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Wedding at Bella Beach

Wedding at Bella Beach by Kate Wentworth – Bella Beach #7

This is the final full-length book in the Bella Beach series and covers the wedding of Emma Sinclair, who was the main character of the first book. There is a novella about Emma’s daughter Alexis coming out this December called Christmas Wedding at Bella Beach.

This was a fast, feel-good read. It’s probably good that the series is ending because the author spent quite a bit of time making sure we remembered what had happened with each of the characters in the previous books. It did still have some new developments and, of course, there were all the fun things leading up to the wedding.

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Midnight in Rome

Midnight in Rome is a 1000-piece puzzle from KI Puzzles. It is part of the Cities at Midnight line, and the artist is Madalina Tantareanu. My son actually got this for me for Mother’s Day earlier this year. He has access to my Amazon wish list, so he usually picks something from there when he wants to get me something. It’s nice because I get to enjoy being surprised without worrying that I won’t like the present. 😊

The quality of KI Puzzles is pretty good, in my opinion. They are a good thickness and finish, and they fit together well. The image is challenging without being frustrating. I did have to sort by shape but only at the end, mainly for the sky.

I really enjoyed doing this puzzle. I generally like to start with the border, and I was nervous about this one because the edges are white, but there was enough color on the edge pieces that I was able to put it together. This artwork is so interesting because the buildings in the foreground have a different look than the ones in the background.

I have done two from this series and have one more on my shelf to do. There are three more that I have on my Amazon wishlist, so hopefully one day I will have them all.

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The Lonely Hearts Book Club

The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore

In small-town Washington, an eclectic group of misfits–spearheaded by young librarian Sloane and curmudgeonly reader Arthur–forms a unique book club that leads to unexpected bonds.

I had enjoyed Gilmore’s more recent book, The Library of Borrowed Hearts, so I decided to go back and read this one. It was a fun read, and I liked the characters and how their relationships develop over the course of the book.

I did have trouble following some of the characters’ feelings and motivations, but I can’t say whether that is because of the writing or because of the way my autistic brain works. The story got easier to follow during the later chapters.

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Whimsical Village

Whimsical Village is a 500-piece puzzle from Concord, and the artist is Bukhavets Mikhail. I saw this online and really liked the image, so I tracked it down on ebay and purchased a copy.

Now that I have completed it, I do have to say that Concord isn’t the best brand. The quality was just okay, but I still enjoyed it because I like the illustration.

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The Evolution of Adam

The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say About Human Origins by Peter Enns

Summary

Can Christianity and evolution coexist? Traditional Christian teaching presents Jesus as reversing the effects of the fall of Adam. But an evolutionary view of human origins doesn’t allow for a literal Adam, making evolution seemingly incompatible with what Genesis and the apostle Paul say about him. 

For Christians who both accept evolution and want to take the Bible seriously, this can present a faith-shaking tension. Popular Old Testament scholar Peter Enns offers a way forward by explaining how this tension is caused not by the discoveries of science but by false expectations about the biblical texts.

My Thoughts

I really appreciated this book. The reading I have done so far on Christianity and evolution focused on the various beliefs about the origins of life as well as the stories of a worldwide flood, and I hadn’t really thought about the implications of this as it relates to the existence of Adam.

Enns spends time discussing the appearance of Adam in the Old Testament as well as the mentions made of Adam by Paul in the New Testament. He explains a lot about the cultural and theological environments of both times and how those environments affected the way the Scriptures were written, as well as how the time we live in affects the way we interpret it.

As he states in Chapter 6: Paul as an Ancient Interpreter of the Old Testament:

The authors of Scripture did not speak at a safe distance from their culture but wrote as people living in a particular time and place in human history….The Old Testament already does in principle what Paul is doing here: reworking the past to speak to the present….It is the very act of altering the past to address present circumstances that ensures Scripture’s continuation as the active and abiding Word of God, not a relic of a bygone era.

The Evolution of Adam gave me a lot to think about, and I am glad I got the chance to read it. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in the topic.

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Wilder on the Prairie Podcast

I recently heard about the Wilder on the Prairie podcast, which was started in 2021 by Annie Kontor. Each episode is just a few minutes long and covers one chapter from the Little House book series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I have listened to a bunch of the episodes so far and they are fascinating. Annie does research into things that are mentioned in the books that she wants to know more about and shares that info with the listeners. This includes food items, farming terms or equipment, songs mentioned in the books, or anything else that catches her attention.

