Book Review: Judgment Day by Wanda L. Tyson

Alexandria Fisher-Hawthorne and Marcus Crisp make an interesting Private Detective team. Add in their superbly talented and somewhat mysterious assistant, Razz, and you have the makings for some first class mystery/thriller detective stories.

In this book we meet Suzanne Kidwell, host of a cable news channel show. In the time she’s been on the air, she has brought several high profile cases to the public’s attention – but unfortunately, her drive to beat competitors to the story makes her skimp on checking the facts. That has made a lot of enemies. As people around her begin dying, Suzanne herself becomes the chief suspect in their murders. That’s when she hires Alex and Marcus to help her. It doesn’t take long for the PI’s to uncover the horrible scheme that Suzanne has inadvertently stumbled into, but who is behind it all? And why is it so important for them to get Suzanne out of their way?

Wanda L. Dyson has given us an enjoyable, fast-paced read. I look forward to reading her other books.

I received a free copy of this book from Waterbrook/Multnomah Press for my review.

Book Review: Beneath the Night Tree by Nicole Baart

Single parent Julia DeSmit is defined by the roles she fills: mother, granddaughter, sister, student, worker…. Mothering her five-year-old son and her eleven-year-old brother is the great joy of her life, but also a huge burden. Although she shares the task with her aging grandmother, Julia still feels the weight of her responsibilities. Her long time boyfriend, Michael, seems to hold the promise for a better life – security, love, shared responsibilities – but while he is in school miles away those promises remain elusive. The biggest problem that Julia faces, though, is how to maintain the closeness and love she feels with her small, unusual family once Michael becomes a permanent part of her life. Will his love hold the key to the normal life she hopes awaits her? Then without warning Julia is contacted by the last person she ever expected to hear from again – the father of her five-year-old son. With his single question - “Do I have a child?” - Julia’s well-ordered life is gone. What takes its place is the answer to the prayer that she didn't hope to pray - a prayer answered beneath the night tree.

Nicole Baart’s writing is a joy. Even though the story constantly beckoned me to turn the pages quickly, I found myself rereading paragraphs in order to savor her lyrical prose. I will certainly look for her previous books, After the Leaves Fall, Summer Snow and A Moment Between, and I look forward to her next offering.

Tyndale House Publishers provided a free copy of this book for my review.

Why Romance?

I’ve had several people ask me why I’m writing a Romance novel…especially people who have known me for awhile and know how much I enjoy reading a good book. And up until the last few months, I never would have put any “romance” novel into that category of “a good book”. So what has changed?

First of all, I started looking at the romance genre in a different light when I found out that Harlequin (yes, Harlequin) will consider publishing unsolicited, un-agented manuscripts from previously un-published authors (aka, newbies).

It is extremely hard to break into the publishing world, no matter how talented you are. My childhood fantasies aside, no publisher is going to pick my manuscript out of the trash pile of unsolicited manuscripts and shout “at last, I’ve discovered the next great American novel!” No. My unsolicited manuscript wouldn’t even reach a publisher’s office, let alone their desk. The same goes for agents – after all, who wants to risk anything on another crazy lady from the mid-west who thinks she can write? But there are places for newbies to get their material in front of the right eyes – one of them is to write a decent book and get it published by a house like Harlequin.

So I started reading these things, surreptitiously checking them out from the library in the self-service line. I was surprised at what I found. Some of them, to be sure, ended up being returned before I reached the second chapter, but most of them were pretty good stories. I started finding the genres within the genres and started identifying my favorite authors. I started reading the books critically (as in “How to Read a Book” by Adler and Van Doren) and discovering the formula.

That’s where romance novels got their bad rap, of course. They’re unapologetically formula books – just like westerns, mysteries, adventure stories, science fiction, fantasy….. There are some elements the story must have, some way the ending must come about, or else the book doesn’t belong in that genre. Unfortunately for the reader, a book doesn’t have to be good to get published if it fits into the genre and the publisher thinks they can make money off of it. But the best stories in any genre are written by talented people who make their readers forget that they’re reading a certain genre – they’re just reading a good story.

