Gravel Road Musings

How to Recognize and Respond to Sexual Danger. "Love protects. It does not violate." "Trust is the oil that greases the gears of abuse. Without trust, most abuse could never happen."  Isn't that not an oxymoron? We think trust is what we need, when in reality most abuse happens by people we know and trust. They know how to worm their way into our families, our hearts and our children's lives and then they take advantage. This book was eye-opening, thought-provoking and downright scary. I've always been a bit terrified of one of my children being sexually abused and this book makes me want to never let my children out of sight. I am left grappling with how to take this information and make informed, conscious decisions while also not allowing it to cripple my life to the point that I am not allowing my children to grow and develop. One of the things that is stressed in this book is creating in your child a warrior heart, a heart that is brave, n...

The Simple, Powerful Path to a Loving Marriage "But I had yet to learn that meeting the right guy is one thing - and loving him year after year is quite another." So says Lisa in her introduction. And I think she is so right. So what are those 100 ways and is Lisa really qualified to talk about them? Well, she has been married for 25 years; that definitely adds credibility to her words, in my opinion at least. She and her husband, Matt, have eight children, one with severe brain damage. Raising eight children, at least one with special needs, and still loving her husband through it all, also increases her credibility. This book is a fast read, I think it took me around an hour to read it. It is basically a numbered list, one per page, of ways to love your husband. Most items have a paragraph or so expounding on it, some have only a sentence and a few have a two or three-page story to go with it. Most are just common sense items that we think, of course, and yet I needed...

I don't often post my NetGalley books on my blog, but this one feels like it's worth it. I have been reading a lot of light fiction lately in an effort to catch up on my review books and I have realized that I am not a big fan of heavier reading on my phone, so I read fiction. And when possible I still get those books from the library and then there are deadlines. So I've been frantically reading and getting a little burned out by the lightness of the reading, but I also want to get caught back up. So all that to say, this book was so good. Yes, there's a bit of romance, but the deeper themes throughout the book drew me in. I wanted to know what happened and how redemption occurred. It was just so good. And only a couple more library books and then I will return to some deeper reading after we move. As I closed this book after reading the last sentence, I sat back and said, "Wow."  This was Amanda Dykes debut novel and I want to know when her next novel wi...