Book Review

20 Short Ones by Dan Salerno

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I received an  ecopy of 20 Short Ones by Dan Salerno free from BookLook bloggers to write a review for them.

I haven’t read very many short stories, and I had read that romance stories don’t really work well as short stories.  However, in 20 Short Ones by Dan Salerno, Dan debunks that statement.  The stories in 20 Short Ones are all relationship stories — some friendship and some romance.  His characters are interesting and his plots are sometimes quirky, but between his characters and his plots, he kept me reading.

I loved how in these stories offered so many different aspects of relationships and the problems that can be part of a relationship, whether that problem is caused by both people, an external force, or an internal conflict in one of the two people or even both of the people in the relationship.  These short stories did a good job of exploring many different relationship conflicts and possible resolutions.

There were a couple of stories in this collection that seemed a bit difficult to follow either because the author bounced from one character’s point of view to the other’s quickly and without warning or offering a page break or something to alert the reader.  Also, sometimes long passages of dialogues caused me to have to go back and figure out which character said which part of the dialogue because there were no tags or beats to help clarify who was speaking.  I understand too many tags take away from a story, but beats can actually add to the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed nine of the stories and felt that nine of the stories were good.  There were only two stories in the collection that I found I didn’t really care for and two that I absolutely loved.  I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading stories about relationships with characters and situations that may remind them of relationships in their past or present, or maybe one that they hope will be part of their future.  I will definitely hold on to this collection and read most, if not all, of these stories again.  I found that short stories can satisfy me and can be a pleasure to read.

A Heart’s Danger by Colleen Coble

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A Heart’s Danger, Book three in the “Journey of the Heart” series by Colleen Coble finds Sarah wanting to move on with her life at Fort Laramie.  Christmas is coming and relations with the Sioux have turned colder.

Will Rand really go through with the wedding to his fiancee, or will he declare his love for Sarah once and for all?

I received this book for Free from BookLook Bloggers to write a review.

In A Heart’s Danger, Sarah learns how difficult life with the Sioux can be, as well as how painful it is to watch what happens to the Sioux while more white men and women move into their territory.  Another soldier also begins to express interest in Sarah, and she wonders if she could ever learn to love him.

Sarah finds herself in danger several times throughout this story, sometimes because Ben Croftner is a sore loser and a cruel, evil man, and sometimes because she takes risks she shouldn’t take.

A Heart’s Danger is filled with danger, excitement and suspense.  It is well written and is, in my opinion, the best book in the series so far.  As the first two in the series ended with a definite cliff hanger, A Heart’s Danger seems to have resolved enough issues to have a good, solid ending.  However, it is not the end.  There are three more books coming, and though the first two ended with cliff hangers, this one has me more curious and intrigued, wondering what Ms. Coble could possibly do in the next book.  I can’t wait to find out.

I would highly recommend this book to women who love a good romance story filled with danger, excitement and suspense.  If you like a book you can’t put down, this book is for you.  I read this book in one sitting.  I just couldn’t stop reading until I knew how it ended.

A Fine Piece of Chocolate by Jacqueline R. Banks

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I received a free copy of this ebook to review for BookLook Blogger.  I am sad to say this is the first review I am writing where I cannot say that I enjoyed anything about the book.

This is the book description:  Showing that love doesn’t have to be a four-letter word and that redemption is possible, this novel follows three women all involved in the universal search of finding love. Instead, they find lust, betrayal, compromise, and finally, redemption. Banks sends a powerful message through these characters, encouraging readers to know their values, love themselves, and never compromise what is near and dear to them.

However, the novel was not written about three women.  It was three separate stories and all of them were interrupted with paragraphs analyzing decisions the main character was making, or to give advice to young women who may find themselves in a similar relationship/circumstance.  The characters were not well developed.  I did not feel as though I was in the story or in the characters’ heads, but that I was an outsider simply being told about relationships these women had gotten involved in.  There were many grammatical and spelling errors as well, and her descriptions of intimate details were crude and a bit more explicit than I find appropriate for a Christian book.

I noticed that this is Ms. Banks’s first novel, and I strongly suspect that she self-published without having a proofreader or editor look it over.  I would suggest that she seek an editor in the future.

It is clear that Ms. Banks has a heart for helping young women avoid bad relationships.  I believe that her writing style is better suited for script writing, as I often felt as though I were reading a script for a play.

I am sorry to say that I would not recommend this book to anyone.

A Heart’s Obsession by Colleen Coble

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I posted a book review on A Heart’s Disguise by Colleen Coble on March 16, 2015.  Well, this is Book Two of that series.  I am writing this review for BookLook Blogger and received a free copy of this book for review purposes.

