Carrie Carter runs a small café in the town of Seaside, New Jersey and has a thing for one of her customers. Her past life has made trusting people tough for Carrie. Greg Barnes experienced a horrible tragedy in his life three years ago and isn’t sure he is ready to find love again.

When one of Carrie’s employees (Jase) is found dead, there is a lot of speculation about who murdered the boy. Was it Bill, the boyfriend of another of Carrie’s employees who got in a fight with Jase the night he went missing? Was it Chaz, the drug dealer who almost killed Greg when he was evicted? Or was it someone else?

There is a lot going on in this book which I believe is why I enjoyed this book so much. The mentions of modern-day communications such as Twitter and Facebook are amusing.  And the author deals with some really tough issues such as widows, runaways and cults.

Shadows on the Sand was such an enjoyable read for me, I have added more of Gayle Roper’s books to my “to be read” list!

***Multnomah Publishing provided me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As John “The Penguin” Bingham says, “The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.”

End of week 2: food tracked every day. Just started exercising 60 minutes 6 days a week!!!

Weight: 243.4!!

Teenage girls today are surrounded with poor influences and role models. Addy Davidson is someone who girls can both relate to and admire in Krista McGee’s latest book, First Date.

Addy Davidson, a regular (and maybe even a little boring) high school student, is focused on her studies and getting into a good college. One day she is called to the Principal’s office and her world is turned upside down. He has chosen Addy to go on a reality television show in which the winning girl will go to prom with the President’s son.

Resistant at first, Addy just wants to get kicked out of the competition and get back to her life. As the competition continues, however, she forms some great friendships and builds her faith in God as she follows the call to share her faith with those around her. Sometimes she fails miserably but other times she steps out of her comfort zone and shares her faith.

Loosely modeled after the story of Esther, First Date is a great read for Jr. or Sr. high aged girls. McGee does a wonderful job of bringing the reader into the story and rooting for the main character throughout the story.

***Thomas Nelson provided me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My exercise regime is also falling back into place. This week I spent 45 minutes on the BOSU, played Zumba 2 for Wii for 45 minutes, worked out 3 days during lunch for 30 minutes and ran both Thursday and Saturday. While I was out struggling to finish my 5k run this morning, I talked myself into signing up to do the Country Music half marathon again this year. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve done it so this will definitely be a challenge.

BLC18 starts this Wednesday. I’m excited to share the challenges I have created with our Sapphires team!! Everyone is checking in this weekend and it’s been fun to meet the newcomers and catch up with the returnees. I feel like I haven’t been far from the computer all weekend.

Wednesday weigh ins will show the results of this week’s progress!!

Last Wednesday weigh in: 245.2

Sunday: BOSU 30 minutes

Monday: off

Tuesday: 30 minutes Jillian Michaels 30 day shred level 1

Wednesday: 45 minutes Zumba Wii

Thursday: 36 minute run; 30 minutes Jillian Michaels 6 week 6 pack

Friday: 30 minutes Turbo Fire

Saturday: 50 minute run

The Crossing isn’t a book where everything is wrapped up in a neat little package by page 300. Instead if mimics life. Some characters have a happy ending while others do not.

Ten years ago, a group of students coming home from a football game witness the murder of their teacher and cheerleading coach on the bus they are all on. Fast forward to present day and the still unsolved murder is being re-investigated by the ADA. The main character, Claudia, was best friends with the woman who was murdered and is still struggling with the whole thing. Her husband, Victor, is the ADA who re-opens the investigation in hopes of helping his wife overcome her panic attacks. And Casio Hightower was a student who was on the bus that night and is now a cop who wants in on the investigation.

Jakes does a wonderful job of integrating these stories and showing how years of suppressed memories and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has affected the individuals who witnessed the murder. She also does an excellent job of showing how some people are able to overcome that darkness but others succumb to it. I highly recommend this one.

****This book was provided to me by Waterbrook Press free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

I have always been someone who researches things to death. If I am going to do something new, I will search it on the internet and buy a book or two to learn about it. I really researched triathlons months before I competed in my first one. I still have a few lessons to learn even after all of the research but at least I wasn’t going in blind.

