Book Reviews

Inspirational Reflections by Ian J. Roberts

/ kellyfbarr / Leave a comment

I received a free copy of this eBook to write a review for BookLook Blogger.

Inspirational Reflections by Ian J. Roberts is a short book of poems and songs about faith in God and our salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.  These writings could be used as daily devotionals.  They are good to reflect upon.

Ian J. Roberts did a fairly good job with these poems and songs, though I thought some of the poems rhyme schemes were sometimes off and the syllable structure seemed a bit awkward in some of them.  The theme throughout the book was a bit repetitious as well, but it was clear that these were words of praise and glory to the Heavenly Father.  The writings have deep meaning and are worth thinking, meditating and reflecting upon.

Though I wish Mr. Roberts would have included other truths and themes from the Bible, his writings were inspiring.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is seeking meaning in their life, anyone who enjoys having something additional to include with their daily Bible reading, anyone who would like to reflect on the power and glory of God.

Mermaid Moon by Colleen Coble

/ kellyfbarr / Leave a comment

I received a free copy of this eBook to write a review (my personal opinion) for BookLook Blogger.

This is the first romantic suspense novel I have read by Colleen Coble.  I read her “Journey of the Heart” series last year and thoroughly enjoyed it.  You can read my reviews of each of those by searching for “Book Reviews” under Categories on the right sidebar of this blog.  They were western romance stories.  They had a bit of suspense, but not like Mermaid Moon.

Mermaid Moon is a Sunset Cove novel by Colleen Coble.  I have not read Inn at Ocean’s Edge which is the first book of this series.  But that is one thing I really like about Ms. Coble’s writing.  Even when she writes a series, you can read them out of order, or read one from the series and not the rest, and because of the information she includes in each book of the series, you do not feel lost or confused about the characters or the plot line.

Mallory Davis left her home on Mermaid Point in Maine years ago and never looked back. But when she receives a mysterious call from her father and later is informed of his death, she heads back to Mermaid Point immediately.

She suspects that her father was murdered, and a Downeast Maine game warden, Kevin O’Connor, confirms her suspicions.  Mallory doesn’t want to spend too much time with Kevin, but he wants to help her find out what happened to her father.  Mallory broke Kevin’s heart when she left Maine 15 years ago, and the history between them is something she believes cannot be repaired.

Mallory’s friend and neighbor, Carol brings her daughter, Haylie to Mermaid Point much sooner than planned and informs Mallory that someone showed up at her house in Bangor, Maine looking for her; someone who seemed quite threatening.

As the story continues, more questions arise and more suspicious characters emerge.  Whenever I thought I knew who was guilty, something else would show me I was wrong.  The story kept me guessing almost to the end.

Colleen Coble did a great job creating deep characters that made me care for them and cheer for them right for the start.  The plot line was suspenseful and kept me guessing.   The plot line kept me turning pages.  I look forward to reading more romantic suspense by Colleen Coble.

I recommend this book to all Colleen Coble fans, to anyone who enjoys a real page turner, to anyone who enjoys romantic suspense, and to anyone who likes a story with rich characters and a fast-moving plot line.

 

 

A Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina

/ kellyfbarr / 1 Comment

Lady of Devices

I finally got to read one of Shelley Adina’s steampunk adventure novels!  I am not reviewing this book for any particular group.  I am reviewing it simply because I read it, and I like to write reviews for books I read.  This isn’t even the newest book in the series.  There are actually seven more after this one.

Lady of Devices is the first book in Shelley Adina’s “Magnificent Devices” steampunk adventure series.  It is the first steampunk novel I have ever read, and I must say that in the beginning I wasn’t sure I was going to like this genre, but as I read and began to care more and more about the main character, Lady Claire, I couldn’t put it down.  I finished the book in four evenings.  (I only have time to read for two or three hours an evening, and not every single evening either.)

In Lady of Devices, Lady Claire comes from a well-to-do family, but Lady Claire is more interested in science, chemistry to be exact, and inventions than she is in having her “coming out” party to find a husband.  Well, that gets put on the back burner anyway, when tragedy strikes her family, and her mother and little brother move to their other house some distance away.  Lady Claire is to follow after packing up the current house and wrapping up some loose ends.  However, other things happen to keep Lady Claire in London longer.

