Review of "Run Wild. Live Free Love Strong" by For King and Country

For the last few months, "Fix My Eyes" by For King and Country has been playing on Air1, whetting my appetite for the rest of their album.  The combination of great rhythm and encouraging lyrics create a great get-you-out-of-bed song.  And on the album, they include a drum prelude to "Fix My Eyes" that makes a great song even better.  I "got" the album for my birthday, as a pre-order, but had to wait for a couple of months to truly have the music.  I am not disappointed.  The songs on the album are meant to encourage people going through rough times, though they aren't treacly platitudes wrapped up in soothing maranatha chords.  The words are no-nonsense:

• "It takes a soldier who knows his orders to walk the walk I'm supposed to walk" (Fix My Eyes)
• "Beat up but won't be broken; lonesome but always searching; homesick but nobody's heading home soon." (To the Dreamers)
• "What do you do when you don't get better?  Strong arms, get too, get too weak to hold on..." (Without you, featuring Courtney)

The music is complicated, with rhythms created by so many different instruments, including vocals.  They tend to have the music counterpoint the hardness and despair in the lyrics, both through the rhythms and including bits of chimes/xylophone and other sweeter instruments to lead us to the place where God is there to comfort and heal us, a little bit at  a time.  

But the album is not only about hard places.  "To the Dreamers", "Fix My Eyes" and "This is Love" are anthems for living out the life God has given us and loving the people He has brought into our lives as the album's title envisions.  

The one song on the album that has been speaking to me most, however, is called, "Matter", mainly because of the words.  I started by making a slideshow on Google.  When my husband saw it, he liked it enough to encourage me to make a lyrics video.  I used Windows MovieMaker to create the video.

The video is dedicated to anyone who has experienced tremendous loss, anyone who is struggling to find hope in hopeless situations, to anyone who thinks that God has forgotten them and for those who think that He cannot love them because of what they have done. 

 {Hugs} to you all.

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Book Review: _Cinderella's Dress_ by Shonna Slayton

Now that school is over for the year, I have been reading more books to follow my own interest.  I was asked by a homeschooling mom to read her book before it was published through NetGallery.  It did involve getting registered with NetGallery and now involves getting emails from them with other books to read.  Booklover's paradise.  I published my review on Amazon this morning.  I am not one of those people who likes to reveal too much of the story, especially one that is well written and has elements of mystery to it as this story does.  It basically starts with the premise that Cinderella was a Polish woman who became queen after wearing a magical dress to the ball and capturing the Prince's heart.  When she is queen, she gives a loyal family of servants the privilege of being keepers of the dress when her kingdom comes under attack from the step-sisters and their husbands.  The protagonist, Kate, is in this line.  My official Amazon review is below:

I was asked to review it by Netgallery and, like other reviewers, the concept of continuing the Cinderella story through the dress caught my interest. I have to give this five stars because the story completely drew me in and I couldn't put it down.

Kate is the main protagonist whose mother wants her to become America's version of royalty, which is a Hollywood star.  Kate has different ambitions, wanting to crack the male-dominated world of department store window dressing.  And her talents seem to definitely align with her dreams.  One day, her great-aunt and great-uncle from Poland arrived unannounced at their doorstep with a big trunk.  And soon, Kate's great-aunt reveals that her family comes from a long line of caretakers of Cinderella's ball gown and wedding dress.  But is her aunt's story as fictional as the fairy tale of Cinderella seems to be?  

The author manages to weave several themes together as beautifully as Kate's great aunt tats lace, with the setting of the story in WWII.  And I love the fact that the story begins with the fairy tale, but the romance in this storyline is decidedly un-fairy tale.  What kept my attention was how she draws the characters out, little by little and how well she generally manages a lot of characters and several side stories.  Many books written for teens these days use chapter-ending cliff-hangers to keep you reading, but this book only uses that device for the actual climax.  Instead, she uses the mystery of the dress, of Kate's family background and of Kate's character development to hold our attention.

There is one development involving Kate and her aunt that is a bit jarring because it seems to come out of nowhere and a couple of minor story arcs could probably have been eliminated.  However, the strength of the story overcomes these slight problems.

I would highly recommend it for teens and tweens, but I believe that adults would thoroughly enjoy the book also.

This was a total joy to read.  This book is available on Kindle, though we are planning to buy a non-electronic version and get the author's signature.