I found this book on Netgalley and the description intrigued me. I had never heard of the author or the publisher but that did not stop me from giving it a shot. I was not disappointed.

14 is a story about a group of tenants that live in an old apartment building in Los Angeles. The story centers around a young man named Nate. He was looking for a place to live when this apartment building was mentioned to him. Low rent that included all utilities! For some one with a dead end job that does not pay well this was a great opportunity.

After Nate moves in, he discovers some interesting and weird things about the apartment building. Rooms padlocked and painted shut. Every room that was not locked or chained was completely different, not designed as most apartment buildings would be. Nate discovers that most of his neighbors have noticed as well.

They team up to unravel the mystery of the building only to discover a deep, dark secret that not only affect their own lives but could affect the entire world!

This was one of those books that I did not want to put down. Hidden rooms, mysterious padlocked and chained doors, the thrill of discovering the unknown. All of it kept me intrigued all the way to the end of the book.

This is the first non Christian novel I have reviewed so I will caution my blog readers that there is some profanity in the book as well as a few sexual encounters, though they were not very graphic.

Bottom line on this book: if you enjoy a mystery with the unknown and a Sci-Fi twist, this book is for you!

This is my first review of a non-fiction book and I believe I chose correctly!  This story truly shows how faith in God works!  This book is 2 stories that meld into one!  One of the stories is about the author of the book, Joe Kissack.  He was a successful Hollywood producer with such successful shows as Married… with Children, Mad About You, Walker Texas Ranger and Seinfeld.  By today’s standards, he had everything, but he was missing something in his life.  He filled that hole in his life with work, drugs and alcohol.  Intertwined in his story is the 2nd story of the book.  It is the story of 3 fishermen from Mexico.  They set out on a fishing trip only to be stranded at sea after a huge storm destroyed their fishing gear and motor.  They were at the mercy of the ocean currents.  Only a few things were not lost to the sea an done of those things was a Bible.  They were lost at sea for over nine months.  They beat starvation, storms and death by relying on their faith that God would get them through.

Have you figured it out yet?  These 2 stories fit together like a puzzle.  Joe finally figures out that God is what was missing in his life.  Once he finally got to the rock bottom God was there and Joe accepted Him into his life.  All his struggles with addiction are essentially the same as the physical struggles that these fisherman went through.  But that is not where this story ends.  Once Joe hears of the story of these fishermen, he feels God prompting him to go and interview these men and tell the truth about what really happened to them while they wee lost at sea.

This book showed me how all of us can be lost in life, spiritually or physically, and that all we have to do is surrender it all to God and He will find us and get us back on track!

FirestormLisa Tawn Bergren; WaterBrook Press 2001WorldCat•Read Online•LibraryThing•Google Books•BookFinder 

First off, I normally do not read Christian romance novels so I was not sure how I would like this book. Also, with this being Book 6 in a series, I was worried that not reading the other 5 would hurt the reading experience. Needless to say, this book surprised me as I really enjoyed it.

Firestorm is about a smoke jumper named Reyne Oldre. If you are not sure what a smoke jumper is, it is a firefighter that parachutes into a remote area to fight wildfires. Reyne was a leader of a smoke jumper team that got caught in a wildfire and they had to ride it out under their fire tents. Some of her crew perished in the fire. 2 years after this incident, Reyne has moved into a job that keeps her out of the fires but still keeps her involved by coordinating teams that are fighting the fires. Reyne always has that incident in the back of her mind and the fear from it has been holding her hostage. A smoke jumper named Logan McCabe arrives on the scene and he is determined to make Reyne fall in love with him. Reyne has a hard time making relationships with men, or so I learned from reading the book (not reading the other 5 books may have hampered learning why). But Reyne, a firm believer in God, does not know is that Logan is a believer as well. As Logan begins to win her heart, she is hesitant to fully commit because the fire incident from 2 years ago has her scared for Logan’s life. She is scared to fall in love with a smoke jumper that may lose his life just like some of her team did.

Reyne has to learn to give all of that fear up to God to be able to fully give her love to Logan, which she is finally able to do by the end of the book.

What I take away from this book is to give everything we have to God and allow Him to heal you and soothe your pain. All of us have tons of things to deal with in this life here on Earth. If we allow those things to eat away at our souls, we will be miserable. Only by giving it up to our Heavenly Father can we make it through the fires unscathed.