Books

Dauntless by Dina L. Sleiman

/ kellyfbarr / Leave a comment

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.

 

Top Ten Tuesday

/ kellyfbarr / 1 Comment

The theme for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday as determined by The Broke and Bookish is “Ten Books to Read If You Are in the Mood for Something Sci Fi”.  However I am substituting “Romantic” for “Sci Fi” because I have not read any Sci Fi books.

1.   A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux

I read this book years ago but it still stands out as my favorite love story because I             have always loved stories of knights in medieval times, and this story has that plus a         wonderful spin on it.  It includes time travel.  Ms. Deveraux does a wonderful job                 capturing and holding my attention.  She creates wonderful characters and I just get       completely swept up in this story.  I hope to reread this treasure again soon.

2.  The O’Malley series by Dee Henderson (I know we are supposed to give a list with a          total of 10 books, but this is a series and it’s nearly impossible to choose just one                from the series.)  This series is so good.  I totally love it.  Each story has a suspenseful        plot and the characters are so well developed that I felt like I really knew them.  I fell        in love with the characters and was sad when the series came to an end.  I would still        like to see more books about these characters, but I will definitely read this series              over again, probably several times.

3.  Fire and Water by Betsy Graziani Fasbinder

This story drew me in immediately and held me fast.  Jake and Kate have such a                   strong love for one another, but they face some serious struggles.  I kept routing for         them throughout the story.  I think I loved Jake just as much as Kate did and as he               sank deeper and deeper into his mental illness, my heart ached for both of them.               After finishing the book, I was affected as no other book had ever affected me.  I                 literally had to take a week or two to process the story and to deal with the emotions     it had evoked within me before I could move on and read another book.

4.  Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

I read this story years ago and my husband and I went to see it performed on stage in     the early years of our marriage.  It still remains one of my favorites.  Who can ever             forget Catherine and Heathcliff?  I look forward to reading this story again soon as           well.

5.  The Hunger Games trilogy (I know, again this is more than one book.  I can’t help it.)          I just love the love between Catniss and Peeta.  Peeta is the kind of loving man any            girl would want to have loving her.

6.  Kissed by a Cowboy by Debra Clopton

If you want to know why I like this book so much, you can read my review.

7.  Love Unexpected by Jody Hedlund

This story is a wonderful story about a lonely lighthouse keeper and a young woman       who ends up on the same island after a storm.  Emma, the woman, seems to be                     unwanted at the home where her brother, Ryan was taken in.  She is intrigued by               Patrick, the lighthouse keeper and reaches out to his little boy.  It’s wonderful to read     how the relationship between Emma and Patrick grows.

8.  Prison by Toni V. Lee

This is just a fun story that includes danger, suspense and romance.  The two main             characters are very entertaining and I couldn’t help but chuckle often while they were   falling in love.

9.  Mermaid Moon by Colleen Coble

This book is a wonderful book about an old love rekindled and old hurts healed.  It’s          got suspense, danger, and romance and wonderful characters.

10.  Love Comes Softly by Janette Oke

I will refrain from including this entire series because I haven’t read the entire series       yet, but I know I’ll love the books I haven’t read as much as the ones I have.  This                 series is Janette Oke’s most popular series.  It follows the life of pioneer woman                 Marty and the man she marries for convenience, Clark Davis.  This series was made         into a series of movies which I recently ordered on DVD from Amazon.

 

Binge Reading

/ kellyfbarr / Leave a comment

I hear a lot of people about binge watching t.v. shows or movies, but have you ever binge read books?  I haven’t heard anyone talk about this, but I have to admit that recently, I have been binge reading.

Sometimes my brain just craves good books, and I need to feed this craving.  That’s why you’ve been seeing all of the book reviews here on my blog.  I like to write a review for every book I read, whether old or new, and whether I am doing it for BookLook Blogger or just for my own reading record.

I’m still writing too, but I believe I need to continue to read to feed my writing as well.  When I read, I can see what works and what doesn’t as I read books that I think are okay and books that I think are really good.

In my opinion, the very best books make me laugh and cry. (Incidentally, my opinion is the same for movies.)  I must say that none of the books I’ve read during my recent binge have ranked that high.

So, in my opinion, good books are the books that hold my attention, make me care about and route for the main character(s), and keep me turning pages past my bedtime.  Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina, Mermaid Moon by Colleen Coble, and The Golden Braid by Melanie Dickerson fall into this category.