Lady Claire ends up in one adventure after another, and becomes of some interest to two young men, but one behaves quite oddly toward her.  I do really like the other young man and believe he is the type of young man that Lady Claire would find appealing, which she might if she weren’t distracted by other circumstances.

Shelley Adina did a wonderful job creating Lady Claire and the other characters in the book.  It is easy to like some of the characters and dislike a few of the others.  I also found myself reminiscing about Dickens’ Oliver Twist during certain scenes.

I liked this book very much and was a bit taken aback when Ms. Adina left me hanging at the end.  Smart marketing, leaving the reader wanting more when you’re writing a series.  🙂     Therefore, I cannot wait to get Her Devices and continue to follow Lady Claire on her further adventures.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes a good adventure, and to anyone who likes steampunk.  Also, anyone who likes a quick, easy read, and anyone with a love for Dickens will find reminiscences here, but this story definitely has much more action.

A Just Man by Helen Daniel

/ kellyfbarr / Leave a comment

I received a free copy of A Just Man by Helen Daniel in eBook form to write an honest review for BookLook Blogger.

A Just Man follows several generations of the Matthews family through farming, shipbuilding, the Civil War and other circumstances.  I enjoyed the characters, though I think they could have been a bit more developed, as stories with well developed characters who face sad issues never fail to make me cry, and the sad issues in this story tugged at my heart but brought no tears.

I liked the story and the characters.  I found the book very simply written and easy to read. The story was sweet and enjoyable, although I found it a bit unrealistic.

A Just Man is also very clearly written in third person with a narrator.  The story is mostly told by the narrator rather than shown by the characters’ thoughts, dialogues, and actions.  After reading for a while, however, this became less noticeable to me, as I enjoyed the story.

It was mentioned either on the back cover or in a Preface that Helen Daniel had written stories to illustrate Sunday School lessons, and that is exactly what the chapters of this story reminded me of.  They are sweet stories of generations of one family and their struggles, as well as their faith.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for something about faith in God that is easy to understand.  I would recommend this to parents who want a good, faith building, encouraging  story to read and discuss with their elementary age children.  I would also recommend this story to anyone who enjoys a good, family friendly, easy-to-read book.

The Golden Braid by Melanie Dickerson

/ kellyfbarr / Leave a comment

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

This is the first story I have ever read by Melanie Dickerson.  I have never been familiar with the story of Rapunzel, so I do not know if Ms. Dickerson’s story is too much like the original or not.  What I do know is that Ms. Dickerson captured my attention and held it throughout the book.  She created rich, deep characters.  Good characters that I fell in love with and cheered for, and bad characters that I wanted to see get their comeuppance.

Ms. Dickerson’s descriptions were brief but clear.  I could easily picture both characters and places in my head.  The story takes place in Medieval times complete with knights and castles.  I’ve always enjoyed romance stories from Medieval times, and I thoroughly enjoyed this story by Melanie Dickerson.

The fact that the story is a spin off of a fairy tale was intriguing to me.  I have only read one other such story by a different author.  I really liked that though Ms. Dickerson’s story ended happily, it was not presented as “happily ever after”.  That’s the one thing about fairy tales and Disney that I find quite frustrating, because when you grow up with those stories, you expect to find and experience that kind of romance and love, which is not true to life.  True to life love/marriage requires a lot of work and give and take, communication and understanding on the part of both people involved.  Therefore, I loved that Ms. Dickerson hinted that not every day would be “happily ever after” because of the personality differences of the characters and their past hurts.  Thank you, Ms. Dickerson for that.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to read a fairy tale type story that’s a  bit more realistic, and to anyone who loves historical fiction novels, Medieval times, knights and castles, and romance stories, or anyone who just wants to read a good book.

The Controversy Regarding Book Reviews

/ kellyfbarr / 1 Comment

I thought it would be appropriate to follow my post about editors with a post about Book Reviews because I recently found out that a friend of mine, who writes, claims to only read for “entertainment”, and so doesn’t say anything about the writing of a book in a review.  This caused me to challenge the honesty of this friend’s reviews, and reviews are called into question in regard to their honesty over and over again.

