Tuesday, November 25, 2014

The Little White Horse rides away with my heart

After watching the movie, The Secret of Moonacre Valley, it seemed like the next logical choice to read the book that it was loosely based upon.  The Little White Horse was at first a shock in the sheer difference from story line and characters; however, the characters were deep and well thought out, the plot intricate and attention catching.  Robin was perhaps my favorite character and in particular there was some great scenes with him and Maria.  There were messages that were taught gently throughout and it seems like it would be a good read for either children, young adults, or adults looking to be entertained.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Cloak of the Light reveals a brilliant story

     After reading a reviewers copy of Cloak of the Light by Chuck Black, given for free by Multnomah publishers, it is easy to see that Black has an amazing talent at creating both a story and characters that are so real as to fully draw the reader into their world.  The world and the hidden dimensional world especially is so compelling that it is sometimes hard to pull out of the story and return to normal reality.  It is easy to expect to see beings from this other dimension around every corner.  That being said, the book is painful to get into because the main character, Drew Carter, goes through so much loss in his young life before the reader gets to the meat of the story.  All of the loss comes together to help make Drew who he is but that doesn't make it any easier to see Drew experience it.  The side characters are created in such an absolutely brilliant way that they strengthen both Drew and the plot, ever adding more and ever taking the story deeper.  Everyone seems to be organic to the plot and nothing seemed to be author imposed.  This was indeed a wonderful read.  If the rest of the series is as good as this first book it is sure to become a new favorite, which is saying a lot as that would put it on a level with Wheel of Time and League of Jewelled Men--two other favorite stories.  The emotional ride this book provides and the powerful feelings it causes to well up in the reader are on par most award winning books out there.  Well done Chuck Black.  Looking forward to the rest of the series!

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

The Dawn of a Returned love for this author

          In Cindy Woodsmall's The Dawn of Christmas, she returned to her brilliance from the first book in her Vines and Vineyard series.  This was yet another book of Woodsmall's that couldn't be put down.  Her turn of phrase and beautiful creation of characters aside, Woodsmall writes dialog with such skill that it feels as though the characters are actually speaking instead of their lines being read.  Cindy Woodsmall has such a way with creating believable characters that have been damaged in life and are scarred in varied ways that it truly is a joy to read.  Also, she is quite skilled at letting God's light shine through both the plot and her characters in such a way that it is realistic.  In The Dawn of Christmas,Woodsmall takes a woman, Sadie, who has been betrayed and broken, and brings her together with a man, Levi, who has lost all trust in women and uses them to help each other heal.  Their romance is a lovely surprise to them and in no small means a miracle for those who love them.  Levi feels like a man everyone should be so lucky to know; he has his faults but he's such a good, loving man that he's amazing.  And Sadie, is a perplex woman full of so much love to share but afraid to do so and chance being broken again.  Woodsmall's writing takes readers who were not previously Amish fiction fans and creates fans.  Thanks, to the opportunity to read the eidtion for free from Waterbrook Press, The Dawn of Christmas has rekindled this reader's love for Cindy Woodsmall's writing and hope in love.  It is a real gem and a worthy read.  Buy it.  Enjoy it. Cheers!

Halfling Halfway does it

     The novel, Halfling, by Heather Burch had an intriguing cover.  The story line was compelling and two of the main guy characters were amazing.  This novel dealt with the hardly spoken of Genesis 6 Nephilim: off-spring of fallen angels and human women.  It's the first in a series and is so well done that characters Mace and Raven seemed to be real life young men and were actually in the running to become an all time new favorite character, threatening to displace Matrim Cauthon, Treve DiVillars, and even Lord John Roxton from their tied position of favorite literary character.  However, in the last eighty pages the protagonist, Nikki, makes an incredibly stupid and unbelievable move that causes her dog to be killed.  That is when this reader lost interest but still finished the book in fairness.  It continued to get worse from there and no real answers were supplied at the end.  The characters, especially the male characters, are brilliantly created, but the story left much to be desired and Nikki's unbelievable stupid decision felt entirely too author imposed.  This in mind, this reader will not be likely to continue with the series, which is sad because the book had the makings of a favorite.