Content rating: G

Book Description:

What was God thinking when He created you creative and then gave you children?

Creative moms often feel as though they must lay their passions down. But God had something special in mind for the creative woman during this intense season of mothering.

In this Pinterest age of handcrafted children's parties, Instagram photos of beautifully decorated homes, and blogs filled with poetry and prose, it is clear that we are in the midst of a brand new artistic renaissance. Not one born in Italian cathedrals or Harlem jazz clubs, but rather in kitchens, nurseries, and living rooms around the world. Mothers, working in the cracks and crevices of each hectic day, are adorning the world with their gifts, and they're showing all of us the beauty of this Life Creative.

In this book, you'll learn:

-Why the world needs your art
-How this Life Creative begins at home
-When art can turn a profit
-Your part in this modern day Renaissance

Life Creative paints the stories of moms, just like you, who are fitting their inspired lives into the everyday, ordinary places of motherhood. Women like home decorator Melissa Michaels and jewelry designer Lisa Leonard, author Angie Smith, recording artist Ellie Holcomb, and many more.


Purchase a copy: Life Creative Website


This book's title is very apt and meaningful as it captures perfectly what this book is all about. Being an active and creative mom, I was curious about this book, especially after I read Kelli Stuart's powerful and compelling novel Like a River From Its Course, which made it on my Best Reads of 2016 list.

Although nonfiction, Life Creative is beautifully written, full of imagery, quoting Scripture and poetry. It is a delight to read. It's an inspiring book written specifically for Christian moms, encouraging them to pursue their creative gifts to honor God, assist their families and the community and to make a living if so desired. I totally agreed with the authors' statement that our ministry starts with our children. Sometimes through the sleepless nights, feedings and diaper changes, we forget.

I was truly able to relate to some of the honest stories in this book, stories about mothering, feelings of being lost and confined in the dark days of sacrificing so much for family, of having to take care of babies and toddlers and feeling frustrated because our creative self is stifled. Gently, and using scripture and life experience, the authors encourage and motivate mothers not to give up but to start little by little to feed that creative side.

That's what I did when my children were toddlers. During naptime, I would write every day and soon enough a novel was born. I went through postpartum depression, and writing my novel was therapeutic for me. So this book really spoke to me. I was nodding my head as I read along. I loved reading the many anecdotes of creative moms and how their art, whether writing, photography, jewellery making, cooking, painting or music fed their souls, children, families and their ministry.

I applaud the authors for writing this inspiring book to encourage moms to pursue their creative goals and that it is part of our role as mothers. The book itself too has a pretty layout, with a quote at the beginning of each chapter and interspersed throughout the text, appropriate for a book on creativity. It is a beautiful book, very positive in tone and topic and life as an active Christian. Highly recommended for all the moms that need a boost to discover or rediscover their flare for being creative in any way they love.

To read more reviews, please visit the authors' page on Litfuse.

Disclosure: Thanks to Litfuse for sending me this book for review. I was not compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this product.




Wendy Speake is a trained actress and heartfelt teacher. She ministers to women's hearts through storytelling and life applications, utilizing drama, comedy, poetry and the study of God's Word. During her career in Hollywood, Speake found herself longing to tell stories that edify and encourage women. She is the author of Triggers: Exchanging Parents' Angry Reactions for Gentle Biblical Responses (BRU Press, 2015). Speake is a wife and homeschooling mother of three boys.

Kelli Stuart is a writer and a storyteller at heart. She has written for several websites including The Huffington Post, 5 Minutes for Mom, The MOB Society, (in)courage and Compassion International. She is the author of three books, including Like a River from Its Course (Kregel Publications, 2016) and a noted speaker. Stuart her husband live in Florida with their four children.

Connect with the authors: Website | Instagram

Enter the Giveaway!

One grand prize winner will receive:

One copy of Life Creative

The Gracelaced Personalizable Mom's Wreath

A handmade leather journal

A Starbucks gift card

 

Genre: Historical Fiction , 352 pages

Publisher: Kregel Publications
Release Date: June 27, 2016

Content Rating: PG-13 + M (There is no profanity or sex scenes, but there is a rape scene and other horrific war atrocities that are described)

Book Description:

An epic novel exposing the ugliness of war and the beauty of hope.

The city of Kiev was bombed in Hitler's blitzkrieg across the Soviet Union, but the constant siege was only the beginning for her citizens. In this sweeping historical saga, Kelli Stuart takes the reader on a captivating journey into the little-known history of Ukraine's tragedies through the eyes of four compelling characters who experience the same story from different perspectives.

Maria Ivanovna is only fourteen when the bombing begins and not much older when she is forced into work at a German labor camp. She must fight to survive and to make her way back to her beloved Ukraine.

Ivan Kyrilovich is falsely mistaken for a Jew and lined up with 34,000 other men, women, and children who are to be shot at the edge of Babi Yar, the "killing ditch." He survives, but not without devastating consequences.

Luda is sixteen when German soldiers rape her. Now pregnant with the child of the enemy, she is abandoned by her father, alone, and in pain. She must learn to trust family and friends again and find her own strength in order to discover the redemption that awaits.

Frederick Hermann is sure in his knowledge that the Führer's plans for domination are right and just. He is driven to succeed by a desire to please a demanding father and by his own blind faith in the ideals of Nazism.

Based on true stories gathered from fifteen years of research and interviews with Ukrainian World War II survivors, Like a River from Its Course is a story of love, war, heartache, forgiveness, and redemption.

Like a River from Its Course is simply unforgettable, a journey through the lives of  four individuals and their families touched irrevocably by WWII in Ukraine. As I sit here contemplating what to write in my review, I think how can my words do this book justice? How can it relate the vast array of emotions I felt reading it? I was both deeply touched and horrified by the events that the characters experienced. I cried and had to put the book down on several occasions, but I also rejoiced at the bravery and love displayed at a time of fear and depravity.

Every page in this book had me riveted. There was never a dull moment. Stuart has written a tour de force, easily pulling me into the world of these characters who have experienced circumstances and horrors, made more powerful by the knowledge that the author had meticulously researched them through the real-life accounts of Ukrainians who've lived them.

The story is told through the point of view of four characters, one of which is the son of one of the top Nazi leaders. I think this is what I loved the most about this novel. It showed all sides of the war, from the Ukrainians to the Germans. Truly, there is evil and goodness on both sides and what stands out is the integrity of each human, no matter their nationality. The stories are brutally honest and as a reader I was invested in all of them.

I've read many books on the Holocaust, and I like the ones that tell the unknown stories. I'm amazed that this is Stuart's first novel. Her characters are compelling, the setting vivid and the plot well executed. All the character had distinct voices and I thought it brilliant how we get to see the war through the eyes of very different individuals, from young Maria to idealistic Frederick.

Without a doubt, this book has made it on my list of Best Reads for 2016. It is powerful, riveting and compelling. It is heartrendingly beautiful in its portrayal of family and kindness. It is a book I will talk about for a long time, recommending it to my friends and book lovers. This one is definitely a must-read and I hope it gets the recognition it deserves!