"Happily Ever Ashten" by Erynn Mangum

About this book:

  “Ashten Wadeley is ready for life to settle back down. She spends her school years teaching and her summers waitressing at her grandparents' diner to try and save up money for a down payment on a house and now, she's also helping her two best friends, Katie and Eliza, plan their weddings. She only has a few spare hours to sleep, much less do anything else. When Eliza starts to get the matchmaking bug, Ashten is anything but pleased, especially since Eliza is dead set on someone whom Ashten can barely tolerate. And then, Ashten's old boyfriend suddenly resurfaces, her past heartbreak is opened back up, and this new guy is hanging around more and more. Her first response is always to retreat, ignore and hope the problems go away on their own. Can God use the pain of the past for the good of the future? Will Ashten ever be able to completely forgive? And when love looks very different than she ever imagined, will she be willing to risk her heart for it?”


Series: Book #3 in the “Carrington Springs” series. Reviews of Book #1 Here! and Book #2 Here!


Spiritual Content- Scriptures are read, quoted, mentioned, & thought over; Bible reading & Devotionals; Church going & a sermon; Prayers & Blessings over food; Many talks about God, Bible verses, & confidence; Most ‘H’s are capital when referring to God; Mentions of God & Jesus; Mentions of Bibles, Bible reading, Bible studies, & Devotionals; Mentions of prayers & blessings over food; Mentions of churches, church going, sermons, songs, worship, & a pastor; Mentions of Christians & faiths; Mentions of blessings; A few mentions of people & events in the Bible; A couple mentions of praising God; A couple mentions of the rapture; A couple mentions of sins; A mention of a Biblical principle; A mention of a Christian radio station;

             *Note: A mention of a superstitions; A mention of the devil.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘duh’, a ‘holy cow’, an ‘idiot’, a ‘stupid’, a ‘what the heck’, three forms of ‘crap’, three ‘dumb’s, three ‘sheesh’s, and six ‘oh my gosh’s; Sarcasm & Eye rolling; Mentions of lies; A few mentions of what a nurse sees (blood, vomit, & anything coming out the back end of people); A few mentions of a (possible) murder & murderer; A few mentions of throwing up; A couple mentions of a (possible) car accident & a medically induced coma; A mention of domestic violence; A mention of (possible) being held hostage; A mention of heroin;

             *Note: Many mentions of singers, songs, movies, shows, actors/actresses, & fictional characters; Mentions of & going to Starbucks; Mentions of TV channels & shows (Hallmark, PBS, BBC, & HGTV); A few mentions of social media & Netflix; A couple mentions of a restaurant; A mention of Buzz Feed; A couple mentions of brand name shoes; A mention of Boy Scouts; A couple mentions of yoga; A mention of vampire.

Sexual Content- an almost kiss and a not-detailed kiss; Seeing a couple give kisses (not-detailed); Noticing (only noticing cuteness); Blushes; A couple Touches (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of boyfriends, dating, & dates; A few mentions of kissing & an almost kiss; A few mentions of cheek kisses & blushes; A couple mentions of flirting; Some love, falling in love, & the emotions;

             *Note: A few mentions of labor pains & a show featuring midwifes; A few mentions of menopause; A couple mentions of flashing everyone when climbing into a car; A couple mentions of sitting on a tush all day; A mention of a person’s buns (play on the words for yeast rolls).

-Ashten Wadeley, age 31
                                1^st person P.O.V. of Ashten
                                                        325 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

I’ve known since reading the first book that I would be sad to finish this trilogy. That’s probably why I’ve stretched out reading the other two books for so long.

While not my favorite of the trilogy, I did like Ashten and found myself nodding along at some of her quirks and thoughts. (Pretty sure I’m directly related to Eliza, though.) I was enjoying this novel until the epilogue where I started sniffling. This is such a wonderful series!  

Great Spiritual content per usual and I loved Ashten’s connection with her grandparents. The main Scripture discussed in this novel is one I love so those parts meant a lot to me. I did miss some of the movie and TV show references and since it took a while for me to warm up to Mike, the rating isn’t as high as the previous books in the trilogy.

See y’all on Wednesday with a new review!

*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.

