Letters of Comfort by Wanda Brunstetter

 Friendship Letters Series — Doretta Schwartz has always enjoyed writing letters and feels her letters can be a bit of a ministry to her friends. In this series, exchanging letters that contain open and honest feelings and struggles helps Doretta and two of her best friends through the darkest challenges of their lives.

 
A Ministry of Letter Writing Restores Hope to the Writer
 

Doretta Schwartz used to be so happy and passed her positive attitude along to friends in several letters she wrote each month. But that all changed the day she learned of her fiancé’s death and a heavy weight of depression fell upon her. Feeling empty, she puts away her letter writing and won’t even respond to calls from friends. William’s twin brother, Warren, is also grieving his loss, while at the same time, trying to be supportive to his parents and Doretta. Doretta responds to Warren’s friendship, but is he just becoming a replacement for the once-in-a-lifetime love she lost?

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Letters of Comfort (Friendship Letters, 2): Wanda E. Brunstetter: 9781636094878: Amazon.com: Books

Wanda Brunstetter is an award-winning romance novelist who has led millions of readers to lose their heart in the Amish life. She is the author of over 100 books with more than 12 million copies sold. Many of her books have landed on the top bestseller lists, including the New York Times, USA Today, Publisher's Weekly, CBA, ECPA, and CBD. Wanda is considered one of the founders of the Amish fiction genre, and her work has been covered by national publications, including Time Magazine and USA Today.

Wanda's fascination with the Amish culture developed when she met her husband, Richard, who grew up in a Mennonite church, and whose family has a Pennsylvania Dutch heritage. Meeting her new Mennonite sister-in-laws caused Wanda to yearn for the simpler life. In their travels, she and her husband have become close friends with many Amish people across America. Wanda's desire to explore their culture increased when she discovered that her great-great grandparents were part of the Anabaptist faith.

All of Wanda's novels are based on personal research intended to accurately portray the Amish way of life. Many of her books are well-read and trusted by the Amish, who credit her for giving readers a deeper understanding of the people and their customs.

Wanda's primary attraction to the Amish is their desire to live a devout Christian life that strives to honor God, work hard, and maintain close family ties. Whenever she visits her Amish friends, Wanda finds herself drawn to their peaceful lifestyle, sincerity, and close family ties, which is in stark contrast to the chaos and busyness that plagues so many modern "Englishers." Time and time again, Wanda loses her heart in the Amish life, and she hopes her readers will, too. For more information, visit: www.WandaBrunstetter.com 

My Thoughts...

This is book two of The Friendship Letters series by Brunstetter. We have lost the art of letter writing in this world. I loved getting letters. So, this series has been a fun series for me. I love that the Amish don't buy into the electronics world.
This is a good series to sit back and enjoy a simple life afternoon.
The Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required, and all views expressed are our own.

An Amish Cinderella by Shelley Shepard Gray

 

Now that her friends are all marrying or moving away, Heart Beachy has started feeling lonely. Worse, everyone keeps asking when she’s going to find a man of her own. Don’t they realize Heart has her hands full at home with her widowed dad, too many chores, and a menagerie of needy, small animals? Besides, she doesn’t understand the fuss about marriage. It’s enough to make her consider finally becoming a pet-sitter, or moving to an English community, where she won’t be an oddity . . .

Newcomer Clayton Glick is utterly charmed by Heart—and completely confounded. He can’t figure out why this beautiful woman is as awkward as a teenager whenever he’s around, which is often now that he’s an apprentice to her blacksmith father. So Clayton starts assisting with Heart’s never-ending tasks, even helping her corral her unruly pets. How else can he court an adorably flustered woman who doesn’t know the first thing about courtship? Because courting is exactly what he intends . . .

Heart doesn’t know why her pulse hammers every time she sees Clayton. She only knows yielding to such emotions will mean trouble. . . But maybe with a little faith—and the loss of a shoe—Clayton can convince her to join him on the road to happily ever after.

