Book Reviews

Book Review: Destiny Maker by Melissa Dugger

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Book Description

Katie is plagued with visions she can’t understand. It’s not until she enters the spirit realm to find her missing dad that the pieces start to fall into place. A reaping of souls has begun and Semonic, the ruler of Dylonia, won’t stop until every soul belongs to the darkness. Katie must decide whether her soul can accept her destiny. But only the Destiny Maker knows if she will lose her life and possibly her heart.

My Review

I received a free copy of Destiny Maker by Melissa Dugger in exchange for my honest review from BookLook Blogger. Destiny Maker was published by West Bow Press.

The beginning of this book definitely caught my attention and made me want to keep reading, but honestly, after a while, the story seemed repetitive and seemed to drag. Katie travels to another country, alone, to try and save her father, just after her high school graduation, without her mother’s knowledge. She has never been to the country, where her father has gone missing, before.

Ms. Duggar attempted to create a world where evil and the dark spirits are holding souls as well as humans in either their power or what seems to be a state of limbo. Though there are some hints at Christianity, I felt that it was much more of a  tribal voodoo type religious realm. Even Katie does not convince me that she has a strong faith in God, which makes me wonder how she could possibly defeat the forces of evil.

Then there is a teen love triangle thrown into the mix, but one of the characters involved is conveniently removed.

When I began reading this book, I had no idea that it is supposed to be the first book in a three book series, so imagine my surprise when the ending comes quite abruptly with nothing resolved and none of the real action having taken place. Therefore I was quite disappointed with the ending because I felt like nothing really happened in the entire thirty-one chapters. The author spent entirely too much time working on the romance and there was very little action. A plan to fight the evil/dark spirits was constantly talked about and there were several times that the fact that they were running out of time was mentioned, but nothing ever really happened.

I believe the author could have completed the story in one, maybe two books, if she had included the action in the story. There were also quite a few spelling and grammatical errors throughout the book and the author changed point of view back and forth between two, sometimes three, characters from paragraph to the next, which caused me to have to reread a paragraph now and then to figure out whose head I was in.

I doubt that I will read the rest of this series if it comes out. I tried to find information or a blog or something by or about Melissa Dugger and her progress on the series, but was unable to find anything, and the fact that this book has been sitting on the West Bow Press BookLook Blogger Book Review list for so long makes me wonder if this series will ever be finished.

I think that Ms. Dugger has a good idea with this story and she has done a good job in creating her main characters. I just didn’t think the pace of the story was fast enough or that there was enough action.

Things I’ll Never Forget by James M. Dixon

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This is not my usual genre to read. I am not a big nonfiction fan, let alone stories about war, but Mr. Dixon did such a great job writing this story that he drew me in and held my attention. I read it quickly because it was an easy read.

War is not a pretty subject, so I didn’t expect to like this story. I was afraid that I would not be able to stomach it or that it would cause me to shed many tears. So, imagine my surprise when I found myself enjoying this story because Mr. Dixon tells this story so personally. Of course, it was personal for him. He was there, but through his writing, he “showed” me what it is like to be a Marine, and most specifically, what it was like to be a Marine in Vietnam.

I was a very young child during the Vietnam War, but I have heard about how badly the men and women who served in Vietnam were treated when they returned and I never understood that. I still don’t, because I am grateful for men and women who are brave enough to serve in such circumstances to aid people in other countries (or at least try to), and to protect us and our freedoms.

Maybe participating in the war in Vietnam was a bad decision, but it was our government’s decision, and they were going to send people over, whether they wanted to go or not. After all, that’s what “the draft” is. So to treat those who served badly upon their return by calling them names, spitting upon them, etc. seems way so disrespectful and cruel to me after the horrors many of them saw and experienced in Viet Nam.

I don’t like war and would rather that we never have to participate in it, but sometimes it is necessary. I’m sorry for the digression from the book review, but Mr. Dixon shared about how poorly they were treated when they returned and it got my hackles up.

Mr. Dixon shared how hard it was to be in Viet Nam, to see friends die, to kill innocent people because you couldn’t really tell who was really innocent and who was working for the Viet Cong. Yes, war is ugly, but Mr. Dixon did a good job of showing what it’s like to be in war in a tasteful, almost gentle way.

I really liked the way that Mr. Dixon began each chapter with a paragraph or two about something in his recent life and then he tied it to or related it to his time and experience in Viet Nam.

Mr. Dixon also shared stories of some good times that he experienced while in the Marines, stories that were humorous, stories that made these Marines real, and when some of them died, the reader felt the loss and the heartbreak, but these Marines didn’t believe that they were in Viet Nam for no good reason and they believed they would help the Vietnamese people. The fact that that the war was lost despite their best efforts, I’m sure was hard to accept.

