Skip to main content

SHE'S OUT OF CONTROL by Kristin Billerbeck



Stardate 12/2/04 Captain's log

Yet another one finished today:

"She's Out of Control" by Kristin Billerbeck

From the back cover:

Ever been on the verge of buying your own engagement ring?

Ashley Stockingdale, the charming but always-in-over-her-head patent attorney from "What a Girl Wants" has finally found the man she wants to marry. But after nine months of dating, it seems her commitment-phobe boyfriend will never use the "M" word. And just when she thinks she's got it all together, Ashley is having trouble knowing where to put it.

A massive remodeling project, a hyperactive puppy, and an ex-boyfriend who wants to be part of her life again all keep Ashley's world spinning. As the mayhem escalates, Ashley's life quickly goes from What a Girl Wants to out of control.

Camy here:

This is a fun romp for those Post-Modern Generation women who know who Jimmy Choo and Lilly Pulitzer are, and want screwball comedy served with a bit of spiritual encouragement for single career women.

Heroine Ashley is highly intelligent and completely neurotic, in a giggling and endearing way. She reacts to the trials in her life out of fear--the same fears that many single Christian women face today and can relate to. She battles the safety of "the familiar," the temptation to compromise, the pull of self-pity, the pit of unworthiness. Ashley's bounce-back attitude and child-like, rock-hard faith in God is both encouraging and challenging. I wrestled with her over her control issues with God, and was reminded of the many times I've done the same thing.

The characters in this book, versus "What a Girl Wants," seem more rich, varied and distinct. The sparks that fly when different characters interact are hilarious and keep the pace moving smartly.

Much of the humor is very modern, for those of us with secret vices of subscriptions to Star and People Magazine in addition to our stash of Cosmopolitans. It may not appeal as strongly to the entire spectrum of readers as to the twenty-something and thirty-something urbanites, but it still zaps with humor reminiscent of old comedy films.

The novel captures the social and business atmosphere of Silicon Valley with its unique multiethnic aroma and science-heavy population. However, in defense of my own engineer husband, they are not all as absent-minded as some of the Reasons. ;-)

In all, a turbulent and ticklish look at the angst of singleness for Christian working women. An entertaining read I highly recommend.


Categories:

Comments

Popular Posts

I got my cover!

Captain’s Log, Supplemental Blog book giveaway: To enter, go to the blog links below and post a comment there. Eyes of Elisha by Brandilyn Collins Tangerine by Marilynn Griffith I GOT MY COVER!!!! What do you guys think?

Toilet seat cover

Captain’s Log, Supplemental Update August 2008: I wrote up the pattern for this with "improvements"! Here's the link to my No Cold Bums toilet seat cover ! Okay, remember a few days ago I was complaining about the cold toilet seat in my bathroom? Well, I decided to knit a seat cover. Not a lid cover, but a seat cover. I went online and couldn’t find anything for the seat, just one pattern for the lid by Feminitz.com . However, I took her pattern for the inside edge of the lid cover and modified it to make a seat cover. Here it is! It’s really ugly stitch-wise because originally I made it too small and had to extend it a couple inches on each side. I figured I’d be the one staring at it, so who cared if the extension wasn’t perfectly invisible? I used acrylic yarn since, well, that’s what I had, and also because it’s easy to wash. I’ll probably have to wash this cover every week or so, but it’s easy to take off—I made ties which you can see near the back of the seat. And...

Cover Reveal + New Logo for Year of the Dog, a Mahina Security Novel

A New Look for Year of the Dog (and a Behind-the-Scenes Oops!) What do a dog trainer, a security expert, and a nearly-naked book cover have in common? Let me explain. 😅 Year of the Dog is the first book in my Christian romantic suspense series, Mahina Security, set in beautiful (and sometimes dangerous) Hawaii. It features quirky humor, family tensions, sweet romance, and a mystery involving a missing person—and it’s now available to read in the Christian suspense anthology, Danger in the Shadows , on Kindle Unlimited ! But before that happened, I had a bit of a cover mishap… While creating the ebook cover, I realized that the original stock photo made my heroine look, well, completely nekkid. 😳 She’s actually wearing a tube top in the image, but when I cropped it for the ebook, the top disappeared—leaving her looking very PG-13. To fix it, I did some Canva magic on a strappy top from another image and stuck it onto the model (so she’s decent now). But when I resize...

Excerpt - A HUNDRED YEARS OF HAPPINESS by Nicole Seitz

Captain's Log, Stardate 03.05.2009 Update: Sorry, this giveaway is closed. A Hundred Years of Happiness by Nicole Seitz A beautiful young woman. An American soldier. A war-torn country. Nearly forty years of silence. Now, two daughters search for the truth they hope will set them free and the elusive peace their parents have never found. In the South Carolina Lowcountry, a young mother named Katherine Ann is struggling to help her tempestuous father, by plunging into a world of secrets he never talks about. A fry cook named Lisa is trying desperately to reach her grieving Vietnamese mother, who has never fully adjusted to life in the States. And somewhere far away, a lost soul named Ernest is drifting, treading water, searching for what he lost on a long-ago mountain. They're all longing for connection. For the war that touched them to finally end. For their hundred years of happiness at long last to begin. From the beloved author of The Spirit of Sweetgrass...

Favorite chocolate?

Captain's Log, Stardate 04.22.2008 Lately I’ve been on this chocolate kick. Normally, I’m not a huge chocoholic like Captain Caffeine. I enjoy chocolate, but if given a choice, I’ll usually choose a fruit or custard/creamy dessert over a triple decadence chocolate layer cake or a chocolate-lovers’ downfall brownie. But lately, I’ve been eating dark chocolate squares. I think it started when I went into Joseph Schmidt gourmet chocolate shop in Santana Row. We’d gotten Joseph Schmidt truffles for Christmas, and they’d been fabulous—I can honestly say that they were as good as DeBrand truffles (author Colleen Coble’s favorite). So when I saw the brick and mortar shop in Santana Row, I went in immediately. Inside, this man was buying up stacks—and I kid you not, stacks —of the Joseph Schmidt Belgian Dark Chocolate bars. He raved about them, said they were terrific. A cashier was restocking the display case the man had cleaned out, and I snagged a bar. “I’ve got to try one, after watc...