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An Amish Cinderella (The Amish of Apple Creek): Gray, Shelley Shepard: 9781496739872: Amazon.com: Books

Shelley Shepard Gray is a NYT and USA Today bestselling author. She's published over a hundred novels and has over a million books in print. She currently lives in northern Ohio and writes full time.

Shelley lives just an hour from Holmes County, where many of her Amish-themed novels are set. She currently writes contemporary romance and Amish fiction for a variety of publishers. When not spending time with her family or writing, she can usually be found walking her two dachshunds on one of the many trails in the Cleveland area.

She also bakes a lot, loves coconut cream pie, and will hardly ever pull weeds, mow the yard, or drive in the snow.

Shelley also spends a lot of time on line! Please visit her website, www.shelleyshepardgray.com to find out her latest news or to sign up for her newsletter. Shelley can also be found on FaceBook, Instagram @shelley.s.gray, or on Twitter @ShelleySGray.

Cold Pursuit Nancy Mehl

 Ex-FBI profiler River Ryland still suffers from PTSD after a case went horribly wrong. Needing a fresh start, she moves to St. Louis to be near her ailing mother and opens a private investigation firm with her friend and former FBI partner, Tony St. Clair. They're soon approached by a grieving mother who wants them to find out what happened to her teenaged son, who disappeared four years ago. River knows there's almost no hope the boy is still alive, but his mother needs closure, and River and Tony need a case, no matter how cold it might be.

But as they follow the boy's trail, which gets more complicated at every turn, they find themselves in the path of a murderer determined to punish anyone who gets in his way. As River and Tony race to stop him before he kills again, an even more dangerous threat emerges, stirring up the past that haunts River and plotting an end to her future.

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Cold Pursuit (Ryland & St. Clair): Mehl, Nancy: 9780764240454: Amazon.com: Books

Nancy Mehl lives in Missouri, with her husband Norman, and her puggle, Watson. She's authored over fifty books and is currently at work on a new FBI suspense series for Bethany House Publishing.

All of Nancy's novels have an added touch - something for your spirit as well as your soul. "I welcome the opportunity to share my faith through my writing," Nancy says. "It's a part of me and of everything I think or do. God is number one in my life. I wouldn't be writing at all if I didn't believe that this is what He's called me to do. I hope everyone who reads my books will walk away with the most important message I can give them: God is good, and He loves you more than you can imagine. He has a good plan especially for your life, and there is nothing you can't overcome with His help."

You can find out more about Nancy by visiting her Web site at: www.nancymehl.com. She also is active on the Suspense Sisters: www.suspensesisters.blogspot.com and on FaceBook! 

My Thoughts...

I get so excited every time Mehl has a new series out and Cold Pursuit did not disappoint. If you love a good suspense fast paced read, you will enjoy this one. I cannot wait for book two.

4 stars form this reader.

The Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required, and all views expressed are our own.

The Block Party by Jamie Day

 

This summer, meet your neighbors.

The residents of the exclusive cul-de-sac on Alton Road are entangled in a web of secrets and scandal utterly unknown to the outside world, and even to each other.

On the night of the annual Summer block party, there has been a murder.

But, who did it and why takes readers back one year earlier, as rivalries and betrayals unfold―discovering that the real danger lies within their own block and nothing―and no one―is ever as it seems.

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Amazon.com: The Block Party: A Novel: 9781250283191: Day, Jamie: Books

No Author photo available

Jamie Day lives in one of those picture-perfect, coastal New England towns you see in the movies. And just like the movies, Jamie has two children and an adorable dog to fawn over. When not writing or reading, Jamie enjoys yoga, the ocean, cooking, and long walks on the beach with the dog, or the kids, or sometimes both.

Her Only Wish by Shelley Shepard Gray

 

Sheltered yet adventurous, Betsy Detweiler is on a mission to get out of Kentucky and experience new things in life. She's got a list--a life list. What better place to start than with her friends in beautiful Pinecraft, Florida?