A Heart’s Obsession picks up where A Heart’s Disguise left off, with Rand on his way to Fort Laramie as a cavalry man and Sarah remaining by her father’s side because of his failing health.  Both Rand and Sarah are miserable without each other, and when Sarah’s father succumbs to his illness, Sarah and her younger brother, Joel, make the arduous journey to Fort Laramie, Wyoming, with Sarah hoping to finally be with Rand, whom she has loved for a very long time.

However, the reception Sarah receives at Fort Laramie is nothing like Sarah imagined.  Rand seems to be involved with Jessica Dubois, the daughter of the post commander, a cunning, scheming woman.

Things get even more difficult for Sarah when her ex-fiance, Ben Croftner arrives, insisting that he will have her back.

I care about the characters and I long to see Sarah and Rand together, so I continue to read to see how things will end for Rand and Sarah by the time this series ends, and each book ends with a cliff-hanger that leaves you wanting more.

However, I was surprised that this story isn’t as well written as A Heart’s Disguise.  I was also surprised that, since these books are being re-released after ten years, the author would re-release them without updating them (at least that’s the way it appears).  There are places in this story where the pronouns are late, making you look back and reread some paragraphs to link the pronoun with the correct character.  It’s written in third person omniscent, and since I have just finished reading about writing in Deep POV, this book is not written in Deep POV, but has a narrator telling things about characters’ thoughts and feelings, which isn’t wrong, but I just know that Deep POV is the preference for today’s writing.

I do enjoy the plot of these stories, though, and they are short, easy reads.  I believe they would really be labeled as novellas, as I do not believe they are long enough to truly be novels.  I do recommend them to anyone who enjoys entertaining, short, easy-to-read, romance stories, and I will look forward to the next one in the series, as I still want more.

A Heart’s Disguise by Colleen Coble

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A Heart's Disguise

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program.  To find out how you can become a book reviewer, click here.

USA Today bestselling author Colleen Coble has written several romantic suspense novels including Tidewater Inn, Rosemary Cottage, and the Mercy Falls, Lonestar, and Rock Harbor series. Visit her website at http://www.colleencoble.com Twitter: @colleencoble Facebook: colleencoblebooks

A Heart’s Disguise by Colleen Coble is the first book in the “Journey of the Heart” series.  It takes place in the tiny town of Wabash, Indiana just after the Civil War.  Sarah Montgomery harbors a deep sadness in her heart because the man she loves with every ounce of her being, Rand Campbell, has not returned from the battle front.

With her father’s health failing, he and her brother encourage Sarah to marry Ben Croftner so that she will be settled before her father’s death.  However, when she finds out that Rand is still alive and that Ben knew it, she breaks off the engagement.

Ben doesn’t take the rejection lightly, and he plans to abduct Sarah.  Then Rand comes to her aid, but informs her that he is leaving, as he is still in the Cavalry and has been posted at Fort Laramie, Wyoming.  He asks Sarah to go with him as his wife.

What will Sarah do?  Will she be able to leave her dying father’s side to travel west with the man she has always loved?

This book grabbed my emotions from the first page.  My emotions ranged from sympathy, to anger, to pain and hurt.  The characters in the story grabbed my heart and I cheered them on throughout, except for Ben Croftner who simply made me angry, and I wanted someone to teach him a lesson.  Of course, Sarah’s brother, William, isn’t very likeable either.

The story was romantic and sad.  It is an easy read at just 90 pages, and it left me wanting more.  I cannot wait for the second book in the series.  This is the first book I have ever read by Colleen Coble, but it won’t be the last.  I will anxiously await A Heart’s Obsession, and I’m sure I’ll look for other books she has written as well.

If you love a good romance story with a bit of danger, you’ll enjoy Colleen Coble’s Journey of the Heart.

A Thousand Sleepless Nights by Michael King

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A Thousand Sleepless Nights

A Thousand Sleepless Nights by Michael King is a wonderful story.  It is about a family that is broken.  It is about a woman’s struggle with cancer.  It is about what happens to the woman, the man who loves her and her children as she faces a very aggressive cancer.

This story is so realistic, and it’s a wonderful story because the characters and the issues they are dealing with could happen to anyone.  Therefore, the reader becomes captivated from the very beginning.  The story made me laugh and made me cry, and I always say those are the best stories.  They are the stories I always remember the most about.

