Beauty in the Binding: October 2021

Friday, October 29, 2021

Book Review: One Transforming Love by Erin Elise Kiu

About the Book:

Moving on from her past seemed impossible. Until she met the One who promised to give her a future.

When Aubrey moves across the country to San Diego to escape her past, she is hopeful that she can finally discover God’s purpose for her life and meet her future husband. She doesn’t know too much about God, but she is confident her new faith and her new city will help her leave her drunken mistakes and dating history behind.

As she settles into her new beach life, Aubrey meets Jake while watching dolphins play in the ocean. They instantly hit it off and it feels like fate, but soon, Aubrey begins to question Jake’s true intentions and lifestyle.

Is this the guy God has chosen for her? If this is the life God has intended for her, then why does she still feel so lost and alone, and why does she keep making the same mistakes?

Aubrey quickly realizes her past has followed her to her new city, and that going to church every once in a while isn’t good enough. After a few nights she’d like to forget, God shows her that she has a choice to make.

Aubrey can choose God and to do life his way, or she can choose to continue trying to find love and acceptance from the world.

Will she ever be able to move on from her past? Will she have the courage to surrender it all to God?

My Thoughts:

Based on the author’s life experiences, One Transforming Love by Erin Elise Kiu dives into the party and hookup lifestyle that she once partook of. The aching desires and raw emotions that Aubrey, the protagonist, experiences in the story felt authentic. True to reality, Aubrey spends a large portion of the book craving change while struggling to leave her way of life. While the novel calls out excessive drinking and casual sex as wrong, the story points to love, acceptance, and transformation found in the arms of Jesus. It has the feel of a devotional wrapped in a fictional narrative.

One Transforming Love by Erin Elise Kiu entertains while offering truth and hope for change. While likely intended for young women caught between the party scene and a longing for something more, it can benefit a woman of any age struggling with such issues. I love One Transforming Love’s beautiful cover and recommend it for ages 16+ due to content.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I was provided a copy of this book by the author or publisher. All opinions in this review are my own.

Excerpt:

“Do you want to go down to the altar for prayer?” The guy nodded to the front of the auditorium.

Hundreds of people were making their way down to the altar, lining up for prayer. Some at the front were ripping up pieces of paper—the contracts they had made with the Devil. A few people were crying, raising their arms in the air, as people prayed for them.

Aubrey felt like she couldn’t move. She felt like for the first time she was awakened to the truth all around her. To this whole world with God, a world of good and evil that she didn’t know existed.

She thought she was doing a good job, learning about God and reading her Bible, but there was so much she didn’t know. No matter how much good she did, it wasn’t going to cut it if she didn’t fully surrender everything to God. If she didn’t rip up those contracts with the Devil.

She had already surrendered drinking to God, but it was clear she had to surrender everything to God. She had to surrender sex to God.

But there was no way she was going up to the altar in front of everyone. She needed to get out of there. She needed to process this alone.

“No, I’m fine, thank you. Have a great day.” She grabbed her purse and quickly moved past the guy before he could say anything else.

The tears kept falling as she made her way to her car. She didn’t know how to process this. She didn’t know how to surrender everything to God, including sex.

It was clear God had spoken to her today. She couldn’t pretend sex wasn’t a big deal to God. She couldn’t ignore what she had just heard—that she had been letting the Devil control her life for so long and she hadn’t even known.

She had already tried to stop sleeping with Jake, but it hadn’t worked. How was she supposed to stop? She closed her eyes and prayed silently as she made it to her car.

How am I supposed to stop, God? How do I just give up sex? How do I stop the Devil from controlling this area of my life?

Purchase Links:

Fun & Holy (Hardcover)

Amazon (Ebook currently $2.99)

About the Author:

Erin Elise Kiu is passionate about helping women have a transforming relationship with Jesus. After experiencing her own transformation with God and seeing how God wrote her love story, Erin’s mission is to help other women live the fun and holy lives they were created to live while attracting their future husbands along the way.

Erin is an author and blogger at Fun & Holy, a blog and community for women to grow together as they become the women God created them to be. She has also led Bible studies and women’s groups at her church to help women discover their identity and purpose in Christ.

When she’s not writing, you can find Erin on the beach or biking along the coast with her husband in San Diego.

Join the Fun & Holy Community at www.funandholy.com to get free access to women’s Bible studies, spiritual growth tips, and prayer guides to pray for your future husband.

Are you ready to become the woman God created you to be and attract the future husband God has for you?

Connect with Erin:

Website

https://www.funandholy.com/

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/erinelisekiu/

Fun & Holy Facebook Group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/funandholycommunity

Thursday, October 28, 2021

Blog Blitz with Giveaway: Carved in Ebony by Jasmine L. Holmes

Carved in Ebony JustRead Blog Blitz

Welcome to the Blog Blitz for Carved in Ebony by Jasmine L. Holmes, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: Carved in Ebony
Author: Jasmine L. Holmes
Publisher: Bethany House Publishers
Release Date: November 2, 2021
Genre: Christian History / Biography

Through the lives of Elizabeth Freeman, Nannie Helen Burroughs, Amanda Berry Smith, Mamie Till, and others, author and speaker Jasmine Holmes shares the significant role that Black women have played in the formation of our faith--and are playing in our formation as modern-day women of faith.

