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This Side of Heaven
A story of secrets, broken relationships, and a love strong enough to reunite a family. A stirring novel from New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury.
ebook, 0 pages
Published
January 6th 2009
by Center Street
(first published January 5th 2009)
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There are certain times when you need to read a book like "This Side of Heaven". Days when emotions are pent up and you need an outlet. Moments when you need to think outside of yourself and your problems and think about the rest of the world. Instances when you need to let go and let God. This book is a conduit to do all those things.
Josh is a tow-truck driver and a disappointment to his family. He could have done so much with his life, but he just drives a tow-truck and harbors a false hope o...more
Josh is a tow-truck driver and a disappointment to his family. He could have done so much with his life, but he just drives a tow-truck and harbors a false hope o...more
Let me start by saying I really wanted to love this book. Karen Kingsbury has been a favorite of mine for many years. This book has sat at the bottom of my reading pile for a while now because I’d wanted to save the best for last. Unfortunately, This Side of Heaven doesn’t seem quite up to par with the rest of Kingsbury’s novels.
While little Savannah earns an instant soft spot as I read, I was disappointed in the character development of this story. Most of Josh’s story is told second hand and...more
While little Savannah earns an instant soft spot as I read, I was disappointed in the character development of this story. Most of Josh’s story is told second hand and...more
Josh Warren doesn't have a lot going for him. After being hit by a drunk driver, he's been on medical disability for years, waiting to receive an elusive insurance settlement. Even through the excruciating pain he suffers, Josh holds onto his dream of claiming Savannah, a 7-year-old girl he believes is his daughter, though the girl's mother cannot be trusted to be truthful. The insurance money will help him make a life for the child.
Like any good mother, Annie wants only the best for her son. B...more
Like any good mother, Annie wants only the best for her son. B...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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April 14, 2009
This Side of Heaven by Karen Kingsbury is a book about twenty-eight year old Josh Warren, who lives a hard and painful life as a result of being hit by a drunk driver. Josh is physically disabled from the accident and must quit his job as a tow truck driver. With the help of his attorney, Josh waits day after day for the insurance company to send him a settlement. However, this is not what troubles Josh the most. After going to Vegas and having a one night relationship with a woma...more
This Side of Heaven by Karen Kingsbury is a book about twenty-eight year old Josh Warren, who lives a hard and painful life as a result of being hit by a drunk driver. Josh is physically disabled from the accident and must quit his job as a tow truck driver. With the help of his attorney, Josh waits day after day for the insurance company to send him a settlement. However, this is not what troubles Josh the most. After going to Vegas and having a one night relationship with a woma...more
Josh put his life on the line for two teenage girls. A drunk driver was heading right for the girls, but luckily the tow truck driver was there to save them. He got hit by the car, and now has a major back injury. He also suffers from obesity and they cannot perform surgery until he loses weight. Josh had travelled to Las Vegas where he met a woman. What he did not know was that she was there on purpose to get pregnant. She is keeping his daughter, Savannah, away from him. If he becomes rich, th...more
There are lots of reviews that will tell you the story of this book so I don't know that I'm going to recap that here. What I am going to tell you is my response to many of the themes in the book. There may be spoilers...........
Annie's disappointment in her son and his choices was a big theme in this book. This was a theme that affected me. It reminds us all that we do not know the reason for the choices that people make unless we communicate with them and keep an open mind. When individuals ar...more
Annie's disappointment in her son and his choices was a big theme in this book. This was a theme that affected me. It reminds us all that we do not know the reason for the choices that people make unless we communicate with them and keep an open mind. When individuals ar...more
I recently discovered Karen Kingsbury and really like her novels. They are about real-life people with real-life problems who find peace in their lives through their religious beliefs. AND there is never anything 'questionable' in her writing - Thank you!!
I picked up "This Side of Heaven" while waiting for part of a series to come in. The story really made me think about how I show my praise and/or disappointment to my family. The mother in the story, Annie, discovers the power of praise, acce...more
I picked up "This Side of Heaven" while waiting for part of a series to come in. The story really made me think about how I show my praise and/or disappointment to my family. The mother in the story, Annie, discovers the power of praise, acce...more
This book sucked. Not because the writing was terrible because it was great. Not because the plot was stale because I was so shocked at a plot twist, I kept hoping it wasn't true. Not because the characters were unlikeable, even though I was really annoyed with Annie and her inability to get over her disappointment in JOsh. This book sucked because I have never teared up so many times while reading a book. No less than three times, maybe four, because I was so touched by the family and their emo...more
Good story. I've read at least a dozen of Karen's books...she's a good story writer.