After all, Amazon recently adopted new rules in regard to writing book reviews for them, some of which seem out of line like the one I recently read about and signed a petition against that says that if you are friends with a writer/author on Facebook or Twitter, they will not post your reviews of those writer/authors’ books.

Why do I think this rule is out of line?  Because as a writer, I have been taught the importance of networking as well as the fact that many successful writers are willing to give advice to up-and-coming and wannabe writers, so these newbies seek to connect with them.  I am connected to many people on Facebook, Twitter and even here on this blog that are writers/authors, that I have never met face-to-face and do not know personally.  Therefore, to say that I cannot post a book review of their work is ridiculous.

Why is Amazon putting such ridiculous rules regarding Book Reviews in place?  Because of the many dishonest people who write raving 5-star Book Reviews for family members, close friends, or even, (and yes, sadly, this does happen), a writer/author who will pay them or give them some kind of reward for writing a positive Book Review.  I understand why Amazon would want to stop these types of reviews.  However, to assume that everyone falls into one of these categories just because they are connected to the writer/author through social media is wrong.

When my friend told me about her Book Reviews, I asked her why she doesn’t give an honest review mentioning the writing (because she said she doesn’t write anything about the writing in the review.  She simply focuses on the story line)?  Her response was she doesn’t want to seem harsh or hurt the writer’s feelings, to which I responded that it is quite possible to write an honest review without being harsh.  I told her I do it all the time.

Yes, as you know, if you visit here often, I write quite a few Book Reviews and not everything I say is in praise of the book.  If I think the writer needs to work on something, I say so.  If I don’t really like the story, I say so.  However, I always do it in the kindest words I can think of, and even if I struggle to find something positive to say, (which is rare, but did happen when I reviewed A Fine Piece of Chocolate), I find something to say to encourage the writer because as a writer myself, I hope that when I finally have something out there for review, that the reviewers will be kind and encouraging, but completely honest.  After all, I have been told by many writers who already reached a level of success, that to be a writer, you need to develop a “thick” skin, not only because of the many rejection slips you may receive, but also because of the many negative Book Reviews some people may write.

What do you think?  Do you write any Book Reviews?  Are your Book Reviews honest and do you review both the story line and the writing?

Prison by Toni V. Lee

/ kellyfbarr / Leave a comment

I received a free copy of this book by the publisher to write an honest review for BookLook Blogger.

Sonja Grey, a narcotics detective, and her nemesis, Max Trent, are handpicked to go undercover to capture a thug—Johnny Stone, aka Rock—who’s dealing drugs at Sonja’s church. Their operation is unwittingly aided by the interference of Sonja’s eccentric aunties. For Max, this assignment has two objectives: get their villain and capture Sonja’s heart. Will Sonja break free of the shackles of her past and embrace Max’s love, or will they be destroyed by danger?

I have to say that I really enjoyed this book!  It had danger, humor, inspiration and romance.  It was fun and easy to read and didn’t take a great deal of time.  It held my attention, and I found myself not wanting to put it down as I was routing for Max to win Sonja’s heart, and I wanted to know if he would.  Sonja is a tough and smart lady narcotics detective and the sparring between she and Max was very entertaining.

I would also like to give kudos to Toni V. Lee because this was the first eBook that I have read that had very minor  and very few typographic errors and no grammatical errors, whereas, I usually find so many of these types of errors in an eBook that it’s very frustrating and distracting to read.  Thank you, Ms. Lee.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves a good, entertaining, romantic crime story.  I also recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a good quality eBook.

A Heart’s Promise by Colleen Coble

/ kellyfbarr / Leave a comment

23647127

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher to write an honest review.

This is book 5 of the Journey of the Heart series.  In this book, Emmie Croftner is struggling with her secret and her mistrust of men.  However, Isaac Liddle remains determined to win her heart and her hand.  Then another woman sets her bonnet for Isaac and Emmie realizes that she does have feelings for Isaac.  But, how will he react if he finds out about the secret Emmie holds inside?

I am really enjoying this series by Colleen Coble.  She does an excellent job at creating characters that you care about.  Again, this book left me yearning for the next and final book in the series because I want to see what happens to these characters that I have come to love.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical romance stories from a time period when the west was still young and dangerous.

Beneath the Pines by Sandra Gowan

/ kellyfbarr / Leave a comment

I received a copy of this book free from the publisher to write an honest review for BookLook Blogger.