From the moment Betsy walks into the Snow Bird Golf Course to sign up for lessons, August Troyer is mesmerized. Betsy is a mass of contradictions--beautiful yet awkward, outgoing yet unsure, joyful yet hesitant. She's like no one he's ever met before, and as the only child of missionary parents, he's met a lot of people.

As Betsy and August embark on a month of enjoying life to the fullest, they'll encounter several reasons to back off and play it safe. But playing it safe has its own consequences. This tender romance reminds us that life--and love--requires a fair amount of risk.

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Her Only Wish (Season in Pinecraft, 2): Shepard Gray, Shelley: 9780800741686: Amazon.com: Books

Shelley Shepard Gray is a NYT and USA Today bestselling author. She's published over a hundred novels and has over a million books in print. She currently lives in northern Ohio and writes full time.

Shelley lives just an hour from Holmes County, where many of her Amish-themed novels are set. She currently writes contemporary romance and Amish fiction for a variety of publishers. When not spending time with her family or writing, she can usually be found walking her two dachshunds on one of the many trails in the Cleveland area.

She also bakes a lot, loves coconut cream pie, and will hardly ever pull weeds, mow the yard, or drive in the snow.

Shelley also spends a lot of time on line! Please visit her website, www.shelleyshepardgray.com to find out her latest news or to sign up for her newsletter. Shelley can also be found on FaceBook, Instagram @shelley.s.gray, or on Twitter @ShelleySGray.

My thoughts...

I loved going back to Pinecraft. Her Only wish was a family book that touches on a few things families deal with. Gray makes reading Amish fiction books so relaxing and such a great getaway from everyday life.
This is a book that I recommend.
The Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required, and all views expressed are our own.

The Gift of the Outsider by Alicia Akins

 

Too often, cultural belonging becomes a battle, and its winners gain the world: access, comfort, safety, community. Yet for those on the margins—set apart from their culture by differences such as ethnicity, class, ability, and faith—God offers something even greater.

The Gift of the Outsider celebrates the blessings found in unbelonging—and calls Christians of all backgrounds to love and listen to their community’s outcasts. As a Christian, a Black American, a woman, and an expatriate, author Alicia J. Akins offers heartfelt reflections on her own experiences as an outsider. She illuminates how we can

• cherish the unique gifts that God bestows on those who endure loneliness and adversity
• encourage and humbly receive the invaluable insights outsiders of all kinds have to offer
• delight in how the differences within God’s people reflect his majesty—and how Christ’s reign unifies all believers

Compassionate and biblically grounded, The Gift of the Outsider enriches today’s broader conversations surrounding diversity and inclusion, and is sure to encourage and challenge outsiders and insiders alike.

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The Gift of the Outsider: What Living in the Margins Teaches Us About Faith: Akins, Alicia J, Oshman, Jen: 9780736984232: Amazon.com: Books

No Author picture available 

Alicia J. Akins is an author who finds herself at home both nowhere and anywhere. Her interest in how differences can be our strengths has taken her across the globe and after living and working in Asia for five years, she considers it a second home. She is a master’s student at Reformed Theological Seminary, Washington D.C., and has previously published Invitations to Abundance, also with Harvest House. You can find more of her writing at FeetCryMercy.com​ and follow her on Twitter ​@FeetCryMercy.

The Search For Us by Susan Azim Boyer

 

Samira Murphy will do anything to keep her fractured family from falling apart, including caring for her widowed grandmother and getting her older brother into recovery for alcohol addiction. With attendance at her dream college on the line, she takes a long shot DNA test to find the support she so desperately needs from a father she hasn’t seen since she was a baby.

Henry Owen is torn between his well-meaning but unreliable bio-mom and his overly strict aunt and uncle, who stepped in to raise him but don’t seem to see him for who he is. Looking to forge a stronger connection to his own identity, he takes a DNA test to find the one person who might love him for exactly who he is―the biological father he never knew.

