Christian fiction

Book Review: Homicide at Blue Heron Lake

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Homicide at Blue Heron Lake
by Susan Page Davis and Megan Elaine Davis

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Christian romance, mystery

Returning temporarily to the small, lakeside town in which she grew up, Emily Gray and her high school friend Nate Holman stumble upon a body on the island on which Emily’s family has a cottage.

My favorite thing about this book is the setting; the authors (a mother-daughter team) clearly have a lot of experience in this kind of area, and that experience is translated well to the book. As mysteries go, this story is fairly bland. Emily and Nate do look into the death of the body they found, amidst rekindling a small spark of a flame that had started back in high school. Emily also reconnects with locals that still live in the area and uncovers terrible secrets from the past. However, though Emily does investigate and even dig up some of the truth, final details are put together “off-screen” by the police and reported to her later. It’s probably more realistic than the common mystery trope where the amateur detective manages to figure everything out alone and the police do nothing, but it all just felt a little weak for a mystery genre book.

The romance was definitely a heavier aspect in the book, though fortunately, it was very clean. Sometimes even Christian books can’t be trusted in that area, but this one can be. As for the Christian genre side of things (which is part of what kept the romance believably clean), I do have to say that one particular story arc seemed to be the main inclusion of Christianity, but it was also fairly weak. A woman who has basically gone down a New Age-y path to trying to be at one with nature or something has come to realize that it’s not really good enough. She confides in Emily, who gives her a broad explanation of Christianity, and the woman seems to latch onto the idea, but she is never given more than that broad explanation, at least not that we see. It felt a little too much like the real-world tendency toward moral deism, which is pervasive and dangerous. I don’t think it was intended that way, though, it didn’t bother me all that much. Overall, this is a decent mystery book with a Christian worldview and clean romance.

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Book Review: Out of Darkness

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Out of Darkness
The Lightseeker Series #1
by Daniel J. Atkins

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Middle grade Christian fantasy

When your entire civilization is underground, sources of light are important. Many of the inhabitants of the underground world are stone hunters, digging for increasingly more rare glowstones, which provide a safer, more efficient means of light than fire does. Fin and Sky, both 12-year-old stone hunters, begin to hear more and more about forgotten, forbidden mysteries and are compelled to seek the answers and the light. This leads them on a wild and dangerous adventure as they unravel the truth that some people want to stay hidden.

I think Fin is meant to be the main character in this book, but Sky really drives the plot. She’s the one who first has a reason to go on this adventure, and though Fin is not exactly dragged along reluctantly, his motivations aren’t as clear. Fin, though, is the one who is more dynamic in this book, growing up a bit throughout the journey. I really like the Christian allegory that’s present in this book; it’s not exactly subtle, but it’s also not over-the-top or preachy. I found myself looking forward to the next way that the “All Mighty” would clearly work in the story. In a book like this meant for older kids and young teens, a clear hand of guidance is a good way to introduce them to the very real, but not always so easily discerned, providence that God can provide in real life. I feel the need to mention that Fin and Sky do defy adults and authorities a bit, since I know parents can be bothered by that, especially if there are no consequences, but my hope is that as Fin and Sky come to learn more about the All Mighty and the light they’re seeking, maybe their actions will be less questionable. And this can be something for parents to discuss with younger readers.

The author’s writing style is…”unusual” is the best way I can think to describe it. He tends to pause the story to share background info with the reader in a very conversational tone. I never had an issue with this, but I wonder if some others might. (I don’t think the target audience would be bothered by it at all.) At least one of these interjections even provides a little humor. There are a few things that did bother me a little, though, like the confusion I had about the fact that the powers that be claim that people have just always lived underground, yet comparisons are often made to “normal” life (like underground goats have larger eyes than normal goats, and it’s mentioned at least once that undergrounders have adapted to living underground). For people who don’t really know their history or origins, it’s strange that they seem to know plenty about how life above ground might be different. I also wish that the author had interjected one less giant snake encounter, maybe including a different peril; it was just a little repetitive after a bit. That being said, the world that the author has set up is rich and intriguing and makes me want to know more about what happens to Fin and Sky.

