Breath of Angel -Review

Breath of Angel by Karyn Henley
Book #1 of the Angeleon Circle

Melaia, a young priestess, was raised thinking she would have the simple life of being a priestess in the town where she was raised, never to travel or do anything more exciting than helping to heal people in need. But after witnessing a murder of an angel, creatures Melaia thought to be little more than myth, she finds herself drawn into a dangerous battle of life or death. It is an ancient struggle between two immortal brothers who destroyed the stairway to heaven, drawing the angels into their feud. Melaia must take refuge with the angels she thought to be myth in order to survive this feud, and soon finds that she has not fallen into the path of the feud by mere chance. Melaia must help end this feud, but at what cost to herself?

Breath of Angel looks to be a splendid start to a new fantasy series by Karyn Henley. It appears to be a Young Adults book, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It was an intricately written story, with characters that were more than one-dimensional place-fillers. Even in such a relatively short book, as far as High Fantasy-length books go anyways, it was easy to develop a feel for most of the main characters. I look forward to seeing how much more they will develop in the series to come.

*I acquired this book from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers*

Heart of Ice -review

Heart of Ice by Lis Wiehl (with April Henry)
Book #3 in Triple Threat Series

“‘But sociopaths don’t see other people as people. Something’s wrong with their wiring, … they don’t have any empathy, and they don’t feel fear. So they don’t feel guilty when they kill. If anything, they feel powerful.’”

Heart of Ice is a spiral down into the twisted mind of an ice-cold sociopath as she settles into the community of where the Triple Threat Club girls reside. Elizabeth Avery seems perfect on the outside, with a job as a fitness instructor, a wonderful boyfriend, and a keen sense of apparent-empathy. But Elizabeth Avery is no ordinary woman. She knows what she wants, and will do almost anything to get it. Elizabeth ruthlessly moves from one person to a next in her quest to achieve the perfect life. Along the way she encounters Cassidy Shaw, and the Triple Threat Club finds themselves investigating a string of crimes without knowing the criminal is within their mindst, and without knowing that they may all be in danger of getting in Elizabeth Avery’s way in her quest for perfection.

I found Heart of Ice to be an intriguing read, if only for the fact that it was interesting the way Wiehl could transform herself into the mindset of a sociopath. The parts of the book that were a close third-person narrative of Elizabeth Avery felt like a glimpse into the mind of a true sociopath. The artistry of that writing was quite superb. The plot line was a rather good one as well. Wiehl once again injected a sense of reality into the story by showing the main character (Allison, Nicole, and Cassidy) have lives outside of the intrigue of trying to solve the mysteries surrounding them in the book.

However, the problem I took with the lives of the character outside of the story is that there seems to be a pattern forming of at least one of the main characters having to deal with horrible trials of some sort in each book. Yes, people have trials in real life occur to them, but it seems a bit of over kill to have both a mystery and a trial in their lives to have to deal with in every Triple Threat book. I certainly hope it does not become standard for one of the main characters to have to deal with something horrible in their life in each book.

*I acquired this book from Booksneeze.com*

Wolf of Tebron -review

Wolf of Tebron by CS Lakin
Book #1 in Gates of Heaven series

Joran lives on the outskirts of a small town with his wife. He has a special ability to telepathically communicate with animals. We soon discover Joran’s wife has been captured by the moon, and he must go on a perilous journey to find her. Along the way he encounters a wolf that feels compelled to continue on the journey with him as they search for Joran’s wife.

I cannot understand why it is that I found this story so boring to read, except perhaps that I was not at all drawn in by Joran’s character. If a character is going to basically travel by himself in a story, it should be a decidedly interesting character and not a boring one. Other reviews of this story give high praise for the story being a unique fantasy and masterfully woven allegory.

One thing that kept me reading (and not in a good way) was a desire to find out what Joran’s wife had done to him to make him so bitter. I have nothing against mysteries in stories, but only so far as the mystery serves some purpose to the story. If it is not a mystery novel, and it is something the main character already knows the answer to, but I don’t, it seems like a forced mystery. It becomes annoying at that point in time.

On a positive note, the story had an interesting and easily discernable storyline. The language of the story was very colorful, with nice imagery. There also seemed to be a nice allegorical theme placed in the storyline which is perhaps one reason so many find the story such a fascinating read.

The Ale Boy's Feast -review

The Ale Boy's Feast by Jeffrey Overstreet
Book #4 (White Strand) in The Auralia Thread Series

The final book in the Auralia Thread series, I have been looking forward to reading this for a while. I was not disappointed by what I read.

Cal-raven is still missing, and so a select group of House Abascar citizens decide to make the perilous journey to search for the mythic city Cal-Raven had been searching for without him. Back in the Cent Regus undergrounds, the ale boy has found a river even further below the Cent REgus compound. Feeling a new source of hope, the Ale Boy feels compelled to help the rest of the prisoners escape through this hidden river. Far away, Scharr Ben Fray is making plans of his own at his childhood home as he acquires a dragon to carry him away on mysterious plans.

The story draws long-standing mysteries to an end, and destinies are achieved in this final tale of Auralia’s Threads. The great thing about this series is that it appeals to a wide age-range of readers. I started the series while in High School, and now have finally finished it. And my little brother, who is in middle school, enjoys the series as well. It was an intriguing tale from start to finish, and the finish was just as spectacular as the start.

After a long journey starting from the revealing of Auralia’s colors leading to the ends presented in this final tale, the characters have grown and evolved. They did not grow stagnant and unchanging by this, The Ale Boy’s Feast, the final tale. To anyone that has been a loyal follower to the series, I am saying now you will not be disappointed with the finish. To anyone just stumbling upon the series, do start from the beginning (Auralia’s Colors). It is a good series.