Instead of a DNA match with their father, Samira and Henry are matched with each other. They begin to search for their father together and slowly unravel the difficult truth of their shared past, forming a connection that only siblings can have and recovering precious parts of their past that have been lost. Brimming with emotional resonance, Susan Azim Boyer's The Search for Us beautifully renders what it means to find your place in the world through the deep and abiding power of family.

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Amazon.com: The Search for Us: A Novel: 9781250833709: Boyer, Susan Azim: Books

After obtaining a Certificate in Screenwriting from UCLA in the early aughts, I was accepted to the Sundance Producers Conference and went on to write and direct the independent feature, All You Need, starring two-time Academy Award nominee, Shirley Knight, which played on the festival circuit.

After several “it’s my breakthrough!/oh no, it’s not my breakthrough” moments, I began writing young adult fiction featuring Iranian American heroines (whom I *never* encountered growing up), who make messy, complicated choices that rapidly snowball into avalanches. Jasmine Zumideh Needs a Win is my young adult fiction debut. I live in the Palm Springs/Palm Desert area with my husband, Wayne, and my Pug mix, Teddy. Our son, Alec, lives in New York.

My Thoughts...

You would never guess that this was a debut. It was such a touching read. If this great book was Boyers first, I can't wait to read the next book.

I love all things DNA so this was right up my alley.

I have to say this is a must read. Very well done. 4 stars from this avid reader.

The Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required, and all views expressed are our own.

Anger Bang by Avery Flynn

 Sometimes the only answer is to just bang it out.

Like today, for example. I’m in actual hell at my sister’s over-the-top reality TV wedding and up until now, I’ve been able to handle it all. The horrible bridesmaids. My relentless mother. Even the awful eighties fashion to fit the retro theme. But when my sister nonchalantly mentioned that she never even wanted me at the wedding—the producers insisted—ouch doesn’t fully express how much it hurts.

So for the first time I don’t think. I just do. And as a shy paleontologist who plans everything, I probably should have taken a moment.

But here we are.

I’ve just asked the best man, who my sister absolutely loathes and who can’t stand her right back, if he’s up for a little naked revenge with me. The cameras are filming every horrifying second, and the whispers have begun. (Did I mention that the music happened to stop just as I asked him?)

But then his mouth quirks up, and he does the last thing I expect.

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Anger Bang: Flynn, Avery: 9798399601700: Amazon.com: Books

Avery Flynn is a USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling romance author. She has three slightly-wild children, loves a hockey-addicted husband and is desperately hoping someone invents the coffee IV drip.

She was a reader before she was a writer and hopes to always be both. She loves to write about smartass alpha heroes who are as good with a quip as they are with their *ahem* other God-given talents. Her heroines are feisty, fierce and fantastic. Brainy and brave, these ladies know how to stand on their own two feet and knock the bad guys off theirs.

Find out more about Avery on her website (averyflynn.com), follow her on Twitter (@AveryFlynn) and Pinterest (pinterest.com/AveryFlynnBooks), and like her on her Facebook page (facebook.com/AveryFlynnAuthor).

Join her street team, The Flynnbots, and receive special sneak peeks, prizes and early access to her latest releases!

Also, if you figure out how to send Oreos through the Internet, she'll be your best friend for life.

Contact her at avery@averyflynn.com. She'd love to hear from you!

My Thoughts...

I laughed so much the whole time I was reading this one. What I loved the most was the banter. I really don't think anyone else can write like Flynn. This was a must read for me just for the banter and the laugh out loud moments.

The Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required, and all views expressed are our own.

A Pity Party is still A Party by Chelsea Garner

 Most of us try to avoid feeling sad, but in this candid, comical, and deeply-felt book, therapist Chelsea Harvey Garner doesn’t just argue that the future will be brighter if we learn to enjoy the unenjoyable and support each other when the vibes aren’t so good, she also shows us how.