The book was well-written.  The characters were rich and believable and I began to care about them from the beginning.  Not only did I begin to care about the characters from the beginning, but I could feel the hurt and pain that each of them was dealing with.  I could relate to these characters, not to the woman with cancer, as I have not had to face that, but some of the issues her children were dealing with were definitely things I could relate to, things I had dealt with in my life, either directly or indirectly.  The dialogue was believable and realistic.  Mr. King did a great job describing the setting and the scenes just enough to give me the information I needed, to feel as though I were there, but not too much as to make the story feel bogged down.

In my opinion, this book has something for everyone.  To watch how the characters dealt with the issues they faced was inspiring and thought-provoking.  I think I would re-read this book if I ever faced cancer.  I recommend this book to anyone who has faced, is facing, or knows someone who has faced or is facing cancer.  I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading realistic stories with believable characters and resolution.

River’s Edge by Terri Blackstock

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This is Book #3 in the Cape Refuge Series.  If you remember, I already reviewed Book #4 of this series here.  I know, I seem to be reading this series in reverse, but it still makes sense and is still very suspenseful and enjoyable.  I received a copy of River’s Edge free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program.  I am not required to write a positive review.  The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Official Book Description

The man Lisa Jackson loved most may have betrayed her.

Another used deception to manipulate her.

But did one of them kill her?

Ben Jackson is sure to defeat Jonathan Cleary in Cape Refuge’s mayoral race, until his wife turns up missing the day before a major debate. Suspecting foul play, Police Chief Cade launches an island-wide search. But it takes a psychic’s “vision” to point police to the riverside-and Lisa’s body.

The evidence implicating Ben in his wife’s murder is convincing. But as a local scandal escalates into a national media circus, Cade’s instincts tell him to dig deeper. And he’s not the only one. Blair Owens of the Cape Refuge Journal is using her investigative skills to uncover a rat’s nest of dirty secrets-and more than one person with a motive for murder. But Blair’s methods are jeopardizing her relationship with Cade, and an unsolicited prediction from the psychic only adds to her troubles. Is the man’s so-called gift truly from God, as he claims?

Did Lisa’s murder have anything to do with the mayoral race, her husband’s alleged affair, or her decade-long struggle with infertility? Whoever the killer is, he’s about to take his evasion of justice to the next, lethal level. And someone else is going to die.

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This story is well-written and deals with some difficult issues like infertility.  It is realistic and the characters are people who will draw you into the story and make you care about them from page one.  The suspense of who killed Lisa Jackson will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end, and there are enough suspects to keep you guessing.  I love to read suspenseful novels and try to solve the crime and figure out who the guilty party is before it is revealed, but Terri Blackstock in the Cape Refuge series (the two that I have read so far) always surprises me, and to me, that says the author did a great job with the story because it was intricately woven in a way that I thought I knew who dunnit, but I didn’t.

This series also includes a recurring group of townsfolk who keep you coming back to each book of the series.  Their storylines include suspense and romance as well as real-life issues.  Blair Owens’s walk of faith is a joy to watch as it grows and she faces some of the spiritual struggles we all deal with.

I would recommend this novel to anyone who loves a well-written story about realistic characters dealing with realistic issues.  I also recommend this novel to anyone who loves a fast-paced suspense novel, as well as a mystery that keeps you guessing until the very end.

Vengeance by Cody Clark

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I received this ebook free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program.  When I read the blurb about the ebook, I thought the story would be very much like a couple of Frank Peretti’s well-know books, but it turned out to be quite different than I thought it would be.  Vengeance is a short story about spiritual warfare.  It is told in a very interesting way, moving back and forth between our known world where a man is struggling over the death of his son, and the spiritual realm where the angels and demons battle for the man’s soul, so to speak.

I enjoyed the story, though it moved more quickly than I liked, but, of course, that’s to be expected to create a short story.  In the beginning it was difficult to route for the main character. It took quite a while for me to care enough about the main character to route for him.  The battle between angels and demons is impressive.  I always struggle, though, when angels are described as having wings because the Bible doesn’t say that the angels have wings.  It speaks about angels appearing to people in the Old Testament, but wings are not mentioned in any of those passages.  It mentions heavenly host appearing to the shepherds in the fields, and, I guess because they are in the air, we assume they have wings, but only cherubim and seraphim are described as having wings, and yes, they are technically angels, but they are a certain type of angels.

I did like the story.  I cared about the angels from the very start and cheered for them, although I knew they couldn’t lose.  I did finally begin to care about the human man in the story and want him to do the right thing as well.  I really liked the ending and the way Cody Clark wrote the ending and brought it all together.  The story was very moving and inspirational.  It also challenged me, personally, in my faith and in my thoughts and attitudes toward others, especially someone who may have caused me pain.  I recommend this story to anyone who enjoys a good, inspirational story, and to anyone who may be struggling with the idea of forgiveness.  This story has a powerful message of forgiveness.