One of the stories, Mr. Dixon told was both suspenseful and a bit humorous. It had to do with a water buffalo who took a disliking to Mr. Dixon. You’ll have to read the book to find out the whole story.

I do have to issue a couple of words of caution: Because this IS a story of war, there is some graphic violence, some things that you will find disgusting/offensive, and quite a bit of profanity. I don’t like to read books with profanity, but I know that military personnel use profanity and I understand why it’s in this book. Don’t let these things stop you from reading a book that will help you to see what being a Marine in Viet Nam was really like. Reading is knowledge and knowledge hopefully makes us wiser and more understanding.

I recommend this book to any American adult, even if it’s not your favorite genre to read. It’s worth the read.

A Portrait of Emily Price by Katherine Reay

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I received a complimentary copy of this book from BookLook Bloggers in order to write an honest review of the story.

Emily Price is an art restorer. She restores art that has been damaged by fire, water or that has become worn with age while harboring dreams of becoming an original artist, herself, one day. She travels to Atlanta to restore a mural in a home damaged by fire. That’s where she meets Chef Benito Vassallo, who is visiting Atlanta to reconnect with his brother and breathe new life into his aunt and uncle’s restaurant, Piccolo. Emily falls in love with Ben as she works with him to improve the appearance of Piccolo, and shocks everyone when she accepts his marriage proposal and follows him to Italy.

Once in Italy, Emily struggles to fit into Ben’s close-knit family and creates problems for some of Ben’s family members when she was only trying to help. She begins to wonder if she belongs in Italy and in Ben’s family.

The story was romantic and it was easy to be swept away on the wings of love with Emily when she spent time with Ben in Atlanta. However, when she follows Ben to Italy and struggles to fit into his tight-knit family I can relate to her feelings and I cheer for her to fight for her place in the family because she and Ben seem so right for one another. Besides, Ben’s father likes her and encourages her.

I love the relationship between Emily and Ben. It’s sweet and romantic and a little bit magical. I love the dialogues between these two.

Katherine Reay does an excellent job of showing the relationship problems in families; not just mixed cultural families. Yes, some of the issues Emily faces in Ben’s family in Italy has to do with their culture, but most of it has to do with the differences in personalities and in the things they choose to keep inside.

I also think Katherine did a lovely job of painting a picture of Italy for her readers. I loved the driving scenes.

The fact that this was a wonderfully realistic romantic story is what endears it to my heart. Ben and Emily have a deep love for one another but that does not exempt them from challenges in their relationship that could separate them.

To read the way that Katherine Reay chooses to deal with the issues that challenge Ben and Emily both startled me, bringing tears to my eyes, and gave me a warm heart and encouragement I can apply to my own relationships.

If you like romance stories, but prefer your romance more realistic and not of the “happily ever after” flavor, I encourage you to read A Portrait of Emily Price.

Unblemished by Sara Ella: Can I Just Say “Wow”?

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I received a complimentary copy of this book from BookLook Bloggers.

Unblemished by Sara Ella is a fantasy story about a young girl, Eilyana, in her seventeenth year of life. She has low self confidence due to a large red mark on her face and wishes she was invisible. However, there is a young man in her life that has been extremely kind and encouraging to her, and she is in love with him.

Tragedy strikes and Eliyana’s world begins to crumble. She runs out into the city at night, and that’s when she begins to see that her life isn’t exactly what she thought it was.

I am new to reading fantasy stories. I never really cared for them in the past, and Unblemished is one of two or three recent fantasy stories I have read.

Can I just say “wow”? This book is packed with so many things that make a great story. It has suspense, a couple of scenes are a little scary, and there is plenty of romance. I completely fell in love with a character named Ky. I was also frightened for Eliyana several times, but all of the romance in the story seemed so strong and sweet, and some of it came across as really pure.

Sara Ella did a fantastic job of creating characters that made me love and care for them, want to see them succeed, as well as some that made me hate them and want to see them destroyed, or at least defeated. There were a lot of characters and a lot of plot twists that moved the story along and kept me guessing at what was going to happen next. Ms. Ella certainly kept me riveted, to the point that I was always disappointed when I had to put the book down and wait to pick it up again the next day.

Unblemished certainly made me think about how easily we can become ensnared in things that are not for our good, or for anybody’s good, by the choices we make and in our actions. This is one of the rare books that continues to take up space in my mind as I continue to consider the characters and the things that happened to them, and that may yet happen to them.

