Perfect on Paper by Maria Murnane

The (mis)Adventures of Waverly Branson

Waverly Branson is engaged to marry the man of her dreams (in fact she kind of wonders if he is a little out of her league).  But two weeks before the wedding he calls it off.  He says he just doesn't love her anymore.  (Um...I might have to murder the guy for putting me through something like that!).  Waverly eventually starts to pick herself up and start living again with the help or her two friends.

She is embarrassed and feels like a failure about the end of her engagement so she proceeds to tell almost everyone that she was the one who called it off.  Meanwhile the guy goes on to get married shortly after and she actually runs in to them in the grocery store!  Talk about torture!

She has a great job in sports PR and her life over the next year or so just follows some of her (mis)adventures of being a single girl.  As a single girl I could relate.  But her life is much more glamorous than mine.  I mean she befriends a famous basketball player at one of her trade shows and then becomes BFFs and shopping buddies with his wife (a Olympic figure skater) later while in NYC.

It was kind of comforting that she doesn't automatically fall in love with a new prince charming.  In fact she kind of develops a crush which I enjoyed!

I also loved that her best friend's name was McKenna!  That is one of the names I picked if I ever had a baby girl (so don't steal it!  But ummm...the chances of that happening are looking pretty slim, so I may never get to use it!)

Overall this was a good, quick read!  A great chick-lit book for the summer!

I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Crazy Love by Francis Chan

I had heard good things about this book so I was looking forward to reading it.  This book explores what it means to be head over heels for God.  It starts with why you should have crazy love for Him.  It's because He has crazy love for you and if you really think about it and how undeserving you are of that after ignoring Him, treating him like a genie in a bottle and only going to him when you need something, how much pride you have in thinking you are "good enough" and how much you have ignored His instructions and broken His commandments, it is simply amazing the God continues to pursue us and love us!

He explores what it means to be a lukewarm Christian.  This one struck me: "Lukewarm people choose what is popular over what is right when they are in conflict."  I know I have been guilty of that one before.  Or this one "Lukewarm people gauge their morality or "goodness" to the secular world."  Well I mean I am more moral than a murderer or prostitute, right?  Or this one: "Lukewarm people love others but do not seek to love others as much as they love themselves."  Got to look out for #1 right?

This one is so me: "Lukewarm people are continually concerned with playing it safe; they are slaves to the god of control.  The focus on safe living keeps them from sacrificing and risking for God."  I hate risk.  I like feeling safe.  I like knowing that I have things under control  So much so that when one person tells me I don't have my sh*t together, it stays with me for months and months.  I don't like feeling scared and trusting God completely with a situation.  It makes me very uncomfortable.  But I can tell you that the times I have, He hasn't let me down.

He then walks you through what "obsessed" people look like.  How they act and think and what it really means to be in love with and trust God completely.  The point is crazy love like that is challenging.  You are never going to be "good enough" nor should you want to just be "good enough".  It gave some great tips and pictures of what it would look like if I stretched myself and my relationship with God to the max.

He ends the book with some profiles of real-life people who really turned over their whole lives to God and how God used them in amazing ways.  It is really inspirational.

I give this one 4 out of 5 stars.