A Light Shining in the Darkness by Karen A. Cooper

Genre: Adult, Christian, Memoir
Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Not everyone has a great start in life. For Karen Cooper she lived life with an abusive father. Unfortunately her past problems shaped her adult life. She found herself pregnant and gave up the child, and shortly thereafter found herself pregnant again. Marriage to the baby's father doesn't fix anything, it makes things worse. A few weeks after her child is born he dies of SIDS.  Karen continues to show how she kept a part of her life a lie and hidden while still making the same kinds of mistakes. This seems like such a dark and troubling book until Karen reaches a point where she lets God into her life. Things begin to change. That doesn't mean her life is all roses. She still struggles and forgets like so many of us during trials, to lean on God.

Although this book starts out dark and tragic, the ending is completely the opposite. Karen has shown through her memoir that no matter how low we get, God can lift us up out of the darkness to higher places. This is a definite must read.

This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

Genre: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction
Source: I received a copy from Netgalley to review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

As a teacher, this book touched on so many of my emotions. This is reality condensed into a book. We hear of school shootings every day. This book looks at the confused life of a teen, who holds his school hostage.  He randomly shoots teachers and students as he rants and raves about the injustices done to him. The problem is he feels like he has lost everything, including his sister. We see how much his sister loves him, willing to sacrifice her own life to save her friends and the students she doesn't know. We witness the agony of those outside the school  who have siblings inside. We witness the heroes who do what they can to save as many as they can.
I sat on the edge of my bed reading this late into the night, putting it down only because I had to teach school the next day. Normally I would read a book like this in one sitting. The emotions it brought out in me made that impossible.  I could only read for so long before I had to put the book down and deal with the emotions I was feeling. It was like having to decompress so that I could function once again.  This is a book that I will definitely recommend. It is not for the faint of heart and should only be read with a box of tissues.  

Somewhere Out There by Amy Hatvany

Genre: Adult, Realistic Fiction
Source:  I received a copy through Netgalley to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

I seem to be reading a lot of books lately that work my emotions. This is the story of a mother who gives up her children, ages four and six-months in hopes of them having a better life. She believes they will be kept together, but they aren't.

This story is told from three points of view. First we have Jennifer, the mother who gave up her children when she got in trouble with the law. Then we have Brooke who was the oldest of the girls. She grew up in the foster system and has always felt like she belonged nowhere. Now she is pregnant and trying to decide what is best for her own child. Finally we have Natalie who has never questioned her adoptive parents about her birth mother. When her daughter comes home from school with an assignment to create a family tree, Natalie sets out to find her birth mother and a sister she never knew. The author has done a phenomenal job developing the characters. You can't read this book and not feel for all of them involved. This is a story of finding love, forgiveness in a heartrending story.