Shades of Blue by Karen Kingsbury is the story of a young dating couple who made a series of bad choices and then went separate ways, but they find the consequences of those choices are still haunting them years later. The man, Brad, believes he has moved on with his life until an ad campaign he is working on for baby blankets a few weeks before his own wedding undoes him, and he realizes he must find Emma and apologize.

Emma has never really moved on: she keeps other relationships at bay and has walked away from God, feeling too dirty and sinful to be worthy of His notice or the love of God or man.

The news comes as a blow to Brad’s fiancee, Laura, who has to deal with her own feelings of fear and betrayal.

This book deals carefully and well with the varied emotions resulting from an abortion (no spoilers there as it is revealed early on). The plot is what should ideally happen for forgiveness to be found and for those involved to move on, though, sadly, I am afraid real life probably doesn’t often happen this way.

The Publisher’s Weekly Review says, “Kingsbury tackles a touchy, difficult topic, yet in her characteristic style, her gentle approach wins the day. It will also overcome any reader resistance, no matter what position one takes on this volatile issue.” I agree.

Fit to Be Tied is the second of Robin Lee Hatcher’s Sisters of Bethlehem series. Gwen and Cleo are fraternal twins, separated at the age of two when their mother left their father, taking Gwen with her and leaving Cleo with their father at the ranch in Idaho. Gwen came back to ID to live and renew her relationship with her father and sister, and though they love each other dearly, Gwen and Cleo are as different as night and day. Gwen is every bit the refined lady; Cleo is the chief wrangler of her father’s ranch, more comfortable in trousers and with the animals, in 1916 Idaho where this was highly unconventional for women.

Into their midst comes an English aristocrat, Sherwood Stratham, who has been sent to America as punishment by his father in hopes that he will mend his ways. He ends up as a hand on the ranch with Cleo as his reluctant supervisor. They have to deal with their differences and prejudices against each other until they begin to discover the good qualities in each other.

It wouldn’t take much to guess that the couple falls in love, but how they get there is a lot of fun and free from many of the cliches that westerns or an opposites-attracting storyline can fall into. I liked how the plot progressed and I like the real depth of their relationship.

Thanks to Zondervan for providing a copy of Fit to Be Tied for review.

I’ve been a little reluctant to join any book challenges because I have so many books to be read on my shelf, and many more on a list. But these two are calling to me.

The folks at 5 Minutes For Books have revamped their Classics Bookclub: instead of choosing one classic for everyone to read and discuss, now anyone can read any classic, and instead of meeting and linking up once a month, they will meet once a quarter. You can list what book(s) you read and wrote about and then peruse the list to see what others read, clicking on the ones that interest you.

I do want to keep the classics in my regular reading, but I don’t often reach for them unless there is a specific challenge or goal like this. I mentioned earlier that I had read most of the classics I had a burning desire to, and perhaps it was time to revisit some old favorites.

Along those lines, Carrie at Reading to Know is hosting an L. M. Montgomery Reading Challenge: basically we’re to pick any book(s) of L. M. Montgomery, write a post stating we’re joining the challenge and leave a comment on this post, read the book some time during January, then on Jan. 31 leave a comment with a link back to whatever Montgomery books we read and posted about during the month.

I think these two will dovetail nicely!

So my tentative goals for the Classics Bookclub are:

1. Read Anne of Green Gables for this and the Montgomery challenge. This will probably make me want to reread all the books and watch the film series again, but I’ll just have to deal with that. 🙂

2. Read something from Agatha Christie. I’ve been saying I want to for ages: now is the time to do it!

3. Carrie is also hosting a Chronicles of Narnia reading challenge in July. I am still thinking about that and may do it: I’d love to revisit the series.

I think the fourth option I will leave open for now and see what develops and what I am in the mood for later, since nothing in particular is coming to mind just now.

Oh, and there are prizes associated with each challenge. The Classics Bookclub will enter anyone who signs up with their goals by Jan. 31 into a drawing for Invitation to the Classics: A Guide to Books You’ve Always Wanted to Read and a copy of Jane Eyre from the Readable Classics series. Carrie is offering a locket from Emma Parker & Co. as a prize.

I just posted my list of books read in 2009. I was surprised the total ended up at only 42 (though I’d say the 1400+ pages of Les Mis has to count for at least five books, dontcha think? 🙂 ) Some people think I read a lot, but I’m nowhere near Carrie’s 132!

I’ve read as Semicolon has posted her top ten books from different genres the past several days. I haven’t read enough or from enough different genres to do that, but these are my overall favorite books read in 2009, in no particular order:

1. Les Miserables (unabridged) by Victor Hugo, reviewed here. I had read different abridged versions before, and it had been my goal for a long time to read the  whole unabridged version. I am glad I did: I enjoyed it, but I don’t know that I would do it again! I do think I’ll revisit the story in the future, but I’ll feel free to skip over some of the longer side trails in the book.

2. Becoming God’s True Woman edited by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. I read it twice this year but have yet to review it: there is just so much to it, it’s hard to know how to condense anything I might say about it other than that I highly recommend it. But this is a review I agreed to do, so I need to get on that right away! Reviewed here.

3. Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus, a compilation by Nancy Guthrie of 22 Christmas related essays from authors varying from Augustine and Luther to Piper and MacArthur. I just finished this and haven’t had a chance to review it yet, either, but I loved it. I am already planning on using it again next December: it may become an annual tradition.

4. To The Golden Shore by Courtney Anderson, reviewed here. A detailed biography of America’s first missionary, Adoniram Judson. Depth of character, faithfulness in any circumstance, even the severest hardships, a brilliant mind yielded totally to God.

5. Our Daily Walk by F. B. Meyer and Daily Light on the Daily Path. I’ll put the two devotional books together. I’ve been using Daily Light for years and feel a little funny listing it as a favorite — but it is. Meyer’s book is new to me this year, and it was my introduction to his writing (that’s the main reason I picked it up: I’d heard much of him and wanted to read directly from him. I did enjoy the book and plan to use it again this year.

6. How Do I Love Thee? by Nancy Moser about the relationship between Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, reviewed here.

7. The Centurion’s Wife by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke, reviewed here, about the time just after Christ’s death. I don’t usually like fictional books based on Biblical accounts, but this one kept true to the Bible while employing imagination about what certain situations and people might have been like.

8. Fatal Illusion by Adam Blumer, reviewed here. Very suspenseful! If you like mystery and suspense, put this on your list.

9. Sisterchicks in Wooden Shoes by Robin Jones Gunn. I have enjoyed this whole series, but something about this one just especially spoke to me.

10. Sometimes a Light Surprises by Jamie Langston Turner, reviewed here, my favorite of Turner’s books.

I did not read as many classics this year, I think partly because Les Mis took so much time, partly because I had a big stack of books from a clearance table at the Christian bookstore that I still haven’t read through, and partly because since starting a blog I’ve read most of the ones I had in mind. I still want to read something by Agatha Christie, but this may be a year to revisit some old favorites.

I had planned to do this post anyway, but today’s Booking Through Thursday prompt also asks us what our favorite books of the year were, so I’ll link this post there as well.