When I read a self-published book, it is my intention not to let things that a professional editor would help with affect my view too much. I’m not saying that there is no burden of responsibility here, but it’s harder for self-published authors. So while it did not affect my rating, I will at least mention that there are several issues throughout the text—mostly comma errors and formatting issues that I couldn’t help but be distracted by. (This might be as much because I’m self-published myself and have spent a lot of time looking for and correcting formatting issues in my own books before publishing them, so most others may not notice those at all.)

This was an overall fun read. I really think that things that made me stop and scratch my head would not be noticed at all by younger readers. It’s easy for me to recommend this for kids around age 10 and up, anyone that enjoys an adventure with a positive message or fantasy with a Christian worldview. I could also easily see it being a book that parents read with/to kids even younger than that.

I received a copy of this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review.

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Book Review: The Hot Marble

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The Hot Marble
by Rosemary B. Althoff

My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Christian sci-fi

When 10-year-old Patrick and his 8-year-old sister Gracie watch something fall from the sky and find a hot marble. Patrick asks his physicist brother Lewis to analyze the otherworldly marble, and that leads to all three siblings, plus Lewis’s engineer friend Fred to another world. Lanthra has two moons, a near-total ban on electricity, and heavy conflict between two sides—those who follow Earth’s Jesus and those who follow earthly demons.

I was intrigued by the melding of sci-fi and Christianity when I decided to read this book. The author does have some interesting ideas here, particularly on the sci-fi side of things. The ban on electricity and also on traveling to Earth makes this a medieval-type world, but with pockets of technology that come across like magic. But the Christianity side is underwhelming, if not downright confusing at times. First and foremost, the theology of creation, the fall, and the redemption provided through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection is questionable here. God created the entire universe, and when Adam and Eve sinned, the entirety of the creation was cursed. This means there can’t be planets out there with people who are not under the curse, but that is what Althoff is presenting here. The people of Lanthra have observed Earth enough to know about the curse (which they say affects only people from Earth, though I guess it can spread to people of Lanthra via demons that travel there?) and the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus. I guess all of this means that people of Lanthra aren’t under the curse of sin (not that they refer to sin or even creation or the fall at all, just a vague curse), so it really don’t matter if they worship Jesus or not, though it still seems to be a bad thing that some worship Satan/demons. Beyond that, one character from Lanthra seems to be a sort of prophet, in direct communication with God in some form. And characters are said to have inner “dragons” that could be seen to simply be their consciences or inner desires, but one character’s inner dragon talks to him? And it’s all presented as if this is some well-known concept that shouldn’t seem unusual to the reader, but I was really lost.

I understand that, even when a book is written with a Christian worldview, unbelievers will have sinful, fallen natures. Fred and Lewis want nothing to do with Christianity, and their character arcs seem to be the driving force behind the religious aspects in this book. But Fred, in particular, made me really uncomfortable ogling women all the time. And there was a line that really stood out to me as a red flag, which involved one character telling Fred that the “Master” wants to enjoy various things about him, including his “taste for busty women.” Um…no…just no.

There truly are some great allegorical moments in this book, and I think I can see what the author was going for. But in the end, I think there was too much going on in too many different directions for me to be able to pick out one cohesive story to enjoy. And the book ends on a cliffhanger that I was fortunately able to see coming. As for recommendations, the book is marketed, at least on Amazon, in teen and children’s categories, but I would not recommend it to those ages at all. All 4 of the characters mentioned in the synopsis have POV sections, but he older brother and his friend are in their 30s, and they are larger characters than the 10- and 8-year-old. There’s also a fair amount of language in the book. (In fact, now that I think about it more, it bugs me A LOT that this book is listed in the categories of “Children’s Action & Adventure Sci-Fi Books” and “Children’s Science Fiction Books” on Amazon with the amount of language and discussion of women’s bosoms that is included in it!) If you’re interested in the premise of spiritual warfare crossed with physics and aren’t bothered by the issues I had with it, you might be interested in this book.