The podcast is still being made and is currently up to The Long Winter, which is the sixth book in the series. I am in Farmer Boy, the second book, so I have a ways to go to catch up!

If you are a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan like me, I encourage you to check out this podcast.

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What I’m Reading – September 2025

What I’m Reading Now

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare – The Infernal Devices #2 – I was encouraged to read this series by a good friend who loves fantasy books. I used to read a lot of fantasy years ago but have gotten away from it in the last couple of decades. It’s well written and an interesting story.

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett – I have seen this around for a while and was intrigued enough to check it out. The main character seems to be autistic-coded, which is interesting.

What I Recently Finished

Fiction

  • The Bride Test by Helen Hoang – The Kiss Quotient #2
  • The Emma Project by Sonali Dev – The Rajes #4
  • The Sandy Page Bookshop by Hannah McKinnon
  • Every Time You Go Away by Beth Harbison
  • The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore
  • Wedding at Bella Beach by Kate Wentworth – Bella Beach #7
  • Smells Like Tween Spirit by Laurie Gelman – Class Mom #4
  • A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle – Time Quintet #1

Nonfiction

  • The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say about Human Origins by Peter Enns

What I Added to my TBR

  • The Storytellers by Sue Heath
  • Something to Look Forward To: Fictions by Fannie Flagg
  • The Road to Cardinal Valley by Earlene Fowler – Ruby McGavin #2
  • The Incredible Kindness of Paper by Evelyn Skye
  • Confessions of the Other Sister by Paige Harbison
  • Once Upon a Time in Dollywood by Ashley Jordan
  • If I Could Turn Back Time by Beth Harbison
  • Christmas Wedding at Bella Beach by Kate Wentworth
  • Butterfly Inn by Kate Wentworth – Butterfly Lane #1
  • Once and Again by Rebecca Serle

TBR Stats/Updates

  • I currently have 163 books on my TBR. Of those, 10 are nonfiction and 153 are fiction.
  • At the end of June, I created a focused reading list of 25 books I would like to read by the end of the year. So far, I have read 11 of those books.
  • I have read 89 books this year (my goal was 75).
  • My nonfiction goal is 1 per month, which I have met so far with a total of 9.
  • Here are some more stats from StoryGraph:

Feel free to add me as a friend on Goodreads or StoryGraph. I’m always looking for new recommendations!

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Toy Stamps

Toy Stamps is a 1000 piece puzzle from Ceaco, and the artist is Barbara Behr. I picked this up at 2nd & Charles when I visited their new location to check it out. This one stood out to me as being fun and whimsical.

It was a lot of fun to put together. I enjoy collages, especially stamps, and the subject matter of this one was especially appealing. I stayed up way too late so I could finish it in one sitting. I had to sort by shape when I was about 75% done, so it was a good challenge.

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Reading Habits

When do you read? 

The answer to this question has changed over time for me. For most of my life, I simply read all the time (meaning at any moment that I could sneak in even a few minutes.) 

While my son was growing up, my time to read did lessen somewhat, but I still read way more than most people do. These days I tend to finish 10-12 books a month, with one of those usually being nonfiction.

The most common time you will see me reading now is during mealtime. From childhood, I always had the urge to grab a book while I was eating. I had to suppress that during family dinner time, but now that I am single with an adult child, I almost always read when I eat.

Outside of that, my reading times are pretty random. I do read in the evenings or on weekends, but I also watch TV or movies and put together jigsaw puzzles, so I’m not as single-minded about reading as in the past.

I’m interested to know what other people’s reading habits are and how they have changed over time, and I would love it if you left me a comment with your thoughts on this.

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London Cafe

London Cafe is a 1000-piece puzzle from Pieces & Peace, and the artist is Miranda Sofroniou. This was my first experience with the Pieces & Peace brand, and I absolutely loved it! I was so happy to open the box and see grid cut pieces, which are my favorite, and the pieces had a great feel and fit.

The image was amazing as well. It was challenging but not frustrating, if you know what I mean. I definitely want to do more from this brand!

P.S. One of my friends on Facebook asked what grid cut was, and this is what I told him.

It means the pieces are cut in rows rather than random shapes and they have an assortment of in and outs. Ribbon cut is when the pieces are in rows but all of them have two ins and two outs. Ribbon cut puzzles are more likely to have false fits, where a piece seems to fit somewhere that it doesn’t actually go. With grid cut you can sort by shape (meaning the different arrangement of prongs) if you get stuck and then look for the shape you need to make it easier to find the piece you need. I did that for the floor in this puzzle.