*I acquired this book from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers*

The Promise She Keeps -review

The Promise She Keeps by Erin Healy was a rather spectacular book. I have never read any of her collaborative works with Ted Dekker, but I can now understand why he might have wanted to work with her. Like Dekker, Healy can weave a tail of characters that come alive. She does not just write a story. She weaves a tapestry of brilliant intrigue and draws you into the lives of the characters that you feel connected to them.

The tale of the Promise She Keeps is the interwoven tale of three characters, Promise-a girl with a desire to sing, but living with a terminal illness-, Chase-an autistic man with an artistic hand-, and Porta-a woman who says she has sorceress powers. As Promise struggled with her illness, both Chase and Porta feel themselves drawn into Promises life. One with intentions to help Promise, and one with selfish intentions. As the three lives are twisted together, it seems someone’s life may be in danger of running out.

The story is certainly not a completely realistic tale, but the lesson to be learned in the story makes it worth it. I felt myself experiencing emotions of fear, anger, and joy while reading this story in a way very uncommon to me. Not often do I feel so entirely enraptured by a story. I would definitely recommend others read this book.

*I acquired this book from booksneeze.com*

Tandem -review

Tandem by Tracey Bateman
Stand-alone sequel to Thirsty

All is not right in Abbey Hill, MO (did that sound properly cliché?). Six months after an enigmatic killing-spree stopped by the alleged death of the killer (death by house burning down atop of you), Lauryn McBride is selling the estate of a Marcus Chisom who was unfortunately killed in the fire six months prior. While cataloguing the belongings of the estate, Lauryn finds a bundle of old letters. Luckily she is able to locate the family to whom the letters were postmarked from and she mails them to the family member in New Orleans, an Amede Dastillon. Amede thinks these letters can serve as a key to finding her missing sister, so she travels up to Abbey Hill to gather more information from Lauryn. One dark and twisty event after another leaves Amede and Lauryn scrambling for answers faster than they will come in. Only the turning of the page can tell if these two women will find the answers they are looking for before it is too late.

So, I rather liked Tandem for the first 3/4 of the book. It was intriguing, the writing style was well done, and the plot line was not cliché. The story was mysterious enough to be entertaining, but not so mysterious to be annoying. The characters were developed nicely, even if there were quite a few of them.

What I really liked about Lauryn is the fact that Bateman was able to show us a real girl struggling with a father who had Alzheimer’s. This was an important part of the plot development, and I appreciated that Bateman was able to express clearly the emotions Lauryn was feeling

I was disappointed when I discovered there was a slight love interest in the story between Lauryn and an old crush. It was definitely not a romance book, and the romance was definitely not the focus of the story. Regardless, I chose this book for the express reason that I wanted a break from romance novels, so even the slight mini-plot of romance was too much for me. Granted, there was nothing wrong with the love interest. I personally could have done without it is all.

My main problem with the story came toward the end when Lauryn's life became beyond hectic. It seemed a bit unrealistic for so many things to happen to her so fast, and I couldn't quite see the point of all the events happening (yes, that is vague, but I do not wish to give any spoilers). It also seemed like too much was happening in the story. There was the minor love interest, the dad with Alzheimer’s, Amede trying to find her sister, Amede's personal struggles, animal carcasses showing up on the road, and other dark and twisty occurrences.

I felt a bit bogged down, but since the plot was an intriguing one, I was able to overlook these minor shortcomings. I could handle a sensory overload as long as the story itself was good, which it was.

Weirdest thing was that I received this book from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers, so I was expecting some sort of thriller or paranormal book with a Christian theme (because they're Christian publishers). Instead this was a good novel that happened to have Christian characters in it. It didn't bother me, though. It was simply weird, like taking a sip of Coke thinking you're drinking Pepsi. While they're both good drinks, it's always surprising to get something other than what you're expecting.

To wrap it all up, because this review is all over the place, I liked the book. I would recommend it to others to read.

Found in Translation -review

Found in Translation by Roger Bruner

Found in Translation is a Young Adults (misnomer, I feel like they should call "Young Adults" the "Old Juveniles" or "Preteen/Teen." Young Adult is college students, not high school students) novel about a spoiled southern girl who goes on a mission trip to Mexico. There she is encountered with a situation she was not prepared for, and it changes her life.

I thought it a good book. Since the main character, Kim, was slightly spoiled and strong-willed, it made for an interesting first-person narrative. At times I had to remind myself that Kim's thoughts were most probably not the author's thoughts, because she annoyed me at times. It worked out well though, because by the end of the story I had experienced Kim's maturation with her. I was able to watch her thoughts change as the mission trip made her a better person.

Since the description of the book said Kim was 18, I was expecting something a bit more grown-up, for lack of a better word. Instead I got a girl fresh out of high school. I was instead expecting a college-age girl, so it was a bit jolting to deal with high school thoughts instead of college thoughts. As a Young Adult (Old Juvenile) book it worked well. I imagine Young Adults (Old Juveniles) would like this book and the way Kim acted like a teen. I did not find the tone of the narrative at all cliche or condescending like some Young Adult books tend to be. It actually felt like an 18-year-old telling her story.

I did think the inclusion of a black girl, Aleesha, in the story was a bit weird at moments only for the fact that her race was continually pointed out. Perhaps it is a cultural thing, but race has never been a big deal where I live, so it was jarring to read a story where the fact that a girl was black seemed to be a central point of the story. It was nothing racist (I got the distinct impression that neither Roger Bruner nor Kim were racists. Kim was just sheltered). Just something weird.

Personally, even though the story was well-written and had a good premise to go on, I did not feel emotionally invested in the story. I thought it taught great lessons about surrendering our will to God, but it didn't really touch me personally.