Christian fiction

Book Review: Samara’s Peril

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Book Review: Samara’s Peril
The Ilyon Chronicles #3
by Jaye L. Knight

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Christian fantasy

With Samara, a neighboring country, in peril, the resistance members in Landale embark on a mission to get as much information as they can. This venture will completely change the life of Jace, the half-ryrik who was an orphan, slave, and gladiator before being rescued by Rayad. Then, as war looms between Emperor Daican’s forces and Samara, news comes out of Samara of a man who performs miracles and heals the sick. Could this be the Savior that Elôm’s followers have been waiting for?

There was a lot of really good stuff in this book—action, emotion, and some major surprises. The book has 4 parts, though it mostly breaks down to 2 in my mind: the info-gathering mission and everything surrounding the battle for Samara. The first part contained a reveal that was pretty exciting, and I liked that it was both good and bad, with a hope of more good to come. However, for me, the first part was also heavily bogged down by Jace, who seems to have taken the lead as the main-main character (which I said in my review of the previous book seemed to be Kyrin, but though she does have plenty of POV scenes, this book is definitely Jace’s, overall). Because of his half-ryrik status, Jace can’t bring himself to fully accept that he has a soul and can possibly be loved by Elôm. Despite many people that he trusts giving him a lot of wise and insightful advice, he kind of just covers his ears and sinks deeper and deeper into darkness. I fully understand the purpose of this, in the frame of the grander story, but I wish it could have been done with a little less repetition and without being drawn out so much.

In the 2nd half of the book, a lot of what became an issue for me was mostly personal preference, which I’ll try to explain without spoiling anything. Once I realized in the previous book that the biblical parallel was more to Old Testament times than New, I thought about the possibility of a Messiah character, and sure enough, it’s hinted at in the synopsis for this book. But considering that any text from the “King’s Scrolls” that have been presented in these books have been taken right from the Bible, I was imagining more of a parallel to biblical history, when apparently Knight was going for more of an analogy. The Savior character in this book is vastly different from Christ in the Bible, which threw me off enough to make some scenes much less emotional for me than they might have otherwise been. On top of that, this character was such a small part of the book, he seemed to only really be there to advance Jace’s personal characterization. It was just underwhelming. My 15-year-old daughter, who first recommended this series to me, was disappointed that I was so disappointed, because she loved that aspect of the book. So clearly personal preference plays a large role here. A severely watered-down Christ character disappoints me, but it might not disappoint others. And in the end, I still liked the overall book enough to give it 4 stars. This review might make that rating seem strange, but the couple of things I mentioned weren’t as big a part as they seem; they just took a while to explain. Overall, the story was a good advancement of the world set up in the first two books. I liked King’s Scrolls more, but I’m still looking forward to seeing where the story goes from here.

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Book Review: Mandie and the Ghost Bandits

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Mandie and the Ghost Bandits
Mandie #3
by Lois Gladys Leppard

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Children’s Christian historical fiction

I read a lot of this series when I was a kid/pre-teen, and I read some of them to my now-teen daughter when she was younger. Nostalgia definitely affects my reviews for this series, and I’m okay with that. Though I am also willing to admit the flaws in the books. Fortunately, this one was less aggravating than the previous. As a parent now, I was particularly interested in Mandie’s mom’s difficulty in parenting her. With the gap in their relationship between the time Mandie was a baby and when they found each other again over a decade later, Elizabeth doesn’t really know how to be a mom and isn’t very good at standing up to her very willful daughter. It also gives Mandie an actual dimension beyond just coming across as perfect all the time, though it’s fairly subtle. On the other hand, Mandie definitely displays a personality shortcoming in this book, so there’s another flaw. It was a little difficult to understand why Tsa’ni was suddenly so kind and friendly at the end of the previous book, then here was rude again, though he never got quite as bad as he had been before again.

