Karen Porter

This book is enlightening, inspiring, and the perfect way to prepare your heart for Christmas! Authors Karen Porter and Cherry McGregor share the Christmas story by exploring the thoughts and hearts of the people involved in this world-altering event and offering an intriguing perspective of those hearts. And then, they ask this thought-provoking question. Is my heart like the hearts of Zechariah, Elizabeth, Herod, and even the Innkeeper? Am I too unbelieving, heart weary, self-centered, and busy? Well, let me tell you, I want to be like Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds, and Wise Men. I want to be ready to believe, willing to accept, and eager to show my love!

I've always loved Christmas but I want my focus to be on its true purpose. I want my heart to be ready to rejoice in this special birth, and this book has put me on the right path! Make Your Heart a Manger is a perfect addition to your Christmas devotion time, but it's a book that can be used any time of the year!

I received a digital copy of this book from the authors but I've also purchased my own print copy. There was no obligation for a positive review. These are my own thoughts.… (mais)

Sarah, a divorced mother, moves into a gorgeous new home with her teenage daughter Elissa. The two have a rocky relationship, and it gets rockier when Elissa meets Ryan Jacobson, their college-aged neighbor. The Jacobson house is the reason why Sarah and Elissa can afford to live in their new home: several years ago, Carrie Anne Jacobson killed her and Ryan's parents and disappeared into the forest surrounding their home, thus driving down all the area property values (a much bigger concern for local homeowners than the fact that two people they presumably knew were brutally murdered).

Carrie Anne hasn't been seen since and is assumed to be dead. Ryan survived because he was living with his aunt at the time, but now he's back and is reluctant to sell his family's home. Elissa finds herself intrigued by Ryan, who is polite, sad, and withdrawn but seems to be equally intrigued by her. Unfortunately, Ryan is keeping some dangerous secrets.

I went into this blind, expecting it to be more of a ghost movie due to the image of Carrie Anne on the back of the DVD case (black-and-white, with Carrie Anne dressed in white and her hair covering her face, Sadako-style). That's not what it turned out to be, and I was a little surprised that it revealed as much as it did as early as it did. That, unfortunately, didn't work in its favor, because it meant I predicted a good bit of the "big reveal" well before it actually happened. After all, when your thriller reveals its twist really early, it's natural to think "okay, that probably means there's at least one more twist that's even bigger."

For the most part, this movie was a forgettable sort of okay. I had a tough time getting a grasp on Elissa and her family. For a while there, I thought her father might have died, but I think he and her mother just got a divorce? There was a conversation about how he was hardly ever there, but from the sounds of things, he'd been raising Elissa for a while before she somehow ended up with Sarah. At any rate, Elissa railed against any and all of Sarah's efforts to set up ground rules for her - I don't know which one I was supposed to sympathize with more, but I ended up being vaguely irked by both of them due to how they handled things. Sarah was downright rude towards Ryan for no reason that I could see beyond "the movie needs Elissa to have a reason to actively rebel against her mother right now." And Elissa got mad at her mother for the assumptions she made, while simultaneously doing things that confirmed her mother's concerns were valid.

Although this did have some suspenseful moments, particularly near the end, it was fairly predictable once I had a minute to think about its one surprising scene. There are definitely lots of better thrillers out there.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)… (mais)

Elissa (Lawrence) and her mother Sarah (Elisabeth Shue) move into a beautiful new house and soon discover that the neighbouring property was the site of a double murder. Disconcertingly Ryan (Max Thieriot), the creepy son of the slain couple, is living in the murder house. The locals are highly concerned about Ryan and Sarah becomes increasingly concerned when Elissa develops a relationship with Ryan. "House at the End of the Street" is less horror film and more a young adult thriller. Director Mark Tonderai builds some nice suspense and there are a couple of decent semi-obligatory jump scares in the mix. David Loucka's screenplay has a number of predictable twists and there is a slightly reactionary under-current of "mother knows best". Jennifer Lawrence makes for a strong, appealing lead despite having to behave a touch silly at times. "House at the End of the Street" is a predictable and slightly dumbed-down thriller, but it is fairly inoffensive and reasonably entertaining for all that.… (mais)