he becomes the narrator’s greatest friend and inspiration and helps him to appreciate the joy of living.

This is the last post of the April A to Z Challenge. I visited some great blogs and I had more fun this year (my second year doing this) than last year. I will go into further detail on that in my reflection post on May 9. Hope everyone enjoyed the challenge and I can't wait to do it again next year. Speaking of next year, I'm thinking about having both of my blogs featured in the challenge. Thanks everyone who visited my blog.

You are all welcome to follow me on twitter.

Check out my other blog: Writing with Meg. I just recently started it as a way to only feature my own writing - since it's a blog though, I'm going to be doing mostly flash fiction stories. Starting on May 9, I will be doing a writing series on my heart condition and my journey with that through the years. For the A to Z Challenge last year, I did a post on that. If interested, you can see it here.

♥Meg♥

Youthful Y's #atozchallenge

Day 25 of the April A to Z Challenge

A Book Extravaganza - featuring classics and some of my favorite books

Classic: Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Synopsis: Hawthorne's classic tale of a young Puritan's meeting with the Devil.

♥Meg♥

EXcellent X's #atozchallenge

Day 24 of the April A to Z Challenge

A Book Extravaganza - featuring classics and some of my favorite books

Classic: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (I had to cheat for this, see what I did there?)

Synopsis:Humble, orphaned Pip is apprenticed to the dirty work of the forge but dares to dream of becoming a gentleman — and one day, under sudden and enigmatic circumstances, he finds himself in possession of "great expectations." In this gripping tale of crime and guilt, revenge and reward, the compelling characters include Magwitch, the fearful and fearsome convict; Estella, whose beauty is excelled only by her haughtiness; and the embittered Miss Havisham, an eccentric jilted bride.
♥Meg♥

Wonderful W's #atozchallenge

Day 23 of the April A to Z Challenge

A Book Extravaganza - featuring classics and some of my favorite books

Classic: Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Synopsis: The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and manual for self-reliance. Published in 1854, it details Thoreau's experiences over the course of two years in a cabin he built near Walden Pond, amid woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts.

My Favorites: Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson
                         White Oleander by Janet Fitch

I read White Oleander earlier last year. You can check out the review here.

♥Meg♥