Yes, Ms. Ella left an open ending, leaving me with lots of questions. This is the only thing I didn’t like about the story, although I will say, it wasn’t as much of a cliffhanger as some I’ve read. But I do so hope that she’s planning on writing another book to continue the lives of some of these characters.

If you are a fan of fantasy stories, I’m fairly certain you’ll enjoy this one.

Long Way Gone by Charles Martin

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I’m sorry, no poetry again today. I will do my best to bring poetry back next week.

 

I received this book Free to write a review for Harper Collins and BookLook Blogger.

Book Description

“No matter where you go, no matter whether you succeed or fail, stand or fall, no gone is too far gone. You can always come home.”

At the age of eighteen, musician and songwriter Cooper O’Connor took everything his father held dear and drove 1,200 miles from home to Nashville, his life riding on a six-string guitar and the bold wager that he had talent. But his wager soon proved foolish.

Five years after losing everything, he falls in love with Daley Cross, an angelic voice in need of a song. But just as he realizes his love for Daley, Cooper faces a tragedy that threatens his life as well as his career. With nowhere else to go, he returns home to the remote Colorado mountains, searching for answers about his father and his faith.

When Daley shows up on his street corner twenty years later, he wonders if it’s too late to tell her the truth about his past—and if he is ready to face it himself.

A radical retelling of the prodigal son story, Long Way Gone takes us from tent revivals to the Ryman Auditorium to the tender relationship between a broken man and the father who never stopped calling him home.

My Review

I never heard of Charles Martin nor read any of his books until I received Long Way Gone, but Wow, what a book. I will definitely be looking for Charles Martin’s books after reading this one. Mr. Martin created characters that were so real and I could feel their pain, their loneliness; I could dream their dreams. He also did an excellent job in describing his settings in a way that brought them to life. The story is a story of several different types of love and the power of all of them. This was the most well-written book I have read in quite some time.

I felt this book was so well written. It was intelligent and literary. I learned a lot about music and guitars from this story as well. The book has a lot of memorable quotes.

This story is a modern story that teaches an age-old lesson, and it touched my heart deeply. Three chapters from the end, tears just streamed down my face, and for me, any book that hits me with such emotion is a winner! I highly recommend this book to EVERYONE!

Oh, and one last thing, I LOVE the cover!

Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

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Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore: A Novel by [Sloan, Robin]

Description

The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon out of his life as a San Francisco Web-design drone—and serendipity, sheer curiosity, and the ability to climb a ladder like a monkey has landed him a new gig working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. But after just a few days on the job, Clay begins to realize that this store is even more curious than the name suggests. There are only a few customers, but they come in repeatedly and never seem to actually buy anything, instead “checking out” impossibly obscure volumes from strange corners of the store, all according to some elaborate, long-standing arrangement with the gnomic Mr. Penumbra. The store must be a front for something larger, Clay concludes, and soon he’s embarked on a complex analysis of the customers’ behavior and roped his friends into helping to figure out just what’s going on. But once they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra, it turns out the secrets extend far outside the walls of the bookstore.

My Thoughts

This is Robin Sloan’s first full length novel, and if you are a book lover, or you love to hang out in bookstores and/or libraries, this book is for you. Also, if you are a techie and/or Google lover, you will love this book.

The story is full of mystery and intrigue and fascinating characters. I found myself having a hard time putting the book down. This is a very unique story and it connects libraries and bookstores with current technology, as well as revealing some interesting historical facts about publishing.

Mr. Sloan wrote great descriptions that brought the places and the characters to life. I never felt the story dragging nor did I ever feel lost.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story because I liked the characters and wanted to see them solve the mystery. I also love history and enjoyed learning the history of a typing font. The story was filled with fascinating things both history as well as some futuristic ideas. I look forward to reading more from Robin Sloan.

Book Series Review

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Yes, today I am doing a review on a book series. It is an old series, but a good one. Years ago I read a couple of the books in the series and saw a movie that was based on one of the books, so this year I decided I wanted to read the entire series and see all of the movies based on the series. I recently finished reading the books but have not yet watched the movies.

The series is the  “Love Comes Softly” series by Janette Oke. There are eight books in the series. However, Janette Oke’s “A Prairie Legacy” series continues the stories of the characters from the “Love Comes Softly” series, and “A Prairie Legacy” has four books. Therefore, altogether there are twelve books.

I enjoyed each of the books, but my favorites are the original “Love Comes Softly” series. You see, Janette Oke didn’t plan to write a series when she wrote the first book “Love Comes Softly”. However, it sold so well and readers wanted more about the characters in the book, so Ms. Oke’s publisher encouraged her to create a series.