One of my biggest overall issues with this series so far is the theology. In my review of the first book, I mentioned that there seemed to be a salvation-by-works message. Here, I was bothered when Mandie tells the wife of a dear friend that they had to trust God to heal that dear friend who was badly injured, and there doesn’t seem to be any allowance for the possibility that God wouldn’t heal him. And then when he takes a turn for the worst, very soon after Mandie’s insight, Mandie herself falls to pieces and loses all semblance of trusting in God. She is supposed to come across as wise and full of faith, but she doesn’t follow her own advice, which is a bit lacking in understanding anyway. I can’t help but wonder what kind of impact this might have on kids who don’t have a full understanding of God yet. So keep that in mind if you’re kids might read these books. Outside of that, the story was good overall.

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Book Review: Black

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Black
by Ted Dekker

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Christian fantasy thriller

After an encounter with a dangerous loan shark, Thomas Hunter dreams of a world where evil is completely contained and humans live in happiness and harmony. The dream is so vivid that while he’s dreaming, he’s certain the world with the loan shark is the dream. Then the worlds begin to bleed together when he learns about some events that are still future to the “Earth” side and are expected to wipe out most of life on Earth. Knowledge from each world becomes useful in the other, and before long, both worlds are in jeopardy.

I read this book, and the entire trilogy, for the first time back around when it came out. I remember finding it a bit strange, confusing, and not particularly enjoyable. My husband read the series more recently and said he thought I’d like it…so I gave it another chance. I have come to understand that, when I was a young adult, I read this book as a direct parallel to Christianity. Though it certainly has an analogous angle to it, I needed to read it more as fantasy and let it be what it was, not what I assumed it should be. Doing that made this second reading experience far better than the first. I was hooked early on, enjoying the fast pace of the “Earth” reality and the world building of the “green forest” reality alongside it. Though the green forest side was slow in comparison to the Earth side, I skimmed a few scenes when Thomas had a very real, yet at the same time kind of abstract, communion with Elyon, the undisputed Creator of the green forest reality. I get the inclusion of those scenes, but I didn’t feel the need to read them thoroughly.

As the Earth reality gained speed toward the pending disaster, the green forest takes a turn that is sad and unexpected (though, at the same time, unsurprising), and I was really curious to see where that side of the story was going to go next. I remember snippets from the trilogy, but fortunately, it’s mostly all new. The last few pages are a bit bizarre but, at the same time, intriguing. And the book ends on a cliffhanger, which I normally dislike, but it really worked here. And now I’m excited to continue reading, which I didn’t expect to be!

I am aware that I’m at the beginning of a long, twisty mess of a book franchise. Some are directly connected and others are more peripherally so, and apparently there’s no specified order in which to read the books. I have read one of those books in the past and part of another one, and I found both bizarre and unsettling, coincidentally enough. I currently don’t have a lot of desire to read much more than the main trilogy, but I’ll see how I feel when I’m done with the first 3 books, and maybe the prequel.

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Book Sale!

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In honor of the release of book #3 in the Pithea series (and what a good time for it, with so many of us snowed in), the book that kicks off the whole series is available for only $0.99 for the next 5 days, and my novelette The Triangle (unrelated to the series) is free now through Thursday! See below for links and a little more information.

Pithea cover, Kindle

Pithea is the first book in a series of speculative, futuristic fiction. Check it out on Goodreads and Amazon.

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The Triangle is a stand-alone novelette of Christian fiction. Check it out on Goodreads, and go here to get your free copy!

As many who will read this already know, authors, especially self-published or indie authors, need reviews to allow more readers to find their books. If you take advantage of either, or both, of the deals on my books, please make sure to leave me a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or preferably, both!
*Both of these books are also available through Kindle Unlimited.

Book Review: The King’s Scrolls

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The King’s Scrolls
The Ilyon Chronicles #2
by Jaye L. Knight

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Christian fantasy

Kyrin, her twin brother Kaden, and the half-ryrik Jace are now living with other resistance members in a camp in the woods of Arcacia and helping run missions to free other followers of Elôm, an outlawed religion. When the camp gets some unexpected visitors in the form of a group of dragon-riding cretes who ask for help in tracking down the last original copies of the King’s Scrolls, which contain the Word of Elôm to his followers.