"Once Upon Eliza" by Erynn Mangum

About this book:

  “Eliza Wakeman is pretty content with her life - she has a job as a postpartum nurse that she loves, friends she adores, she's happily single and her overprotective brother, Mike, is living in a different town. Then Mike breaks the news that he's moving to Carrington Springs, one of her best friends starts seriously dating someone and is never available and a guy Eliza has known forever is constantly hanging around and never stops proposing. Eliza has a reputation of hating predictability, but even she can only take so many surprises. As more and more stacks up in the "total shock" category of her life, she's left with only questions: What does God want for her? How many times will Cooper propose before he finally leaves her alone? And how many caramel lattes can you drink before you die from the caffeine overdose?”


Series: Book #2 in the “Carrington Springs” series. Review of Book #1 Here!


Spiritual Content- Scriptures are mentioned, read, quoted, talked about, & discussed; Bible reading; Prayers & Blessings over food; Church going & a sermon; A Bible study & discussions; Many Talks about God & Jesus; ‘H’s are capital when referring to God; Many mentions of God & Jesus; Many mentions of prayers, praying, thanking God, & blessings over food; Mentions of Bibles & Bible studies; Mentions of those in the Bible & books of the Bible; Mentions of churches, church going, services, pastors, sermons, & preaching; A few mentions of Heaven; A few mentions of Christians; A few mentions of miracles; A few mentions of youth groups & devotionals; A mention of a missionary; A mention of a Christian song; A mention of a Christian Fiction novel; A mention of Lent;

             *Note: Mentions of an atheist & the earth being zillions of years old; A few mentions of a mom thinking a toy is demonic; A mention of an ungodly amount of something.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘gosh’, an ‘idiot’, two ‘good night’s, two ‘holy smokes’, three ‘dumb’s, three ‘duh’s, three ‘oh my gosh’s, and five ‘holy cow’s; Sarcasm & Eye rolling; Mentions of a car accident & death (barely-above-not-detailed, Eliza’s father); Mentions of breast cancer & a death (Eliza’s mother); Mentions of throwing up; A few mentions of a serial killer & murderers; A few mentions of kidnappings; A few mentions of fires & firefighters getting hurt; A few mentions of blood & injuries; A few mentions of smoking & cigarettes; A few mentions of a mother who left her family; A couple mentions of alcohol & drinking; A couple mentions of divorces; A mention of a tattoo; A mention of people attacked by dogs; A mention of dog waste;

             *Note: Many mentions of TV shows, movies, books, characters, & actors/singers/celebrities; Mentions of social media sites; Mentions of restaurants; Mentions of brand names & stores; A few mentions of Starbucks; A few mentions of zombies & aliens; A couple mentions of Disney.

Sexual Content- a barely-above-not-detailed kiss; A handful of Touches & Flutters/Sparks (barely-above-not-detailed); A bit of Noticing (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of dating, dates, boyfriends, girlfriends, relationships, & breakups; Mentions of sparks & touches; A mention of a man looking for a one-night stand; A mention of a loving time for couples resulting in pregnancies (Eliza shakes it off as too much information); Some love, falling in love, & the emotions;

             *Note: Many mentions of labor, checking on mothers, pain, bleeding/stitches, the aftermath, breastfeeding/breasts, & seeing women after giving birth being a form of birth control for Eliza (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of infertility, embryo transfers, & a bit of the process (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of a guy with no shirt on (no details); A couple mentions of a breast cancer campaign about checking your chest; A couple mentions of bra shopping; A mention of squeezing a man’s bicep; A mention of a animal’s bottom.

-Eliza Wakeman, age 31
                                      1^st person P.O.V. of Eliza
                                                        322 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

{Add ½ for girls interested in nursing and/or postpartum nursing.}

Goodness. I’m not sure how Erynn Mangum does it, but I feel like every main character she writes, I relate to them. Their processing of emotions, humor, and overall personality feels like if I wrote a diary. I’ll admit, I’m not a coffee drinker, though, like the majority of them! Forgive me, girls!

While “Once Upon Eliza” didn’t hit me in a spot where I needed it like “Katie in Waiting” did last year, I still highly enjoyed it. It was a pretty happy book overall, but there were moments of Eliza having to work through missing her parents. I did tear up at those last couple of chapters, and that’s saying a lot since y’all know I don’t cry!

Tons of faith content like every other Erynn Mangum book, this is an author I am SO happy to support and recommend. I cannot wait to read “Happily Ever Ashten”….but hopefully it won’t take me a year to pick it up! ;)

See y’all on Monday with a new review!

*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.