Annie has been disappointed in her grown son, ever since he decided to become a tow-truck driver. He claims he has a daughter he fathered while visiting Las Vegas, just another story his parents don't want to believe. Then he is injured in an accident, being hit directly by a drunk driver, but he never tells his famiy that he pushes two girls out of the way, to safety, and is a hero. All these secrets and broken...more
Annie has been disappointed in her grown son, ever since he decided to become a tow-truck driver. He claims he has a daughter he fathered while visiting Las Vegas, just another story his parents don't want to believe. Then he is injured in an accident, being hit directly by a drunk driver, but he never tells his famiy that he pushes two girls out of the way, to safety, and is a hero. All these secrets and broken...more
God does not promise us a great comfortable life, He promises us the strength to carry through the trials and tribulations. This story is just that, how one person can help others in his family carry through his death and live a good life. Life goes on without us. If you are a person who can not handle sad endings and grief and the death of a hero in the middle of a story then do not read this as it will disappoint you. If you read the background first it will help you understand the story bette...more
wonderful and touching i cried every time i picked it up. my grandma bought it for my birthday i read until the chapter i was on said josh was dead it made me so mad i just put it down and forgot about it for almost a year so i decided to finish reading it since my grandma had bought just for me because she knew my passion for reading. so i finished it it wasn't the outcome i had hoped because since the time i first started reading it i wished for little girl to see and hug her true prince charm...more
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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This was a hard book to read. Josh is a character that doesn't have a lot going for him after being hit by a drunk driver. Now in constant pain and addicted to pain killers you know he wants to be a good man but just cant seem to maintain it. His parents have all but given up on him. The only bright spot in his life is Savannah, a girl going through so much pain, abuse and upheaval, it is only a matter of time before her mother really does something to ruin her innocence in the world. Josh belie...more
My dad bought me this book a long time ago. I never read it because *scoff* Christian Fiction? C'mon--I'd heard all my life that Christian Fiction was terrible, all agenda-driven and utterly craftless.
This book pleasantly surprised me. It actually REALLY surprised me in the course of the plot. Good plot twists.
I enjoyed the characters, too. Josh was a good guy, and Savannah was a sweetie.
There was no real romance arc. That really did surprise me. This was a story about a man who didn't do all h...more
This book pleasantly surprised me. It actually REALLY surprised me in the course of the plot. Good plot twists.
I enjoyed the characters, too. Josh was a good guy, and Savannah was a sweetie.
There was no real romance arc. That really did surprise me. This was a story about a man who didn't do all h...more
I started reading this book and quickly said, "What?! A book about a disabled man waiting for his lawsuit against the insurance company to be settled?!" Very different premise from other Kingsbury books I've read. This is a story about second chances and what making a difference in the world really means.
There were parts of this story that I never saw coming and at one point I had no idea what would happen next. Would recommend reading with tissues handy. The story is better when you know the ba...more
There were parts of this story that I never saw coming and at one point I had no idea what would happen next. Would recommend reading with tissues handy. The story is better when you know the ba...more
Need a good cry. This is a tear-jerker. Josh just wants to drive his tow truck and help people. While pulling 2 teenagers out of the path of a drunk driver, he is hit and his neck and back sustain severe injuries. He has spent the last 3 years fighting the insurance company, trying to get a settlement so he can have surgery to correct the damage. What keeps him going is his plans to gain at least partial custody of his daughter when he gets the settlement. His family don't believe the girl is re...more
I really enjoyed this book and from the beginning could tell that Karen got the story idea from her real life brother Dave. Basically the story is about a man who has fallen short in life, believes he is the father to a child he has never met, and is addicted to pain killers after being hit by a drunk driver. I didn't give the story 5 stars only because it was a little predictable for me... and frankly after just reading Catching Genius I couldn't give it a 5. I still love Karen and her writing,...more
Mar 05, 2009
Kristi (Books and Needlepoint)
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
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Nothing had worked out as Josh Warren had planned. After high school, his girlfriend Becky had broken up with him, he quit school and became a tow truck driver. He had a dream of opening his own tow truck business.
A year after a wild week in Vegas he discovers he is the father of a little girl, Savannah. Her mom wants child support, but Josh does not have the amount that she wants, so she stops contacting him and he is left to wonder about his child. Soon after that, an accident at work leaves J...more
A year after a wild week in Vegas he discovers he is the father of a little girl, Savannah. Her mom wants child support, but Josh does not have the amount that she wants, so she stops contacting him and he is left to wonder about his child. Soon after that, an accident at work leaves J...more
I don't know where to begin. I don't think there's a more unrealistic book out there. Everyone is so 'Christian' and boring. By the end of the book, everything turns out fine, everyone's happy and God has solved all the problems and conflicts that seems so impossibly hard to face at the beginning.