With this book, I realized I was a little off in my comparison of this fantasy world to the time of Nero’s persecution of Christians. It seems much more like Old Testament times now, and I found it fascinating that the couple of times that words from the scrolls were shared, they were right out of the Bible. Knight clearly didn’t want to create her own religion and instead made the decision to mirror biblical history in her fantasy series. As an author who went through a process of trying to decide whether or not to create a new religion for a fantasy world I had dreamed up, this is really interesting to me. There are a lot of great moments in this book, both related to the religious aspects and otherwise. Dragons, family connections, allies and betrayals. And though I began to suspect that Knight was always going to write an out for anyone in peril, there is a devastating loss in this book as well. It’s sad, definitely, but makes the story more real. And it’s a beautiful example of John 12:24 (which may be a spoiler, so maybe don’t look it up if you don’t know it).

There were a couple of main downsides to me, the first being that I still just don’t care about Kyrin at all, which is a shame, since she seems to be the main-main character. She’s just so…blah. A little too shiny, if that makes sense to anyone else. The other issue I had was peril fatigue. It seemed like there wasn’t enough rest time, for me or the characters, between each different danger sequence. But try as I might, I couldn’t lower the rating more than half a star for these things, because there was just so much about the book that was amazing! I was right in thinking that I’d like this book more than the first one, because the first one picked up halfway through, and this book continued from there. It’s like Knight had to sort of clear her throat with the first half of the first book, but so far, what has come after that has been great. Older teens up through adults who enjoy Christian fiction about persecution and standing up for one’s faith should consider reading this book. The fantasy ramps up a little in this book, but I still don’t think you’d have to like fantasy to enjoy it.

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Book Review: Holly and Nick Hate Christmas

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Holly and Nick Hate Christmas
by Betsy St. Amant

My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Christian Christmas romance

Holly was born on Christmas Day and named for the holiday. Nick’s childhood was rigid and not very loving, and Christmas was when he noticed the coldness the most. Both are now adults that hate Christmas and all its trappings, so when Holly’s brother Ryan, who is also Nick’s co-worker, sets them up on a date for Holly and Ryan’s family’s big Christmas party, it seems like a match made in Heaven. Right?

What do you get when you stack childish people on top of secrets and lies? A happy ending, apparently. When Holly finds out that Nick had to be convinced to be her date, rather than agreeing with gusto, she decides he should be tortured. So she proceeds to force Christmas festivities on him, even though she’s been told he hates it as much as she does. Considering that she has some real pain and even trauma that has led to her dislike of Christmas and has every reason to believe he would have the same, she decides to twist the knife anyway. Why? Because he agreed to be her date. How dare he… Then, when Holly and Nick talk and maturely decide to bury the hatchet, Holly convinces Nick to turn around and prank Ryan with her, because he was in on the terrible plot to give Holly a date for the Christmas party too. So they pretend to be madly in love to annoy Ryan…who set them up in the first place. Then when that plan comes to its merciful end, there’s another plot hatched for an equally immature reason… you probably see the trend by now. Meanwhile, Nick has a secret about Holly’s own parents that they asked him to keep from the rest of the family (5 total adults children). And in a scene right out of A Very Brady Christmas, it turns out each of the other family members has been hiding a big secret too (except Ryan). 

Alongside all of this mess of deceit is a message that apparently many reviewers found too religious/Christian. But frankly, I was displeased at this having a Christian label on it. For one thing, the romance involves so much physical attraction, noticing of broad shoulders or muscles, heated touching, etc. for my taste, especially in a Christian book. For another, though the message of the true meaning of Christmas is mentioned near the end, it’s incredibly shallow and only really a reminder for characters to focus less on themselves and more on God and others. But frankly, I have no idea if any of these characters are actually Christians or if they just live the “Christian culture,” meaning that they try to live “good lives” but aren’t actually saved and following Jesus. There’s a tiny bit of conviction about all of the secrets and deception, but again, it all just felt so shallow. I don’t need a major Christian message in my Christian fiction, but this one felt like it was trying to have a message that didn’t really hit home for me. Maybe because it just felt shoehorned in near the end.