Then there are the books that are okay.  These would be the books that interest me either in the character(s) or the plot, but not necessarily both.  It could be the plot is too slow or the characters don’t really make me care about them, but some aspect of the story keeps me reading.  Maybe I care enough about the character to see how things will turn out for that character, or maybe the plot line includes something like a murder and I want to know whodunit.  These books may keep me reading, but I will not read through a book like this nearly as quickly.

Finally, there are the books that are not very good.  These lack both characters that I care about and a good plot line.  I trudge through these books, and only if I am reading them for a BookLook Blogger book review because I have agreed to read a book in its entirety before writing the review for them.  If it’s just a book I have picked up, I will lay it aside and most likely never pick it up again.

 

The following books are on my current list of books I want to read as I continue binge reading:

Dauntless by Dina Sleiman

Chivalrous by Dina Sleiman

Rose Madder by Steven King

Fear Mountain by Mike Dellosso

Darlington Woods by Mike Dellosso

I’m sure there will be many more added, as I continue to binge.  There will also be more added for book reviews for BookLook Blogger.  The next one of those that is up is Inspirational Reflections by Ian J. Roberts.

So, do you binge read?  What’s on your binge reading list?

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 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.

When Mockingbirds Sing by Billy Coffey

/ kellyfbarr / Leave a comment

I received a free ecopy of this book to review for BookLook Bloggers.

What marks the boundary between a miracle from God and the imagination of a child?

Leah is a child from Away, isolated from her peers because of her stutter. But then she begins painting scenes that are epic in scope, brilliant in detail, and suffused with rich, prophetic imagery. When the event foreshadowed in the first painting dramatically comes true, the town of Mattingly takes notice.

Leah attributes her ability to foretell the future to an invisible friend she calls the Rainbow Man. Some of the townsfolk are enchanted with her. Others fear her. But there is one thing they all agree on-there is no such thing as the Rainbow Man.

Her father, the town psychologist, is falling apart over his inability to heal his daughter . . . or fix his marriage. And the town minister is unraveled by the notion that a mere child with no formal training may be hearing from God more clearly than he does.

While the town bickers over what to do with this strange child, the content of Leah’s paintings grows darker. Still, Leah insists that the Rainbow Man’s heart is pure. But then a dramatic and tragic turn of events leaves the town reeling and places everyone’s lives in danger. Now the people of Mattingly face a single choice:

Will they cling to what they know . . . or embrace the things Leah believes in that cannot be seen?

I found When Mockingbirds Sing by Billy Coffey very intriguing.  Leah’s family are not church goers and her father doesn’t want to hear anything about God or religion.  Her mother has interest in the idea of spiritual things but not necessarily in a God who is in control of the things that happen in life.

Therefore, when Leah begins talking about The Rainbow Man and insisting he is real, she can see him, and he sings to her and tells her what to do, her father is frustrated with the idea.  Her mother sees it as a normal part of a child’s life, inventing an imaginary friend.  But, when Leah starts to paint pictures with incredible detail, both of her parents are baffled.  When the event depicted in her first painting comes true, her parents begin to question what is causing this new, surreal ability their daughter seems to have.

Her parents aren’t the only ones struggling to figure out what is enabling Leah to paint these pictures.  The town minister suspects that instead of hearing from God, Leah may be connected to evil forces instead.

Is Leah good or evil?  How could Leah be prophetic when she knows nothing of God?

Read Billy Coffey’s When Mockingbirds Sing to find the answers to these questions.

I enjoyed this book.  I couldn’t wait to get to the end because the story drove a desire within me to know if Leah was evil or good because as I read the plot, I kept flip-flopping in my opinion, so I just wanted to know, so it definitely kept me turning the pages.  I also was pleased to find study questions at the end of the book because the story left me with a couple of questions about the author’s thoughts in writing the story, and when I read the study questions, I found the answers to the questions I had.

I recommend this story to anyone who enjoys stories that involve the supernatural and give cause to think about the spiritual realm and stories that hold your interest and keep you turning pages.

Centralia by Mike Dellosso

/ kellyfbarr / Leave a comment

Picture

Things are not what they seem.