What if all the advice we’ve received about “looking on the bright side” is wrong? What if sadness is actually the key to happiness, and can even be . . . fun? Garner is here to make that case. In this feel-good guide to feeling bad, she claims it’s not enough for us to tolerate hard feelings. We need to embrace them. We need to let them show by crying with others. Often. In public.

Playful, at times irreverent, but always sincere, Garner is the grown-up Miss Frizzle for the therapy generation. She believes that if we want to build a world where mental health is the norm, we have to lean into connection and count on each other, even—and perhaps especially—at our worst.

Through anecdotes about her own hardships and insights gained in her clinical practice, Garner illuminates the power (and embarrassment) of opening up. Featuring solo exercises, group activities, and journal prompts alongside personal essays, she invites us to see emotions in a new light and engage with them in a healthier way. A Pity Party is Still a Party helps us find the silver lining, but only after we’ve played in the rain. 

Pick up your copy here...                                                                                                                                    A Pity Party Is Still a Party: A Feel-Good Guide to Feeling Bad: Garner, Chelsea Harvey: 9780063082410: Amazon.com: Books

Chelsea Harvey Garner is a writer, psychotherapist, and director of Big Feels Lab: a nonprofit promoting collective mental health. In both her creative and therapeutic work, she specializes in helping misfits, survivors, and unconventional families reclaim a sense of dignity and connect with each other more fully. When not writing, she can be found leading workshops on social issues, dancing in places where that's discouraged, and hosting cuddle puddles at her home in NYC.

The Bible is Funny Card Game

 

Since Bible verses are always being taken out of context, why not make a game of it? This hilarious card game of creating your own unexpected combinations is perfect for families, friends, and small groups—ages 12 and up!

An excuse I would use to get out of going somewhere...

• I am very old. Joshua 23:2
• My breath is offensive. Job 19:17
• My back is filled with searing pain; there is no health in my body. Psalm 38:7

With 70 prompts and 165 Bible verses spread out across 200 cards, The Bible Is Funny Card Game invites players with an abundance of Bible knowledge as well as those with no prior Bible experience to match out-of-context biblical verses with prompts about everyday situations to win the funniest pairing. The verse cards in the deck feature obscure, ludicrous, or downright outrageous Bible verses pulled completely out of their original context. The prompt cards offer fun, contemporary situations into which those Bible verses can be inserted, with topics ranging from family dynamics and dating to popular culture and the workplace. Players can cast lots or go with the Noah (most pets) or Sarah (best laugh) rules to decide who will be the Theologian first, and then begin the battle to see who will earn the most "Treasures in Heaven" (points).

From the creator of The Bible Is Funny podcast and Instagram and suited for Bible enthusiasts and novices alike, this card game will ensure that you never look at an out-of-context Bible verse the same way again!

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The Bible Is Funny Card Game: The Party Game of Hilarious Pairings for Verses Out of Context: Russo, Anthony: 9780593579497: Amazon.com: Books

Anthony Russo grew up memorizing scripture–partly inspired to understand God's Holy Word, but probably more motivated by his pursuit of badges for his Awana vest. He also loves comedy. He's been performing comedy since he was fifteen years old, and did his first nationwide comedy tour at age seventeen. He is the Creative Director and Director of Online Ministry at Calvary Church in Clearwater, Florida, and performs comedy on the internet and all over the country through The Bible is Funny and Isaac Improv. He and his wife, Rachael, live in Seminole, Florida, and have two children. See more on Instagram and YouTube @thebibleisfunny @isaacimprov.

The Bones of the Story by Carol Goodman

 

It’s been twenty-five years since the shocking disappearance of a female student and the distinguished Creative Writing professor who died while searching for her. The Briarwood College community has never forgotten the double tragedy. Now, the college President is bringing together faculty, donors, and alumni to honor the victims from all those years ago.

On a cold December weekend after the fall semester has ended, guests gather on the vacant campus for the commemoratory event. But as a storm descends, people begin to depart, leaving a group of alumni who were the last ones taught by the esteemed professor. Recriminations and old rivalries flare as they recall the writing projects they shared as classmates, including chilling horror stories they each wrote about their greatest fears.