The book is billed as “enemies-to-lovers,” which doesn’t make much difference to me, but for those who might have been led to consider this book because of that—that really isn’t accurate. Holly might be angry at Nick, but he doesn’t see her remotely as an enemy. And frankly, she has to keep reminding herself to be angry at him, because she keeps getting distracted by his hotness. So clearly, there wasn’t much in this book that I’d recommend. I actually kind of liked some of the family dynamics, but overall, it was a miss for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and WaterBrook & Multnomah for providing me a copy of this book to review.

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Book Review: A Sea View Christmas

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A Sea View Christmas
An On Devonshire Shores novella
by Julie Klassen

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Christian historical romance, Christmas fiction

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with The Sisters of Sea View.

Sarah Summers is beginning to regret her rejection of Callum Henshall, even while part of her knows that she can’t marry and leave the boarding house her family runs behind. While she struggles with her indecision, the family prepares to host a series of holiday events at their boarding house.

After reading the main On Devonshire Shores series, I was glad to know that Sarah, who is at least a partial main character in each of the other books (I’m pretty sure I’m remembering that right) would be finally getting her happily ever after here. What I wasn’t expecting was the slow, light romance that half of the book focused on regarding the youngest Summers sister, Georgiana, who is 17 in this book and has caught the attention of an old friend. The sad thing is that I was more interested in Georgiana’s plot arc, even though it was pretty clear by the end it wasn’t meant to be the main one. Sarah’s arc, on the other hand, really bogged the story down for me. I think someone just needed to yell at her sooner and tell her that she wasn’t in control of everything. Then the story could have been a little shorter. It’s actually on the long side for a novella, at least I think so…maybe it just felt longer? Apparently at this time in history, there were something like fifteen parties throughout the Christmas season. I don’t know how everyone didn’t go broke trying to celebrate. I suppose I’m exaggerating, but it did feel like a lot of parties really close together. On the other hand, half of the fun of the book was reading about some of the festivities, especially the odd role-playing game on Twelfth Night

The book was atmospheric and a nice one to read during the Christmas season, but overall, I can’t say I enjoyed it as much as I hoped to. Based on past experience, though, I have good reason to believe that most fans of Regency-era Christian romance will enjoy this book and the series before it. Unlike the other series like this that Klassen wrote, and the Christmas-themed follow-up novella to that one, I don’t really recommend that you read this novella as a stand-alone. Sarah and Callum’s story starts in the first book in the series, and I think you’d lose something by not having read it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bethany House for providing me a copy of this book to review.

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Book Review: A Scheming in Parliament

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A Scheming in Parliament
Of Cloaks & Daggers #2
by Erica Vetsch

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Christian historical mystery

After spending years cultivating his reputation as a drunkard amongst the peerage, Sir Bertrand Thorndike, agent for the crown, has been given a mission that requires him to go straight so he can be presentable as he takes his new seat in Parliament. Meanwhile, the Eleos school, run in part by Philippa Cashel, a former courtesan who now attempts to help other women in a similar position, seems to have become a destination for injured or sick women before they’ve barely gotten themselves set up. Philippa and Bertie have to work together when the dirt Bertie is trying to uncover in Parliament ends up colliding with Philippa’s work.

I just love the way Vetsch weaves her stories, and this one is no exception. Philippa has terrible history, but she allows it to inform her present and future and help others who are going through what she did or worse. And Bertie’s completely unassuming yet protective nature is exactly the right foil for Philippa. The slow development of their relationship is one of my favorite kinds, and while they learn to lean on each other, there’s the terrible secret in Parliament to ferret out. Bertie is capable yet just clumsy enough to be endearing, and Philippa adds her own skills to the team. I really enjoy this twosome.

My favorite Vetsch character may have had a smaller role in this book, but that just means that the others get to shine more. And there’s still plenty of Marcus Haverly, so it’s all good. I’m really looking forward to the culmination of this trilogy. I highly recommend this book for fans of this genre and time period, whether you like romance or not, because there is some, but it’s not the focus of the book. But keep in mind that this book is the second in a trilogy. They each have their own main plot, but there’s enough that carries over from the previous book that it’s better to start with A Thieving at Carlton House. Of course, I would really recommend starting at the beginning for the full, rich experience, but diving in here is fine, too.