Peter Ryan can’t find his wife and daughter.  Everyone keeps telling him they died, but he doesn’t believe them.  He does, however, have memories of their funeral.  When his house is invaded, he discovers that he has survival skills he was not aware he had.  He doesn’t understand what is going on, and do the disconnected memories have anything to do with what’s happening?  And, what about the nightmare he has almost every night?  Is it significant?  Centralia is a fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat suspense story where “things are not what they seem”.

This story is very well-written and the characters, down to the very minor characters who only appear in one chapter, are very well-developed.  One of the best minor characters in the book is Ronnie.  He’s only in one chapter, but Mike gave me so much information about Ronnie that I immediately cared about this character.  I would like to see Mike continue Ronnie’s story in another book sometime.

The story grabbed my attention right from the start and held it in a strong grip right up until the very end.  Mike Dellosso has a talent for giving great descriptions of people and settings without making it too wordy or slowing the action and suspense down.  The story is action-packed, suspenseful and frightening.

I’ve been a Mike Dellosso fan for a year now, and though I haven’t yet read all of his books, I think this could be his best work yet.  I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to be kept up late because you just can’t put this book down; to anyone who loves a story packed with action and suspense, you won’t want to miss this one.

One-Day Super Saturday Writers’ Conference

/ kellyfbarr / Leave a comment

A writers’ conference is a great place to learn more about writing techniques and marketing and publishing opportunities and possibilities.  It is also a great place to meet other writers and make connections and form bonds, which is a wonderful thing since writing is a lonely business.  You can make lifelong friends who can help and encourage you and you can do the same for them as you walk your writing journey.  I attended this event last year, and cannot wait to attend this Saturday.  If you are anywhere near Lancaster County, I invite you to come and see what this one-day conference has to offer, and if you like, I can meet you face-to-face if you let me know you are coming so we can connect.

LANCASTER CHRISTIAN WRITERS HOSTS ONE-DAY CONFERENCE ON APRIL 11, 2015, AT LANCASTER BIBLE COLLEGE

For a bargain of excellence and price, no writer, whether beginning or advanced, within driving radius will want to miss Lancaster Christian Writers’ Super Saturday 2015!! to be held April 11th, 2015, from 8:30am.-4:30pm at Lancaster Bible College, 901 Eden Road, Lancaster, PA 17601.

This one-day writers conference offers a full slate of workshops taught by top industry professionals in both fiction and non-fiction fields. An early registration price of $50 is due by Wednesday, April 8, and includes soup/sandwich buffet lunch (think Panini!) and LCW membership. Registrations after April 9 and walk-ins day of the conference are $60.

A fiction track will be taught by award-winning novelists Dina Sleiman and Kelly Long along with children’s author Brenda Hendricks. Non-fiction faculty include TV/radio speaker, marketing expert, award-winning author of 19 books Karen Whiting, professional memoir and ghostwriter Shawn Smucker, journalist/social media experts Lisa Bartelt and Alison McLennan.

Keynoting the opening session will be linguist, missionary, and author Grace Fabian. Workshops cover such topics as: 

Market Yourself Now! Learn Tools to Develop Press Kit, Bio, Website, and Other PR Products.

Writing Blockbuster Scenes: How To Keep Readers Flipping Pages and Asking For More.

 Transformed Manuscripts: Repackaging Your Ideas (Sold or Rejected) to Expand Marketability.

 The Unfortunate Truth in Fiction: Addressing Hard Issues Without Pulling Down Your Story.

 A Story To Tell: Surefire Do’s and Don’ts to Write a Gripping True Life Story or Memoir.

 Myers-Briggs for Your Protagonist: Applying Personality Types to Create Characters with Distinctive Qualities, Motivations, and Voices.

 Let’s Ride the Seesaw: Recruiting Your Inner Child to Communicate with Young Readers.

 100% Guaranteed (Oh, Yeah?) Secret to Blogging Success Beyond Your Wildest Dreams!

A conference bookstore will offer a wide variety of writer resources and faculty titles. Conference attendees can get personal consultations with faculty on a first-come, first-serve basis. Lancaster Christian Writers welcomes writers of all churches and denominations, all levels and genres. Monthly meetings offer opportunities for manuscript critique, networking with other writers, workshops and guest authors.

A Heart’s Obsession by Colleen Coble

/ kellyfbarr / Leave a comment

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.