As these historical figures take the stage with Holmes, you will be inspired by what the stories of these women can teach us about education, birth, privilege, and so much more. Carved in Ebony will take you past the predominately white, male contributions that seemingly dominate history books to discover how Black women have been some of the main figures in defining the landscape of American history and faith.

Come along on Jasmine's journey and be encouraged by the powerful and persuasive Black women of our past so that you can help inspire a better, more inclusive future.

EXCERPT

Chapter 1 – “A Midwife at the Birth of a Nation: Elizabeth Freeman” from Carved in Ebony by Jasmine Holmes; pp. 34–35, 37–38; 766 words (edited)

There is power in knowing what our founding fathers described as our “inalienable rights.” Elizabeth Freeman knew them when she was petitioning for her freedom, and we would do well to know them as we inhabit our modern lives. Just a few overheard words from the Sheffield Declaration changed the course of Elizabeth’s life, and history as a whole; how much more can our understanding of the wealth of words penned about our invaluable rights change our own lifetimes?

This legacy sounds intimidating when painted in such heroic strokes, but, looking at the rest of Elizabeth’s life, we see that her faithfulness was lived out in the day-to-day. That court appearance was just one aspect of who she was.

Elizabeth wasn’t a brilliant Civil Rights lawyer who spent her entire life advocating for legislative change. She was a domestic worker and a midwife who spent most of her time serving others and, according to her headstone, keeping her word. That part of her life—the part where she was faithful every day—is something I relate to much more than the freedom suit.

Look back at the words on her headstone: She neither wasted time nor property. She never violated a trust, nor failed to perform a duty.

She was a good steward of her time and her belongings. She was trustworthy. She applied herself diligently to every duty. In this sense, her advocacy for her freedom is not the defining characteristic of her life but an outworking of her true character. Elizabeth Freeman is not merely memorable because of her court case; rather, she is memorable because she had the type of character that made her a good steward of the freedom she had been given by God, giving her an understanding that she was not merely property. She never violated the contract that all citizens of this country pledged allegiance to, and did not neglect to perform her duty as one of the shapers of the nation that we now reside in.

Elizabeth Freeman wasn’t a trailblazing activist. And yet, I believe that it was because Elizabeth herself was a woman of her word and a woman of principle that she could not sit idly by while her nation reneged on the contract that it had made with its people, including its enslaved people.

That is an example I want to follow. A woman who is faithfully about her work each and every day, but willing to step outside of that work and outside of her comfort zone to hold a nation or an individual accountable. A woman who advocates every day on a small scale—for myself, my husband, my children, my loved ones—and isn’t afraid to advocate on a larger scale when the occasion calls for it.

Elizabeth and Me

I am still learning what it means to be a woman and an advocate.

Sometimes, it seems that our Christian ideals of femininity prize timidity over strength, placidity over courage, and docility over principle. But we have to remember that our culture has a way of shaping the Word of God to fit into our own ideals of what truly shapes a woman of God. Esther advocated for Israel with her husband, the king. Ruth advocated for herself with her future husband, Boaz. Deborah advocated for Israel as their judge.

And Elizabeth Freeman advocated for her freedom from the ungodly institution of American slavery and spent the rest of her life advocating for mothers who were bringing their babies into the world.

That part of the story is one of my favorites, because for me, advocacy looks like following in Elizabeth Freeman’s footsteps in the birth field. It looks like learning all that I can about the history of gynecology and its adverse effects on Black women’s bodies, as well as the modern-day attitudes and assumptions about Black health in general and Black maternal health specifically that lead to disparities in outcomes. It looks like knowing my rights when I enter a hospital and being able to advocate for my rights and the rights of my child. It means seeking as much education as I can to someday become a doula and advocate for the rights of other women.

Here’s what I love: we don’t all have to fight on the same front. We need midwives and doulas—we need educators, legislators, prison reformers, police reformers, wives, mothers, and sisters all on the front lines. As we strive to be faithful in whatever space the Lord has for us, this is the kind of strength that I love about Black women.

Excerpt from Carved in Ebony by Jasmine L. Holmes provided by Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Copyright Oct. 12, 2021. Used by permission.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jasmine L. Holmes has written for The Gospel Coalition, Desiring God, Fathom Mag, Christianity Today, and The Witness. Jasmine is the author of Mother to Son: Letters to a Black Boy on Identity and Hope, and contributor for Identity Theft: Reclaiming the Truth of Our Identity in Christ, and His Testimony, My Heritage: Women of Color on the Word of God. She teaches humanities in a classical Christian school in Jackson, Mississippi, where she and her husband, Phillip, are parenting three young sons.

CONNECT WITH JASMINE: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

TOUR GIVEAWAY

(1) winner will receive a copy of The Happy Crab by Layla & Kevin Palmer, Prepare Him Room by Susie Larson, and Make Their Day by Karen Ehman.

Full tour schedule linked below. Giveaway began at midnight October 27, 2021 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on November 3, 2021. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.

ENTER GIVEAWAY HERE

Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!

*NOTE: This post contains affiliate links.

Wednesday, October 27, 2021