With Valentine’s Day upon us, the stores around me are filled with pink and red heart-shaped candies, gifts, decorations, and anything else you can imagine. Pastel-colored romance stories are covering the walls of bookshops. The friends who love the hard, chalky candy-hearts with the inked messages on top are gearing up to start buying them…

Last night, my family attended Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb of God Christmas concert. But before the concert began, Mr. Peterson showed a trailer for Season Three of the Wingfeather Saga movie series. “Get ready for monsters,” Mr. Peterson told the audience as the trailer began to play. And during that three-minute preview, viewers saw…

I was scrolling through a list of trending bestseller romance novels when a specific title caught my eye. I skimmed the synopsis, convinced that I had finally landed on a popular bestseller that might be worth the time to read. I was about to order it from the library when something about the wording forced…

Last week, my family rented one of the newer live-action movies, and invited some friends over to watch with us. There was fun food, cozy seats, laughter, and excitement over the story. There was apprehension as characters faced decisions and discouragement, anxiety as the heroes battled against evil enemies, and exhilaration as the final theme…

I’ve begun noticing a trend in popular fiction books over the past few years, and that’s the word “cozy”. Cozy romance, cozy mystery, cozy fantasy. We’re surrounded by books and stories of picture-perfect relationships, dreamy Hallmark settings, and adventures-that-aren’t-really adventurous.  The indoctrination of the idealistic has affected everything from clothing, housing, and friendships, to personal…

I wish I could walk into a Christian fiction bookstore, pick up any random Young Adult novel, and be greeted with something akin to The Chronicles of Narnia. But as the years have gone by, I’ve discovered numerous poorly written, violence-filled, darkness-glorifying novels sitting on bookstore shelves that bear the all-too general label of “Christian”. …