I received a copy of this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review.

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Book Review: Mandie and the Medicine Man

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Mandie and the Medicine Man
Mandie #6
by Lois Gladys Leppard

My rating: 3.5 / 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.

This book felt a like a rehash of book #2, Mandie and the Cherokee Legend, in several ways. Mandie and friends traipse around the Cherokee lands, some of the kids end up tied up by bad people, and Tsa’ni is a jerk. That last one is particularly odd, considering how he was suddenly kinder at the end of book #2. He actually has some POV scenes in this book, though, which I think could have been really good, if the author had delved just a little more into the reasonings behind his choices, rather than him just thinking about how he’d pretend to do nice things but not do them or lie about whatever he was asked but not ever really explaining his justifications for these things other than him not liking white people. Though I suppose that’s about as complicated as anything ever gets in this series meant for 9-12-year-old kids. Overall, though, this book is a decent one for the series. I didn’t care for Mandie’s continued disrespect for her mom, which she gets away with again and is probably something that kids who read the book should be made aware of as something they should not do. So while I think these books can still be good for younger people to read, especially if you’re looking for something with Christian content, I strongly recommend discussing what’s good and bad in them with your kid(s) after they read it.

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Book Review: Daican’s Heir

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Daican’s Heir
The Ilyon Chronicles #6
by Jaye L. Knight

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Christian fantasy

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with Resistance.

This final book in the series hits the ground running, with a plan hatched between books put into action to try to recover Samara and then bring the fight to Davira, the ultimate goal being to restore two rightful kings to their thrones. I enjoyed returning to this world one last time, and I appreciated the way the author wrapped up the series, for the most part. I’m not a huge fan of all of the major characters, but I think Kyrin bugged me less in this book, at least. A story set in a fantasy world that still manages to present something of a gospel message can’t be easy to do, and I applaud Knight’s presentation here. I still feel like the gospel message is watered down a lot, though, and I don’t know if that was intentional or not.

The stakes never quite felt as high as I would have expected and might even have preferred for being the final book in a series full of persecution and war. It’s not necessarily a bad thing to avoid a lot of fighting, death, etc., but it felt a little off compared to the rest of the series to this point. The resolution was just too…easy, I guess. We also continue with the “everyone must be paired” trope that I started to notice in the previous book. I was able to skim over some of it, but it still slowed down the story for me now and then.

Here at the end of the series, I’d say that if you’re looking for clean fantasy, whether you specifically want the Christian angle or not, this is a good series to read (though it’s probably too Christian for those who can’t stand much of that in their books at all). It’s not super heavy on fantasy elements, either, so fans of clean books with a Christian worldview, fantasy or not, would probably enjoy this series as well. It does lean into the romance a lot more in the last few books, even with more physical interaction than some might prefer (nothing graphic, though). I did not enjoy the series as much as my 16-year-old daughter did; she loved it pretty much all the way through. I don’t think I’d choose to re-read any of this in the future, but I am glad I read the series once.

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Book Review: Mandie and the Trunk’s Secret

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Mandie and the Trunk’s Secret
Mandie #5
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. It’s good to at least see some consequences from Mandie’s disobedience in the previous book, though of course the consequence ends up being fun for her and Celia and leads them into another mystery. I appreciate that they are trying to behave better here as well, though she questions whether she should really be meeting with Uncle Ned at night while still doing it anyway. Uncle Ned himself clearly thinks it’s important to adhere to the rules but still visits in secret. Overall, though, this book was better than the previous. While I think these books can still be good for younger people to read, especially if you’re looking for something with Christian content, I strongly recommend discussing what’s good and bad in them with your kid(s) after they read it.