Note: I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway, but my opinions are my own.

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Book Review: Mandie and the Cherokee Legend

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Mandie and the Cherokee Legend
Mandie #2
by Lois Gladys Leppard

My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Children’s Christian historical fiction

I read a lot of this series when I was a kid/pre-teen, and I read some of them to my now-teen daughter when she was younger. I would expect nostalgia to affect my reviews for this series, but I sadly have to say that this book did not hold up nearly as well as the first one did for me. There are three main areas in this book that really bug me. Mandie’s too-perfect characterization stands out in this book. I think the author tried to combat that some by having Mandie struggle with her hatred toward her rude Cherokee cousin, but it was a small part of the book, and she didn’t struggle with it that much. Plus, he miraculously changes his tune by the end of the book for no reason, which is one of the other issues I had.

On top of all of that, this book introduces a trope in the series that I remember my sister complaining about when we were younger, though somehow it didn’t bother me. It does now. Every guy that meets Mandie is attracted to her, charmed by her, jealous of other guys’ attention of her…. She inspires a lot of attention for a 12-year-old (though the guys are all at least a year or two older). Of course, Mandie is completely oblivious and doesn’t understand why these guys are so competitive around her. It’s unnecessary at best and a little disturbing at worse. I do hope that some of the issues I had with this book smooth out as the series continues, because I plan to keep going and don’t want to continue to be this annoyed.

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Book Review: Resistance

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Resistance
The Ilyon Chronicles #1
by Jaye L. Knight

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Christian fantasy

When the self-proclaimed emperor of Arcacia begins to crack down on the worship of Elôm instead of the nation’s moon gods, it leaves many of Elôm’s followers scrambling to hide their faith or hide themselves. Kyrin has been trained since a young age to serve the emperor, but drawing too much attention to herself right now is not a good idea, given her faith. Jace is half ryrik, a race that is believed to have no soul, which means that many believe he can’t have a soul either. But he has also come to believe in Elôm as the one true God, though he can’t help but wonder if Elôm could possibly care about him. Both find a possible home at a camp for fellow believers of Elôm and hope that they can keep their new home safe.

The overall idea of this book is good, sort of a take on the time of Nero persecuting Christians, set in a medieval-like fantasy world with at least 5 different races. I particularly liked Jace’s story arc, but Kyrin’s was underwhelming in comparison. Some exciting things happen with her for sure, but it just takes a really long time to get into it. I felt like a few hundred pages could have been cut from the book and details in those pages could have been either cut completely or sprinkled throughout the rest of the book in flashbacks, memories, general backstory. Most of this excess was probably Kyrin’s story, which is likely what makes me feel like her arc was underwhelming. But there’s also the fact that there are something like 8 POV characters, which is far too much. Too many people to try to get to know, especially considering that several of them are minor characters and thus do not need their own POV. And at least one of them just seems to be there to reinforce what we’re already learning about Jace, so again, unnecessary. If I were rating just the part of this that felt like the meat of the story, it’d probably be more like 4.5 stars. But man, it just took so long to get to it.

One thing I did appreciate about Kyrin, though, is that she’s still young in her faith and not perfect by any means. She’s trying to learn to lean on Elôm but struggles with fear, because she didn’t believe in Elôm and immediately become a perfect follower. That was a realistic angle I liked. The overall Christian parallel here is really interesting and well done. Because what I liked most came in the 2nd half or so of the book, I anticipate the story picking up from here and am looking forward to seeing where the series goes. My 15-year-old daughter read it first and recommended it to me, and it looks like the book is classified as “new adult,” so I do think that older teens up through adults who enjoy Christian fiction about persecution and standing up for one’s faith. You wouldn’t really have to like fantasy to enjoy it, I don’t think, since it’s fairly light on the fantasy.

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