When an alumna dies in a shockingly similar way to the story she wrote, and then another succumbs to a similar fate, they realize someone has decided at long last to avenge the crimes of the past. Will the secret of what they did twenty-five years ago be revealed? Will any of them be alive at the end of the weekend to find out? 

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Amazon.com: The Bones of the Story: A Novel: 9780063265240: Goodman, Carol: Books

Carol Goodman is the author of twenty-three novels, including The Widow’s House and The Night Visitor, which won the 2018 and 2020 Mary Higgins Clark Award. Her books have been translated into sixteen languages. She lives in the Hudson Valley with her family and teaches literature and writing at The New School and SUNY New Paltz.

The Connellys of County Down by Tracey Lange

 From Tracey Lange, the New York Times bestselling author of We Are the Brennans, comes The Connellys of County Down: a story about fierce family loyalty, good intentions gone awry, and the consequences of improbable love.

When Tara Connelly is released from prison after serving eighteen months on a drug charge, she knows rebuilding her life at thirty years old won’t be easy. With no money and no prospects, she returns home to live with her siblings, who are both busy with their own problems. Her brother, a single dad, struggles with the ongoing effects of a brain injury he sustained years ago, and her sister’s fragile facade of calm and order is cracking under the burden of big secrets. Life becomes even more complicated when the cop who put her in prison keeps showing up unannounced, leaving Tara to wonder what he wants from her now.

While she works to build a new career and hold her family together, Tara finds a chance at love in a most unlikely place. But when the Connellys’ secrets start to unravel and threaten her future, they all must face their worst fears and come clean, or risk losing each other forever.

The Connellys of County Down is a moving novel about testing the bounds of love and loyalty. It explores the possibility of beginning our lives anew, and reveals the pitfalls of shielding each other from the bitter truth.

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The Connellys of County Down: A Novel: Lange, Tracey: 9781250865373: Amazon.com: Books

Born in the Bronx and raised in Manhattan, Tracey Lange comes from a large Irish family with a few secrets of its own. She headed west and graduated from the University of New Mexico before owning and operating a behavioral healthcare company with her husband for fifteen years. While writing her debut novel, We Are the Brennans, she completed the Stanford University online novel writing program. Tracey currently lives in Bend, Oregon, with her husband, two sons and their German Shepherd.

90 Days to Stress~Free by Jami Amerine

 Too often, women feel like their only hope for reducing stress is to push through and pray to make it to the other side. Well-intended projects to help the family, events to support the community, and ministries for church swirl into a cluttered, chaotic schedule. Yet worry is eating them alive from within.

Being stressed isn't the abundant life Christ wants for his people. Artist and author Jami Amerine knows the heaviness of expectations--both internal and external. And she has discovered how to retrain the mind against the framework worry lays down. In easily digestible daily readings, she shares what she's learned and offers the right tools for the job.

Through her witty, friendly words, vibrant original art, and rock-solid scriptural truth, Jami invites readers to join her on a journey to declutter the mind and uncover a spirit freshly renovated into a truly worry-free existence.

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90 Days to Stress Free: Renovating the House that Worry Built: Amerine, Jami, Amerine, Jami: 9780825447716: Amazon.com: Books

Jami Amerine is wife, to Justin, mom, author, illustrator, artist, and foster care and adoption advocate.  Together Jami and Justin have 4 biological, adult children. The couple started all over in 2012 with adoption and foster care adding Sam and Charlie. Jami holds an undergraduate degree from Abilene Christian University in Family and Consumer Sciences and a graduate degree in Education, Counseling, and Human Development from Hardin Simmons University. 

Once hailed the "Lucille Ball of Christian Blogging," Jami has a unique way of storytelling that delights readers and teaches freedom in an entirely new light. Jami is a firm believer in understanding how the subconscious mind can be trained to recognize authenticity, to live and learn in peace and harmony.

