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.