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Book Review: Second Time Around

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Second Time Around
Time Lottery #2
by Nancy Moser

My rating: 4 / 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 premise for this book is literally the same as the previous book, since here we have a second Time Lottery with 3 more people chosen to go back into their past to change a pivotal moment. It’s not just a rinse and repeat of the previous book, though, because these are heavily character-driven stories and the characters are very different this time. There’s quite a focus on abusive relationships in this book—not physical abuse but heavy mental/emotional abuse. One storyline in particular I really enjoyed, and there were some interesting surprises in the book. Though something that happened in the previous book and carried over into this one I couldn’t have cared less about.

Overall, I liked this one a little more than the previous, and I don’t really think you need to read the first one before this one. Though it would give a fuller experience, and, as I said, there is definitely some reference back to the previous, I think the overall idea behind the time travel is explained well enough in this book to start here. 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: A Most Peculiar Providence

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A Most Peculiar Providence
by Angela Hunt

My rating: 2.5 / 5
Genre: Christian fiction

Ever since he was six years old, it’s always been just Josh Donnelly and his mom. Though his mom pushes him to get out into the world more, Josh is resistant, happy with his routines and his quiet life at home. Then his mom has a stroke, and Josh is thrust out into the world. Heather Thomas has had a tumultuous life, and when she ends up in the small town of Peculiar, she can’t help but notice Josh’s kind and gentle nature when she observes him from a distance. So when she’s entrusted with finding a home for the newborn baby of another troubled young woman, she knows Josh is the perfect choice.

I’ve had a difficult time deciding on a rating for this book and even knowing how to start my review. I liked the idea of a book that is clearly an image of God’s hand guiding a situation and working it out for the best. Even though, in a fictional setting like this, it requires a bit of suspension of disbelief, I was happy to see how Hunt decided to play it all out. But it took some turns that required a bit too much suspension of disbelief. One specific event happened that never really was discussed beyond a character asking how it happened, and the response was, “I prayed.” It takes a turn toward faith healing, and since it doesn’t really have any real impact on the story, I don’t understand why it was included.

Most of this might not have been too bad, but I found the plot a bit slow. A lot of time passes in the book, which means the baby ages, and some of the details involving the baby’s development made me stop and question how they made any sense (like a baby giving a smile that, in the narrative, seems to be believe to be intentional) at around 3-5 days old. And the caregivers letting the baby that only days ago took her first steps walk (and then crawl) on a brick walkway?! And then I guess they had to clean up her scraped and bloody knees…

There’s a mystery angle that comes up in the last quarter of the book, mixed in with the climax of the main plot, that is shallow and not difficult to figure out. I wish there had been less time spent on the baby details and more on a build-up to this mystery. Josh is a steady, likeable character who makes some unexpected decisions because “God told me to,” which I wasn’t a fan of. In the end, some past trauma comes to light that I don’t recall having been hinted at throughout the rest of the book at all, and that’s another area I felt could have been built on, if other areas had been diminished. In a way, it felt like this could have been two different books. But as often happens, I’m largely in the minority so far in my rating of this book, so please check out other reviews at the link below if you’re interested in this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hunt Haven Press for providing me a copy of this book to review.

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Book Review: Bitter Winter

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Bitter Winter
The Ilyon Chronicles #5
by Jaye L. Knight

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Christian fantasy

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with Resistance.

The resistance camp near Landale suffers great tragedy that threatens to continue until the whole camp is dismantled. Can Jace save everyone he loves?

The first 4 books in the series follow the Landale resistance fighters and those that they bring into their ranks along the way as they first must figure out a way to survive the heavy persecution of their religion and then discuss at least the possibility of going on the offensive. With two rightful kings amongst their numbers, there is talk of somehow taking back their thrones and putting and end to the tyranny that begun with Emperor Daican. But first they have to make it through the winter, and that brings the forward momentum of this series to a screeching halt. This book is akin to being an episode or two away from a series finale of a television show and having to deal with a filler episode. Maybe the episode is good in its own right, or maybe not, but you really just want to know how the over-arching plot of the season is going to resolve. That’s what we have here, and it’s just as disappointing.

