Arms of Love -- A BookSneeze Reviews

Arms of Love is a tender, touching, soulful novel in my favorite genre: Amish Fiction. I love the thought of Amish love and indeed some days wish I were Amish (okay, every day I wish I were Amish). Until the day I save enough to chuck it all, buy a farm in Bird in Hand or somewhere in Pennsylvania, I will content myself with reading terrific Amish fiction.

Arms of Love was new and familiar to me in many ways. I liked reading about a time period in American Amish life I had not read of before, the late 18th century. Set in 1777, the American Revolution is raging and American Separtists and British soldiers are both troubling Amish people to join their ranks and declare themselves. Their lives were fraught with peril because many refused to fight, to house soldiers OR 'Englischers' meaning anyone not Amish. Young Amishmen were leaving home and taking up arms to fight for freedom although it was staunchly against their religion to do so. Amid this troublesome time Lena Yoder and Adam Wyse are a young couple deeply in love. However Adam is torn between the fighting and between his religious beliefs and the Amish community. Does Adam ignore his personal beliefs and stay in the Amish community with Lena, the only woman he's ever loved? Does he turn his back on home, family, and love and go fight? What does Lena do?  Those are answers that can only be found out by reading Arms of Love which I highly recommend you do!

**I received a digital copy of this title in order to provide this review. My review is my own personal opinion and reflects no one else's input or thoughts. My review had to be at least 100 words and did NOT have to be positive.**

Do you LOVE reading? Are you a fellow blogger? Join BookSneeze and you too can get free books to review! Follow the banner in my sidebar for great reads!

~~Cleaning House~~ A Blogging For Books Review

This was the BEST book I have read in a very, very long time!! I love non-fiction and parenting books and this book was written with insight, humor, and you can feel Kay's sheer joy come through her words.

Cleaning House is the story of Kay Wills Wyma's year long experiment to change the status quo in her household. Her kids were not always tidy yet felt entitled to certain things and a way of life. Kay became frustrated and decided that the family needed a real shake up to make things happen. She chose twelve things for the family to work on and assigned one area each month for a year.

My favorite part of the book was how she engaged the children in helping with meal duties. They took turns making a decision on each meal, one kid did the shopping (with mom's help, of course) cooked as much of it as they could alone but mom was there to supervise and served dinner then cleaned up afterwards. Her oldest son was early disillusioned when he decided to buy take out for the family on his nights to cook and found that everyone was not as appreciative of his effort as he thought they should be. His final weekly turn came around and mom put her foot down and told him he needed to go the whole distance and plan a meal, shop, prep, cook and clean up. Everyone was more appreciative of his home made effort and he felt he had made a major accomplishment.

Cleaning House is a terrific book for moms who are tired of being Supermom with a household who expects everything done for them instead of helping to do things around the house.

**I received a copy of Cleaning House through Waterbrook Multnomah's Blogging for Books program in consideration for my review. The above account is my personal opinion of the title and does not reflect any one else's opinion either the author nor publisher. The review did NOT have to be positive.**