I subscribe to a lot of health/weight loss magazines: Self, Fitness, Health, Women’s Health and Weight Watchers Magazine are all in my rotation. I love the issues that come at at the first of the year because there are so many tips and ideas to help you stick with your goals and resolutions.

My favorite tip was from Weight Watchers Magazine. Once member of WW said that she writes all of her workouts on the calendar with different colored pencils (blue for cardio, red for strength training, etc). Then when she sees several days with no color, she knows it’s time to refocus.

So I picked up some colored pencils and found a planning calendar with both monthly and weekly pages. My plan is to track exercise on the monthly calendars and to track food on the weekly ones. This way every thing is in one place and will be with me at all times.

I am a co-captain on a team for a Biggest Loser 12 week challenge on sparkpeople.com and really want to lead by example this round!!

Stay tuned for an update on how my first week has gone (my plan is to blog one day every weekend to keep everyone updated on my progress).

ANYWAY, this blog is NOT about books. I have decided that in 2012 I want to blog at least one day a week about my journey to lose 100 pounds!! I want to include great finds such as books, DVDs, tech gadgets, etc and helpful websites that I encounter along the way.

Each week I will share my workouts, what I’m struggling with and what I did right. I also want to take pictures and post them for every 10 pounds lost. I got this idea from a very inspiring video on www.sparkpeople.com (great FREE weight loss website). Do you need some motivation? Check out this video: http://www.runsforcookies.com/p/progress-photos.html!!

Watch for my first “official” post coming this weekend!

The Scovilles have made it in the Charleston social scene. After years of keeping themselves and their children on the path to social success, Jackson and Mary Lynn Scoville are on the cusp of making it into the Charleston in-crowd but Mary Lynn feels like there is something missing.

There are three different points of view throughout the book. You hear from Mary Lynn, Jackson and their eldest daughter, Catherine. There doesn’t seem to be any sort of structure with whose thoughts you are following at any given time. Two or three chapters will focus on Mary Lynn, then one chapter will be from Catherine’s point of view and then we’ll move to a couple more with Mary Lynn and then one with Jackson.

I am not sure if I was not engaged in this story because I have no desire to make it to the upper levels of society or if it was just because it took so long to get to the point of this story. I was over halfway through before my interest was piqued a little bit.

***Thomas Nelson publishing provided me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The story is narrated by Mikalatos but tells the story of Luther Ann Martin (Luther had a Lutheran upbringing, can you tell?) a werewolf who is trying, without success, to get rid of the beast inside of him. He teams up with Mikalatos, a mad scientist, and an android to find the solution. There are portions of this story that will leaving you laughing and, even more importantly, there are parts that will have you taking a good look at yourself and thinking about whether or not you are in that category of Christianity.

Would you like to win a free copy of this book? Just leave a comment and say tell us what your favorite monster movie or book is to be entered into the drawing.

To learn more about Night of the Living Dead Christian, check out this video of Mikalatos discussing the book: http://www.tyndale.com/video/296. To learn more about the author, his first book, Imaginary Jesus or even  more about this book, visit the author’s website at http://mattmikalatos.com. Both books can be found at www.tyndale.com.

****Tyndale House Publishers provided me with a copy of this book free in exchange for an honest review.

In the second book of the Confessions of April Grace series, April Grace finds herself starting Jr. High school and seeing changes in her friends that she does not like. On top of this, she is also dealing with her mom not feeling well due to the new baby on its way and having to help the snooty Isabel St James put on the church Christmas play.

If you are looking for good, clean, funny, engaging books for girls from the fourth grade to the eight grade, I highly recommend the April Grace series written by K. D. McCrite. When I first looked at the book I thought to myself that it seemed pretty long for that age group but McCrite does a wonderful job of weaving an engaging story that has you rooting for April Grace.

***Tommy Nelson publishing provided me with a copy of this book free of charge in exchange for an honest and fair review.