A couple of disastrous events leaves the camp reeling, and the entire book is spent just trying to recover/fix what happened. I think the author made several unnecessary choices in this book, maybe to make it seem more relevant after all, or maybe to evoke more emotion. Either way, I was not nearly as engaged as I have been through most of the rest of the series, hearkening back to the tedium I felt in the first half of the first book. I’ve noted before that this particular author’s style is to have far too many POV characters, so many minor characters whose perspectives don’t really add much to the story and add instead add more of a burden to try to differentiate between a lot of different voices (which I don’t think she does all that well), and here I realized that she’s also falling into the trope that everyone must have someone. Every side character that has had a POV at some point has either found a mate or is in the process of it during this book. At least one of these characters seems to only even have a POV for the purpose of us seeing him start to have an interest in someone. I like romance, I really do…but I like it to be more subtle, and even though this isn’t a straight-out romance genre series, the romance side of things is starting to feel very unsubtle.

So I didn’t really care for this, the penultimate book in the series. It wasn’t bad, and and I am still enjoying the overall world the author has set up. But I think she could have distilled this story into a side novella or even started the next book at the end of this harsh winter and caught us up on what happened, because…well, not much did. My 16-year-old daughter continues to be a huge fan of this series, and I’m sure I’m in the minority regarding this installment in the series, but I do still recommend it to older teens through adults (it’s not YA, but it’s very clean), fans of fiction with Christian elements, whether you’re really into fantasy or not.

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Book Review: White

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White
The Circle #3
by Ted Dekker

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Christian fantasy thriller

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with Black.

In one reality, Thomas Hunter and the rest of the newly minted Circle try to stay out of the hands of the enemy while also debating whether it’s better to hide and stay safe or try to bring the Great Romance to that enemy. In the other reality, Thomas Hunter is dead and the threat of the virus inches ever closer. 

I think I understand more now why I had such a hard time with this series when I first read it around 20 years ago. The Christian allegory falls apart so much when it becomes more clear that these two realities are connected in some way, possibly some kind of circular time, and the “Christ” character dying and being resurrected in the previous book implies that Christ had to die twice for the sins of humanity. Which makes one not enough. That’s a huge theological issue. Then beyond those implications, when the histories are changed, the forest/desert world doesn’t seem to be affected, so does that mean they’re actually not as connected as it seems? It kind of gives me a headache to consider.

The story itself mostly plays out in a way that continues to be engaging. Though Dekker introduces a super powerful element that just sort of…goes away. I believe it comes into play in other pseudo-related books, but since it’s introduced here, used to incredible effect, and then just hand-waved away, it bugs me. I also dislike the feeling that Dekker killed off Thomas’s wife in the previous book simply to pave the way for a new romance in this book—a romance that I can’t say I cared for all that much. Couldn’t someone else in the Circle have been the romantic lead for this plot line? Maybe it wouldn’t have felt quite so forced to me then. Or maybe it wouldn’t have helped.

In the end, I like the trilogy a lot more this time than I remember like it when I was younger (or maybe this third book just tainted my memory of the first two), and I probably even liked this final book a little more than I did back then. But I feel like there was a lot of build-up for an underwhelming conclusion (though the conclusion on the “our world” side was more satisfying). Then there’s an epilogue that I think went completely over my head, and I’m pretty sure also set up more for Dekker to explore in other books, books that are not officially part of the same series but are still connected in at least tiny ways. I plan to keep going in this broad world, but I really don’t know how far I’ll get. As for this series, if you’re interested in fantastical fiction with a Christian, or at least moral, bent, you might enjoy this series. If you’d be bothered by a Christian allegory that goes pretty far afield, you might want to skip this trilogy.

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