The year is 1914, and Amanda Jane Horseman is unexpectedly homeless, without a dime to her name. In a state of desperation, she applies for a job on Ministers Island in southern New Brunswick, Canada. What begins as a fresh start to her life quickly takes a turn for the worse when she receives threats on her life. With nobody to turn to, Amanda will go on a hunt for answers that could cost her everything, including her life.

Sandra Gowan has a good story idea with Beneath the Pines.  However, I felt that if she would have given it one more edit, she may have noticed that the plot was rushed, the characters, with the exception of Amanda Jane, were not well developed, and she needs to review the rule of “show, don’t tell”.

The above description of the book certainly fits the book and is true of the story.  It’s just that the “happenings” in the story could have used more action and more detail.  There should have been more time spent drawing out the plot a little more.  For example, if she had developed her characters a bit more, it would have been more fun for the reader to attempt to figure out who the guilty character was while walking with Amanda Jane as she investigated the mystery.

There were also abrupt changes sometimes that seemed out of place or caused me to reread these sections to try to figure out what was going on.  She also did some occasional “head-hopping” — changing the point of view character without warning.

I would love to see her take the time to really develop this story and the things that happen to Amanda Jane when she gets to Ministers Island, and during the time she is away, and again when she returns and begins her sleuthing.  If there were more details and more action and the plot were fully developed, as well as the other important characters, especially Thomas, I would love to read this story all over again.

However, as it is currently written, I felt disappointed and empty throughout much of this book.  I found myself thinking, “oh, this scene would be better if . . .”  I would only recommend this story to people who enjoy a fast, easy read as long as they don’t mind missing details.

I would also encourage Ms. Gowan to read books by other successful author who write the same genre, and keep writing because the more you write, the more you improve; and in Beneath the Pines, it is easy to see that Ms. Gowan has raw writing talent.  She just has to cook it a little longer.  😉

A Heart’s Betrayal by Colleen Coble

/ kellyfbarr / Leave a comment

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through the BookLook Blogger program, in exchange for my honest book review.

A Heart’s Betrayal by Colleen Coble is Book Four in the “Journey of the Heart” series.  Each of these books is a quick, easy read.  Each contains romance and suspense.  In A Heart’s Betrayal, we get to know more about Emmie, the sister of Ben Croftner, who was a thorn in Rand Campbell’s side.

Emmie learns some shocking news about her husband of only three months, after he is killed in an accident; news that will negatively affect her life in many ways if she remains in Wabash, Indiana.  She has no family near to help her in any way, so she remembers that someone in town mentioned that Sarah Campbell was lonely for some woman friends, as she was living at a military fort in the west with her husband, Rand Campbell.  So, Emmie decides to go west.

When Emmie reaches the fort, she is not impressed with the surroundings, although she does think that men in uniform are attractive.  However, she has decided that she will never trust another man and wants nothing to do with one.  But then she meets Isaac Liddle, and her resolves starts to waiver.

Then she is hit by more news that she sees as negative for her situation — she’s pregnant!

I really enjoyed this story.  I finished reading it in about two or three hours.  I couldn’t put it down.  I just felt so bad for Emmie and all that she is going through in this story.  I couldn’t wait to find out how things will work out for her.  Then I reached the end of the book and found that Colleen Coble left me hanging again!  This was the norm when these books were first published — writers would end a book in a series in a cliff hanger, to assure that his/her readers would not be able to resist the next one in the series when it came out.  It’s definitely effective for a writer, who can pull it off well, and Colleen Coble is one of those writers.

If you haven’t read any of the “Journey of the Heart” series, I highly recommend it.  If you have been reading it, I highly recommend you read A Heart’s Betrayal, even though, A Heart’s Danger – Book Three seemed to have a good ending.  You won’t want to miss Emmie’s story.  It’s just as good as Sarah’s.

I recommend this book to anyone who has read the first three books in the “Journey of the Heart” series.  I recommend this book even if you haven’t read the first three books, as this is about a new main character, even though many characters from the first three books are a part of the story.  I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a book that is easy to read and doesn’t take a lot of time to finish reading, as well as anyone who enjoys stories of the old West, and stories of romance and suspense.