And then the formula writer who can write a good story and get it published has a way into the publisher’s office and the agent’s list. Once published, an author has cred. The better the book, the better the cred, and the better the cred the greater the hope of eventually being published outside the romance genre. If the author wants to. Because once the author discovers the secret joy of writing romance fiction, they may never look back. But that’s a subject for another post.

Josie's Changing World

In Divine Appointments, author Charlene Ann Baumbich show us the world of Josie Victor Brooks – a successful systems analyst who never spends more than a year in any one place. She buys and sells real estate with each move to a new city and new job, and never – never – stays long enough to form ties. And that’s the way she wants it…..until she finds a snowglobe at a flea market that she is compelled to buy. From that moment on she feels that her tightly controlled life is falling apart…. or is it just now coming together? As she battles hot flashes and raging thirst and considers her next job change, Josie discovers that the world as she knew it may not be what she thought it was. Maybe she was even mistaken about the person she always thought she was!

I enjoyed this story and the characters – Josie is not the only one discovering untapped potential within herself – and I will be looking for the first in the “Snowglobe Connections” novels, Stray Affections.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Book Review: Slave by John MacArthur

In his new book, Slave, John MacArthur seeks to expose a truth from the Bible that can escape most English speaking readers. At the time when the Bible was being translated into English, MacArthur (and others that he cites in his book) maintains that because of western European sensibilities, the Hebrew and Greek words that should have been translated as “slave” were translated as “servant” instead. This simple change, says MacArthur, has led to a lessening of our understanding of just what it means to belong to Christ. The theme of MacArthur’s book is that “God has expressed the riches of our salvation using the symbolism of slavery.” In contrast, MacArthur maintains that we in the contemporary evangelical church, by adopting a terminology that emphasizes a personal Savior rather than Christ as Master, Lord and King, have reduced our understanding of just how wonderful and blessed it is to be a child of God and to hold our citizenship in heaven. Throughout the book we travel through all of the nuances of what it meant to be a slave during the times when the Bible was written – a good master vs. a harsh master, manumission of slaves, adoption and citizenship. This is a book that can challenge your thinking about what it means to be a Christian – a challenge that can change your walk with Christ.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

Book Review: Lady in Waiting by Susan Meissner

Lady in Waiting is an intriguing story – actually two stories – of Jane, a New York antique store owner living in the 21^st century and Jane, the Tudor Queen of the 16^th century. The 21^st century Jane is waiting for her husband to make the decision of what he wants to do about the emptiness in their marriage, just as she has waited for him and her parents to make the decisions that have shaped her entire life. While she waits she discovers a ring hidden in a recently acquired book that she decides could have belonged only to Lady Jane Grey. Jane’s quest to learn more about the 16^th century Jane leads her on a journey inside her own soul – a journey that leads to the discovery of what duty and choice mean, and the decisions she needs to make to preserve her marriage.

This is the first novel I have read by author Susan Meissner, but it won’t be the last. Her writing is fluid and seamless and the stories flow smoothly between the centuries. I felt an immediate liking for her characters, enjoying them so much that it was hard to put the book down. I recommend this book highly, and be sure to follow it up with more of Susan Meissner’s books!

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Book Review: The Charlatan's Boy by Jonathan Rogers

Grady has been pretending he was a feechieboy for as long as he can remember, travelling from town to town with Professor Floyd and putting on a real professional act. That is, until people stop believing in feechiefolk. Now, you tell me, how can you make any decent money educating the populace about feechiefolk when they don’t even pretend to believe what you say?

As Grady and Floyd travel throughout the island of Corenwald we follow Grady on a quest. Although he has been raised by a show man on the road, Grady longs for home – a place to belong with people who know him and want him. In every village he peers into people’s faces, looking for a familiar looking eyebrow or ear, any family resemblance. He wonders what it would be like to have a friend, to see the same people every day, to find out who his real family is.

Jonathan Rogers has created a world of swamps, alligators and small towns that feels very familiar. The Corenwald world fits around the reader’s shoulders like an easy old sweater. I’m looking forward to reading the next installment of Grady’s story, due out in 2011.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.