I have nothing against Christian fiction, but I'm not keen on letting my children read this fluff and believe the world is nothing but a pink cloud and everything always turns out as hoped/planned/expec...more
I have nothing against Christian fiction, but I'm not keen on letting my children read this fluff and believe the world is nothing but a pink cloud and everything always turns out as hoped/planned/expec...more
I have a love/hate relationship with this book. I absolutely LOVED the plot and the characters, but not being the biggest religious person out there, the mention of praying and God every other page got to be a bit tiring. I know for a fact that I wouldn't have read this book had it said on the back that it was about extremely religious people or that the author was a religious writer. Having said that, I AM glad I read it, cause it was a very good book. Hence the love/hate relationship.
I didn't really get into this book until several chapters in. For awhile I was thinking, "this is very different from Karen's other books..." and I didn't particularly care for the characters. However, by about page 50 I was hooked. I didn't stop reading until I finished it, and I was so moved by it, that I think it might be my favorite Karen Kingsbury novel to date. Added bonus: carl joseph and daisy from the Cody Gunner series play roles in this novel as one of the character's neighbors.
I loved this book; could not put it down. It reaffirmed something that I always believed; and that is let your children make their own choices as to their career. Poeple were always telling me to force my child to go to college and he did not want to. He is happy working at the airport. It something that he enjoys and as long as it is an honest living and he does his best that is what matters. You cannot force people to be something they are not; but you could be proud of who they are on the ins...more
Karen Kingsbury has a way of drawing you into the story so I read it in just a few days! Most of the storyline was actually based on someone in Karen's life. She wrote about this at the end of the book. I thought it was cool how she was able to write a story, which probably also helped her put life and expecations of people in perspective. It definitely makes you think about how you are effecting people's lives in the small ways.
I didn't realize this was a Christian literature book when I picked it up from the library. I have read a few books from this genre so I kept on reading. This book was predicitable from the beginning. I felt the author harped on things that weren't really important and glossed over things that were. The writing was also bland and repetitive. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, Christian or not.
Very good. Very sad and scary because life really happens this way sometimes and can be unfair and wrong. I like how the author takes ordinary and difficult life situations and has the characters deal with it in a very real way. Very thought provoking. What if something like this happened to you? How would you react? What would you do? References to God (a higher power) is always enlightening and humbling.
I was unhappy with one part in the book, if you read it you could guess. However, although there was a large part of me that was sad and disappointed, I found myself sobbing for hours over the book, I have to say it was a very spiritual and uplifting book. There always needs to be reminders that whatever plans you have are not necessarily the plans that God has for you. At a disturbing time in my life this book was a huge source of comfort.
This was a good pick for a summer read. True to life but with a happy ending. Inspirational and encouraging because the story was about people going through hard times and never losing their faith. I guessed what was going to happen and I was right and sometimes that bugs me about a book, but this author kept the story interesting enough that I wanted to continue reading. This is my first Karen Kingsbury book and I look forwad to reading more.
Nou alle reacties hieronder zeggen niets teveel hoor, wat een prachtige ontroerende roman is dit. Het verhaal neemt een wending die je totaal niet ziet aankomen, erg verrassend dus! Karen weet haar personages zo ontzettend goed neer te zetten, hetgeen ook wel komt doordat in dit geval haar broer hetzelfde had meegemaakt, de personen worden hierdoor levensecht.
Echt een prachtige roman!
Echt een prachtige roman!
Love Karen Kingsbury! Everything she writes touches my heart. There's always love and family issues that need resolution. God is always the center of that resolution. She has a way of sharing scripture that brings it to a new light for me. I just plain feel good when I read her books. They are an easy read...a curl up in your favorite chair and just enjoy!
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FROM AUTHOR'S WEBSITE:
USA Today and New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury is America’s #1 inspirational novelist. There are more than 15 million copies of her award-winning books in print, including several million copies sold in the past year. Karen has written more than 40 novels, ten of which have hit #1 on national lists.
Karen has a true love for her readers, and she has nearly 1...more
More about Karen Kingsbury...
USA Today and New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury is America’s #1 inspirational novelist. There are more than 15 million copies of her award-winning books in print, including several million copies sold in the past year. Karen has written more than 40 novels, ten of which have hit #1 on national lists.
Karen has a true love for her readers, and she has nearly 1...more
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