When she finished “Love Finds a Home”, the eighth book in the series, she decided she was finished and moved on to other books. However, again, readers asked her to continue the series. The characters from the “Love Comes Softly” series are truly realistic, and readers come to love and care about them quickly and easily from the very beginning. So, Ms. Oke wrote “A Prairie Legacy” series a few years after the original.

As I read the series, I could tell that some time had passed from Ms. Oke’s writing the “Love Comes Softly” series to writing “A Prairie Legacy” series. I found it harder to love the characters at first, and because Ms. Oke wrote the stories as time had progressed, as indeed it would have in real life, the issues the characters dealt with were more modern, which just seemed like a big jump to me, but in the reality of time, wasn’t. Ms. Oke is a wonderful writer who went on to write and cowrite many more wonderful stories.

Of course, Clark and Marty are my absolute favorites of this series and I love how Ms. Oke wrote so well of their aging throughout the series, but decided to end the series before their deaths. I’m sure I’m not the only reader/fan who is thankful for that.

Then there was Missie, Clark’s daughter to his first wife who had passed away. When she grew up and married and they decided to move far from Clark and Marty, they all had to adjust to the separation.

Missie had married a young man named Willie, and all through the book, “Love’s Long Journey”, he constantly shows his love and caring for her in such tender, touching ways. There is a dialog in the book that I just have to share because it melted my heart and convinced me that Missie had definitely married the right man:

Willie: . . . “I love ya. I’ve loved ya ever since ya were a little schoolgirl.”

Missie: “And you showed it by dunking my hair ribbons in an inkwell.”

Willie: “An carvin’ our initialls–”

Missie: “And putting a grasshopper in my lunch pail.”

Willie: “An’ tellin’ young Todd Culver thet I’d knock out his teeth iffen he didn’t leave my                   girl alone. An’ closin’ yer classroom window when it got stuck. An’ prayin’ fer ya                   every single day–that iffen God willed, ya’d learn to love me.”

Missie: “You did that?”

Willie: “I did.”

So, yes, “Love’s Long Journey” was another of my favorites in the series. Also, the last three books of the original eight. In “”Love’s Unfolding Dream”, Belinda meets a young man whose family has fallen on rough times. She finds the young man attractive and intriguing. Later in the book, they have a conversation that makes me feel in my heart that they are destined to be together. However, they both want to pursue other things, as they are still young. In the seventh book of the original eight, “Love Takes Wing”, Belinda has two or three young men interested in her, and I was afraid Ms. Oke was going to have Belinda end up with a different man. I felt tortured all through “Love Takes Wing”, and I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone, so you’ll have to read the series if you want to find know all of Belinda’s story and whether or not she ended up with that original boy from her childhood or someone else, and then you will know if I enjoyed the final book of the original eight, “Love Finds a Home”.

I concluded the reading of these two intertwined series by Janette Oke by reading “Janette Oke: A Heart for the Prairie” written by Ms. Oke’s daughter, Laurel Oke Logan. It is Ms. Oke’s life story and explains how she eventually became the wonderful writer that she still is today.

“Love Comes Softly” was published in July 1979 and was Janette Oke’s first book, and her most recent book “Where Hope Prevails” from the “Return to the Canadian West” series was released just last month.

 

Dauntless by Dina L. Sleiman

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Dauntless is the first book in the “Valiant Hearts” series by Dina L. Sleiman.  It is an historical fiction novel that includes adventure, danger and romance.

Born a Baron’s daughter, Lady Merry Ellison is now an enemy of the throne after her father’s failed assassination attempt upon the king.  Merry will go to any lengths to protect the orphaned children in her care.  The group becomes known as “The Ghosts of Farthingale Forest.”

Merry’s life becomes more challenging when an old friend finds her after thinking her dead for two years.

Ms. Sleiman did an excellent job creating characters that wind your care and your heart quickly.  Merry appears as a female Robin Hood, but her and her group are quite different.  As danger lurked around every corner, I found myself routing for Merry and her group.  Another situation arises that caused a dilemma for my heart and mind as I read and found it difficult to know who to route for in the romance department.

Ms. Sleiman did an excellent job of resolving the story line at the end without causing my heart to break for any one of my beloved characters.  I finished the book feeling happy for Merry and her group and satisfied that I had read a good book worthy of my time.

I recommend this story for anyone who loves to read about strong women, adventure, history and romance.  I look forward to digging into Book Two of the series, Chivalrous.

