Title Tuesday: A Woman Overwhelmed

Welcome to  Title Tuesday, my favorite day of the week! This day is dedicated to book suggestions and reviews. I write this portion of my blog because I am a big believer in the motivational speaker Charlie Jones' quote which says, "You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” I try to meet as many new people as possible and to read everything I can. This is my way of sharing that information with you. If you are interested in understanding my rating system for books you can read my Book Review Explanation here and What I Believe here. If you want to check out what I am currently reading or what I want to read next, friend me on Goodreads! With all that being said, lets jump in!


With it being the week of Halloween, I thought I would do something pretty scary for me. As I have mentioned before on the blog, I have become more selective in what I review and why I review it. Because of this I can honestly say that it has been a while since I have given any book lower than a B-. 


Today, that changes. (That's the scary part!)

I was given a free copy of A Woman Overwhelmed by Hayley DiMarco by Litfuse Publicity in exchange for my honest and unbiased review. 

So here are my unbiased thoughts: Do not waste your time on A Woman Overwhelmed. 

There were parts of this book that I STRONGLY reacted against. That probably should have been a warning to me that this was not the book for me, but I pressed on and continued to read hoping that it would get better.

It didn't get better.

Here are some of my biggest concerns from A Woman Overwhelmed:

• The author almost lost me in the second chapter when she talked about opening up her computer to a "smorgasbord of hot Christian men" on a Christian dating website in order to find her true love. Not only is this the wrong example to set for other Christian women, but it also cheapens the marriage relationship to nothing more than physical attributes.  
• The author's use of colloquial phrasing seems to be an attempt to make her more relate-able to the reader. Unfortunately it just did not work and instead made the rest of the writing seems forced and pushy, as if she had to include the biblical stuff to sell the book. 
• The author seems to endorse a LOT of mainstream media including Game of Thrones and Downton Abbey. Both of these shows use sexual promiscuity, homosexuality, and rape to further their story line. Somehow that doesn't seem to fit with Philipians 4:8 which says, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things and the God of peace will be with you”. Watching rape, homosexuality, or premarital sex (or even the hint of it!) just doesn't scream "lovely" to me. 
• Lets set aside the moral bankruptcy of promoting a show that actively works against Christ's mission and glory. If you just look at the time investment it is clear that the author is overwhelmed because of her misplaced priorities, more than anything else. The author brags that she watched the entire series of Downton Abbey in a two month period. There are 52 episodes of the show total. Maybe a good way to start working on not being overwhelmed by life would be to cut out the hour of television each day (if you are only watching that one show) and use that time productively instead.

Overall I give A Woman Overwhelmed by Hayley DiMarco a C- rating. The author spends a great deal of time swinging wildly from one emotion to another, making excuses for her flightiness, and practicing the illusion of "finding God in the messes of life". In reality, any good advice that could be gleaned from the book is tarnished by her incredibly worldly stance, as evidenced by the incredible number of pop cultural references and very few biblical references pointing the reader back to God and His glory.