Christian fiction

Book Review: Mists over the Channel Islands

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Mists over the Channel Islands
Allegiance Under Pressure #3
by Sarah Sundin

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Christian historical romance

When the Germans invade the British Channel Islands, Dr. Ivy Picot is left trying to keep her dad’s medical practice afloat, with him and half of her family evacuated to England. Then Ivy is pulled into a ring of medical people who help treat hidden laborers who are in danger from their German taskmasters who are using forced labor to build fortifications on the island. One of those responsible for the new structures marring the beautiful landscape of her beloved Jersey is Gerrit van der Zee, a Dutchman who volunteered for the work in the hopes that he’d be able to help the Allies in some way. But even as he is captivated by the lovely young doctor, he can’t tell her that he is not one of the occupiers she so despises, that he’s actually on her side.

Again I’m struck by Sarah Sundin’s grasp on the history in this time period. I’ve read a few non-fiction books about (and in some cases written by) people who were involved in underground resistance rings during WWII, and Sundin’s writing here rings true for the most part. There is one character who never quite grasps the “don’t say anything to anyone ever” concept, but the codes that are set up and different ways they attempt to keep things hidden and secret kept me engage and in suspense. I kept watching the dates tick ever closer to D-Day, then to the date I knew the Channel Islands would be liberated, and wondering how badly things would fall apart as the Germans got more and more desperate. 

Sundin has a way of writing romance into her stories without making it the predominant theme or overwhelming the plot, and the same is the case here. I also really liked several of the side characters and was appropriately saddened by one particular story arc throughout the book. Then near the end, we get to reunite with characters from the previous two books in this series, and I really enjoyed that. I recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fiction from this time period in the Christian romance genre. Though this is the third book in a series, you don’t need really to read them in order. Though of course, since I enjoyed the whole series, I’d say there’s no reason not to start with the first book, Embers in the London Sky.

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

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Book Review: Time Lottery

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Time Lottery
Book #1
by Nancy Moser

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Christian speculative fiction

Three people win a prize that will allow them to travel back in time, within their own minds, to a moment of their choosing, to try to change something in their past. After they’ve lived out the change, they can decide whether they want to stay in the new alternate universe they’ve created or return to their original lives.

The “time travel” involved here is an interesting idea and clearly just a means to the speculation involved in seeing what would happen if one could change a pivotal moment in one’s past. And it is an interesting premise. I was really looking forward to some high emotions and heart-felt moments, partly because of that premise and partly because of my experience with the other book that I read by this author. I can’t really say that it was as emotional as I expected, though. I did enjoy the story, and who hasn’t dreamed of the ability to revisit the past and at least see what could have been different, if not actually stay and live out a new path in life? There are three different storylines here, though there is some connection that requires suspension of disbelief (not in a bad way). One of the storylines I didn’t really connect with as much as the others, and I’m not a huge fan of something that happened at the end of the book. I think that many fans of Christian fiction would enjoy this book, especially those interested in the exploration of past decisions and the ability to change some of those decisions.

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Book Review: Red

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Red
The Circle #2
by Ted Dekker

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Christian fantasy thriller

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the first book in the series, Black.

Fifteen years after the events of the previous book, Thomas of Hunter is the leader of an army of forest dwellers, called the Forest Guard, in a perpetual battle against the desert dwellers, the Horde. He hasn’t dreamed once in those fifteen years, but when he gets into a pinch in battle, he realizes that the answers could be found in his dreams. When he wakes up in the other reality, mere hours have passed and the danger of the Raison Strain virus is ramping up. Both realities need him, and both are on the edge of destruction.

I have to admit that with the way that the previous book ended, I wasn’t all that enthusiastic starting into this book. I’ve never really enjoyed war, battles, fighting, etc. in books, and the endless war between Thomas’s Forest Guard and the Horde (aka Scabs) wasn’t a huge draw for me at the outset. Fortunately, it quickly becomes more than that, especially when Thomas intentionally dreams for the first time in order to glean information he can use to aid the fight. It’s interesting that Thomas has aged 15 years in that reality but is still a younger man in the “real” world. Waking up after dreaming of 15 years going by is hard to imagine, but I liked that some of the people that know him best can see a difference in how he acts and even how he looks (mostly his eyes).

The urgency of the Raison Strain, even though it’s been carried on past the first book, is still there. The world moves on to a new stage as the secret of the virus threatens to be exposed, and though normally I’d feel it’s a mistake to drag something like this on for so long, it works here, thanks to the addition of the parallel reality. Some major revelations are shown involving the connected realities in this book, too, that brought my engagement level even higher. The forest/desert world, which has always displayed a very literal view of good vs. evil and has been the main vehicle for development and change in this series, brings some emotional moments at the end of this book that made me consider diving right into the third book. I won’t, but I also will not be waiting very long to read it. 

I understand even more now why 20-something-year-old me read this series as a parallel to Christianity. It’s not as direct a parallel as I must have expected/wanted it to be, but it’s certainly allegorical. Though the ways the allegory fell short (or even fell apart) bothered me when I was younger, I’m able to enjoy the story for what it is this time around. And I’m glad for that, because I’m enjoying it a lot!

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Book Review: Samara’s Peril

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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
The Circle #1
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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