 

Mystery Mountain Four by Marie Grace

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I received a free eBook copy of Mystery Mountain Four by Marie Grace to review for BookLook Blogger.

Book Description

Marie Grace wows readers with the fourth novel in her Mystery Mountain series. In the small town of Raincroft, the bonds of love and family are stronger than all outside or dangerous influences and adventures while romance blossoms between two unlikely people. Through determination and strength, Grace’s engaging characters find the courage to overcome adversity.

I have not read the first three books in this series and therefore, I was not familiar with the characters or the setting and the author did not offer any background that would help a reader who didn’t read the previous books.

I think Marie Grace has some great story ideas.  She has many plot ideas and character ideas.  The problem I found was that there were too many characters and too many plots in this one book.  I know this is a continuation of three previous books but I think it would’ve worked better if she had separated some of the characters and plot lines into the separate books in the series.  I believe that would make the story easier to follow.

In addition, it would have given the author more time and space to create a solid setting with understandable description.  She also would have been able to put more time and detail into creating her characters so that they would be deeper and more enjoyable.

As it is, I felt like the story jumped around too much.  Also, there didn’t seem to be enough time spent on creating the conflicts in the stories and the author often switched back and forth between present and past tense.  A couple of her characters spoke a dialect that the author attempted to write, which I found distracting and annoying.  I also found contradictions in some of her characters that seemed out of place.  There were also some places where she switched point of view in the same paragraph or scene, even though she had page breaks and chapters.  The page breaks and chapters seemed to transition to a different location or story line.

In this book, out of the many characters that were part of the story, I felt like I only really got to know two of them fairly well and I found their romance cute but juvenile.

I believe Marie Grace has great ideas for a great series here, but I would highly recommend that she go back and break it apart and put fewer characters and conflicts into each story; to focus on not more than four main characters and maybe four conflicts per book.  I believe if she did that and really developed those four main characters and the conflicts, her stories would be much more readable and enjoyable.  I also suggest that she find an interesting way to include the information as to why a select few of the characters seem to have speech issues without trying to write their issues in their dialogue.

There didn’t seem to be a single connecting theme throughout the book either.  It seemed that there were many themes that Marie Grace addressed and there were times when the message(s) she wanted to get across came across preachy.  Also, I didn’t feel like there was any real resolution to any of the plot lines in the story by the end of the book, which was also disappointing.  I understand she wanted to have some loose ends to tease her readers with in hopes they would want to read the next book in the series, but with all of the plot lines she had, I think it would have left me feeling better about the book if one or two of the plot conflicts had come to clear resolution by the end of the book.

In conclusion, I like Marie Grace’s story line ideas and the characters I was able to get a grip on.  However, I found the book difficult to read and follow.  I would recommend this book to the Young Adult audience but feel it’s too juvenile for the adult audience written as it is.  If Marie Grace was to go back and do a bit of editing and break the story and flesh out her characters and add more meat to the conflicts for each book of the series, I believe it would be a much better, stronger series that would definitely be interesting and enjoyable for adults.  I see a lot of potential in these stories.

Kissed By a Cowboy by Debra Clopton

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I received a free ebook copy of this book to review for BookLook Blogger.

Cassidy Starr returns to the only place she has ever felt happy and loved in her life.  She has suffered too many broken relationships in her life and so decides to live a simple, peaceful life alone in Wishing Springs.  However, her neighbor, handsome cowboy, Jarrod Monahan, may challenge those plans.

This is the first book I have ever read by Debra Clopton, and it is evidently part of a series known as the “Four of Hearts Romance” series.  I have always enjoyed cowboy romances and this book did not disappoint me.  I love this story.  Ms. Clopton did an excellent job creating her characters.  Not only did I fall in love with and care about what happened to Cassidy and Jarrod, but all of the townspeople captured my interest and my heart as well.  The camaraderie between Jarrod and his brothers is an added pleasure to the story.

There was also a mystery in the story that needs to be solved.  This adds a bit of danger and suspense to the story.  Between the blossoming romances and this mystery I couldn’t put the book down.  The pace of the story was well written, the plot was interesting and kept moving and the characters were lovable.

The only disappointment I experienced was the ending.  I felt that Ms. Clopton rushed the ending a bit.  I think if she would have written one more chapter, included a bit more detail and included the townspeople a bit more since they had been key figures in the story up to that point, it would have been a better, richer ending, and would’ve have left me completely satisfied, instead of slightly disappointed.

I will, most likely, read this story again someday, just because I loved the characters so much.  I would also highly recommend this story to anyone who loves cowboy romances or just a good romance, or to anyone who loves to get a chuckle out of a good small town story.