Jami, Justin, Sam, and Charlie, make their home on the island of Oahu. You can find Jami's art at jamiamerine.com and in major retailers. Jami writes a wide variety of genres: Women's non-fiction, fiction, children and family curriculums, women's studies, and children's books and coloring books. Follow Jami and her family on their island adventures on Instagram and Facebook.

Life Changing. Very helpful and insightful.

Stuff we Fight About Conversation Cards for Couples

 Strengthen the relational foundation between you and your partner by entering into the real, important, and in-depth conversations sparked by these 125 practical prompt cards.

Inspired by the gap that exists across many relationships—one of unmet expectations, unfulfilled hopes, and a failure to communicate—Stuff We Fight About invites couples to express their preferences, pet peeves, assumptions, and major life goals in a safe and low-pressure context. By engaging in these vital conversations instead of pushing their differences under the rug, couples will preempt any fights before they happen and will fortify their relationship—whether dating, engaged, or married—and gain the added benefit of being more fully known and loved.

With 125 beautifully designed cards, this unique deck offers couples a helpful catalyst for conversations in five categories, with prompts such as:

• Day to Day: What are your usual routines when waking up and getting ready for bed?

• Pet Peeves: How do you squeeze the toothpaste onto your toothbrush?

• Big Ones: How was money talked about in your home as a kid?

• Holidays: What is a family tradition that makes you feel the Christmas spirit?

• The Future: What do you want to accomplish in the next five years, both personally and as a couple?

Designed to be used at home or on the go, Stuff We Fight About teaches couples to communicate about foundational topics, sets a standard for vulnerable conversations, and breaks the fragmented patterns that wound relationships. With a hint of humor, and a lot of practicality, these cards will help prepare couples to create patterns of authentic conversations in their day-to-day lives.

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Stuff We Fight About Conversation Cards for Couples: Get on the Same Page with Your Dreams, Hang-ups, Traditions, and Everything in Between: Dake, Jeniffer: 9780593579961: Amazon.com: Books

Over the last twenty-five years Jeniffer Dake has had the privilege of speaking at professional conferences, youth councils, parenting symposiums and leadership development conventions throughout the country. She speaks with a powerful combination of humor and candidness that allows her to address the most sensitive of subjects and to direct her audience towards foundational truths.

Jeniffer has been teaching and mentoring students for a quarter century, giving her a rare perspective to the challenges they face in diverse stages of life. She is passionate about teaching others how to live to their fullest potential. She believes that effective communication skills and a self-awareness of one’s own emotional health at every age is the key to success. Jeniffer has helped students from 8-18 to identify their emotions, express their needs, and heal their hurts.

Jeniffer began teaching in 1999, where she served as adjunct faculty at her Alma mater Taylor University. Following her time there she moved to Nashville, TN where she worked at Michael W. Smith’s Rocketown Youth Services as the Director of Marketing and aided in Family Outreach. While her time at Rocketown taught her a great deal about successful marketing, the most valuable knowledge she attained was what makes a child successful; the ability to identify the root of your emotions. In 2006 after touring with young artist Stacie Orrico as the road pastor and mentor, she returned to teaching.

After 15 years in the classroom, Jeniffer had taught students from elementary through college age. The relationships she built with her students and their families have given her a wealth of knowledge about family dynamics and their emotional needs. Jeniffer is now a full-time speaker and writer. She has partnered with a number of churches and para-church organizations such as the Salvation Army and Youth for Christ to create bible studies and other resources for their programs.

In 2016, Jeniffer graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary with a Master's degree in Biblical Studies and Theology. This paired with her Bachelor of Arts in Pre-Medical Biology and Theater Performance from Taylor University has given Jeniffer a unique understanding of people and the ability to communicate foundational truths to all ages.

Jeniffer is a wife and a mother of two little ones who love to get dirty working in the garden and helping raise bees on the family farm. If she’s not out on the road, Jeniffer is probably baking scones,