I am always amazed when a writer can create a great short story because good story elements require good characters and a good plot line with conflict, and to pull all of that off in a short story takes a lot of talent and hard work.  Congratulations Cody Clark on writing a good short story that includes the required elements of story.  I look forward to reading something written by you in the future.

Breaker’s Reef by Terri Blackstock

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I have been a Terri Blackstock fan for some time.  Her books always keep me turning pages and Breaker’s Reef was no exception.  I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program, and I must admit that when I received the book and saw that it is book four of the “Cape Refuge Series”, I thought I might be lost because I hadn’t read the first three books in the series.  However, that was not the case.  I’m sure that many of the characters are part of the first three books as Cape Refuge is a town, but Ms. Blackstock wrote this book in such a way that I could read it and not feel like I was reading a book from a series where I had missed a lot of important information.  She gave enough information on the characters that I understood them and the connections between them, and the plot line seemed independent.

Breaker’s Reef is the story of Sadie, a young lady who has lived a difficult life, whose mother has recently straightened out her own life though she has a secret that is soon revealed — she had another daughter before Sadie, one she gave up for adoption. When a murder takes place, Sadie’s mom thinks she may have information as to who may have done it.  Then, another young girl turns up dead and another missing.  Danger seems to lurk around every corner as Sadie decides to try to find the missing girl.  In between all of the murders and abductions, the Police Chief is trying to propose to the woman he has loved for a long time, but the case seems to grow more tangled and time consuming every day.

Breaker’s Reef is suspenseful and gripping with a touch of humor and romance.  It definitely kept me turning pages.  The young ladies in this book were impressive characters in the way they showed compassion and wanted to help other young girls in trouble.  They encouraged others to take a step to change their lives.  The story and its characters were inspiring.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery with an inspirational message.  If you love a story that grabs your attention and holds it until the very end, Breaker’s Reef is a book you’ll want to read.  I can’t wait to read the first three that came before Breaker’s Reef in the “Cape Refuge Series”.

Love Unexpected by Jody Hedlund

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I recently read Jody Hedlund’s ebook Out of the Storm.  It is a novella and I enjoyed it very much.  Included at the end of that ebook novella were the first five chapters of Love Unexpected by Jody Hedlund.  I read those first five chapters and couldn’t wait to get my hands on the book so that I could read the rest of the story.

My friend Lisa, Living Echoes, read the book and did a review on it, and last Saturday, she asked me if I would like to read it because I had commented on her review that I had never read a book by Jody Hedlund (I had read the ebook novella since making that comment).  I was so happy, when she handed me the book.  I couldn’t wait to dig into it.  I began reading it that evening and finished it this afternoon.

Love Unexpected by Jody Hedlund is about a young woman who is traveling on a boat with her brother.  Pirates attack the boat and Emma, the young woman, and her brother, Ryan, are rescued by the Presque Isle lighthouse keeper.  Presque is a remote place in Michigan.  There are only two other woman on Presque Isle when Emma and Ryan arrive, an older woman and her daughter-in-law.

Ryan is taken in by a family because he can work for the man, but Emma is not really welcome to stay with them.  An unlikely solution presents itself when the lighthouse keeper arrives in town.  His wife has just passed away and he is having difficulty caring for his two-year-old child and the lighthouse.  A traveling preacher suggests that Emma marry the lighthouse keeper as a solution to both of their problems.  She hastily agrees and finds herself unprepared for parenting an exuberant toddler and managing a household.

The story is suspenseful and romantic.  I fell in love with Emma and Patrick, the lighthouse keeper, quickly and longed for them both to find happiness with each other.  Jody Hedlund created such rich characters in Emma and Patrick that I couldn’t help but love them and route for them throughout a well-written plot; a plot that constantly created problems and emotional upset in their lives.

The story was spiritually inspiring, as Patrick lived a life of faith and had already learned some difficult lessons in his life.  I was challenged by something that Patrick shares with Emma on page 94. (You’ll have to read the book to find out what those words are.)

This is the first book in a new series by Jody Hedlund; a series called “Beacons of Hope” and I look forward to reading each one as it becomes available.  I highly recommend this book to adult women who enjoy well-written historical fiction stories that include good, clean romance.

I wrote this book review on my own.  I did not write it for a publisher and I did not receive a free copy of the book.  I simply borrowed the book from a friend, but I enjoyed it so much and loved the characters so much that I wanted to write a review and encourage others to read it.

Those of you interested in writing may also want to check out Jody Hedlund’s blog:  Jody Hedlund.  She does a great job encouraging writers.  I’ve been reading her blog for months.